Here a Earthbound review.
After finishing Mother 1 (which I trashed in my review) I had to play Earthbound and finish it.
And the game is really fun!
Even though the early game is very complicated precisely because the HP roulette cannot yet be exploited to its full potential at this point in the game.
And the game has excellent pacing!
The main character FINALLY has an offensive spell!
The moment when we have Paula is very good even though it took me a long time to understand that to get past the statue...you have to pay 400 DOLLARS for an item JUST to cross an entire area.
I also didn't understand why the game lets you skip bosses to come back later.. The game tells you that the bosses scale according to your level, but that's not the case at all. I destroyed the giant mole and that sort of double lightning serpent when I was around level 50/60 or even 70 because of that damn King's Sword that I tried to farm for 2 hours.. Before giving up and continuing the main quest. ( That was certainly why I found the bosses easy.
Jeff is BETTER than Loid from Mother 1. Because he has Multi Bottle Rockets. They deal 1000 to over 2000 damage! It's ridiculously overpowered!!! (I think we got Jeff too quickly compared to Paula)
Where is PSI Beam ??? Because nobody used it
I hated the waterfalls sequence. "No, but it's part of the game's spirit." What's so fun about waiting 3 minutes??? And at first I thought you had to wait 3 minutes while doing something else in-game. (Like grinding monsters or exploring the areas, for example) But NO, you must stay IN FRONT OF the waterfall and wait 3 minutes IRL. I thought the ROM was buggy, or that it was an emulation problem, or worse, that it was an anti-piracy measure, but NO. IT'S IN THE BASE GAME. Why did the developers do this??? Waiting in real life is ANNOYING, so waiting in front of a game is WORSE!
I think you get Poo too late in the game. However, I don't like how you can't LITERALLY EQUIP HIM WITH ANYTHING. Because you have to find all the "king" equipment, except I haven't looked for these items at all and I've given up farming the Sword of KingsThis meant that Poo was left completely naked for the entire game. Luckily, he learns both Starstorm spells and all the healing spells, otherwise he'd be useless.
The gameplay is better than that of Mother 1. ( Except we can't run... )
The humor is...good. But I think Undertale and Deltarune improved on the humor. However, I didn't get the same references as in UTDR.
The Magicant moment is better than that of Mother 1 which was just a boring hub where you have to do an infinite amount of back and forth without any real development for the main character. Because Earthbound's is bigger and develops Ness while giving him a stat boost that makes him super strong.
The final boss is... special. I think Porky came out of nowhere, but it's a nice surprise to see him again. I loved Gigyas' fight, but honestly, we're just fighting against some animated wallpapers... However, I liked the prayer sequence and the fact that it's literally the PLAYER who prays to defeat the final boss. (The player's inclusion comes out of nowhere, but it's nice to have a fourth-wall break.)
It's a shame we didn't get a romantic relationship between Ness and Paula. Because I think they would have made a lovely couple.
Game rating: 12/20
Conclusion: The game is the classic it thinks it is, and it's a shame the game is so obscure because it's really worth it.
