I’m not sure what to think of this game anymore. I started it finally, thinking I would love it, since Mother on the NES is one of my favorite RPGs. This game started out looking to surpass it easily, but now, it’s just been getting less and less funny, and in my opinion, it’s showing itself to be worse in quality, as well.
My main gripe, as silly as it might seem, are the music and graphics (just the battle graphics though). The music is very creative, but all of it is just ridiculous, unmemorable quiky music. Even the cooler songs from the NES game are either just worsened (Ness’s theme, which is played in his house and NOWHERE else, the troubled theme, which just sounds dumb now, and the sanctuary boss theme, which was the normal boss theme of Mother, only it was way cooler), or just drowned out by dumb stuff (The desert song, for example, is practically the exact same theme as the NES one, note for note, only you can’t hear it with spaceship sounds and loud winds drowning it out.). Also, a few other themes from the old game, just simply lack their old appeal or do not appear enough (The snow town theme, and the Hippie battle theme, for example). This annoys the HELL out of me, as I think that music is sort of important in providing a good atmosphere. Mother was ridiculous enough without a shitload of blatantly retarded music, why wouldn’t this game be? Also, just as a matter of personal taste, the trippy ass backgrounds really annoy the hell out of me. I would have liked pitch black backgrounds…
The humour, nextly, kinda just backs off after a while it seems. In Mother, the whole entire game wasn’t chock full of funny ass jokes, but it was well spread throughout the game. I don’t feel that such is the truth in Earthbound; The game is laugh-your-dick-off hilarious at the beginning, straight up until after you leave Twoson. Then, the game just sort of died out. The Mr. Saturns were pretty damn funny, like drinking the coffee cup and getting that odd message, heh. But other than that, there really hasn’t been anything worth seeing since then, and the game has really just been annoying since then. In Threed and Fourside, it was virtually impossible to figure out where to go, and what to do. Even after talking to everyone in town sometimes, I was just stumped. I feel like I’m dragging my ass through the game, now. I just arrived in Summers, and I really don’t feel like playing anymore. I have a feeling that when I walk around and try and find out what to do, I’m not gonna figure it out, and that’s just so obnoxious to me. It’s not even really that funny anymore. Even the little things that always made me laugh (like Psi Rockin! lmao) are just not quite enough to make me wanna play the game anymore.
Does the game pickup again? I realize that maybe I’m being unfair by comparing it to Mother, I’ve only heard that Earthbound was significantly better, not worse, from those who I know have played both games (not many). At this point, I’m really contemplating whether or not I should finish the game. I realize that the game’s beauty lies in its humour, but, it’s not really that funny now, and, if the game isn’t fun (And it really isn’t. It’s not really that challenging), then I’m not sure why one would play.
Tell me about it. I used a cheat code to instantly levelup to 99 so that just about anything I ran into would just pop off, but in the final dungeon, that didn’t work. It was kinda fun seeing “Yar Kramer” in the closing credits, though …
But seriously, I think part of your problem might be that you heard people talk about how funny the game is so much and then that aspect of the game got too-highly amplified in your mind, so when you actually played it, the humor wasn’t quite as good as you were expecting. And I wouldn’t characterize EB as particularly “funny,” but it’s the kind of game that is very amusing in a sort of kitschy way, and it always puts a friendly smile on my face throughout the whole game even though I don’t remember laughing out loud much while playing it. But it’s not meant to be Seinfeld-on-screen, but just sort of cute and bemusing. As CH referenced the humor is much more subtle and behind-the-scenes as a rule and not thrown at you as much as might be expected. It might be strongest in the beginning, but its still there, hovering everywhere but not always in-your-face.