Well, in a stroke of bad luck, my job has decided to give me seventeen consecutive days off (what. the. fuck.). So, I had plenty of time to play through Earthbound’s antecedent.
After playing through Earthbound and feeling underwhelmed, I kept saying to myself, “Wow, the original game in the series was so much better than this!” The thing is, though, that I doubted my memory. This is only natural; the first (and only other) time I played through Earthbound Zero was a little more than eight years ago, and I was much less critical of video games back then. Usually, I know better than to go back and put my memories to the test, since it usually leads to disappointment. This time, though, my curiosity got the best of me.
Still, I’m not sure what I hoped to get out of it; there’s not really much to be said about an old RPG. You can’t really say that the gameplay is bland, because back in the late 80’s, it was commonplace (and not that bland) to have a Dragon Warrior-style RPG. If you’re not sure what that means, a Dragon Warrior clone has gameplay that is even more menu-driven than your modern-day RPG, and combat which de-emphasizes visuals and uses text to narrate the action. So, it’s sort of hard to criticise it as being boring when the gameplay mechanics weren’t boring at the time. It’s curious to note, though, that while it was standard convention when Earthbound Zero did it, it was a deliberate throwback when done in its SNES sequel.
There usually isn’t much one can use to distinguish the gameplay of one Dragon Warrior clone from another, and Earthbound Zero is no exception. The only thing I can gameplay aspect I can think of that was original and significant is the way that magic is learned; instead of learning new spells as your characters gain levels, they seem to learn spells by getting into a certain number of fights. This can be seen by the fact that characters might learn spells even after successfully running away from battles.
As for the difficulty, Earthbound Zero is really temperamental. That isn’t to say that some parts are stupidly easy while some are stupidly hard; in fact, the random battles are hysterically tough the entire game. It’s just that the game has so many counter-measures in effect that make it hard to actually lose in spite of its difficulty. For example, at the beginning of the game, you can talk to your sister and get an unlimited amount of healing items, which exponentially mitigates the tedium of the early-game grind. And, after a certain point, you get an item that will instantly warp you to a specific town in the game where you can heal your party and get access to healing items easily. So, if you’re ever in any modicum of trouble, you can just warp to that town instantly.
The only worthwhile complaint I feel I can make, given the era in which the game was released, was just how much grinding you have to do. Strangely, you don’t need to grind to actually fight the enemies (though they are crazily difficult, so it helps). Rather, the need to grind comes from a boss fight which you HAVE to beat in order to complete the game, but you LITERALLY can’t fight this boss until Ninten is at level 25 - the game doesn’t allow you to! That sounds like a low number compared to the usual RPGs where the game ends in the level 50 ranges, but consider this: when I first arrived at the last dungeon, Ninten was at level 18. When I completed all the events necessary in the last dungeon, Ninten was at level 20. At this point, the ONLY two things I had left to do were fight this boss, and then go fight the final boss. So, I had to sit around and grind for three hours due to an arbitrary restriction imposed by the game. Laaaame.
So, EBZero doesn’t try to stand out in gameplay, but rather, with its setting and tone. Back then, there wasn’t anything quite like Earthbound Zero; almost every RPG out at the time consisted of medieval fantasy settings, and there were a few rare cases, like with Lagrange Point, where the setting is futuristic. Earthbound Zero, however, is set in a more modern setting. The game starts with a narrated anecdote about a young couple, George and Maria, who disappared after a huge shadow covered there house. A few years later, George returns without Maria and begins to conduct mysterious experiements in seclusion.
Fast-forward to eighty years later: You are a normal boy (other than your name: Ninten) who lives in a house on the outskirts of town. After his house is disturbed by poltergeists, his dad tells him to ‘set out on an adventure to learn more about his abilities.’ And, with that seemingly random and abrupt premise, Ninten sets out on an adventure.
I have to admit, this is the lamest part of the game. You’re thrown a lot of random information before being throw out into the world on an adventure with no discernible purpose. Sure, you can infer a few things from the opening scenes, but nothing concrete. George and Maria were PROBABLY abducted by aliens, but we have no proof. You have a copy of your Great Grandfather’s diary, and given the timespan between the present day and George and Maria’s time, you could guess that your great grandfather has some connection to them? It’s all pretty flimsy, and doesn’t have any obvious relevance to anything you do in the game until the very, very end.
This is too bad; the actual plot is pretty neat, so it’s a bit disappointing that you have to have 95% of it barfed on you in the last twenty minutes of the game (no exaggeration!). Hell, even if they DID want to reveal everything to you right at the end, this could have been good, if there were an adequate amount of foreshadowing. Instead, it just feels like Ninten and co. are wandering around doing their crazy hijinks for the entire game, and it just so happens that everything they did in that time span was pivotal in stopping the main villain’s plan. Without any proper foreshadowing, there is no obvious conflict, and this hurts a story that, at its face value, isn’t that bad.
Finally, I must comment on the humor, which is the biggest thing that distinguishes EBZero from other Dragon Warrior clones besides the modern setting. Earthbound Zero is a pretty funny game. It is reminiscent of its SNES descendent, Earthbound, in its deadpan style. What makes it more palatable in EBZero is two things: the first being consistency. While Earthbound had certain parts that were nonstop laugh riots, there were other parts that were completely not funny. EBZero doesn’t quite match the highest points of Earthbound’s humor, but it also never drops off at any point in the game until the very end.
The second, and more important reason, is…well, I guess it’s also consistency, but in terms of the plot progression overall. The things that happen in EBZero are weird, but they’re sort of expected in a way. There’s a zoo in town, so of course the animals will be going crazy in the zoo. There’s a haunted house in town, so it’ll be overrun by ghosts. What this means is that the majority of the humor is found by talking to people in town, and generally optional things. Earthbound confronts its players with some funny situations, but also with some really awkward situations. I certainly can’t argue that it’s weird to have to go to a Zoo and fight off crazy wild animals, but it doesn’t quite hold a candle to infiltrating and bringing down a cult with a striking resemblance to the Klu Klux Klan, but instead of commiting hate crimes, they just paint stuff.
When all is said and done, EBZero is a pretty average RPG for the time…sort of. Naturally, the story, setting, and style are anything but average. However, when you look at the game as a whole, it’s not particularly terrible or remarkable. It would have been nice to see more done with the story except with the very beginning and end of the game, but even that can be condoned in the context of when it was released. And, what else is there to say? This game is twenty years old - games have evolved so much since EBZero, and it’s not exactly an integral part of the genre’s culture. If you want to play this game, you’ll play it - I doubt anything I say will change your mind now.