Say "Fuzzy Pickles!"
October 9, 2014 5:33 PM Subscribe
It's the only jRPG I really love, if only for its poetic, whimsical tone around reality-warping horror - like they said " Lovecraft invades Peanuts"
posted by The Whelk at 5:49 PM on October 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 5:49 PM on October 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
Oh, my god. Earthbound remains the only video game to have made me cry (I am not going to ruin how it does so, if you haven't played it), and this just suckerpunched me right in those feels.
Thanks, The Whelk.
posted by spitefulcrow at 6:28 PM on October 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Thanks, The Whelk.
posted by spitefulcrow at 6:28 PM on October 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
There's this moment playing the game as an adult when you realize just how much of the standard Video Game Stuff is being done on purpose and it blew me away.
posted by The Whelk at 6:44 PM on October 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 6:44 PM on October 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
Yeah, Earthbound is probably the most mature video game ever made. It's also the most sincere, and it may even be the most disturbing.
I remember playing it for the first time care of Snes9x in the early 2000s. At first I thought the that "THE WAR AGAINST GIYAGAS" screen that fades into view out of simulated static when you start the game was some rom hack added by whomever first uploaded it. The screen and its scratchy music doesn't fit with what immediately comes next at all, and it seems very out of place until I played the game a little bit and realized that there's something very dark and unsettling lurking just behind the wacky. And then I got to the end.....
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:04 PM on October 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
I remember playing it for the first time care of Snes9x in the early 2000s. At first I thought the that "THE WAR AGAINST GIYAGAS" screen that fades into view out of simulated static when you start the game was some rom hack added by whomever first uploaded it. The screen and its scratchy music doesn't fit with what immediately comes next at all, and it seems very out of place until I played the game a little bit and realized that there's something very dark and unsettling lurking just behind the wacky. And then I got to the end.....
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:04 PM on October 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
This is fabulous, thanks for posting it. I also played Earthbound for the first time via emulator and it's probably still my favorite go-to example of how a video game can be an art-object and an escape and entertainment and . . . etc. The way it starts from a place of realistic accessibility and morphs into surreal horror is really pretty magical. And the writing (and translation!) were just so clever and brilliant.
I'm really glad that this video highlights the vocal version of the theme song, Pollyanna, which is extraordinarily fitting for the game too.
posted by Pfardentrott at 7:31 PM on October 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm really glad that this video highlights the vocal version of the theme song, Pollyanna, which is extraordinarily fitting for the game too.
posted by Pfardentrott at 7:31 PM on October 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
Earthbound is the only video game I know that embraces melancholy , it uses the tropes and demands of a video game to play with a magical realist story about the end of all history from the point of view of a bunch of kids. Even in the pink clouds you have to call home to ward off homesickness, the get money from ATMs and order pizza while also beating up monsters that, if you keep too powerful, will run away from you.
It's so damn earnest and upfront and like ...emotionally open that there really isn't anything to compare it against. It's a game about how scary it is to leave home and it SELLS it.
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 PM on October 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
It's so damn earnest and upfront and like ...emotionally open that there really isn't anything to compare it against. It's a game about how scary it is to leave home and it SELLS it.
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 PM on October 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, a friend of mine lent me his copy of Earthbound for a week or so because he thought I'd like it. I'd never played an RPG before and in that week I played it nearly nonstop. Then he wanted it back so I saved up my own money to buy my own copy, but by that time I couldn't find it in the stores. It took me almost 10 years before I found the one used game store in my town that had it in stock (plus the guide and big box and everything). We didn't have reliable emulators in those days, you see. It was all worth it though. I played the game all the way through as soon as I had it and then started a new save because I wanted to see what it was like with different favorite foods/etc. It is the only real emotional experience I've had from a game. It kinda hurts just thinking about it.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:36 PM on October 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:36 PM on October 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Pokey/Porky Minch is my favourite video game bad guy of all time. His change from a timid but likeable ally to... well, I won't spoil it for those who haven't played Mother 2/3, but I feel like he's still weirdly sympathetic, and still basically the same vulnerable kid you meet at the beginning of Earthbound. Terrifying, melancholy, beautiful stuff.
posted by RokkitNite at 2:01 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by RokkitNite at 2:01 AM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've written lots about Earthbound in previous comments. (A lot of them are here.) Like Katamari Damacy, there's something elemental and iconic about it, like it's all of a piece, every tiny part of it contributing to the overall effect. In a hundred years, people will look back at Final Fantasy games and see just another example of dozens of JRPGs made at the time, but Earthbound and Mother 3 will be studied and marveled at.
posted by JHarris at 2:26 AM on October 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 2:26 AM on October 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
Oh, my god. Earthbound remains the only video game to have made me cry (I am not going to ruin how it does so, if you haven't played it), and this just suckerpunched me right in those feels.
Whoa, me too! It was actually the denouement, in my case--there's this huge, emotionally charged fight against (basically) Cthulhu, and you just barely manage to win, and then... the game's not over! You have to go back to your home towns, and drop everybody off at their parents' houses. Because you're all 9 years old. But the soundtrack has changed, and now it's sad and poignant and in a minor 8-bit key, and then the photographer shows up and shows you all the pictures he took of your adventure, and... I just lost it.
This game is magnificent. I've never played anything like it. I have a 16-month-old daughter, and I'm already plotting a way that I'm going to tie all of her technology permissions in her early teenage years to her ability to work with the Mr. Saturns to beat Giygas, because I want her to develop the same reverence for story-telling and mood.
boing!
posted by Mayor West at 4:23 AM on October 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
Whoa, me too! It was actually the denouement, in my case--there's this huge, emotionally charged fight against (basically) Cthulhu, and you just barely manage to win, and then... the game's not over! You have to go back to your home towns, and drop everybody off at their parents' houses. Because you're all 9 years old. But the soundtrack has changed, and now it's sad and poignant and in a minor 8-bit key, and then the photographer shows up and shows you all the pictures he took of your adventure, and... I just lost it.
This game is magnificent. I've never played anything like it. I have a 16-month-old daughter, and I'm already plotting a way that I'm going to tie all of her technology permissions in her early teenage years to her ability to work with the Mr. Saturns to beat Giygas, because I want her to develop the same reverence for story-telling and mood.
boing!
posted by Mayor West at 4:23 AM on October 10, 2014 [3 favorites]
This animation is beautiful! It really reminded me of just how BIG the world in the game is.
Earthbound was the first game I ever completely cleared with no prima guides or cheats or anything. And boy, what a game to do that with - the story! The music! The colors and the details in all the maps! It's just fantastic. One of the best games ever made, for sure.
posted by cobain_angel at 9:46 AM on October 10, 2014
Earthbound was the first game I ever completely cleared with no prima guides or cheats or anything. And boy, what a game to do that with - the story! The music! The colors and the details in all the maps! It's just fantastic. One of the best games ever made, for sure.
posted by cobain_angel at 9:46 AM on October 10, 2014
Earthbound was the first game I ever completely cleared with no prima guides or cheats or anything.
I'd like to be able to say that, but the original US release came prepackaged with an official guide (not Prima if that means anything). I'll call that the "authentic experience" as consolation for not being able to brag about beating it on my own.
posted by deathmaven at 12:13 PM on October 10, 2014
I'd like to be able to say that, but the original US release came prepackaged with an official guide (not Prima if that means anything). I'll call that the "authentic experience" as consolation for not being able to brag about beating it on my own.
posted by deathmaven at 12:13 PM on October 10, 2014
Well it helps that Earthbound is not particularly difficult. A guide isn't really needed to finish it, although it does tip off the existence, I think, of the Sword of Kings and some other obscure things.
posted by JHarris at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by JHarris at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2014
Also, for anyone thinking about playing this, if it's important to you to play it legally, I remind that it is available, finally, on Wii U Virtual Console.
posted by JHarris at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by JHarris at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2014
Also, the sheer amount of STUFF in the game, it was really made with aimless wandering in mind, and the gentle tone paradoxically allowed them to slip in some pretty dark ass themes.
posted by The Whelk at 2:46 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 2:46 PM on October 10, 2014
My earthbound snes cartridge is one of my most prized physical possessions. I spend a lot of time trying to think about who I love enough to leave it to when I die. In the meantime, I play it every few years.
The music, which apparently took up one third of the physical memory of the game, is something that will always stick with me. fantastic compositions. the sound stone theme in particular is one of my all-time favourite melodies and I basically can't walk past a piano without playing the first few notes.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 5:29 PM on October 10, 2014
The music, which apparently took up one third of the physical memory of the game, is something that will always stick with me. fantastic compositions. the sound stone theme in particular is one of my all-time favourite melodies and I basically can't walk past a piano without playing the first few notes.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 5:29 PM on October 10, 2014
Also, for anyone thinking about playing this, if it's important to you to play it legally, I remind that it is available, finally, on Wii U Virtual Console.
Which is good, because for no particularly legitimate reason it costs like $70, no scratch that, apparently $150 for a real cartridge. It's not like they only made 500 of them or something, it's a first party nintendo game they printed assloads of.
and yet even though every used game shop in town almost always has it, it's $150. ugh. apparently despite the fact that 3 sell a day even though it's an old game, it's "rare".
maybe i'm just bitter, but that always cheesed me off. i wanted to play it on an old tube tv with my actual SNES, dammit!
posted by emptythought at 5:57 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Which is good, because for no particularly legitimate reason it costs like $70, no scratch that, apparently $150 for a real cartridge. It's not like they only made 500 of them or something, it's a first party nintendo game they printed assloads of.
and yet even though every used game shop in town almost always has it, it's $150. ugh. apparently despite the fact that 3 sell a day even though it's an old game, it's "rare".
maybe i'm just bitter, but that always cheesed me off. i wanted to play it on an old tube tv with my actual SNES, dammit!
posted by emptythought at 5:57 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've recently moved to Japan, and I bought a Japanese Wii U in an effort to further immerse myself in the language. Mother 2 is especially nice for me in Japanese because they apparently didn't have the pixel density on the SNES to display Kanji, so it's all Hiragana and Katakana. Earthbound/Mother 2 is my favorite game of all time, and I've played it numerous times, so it's incredibly fun to sound out and translate a line of dialogue expecting one thing, and notice all the different little quirks in the Japanese version.
Also, I'd like to chime in with support for anyone who's thinking of playing. If you are into games as art or literature, you should play this game.
Oh yeah, and lovely animation. Thanks for sharing.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Also, I'd like to chime in with support for anyone who's thinking of playing. If you are into games as art or literature, you should play this game.
Oh yeah, and lovely animation. Thanks for sharing.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
One thing about the animation that no one's mentioned yet is, almost none of the music used it in is actually in Earthbound. The main theme is the voiced CD version of Pollyanna, the iconic theme of the original Mother, but it's only used in one place in Mother 2/Earthbound, and it's subtle: a version of it is played as the music in Ness' house.
posted by JHarris at 11:43 PM on October 10, 2014
posted by JHarris at 11:43 PM on October 10, 2014
> Mother 2 is especially nice for me in Japanese because they apparently didn't have the pixel density on the SNES to display Kanji, so it's all Hiragana and Katakana.
That was an intentional design choice by the creator; other games of the era used kanji. If I recall correctly, he wanted this game to have a child-like and nostalgic flair to it, and he copied the way Dragon Quest displayed its text (which was because of pixel size/technical limitations) because it reminded him of times when he was at home from school, sick, playing video games.
posted by cyberscythe at 11:02 AM on October 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
That was an intentional design choice by the creator; other games of the era used kanji. If I recall correctly, he wanted this game to have a child-like and nostalgic flair to it, and he copied the way Dragon Quest displayed its text (which was because of pixel size/technical limitations) because it reminded him of times when he was at home from school, sick, playing video games.
posted by cyberscythe at 11:02 AM on October 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
JHarris, it's also played during the ending credits of Earthbound.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 10:46 PM on October 21, 2014
posted by buriednexttoyou at 10:46 PM on October 21, 2014
Hm, I don't remember that. Will have to check sometime.
posted by JHarris at 3:13 AM on October 22, 2014
posted by JHarris at 3:13 AM on October 22, 2014
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posted by Fizz at 5:46 PM on October 9, 2014