You and I Have Memories - Let's Play Earthbound

I'm in this thread to enjoy Earthbound vicariously, not to tell everyone why they like it too much. So I'm stopping there.

I haven't played this game since around the time it came out but I remember that I loved the flavor of the game but really hated how grindy it got in some areas. I think if they encounter rate had been reduced by 50% or so this might have been a game that gained a position of acclaim in my memory.

Another vote for these.

Dog: Dusty (or FatDog would suffice)

Food: FSteak

Thing: Spite (Harshn would also suffice)

The argument is that it's a Dragon Quest clone, with connotations of being an inferior duplicate. Like Glory of Heracles, or Guadia Quest, or, say, Legend of the Ghost Lion - in purely mechanical terms, a poorly-balanced RPG with a Sisyphean experience curve, a half-baked gimmick, and an isomorphic setting shift. This is an accurate (if reductive) description of Mother 1, but I'll leave it to you to explain why the same can't be said of its sequel (and, perhaps, its sequel's sequel).

What's the origin of the characters' default names?

Aside from Ness (who was named after the NES) who knows. That Paula and Jeff are western names while Poo sounds foreign is my best guess. Remember that Mother 1 had Lloyd, Ana, and Teddy. So it's not like there wasn't a precedent for normal names.

I don't get the talk about EB being grindy. You never need to grind.

I've never gotten to play this, excited to finally see it!

Earthbound's "dragon quest" shell was a very deliberate choice for this game. That this grates on some people is not entirely surprising, but I think that it's important to point out that the game is not a "DQ clone" because it's lazy; it's a "DQ clone" because it's trying to invoke something very specific.

So, I was going to comment that I'm confused that people say this, since I was positive that I saw it on VC, but then as I went to confirm this, I found that it wasn't. I guess it makes sense, since it does have... content of questionable legal standing, at best.

The only time I ever intentionally grind in EB is before the first boss, since getting paralyze early ruins the first few bosses.

Dusty
Brains
Harshn

To clarify, I don't think the game is grind-y in the sense that you have to stack up EXP in order to survive the boss. You can pretty much just play the game. But I do think it's grind-y in that the game is so long, and the individual battles are so boring, and there are so many of them, that the game nonetheless feels like a grind.

Maybe "slog" would be a better term.

Saying Earthbound is a Dragon Quest clone is entirely missing what makes Earthbound so good.

I get where you're coming from. In all honesty, now that Mother 3 exists, I can't see myself playing all the way through Earthbound again.

(Also, Earthbound doesn't have Tactics or Heal All, so it's clearly worse than Dragon Quest. But I like them both, so.)

But Heal All wastes MP!

I have all the Magic Waters*, so I don't care.

*I made sure by killing the people that make Magic Water. The Jury's out on Sage Elixirs, though.

But the DQAI is pretty smart so it only uses the exact right amount of MP

Edrick
Loto
Bianca
Dog

Favorite Thing: Draque

I do have to say, though, that even if I never, ever fully appreciated Earthbound, I still love it because it helps inspire art like this.

(though for me personally his Zelda stuff is even better)

No is isn't, it prioritized full HP over MP efficiency. It's just that Heal is pretty cheep. But it still wastes a heal getting your back-row mage back 1 HP if that's all he's down. It's not bad, certainly, as it uses the most efficient means possible to get everyone to full. But unless that's Healall or a healmore hits someone for their exact damage amount it usually mostly wastes 2-3 heals per use.

I seem to recall it prioritizing the other way around, shooting for Midheal when two Regular Heals would do the job, and a Full Heal when things were in dire straights.

It just got a bit... Fuzzy... when things like Multi and Omni Heal were involved.

Dog: Murphy (my childhood chocolate lab)

Food: Tacos

Thing: Sigh

Dog: Dusty
Food: Brains
Thing: Harshn

Dog: Dusty
Food: Coffee
Thing: Talkin

I rented Earthbound many times, but was never able to acquire my own copy. It was always a big deal to rent it too; Blockbuster put it in this huge pizza box-looking case to fit the guide. Even before I played it for the first time, I felt like I was getting something really special.

Earthbound sticks with me mostly because of the music. I would never think to call it my favourite video game soundtrack, but it probably should be. If real life had BGM, I would love for my city's theme to be Onett. I could listen to that track all day every day and not get tired of it.

Dusty (was going to say Buster, but man, that story...)
Meatloaf
Games. Seriously, let's not kid ourselves folks. We love games here. Boardgames, Video Games, word games, mind games. REPRESENT YOUR LOVE TT. VOTE GAMEZ.

I have to vote for this because of the sheer absurdity of "PSI Talkin."

Seconded, because this is what I chose when I played Earthbound for the first time as a kid. I thought an ability called PSI Games was pretty wierd, and at the time didn't make the connection with this initial choice. I... wasn't a very smart kid.

That being said, since I'm not seeing much of it, I encourage people to consider the potential for wordplay:
-PSI kick
-PSI lons (/lawns)
-PSI chonauts
-PSI dburns
-PSI dswipe
-PSI cobabble
-etc.

Its just your PSI talkin'
Youre telling me lies, yeah
PSI talkin'
You wear a disguise
PSI talkin'
So misunderstood, yeah
PSI talkin'
You really no good

Favorite Food: Pizza, because it dominated the "favorite food" charts among school kids my age when the game was new. Lemme tell you about pizza, son. We loved that stuff like nothing else when we were kids. We ate it sliced, we ate it in squares, and if we thought we could get away with it, we'd eat it all the time because after all, our favorite childhood heroes the Ninja Turtles got away with it every episode for many of our most formative years.
We want pizza, we need pizza, and all we are saying is give pizza chance.
Favorite Thing: Memories. I will also settle for Retro. Because let's be honest: Nostalgia is the name of the game in Earthbound, and it's very deliberately seeded throughout. Fond memories directly figure into the story in the most pivotal places, and even between these moments, things just fall right out of the sky to make sure you never forget that fact.