You and I Have Memories - Let's Play Earthbound

Part 2 - Into the light of the dark black night.



When making a selection in the naming screen we're greeted with a jaunty "OK, desu ka." This is Itoi himself, though modulated a bit. He was secretly recorded during a phone call and slipped into the game.

If you're the sort of cretan who presses Start instead of confirming with okay you would be greeted with a weird record scratch sound that I can't find online. Sorry for ruining the LP.

Anyway, here's our lineup. Dusty beat FatDog by quite a margin thanks to Eddie's sob story. Look unless your dog waited for you outside of a pizza joint for a thousand years it's just not worth getting sad over. Spite beat out Harshn by only two votes. That's disappointing but ultimately for the best because Harshn isn't a word. As for Favorite Food, Not Bacon was the clear leader but that left two tied contenders to consider: coffee and curry. I put it to #talkingtime who voted unanimously for curry. Let me just say how proud I am of you guys for not going with Bacon. It's almost like we're real people and not internet chuds.

We make our final confirmation with enthusiasm!


♪One Fateful Night

We open on a small town in the dead of night. The year? 19910.



Onett, an average American Eaglelandian city. Aside from a recent rise in youth crime and some light mayoral corruption not much goes on in this sleepy little burg. That's about to change.



All around boy and player avatar, Ness. He has but not a care in the world, His life is one of peaceful innocence, his sleep that of the just.

But then!


♪Rude Awakening

An earth-shaking crash jolt him from his dreams of arcade cabinets and baseball games. The sound of sirens drift through his window. Something is amiss!



In emergencies like this there's no time to worry about bed-head or slamming into mom for bread rolls. Craziness could be going down and Ness want to be part of it!!

So let's take some time to talk about the menu.

As some people have pointed out, Earthbound is a lot like Dragon Quest. There are reasons for this. Said people also seem to assume that this makes Earthbound not quite as good as Dragon Quest. They are fools and you should cast them from your life. That said if you're familiar with Dragon Quest nothing should surprise you here.

"Talk to" lets you talk to things. "Check" lets you check things. The all-purpose button for these actions is Left Trigger. This is so you can play the game with just your left hand, navigating with the control pad and all talking to and checking things with the trigger like a pro. This frees up your right to shovel bacon into your slop-hole like the basement dweller delicately partake of fine curry like the worldly gourmand you are. It is a wonderful innovation and why hasn't every game done it since.



Goods lets Ness access his backpa... uh, pajama drawers and check out his stash. As you can see he sleeps with his ATM card just like all right thinking Eaglelandians should.

Ness can only hold twenty items. In a Dragon Quest game this wouldn't be so much of an issue because herbs are herbs are herbs. But in Earthbound you've got dozens of fun items to play around with and just no way to hold them all. This can be something of a sticking point but I kinda like it. It adds depth and strategy. This is what we call Stockholm Syndrome.



Did you know that every item has a little help message? Most of the time it's just prosaic information like how much HP food heals but sometimes you get a dumb little joke like the one here.



Equip is where you equip things in order to equip them why am I doing this?



Finally, the meat. Ness is a level 1 Eaglelad. He's as weak as they get without being a weak baby. Let's break it down.

Hit Points are the number of hits a dude can take before his face is all mashed in and he's a ghost. It's also the number of hits a ghost can take before it turns into slime.

Psychic Points is a measurement of how many sea slugs we have in our brain. When we run out of slugs we can no longer tell what is on the back of playing cards.

Experience points are earned by having experiences. When we reach four we will obtain the next "level," which is a metaphore for how much of a person we are.

Offense is how assertive we are. Likewise Defense is how resilant we are. Earthbound is fairly straightforward in how it calculates damage. It is always 2 times Offense minus enemy Defense. This gives us a very clear idea of how much damage we can expect to do. Some enemies have a "strong" attack which deals 3 x Offense instead just to make you sad.

Speed determines the order of actions in a combat round along with determining if an enemy dodges an attack. The formula is (2 ✗ Defender's Speed - Attacker's Speed) / 500. This means that if we have twice as much speed as a foe they will never be able to dodge our hits. Speed also determines our chances of running from a battle but that won't come up very often if ever.

Guts is Earthbound's special stat. It is how much of a badass rambo we are. It determines the likelyhood of a critical attack. It's a pretty straightforward calculation. Just Guts / 500. Likewise, this is also the odds of avoiding a life-ending blow.

Vitality determines how much HP we gain at level ups. It is always Vitality x 15.

IQ is the same except for PP except it's IQ x 5.

Luck is the boner stat. It determines how resilant we are to a couple of special attacks. It is basically worthless.



We have no psychic powers.


You might assume that Ness is a roundabout kinda guy. An average Joe. Good at all things but excelling at none. You would be wrong, Earthbound's not that kind of game. Ness is built to do one thing and that is smash weirdoes in the face with a baseball bat. His Offense will go through the roof while his other stats will just pluck along. He will learn the powerful PSI SPITE power but that's kind of a specialized attack due to its cost, and thanks to the PSI Lifeup abilities he will be spending some time healing but mostly it's all about the bashing.

Okay hey we've been standing in this dark room thinking about numbers for way too long. It's not even a school night why are we not investigating mysterious noises?



Stepping out into the hall Ness flicks on the light because who wants to be stumbling around in the dark. This is the kind of classy effect Earthbound is known for.



Ness is a thoughtful sibling and checks in to make sure his little sister is okay. Nope, no possessed kewpie dolls in here. Oh hey is that present for us?



Worst birthday ever. The bat may be cracked and destined to never hit a home run but it triples our Offense and jumps our damage output from 4 to 12. Not bad for what is obviously a re-gift.



Downstairs Ness's mom is already awake and decked out in her best cocktail dress. It's always important to look one's best during a mysterious emergency. Oh there's Eddie's dog too. So that's where he ended up.


And now you want to go check it out? ...oh ...okay.
You'll sneak out of your room anyway, even if I asked you not to.
At least change out of your jammies before you go.

Ness's mom is pretty cool. Most parents wouldn't let their kids out right after an earthquake and with sirens going off constantly but she's just like make sure you put on some pants.



Decked out in a pair of breezy short-shorts Ness is ready for whatever this night is going to throw his way.



I like this line. "Besides humans." What a smarmy jerk.


♪Alien Invasion


People are taking this meteorite situation too seriously!

Outside, the local police have blocked the road into town.


We are going for the world record...

Ha! I love this. It's so ridiculous yet at the same time has the ring of truth. Of course cops are incompetent boobs. Of course they are making a big hassle for everyone. It's the perfect rational for why we can't just go wandering into town yet (still I think I like the rational more in Mother 3 that you can't go exploring because you might step on an ant).


I just wanna... what?! ...go home...

This guy doesn't even know what's going on! The boob.

I want to be the first to see it. Okay? I am going to try to be the first to get there...

A meteorite seems like an awfully big assumption fella. It could have been anything... A satellite, or airplane engine, or maybe one of those really big birds they got down south.



Up past the neighbor's we can see something big going down. Maybe we should get up there instead of taking pointless screenshots?


So I'm home watching our house. Mom and Dad aren't home yet. They went out to an elegant restaurant.

Speaking of neighbors. Another good line here. I've got a hunch this game's going to packed full of them.



Police line the path up to the mountain top. All throwing their weight around like they think they're the boss of me. The only thing they're the boss of is the bottom of a box of doughnuts. This is the kind of quick wit you get with a Loki LP yes sir.


you kids are wandering around, and, I'm hungry... I hate my job!


Even if I advise you not to go, it won't stop you, will it?

This guy knows how it is. When you talk to him a second time:

Aaaaah--h...
If I yawn like this... it looks like I'm goofing off.
Aaaaah--h...
...yes, it does...

Ha! What a goof.



Half way up the hillside Ness finds an abandoned present containing a hunk of bread. This is 100% guaranteed to be stolen by a crow before we get a chance to use it.


I was fine because I always eat garlic and work out to help make my body stronger. However, the weaker citizens probably fainted. I also want to tell you... whoops! I almost told you about my... Uh, by the way , did you check my billboard? I wrote the message myself. That's my real job, you know... I'm a billboard guy. Why don't you check out my work?



So, uh... you don't eat garlic then? Because you look like the kind of guy who eats a lot of garlic.


It's strange and marvelous... as well as mysterious... ooooo!...

I can't go on enough about the writing in this game. It's flippant, and yet so well crafted. Take this line for instance. Its got cadence. It flows. It's a throw-away bit of text but it's packed full of implication. From it we know a lot about this guy's character, even though it's all the characterization he'll ever get. It's also the game commenting on itself a bit, poking fun at the mysterious what'sit that sets events into motion, AND it's setting up for the next plot point because well... the meteorite really is strange and marvelous. That's a lot to put into a few words.

Itoi said that every NPC in this game was an individual. Sure, some of them might share the same face, but they all had their own character. This is what he was talking about. We've seen the same policeman half a dozen times on our way up the hill, but each one has given us his own little view of the situation. Each has been his own person.

That sounds simple but when you think about it it's really kind of special.



Ness finally reaches the roadblock at the top of the hill. There's no going on from here, not with these cops on duty.



Ness said no even though Pokey was standing right there. Ness is the worst friend ever.



I'm including this because this is all this guy says.


Clear out. Of way out get my.
Whoops, my mistake... I mean Clear out. Get out of my way.

Up above we can see the Police Captain and some scientist type staring at the meteorite. Important work, that.


I mean officer's way! You can go home now. Tomorrow I, Pokey, will tell you more about the strange meteorite. I'm fine here, but you're bugging the officers!


And so we come to Pokey. Already we kind of hate him. I mean sure, the cops are lazy and ineffectual but they're trying right? Pokey is annoying and self-righteous. This makes him relatable. Well, in the sense that we've all known someone just like him. Some jerk we couldn't shake and didn't know what a little prick they were. This is pretty unique in RPGs. Instead of some inscrutable monster hell bent on destroying the world here's this smug little asshole we can really hate. Kinda brilliant.



Hey did you know that you can go out in your jammies? If you skip talking to Mom you don't have to change before checking out the meteorite. It doesn't change any dialog or anything but I guess it's a cool thing you can do?



Ness has gone as far as he can go and discovered the source of all the commotion. He heads home to find Mom waiting.


It's late, scoot off to bed now.

That's sweet but also kind of annoying. Doesn't she care what Ness has to say? (Ness never says anything. He is a RPG hero.)


♪Someone's Knocking at the Door

If it's not one god damn thing it's another. For the second time in one night Ness is rudely awakened. If you haven't been listening to the music you should because the music in Earthbound is the best. At the very least listen to this knock because it's kinda amazing just how obnoxious they were able to make it. There's just enough of Shave and a Haircut that it's infuriating when it devolves into chaos. Truly, when the devil knocks on Hell's door this is the sound it makes.



Well if no one else is going to get it!


♪Pokey's at the Door

Oh hi, sis! Just standing in the hallway huh?


Would you answer it?


Why not seeing as Ness has already come all the way downstairs.



Mom follows Ness over where someone is whaling on the door so hard it's threatening to snap in two.


♪Woah

And just before we get to the door Pokey gives up and bursts in on his own.

SO ANNOYING.

♪Pokey

When I took Picky to the place where the meteorite landed... Oh! Good evening ma'am. You're looking lovely as usual. *snicker* Anyway, as I was saying, the police that were guarding the meteorite landing left suddenly to deal with the Sharks. You know the Sharks, they're the local ruffians, and they were really going wild. Suddenly, I noticed that Picky was gone. I blame the cops... it certainly wasn't my fault at all. When my dad gets back, I know I'm gonna get it... You're my bestest friend. Won't YOU help me find Picky?

You know it may seem like Pokey's just trying to get on our good side here, but considering that boat ride in Mother 3 it could really be that he considers Ness his best (and maybe only) friend. Kinda sad.

Fun note, in the Japanese version of Mother 2 Pokey is worried that if he doesn't find Picky he will get spanked 100 times.


The Cracked Bat in Tracy's room could help out at a time like this... No matter what anyone says, you're a courageous, strong boy.



I already wrote a big long stupid thing on why I think this line is so great, so I won't bother boring you all here repeating it. Just, the next time you face a challenge, remember to "go for it!"


You might get hungry along the way, so here is a cookie.

Cookie are junk food. They heal 6 HP and take up an entire inventory spot.

You can also leave anything you don't need with me. Do you want me to hang on to something?


Tracy can store any items we don't want to lug around. I was pretty tempted to give her this cookie right back but that would be a pretty shitty way to respond to her show of support.



I've never understood this line. Just a second ago Mom was pumping Ness up and now she's bustin his chops. What is with this lady?




Dusty may have humped a teddy bear like he was straight out of an Adam Sandler flick but he brings some real backup in battle. We don't have to bring him along but there's really no reason not to.



Pokey is a hearty child and I am sure he will be a great boon on this adventure.



Just as we're about the leave the phone starts hoping around like its possessed by the ghost of Alexander Graham Bell. For you kids out there phone used to be black bulky things that sat on cradles and rang like the dickens. Not these miniature pocket computers that let you throw birds at pigs.



Oh hey Dad! How's it going... wherever you are?

"Work to exhaustion when you're young..." Have you ever heard of a weird saying like this? Just remember, I'm always behind you 100%. Don't be afraid. I know that you're brave. You can do it! Don't forget to call me periodically during your adventure. I can make a record of your progress when you call me. Oh yeah, I deposited $30 into your bank account. Do you have your ATM card? Withdraw your money from any cash machine and buy whatever you need. Good Luck, m'boy! I feel like such a hero!

You feel like a hero? For putting money in a bank account? And I though Pokey was full of himself.

What? Well, the father of a hero, at least. Wa ha ha! Slam! Beeeeeeeep!

Dad's pretty cool you guys, if a little weird.


♪Alien Invasion

Now that the cops have flown the coop nature is reclaiming what man once ruled. That is to say there's enemies about yo.


♪Oncoming Foe

When we touch an enemy the screen swirls with color (which I just missed in capturing). A direct confrontation results in a blue swirl and no advantage. If we sneak up on a baddie from behind we'll get a green swirl and a free round. Conversely, if an enemy manages to get the drop on us a red swirl will mark our doom.


♪Battle Against a Weak Opponent

mmmthat funky beat. Our first opponent is a jaunty crow in sunglasses and he is a right fucker. This is the Spiteful Crow.


HP 24, Offense 5, Defense 3, Speed 77.

See that crazy high speed stat? That means he'll always go first and that going to be dodging our hits like he was born for it.



Item one on why crows suck is they do big damage. Getting your eyes pecked hurts and is our biggest threat on Onett Hill.



Dusty is a right chap and does what he does best. Both Pokey and Dusty are guest members. We can't control them and they can't be targeted by the enemy. Dusty can do a low damage bite, a big damage charge, or just stand around barking.



Pokey on the other hand...


♪You Win!

Eventually we get a few hits through and turn the Spiteful Crow into a Telecrow, but not before its incessant pecking took half our HP. Looks like Dusty is going to have to be Ness's seeing-eye dog from here on out.



Item number two re: crows is that they always drop a cookie. Now a cookie is a fine thing, taste and full of life-giving transfats, but there isn't any way it will offset the damage a crow can do. So we can either eat it down and look on in scorn at the 6 HPs or we can hoard them until Ness's backpack is full to bursting. It's a no-win situation and did you ever think you'd see the day when you would hate a cookie?



Not ten feet away a snake A SNAKE comes charging out of the brush. I nabbed the swirl this time look at it go.

♪Battle Against a Weird Opponent

The Coil Snake is a devious foe in that it is completely average. Honestly, I'm surprised we ran into a Crow first. The Coil Snake does have one special move. About an eighth of the time it'll try to coil around Ness, incapacitating him for a turn. Since it takes a turn to use this is a dubious strategy. Then again, snakes is dumb.


HP 18, Offense 4, Defense 2, Speed 2.

Scary as a snake is, it's not hard. Ness swings his bat, Dusty does the ol' Bite 'n Charge.



And Pokey oh Pokey you are a precocious scamp.


♪You Gained a Level!

The snake turned back to normal (a puddle of guts is considered normal right?) and Ness became a Level 2 First-Aid Scout. Levels in Earthbound are weird. The gains are random, but there's an optimal build for each character that the game will try to meet. So if a certain stat is far from the expected amount the game will award a larger gain. If it is close the game will back off. It's a nice rubberband effect that creates varied results while still keeping characters in certain roles. Also, the RNG for levels that are multiples of four pulls from higher numbers, resulting in better ups one fourth of the time. I really like that. It's nice to get a really big level every so often.



Ness also learned his first psychic power. For 5 PP Ness can heal 100 HP (give or take about 25%). It's a bit expensive at the moment so food will still be our primary way of recovery but it's reassuring to have those two full-heals in our back pocket.



The last type of foe on Onett Hill is giving us an intense stare.


♪Battle Against a Weak Opponent

The Runaway Dog, despite the murderous look in his eyes, is even more basic an opponent than the Coil Snake. It can bite, but spends most of its time howling.


HP 21, Offense 3, Defense 5, Speed 26.

Despite this, it's worth four times the experience of the Coil Snake. I guess beating up a dog would be a character defining moment of sorts.



A lot of enemies, and not just the early ones, have an action that wastes a turn and provides a little bit of flavor. It is a clever technique that gives the developers the option to break up relentless attacks and control the difficulty. And it immerses the player into the setting. It's things like this that leap to mind when people claim the gameplay isn't refined.




"That crow isn't spiteful enough. It's looking at me weird. I want a cookie. Why isn't it smoking?" and so on.



The last reason why Crows are such butts is they love to steal your stuff. At this point in the game all we have are cookies and maybe a bread roll if we got lucky from a Runaway Dog. Cookies they can have but rolls heal 30 HP. That's five cookies and a Crow and just be all "Yoink!"

We got lucky this time and the crow didn't nab anything. That's pretty rare.



Due to its vicious pecking oh god my eyes we got right down to the wire here. I wasn't sure if I could scarf the bread in time. It all depended on how the Crow decided to act.



See. Useless action, break in the battle, Ness lives to see another day. Good design. The Crow's grin seems to say "it's cool man. Take a breather, get your strength back, then we'll settle this. And if you win well ah at least I won’t have to carry around this cookie."


I'm a busy man, but when I do a job, I do it well. I'm a man's man.

A real man never helps a child in need. Luckily, Ness is but a boy.



Picky has picked the furthest reaches of Onett Hill to fall asleep. Looks like Ness will have to brave the forbidden meteorite grounds to rescue him.


I wouldn't have come along... I'm outta here!)

Even Dusty can't stand the tension. Your time in the spotlight was brief, Dusty, but you shined like a thousand suns.


Pokey! I've been looking all over for you... You see, Pokey got scared and ran away... Well, I'm glad that you're okay at least... Let's go home now. I bet Mom and Dad are worried sick about us. Geez! Sometimes I wonder which one of us is the real big brother.

Picky is... a less than optimal replacement for Dusty, but gosh darn it he tries. He's certainly more useful than his brother the oaf.



I'd just like to stop for a moment here and admire the scenery. It was once that Earthbound was considered to have bad graphics if you can believe it. As the years go by the strength of design and artist sensibilities become more and more apparent. Is there any other SNES game that has aged as gracefully? I like how, aside from special effects, everything has two frames. It's simple yes, but graceful too, and in its way, beautiful.


♪BuzzBuzz

Before Ness can abscond with tyke in tow a faint buzzing fills the night air.



And before he can check his hair for any stray dung beetles a shaft of light explodes from the meteorite.



From it emerges a tiny bee.

I’m from 10 years in the future. And, in the future, all is devastation…

Giygas, the universal cosmic destroyer, sent all to the horror of eternal darkness…

……

However, you must listen!

Where I am from, there is a well-known legend that has been handed down from ancient times. It says “When the chosen boy reaches the point, he will find the light. The passing of time will shatter the nightmare rock and will reveal the path of light.” You see, it is my opinion that you are that boy, Ness. This I believe…

……



If you start to confront the enemy immediately, you may have time to counter the evil intentions of Giygas. Three things are of the utmost importance: wisdom, courage, and friendship. …The legends from the ancient times tell of three boys and a girl who defeat Giygas. …I will tell you more later.

Go now!

And do not be anxious about the future. You have much work to do, Ness.

Did you listen to what I told you?

We pick yes because god no.

Thank you for listening to my long story. You are as exceptional as I expected you to be...

And with the exposition out of the way Ness gets a pet space bee.

Ness! It looks like you're really in a lot of trouble this time... Three boys, he said? ...Uhhh... I'm not one of those three, am I? ...Cause... I'm not into this kind of thing at all... Geez. My heart is almost pounding right out of my chest!...

You can't end a sentence with an exclamation point and then an ellipsis, Pokey!

SO ANNOYING.



On the way back down the hill, BuzzBuzz's swirling presence keeps enemies at bay. Looks like it's smooth sailing from here on out.


Can you come visit me later, alone?

What secret could this garlicky weirdo possibly be hiding? We'll have to follow up in the morning. As we shall see, Ness has a special affinity with dangerous and off-beat men who have been shunned by society.



The return trip is uneventful until just before Ness's and Pokey's houses when a threatening figure beams from the sky.


You've been successful at foiling Master Giygas' plans. But... BuzzBuzz, you must now surrender. You are no longer a hero, but just a useless insect. I'll stomp you hard!


♪Otherworldly Foe

And so we meet that most iconic of foes, the Starman Junior.

HP 200, PP 999, Offense 11, Defense 10, Speed 1.

Jr. here would be impossible whittling down 4 HP at a time. Luckily for Ness this is a gimmick fight with no real way to lose.



BuzzBuzz opens by summoning a psychic shield to protect the party.



Sigma is the third tier of this particular power and it protects each member from three psychic attacks.



To only do 1 damage. Still, brave of the little guy to duke it out with a metal monster space-man from the future.



Jr. is all like "What is this thing you humans call pretend e-mo-tions?"







This would have been a one-shot kill if not for BuzzBuzz's shield. But this is a teaching battle where we learn both about psi powers and shields, but also the power of our foes and the resilience of our allies. With BuzzBuzz on our team we have little to worry about.



BuzzBuzz is scripted to alternate between refreshing the Psi Shield and attacking. For a bug he packs quite the wallop. (Fun-fact, in Mother 2 he is a rhinoceros beetle and not a bee. Wonder why the changed it, it's so much more flavorful.) This fight would be over much sooner if he would attack twice in a row, but this way we learn that shields can be revitalized.



Picky picks away, Pokey uses Ness as a shield, Ness bashes for 4 damage, and eventually BuzzBuzz gets around to finishing the guy off. We did it! In the process Ness becomes a Level 3 Bat-boy. I'm not going to capture screens of level ups unless something interesting happens. Sorry for ruining the LP.


He came from ten years in the future to kill me, so we can't relax yet! From now on, you'll be fighting enemies sent from Giygas, as well as humans who have evil thoughts. They'll definitely make trouble during your adventure! Animals are also becoming violent due to Giygas' influence over the evil in their minds! It is the truth, so listen!

That explains why we were set upon by all manner of dog and crow. This Giygas fellow is just making everything flip out.



If we visit home Mom will feed us our favorite food and restore all of our health. I show this off because if we bring Pokey along she just laughs in his face.


♪Pokey's House

Over at Pokey's house his parents have returned home from their night out. His mom is all sorts of hideous. Yikes!

Both of you are really going to get it now!

The kids scamper upstairs followed closely by their dad. Within moments we hear the sounds of corperal punishment.


By the way, I would be happy if you left sometime soon. I'm tired of your family living next door. We've loaned your father a lot of money. It may have been a hundred thousand dollars or more... Well, I guess it really could have been less, but because of the loan, my family and I now live in poverty!

My husband is much too lenient with the children. Oh well, nice guys finish last. That's the story of our life...

While Lardna (yes, that's her real name) is going on about how she wishes her husband hit their kids more, BuzzBuzz decides to settle down in her hair.



With one swing of her mighty arm she sends BuzzBuzz sprawling to the floor.


was...

...much weaker than I thought...

So you must now begin your adventure...

see...

you...







Oh, I just remembered... Listen to my final words...

To defeat Giygas, your own power must unite with the Earth's... the Earth will then channel your power and multiply it... There are eight points that you must visit. Make these places your own... Each of these locations is "Your Sanctuary." One of them is near Onett. It is called "Giant Step." Go there first... Do you understand?

All right. You are a very intelligent young man... and... Oh! The pain!... Everything is getting dark... urgh!... *Gasp*... Before I pass on, I want to give you something... It is the Sound Stone. You can record the melodies from the eight locations into this stone. It is an awesome item...

By the way... I'm almost gone, but did you want to hear the story one more time?

It's already dawn outside... But it doesn't matter to me.

I'm fading fast...

Argh! *Gasp*

And with those final words BuzzBuzz expires. Let's check out his parting gift.


♪Sound Stone

Not much yet, but we'll fill up its eight vessels with melodies from the Sanctuaries. The background music that plays under the stone here is taken from Give Peace a Chance by the Plastic Ono Band.



Even brave Picky is brought down by bad parenting. Now wonder Pokey turned out to be such a brat. Itoi said in an interview that Pokey ended up the way he did because of his home situation, but I like how he contrasted that nastiness with Picky. Shows that a good seed can sprout even in bad soil.


♪Sunrise/Onett

As Ness steps outside he finds that morning has come. Now his adventure can truly begin. It's cool how the music starts out playing "Pollyanna," the overworld theme from Mother 1, for the sunrise before switching over to the Onett theme.

Before heading off into the wide world, let's stop by home and check in with mom. However, when Ness steps into his front yard...


♪What a Great Picture!


I'm a photographic genius, if I do say so myself! Okay, get ready for an instant memory! Look at the camera... ready... Say, "fuzzy pickles."


Wow, what a great photograph! It will always bring back the fondest of memories...

Picture taken, the Camera Man sails back into the sky.


♪Home Sweet Home

Ness's home theme is a calm and gentle version of Pollyanna which speaks volumes about comfort and safety and family and I love it. Mom's duty is to fill Ness up with Curry and send him to bed. We can come back here at any time for a full refill.



Dusty is a stick in the mud. He won't join Ness ever again. Ness will be outclassing him soon though. Glad to see he made it home safe.



For each baddie felled Dad will deposit some cash into Ness's account. We don't have to talk to him to get the money, it will show up regardless, still it's nice to see how much we've made since we last checked in.



He'll also let us know how much experience to the next level and save the game. Tired from his all-night excursion, Ness does so now. Later he'll visit Onett to find the first Sanctuary BuzzBuzz mentioned, but for now he's earned some much needed rest.

Next time: Onett and such.

Cookies do have one good use, in that if your inventory is fuller than a Girl Scout's backpack when BuzzBuzz tries to hand you the Sound Stone, he'll send it over to Tracy instead (and free up that inventory spot for the rest of the game!).

Delightful! Can't wait for more!

(Also, when I was playing the game in my high school days and barely even knew the game came from Japan, I always heard the 'OK, desu ka' as 'Forrest Gump')

I thought it was "Okay, Scott?"

Because I thought the developers assumed that more people named "Scott" were going to play it, and that they would appreciate that.

Because I was ten years old.

RUINIED!!!

Probably because the whole Japanese deal with beetles is not as big a thing over here, so they probably figured that bees were more "iconic" in that sense.

Might wanna tag the Mother 3 spoilers, just in case.

Deal with it.

I assume you are joking, but I'm totally not going to be able to keep reading this LP if you are going to spoil Mother 3. I will (eventually) play it.

I'm sorry that I spoiled the presence of an ant in Mother 3. Oh, and that you ride a boat. I'll be sure to put big distracting spoiler boxes around these critical details so that no one else's enjoyment of the game is ruined.

Oops! I didn't spoiler them again. Oh-noooooooooooooooooo

Deal with it

The references to Pokey in Mother 3 are the only spoilers I'd bother with. Considering it's 90% through the game before the connection becomes explicit. On the other hand we have a very nice Mother 3 LP on this very board so I'd assume many have already played or read about that game.

Dude, I'm not worried about you "spoilering" shit like that, but if there is going to be an actual spoiler, then yeah, please tag it.

"By the way... I'm almost gone, but did you want to hear the story one more time?"

I love how Ocarina of Time hadn't come out yet, but I can't help but read this as a parody of Kaepora Gaebora.
Ooooh... That would've been nice to know.

Way to antagonize your audience, man.

This is an awesome LP, and the references to Mother 3 are oblique enough that no one should care. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt that he will continue to maintain the thoughtful and well considered attitude he's shown so far. If you can't deal with knowing that you might step on an ant and/or ride a boat in Mother 3, then maybe the LP isn't for you. Otherwise, you're probably fine.

There's nothing to freak out about here.

Keep up the great work Loki!

Let's get this clear: he didn't just say there's a boat ride. He mentioned an insight to the relationship between two EarthBound characters you might not even know figure into Mother 3 at all.

Everyone CTFO. This is Loki's LP and if he wants to do it with Mother 3 spoilers that's his business. He's made it clear that's how it's going to be (and it sounds like it's all been pretty minor so far anyhow). So we've been warned. Let's not crap all over this thread about, okay? Sorry I even chimed in.

Is it constructive criticism time? 'Cause I have a bit that speaks from personal experience: don't fight your audience. Even if the person in question is just being a jerk (not really the case here, spoiler concerns for a series are a constant problem in any LP of a game from a larger series), you just end up making yourself look like a jerk if you get shirty with them. Better to be respectful of your audience, even when you don't agree with them. And if they are being jerks, you get the delight of "killing them with kindness", which is if anything even more fun than engaging in a battle to see who can be the most smarmy.

It's funny, when I played this as a kid I never thought much about it, but now as an adult I get almost choked up at Ness's parents. It feels like Itoi's been playing me all along.

I think the Mother 3 spoilers are out of the bag at this point. The game never came out in NA and never will. The rom translation had been available for years, and everyone who was gonna play it by now has done so. We've had an absolutely amazing LP of the game right here at TT. The spoil-y bits Loki referenced had direct storyline implications to what happens in EarthBound.

Reading the criticism in this thread, it seems like everyone is upset about the idea that something was spoiled, and nobody is actually upset about the spoiler itself. Weird priorities!

I'm happy letting Loki antagonize me as much as he likes. Where else am I gonna get my LPEB fix, right? He makes it hurt so good.

I just want to say, this update was incredible. I basically loved it from start to finish Lokii. Nice work.

This.

A little heavy on animated gifs but individually they weren't as excessive as Brickroad's so I can handle that.

I liked how much attention is paid to NPC dialog. It's annoying in some LPs but Earthbound's NPCs have so much character it works.

Most US players know about Mother 3 because of Smash Bros. Brawl, and Brawl spoiled Mother 3 more than anything that's likely to come up in this LP.

Someone fired up the ol' GifMaker and I couldn't be happier.

Somehow finding out that BuzzBuzz was actually a beetle in the Japanese version makes Pokey's mom's reaction much less funny. (Unless in that version she thinks it's a bee, in which case kudos localization squad)