How Earthbound Became The Ultimate Cult Classic | Retrospective Documentary

[Music] my [Music] earthbound is my favorite game of all time it's a game that starts off quirky and unassuming but catapults its way into your heart shigesato itoi followed up on mother with the game he always wanted to create but that doesn't mean that things were always sunshine and roses earthbound's development and initial release were harsh some people loved it some people hated it and needless to say the advertising for the game missed the mark by a long shot despite the many hurdles earthbound went through in order to be published it ended up standing the test of time and only growing in popularity throughout the years earthbound is now a game that needs no justification as most people even those who don't personally care for it will at least understand fans infatuation with the game to some extent welcome to the second video in a four part series where i retrospectively dive into the mother series if you haven't checked out the first video on mother or earthbound zero i encourage you to watch that one first in order to get the full experience and if you have it's great to see you again what is it exactly that draws people to earth mound why does playing this game still bring me to laugh cry and empathize with the characters and their various conflicts what is so special about earthbound that thousands of people around the world hold it on a pedestal above other games today we will explore the complete history of earthbound from its themes to references to development to localization and finally conclude with why i personally hold it as my favorite video game of all time this is how earthbound became the ultimate cult classic [Music] [Music] after the initial release of mother shigesato itoy and the team at ape were eager to begin development on a sequel with a new and improved super famicom you see itoy had been severely limited on things he wanted to do in mother everything from the music the text and even the battle sequences had to be watered down in order to run properly on nintendo's older console that in some way is why mother 2 doesn't stray too far away from his original formula better yet the art style music and characters all came out different enough that the game has an entirely different feel to it earthbound or mother 2 takes place years after the events of mother concluded within the country of eagleland another obvious tie to america even the map of the country itself is shaped like a bird geeg the previous game's villain goes into hiding during this time in an effort to gather strength for his next attack you start the story as a 13 year old boy named ness who is awakened by a strange crash outside his house that literally changes his life forever you come to find out through a time traveling stag beetle named buzz buzz that you and a few other friends whom you haven't even met yet are destined to save the world from the aforementioned gigas how you're supposed to do this or why exactly you were chosen is unknown but your journey awaits you nonetheless on the surface the reason that a nest was chosen should be obvious carrying on with the tradition of ninten itoi chose nessa's name to be modeled after nintendo's staple console it also kind of gives a sort of anonymity to the character allowing you to imagine him as yourself throughout nest's journey to defeat giygas and his evil adversaries he meets up with paula a telepathic psychic jeff a genius inventor and pooh another strong fighter from a far away land known as the chosen four the kids travel across the continent and to far away lands meeting tons of other characters along the way bubble monkeys mad scientists sentient statues and even buff bird men joined the cause at one time or another earthbound is as fun as it is weird and it certainly doesn't pull any punches itoi has called the development of his games reckless wildness because he often tried to encourage his staff to come up with new and innovative ideas on the fly to contribute to the game in some way i like to think of this as writing a book without a pre-established outline you have a general feel for how you want a story to transpire without being bound to a structure that can ultimately hinder creativity however sometimes this approach to creating a video game can backfire in fact when itoy began working on mother 2 much of the team that joined him were not involved with the original title this created some growing pains for etoy's wild method of building the game many ideas for the game's story were scrapped after months of work resulting in the production timeline lagging significantly behind schedule at one point etoy had actually considered a theme of interplanetary space travel in earthbound rather than confining the player to a single planet within the game after four months of working towards this idea etoy scrapped it on account of seeming cliche with many other forms of media out there he knew he wanted something different and quirky something that loads of new audience members including boys girls men and women would all find joy in playing equally he wanted things to be perfect but for much of mother 2's development it was the furthest thing from what he got as mentioned previously itoi wanted to use many of the same ideas that mother had including the lack of an overworld a first-person battle system and loads of npcs that didn't contribute to the main quest of the game he felt the latter was important to the overall feel and atmosphere of mother 2. itoy also felt it was more important to make the game experience based not just story based he cited many traditional fantasy rpgs as the latter he wanted the mother games to carry a lot of personality which i believe he succeeded in greatly with the overall idea of mother 2 cemented etoy and the team at ape moved forward developing some of the game's mechanics and aesthetics one of the first things you'll notice about playing through earthbound is the character personalization screen the first time i booted up the game and got past the initial screen i instantly realized this was not a stereotypical jrpg the opening track your name please gives off a rockin vibe that accompanies the opening sequence well you're presented with a chance to name each main character in the game as well as your favorite food and thing etoy chose this specific character naming screen because it helps you personalize your mother to experience while most rpgs contained a blank screen with white text and no music earthbound was full of life right from the beginning ironically though they even let you name your own dog there are even unused sprites of him within the game's code that have never been used anywhere else this theory is strengthened by the importance and playability of bony in mother 3. after completing the initial character and item naming you are dropped into the town of onett as ness and your journey begins the first thing you may have noticed about playing a mother title is the relatively unconventional aesthetic of the battle system recognizing that some of the restrictions from the original mother game had been lifted itoi had some new ideas for her mother too first and foremost he wanted to create a unique level up system that had not previously been explored with the realm of jrpgs this ingenuity is evident in the existence of such level up stats as luck which increases your ability to dodge attacks vitality which increases hp for each level gained and guts which increases the likelihood of connecting with a critical hit although these attributes are not fully customizable in the same vein as later rpgs it added to the game's personality to improve on the relatively stale battles for mother 1 etoy sought to add a special effect to hp where pachinko balls would mimic a rolling health meter although the idea was cool enough even this had obvious limitations especially later in the game when enemies had much larger amounts of health instead of the pachinko effect the team ended up utilizing rolling numbers instead the battle system even contains an auto feature if i don't know you'd get tired of battling enemies constantly to be honest i've never even used this another difference from etoy's initial game was the addition of actual enemies in the overworld in lieu of random encounters this was something that he wanted to do in mother because he felt that it gave more life to the game's environments the closer the player would bring ness and his comrades to an enemy the more apt the enemy would be to attack to make the encounter system even more interesting the direction you approach enemies from would also give you a chance for a sneak attack or end up losing a turn at the recommendation of shigeru miyamoto who mostly despised rpgs itoi added the instant win feature to the battle system to minimize grind time with useless battles one of the main complaints of mount etoy from mother one not that those are useless battles but you get to just and while we're on it what is with those battle backgrounds apparently according to etoy there was a guy at ape who was somewhat of a background otaku someone who created these images with the intent of them being a relaxant of sorts i kind of found this quote funny because some of them are anything but relaxing but i guess maybe there's something lost in translation just the backgrounds themselves took over two years to make when asked if the enemies would be similar to those in mother 1 i.e aliens itoya responded with a laugh it's a little bit more complicated than that it's not like before with lackeys supported by their boss there are separate entities now with hierarchies of their own some enemies have nothing to do with boss so it gets pretty complicated in fact earthbound has some of the most memorable enemies in all of video games sometimes you'll be threatened by an unassuming local guy maybe a cute little ufo or even a melting clock it's really so random that i can't help but get a chuckle out of how things transpire now and then not only are the enemies themselves hilarious but the things they do in battle make it even better a mad duck made someone spin around a new age retro hippie measures things with a ruler the crazier the enemy the wackier the things they do are what are some of your favorites please be sure to leave them in the comments below with the rising problem of piracy within the entertainment industry etoy and the team at ape also took things into their own hands and added some anti-piracy measures into the game that were creative and just plain awesome throughout the various checksum points the game can increase enemy encounter rates making things more difficult and even causes your entire save data to be erased during the final fight with gigas take that you cheaters [Music] [Applause] earthbound is quite similar to mother in terms of its items as well maybe you're firing off multi-bottle rockets or hitting enemies with frying pans or using sandwiches to zoom past unwanted enemies with ease either way etoy's humor is palpable within every detail of the game sometimes within the game certain key enemies must be utilized in order to progress to the next area some of my favorites include the pencil eraser invention from applekid and the book to overcoming shyness which must be a fantastic book because it gave a little green alien dude super powers these small unconventional things may seem weird to those who play the game but honestly that's the point earthbound seeks to break the status quo in every way possible a main goal of etoy's work on the series perhaps the most unique aspect of the entire game was in its dialogue much like i mentioned in the previous video the importance of a conversation with an npc is entirely random earthbound has a lot of characters some are important to the main story and others are meaningless but most importantly each character in earthbound is just living out their everyday lives some of the dialogue has no purpose but either way it comes across as conversational something that ethos strove to convey in his work itoi once said in a famitsu interview during mother 2's development it really is amazing to have relationships with other people when you can laugh and cry together so in games 2 that human relationship it makes things interesting this is evident in mother 2 as well the fighting and battling isn't important it's great to see someone do their very best no matter what that might be this quote really speaks to the amount of care etoy and the team went into with regard to every character in the game etoy would think of some dialogue and then his typist would type it into the computer so he could see some real-time feedback if he didn't like it and if there wasn't some sort of emotion conveyed on the face of the typist he would erase it and start over with something more meaningful i mean this might have taken quite a long time but definitely definitely was a good method whether it's the redemption of everdread the incessant shenanigans of pokey or even the mr saturns who itoi noted are supposed to resemble innocents in the world each character has their own purpose and aspirations okay except for maybe the orange kid sprite who parted during the runaway 5 performance even miyamoto acknowledged the importance of itoy and his team's writing for the game mostly it made me realize just how lacking games have been in terms of writing until now seeing how well things can be explained in only one or two lines of text had an impact on me as did seeing words in ways that i can't use them i realize vocabulary isn't about knowing lots of difficult words but about how many simpler words that you know many of earthbound's characters say some things that just hit different their truncated amount of words leave an impact on you that's inexplicable the amount of memorable quotes is too plentiful to count so i'll just post some of my favorites here [Music] [Applause] [Music] much of the music in earthbound came naturally for mother composers keichi suzuki and hirokazu tanaka who returned from mother's development tanaka was especially excited for this project because he had a lot more freedom from a creative standpoint the super famicom utilized the 8 channel ad pcm based spc 700 as opposed to the old nintendo entertainment system's restriction of 5 channels of basic waveforms this entailed higher sound quality and music that sounds closer to his original compositions expanding upon the rock-like feel of the first mother game suzuki and tanaka approached earthbound with a much jazzier vibe loads of trumpet melodies and unique percussion litter the colorful soundtrack in total it's estimated that suzuki himself had composed over 100 unique tracks for the game and it was so insistent as to not cut a majority of them out that earthbound ended up having one of the largest soundtracks on the console in fact eight of the 24 megabits utilized in its final production was music enough to fill two entire compact discs worth of information his personal favorite track is the bicycle theme ironically a track that he had composed prior to even starting work on the game it ended up fitting so well that he popped it in and is also one of my favorite tunes as well the music is rich in personality and accompanies the game phenomenally if you've played any mother game you undoubtedly would have picked up on some of the immense amount of musical influences even in the overall gameplay the references to the beatles one of etoy's favorite musical groups are present in multiple locations there's the obvious yellow submarine a man that quizzes you on a song title meant to be yesterday a surfer guy that literally just says hello and goodbye the list goes on and on but perhaps earthbound's biggest beatles reference comes from within the music the good morning theme literally sounds like good morning from the band tessie's theme strikingly sounds familiar to the track strawberry feels forever even the buy something willia shop theme has a similar tone to one of my personal favorite beatles songs the dallas rag but the musical influences did not stop at just the beatles the beach boys were also one of the many western artists suzuki and tanaka drew inspiration from while developing the game's soundtrack tanaka once mentioned in an interview he would listen to the beach boy co-founder brian wilson's solo album for inspiration while driving back and forth between suzuki's home there was something about the light-hearted americana feel that sparked something in him suzuki has gone on records stating that the beach boys album smile and smiley smile were also incredibly important to earthbound soundtrack one of the albums helped represent patriotism and happiness in america while the other invoked some comedy that helped become essential to the game suzuki also cited john lennon as a strong influence due to the common theme of love in his music which was also prominent in the game and that his album john lennon plastic ono man helped him to avoid excessive instrumentation over the snes's technical constraints the amount of musical references in earthbound cannot be overstated david bowie neil young the grateful dead and many others contain easter eggs of some sort within the game it just goes to show the player how important music was to the people that created it [Music] although development for earthbound began in 1989 the years came and went and the game still wasn't finished there are a multitude of catalysts for the game's significant delays execs and nintendo became increasingly frustrated with the game's progress over the years and etoy's beloved creation was threatened with cancellation in his words he felt as though the team hit a brick wall mother 2 had originally started on 8 megabits actually on the famicom which a year into the project the team realized would not be enough that size eventually increased to 12 and they drifted over to the super famicom and subsequently 24 for the final product however knowing etoy as the size of the game increased so did the amount of things etoy wanted to do with it oh i have more space to expand to let me do it another roadblock came with the graphics in an interview just following the game's release itoi mentions that the team had an extremely hard time trying to build the graphics and the various world maps so they would connect together in the diagonal type view they had started with at times many members of ape considered scrapping the entire thing and starting over something etoy was not willing to do he felt that the view and perspective of ness and his friends was imperative to the game's personality he didn't want to budge on it and as a result took five years to complete the game things were not going so well and etoy needed some help and help he definitely got as the year approached 1993 mother 2 was still not finished seeing the game on the chopping block etoy became almost certain it would be cancelled after all this was not extremely uncommon to see with the games industry nintendo had just given him plenty of time and resources and things were just as grim and daunting as the first day of development but seeing their progress stalled nintendo enlisted the help of hal laboratories and specifically satoru owata nintendo president hiroshi yamauchi had already mentioned to etoy and iwata both that they should meet but it wasn't until 1993 that it actually happened allegedly during one of etoi and iwata's first meetings owata told him that they could keep going with his team and have the game out in a couple of years or he could have hal on board and get the game finished in just six more months but a watsa's offer wasn't like an ultimatum according to etoy awata praised things delicately enough to where etoy and his team felt like they actually had a choice in the matter after they agreed to enlist awata and hal's help development went into warp speed the working relationship had some initial pains to get through during the first phase of the merge itoya was quoted as saying he had no idea how many people were actually working on the project but at least he knew that hal was mostly responsible for the coding while ape handled the game's direction but before they knew it significant progress on mother 2 was being made the 6 month recoding window actually seemed achievable in an interview with koji malta of ape and iwata awata mentioned that eventually the whole team would camp out for weeks at a time at the hal main office with a direct view of mount fuji they joke that it almost acted as a vacation for the ape employees who had to travel back and forth in addition he also laughed about itoy making frequent stops into the office and signing autographs right in front of him people would say is that shigesato itoi what's he doing here all kidding aside itoi and owata ended up establishing a great relationship itoi believed that owata's little brother always ready to help out type personality played a huge role in his capability to save earthbound in his memoir book a toy published entitled ask owata he states one thing i remember very well is how owata started by making a tool for everyone to fix the game awata said that he would finish the game in half a year but he never intended to do it single-handedly he restructured things and created an environment in which the whole team could contribute the amount of work that had to be done on the project with the time that they had left was immense but owata and the team at hal were up to the challenge in fact that tool that we talked about earlier awata himself created it so the game could be recoded more efficiently he lent it to various members of the team in order to successfully complete the translation in fact if it weren't for this tool many members of the team admitted that it probably wouldn't have been possible with this new code in hand the team of ape and hal were off to the races in order to complete earthbound within a year and much to everyone's surprise it only ended up taking 6 months what's funny is that the amount of work the team put in even surprised iwata the amount of efficiency allowed the team to add some finishing touches including the escargo express the camera guy and more to the already chocked full title and before etoy and the rest of the team knew it they had a completed game for many years following the release of mother 2 and earthbound itoy and awata remained the best of friends owata even maintained himself an i.t manager for itoy's hobonichi website while he was climbing the ranks of nintendo but perhaps one of the most important things that showed the two's friendship was the release of earthbound beginnings the wii u virtual console just before owata passed away he knew how much the series inaugural game meant to his friendly toy and he actually made it happen based on how much work owata did resurrecting projects i'm firmly convinced the localization never would have occurred without him oh my business card i am a corporate president in my mind i am a game developer but in my heart i am a gamer [Applause] although the original mother title sold decently well in japan itoy felt that some improvements were in order for the advertising of the second game he felt that the mother series were games for everyone but mostly everyone who played them were young males most of the advertising in japan was spent on ensuring everyone knew mother 2 was a game for everyone etoy really wanted to reach the female audience with the game though i'm not sure i would say he necessarily succeeded there are a few mother 2 commercials released in japan featuring a young kid and presumably his older brother in a cafe where others around them are talking about the game they're short and cute but overall probably miss the mark with attracting a new audience [Music] mother 2 was finally released in japan in august of 1994 and ended up selling a half a million copies many praised its art style and humor though its graphical style and gameplay were relatively inferior to games like final fantasy and others there was still a small population of fans that actually ended up adoring the game and even revered it to be one of the best rpgs on the console or perhaps even the greatest that had ever been released however e toy and the team at nintendo saw a potential in the game they were looking for an rpg that could act as a gateway to western audiences despite the original title mother's localization failure a few years prior the company decided to roll the dice entitled the game earthbound paying homage to mother localizer phil sandhop who once thought of the title for the first game's english translation the localization of mother 2 to earthbound quickly became an ordeal due to the eccentric flavor shikasato itoy and his team put into developing the game there were many things that ended up changing from the japanese release when nintendo first assigned the project it was headed up by a localization manager dan osun for a few months dan started adding his own flair and weeding out many of the references or potential copyright infringements from mother 2. turned out that not many other games had ever necessitated as many changes over to english as mother 2 did dan created a small demo with some of his favorite bits which was enough to get the green light to continue in late 1994 unfortunately dan was unable to fully commit to the project and it ended up being dropped in the lap of marcus lindblom a former nintendo call center guru turned video game localizer marcus was familiar with mother 2 having lived in japan as part of his nintendo tenure and he kind of understood what a unique project such as this was going to entail the worst part of this localization is that he was only given a few months to do it and with so many changes it looked daunting to say the least despite these roadblocks ahead of him marcus remained optimistic he would be able to produce the product and the timeline required nintendo gave him and his team relatively free reign and it made an important point of not wanting a direct translation but instead allowed him to work in appropriate american references as he saw fit the original script had already been translated by nintendo's keiko tamura so much of the brute force work had already been completed lin vlam's main job was to provide appropriate context and an american flair to the game but the worst part was he didn't even have a copy of the game to play all he was given were translation notes and the memory of the game in japanese marcus recalled that a specific line of dialogue from the game's translation is what gave him the inspiration he needed to get the job done early during nessa's travels through net he comes across a door where someone asks him a fill in the blank style trivia question xxxterday apparently the original reference here was heidi girl of the alps which many americans probably hadn't heard of before i mean i certainly haven't it made lin blum realize how much freedom for changes he had in the localization project and changes he certainly made earthbound contains hundreds of differences when compared to its japanese counterpart there's the obvious and most commonly pointed out ones like the battle sprite changes with the happy happiest cult the pencil and eraser roadblocks being changed from an octopus and a doll even the red cross being changed from the hospital sign and threek becoming three'd to avoid any kkk correlation there are so many of these changes that someone wrote an entire book about it clyde mandolin steamed mother fan and video game historian produced a volume of his legends of localization series about mother 2 to earthbound i highly recommend this for any hardcore mother fan when lin blom's work was complete he sat down with mother to assistant game designer masayuki miura in order to review the game line by line mira was deemed a lifesaver because of how important his perspective was ironically lin blum even attempted to write a book about the localization changes which when extending the courtesy letter nintendo put the kaibash on to this day marcus has no idea why nintendo would prevent him from writing such a book but the mystery makes things even that much more interesting however not all was lost with regard to lin blom sharing his experiences with fans just this year in 2021 marcus discovered an old floppy disk he had used during the localization of earthbound and naturally he sent it to some experts for interpretation because i mean who really has access to a floppy disk drive these days with the help of clyde mandolin and the video game history foundation a plethora of additional localization changes and secrets were uncovered about earthmound it was the single greatest piece of hidden content ever brought forth loads of secret dialogue swapped animations and even npc names were scrapped from the final game though i have to admit my favorite change was probably the original omittance of the magic cake in summers originally there was a masseuse on the beach who would give you a massage with special oils which i guess could be interpreted negatively but it's honestly hilarious i still find it a joy that things are being discovered about games that have been out for decades with the game's localization wrapping up advertising for earthbound was in full swing and man was it something earthbound's advertising campaign was one of the weirdest and most risky ever attempted by nintendo or any video game company for that matter the goal of the team was to draw in the 90s nickelodeon crowd nickelodeon during this decade was focused on gross stupid humor with shows like ren and stimpy rocco's modern life and others that american audiences in particular fell in love with after all i have to say that i was just as guilty as everybody else because i have undeniable amounts of nostalgia built up in my brain from that decade nintendo's approach almost completely missed the mark for some reason led by the phrase this game stinks earthbound's advertising campaign cost nintendo 2 million dollars and arguably failed miserably the company took a large spread in nintendo power and even produced a rock and trailer to go with it can four average kids save the world from an alien invader with your help they can in earthbound for your super nes the fate of mankind is being threatened by the evil alien gigas but four spunky kids with psychic powers accept this incredible challenge and embark on a journey to save the world 24 megs power this adventurous game as you travel to 12 different locations and select from more than 40 weapons and 80 items to battle your enemies battery backup saves your progress in your quest to destroy gigas it's earthbound for your super nes when earthbound finally released in the west in june of 1995 the box looked quite a bit different than most of the super nintendo games on the shelves earthbound stood out immediately as that game with the big box and i'm not talking about mario paint in order to help drive sales nintendo packaged earthbound with a player's guide with loads of details about the characters and their adventure through eagleton and it was kind of funny because the whole thing is disguised as a travel brochure it had a surreal feel to it as clay realistic and animated models of all the characters and their environments were seemingly all mixed together it's honestly one of my favorite parts of the game because it's something so incredibly rare for the industry to do and the eclectic and odd sense of humor made it all the more glorious even better they included these cool scratch and sniff inserts which if you're wondering they lost their smell a long time ago unfortunately for nintendo and shikasato itoy the packaging of earthbound did absolutely nothing to bolster sales in fact it probably hurt it more than anything but the game's big box and interesting contents it carried a hefty price tag which was really difficult for the game to overcome it only ended up selling 140 000 copies and was deemed a commercial failure reviews themselves were extremely mixed some publications found the game heartwarming while others roasted it for not graphically comparing to other games on the console other swipes came at earthbound's difficulty being too low or the music being too weird gamepro gave the game a mixed review but specifically commented on the writing and humor of the experience earthbound has hilarious adult humor but added the humor is too mature for little kids and the gameplay is to immature for older gamers earthbound for all intents and purposes was a complete dud despite the attention and effort nintendo gave to the game it proved they were just too out of touch with what 90s kids really wanted to see it didn't take long for the game to end up in bargain bins across the united states and it began its stagnant years in obscurity after earthbound's lackluster success in the west many would have presumed etoy would hang his hat up and call it a day but he was already at work on his newest installment of the series earthbound 64. that game has its own fair share of interesting history which i've covered in a different video you can find by clicking up above but wait just a second if earthbound was so hated in the west when it came out why does it have such a large following today why do so many people myself included claim it to be their favorite of all time well although there is no single reason for this many catalysts were uncovered for earthbound as video games entered the new millennium a rebirth for the mother series was just about to begin [Music] the first thing i find myself thinking about when postulating about earthbound's popularity is where did it all start clearly i must be missing something right i think the game has only gotten better with age it's like a fine wine or an old piece of art that many look upon with an appreciation whether they are personally fans of it or not its uniqueness helps it to stand out and truly become a great game to address the elephant in the room for most people earthbound was discovered due to nessa's appearance in the game super smash brothers for nintendo 64. even though the game had come out less than four years after the release of earthbound hardly anyone knew who ness was however the inclusion of the ball cap donning teenager furthered hope that the series was to gain more popularity and more importantly get another sequel and why was ness even in smash brothers in the first place surely there are other more popular nintendo characters that deserve a spot more than him well just look at who created the game hal laboratories and your answer should be clear enough to add to super smash brothers a new fan site was in the making where fans of the mother series would gather for years to come and talk about how earthbound was the greatest thing since state originally launching in 1998 as earthbound.net a website contained the message welcome to earthbound.net home of the earthbound movement we're under construction thanks for your patience and just like that a new era of appreciation of mother had begun later known as starman.net the website lived and breathed the mother series its various forums and events led many to give the game a second try and i owe a lot of my love and admonishment for the series to them just having a place to drop by and chat with other fans of the series pre-social media might i add was life-giving furthermore the release of mother 3 in 2006 and lucas's subsequent inclusion in super smash brothers brawl in 2008 only added fuel to the fire along with this were the blatant yells from fans to localize mother 3 and english and subsequent petitions that followed enough time had gone by that original fans of earthbound had found a new group of friends a new generation who had become passionate about the game's uniqueness charm a new generation who were first introduced to these intriguing mother characters through smash bros and wanted to know more about the games themselves mix this with the og fans who are starting to get out of college and start their own lives and you have a recipe for some expensive ebay prices the first thing you'll probably hear about earthbound at least from a collector's standpoint is that it's freaking expensive when i first started collecting retro video games in 2010 earthbound complete in the box was one of the first things i went after and back then i ended up paying somewhere in the ballpark of 300 for it certainly not a price to scoff at but well the prices drastically risen since then and especially within the last year or so with inflation and what's funniest about this is earthbound isn't all that rare of a game to come across this just speaks volumes for its popularity it's charm it's odd and nuanced dialogue and characters the cheeky battle system and diverse music this game really has aged beautifully it really became the epitome of a video game called classic earthbound has also been released a couple more times after 1995. as i mentioned in the mother video in order to hype up sales for mother 3 in japan a mother one plus 2 cart was released for the game boy advance it wasn't a direct port but from what i understand most everything about the game is exactly the same though i haven't played this version personally this helped renew the japanese audience's interest in a series that sat all but stagnant for over a decade the game sold decently well with many citing the significance of the mother games on future jrpgs and their taste in games in general as soon as nintendo announced that a virtual console service would be utilized in their new console the nintendo wii one of the first games that fans wanted to see was earthbound in fact in an official nintendo power poll the game ranked as the number one most desirable virtual console game unfortunately as the years came and went nothing for the game had materialized and fans once again gave up hope no one is entirely sure as to the reason why even marcus lindblom had weighed in suggesting that perhaps the arranged music samples earthbound had used had something to do with it but this was later disproven it wasn't until 2013 18 years after its initial release that earthbound would find itself re-released in the west although not physically keeping with his friendship to etoy satoru owata finally released mother 1 as earthbound beginnings to the wii u virtual console earthbound itself was also ported over allowing newer gamers to experience the game without spending an exorbitant amount of dollars trying to snatch one off of ebay what i find odd is that the wii u was the lowest selling major nintendo console thus adding to earthbound's odd existence sometimes you just have to jump through hoops to play it will there ever be a release on the switch while i'm holding out hope for a trilogy remaster or at least re-release i honestly doubt it through the super nintendo wii u or emulation enough fans have gotten the chance to play the game so i really don't see any incentive for nintendo to try it again though given their out-of-touch tracker record maybe this is exactly what they would do but you know what i don't think they have to earthbound has already attracted a large cult following partially due to old fans becoming old enough to reap in the nostalgia and new fans becoming old enough to appreciate it it's no secret that the impact and influence of mother and earthbound is all over the place in the gaming world not many video game franchises have a documentary about them mother has several christian donlin author of 1001 video games to play before you die wrote that earthbound is name checked by the video game cognoscenti more often than it's actually been played its theme of postmodernism was probably the first of its kind and inspired its own genre of video games blockbuster indie title undertale was written and produced by a guy that literally started off producing an earthbound halloween hack the game drips with nods to the mother series other games like off yumi nikki amore lisa contact they all emulate much of earthbound's charm while culminating it's more mature themes albeit a bit more in the foreground than it does itself earthbound's legacy has stood the test of time and not only that it has thrived if it came out as an indie title today it would undoubtedly explode and let's not forget that infamous title mother 4 a project that developed way back after the release of mother 3 where some die hard fans decided to take the reigns of a potential sequel into their own hands i also made a video about this you can see by clicking up above mother 4 isn't the only earthbound hack out there mother cognitive dissonance tells the untold story of geek and the mooks and my opinion is one of the greatest fan games ever made there are also plenty of other mods in earthbound itself like the randomizer uncut version and many more but the influences don't stop there trey parker the creator of south park even mentions earthbound as being one of the driving inspirations in south park's the stick of truth an rpg created as a downloadable title during the seventh console generation the american setting and all kid cast gave him a lot of motivation as a creator outside of video games other creatives were inspired by earthbound's charm and atmosphere popular japanese author hiromi kawakami once told itoy that she played mother 2 over 80 times to help establish inspiration for her stories i wonder if i've even played it that much and then of course there's the let's players chugga conroy and steven plays who really have helped cement earthbound as a great cult classic heck even avgn did a video about it and that video's got millions of views that's enough exposure to the series just right there the dedication of earthbound's fanbase is perhaps its greatest strength the love that people have for this game is indescribable and the way we can all bond over our admiration for etoy's masterpiece is nothing short of awe-inspiring perhaps this bond that we all share over the game and series is incredibly fitting in its themes overall earthbound is about friendship it's the story of how four chosen teenagers from across the world banded together in order to dispel evil and corruption from the planet just like the fans of earthbound band together talk about the game that they love in etoy's own words so in the end is it about mankind maybe the theme might be something like relief and having others around you and not being some lowly human all by yourself to stretch the point a bit i could say that if i were the only one left on the entire planet it wouldn't be any fun at all for people who really love games at least when it comes to games played alone i'd want to tell them to go outside playing games is fun but it can't turn into doing that all the time when you play soccer it's fun to get a game going but it's not fun if you're doing nothing but having soccer games why wouldn't you want to add some dimension to your enjoyment and that's the entire fan base in a nutshell earthbound could have been any other jrpg one where you slay dragons and rescue princesses one where you use healing potions and sleep in tents in the overworld to rest your characters but it's not earthbound isn't that at all it adds a dynamic that's hard to put into words it transcends the super nintendo and plunges right into our hearts it expands the game you're used to playing it takes what we find fun about playing a jrpg and adds a dimension of humor wit and friendship to the mix it elevates it and that i think is why earthbound has become the ultimate cult classic [Music] my own personal story with earthbound is probably the farthest thing from what you'd expect i actually initially hated the game back in the 90s one of my favorite things to do was to go to video rental stores and just gawk at the games on the shelves we were pretty poor growing up so i'd often just window shop continuously reading the back of video game boxes one day a gigantic snes box caught my eye a game entitled earthbound i had never heard of the game before but it honestly looked pretty cool lucky for me the rental store i frequented was actually selling the game and much to my surprise my parents actually let me get it for my birthday when i got home and popped the game into my super nintendo it was not exactly what i was expecting i really didn't like it the story characters and enemies were all a bit too different than what i was used to seeing that i couldn't get past it in fact i shelved the game for many years and up into the attic it went sometime in the late 2000s right before the release of gen 7 consoles i got the itch to play the super nintendo again except this time there was a big problem the house we lived in had a leaking roof that had over 10 years or so and completely destroyed my collection of games and the only one that survived you guessed it earthbound for some reason i like to think of it as destiny earthbound sucked me in this time around maybe i was old enough to appreciate the music dialogue and characters maybe i was old enough to understand the game's message of friendship whatever it was earthbound left such an impact on me that when the final boss fight with gigas concluded it had become my new favorite game i dove headfirst into the fandom and never looked back on the surface earthbound story may come across as generic but there's a lot more to things than when you dig down a bit a 13 year old boy who's predestined to save the world from an evil entity known as gigas who meets up with three other friends along the way seems pretty straightforward but earthbound despite having a clear beginning and end to anything but a story driven kind of game it's personality and atmosphere make you feel like you're dropping into the world of eagle end rather than having everyone and everything revolve around you some of the characters honestly don't give a crap about you they're focused on their own agendas rather than propelling the narrative set in place by the person who wrote the script if the hero of the story is standing in the way of them getting to the bathroom in time they'll let them know about it earthbound story is not the focal point of my appreciation of it sure there are plenty of loose ends and interestingly interpreted fan theories out there that can make the story quite interesting but at the end of the day there's so much more than that what i find most impressive when it comes to the plot is in earthbound's writing the way it takes such a daunting task as embarking on a journey to save the world and adds odd humor and peculiar characters to throw you off your game it helps you to realize that even someone as ordinary as ness can do this it makes things not as scary sometimes you have to fight an enemy that literally appears to not want to fight i mean that poor clumsy robot but sometimes the mood can change quickly one of the most impactful moments in playing video games for me was during the final fight with gigas it was truly one of the most disturbing moments i've ever experienced i'm sure many of you have heard the stories of itoy's inspiration for this specific scene the adult movie that he accidentally walked into when he was a kid he said there was a scene that was so traumatizing to him that had haunted him for years since gigas was essentially the embodiment of evil he wanted the player to encounter that same level of discomfort he incurred during that moment of his life the film entitled the military policeman and the endless beauty involves a woman who's strangled and subsequently cut up really gross stuff although earthbound is light-hearted on the outside deep down it's a life-and-death struggle that's borderline terrifying sometimes i can't walk down the stairs in the middle of the night to get a glass of water let alone thinking about battling uh being capable of just you know vanquishing the world it's a weight that i could not carry although earthbound is not necessarily known for its story i think the atmosphere that etoy and his team helped to create is incredibly immersive in its own right it's one that i miss each and every time that i complete the game one of the aspects of earthbound i will undeniably praise is its characters and dialogue in fact i find this to be the absolute greatest strength of the game ness as a speechless protagonist gives the opportunity for the player to put themselves into the game much like in mother one from the initial naming of your character to seeing the final credits roll i felt like i was there the whole time the rest of nessa's friends added their own strengths and weaknesses to the crew paula's knack for getting kidnapped was outweighed by her incredible power for love and for her friends jeff my favorite of the main four made me smile because he admitted his weaknesses right out of the gate but despite this he ends up being extremely important to the success of the team lastly pooh a known prince seemingly interrupts his family destiny to help a couple of kids from halfway across the world although he hasn't talked about as much as the others his dedication to his training and helping out his friends was undeniable and of course the other constant in earthbound is the reckless pranking of pokey minch a character that starts good and becomes wrapped up in basically every nefarious thing he could along the way was he truly a bad boy or was he just trying to get nessa's attention i made a video about him a while back because i feel he's one of the most dynamic and possibly misunderstood characters in the whole series honestly though the main characters ness paula jeff and pooh they take a back seat to the love i have for the secondary characters i simply love how matter-of-fact everyone appears to be in the game whether it's their own internal qualms about their lives or perhaps the desire to help out the hero of the story to write their place in history earthbound's many characters always bring a smile to my face some of my absolute favorites include mr saturn the embodiment of innocence a character that etoy's own daughter inspired the handwriting for they're held prisoner at the direction of master belch the way they interact with ness and his friends is nothing short of kind and they honestly give no inkling that they're even being held against their will i'm just glad it all works out in the end i also enjoyed apple kid i feel like he was a positive representation of an overweight guy he was positive and helpful in all that he did and comfortable in his own personality i also liked tony a character that itoi later claimed to have actual feelings for jeff for his unwillingness to let friend be without help tony was the embodiment of friendship honestly earthbound's characters are incredibly entertaining there are so many storylines floating around for each one and i enjoyed getting to know them if you've seen some of my previous videos you'd certainly understand how important video game music is to me earthbound took the soundtrack from mother and amped it up about 500 levels some of the tracks are recycled from mother including buy something wilya hippy battle and others with earthbound suzuki and his team were able to recreate some of the tracks from mother and make them sound the way they wanted to the snes sound chip was capable of producing quality tracks that would make them stand the test of time some of my favorite tracks in the game were not always so in fact i didn't like the summer's theme for the longest time for some reason the older i get the more i can appreciate it it played in a portion of the game where you were just far enough to need a relaxing break i feel that the music helps break things up a bit and makes you feel a bit at ease other music that plays in earthbound just gives off a relaxing vibe that transports you to another place the charming gentle allure of tracks like the onett theme or tucson theme or the goofy nonsensical jams that are the saturn valley theme or buy something will ya all are incredibly unique and unlike anything you'd expect to hear in an rpg tracks like battle against a machine gives you a bit of tension and curiosity for the enemy that you currently face the mechanical sounds resonating followed by periods of ambient synth make for a suspenseful ride i've also always enjoyed the kraken battle because it's a unique track that doesn't really play anywhere else in the game but undoubtedly my favorite track that plays in any mother game is pokey means business for some reason the first time i ever heard this metal break it was so incredibly jarring that i wanted to hear it again it takes the final battle and raises the bar significantly the transition from 8-bit beeps and boops to full-on speed metal is incredible something that the snes portrayed beautifully the fact that this epic of a track plays at the end of the game makes it even better and i wonder what the true story was behind it was the song built exclusively for this fight or was it something that suzuki and tanaka reused it sounds so different than anything else in the game that i'd love to get the backstory after sharing my personal story it's easy to see that my history with earthbound has been a long and mixed one it's not often that something you dislike ends up being one of your favorite things ever but for earthbound there were a few different reasons for this in the 90s when i first played it i was focused on shorter games very clear beginnings and ends the more action the better the second time i started playing it my mind was opening up to all sorts of things movies with palpable themes music with hidden messages anime with deep and relatable characters you see earthbound was the right game at the right time for me it isn't the most graphically stunning game i've ever played nor does it have the best story earthbound is a collection of everything that i love quirky witty dialogue weird enemies and an interesting sense of humor music that stands the test of time characters that help separate themselves from other jrpgs environments that make perfect sense or no sense at all earthbound is just like me unique it isn't like any other game out there you can't confuse it with final fantasy or dragon quest it is memorable for good or for bad to everyone who has played it that is what i find most alluring about the game it's ability to be non-conforming to the status quo and be so much better than it really deserves to be it's a game that makes me smile sometimes at complete random because the delicacy and care put into building the various dialogue and interactions it certainly isn't without its flaws but for the most part even these help add to the experience in some positive way you either get earthbound or you don't and if you fall into the latter category that's okay maybe earthbound just wasn't made for you earthbound is not trying to be anything else what you see is what you get and for me i loved every second of it and so we have made it to the end of our ride earthbound has touched millions of gamers around the world with its charm shigesato itoy has once again delivered a masterpiece it has helped birth its own genre of games hoping to capture that same mother-esque feel was etoy's dream game finally materialized well not quite there were still more things he wanted to explore storylines he wanted to tell dialogue to write despite the impact earthbound had on the world there was still one more piece the puzzle to fill but that is the story for a later time i hope you enjoyed the video as we explored earthbound's unique history its highs and lows successes and its failures its legacy and my own personal experiences with the game this video could have easily been like three hours i could talk all day about the series and what it means to me if you've made it to the end i thank you what a journey we've been on i'd love to hear your own personal thoughts about the series below how has earthbound impacted you did you revere it or did you find it lacking in some way with that i will leave you with one final note if there's something earthbound has taught me it's to open yourself up to anything leave your comfort zone sometimes and do so with an open heart you never know where it can lead perhaps a new friendship can bud maybe you can experience a new food new movie a new career never avoid something because could end up being your favorite thing ever [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Press Start To Continue

Views: 165,754

Keywords: earthbound, mother 2, earthbound retrospective, retrospective, mother 2 retrospective, press start to continue, mother series retrospective, earthbound review, mother 2 review, shigesato itoi, mother review, mother retrospective, mother 4, earthbound 2021, earthbound beginnings, ness, ness earthbound, earthbound documentary, mother series documentary, ness smash ultimate

Id: 3TepI8eBrh8

Length: 60min 49sec (3649 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021