Earthbound: A profession of love

January 29th, 2009 • 1 comment
Tags: Earthbound, Final Fantasy, Game, Mother, Ness, Nintendo, Nintendo of America, SNES, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Video game, video games

Once upon a time, Nintendo released a game called Earthbound for the Super NES. Unless you were gaming back in the 16-bit era, you may never have heard of the game. It stars you as a young boy called Ness who has been chosen to save the future from the mighty villain Giygas.

Let’s back up a bit. My awakening to the RPG genre was Final Fantasy II for the Super NES—in its own right a pretty fantastic game. This was the fourth game in the series but the second released here in the States. I completely enjoyed it, and this really was an awakening. For the console gamer at this time, there was no such thing as a “Western RPG.” RPGs were all from Japan. Unfortunately, Japanese RPGs all tend to be very… derivative. I would estimate at least 90% of JRPGs still today are swords and sorcery. This was even more so in the olden days. Despite all this, I fell in love with the genre and followed in closely throughout the console life of the SNES and beyond.

About six months prior to the release of the original PlayStation, Earthbound was released in North America. The game shipped in an oversized box with a strategy guide included. It came on the scene to a fair bit of critical acclaim, but it ultimately failed. Many claim this was due to miss-marketing by Nintendo. The marketing was rather strange. They seemed very interested in playing up how gross the game was. The game itself didn’t really feature this prominently, and this is certainly not what it is remembered for.

Regardless of the reason, Earthbound was a failure for Nintendo in the States. It has come to light since its release that the first game in the series (Earthbound was localized from the Japanese title Mother 2.) was completely localized for the US by Nintendo but never released. A collector actually purchased a prototype and made the Nintendo localization available to players via the magic of emulation. It seems Nintendo has never forgiven the failure of the original. A number of Mother releases have been shunned by the company for localization: the Gameboy Advance saw the release of Mother 1+2, a single cart containing the first two titles in the series, as well as Mother 3.

The release of Mother 3 ushered in something of a firestorm of fan activity here in the United States. Starmen.net is the home of Earthbound fans. Its founder Reid Young and the community have organized a number of stunts to attempt to gain the attention of Nintendo of America and to alert them of the interest in more US releases from the series. None of these stunts has been successful in achieving their ultimate goal. As a result, members of the Starmen.net community decided to end-run Nintendo by releasing a fan-made translation of the latest game in the series. This translation is now complete and available. It is also fantastically authentic!

Now that you have a quick history of Earthbound, you may wonder, “What could cause a game released nearly 15 years ago to still have such an active and rabid fanbase?” The possible answers are many. These are the aspects of the game that make it so enduring for me:

1. Its setting is different from most JRPGs- Earthbound is set in the modern world we all know albeit with some extras thrown into the mix. It is a fantastical re-imagining of our modern world.
2. People can identify with what’s happening- This setting allows for the game to feature concepts we all know as part of our culture. You’ll find arcades, vending machines, shopping malls, ATMs, telephones, baseball bats, and a plethora of other everyday objects.
3. It gives players a sandbox world- Since the setting is very similar to modern life, the fantastical elements are much more satisfying. In reality, a young boy would never wander off on his own to embark on an epic adventure, but it happens in Earthbound. He is parented from afar; he calls his mom for comfort; and his dad deposits money in his bank account when he levels up. Players are given a world much like their own but much more freedom than reality allows.
4. The game is light-hearted and fun- Excellent and tasteful humor abounds in the game. The actual in-game humor is nothing like the gross-out stuff played up by the marketing campaign.
5. Great music- Earthbound’s score is nothing like that of the Final Fantasy series, but it really conveys the whimsical charm of the game. It’s also quite catchy.
6. Innovative storytelling methods- The best example I can recall is the silly font used for Mr. Saturn to convey he is speaking another language.

This article may seem a bit more reverent than many I write. There are few games that really hold a special place in my heart; Earthbound is among these. In general, I tend to cheer for the underdog. Maybe that is another reason I still love and remember Earthbound to this day. It cast off many of the tropes of the genre opting instead to go its own way. It may have failed, but it is definitely a failure I can admire.