Earthbound Beginnings

It Begins

As soon as I heard the Earthbound Beginnings remake was finished I grabbed a copy.

This is an incredible project. I can't remember how long I've been aware of it, since I've popped in and out of Earthbound fandom over the past twenty years, but this remake has been developed 19 years. I don't technically "go here" to use Tumblr parlance, but I really dug Earthbound when it came out (stinky scratch 'n sniff and all) and the Mother/Earthbound fandom seems so dedicated and wholesome.

Anyway, the original NES game is a bit notorious for having a high encounter rate, and that is not something I personally dig, so this version's balanced approach, and the ability to auto-win low level enemies, will probably help.

The game opens with a paranormal occurrence that brings several household items to life (lamp fight!) and draws zombies out the cemetery. Nintend (who I renamed Ness because I do what I want) ventures out into the world to see what all the fuss is about, and at this point, I've been tasked with rescuing someone from the cemetery.

Firing this thing up immediately gave me mid-90's flashbacks. So far, everything is on point and very Mothery, and I'm enjoying the attack descriptions and vibes very much. I'm having to reacquaint myself with random-encounter jRPG battles a bit. I've already encountered some EXTREMELY annoying battles where Ness got haunted (status effect, unfortunately) and everything got dragged out with repeated misses on turns. This is not a game you can simply plow through, you gotta wander around and talk to people and (die). For this one I'm gonna have to just sit back and roll with it.