The game doesn’t keep an hour count, but my MC (Ness?) has reached level 20 and I’ve just gotten my second party member, so this is as good a time as any to write something about EarthBound. Except I don’t know what to write, because it’s more Earth-Bland than anything else right now. I’m liking it well enough, but nothing really pushes me to play it. I might have left it a little late, in that it doesn’t seem that fresh or interesting to me because I’ve played a lot of Dragon Quests and a lot of Pokemons and this seems like a cross between the two. Blasphemy for EarthBound fans, I know. I’ll see myself out…
…but before I go, what I’m liking about EarthBound, at least:
– The rolling HP gauge. Totally saved my life when a tree randomly exploded on me.
– The NPCs are very amusing.
– Best Dad ever, but how did he know I’d got Polly in my party? Is he spying on me?
– The penalty for being KO’ed is pretty light. I’ve played enough DQ to know enough to keep all my money in the bank, so death is a slap on the wrist.
– The cartoony graphics are cute.
– I kinda like the music.
So far, so good, really. I’m sure it will pick up tremendously once I have my whole party together. Right now I have a dilemma to solve involving a wad of bills, a singing troupe in debt and a tunnel I can only pass through while playing funky music. Hmm, how to put the three together? <_< >_> I don’t know a single spoilerrific thing about EarthBound, and I intend to keep it that way, so I’m grateful that the writers make it easy to figure out what to do next without holding my hand. I’ll report back once I’ve gotten a little further.
