Earthbound. What does /vr/ think of it?

>>3556181
It's a good game

Pretty great.

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It's overrated and overshadowed by it's successor.

It is worth athleast 2 playthroughs in one's lifetime tho.

mother 3 is the better game but earthbound is still worth playing.

Great game, nothing like it. Not terribly exciting to look at or anything outstanding gameplay-wise, but that's part of the charm. Like Iwata having to bail out the amateur programmers who could barely put it together, it just reeks a passion project, y'know? Sucks it didn't get a PAL release though, played it for the first time on a emulator in like 2001, patching out the copy protection and all.

One of my favorite JRPGs, if not my favorite, especially for its ambiance and soundtrack. Seriously, i don't know any other game that feels like a psilocybin trip with an OST that sounds like the Residents or Lee Perry at times.
But I must admit it's at its core only a DQ clone with a pretty basic story. It's just that I had a blast with it.

>>3556198
Mother 3 is awesome too, and have a great story, which contains a social commentary on our modern society and capitalism, but it felt more like a regular linear JRPG than Earthbound to me.

>>3556181
10/10 style, 10/10 atmosphere. But in essence it's just Dragon Quest 4 with some minor (but cool) updates. At its core as an RPG, it's as basic as it gets: completely fixed stat development/spell learning order, silent protagonist and zero character relationships—Pokemon is more complicated than that. NPCs basically only tell thoughts on life and are not tied to the plot much.

As for the game's philosophical aspect, it was mostly lost in translation. AFAIK the translator who worked on the game basically made up half the stuff because it was either
1) Untranslatable Japanese puns
2) Japanese pop culture references
3) Potential copyright infringements.

So, the game is not even Itoi's thoughts on life, its just hours of some guys' forced jokes. Ending in a boss which was literally the result of Itoi being spooked by a boob.

>>3556257

>social commentary
>kys please

Did you not play the game? It's not exactly subtle with it.

In b4 500!!! Another faggy eathbound vr thread!

>>3556295
Why Dragon Quest 4, in particular? Especially considering all DQ games are the same.

>>3556468
>Why Dragon Quest 4, in particular?

DQ4 has chapters where you play solo as characters who will later join the team
>Earthbound has chapters where you play solo as characters who will later join the team

>>3556484
It's like a half hour at best we're you play as anyone solo. Hardly anything that qualifies as a chapter.

Tainted by its fanbase, like Zelda. It is the Zen Pencils of video games.

>>3556468
Well, it's more of amalgamation of DQ games, but there's one thing in particular.

Usually, in RPGs, you start the game with 1 hero, and the rest joins your party 1 by one along the way. But DQ4 is different. You start it with 1 hero. You complete his arc. Then you start another chapter, and you play as a totally different hero. You complete his chapter too, and so on. Finally, only in chapter 5, all of them unite together.

This reminds me a bit of Jeff's and Poo's stories. So I named 4 in particular.

Another thing is, the characters in DQ4 had fixed "classes" (not mentioned anywhere, but it was obvious who was a healer and who was a mage). The party was set in stone from the beginning. Conversely, DQ3 at least lets you choose classes for your party. So it's very different from Earthbound. That's why I distinguished it.

>>3556181
I think this is bait and that shitposts like this should be ban-on-site

>>3556181
I think it's a funny and interesting parody of rpgs & western culture and the game design is ok.

>>3556492

Is there any video game series that isn't tainted by its fanbase?

Also, I have yet to know why the Mother fanbase is so hated. They did the fan translation of Mother 3 which was pretty cool.

>>3556598
They praise earthbound too much,altought it has recognizable flaws.

Kinda like OoT.

>>3556630

But can't that be said for any game ever? Fans will praise it too much, it's what fans do, I don't see it as something exclusive to Mother or Zelda fans.
Also, unlike OOT (which is indeed sometimes called the best game of all time, etc), I've never seen Earthbound fans calling it the best game ever. They know that mechanically it's a Dragon Quest with a "modern" theme. I mean, even the first game makes a reference to Dragon Quest.

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>>3556181
ok desu ka?

WOOW WOW wow

instawin against weaklings is a great mechanic
going back and forth to reset enemies/butterflies (or make them disappear) was nice
great artstyle
nice locations
inventory sucks
battle system is generic
can't outrun enemies because there's no run button
new party members starting at lower levels sucked
monkey cave sucked
plot was meh and character development was almost nonexistent

mother 3 is a lot better imo

>>3556181
A wonderful game that had great atmosphere, storytelling, and humor. In an era of edge lords this game stands out as anti edge. I would not call the game play totally standard for RPG's at the time. But nothing too genre defining either. Every remake also owes thanks for the Apple Kid font. Which 90% of "hacks" use. A very good soundtrack as well. Shitty re-seller skum is the only thing to hate about this.

>>3556637
>>3556598
Not really. Overhyped games have obnoxious fan bases because they attracted gamers with hype, not quality. That's why they will by definition fight about their game being the best, always aggressively confirming the hype they believe over and over.

Smaller fanbases never really act like this. They're simply not so obnoxious and don't try persuade people their game is the best. Like, how many people have you seen defend Final Fight with foam over their mouths? Or how many asinine Dragon Quest fans do you know? Or hard-headed King of Fighters fans? They are usually pretty peaceful people, just discussing their games and/or making OC.

But not even that. Take even Nintendo franchises, like Kirby. Never really super-hyped in US, by its nature it will put off arrogant and over-aggressive boys who will think it's a game for girls. So, I guess this acts as a filter that prevents Kirby fans from really spoiling it.

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>>3556181

>>3556658
>Like, how many people have you seen defend Final Fight with foam over their mouths?

Quite a lot of times, have you never been to a "belt scroller" shitposting thread? Final Fight vs SOR is a classic.

>Dragon Quest fans

DQ fans are indeed very civil (except lately I've seen some DQ shitposting on /v/, but it's mainly Sony vs Nintendo shitposting in disguise). Final Fantasy fans, on the other hand....

>KOF

Really? KOF has some serious nuts for a fanbase. I know some guys who would actually yell at you if you don't agree about their favorite KOF installment or team or whatever.

As for Mother, I've seen more anti-Mother people on 4chan than pro-Mother. Except for 2008 when the fan translation of Mother 3 came out, the whole 4chan was in love with it. Didn't took too long for contrarians to react, though.
I'm guessing the hate for Earthbound and it's "asinine fanatics" boogeymen come from the fact collectors are paying ridiculous prices for the US cart. But the problem there are collectors (and more specifically, new collectors who jumped on the bandwagon in the past decade or so), not Earthbound fans.

>>3556664
Stop making these threads, OP.

>>3556667
> "belt scroller" shitposting thread?
> Final Fight vs SOR
Well, what else you expected from these threads? Despite that series' ""rivalry"" from 2 decades ago, rarely anyone pits FF against other games, let alone genres.

>Really? KOF has some serious nuts for a fanbase. I know some guys who would actually yell at you if you don't agree about their favorite KOF installment or team or whatever.
???
I've been luckier than you then. KoF has a lot of fans in South America, arabs too; I guess these were the retards you've seen.

It's pretty low-profile in US, were those the American fans? If so… It is indeed really annoying.

> Final Fantasy fans, on the other hand....
That's the thing. For years, DQ was unknown to general population in US, despite taking a jackpot and causing a hysteria every time a new game was released in Japan. Even despite Toriyama.

So, zero hype, but quite a lot of substance. That's why it attracts sane people.

Final Fantasy had the hype of planetary proportions, dwarving its substance. No wonder it attracts the most insufferable pricks.

And Sonic was the system seller for Genesis in US with a furfag cartoon to boot. It was doomed from the start.

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>>3556630
>why are fans of this thing such big fans of this thing? WHAT A SHITLOAD OF FUCK

>>3556712

I still fail to see how Mother fans are any worse than any other fanbase.

>DQ
>sane people

Again, now /v/ is starting to use DQ as console war ammo due to DQXI.

No game is really safe from annoying people unless they're old and forgotten by everyone.
I also think the nichier a fanbase is, the shittier it gets. There are very, very few cases I can think of where the fanbase is niche and not terrible.

>>3556598

>Also, I have yet to know why the Mother fanbase is so hated. They did the fan translation of Mother 3 which was pretty cool.

The "childhood" nostalgia for a game they didn't play until it became trendy. Also, Mother fans are the spearhead of the retro game price bubble.

>>3556748
>The "childhood" nostalgia for a game they didn't play until it became trendy.

How does that make them hateful. They aren't saying "BEST GAME EVAR; FF/DQ/SMTFAGS BTFO", they're just saying "this game made me nostalgic", whatever.

>spearhead of the retro game price bubble

Here's your error, you're thinking every collector that wants EarthBound is a Mother fan. The real reason for the retro game price bubble is supply and demand. People getting older, getting jobs, and wanting to get these games they never had as kids, or they had but lost.

>>3556734
> I still fail to see how Mother fans are any worse than any other fanbase.
Undertale

>Again, now /v/ is starting to use DQ as console war ammo due to DQXI.
/v/ will be /v/

>I also think the nichier a fanbase is, the shittier it gets. There are very, very few cases I can think of where the fanbase is niche and not terrible.
Could you explain/elaborate?

>>3556760
>They aren't saying "BEST GAME EVAR"
But they do. They might not pit it against others, but their proselytizing of their game is what makes them so obnoxious.

I have never liked the Dragon Quest style encounter screens in games, even back then. At least Phantasy Star shows your characters attacking, is what I thought at the time.

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Earthbound and Mother 3 actually tie as my favorite games ever made. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and I appreciate that. I don't claim either is perfect and accept both game's flaws.

>>3556807

>Undertale

So the reason of a fanbase being bad is another fanbase?
Undertale isn't the Mother fans. There are plenty of Mother fans who don't care for Undertale.
Undertale was influenced by Mother, but it was more influenced by Homestuck really.

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It's a game that's got some interesting things going on, but is a bit plagued with boring combat both in execution and appearance. The atmosphere and humor are decent and the game does have some good (literally stolen) music, but at the end of the day I will likely never play through it again (only beat it once). Mother 3 is a far superior title and fixed a lot of the issues I have with this game.

Should I start with this or Beginnings?

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>>3558334

beginnings.

>>3558334

either. It depends on what you're looking for in a game.

if you're more of a casual RPG fan, which I'd assume you are since you've never played Earthbound or Mother, I'd recommend starting with Earthbound.

>>3558340
It's totally baffling to me how no one talks about Mother 1. The game started the series and has arguably the greatest, most concise story in the trilogy, and yet no one seems to have played it. What's with the casual trash masquerading around as fans of the series?

>>3558392
One day I just nutted up and played the Mother 1+2 GBA remake translation and ditched the easy leveler thing at the start that Tomato provided for cucks

Man was it old school as fuck.

>Guy wants a strawberry something
>Remember ONE TOWN specifically selling it
>Travel back town to town to find the place

You just don't see games do this anymore. Even in EB or M3 they'd have somebody go

>Hey Ninten, remember that town with the strawberry shake/cake/whatever?

>>3556181
It's a meme game.

>>3556181
Quirky and cute, used to rent it quite a bit.
>>3556198
I agree but I like the themes in M2 better.
>>3556656
the rolling hp was neat, finishing an enemy after a mortal hit was a tense moment for a turn based game

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>>3558392
>most concise story
Are you fucking kidding me? Mother is basically a directionless game that barely informs you of what to do and why. The game is nonlinear and not in a good way. The game expects you to know shit it barely informs you of, it feels impossible without having a guide. Shit like the singing cactus and finding ana's hat are terrible design choices.

I love the game myself, played it over ten times, but from a mechanical and plot standpoint it is quite barren and outdated.

>>3558560
What's it like being a no taste cuckold that needs his hand held?

See here: >>3558405

I have played EB and Mother 3, but they're literally casual RPGs. Mother 1 blew my balls off with its design, but because it asked me to use my brain and wasn't a linear feels factory like Mother 3 (Mother 1 still gave me feels but in an understated way)

I have a few problems with it -- like the factory being one of the worst copypastas of level design I've ever seen, but overall Mother 1 is a pretty decent game and in some ways impressed me more than even EB and certainly Mother 3 because they had superior hardware to work with.

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>>3558572
Wow, so hardcore and cool, the anonymous peoplebof /vr/ are so impressed by your skill.

Games are about more then difficulty. M2 and M3 are easier but better designed. I'm not trying to shit on M1, I fucking love that game, but it's a pretty bullshit game.

>>3558602
Then why this talk about it being outdated?

GBA Mother adds the 6 degree diagonal run and it made it feel pretty modern-ish and fun to play for me

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>>3558613
GBA version has the shitty color and sound. My preferred version is a hack that adds Tomato's translation to the NES version.

>>3558620
>GBA version has the shitty color and sound.

True. I listen to the NES soundtracks on the side after of my play sessions because the GBA sound chip is pure garbolo (Unlike Mother 3's sound in general)