Celebrating its 30th anniversary on August 27, EarthBound is a game with unending influence. Its reputation as a quirky, fun-filled RPG with darker undertones has inspired countless critically acclaimed Indie RPGs, such as Undertale and Omori. Those unfamiliar with EarthBound may not understand what makes it so special, but many elements at play make it stand out.
EarthBound’s Fun and Quirky World
The majority of EarthBound is fairly lighthearted. Unlike its sequel, MOTHER 3, which offers a harsh critique of capitalistic societies, EarthBound is much more playful. It still has similar thematic ideas, but they’re presented in a way that’s easier to laugh at. Rather than a society facing collapse and misery at the introduction of money, we instead find a band where the player comically has to keep getting out of crippling debt. In many places, serious subjects such as this are treated with the levity of a child’s perspective.
This can be seen in even the earliest parts of the game. The police of Ness’s hometown, Onett, are portrayed as being useless at best and an active hindrance at worst. Yet, the game goes out of its way to make these characters ones that we can laugh at and have fun with. When a police officer who calls himself, Captain Strong threatens you with “Super Ultra Mambo-Tango-Foxtrot Martial Arts”, you’re more likely to laugh than worry about political implications.
This all represents a love for humanity. Even when EarthBound presents the player with corrupt people, there’s a certain implication suggesting we’re all in this together. Most people you meet throughout the adventure are bizarre, and the game celebrates that. Whether it’s a cameraman falling from the sky to take a photo or a businessman lamenting that he lost at Strip Monopoly, EarthBound almost always wants to make you smile and take in the little things everyone can enjoy together.
The Dark Underbelly
While EarthBound is content to be silly most of the time, it also goes to some unsettling places. The first major sign of this is when the player reaches Happy Happy Village, a town where an evil statue has turned its residents into cultists desiring to paint the world blue. While silly, this shows how easily people can be manipulated on a large scale and the game is heavily critical of this type of groupthink. Later, the Prince Poo must undergo a trial in which he is forced to undergo great pain, including the loss of his eyes and ears in a metaphysical world- Representing a need to suffer to exist.
This is expanded on when the game’s party travels back in time to reach their final battle. Their human bodies are incapable of undergoing this process, so their souls have to be transferred into robots, without knowledge of whether the process can be reverted.
This raises many questions about the nature of humanity just before the final boss, Giygas, turns the story into an outright nightmare. Giygas is depicted as a reflection of Ness’s human body, the meaning of which is up for debate. Perhaps it represents a need for Ness to face himself and truly cast away his mortal desires to overcome this ultimate evil. Whatever the reason, it can be agreed that everything about Giygas is unsettling.
Why Everyone Loves EarthBound
EarthBound is something that can speak to anyone. Not everyone will have the same reaction to EarthBound, but its carefully crafted ideas are all rooted in human experiences. What’s weird and quirky to one person can be heart-wrenching to another. EarthBound is an unparalleled game in how it spreads its ideas to those who play it, and therefore its unsurprising that so many Indie Developers have followed suit with their games.
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