Do any elements of EarthBound disappoint you?

I could be one of those people who go, ""OMG EARTHBOUND IS THE BEST GAME IN THE WHOLE WORLD NOTHING'S BETTER THAN IT BLAHBLAHBLAH,"" but, anyone thinking realistically should realize that no game can be perfect. In fact, some of the current games are a lot more horrible than our old classics, even with all of our fancy-shmancy 3D graphics and all that stuff. It kinda annoys me, because it's becoming hard to find any more games that you absolutely HAVE to buy.

Yes, there were some annoying parts in Earthbound. *COUGHGUARDIANDIGGERSCOUGH* Stupid cold. Anyways, some parts were so annoying that you want to just skip it. And well, with cheats, you can just skip it (or with PK Hack too!). But the whole point of doing it yourself is to make you feel good.

Whenever you get a puzzle book, do you flip straight to the answers? Didn't think so. Do you ever get a fuzzy feeling inside when you solve a puzzle yourself? I do. That's probably what the makers intended. Earthbound is one of those special games, where it's not just talk, talk, talk, get item, talk, talk, fight, fight, talk, get item. Earthbound is talk, talk, fight, curse about having to fight, get item, talk, laugh, camera man, want to kill camera man, talk, fight, laugh, and so on.

I've seen a lot of topics on the forums about your least favorite part of Earthbound. A lot of people agreed about the Guardian Diggers' Maze, the Monkey Caves, and Moonside. I think that Lumine Hole was annoying too, but that's just me. And I suck at Earthbound.

I think it would have been fun to play Earthbound a long time ago, when it was still new, because there weren't any cheats for it yet, no walkthroughs, nothing to help you, no one to tell you what happens at the end, etc. You know, new games have less known about them. We've turned Earthbound inside-out and back again.

How does that paragraph relate to the topic, you say? Well, people just beginning to play Earthbound just now usually get it on a rom, and emulators have a built in cheat function. People stuck in the Monkey Caves, Moonside, or the Guardian Diggers' Maze will most likely be tempted to cheat or use a walkthrough, and they don't experience the whole game. That causes them to miss out on part of the magic of Earthbound, and us SM.Net-ers know that there is a lot of magic in Earthbound.

I think that those parts might have been the main cause of Earthbound not being a huge success. In Onett, it takes a while of training before that you actually can get past the sharks easily, and being so early in the game, that probably discouraged gamers.

Oops, I'm getting off topic. Other disappointing elements include the picture guy, the insanely hard area in Winters with only Jeff, and the fight with the Starman Jr.

I think that's all I really have to say now. I've been writing this for forty-five minutes. I know, I'm a bad writer. That's it. Stop reading. Don't look at this anymore. Oh yeah, GiS, try making the submission form bigger. It's annoying having to write in such a small box.

--Kaepez





Congratulations on writing a Letter of the Week!
I was hoping someone was going to mention that EarthBound magic, or to adhere to the title the lack thereof. There’s really something special about EarthBound. Sure, new games are fun, but they just don’t give you that fuzzy feeling. The only game that ever brought me close was Chrono Trigger. What a surprise, that’s not a next-gen game either. Not even close.

You were also one of the few people to bring up the challenge in EarthBound, though it seems to come across more as frustration. I’ll admit, there are parts of EarthBound that make me want to extract the code of the situation, put it into a blender, and whip until foamy. And I could do that if I wanted to, but it’s worth it to take that step out of the Guardian Digger’s cave; to emerge from the Monkey Caves, to grab the Zexonite...it’s worth it.

I tried to make the submission box large. Hopefully it worked. Congratulations on being awesome.

--GuyInSummers

Now I know this isnt such a big deal but im still going to tell you guys. Go into the Onnet Library. Head up to the second floor and go into the classroom. Now Imagine you are Ness so you enter the door and you see a window to the right(the window is at the top of the screen from the players view. As you all know, going into those bathrooms are imposibble. And you know that the bathroom is next to the classroom. What? You still havent figured it out yet? Well either way, Its still kind of weird for a bathroom to be outside, or floating, or have an outside background. But then this means that the people in the classroom can see into the bathroom! Unless the bathroom is a very small room. Whoa im getting off track, ok but what i dont like about earthbound is the positioning of things. Apartments are just in the middle of no where, and windows are next to bathrooms.

--NintenDan





*sigh* How many times do I have to go through this? Behind every bathroom door in EarthBound is a mysterious shiny green portal like the one in the drawer of the Threed Hospital and Ness’s backpack. Through the portal is the Realm of Forgotten RPG Places and Things. Contained within the realm, one would find Ness’s dad, Jeff’s mom, Poo’s uncle, hundreds of bathrooms, the Mana Shrub, the door in that house in Northtown, the princess of Nimbus Land, and many other forgotten goodies. However, if you climb through that window in the classroom, you’ll find yourself in a room with no doors, a Country Skyline wallpaper and furniture theme, and a singing dog. This room is a frequent HQ for Hippie Conventions.

~GiS

Well, the inevitable has finally happened. You may have noticed that I didn't submit a letter last week. There're two reasons for this:

1) I forgot. Whoops.

2) In retrospect, I don't think I would've had anything to say about IF that I haven't already said.

But having just finished reading the current Mailbag, I realized that I should probably speak up about a thing or two.

First of all, all of you people who are afraid of ruining the stories should try the following exercise. Draw a big smiley face and label it ""SimonBob."" Then take a thick black permanent marker and scribble it all over my face, screaming ""DARNIT SIMONBOB!!! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO POST SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNRELATED ON A LITTLE OLD IF CALLED 'UNION?!' IF YOU HADN'T DONE THAT THEN UNION WOULD HAVE NEVER FINISHED AND IF WOULD STILL BE A HAPPY, CAREFREE PLACE WHERE NOTHING EVER CONCLUDED AND NOBODY CARED!!!!~~""

Take a few deep breaths after this bit. Make sure you didn't get too much marker on the desk, it's impossible to get it out again.

Now go into the IF board. Click on a topic that doesn't say ""RPG"" in the title. Give it a quick glance-over. Repeat this step until you get a funny feeling, like you know exactly what you'd do if it were your fic, but you'd be too embarrased or scared or whatever to post it on the board.

Now take another deep breath, a really good soul-cleansing one this time. This is the hardest step. Say to yourself, ""What's the worst thing that could possibly happen if I actually did put that bit of writing up?"" And then answer your own question: ""The fic would become really famous and I would become a celebrity and I'd never get a moment's peace.""

I know, I know. We both know that's not the real answer. But pretending that it is, that's the hard step.

Now click on the Reply button and write your post. That part is easy.

This is the basic process I go through every time I post on an IF. And let me tell you, it gets easier each time you do it. The first thing that gets easier is the bit with the scribbling; I was doing that in my head after my second post. The second thing that gets easier is writing the post. Writing is like woodcarving or drawing or any kind of skill. Practise makes perfect.

And finally, the urge to run from a story for fear of being known as the person who crushed it will go away eventually. Someday, if you're anything like me, you'll even start to feel the opposite way. Sometimes I cruise the IF board, looking for not-so-hot fics to spruce up with my special brand of magic. At times like these, I tend to go on an ego trip and think of myself as a saviour of bad storylines. Gosh, aren't I quite the braggart? ;D

The second thing I wanted to mention was that people seem to have a preoccupation with the rules. Remember, the rules were set in place by PSI322 back in a time when lamers and dinosaurs were a dime a dozen. Speaking for the mods (who probably wouldn't let me do so if they knew I was planning on it) I can categorically say that the rules are designed more for the unbelievable lamer than the average forumgoer. If you use the shift key, you're probably not in danger of being yelled at. If you know the difference between a semicolon and a comma and you can use them both properly, you've got immunity. Someone who takes the story in a new direction with a carefully worded and punctuated post will probably be hailed as a genius, while someone who can't tell the difference between Caps Lock and the 'e' key will promptly be booted.

Last but not least, I'm going to share my two mottoes. (""What's a motto?"" ""Nothin', what's a motto with you?"") The lesser motto is ""Cool people don't succumb to peer pressure."" If you feel in your heart that your post had some semblance of continuity that fits into the plot of the current IF, then don't let someone else tell you that you're being an idiot or a moron or anything else like that. Most posters - myself included - will save their wrath for someone who truly deserves it. A good writer will work with what the previous posters put up; a bad writer will blame the previous posters for ""not giving them anything to work with."" (Read that: ""I have no creativity but I don't feel like improving it myself."")

The greater motto is ""If you don't like it, think of something better."" If you don't like the condition of the IF board, get out there and post on it. Make it cool again if you don't think it already is. On the flip side, if you think you've started something way cool like a story where Ness gets dragged into an alleyway and mugged, but someone else doesn't like it, tell them to go start their own story. Then post on it to prove that you're more equivocal than them.

So there you have it. SimonBob's complete guide to posting on the IF board. There's just one last thing to remember: Have fun. It's not about who has the longest story or the biggest post. It's about a bunch of people combining several good ideas into one bigger, most totally excellent idea. Even a single snowflake can topple a tree branch. So get out there and show 'em what you've got!

--- SimonBob





Er, wow. If you only wrote that LAST week, you woulda’ won Letter of the Week. However, since you wrote it this week and the topic is in no way related to IF, I don’t have much to say. All, obey the laws of SimonBob and go IF!

~GiS

The only element of Earthbound that disappoints me is the lack of sequels. Oh, and I'm curious to hear exactly how many people give roughly the same answer I have.

--Lord Saturn 1783





Unsurprisingly enough, at least 7 or 8.

~GiS

If there's one thing about Earthbound that always bugged me, it would have to be the lack of character interaction and development. The main characters rarely say a word once they join the main party, so you never really get the chance to know what they are thinking. Of course I, like any other Earthbound fan, am fond of Ness and Company, but I never really get the feeling that I ""know"" them like I do playing some other RPGs.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for some emotional, overdrawn, soap opera-like dialogues. Things like that might work in certain games, but it would just ruin the Earthbound atmosphere. However, having the main characters converse just a little bit more would have been very nice.

--Rorshacma





Admittedly, this too was a rather large disappointment. At the very least, there could have been idle conversation such as that in Secret of Mana. Though the characters in that game said little, it was definitely enough to hint at the Girl’s snobby but reachable attitude and the Sprite’s outgoingness. What I really would’ve liked is character development like that in Super Mario RPG, the development in that game really blew me away – I felt like I even got to know some of the most minor bosses and NPCs. And I don’t care how cliché it is, it would’ve been so CUTE to see Paula develop a crush on Ness!

~GiS

2 things annoy the heck out of me in EB: First off, I have to say as funny and goofy the Saturns are in Saturn Valley, geez, try to be literate, guys! I mean the font is so messed up you can barely read it, and when you finally seem to know what they're saying the word that just HAPPENS to be the one you understand is ""BOING!"" I mean come on. The word ""boing"" is funny and all, but not when you hear it every 2 seconds.

Second, When your riding that Sky Glider Dr. Andonuts gives you, WHY must it take like 5 minutes for the whole flight? not to mention its constantly showing the craft floating up...then dowwwwn...then up in the clouds..then dowwwn... geez. And the music sounds like something you'd hear from a cheezey 70's Science fiction movie. But other than that the game is fine.
Oh, and by the way, banana.

--Darin





You boing not like font of Saturn? Boing! What boing problem? Boing! And I boing really liked the boing Sky Runner boing scenes! The boing music is so boing catchy! Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing!

~GiS

It takes a lot to find a downside to EarthBound. I had to dig deep and find the smallest thing wrong that I could exagerate to make it sound like I was actually disappointed. I looked back on my past times of playing EB and noticed one time I always seem to lose motivation, the single downtime of EB.

When Poo first joins my party I feel suddenly complete. Like it's just pointless to go on, because I'm done. All I have to do is build up this guy's levels, and that's irritating now because everyone else is a bagillion times stronger than he is. I drag myself through the Summers Museum, sit through Venus's song (she has NOTHING on the Runaway Five), slosh through the Fourside Sewer, crawl through the cave to the Pink Cloud, and Ness always gets suddenly homesick as soon as I enter the pyramid.

I call this down time the New-Dude-Named-Poo-Blues and it lasts until you exit the pyramid and the offender goes away. Then the game's fun again the whole way through. Especially when Poo comes back.

--The Losar





I have a feeling you could have a lot of fun with PK Hack. Just make Poo a secret character and hypnotize yourself into forgetting how to find him! Problem solved.

~GiS

While it doesn't exactly disappoint ""me"", I think that the graphics cause me the most aggravation. Not directly, though. I only care about gameplay and storyline. The problem is when I'm trying to find other people who have played EarthBound. Most people who have heard of it (And even THEY are few and far between) simply shrug it off as a crappy game and make fun of the graphics. I've only been able to find a few people who looked past the graphics, and NOBODY who had heard of Starmen.net. All I've been able to do is get them to sign the petition, and impress them by explaining exactly how all that EB fanart got into that one issue of Nintendo Power. But like I said, those moments are very rare. Because of this, I'd like the next EB game to ditch the 'retro' graphics. Not for me, but for almost everyone else.

--Ultros





Meh, there’s no need to convert others to EarthBoundism. Feel very proud that you’re the kind of person who can ignore “graphics” and pay attention to what really matters in a video game. Share your EarthBound appreciation with us all here, and remember, ‘retro’ graphics > you! ...then again, a fully 3d EarthBound would kick bunnies.

~GiS

GiS, I'm going to have to say that it is not the game Earthbound itself that contains anything disappointing to me. In fact, the only thing that disappoints me concerning EB is the fact that I have almost absolutely no time to play it anymore. Luckily it's not really a big deal, since I have beaten before, and therefore don't have that looming over it, I just wish that my college schedule allowed me more time to play it.

Oh, but I guess I had to lie. There is one other thing I disappointed about, again having nothing to do with the code on the cart, or design or anything, this time it's my brother as he was when I acquired the game full time (as opposed to being the first user who rented and then frequently re-rented the same copy I bought for $10 with big ol' box and guide) and the obsession at the time with a certain game involving circular pieces of kinda thick cardstock and plastic/metal circular disks of appoximately the same size dropped or lightly thown down onto the cardstock circles, AKA POG. My brother, a then POG-maniac, sacked my EB guide in the name of the POG maker toy. And now I really wish he didn't do that so I could once again peruse it's pages laughing at the offbeat jokes that I now would get much better than in the past.

So, I guess that's it. I have no complaints about EB, the game. I guess it's just about time I did something about securing another guide (legally, if possible) and finding more free time than the little I enjoy to visit IF(sorry had to reference last week, didn't expect to be LotW :D) and Mailbag here.

--Drakenul





It’s for people like you that we have EBFGP! Hopefully we’ll manage another one this summer! And as for your attempts at finding a Player’s Guide, I wish you luck. Or, as the Japanese Mr. Saturns prefer to say, may the goddess of good fortune smile upon you in your valiant efforts to locate the object that you desire to unlock nostalgic feelings and induce humor.

~GiS

Many things in EarthBound disappoint me. I won't go through all of them, but I will mention the highlights (or the lowlights as the case may be).

One of the most disappointing elements of the game is how the entertainment factor drops dramatically near the end of the game. In the beginning, it starts out quirky and fun, and maintains this quirkiness throughout about 3/4 of the game. However, the last 1/4 turns dramatic and serious and it loses most of its quirky humor that had been maintained throughout.

Another disappointing element was how the gameplay was so linear. While it is possible to get the songs out of order, it is still required that you get them. After playing a game like Final Fantasy 3, I really would have liked to have seen a bunch of optional in-depth side quests (not like finding the contact lens or the insignificant item).

And probably the most disappointing element... It's a frickin' cliffhanger, and the possibility of a sequel coming out is still questionable. If they don't release the sequel, I'm going to be seriously ticked off.

--LousySpy





Well, I definitely saw the decrease of quirkiness near the end of the game. However, I personally was proud of the developers of this transition. At first seems thing enjoyable, and the goofy comments and puns really set the scene for a purely fun game. However, near the end, the seriousness of impending apocalypse sets in. All the bonds of wisdom, of courage, and most importantly of friendship are put to the test. It’s not just a game anymore...it’s four brave heroes against evil itself. Awesome.

(GiS marks down LousySpy on his Really Big List of People Who Complained at the Lack of Sequels)

~GiS

NO

:D

--Daimyou





And with a brief step to the other end of the spectrum, some people are easier to please. That or they just like their EarthBound. Well, yay for them either way!

~GiS

For your enjoyment, I now submit to you my list of all the things in EarthBound that disappoint me that I can think of off the top of my head:

(1) There's no option to dismember the cameraman and set his remains on fire.

(2) Only five letters in names. As you can imagine, ""The Artist Formerly Known As CPTCrunch"" doesn't fit. Even ""TAFKACC"" doesn't fit. It's quite a dilemma. I usually end up naming him ""Bob"" or something like that.

(3) There was a guy in the hospital in Onett who said he owned the place. This was GREAT, because I needed to talk to the owner about the little trolls that lived under the receptionist's desk and tortured me late at night. But then he told me he was just kidding :(

(4) No second edition of the New Age Retro Hippie, even though there IS a second addition of the Annoying Old Party Man and the Cranky Lady.

(5) Boss battles were too easy. After Trillionage Sprout, virtually all of them can be won simply by using Auto Fight. Somehow, this still didn't make the game any less enjoyable...

(6) No option to befriend a Foppy and keep it as a pet.

(7) No option to play the ""Belch"" sound whenever you please. It would be great to do this at key points, like when Paula is asking Ness to escort him home at the end of the game and... buuuuurp!

(8) Moonside and Magicant are much too short.

(9) The monkey cave is REALLY annoying. Once you learn where everything is, it gets even more annoying because it takes forever. It is a pretty cool dungeon the first few times you play the game, though...

(10) You can't buy ""love,"" ""friendship"" or ""exp. points.""

(11) Everdred ought to be a party member. Actually, in the sprite editor there is an ""angel"" sprite of Everdred, plus an unidentified small ""Lost Underworld"" sprite (I'm not sure what it is; it isn't the teddy bear or any of the original four.) Perhaps they were thinking about making him a playable party member? I doubt it.

(12) No available restrooms.

(13) Two beds per hotel room... for four kids... sickos...

(14) Hey, talking to people at another table in a restaurant is like... breaking into their homes and checking their drawers for valuables. Yeah, other people on important adventures do such things, but you have to admit that it's bizarre!

Also, I wish to further address your response to the ""letter of the week"" on last week's topic, the ""Interactive Fiction"" forum. There has been very little evolution in the forum; it's still very much the same way it was when it was created in the first place. Everything you described has been true of it for a long time. In case you didn't notice, the vast majority of people are scared to post on IF because of (a) the elite writers, who like to exert a lot of influence over the stories and, in some cases, plan them ahead of time, and (b) the rules, which at first glance look like the U.S. tax code, only longer and more boring, and most of which were written because of elite writers trying to completely control stories.

As usual, I have no point... the IF forum would likely be better off if the current crop of ""elite"" writers took their business elsewhere and they made the rules easier to follow... I learned this over a loooong period of time from my escapades with #earthbound. When I had a long, complicated list of rules, it just caused more and more problems... the current rules (which are: (1) no swearing, (2) no flaming, (3) don't be an idiot) work a zillion times better. IF would be much better off if its rules read something like this:

(1) Whoever starts the story can set whatever rules he or she pleases. If you don't like those rules, don't post on the story.

(2) You can't totally change the plot in one post.

(3) No ""one line/word at a time"" stories. (They get too big and bog down the server and take up too much space.

(4) You can't exclude anyone from posting on your stories. If you have a problem with someone, take it to a moderator.

(5) Don't be an idiot.

Beyond that, individual story starters should be in charge of rules... IF now is like #eb a year and a half ago. Hopefully, sooner or later those in charge of it will realize, as I did many moons ago, that it's counter-productive to the extreme. Then again, half the reason there are so many rules is that the moderators thoroughly enjoy exercising their power as often as possible...

--The Artist Formerly Known As CPTCrunch





“Excellent”

This entry just SCREAMS EarthBound. The pure humor of this entry almost made me brand it.

Thank you for sharing your IF opinions. Any view’s a valid view. Now, go flock with SimonBob while I tend to your complaints.

1) You haven’t used PK Hack enough, have you?
2) Just go by the alias Bob, that’s a cool name.
3) Don’t worry, I ate the trolls for you.
4) See answer one.
5) See answer one.
6) See answer one.
7) I should girly-slap you for wanting to disturb the realization of love between two star-crossed teens.
8) See answer one.
9) See answer one.
10) You’d be amazed at what you could find on E-Bay.
11) See answer one.
12) For the last forking time, look in the forking drawer in the forking Threed hospital to find all the forking restrooms you could ever forking need.
13) Don’t worry. They make Jeff sleep on the floor, and Poo sleeps in a Lotus stance.
14) So...you’re...not supposed to do that?

I believe that covers everything. Behold the powa of PK Hack. Hackity hackity hack.

~GiS

First, a minor complaint. Although I think you are doing your job well, as the Mailbag Staff, could you please clarify the acronyms when you respond? It would be nice for people who are unfamiliar with an area. (I am still frustrated by CYOIF and many other forum acronyms...)

However, onto the topic.

A few things did actually disapoint me with EarthBound. I don't like how you can't return from the Cave of the Past. Also the 1/128 items are awful! The Gutsy bat serves no purpose and why is Poo's only weapon something you may never see carried by an enemy that disapears! Argh! The Starmen DX should have carried it... I also think more of the characters in the game should say more things. e.g. no one in Happy Happy Village says anything new after you beat the game. Although, biking through the Deep Darkness is almost enough to compensate. The other thing that disapoints me about EarthBound is that it doesn't have a sequel. Or a movie! that would rock... An anime film with a crazy alien horde invading earth... Action shots with cops, hippies and demonic petunias falling left and right. Good times.

--Mr. J





Despite speculation that CYOIF stands for Could You Omit Intelligence, Foo?, it’s actually an acronym for Choose Your Own Interactive Fiction. In a CYOIF, after each post, the post’s author gives a list of possible ways for the story to go, and the next person chooses one of the ways and goes with it.

On the upside of 1/128 items, when you finally find one, you break out the champagne, fire up the grill, blast the music, invite the whole world and throw an insane party. At least I did. Hey, how come you weren’t there?

~GiS

The elements of EB that disappoint me are: Fire, Air, Earth, Water. :)

Seriously, though, the graphics will be trotted out by hundreds of people as a travesty to the game, and yet these same graphics are responsible for the great battle animations! Besides, these characters are drawn in a very distinctive style of a well-known Japanese artist. Imagine what a Peanuts RPG might look like if the developer didn't make the Snoopy graphic look like Charles M. Schulz drew it!

Of course, people want good graphics like in Chrono Trigger or FF6, but I don't see why they should. Even ugly games with great interfaces are playable and even enjoyable. (Witness the success of Game Boy in the B&W days.)

Another hated element of EB is the text delay. You select Fast speed and expect to get fast speed, all the time, right? But pauses (which are integral to the text sounding like speech) creep in and disappoint. The worst one is the Mr. Saturn coffee break. Ironically, this has great graphics (and beats FF4's opening text crawl), but the sheer numbness you feel waiting for the end of the coffee klatsch really crashes your cranium.

There's also a lack of miniquests, hidden items, and character switching that I tend to enjoy, but these are trivial because they're not part of the story. It's as if I wanted more swords and sorcery here. EB is different and demands you look at it as it is. Under Ness's cap is a WYSI WYG.

As for a plot point of disappointment, how come Pokey was able to go back in time intact while the others had to become robots? And if their brains were turned into electronic form, how did they go back to being human later on? I know, it was probably intended to be mysterious, like some sort of miracle perhaps, and indeed there are lots of unresolved things in EB that stir the imaginations.

It was also disappointing that the Runaway Five were too much like the Blues Brothers, but one could hardly expect a British techno-band to make an appearance and look convincing. And at least it wasn't a bunch of cowboys.

Some of the music can be infuriating. The character naming is accompanied by a sound bite from the Monty Python theme. The shop music with the banjo is too much like ""When I'm 64"" and ""Maxwell's Silver Hammer"", both at the same time.

But finally, ultimately, the most disappointing thing about EB is... THERE WAS ONLY ONE OF IT. :)

--ZôôM





It’s interesting how you can break down every fault and flaw of EarthBound but still let it come across as such a great game. I suppose what your letter makes me thinks is not “This game lacks these things and thus sucks” but rather “Geez, if EarthBound had all these faults corrected, it would be a million times better than nauseatingly good.” It also seems like you’re subconsciously speaking for the world, if that made any sense. But who can deny it? People are as people go, and people are going to dislike EarthBound because it’s different. And if norm is photorealistic graphics, then gash-dangit, EarhtBound’s not going to suffer the life of a conformist. Personally, if EarthBound had kick-bunny graphics, I’d probably not have paid much attention to it.

The coffee break was so cool! I’ll let you know, the first time I played, Peaceful Rest Valley was NOT my thing. I got Slamz0rd^TM. So, from that point on, EarthBound was a little strenuous. That coffee break really calmed down.

I stand by the theory that Pokey could safely travel to the past because he was dead. I say that when he crashed in Deep Darkness, he died. I mean, look at the front of that helicopter! It’s been devastated! However, his spirit was sustained by the completely dominant and parasitical control of Giygas’s evil. He was now merely an embodiment of evil, a much more malleable Mani Mani. Oh, and the brains were indeed turned into electric form...but there was only one way they could defeat in Giygas. Their spirits. They may have left their fragile cellular body behind, but their spirits stayed with them. Their spirits carried everything, empowered by the multiplied power of earth! Together, in tune with his closest friends, Ness drove a crushing blow to the heart of evil, and his spirit spanned the ages to rejoin his body in harmony!

Conclusion? Don’t let GuyInSummers listen to music at 2:00 AM with no caffeine. He gets REALLY emotional.

You’re falling back to me, the style that I can see...

I know you’re out there, somewhere out there...

You’re falling out of reach, defying gravity...

I know you’re out there, somewhere out there...

~GiS

Nothing at all

--jaron





Cool.

--GuyInSummers

Okay. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I delayed it long enough. Bad things about Earthbound. Now of course, I liked EB. In my opinion, still one of the best RPGs out there. Yet I suppose living in the shadow of StarFox and SMRPG might make me a tad biased, I'll get this over with.

First of all, there's the music. I'm sorry, but I didn't like it. It got somewhat on my nerves after listening to some of the music. Not all of the music was bad, but mostly the darker and more techno parts were just plain annoying to me. Perhaps it's because I listen to Rock music on a daily basis, but whatever the reason, I didn't like the music.

Secondly, the battle graphics. I, actually, didn't mind the the outside of battle graphics, it was the in battle graphics I really didn't like. I mean, an enemy getting hurt was shown by him flashing. Now, I know it was an SNES game, but the battle graphics were disappointing. Sure the PSI graphics were okay, but those two could have done some work.

Lastly, I'd like to comment on the lack of events and ""cinematics,"" so to speak. Sure there were some events and such, but rarely was there anything meaty to these meetings. The beginning was rich with these meetings, such as the beginning scene and finding Buzz Buzz, but I thought the events and story-telling kind of declined from there.

Those are mainly what I didn't like about EB. Sue me if you disagree, but that's my opinion.

--Ness’s Cousin





Didn’t like the music? I swear, when I’m 93 and dying, I’ll be able to whistle the Twoson theme. Don’t get me wrong, it’s in your right to hate the music, I just find it hard to do so. Except the Monkey Caves. Dang, dang Monkey Caves. I forgot to listen to Sm.Net radio tonight (had to whip out my own MP3s), but it’s probably good, ‘cuz Jonk probably played the accursed Monkey Caves.

~GiS

Hey GiS!

Sorry about my lack of Mailbagging in the past few weeks. I keep remembering it on saturday (this being no exception) and then its too late.

Was I disappointed in some aspects of Earthbound? To be honest, no.

The only part that I could even consider dissapointing, was the end. No, I don't mean the ending, but the fact that it had to come to an ending.

As most know, I played EB with my super-mega busy sister and we bonded over it. When earthbound ended, the bonding was over and I didn't see her as often. But I can't really blame the makers of EB for this dissapointment because they had no control over it.

Well, see ya next week!

--PappyCat

P.S This will probably not be the last time I talk about my sister in Mailbag, because she was part of my initial Earthbound experience, so get used to it! ;)





Hi, PappyCat! Don’t worry, you’re forgiven. I was wondering where you went.

I suppose I give strange looks to some people when they say nothing about EarthBound disappoints them, but for your situation, I can only expect you to find EarthBound free of impurities. For granting an opportunity to spend time with your sister, EarthBound must’ve granted many happy moments, every frustrating element one you can share (even if it WAS the Monkey Caves music...rawr) Oh, and feel free to talk about your sister all you want. Wouldn’t it be cool if your sister happened to read Mailbag someday?

~GiS

Disappointments in EarthBound.. it's hard to think about that question. I'm not sure that I ever really expected anything from the game, and so wouldn't necessarily be disappointed by a lack of something I was hoping for. Ever since the first time I beat Earthbound, I have considered it the pinnacle of all RPGs, and being around here just enhances that. Other games might have their shortcomings, but it seems to me that EarthBound might just be perfect how it is.

But then again, that is coming from an extreme EarthBound fan (as many others here are). It could be that the fact I love the game so much that blinds me to its possible faults. Someone who prefers a different game would probably be better qualified to point out EarthBound's disappointments.

The only thing that I can think of in EarthBound that disappointed me was that end sequence. Even though I knew the game was over and done with after destroying Giygas, Picky's arrival with the letter sort of got me excited again. I got a thrill at being able to control Ness again at that part, like 'Oh boy, do I get to go on another adventure?' but of course it was only Pokey's spankey spankety spankety letter. That taunting 'THE END.. ?' screen was a letdown too. I must have left it up for at least four hours, checking back to see if anything had happened. I was a little desperate for the game to go on.

Oops ^_^ I rambled. >_> Oh well. Umm.. so no, EarthBound was certainly not disappointing to me. I still maintain my opinion that it is the most perfect game I have ever yet played.

--Pancake





Yay! Last letter I respond to! Well, for some reason, when I looked at your letter, where it said EarthBound, I thought it said KindarSpirit. Really. I bet if it said EarthBound 0, I woulda’ thought it said AmzRigh. Then again, maybe not. The truth is, I don’t even remember what half your letter says. I keep reading it, but it just goes in one eye and out the other. How it manages the U-turn in my brain is beyond me. Cliffhangers suck. Now if you’ll excuse me, everything is spinning, it’s two A freaking M, and yeah. Keep up Mailbag and stuff. Egg. So this dude is all red and I said hi, are you okay Annie? So PIE! How is book, isn’t not that fun blue machine? It looks happy.

~Zzzz

Conclusion? My conclusion is that I need more freaking sleep!

Seriously, though, I was as usual incredibly impressed with you all this week. I wasn’t too sure how smooth the transition would be back to this general a question, but it went much better than I’d hoped. We’ve pretty much made 30 message the very impressive standard. Also, this week, the letters were excellent. ALL of them. I practically had to choose the letters to use on a random basis. Alright, so there was reason to my omissions, but it was a painfully difficult process. Now, keep up the good work and let me sleep. :)