Earthbound Beginnings

[Dcubed]

So I finally finished it! That twist at the end actually ends up working better having played Earthbound first ironically enough!

 

Speaking of which, it's really surprising just how much of Earthbound Beginnings actually ended up getting reused in Earthbound. Lots of enemies and locations very strongly resemble areas in its sequel, to the point where it's kinda not wrong to call Earthbound a spiritual remake of its NES predecessor. Much of Beginnings' music also gets remixed and used in the equivalent places that show up in its sequel too! Even the playable party members you encounter strongly resemble the ones from Earthbound!

 

Of course that's not to say that Beginnings doesn't do things differently from Earthbound, because it certainly does. The story is completely unique and the way its told is very different too (it's kind of odd how you have a decent amount of plot at the start, then the majority of the game is fairly uneventful as far as plot development goes, then suddenly towards the end it hits you at full force!) Magicant also plays a much larger role than it does in Earthbound too, both in terms of story and as a game location (I especially liked the sleeping dragon, which would just taunt you all throughout until you were strong enough to fight it )

 

Like its sequel, the writing is irreverent and has that same weird vibe all throughout - usually funny and occasionally surprisingly dark. The translation is generally very well done for the time and the console it was released on; while there are a few oddities here and there, it's mostly really quite solid! Easily the best writing seen in any NES game; with a plot that is far more fleshed out and well developed than anything else on the system...

 

... speaking of which, the world itself is HUGE! I think it might actually even be larger than Earthbound's one! In fact, I think it's too big for its own good. It's enormously impressive from a technical standpoint, but it's also tedious and difficult to navigate at times. Compressing everything down in its sequel was definitely the right choice to make, but it's hard not to be in awe at the sheer scale of world that they managed to cram onto a NES cart!

 

Gameplay wise, it plays... like Earthbound! The interface is almost identical (save for it lacking the talk button in its sequel), the battles largely play out the same way (though of course it lacks the rolling HP counter), many of the same enemies would reappear in its sequel, it has the same large seamless world map that Pokemon would later go on to steal (well, APE did become Creatures after all ) and most of the abilities and status effects (save a few) would go on to also feature in its SNES successor. It's really surprising just how much it resembles Earthbound! The main thing it lacks in comparison to its predecessor however is polish. The controls feel a bit stiff and unresponsive at times and menus can take a split second to respond to a button press - can be annoying at times.

 

Likewise, the high enemy encounter rate and the very grindy nature of the game may also be a big turnoff for some players. Personally, I actually didn't find it too annoying, despite being someone who usually can't stand grinding at all; so obviously the game must've been charming enough for me to look past that! But yeah, no sugar coating it, it's a grindfest and generally isn't the most well balanced RPG out there.

 

And finally, while the game is generally nowhere near as bad as most other NES era RPGs in terms of player guidance, it does have its BS moments where it's basically impossible to figure out where to go and what to do without a guide...

 

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... Yeah, screw you cactus! (the huge world map doesn't help in that regard either)

 

I'd definitely recommend playing the SNES game first, before playing EB Beginnings, but it's definitely worth your time. It's a really great game underneath all that grinding, with some really forward thinking ideas that are still unique to it (and many of which would go on to be stolen by others... I'm looking at YOU Link's Awakening and Pokemon )

Edited July 4, 2015 by Dcubed

[Ike]

 

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... Yeah, screw you cactus! (the huge world map doesn't help in that regard either)

 

I pointed this out in your miiverse post but the game does give you multiple hints including a rather obvious one.

 

Funny vhow you noted about the encounter rate - it always seemed to drop when I actually wanted to grind.

 

Also the Smash 4 stage makers so much more sense after playing this game.

 

Does anyone know why Mother 3 is so hard to find (apart from the fact it was Japan only), trying to find out who much it goes for currently and I can only find repos.

[Andyliini]

Didn't Mother 3 bomb in Japan initially? That could explain why there are so few genuine copies around anymore. Also the fact that it has not been rereleased since then makes it a sought-after title.

[Dcubed]

I pointed this out in your miiverse post but the game does give you multiple hints including a rather obvious one.

 

Yeah I only cottoned onto it afterwards, it's still vague as hell though (and considering how massive the desert is, really easy to miss, even after the hint)

 

Does anyone know why Mother 3 is so hard to find (apart from the fact it was Japan only), trying to find out who much it goes for currently and I can only find repos.

 

Well it sold fairly well originally (300k+) so I just imagine it's a matter of high demand and people not wanting to sell.

 

Oh and agreed about Smash 4!

[Ike]

Got my Mother 3 repo. Was going to take a break before playing put I ended up starting the game.

 

 

Comes with a Franklin badge which was neat.

 

Need to dig out my GBA Micro, can't remember where it is though.

[Dcubed]

Got my Mother 3 repo. Was going to take a break before playing put I ended up starting the game.

 

 

Comes with a Franklin badge which was neat.

 

Need to dig out my GBA Micro, can't remember where it is though.

 

Nice haul. Here's hoping we get the real thing soon on the VC...

 

If it did ever get an official translation on the VC, it would be cool if someone eventually found a way to extract the ROM and used it to make repros. That's what happened with Monster World 4 and Ironclad when they finally got official English localised releases on the Wii VC