Nintendo Switch Online: NES

[Hero-of-Time]

With Pokemon now over and done with, I had a think about what my next RPG would be. Yeah, I'm still playing Fire Emblem but I'll be done with that soon as well. Anyway, I've decided to give Earthbound Beginnings a try. I've tried numerous times to play Earthbound but I could never get into it. I'm not sure why I think this will be any different but I'm willing to give it a whirl.

When playing an RPG I like to keep the names of each of the characters to what they were originally called. I had to look up the names of them online and was very surprised to see that the kid in this game isn't Ness! He looks identical to him and always assumed it was him. 

I've not got far into yet. I've basically just done a bunch of level grinding outside of Ninten's house. I've read the game can be quite punishing and so I've leveled up to level 5 before moving on.

I will say that the battles do that annoying thing where sometimes you go first and other times the enemy does. Hate it when RPGs do this. Pretty sure Golden Sun done it as well. If a speed stat is set then so should be the order of your turn. 

Speaking of Earthbound, this fan concept trailer for Mother 3 has just surfaced. It took two years to put it together and looks absolutely amazing. The style they use is glorious!

 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

With Pokemon now over and done with, I had a think about what my next RPG would be. Yeah, I'm still playing Fire Emblem but I'll be done with that soon as well. Anyway, I've decided to give Earthbound Beginnings a try. I've tried numerous times to play Earthbound but I could never get into it. I'm not sure why I think this will be any different but I'm willing to give it a whirl.

Word of advice. When you get to a room with six presents in close proximity to each other, take the top-left one first. Trust me on this.

This is easily one of the best RPG's on NES. But well, it is still on the NES, so the game is very punishing, but once you get a second party member that you've named, it gets a lot more manageable. Grind money for a H20 Pendant when you find the shop that sells it. It's the best pendant because fire attacks are everywhere. It'll serve you well for all of the game. That shop in general has most of the best armour you can buy, so if you wanna save for that too, all the better.

Other then that, try not to rely on guides too much. The game's very open and designed to get lost in from time to time, building EXP as you're trying to figure out what to do next.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

I put a little more time into the game last night and this morning. I managed to make my way around the graveyard area and find Pippi. I'm currently level 8 which isn't too surprising given that the graveyard area is very reminiscent of the caves from Pokemon Red and Blue. Seriously, you can't take two steps in that place without being thrown into a battle. Thankfully the funky battle music keeps me entertained.

I'll crack on with the adventure when I get back home this evening.

[Glen-i]

49 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm currently level 8 which isn't too surprising given that the graveyard area is very reminiscent of the caves from Pokemon Red and Blue. Seriously, you can't take two steps in that place without being thrown into a battle. Thankfully the funky battle music keeps me entertained.

Well, you know, a few people who worked on this went on to work on Pokémon R/B. So it's hardly a coincidence.

[Dcubed]

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Well, you know, a few people who worked on this went on to work on Pokémon R/B. So it's hardly a coincidence.

It's more than just a few... Ape.inc directly became the company we know as Creatures today.  Pokemon R/B was their follow-up project after Earthbound released for the SNES.

Some staff from HAL also helped out on development with RBY and GSC (Most notably Satoru Iwata), who also worked on Earthbound.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

4 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Well, you know, a few people who worked on this went on to work on Pokémon R/B. So it's hardly a coincidence.

Haha. Really? Well it all makes sense now!  

[darksnowman]

21 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

With Pokemon now over and done with, I had a think about what my next RPG would be. Yeah, I'm still playing Fire Emblem but I'll be done with that soon as well. Anyway, I've decided to give Earthbound Beginnings a try. I've tried numerous times to play Earthbound but I could never get into it. I'm not sure why I think this will be any different but I'm willing to give it a whirl.

When playing an RPG I like to keep the names of each of the characters to what they were originally called. I had to look up the names of them online and was very surprised to see that the kid in this game isn't Ness! He looks identical to him and always assumed it was him. 

Hopefully you will be able to get into it this time around. I'm sure it's a massive change going from Pokémon and Fire Emblem to Earthbound Beginnings! Wouldn't mind trying it some time myself so I'll be reading your experience with interest. You weren't a massive fan of Earthbound, were you?

What's his name in this? Tendo or Ninten, isn't it?  

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Hopefully you will be able to get into it this time around. I'm sure it's a massive change going from Pokémon and Fire Emblem to Earthbound Beginnings! Wouldn't mind trying it some time myself so I'll be reading your experience with interest. You weren't a massive fan of Earthbound, were you?

What's his name in this? Tendo or Ninten, isn't it?  

Yeah, Ninten.  

[darksnowman]

15 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, Ninten.  

Thought Tendo sounded the less ridiculous of the two so put it first.  

[Glen-i]

6 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Thought Tendo sounded the less ridiculous of the two so put it first.  

I mean, it's EarthBound. Ridiculous is half the point of it.

I've been playing it myself, got 5 melodies so far, about to get the sixth. I'm surprised at how much I've remembered from my WiiU playthrough. Although that might be down to having missed the second and fifth the first go around. They're very meanly hidden.

[Hero-of-Time]

I've made a little more progress on Earthbound Beginnings over the past couple of days. I'm currently level 18 and have just got my second party member. Seeing how he comes in at level 1, I'm now grinding exp and cash to get him up to speed. Hate it when RPGs do that.

Im not really enjoying the game but I'm determined to power through it and see the ending. Like Earthbound, I just don't get the appeal of the stupid enemy design  or apparently funny dialogue. Still, at least the music is good.

[Glen-i]

29 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've made a little more progress on Earthbound Beginnings over the past couple of days. I'm currently level 18 and have just got my second party member. Seeing how he comes in at level 1, I'm now grinding exp and cash to get him up to speed. Hate it when RPGs do that.

Im not really enjoying the game but I'm determined to power through it and see the ending. Like Earthbound, I just don't get the appeal of the stupid enemy design  or apparently funny dialogue. Still, at least the music is good.

Did you get the Onyx Hook? It's worth your time to use that to quickly go back to Magicant and buy the most expensive equipment there.

[Hero-of-Time]

19 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Did you get the Onyx Hook? It's worth your time to use that to quickly go back to Magicant and buy the most expensive equipment there.

Yeah, that's what I done. Got everyone kitted out with the best gear after grinding for cash.

[Hero-of-Time]

Man, the factory level took some doing. The thing was never ending and the amount of battles I was getting in was ridiculous. I eventually just started pegging it from fights.

I'm happy that I've now got a 3rd character. This one seems a little more useful than the last one, mainly because she can also has healing powers.

With her in tow, I guess it's back to Magicant again to grind cash and experience, level her up and buy her the best gear. 

[darksnowman]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm currently level 18 and have just got my second party member. Seeing how he comes in at level 1, I'm now grinding exp and cash to get him up to speed. Hate it when RPGs do that.

I'm almost certain it was like this in Earthbound too. Normally I'm up for a good grind, but the process didn't feel fun in it. Thought I was going soft.  

25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Man, the factory level took some doing. The thing was never ending and the amount of battles I was getting in was ridiculous. I eventually just started pegging it from fights.

If you had to resort to fleeing then the encounter rate must have been overwhelming.  

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, darksnowman said:

I'm almost certain it was like this in Earthbound too. Normally I'm up for a good grind, but the process didn't feel fun in it. Thought I was going soft.  

If you had to resort to fleeing then the encounter rate must have been overwhelming.  

The encounter rates are really inconsistent. You can go ages without a battle but then get hit numerous times in a row after walking a single step.

It doesn't help that I'm sat playing this at stupid o' clock in the morning either. Woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep so figured I'd crack on with this. Probably wasn't the best of ideas to play this game though. Due to lack of sleep my tolerance levels aren't very high at the moment. 

[darksnowman]

5 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The encounter rates are really inconsistent. You can go ages without a battle but then get hit numerous times in a row after walking a single step.

It doesn't help that I'm sat playing this at stupid o' clock in the morning either. Woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep so figured I'd crack on with this. Probably wasn't the best of ideas to play this game though. Due to lack of sleep my tolerance levels aren't very high at the moment. 

I'm having flashbacks to the Marsh Cave in FF.

Eh? I thought you were up and at it for the SSOPT*. Figured you were just taking your time to write up your full impressions!

*Switch Sports Online Play Test

[Glen-i]

Yeah, Duncan's Factory is one of two absolutely humongous and confusing dungeons in Beginnings. A real slog.

Hope you didn't miss the Super Spray and second Franklin Badge though. They are very useful items. Anything that keeps Ana alive is a great thing!

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

I'm having flashbacks to the Marsh Cave in FF.

Eh? I thought you were up and at it for the SSOPT*. Figured you were just taking your time to write up your full impressions!

*Switch Sports Online Play Test

I don't like using motion controls at the best of times, never mind at 3 in the morning when I'm feeling groggy.  

I will be playing the 11am session though.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Glen-i said:

Yeah, Duncan's Factory is one of two absolutely humongous and confusing dungeons in Beginnings. A real slog.

Hope you didn't miss the Super Spray and second Franklin Badge though. They are very useful items. Anything that keeps Ana alive is a great thing!

Yeah, got them both. Had to dump a few items to create room for the better ones though. I hate the small inventory space and it's baffling they carried such restrictions over to the sequel.

[Glen-i]

32 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, got them both. Had to dump a few items to create room for the better ones though. I hate the small inventory space and it's baffling they carried such restrictions over to the sequel.

The two EarthBound games were inspired by Dragon Quest, which had those kind of restrictions back then.

8 items per character is very stingy though. At least the SNES one upped it and made it somewhat easier to offload unneeded items with Escargo Express and the For Sale sign.

[Hero-of-Time]

The battles where I'm currently at just aren't balanced at all. Taking on one enemy is grueling enough but when multiple ones show up things can get rough and make the battles slow. The exp dished out from these enemies isn't nearly as much as it should be. It's taking ages to level up now.

Considering ive been grinding a lot during the course of the game you'd think that enemies would fall pretty fast at this point but nope. Doesn't help that Lloyd came back either. I much preferred having Teddy on my team.  

[Glen-i]

50 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The battles where I'm currently at just aren't balanced at all. Taking on one enemy is grueling enough but when multiple ones show up things can get rough and make the battles slow. The exp dished out from these enemies isn't nearly as much as it should be. It's taking ages to level up now.

Considering ive been grinding a lot during the course of the game you'd think that enemies would fall pretty fast at this point but nope. Doesn't help that Lloyd came back either. I much preferred having Teddy on my team.  

Ah yes, Mt. Itoi. The one part of Beginnings that I truly believe is flat out bad. The developers had a tight deadline, and didn't have the time to balance it, and it shows. You're so close to the end, though.

Unfortunately, you need Lloyd for his mechanics prowess. He'll get you something that's way better then Teddy ever could be. But it's rough going until then.

When you do get it though, (and you'll know when you do) whatever you do, do not backtrack! Gun for the top and get the two melodies there. If you backtrack, you'll only make things a million times harder.

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Ah yes, Mt. Itoi. The one part of Beginnings that I truly believe is flat out bad. The developers had a tight deadline, and didn't have the time to balance it, and it shows. You're so close to the end, though.

Unfortunately, you need Lloyd for his mechanics prowess. He'll get you something that's way better then Teddy ever could be. But it's rough going until then.

When you do get it though, (and you'll know when you do) whatever you do, do not backtrack! Gun for the top and get the two melodies there. If you backtrack, you'll only make things a million times harder.

Not long after I posted I found the thing you were talking about. I've just spent the time since just grinding at the top of the mountain using the thing in question. It's still slow going though. The only enemy that offers decent exp are the 4 gold Starmen. Ninten is currently level 29 and the others 26.

[Glen-i]

20 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Not long after I posted I found the thing you were talking about. I've just spent the time since just grinding at the top of the mountain using the thing in question. It's still slow going though. The only enemy that offers decent exp are the 4 gold Starmen. Ninten is currently level 29 and the others 26.

Honestly? You're probably golden at this point to climb to the top. If things get dicey, 4th D Slip guarantees an escape. So you can likely make the rest of the way using that if things go wrong.

Once you get the last two melodies, the rest of the game is smooth sailing.