Game Club discussion week 3: What do you think of Earthbound so far?

Everything about Threed is just disturbing and flat out wrong. First off the entire atmosphere is just creepy, its Zombie and Monster infested, you have people scared and hiding, and you get lured by a random women into an ambush, and wake up in a mysterious room and your locked in their until jeff saves you. As well as how a bunch of cops before start attacking you one by one, COPS. Everything about the Runaway Five was hilarious. Ness's dad probably works as a surgeon, who knows, 2,000 indeed is a lot

I just finished Threed, and good god that place was horrifying. Totally agree with you on pretty much everything ^_^

Music is unsettling, like you said Ryan but thats part of it, it makes me feel trippy and it feels gooood. Not a lot of RPG's have a modern setting so i appreciate it Eh not really, Ness's push is just like everyone else, its the experiences he has during his journey with the modern setting that makes it so damn good

Am I the only one that finds the music to be a bit... unsettling? There's something really bizarre about it that doesn't sit well with me. It's not that I DISLIKE the score, it just makes me uncomfortable. I really dig the setting and think it's a pretty comical spoof of typical JRPG tropes, though I'm having a hard time understanding WHY Ness is teaming up with the people he is, or why he's doing much of anything. Still, having a great time ^_^

The bizarre music is kinda the appeal of the soundtrack for me, shifting from upbeat tunes, to creepy mysterious tracks.

Just curious since I don't have a Wii U and still have my SNES cartridge, did the soundtrack change at all for the VC release? Because if not then I am so happy more people get to hear it, its quite possibly one of my favorite scores of any game ever.

I just completed the second sanctuary and rod the bus through the tunnel. So far, my impression is that it's delightfully bizarre. I'm constantly shaking my head going, "WTF?" but laughing the whole time too. I never really played jrpgs in the 90s, I was too obsessed with platformers. I'm still not sure that I have the patience for them, something about feeling so out of control of the battle doesn't settle with me. I am really enjoying Earthbound so far though. The auto-win feature when you're leveled up enough is really nice, it takes much of the chore away so I can just enjoy the setting and what's going on. Also, so far it has not been too hard, which I appreciate as a relative novice to these sorts of games.

I'm loving it so far. Not sure how many hours I've put in, but I've just unlocked the third "my sanctuary" location. The comedy is still entertaining, and while I don't feel particularly interested in the main plot of saving the world, I am interested in finding out what strange situation or town is going to come up next. I also appreciate the lack of any serious grinding (so far) which combined with the wacky story I'm certainly not thinking of giving up on the game any time soon. I don't particularly like the combat system - mostly just consists of spamming the A-button, and the combat music has gotten fairly repetitive. On the subject of music though, the majority of the music is good and fun to explore to, but I think it only works as quirky upbeat background music for a quirky upbeat game (i.e. I wouldn't find myself listening to it outside the game or searching for remixes). Overall I would say the game holds up, but the two biggest issues (from ye olde game technology) I have with it are the lack of text space (whether it's battle text or the the 3 lines of dialogue it would be nice if it weren't so cramped) and the frustrating inventory management; having a small set number of items to carry and having to enter a new shop menu for every single item you want to buy or sell are both features I'm glad that we don't usually have to put with anymore. Compared to other JRPGs: I prefer it to the dragon warrior games I've experienced (story fairly cliche and much more grinding). Not good enough to rival FF7 yet (though FF7 has a lot of nostalgia as it was the first RPG I played, plus when I went back to the PC digital download release last year I thought it still held up really well). About equal footing with Lufia (atFoD) so far, but I am finding it hard to compare as Earthbound is so different than any of those I've mentioned, since it's comedy is the carrying point more so than the story. Looking forward to playing more and eventually hearing the spoiler cast.

Agreed about the inventory system being a bit frustrating. However, I have found that since I'm not used these games, I appreciate that the screen flashes when you're buying stuff to say "this is better than what you have, you should get it!" Is that a normal feature for these sorts of games?

I remember the 12th podcast of Radio-Radar when Coop talked about this game as part of the Top 7 Video Game Urban Legends and I am really excited. Will there be a RadarPlays of this game?

This is my first playthough ever of earthbound and I'm absolutely hooked on it at this point. I've had struggles in the past of staying interested while playing JRPG's but this has gained and held my attention for the whole 20 hours I've sunk into it already. It's not doing any hand holding and forcing me to grind a little bit which makes a success in the game feel incredibly rewarding. I've played SSB quite a bit and never had any kind of knowledge of who Ness was/is so I'm enjoying learning about one of my fav characters in the SSB world

What is your first impression of Earthbound? "Well, this might be interesting" How many hours have you put in so far, and is it something that's keeping you interested? So far, only last Saturday night, wich was maybe one hour, or maybe more How does it compare to or differ from other JRPGs of the '90s that you might have played? I haven't played many JRPGs, but compared to the few I played, it feels kind of the same as the others (gameplay wise), but when it comes to art style and story it really feels unique What about it are you enjoying the most? Does it feel dated, or do you think it's holding up? I'm really enjoying the music, it really fits with the game. And, considering that a lot of indie games are trying to birng back the "retro style" and the fact that I like playing old games, no, it doens't feel dated at all to me.

Still Good, it aged well. Im at getting the franklin badge for that electric bastard

The virtual console is a bargain for this amazing game. I paid over £400 for a mint in (big) box version with game guide and unused scratch & sniff cards. The game is great but not worth that amount, but I also collect retro games.

Welp, just downloaded it on my WiiU...time to see what all the fuss is about :D

So this is perfect. This is a game that I have been having trouble getting myself to play. this is perfect. I finally beat pyschonauts thanks to you guys(been sitting in steam for years now). Its like you are reading my mind. THANKS!

Jawesome! Glad you guys are all as pumped as we are to play it ^_^

Well now I just feel plain old pressures to play this... But Saints Row the Third is so much fun and I had no idea!

So... Now that I think about it, maybe I'll use the same method Lucas uses for some RadarPlays...

I'm really glad you guys chose Earthbound. I was really hoping you guys would choose this game and you did. Can't wait to start playing Earthbound