Earthbound: 30 years of the wildly inventive Japanese RPG
As Earthbound, director Shigesato Itoi's charming, innovative and weird JRPG, turns 30, Stuart Burnside looks back at a game that – through its dedication to pushing the boundaries of the bizarre – has developed into a cult classic.
Earthbound always seemed to exist just outside of the periphery, a game that was spoken about in whispers. Like the other Japanese role playing (JRPG) classics – Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo – it was never given an official European release. Before the ease of importing online, rare copies could be glimpsed in import shops for extortionate prices. Now as the game celebrates its 30th anniversary, it’s easily available on the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, and 30 years have matured the game into a bona-fide cult classic.
Earthbound was developed by Kirby developer HAL Laboratory, and released in Japan in 1994 as Mother 2, the sequel to the NES original. Director Shigesato Itoi was an advertising copywriter and a lyric writer and an essayist. His surreal creativity heavily influences the unique tone of the game.
For many players, their first exposure to Earthbound will have been through the inclusion of main character Ness in the Super Smash Bros series. This scrappy little lad is from the town of Onett in the country of Eagleland – a parody of America as filtered through a distinctly berserk Japanese sense of humour. The playable team of Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo resemble Charles Shulz’s Peanuts gang infused with the manic energy of cult Japanese series Oh! Mikey.
After a meteor falls to Earth, Ness and his friends Porky and Picky discover it shelters the brave insectoid alien, Buzz-Buzz. Bringing dire warnings of intergalactic tyrant Giygas and his diabolical plot to conquer Earth, the gang head back to Porky and Picky’s house to plan their next move. It’s at this point that the player gets a taste of the real Earthbound experience, as the sibling’s controlling mother screams, “Ayaaaeee! I think it’s a dung beetle! I’ll smash your guts out!”, and proceeds to follow up on said threat. Poor Buzz-Buzz. The abruptness of the moment, and this unexpected twist at the beginning of the traditional hero’s journey prepares the player for the surreal, hilarious and innovative road ahead.
Although it sounds laughably tiny now, the 24 megabit Super Nintendo cartridge the game came with allowed for relatively detailed visuals and sound, which enhanced the already surreal atmosphere of the game. Battles take place in front of psychedelic backgrounds, with bizarre enemies appearing against abstract warped patterns that are constantly in motion.
In an interview with Weekly Famitsu, Itoi referred to this visual style as a “video drug”, and revealed that almost 200 of these distinct backgrounds were made by a specialist on the development team who wholly focused on their creation. Supplementing the hallucinatory visuals, the unforgettable soundtrack to Earthbound is a collage of musical styles – an eclectic mix of samples, melodies and beats lifted wholesale from other songs and media. Players can expect to hear samples of the French national anthem, the Monty Python theme tune and ‘Deirdre’ by The Beach Boys as they accompany the gang of misfits on their journey to save Earth. Composers Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka worked on the first two Mother games, and the soundtrack to the first game even received a fully vocalised album release in 1989.
JRPGs live or die on the strength of their characters and world, and Earthbound is teeming with lovable oddballs and twisted locations. There’s Brick Road, a dungeon designer so obsessed with the pursuit of creating the perfect dungeon that he makes himself into a human/dungeon hybrid. Mr Carpainter, the leader of the bizarre Happy Happy cult obsessed with painting everything blue. But perhaps the most memorable are the species known as Mr Saturn. These odd little friendly characters waddle around with a tiny bow on their head, and end each sentence with “ding”, “boing” or inexplicably “Dakota!”
Mr Saturns have their own unique dialogue font based on the handwriting of Shigesato Itoi’s daughter, a cute flourish that adds personality and makes their nonsense proclamations (“We feel groove!”) even more charming.
By 1994 Japanese series such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had firmly established the rules of the genre, most of which remain to this day. Players of a JRPG expect random battles, gradual levelling up, a deep plot with sprawling locations, and a party of disparate fighters teaming up on a quest to save the world. Earthbound has all of these things but adds elements that still feel fresh today. For example, money won by defeating enemies accumulates, and instead of being awarded at the end of each battle, is awarded when Ness makes a phone call to his father. Ness even needs to use an ATM to withdraw money if he wants to pay for items.
Enemies flee when the gang are overpowered, and this mechanic is developed further into an instant-win feature against weaker enemies, thus going some way to combat the bane of all JRPGS – the grinding (the process of repeating the same battles again and again in order to gain experience). Gameplay tutorials are also delivered in an innovative way, with residents of the town delivering confused monologues on gameplay mechanics, seemingly baffled by their own words referring to the TV screen or controller buttons. Ruffini the dog even claims to be possessed by the spirit of the game designer at one point.
One of the most hilariously cruel innovations Earthbound makes is in its anti-piracy measures. Attempting to play a bootleg version of the game will result in a flood of randomly spawning enemies intended to sap the enjoyment of the game and halt any progress. However, the best is saved for last. Anyone who struggles through these waves of additional enemies will find the game unexpectedly crash during the ultimate battle against Giygas, forcing them to reset their Super Nintendo. Upon restarting, they will find that the game has completely wiped their save, thus robbing them of dozens of hours of progress. It’s a great example of how Earthbound combines twisted humour with a dive into the deeper mechanics of video games to create something wholly original.
As we celebrate 30 years of Earthbound, its influence on video games as a medium comes into focus. The most obvious title to follow in Earthbound’s peculiar wake is Undertale, Toby Fox’s twist on the JRPG, which is stuffed with charming characters and odd scenarios. Fox actually started out making his own modifications on Earthbound, so there is a direct line connecting both titles. However, the DNA of Earthbound can be seen in titles as diverse as Night in the Woods, Citizens of Earth and the Pokemon series.
After flopping on its original American release, Earthbound has cultivated a rabid fanbase and an army of indie developers now cite its influence on their own work. The game is available to play on Nintendo’s Switch online service, where it can be played alongside the original NES Mother game, retitled Earthbound Beginnings for western audiences. Does its emergence from the shadows of Nintendo’s back catalogue into cult stardom mean we might hopefully see an official English translation of Mother 3? As Mr Saturn would say, “Kay-O!”