Earthbound Battle Background JS

It's just a quirky RPG with western culture as understood by the Japanese. You fight with baseball bats and frying pans instead of swords and bows. Your enemies are zombies, cultists, aliens, and bike gangs. Your dad gives you your allowance which you collect over ATM. The towns you visit are called Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside, because their only importance is the order in which they appear in the game. Depending on the version you play, you run around in your pajamas or birthday suit because you just got out of bed.

It's not a game you play so much for the mechanics, which are not bad, but not hugely novel. At the time, when all console RPGs were based on high fantasy, a quirky RPG based on a bunch of silliness was very different.

Its a 90's RPG that makes fun of other 90's RPGs.

I'm not sure if the "message" of the game is easily translated if you weren't playing JRPGs in the mid-90s. But for example, the "bee" that is dying early on always manages another explanation (should you ask for it).

Its a very dry sense of humor, that would be lost on anyone who hasn't played many 90s era RPGs. Instead of a crazy innovative storyline, it is more of a long comedy sketch that makes fun of other JRPGs.

For example: when you get a "Bike" (fast movement) in the game, you aren't allowed to use it as soon as you get your 2nd party member (only one person can ride the bike at a time, duh). Fast movement is basically a joke in the game. Overall, the game is willing to mess with game mechanics as a joke in of itself.

Example 2: A giant pencil will eventually stop you in your tracks. To get rid of the giant pencil, you need to find the "Pencil Eraser". Get it? Its an eraser... that erases giant pencils. Pun pun pun...

Its more about quirky jokes and humor than overarching plot.

or watch this chap play it, it's up next on his play list :)

http://www.twitch.tv/cohhcarnage

Currently 20% off on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/

And as to the other commenter's suggestion to watch a playthrough, I know that's a hot-button issue for some people, but I do feel like it is a legitimate way to consume some story-based games. While I did purchase this game, I wound up watching a YouTuber play through it rather than play it myself. I can honestly say that if the "Let's Play" option were not available to me, I would not have retained enough interest in the game to have played it at all.

Seconded. It has the same spirit of humor and quirkiness Earthbound does. To be completely honest, on balance I think Undertale actually pulls it off better than Earthbound does. With a little of Nethack's "the dev team thinks of everything" thrown in.

Great soundtrack as well.

I think Undertale's worth playing, but with a big caveat: the first hour and a half or so of the game are taken almost entirely from the demo made a year or so before release. That first hour and a half is rough as heck. The game does get better past that point, but I know a lot of people who stalled out on it right there. Be warned if you don't have a high tolerance for early-game weirdness.