EARTHBOUND REVIEW

By Abby Doomsporker

☆☆☆☆⯫

Warning: heavy spoilers for EarthBound.

  EarthBound expands on a lot of the same themes and gameplay elements of the original 1989 Mother in very fun, comedic, and unique ways. It is a worthy sequel, if a little bit less original. I think that may be my biggest gripe with EarthBound, is just how similar it is to Mother. Maybe I'm being hard on little ol' EarthBound though, it really is amazing.

  Without spoiling, this game plays with similar themes to Mother, precociousness, childhood, trauma, love. The surreal comedy has been turned up to eleven, and it really shows that Itoi just wanted to make a game that more closely fit the vision he had for Mother. It is really good, but I don't know what else I really have to say.

The cast this time around is great. Paula the goat.

  Okay actually, I'll spoil the game. The game introduces more themes of greed and cynical adulthood, which supplements the themes of childhood and precociousness very well. It's like, you are this kid, you are growing up in a scary, surreal, but also very comedic world. And all the adults around you are lost, without hope, so they place their trust in Giygas to lead them. 

  The adults in this game are cynical, downright jerks, and shady. You see this theme really expanded on when you reach Happy Happy Village, where there is a cult which worships the color blue, which I think might be a pun on sadness. A group of people who worship sadness and wear cloaks eerily similar to a certain hate group, enemies who have given over their autonomy to Giygas for no other reason than fear, and a young boy you grew up with drifts away from you over time to become a CEO and join forces with this cosmic force.

The cinematics this time around are much more impressive.

  I have heard an interesting fan-theory that I really vibe with. It basically said that Giygas is almost like an anti-Christ, like a foil to the God of many Western cultures. The game largely taking place in an American-like society, which is largely a Christian country, you can see why one might draw that conclusion. Mother 1 and Mother 3 both have mild religious themes, so I don't think it's so much a stretch. I think the game kind of takes the piss out of American society in many ways, and it places the role of God as regressive almost, a corrupting force that has lead adults to stagnation, sadness, trauma, and a toxic collectivism.

  Giygas is God as trauma. And yet, in the end it is prayer which saves the world. I think this speaks to that theme of love, and reaffirms that though so many around this wacky, effed-up world live in stagnation and have chosen to give up, our inner childs remember what it was like to hope, what it was like to see the world with whimsy, what it was like to believe in fairy tales and magic, to dream big, to believe the unbelievable, and to believe it with your whole heart. The ending tells us, yes, God is dead, we have killed him, and we bare the burden of that loss. We bare the burden of maturity, of cynicism, of an overwhelming feeling of defeat. But the answer is in childhood, and within lies the brilliance of EarthBound.

The trippy visuals are much more interesting than Mother 1.

  Nostalgia can be seen as a regressive, almost conservative kind of attitude, but this game decides to frame it as something radical, something which promotes love, something that we might harness to curb our nihilism. I think that is so beautiful. Fuck yeah, EarthBound.

  The more I talk about this game, the more I think my critique may have been misguided. This game may be very similar to Mother, but it is such an interesting interpretation, and I will say again, a worthy sequel to one of the greatest JRPGs on the NES. This game will give you smiles, and tears.

Follow her on Backloggd for more epic gamer girl reviews.