Like in most RPGs, Earthbound gave you the option of naming your characters (standard default setting for me), along with your favorite food (mine was “Curry,” because spicy food is great) and favorite thing (mine was “Love,” because I was so very lonely). That character becomes yours-an extension of yourself. It is a display of power and authority over an entity or concept. When you name a character, you not only lend it some of your agency, you own him. The act of naming is owning, according to some writer of long ago. To a young man currently entering adulthood, they are never more important. To a teen going through puberty, these lessons were fairly significant. And Ness, who filled the role of a mute protagonist for 97% of the game, had to confront his myriad doubts and fears, his hopes and dreams, his own personal evils, which were personified as a surreal mindscape. Poo, oh man, Poo suffered through horrifying mental and physical mutilation to complete his training, a trial of fire and crushed eyeballs to instigate growth and transformation. Jeff’s escape from the boarding school and abandonment of his best bro signified graduation from institutions and old relationships. Paula left her parents behind, telling of the familial emancipation all children must undertake. If we get all subtext-ey, each of its young protagonists, no more than 13 years old-my age, sacrificed something to go on their quest. For me, it crooned the swansong of childhood that I was to leave behind. For Zac Gorman, illustrator and all-around awesome guy, Earthbound was a celebration of life and heroism. Earthbound meant a lot of things to a lot of people. I’m probably having trouble because the game taught me so much. In a psychedelic flash, Earthbound helped me close the book on RPG traditions and gave me permission to doodle on the back flap. Goblins and giant rats were ceremoniously replaced with hippies, drunks, and cultists who worshipped the color blue. Dark lords in their skull thrones stepped down to make space for the pettiest, most evil fat kid in pop culture history. Swords and sorcery gave way to frying pans and psychokinesis. Earthbound took the cookie-cutter RPG mold and filled it with special juices to make the best goddamned cookie you’ve ever tasted. However, its limitations served only to amplify the beautiful craziness that it managed to achieve. If you look at it objectively, Earthbound (or Mother, as it’s known in Japan) is a simple game: a JRPG with all of the typical mechanics, with the storyline fitting in the “chosen children collecting objects of power to save the world” cliché. The difficulty can also stem from the game’s blinding brilliance. Classic after classic, finished and enjoyed. I played through Final Fantasy VI, attempted to finish several Marios, and tested my mettle against Castlevania’shordes. My uncle, a sweet guardian angel of a bald man, lent me an old CD with an SNES emulator, allowing me to play through the Golden Age of gaming 10 years too late. I was so bored I even considered taking up a sport. All I had was a PC that couldn’t even play Microsoft Excel’s Spy Hunterwithout crashing. My family had no money for a Playstation 2. The old Playstation was fritzing all over the place. It’s probably because we have history, that game and I.
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