I just beat Earthbound for the first time. Never played the game before, decided to try it on my Odin 2 and loved every second of it. Such a perfect game, well I guess not perfect, my biggest gripe is the inventory system. I feel bad that I often resorted to a walkthrough too, but I rationalized it as back in the day you'd ask your friends for help, but since I don't have friends I used the internet. I'm not sure what to play through next but I'm thinking Chrono Trigger. If I do I think I'll try it blind with no guides. Share your favorite RPG or memories of playing Earthbound or both. Would also love recommendations of any retro genre in case I skip Chrono Trigger.
Beat that game in one weekend. Js
>I feel bad that I often resorted to a walkthrough tooEarthbound shipped with a 70 page strategy guide, that’s why it had a bigger box than other SNES games
>>11022356Chrono Trigger is a good one to try, heavy on story and kind of an unconventional setting like Earthbound. Definitely don't use a guide because the game has multiple endings, it'll cheat your experience more and probably spoil things in the process.
>>11022356>Would also love recommendations of any retro genreI just finished The Little Mermaid for NES. I tried it based on the recommendation of another /vr/ anon and I was really impressed.It's a very short (I beat it in one sitting), solid, fun Kirby-style action game. Not very challenging, not too easy either. Ariel's sprite is really cute.I can easily pass on the recommendation; anyone who uses this board will enjoy it. I wouldn't be surprised to see it popping up on a bunch of hidden gems lists in a few years.
secret of manalegend of the mystical ninja
>>11022412Thanks anon I'll try it tonight. If thread is still around I'll give my impressions
>>11022356I didn't play Earthbound until last year. I was old enough to play it when it came out, but it didn't appeal to me. I was playing Zelda LttP, Soul Blazer, FFII, FFIII, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger over and over again. I'm glad I did because it's just as good as those games, but yeah the inventory management is the only real flaw. The graphics have withstood the test of time and look amazing, but back then we all though it looked like shit, because back then realism was king. The music is underrated as fuck. Even back then I wish Final Fantasy had more varied music for the battles, (even though admittedly they were the biggest bangers in any game). I loved how it did that. The solution to random battles being avoidable sometimes, to outright winning if you're level is big enough was a genius solution to random battles.I didn't use a guide, but I did find the game really challenging. Some of those bosses I would get my ass kicked, go back into it trying a new strategy based on what I knew and barely beat them. Nail biting. It also had the old-school method of laying save points far away, so you could potentially die and lose an hour of progress. I like that because it ups the stakes and tension with the battles. You better prepare and be on your game. I thought the story sucked, but the characters and interactions were awesome and genuinely funny. I only play and RPG for it's story once, really, and if I replay it, it's for the game-play, battles, strategy and challenge. I won't be replaying Earthbound because of the menu system. It seems like the only way to really have that not be an issue is to use a guide so you're not hiding items away, and you know when you can use them and not store them. Otherwise playing a hacked version where that's not an issue.Overall it's an 86/100 for me.
>>11022356>>11022562Chrono Trigger is definitely worth playing. It's pretty short for an RPG, and not too difficult. Earthbound is harder, but there will be a few parts where a boss will kill you and you have to retry or level up. Not to much grinding at all, and the game is not very complex at all. It's just complex enough to keep it interesting, and the best part about it is how you jump around different times/areas all the time and slowly build a party until you can pick and choose your party and get different combinations of attacks.It's not involved like FFIII (6) where you really need to have a spreadsheet going to keep track of everything if you want to max your file. Chrono Trigger is a much more chill RPG that you can pretty much play and won't really miss anything.If you haven't play Soul Blazer I recommend that one. It's always been one of my favorite games, and it's an action RPG, so more like Zelda, but more action/less puzzle oriented. It has a vibe and aesthetic of it's own, and if you like the gameplay it's pretty addicting with the constant reward of killing enemies and their layers. You never know what's going to happen, or what will be built in the town once you step on a cleared enemy lair.
>>11022412Gave it a shot, a few levels in and I can see the draw to the game. I'll definitely be finishing this one. >>11022562Great overview. Most of the fights were boring so I appreciated the auto fight ability. The battle theme of the first stage of the Giygas battle was an absolute banger. Speaking of Giygas, I thought the fight to take him down after Pokey was pretty novel. Really really enjoyed the playthrough, again aside from the horrid inventory system. I'm glad I didn't min max farming for best items like Poo's weapon as I officially planned.
>>11022356I'm pretty sure those scratch and sniff cards fucked me up as a kid, the mushroom one in particular smelled absolutely foul
>>11022356>and loved every second of it. Such a perfect gameyou kiss your mother with that lying mouth?
>>11022385>Chrono TriggerI played it on my phone years ago and got stuck trying to catch a fucking mouse, I don't remember if I checked the walkthrough or not
>>11022743I honestly don't like it, I can see why people do and I did finally beat after like 3 or 4 attempts where it lost my interest. First time I played it was late 90s, didn't power through til maybe 2018.
>>11022356>I'm not sure what to play through nextI mean, Mother 3 is open to you now. You might as well. No guarantee that you'll like it as much as you like this one, but you might as well try. No come on anons, don't start one of those "is Mother 3 good or is it Satan" fights now, I didn't even say it was good, I just think OP should try it.
>>11022356>my biggest gripe is the inventory systemThere’s nothing wrong with it.An actual problem is having to buy one item at a time in stores.
>>11022743>Phone port of the DS PortSNES/emulation or bust>>11022907Shit taste
>>11023241It's slow and boring, the actual gameplay is not fun.
>>11022412I was playing that with my daughter, I only got to beat the first shark boss. How many levels is there?
Lufia 2: Rise of the SinistralsOne of the best RPS ever--story, music, characters
>people complaining about the menu system when it's a direct clone of Dragon Quest's menu system>when mother series is literally Dragon Quest-style RPG but current day/modern times and the magic is psychic abilitiesEarthbound has flaws, so bad it needed a strategy guide shipped with it. Getting into Belch's hideout alone shouldn't have gotten past play-testing. But the menu system is the deal-breaker for you?
>>11024006>But the menu system is the deal-breaker for you?Yes. The menu is slow and sluggish, with up to a full second of waiting for the next page to load when switching between party member inventories/status screens, or loading skill menus/item menus in battle.In an RPG where menus are where you spend 90% of the game, this is fucking unacceptable.
>>11024006the menus are fine, it's the inventory system that's kinda annoying. you get 20/16 with equips items per person (17/13 for ness technically) and it gets filled up fast so if you get new equipment/jeff items you have to move over items and it takes a while. they should've made it so equips 'disappear' into the equip menu like in mother 1 but also allowed deequipping. also why can the escargo express can only take/give three items? admittedly this usually isn't a problem because you wanna use it for key items but it's still weird.
I played the game about a year ago totally blind and wanted to see how far I could go without a walkthrough. I knew nothing about the game other than very superficial stuff (Ness shows up in Smash, Undertale is inspired by it, the meme music, etc). Everyone always talked about how notoriously obtuse the game is, but once I played it, I didn't find it crpytic at all. If you play by old RPG rules and talk to all the NPCs, you're given all the info and hints you need. The only time I got stumped and had to look up help was the Giygas fight where you're supposed to repeatedly pray. Originally I did, but then the dialogue box changed to something like, "The darkness swallowed it up!" twice in a row, so I thought I couldn't do it anymore. I was one click away from beating the game without looking up a hint once. Oh well. I also loved every second of it. I even went and played Mother 1 recently and was surprised how close the formula was despite being on the NES. There's a lot of tedious actions and backtracking and shit like that, but there's something very alluring about the game where I WANT to talk to everyone and go into a new town to see what new weirdo problem they have. It's like the charm outweighs the frustrations. I want to get my MiSTer working again so I can figure out how to put a translated Mother 3 on it.
I loved it so much I made a rendition of Paula's Theme https://voca.ro/1iak6KHZVlDA
>>11022356I’ve grown to love the inventory system. It forces you to actually use your items
>>11022356I beat it when it came out and I had fond memories of it being one of my favs, but beat it last year and it doesnt hold up for me.chrono and ff6 still hold up for me though
>>11024737I like it. Twoson might be my favorite section of the game. It seems like a really lax place to live.
Reminder the original japanese Mother 2 has faster menu/inventory
>>11027776>the menu speed schizo makes another appearancecmon dude no one cares that you know japanese.
>>11022356The World Ends with YouI'm serious.
>>11022412I'm happy to see this title getting more love, it's such a good time and a NES classic for me. it was hard to go wrong with Disney and Capcom then, of course I get the complaints some have that it can be a bit too easy and/or short, but I feel like that's part of the appeal, it's comfortable to play, and that could be hard to find on the NES then. I wish we could've gotten more like this one then.>>11022471>>11022593I hope you have a good time finishing it, anon!>>11023645I recall there being 5 levels, all quite different in aesthetic and how they play, their gimmicks and the enemies you might face, it's perfect to play with your kids since it's so accessible, hope you both can enjoy it, just keep in mind that the last few levels do get less simple, nothing crazy still.
>>11029394I did finish it, somewhere in the ballpark of 30 minutes. Might have been the easiest NES game I ever beat, but I did use save states. Quality game though, if not a bit too easy. Still enjoyable though, loved the recommendation.
>>11022412If Capcom developed something, there's a 90% chance it's at least good.
>>11030502It really is easy, I'd try it without save states next if you want to make it a bit more difficult, but to be fair that won't change much, it's a pretty easy and simple title, but I feel that's the appeal, I had many cartridges as a kid and never beat any until I grew older, having something that's accessible and that feels more possible to beat likely made this one many people's favorite back then really.I'm glad you've liked it though. I really wish other Little Mermaid titles were more like it, the Mega Drive one is much worse, and the PS1 one is fine, but nowhere near as fun to play as this one was.
