/vr/ - Retro Games

>Is the earthbound series difficult to get into?
Nope. Generic as generic gets.
>I have heard its an amazing story and way WAY past its time.
Not really.

Not at all. Earthbound is a really good starting point for newbies. Earthbound Beginnings (Mother 1) is pretty tough though. I'd say play that one last, the story for each game is different.

>>2537506
Just beat it the first time last month. It was a great experience but I felt like the hype was too much. I also believe seeing a playthrough of Mother 3 took away a lot from my experience.

>>2537506
>the only ones I'm very familiar with are shining force, fire emblem and pokemon games.
Then EarthBound is fine

Just go get it and play it and ignore any EarthBound threads til you beat it.

>>2537519
anything hyped has too much hype, ignore it

>>2537523
I wanted something more personal like Mother 3.

It's a good game. But as many say its way over hyped.

>>2537506
First game for the NES is very tedious, random encounters every few steps, writing is interesting.
There are romhacks that fixes this, so don't feel bad about emulating.

Earthbound, for the SNES, is much easier to get into (though it has it's cryptic parts, so don't be afraid to look up hints online if you get stumped). The story, atmosphere and world is the best part by far, though the gameplay isn't bad.

It's a very whacky, weird, odd, fucked up, whimsical, funny, cool, silly and cute kind of adventure, and I recommend it.

Don't play it on a pirated SNES cart though, the game has fucking diabolical copy protection designed to suck the fun out of the game (it'll even reset the game and wipe your savefile by the final boss battle, just to spite you).
Buy a real cart or play it on an emulator. Or Virtual Console, I think they put it there recently, but I don't know if they censored it or not (Earthbound goes into pretty daring territories in terms of possible copyright violations, mostly music).

>>2538407
If he wants to play it on original hardware he could literally get a SD2SNES for the current cost of an Earthbound cart.

>>2538409
Oh right, it's needlessly jumped in price hasn't it? Faux collectors value, right?

Man, it's like buying bricks of .22 caliber ammunition in some places, childish fun is too expensive some times.

>>2537506
you little bitch buy it

You have to understand that Earthbound is a game designed for children in the 90s before the internet was really a big cultural thing.

If someone wanted to make a game like it now it would have to be about a 20 something neet with psychic powers dropping out of college and going off the grid, replete with dank memes and drug culture and shit.

There's nothing that can explain to you what makes Earthbound significant if you yourself can't relate to it.

>>2538725
most of us played mother 3 in our adult lives and we could still relate just fine, stop talking out your ass

>>2538736
Mother 3 is literally a game made for those same kids who played Earthbound, and it's not the game I was talking about either. I said Earthbound, I didn't say Mother 3. Idiot.

>>2538725

But Itoi said he made Mother 2 for all kind of people, but especially for adults.
The slogan in japan was "Kids, Adults and even older sisters".
One of the reasons he made Mother 2 is because he wanted to get his own older sister back into vidya, since he noticed her (along with all the other women her age) were into games during the "Famicom boom" (basically, everyone in Japan played vidya thanks to the Famicom), but by the time SFC came out, games went back to being a niche thing for things and hobbyist nerds.

You can actually notice Mother 2/EB is not a kid's game due to the writing (and no, it isn't "lol so random", that expression didn't even exist back then, it's a 00s thing).

In fact, I'd argue there's very little videogames that are only for children, and most of them are on PC (edutainment). Everything else is always made to be played by everyone, since most developers are adults themselves. Especially back then, when focus groups and such things didn't exist in the industry, devs just made the games they themselves wanted to play.

>>2537506
It's about a group of children living their last childhood adventures before puberty hit them
Beautiful game made with a lot of heart. Pretty unique game on this medium

>>2538750
well, perhaps it's more accurate to say that it's designed to emulate the perspective of such a child

>>2538763

In that sense, yeah, but then again there's a lot of books and films that star children, but aren't aimed at a kid audience exclusively. For example Stand By Me/The Body, which served as one of the main inspirations for the Mother games.

I remember there was a novel released in Japan, which was about the experiences of 4 women in their 40s playing Mother 2

>>2538746
I didn't play Earthbound as a child either. And don't all others idiots, that's rude.

>>2538746
I still disagree, mother 3 doesn't have much resemblance to earthbound in fact back in the day when it came out that was one of the popular criticisms, people were expecting earthbound 2.0 and got disappointed.
I don't know man, I'm not crazy over earthbound or anything but I think you're being overly harsh to the game because of the internet hype

>>2538773
fuck you you started it

>>2538780
I didn't criticize it. Why are you reacting like I did?

>>2538784
In that case I apologize. :(

>>2538780

Are you sure Mother 3 got critisized for not being Mother 2.5?

Everyone who was aware of Mother 3 existed since the 90s, knew it was going to be very different. We've had screenshots, videos and even sinopsis of the plot long before the GBA game was released, since the times of the game being on N64, we could see Tazmily village, Flint and his family, the unusual, non-urban setting, the pigmasks, etc.

People who were expecting another Mother 2 were probably just people who weren't into the series to begin with.

I also remember some article from EBC where they shared some opinions from "japanese gamers" on Mother 3 where they said they didn't like it and so on, but then again, those comments were from 2ch. That's the equivalent of asking /v/ about any game: of course most of the comments are going to be negative.

Mother 3 was successful and liked in Japan.

>>2538769
Was that novel ever translated?

>>2538725
>If someone wanted to make a game like it now it would have to be about a 20 something neet with psychic powers dropping out of college and going off the grid, replete with dank memes and drug culture and shit.

Not gonna lie, I would be curious to see a game like this. The way I'm picturing it in my head is some kind of videogame in the surreal style of Megg, Mog & Owl.

>>2538959

I don't think so, but here's a synopsis

http://earthboundcentral.com/2008/06/women-love-mother-2/

>>2538407
Since Earthbound on the Wii U comes with a virtual strategy guide(and there's a story reason for that), don't bother looking stuff up. The guide actually has a lot of neat little chuckles in it too.

>>2539435

Just bought the game on Wii U, where is that guide exactly ?

>>2539462
On the internet.

>>2539462

Yeah IIRC; the guide doesn't come with the game, you can just access it on the official VC EarthBound website. it's in hi-res and I believe it's specially sized to fit the WiiU screen for easier reading, but not sure about that.

>>2538725
>it would have to be about a 20 something neet with psychic powers dropping out of college and going off the grid, replete with dank memes and drug culture and shit.
So in other words, it would be Welcome to the NHK - the game

>>2537512
>Earthbound
>Generic

I'm feeling homesick and am going to have to call my mom because I tell you why that's bullshit.

>>2540213
>because
Meant before. Dammit. Everything is ruined.

>>2540220
It's okay anon. Calm down.

>>2538725
/r9k/-The Game

>The Territorial Oak burst into flames!
JESUS CHRIST!
(Thank god for the rolling HP meter or I'd be toast)

Zombie paper is pretty handy...

OP here
I got earthbound on the virtual console

yes man jr. and pogo punk keep kicking my ass, and this guy name frank keeps shanking my ass. Do I need to just grind up? I don't have any fancy attacks, only Lifeup a and hypnosis a. I'm level 6

>>2541898

Nearly everyone has trouble with Onett the first time they play the game. Just keep trying. If you die, you keep your exp points. You only lose half the money you're carrying.

>>2541932
I completely forgot about dad giving money. Gonna stock up on lucky sandwhiches and just keep flinging ness into frank

>>2541938
Grind, get the latest gear, and you should be fine. Level 8 isn't too bad if you're having trouble, as then you'll have a psi attack. After Onett, the difficulty slopes a tad better.

>>2542114

>>2540961
FUCK!
Now the Smilin' Spheres too?
Glad I'm out of the desert.

I'M SCARED!

Are those turds floating in the sewage? Gross, but realistic.

>>2543485
And of course this asshole shows up; to photograph us after having waded neck deep in POO WATER.

I'm sure that'll be an amazing memory.

>>2543490
Forgot my image.

>>2543141

>>2537506
The first mother game is my favorite game, ever. They're not hard to get into, just make sure you the mindset of going on an adventure. Also, the dungeons are expansive as shit. I recommend a map for each dungeon if you're not patient.

>>2538407
>There are romhacks that fixes this, so don't feel bad about emulating.
Anyone who needs to use the Easy Ring hack needs to be banned from NES RPGs. Mother 1 isn't even that hard or tedious.

>>2543845
>Mother 1 isn't even that hard or tedious.

Hard ?
No indeed.
Tedious ?
Yes, i played it without patch and i ended up enjoying the pain of those encounters.

>>2537506

How are Mother 1's encounters compared to FF1 on NES? I beat FF1.

>>2543845
Hard is a matter of opinion, but you're a fucking loon if you don't see how Mother 1 is tedious as shit.

>>2543921
Like every other square or so, really is fucking dense.

>>2537506
>Is the earthbound series difficult to get into?

If you don't mind the Dragon Quest battle system then it's about as beginner friendly as you can get.

>>2543845
>Mother 1 isn't even tedious
How is it not?

>>2545003

The ATM system prevents you from losing half your money if you die (like in DQ, and most other RPGs like it. Other classic RPGs of the time like Phantasy Star doesn't even let you resume if you die, you lose all your progress and back to your last save point.
That alone makes Mother a lot less tedious than 90% of the RPGs of the time.

>>2545015
I was never bothered by thr fact that I have to go back to my last save if I fuck up (I mean, it's frustrating but I don't think it's unfair).

What does bother me is several dozen randon encounters springing up even when travelling the shortest distances, that's not challenge, that's bad design. It's hard to keep a flow going when you're constantly interrupted.
Earthbound did a much superior job where the monsters are actual entities chasing you on the map, and how you can sneak up on them, try to avoid them, or get ambushed or ganged up on by then.

I can't think of another environment in a videogame that feels as anti-natural and uncanny as this.

>>2545912
H-here I go!

>>2545945
... I immediately regret this decision.

>>2545947
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>2545953
NOOOOOO!!!!

>>2545958
SHUT UP FATASS I'M WAY TO TERRIFIED TO CARE RIGHT NOW

Good thing I made so much money in this game, I'll almost be able to pay my psychiatrist bills.

>>2545982

>>2545997
pray nigga

>>2545998
PRAYING HARDER THAN ANYONE'S EVER PRAYED BEFORE

>>2546004
>faced with a terror from beyond time and space
>him and his friends in the ultimate of peril
>crying uncontrollably
>yet he continues to load and fire his bazooka at the perfect evil like it's fucking Doom 2
Jeff is the fucking man.

>>2546023
PRAY HARDER BITCH OR WE GON DIE

>>2546031
"Die you son of a bitch!" - The venerable Duke of Nukem

>>2546031

"Die you son of a bitch!" - The venerable Duke of Nukem

>>2545912
>>2545945
>>2545947
>>2545953
>>2545958
>>2545978
>>2545982
>>2545997
>>2546004
>>2546023
>>2546031
>>2546036
>>>/youtube/

>>2546089
I got caught up in the moment, eat me.

Is it just me or do the Wooly Shamblers look like they would be fun to hug if it weren't for them being aggressive?

>>2542967
Wait until you meet the Atomic Power Robot. I fucking hate that son of a bitch.

>>2545978
>>2545982
>>2545997
>>2546004
>>2546023
>>2546031
>Not naming the hero after yourself

you're as bad as Persona fags

>>2547908
You're insulting other people for not being so pathetic that they have to self-insert as every video game character so they can feel like a hero?

>>2547908
have you even played the game? it asks you for your own name as a separate entry.

>>2547896
Been there, done that.
Fuck I hated the Atomic Power Robots, particularly when paired with the Super Starmen, THAT was hairy. I basically ha Jeff use the Heavy Bazooka in place of his regular weapon just to make sure I could put out as much damage as fast as possible.

But then there's the Nuclear Power Robots by the end of the game, those motherfuckers are NOT fun, certainly not when coming with the Final Starmen. I'm not even sure that them exploding is the worst part of them by that point-

I mean, the Smilin' Spheres and Territorial Oaks aren't commonly matched up with anything too terrible or monstrous, but the fucking Atomic Power Robots, goddamn.
The fact that they often accompany particularly nasty monsters, and that they can HEAL themselves and others (and lets not forget that the Super Starmen can resurrect other monsters, including the goddamn Atomic Power Robot), you've got a recipe for a really difficult and drawn out battle.

>>2547908
But I am not Ness. I'm playing a game where the character is Ness.
Why should I name him after myself? It's really unfitting for me to do that and it would really take me out of the game.

I doubt people who play Persona are the only people who don't name the MC after themselves.

>>2547927
Please understand anon, he's autistic and can't help it.

>>2547939
This too, it would be very strange if Anon called out for Anon to pray for Anons safety.

>>2547960
#nohomo

>>2547908
What?