/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.426753]

Why in the fuck don't the main characters ever interact with eachother once they join the party? I like Earthbound for it's charm and humor but the lack of interaction leaves me cold. Mother 3 was better in this regard.

[Anonymous No.426907]

EarthBound, and the Mother series in general, was heavily based off Dragon Quest.

Just like in the first DQ games, in EarthBound you are told very early what your mission is: team up with 3 other kids, and save the world from some otherworldly being. Afterwords, you're kicked right into the game, and it's up to you to figure out what to do.

Again, like in DQ (like DQ2, for example), you'll meet up with different people from different backgrounds who will join you for the purpose of accomplishing the same mission.

EarthBound is, essentially, a true jRPG: you're given a bunch of blank characters so that you, the player, can insert whatever personalities you want into these characters so that you can have your very own adventure.

[Anonymous No.427423]

>>426907
The characters in EarthBound aren't blank slates. Paula, Jeff, and Poo all have personalities that you see before they join your party.

[Anonymous No.427454]

>>426753
I think it's a lack of an appropriate mechanic
how would they do it? when?
the only times RPGs have that kind of thing is in post-dungeon cutscenes.. little cooldown moments.. and, nice as those are, I usually want to pick up control again after something that heavy.. I'd rather these scenes be little designated spots where you j ust go and sit down
that's why xenoblade was great, they had those.. but they also had like 'select an item from the menu and have one party member give it to another', which is the only kind of interaction older games were capable of

[Anonymous No.427479]

>>427423

They have backgrounds, but they don't really have anything going on for them besides that.

[Anonymous No.427559]

>>427479
Paula is spiritual and trusting. When she gets kidnapped, she calls out to Ness in his dreams and waits for him instead of engineering her own escape.

Jeff is reckless. He steals items from his school and climbs over the gate on his roommate's back in order to join you. When he meets you, he gives a self-deprecating introduction in spite of everything he just went through.

Poo is respectful of authority. He spends his entire intro doing what his elders tell him to, and later leaves the party when the Star Master calls for him.

They aren't complex and there's certainly room for imagination, but the basic personalities are there.

[Anonymous No.427649]

Ness ain't got time to talk to his companions, he's too busy holding baby chicks and thinking about his mom.

[Anonymous No.427679]

They are all physic and communicate with each other over telepathy leaving you, the player, a third party observer, to speculate what they are discussing

[Anonymous No.427680]

>>427679
Jeff ain't psychic dude.

[Anonymous No.427684]

>>427559
It's too bad non of that is seen after they jin the party

[Anonymous No.427701]

>>427680
Fuck you got me

[Anonymous No.427780]

>>427679
>leaving you, the player, a third party observer, to speculate what they are discussing
"I'd like a new baseball bat."
"I'd like a new frying pan."
"I'd like a new bazooka."
"..."

[Anonymous No.427820]

>>427559

How exactly would you have worked out having their characters grow throughout the story? I can't actually think of anything that would've worked, because the actions that their story is based upon were altruistic, not motivated by personal reasons.

I do believe that in the spirit of playing like a Dragon Quest clone, that the character growth was left out in favor of the player imagining it themselves. Sort of like the stories you make up when you used to play with action figures.

I'm satisfied with how the game handled the story. I really wouldn't want it if the game HAD to play exactly like every other story driven RPG, where characters are mostly driven by their own motives which somehow, coincidentally, also affect the game's main objective.

[Anonymous No.427908]

>>427820
Having them grow? I think the standard mechanics of leveling up and giving commands to the party handle that well enough. As the player learns to utilize each member of the team, the characters are learning to work together.

More dialogue in the party probably wouldn't help much for these characters specifically, since their circumstances don't change much between joining the party and leaving it.

[Anonymous No.427934]

>>427908

Not litteraly "grow" as in becoming stronger or more physically able. I meant it as maturity, and interpersonal relationships.

The game's story isn't really about the individual party members, but how they collectively worked together with themselves and with other people around the world to stop its impending doom.

>As the player learns to utilize each member of the team, the characters are learning to work together.

See? This isn't explicitly said in-game, but you're imagining it. You're personalizing the game to enjoy the game yourself in your own unique way, and that's exactly why they didn't introduce specific character interactions.

[Anonymous No.427948]

>>426753

ur sposed to roleplay