"A JRPG just isn't a JRPG unless it ends with Teenagers using the power of friendship to kill God" Perfect

And now Nintendo has finally put Mother 1 (renamed EarthBound: Beginnings) on their Virtual Console, so playing it is no longer a DIRTY CRIME.

This really shows how great of a game EarthBound is, considering Yahtzee hates JRPGs and children

You know, Yahtzee wasn't too far off when saying that the game looks like it was made by a child. Heck, the whole font for the Mr. Saturns was based on the handwriting of the creator's child.

"An imaginary game made up by school boys on a playground" actually isn't too far off from how Shigesato Itoi answered the question "What is Earthbound" for the WiiU release actually

The whole "Mother" aspect came from the original game, aptly titled Mother. The main villain had a corporeal form and was designed to be a powerful psychic weapon, ala MewTwo (which is appropriate as the same people who worked on this game, later worked on Pokemon) The final battle was won by humming a lullabye that the villain's adoptive mother used to calm him when he was in his infant stage, and it causes him to question his own morals and desire to BE a weapon. When he comes back for Mother 2, his massive psychic power has gone out of control and he's lost his mind because the purpose for which he was bred was lost, when he started having feelings and emotions.

00:34 AH! Joke's on you, the title is below the video.

3:17 well that is kinda what happened, seeing as how the final boss is allegedly inspired by when the creator walked into the wrong screen at the cinema when he was a kid and stumbled into a horror film during a rape/murder scene.

I have a feeling that Yahtzee has some bad childhood memories with weird Uncle Peter.

Margret thatcher for smash bros.

Anytime I see an Earthbound review, I am excited to watch it. I gotta tell ya, if anyone has a Wii U right now and hasn't played Earthbound, please save your 60 dollars for these shit games, and buy it instead.

I miss those days when the title of the video was above and not below it.

Even with Yahtzee’s definition of JRPG, I think Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door still counts. Some of Mario’s sidekicks are pretty young (e.g. Goombella and Koops), and they do use the power of friendship to kill a god.

"Ima Cutya!"

I think Yahtzee going back and reviewing older games is a really great idea, in part because he's protesting the current games market (rightly), but also because looking at 1994 games with 2014 eyes is an inherently interesting experience; even though some things in gaming are still the same after all this time, it's also amazing how much has changed. Of course, laughing my face off while having said things explained makes it better.

"Teenagers using the power of friendship to kill god." OH GOD MY EYES, THE TRUTH, IT HURTS

As someone who mostly plays JRPGs, I can't voice how happy I am that I now have something to say to people when asked what the difference between a JRPG and an RPG is. It will be something along the lines of "A JRPG just isn't a JRPG unless it ends with Teenagers using the power of friendship to kill God" While I don't know how old you are in Dragon age, and the friendship thing is debatable, I feel that we will be getting to the point of killing the Maker soon, which will pretty much make it a JRPG.

3:49 RUN FOR THE HILLS! Ness has harnessed Spiral Energy, and is on a crazed rampage!

That Mr. Buzz Buzz joke earned you a sub

More time with buzz buzz? Joke's on mom then buzz buzz died right before you left the house.

Played Earthbound recently and this review is surprising accurate! Loved the bit about the automatic win if you're much stronger than the enemies. More games need to do that!

I'm so glad Yahtzee spelled "EarthBound" with the capital "B".

Earthbound is tied with Chrono Trigger for my favorite video game of all time. I absolutely love it, and find myself playing it through again every few years when I get the fancy. Just recently, I played it for the first time without an SNES (because mine finally gave out) and used an emulator. I never actually knew Ness would get homesick if he didn't check in often enough. I always saved like crazy, but when I had save slates, I used those instead.

Yahtzee you must play Earthbound Beginnings

0:35 I'm liking where that finger is pointing.

Its the little things. A normal game would have a "Default" or "preset" option if you didnt want to chose your name. Earthbound had "Don't Care." But everyone likes the main characters names, which show up as the first "Don't Care'. So by pressing the don't care button, you're lying because you actually do care.

Tharamen in buffalo bills house. Dang you are creative

DIRTY CRIME!

He he, i had actually forgotten what i wrote as my favorite food when i last played this, then i recently played it again, and when i got one of the melodies i got a happy Little text box saying :*You suddenly felt a whiff of shit*

"Mother 2 is the more representative title." Oh, Mother 3 is definitely representative in its own way, but not in the way you think.

Earthbound is one game I think could benefit from a HD remake. Not for the graphics, but to change the GUIs to something a bit more user friendly. Same for Chrono Trigger and FFVI. Come on Nintendo/Square, 3DS users will eat that right up.

This is also the appeal of Homestuck. The creator of Homestuck , Andrew Hussie, has said that the Idea started out as "what if you combine EarthBound with The Sims and Spore?". Even the title of Homestuck is a paraphrasing of EarthBound. Homestuck? more like HouseChained...

I'm so glad Yahtzee does the "Burly Bastard Back and Forth" as well. I always felt like I was cheating when I'd leave and re-enter a room eleven times so I didn't have to fight six of those fucking Psychic Psychos Then again, the game guide suggests this as a helpful strategy, so...

I very nearly shat myself laughing when I saw the slug with the knife at 4:12 Well done once again.

Now I'm curious how many signal flares it would take to turn an average backyard swimming pool into a pleasant hot tub.

I rewatched this for the part where he says "dirty crime"

Earthbound is the better title. No matter what happens, you're always on Earth.

There's a sequel to this game on the GameBoy Advance (only released in Japan as far as I know). It's called "Mother 3". There's also a fan translation patch that you can easily download and apply it to a GBA rom. It's difficult to express how truly incredible this game is (as I lack proper english skills to do so.. I'm european). However, It's one of my fondest and most memorable gaming experiences I have ever had. ;) I hope you check it out. The guys who made the english patch also deserve a HUGE credit. EDIT: Finished watching the video. And the kind gentleman took the time to inform you of the sequel released in Japan. ^^ Anyhow, DO check it out!

Still weird how they only released the middle chapter for the longest time and that it still makes sense. The fact that Mother 1 was gonna be called Earthbound as well doesnt help, but the fact that is localised now and Mother 3 isn't is all the more perplexing.

I only ever played the first Mother because when I became interested in trying them, I thought I'd play them in order, and when I got to the second, I found it was the same game as the first. It's more like a remake than a sequel.

Whatever you think of the game, the soundtrack is easily one of the best in any medium ever. Brilliant.

Always love it when you throw in a few retro reviews from time to time Yahtzee :)

loved Earthbound and to me it feels like the inspiration of the Pokemon games

Out of all the videos I watch, zero punctuation's intro takes all my bandwidth.

I wonder if Yahtzee could review OFF by Mortis Ghost. Many players thought OFF looked like Earthbound. And I'd like to see his opinion on such a weird game

Think of the characters hp as blood, and the system becomes a little more fucked up. You need to end the fight or heal before you bleed out.

Mother being a constant in earthbound is true but let’s see how long that lasts in mother 3.... and she’s gone

It took me a second to realize that 'salted caramel buttocks on a stick' was supposed to be an insult.

Earthbound is a wonderful game with an amazing soundtrack and an interesting story. Though, I will say the back tracking can be a bitch if you don‘t have a guide to help you. I will say that I enjoyed playing this thing all the way through. However, Mother 3 is (in my opinion) a far superior experience. The backtracking makes sense considering the game is very story heavy. The way the music plays during dialogue gives this game such a cinematic feel for a Game Boy Advance game. Not to mention Itoi had to plan this story out over the years working on it for the N64 and GBA. I felt like the game was an amazing grand finale.

I'd love to hear what his thoughts on Mother 3 are.

3:57 I actually distinctly recall the newer Paper Mario games (specifically Sticker Star, because I don't have Color Splash) doing just that, as long as you strike them first. It helps save up on -ammunition- stickers quite efficiently.

Love the way he says "dirty crime".

I'm fairly certain Yahtzee has only ever played EarthBound on an emulator, since until the VC release, it was never available in his native Europe. DIRTY CRIME!

I am the only one that thinks that aside from certain game mechanics and the ``American´´ setting, it was a pretty normal JRPG? I have liked other JRPG A LOT more: Final Fantasy 4-9, Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, and Breath of Fire 2 are great examples, and I like some games from the SMT Saga a lot (Persona, Devil Survivor, Strange Journey, etc.). Yahtzee even mentioned the classic cliche of ``teenagers of saving the world through friendship´´ which most games I mentioned earlier lack.

There is also the sense of adventure. Back when we were exited to play a game to get to a different looking level on the back of the box art. I miss those days when you wanted to play and beat a level just to see what the next level looked like and what you did like in C&C Tiberian Sun. HOLY SHIT THAT SPRITE LOOKING LIKE A BUILDING HASN'T BEEN USED BEFORE mind blown. Holy shit the sky is green now this is the best game ever and was totally worth beating the level for. It's the same feeling I miss from watching The Land Before Time or playing Rayman 2 and 3 where each new area and land were different and unique and new obstacles to traverse and a sense of discovery and wonder. What happened to those days when fantasy actually meant a fucking fantasy imaginative narrative and unique world that is impossible to exist and was made from creativity like the Hoodlums in Rayman 3 or the worlds inside minds in Psychonauts. It was wacky and stupid but plausible within the world. Nowadays fantasy means bleak dirty brown medieval political conflict of backstabbing with elves, dwarfs and elves fighting dumb orcs and goblins and some almighty dragon kin who for some reason can't conquer an inferior species of idiots. Or it just means reference Alice In Wonderland as if it's the pinnacle of crazy stuff and nothing weird is weird unless it's a straight ripoff or parody of the fucking book or Disney movie

Also to anyone that's interested, Mother 3 is available to download online. There's a patch you can find that translates it into English and the folks who made it did a bang-up job. It's a wonderful game and a very fitting follow-up to Earthbound. A shame it was never released in the states.

Wow, I was just watching a barnyard erotica film before this video!

He needs to play mother 3...the crap you go through.

Loved the wrap-up

0:34 I think the pointy hand is drunk.

It's funny because it may not sound like it... But that was a positive review. He even praised some of the games gimmicks.

Wait, Yahtzee pointed upwards when referring to the title, but it's under the video.

I literally jumped with joy when I saw this video up on the website a week ago :D

its funny watching this so many years after it came out with such a different youtube layout, him gesturing to the search bar when talking about the video's name

"Feels like it was made by a child rather than for a child". A very good and accurate thought. Earthbound is a rare thing - a video game which is also art (yes, I'm going there). It's art in the true sense, a thing which reaches a level of quality so high that it could only come without any effort to *be* art. As a counterexample I would cite something like "Braid". I loved Braid, it was a great game, but it was made from pieces that were in themselves art (music, visual design, plot, puzzles/logic) without itself being art, if that makes any sense. I still listen to Braid's soundtrack, but I don't find myself going back to play Braid. ... Also I want to give a shoutout to "Robopon 2" for the GBA. Maybe one day I will meet someone with an appreciation for that overlooked gem.

Best game ever made,the only thing that ticks me off about this game is getting poo's weapon "The Sword of Kings" since it has such a damn low drop rate ugh.

Oh my god, a _From Beyond_ reference? Be still my hammering heart and tumescent pituitary gland!

I actually got this game on Virtual console a week back. It's fun, despite the fact that the difficulty curb from the 2nd town to the 3rd town is a 90 degree angle

Do chrono trigger please!

Goes to show: Yahtzee don't give no shits about what's relevant at the time.

The ending bit almost brought me to tears until you mentioned Uncle Peter.

I would love to see an "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" review.

So let me get this straight.... Yahtzee not only reviewed an old game, and not only did he review a game positively, but BOTH AT THE SAME TIME?

Call it a CRAZY hunch but I think Yahtzee actually likes this game.

I think Earthbound meant to seem like a schoolboys' fantasy. The creator mentioned that the ending boss was influenced by a part of a horror film he saw as a child, so it's likely that a lot of the other parts of the story were influenced by childhood. The fact that "mother" is the alternative title is another hint at this theory.

I had a chuckle at "Like someone left a Theremin at Buffalo Bill's house"

Yahtzee you should do a Zero Punctuation on this game Corruption of Champions. It's a text based game that's a lot of fun, I think you'll enjoy it

so... would it be a jrpg if a mlp game came out?

*reads title in subscriptions* ah yes, i have waited many years for this day to come.

Considering you just reviewed this game,I think OFF would be a good follow up to it. It has a similar style but feels and plays differently.

Damn this video gave me a headache... The guy has a British accent, there are lots of cuts in his speech and he never stops talking...... EarthBound - Not Your Typical JRPG ( *Zero Punctuation* ) ..... Ahh I get it....

I'm really tempted to say, "this game stinks!" I know better. It's going to start with one person not getting the joke, and then? The army. A flame war is upon us. Hide (retrieve) your children. (You may need them, bear in mind just what kind of war this is)

That last line made me spit coffee... now I need a new screen...

I'd love to play as Margaret Thatcher! Her special can be called "Iron Lady" and she just immediately belittles the enemy until he gets too depressed and jumps off the map on his own.

I feel like I have no idea what I just watched.

RETRO MODE ACTIVATE

Okay, that Buzz Buzz joke... That was pretty fucking hilarious.

You can tell how old this video is by the fact that the finger pointing at the video title went in the wrong direction.

Name: BUMFK xDD

I don't understand why calling a game childish is an insult in any way. Grown men have proven themselves incompetent several times over in the industry, so at worst they'd be equal.

I greatly enjoy Earthbound. It's just an overwhelmingly charming game.

Ahaha king's quest sprite in the first minute or so, i approve.

Holy shit, I guess staying up all night and watching pointless videos all night paid off, I get to see one of them 9 minutes after it's uploaded, gotta say, first time this has happened... what are you doing to me Internet?

Earthbound I felt is a game that went from underrated to overrated over the last decade, Yeah I played it when it came out and thought it was alright, Interface was a mess just like Yahtzee said, and the grinding in certain areas like to get into the arcade at the start. It's decent but other JRPG's like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy from 4 to 9, Xenogears, Xenoblade Chronicles, Golden Sun, Ni No Kume, are still better.

Subtle Gurrenn Lagann reference. I think I'm in love.

I love this game like a brother, but I cackled the whole way through this review. Excellent work; thank you for sharing your insights. :D

Am I the only one who just couldn't get into Earthbound? NOW, HANG ON Before all your jimmies get rustled, let the record show that I loved the hell out of Mother 3. .... Alright, you can get your pitchforks and torches now. .-.

Earthbound is a pretty cool guy eh kills cosmic horrors and doesnt afraid of anything Huzzah for stupid memes!

I'd recommend you review Asura's Wrath for the Xbox 360 if you're so bored. While it's a little different from your usual cup of tea, it's still an interesting game that I would love to hear your very frank opinion on. It's basically what happens if a video game was turned part-way into an interactive anime, with cutscenes, credits, and previews. It has a surprising compelling story and relatable characters for a game that could be summed up as a Japanese 'God of War' with a likeable main character who uses only his fists and has more feeling and relatability than a vengeance-driven killing machine (or at least grows out of said mindset rather fast). And if nothing else, it has the sort of boss fights you love to play: Fights that test your skill and actually feel threatening, not slow-moving opponents that require massive wind-up times for attacks.

It's in the title of the video: points up Title of the video at bottom of screen Thanks KZfaq