Earthbound is coming to Virtual Console on the WiiU

[Sevenstitch]

yeah, proper leveling in earthbound is pretty important. Avoiding fights, even early on can be hazardous.

[E-Man]

yeah, proper leveling in earthbound is pretty important. Avoiding fights, even early on can be hazardous.

No offense, but don't you need to grind a little to become strong enough to take out the bosses? If I was playing that game, I would take out enemies until my health gets low and head over to the cheapest place to lick my wounds.

[AuraLancer]

Don't grind too far! I try to keep Ness under level 70 by the time I reach the last sanctuary spot. It's easy to max out your levels if you mindlessly grind for Sword of Kings and Ocean Pendant drops.

[E-Man]

Don't grind too far! I try to keep Ness under level 70 by the time I reach the last sanctuary spot. It's easy to max out your levels if you mindlessly grind for Sword of Kings and Ocean Pendant drops.

Fair enough. I might try to get the Sword of Kings myself if I ever play this game, but I'll take your advice. Besides, after watching Nintendo Caprisun's let's play of Earthbound, I know exactly what happens at that point in the game!


........ No spoilers, though!

[DioShiba]

yeah, proper leveling in earthbound is pretty important. Avoiding fights, even early on can be hazardous.

No offense, but don't you need to grind a little to become strong enough to take out the bosses? If I was playing that game, I would take out enemies until my health gets low and head over to the cheapest place to lick my wounds.

Well... duh.

That's one of the elements that are needed in an RPG. If that didn't exist then the whole purpose of strategy ruined to an extent.

If it didn't exist then RPGs would but nothing more but a visual novel.

[Cshad]

yeah, proper leveling in earthbound is pretty important. Avoiding fights, even early on can be hazardous.

No offense, but don't you need to grind a little to become strong enough to take out the bosses? If I was playing that game, I would take out enemies until my health gets low and head over to the cheapest place to lick my wounds.

Well... duh.

That's one of the elements that are needed in an RPG. If that didn't exist then the whole purpose of strategy ruined to an extent.

If it didn't exist then RPGs would but nothing more but a visual novel.

That's not strategy though.

That's literally just level up until you can curbstomp the boss.

Every Earthbound boss fight is spam PK Rockin'/Freeze/Bottle Rockets/Star Storm until you need to heal.

Strategy should involve actual thinking and non-linear attack patterns. Earthbound is a good game, it's battle system is a little cliched, and RPGS most certainly do not need a level up system and linear battle mechanics to be interactive.

It's battle system isn't what makes you play it anyways, though - you pretty much are playing it for the story/world and not because the fights are innovative or exciting.

[Marth]

That's not entirely true, games like Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario and the M&L series all had interesting battle systems that made me want to play the game well before the story did. At least at a young age, when I revisited them as I was older I was able to appreciate them better but the initial hook at a young age for me was the battle systems.

[Mutsukki]

yeah, proper leveling in earthbound is pretty important. Avoiding fights, even early on can be hazardous.

No offense, but don't you need to grind a little to become strong enough to take out the bosses? If I was playing that game, I would take out enemies until my health gets low and head over to the cheapest place to lick my wounds.

Well... duh.

That's one of the elements that are needed in an RPG. If that didn't exist then the whole purpose of strategy ruined to an extent.

If it didn't exist then RPGs would but nothing more but a visual novel.

That's not strategy though.

That's literally just level up until you can curbstomp the boss.

Every Earthbound boss fight is spam PK Rockin'/Freeze/Bottle Rockets/Star Storm until you need to heal.

Strategy should involve actual thinking and non-linear attack patterns. Earthbound is a good game, it's battle system is a little cliched, and RPGS most certainly do not need a level up system and linear battle mechanics to be interactive.

It's battle system isn't what makes you play it anyways, though - you pretty much are playing it for the story/world and not because the fights are innovative or exciting.

Not unlike any other level based RPG. While the ones with interactive battle systems rely on "skill" more than levels, you can still pretty much beat the heck out of everything by overleveling. It depends on how the player wants to play the game, honestly.

[Cshad]

That's not entirely true, games like Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario and the M&L series all had interesting battle systems that made me want to play the game well before the story did. At least at a young age, when I revisited them as I was older I was able to appreciate them better but the initial hook at a young age for me was the battle systems.

That was about Earthbound; not a generalized statement for all RPGs.

[Kriven]

It depends on how the player wants to play the game, honestly.

Flawless victory to any argument about the issues with a game and its mechanics.

That's the magic of video games: they give you all this neat stuff to play with, and you can go ahead and play with it pretty much however you want!

[Koh]

I might have to come back to this and give it another chance. Probably just pick up the SNES rom...I don't mind grinding in games if the combat's actually intuitive and entertaining, but this one is only the former. This series is the only game series I've seen that has a Mileage HP system, where you can take a lot more damage than you actually can take, but as long as you heal enough before it reaches 0, you're perfectly fine. Who thought of that, and why weren't they given a medal?

But seriously, neglecting that, the battle system is exactly like Dragon Quest's, since there's no ATB meter (Final Fantasies 4-6) or other "turn" progression method. I like those games, but even those can get stale. This isn't to say turn-based or ATB based RPGs battles systems are always boring, but there has to be something that makes it interesting. For example, unique enemies, even if they're going to be palette swaps, with unique animations and battle tactics.

[E-Man]

I might have to come back to this and give it another chance. Probably just pick up the SNES rom...I don't mind grinding in games if the combat's actually intuitive and entertaining, but this one is only the former. This series is the only game series I've seen that has a Mileage HP system, where you can take a lot more damage than you actually can take, but as long as you heal enough before it reaches 0, you're perfectly fine. Who thought of that, and why weren't they given a medal?

But seriously, neglecting that, the battle system is exactly like Dragon Quest's, since there's no ATB meter (Final Fantasies 4-6) or other "turn" progression method. I like those games, but even those can get stale. This isn't to say turn-based or ATB based RPGs battles systems are always boring, but there has to be something that makes it interesting. For example, unique enemies, even if they're going to be palette swaps, with unique animations and battle tactics.

I heard that the Mileage HP system is slower in Mother 3, so I think you would like that. Does it work in a similar matter with PP by any chance? If that's so, then it would be easy to spam the best "spells" in the game.

To me, turn based battles have a really good charm to it. Real time battles are nice, but it's nice to think about what you want to do first and then go for it. The first two Paper Mario games are like that and have plenty of options to attack your foes. It looks like the same is going to be said about this game once I get my hands on it!

[Baegal]

PP rolls too, but the numbers are generally smaller so you can't really do too much.

I would recommend setting your text speed to fast, though--it helps make a move before all of your hp runs out!

Personally, I really love the battle system.
It's plenty unique-with rolling bars, interesting enemies that aren't generic minion #1 (you fight a deranged suburbian lady I mean come on), and awesome music to accompany a tricky background.
Any game that has more than 10 generic battle themes deserves a high five!!

Also if the biggest concern is the fact that the enemies aren't animated, well, that's kind of a dumb reason for me at least. I actually prefer it static, because the images yield more interesting compositions, rather than relying on a idle loop to keep the viewer interested. (while I love the Black/White animation of pokemon, it only encouraged stale, uninteresting poses for the sprites).

I'd also really love to get this legitimately, but I don't have a WiiU :C
Either way, it's great to hear this game is getting at least some recognition in America again--the fact that people look past it because of graphics kind of disappoints me because they tend to confuse 'simple' with 'sloppy'.

[E-Man]

Personally, I really love the battle system.
It's plenty unique-with rolling bars, interesting enemies that aren't generic minion #1 (you fight a deranged suburbian lady I mean come on), and awesome music to accompany a tricky background.
Any game that has more than 10 generic battle themes deserves a high five!!

Considering this game's sense of humor, I wouldn't be too surprised if it inspired the humor of the Mario RPGs.

The problem I have with a lot of RPGs is that there aren't too many familiar characters and there isn't a lot of humor. That's why I don't care for the Final Fantasy games. Since I know Ness from the Smash Bros. games and this game is loaded with humor, I should have no trouble playing through it!

By the way is anyone going to try out the rock candy glitch?

[Koh]

To Baegal

What turned me off originally wasn't the battle system and lack of unique enemy animations. I was just saying that's what makes turn-based RPGs much more interesting; every enemy is unique in their own way, even the palette swaps, instead of just being tankier rehashes of previous enemies.

What turned me off originally was, as I stated before, how SLOW this game starts. It takes quite a while for the story/action to get interesting. I'll try to look past it when I get my hands on the rom later...for now, Puyo Puyo Dungeon beckons me.

It does have it's unique twists to turn-based battle, and I welcome it all~ But, I still think the series is highly overrated. It just feels like any other JRPG to me, with it's own twists on mechanics and story. I love many JRPGs, but they all have that general aura about them that defines JRPGs. It's not just this game (and Mother 3) either....Final Fantasy 7 also suffers from overhype and pedestal raising; it just feels like yet another FF game with a downer hero to me. I actually prefer FF6 over FF7, since the characters are much more interesting.