MOTHER/EarthBound series

Nope, they have the pencil and eraser.

It's basically the SNES ROM with the PSI animation adjustments from the Japanese Virtual Console release.

I liked the Pencil Eraser and Eraser Eraser gag.

And I was very impressed that Tomato and his crew replaced the sprites for the callback in Mother 3.

Bought Earthbound for the Wii U Virtual Console earlier today.

Aside from the reduced intensity of the PSI animations, there don't seem to be any changes, does there?

Nope. Everything else is exactly the same as it was eighteen years ago.

So they didn't change the "Won't Get Fooled Again"-like Sky Runner theme?

Let me say this, there is nothing peaceful about Peaceful Rest Valley.

Nope, unedited. It's more of a Suspiciously Similar Song than anything actually copyright-infringing, anyway.

Exploding trees, man. Exploding trees.

edited 22nd Jul '13 11:32:21 AM by Midna

Despite the Territorial Oak being really deadly, I choose to fight it anyway, since I have a compulsion to kill every enemy I come across in every game.

Reading Tomato's translation notes for how Mother 2 and Earthbound differ is interesting. Apparently, the default name for Ness's favorite thing in Japan was "Fighting Spirit". Makes you wonder what they'd have done for dubbing if they had made Ness's Final Smash that instead of Starstorm.

I've been reading The Chosen Four alongside my playthrough.

You could also perhaps read "Let's Play: Some Game No One Cares About"

I'll grant that a webcomic is a bit easier to read alongside a playthrough without influencing your playthrough, though.

I read ahead a bit (Got up to after beating the Dept. Store Spook, but kept reading up to the defeat of Shrooom!), and found that it's more fun to play first and then read than to read first and then play. This time I stopped reading after Magnet Hill.

@Enlong: Tomato was actually taking a translation liberty; the actual default name of Ness's basic PK attack in Japan is PK Kiai.

He also said T-Rex Bat was originally called "Godzilla Bat", which I don't think is true because Godzilla is a Dub Name Change; Japan calls him Gojira.

edited 24th Jul '13 4:33:59 PM by universalperson

Kiai is still a pretty great Favorite Thing.

And I now am imagining Ness fighting enemies by shouting psychic pain at them.

Probably was something like "ゴジラの バット" in Japanese, though.

Me too. It's hilarious.

I also just realized today why Mr. Carpainter is a lightning-shooting house-builder.

edited 24th Jul '13 4:57:26 PM by universalperson

...who is a prominent figure in a certain kind of relig— oh God, it makes so much sense now...

Today I finished the game. In the end, it was not Ness, Paula, Jeff or Poo who dealth the final blow. It was Dr. Rrrrrobotnik!

"DropPING AS usual, I see! You dumbbots had better win this fight, or I'll make a toaster oven out of your parts!"

Also, I read all of The Chosen Four so far. My favorite line is probably "Even the captain's beard grew a beard."

Starmen.net, I used to hang around there and read Earthbound fics back when I was either 9 or 10.

Something that still bothers me about Earth Bound is that Ness visiting the eight Your Sanctuaries was pointless, since it was ultimately Paula who got together the people of Earth to destroy Giygas.

As I recall, the purpose of the Sanctuaries was to imbue the characters with sufficient enough power to fight Giygas. It just ultimately wound up not being enough power to win. There was never a guarantee, just "Visit these places to become powerful, and then challenge Giygas and hopefully prevail."

If Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo had walked right up to Giygas and challenged him to a fight right at the start of the game, he would have vaporized them with an idle thought and then went right back to doing what he was doing.

edited 25th Jul '13 8:36:47 AM by TobiasDrake

Ness goes Super Saiyan, and allows Paula time to gather the Spirit Bomb.

Yeah, he used his power to protect, not destroy. He used the power of the sanctuaries in order to be able to protect Paula at the end.

edited 25th Jul '13 11:19:51 AM by Marioguy128

And to clear a swathe through the Bionic Krakens and Final Starmen and what have you.

But yeah, it is a little odd that he gets this massive powerup and then doesn't use it to defeat Giygas, even with the point about him defending Paula.