EarthBound (1994) is the story of a young hero named Ness.
One night in Onett, a small town in Eagleland, a meteorite crashes down, disturbing the populace. Ness, a young boy, goes to investigate, then decides to return to bed. Later that night, he's awoken by his annoying neighbor Pokey - Pokey's brother, Picky, was left at the meteorite and Pokey enlists Ness to go get him. After reaching Picky - and fighting several crows, dogs, and snakes - Pokey hears a strange buzzing, and the strange not-a-bee named Buzz Buzz appears from the meteorite. He tells Ness that he's destined to join with two boys and a girl to defeat Giygas, an evil abomination (Pokey is none-too-pleased at this, fearing that he'll be one of the boys). Buzz Buzz accompanies the boys home, saving them from a Starman Junior, only to fall to Pokey's mother's flyswatter, as Pokey's parents have returned in the interim. As Buzz Buzz expires, he tasks Ness with going to Giant Step, a strange place in the north of Onett.
Ness wakes up the next day and heads into town - the path to Giant Step has been locked by the mayor as Frank, the leader of the local ruffians, trashed the place. Ness bravely fights his way into the Onett Arcade, finally encountering and defeating Frank and his robot, Frankystein Mark II. As thanks, the mayor hands him the key to the path, which lets him access Giant Step. He's able to defeat the boss there, claiming its power for his own - however, he has drawn the ire of the local police, and he is summoned to the police station to fight five of the chief's best men (the police chief steps in himself when the fifth man chickens out). After defeating the police, he's given passage to the next town, Twoson.
In Twoson, Ness learns about Paula, a local girl who's renowned for her psychic powers. Paula begins telepathically contacting him, tasking him with finding her in the Peaceful Rest Valley - she is being held there as she's been abducted by the Happy Happyist cult. With some help from a local inventor, Apple Kid, Ness is able to traverse the valley and meet Paula. She gives him the Franklin Badge, which reflects thunder attacks, and tells him to defeat Mr. Carpainter, the cult's leader. Ness is able to fight and defeat him, freeing Paula and allowing them to access and claim nearby Lilliput Steps, another spot of power.
Ness and Paula return to Twoson. They try to move on to the next town, but they can't as ghosts inhabit the tunnel. Looking around, a member of local band Runaway Five gives them backstage passes to his event, and Everdred, a local criminal, gives Ness $10,000 cash that he can't usenote . Ness goes to the theater, watches the show, and uses the $10,000 to buy out the band's contract, allowing them to move on to Threed.
Upon arriving in Threed, Ness & Paula are quickly beset by zombies and trapped underground, at which point Paula telepathically calls their next party member, Jeff. Jeff is tasked with escaping his boarding school and heading south across Winters. After a run-in with a Loch Ness Monster equivalent, an aspiring dungeon creator named Brick Road, and several cavemen, he's able to get to his father's lab, who gives him a flying machine - named the Sky Runner - to get to Threed. The trio escapes the jail, obtains some Fly Honey, and with another assist from Apple Kid, are able to head northward to Saturn Valley. There, they learn that the zombies are being controlled by Master Belch at the nearby Grapefruit Falls. After a three-minute waitnote , they're allowed in. Taking advantage of Belch's weakness to Fly Honey, they defeat the monstrosity and free the town of Threed, also gaining access to power spot Milky Well in Saturn Valley, which they also claim.
The trio arrives to a hero's welcome in Threed, and head eastward through Dusty Dunes Desert - stopping to give food to a hungry miner - to arrive in Fourside, a very large metropolis. While walking around, they learn that the Runaway Five has been suckered by another theater owner, this time to the tune of one million dollars. They head back into the desert, where the miner has completed his mine. They clear the mine of monsters and are given a diamond as thanks, which they trade to the theater owner for the band's freedom. Afterwards, a nearby department store is reopened. The trio heads in to shop, but as they're leaving, Paula is kidnapped by a strange monster!
Ness and Jeff heroically battle through the department store, eventually coming across a strange alien, which they defeat. The alien mentions that Paula is being held at the Monotoli building - Monotoli being a businessman of note. Whenever they try to enter, they learn that Pokey has become his right hand man, and they're unable to access the top floor, but after asking around, they learn that Monotoli has been seen visiting Jackie's Cafe, a local dive bar. As they enter, they hear a man being attacked outside. They go to investigate, only to find that Everdred has been wounded. He tells them to check behind the bar, which they do...
...and they're thrown into Moonside, an utterly bizarre version of Fourside where there are powerful monsters walking about, "Yes" and "No" are reversed, and Hawaiian-shirted men teleport people around randomly. They try and access the Monotoli building in that reality, but they're stopped by a guard who asks them to bring an invisible man whose eyebrows are connected and who has a gold tooth. After warping around some more, they're able to find that man, who is able to cajole the guard away for drinks. They run across a fictional Monotoli, defeat a golden statue, and learn that Moonside was an illusion created by said statue.
After heading back to the desert to retrieve a yogurt dispenser, they're granted access to the top of Monotoli's tower. The trio is reunited again, and they're given their next task - head to Scaraba by way of Summers. A now-reformed Monotoli offers the use of his helicopter, but Pokey steals it before they can use it. Eventually, they return to Threed and repair the Sky Runner, returning to Winters. After claiming Rainy Circle, another power spot, they fly over to Summers, where any attempts to hire a boat are thwarted - most ship captains are terrified of the Kraken, a monster roaming the sea, and the one that isn't is worried about his wife, who quit her cake business and is hanging out at a bizarre club. They get the number for the club, after which, in a moment of fourth-wall-breaking, the player is tasked with entering their name, or any name they choose to enter.
The trio enters to the club, asks about the lady's cake, and are given a Magic Cake, which makes them hallucinate about a young man named Poo. Poo is undergoing strict training, but he succeeds and is told to go join Ness and company, which he does. The foursome complete, they head to the Scaraba museum to learn more about Scaraba. They learn about the way to access the Sphinx in Scaraba, but as they're leaving the museum, they notice the phone is ringing and the receptionist is gone. They pick the phone up to learn that Mr. Spoon, the Fourside Museum's director, has discovered something incredible.
The group goes to Fourside, where Mr. Spoon asks them to obtain an autograph from Venus, the singer who took over the Runaway Five's spot in the theater. They do, and are granted access to a sewer, which allows them to access Magnet Hill, the fifth power spot. While there, they obtain a Carrot Key, which opens the way to Pink Cloud, the sixth power spot. After this, they return to Summers to travel to Scaraba at last. They sail southward, defeating the Kraken along the way.
Arriving in Scaraba, the group dances in front of the Sphinx to enter the pyramid. When in there, they eventually obtain the Hawk eye, which will later let them pierce the darkness. As they exit the pyramid, Poo is whisked away to go study a new power, and the remaining trio runs across Dungeon Man, a "hybrid of man and dungeon" created by Brick Road, who Jeff met in Winters. He joins them briefly, but gets stuck in some trees, after which he grants them access to a submarine, which gets them into Deep Darkness. The trio uses the Hawk Eye to brighten the incredibly dark jungle, and after a grueling trek, they run across Master Barf, the upgraded version of Master Belch. Poo returns and demonstrates his new power, defeating the massive puke pile once and for all.
The group then next enters a cave full of a shy race called Tenda. One of the few non-shy Tenda mentions that there's a book that can supposedly fix shyness, tasking the group with finding it. As they exit the cave, they're coincidentally called by Apple Kid, who mentions that he found Dr. Andonuts'note lab...but before he can hang up, he's kidnapped by the forces of Giygas. The group heads to Winters to save him, which they do, and he mentions that he returned the book to the Onett library. The group obtains the book, gives it to the Tenda, and are able to progress. They're able to obtain the Lumine Hall power spot - the seventh one - before falling into the Lost Underworld.
In the Lost Underworld, the team are threatened by massive dinosaurs and giant rocks, before they run across another group of Tenda - these Tenda aren't shy and broke off from the others because of this. While in the underworld village, they chance across a talking rock, who tells Ness he's the chosen one, and points them toward Fire Spring, the final power spot. The group claims it, and Ness is flung into Magicant, a world of his own mind, where he's in his pajamasnote . He journeys to the Sea of Eden to defeat his villainous side, and he's rewarded with a gigantic groundswell of power. When he awakens back in the real world, he realizes the team needs to head back to Saturn Valley.
Once there, they learn that Dr. Andonuts has created a device called the Phase Distorter, which allows them to travel backwards in time. However, it's not complete - they need a mineral called Zexonyte, which will require them to take some from the Onett meteorite. Giygas has sent some of his strongest flunkies to Onett, but they're no match for the heroes and they obtain the mineral. The Phase Distorter complete, the heroes are told that they must be sent back in time in robot bodies, with no guarantees that they'll be able to return to their physical forms. In spite of this, the heroes head to the past, eventually battling Pokey, then Giygas himself.
While Giygas' first forms are susceptible to physical attack, his last form is invincible, and Paula must pray to defeat him. As she prays, she touches the hearts of the various people they've encountered throughout the journeynote and they will in turn pray for her. However, this is not quite enough, and her next prayer will be answered by the darkness...
...only for the player, whose name was entered earlier, to be moved by Paula's prayer, and begin praying on her behalf for increasingly large amounts of damagenote . This finally destroys Giygas for good, and inspires Pokey to go to another dimension. Despite the threat of possibly losing their lives forever, the heroes' souls return to their physical bodies, and they enjoy a well-deserved peace.
After the credits, in a deliberate callback to the beginning of the game, Ness is awoken by a loud knock, only to be greeted with Picky this time. He holds a letter from Pokey, saying that he'll have his revenge someday...
