Earthbound is an Adventure Game developed by Chihiro Fujioka and published by Xtal Soft, originally released on the FM-7 in 1983 and ported to the PC-6001 and MZ-1500 in 1984.
One morning you wake up with no knowledge of you who are and leave the town of Comuschair to search for someone named Lady June. You discover that she apparently lives there, so the quest begins with you asking people for clues regarding her whereabouts.
Not to be confused with the SNES RPG called EarthBound, which is part of the Mother series.
This game provides examples of:
- Amnesiac Hero: The player wakes up with amnesia, not knowing who he is or what he was doing.
- And the Adventure Continues: In the ending, the player character goes on a new journey with Lady June's cats.
- Copy Protection: You can only talk to people if you use their names. The names can only be found in the manual.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In the FM-7 version, a screen of text hints Cloudhanph was the devil's underling, but we never get to see it.
- Gratuitous English: Picking up an item makes the game exclaim "OK!! You got it!" even though its text is normally in Japanese.
- Hints Are for Losers: The manual informs the player that the big mystery is what the game is about, which is why the developers can't answer any inquiries or telephone calls regarding hints or the game's contents. The only option available if hints are really necessary is sending a round-trip postcard.
- Schmuck Bait: You can get two deaths, but neither of them is achievable unless you go out of your way. One is attempting to just cross the river and drowning, the other is hitting a wall.
- With This Herring: At the start, when you enter the town of La Tale, you only have one gold coin.
- You Can't Get Ye Flask: Instead of standard directions like "north" and "east", you have to use commands like "go forward" or "go through". When you're next to a house, the former puts you at the house's entrance, while the latter makes you go past it.
