Earthbound Beginnings (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1989 RPG for the NES, Earthbound Beginnings.

Though a prototype of the US version of the game was leaked several years ago, Earthbound Beginnings wasn't officially released in English by Nintendo until 2015 when it appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console. The localization was finished in 1990, but the release was delayed and eventually cancelled. This video is of Nintendo's official, original localized game - not of one of the several hacked/edited versions that have since appeared.

Earthbound (Beginnings) was originally known as Mother on the Famicom, and it was the first game of Shigesato Itoi's highly acclaimed RPG trilogy. The American game known as Earthbound was originally known as Mother 2, and it is the direct sequel to this NES title.

If you're looking for that game, you can find my video of it here:    • EarthBound (SNES) Playthrough [Pt. 1 ...  

If you're familiar with Earthbound on the SNES, a lot of this game will seem familiar as well. It takes place in modern day America, it uses a Dragon Quest-style battle system, it has a wickedly random sense of humor, and it is a far darker game than it would initially lead you to believe.

Neither the storyline nor the world are as fleshed as you'll find in the sequel, but by NES standards, there's a lot of good stuff going on here. I loved that the world has no seams or loading points in it - it might look simple, but imagine that you can roam their entire would map without once running into a screen transition. It's incredible what something so small does un making the world feel like more than a collection of disconnected hubs that you walk between. The story is pretty unfocused throughout, but it does have enough threads to hold it together, and it certainly throws a curve ball at you near the end. That last boss is one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen in an NES game!

The gameplay is alright, but it feels like a Dragon Quest clone from the late 80s. There is some heavy grinding (there are a couple spots where I did some leveling offscreen - you'll see my EXP jump at these points), backtracking, and a couple of insanely annoying mazes (the weapons factory, anyone?), but the game is still pretty short, and its sense of humor does help to lighten up the slow bits. And that soundtrack is thoroughly awesome.

Overall, while it's obviously not as polished as the SNES game, it is every bit as iconic, and it's equally as well loved in its home land. You don't often find a game that carries the tagline "No crying til it's over," but then, that's the Mother series for you.

It's brilliant in its absurdity, and it manages to be surprisingly human in its portrayal of ... well, I won't spoil that. Just watch it. Or better yet, go play it.

_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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