I emulated earthbound for the first time recently on my phone. I only own a repro cart because I wanted to actually play it before I bought it. I just dumped the ROM from that.
Anyways, I can’t believe I took so long to play it. I do not like JRPGs, don’t care for the SNES Final Fantasy or mystic quest.
But earthbound was great. It didn’t take itself too seriously at all during the story but still made you care about the characters. Any time the runaway five (of which there is six of them) appear, it’s an absolute treat. The game doesn’t really explain the mechanics well but it’s not overly complicated so you can beat the game without really needing to know what IQ, Guts, Speed or Luck really do.
The only thing that I didn’t like is that the game teaches you early on that Paula’s pray ability is basically a 50/50 shot of helping you or hurting you but then it’s required later on in the game. It took me awhile to figure out how to beat an important battle because of that. Though in hindsight it should have been obvious.
I want to play earthbound beginnings here pretty soon.
The only JRPG on the SNES that compares to earthbound is SMRPG imo