Discussion Earthlikes

[Irene]

Games inspired by, or reminiscent of, Earthbound. Like Yume Nikki, OMORI and of course Undertale. Games where some characteristics includes top-down pixel-art, RPG mechanics, quirky dialogue and perhaps a certain strand of dark humour. This is a thread for discussing said games. There are enough of them that I think one can in a tongue-and-cheek kind of way use the term "earthlike".







I've recently picked up OneShot, a very charming game that is about a character called Niko that you have to guide to a tower in order to bring the sun back to the land. It is a game inside a game, meaning that you can sort of access the desktop outside of the game and poke around in the game's README files among other stuff, which makes for some cool meta-elements to the narrative.



Have you played some of these games? Any favourites?

 

[Metroid]

Oh, I loved Why Am I Dead at Sea, I haven't seen that game mentioned in a long time

 

[rickyson33]

Bloomtown: A Different Story is a game coming out this year that caught my eye a while back

I was looking it up just now and apparently it actually just got a demo today so good timing on that for this post I suppose

 

[Maronic03]

Oddity is the one that used to be called Mother 4 right?

 

[Gabev]

Oddity is the one that used to be called Mother 4 right?

Yes, oddly enough I was looking that project up a few weeks ago and found a whole bunch of drama surrounding it.

 

[Yamanoi]

Any impressions for One Shot on Switch? I purchased it on Steam but I don't know the difference between both versions.

 

[NoodleVacuum]

I loved OneShot! I'm behind the curve on most of these though, aside from Earthbound itself which is one of my all time favorites.

 

[Suswave]

One of those genres I seem to like despite never getting very far in Earthbound!

The game I'm making, Grögol Bonanza, is kind of like one of these?



like if you took a pinch of early, rough-around-the-edges game boy Pokémon + this sensibility + a neglected childhood of concrete and nature + chaotic garnish and shook them all up in a box?



you stumble into an unfamiliar province, get mistaken for an intern, and are sent out to study strange creatures

but the more you interact with the world, the more chaos you get roped into – seeing a basement show might lead you to break into the Featheral Birdeau's archives with a ska band; losing a bake-off on purpose might stop someone from getting deported; uniting some bumbling gangs might prevent a corporation from distributing more-or-less-radioactive water...



a lot of the impetus for doing anything in the game is caring about other people, seeing all the ways their lives intersect, making friends and enemies, and deciding your role in the world's fate.

and, befitting the genre... most roads lead to cosmic horror!

so I think it'll fit, someday, once it's ready.

 

[Leo]

Oddity and Bloomtown both look lovely!

I tried Undertale a few months back but didn't get far in it. I think I'll give it another try soon.

 

[Procheno]

Mother-likes

 

[Stilt Village]

Mother-likes

MOMRPGs

 

[JB2448]

Ib and Off are also great games to play.

Ib for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Ib and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

Downloads

Mortis Ghost created an official web page for OFF at an unknown date (possibly around the same time the OFF translations were created). The website is entirely in French and has not yet been translated. The website itself contained info about the game. This also includes different images created...

off.fandom.com

I’d also argue that Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal have similar beats. They shared plenty of development talent, with many of EarthBound’s developers later going on to help oversee the entire Pokémon IP.

The First Pokémon Games Took So Long To Make Because Of EarthBound

The first Pokémon Game Boy games Pocket Monsters Red and Green were released in 1996. But as Shigeru Miyamoto points out, they were held up. The reason? EarthBound. In a newly released video to celebrate Pokémon‘s 20th anniversary, Shigeru Miyamoto talked about the franchise’s early years...

www.kotaku.com.au

The franchise has clear nods and inspiration as late as Black and White.

Name all the references and similarities between Pokemon and the Earthbound series.

Name all the refrences and similarities between Pokemon and the Earthbound series. Some are: Mewtwo. Looks like a bigger version of Giygas/Giegue from Mother/Earthbound 0 Pokemon Black/White - N's Farewell. Ask Mother 3.

forums.bulbagarden.net

As a bonus, here’s Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri reviewing the original Mother/EarthBound Beginnings:

MOTHER 1 Review by Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri

In the late 1980’s, before founding Game Freak and hitting the jackpot with his sensational product of grueling labor, Satoshi Tajiri was a freelance writer for gaming magazine Famicom Hissho…

yomuka.wordpress.com

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

Mother-likes

considering Nintendo’s Legal Team (and one of the games listed in the OP), the most accurate term is probably calling them “Oddity-likes”.

 

[Stilt Village]

I like how complicated the influence of Undertale makes this lineage. You have to sort out the EarthBound from the Moon Remix RPG Adventure and the Homestuck and the Touhou.

Where d'yall reckon Anodyne and Crusader of Centy go in the family tree?

 

[Irene]

Any impressions for One Shot on Switch? I purchased it on Steam but I don't know the difference between both versions.

According to the eShop page, it has some bonus additions, but it doesn’t seem to be something significantly game-altering.

Oddity and Bloomtown both look lovely!

I tried Undertale a few months back but didn't get far in it. I think I'll give it another try soon.

You really should! If you click with the combat and the overall premise, it’ll be a great ride. It really goes places.

 

[AerialAir]

As a bonus, here’s Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri reviewing the original Mother/EarthBound Beginnings:

MOTHER 1 Review by Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri

In the late 1980’s, before founding Game Freak and hitting the jackpot with his sensational product of grueling labor, Satoshi Tajiri was a freelance writer for gaming magazine Famicom Hissho…

yomuka.wordpress.com

I mean, it's hard to argue that the OST is a banger and that there's a general lack of guidance in M1/EB, but it almost seems like… he didn't enjoy the game that much even though Pokemon - and it's design - references it a lot?

I definitely don't agree it would do better as a movie or book though, there's so much in M1 that only works because of how it plays with your expectations of what a game is,.

 

[9-Volt]

No other modern RPG I've played was as close to Earthbound as Yokai Watch. It nailed that "cute neighborhood with strange anomalies" feeling that Earthbound had and the monsters were as quirky as Earthbound's bestiary. EB had New Age Retro Hippie, Yokai has Hungramps.

 

[shoptroll]

Next month is that wonderful time of year again, the 5th annual Mother Direct!



(Don't get your hopes about anything earth shattering showing up, but I've enjoyed all of these so far if only for a broad survey of what the community is up to. Oh and some of the games shown can be in a very rough state for a trailer so YMMV)