Have some coffee with me.
The coffee break in the Earthbound/Mother series is one of those unique moments in gaming history that I will never forget for the entirety of my life. What you experience in that simple period of time, when you pick up that cup of joe, is reflection. There's a profound beauty in that. Videogames are often poised on the idea of moving forward. Videogames are so focused on moving forward that they often tend to be inconsistent to a fault. But the Earthbound series is, ironically, one of the few RPGs (Role-Playing Games) that is reflective not just on itself, but on the ideals of those interacting with it. The coffee break is a series of statements that flow by, one by one, with a slow and melodramatic overtone. There's a unique comfort in the unassuming, childish nature of the questions that are asked, and the statements that are made. Rarely does a game ask us to look inward for answers, rather than to the game's own pre-determined moral adjudicator.
The coffee break is not claiming a high ground, nor is it trying to fight with the player. Rather, it is a narrative piece that is building reason and hoping for introspection. The event itself happens in Saturn Valley, where some "normal for Earthbound" citizens live. They are Mr. Saturn, people who come from Saturn. The reason we are led to believe that is because they clearly have different technology, yet compared with the human citizens in the game world, they are in a relative balance with the world around them. Humans have long competed with their environment as a means of bettering their survival, and while Mr. Saturns clearly live anachronistically, they also have a relative harmony with nature. They do not need to compete with nature in the same way that the humans do, and that makes them an admirable group, yet due to their manner of speech, oft-misunderstood. The significance of a group at harmony with nature, sharing coffee with the player as a result of saving them from their ills is a reward that gives the player a reason to care not just about the game world, but the world at large. The questions are not Earth-shattering, mind-bending, or new. It's unlikely that questions of the human condition can ever be presented in truly new ways, but they can be answered forever. What's far more important is that the new generation is asking them, and presenting answers.
Videogames at large worry me because questions are rarely asked. In a new medium, it's quite normal that experimentation happens for a period. The form is new, the forum for discussion, unknown, and all is possible. But most forms begin to age, the forum becomes a known space, and the industry creates limits. Earthbound occurred during the tail end of much of that experimentation, and in a sense, introspection has been lost from RPGs, and it is arguable as to whether it ever existed in other game genres at all. When playing most games, the player is distinctly aware that they are not normal, but also that they must move forward. In Earthbound, from the start, you are informed that you are not normal, and yet while you must move forward, there is a sense that moving forward is a process of connection. That is the norm for many RPGs, Japanese RPGs in particular.
The introspective tone that Earthbound takes on throughout, particularly in the coffee break, makes the player think about their reasons both for playing the game and their beliefs about the world at large. The coffee break is a build-up of experiences that the player has throughout the game and it is necessary to make that progress before the game can actually explicate a message. Throughout the game, the player is consistently presented with an awareness that what the player is doing is taking steps. The messages that are presented during these steps focus on the importance of a journey, that the goal is not the destination. Usage of imagery, such as footsteps and psychedelic backgrounds are concerned with how the player views, on a micro level, the game world. The usage of these, combined with the music, connects us with the mind of a child. The coffee break directly speaks to the mind of the player, and asks them, childish though it may be, what they think of the relationships they have developed. It asks them what they think of good and evil, and again, childishly, who will "win" that eternal struggle. The presentation is one in which a child might ask a parent, and in the same way, one in which a parent might describe it to their child.
What is truly distinct is that the game, in the mind of a child, is calling out to its parent. The game is consciously asking you to guide it along the right path. I cannot say that any game other than Earthbound has ever asked me to take its hand and walk with it, rather than being led by it, or having nothing extended to me at all. Games put up walls around themselves and intentionally attempt to make the player not care about their actions. What games have to offer, however, is that hand. They have the ability to extend an entire world, with its own morality, thought processes and social constructs, but for the fact that they actively refuse to reach out to the player. By constantly pushing the player away, by telling them that it's ok to do things without consequence or meaning, a game cannot be with the player. Games fight the emotional world of the player by disconnecting, by never presenting them as part of a larger world, by puffing them up like a peacock. There's plenty of bluster and bravado in those feathers, but in the world of violence that we already exist in, it's also easy to see why games about violence present apathetic emotional response. It might be easy to say that Earthbound is about violence, but it would likely be more accurate to say that it's a game about encounters and competing voices. In the coffee break, Earthbound speaks out by description and presentation. It presents to us a world fraught with difficult questions and a yearning for meaning. We spend our lives looking for answers, but here, the game shines a kindness upon that search for meaning. Earthbound states that what we are looking for is findable, that our goals will be reached, if we are willing to have a little faith.
At the end of the day, that's what the coffee break is all about: having the courage to have some faith, connecting a little bit with kindness, finding the importance of friendship. Through the eyes of a child, simple thoughts tend to be luminary, because they are simple enough that we can not only understand them and take on a certain rigor, focused and real. The children of the world become the beacons of our future, and in some small part that is what the entirety of Earthbound is about. Earthbound is about the process, the adventure of growing up. Yet even in that process, there are many uncertainties, and life forges beliefs into our hearts. Along the way, the hands of many will reach out and attempt to connect with you, attempt to befriend you, perhaps even befuddle you. Yet in the mind of the child, we are awash in a sea of questions. All is possible and therefore potentially real, but for the imagination to bring it about. The coffee break is an attempt to organize that wild, free thought into something that the player can connect with. The quest to walk with the player is the greatest quest of all developers, and perhaps Earthbound and the coffee break are the exemplars of our time in how to get that far. Once we are together, we can begin to ask questions of ourselves, instead of the game processing our feelings for us.