Retro Views: Earthbound

JRPGs are staid and boring, and there's no way to change that or to make them relevant or interesting.

That's a sentiment that I think a lot of modern gamers share. Burnt out on Final Fantasies or whatever flashy, J-Pop nightmare has been thrust upon the unsuspecting populace in an effort to recapture the lost spirit (and market) of PS1 RPGs, too many people see this very non-dynamic genre as being in need of some updating. Recently, this has been seen in an overabundance of "experimentation," but not experimentation of any meaningful sort – rather, the storylines and characters stay as charmingly (or not) two-dimensional as in the 16- or 32-bit era, with the same "save the world from an evil empire/impending doom" plots that have been rehashed over and over and over again in video games, though now with some new, incredibly idiosyncratic battle system grafted overtop of the most hoary of tropes, the most safe of game design.

But it doesn't have to be like this. Games (even JRPGs!) can still have the power to shock, to surprise, to bring a sense of wonder and joy and life to what often seems like a dying medium. And the game that proves this is Earthbound.

Earthbound could be seen in most respects, even in 1995, when the JRPG formula as enshrined (at least, in Western minds) in the Final Fantasy VII design document hadn't even been created yet, as an intentionally old-school romp. The battling is ripped straight from Dragon Warrior with patient, turn-based, word-based battling (very little animation on display), and the exploration of the world, the general item use mechanics and even the menu navigation methods are all very clear throwbacks to some of the earliest console RPGs.

But this would imply that Earthbound is in some way derivative, once again perpetuating JRPG stereotypes. That's about as far from the truth as it gets, because the approach that Shigesato Itoi (and this is very much his game, a once-in-a-generation demonstration of auteur theory in video gaming) uses is very similar to the best artists in film and literature: he's borrowing elements to make something deeply personal, an exploration of tropes not dissimilar to the approach that Quentin Tarantino uses (if a little bit more quirky and less outrageous).

Earthbound is the story of Ness, a psychic kid living in Eagleland. He wakes up to the sound of a meteor crashing by his house, only to discover that the meteor in fact hides a space monster named Giygas within, and he and three other "chosen" youths are tasked with defeating the evil that is overtaking the land. Whereas a game like Chrono Trigger would play this setup more-or-less straight, Earthbound is about satirizing, inverting, and poking fun at these conventions while also, in the process, refreshing them.

Too many JRPGs are too focused, single-mindedly, on the thrust of their often ludicrous plots. When it works, it can instill a sense of high drama that really can't be recreated in any other genre or medium, but too often games of this sort fall completely flat. Earthbound's approach, which is to not focus on the overall plot almost at all, but to have a keen eye for detail, is what makes the game's world soar. Eagleland is a fascinating place, if only because it's so very clearly a loving homage to America in the 50s, while also being a completely outrageous send-up of American culture (once you get attacked by sentient highway signs, you'll understand) with just unparalleled attention to creating a living, breathing world.

Earthbound often acts as a postmodern text by the extensive use of filters, and what I mean by that is that anything that could be played straight is filtered through Itoi's warped worldview. Eagleland isn't just a satirization of America, it's also filtered through a distinctly Japanese lens, providing an unendingly entertaining and fascinating view into the way a completely different culture views American ideas and ideals. There's a reason why the player is made to rely so much on ATMs and department stores, and that's because this is a subtle treatise on capitalism as seen through a JRPG lens. Even more than that, the game posits an interesting theory – what would modern America look like filtered through Dragon Warrior conventions?

The answer to that is often hilarious, but moreso than that, it's revelatory. Earthbound synthesizes the mundane with the fantastic, the grotesque with pedestrian, and the result is often unsettling in its unconventionality. For instance, the game needs to generate enemies – every Dragon Warrior/Quest game has them. But because of the setting and the premise, the results are often downright surreal (something that Itoi is perfectly happy to point out when you fight, say, Dali's Clock). Taking down an entire town of blue-obsessed cultists, or sentient cups of coffee, ends up being as hilarious as it is freaky, which is carried all the way through to the downright hallucinatory and overwhelmingly emotional conclusion. What makes Earthbound a goddamned masterpiece is the way in which it both uses elements of game design from the past in an intellectual and meaningful way, while also going completely out there, and not letting pre-established rules of video gaming get in the way.

None of this academic stuff would mean anything if the game wasn't polished and accessible enough to not be a slog, and rest assured, it is not. Beyond the joyously surreal imagery, the game also sports clean, refined and often beautiful 16-bit aesthetics, and some of the most deliriously loopy writing seen in video gaming. What Earthbound proves to me is that perhaps more "outsiders" need to start making video games, because Itoi (who has only created three games, while also being a major personality in Japanese pop culture and even a voice actor in My Neighbour Totoro) brings with him a wealth of experience both within the video gaming community and without, pushing envelopes in ways that seem downright embarrassing for modern developers, especially considering the game came out sixteen years ago.

The only thing that keeps Earthbound from achieving the perfection that it often seems like it will reach is the reliance on some of its conventions for academic purposes. True, the Dragon Warrior systems are used for a specific effect, and in Japan, these battling conventions would seem like second-nature and a true satirization of well-known tropes, but it also has the unfortunate effect of simply not being that great. Old Dragon Warrior battles were often tiresome, overly-hard without any recourse (really) for actual skill rather than simple level-grinding, and the visual presentation is often very boring. So while I understand the reasoning of using these conventions, it's tough not to wish that these conventions were made a bit more fun.

Earthbound is a triumph of cogent game design, a deeply personal masterwork that's as funny and charming as it is a hugely intellectual exercise. It's often the case that the art that asks us to step outside of our comfort zones fail to catch on like the pablum that so often does, but it's a real fucking shame that Earthbound isn't looked upon by other developers as a model, studied like the greatest literature or written about in any depth today. It has become a cult-hit, but a minor blip on the radar of an overly commercial medium that doesn't need to look forward for its holy grails. It needs to look back.

Once again, thanks to Peter for this suggestion. Keep 'em coming!