July 2020 Playthrough - Earthbound

[Normatron]

I'm hooking up my snes mini in the next day or two. Am I too late to join and if I can what are we doing? Is it just completing the game?

[bickman2k]

I'm hooking up my snes mini in the next day or two. Am I too late to join and if I can what are we doing? Is it just completing the game?

Completing the game. If you want to go for some of the 1/128 items, feel free.

[Disposed Hero]

I highly doubt I'll finish this before the end of the month, but I'm looking forward to finally playing this after hearing so much about it over the years. Hoping to get started this weekend.

[bickman2k]

Just a heads up if this is your first time playing, don't try to grind up too much before the end. There is one spot where if you are leveled up too high, you can really lose out on some bonuses. It's super close to the end anyway, but you can beat the game without grinding too much in general. When I beat it to get some rough checkpoints, I was in the mid 70s with a cap of 99.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

This is my first time playing, and I feel like I am making a pretty good dent. I just got to the part where you have 4 members of the party, for the first time. Using the guide, and it looks like I’m 2/3, through the game.

[GrayGhost81]

Finally putting in some time with this and despite Adam's advice above, I spent a little time grinding this morning. I'm playing on the WiiU so you can't blame me for putting on a podcast and zoning out bouncing from battle to battle, most of which I'm winning without a fight, and if the fight has to be fought you just unleash a PSI Rockin and kill everything in one hit. Since I know Adam is going to wonder where I am right now, I'm in the cave behind the shack north of Onett. Yes, still very early and no party members.

One thing I really like is the localization. I love how when you level up there are little expressions when a stat goes up a lot, like whoah! HP went up 3 points or whatever. 

The ATM system is very interesting, and psychologically I think I like that the money is invisibly stacking up while I fight and then I get to be pleasantly surprised by the total amount when I hit the ATM. It's neat. 

[douglie007]

I'm so not missing this! I've have a ruff few months and I really want to get back in the swin of things IE my games lol

[bickman2k]

How is everyone doing?

[douglie007]

I'm on my way to threed. So a bit behind. 

[bickman2k]

I updated the first 2 checkpoint hints to make them a little more clear.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Just got this one finished, this morning. Can’t believe it took me this long to play the game. It was fun. Had a really quirky style to the design and music.

[Normatron]

Have not had a lot of time to play but I just got to threed a couple days ago. Trying to play it without any real help.

[singlebanana]

I started the game last Wednesday or Thursday, marathoned it, and managed to beat it last night. I'm so happy to have finished this game because I had started it a few years ago and for some reason, stopped around level 26. Of course, I started fresh this go round, since I would have been completely lost if I hadn't.

I certainly have a lot to say about this game, but I want to save those thoughts to discuss with Adam and Shawn. However, one MAJOR piece of advice that I would give is that when you reach a point during the end of the game, you will be told to make sure that you are stocked up on supplies before moving forward. At this point, I would not only stock up on Horns of Life, Multiple Bottle Rockets, Super Bombs, and Brain Food or other PSI replenishers, but PLEASE copy your save file into another slot before going forward. The game has what I feel is a pretty major difficulty spike from that point, not only with the bosses, but especially the enemies. There is a save point past this point where you can respawn, but even if you save there, you lose any items you used after the save and that can make your trek nearly impossible. Best of Luck to all!