EarthBound Beginnings

EarthBound Beginnings, or Mother, as it’s known in Japan is a role-playing game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Created by copywriter Shigesato Itoi, it is the first entry of the Mother series, followed by EarthBound (Mother 2) for the Super NES and Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance. EarthBound Beginnings, much like its sequels, is known for deviating from the traditional sword and sorcery motif typical of the role-playing genre, by taking place in a modern American setting.

Plot Synopsis

In the early 1900s in Rural America, a man named George and his wife Maria mysteriously vanish, only to have George turn up again a year later. George tells no one where he was or what he was doing during that time and immerses himself in the study of PSI, or psionics. Some 80 years later, George's great-grandson, Ninten, gets caught up in strange happenings, starting with a poltergeist attacking his house. After Ninten stops the attack, he calls his father, who sends Ninten on an adventure to investigate the cause of the strange event.

With his great-grandfather's diary in hand, Ninten discovers a magical realm called Magicant and is asked by Queen Mary, the ruler of Magicant, to find the eight fragments of her melody so that she can sing it again. Along the journey, Ninten travels back and forth from Rural America and Magicant, battling zombies, aliens, and other unusual foes including hippies and floating eyeballs. In his search for the eight melodies, Ninten is joined by Ana, a psychic girl, Lloyd, a boy genius, and Teddy, a gang leader with a heart of gold.

Gameplay

EarthBound Beginnings much like most role-playing games (RPGs), has the player control the characters in an overworld where one can walk, run, check objects, talk to non-player characters and so on. In certain areas of the overworld, the player can get drawn into battles at random.

During battles, The enemy character(s) appear on screen and the player is given a menu of different commands. These commands include Fight, which deals damage to a foe of the player's choosing ND PSI, which allows the player to pick a psychic ability to use. PSI powers include PK Beam, a damge dealing move, 4th-D Slip, which guarantees the player a 100% chance to successfully run away from battle, and LifeUp, which recovers HP.

HP stands for Hit Points and determines the characters' health. If the HP counter reaches zero, the character in question falls unconscious and cannot take any action until he or she is revived, either at a hospital or by means of PSI. Using PSI consumes Psychic Points, or PP. Once the PP counter reaches zero, no PSI can be used until PP is recovered by staying at a hotel or by other means.

For winning battles, the player is awarded Experience Points (EXP) and a varying amount of money, which must be withdrawn from an ATM before it can be spent. When a character gains enough EXP, he or she will level-up, which means stats will increase. Such stats include Fight, which determines attack power, Defense, which determines how much damage enemies can deal to the character, and maximum HP and PP, which increase by varying amounts per level-up.

Player characters can also equip certain items to boost their stats such as boomerangs, ray guns, and baseball bats to increase Fight and coins and pendants to increase Defense.