this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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Here's the interview this screenshot comes from if anyone is interested.
Neat! I’ll have to check this out. I finally played Earthbound this past year, and it felt so original and interesting. Like none of the mechanics are groundbreaking (since they’ve been used in other games before/since), but it felt like a fun adventure in a massive “open world” set up; and I really didn’t know where the plot was going
Glad you enjoyed it, Earthbound is a really amazing game! I wish I could remember where I heard this from, but IIRC that fully connected "open world" nature of Earthbound (and Mother before it) was something Shigesato Itoi very specifically wanted. I'm sure you've heard it before but since you like Earthbound, definitely give Mother 3 a try at some point too.
Also if you enjoy that interview you might like this one with Itoi, Shigeru Miyamoto and the author Seikou Itou as well. It's from about 5 years earlier, just after Mother 1 released, and it's really interesting comparing the things they talk about to the modern day.
Awesome! I love these types of interviews. I like coming up with TTRPGs and trying them out and a lot of it is just interpreting ideas from these older games; there’s so much thought put into the mechanics. I mean it makes sense that modern games adapt from older games, but I like that because of technical constraints the mechanics are more prevalent in how the game functions. And I especially like the whimsy of earthbound/mother - it actually feels like it’s a game for kids (in terms of imagination/escapism) but with a significant amount of difficulty in both combat as well as questing/navigation.
The mechanic of gaining/losing initiative based on sneaking up on the enemy sprite I think might have been new to Earthbound. Plus the food/condiment system of course
That’s cool about initiative/sneaking up - I definitely prefer that type of noncombat/combat transition over something like the original Dragon Warrior games (or pokemon) where enemies just pop up. It makes sense constraint-wise to not have sprites everywhere; but the tactics of being able to get initiative are huge.
And the food/condiment system was such a fun surprise. I love that type of quirky mechanism. And just all of the flavor text in the game too for status buffs/debuffs; just so much whimsy. My nephew is almost old enough to have the patience to play this and I’m excited to get them into it; it basically feels like you’re in the imaginary play of a child- so I feel like it’ll really resonate