NOTE: This analysis is based on the English translation of Earthbound, not the original Japanese version.

Earthbound is a 1994 game for the Super Nintendo made by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory. If you haven’t played the game and would like to, you should probably do that before reading this article. I’m not going to avoid any spoilers, so take this as a warning.

Earthbound is a special game to me, and it makes up some of my earliest memories. The influence this game has had on me is far deeper than my conscious mind ever knew in the moment; only looking back can I connect the dots between this game and my personality. I played the game all the way through in the month of January and tried to study exactly how it affected me.

I see it as a game that uses the language and symbolism of American culture to reconstruct America from an animist perspective. It takes familiar Western images and breathes life into each one — animate or otherwise — in order to study their personalities, and to study the greater personality that makes up America.

The Set Up.

Earthbound immediately makes its value for personality clear when we are invited to choose our favorite food, our favorite thing, the color of the windows, and the names of each character: an introduction that acknowledges and embraces the power that each player holds over their experience. While the game is placing us into the specific role of a young, male, Western child, it is also accepting that the details and language of the person behind this role are essential to the existence of the character. It does not just assume that the player will seamlessly integrate themselves with the role of Ness, a 10 year old boy from Eagleland with an obsession for baseball attire and eating hamburgers: it politely acknowledges the possessing player and asks them to indulge the performative role of Ness within the context of the game. This simple acknowledgement lets us know that we are an essential element of the game, making it much easier to give our personal attention and care to the game and its developers. Caring about and investing in the game is absolutely essential.

This opening sequence lays the foundation for the rest of the adventure. If we don’t invest ourselves in these choices, the game simply will not work its magic. We are constantly reminded of the names that we’ve chosen. Collecting sound-stone melodies will remind you of the smell of your favorite food, invoking your coolest thing will ward off the most intimidating enemies, and the “flavor” that you choose will color every window in accordance with your taste. These ways that Earthbound incorporates its players makes it possible for them to stay connected with the game as they are taken through this unique and strange version of America.

The World.

As the story continues, we are repeatedly asked to invest ourselves into objects that many people take completely for granted. The game is almost completely made up of American symbolism and language that have been brought to life through a perspective that sees spirit and personality in everything. Lines typically drawn between person and object are nonexistent. Typically inanimate objects have personalities, humans act out of alien possession, and animals are often more self-aware than humans. All things are driven by personality, and all things can be enemies or friends. As a culture that generally views its environment as a limitless collection of consumable, inanimate objects, it is incredibly powerful to view America in this light. We work through the game and are confronted by battles with mushrooms, works of art, musical instruments, and piles of puke. Each of them carries as much personality as the police, hippies, and other humans that populate Eagleland. There is no real difference in agency or person-ness between any of the characters in the game.

As the many personalities reinforce, contradict, and react to each other, we can start to build a universal personality that drives the game. We can start to see America through a lens that finds humor and absurdity in every detail of its environment. This game was a venue for its creators to explore America in a way that sees importance in all of its components, yet never takes any of its mythology too seriously.

It is a lens that enjoys and values America, but does not take American ideology as a definition of reality. Characters fall in line with strict cultural stereotypes, but they are rarely defined entirely by those roles. In fact, if you speak with most characters, you will often find that their superficial definition is merely a facade to mask insecurity about who they really feel they are.

The Characters.

The characters in Earthbound often spend their time embracing cultural stereotypes for themselves, while simultaneously chipping away any attempt to use these stereotypes as an ultimate definition. As these expectations are both reinforced and subverted, we can start to draw a few consistent statements from the chaos.

Expectations are always incomplete. The saviors of the world are a group of children. The dirtiest, stinkiest inventor is the one who makes the most useful inventions. Everdred and Frank, two criminals that violently attack you with knives, help you more than any police officer ever does. Most evil is caused by illusion. Giygas’ influence causes animals and humans to act out violently. The Mani Mani statue, which is defined as creating illusions in people, causes Monotoli to kidnap Paula. It is also the cause for the religion of Happy Happyism, and later it is the embodiment of evil within Ness’ own mind. The most persistent evil is the lack of self security. Pokey takes credit for accomplishments that aren’t his own, and rejects responsibility when it is thrust upon him. He finds security in others, not in his self. He is always running away and hiding behind the most powerful person he can find. Then, at the end of the game after Giygas is defeated, Pokey carries on promising to return and repeat his actions.

There are other trends throughout the game that I can see: parents tend to be supportive of their children, yet unable to deeply understand their journeys; adults are often condescending, but not actually more intelligent than children; authority figures are a nuisance, but not reality-defining (the police are inconvenient, but not really that powerful); and animals tend to be more intelligent and self-aware than humans. Earthbound is a big game, and there is much more to interpret from the small bits of dialogue and interactions, but these are a few of the most prominent ideas that I noticed.

Walking Home.

Finally, after the journey is over and you have defeated the evil in the world, it’s time to go back home and see your family. Saving the world is important because it happens within a community, and it’s important that we see how that community has been affected. The quest to defeat Giygas was only worth embarking on because we care: about the universe, about the characters, and about the home that we are returning to after it’s all over.

This is a poignant statement to end the game with: caring about our environment is an essential aspect of our personal journey. We left home in order to defeat evil, and after it is all over we walk through a changed place — one that is better off for us having left. After a game full of cultural subversion and deconstruction, I am able to look at America through a more understanding light, and I am able to understand why America is worth reconstructing in the first place.

A Word From Shigesato Itoi

Finally, a quote from Shigesato Itoi:

What is the video game, Earthbound?

Even today, it’s so hard to answer that question. It was like a group of children taking dolls from a toy chest.

Old dishes no longer used in the kitchen.

Nuts and bolts found inside a toolbox.

Little flowers and leaves from the backyard.

And they were all laid down on the carpet with everybody singing made-up songs.

Ready to talk all day about that world they just made.

That, I think was how Earthbound was made.

Thanks for reading :)