Within five minutes of starting Earthbound Beginnings, my baby sister’s kewpie doll came to life and tried to kill me, a hippie accosted me on a country road, and my father revealed that I was heir to an ancient reservoir of psychic power. This long-lost predecessor to the classic SNES RPG Earthbound (also known as Mother in its native Japan) doubles down on a charming commitment to weirdness from the very first moments, and the resulting unpredictability unfolds into an engaging, entertaining story that eschews traditional high-fantasy RPG archetypes. Unfortunately, the whimsical tone is paired with a downright painful reliance on near-endless random battles that lock much of that fun behind walls of tedious grinding.

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Clever dialogue and zany story arcs tickled my funny bone dozens of times over the course of the long adventure. Puns like “Polar Bear just grins and bears it,”, snarky one- liners, and original gags are everywhere, and most are surprisingly well-localized considering Earthbound Beginnings’ 1989 Japanese vintage. The classic RPG formula of demanding that you speak to every townsperson is harnessed to excellent effect, as conversations become a medium for delivering delightful jokes occasionally punctuated by thoughtful, philosophical musings. Anachronistic translation issues do occasionally interrupt the general charm of the storytelling, such as the otherwise- tender phone conversations with my father than always ended with his slamming the receiver down, but by and large the humor is remarkably on-target.Yet Earthbound Beginnings excellent writing is painfully tied to a frustratingly high random-encounter rate. Even with my expectations set by extensive experience with 8-bit RPGs, I was flabbergasted by how slowly and clumsily it rewarded me for victory in combat. The paltry experience gained after each battle doesn’t begin to keep pace with the progression of the story, so I often found myself eager to move ahead to the next intriguing plot point but maddeningly unable to advance. All too often I had to walk in circles waiting for fights to trigger so I could claw my way up the experience chain. The least enjoyable moments of Beginnings are spent wandering the woods near a healing point, farming experience for hours at a stretch and itching to be done with the mundane pummeling fighting so I could discover what story delights awaited ahead.The battles themselves are interesting enough, especially after the party fleshed out to a full three-kid roster. Despite the simple turn-based mechanics, my vast arsenal of powerful PSI abilities and strange equipment gave me a lot of freedom to approach combat in different ways. I learned that creative use of my many options allowed me to overcome some seemingly impossible challenges with interesting tactical solutions, negating the abilities of powerful foes and syphoning away their resources to restore my party. I happily discovered that some encounters have ridiculous, novel solutions (in keeping with the irreverent tone of Earthbound) such as the dungeon packed with Groucho Marx faces who randomly showered me with experience if I ignored their attacks. The battles grew riskier near the final act when even the best-planned brawls sometimes went awry due to a steep uptick in enemy strength, and I was very thankful for the Wii U’s save state feature which allowed me to frequently protect my progress in high-risk areas.As I traveled Beginnings’ enormous world, I found myself humming along with the catchy melodies. This quirky story is largely about collecting songs, and the creators invested significantly in a wide catalog of distinctive tunes that never grew tiring over the course of my 15-plus-hour expedition. Along with songs, I collected a series of delightful experiences that added a sweet, playful, and nostalgic flavor to the journey. A surprising fourth-wall-breaking moment where the protagonist's father called me on the telephone to thank me for taking such good care of his son touched me with its sincerity and charm, and served as a clever trojan horse for inserting my name into the closing credits. A side quest allowing my elementary school heroes to bribe grown ups to teach them swear words has negligible mechanical impact, but thematically I was delighted at the designers’ commitment to drawing me into the mindset of a group of eight-year-olds.