@Secret_Tunnel It's the same deal with one more added gimmick. When you attack, if you press the attack button in the rhythm with the music, you can keep landing blows, up to 16 in one turn. It makes it a bit Super Mario RPG-like. Aside from that, it was the same, from what I recall.

The speed of battles is faster though, so that might help you folks who didn't find it very engaging.

@Secret_Tunnel

In addition to the timed battles, Mother 3 has a much bigger emphasis on buffs and nerfs (i.e. "Offense Up," "Defense Down," type stuff). There's a character who uses tools that do these sort of things for no PP cost or anything, and they're pretty potent. I'd say the combat is a bit more strategic in that way.

@Mop it up
@TriforceBun

Rhythm battles with fluid stats sound really fun. Looking forward to getting this game on the VC this summer!

That would make sense, right?

@Secret_Tunnel

What TBun said. I think it's next to impossible to beat Mother 3 without using Buffs and Debuffs. They're at the core of the combat system. Mother 3's combat is deeper, quicker, and more engaging. There are far less superfluous additions that don't impact your strategy. I was no good at the rhythm attacks. I could never figure out which instrument or part of the music I was supposed to keep time with, but I think that's because I have a terrible ear for music. If I remember correctly, even getting up to a 16 combo didn't increase the damage dealt by a noteworthy amount. Regardless, the rhythm attacks only serve to enhance the gameplay. Overall, Mother 3's combat is the best in the series.

@Secret_Tunnel

Yeah, pretty typical battle system. But I think the rolling health counter was pretty genius. You still can save someone who got a mortal blow if you're fast enough. It made boss battles more intense than in most RPGs I've played.

One last note: the Wii U dashboard says I played the game for 27 hours. And I think that's awesome. I miss shorter RPGs. A lot of RPGs today are upwards of 70 hours, but few feel to me like they warrant it. I usually start losing interest/getting bored around the 35 hours mark, and resenting the game around the 40 hour mark.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule
Your issues with the rhythm attacks could also be because of emulation lag in case you didn't play the game on the original hardware. When I played through the game on GBA I got the hang of many (would love to say all, but the more complex rhythms tended to throw me off) of the beats, whereas I find myself having trouble with even the simpler ones when playing the game on my laptop.

@Guillaume
Back in the day 25-30 hours was an epic length the way I remember it. Like you say, longer games risk outstaying their welcome, which is another reason I was so impressed with Xenoblade. It kept me hooked the same way the SNES classics did, but did so for ten times as long. But yeah, this is an Earthbound thread, sorry.

@Guillaume

Agreed about shorter RPGs. One of my favorite RPGs is the original Mario & Luigi on GBA, and one of the reasons I enjoyed it is because it can be finished in 20 hours or less. That makes it a lot more replayable in my book. Also Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. (I guess it could be considered an ARPG) Short, to the point, but a fun experience once you understood the nuances of its controls.

On the flipside, I'm never going to replay Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Graces f. 50-60 hours for games that were only somewhat enjoyable? Meh. And those 50-60 hours weren't spent on side quests, that was just the main storyline.

Even Final Fantasy VI only took me around 30 hours to beat, and that felt like a full-sized adventure. I took a break from Xenoblade halfway through... loved the first half, got burnt out on it, came back to it, loved the second half. Well, aside from the ten hours of grinding I had to do to beat the last few bosses. That's unprecedented for me.

@Guillaume @ludist210 I'm fine with lengthy games if it's actually good content, but they are typically filled with padding. Xenoblade is about the only game I can think of that's really long but doesn't have much padding, though it also has a lot of optional stuff. The Tales series of games are one of the worst offenders. Tales of the Abyss has a ridiculous amount of visiting the same areas you've been to, and little or nothing changes from visit to visit. It took me around two years to finally beat the game of playing it on and off, because when it's just dragging on and on I need a break.

Final Fantasy III/VI is probably about as close to a perfect RPG that I've played. It may be "short" by today's standards, but it's lengthy for an SNES game. But. most importantly, I feel the game is highly replayable due to all the customisation options available. There are just so many setups possible with all the different characters, magics, relics, and such, that there's plenty of different setups to try on each time through. I'd like to see more games released today take a similar approach; a shorter, meatier game filled with customisation would provide more hours of entertainment than one filled with padding.

In general, I feel replayability is under-appreciated these days. It seems people want to beat games and then trade them in for the next big thing. Maybe if companies focused more on replay value then the used game market wouldn't be such an enemy to publishers...

One Kickstarter Backer asked to be in Boot Hill Heroes and run a shop with some subtle and not-so-subtle references to Earthbound:

@DapperDave

That's awesome, man. I see a trash can, the Mani Mani Statue, a baseball bat, and a present. I like the color palette for that room too. I'm looking forward to playing the finished game.

POLLYANNA: An Animated Earthbound Tribute

@NoName

Starman uses Animated EarthBound Tribute!
Ness could not stop crying!
Paula could not stop crying!
Jeff could not stop crying!
Poo could not stop crying!

For real, though, that was an amazing video...one of the best things I've ever seen on YouTube. Thanks for the link!

@NoName

Woah, Nintendo just shared this on their Facebook page!

@NoName
This choked me up a little bit, and made me feel thankful for having experience Earthbound. Great stuff.

Meh, I don't see what the big deal is you guys. That video only just barely melted my cold heart and made me cry.

Love the video but my overly obsessive, picky side can't help but notice the details that are inaccurate.

@chrisbg99

@r_hjort

I know and I hate myself for it. But I've been playing EarthBound for too long not to think "Hey wait a minute so and so didn't do it that way" or whatever.

chrisbg99 said:

Love the video but my overly obsessive, picky side can't help but notice the details that are inaccurate.

I think a lot of it was simply to give the progression of events a bit more of a dramatic flair (such as the gang being in a tent in Threed during Jeff's rescue rather than an underground cell); I'll chalk it up to artistic license and intentional retweaking since the level of detail in this vid clearly shows a guy who knows his EarthBound.