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We Play Earthbound and Xenogears for the First Time

By Heath | April 8, 2012 at 1:23 am

We’ve made April a month to try our first ever “RPG Land Plays” event…thing. You see, Janelle and I are gamers who ended up marrying each other, and while we have a (mostly) shared affinity of genres and titles, we’ve each played several games the other has not. Some of these are true gaming treasures that come up in conversations with surprising frequency in the Hindman household. One of us is always holding out on discussion about spoiler-ish matters that we’re dying to bring up, or think would add to the discussion. It’s a serious marital problem, yo! This month, we’re doing something about it; we’ve each chosen an RPG that we have completed, but the other has not. Our counterpart must play this game to completion, hopefully within the month. For Janelle, I have determined it’s time for her to experience Xenogears. She meanwhile picked Earthbound for me.

Everything Janelle knows about Xenogears: “It’s a game that has a famous story that I know nothing about, and one of Yasunori Mitsuda’s best game scores, which I know a bit about because I’m a soundtrack nerd. The game is also famous for having giant robots, but what role they play exactly is a mystery to me. I’m really shocked that I’ve been this blind about Xenogears for this long, considering that it came out in the PlayStation’s RPG boom. and it looks like a long, detailed experience that I’m excited to sink my teeth into.”
A little bit of real info about Xenogears: Right in the heart of what many call Squaresoft’s “Golden Age,” Xenogears hit the PlayStation in 1998. Though it features two different takes on a turn-based battle system, Xenogears is best remembered for its long, detailed story and gripping narrative. And its second disc.

Everything Heath knows about Earthbound: “It’s part of the Mother series, came out on SNES in the mid 90’s, stars a boy named Ness. It’s pretty famous for being quirky and cute, with a lot of wackiness, from what I gather. There’s a funny lookin’ character named Mr. Saturn, if I’m not mistaken, but I know nothing about him. The game has a big, surprisingly dedicated group of fans. Other that that, I don’t really know much about the game itself. I’m excited to finally play it.”

A little bit of real info about Earthbound: Part of a series called “Mother” in Japan, the Super Nintendo RPG Earthbound was actually the second title. A third emerged on Game Boy Advance a few years ago, as well as a dual pack containing the first two Mother games, but Earthbound remains the only member of its franchise to make it stateside. The Mother series was written by Shigesato Itoi, a copywriter famous in Japan for composing slogans and ad copy for hundreds of famous products and films.

So check back right on our homepage, RPGLand’s Twitter thing, and Facebook page for updates on our progress as well as our continued thoughts on the game. We’re planning a couple of podcasts about it, in which we discuss our progress through these legendary games.

Topics: RPGLand Plays