There is actually a dedicated website dedicated to providing Earthbound rips formatted for RM2K along with eventing tutorials. A ton of fan-games sure, but it’s interesting to think about how the modular-ness of certain Squaresoft sprite rips had more effect on the setting (and by proxy the story) of many RPG Maker titles more so than the actual art-style. However with the early goings of the RPG Maker community there really weren’t that many EB-likes.

It is hard to condense what exactly elicits everything that makes Earthbound, Earthbound. Let’s just say the outlook and attitude surrounding it back then was about the same as comparing every platformer to Cave Story. There’s a certain indie game discourse around being tired of “Earthbound clones.” I uh, won’t go into it. Though really just merely making your game quirky is enough to obtain the Earthbound label. Fantasy and Sci-fi are inherently absurd, typical ideal American dream suburbia is not (depending on who you ask). A zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion, a cult, or SOMETHING needs to happen (Earthbound has all of this) That I think is why it’s so easy to steer into Shigesato Itoi’s wheelhouse when making something modern. Being Nintendo family friendly was also an incentive. Things like war and crime do exist in our current times, but it’s hard to really contextualize turn-based conflict in a neighborhood without a weird spin.

Of course Mother games don’t shy away from dark and trippy themes. A light hearted touch is also required or else you just might veer into being a horror game like Parasite Eve. Just simply making your RPG set in contemporary times is immediately going to invite comparisons to HAL’s well known Mother series (alternatively named Earthbound).

Download mother 3 earthbound 2