Earthbound series challenges

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Fetch Quests

Going through Moonside required talking to men who could teleport Ness.  After a few rounds of this, Ness found an invisible man who was a friend of the Monotoli building guard.  A Mani Mani statue was at the entrance of the tower, and challenged me to a fight.  It opened the battle with a successful Paralysis, meaning all I could do was cast PSI Rockin until I ran out of PP.  About three castings of the third level PSI Rocking finished off the statue and destroyed its illusion.  Ness was in the cafe the whole time.  Several characters told me that I had to visit the monkey guru in order to get the ice cream machine so I could visit Monotoli.  If you think that's a bad fetch quest, you'll hate the next part.

The monkey cave was in the western part of the desert.  To get past each monkey, I had to give him or her items like rulers, hamburgers, or pizza.  I didn't have any hamburgers, so I walked all the way back to Onett and found one in a trash can.  After that debacle, the guru gave me the machine and his apprentice taught me the teleport spell.  That would have been useful earlier in the game!  Even Dragon Quest gives Zoom to you near the beginning.  

I had to do that part twice too, because I think I saved incorrectly.  After that, I made two save states just to be sure.

In the Monotoli building, the boss was the Clumsy Robot.  I cast Shield Beta and attempted to "Shoot".  Maybe Ness should stick with baseball bats, because he had terrible aim with his weapon.  The Clumsy Robot's attacks could deal over 200 damage when it wasn't wasting its turns.  Eating a sandwich healed its HP to full a couple of times, which makes no sense for a robot.  The Runaway Five turned off the robot after a few rounds and saved me.  Mr. Monotoli was revealed to be a kindly old man, and only kidnapped Paula thanks to the Mani Mani Statue's illusions.  He loaned his helicopter to Ness, but Pokey stole it first.  Ness had to go back to Threed if he wanted to reach the Pyramid near Summers.


Stats and Equipment

Level 53

HP:  435
PP:  150

Offense:  141
Defense:  123
Speed:  22
Guts:  39
Vitality:  29
IQ:  29
Luck:  48

Weapon:  Trick Yo-yo
Body:  Flame Pendant
Arm:  Platinum Band
Other:  Coin of Defense

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Pointless Deaths and Bad Game Design

Jeff's Sky Runner had been repaired, so Ness went back to Stonehenge in the Winters region to get the fourth Sound Stone tune.  The boss Shroom (with several extra Os) was pretty much a standard mushroom enemy with lots of HP.  My Trick Yo-yo missed often, and according to Internet guides, yo-yos and slingshots have much lower accuracy than baseball bats.  I don't think the game tells you this.  Other than the annoyance of mushroom and poison ailments, the fight was easy.

Before that, I tried teleporting to Winters, and this threw me into some of the worst design oversights I've seen in an RPG.  As far as I can tell, there's no hotel or other form of rest available.  The enemies were extremely tough too.  The Lesser Mooks could "diamondize" (petrify) Ness, killing him instantly.     This happened twice as I was trying to leave. 

Death Count:  13

When the Lesser Mooks weren't diamondizing Ness, they were murdering him with PSI Freeze and sleep.  PSI Freeze Beta could do over 300 per cast if my memory isn't deceiving me.  Of course, this happened twice (one of those incidents was a little later when I was trying out an accessory).

Death Count:  15

Whenever Ness died, he lost all his PP.  He had some PSI restoring items, but if he didn't, he would have been stuck forever unless he got extremely lucky with enemy spawns.  PSI Teleport costs 2 PP, and requires an open space to run around in to build up speed.  The Winters region is cramped, and although you can change direction while running, it's hard to do.  Come on, Earthbound!  Even Dragon Quest had instant teleportation!  


After a while, I gave up and loaded one of my save states in Threed.  Then I fought the Shroom as mentioned earlier.  After that, the Sky Runner could go to Summers, a city resembling southern France.  I bought some new equipment, and also took a quick detour to Saturn Valley.  Why?  Turns out the Great Charm not only gives paralysis resistance, but also protects against diamondization.  The game does not mention the latter, and I only found this out through Starmen.net game mechanics discussions.  RPGs often have annoying cryptic mechanics, and Earthbound is no exception.

A chat in the Cafe Stoic ended up making Ness try a "Magic Cake".  He dreamed about Poo, the prince of Dalaam in the Far East.  Looks like it's time for another solo section with another character.  No Stats and Equipment section tonight because my last save was in the Poo dream.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Obligatory Sewer Level

Poo joined the party after a few "not-Buddhist meditation" cutscenes at level 18, and he had the non-annoying version of PSI Teleport.  No opening dungeon like the solo Jeff section in Winters.

The 5th My Sanctuary point was in Fourside, but it was surrounded by walls and the dinosaur museum.  Like any good RPG character, Ness thought the best option was to wade through the sewers.  Along the way, he fought many Filthy Attack Roaches with powerful melee attacks.  Ness was overleveled to the point where he could survive these fights, however.  That's the benefit of using a solo character.  What Starmen.net calls "one of the hardest parts of the game" is reduced to being just another dungeon to slog through.    

The boss for once was more dangerous than the random encounters.  The Plague Rat of Doom must have had an incredibly high Guts stat, because it was getting a lot of critical SMASH attacks.  It could also poison me, but that ailment seemed to deal fixed damage rather than a percentage of HP.  20 damage per turn wasn't nearly as concerning now as it was at the beginning of the game.  The usual PSI Shield, PSI Lifeup, and Bash tactic defeated the rat.

Going to Scaraba required defeating the Kraken near its shores.  First, I waited until everyone but Ness was dead.  Then, I mainly healed and used PSI Shield Beta.  The Franklin Badge deflected its Crashing Boom Bang attack, but its fire breath dealt over 200 damage or so.  The tornado was rarely seen, but also dealt triple digit damage.  As long as I kept my rolling HP high enough with PSI Lifeup, I was fine.  Then an unlucky PSI Flash Beta instantly handed Ness's head to him.

Death Count:  16

Now that I knew the Kraken used fire attacks, I equipped the Flame Pendant.  This must have reduced the damage from the Kraken's breath by 90%!  Or so it seemed, thanks to its now underwhelming damage.  To avoid PSI Flash, I clicked Bash multiple times and hoped to end the fight quickly.  It worked thanks to a lucky SMASH attack from the Big League Bat.    

In Scaraba, I bought the Crystal Charm to max out diamondization and paralysis immunity.  It was a good time to take a break.  Now that I think about it, I should teleport to Dalaam because there was a My Sanctuary point there.


Stats and Equipment

Level 62

HP:  496
PP:  172

Offense:  165
Defense:  134
Speed:  41
Guts:  45
Vitality:  33
IQ:  34
Luck:  60

Weapon:  Big League Bat (No More Slingshots or Yo-yos!)
Body:  Crystal Charm
Arms:  Diamond Band
Other:  Lucky Coin

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Bash A to Win

Dalaam had the 6th My Sanctuary point, so Ness had to go through its cave.  And that cave was a doozy!  The Tangoos could put him to sleep and poison him, but they weren't the major threat.  The Conducting Menaces' PSI Flash Beta made Ness "feel strange" once, confusing him and making him SMASH himself for mortal damage.  Even the rolling HP meter couldn't save him that time because Ness kept trying to heal dead Poo instead.

Death Count:  17

You'd think a boss called "Thunder and Storm" would use mostly lightning attacks that would be useless with a Franklin Badge in my inventory.  And yes, they did use Crashing Boom Bang quite a bit.  However, they could also deal triple-digit damage with a charge-up melee attack.  "Summoning a storm" was much closer mechanically to PSI Flash.  Sometimes it paralyzed Ness, and sometimes it made him cry uncontrollably.  It also instantly handed his head to him twice.    

Death Count:  19

The incident with the Conducting Menaces happened between attempts with the boss.  Having to go through the cave multiple times gave him a level up, and accidentally gave Paula and Jeff a few levels too when a Thunder Mite tried to murder Ness with PSI Thunder.  Oops!  At least Paula might have an easier time with the final boss.

For the next crack at Lightning and Storm, I decided against playing defensively.  I clicked Bash unless I needed to cure an ailment, and hoped for SMASH criticals.  They happened twice, and a few reflected Crashing Boom Bangs helped to finish off the boss.  (They're a single target, despite having a plural name.)

Next up was the Pyramid south of Scaraba.  It was mostly a linear series of corridors, with occasional Egyptian-themed enemies like the Guardian Hieroglyph and the Lethal Asp Hieroglyph.  They weren't too tough, but their melee still required me to watch Ness's HP.  Around this time, I got PSI Flash Omega, and occasionally used it to instantly kill several enemies because it was cheaper than PSI Rockin.  Think of it as Defeat/Thwack from the Dragon Quest series, with a chance to cause other status ailments too.

The boss was the Guardian General, who was a palette swap of the Petrified Royal Guards from earlier in the dungeon.  Bash was the way to go here, because PSI Flash Omega didn't do anything.

I got a special message about having too much stuff when I tried to take the Hawk Eye the first time.  Earthbound had the gall to insult me for carrying to many items when it has the worst inventory system in RPG history.  (Well, they say the roguelike Omega is worse about that, but I haven't played it.)

The exit led to the southern region of the Scaraba continent, and my next stop was the Dungeon Man.  I had to get the key from a man near the Pyramid exit, and I had to throw away a consumable item to do it.  Earthbound throws items at you, and you can never use them.  Too much space is required for equipment and key items.  You can call Escargot Express to store items, but you can only give them 3 items at a time.  Forget Giygas.  The real final boss should be whoever programmed inventory management.


Stats and Equipment

Level 72

HP:  572
PP:  196

Offense:  185
Defense:  140
Speed:  46
Guts:  53
Vitality:  38
IQ:  39
Luck:  66

Weapon:  Big League Bat
Body:  Crystal Charm
Arms:  Diamond Band
Other:  Lucky Coin

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Yellow Submarine

At this point, Poo left the party to study PSI Starstorm.  That means Ness stole almost all his Super Smash Bros moves from the rest of the Earthbound cast.  His Final Smash, PK Thunder, and PSI Magnet all belong to Poo, and Paula has PK Fire.

Dungeon Man was a nice parody of RPG dungeons.  Be sure to read all the signs if you're playing Earthbound.  As much as I complain about Earthbound's inventory management, I appreciate the setting and some of the jokes.  ("Fuzzy Pickles" photographer wears out his welcome quickly, especially because he has nothing new to say after his first appearance.)

There weren't many encounters inside Dungeon Man, and most of the enemies were similar to their Fourside department store counterparts.  After leaving the area, Dungeon Man joined as a party member and immediately got stuck in some palm trees.  A local said I had to get a submarine to reach the Deep Darkness jungle, and Dungeon Man had one inside.  It was yellow "by coincidence".

The Hawk Eye was required to light up Deep Darkness, and the place was a maze.  The swamp slowed Ness down and slightly damaged him as he waded through.  Ness's Franklin Badge made the electric eels easy, but the Manly Fish could cast PSI Freeze for major damage and the chance at losing a turn.  I didn't equip the Rain Pendant to avoid this because I was more afraid of status ailments than raw damage.

Along the way, I saw a crashed helicopter.  Did Pokey get here first?  More trial and error resulted in Ness staying too long and becoming homesick.  Losing turns while Ness thought about Pie reminded me of his trials in Peaceful Rest Valley early on.  Master Belch returned as the palette swap Master Barf, and yes, they were the same character.  I like this winking reference to palette swaps.  It wasn't much of a fight despite Ness's homesickness.  Right after I tried PSI Flash Omega, Poo appeared out of nowhere and finished him off with PSI Starstorm.  You stole my kill, Poo!  Don't you know this is a solo run?    


I saved in the next town and decided to take a break.  I wonder if I have to run from some encounters from here on out.  If Ness levels up to 99 before clearing Magicant, he doesn't get its stat boost.  Solo characters in Earthbound gain experience like someone only using their starter Pokemon.  (Was some of the code in Pokemon Red/Blue based on Earthbound?  There's even a "Rock Candy" item that works like Rare Candy.)

EDIT:  Rock Candy boosts one stat.  It doesn't give you an instant level up like Rare Candy in Pokemon.


Stats and Equipment

Level 74

HP:  586
PP:  210

Offense:  186
Defense:  170
Speed:  46
Guts:  53
Vitality:  39
IQ:  42
Luck:  82

Weapon:  Big League Bat
Body:  Crystal Charm
Arms:  Diamond Band
Other:  Souvenir Coin (found in Deep Darkness)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Backtracking

The Tendas were too shy to remove the boulder in their village for me, so Ness had to find the book "Overcoming Shyness".  Apple Kid had it, but he was captured in Winters.  That meant going to the Stonehenge Base and using the Eraser Eraser invention.  (I ought to list all the key items I have at the end of the update. . .)

The Senior Mooks were more dangerous versions of the Lesser Mooks, and could still cast PSI Freeze Beta to make Ness lose turns.  Starmen were less dangerous because they spent most of their time buffing their Guts or casting Shield.  Atomic Power Robots healed themselves all the time, and then exploded like Territorial Oaks when they finally ran out of HP.  The rolling HP meter saved me many times in Stonehenge, and prevented the explosions from being a threat at all.  Stonehenge Base was a long slog, and I was relieved to finally get to the boss.

Starman Deluxe could call for help to summon other Starmen.  PSI Flash Omega reflected back at Ness and caused uncontrollable crying.  My PP ran out quickly due to attrition in the dungeon and having to heal often.  Out of desperation, I clicked Bash on most turns.  Turns out I only had to kill Starman Deluxe!  The lack of a Death Count was surprising here.

I thought the developers were sadistic enough to not let me teleport to Tenda Village, so I trudged through the Deep Darkness again.  I only found out after the fact that Tenda Village is on the 4th page of the teleport menu.  Oops!    

Overcoming Shyness was successful, and all the Tendas were willing to talk to me.  One gave Ness a psychadelic tea experience that had scrolling text.  I must be near the end if the game is telling me about how close I am to Giygas and how easily I could beat enemies from Onett and Twoson.


Stats and Equipment

Level 80

HP:  631
PP:  230

Offense:  200
Defense:  184
Speed:  52
Guts:  60
Vitality:  42
IQ:  46
Luck:  97

Weapon:  Big League Bat
Body:  Crystal Charm
Arms:  Pixie's Bracelet
Other:  Souvenir Coin


Key Items That Take Up Space In My Inventory

ATM Card
Sound Stone
Town Map
Receiver Phone
Pencil Eraser
Eraser Eraser
Backstage Pass
Bad Key Machine
Key To The Tower
(Various "Broken" items that Jeff can repair, but I can't drop)

Keep in mind that each character can only have 14 items, and Ness's equipment takes up 4 slots.

EDIT:  Ness can no longer be homesick, now that he's passed the level 76 threshold.  He also learned PSI Rockin Omega, but that costs 98 HP.  Sure, it supposedly does "about 640" damage to all enemies, but that's PP inefficient.  Remember all those times I talked about magic efficiency in the Mario RPG Mallow solo?  It was more cost-effective to use melee there, and it's sometimes true in Earthbound too.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Diamond Dog Disaster

The 7th My Sanctuary point was in the Tenda Village cave, and the dungeon was easy for the most part.  The Starmen.net guide recommends fighting the weak Fobbies on the top floor to level up.  I ran from most of them to avoid getting to 99!  One fluke PSI Flash Beta from a Conducting Spirit handed Ness's head to him.

Death Count:  20  (Instant death spells are a leading cause of. . .death for solo characters.)

Electro Specter was the boss, and the Franklin Badge came in handy once again.  Attempting to use PSI Flash Omega on it resulted in Ness "feeling strange", so I defended until it wore off.  So much for trying out different tactics!  Bashing supplemented the reflected electric damage and finished off Electro Specter without much trouble.

Below the cave was a lost world filled with dinosaurs.  Ness hunted them for the novelty value, but they weren't more dangerous than other enemies despite their massive size relative to him on the map.  A talking rock in a Tenda tribe told me to head southwest to reach the Fire Spring where the last My Sanctuary point was hidden.

As you'd expect, many enemies in the Fire Spring used fire attacks, but I didn't wear the pendant and opted for the Crystal Charm.  Mortal damage?  You can heal that.  Status ailments like diamondization?  You need to be paranoid about those.

Carbon Dog seemed like a typical fire-based boss, and it made me question my idea of equipping the Crystal Charm.  Then it turned into Diamond Dog, who could recoil some physical damage with PSI Shield.  It also emitted a "glorious light", which was PSI Flash Omega in disguise.  This instantly made Ness collapse twice.

Death Count:  22

How do I handle this?  *Looks up equipment*  Hey, the Sea Pendant could work!  That's even in the Lost Underworld!  Apparently it defends against fire, freeze, and flash.  I'll need it to keep Paula alive in the final battle anyway.


Level 85

HP:  675
PP:  238

Offense:  221
Defense:  195
Speed:  54
Guts:  63
Vitality:  45
IQ:  47
Luck:  110

Weapon:  Ultimate Bat
Body:  Crystal Charm
Arms:  Cherub's Band
Other:  Souvenir Coin

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  Magicant Leveling

I forgot to mention that my second attempt at the Diamond Dog had a blooper.  One of its "glorious light" attacks made Ness "feel strange", and he ended up healing it completely with PSI Lifeup.    

The Sea Pendant was the advantage I needed.  Carbon Dog's fire now dealt 15 damage instead of several hundred, and Diamond Dog's flashes did not affect Ness at all.  Bashing defeated this boss like so many others.

Ness fell asleep and woke up in the dream land of Magicant.  Talking to different people changed the background colors, and even Pokey was friendly.  Flying Men were available to help in the Magicant dungeon, but didn't do much more than inflict minor melee damage.  Good thing I checked the treasure chests, because the Magicant Bat was in one of them.  Krakens were normal enemies in the marshy part of Magicant, but were anticlimactic with the Sea Pendant equipped.  At the end of the dungeon, a Mani Mani statue called "Ness's Nightmare" attacked.

Ness's Nightmare was like fighting myself.  It constantly used PSI Shield Beta to reduce damage, and healed itself with PSI Lifeup Beta.  Its main attacks were PSI Rockin Alpha, which was harmless, and PSI Rockin Omega, which almost always caused mortal damage.  Ness would never have survived without the rolling HP meter.  Bash slowly chipped away at Ness's Nightmare until it was destroyed.

Look at the Stats and Equipment if you want to see how strong Ness became after he woke up from his dream:

Level 90

HP:  870
PP:  650 (!)

Offense:  242
Defense:  216
Speed:  61
Guts:  83
Vitality: 58
IQ:  65
Luck:  133


I thought Dragon Quest protagonists were powerful compared to the rest of their party, but this makes them look weak.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Earthbound Solo Ness:  End

Dr. Andonuts needed materials from Buzz Buzz's meteorite to finish the Phase Distorter, so I teleported back to Onett.  The Runaway Dogs and Spiteful Crows were replaced by Giygas's minions, and almost everyone had barricaded themselves in their houses.  They proved capable of taking on Ness even with his Magicant stat boosts.  An Evil Eye took advantage of Ness's Sea Pendant by diamondizing him.  I knew I had to go back to the Crystal Charm!

Death Count:  23

Its Brainshock Omega could make Ness "feel strange" too.  That status ailment is lethal to a solo run if you can't heal yourself in time, which of course you can't when Ness wastes his turns healing enemies or his dead allies.

Final Death Count:  24

"Final" Death Count?  That's because the last dungeon was surprisingly easy, or maybe being level 92 was the trick.  Ness ran from all the battles in his robot suit to conserve HP and PP.  Since going to the past was a point of no return, I bought a lot of Horns of Life and Brain Food Lunches.  It was far more than I needed.  Before starting the fight with Giygas, I equipped the Earth Pendant so Paula could have the Sea Pendant.  You may not be able to comprehend Giygas's attacks, but they are elemental damage.

In Phase 1 of the fight, Giygas used low level PSI Rockin while Heavily Armed Pokey used his physical attacks.  Bashing and timely healing was enough to defeat Pokey and begin Phase 2.  Giygas's first form wasn't too hard either.  Ness's Magicant boosts gave him so much PP I could cast PSI Rockin Omega multiple times and end the fight quickly.

Phase 3 required reviving Paula so she could use her Pray command until Giygas was defeated.  With the Sea Pendant and the Franklin Badge, she was never in any danger.  It's more of an extended cutscene than a proper fight.

The ending featured new dialogue from the characters, and it was funny to see the ghosts of my other characters in most of Fuzzy Pickle Man's photos during the credits.

Earthbound gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.  It's a fun Dragon Quest clone, though the originality of the setting is the game's strong point.  The inventory system is archaic even for a 16 bit RPG.  Ness himself is the sort of protagonist who can do everything well, even if he doesn't have the other characters' specialties (elemental damage, Jeff's repaired items, Poo's ability to copy enemies, etc.).  He has melee, healing magic, defensive buffs, status ailments, and attack magic for crowds of random enemies or tough bosses.  Think of Ness as a superior Red Mage.

Doing a solo for any other character would likely require a cheating device since they're absent for so much of the game.  Ness is solo anyway for Onett, Twoson, and Magicant.  Paula is kidnapped in Fourside, you don't get Jeff until Threed.   Poo isn't seen until Summers, and he leaves for the Dungeon Man and Deep Darkness areas.