EarthBound: The grind
I have a deep suspicion that upon completing this game, I will have declared it almost good. The menus are clunky, the level grinding would be tiresome if there wasn’t a auto-fight feature (and, even then, it’s annoying) and whenever I kill a boss I feel relief not satisfaction. I will, however, hold off on serious analysis until I get a full party and, presumably, some plot.
This week’s session was a bit long for how little progress I made. I zipped through Restful Peaceful Valley, avoiding as many mobs as I could, to find myself in Happy Happy Village where I could level and money grind with ease.
The level grind is pretty straightforward. There is a mob called the Insane Cultist which grants you 353 experience points a pop AND calls for reinforcements. So, on a good pull, you can walk away with over 1,000 exp. Rinse, repeat for a an hour or so and you’ll faceroll the town’s leader, Carpainter, so you can free Paula and get your first party member (and more inventory space!).
The money grinding takes a little more time. You see, Fresh Eggs, which sell for $12, after about three minutes, will hatch into chickens which sell for $110. But in Happy Happy Village, before you save Paula, there is a pay what you want vendor which get get take eggs for free. So, the majority of my gaming session ran like this.
- Get Eggs
- Go make myself a hotpocket
- Check my twitter feed
- Go get ice for bourbon and come back to check on eggs
- Realize the bourbon bottle was still in the kitchen
- Return to kitchen to fill glass, grab hotpocket, and sell chickens in game
Rinse, repeat, and you effectively have infinite money and a real good buzz.
So, with a new party member and flush with cash, I returned to Twosome to restock on one of the more essential items in the game, the Teddy Bear:
In battle, Teddy Bears will occasionally (75% of the time for normal attacks) take hits from oncoming enemies for Ness and his friends. Some attacks like PSI Magnet will always target them and are ineffective. The Teddy Bear has approximately 100 HP, and after taking enough damage, will be reduced to a mere pile of fluff and removed from the inventory of whichever character was wielding it.
Also, during my internet travels, I found a trick to heal your bear: simply give it to Escargo Express, the item storage delivery/pick-up service, and, the next time you retrieve it, the health is restored.
That’s really all I got this week, I am looking forward to barreling through more of the story so I can begin to understand what makes Daniel love this game so much.
Where You At?: Threep
Sanctuary Songs Recorded: 2 of 8
Party: Ness and Paula.
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Read Daniel J. Hogan week 3 post
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Andrew Simone is writer, veloist, and video game enthusiast who spends too much time at a social network that isn’t one.
I remembered the “pay what you want/egg” trick far too late. I sold a bunch of eggs in Twoson though, and stocked up on a few Teddy Bears to stash away with Escargot Express.
Since I am playing on the SNES, I can’t do multiple save states, which means when I save, I’m stuck with it–there is no redo. That is one thing I miss about FFVII, where I could have multiple saves.
Well, I tip my hat to you. I respect you playing it authentically.