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bwamp-bwamp · 4 years

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Your writing is amazing so I think you can do nsfw well, and it is good to practice. Anyway, i was wondering if you could do 2D x reader where 2D and the reader are best friends. But 2D has a crush on them and doesn't think they like him back untill he found them masterbating to him and it ends in them sleeping together. I know thats kinda perverted, sorry, if it makes you uncomfortable you don't have to write it. Also sorry this was kinda long

2D x Reader (NSFW)

“I would like the reader to be a girl. And would it be ok if 2D was the bottom because the reader is very dominant?“ “I'm really sorry but i kinda forgot something! If your already pretty much done with the story then you don't have to do this, but can 2D at some point be done with the reader teasing and become all dominant all of a sudden. And he turns into basically an animal? You don't have to do it if it would mess something you already wrote up, just if you can. Sorry” (just to maybe clear some stuff up?)

Phase: During the “Do ya thing” video period so phase 3.5? Or just 3?

Reader: Female

Warning: poorly written NSFW ahead, tis unedited, I have no clue on how to but “read more” thing here but if you’re under age or just don’t like it then don’t read it! Also I had no clue what I was doing but I tried so I hope you enjoy!

Being Stuart’s best friend had its perks, one being that you were hired to help set up the equipment for their performances. Yep, that’s right, you were one of the roadies for the band. It wasn’t the best job but as long as you were making money and a place to live, you weren’t complaining.

Back when the first Kong Studio was around you were living by yourself and relatively close by so any time Stu got sick of Murdoc’s abuse, he’d just escape to your house and hang out with you. However, when they were on Plastic Beach, the only time you two saw each other was during tours, and even then you two barely talked.

The thought of you, your smile, laugh, gorgeous eyes, soft hair, kind heart, sweet personality, that’s what kept him going through the shit he dealt with on the damned island, locked in the room under the water and being washed by the large whale that terrorized him with its presence.

You were panicked by the lack of 2D, the band too, but mostly 2D. So when you got mail sent to your house with a return address you were unfamiliar with, you were confused. You only got more confused when you found a key inside with a note. Reading the note, you realized that......

No, it couldn’t be, could it? Was it really from Stuart? You had no idea you could feel more than two emotions at once. There was confusion, obviously, rage, joy and uncertainty. You felt rage because where the hell had he been and why hadn’t he tried contacting you before, joy because the key was to a townhouse the whole band was staying at and he wanted you to come live with them, saying something about “having so much to catch up on”, then finally uncertainty because what if this wasn’t actually 2D and it was just someone trying to prank you? And if it wasn’t your long time crush- I mean best friend, The Who was it and how did they know your address?

Shaking your head free of all but your happy thoughts, you decided you’d go find out. So you pocketed the key, wrote the return address on your hand and went to find out if the info in the note was for real.

After arriving at the address and getting out of the car, you walked to the front door, contemplating if you should test out the key and let yourself in or knock like a normal person. Shrugging your shoulders, you mumbled “fuck it” under your breath and pulled the key out of your pocket, jammed it into the lock and-

Holy shit, the key worked. Now all you need to do is see if the band lived there and not some old gross weirdo..... aside from Murdoc, of course. Slowly walking in, you gripped your keys incase you needed to stab a mofo. Unfamiliar with the building’s layout, you tried to be sneaky, and it was working up until a certain blue haired string bean came down the stairs.

You were both startled by the others presence, but after a second of staring at the man, a smile spread across your face. Stuart smiled as well, just standing there looking at you. Dropping your keys, you sprint towards the frontman of Gorillaz and practically tackle him to the stairs in a hug.

That was a month and a half ago, you had sold most of your belongings, like your furniture and the house itself, only leaving yourself with you clothes, car and other personal belongings. Your room was across the hall from Stu’s. What you didn’t know but could guess at by the way he looked at you recently and in the past was that your long time crush returned your feelings. He had no clue you liked him back, so one night when everyone was in the privacy of their own room, you thought everyone was asleep and decided to take advantage of the moment.

Your mind wandered a bit, trying to think of a scenario you could get off to. You felt your body heat up at the thought of 2D laying underneath you, his thin figure tied in a simple yet pleasing to look at shibari style. Lightly biting your bottom lip, you felt your folds getting wet and you had yet to even touch yourself.

You imagined the cute yet sexy moans and whimpers you could get out of his as you slowly, softly caressed his body, from his shoulders to his legs you sit between while leaving gentle kisses along his hardening length. Huffing quietly, you groped your breasts from under your night shirt, rubbing your thumb over a nipple, feeling it harden in excitement before lightly pinching it and pulling slightly then released.

You played with your chest a little longer as you thought about taking Stuart’s fully erect member in your mouth. Your mind jumped around a bit, bringing you to where he’s whimpering about being so close to finishing, only for you to take him out of your warm, wet mouth just before he could finish and cause him to whine in protest.

Crawling up his body, you kissed him hungrily, grinding your soaking entrance and sensitive clit against his spit coated dick. You weren’t sure when, but at some point, one of your hands slipped into your panties which lead to a quiet moan escaping your lips. It wasn’t loud enough to be heard through the door, let alone two, thankfully.

Back in your mind, your kisses moved from 2D’s lips, down his jaw, and to his neck and collarbones while the kisses evolved to gentle bites, sucks and licks. Stu begged you to “just ride me already, please!” Giving a giggled moan in response, you reached down, lined him up with you entrance and slowly lowered yourself onto his length.

In time with your imagination, you slowly entered two fingers into yourself, letting a moan out that was a little louder than the last. You continued to finger yourself in time with the mental imagery, rolling your hips against your hand as you were too focused on pleasure. Failing to pay attention to your surroundings or your volume, you didn’t realize you were repeatedly moaning the mans name loud enough for him to hear through both closed doors.

Not realizing what was happening, 2D got up from his bed in nothing but his underwear and made his way out of his room and to yours. He opened your door without knocking, rubbing the side of his face with his eyes closed as he entered. “(Y/N), what were you calling m-“ Stuart stopped mid-sentence when he opened his eyes to find you frozen in shock on your bed, one hand still under your shirt and your other hand still between your thighs, now three fingers in knuckles deep.

His mouth hung open and his eyes a bit wide. The woman he had been in love with for so many years was on her bed, fingering herself to the thought of him. If that didn’t make his cock come to life, he had no clue what would. Was he sure he wasn’t dreaming? No, he couldn’t be dreaming, he had yet to even fall asleep!

Glancing down at 2D’s hardening length after somewhat recovering from the shock, you slowly slid your fingers out of your wet opening and wiped them off onto your shirt. You moved to sit on your knees, still in bed before beckoning the bluenette closer. “Come here, Stu.” You spoke in a seductive tone, and he listened to your instruction, making his way over, only for you to pull him down onto the bed and gently kiss him.

Just like everything else that happened since he entered your room, 2D was shocked but went along with it, kissing you back after a second or two. He placed his hands on your waist, slowly running them up your back just to retrace their path down to your waist and down the sides of your thighs. The motion continued to cycle as you moved over him, cradling the sides of his face.

The sweet and gentle kisses didn’t last long, seeing as it turned into a heated makeout session. Stu moaned as you started to grind against him, causing you to sit up and smirk down at him. You grabbed the blue haired mans hands from your hips and pinned them beside his head, then kiss, licked and nipped at his neck and collarbones, making soft moans and whines leave his throat.

You continued to grind against him until you felt his member twitch slightly, to which you stopped before he could finish. Panting softly from the friction against your clit, you looked down at 2D and you’re heart melted when you two made eye contact. A light blush formed on your cheeks and you let go of Stuart’s wrists. You slowly ran your hands down his arms, over his shoulders and to his chest. As your hands continued their journey down Stu’s body to his underwear, your lips followed, leaving light kisses behind.

Slowly, so very slowly, you pulled 2D’s underwear down his legs, but stopped when they reached his calves and kissed over his thighs before stroking his shaft, leaving him to get rid of his only article of clothing. The blue haired man kicked them off as you trailed your tongue along a vein, from base to tip. He moaned as you put the tip in your mouth, thrusting slightly from the warmth.

You looked up at him the entire time, watching his reactions to see if you were at least doing okay. Seeing that all his responses were positive, you grew more confident and took more into your mouth, causing you to gag slightly when the tip hit the back of your throat, but you quickly recovered and continued to give your crush head.

When he got close to finishing, you pulled away, grinning up at him only to hear a sound of frustration leave his mouth while he looked back at you upset. You tried to hold in your laugh as you took your shirt off and tossed it to the floor, your panties soon following suit, and you weren’t quite sure, but you had a feeling that Stuart’s eyes were following your movements.

It became more obvious that your feeling was right as you moved up his body to trap his spaghetti noodle of a body under yours, watching as he tilted his head to keep his eyes on your chest. You pecked his lips before you leaned to your bedside table and reached into the drawer, pulling out a condom packet you weren’t too sure would fit him, but heres to hoping.

“Put this on...” You spoke softly while handing it to him. 2D was still looking at you when you got back over him properly, but when you held it out, his eyes snapped from you, to the condom, then back to you before taking it, tearing it open and quickly making work at covering his member with it.

You smiled as you caressed his chest. “You ready?” The question left your mouth with a hint of nervousness but you ignored it and laughed softly when your friend eagerly nodded his head. You positioned yourself above his length, feeling the head pushing against your entrance when you felt your heart skip a beat at the words that left the Englishman’s mouth.

“You’re so very beautiful, (Y/N).” You blushed from the sincerity laced in his words. He lifted his hips slightly, finally entering you and got the sweetest moan in response. He moaned as well, closing his eyes as you took him till you hips met his. You felt so much better than he could have ever imagined, and it caused him to place his hands on your waist to keep you there, just like that, for a little longer.

You had been looking at him the entire time, a small smile forming on your face before you slowly started moving. You’re pace stayed the same for a while, much to Stuart’s disliking, seeing as he was begging you to go even just a bit faster. You leaned down to lightly nip at his earlobe as you stayed constant with tithe speed, that was the tipping point.

He had two close calls tonight, walked in on you touching yourself, and had been attracted to you ever since he knew you. He was not about to have you going at a pace that was slower than molasses so he took matters into his own hands and flipped you both. You let out a surprised noise at the sudden movement, but was quickly turned to a pleasure filled moan as Stu began to thrust deep and hard into you.

You’re heart rate quickened and you wrapped your legs around his waist, his real name slipping past your lips and causing him to smile and kiss you. Even in a moment like this, he still found you to be absolutely cute. “Do I feel good, love?” He asked through pants and moans, only to get pleased whines of “yes,” and “don’t stop” in response. He was nice this time and didn’t stop, only because he too was nearing his end.

You gripped his back and pulled him close, kissing him deeply as you finished around him, the frontman not far behind on the pleasure train. As you both tried to catch your breath, he pulled out and flopped beside you on the bed, disposing of the condom, then cuddled into your tired form with his head under your chin.

“Do you need anything, like something to drink or a bath?” He asked quietly as he eventually caught his breath. You shook your head as you wrapped your arms around him. “Right now, the only thing I need is some Stu cuddles and sleep, in the morning I’ll get a shower. Do you need anything?” “Cuddles and sleep sounds nice.” He mumbled as he closed his eyes, sleep washing over him first.

You smiled and kissed the top of his head before stroking his hair until you fell asleep too. “I love you blueberry....”

#gorillaz #gorillaz x reader #2d #2d gorillaz #2d x reader #stuart pot #stuart pot x reader #gorillaz fanfiction #stuart pot gorillaz

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imsfire2 · 3 years

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For the WIP, I'd love to know about 'The Bargain of Liberty' as that's a great title and the classicist in me is curious about the Pausanias' one, and curious about the cricket ones.

The cricket ones are connected; one is the text and the other is a supporting doc to help me keep track of things. It’s a long short story, set in the Guau-guau ‘verse, in which Cassian and Jyn and Bodhi play cricket for fun in the park, and end up getting challenged to a real match one weekend by the overweening captain of a local team, Empire Gyms. Of course they manage to put together a team and battle their way to an unexpected victory. I’m quite near the end and hoping to be able to post it fairly soon. I suspect it won’t appeal to all my readers though, because you need to know some cricket terminology and the rules of the game to understand what’s going on!

“Running away with Pausanias” was the tilte of a daily blog I wrote over the course of a month in 2015. I’d had a fantasy for years of travellling around Greece, retracing the journeys of Pausanias and writing about and drawing the places he visited as they are now. When I was made redundant from my last office job that year, I decided to treat myself to a month’s travelling, and do at least a little bit of this. I was able to cover parts of Athens and the easier-to-reach sites of the Saronic Islands and the Argolid (& would love to be able to do more!). At the time I meant to convert the blog into a travel book, but I’ve never got very far with the project as writing about my own experiences as a narrative felt very strange after years of writing fiction. I even tried converting the whole thing into 3rd person, to see if I could make it work as a lightly-fictionalised novel instead. So far it’s dead in the water; but it’s still in the WiP folder. The blog is still available, if you want to look it up. And I highly recommend the theme as a way to add a lot of extra interest to a Greek visit.

“The Bargain of Liberty” is an original novel idea, set in Tudor times; one of those “what if magic were real?” historical fantasies. The basis of the story is imagining that Queen Elizabeth the first of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, met in 1568 when Mary fled from Scotland. They fell in love, and appealed to the great astrologer and magician Dr John Dee to find a way for them to be able to marry. Dr Dee consulted his books of magic and found a way to strike a great bargain with an otherworldly spirit; provided the same freedoms were to be granted to all the people of the island of Albion (mainland Britain), then the spirit would make it so.

The main story is set 20 years later. The Two Queens have ruled in peace and propserity, over a very different Tudor Britain than the one in our history; a land where gender roles are barely relevant and are considered an embarrassing memory, and where freedom of sexuality, gender identity and religion are the norm. Also, the existance of magic, and the periodic interventions of spirits like the one Dr Dee worked with, have led to a very different balance of power across the whole world. To many people, Albion’s freedoms, and the Great Bargain of Liberty that created them, are admirable. But other, more reactionary, forces look on Albion as a land of corruption and sin, and long to see the Two Queens overthrown and “normal” behaviour enforced.

So I have a very over-the-top fantasy scenario, full of important nuances that need to be explored with care and tact, and a world-wide scale involving multiple different countries and cultures, which also requires a careful approach; and a story about spies and wars and heroics and the Tudor theatre, and Chrisopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in a polyamourous relationship, and assorted OCs, all having adventures, and the future King James the 6th-and-1st as a rowdy young man who wants to be an actor, and diplomacy involving alliances and power struggles with west African and central American kingdoms and their respective tutelary spirits and types of magic, and of course the Spanish Armada, and the Inquisition (who are the Bad Guys). It’s all a bit of a handful and I’m not sure I can pull it off to be honest! But I still love the basic idea, and from time to time I have a little nibble at it.

Thank you for asking, and I hope this isn’t all too off-putting!

TL:DR; I have a bad habit of starting on big writing projects & then not finishing them.

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zachsgamejournal · 3 years

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PLAYING: Breath of Fire 3

So we're getting really close to beating the game. I can not wait till this is over. It's weird to want games to end, but games like this with a clear linear plot can too easily overstay their welcome. Truly, BoF3 doesn't really have enough mythology to warrant 40 hours, but they do their best to stretch it...

SO - we get the sea chart to the legendary mariner. I have no idea how to look at the sea chart, so I looked on the internet. We found the mysterious "section" and there's this maze of navigable waters, but you have about 30 seconds to get to the legendary mariner.

...it just hit me that the sea chart is the mini-map during this section...

This took a few tries. I felt bad for my son, having to watch me fail. I was also getting frustrated, because I didn't want to waste his time. I got to the house with 1 second left, but I wasn't facing the right direction, so we had to start over. This made my son extremely mad. We had to set the game down and discuss feeling frustrated. It seems my own frustration was fueling his. So we talked out our feelings and got on the same page about how to proceed.

Then we got it on the next try!!

Legendary Mariner admits he didn't actually sail across the sea. Forget how he came, actually... He says the only way to get across is to use the Black Ship. I mean...duh. So we ram the Black Ship and begin one of my favorite sections from when I was a kid.

For some reason, I thought the ship was filled with more mini-games and puzzles. Not so much, which is good--so we can keep the story moving. There's an obligatory boss fight and then we reach the other side. Not as mind blowing as I remember, but still a cool idea for a "medieval fantasy" game.

We find some folks working an industrialized dock and they seem really confused by our presence. I don't spend much time here and move on. The characters make a comment about the people not seeming human.

...are they androids?

Next, we find a factory. I'm really annoyed at this point. CAN WE JUST FINISH THE GAME?! We get it, the machines come from here...

We then find a new place with an Antenna. Wonder what that is? Inside is a transporter room Nina, Rei, and Honey used to escape the castle. How interesting...We decide to activate it. The puzzle here was borderline intimidating but it turned out to not be so bad. We get it activated and are auto-zipped back to steel beach.

My son was not happy about this. He wants to move forward, not backward.

A quick recalibration of the antenna using a cool minigame, trying to point away from static signals, and we're back to the other side.

But this time we go to Dragnier. Turns out, this place is filled with The Brood that have surrendered their powers to become human. It was an attempt to hide from the Goddess and Guardians...why they hid on the same side of the sea as the Goddess, I'm not sure. But after a creepy scene of an old man trying to get girls to kiss him in exchange for information, Ryu is granted the ultimate dragon power: Infinity.

The citizens of Dragnier have been expecting Ryu and they believe he will be their savior, and avenge their defeat at the hands of the Goddess. Why they didn't kill the Goddess at full force?...Anyway, Nina is concerned about whether Ryu is a "good" or "bad" dragon. The elder Dragnier laughs. Dragons are neither good or bad. Basically, they're just people. But they're also very powerful and could destroy the world if they chose. The Goddess feared this power...maybe, I don't know...

Next comes the desert part. This part is clever. You have to walk across a desert using the stars for navigation. You also have limited water supply. Walking during the day exhausts more energy, so walk at night. This sequence takes a looong time, and it's easy to mess up. I respected this part, but I didn't want to waste too much time with my son walking.

So I looked up a short cut and set the emulator into fast-forward mode. (Emulators are the best way to play).

On the other side of the desert, there's a boss fight and Nina is overcome with heat exhaustion. So we have to kill our Yakda to help her heal. This is an interesting part because the Yakda is the only way to save yourself from the desert. So you're basically committing to never returning to safety. While BoF3 isn't necessarily a well-told story of deep characters, I'm always impressed with how few punches they pull. The game creates a lot of touch scenarios, with complicated motivations and morality.

Anyway, we find a village, that may feature some racist grammar stylings. They help Nina and the team recover then refer us to the "ruins" of Caer Xhan. There, we find a futuristic city with paved roads, automatic doors, and laser traps. Simple puzzle and we activate an elevator to the Orbital Station Myria.

We're in the Endgame now.

After crossing the ocean, the game's pacing is a little weird. Everywhere you go is a quick stop, and you don't normally return to these locations. Very much unlike the starting side of the game, where you're constantly returning to the same locations over, and over again. It makes the game feel a bit uneven. While I like retracing my foot steps as an adult and seeing how things changed, it was a little too excessive. And now there's a whole half of the world that's never been seen, and we're barely stopping for a breather before moving on.

Really, I think once you cross the ocean, that just needs to be the ending chapter. All this expectation of meeting God and it's just one delay after another. The other side of the sea could have combined several dungeons and story beats (Dock, factory, transporter) -- and then arrive at Dragnier, and finally cross the desert to the ruins.

We'll see what we get done tonight!

#Zach's Game Journal #ZGJ #PLAYING #breath of fire 3 #DuckStation #Emulators Rock

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cawfulopinions · 7 years

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Earthbound: A First Timer’s Perspective, Over 20 Years Later

I was born too late to enjoy Earthbound when it was new. The game came out in 1995, a year after I was born, and around the time the SNES had begun to give way to the Nintendo 64. Any excitement about a potential entry in the series for the N64 passed me right on by, and, like so many other people my age, my first experience with the series was when Earthbound’s main character, Ness, appeared in the Smash Brothers series. As a teenager, in the beginnings of the emulation age, friends recommended it to me, but the game’s slow start and strange aesthetics never quite grabbed me. It wasn’t until it finally got a Virtual Console release for the New 3DS that I finally sat down and actually played it, and even then it was as a “rainy day” kind of game.

Which is how I ended up in the strange situation where most of my experience with Earthbound and the themes that went into it came from games that were most influenced by it, particularly Undertale, a game so bleeding in influence from Earthbound that I’d almost call it a spiritual successor. It’s no surprise that this is the case -- its creator, Toby Fox, has history in the Earthbound fangame community, and has specifically cited Earthbound as an influence in how he wrote Undertale.

Playing it now, more than twenty years after its initial release, long after the franchise came to an end, I can now see everything I missed in the time since then, and everything I’ve missed since then. There’s something about the game, from its simplistic, charming presentation, to its surprisingly introspective moments, to its cartoonish enemies and its overall optimistic view of the world that spoke to me in ways I can’t put into words (though I’m sure as hell going to try).

Earthbound starts off generically enough -- the player controlled character, Ness (I hesitate to call Ness “you” in this instance, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who’s played the game), is told that he has a grand destiny requiring him and three other children to go on a journey to face a grand evil named Giygas. At the behest of a magic bee, he sets off to record the sounds of the “Your Sanctuaries” around the world so that he can gain the strength needed to fight Giygas, and unite with the other destined youths who’ll help him on this journey.

And when you start off the game, Ness is completely alone on this journey. These beginning parts of the game are easily the toughest parts of the game -- it’s Ness against the world, and with just his baseball bat and a couple of not-so-great psychic spells at his disposal, the world’s pretty willing to stomp all over Ness. I remember spending a good chunk of my first few hours running back home for free healing before trying again and again to get past the current plot obstacle.

And Ness is alone for a good chunk of the game -- your first party member, Paula, you don’t meet in proper until after you get past the game’s second town, and you have to actually rescue her from the boss of the third town before you can use her. There’s a good chance you’ll actually accidentally tackle the second Your Sanctuary before you save her, too.

Every time I got a new party member, I felt like things were starting to get a little bit smoother. And that’s not a statement to Earthbound’s detriment -- with every friend Ness met along the way, I felt the world open a little wider. Things that I struggled with before I had no problems with now.

And this went the other way too -- every time a character had to leave my party, I yearned for them to come back. There’s a part where Paula gets kidnapped again in Fourside, and suddenly I realized just how much I wanted her back when I realized how much Ness and Jeff struggled without her. At one point, Poo leaves the party to become stronger, and even though I’d barely used him at that point, I felt incomplete without him around. When he triumphantly came back at the end of Deep Darkness, everything finally felt right again.

Earthbound is a game that’s generally light on the characterization and plot, and Ness’s group is no exception to this. I think each of them has maybe five lines total in-game. But even with that, I felt attached to these kids and their journey through the game itself.

Even with how sparse it is, though, there’s something about Earthbound’s writing that really sticks with me. There’s a dryness to it that’s definitely indicative of the era it was written in, but there’s a quirkiness to a lot of it too, and more than that, there’s an earnestness to it that’s very welcome. Nothing ever feels like it was written just to take a potshot at someone (...except for the club from the above screenshot. That one might just be a potshot :V). Eagleland, the country the majority of the game takes place in, is so obviously a pastiche of what Japan thinks America is like, but it never passes into the territory of parody.

That’s without even getting into the general acceptance the game gives to some of the weirder bits of it. Like the guy who wants to talk to a mad scientist so he can get himself turned into a giant dungeon, because he loves dungeons that much. Or the monkey colony in a hole in desert, lead by a monkey Dalai Lama. Or the sesame seed you can talk to in that same desert that yearns for its partner, which is another sesame seed. These scenarios are all presented in the only way Earthbound knows how: completely straight-lacedly.

Something I found interesting early on is that even though the main characters are all children, the majority of the NPCs you interact with are adults. And none of these characters are really villainous. Antagonistic, yes, and occasionally you do have boss fights with them. But on the whole, these characters are helpful or at least earnest with their intentions. And there’s no real judgment toward the party for their friendship with people much older than them. For example, early on, it’s established that Paula is good friends with Everdred, the local crook, and it’s the party’s friendship with the Runaway Five that helps them out of several jams during the story.

Another thing is that, aside from one character very early on (who is a literal magic bee), no one dies in Earthbound. Random encounters are generally animals, monsters, or inanimate objects that have been compelled to fight you by Giygas’ evil influence, or they’re aliens and robots that follow Giygas and are here to invade earth. When you defeat them, animals become tame, plants and objects return to normal, and robots are turned to scrap metal. For a genre generally defined by its protagonists basically being D&D Murderhobos, it’s a surprisingly nonviolent take.

Even though the story is established early on, Earthbound really doesn’t spend a lot of time focusing on the ultimate goal of the journey. The game is separated into small arcs, each focusing on their own subjects and characters and plot bosses, with the common factor generally just being the influence of Giygas on whoever the head honcho is of the current problem. And the problems of those small arcs are so often small in the scale of the world-ending horror Giygas is supposed to be. The first major threat you take on is a cult that wants to paint the world blue, after all!

I think this is part of why Earthbound’s creepier moments (like Noonside and Giygas himself) stick out so hard to people -- they don’t fit with the calm, homey atmosphere of the game until this point. But I think that’s important too -- Earthbound is, ultimately, a game where the villain is the concept of evil itself. And what does evil take the form of in Earthbound? Something incomprehensible, something that doesn’t fit with the world until this point. It’s Noonside, where yes is no and the people are being manipulated by an evil idol. It’s Giygas, who has become so consumed by evil that he’s become something eldritch.

For how grand your journey is made out to be at the start, for the majority of the game, it feels very relaxed, almost homey. The plot really doesn’t ever kick into high gear -- your fight with Giygas comes nearly immediately after getting the final Your Sanctuary and going through Magicant, and Magicant itself is kind of homey and introspective -- it’s a journey through Ness’s mind, and on a whole, everything there is very chill.

(Ness’ Nightmare can go suck a dick, though.)

There’s something almost coming-of-agey about Earthbound. I say “almost”, because you don’t really learn much about Ness himself, but that’s the kind of journey you feel like you’re having. I feel like this is best evidenced with the Your Sanctuary sections, where, in each one, Ness has a vision of himself as a young child, and his family around him. It’s a story about Ness’s growth, even if we don’t concretely see what that growth is. And at the end of the game, after the threat’s all taken care of, you’re given time to go back to talk to everyone you’ve met along the way and retrace your steps back home, if you so want.

It’s all very cozy. It’s all very friendly. I’d say it’s not the kind of RPG I’ve ever played before, but I played Undertale first. But even with that foreknowledge, the further I went into Earthbound, the more I realized that Undertale is bleeding in its Earthbound influence. Everything about how Undertale is written, how it approaches morality, its combat, the journey you take, it’s all clearly born out of Earthbound. I’d even go so far as to say that the meta-role of the player in Undertale and Earthbound is very similar, too -- because in Earthbound, you are who saves the day in the end. The characters pray to you for help, and you, the player, are stated as praying for them to win. You beat Giygas in the end.

I’m not sure how much I have to say about Earthbound that other people haven’t said already in much cleaner or plainer terms. But it absolutely touched me. I suddenly understand why it’s as beloved of a game as it is, why people have clamored for Mother 3 to get an official release for so long, why it was such an influence on other RPG developers over time. I’d say I want more games like it, but I’m not sure any other game could scratch the same itch that Earthbound did for me. But now that I’ve played it, I feel like it’s filled a yearning I didn’t even realize I had.

Maybe that’s enough for me.

#earthbound #mother 2 #review #retrospective #video games

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