Yeah, this is true and very irritating. It’s like when people with just enough film knowledge to be annoying call anything they don’t get “Lynchian.”
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i feel like minecraft hits many but certainly not all of the same notes
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I think Anodyne 2 is a good shout-out here. Hits some of the self-reflexively creepy notes that parts of Mother 2 and 3 get to. Like, the video game as unheimlich, a strange and parodic version of suburban life you travel to while sitting in your own most intimate domestic space, socializing alone, pouring your time and energy and loneliness into a haunted labyrinth. Like, these games understand what that means and what it’s like and why you do it, and they’re engaging with that on a deeper level.
Alright, I’ve hit my pretension quota for the year, now put me on a canoe and light me on fire please.
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Like what part about Earthbound is the part you like the most?!
I think PoPoLoCrois 1 on PS1 (now fan translated) has a similar sense of humor Though the setting is more overtly fantasy.
Continuing the discussion from Shin Densetsu no Screenshots Gaiden 2.022: Everybody’s Free (To Use Print Screen):
I keep thinking about this game, I need to play #2
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cool, if we’re getting pretentious, minecraft also plays with the domestic / untamed dichotomy and can give you the literal unheimlich in seeing domiciles built by others with slightly different ergonomic conventions than yours. it’s about going on expeditions, gets weird more than it does dangerous, and features optional grinding. re: why mother was named mother, it feels more parental than prostitute-like, but hands-off, like you’ve been sent outside to play in the woods for the afternoon
i’m trying to think of more games with earthbound’s sense of humor but i haven’t run into it very often having mostly played western games. giants: citizen kabuto is like vaguely in the same area from what i recall though it’s more overtly goofy, i think you’re more likely to encounter similar sensibilities in british games than american ones. startopia???
i was also going to mention anthology of the killer, with the safe chase scenes and deadpan threatening absurdity and some jokes it seems like it doesn’t care if you get or not
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I feel ill equipped to answer this question but my first instinct was to say OneShot?
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What is Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima like?
The only other game I can think of to go inside the mind of a Japanese male celebrity born in the 1940s is Takeshi’s Challenge
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I feel like this should be in KOP
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Pokemon. It’s very much a Mother with the edges rounded off and more kid-friendly, but still has its spirit. Probably doesn’t hurt that those games share(d) developers.
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Mentioning Lisa. I feel like non-standard status effect names is an underrated element of whatever this type of game is.
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There’s no one who hasn’t played this game already, but: Katamari Damacy, and all the other Keita Takahashi joints while you’re at it.
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Listen… if you like Earthbound’s music in particular, you should play The Ur-Quan Masters
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Dragon Quest (any) is the only answer I can conceptualise right now. They’re literally the same game!
Oh no… I thought of another one and it’s Fear & Hunger 
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there used to be a time when people would say this about psychic 5.
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i would say if you like earthbound you should suffer and lament, because there ain’t shit else for you on this bitch of an earth
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Please don’t remind me of this sickness.
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Thats the deal, thats the deal with Earth Bound, it wouldn’t be Earth Bound if it could be recreated.
to really BE an earthbound you’d have to be highly original yet comfortably derivative with a genuinely iconic sound track that is maybe slightly illegal.
So a real earth bound thats not earth bound, could never look like earth bound. yet thats what the people want..
Thinking about it samore*
I think
Feels like it takes place down some slimey hole in earth bound or mother 3 world. Or like this is the world after the final victory of Master Belch
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God Hand
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