Personality Crisis
In many articles, people have compared the main Earthbound characters to characters in other games or stories. The hardest part of this, in my opinion, is comparing characters' personalities. The main characters' personalities don�t seemed to be throughly revield in the game. Why? Let's try to find out.
First, take Ness. His personality is hard to see because he never really talks in the game. Let's compare him to other game heroes. Take the heroes of countless games, such as the following: Crono in Chrono Trigger, Rudy in Wild ARMs, Mario in Mario RPG, and so on.What do these heroes have in common? They never (or almost never) speak. Many think that this is because the game creators want you to think the main character is YOU, or has you're personality.Therefore, the main character doesn't speak. Maybe that describes the situation with Ness....
Then again, none of the main characters in Earthbound seem to talk much. We find out more about other characters' personalities than we do about Ness, Paula, Jeff, or Poo. Sure, we know that Jeff is reckless and Poo is popular with the girls, but we learn this because we are told directly in game text that these things are so, instead of realizing them through characters' actions. Jeff says he's reckless, but we don't see enough of his personality to deduce that on our own. If Jeff had not said he was reckless, could you, at the end of the game, say that Jeff is reckless based on his actions in the game? I don't see how.
We don't see character development from Ness, Paula, Jeff, or Poo. The main characters never change in Earthbound as far as we can see. There are no emotional conflicts, in fact, the main characters rarely show emotion at all. This is why it seems that fan fiction writing for Earthbound is a little more difficult than writing fiction for other RPGs.
Because Earthbound doesn't have emotional conflicts between main characters, or dramatic character development, does it mean it�s not as good as other RPGs with these features? Not at all. We DO see the attitudes and conflicts of non-playable characters, however. Perhaps Shigesato Itoi and the other developers of Earthbound wished the main characters to seem like average kids, even just like your friends, therefore no complex personalities were given to them so you could imagine them as you will.
In many articles, people have compared the main Earthbound characters to characters in other games or stories. The hardest part of this, in my opinion, is comparing characters' personalities. The main characters' personalities don�t seemed to be throughly revield in the game. Why? Let's try to find out.
First, take Ness. His personality is hard to see because he never really talks in the game. Let's compare him to other game heroes. Take the heroes of countless games, such as the following: Crono in Chrono Trigger, Rudy in Wild ARMs, Mario in Mario RPG, and so on.What do these heroes have in common? They never (or almost never) speak. Many think that this is because the game creators want you to think the main character is YOU, or has you're personality.Therefore, the main character doesn't speak. Maybe that describes the situation with Ness....
Then again, none of the main characters in Earthbound seem to talk much. We find out more about other characters' personalities than we do about Ness, Paula, Jeff, or Poo. Sure, we know that Jeff is reckless and Poo is popular with the girls, but we learn this because we are told directly in game text that these things are so, instead of realizing them through characters' actions. Jeff says he's reckless, but we don't see enough of his personality to deduce that on our own. If Jeff had not said he was reckless, could you, at the end of the game, say that Jeff is reckless based on his actions in the game? I don't see how.
We don't see character development from Ness, Paula, Jeff, or Poo. The main characters never change in Earthbound as far as we can see. There are no emotional conflicts, in fact, the main characters rarely show emotion at all. This is why it seems that fan fiction writing for Earthbound is a little more difficult than writing fiction for other RPGs.
Because Earthbound doesn't have emotional conflicts between main characters, or dramatic character development, does it mean it�s not as good as other RPGs with these features? Not at all. We DO see the attitudes and conflicts of non-playable characters, however. Perhaps Shigesato Itoi and the other developers of Earthbound wished the main characters to seem like average kids, even just like your friends, therefore no complex personalities were given to them so you could imagine them as you will.
