The specific reason "Earthbound" is the best RPG e

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If you've played Earthbound then you know all the reasons it's good. The charming story, witty dialogue, quirky eclectic world, what's not to like? But there's a specific reason I think this game is one of the best RPG's ever, even put up against RPG's of today.

When you go into a hostile area, you can see your enemies all around you on the map. This helps you out because you can assess the situation and prepare your party accordingly. This also means if you're lucky you can avoid them and get through an area without battling at all.

But here's the big reason! You ever get to a really high level, then have to backtrack, and a good portion of your time is spent getting trapped in random battles with weak-ass enemies that are just a waste of your time? "Earthbound" cuts right through that. If you run into an enemy you're a way higher level than, the game acknowledges this and just lets you win the battle automatically, giving you the experience. And sometimes you can get the drop on an enemy and get a free battle.

What a brilliant and simple way to cut down on level grinding, wouldn't you say?

Let's put this against earlier Final Fantasy games, where you had NO IDEA where your enemies were and it took FOREVER to get anywhere on the map if you were traveling on foot. Recent games like XII had the right idea by having the enemies out in front of you, but I felt this got bogged down with a flimsy battle grid plus the whole gambit system. If you applied the "Earthbound" theory to a traditional turn-based RPG I think you might be onto something.

I dunno, just a thought.

I've heard a lot of this game. On which platforms can it be played ? Was it even released in Europe ?

Earthbound, or Mother 2, is a SNES game. It never had been released in Europe and you can't play it on virtual console because of the musical industry lawyers. You need a emulator (like zsnes). The sequel (Mother 3) is on GBA, but it never get out of Japan. You can have a unoficial translation here: http://mother3.fobby.net/.
Then you need the game ROM and a GBA emulator.

A lot of more recent RPGs avoid the need for level grinding, and even some older RPGs like Might and Magic III-V had a finite amount of enemies.

Earthbound was still excellent, but I'd say mainly for its quirks. Great music, some amusing dialogue, a fairly original setting, and gripping gameplay. Also, one of the best final bosses of all time. Mother 1 had too much levelling, and while I haven't played Mother 3 it seems like it was on the other end of the scale from Mother 1 in that it wasn't enough of a challenge.

Earthbound is great. I love how weird it is. Haha. it can be so random at times.

In honor of this topic I want to go play it.

But eh, I love the game, I absolutely love the story and the mechanics, but the bosses...

It's absolutely impossible to lose to the final boss, and all the others are generally just the victims of a multi-bottle rocket from jeff. I don't use multi bottles, though, just to make it more fun.

On another note, Mario RPG: 7 stars is the same style of gameplay as well. I love that game.