Earthbound and the loss of innocence
Earthbound is a work of art.
Shigesato Itoi created a game unlike anything else. It's colorful, fun, and weird, but also willing to go into some really dark territory. That uniqueness caused it to become one of the most influential games of all time, despite commerical failure.
I don't think it's a surprise why. People tend to hold media that felt them with strong emotions and feelings in high regard. At it's core, Earthbound was created to convey a very powerful feeling, the loss of childhood innocence.
Loss of innocence is hard to define. It's easy to think of examples, but how do you put the feeling into words? To me, innocence is a combination of naivety and blissful ignorance. As a kid, most or all of what you know is good and positive, so you believe that all is good and positive. The loss of innocence then, would be an introduction of negativity Learning to see the bad in things.
As a child, our default outlook is "good". Only through experiences do we see things in a more "realistic" and negative light. Whether it's because of a single traumatic event that changes your worldview, or slowly as you gain life experience, inevitably that innocence is lost.
And I think that's important to note, that innocence is lost. We don't want to give up the feeling that everything and everyone around us is good, but we're forced to lose our innocence, it's inevitable. In Earthbound, we watch that happen to Ness.
The game starts proper with Ness meeting Buzz Buzz, a time traveler who gave him the unfair responsibility of saving the world. Ness naively agrees, as a kid would, not fully understanding what "saving the world" entails. Then, reality hits.
Buzz Buzz is killed my Porky's mom, mistaking him as a housefly, before the journey even began. The game plays it for laughs, but it has dark connotations. Ness just started, and he already lost his only ally. He didn't expect anyone to die, let alone so soon, and now he's alone without guidance.
This moment is great, because not only does it set the tone of the entire game (comedic with dark undertones), but also introduces the primary theme. Ness innocently agrees to save the world, and is immediately met with a new ally dying in front of him. Horrible for a kid to go through, and he will only continue to go through more.
The world Itoi created is meant to be reminiscent our own, and as such, many of the dangers lurking it in are the same as our own. For every alien you encounter, you encounter a stray dog, a gang member, a cultist, a corrupted police man and business man. All of these are real world dangers, and all of which is traumatic for a child to experience. Ness learns first hand that the world isn't as innocent as he once thought.
As you progress throughout the game, you find out that Gigasy's influence is exasperating the evil in people's hearts through the Mani-Mani statue. It's not necessarily a corrupting force, but rather brings latent evil thoughts to the surface. This once again proves the world is darker than it originally seems, and Ness seems to have internalized this fact.
When we visit Magicant, a magical world inside of Ness' mind, we find a boss enemy titled "Ness' Nightmare." Its appearance is that of the Mani-Mani statue. It's says it is the evil part of Ness' mind, and that he has no hope to defeat it.
Ness, after seeing the evil that lurks below the surface in this world, has begun to believe that same evil may lurk withing him. At this point in the story, his innocence is gone. He can't even see the good in himself, let alone the world. Despite that, he fights back against the nightmare, and he wins.
Ness realizes that, despite everything he's experiences, all the trauma, there was still joy to be had. There was still good, good that wasn't artifical or hiding an evil below. He made great friends, seen amazing things, and became a strong person. I feel fight is a turning point in Ness' life. Allow himself to become bitter and discontent at the lost of his innocence, just like the people affected by the Mani Mani statue. Or, understand the world is not as he once thought, and still try to find the good parts of life anyway.
And that, I believe is what this game is trying to say. We all lose our childhood innocence, but we don't have to lose our childlike joy and wonder. Despite everything I said, the world of Eartbound is amazing. It's so fun to explore, there's something weird or funny at every corner. Even if there is bad in the world, it doesn't replace the good, it just exists with it as a part of everything.
And the final boss portrays message this more than anything else.
Shigesato Itoi famously said that the final fight against Giygas was inspired by a traumatic moment in his youth, where he walked into the wrong movie theater in the middle of what he misremembered as a rape murder scene. A loss of innocence.
In the fight Giygas becomes a constant swirling mass with no defined form. It's attacks are incomprehensible. It's horrific and unsettling, and you don't fully understand how or why, but it gives you these strong confusing emotions.
For the entire party, this is the ultimate loss of innocence. They are alone, in the past, their brains implanted into robots. Its cold and desolate, without even the comfort of their own flesh and blood, fighting against an incomprehensible eldritch being that wants them dead. The personification all evil.
And how is he defeated? Childhood innocence. Paula begins to pray, desperately. And we see, every good character we've seen throughout the game. Every place we made better, all the good in the world. The power of good, overcomes the influence of evil. It's cliche, but it's powerful.
As I continue to look at games through a more emotionally driven lens, I think about why I get the urge to replay certain titles. When I first played Earthbound, it was at a point in my life where I was losing my childhood innocence. I was getting severely bullied at school, that isolation driving me to seek out connections online instead. Unrestricted internet access at a young age, made me see things that I shouldn't have at 9 years old.
The next time I played Earthbound, I was 16 shortly after having moved to Jersey. My uncle passed shortly before, and his widow used my family to finish renovating the basement, then kicked us out of our home. I finally had friends at my new high school, and being forced to leave them hurt. I regressed to how I was when I was nine, not talking to anyone at my new school and having the majority of my connections be online.
Both instances, I felt another part of my innocence start to fade. I learned that your peers could be cruel, that the world is worse than what I knew, and that even people you consider family can use and discard you. For a long while, it felt like the world itself was rotten. Even if I didn't know it then tho, I think Earthbound clicked the way it did, because it reminded me that there is still good in the world. There's still whimsy and joy and discoveries to be had.
Every character is changed by the events of the story. No one will return home thinking of the world in the same way they once did. They will never get their innocence back. But lack of innocence doesn't mean lack of wonder, curiosity and joy. Just because we can see the bad in the world, doesn't mean the good doesn't exist, that there isn't value in seeking it out still.
Sometimes, it can be too easy to forget that.