Just as Earthbound and Persona, Grandia uses the same system.

If you start the encounter by surprise you get the first hit. If they ambush you, they do.

Ah, see I knew the system was too good for it to go almost completely unused in other games.  Thanks for the tip.

this is an awsome Review.  Umm, I have to ask you though, how would I get my friend into this game.  I've told her about a million times how she should try the game and play it but she's actually quite quick to shoot me down when I talk about games (however, she can talk about FF7 till there is no end.  Still have not played that game and I already know more than most who have.  Scary huh?)  So what would I have to do to get her to at least try to play the game.  I think this review would be a bit to long to just make her sit down and watch it.  I've actually told her that she owes it to herself to play it (seeing as she is an RPG fan.) and she still shows little interest.  Anything I culd say that would at least get her attention sure fire?  I dunno, maybe I should just tell her Cloud or Sephiroth is in it.  Then while she's beatting the crap out of me cus she played the game all the way through and found no trace of either or, she'll realize it's a great game. 

Sorry for the rambling on.

So yeah, that ramble aside.  I think the reason Earthbound has some issues re-releasing is because of the type of music.  They refrence the beatles an awful lot and from what i understand (I could be wrong) the Apple Record company is real clingly and sue happy towards the Beatles.  again, I could be wrong seeign as htis is only a rumer I've heard a while back, but, it would make sense if the case were true.)

If shes an RPG fan, i don't see why she wouldn't like to give it a try. Have you showed her some pics of the game? Or maybe YOU should play it in front of her for maybe an hour. Thats what hooked me anyway. I watched a friend play it and i wanted to try doing something that she did differently. Anyway hope that it works out for you!

well I will tell you this.  If I got someone else to tell hjer aboutthe game she would play it.  thats how she got into games like Legend of Zelda, Mario galaxy, and the DotHack games.  Each and every time I talked the world aboutthose games and she said "no Im not interested" yet someone else told ehr about the game and "OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING!".  Ticks me off each time. 

Well, Maybe thats what I should do, just sit her down and play it for an hour and see when she gets interested. 

good review compared to some of those other one's where the people are obsessed with graphics and violence.

 I found this game at Value Village for 5 bucks a year ago <3 <3 

Best find ever =D

I believe Roo may drive to my house and bludgeon me to death for this, but I've never played through Earthbound. I understand the significance of it and I've started it a few times, but never sat down and played it.

You might want to delete any trace of your identity online Mr. K, before Roo has a chance to find you.

Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga uses the encounter system

Awesome review. Watching it made me all nostalgic &  misty eyed.

While I am glad that you mentioned the Sword of Kings, ( Took me like 4-5 hours to get it myself.) I wished you would have mentioned the Gutsy Bat.  I could never get it, and I put a lot of time into trying.

Watching the review, I immediately knew you were wrong about this aspect of the game. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest preceeded Earthbound in this behavior by two years (1992 vs 1994, or 1995 for NA release). I'm not sure if there are any others, but FF:MQ is the first game I recall that allowed you to see the enemies before you ran into them. Granted, those aren't random encounters--the enemies are in fixed locations--so it's a bit different, but still. :)

I watch both of the Earthbound reviews and they peeked my interest about the game. I've been playing for a few days now and I'm loving every minute of it so far. Thank you Roo for introducing this game to me.

This review is so many things. I have never found the sword of kings. I played the game again on my computer reccently and swore that "This time" I'd find it.  Over an hour, 29 levels and not blinking later, I gave up. Next time! Also, the coffee trippy scene totally blew my mind when I first played. The whole game blew my mind. I have a hard time being willing to try new rpg games because I know they will never live up to this game.  I can't express my affection for this game enough.  It evokes so many emotions.  This game is brilliant and so incredible.  Who didn't get emotional in the Lumaine Hall!? Oh, man. When you see Buzz-Buzz's tomestone, or when you killed off the flying men one by one. Amazing music, amazing story, wonderful quirkyness.

Awesome review. I could hear someone talk about earthbound all day. Totally turned on to your site and your brilliance. Thanks for this!

Though having only found earthbound around a year and a half ago (thank you Happy Nerd) I have played it around 10 times(I stopped on my ninth because I was also playing Final Fantasy 6 at the time and I haven't continued my 10 game in over 2 months) I think that this game has changed many things like you point out. BUT! I Still think it has problems, like I sometimes find a little too weird for my day or a little too happy or sunshiny. Usually on these days I just skip playing it and go to an M rated rpg I have and I feel better the next. So really the only problems I had with the game are nitpicking at best so I have no use complaining. But I could(even though it's my favourite rpg of all time) complain about FF6 in ways that are not nitpicking but I won't because FF6 is unrelated.

Awesome review. I'm actually planning to buy a SNES cart of this game in November because apparently I'm insane. The suprise action mechanic of battles is actually implemented in a way by the Paper Mario series (not counting Super Paper Mario) and mimiced by the Mario and Luigi spinoff series as well. It's an automatic attack for you or the enemy depending in those games so it's not quite the same but it is similar. Though, this game came out a long time before those did. It wouldn't surprise me if this was where the idea came from.

If only this game would ever be realeased in Europe we might knew about it:/

Anw...i used the dirty way to play both zero an 2and im thinking of playing the third...is it any good?

Btw i loved all your earthbound videos they rock man.I ve seen em aso many times