EarthBound
EarthBound is a turn-based JRPG developed by Ape Inc./HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo, released in Japan on August 27, 1994, and in North America on June 5, 1995, for the SNES. A meteorite crashes near the town of Onett, where protagonist Ness learns from the creature Buzz-Buzz that the world will be engulfed in hatred by an alien force named Giygas. Ness sets out to recruit companions and travel the world to stop it.
Availability: Nintendo Switch Online — Super Nintendo Entertainment System app (Nintendo Classics)
This guide documents the game's main progression and structure; some specific details are still being verified and are noted where relevant.
Controls / Starting Systems
Combat is turn-based with a party of up to four characters (Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo), with turn order resolved by speed. Rather than random encounters, enemies appear as visible sprites on the overworld/dungeon maps that the player can choose to approach or avoid. The game uses a distinctive "rolling" HP meter: damage taken depletes a rolling counter gradually rather than instantly, giving the player a brief window to heal or win the fight before the displayed HP actually reaches zero. Characters use PSI (psychic) abilities that consume PP (psychic points) alongside standard physical attacks and items.
Progression Architecture
The game follows a largely linear "road trip" structure: each region, once resolved, opens travel to the next. Ness's journey runs Onett → Twoson → Threed → Winters → Fourside → Summers/Dalaam → Scaraba, continuing into the later game areas. Paula is rescued at Happy Happy Village (near Twoson) and joins the party. Ness and Paula are later trapped, held at Belch's Base near Threed. Paula uses her psychic ability to contact Jeff, who travels from the Winters area to reach Threed and frees both Ness and Paula. Poo joins after completing his Mu training in Dalaam. The Belch's Base confrontation itself happens later in the Threed/Saturn Valley progression, not during the party's first pass through Threed.
Required Objectives
The central required objective is collecting eight melodies from "Your Sanctuary" locations scattered around the world using the Sound Stone device carried by Ness, which is the core progression track underlying the whole game. Rescuing Paula at Happy Happy Village, freeing Ness and Paula from Belch's Base once Jeff arrives from Winters, and recruiting Poo are required story beats, not optional side content, since the full four-person party is needed for the endgame.
Major Bosses
Regional antagonists tied to individual story chapters — including the cult leader at Happy Happy Village and Belch at his base near Threed, encountered later in the Threed/Saturn Valley progression when Jeff arrives to free Ness and Paula — serve as chapter-capping bosses along the road-trip progression. The final antagonist is Giygas, an alien force whose true confrontation occurs after time travel late in the game. Paula's use of her psychic powers to call on prayers from people around the world is a distinctive mechanic in the final battle, enabling victory through an emotional/prayer mechanic rather than conventional damage output alone.
Completion Path
The completion path is: progress through the linear regional chapters (Onett through Scaraba and beyond) while recruiting all four party members — Paula at Happy Happy Village; Jeff, who frees Ness and Paula from Belch's Base later in the Threed/Saturn Valley progression after Paula contacts him from Winters; and Poo after Mu training in Dalaam → collect all eight melodies at the Sanctuary locations using the Sound Stone → travel via time travel to confront Giygas → win the final battle, which depends on Paula's prayer-calling ability. Because the eight Sanctuary melodies are the explicit core collectible thread and are gathered across the same regions the story naturally routes the player through, the melody collection largely overlaps with the main story path rather than requiring a large separate side-quest detour, though exact overlap for every Sanctuary was not individually confirmed.
Still confirming
- The exact list and named locations of all eight "Your Sanctuary" sites, and the precise order they must/can be visited in, were not individually itemized from the sources accessed this pass.
- Specific major-boss names and required strategies beyond Belch and Giygas (e.g., any required boss fights in Fourside, Scaraba, Moonside, or the endgame Lost Underworld) were not verified in detail.
- Whether any major missable items or characters exist that would block game completion if skipped was not confirmed.