~Fun with EarthBound - Giant Step
Man I had this really gross dream last night where my arm started swelling up like a blister, and it kept swelling until I had this huge blister thing on my arm like the size of a fist that was all wobbly and soft like a balloon and hurt like nothin else, and I asked Mom what I should do and she was like "Maybe it'll go away on it's own, it doesn't look serious" and then I moved my arm, and the blister-thing deflated and I felt all this air go through my body. I particularly recall thinking "Wait, isn't having an air bubble go through your heart lethal?" and for the rest of the dream my skin on my arm was all floppy and loose and ugh it was so gross. Thus I had to share it with you all.
Anyway, let's see what's in that cave! Does Giant Step live up to the hype? Let's find out!
This screencap one is a bit better, only 300 or so this time. :D
Previous editions
Into the cave! That mouse has been hitting the sauce. The Caves of Onett
YOU'RE A MEAN DRUNK, MOUSE.
Rowdy Mice almost always SMAAAAASH when they hit you. It's annoying.
Anyway, that wasn't too hard.
Attack Slugs are better for experience, since they don't do as much damage and go down pretty easy. Time for another battle theme! Attack Slug Shock Troops!
Eh.
How much damage they do when they DON'T SMAAAAAAAASH you.
Black antoids are tough. :<
But worth it!
That's all that was in this room? What a ripoff.
YES my first PSI attack ability! :D The Rockin ability is invaluable throughout the game, although it can be costly. You use it EVERYwhere. I love how since I put my favorite thing as Sleep it looks totally misleading. PSI SLEEP DOES NOT PUT YOU TO SLEEP, UNLESS FLASHING COLORS AND EXPLOSIONS ARE QUITE RESTFUL
Awesome!
Stocking up. GOTTA BE PREPARED.
Eh.
Not bad.
Up we go! Heh. See those little specks up there? Those are Attack Slugs or Black Antoids. They're small, so you can miss them sometimes. Looks like I'm about to get jumped.
WOO yup
Attack Slugs are totally where the exp is at.
They had a recurring magic butterfly on this ledge up here, which makes this great for leveling. Everytime my PP goes down, I can just hit the butterfly. Free healing, and for more annoying enemies, consequence free PSI Rockin! It's always great when you have a reliable butterfly flying around some area.
Workin it
Pff that was lame. Well the PSI Healing is useful.
CAN be useful if you use it on the right enemy.
Very useful against certain enemies and in the desert. Can drain your PP though when you've got all your party members all afflicted at once.
Lookin good!
It's hard to describe what PSI Rockin looks like, but it's kind of like two slashes of color across the screen, two shapes heading to the center from the top and the bottom, then an explosion. It's pretty neat though. :D
Haha took em all out.
Enemies that call for help can get REALLY frustrating later on, because sometimes they call in REALLY annoying other enemies.
Nice.
Dang, usually they don't pull this off.
Haha NOT THAT IT MATTERS
Butterfly harvesting so I'm in good condition for the boss. I'm already level 11, which is pretty good considering I came in at 7. I'm sure I'll have no problem.
The sound of a phone fills the air!
He asks this when you've been playing nonstop for a while. I've gotten this message multiple times. :D If you choose yes, I think he saves for you and then gives you a message about turning the console off. We'll see that in a bit.
Ooo, hamburger.
AHA! Shining Spot!
The Guardian's Challenge plays for all the Sanctuary Guardians, who are all pretty tough. Especially a select few (cough DIAMOND DOG cough)
Gotta take out the support first
Gah that can be nasty if it builds up. Defense Down/Up and Offense Down/Up are layering things, so you can do them multiple times to increase their effect.
YAAAA
Ow frick
Yeah, take that!
Arrrrgh make things annoying why don't you
AGH NO
AGH
NOOOOOO
What happened here? Well, for my turn I chose eating a hamburger and the Titanic Ant went first, and JUST before my HP rolled to zero, I managed to pull off my turn, thus recovering from mortal damage. WHICH IS AWESOME.
Oh god please work
Agh frick aaagh
NOOOOOOOO
Here you can see me eating a burger even though I'm supposed to be dead. TAKE THAT.
I am not doing well here.
Aaagh
AGH DIE PLEASE
Nooooo
DARN IT I really thought I was prepared for this frick
Arrrgh
Death screen! Has its own little somber theme, which actually gets reprised much later but more on that when we get there.
Frigging ant I all thought I was leveled up enough frick
I'LL BE BACK, ANT.
And then Ness walks off into the background, fading out gradually.
When you come back, you come back to the last place you saved, thus. Ooo, 500 bucks, not bad!
Oh I SEE I WAS ONE LEVEL SHORT. SCREW YOU.
Hee hee, I just like how dramatic that sounds.
YES, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN HELPFUL
Okay, NOW let's do this.
Get rid of the antoids first...
HAha how you like that!
OW FRICK
In retrospect, I probably should have been using this instead of the burgers last time. OH WELL.
Friick
I didn't screencap it but I did attack in between these, I didn't just sit there and take damage like these might suggest. :O
AAAAA NOOOOO
Again, back from the brink!
YES HAHAHAHAHA TAKE THAT
:O
Victory!
That is indeed one Giant Step. Your Sanctuary!
There's also the pretty nifty remix Red Blue Sanctuary from OCR that does both the Guardian Battle and the Sanctuary music (and the Eight Melodies too!)
And here's what Giant Step's melody kinda sounds like, snipped from the full melody by me. Sound familiar yet?
The screen lightens and darkens, and along with a minor change in music called A Flash Of Memory. I've only got an SPC for this one, so I can't help you out unless you can play those. :O NO WAIT it's at the end of this track, around :50.
Dreaming on Distant Shores is a long but pretty take on it.
The melody always sounds just a little different on the Sound Stone screen.
A little like this, as a matter of fact! Now to find the other Sanctuaries and to complete the melody.
Wooo
WHAT A LAME LEVEL. PFF.
MOUTHING OFF TO THE AUTHORITIES IS FUN
Can do.
DARN IT why didn't I talk to these guys earlier oh well
I actually looked it up and it protects you from being paralyzed. Cool.
Anyway went to bed somewhere AND
Yes I'm right here what do you want
Kind of against the definition of friend but GOING WITH IT
Then you wake up. I'm on my way!
Not bad.
That should keep me set for a while.
NO!
hehehehe local whiners
And then he actually stopped talking! :O I thought he'd keep going.
Hahahaha THERE'S A PHILOSOPHY I CAN SUBSCRIBE TO
Ominous :O
Darn it
That cop is rarin to go
OW
Temporary insanity, your honor!
A normal attack
HEY
Thus winning the Police Department Triple Championship Belt!
I honestly didn't expect that. I thought he'd go for it too.
:O :O
OW well that's not too bad
OW FRICK
Wooooo
They should've just put a big roadblock on him.
Why do you always do this when we have company!
Ness briefly considers pressing charges, then decides that he might as well just move on.
YOU'D JUST ROADBLOCK ME ANYWAY
Hahaha you need to LEVEL MORE
Sure, why not, I've got the cash.
Wake up music! Rise and Shine.
Oh yeah, every hotel has a newspaper, and everytime you do something major it's a bit different. :D I probably should've been staying here earlier to see some of the first ones but it's so expensive.
Hahaha I WONDER WHO THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT
Why not! I was going to take a break at this point anyway.
I like Ness's Dad. Random note.
Then it waits for you to do just that!
And now, on to Twoson!
Anyway, let's see what's in that cave! Does Giant Step live up to the hype? Let's find out!
This screencap one is a bit better, only 300 or so this time. :D
Previous editions
Into the cave! That mouse has been hitting the sauce. The Caves of Onett
YOU'RE A MEAN DRUNK, MOUSE.
Rowdy Mice almost always SMAAAAASH when they hit you. It's annoying.
Anyway, that wasn't too hard.
Attack Slugs are better for experience, since they don't do as much damage and go down pretty easy. Time for another battle theme! Attack Slug Shock Troops!
Eh.
How much damage they do when they DON'T SMAAAAAAAASH you.
Black antoids are tough. :<
But worth it!
That's all that was in this room? What a ripoff.
YES my first PSI attack ability! :D The Rockin ability is invaluable throughout the game, although it can be costly. You use it EVERYwhere. I love how since I put my favorite thing as Sleep it looks totally misleading. PSI SLEEP DOES NOT PUT YOU TO SLEEP, UNLESS FLASHING COLORS AND EXPLOSIONS ARE QUITE RESTFUL
Awesome!
Stocking up. GOTTA BE PREPARED.
Eh.
Not bad.
Up we go! Heh. See those little specks up there? Those are Attack Slugs or Black Antoids. They're small, so you can miss them sometimes. Looks like I'm about to get jumped.
WOO yup
Attack Slugs are totally where the exp is at.
They had a recurring magic butterfly on this ledge up here, which makes this great for leveling. Everytime my PP goes down, I can just hit the butterfly. Free healing, and for more annoying enemies, consequence free PSI Rockin! It's always great when you have a reliable butterfly flying around some area.
Workin it
Pff that was lame. Well the PSI Healing is useful.
CAN be useful if you use it on the right enemy.
Very useful against certain enemies and in the desert. Can drain your PP though when you've got all your party members all afflicted at once.
Lookin good!
It's hard to describe what PSI Rockin looks like, but it's kind of like two slashes of color across the screen, two shapes heading to the center from the top and the bottom, then an explosion. It's pretty neat though. :D
Haha took em all out.
Enemies that call for help can get REALLY frustrating later on, because sometimes they call in REALLY annoying other enemies.
Nice.
Dang, usually they don't pull this off.
Haha NOT THAT IT MATTERS
Butterfly harvesting so I'm in good condition for the boss. I'm already level 11, which is pretty good considering I came in at 7. I'm sure I'll have no problem.
The sound of a phone fills the air!
He asks this when you've been playing nonstop for a while. I've gotten this message multiple times. :D If you choose yes, I think he saves for you and then gives you a message about turning the console off. We'll see that in a bit.
Ooo, hamburger.
AHA! Shining Spot!
The Guardian's Challenge plays for all the Sanctuary Guardians, who are all pretty tough. Especially a select few (cough DIAMOND DOG cough)
Gotta take out the support first
Gah that can be nasty if it builds up. Defense Down/Up and Offense Down/Up are layering things, so you can do them multiple times to increase their effect.
YAAAA
Ow frick
Yeah, take that!
Arrrrgh make things annoying why don't you
AGH NO
AGH
NOOOOOO
What happened here? Well, for my turn I chose eating a hamburger and the Titanic Ant went first, and JUST before my HP rolled to zero, I managed to pull off my turn, thus recovering from mortal damage. WHICH IS AWESOME.
Oh god please work
Agh frick aaagh
NOOOOOOOO
Here you can see me eating a burger even though I'm supposed to be dead. TAKE THAT.
I am not doing well here.
Aaagh
AGH DIE PLEASE
Nooooo
DARN IT I really thought I was prepared for this frick
Arrrgh
Death screen! Has its own little somber theme, which actually gets reprised much later but more on that when we get there.
Frigging ant I all thought I was leveled up enough frick
I'LL BE BACK, ANT.
And then Ness walks off into the background, fading out gradually.
When you come back, you come back to the last place you saved, thus. Ooo, 500 bucks, not bad!
Oh I SEE I WAS ONE LEVEL SHORT. SCREW YOU.
Hee hee, I just like how dramatic that sounds.
YES, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN HELPFUL
Okay, NOW let's do this.
Get rid of the antoids first...
HAha how you like that!
OW FRICK
In retrospect, I probably should have been using this instead of the burgers last time. OH WELL.
Friick
I didn't screencap it but I did attack in between these, I didn't just sit there and take damage like these might suggest. :O
AAAAA NOOOOO
Again, back from the brink!
YES HAHAHAHAHA TAKE THAT
:O
Victory!
That is indeed one Giant Step. Your Sanctuary!
There's also the pretty nifty remix Red Blue Sanctuary from OCR that does both the Guardian Battle and the Sanctuary music (and the Eight Melodies too!)
And here's what Giant Step's melody kinda sounds like, snipped from the full melody by me. Sound familiar yet?
The screen lightens and darkens, and along with a minor change in music called A Flash Of Memory. I've only got an SPC for this one, so I can't help you out unless you can play those. :O NO WAIT it's at the end of this track, around :50.
Dreaming on Distant Shores is a long but pretty take on it.
The melody always sounds just a little different on the Sound Stone screen.
A little like this, as a matter of fact! Now to find the other Sanctuaries and to complete the melody.
Wooo
WHAT A LAME LEVEL. PFF.
MOUTHING OFF TO THE AUTHORITIES IS FUN
Can do.
DARN IT why didn't I talk to these guys earlier oh well
I actually looked it up and it protects you from being paralyzed. Cool.
Anyway went to bed somewhere AND
Yes I'm right here what do you want
Kind of against the definition of friend but GOING WITH IT
Then you wake up. I'm on my way!
Not bad.
That should keep me set for a while.
NO!
hehehehe local whiners
And then he actually stopped talking! :O I thought he'd keep going.
Hahahaha THERE'S A PHILOSOPHY I CAN SUBSCRIBE TO
Ominous :O
Darn it
That cop is rarin to go
OW
Temporary insanity, your honor!
A normal attack
HEY
Thus winning the Police Department Triple Championship Belt!
I honestly didn't expect that. I thought he'd go for it too.
:O :O
OW well that's not too bad
OW FRICK
Wooooo
They should've just put a big roadblock on him.
Why do you always do this when we have company!
Ness briefly considers pressing charges, then decides that he might as well just move on.
YOU'D JUST ROADBLOCK ME ANYWAY
Hahaha you need to LEVEL MORE
Sure, why not, I've got the cash.
Wake up music! Rise and Shine.
Oh yeah, every hotel has a newspaper, and everytime you do something major it's a bit different. :D I probably should've been staying here earlier to see some of the first ones but it's so expensive.
Hahaha I WONDER WHO THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT
Why not! I was going to take a break at this point anyway.
I like Ness's Dad. Random note.
Then it waits for you to do just that!
And now, on to Twoson!