A failed Japanese satire of America: Earthbound

[@zackschilling4376]

Its the "American food section in a foreign land" version of video games. You can tell what they re trying to do, but somethings just not right...

[@JJMcCullough]

I like that analogy

[@emilygrae]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing!

[@discountchocolate4577]

I had a similar thought, Earthbound obviously fails as an accurate satire of America because it's not a direct representation of America, it's a Japanese representation of an American representation of America (and its relationship to the rest of the world), with many of the non-Hollywood-friendly elements already stripped away after the first degree of separation. The only successfully satirical elements that survive this process are hegemonic elements of western capitalism recognizable to both Japanese and US audiences, elements necessarily added back in by the second degree of separation. Examples that come to mind include the "businessmen" from a "rich country" out in the middle of Deep Darkness looking to third-worlders to rip off (near the arms dealer selling bombs and rockets to children out in the open instead of hiding); and the people of Toto slowly edged out of their own town by gentrification driven by the Summers tourism economy.

[@sct1718]

this is the US : kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6mtco2idsh4i6M

[@JmKrokY]

Interesting

[@leontrotsky7816]

I refuse to accept that "The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?" isn't a deep insight into American culture.

[@slugmanestudios768]

Bad dudes is legendary

[@almightycinder]

And you eat a burger with the president at the end of the game.

[@oaf-77]

Perfectly encapsulates the 80s

[@joeyhoy1995]

A single production company made two movies in the same year about that thing

[@TheGbelcher]

@@almightycinder That’s some Simpsons level predictive power

[@m2redshirt]

As a Japanese person, I think it would be more accurate to say, "A failed projection of Earthbound as a parody of America". I lived through the original release and played it in Japanese. If you played it in Japanese during the 90's, you would have gotten no indication that "Mother 2" was trying to parody America. Rather, you would have seen it as an attempt to satirize Japanese culture in a story wrapped up in Western aesthetics and settings. Japanese people have this strange attitude where they are very proud and confident of their storytelling and humour, but when it comes to aesthetics they are heavily drawn to a romanticized version of the West. Jojo, Sailor Moon, and many anime follow this pattern. Mother 2 was basically just that, and was meant to appeal primarily to the Japanese domestic audience. This is the case because Mother 1 didn't even get released outside Japan and during this era many titles didn't get released overseas. The Japanese gaming industry was still very domestically minded. Itoi had no assurance that Mother 2 would be released in the USA so the thought of parodying the USA would have been a very low priority. Mother 2 satirizes Japanese culture, from the scary cult, to the absent dad, to the smiley burger shop girl, to the various Japanese dialects that communicate socio-economic status, to the various items and objects that would make no sense to foreigners. So why do Westerners think that Mother 2 was trying to satirize the USA? I think it's due to the localization team's direction. In localizing Mother 2, changes had to be made to make the jokes and other elements make sense. Whenever changes were made for the sake of comprehensibility, the localization team incorporated satirical and parodying elements that Americans would understand. That is why there is enough in Earthbound to cause North Americans to perceive the game as a parody of the USA. But the core themes and elements are still very much Japanese, so what we have is a strange hybrid beast. So to sum it up, it's a failed projection to see Earthbound as a parody of the USA. It was never meant to be, and the minimal extent that it is a parody of the USA was due to localization swapping out the incomprehensible Japanese elements. Earthbound is a remarkable cultural artifact that was produced during the cusp of the Japanese entertainment industry shifting its mind from domestic success to international success. Earthbound unintentionally succeeded in the West (over many decades). Earthbound wasn't trying to do all these things that later critics project onto it. Edit: For a recent example of Japanese story-telling using Westernized characters and settings, check out the anime Spy x Family. The story takes place in a fictional Berlin, East Germany (Berlint, Ostania) and the characters are of European background, but the story satirizes Japanese culture (e.g. the infamous parental interview for school admission, the employer overworking its staff to the point of exhaustion, sister complex, gossipy neighbourhood women, even the central concept of a "family for hire" is a thing in Japan). Not that these issues only happen in Japan, but they are often used in anime as tropes and gags in stories about Japanese culture. There is very surface level representation of Europe in the anime but the point of the story isn't to satirize or depict a realistic Europe. Its European setting is just a vehicle to tell a Japanese story (which seems to resonate with an international audience as well). Saying that Spy x Family is a poor representation of Europe would miss the point just like saying Earthbound is a poor representation of America.

[@juiuice]

I'm American myself and while I never really finished the game, I have to agree with you and some of the people that I don't really see it trying to be a satire of America than what JJ and those articles are trying to make it out to be.

[@m2redshirt]

@@juiuice JJ and others do have a point though because the localized release of Earthbound does include some elements satirizing North America. I think the localization team was influenced by popular shows at the time like the Simpsons and Peanuts. So I can see why North Americans would perceive Earthbound as "trying to satirize and failing". The localized Earthbound exists in an uncanny valley between two very different cultures. It's hard to put a finger on what it's actually trying to do. But I can speak for the original Japanese release that it's not trying to satirize America.

[@sjajsjsja4523]

Exactly. It captures a tone that was fairly common in Japanese media of the time. Juding the intent of Japanese media from a Western perspective is absurd. The devs weren't thinking about America or Westerners when making Earthbound, or any Japanese game. It's wholly Japanese.

[@diegoregalado8044]

It's just american narcissism. Everything and everyone is necessarily always talking about the USA. I like how you put it: a projection

[@annoyedbipolar7424]

Can't speak to this game specifically (never played either version), but it's an interesting topic on how Japanese media often uses westernized styles of its own version of culture. That may be one reason why the US and other western countries have so many fans of 'classic' anime today even if they don't speak the language- (to lump a decent amount of the Wests anime access over the years [pre-00s] was shows like Dragonball and Battleship: Yamato) -and why 'western' anime- (i.e. ATLA, Afro-Samurai, Boondocks, etc.) has an altogether different but similar feel to its eastern counterparts. Food for thought. I don't speak Japanese and have never been to the country so can't speak for that side of the pond.

[@h0ser]

This might be a HUGE stretch but I can't help but notice that the Happy Happyists are similar to the KKK from this description. They wear hoods, their name is an alliteration and abbreviated (KKK, HH), and they want to make the whole world blue, like the KKK wanting to make it white while white hoods. Carpainter even kinda looks like a parody of the typical plantation owner. Again it's probably a stretch since I've never played Earthbound but the similarities are there

[@cashliedel8247]

Yeah I noticed that too… but I don’t know what the leader would be satirizing.

[@thatradiogeek]

Yeah that was my thought as well. Highly likely.

[@Lucas-yf1es]

Me too, this was the first thing i thought

[@ivorywind9739]

The American localization of the game actually dulled down the comparison, in the original Japanese version they did not have the little puffs at the end of the point, etc. They’re very much based on the KKK.

[@elliot6584]

YO HOSER DO A VIDEO ON AZERBAIJAN I LITERALLY LOVE YOU

[@cowboyluigi5275]

I remember an interview with Itoi himself saying that the game wasn’t intended to be a true satire of America; he wanted it to take place in several locations so that everyone playing it could relate to it in some way.

[@BluesM18A1]

it's far more accurate to call this game a "Peanuts comic on acid" than a real love letter/satire/commentary on American culture.

[@creativedesignation7880]

Ok, but how would a Peanut comic on acid not be deeply American?

[@BluesM18A1]

@@creativedesignation7880 you're not wrong lol

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

@@creativedesignation7880 _"Good grief, Snoop. This ain't weed."_

[@hurri.]

I remember someone calling South Park “peanuts on acid.”

[@txikitofandango]

@@hurri. Peanuts on speed maybe

[@bigredradish]

I don't want to give too little credit to Itoi and the EB team but honestly I get the feeling that "Earthbound as parody and satire of America" is a lot of projecting on the part of fans and writers who want Earthbound to be a bit more than it really is. I love the game, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't strike me as something that set out specifically to be Super American America Game--just a kooky funny RPG set in a silly broadly 90s pop culture world.

[@JJMcCullough]

But my point is they don’t even do pop culture very well. The sequel is a much stronger game because it takes place in a pure fantasy world.

[@idfk1304]

@@JJMcCullough I would speculate this has largely to do with the planning and projection with domestic sales within Japan itself. There was probably a large effort to make sure that it was still tame enough that Japanese people might be able to understand things that are vaguely American without needing any prior knowledge of America. As I'm sure you know because you've lived there, Japan is quite an isolated island and many visions of other countries are grossly simplified and made into their own fantasy land. A lot of Japanese media that came over to the west has historically been transformed into something that American youth can understand, like the Jelly Doughnut/Onigiri from the Pokemon anime. I agree with you entirely though, I just wanted to share my thoughts is all. I love your work :)

[@PhilippeAllardRousse]

@@JJMcCullough I think the goal was to give the game a familiar vibe to it, and that they where successful to do so at the time. I'll say the same thing as @awful clown to say it look like a lot like projection from the fan, but maybe it's because of that familiarity vibe.

[@pablocasas5906]

I know Earthbound is a sequel to a game from the late 80s but during the 16-bit era there were a lot of JRPGs that were trying to distance themselves form the medieval fantasy aesthetic. Live-A-Live took place in different eras and cultures (Prehistory, the Wild West, ancient China, the present, the future), Chrono Trigger also did something similar, and a game called Secret of Evermore had some elements more closely associated with Americana (but that game was developed by the western branch of Squaresoft so it doesn't count as a JRPG). So it could be said that the Mother 1 and 2 were just trying to be different

[@GreenKangaroo48]

But u have to admit, there was a lot of missed opportunities for jokes, American or not

[@claudevandog]

You mentioned the generic and "cutesy" design of Paula, and I think that was intentional, because she has the strongest PSI in the game and is essential for beating the final boss, so the gimmick of her character is she seems frail and feminine on the surface but is actually very strong. Also iirc in the Japanese version when Ness saves her she's more of a damsel in distress, but when the game was localized they added a line about how she would've had to bust out of there herself if Ness didn't come to make her seem more independent.

[@foursidekm]

Yeah I've always liked that about Paula. She's super cute and feminine but she's still really powerful nonetheless

[@NeostormXLMAX]

I always imagine her as based on Stephen King's creepy girls from some of his books

[@RexGalilae]

That just sounds like a retcon job to save a character than a nuance intended by the original authors themselves

[@collinstoltz3467]

The kids' design is clearly influenced by "Peanuts" by Charles 'Sparky' Schulz. Honestly surprised JJ missed this one?

[@Bluegirl12345]

@@NeostormXLMAX I always see her as being similiar to Eleven from Stranger Things

[@Japan_of_Green_Gables]

1. The Sharks are a reference to West Side Story 2. Twoson looks like Towson, MD. 3. Paula is meant to look like Sally from Peanuts 4. It's not head cannon that Jeff is British. Winters is BLATANTLY based off of the United Kingdom. Think Stonehenge and Tessie. 5. The Happy Happyists are based off of Aum Shinrikyo and Happy Science. Admittedly, this is a reference to Japanese cults and not American cults. 6. Mr. Carpainter's name is a portmanteau of Carpenter and Paint. It is a reference to Jesus combined with painting the whole world blue. And a few references you missed. 7. The Monotoli Building is notably a reference to the Empire State Building in its design. 8. The Slot Machine Brothers are based off the movie Three Amigos 9. Mr. Saturn are based off the Tralfamadorians from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five 10. Hint Guy's stand is based off Lucy's Psychiatry Stand in Peanuts 11. The Department Store in Foursome is based off the Chrysler Building I don't think Earthbound is meant to be taken as a satire of America. I don't even think it makes sense to think of it as America centered. It's more that it uses the West as a jumping off point, and I mean the West broadly. There are many more references to British culture here: particularly to The Beatles (especially), David Bowie, T. Rex, and so forth. In the end, though, I'm glad we both agree that Earthbound is a great game.

[@iantaakalla8180]

I do enjoy that the seventh boss is just an interesting way to justify having a boss being called “Diamond Dog”.

[@ElectricBarrier]

This video is pure sophistry and I wouldn't be surprised if he knew he was wrong, this is classic youtuber viewbait.

[@Mark-zk7uj]

Also, George Gershwin, the Beach Boys' "Deirdre" is sampled..

[@omnisel]

@@Japan_of_Green_Gables i completely agree. I've heard people say earthbound is an american satire, but I don't think they _mean_ "satire". Of course earthbound is a bad satire. It was never trying to be one.

[@radiognomeinvisible]

I love T. Rex but don't remember any references! What were they?

[@uydagcusdgfughfgsfggsifg753]

“My parents obeyed my orders” is such a funny way to phrase a birthday gift request, 10/10 writing 😂

[@Myrope]

I was so focused on that line that I had to re-listen to what he said after, lol

[@kyledaily9532]

I always love hearing people compare the way someone dresses to toddlers because working at a tech company I would say at least half of the men I work with on a daily basis don't dress too differently from Ness.

[@haughtygarbage5848]

Put em on the grill n roast em

[@vod96]

I don't see a problem

[@dandman3300]

So? Ness has mad drip.

[@mtk77621]

Good on them

[@gamermapper]

Men's clothes are always boring and the same. Womens clothes are way better.

[@trombonegamer14]

You mentioned GTA, but also the Red Dead Redemption series says a lot about the American west as a founding myth. It is less overtly mean in its depiction compared to GTA.

[@Christopher_TG]

Red Dead Redemption is beautiful as a commentary on the American Dream as a life's pursuit as well.

[@pizzanessfunnie]

loved the part in earthbound where ness mercilessly beats up some random dude and steals his car

[@quadpad_music]

​@@pizzanessfunnie I mean, he does beat some random dudes in the game, though he doesn't steal their cars. "Unassuming Local Guy" is an actual in-game enemy name.

[@537monster]

The “Happy Happyists” are probably a spoof on a real Japanese cult called “Happy Science”. Think of them as Japanese Scientology.

[@DarkFiber23]

Great connection. This really seems plausible.

[@artman12]

They might have been referring to the KKK with the hoods and if you replace HH with KKK and blue with white.

[@nukiradio]

@@artman12 that's too indirect

[@carloscarlin114]

@@artman12 "painting the whole world white", I mean if that doesn't describe the KKK perfectly

[@foursidekm]

Apparently based on a real cult called aum shinrikyo

[@RJ-ye4jr]

I always found it weird when these articles wrote about how "omg earthbound is so totally a parody of heckin' america!" I always kind thought to myself, "homie, did you even PLAY the game?" I don't even know if I should chalk it up to game journalism at this point. You see people on reddit doing the same thing. I have a feeling it has something to do with some innate fear of being not by the cool kid's table, so saying you definitely love X thing. But what do I know...

[@mikedacoolnerd788]

Yeah, the game never felt like satire of the U.S, just vaguely based on it. Though I do disagree with J.J, as I do not feel this lack of satire takes away from the game. The setting still sets itself apart from other RPGs. The familiar city/suburban setting of the game also does a good job of making the wacky events of the game even more shocking and enjoyable. While the game didn't succeed in making its setting feel explicitly American, I do think it succeeded in making a world where every player feels a sense of familiarity, despite the fantastical events happening around them.

[@k96man]

I'd say it's mostly projection on the article writer's part

[@Jdudec367]

Eh....it is a parody of it though.

[@Predator20357]

Here’s my first thoughts when seeing this video: “Wait, how is Earthbound a Commentsry on America? I thought it was just a game that was somewhat of a satire of Jrpgs. My overall thoughts: it’s just an American theme, It’s good but it seems more like they chose an American theme as part of the Satirical Jrpg. It has some commentary, but that’s because it’s a theme. It’s as commentary filled as a Japanese Level. However, at least it’s not a Southern Cowboy theme.

[@a.dennis4835]

Now, I am just imagining a wild west version of Earthbound where everyone talks in an exaggerated cowboy accent.

[@Predator20357]

@@a.dennis4835 Honestly, I would play that game just so I can see a snake in boots enemy

[@JG_Wentworth]

@@a.dennis4835 Mother 3 has Flint, so you've got him at least.

[@Mike14264]

@@a.dennis4835 it reminds me a tiny bit of the first chapter in Mother 3, the town did have a bit of a wild west look to it. And of course, there's Flint.

[@txikitofandango]

It struck me as odd that people expected the game to communicate anything like satire or cultural commentary. It's impressionistic-that's it.

[@olivercharles2930]

video essay narrators on their way to be pretentious, wrong and confident all at the same time:

[@RemnantCult]

Oh yeah, it is a misguided notion to assert that this game is trying to say something about America besides the fact that baseball bats and hamburgers are good. It uses a mix of Japanese and American themes and aesthetics to dress it's philosophy and core plot and when it comes to its passing love for Americana, it doesn't go beyond that. I wonder where this need to boost up Earthbound's cultural significance as a parody came from because it can certainly stand on it's own strange and charming self. As for games that lean heavily on it's American influences, I have to say it's anything from Sam & Max!

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

Yeah, JJ named Sam and Max in his video he did a bit ago on representative American media.

[@537monster]

This all sounds suspiciously like a Japanese writer just imagined a Japanese kid growing up in Japan with an American aesthetic.

[@ashkitt7719]

​@Vinluv Handesbukia I wonder about South Park and Canadians. A Canadian friend of mine claims that the way Canadians are depicted in South Park is actually a commentary on how Americans view Canada as somehow totally different from the US in every way when they're not that different aside from their legal system maybe.

[@johnnyprencipe696]

@@ashkitt7719 jj actually has a video about that exact topic

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

@@ashkitt7719 Terrance and Phillip's odd designs were originally more supposed to be a self-deprecating parody of South Park's crude animation aesthetic since in the first episode they appeared in they were only stated to have been animated characters. For whatever reason they decided soon after that it would be funnier to show that Canadians actually looked like that.

[@537monster]

@@ashkitt7719 as far as I can tell, Americans usually make fun of how Canadians act exactly the same, but more polite and without guns.

[@jOoomOooo]

how could someone so painfully miss the point of a game its like you projected so hard at game that is not in fantasy setting that you thought ohh boy this must be america

[@ethanlackey1682]

I’ve always felt that EarthBound was more about growing up than a satire of Americana

[@metroidnerd9001]

I’m glad you pointed out Night in the Woods as an example of really good commentary about America, though I think it’s worth mentioning that it focuses its satire on one section of the country, the Rust Belt, rather than the entire thing. That in and of itself goes to show that American culture is deeper than a lot of people think when you can make poignant commentary about just one region of the country.

[@JJMcCullough]

It was very well timed for the Trump era, given that for those 4 years, the plight of rust belt America was treated as if it was somehow the truest American story.

[@NitroIndigo]

Yeah, there seems to be this idea that white America is the "default" and therefore boring, which seems to come from a place of "the stuff I'm used to is boring; stuff that's new to me is interesting." Is there a word for that phenomenon?

[@heronoonedeserves826]

@@NitroIndigo The word Neophile fits with your explanation “the stuff I’m used to is boring; stuff that’s new to me is interesting.” When calling someone a Neophile it means they ‘love or are enthusiastic about new and novel things’ while also apparently connoting that the person hates or dislikes their routine, setting of their daily life, etc. Neophiliac seems to be used differently, used mostly when just meaning to refer to someone who ‘loves or is enthusiastic towards new and novel things’. I didn’t realize how curious I was about finding a word for this until reading your comment, thanks and I hope this helps!

[@NitroIndigo]

@@heronoonedeserves826 Thanks!

[@celebalert5616]

Night of The Woods could be the greatest game ever set in America.

[@foxmccloud9609]

Mr. Itoi said Mother 2 was supposed to have an international feel. Mother 1 is more American, because it mainly take place in American. Earthbound wasn't really supposed to be commentary on America. It is just people putting their head cannon on how ''American'' the game is, because in Mother 3, there is basically nothing that is related to America. There are some references to American culture in the games, but they are more so references rather than real commentary on a subject.

[@discountchocolate4577]

Ironically Mother 3 does a better job explaining what America is all about than either of the ones that actually take place in "America"/Eagleland.

[@porkyminch1640]

@@discountchocolate4577 mother 3 is not a critique on JUST America, its a critique of modern society as a whole. Time and time again i see idiot reddit commies saying OH MOTHER 3 TAUGHT ME CAPITALISM BAD and its *FUCKING ANNOYING.* TAZMILLY IS NOT FUCKING COMMUNIST, THEIR MEMORIES WERE WIPED SO THEY WOULDN'T KNOW ANY ECONOMIC SYSTEMS TO BEGIN WITH.

[@dylantoney6971]

@@discountchocolate4577 Mother 3 is the cynical twin of Mother 1 that analyzes what happens if we continue hyperfixating on the pure IDEA of capitalism.

[@iantaakalla8180]

When capitalism is just a kid that is also immortal introducing currency by killing suffering wildlife and also being trapped in a sphere he enjoys

[@jasonblalock4429]

As an American, I love these "my culture seen through a different culture's lens" reinterpretations, just for what they come up with. It was the same for Final Fantasy XV; I *adored* their bizarre reimagining of the American west. (Until I made the mistake of completing the plot. Sigh.) I think Earthbound's one mistake was specifying a 90s setting. A more general "20XX" would have better justified its Americana pastiche look and feel, since a lot of the tropes it uses are more mid-century than late-century. Like Paula's whole design. BTW, just to nitpick: The Sharks were almost certainly also a reference to the classic American musical "West Side Story," about feuding gangs named the Sharks and the Jets.

[@Powerman293]

The main thing FF XV got right about Western America is that it's large cities with hours of almost nothing interesting in-between them. In real life this gives the US a bizarre flavor of a huge variety of national parks and small towns in between these giant cities. But in FFXV it results in a boring world map that only has 2 towns in it.

[@renotv3860]

"EarthBound fails as a satire of American culture." I mean, was that ever the intention of the developers in the first place? Only half of the party is American (technically Eaglelandian) and most of the places you visit aren't based off America at all. Really, the game is supposed to have an international feel, a sentiment corroborated by Shigesato Itoi himself.

[@SniperJade71]

Earthbound was never intended to be a satire. It can't be a failed satire if it wasn't meant to be a satire in the first place. This video's thesis baffles me.

[@CrimeonZ]

Fr

[@stanleysmooth]

I really don't think the purpose of EarthBound was to parody America so much as demonstrate what America looks like through the eyes of people from different cultures, and using that as a backdrop in order to tell a story about innocence and childhood. Shigesato Itoi basically took every stereotype of America from the 50s (Which makes sense since Itoi grew up in the 50s and 60s in Japan) and put it into 1 game with the aim of using this innocent and idyllic world to tell his story of childhood and growing up. If you have played or ever end up playing Mother 3, the direct sequel to this game that never released outside of Japan, you'll realize that Itoi does like to tell stories through the Japanese perspective, Mother 3's story is basically 1/1 with the opening of Japan in many aspects. Both of the games are definitely masterpieces in my eyes, as I think that besides being fun games with good stories, they're both good tools to show how stereotypes of places like America effect media created by other countries.

[@TheSoulCollector13]

This. Itoi made Mother for his child.

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

JJ has played Mother 3, he's mentioned it elsewhere. He thinks that it's even better than Earthbound.

[@pizzanessfunnie]

I agree! Itoi doesn't care about making funny pop culture references or comment on American culture, he wants to tell a story about a kid who realizes how horrific the world actually is.

[@stanleysmooth]

@@pizzanessfunnie lol well I don't think EarthBound is just about the world being horrific, but yes that's the basic idea

[@pksprite6401]

Yea I think this is right on the nose

[@Radar_of_the_Stars]

Firewatch always feels like a deeply American game in my mind, between its setting of a fictional National Park based on Yellowstone to the growing mystery as the story progresses, I feel like nobody from outside the US could make something like it.

[@KLil37]

Great game

[@stephenahern]

I'm pretty sure firewatch takes place in an actual place in Wyoming

[@theninjamaster67]

Firewatch was so goooooodddd screw Valve for buying the dev and making it where they haven't made another game since.

[@kirjoittajajoni]

This is actually a great point. I didn’t even think about it while playing but the whole conspiracy thing on the background makes it feel extremely American. You could have the exact same setting in a forest in northern Finland or Austria for example and it wouldn’t work the same way at all.

[@AsukaLangleyS02]

BNoring walking simulator where the dev cried about Pewdiepie giving him free publicity

[@thedirtcrew]

Earthbound was just so different from the other games at that time, particularly if you were a young kid in North America without access to a lot of more obscure Japanese titles, that a lot of our contemporaries ended up projecting all sorts of meaning and interpretation onto the game that in retrospect looks quite ridiculous. At the time it was certainly a fun schoolyard topic to debate the "deeper meaning" behind giant stone pencils blocking your path or tree enemies. This over-interpretation of cult media has been a recurring theme for most of the millennial life; I think part of it is that it lets us feel better about playing or watching or reading what are essentially fun but largely pointless time-wasters.

[@JJMcCullough]

Are you Canadian?

[@sct1718]

@@JJMcCullough kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6mtco2idsh4i6M

[@somethingcraft3148]

@@JJMcCulloughwhy?

[@jpheitman1]

My understanding is that the "Happy Happyists" was a reference to the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo. They were at their most active in the mid 1990s, carrying out assassinations and launching terror attacks, finally reaching their zenith with a sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995.

[@Annexialol]

Hearing this man absolutely butcher Itoi's name brought me *immense pain.*

[@lucyfer_the_bat]

right?!?! like it felt like it couldn't not have been on purpose

[@LordBitememan]

About 20 years ago some U of M students put out a parody RPG about life on campus. It included such things as having to fight the geese on North Campus, ordering burritos at Pancheros, etc. They really nailed the source material. Wish I could remember the name of the thing.

[@JJMcCullough]

That sounds brilliant

[@juwebles4352]

Lmao that Pancheros thing is too relatable

[@keno3850]

its called Crisis Wolverine: Insurrection Green

[@LordBitememan]

@@keno3850 Yeah, that's the one.

[@duonanon]

@@keno3850 Is this lost media? The personal u of m page hosting it is no longer available. Do you know of any mirrors still up? Or any other way to access it?

[@CineDesi]

Yay! More! Always happy to get notifications about your videos! :)

[@JJMcCullough]

2 million subs??

[@CineDesi]

@@JJMcCullough hahah. Yeah. That’s our channel focused on an Indian audience and Indian related content. @GetJaby is where we focus on American/Western stuff. Big fan of your content, so I’m very honored to be noticed! Lol.

[@AbcXyz-we7nj]

Yooooo

[@adweetiyamohapatra7326]

@@CineDesi Indians when they see foreigners talking about them : We are summoned

[@adweetiyamohapatra7326]

@@lurji I never get summoned

[@BubbyBoy]

I love how Earthbound is such a strong game on its own, it's being looked at for its cultural merit as a satire for American culture. That said, really is a great story. If anything, the game's lack of accuracy to Americana brings its own charm, as it's Itoi's vision of America

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

This was wonderful as always JJ. One of your channel legacies is to help remind me that virtually everything is nuanced and to look through that critical lens when consuming media regardless if the source. I appreciate that and all of the research you do for these wonderful essays. Award winning indeed! Happy Saturday everyone!

[@Ay-ux8fl]

i know we’re in the context of earthbound but “if you just treat america as this generic urban-suburban locale without much depth, it wont take long before you hit a ceiling of what you can do with that environment“ is weirdly inspiring to me as an american

[@Pmf95k]

Holy crap, I would’ve never expected you to make a video about Earthbound JJ! Thanks for making this! (Also yes, earthbound may be super inaccurate to “modern day America”, but it’s still such a fun game. I made some of my own “earthbound-type” music and it’s so fun emulating those weird breaks in the songs.)

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

I mean his channel is plastered with Earthbound sound effects. If anything, I am surprised this is the first time he has ever made a video exclusively about Earthbound.

[@skillganon606]

@@MrAllmightyCornholioz the super Mario RPG sound effects jump out to me more.

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

@@skillganon606 Lots of the sound effects he use were battle sounds in the game. Like the "bash" "player turn" "smaaaaaaaash" and rest are songs from the game.

[@KaptenKetchup]

Is your music available somewhere? I would love to listen to it :)

[@zacharydechant1303]

Not a game, but the miniseries Over The Garden Wall does a great job setting itself in a very American folklore styled world.

[@JJMcCullough]

Yes it’s fantastic

[@flippant_foe]

(1:38) MOTHER 1 isn't Japan only, MOTHER 1 has been out in America for about 7 years now as "EarthBound Beginnings"

[@BigSharkZ]

An interesting note about Paula is that it wasn't only her clay model that was redesigned, she was also changed for the American version's script to have a stronger and more courageous personality, whereas in Japan she was more portrayed as a weaker, cutesy girl that can cry, like more of a damsel in distress. Also, I still remember the time you commented on my SlimeBound video, as a much smaller KZbinr, that was very appreciated! Unfortunately, I've been dealing with sudden copyright claims from "Nintendo" (Whether or not they are legitimate, KZbin won't tell me), so for now all of my general videos, especially the EarthBound mods, have been blocked worldwide. Here's to hope I can retrieve them and make more soon.

[@KaedeLanyo]

I'm very much okay with this. Satire is so often contrived, painfully unfunny, and so overly-topical as to some out already dated (See literally anything in media harping on Trump.). The setting's "blandness" in a way gives it, its own personality and identity, rather than piggybacking on constant "Hey, recognize thing?!"-isms.

[@IG88IGLOO.]

I feel like we've been gaslit to believe how "american" this game is despite how few distinct american things even exist in it. The shortcomings of the uninspired names fall on the localizers. Even though without them this game wouldn't be as well known, they probably didnt want to project more than they felt comfortable.

[@Haddosan]

I always thought this game wore its Japanese heritage on its sleeve take gaslight out of your vocabulary 💀

[@dylantoney6971]

@@Haddosan not gaslit by the game, but by the community surrounding. Really, this game is a parody of the world... I see European American African and Japanese influences all throughout.

[@Haddosan]

@@dylantoney6971 i guess I could sort of see that but I’ve been a fan of mother for a good handful of years and I can’t say that I ever got the same notion on my own. I always thought this game had Japanese charm and well hence it’s not really trying to disguise itself, or push some kind of ulterior motive.

[@blinkfilms1]

The second you brought up games with strong depictions of Americana I knew you'd bring up night in the woods. I love that game and it does a really good job of capturing the essence of small town americana

[@DumOcaso]

0:04 JJ is so formal when he speaks when he talks about his parents giving him what he wanted for his birthday he says it like it was a treaty between nations

[@razvanrepciuc3284]

"I you treat America as some sort of suburban locale without much depth...." That's pretty much how the outside world sees America on a good day.

[@nicosimioni7363]

I'd rather say that's how the average American sees every other country in the world. They always rely on ridiculous and predictable stereotypes, focusing especially on the negative ones. But when others do the same to them they flip their sh*t about how unfair and shallow that is...

[@omarkiller2222]

@@nicosimioni7363 Indians like you are always bitter about the brownness of your skin, y'all wanna be white but can't think white

[@parkb5320]

I remember working at a NY/NJ electronics chain in the mid 90s called Nobody Beats the Wiz when Earthbound was released. Unfortunately I was a Genesis kid and didn’t have a Super Nintendo, but I was a cashier there and the games were displayed behind the cashier so I had to display the games and I remember Earthbound in the huge box was such a pain to display because all we had were pegs to hang the games on and it was too big and heavy to hang from a peg, so we just kept it on the floor with zero display space.

[@zackschilling4376]

For some reason I always got Earthbound and Star Tropics confused. I guess they re both RPGs that take place in modern-ish American-style countries, and both were heavily promoted by Nintendo Power. I guess those are some reasons now that I write it out.

[@pablocasas5906]

Unlike Earthbound, Star Tropics was developed for the American market in mind and was never released in Japan

[@MatthewBanaszynski]

Being from Arizona, Towson/Tucson is such a missed opportunity to explore the quirks and culture of a uniquely American and yet bizarre at times place that fits the aesthetic and theme of the overall game perfectly.

[@subparnaturedocumentary]

i am not from arizona annd agree, they could have least thrown a cactus in there somewhere :-)

[@GeoffO856]

Fellow Arizonan here - I totally agree. Tucson has plenty of "American" aspects that would probably stand out to the Japanese. U of A's main campus teaming with young, American college kids, the overlap of urban streets and desert ranches, Saguaro NP, the presence of Native tribes, Mexican cultural influence. There's plenty to work with.

[@crimsonghost4107]

I never noticed the Twoson could've been a reference to Tucson, because I thought the whole gimmick was that the towns have one, two, three, four in the names. Agreeing with other commenters that it's more of a JRPG parody with a superficial America aesthetic than a whole hearted attempt at American satire.

[@Christopher_TG]

I would say another video game series that does a much better job at satirizing an era of American culture would be the Fallout games. Fallout takes place in an alternate timeline in which China, not Russia, emerged as the primary communist threat in the second half of the 20th century and the US and China ultimate fought a nuclear war in 2066 that ended human civilization with the games' stories all taking place in that post-apocalyptic wasteland. The Americana satire comes from the fact that in the game world American pop culture basically remained frozen in the 50s, so there's a lot of great commentary on the consumerist, patriotic, and weirdly both optimist and nihilistic culture of that time period which continues to echo in the games' setting even in the wasteland.

[@plugshirt1762]

Funnily enough my main problem with fallout 2 is that it goes too hard into the pop culture references which ruins the very dark atmosphere of the first game. The main president villain guy is literally a political reference to the time that feels quite dated now. I feel like while the game was great it is a pretty good example of taking pop culture references too far in a game

[@reallyreal1057]

*2077

[@AsukaLangleyS02]

Bethesda makes bad games though. The Bethesda Fallouts are objectively worse at storytelling.

[@reallyreal1057]

@@AsukaLangleyS02 Have you forgotten Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, or the first two games, by Interplay.

[@AsukaLangleyS02]

@@reallyreal1057 Why do you think I uses "Bethesda Fallouts"???????????????????????

[@kevinmbtbass]

Nothing gets American culture as right as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

[@kirjoittajajoni]

That’s a nice argument senator!

[@Birb728]

Why don't you back that up with a source

[@kevinmbtbass]

MY SOURCE IS I MADE IT THE FUCK UP

[@screwgoogle4993]

"Trump Bad: The Game"

[@iantaakalla8180]

Maybe it could be more like “vaguely Reagan-like ideals and stuff are bad” given he even says “they’ll make America great again” in 2014 which is clearly a Reagan phrase.

[@BOABModels]

The LucasArts game 'Sam & Max Hit the Road' seems like a parody of Americana to me - the map which you travel takes you to lots of corny tourist spots like a gator infested Florida golf course, a soda fountain bar and a carnival freak show. Also the titular characters make pop culture references and drive a 1950s DeSoto Adventurer!

[@Zeggladore]

I've got mixed feelings on this. On one hand I agree entirely that the game's oddly specific praise as some sort of commentary on American culture more than precedes itself, and I feel they could've done more to double down on its references, but I feel this distinct form of appraisal (and consequently the criticism around it) come off as a mistranslation of what's actually going on. EarthBound is incontrovertably a parody of JRPG's given the twist of a more modern setting first (replacing treasure chests with presents, dragons with flying saucers, merchants with ma-and-pa bakeries, etc.), parody of the setting itself second. One ingredient I think is sorely missing from the discussion on the latter is the childlike point of view from which the game gets its overtones and--for most--its charm. Whenever more serious themes are introduced, (e.x. a political candiate coercing you to give him credit for your achievments, an entrepreneur gaining fame through sheer monopoly, or crooked cops exacting excessively violent retribution over petty crimes like trespassing), they're broken down into their silliest depictions as if a kid pointed at them saying exactly what they see. "Who're those weirdos in cone-shaped hats with some crazy fixation on which color is superior?" "Why is everybody staring at this rock on a pedestal saying long words I don't think even they understand?" "What's with these tourist-trap restaurants that sell tiny overpriced dishes with big fancy names?" It's these subtle unspoken jabs that imo outweigh the lack of spoken references to pop culture. Considering the recent and similar criticism towards Turning Red about the lack of --ahem-- _timely_ references to its early 2000's setting, I think it needs to be said that there's a necessary time, place, and most importantly _manner_ for handling commentary in a medium that uses its setting for something else entirely. Regardless, still glad I bumped into this video. Keep up the good work 👍

[@Marylandbrony]

Twoson actually is spelled very closely to the suburb of Towson just north of Baltimore and is the seat of Baltimore County and many people around here think Twoson might be a reference to Towson and not Tucson.

[@JJMcCullough]

I doubt it

[@luke_cohen1]

The Tucson, Arizona metro area has a population of nearly 1 million people. It’s a standalone part of the country with its own major (international) airport and nationally recognized public university (University of Arizona). Internationally broadcasted TV shows make a lot of jokes at the expense of the city (especially Family Guy). It’s not a random, little suburb of a larger city. If the average American has never heard of the town you’re bringing up, what makes you think a team of script writers from Japan would know about it.

[@screwgoogle4993]

@@JJMcCullough This comment is a good summary of the value of this video. "Nah bruh". Why? "Just 'cause, bro"

[@DAETRICH]

I think the closest thing I can think of the purpose behind the Happyhappyists is to reflect on the KKK. I mean the hoods, and how they’re blue while wanting to paint the world blue? As I’m comparison to the KKK being dressed in white and wanting to ‘paint’ or make the world white? But then again, I’m not entirely sure what else could really come from that if it’s a reference.

[@ghintz2156]

One of the only SNES games that made me have proper belly laughs while playing. I've always seen it more as a game that satirizes JRPGs over anything else. Zak McKraken was a pretty fun satirical America game from waaaay back in the day. Aliens run the phone companies!

[@MncMarcos]

Honestly, I don't think the devs wanted to make a parody about american culture, I think americans themselves believed that, the game just has some things that look western because Itoi it's a fan of western culture.

[@freealter]

“Ness has no relations outside of his family” someone’s never been to the treehouse I thought Jeff was Canadian.

[@ihavecooties]

I thought he was British, what with the boarding school and Stonehenge being close to his dad’s lab.

[@dstinnettmusic]

I wish Nintendo had marketed this game better. Nintendo Life’s recent video on Earthbound as a series was really touching and featured a lot of my favorite creators, and I really got a feel for what made the series special, but I find old games, especially old RPGs can be really hard to play if you don’t have an attachment to them already, so I can never truly get into this game.

[@ungrave5231]

I spend a lot of time reading media created by various countries and it always charms me a bit to see what the most "shallow" representations we all have for each other ends up being. For example I've also seen a Chinese story with an "Eagle Country" with such a poorly done representation of America that it ends up being a nice window into how china views the united states. I know you've done a similar video in the past, but I like the idea of these videos going through the way various countries view America, whether that's through food, art, or just the tropes that places use to represent a stereotypical "America" for various books or movies.

[@fishtigress3134]

Could be an interesting little series on how rest of the world sees the English-speaking world. For example in the Nordics it feels like the Anglosphere has been held in high regard for quite some time. In modern times because of big media influence (movies, TV-series, books, regional versions on radio shows or TV concepts etc.) but also presumably because of other reasons too, like trade (Showing the Americans some fancy Nordic design, getting the $ for the effort, artists not necessarily even being known in their own countries but were famous in certain international circles during their own times).

[@ShadowedKami]

I would say that Jeff is probably British since you know, HE LIVES RIGHT NEXT TO STONE HENGE!

[@sanity000-x2r]

If you're curious about Japanese games that have actual commentary on America two games come to my mind: Killer7, this game about a "team" of seven assassins, where a major theme in it is the cultural differences between Japan and American which you can see everywhere from the story to how it approaches it's gameplay and Metal Wolf Chaos, this over the top satirical action game that stars the president of America who was overthrown in a military coup by his vice president and must take back the White House with a giant mech. Another example of Japanese Americana media that comes to mind are the horror games heavily influenced by Twin Peaks (which was really popular in 90s Japan) such as the Silent Hill franchise, Deadly Premonition and Mizzurna Falls. With the latter two bordering on copyright infringement.

[@randnew1]

I recently played through this whole game for the 1st time & it is a heavy inspiration for me as an artist & developer.

[@foodplsOld]

I’d recommend the setting of Bioshock: Infinite as an exaggerated criticism of America, tho it does have have a point where the commentary takes a backseat to the sci-fi narrative. Examples include: reverence of the Founding Fathers with quasi-religious importance, hostility/exploitation towards minority/foreign groups, and distorted theme park-esque recreations/misinterpretations of historical figures and events

[@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski]

but thats just a parody of a parody of Midwestern american culture. having lived on both coasts for significant bits; i can hardly recognize bioshock: infinite as satire. GTA5 is the most accurate satire to me

[@bluenexus1212]

Indeed i agree

[@Croz89]

@@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski Bioshock Infinite to me seems like one of those alt-hist satires that imagine some extreme of the political spectrum has seized control. It's presented as an an ultra-conservative wet dream, the sort of place I'm sure some imagine the kind of Americans who wave around Trump flags and blame everything on "the libs" wish to see. GTA does seem to be more of a broad exaggeration of US culture, where all flavours of the political and cultural spectrum are caricatures.

[@noobpro9759]

gotta agree with leo on this. bioshock always felt like a communist rip on american culture rather than a satire or retrospective. more of a "what if" type scenario if anything. more like "what if america turned to being as seperatist as old world japan" instead of "what if more america".

[@craydussy]

"Exploitation toward minority groups" is just a critique of every nation to exist

[@kage1061]

There's also police brutality in the first part of this game, referencing the Rodney King case in the 90s where he was beaten by 5 cops and a squad sergeant.

[@SnazBrigade]

I'd be very interested in an expanded video about your thoughts on Night in the Woods. my go to review of the game is actually from Regular Car Reviews, who, being an english major who lives in and grew up in the rust belt towns the game is so heavily based upon, had quite a lot of interesting points to make.

[@JJMcCullough]

Probably does it better than I could! I think it’s kind of the opposite of earthbound in the sense that the setting is stronger than the game whereas in earthbound the game is stronger than the setting.

[@Mentally_Will]

...RCR did a Night in the Woods review?

[@SnazBrigade]

@@Mentally_Will kzbin.info/www/bejne/op3ZiWOLlpZoq80 yup! 4 years ago

[@MrMikli]

It's not a parody of American society, but a parody of its media image, particularly in cartoons (both western and eastern).

[@Turnips]

I think this video is projecting onto this game that it "fails as satire" for not including enough pop culture references for Americans to enjoy. It has been mentioned in the comments a few times how the game was made for Japanese audiences. But if J.J. replies to them, he says he disagrees with them without responding to their critiques. The points they're making negate most of this video. The entire video is based on the assumption that the game was designed with Americans in mind just because its setting is American. Yet, it's been brought up that they didn't even know if it would be released in the West. Any references are broad enough that Japanese players in the 90's would get them. The aesthetics are Western, but the story is still Japanese, through and through. The localization team helped make the game what it is today for Western audiences, so kudos to them for that. They didn't "fail" to adapt this, nor did the original Japanese version "fail" to be a good satire of the US. Like others have said, it's just a fun, kooky JRPG with Western designs.

[@dawashingmachine9158]

Actually, the Happy Happyists are likely a reference to Aum Shinrikyo, the cult responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack

[@kippysmuckers4860]

Btw JJ I love your use of the old game noises, sounds, and haptics it really adds to your videos and the aesthetic you and your videos give off! Great job with the vid 👍

[@JamesOKeefe-US]

As a side note I am sure no one cares about 😂 we had terrible storms here in North Carolina last night with many trees down in my area so we were without power from about 6pm Friday until just a few minutes ago. The fam is safe and no permanent damage but it reminded me how quickly things like water and electricity become a problem. It also reminded me how thankful I am to have immediate access to such luxuries. On a lighter note, I will say that not being able to access my Saturday JJ fix was definitely up there :) I am thankful for you and your channel!

[@remaithi]

From my experience as a non-westerner playing Earthbound, the references I saw were: - 4 Police officers fighting a kid to progress through the story ( Police Brutality) - The happy happyist referring to the KKK - Apple and Orange kid (and their rivalry) referring to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - Hippies, UFO conspiracies, zombies - Fourside depicting nyc, with the monotoli building and dept store referencing the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building - The endless music samples from american (if not, it's something famous in western pop culture eg. Beatles) - The game having a Peanuts-esque art style *note: there were some stuff that highly resembled american culture in the Japanese version, but was removed or change to avoid controversy / copyright strikes eg. The coca cola sign on the truck, the "HH" letters in the cult's hood There's more I learned from looking up the internet after I finished playing it, but those were the ones ^ I found obvious when I first played it. The better question to ask was what was the made game for? I don't think it was made solely to be a satire to american culture but only serve to break the medieval stereotype of RPG and serve as a backbone for Itois writing. It's a Japanese representation of the japanese perception of America.

[@screwgoogle4993]

Police brutality? God you're a waterhead. That subject only became fashionable 2 years ago, stop the crap.

[@crimsonghost4107]

Yeah I am surprised that JJ missed these references, I feel like he could've done more research for this video. I think the game actually gets a decent number of things right about American pop culture, while still featuring some Japanese themes. Also the police brutality is a reference to the 1992 beating of Rodney King by the LAPD, so the game does make some effort at social commentary too.

[@AdonisNesser]

So happy to see you played Night in the Woods! I think one example of a very well written point-and-click game that captures southern gothic Americana is Kentucky Route Zero, highly recommend it for the weird dreamlike state while commenting on and satirizing life in the countryside

[@Thanatology101]

Having literally finished replaying Earthbound last month I have to say I largely agree. It's a great game, but perhaps because of its extremely troubled development and localization, or perhaps because of the way video games just were at that time, I found a lot of the content detached or feeling bizarre for the sake of it. It lacked an anchor. This was largely before the internet, too, so I suspect no small part could be because there was very little cultural overlap between Japan and America at this time and what there was largely existed by sheer force of will of localizers. It'll always have a place in my heart, of course, as that was both the dawn of my teenage years as well as my earliest foray into console RPGs. Also, Happy Happyism definitely drew from Shoko Asahara's cult Aum Shinrikyo more than anything we had in America at the time. Great content as always!

[@LARAUJO_0]

0:10 What the- Why is the box so big? I've seen SNES cartridges in person and they look like they'd take up less than 1/8 of that. Upon further inspection, I noticed that it includes some sort of magazine, which explains the height and width, but not the thickness 1:37 Mother 1 was actually released in the west later, although rebranded to Earthbound Beginnings

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

I believe they included a players' guide with the game, which has been blamed for the game not selling very well as it made it more expensive and probably meant stores couldn't stock that many either.

[@fortytwentyone7078]

9:35 I always thought that the happy-happyism was not a commentary on cults, but with racist organizations like the KKK due to their hoods and the fact that they want to turn the whole world into one color, I think you know where I’m going with this, to be honest, it’s been a while since I played the game so they may have mentioned cults I don’t know. Anyways great video, always love these cultural dives into obscure or well-known pieces of media. Keep up the good work JJ

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

The localizers were pretty careful to tone down the KKK similarities to an extent, such as slightly changing their designs and changing the name of their town from "Threek" to "Threed."

[@man-iq8tp]

I believe there were a reference to aum shinrikyo cult which was a japanese cult that did terrorist attacks

[@foxymetroid]

They are a reference to an infamous Japanese cult that killed a bunch of people by releasing Sarin gas in a subway.

[@DetectiveThursday]

Based on his relationships with authors such as Haruki Murakami, who is very well versed in western culture, I don’t think it’s accurate to say a parody is what shigisato itoi was going for. Rather the indication here I feel when I play Earthbound is an attempt to recreate a style of the west that only occurs in fiction. A kind of hodgepodge of 50’s and 60’s Americana which lived in sitcoms, pushed into the 90’s. Satire seems to indicate itoi had a particular message he was trying to communicate through parody, but rather, I feel as though this was mostly an aesthetic decision prompted by his affection for the style.

[@ChrisTheFreedomEnjoyer]

Pokémon Black and White is a perfect example of a Japanese game inspired by American culture done right and honestly I think it deserves its own dedicated video. It has Pokémon based on ice cream, bald eagles, bison, greasers, construction workers, UFO sightings, even American Indian symbology. There are locations inspired by Manhattan, the American Southwest, Hollywood, Appalachian mining towns, sprawling suburbs, you name it. You meet Gym Leaders like Clay, a cowboy mining tycoon, Roxie, the leader of a rock band, Elesa, a beautiful supermodel, and Brycen, a famous actor. Even the villainous Team Plasma, who say they want to set all Pokémon free in order to liberate them from cruel trainers, but in reality just want to be the only ones allowed to use Pokémon so they can rule unopposed against a defenseless populace could possibly be a reference to America's gun control debate.

[@daniellaguilles8955]

I actually hadn't noticed some of the American connections you made there at first, which is pretty cool! It makes sense in retrospect to see BW as being somewhat of a parody

[@E4439Qv5]

Unova is distinctly American, yes.

[@bes03c]

I wore an Earthbound t-shirt today.

[@dakotagalkowski9318]

This reminds me of when I first heard about "Death Stranding" and how the game allegedly takes place in America. I have my opinions about the game, but one thing I find funny is how its depiction of America seems to be created by people who don't know anything about America other than that we have a President. Also, I quite like seeing America depicted well in video games. I for one thought the Fallout series and Red Dead series are detailed homages to American culture.

[@JJMcCullough]

I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but there can be a certain shelteredness in Japanese culture that I think often manifests in rather oblivious pop culture depictions of other places.

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

I feel like sometimes in Japan they're somewhat self-aware of how they stereotype in America, in an episode of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Saiki teleports to El Paso for a bit which is depicted as an Old West town. I assume that they'd know that that couldn't be how it actually was, although maybe I'm overestimating things?

[@screwgoogle4993]

@@JJMcCullough Kind of like Canadians making ignorant comments of America. There's a shelteredness in left-wing drones that often manifests in rather oblivious pop culture depictions of people even in their own country - most often the ones creating the things you then parasitize and co-opt for political benefit.

[@JJMcCullough]

@@screwgoogle4993 When have I ever done that?

[@ragstoriches466]

They say the grass is greener on the other side it’s true, but why can’t we just appreciate how awesome of a game Earthbound is. It may not be perfect, but nothing is perfect in life. We shouldn’t wast our time thinking about how much better something could be, but instead learn to appreciate.

[@JeremiahKF]

If we speak about american setting in a game- Pokemon Black and White as well as Sun and Moon are set in fictionalized versions of NYC and Hawaii respectively. They did a great job on that with the locations, characters and pokemon, which are based on real life lore from the places. As well as X and Y which take place in France and are aggressively French themed.

[@zjzr08]

I'd argue Unova felt superficially Americana, with the oddity of its ancient history being more medieval Europe than ancient America IMO (like you could say Unova can look more like a modern European city if tweaked a bit). I guess Alola being closer to Hawaii is a bit more accurate, but the central theme did push a bit sci-fi.

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

@@zjzr08 It was kind of funny for example to me that the Flying gym airport was placed in a location analogous to Teterboro Airport which doesn't even serve commercial flights. Although that's largely because the map didn't stretch towards the actual major New York airports. Of course the biomes are much more diverse than real New York too.

[@Morhamms357]

This video has a lot of errors and inconsistencies, it really wasn't researched well. First of all, the whole "parodying brands" and other things of American culture, well they DID. As an example, there's a parody of the Coca-Cola logo that says "Come" instead of "Coke", with a swish on a red truck. However, due to legal reasons, they cut it out with a stickman instead. Things back then were a lot more tight then they are now, they couldn't just parody American brands like that, because they already did on multiple occasions. Second, about Paula's design. Yes, I do agree, it's pretty generic, but first of all, all of the designs aren't exactly the most inspired. Young boy who loves baseball in a striped shirt and shorts and a baseball cap, nerdy dork character with glasses and a bowl cut and a bowtie, an Asian kid who's almost bald, save for one really long strand of hair wearing a Karate getup. They're all caricatures of a regular American kid, a British dork, and an Asian monk. Same with Paula. Plus, it works in her design much more, because she's SUPPOSED to be the overtly cutesy and pink and all that, despite arguably being the strongest character in the game. Yes, it's just opinions, we all have our personal most useful character, but the general consensus is that Ness is the WHITE MAGE of the party, while Paula is the BLACK MAGE. This is a subversion of the usual trope. Yes, it's as tired as the original trope nowadays, but back then, it was new and fresh, just like the American aesthetic. Also, this game is *packed to the brim* with references to American culture, especially in terms of music. You can ride in a yellow submarine, while most cartoon submarines are yellow, it explicitly says "The yellow coloring is coincidental", meaning for sure it's a reference to the song "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. And the music, the music itself! There's so many samples from American things it makes your head spin! There's even a song in the game, Megaton Walk, which is literally just a sampled Beatles track. You can see a ton of examples in this video, kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5DSlGyPpciVaLM . There's tons of 90's slang in the localization, things like building treehouses, and there's even caricatures of things like the cops. Police brutality and police incompetency is one of THE FIRST THINGS YOU SEE IN THE GAME, when Ness gets beat up by the cops (an oddly topical occurrence...goes to show how well it aged!), and when the cops keep getting in your way, blockading things to investigate and new towns, and of course their nonchalantness of the local gang (there are outright lines in the game mentioning how lazy the police are). Overall, while not extremely faithful, is an extremely good representation and caricature of American culture, especially back in the 90's by a Japanese game studio that wasn't even trying to parody American culture. Yeah, it was actually supposed to parody JAPANESE culture, and you can definitely see a lot of that too (the cult stuff is actually a big thing in Japan, absent father figure, etc.), but the game is so good that it manages to parody American culture just as well (especially due to its outstanding localization). Definitely represents it a lot more than a Canadian guy pretending to be Japanese.

[@FishyAshB]

One of my favourite parodies of American culture is Sam & Max Hit the Road. The game is essentially a giant road trip, parodying the various tourist traps and attractions and is filled with pop culture references and parodies. It also helps that the game is absurdly witty with some of the best dry humour I've come across. Edit: Just realised you did a video where you mentioned the game and gave it another watch!

[@Benjamin-fh9ld]

Great example! The mini golf, circus, and national monument parodies are hilarious in that game

[@alechenry1483]

"Babe are you ok? You've barely touched your Nanaimo Bear Plushy"

[@spiralofants1236]

I think that this video is a very silly take. you're not wrong in saying that earthbound is a failed satire of america, but you're wrong in asserting it's a satire of america. don't get me wrong, this video is still fun, with some noticeable exceptions if you know too much like me (like where you're talking about the happy happy cult and how it's distinctly not americana - like, yeah, it's a huge reference to a real life japanese cult), but the lens you're viewing earthbound with isn't exactly practical.

[@spiralofants1236]

I'm very interested in how you reached your conclusion. the further I get in the video, the more your findings seem to indicate that earthbound just straight up isn't satirizing america. if its a game of "countless missed opportunities," my natural conclusion would be to start questioning why they missed those opportunities. honestly, this could come down to how I initially found and experienced earthbound, and I respected it as it own thing and actively tried not to be influenced by the marketing material, but I was led to believe they missed those opportunities because they didn't want to take them to begin with. I might be giving too much credit to the authors here, but I do believe its important to try and experience art for itself rather than trying to experience it for "what its trying to be."

[@Moxypony]

I like MatPat's theory that the game's cult is based on Aum Shinrikyo

[@atwistedb]

Sans is Ness

[@BigDave641]

I love Earthbound beyond belief, have always seen it as underrated, and never thought about thinking it should give any satirical commentary about the States. Where do you get that from? The humour, music, friendships, and story has changed me into a more open person, and my son feels the same as he plays it now. I don't understand the impulse to

[@RadenWA]

This reminds me of another serie I’m into called Wild ARMs which was supposed to represent the old American Wild West except that you also get magical nun princess with an European castle town, tomb raiding, elves and aliens in space. Ultimately I realized the only thing “Wild Western” about it is the character design and music and the abundance of desert “wastelands”. I guess it’s too much to ask a Japanese media of that time for proper references to their inspiration source and I’m just happy to play what is basically Final Fantasy in a spaghetti western setting.

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

Much like the comment about the red panda movie's highly specific timeframe, I think a lot of comments are missing that this video isn't so much saying the game is bad overall because of this niche angle, but that when focusing upon the niche angle it comes up short.

[@queengames8421]

I think the problem with this video is that it's just... a weird angle to focus on? It's not really something the game is trying to do, and it feels weird to criticize it doing poorly at something it was never trying to do. Like you can go to any piece of media and find some weird niche angle that it vaguely touches on in the process of doing the things it's actually attempting to do well. Saying "Wow this thing doesn't do this niche thing it wasn't trying to actually do well at all" isn't really adding anything interesting or new to the conversation around the work at all.

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

@@queengames8421 He cites his rationale at the start by pointing out how Earthbound has acquired a reputation as a quality satire from journos and listicles over the years. The video is more of a response to that with cited evidence within the game than a general critique of the game's quality. He does explicitly say many times that it's more of a missed opportunity than an indictment.

[@queengames8421]

​@@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva I see what you're saying, and within just the context of the video itself, that does make sense. I think a lot of the problem comes from his responses within this comment section, and the description of the video. The description (which most people are going to see the very beginning of while the video is loading) states "Why I think earthbound is overrated." Regardless of if his actual thesis is "Why I think earthbound is overrated *as a piece of American satire*", it's immediately putting people on the defensive by not including that very key part of it. There's also the fact that his responses within this comment section feel... at odds with that thesis? There's multiple commenters who say they don't think that Earthbound was trying to be a satire, only for him to turn around and comment that it clearly was trying to be, and failed. The thread with m2redshirt comes to mind in particular here. Again, I do think within the pure context of the video, you're correct. If that is J.J.'s actual thesis, I can't really argue with that (those listicle articles are really dumb), but I also can see why a lot of commenters are reading it as something else, especially with some of the confusion made by his comments and the video's description.

[@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva]

@@queengames8421 To get engagement you gotta clickbait to a degree, and clickbaiting is the enemy of nuance.

[@queengames8421]

@@KAPTAINmORGANnWo4eva You got me there. Man I hate clickbait.

[@spritelessGirl]

As a kid, I thought it was a story that took it's rules from kid's movies. It's entirely possible that Mr. Itoi watched some American kid's movies.

[@listentomerantaboutuseless34]

The entire fallout series (although I have only played 4) does a beautiful job engaging with the 20th century "Atomic Age" american culture.

[@jess-lol]

love how you placed the "cliff that time forgot" sample here lol, also wanted to make a comment on the other video you had about ice cream and you used the psi freeze sound effect lolol

[@nathanl8622]

Ness and Paula's outfits give me 1950s vibes. Like that pink dress with the collar and the waist reminds of the "housewife" look; absolutely American, just an extremely old-fashioned kind of American. And a kid who loves baseball running around with a cap and bat is another distinctly outdated stereotype for what an American kid would dress/act like. A lot of the Americana aesthetic is based on how America looked (or was imagined to look) in decades past. This seems more like American culture getting muddled than ignored outright.

[@foursidekm]

yeah earthbound does have a bit of a 50s/60s thing going on despite the game taking place in the 90s

[@Croz89]

I don't think the clothes look too out of date for a young kid in the 90's, if you watch movies from the era you see a lot of boys dressed like that in them. The dress I'm not so sure, again for a young kid it might fit, for someone older it would look very old fashioned.

[@foursidekm]

@@Croz89 I think a character in stranger things (which takes place in the 80s) wears a similar outfit at one point

[@Croz89]

@@foursidekm I think when it comes to young children, fashion hasn't changed all that much. Even now little girls will still wear pink frilly dresses. It's really when they get older that fashion has changed.

[@MrMultiPat]

I never realized that the points on the sharks heads were meant to be fins...jeez.

[@b_astud98]

And this is how not to make an interpretation of the game.

[@ThatFlyTyguy]

J.J. I have been waiting for the day you talk about this game! It's my favorite and ties alot into my childhood. Even the Sprite work looked like my mom and dog etc and my dad was never home.

[@_guillermo]

No mention of the police aggression or the hippies? Lots of content you conveniently overlooked here :(

[@livvy94]

Yeah it's unreal

[@imperishableneet]

I always saw Winters as Canada, and Jeff as Canadian. The lake with Tessie being like the Great Lakes on the US border, albeit with the Scottish Loch Ness monster thrown in. They even say Winters is next to a French speaking country, kind of like Quebec/French Canada if it were its own country. But now that I think about it, it's probably supposed to be England, with Stonehenge and all. Would also explain why he needs the Sky Runner to cross the ocean.

[@RayOfTruth]

Peanuts/Charlie Brown was a big influence, giving the EarthBound an "American flavor" without direct references.

[@waddledee2319]

Onett, Twoson, and Threed literally are what I’m assuming the first three places the they go to, start with one two and three respectively

[@waddledee2319]

Apparently there is also a place called foursome

[@ElectricBarrier]

@@waddledee2319 Fourside, actually.