EarthBound's Monkey Caves are Actually Genius

[@eviltrollface647]

I think they just called it Moonside because the term "Lunacy" comes from the moon.

[@deathlygamingreal]

I think they call it that because it looks like night and uhhhh the moon comes at night 👍 personally I call it freakside

[@dansmith1661]

You got Fourside and the opposite somehow became Moonside.

[@CosmicTornado1]

Honestly that’s brilliant if that’s how they came up with the name

[@sherbertshortkake6649]

Isn't one of the sound designers a member of a band called Moonside? Or something along those lines?

[@stuartdunlop8834]

​@@dansmith1661 The opposite of "four" is "moon" is a perfect Earthbound quote.

[@pkbutter]

monkeyness: a question on the nature of reality, of whether time and such concepts as yes or no even exist at all shigesato itoi: hey wouldn't it be wacky if you fought a fire hydrant here

[@mintyeye1203]

how dare you trick me into watching the moonside video again

[@MonkeyNess]

@@mintyeye1203 …again?

[@mintyeye1203]

@ idk why the first 5 minutes of this video genuinely had me tweaking thinking it was a reupload despite it being completely different

[@GuitarOfTime0116]

​@@mintyeye1203you were high as shit, weren't you Squidward?

[@martindorn3983]

Ahh no bro uploaded this to moontube accidentally

[@chugsfromtriad]

holy shit two uploads in the same century its a miracle

[@cannonballking7]

I'm sure Mr. MonkeyNess will have a completely non-biased opinion on the area called the Monkey Cave's in Earthbound. Yes siree, this is going to be completely without heart taking control of the narrative on this one :)

[@homosapiens17051]

Monkeyness casually promoting his basement:

[@JibrilShchedrin]

Out of all things I expected for 2024 Monkey ness making a *Weird Al reference* at 0:33 was not what I expected.

[@sboxes4021]

Everything you know is right

[@veggiequeen77]

OMG these analysis videos are coming in fast! I LOVE IT!

[@hooty8703]

30 minutes of monkey cave discussion... it's like christmas morning

[@kirbyfreakyt4695]

*15

[@DefinitivNichtSascha]

The lines "Before the soup gets cold, we must care for Mani Mani. Before the knife gets rusty, we must care for Mani Mani." also use food-terminology. It evokes the feeling that caring for Mani Mani is as essential as eating to the people of Moonside.

[@MonkeyNess]

Great point, it's a type of nourishment for them.

[@lcorr2000]

Pretty sure “Moonside” is a Pink Floyd reference! There’s a big tradition of doing laser light shows for the album too.

[@darnellthomas9862]

The cut off at the end. 💥💀

[@Lamedude6774]

0:34 WEIRD AL REFERENCE? NO WAYYYY

[@Thedrgameryt-42]

Dude I was singing everything you know is wrong right before that

[@SanicSez]

4 is the symbol of the material world in numerology, the opposite of 4 is the immaterial world

[@MonkeyNess]

Interesting point.

[@SanicSez]

@ let us all never forget Mother 4 is the life you live today

[@star_duck]

​@@SanicSez so life started on winter 2014?

[@WohaoG]

@@star_duck to some

[@goblinshark6847]

2 of these kinds of videos with in a fortnight? this is really massive, the quality is never low, lets hope it doesnt taper, and these uploads neve fade away

[@Skypatroller_BenCD]

We all know this are YOUR caves

[@thebigdork8030]

13 Minutes in and I was beginning to lose hope we'd get monkeys.

[@MikalEdmunds]

17:14 me who unironically loves the Monkey Cave and Dungeon Man ost 💀

[@jimo2320]

24:15 there's a pretty obscure glitch that can happen during this sequence that softlocks the game. I don't know exactly how it works but basically if you're not standing far enough to the left when you talk to Monotoli, the secret door to the helipad never gets loaded in, so the cutscene where it's supposed to open goes on indefinitely. I only know about this cause it happened to me lol

[@axeldeeker5644]

Bless you for blessing us with this double upload

[@MasIndie]

I remember doing a second run of this game on the GBA (the bad MOTHER 1+2 translation in which the dialogue was gibberish), I was about to go on a vacation so I wrote down a map of the cave on paper. Unfortunately I have a bad handwriting so I cancelled the run, oops💀

[@Morgil27]

I never had a problem with the monkey cave cuz I played the original SNES release with its included Player's Guide back in the day, which tells you in advance what items to bring with you into the cave.

[@forsetimaster0689]

On the topic of the omission of Happy Village from Village from the teleport list, since forgetting to fight Mondo Mole is exactly what happened to me on my first playthrough. As frustrating as it was, it's a perfect example of how the instant battle win mechanic makes backtracking such less of a pain.

[@rhyano_]

Actually super impressed that this only took like 3 weeks to put out. Thanks for the banger

[@Kuce]

Throughout the journey in Moonside, Ness and Jeff just Keep On Laughin' in the dark.

[@gurigur1]

YOURE MY INSPIRATION MONKEY NEEEESSSS

[@rainbowmacaroon9189]

27:38 BUBBLE MONKEY MENTION‼

[@mistertagomago7974]

As I was watching this I got the impression this was part of a chronological analasys and I was right! Im guessing not putting part 8 in the title is because of the algorithm?

[@BOLONEIS]

2 UPLOADS SO SOON?????

[@jabarbors]

This is really becoming one of my favorite series

[@rhyano_]

The silhouette in moonside with the golden tooth and unibrow is the same sprite as the kid with the orange jacket and black shirt

[@dyl_pickle16-mta48]

Moonside’s ambience is one of my favorite tracks in the game.

[@shoveltime4]

I’m pretty sure the invisible guy is just the npc with orange hair and glasses

[@Ness_OnettBoy123]

• I literally got two hours trapped in the Moonside-

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

Lol

[@_HamSandwich1]

we gotta keep this consistency going with the series

[@JoeAero1998]

It's crazy that the Monkey Caves are considered bad. My pick for the worst part of EB is the visit to the Dept. Store. Every enemy is extremely over powered, and seemingly targets Jeff the most.

[@DoctorMario606]

1:29 I just started watching The Good Place not too long ago so seeing this here is kinda crazy, underrated show.

[@MonkeyNess]

I'm honestly not a big fan of it, but found it to work perfectly in the context I used it, my wife is a big fan.

[@lordmarshmal_0643]

I have to presume the Caves are also a nod to the classic "I don't wanna use my stuff right now I want it for a REAL emergency" psychology we all inevitably hit at some point or another Even in restricted-inventory games like this it's really hard to overcome that mindset and it sometimes only makes exploration more of a pain in the tailend

[@lyleabner2475]

The difference between moonside and fourside is right in their names, fourside is boxed in theres clear and defined borders, there's a way in and a way out, and everything is where you'd expect everything to be but moonside is the opposite there are no borders, there's no way out you're stuck in the dark, and everything is hard to get to and rearranged all weird. Basically fourside is square and moonside is round like the moon it has no borders like fourside

[@MonkeyNess]

I like this interpretation.

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

Why didn't they call it something like roundside then? Idk dude, doesn't really convince me

[@mistertagomago7974]

@@jestfullgremblim8002 Because Roundside sounds way less mysterious.

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

@mistertagomago7974 lol fair enough, still feel like the explanation that the moon is circular/has no corners is pretty weird (could still be right tho)

[@mistertagomago7974]

@@jestfullgremblim8002 I assume its just a theory,its very possible theres no connection between four and moon.

[@NecromancyEnthusiast]

I love Moonside in theory but dislike it in practice. I've loved surrealism for a long time so the aesthetic, the music, the enemy designs, the nonsense logic the characters use, love it! But when you strip all that away and look at what you have to do to progress through and complete this section of the game? It's a warp maze. I hate warp mazes. It also gives you a tough fight via the Mani Mani statue when you're down one party member, and in both of my playthroughs at this point Paula was my hardest hitter, so that made it particularly unfun. You have to grind a lot in a limited area with a small pool of enemies that start out as obnoxious but end up being deeply boring once you level up enough, so it gets especially monotonous versus in other areas where you can at least stretch your legs a bit... Also yeah, the monkey caves were definitely designed to be annoying, though personally I don't find them as annoying as a lot of people do. At least you get some cool items and the teleportation psi for your trouble. Mechanically I find the caves less annoying than Moonside.

[@lordn7132]

I've been playing earthbound yearly for like 20 years and I never considered that other people might be annoyed by the monkey music cause I kinda like it lol

[@Bobb11881]

There's a fourth problem with the Monkey Cave. There are two monkeys that want pizza, and as such there are two pizzas in the cave. The problem is that one of the pizzas is behind one of the monkeys that _wants_ a pizza, meaning if you use the first pizza on the other monkey, you have to buy a pizza and wait for it to arrive. And no, you can't ignore the monkey blocking the way to the second pizza, because he's also blocking the way to the Fresh Egg, which you need to get the Neutralizer.

[@MonkeyNess]

@@Bobb11881 Neutralizer is optional, and you can get through without ordering a pizza, I did when collecting the footage in this video.

[@Bobb11881]

@@MonkeyNess Yeah, you _can_ get through without ordering the pizza, but if you give the first pizza to the wrong monkey and you want the Neutralizer, you gotta order from Mach Pizza.

[@MonkeyNess]

@ If one of them is behind a monkey demanding one, isn’t it impossible to give it to the wrong monkey?

[@Bobb11881]

@MonkeyNess Starmen.net's walkthrough has a map that shows how it's possible, but I'll try to explain it. The first pizza is behind the picnic lunch monkey in the first room. If you walk into the next room and give the pizza to the girl monkey in that room, you get a second pizza. But if you go past the Skip Sandwich monkey first instead of the picnic lunch monkey, you'll meet a boy monkey who wants pizza. This will eventually lead you to backtrack and go past the picnic lunch monkey and grab the pizza there. If you go back and give it to the boy monkey instead of the girl monkey in the next room, there's no other pizza in the cave to give to the girl monkey.

[@spagandhi]

My thought is that Mr Monotoli was trapped in moonside with the Mani Mani statue, and the figure saying he was NOT Monotoli in front of the entrance? Well..

[@cameronmcgetrick7217]

This was all taken to the next level with the whole Salsa (monkey) chapter in mother 3 - that'd be a good follow-up to this vid!

[@toastZura]

THE GOOD PLACE MENTIONED (well, shown, rather)

[@LordZemosa]

The Moon in most western occultic perspectives represents not only the night, but also femininity, the internal, Yin, darkness and likely the most relevant, chaos. Chaos in this context simply means a lack of structure or order, which would almost perfectly describe Moonside in the eyes of most players. (This is also why people who act chaotically without said structure and order are referred to as "Lunatics") I suspect that Ness himself might represent the Sun principle here, as he sort of acts as a masculine, external, yang-like force that imposes his "greater judgement" as you put it, within a logic-less realm ruled entirely by negative Lunar aspects(Yin) Either that or I'm schizo-posting at 2 am once again

[@kirbyfreakyt4695]

Monkey caves bring in Jeff's second best weapon so painful as it is im at least usually somewhat happy when I go through them It means Jeff gets the Hungry HP sucker, after all, which solves 90% of his HP problems If it's used at the right time Jeff will only ever need Lifeup Alpha, splash healing from Lifeup omega, or straight up being revived. Edit: I made two comments. My bad lol

[@tvb5509]

I use a Monkey Caves MIDI as an alarm.

[@frankiesalatino547]

Dungeon Man theme is probably supposed to be annoying, but I love it. I think the frustrating parts of Earthbound are what make it great. It's like real life.

[@KorytheMaril]

I actually do buy your explanation for the Monkey Cave, it makes sense, but I am left with one question: Given this cave is also clearly the successor to the Penguin Maze in Mother 1, what in the world was the meaning behind that maze, if you know?

[@MonkeyNess]

@@KorytheMaril That’s a great question…for another time! (Mother 1 Analysis Series, coming 2047)

[@WalkThrough_101]

It's called Moonside because funny dance music colors and Moonwalking

[@eve_gang_rep]

what does moonside have to do with the monkey caves

[@watto2100]

15:43 it was kinda of a waste of time for me for my first playthrough as I threw away the ruler and had to go back to Twoson to get it

[@dansmith1661]

12:56 The tribe of Levi were the ones who slaughtered every person who worshipped the golden calf. God was going was to poison mushroom every Hebrew until Moses talked him down. They never learn.

[@TweekTwix]

I always thought they named moonside like that were that fourside and moonside were a play on word on "Far side of the Moon" + the number 4

[@deathlygamingreal]

Could be a pun on the word foresight

[@Conductor_of_the_Ensemble]

the atom bomb

[@jacoblangobard4640]

This probably has no connection but still hehe, Máni is the personification of the moon in norse mythology.

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

How can there be no connection lol

[@kirbyfreakyt4695]

7:30 I heard it was the Sailor sprite but blackened Like... the one blocking the path.

[@MonkeyNess]

Apparently it's the kid with an orange jacket's sprite.

[@cloverkip]

this is my favorite part of the game

[@TheOooMat]

Part of the reason for the golden bull story in exodus is because the prime god of the cannites was a storm god named baal. Baal was the main competitor with the god who was chosen by the ancient jews to later become their one god. (That god being yhwh of course). Moses didn't want the followers of this yhwh to also worship baal. A later story depicts Elijah doing a duel with a representative of the cannanites in the baal group to prove which god is cooler. Elijah wins, and as time passed on yhwh becomes the one god and baal is demoted into a demon. The culture of the Israelites outlived Canaan as it was in the past and today baal remains a demon instead of their former god self.

[@Raycat-2011]

You tricked me into watching a moonside video 😢

[@MonkeyNess]

It’s a “lot of things” video lol

[@LyritZian]

I really love the sound effect that the NPCs in Moonside use when teleporting you. I couldn't find it uploaded anywhere. Do you happen to have a source?

[@quadpad_music]

I think it's just a sped up version of the sample that makes up the Moonside theme itself.

[@Equinox0709]

0:33 everything you know is wrong Black is white, up is down and short is long.

[@Socks_in_Chocolate]

Moonside always seemed eerie to me because super unnatural

[@nascour5991]

You're right they are fantastic the monkey caves give me a early experience of what hell will be like; actually nevermind it's far worse then hell.

[@MonkeyNess]

Itoi was just so ahead of his time with this one

[@VikingBoyBilly]

14:17 That text is for cybershell isn't it?

[@MonkeyNess]

Just seemed appropriate to highlight it there, since if one didn't go around talking to people when they first got to Fourside that could be the first time they visited Pokey.

[@VikingBoyBilly]

@@MonkeyNess lol cybershell just put up a video about this obscure dialog, and this is THE ONE out of all of them that he couldn't find ingame proof of, and i'm like... wut? Pokey said that every time I played it

[@senseicorey9979]

Haha, what a great note to end on.

[@mrgklnds]

i love moonside

[@redshell9205]

Hey I do have a question. When you say "this gives credibility to the world" what exactly do you mean?

[@MonkeyNess]

Essentially that it makes the battles and overworld feel connected, with enemies reflecting the locations they're found in a believable way.

[@redshell9205]

So it adds realism, go it. Thank you.

[@MonkeyNess]

@redshell9205 No so much "realism" as cohesion.

[@redshell9205]

Well ye that sorta realism

[@PaleVoyager]

*checks channel name* *checks title* Clear monkey propaganda if I ever saw it.

[@stevemitchell4663]

jeff is really never going to learn how to land that thing is he?

[@Neko_Necromancer]

I love the monkey cave and moonside

[@througtonsheirs_doctorwhol5914]

Fourside is an homonym of FARSIDE the Gary Larson farside hommage is strong in itoi

[@qasimahmed-i5g]

I will be on earthbound direct ...I try it my dream

[@pokemaniacdavid]

Everyone is someone

[@Aaaaaa-u2i1r]

of course monkeyness would say that

[@SimplyDad]

Hi monkey ness

[@lpingwithbob5508]

Is the name Leo an Ardwick reference?

[@aidanlitts386]

Holy shit two Monkeyness videos? Christmas came early this year.

[@aalexander306]

You’re messed up for this one.

[@chargemannyn2918]

get moonsided

[@maneruloquendero]

Are they tho

[@AJ_hwd954]

Christmas came early 😮

[@spencerdokes6056]

It's moonside because it's the opposite of earth

[@djinnspalace2119]

the oppositeto 4 is 7. or if you want to be abstract the opposite of 4 is O

[@fishdubx]

earthtobund

[@davethelegobrickstudios4902]

ericbound

[@monolophosaurus]

I don’t know man, you seem like you might be biased.

[@SuperStandoutStuff]

hi

[@MachoManMatthewSavage]

🤩unreal

[@Prehistoricninten]

:D

[@davethelegobrickstudios4902]

Hi Ninten, you will get turned into a marketable plushie

[@Prehistoricninten]

@davethelegobrickstudios4902 one could wish, teddy and ninten plushie for 2025

[@davethelegobrickstudios4902]

@@Prehistoricninten We are getting a Teddy teddy m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3zTnpmJe9d9j7M

[@Jje261YT]

1h ago and no comments?? bro Fell off 4real 💀💀

[@Cheezypizzqa]

How was this 6 days ago ?

[@Stella0700]

Wait wth that's strange!

[@Cheezypizzqa]

@ oh ok

[@nernguan995]

>6 days ago

[@DiddyKongBanana]

2 comment lol

[@b.lloydreese2030]

I LOVE moonside