As many of you have heard the next Endurance Run is to feature Ryan and Patrick playing through one of the most beloved RPG's of all time; Chrono Trigger.

Without a doubt this is a fine choice, its an epic story full of frogs and time travel and swords and all sorts of amazing shit that has it consistently called one of (if not the) greatest JRPG's ever made. I've never played it myself, but anyone I know who has swears that its an absolute masterpiece.

Some were disappointed with this announcement but I was nonplussed for the most part until Jay444111 blew my god damn mind (someone might have mentioned it before him, but I only read his comment so...):

Personally I think they should've done Earthbound

Suddenly I was struck with a profound sadness knowing that one of the strangest, funniest and downright disturbing games of all time had been overlooked in favor of something amazing and iconic but for the most part normal.

Which isn't a bad thing but in terms of watching people play a video game, i'd rather fo with Earthbound because everything in Earthbound is bat shitinsane.

From the Starmen to the Apple Kid to the Happy Happy cult and the sentient vomit, the game is crazy on a level thats right up there with Persona 4 and Deadly Premonition, it probably surpasses them in that category!

Hell this is a game where one of the status conditions is that you are on shrooms! One of the healing items is a hamburger!

It just seems like the perfect fit to me: the cult following, the crazy stories around its release and localization, the crazy developer, the interpretations of its ending, the completely absurd plot and world, how crazy japanese it is and the mediocre but functional gameplay.

I dont seriously expect them to change their minds or anything, but it does seem like a missed opportunity to me.

I'll watch the new endurance run no matter what game it is, but I get the feeling that i'll be thinking of Earthbound a whole lot while I do.

So discuss! Yell at me for being dumb! Share some Earthbound love!

Your sadness over them not choosing Earthbound is well founded. That game really does fit better. Maybe it would be hard for them to come up with commentary/make fun of stuff in Earthbound because it's supposed to be funny, but the parts of Persona 4 that were meant to be funny were still great fodder for Jeff and Vinny.

And Earthbound has never been rereleased, so it would be way more informative for a lot of people, much like Persona 4 and Deadly Premonition were strange games that a lot of Western gamers may have overlooked in the past. Chrono Trigger has been rereleased enough times that even if you missed it on the original SNES, you've had ample opportunities to play it, and its a known quantity for a lot of people.

Yeah Earthbound was the clearly superior choice.

Stop suggesting shit.

Sorry for drumming up an old thread! I stumbled this post and couldn't help but chime in.

I recently (within the last month) replayed Chrono Trigger for the first time since the 90s and I had a blast it's such a good game. It made me think, "hey, if Chrono Trigger stood the test of time as well as it did, maybe some of the other SNES RPGs I loved will too". I immediately thought Earthbound, I absolutely looooooved that game. I remember reading about it in Nintendo Power and being excited for it to come out. I'm about 11 hours into the game at this point and I can tell you it doesn't hold up nearly as well as Chrono Trigger did. For all the charm that Earthbound has, and as original as it was when it came out, and how lovable the characters are; the gameplay is lackluster at best. Everything from the inventory management, the lack of information presented to the player, and a battle system that favors more levels over strategy makes Earthbound pretty boring and outright tedious for someone who has played any number of RPGs. Knowing what I know now, I would have a very hard time recommending that anyone over the age of 14 (arbitrary number) go back and play this game, whereas I could still highly recommend Chrono Trigger to any JRPG fan who may have missed it or someone who just feels like playing a classic.

I say any time a user posts a sugestion for the er, they must also post a doctorate on why it will never happen

Yeah it probably would have been more entertaining to watch than Chrono Trigger but eh whatever

This has to happen

@Unknown_Pleasures said:

Yeah it probably would have been more entertaining to watch than Chrono Trigger but eh whatever

Probably not. "So Patrick...do you...uh...do you have any idea what to do at this waterfall?" "No, I-God. I've got nothin'." "Maybe if we go b..." (30 minutes later.) "And that's gonna do it for this episode of the Earthbound Endurance Run."

@Video_Game_King: That part is not hard to figure out, one of the Saturns explicitly tells you what to do....and they talked to everyone in Chrono Trigger so that wouldn't have taken them long to figure out.

@Unknown_Pleasures:

You're assuming that they would actually read the text that's on screen.

An endurance run game suggestion thread, fuck yeah \m/

@Video_Game_King: The Mr. Saturn text is so loud and obnoxious that its hard not to want to read it.

I'd pass on it, I didn't care for this last one... sorry.

@Video_Game_King: The Mr. Saturn text is so loud and obnoxious that its hard not to want to read it.

@seanon: Yeah, you're totally right that the lack of guidance and lackluster combat could kill momentum from the get go.

I've actually just started playing the game again and would still love to see some Giant Bomb content that shows the game some love, but thats probably just wishful thinking.

I still think the world in Earthbound is absolutely crazy and dumb and awesome in a way that you just dont see anywhere else, and i'd recommend it to anyone that has time to kill and knows how to use a turbo button.

@The_Laughing_Man: I really want to make the PowerPoint slides for my presentation in Mr. Saturn font....I wonder what my teacher would think.

@The_Laughing_Man: I really want to make the PowerPoint slides for my presentation in Mr. Saturn font....I wonder what my teacher would think.

No, no more old games. It should be a game from early current gen or late last gen, but no older. Chrono Trigger was a big mistake for an ER.

As a guy who has never played Earthbound (regrettably) I would love to see it played on my favorite site.

Why yes, I approve of this choice.

I'm not willing to shell out for a real copy and I'm not interested in emulators...so I guess this is the only way I'd ever see this game, huh? That would probably be the one situation where I'd actually watch an ER to completion. I'm down if they end up doing it. Can't imagine they'll want to jump into another game right away, let alone another RPG, though.