The game focuses on Ness and his party of Paula, Jeff and Poo, as they travel the world to collect melodies from eight Sanctuaries in order to defeat the universal cosmic destroyer Giygas.

[3] Like its predecessor, EarthBound is themed around an idiosyncratic portrayal of Americana and Western culture, subverting popular role-playing game traditions by featuring a modern setting while parodying numerous staples of the genre.

If the player touches an enemy from the front or side while facing forward or sideways, the battle mode starts normally with no special advantage gained.

An affirmative response brings Ness, conscious, back to the last save point, with half the money on his person at the time of his defeat, and with other party members still unconscious.

He explains that in the future, an alien force named Giygas has enveloped and consumed the world in hatred and consequently turned animals, humans, and objects into malicious creatures.

Buzz-Buzz instructs Ness to collect melodies in a Sound Stone from eight Sanctuaries located across the game's world to preemptively stop the force,[12] but is killed shortly thereafter when Pokey and Picky's mother mistakes him for a dung beetle.

The group distracts him with a jar of the bizarre substance and defeats him, thus the Mr Saturn assist the party by allowing them passage to the city of Fourside: whereupon Paula is abducted.

After making their way to the seaside resort Summers and consuming a “magic cake”, Ness has a vision of: Poo, the prince of Dalaam, undergoing "Mu Training" before joining the party as well.

The party continues to travel to the Scaraba desert, the Deep Darkness swamp, another village of creatures called the Tenda and a forgotten underworld where dinosaurs live.

After being defeated in battle, Pokey turns the device off, releasing Giygas and forcing the group to fight[14] the alien, whose infinite power transformed him into an incomprehensible embodiment of evil and insanity.

[6] The Mother series titles are built on what Itoi considered "reckless wildness", where he would offer ideas that encouraged his staff to contribute new ways of portraying scenes in the video game medium.

[6] The final battle dialogue with Giygas was based on Itoi's recollections of a traumatic scene from the Shintoho film The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty that he had accidentally seen in his childhood.

[6] Suzuki told Weekly Famitsu that the Super NES afforded the team more creative freedom with its eight-channel ADPCM based SPC700, as opposed to the old Nintendo Entertainment System's restriction of five channels of basic waveforms.

To Suzuki, Smile evoked the bright and dark aspects of America, while Song Cycle displayed a hazy sound mixed with American humor and hints of Ray Bradbury, a style that he considered essential to the soundtrack of Mother.

[31][nb 11] Tanaka also mentioned that he listened to the various artists compilation Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988) heavily during EarthBound's development.

[31] Miscellaneous influences on Suzuki and Tanaka for EarthBound include the music of Michael Nyman, Miklós Rózsa's film score for The Lost Weekend (1945), and albums by various other pop/rock musicians.

[35] In addition to reworking the original puns and humor, Lindblom added private jokes and American cultural allusions to Bugs Bunny, comedian Benny Hill, and This Is Spinal Tap.

[35] Alcohol became coffee or cappuccinos, Ness was no longer nude in the Magicant area as seen in the image,[15] and the Happy Happyist blue cultists were made to look less like Ku Klux Klansmen.

[26] Kotaku described EarthBound's 1995 American release as "a dud" and blamed the low sales on "a bizarre marketing campaign" and graphics "cartoonish" beyond the average taste of players.

[17][55] IGN's Scott Thompson said the game teetered between solemn and audacious in its dialogue and gameplay, and noted its deviance from RPG tropes in aspects such as choice of attacks in battle.

[55] Official Nintendo Magazine's Simon Parkin thought the game's script was its best asset, as "one of the medium's strongest and idiosyncratic storylines" that fluctuated "between humorous and poignant".

[17] GameZone's David Sanchez thought its script was "clever" and "sharp", as it displayed a wide range of emotions that made him want to talk to all non-player characters.

[10] GamesTM wrote that the game designers spoke with their players through the non-playable characters, and noted how Itoi's interests shaped the script, its allusions to popular culture, and its "strangely existential narrative framework".

[17][55] Thompson noted its 1990s homage as "a love letter to 20th-century Americana", with a payphone as a save point, ATMs to transfer money, yo-yos as weapons, skateboarders and hippies as enemies, and references to classic rock bands.

[17] Nintendo World Report's Justin Baker was surprised by the "excellent" battle system and controls, which he found to be underreported in other reviews despite their streamlined, grind-reducing convenience.

[58] IGN's Nadia Oxford said that nearly two decades since the release, its final boss fight against Giygas continues to be "one of the most epic video game standoffs of all time" and noted its emotional impact.

[50] IGN's Lucas M. Thomas wrote in 2006 that EarthBound's "persistent", "ambitious", and "religiously dedicated collective of hardcore fans" would be among the first groups to influence Nintendo's decision-making through their purchasing power on Virtual Console.

[50] The community drafted several thousand-person petitions for specific English-language Mother series releases,[26] but in time, their request shifted to no demand at all, wanting only their interest to be recognized by Nintendo.

[85] Unlicensed EarthBound-themed merchandise produced by Fangamer contributors included T-shirts, a pin set and a mug;[87] The Verge cited the effort as proof of the fan base's dedication.

[83] The July American and European launch included a free, online recreation of the game's original Player's Guide, optimized for viewing on the Wii U GamePad.