EarthBound high playthrough log part 2

This "Strategy" part of the official guide is written like a travel guide brochure that kinda spoils what happens when you go through the game... it's very well written. it doesn't even feel like I'm reading a strategy guide, but rather just reading more material that would fit right in as in-game content. The first few pages of each section don't actually spoil all that much, it just gives you the general gist of what happens in the game, in the style of a travel guide or newspaper column...

There's a little column section about the mysterious "Giant Step" that has some sort of psychic power emanating from it... and an add for real-estate that ties into that useless NPC near the west cliff of Onett... Then there's a flyer section telling about all the attractions at Onett.. There's a lot of real-life photos of areas being used as Onett pictures.

Every so often on this version of earth a fanfare breaks out and a black-coated photographer drops from the sky.

lol I love how the canonical explanation of the photographer is exactly what it looks like... he literally just drops in out of nowhere and then takes a picture and flies away.

There's a side-column that lists the exact steps needed to get through this first chapter of the game...

Woah, I didn't know about this... that kid who asks if you want to take his place guarding the clubhouse, but then takes back the offer... you can go into that clubhouse hidden in some trees. The trees show an opening where there usually isn't one as a clue... you can get a free Baseball Cap there.

Oh and if you stay at the hotel, you can get the newspaper read to you while you're there... I probably missed some extra dialog in chapter 1 before defeating the gang.

Next is some more detailed instructions on the steps that were given just now.. still in the format of the Onett brochure. It also gives you detailed info and strategies on all the enemies you can encounter here...

And now I'm at the page that shows the linear path between Onett and Twoson, where you can get an Exit Mouse. The part that I'm just about to play through myself...

- Twoson -

Damn these mushroom enemies gave me "mushroom" status. It literally puts a mushroom on your head and makes your walking controls randomly flip around, so you have to rotate your controller to orient yourself...

A nice lady at twoson tells you about the town... east of here is Peaceful Rest Valley, and after that is Happy-Happy Village... gotta find a healer, this mushroom is really annoying... lol someone at the hotel has a mushroom on his head... he asks you if there is one there. "Yes". he says he finds it fun having messed up controls so he's leaving it on.


Some girl in the dept store:

I want to go visit my boyfriend in Threed but the bus stopped going there

The tickets for the Runaway Five show are sold out... There's a lineup at the theatre all the time. The band members are in debt to this theatre and being forced to work there...

A lot of people here are talking about Paula, who lives at the preschool... she's been kidnapped.. all the kids at the preschool idolize her and want her to come back...

Some kid in a house says his parents went to Happy-Happy Village on some religious mission.

Someone at the hospital:

I had an argument with my friend about Happy-Happyism

A sign outside the hint shop's house:

If you have time to read this, go to the Chaos Theatre immediately

I know my next destination is the preschool, but I just want to see where I'm able to go before that in case there are any pieces of dialog specific to this part of the story.

Tried taking the bus to Threed... the ghosts in the tunnel make the bus turn around and head back to Twoson without realizing it... oh cool, but bus driver lets you get off right outside the tunnel if you want, so you can explore this south road area while taking your time walking back to Twoson... nothing much to find though.

I don't remember this at all... these two inventor kids in Twoson... Apple kid is a slob, he asks you for food, then after I give him a hamburger, he asks for $200 to help with his inventions...

Orange Kid is much more sophisticated, and he asks you for $200 to help fund an invention that will "Help you in Peaceful Rest Valley"... the 2 girls outside are fans of Orange Kid... hmm...

Got a ruler from a hippy.. tried using it in a battle. "now you can measure things more easily."... awesome...

Now I'm in a battle against this guy I met in the park named Everdred... After I defeat him, he tells me that Paula was taken to a secret hideout in Peaceful Rest Valley... and then I hear more of the story about Paula being kidnapped by the religious Happy Smile group...

They said that they were going to make Paula some sort of human sacrifice.

Everdred then says to come back here after I save Paula.

omg these street merchants in the park are so hilarious... this one guy is really desperate to sell me an egg.

You won't get through you're teen years without at least one egg. Please buy this beautiful egg. Please!

I don't even know what most of the items these people are selling actually do.
I bought a For Sale sign that actually turned out to be extremely useful, it lets me summon a customer to buy something from me on demand.

- Peaceful Rest Valley -

If you give Orange Kid $200, he gives you the "Suporma", with no info on what it does... if you give Apple Kid $200, he just thanks you, and then his nameless mouse friend comes and gives you the "Receiver phone", that lets you receive phone calls.

I try to explore Peaceful Rest Valley... get to a pencil statue blocking the path... using the Suporma does nothing... it just sings a song to you and then breaks down and disappears.. and the bridge to happy happy village is out, so no I'm stuck and have no idea where to go next...

Then when I came back from Peaceful Rest Valley (almost died), got a call from Apple Kid saying he has a new invention... Orange Kid is now outside his house, saying Apple Kid is waiting in Burglin Park to see me... went into Apple Kid's house and raided his trash can to find a broken machine.. the description says Jeff can fix it... also noticed he has a game console in his house...

Found Apple Kid and he gives me the pencil eraser... lmao it turns out Apple kid was actually the useful one. The more sophisticated Orange kid doesn't give you anything important at all.

Woah.. I went to sleep at the Twoson hotel for $50.. and heard Paula calling for help in my dreams... she says she's somewhere near running water..

jeez... this peaceful rest valley area is confusing as hell... The first real maze part of the game that feels reminiscent of Mother 1... although in Mother 1 this would be way more annoying due to the random battles. I'm really starting to appreciate in this game how sometimes you can despawn the enemies that are in your way and sometimes even get a butterfly to spawn instead..

The enemies get pretty hard here too... plant enemies that drain your PP.. then tree/bush enemies that explode when they are low on health.. and then UFOs that do a lot of damage to you and take you two turns to kill one of them.

I don't know if I've gotten everything here or not... this time instead of using maps in conjuction with my playthrough like I did with Mother 1.. since this game is much nicer about its field encounter rate I am comfortable just feeling out where to go on my own...

I'll look at the maps and other stuff in the guide for the sections that I've done already at the beginning of each high session, and use that to make sure I haven't missed anything important and if I have I should be able to go back to it easily.

Managed to get to Happy Happy Village without too much trouble.

- Happy Happy Village -

I heard many footprints exist deep down in the east cave. People call that place Lilliput Steps ,and it makes them feel uneasy.

When the world is changed to blue, a peaceful country can be established.

There's a self-serving outdoor shop here.. a nearby local guy attacks you if he sees you take something without paying the full price..

Guy near the east cave:

There's a place ahead that can't be painted blue. It's a strange and anti-blue place.

The Receiver phone... I'm gonna guess that the only thing it does from now on is make you get intermittent phone calls from your dad asking you if you want to suspend the game and quit playing here... I'll store it so that I have more space.. Oh wait, the pick-up guy doesn't let me store that, damn.

And I wanna keep the For Sale sign cuz it'll be useful for getting rid of stuff I've picked up during maze levels that I'd rather get rid of for money.. ok but I'll at least store this iron hat that I think I might need later, and the pencil eraser.

Knocked on one of the doors here and got some weird font dialog...

Friends in area behind threed. ding! ding!

The hotel guy tells me to say "blue blue" before I go to bed...

You can actually grind for money here if you're patient, by stealing eggs, waiting for them to hatch and grow into chickens, and then using the for sale sign to sell them for $110.

There's a drugstore here with some new equippable items, but no atm machine... so this is a method to get those new items...

Okay now i've finally been everywhere in Happy Happy Village... before checking the east cave i'm gonna check the north cave... I eventually get to the house where Paula is locked up... she says I need to defeat the Carpenter to get the key, and gives me the Franklin badge so I'll be immune to his lightning attacks.

I can't get to the carpenter yet... his house is filled with cultists...

...But I can go through the east cave and get to the Lillypad steps, the 2nd sanctuary... it was kinda challenging... not sure if the game expected me to get Paula first before coming here or not.

That guy at the Happy-Happyism counseling office, where that one kid's parents from Twoson are at... "When you obtain happiness, you should visit the Happy-Happyism headquarters."

Finally I'm able to get to the carpenter.. I beat him easily... in fact that whole east cave was a huge boost of levels for Ness... by the time I got to the sanctuary, all the bears and moles and everything ran away from him...

Hey... it's the gold statue that the billboard guy from the beginning dug up in his basement... huh, this is interesting

Took Paula back to Polestar... she tells her dad that her and Ness will find their 3rd friend at Threed... it seems this girl's powers will be very important in getting the 4 chosen heroes together.

Went back to Everdred and he gave me a wad of cash... I guess I can use that to free the Runway 5 band from the theatre...
The backstage pass that Everdred gives you seems to only be useful for going and seeing the Runway 5's show as many times as you want...

Gave the wad of cash to the theatre manager and now this theatre has nothing going on in it... and the Runway 5 give you a one-way ride to Threed.