A biased review: Earthbound

[F0X]

Otakumegane said:

F0X said:
From what I've played, the majority of Earthbound's entertainment value is derived from reading quirky dialogue. Unfortunately, this only applies to those who enjoy reading in JRPGs.[/joke]

The gameplay is exactly as you say, unspectacular, yet I did appreciate the little twists to the vanilla Dragon Quest-style battle system: scrolling health, back attacks, instant-win battles against much lesser foes, and my personal favorite, no random battles. Nothing that competes with the best RPG battle systems of the time, but with such an overabundance of charm, I guess it didn't to. I feel the same way about the Dragon Quest series, though I really like Dragon Quest V.

To be fair, a lot of Fire Emblem is like that too. 

It helps that FE is an SRPG though in gameplay aging and all that.

It also helps that Fire Emblem is a series and therefore can be iteriated on. >_>