In the last post, I covered everything up until the end of the Clifton Forge segment of the game, including the first "Fugged Spot" boss. Now, onward to the town of Pibb!
Along the way down "Pibb Road," you'll find a house where a grungy-looking human lives among Pikachus. Well, one Pikachu and her two mutant half-Pikachu, half-mouse children, anyway.
The "Exit Mice" from Earthbound are replaced with "Stupid Mice," which are dumber than regular mice due to being half-Pikachu (but smarter than regular Pikachus, so they can help you get out of caves if you're stuck.)
There's also a new randomly-encountered enemy along the way, the "Shroom del Hippie." Which is... well, one of those hippie mushrooms with the big goofy eyes and such.
Some notable locations in Pibb include the Roach Shop "PunkRoach," where you can rent a giant cockroach to ride around on. You can even push the R button to kick it and make it screech! This rideable giant bug replaces the bicycle from the original game... mainly because I don't know how to ride a bicycle, so having video-game-Eddie ride one would be weird. (More weird than riding a giant bug, apparently. XD)
There's also the Chaos Theater, where the rap group known as the "PP Gang" is performing.
The Wizdum Man has another booth set up inside a house here. Here's an example of his weird goofy vague advice.
There's also Farkin' Park, where the local teenagers go to... erm, fark. There's also a bunch of people with tables set up selling random things, such as avocados, condiments, and... oozing spore pods, which replace the eggs you could buy in the original game. Just like the burgers --> chicken and bike --> giant roach changes, this was partly done because I don't eat eggs... you can't eat the oozing spore pods in the game, instead throwing the spores on enemies to infect them with a head-mushroom. And they'll eventually grow up into a Fungicken, which is half fungus and half chicken, if you don't use them for a while.
And when you approach the house on the far end of Farkin' Park, the park's janitor will jump down from the roof. Apparently he stubs his toe in the process, and gets mad at your reaction, causing him to attack. And... yeah, the janitor is Zexion, making him the only Organization XIII member in the game to have an in-battle sprite. XD
After you beat him, he'll inform you that Bridget escaped the Nuthouse (more on that later) and then got kidnapped by some creepy guys from the Bushy Village to the east.
And meanwhile, these random girls are arguing over whether they like butts or penises more.
And here's the replacements for Apple Kid and Orange Kid... Pot Kid, who's a stoner inventor who sucks at inventing things because he smokes too much weed, and Vexen, who's a mad scientist that (obviously) does not suck at inventing things. He's just old and a little creepy. Yep, there's another Organization XIII cameo appearance... XD
Speaking of the Nuthouse, here it is. Yes, I changed the preschool into an insane asylum. There's still a random cat on the roof, though. XD
The inmates are, of course, a bit on the crazy side. There's Saix from Organization XIII... a little girl with a skull for a head... and a masked guy who talks about another former Nuthouse resident, Xnort (or Ansem, or whatever you end up naming him.) Also known as Xehanort from the Kingdom Hearts series, who is a playable character later on (replacing Poo.)
And... whoever the guy who runs the Nuthouse is... only just now is realizing that Bridget (or whatever you name her--"Bridget" is too long to fit, so some of the default names are things like "Bridg" and others are unrelated things... like the one listed here XD) has escaped.
Here's Vexen's lab, which is also home to the world's only intelligent Pikachu.
Before Vexen will agree to invent things for you, you'll have to give him an avocado... and also $200, because parts for inventions aren't cheap.
And now this guy's searching for Bridget all over town. Y'know, I don't think shouting "it's time for your crazy medicine!" is the best way to get someone who escaped from your asylum to come back... XD
And at the department store, you can buy Heartless, which replace the teddy bears from the original game. Unlike the teddy bears, they'll help you out a little bit in fights by clawing and charging at enemies.
And another Organization XIII reference. There is a hotel room where "Bad Weed" enemies will sometimes appear in the room. This was repeated in
Okédoké, except in that game you find a Blunt stashed away in the room rather than animated marijuana leaves that attack you. XD
Heading east from Pibb, you come across the Painful Rest Valley (which was "Peaceful Rest Valley" in Earthbound, and "GRATEFUL DEAD Valley" in the original Japanese version), which is home to a helpful (and apparently black) mole who gives you some advice about the game's battle system.
Which comes in handy considering that the random enemies here are much tougher than in previous areas -- both the Bad Weed and Heartless can duplicate themselves, and the other enemies that show up less often are pretty tough (and the trees explode on you, for some odd reason.)
Vexen's first invention: the "Penis Eraser" which is used to remove these... incredibly phallic... statues that sometimes block your path. He warns you not to hold the device too close to anyone's crotchy area when you activate it, of course.
One of the random enemies, the Breasted Turtle. This was based on something I stumbled across in high school -- someone had printed off a big sheet of tattoo designs from some website, and among them was this weird little turtle. I didn't realize it at first, but one of my teachers actually pointed out to me that the turtle had
boobs, for some odd reason. This became known as the "Breasted Turtle," which inspired this enemy in the game.
The Breasted Turtle has its own unique "defeat" message, as seen above. Which of course is based on the Koopas in the Mario games.
On the other side of Painful Rest Valley is the dreaded Bushy Village, where a cult worshiping George W. Bush has formed. This girl threatens to rape you if you don't donate (and then creepily follows you around the town...)
The other townsfolk are also varying degrees of crazy, and obsessed with Dubya of course.
Random enemies seen here: Insane Bush-Worshippers, who mostly rely on the "thumping you with a Bible" attack.
More Bushy craziness here.
When you find the cabin in the mountains behind town and meet Bridget (who gives you a Zwoobah Orb with the power to deflect lightning attacks), you're ambushed by Nebozu and some of his new buddies from the Bushy church...
...leading to one of the most bizarre boss battles in the game, against Froofles the Clown. Froofles isn't especially tough, but he does have the weird ability of duplicating himself into multiple bodies, so if you don't finish him off right away you'll be fighting a Froofles army rather than just one clown and two Bushies.
Back in the Bushy Village... here's the Bushy Church on the inside. I messed up when editing the graphics here, so they look like Bush-Worshippers for one second and then as soon as the crowd starts to animate they revert back to the original game's version.
Most of them chant "Bush, Bush..." when you talk to them. The one above is a recent convert who hasn't quite gotten it down yet, so he starts to say "Nader, Nader..." instead. This, of course, is replacing the one new cultist who chanted "Green, Green" by accident in the original game. XD
Upon reaching the top floor of the church, you'll meet Karl Rove, who is apparently the one who organized the Bushy cult. He tries to get you to join him, but it turns out that was a trap, and if you say yes he'll try to zap you with lightning. If you have the Zwoobah Orb, this does absolutely nothing; if you don't, you get knocked out and wake up in somebody's backyard next to a cow.
And then there's a boss battle! I think I made this one tougher than it was in the original game, too -- he'll sometimes use energy shields that will block the reflected lightning strikes (sometimes) as well as your ki attacks, and his defense is pretty high so your physical attacks don't do much damage. Eventually, though, he'll probably end up zapping himself to death as the Zwoobah Orb reflects his lightning back at him.
Apparently he wasn't crazy to begin with -- it was the influence of the Moofy-Moofy statue messing with his head. You'll be seeing that more later, of course.
And with the words of that random hippie, I'll have to end this segment of the FYS Earthbound hack stuff. Next time: more of Pibb, possibly the second "Fugged Spot" boss if the difficulty isn't too absurd for this point in the game, and the way to the next town, which is called... Goomba, for some odd reason.
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