EarthBound

EarthBound is Shigesato Itoi's charming, cult-hit RPG about aliens, pre-pubescents, and psychic powers.

A hit success in Japan like its predecessor, EarthBound's lackluster performance in North America initially doomed it to a life of RPG obscurity elsewhere. It was ultimately saved thanks to the series' inclusion in Super Smash Bros., and a dedicated collection of fans pushing for increased awareness on fan-created websites like Starmen.net. This eventually earned the game a rerelease on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2013, whereupon it promptly topped the service's sales charts. In retrospect, EarthBound has become one of the most influential and celebrated RPGs of all time, inspiring many popular games in the decades to come (most famously Undertale, which practically birthed a genre overnight).

Basically, this game doesn't stink. (Though waiting for the sequel sure did.)

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info Regional DifferencesThe amount of regional changes done for this game is quite a feat.

Using Game Genie codes, severe glitching, or an IPS patch, three debug menus can be found in the game:

In-Game Debug MenuTKSyZyUTI. Boot-Up Debug MenuAPPLE. Battle Debug MenuPretty nice, except there's no escape.

Unused Graphics#

There was a mistake when adding the helicopter sprite to EarthBound's files: There is leftover text of the sprite's label, which can be seen in the SpriteGroups section of the Secrets of MOTHER 2 artbook.

The Tenda lifting the rock to reach the Speak Stone has an animation for it, but it never displays in-game.

At some point, smoke was supposed to puff out of chimneys.

Secrets of MOTHER 2	Final

For some unknown reason, this unused crate got cropped when added to EarthBound's files. All that remains is the sprite displayed on the right. The Secrets of MOTHER 2 artbook shows us what this sprite was supposed to be. The only area it seems to fit is in Jackie's Cafe, as there are similar-looking crates after you complete Moonside.

All of the other Chosen Four characters have this animation, but Poo is the only one who doesn't actually use it. Ness and Paula jump during their name entry screen animations, and Jeff jumps over the fence when he's escaping from his boarding school. The developers probably created the jumping sprites for all four, just in case.

Jumping party member ghost sprites were more than likely meant to display during cutscenes that involved party members jumping if the player triggered a cutscene while having someone in the party unconscious, but no such cutscene made it into the game.

The ghost sprite of Everdred is interesting. It was once speculated that he was supposed to be a party member at some point, but this can be proven false by simply looking at the sprite group's frames: There aren't any sprites for him facing in other directions, and it's only facing forward which means this was a static sprite meant to display an action during a cutscene just like jumping sprites. The scene where Everdred lies on the ground in Fourside was where this sprite was most likely meant to be used. The game leaves it unclear as to whether he died following your encounter, but this sprite would indicate that he did.

Four sprites of King climbing a rope or ladder. This would suggest two things: either King was supposed to stay with you longer in the game, or Ness' original travels through Onett were supposed to include something to climb. However, it could be that these were created just in case they needed to be used...although even if you use the various debug menus to put King in your party and travel to places he shouldn't be, these graphics still won't show as the playable character graphics table doesn't include it.

Ness sleeping with his hat on.

There exist screenshots of having King during the day, and according to Legends of Localization (Page 96), Onett taking place during the night at the beginning of the game was added right before EarthBound's release. It's possible Ness didn't start in his pajamas and instead started in his normal outfit, which could explain this sprite's existence as a leftover from when it took place during the day. What's unclear is why the sprite is offset to be at the top of the frame border instead of the bottom like the used sleeping sprite.

An X in a rectangular outline, present only in the Japanese ROM. The American version replaced this with the sprite below.

Ness' mother sitting. This is in the same place as the above sprite, and was created by someone on EarthBound's localization team. Unclear purpose.

Ness and Paula sitting with their eyes closed. According to Tomato's website, this is a leftover from a mostly deleted cutscene in Threed showing the two being dragged to the underground prison present in development files of the game. Interestingly, this scene was adapted as part of an official 4koma strip, with Ness and Paula even being depicted sitting as in these sprites.

This sprite appears when talking to Jackie from above, but since that is impossible during normal gameplay, it goes unused.

A capsule that looks exactly like the one containing Starman Jr. in EarthBound Beginnings. This is found among the enemy-out-of-battle sprites, so it was probably supposed to be used as an alternative to the odd octahedrons used to represent enemies in the last areas of the game, or as the out-of-battle sprite of Starman Jr. and/or Starman Deluxe.

Probably just an asset they put in there in case they needed one, and it turned out they didn't.

According to Secrets of MOTHER 2, this was an emote sprite meant to display on cars to show that they're honking. Most likely would have been used during the traffic jam in Dusty Dunes Desert.

A tiny Ness posing and a tiny photographer hanging around. Clearly meant for the Lost Underworld.

A tiny Escargo Express guy, also clearly meant for the Lost Underworld. In-game, calling Escargo Express in the Lost Underworld causes the delivery to fail with the "couldn't find you" message.

A flag, probably meant to be used as decoration somewhere, though it doesn't seem to fit anywhere in the game.

A beating heart. Maybe some romance sequences were planned but didn't make it in?

A Sanchez brother cheering, meant for when you won something in the slot machine game.

Partially unused. In Onett, Frank's steam-powered robot, the Frankystein Mark II, is partially obscured by a tree on the field. When you defeat it, it disappears from the spot it stood behind the tree, thus rendering about half of its overworld sprite unused.

Used, but difficult to see. The eels are almost never seen outside of the water in Deep Darkness, the only area in which they appear. They can be coaxed out of the water, but doing so is very difficult, can only be done in one or two places, and you have to be doing so intentionally.

King as a puppy is seen in the cutscene after obtaining the final melody to complete the Eight Melodies. The problem is, puppy King never moves up or down; he only moves sideways in a northeasterly direction and stops.

This small bird thing... is just never seen, ever. It looks like it could have served a use pretty much anywhere. It is similar to the sparrows found in Mother 3.

Venus has two additional strange animation frames she never uses in either of her performances. Possibly intended to be used for her performance with the Runaway Five.

The bus driver has an additional frame facing right/left, possibly intended for a stopped bus facing north/south which never happens.

Whatever this EarthBound Beginnings-esque box was intended for, it isn't used.

Poo's Master cannot be talked to from above at any point without hacking, as he never leaves his normal spot.

The sprite of Tony crouching down to boost Jeff over the gates of the Snow Wood Boarding House is partially obscured by said gates.

A sprite of Kirby, based on his appearance in Kirby's Dream Course (which was in development around the same time). Only used in the Boot-Up Debug Menu as its cursor. Interestingly, it differs slightly from the sprite used in that game.

The following content may induce seizures and has been hidden by default. Click to reveal:

The battle animation for PSI Rockin γ has 10 unused frames at the end. The animation's frame count is configured such that these frames are never shown in-game. Seems like the tileset was changed since these frames were first created, because it doesn't look like anything much. It doesn't look any better when paired with any of the other battle animation tilesets.

Unused Enemies#

Crooked Cop#

(JP: "ダーティコップ", literally "Dirty Cop")

Identical to Captain Strong in every way but name. This may have been an earlier version of him.

Magic Butterfly#

The Magic Butterfly internally exists as an enemy as its random spawning is handled alongside other enemies. The developers were also able to force spawning Magic Butterflies via enemy plates.

It can be fought as an enemy by manually triggering a battle against enemy groups 425 (which is used in some spawn plates as mentioned above) or 481 (which seems to be unused completely), though it has no attacks or battle sprite.

The Secrets of MOTHER 2 artbook revealed that a battle sprite was made for it, though why this was done isn't known.

Heavily Armed Pokey#

Three entires in the enemy list are unused versions of Heavily Armed Pokey. They all have the same battle stats, which differ from the one you actually fight.

Enemies can't actually have over 255 defense in battle, resulting in these Pokeys' defense rolling over to 18. One of these entries (D9) is otherwise similarly functional to the real Pokey, including having the same palette and attacks, though it also has an additional attack which was nulled out, resulting him in skipping a turn. The other two entries are effectively one enemy, joined together by an "enemy extender" action (a contrivance used by various enemies to allow them to have more than four battle actions), except that they have different palettes. This enemy is clearly unfinished: it has generic "attacked!" and "was defeated!" text, lacks music, and all it does is a standard bash attack or, rarely, use PSI Fire β.

Insane Cultist#

There exists a second version of the Insane Cultist which is identical to the used version, except that all of its attacks have been set to do nothing. Interestingly, this unused Cultist appears directly before the Dept. Store Spook in the enemy listing. In Secrets of MOTHER 2 we see that at one time Paula's kidnapper in the department store was not the Spook but a Happy Happy cultist, so that may have been the intended purpose of this copy.

Unused Text#

To do: Rip every string and associate it with its accompanying vendor

Every vendor who you can sell items to has unique text for attempting to do so while the party has no items in their inventory. This is completely impossible to see, as the ATM card is always present in Ness' inventory and cannot be dropped, put in storage or even given away to another party member (meaning it's impossible to temporarily lose it by giving it to Paula or Poo before the sections where they leave the party for a bit), the first and only vendor in Jeff's solo section comes after he has obtained the Bad Key Machine which is unable to be dropped (while it can be stored, Jeff cannot call Escargo Express during his section), and Poo's solo section does not feature vendors who you can sell to (and even if it did, the same situation as Jeff's Bad Key Machine occurs with the Tiny Ruby).

Unused Items#

To do: Strings would probably help.

Video Relaxant#

The item with hex number CB goes unused. It does nothing when used, and the in-game description is an apt "What the hey is this?" The Japanese version calls it "Video Drug", but has basically the same description.

Temporary Goods#

Unlike the Video Relaxant, the Temporary Goods has a clear description: "A key given to you by a maid who works at the Monotoli building." This indicates that Electra was supposed to give you the "key" in exchange for the Yogurt Dispenser, and this would have unlocked the second elevator (which is inaccessible beforehand) to access the path that leads to Monotoli himself; in-game, however, the second elevator is unlocked once Electra takes the Yogurt Dispenser.

Putting the item in your inventory before going into the building does nothing, and no other unused text correlates to the item.

Teleport Box#

There also remains code and text for a removed item called the Teleport Box. Its behavior occupies index B9 in the battle action / item effect table, between that of the Defense Shower and the Ruler. If this behavior is assigned to an item and used, it has the following effects:

• If used somewhere where it would be possible to use PSI Teleport, it will display the following text: "The Teleport Box started to groan. The Teleport Box shattered into pieces with a loud explosion." Each line is accompanied by the sound which the Star Master makes when teleporting. What happens next depends on whether a respawn point has been set. If not, the Teleport Box is simply removed from your inventory. Otherwise, the world will also explode in a second of glitched chaos before successfully teleporting the party. Curiously, the destination will generally not be the set respawn point. The game's scripting command to set a location to respawn after a game over takes a location from the teleport destination table as an argument, but when executed it separately saves the player's current coordinates, and it is this latter location which is actually used for respawning. The stored teleport destination is only ever used, it seems, by the no longer existent Teleport Box.

• If used in battle, it will display the text "The Teleport Box began to groan." A random number is then checked against what would have been a parameter of the Teleport box to determine if the box will work. On success, the box explodes as above, ending the battle and teleporting the party. If it fails or in a boss battle, it instead displays the text "The Teleport Box didn't work quite right...", which is followed by a truly impressive amount of screen shaking courtesy of an otherwise unused battle animation.

• If used somewhere where PSI Teleport cannot be used, it simply displays the text "The Teleport Box can't be used here." This is not the generic "The (item) can't be used here." text which other items may use; in particular, it lacks the initial bullet point or spaces required for proper formatting, and the name of the item is not read from a variable but simply there in the string.

The accompanying video demonstrates the "successful" use and in-battle failure of the Teleport Box. It was produced by assigning the Teleport Box behavior to the Ruler and changing its name to "Teleport box" for demonstration purposes.

Error message#

Another removed item effect occupies action index C2. This one simply displays this text:

"If you get this message, it means that something is wrong."

In the localization files, this action was labeled "PANKUZU", which translates to "Breadcrumbs". In Mother, breadcrumbs could be used to return to a previous location.

Unused Attacks#

Misery attack#

The weakest attack in the game is the unused "misery attack":

(name) used (pronoun) misery attack!

It functions as a normal physical attack, including having its damage halved by guarding or shields, but it's only half as strong as the other lowest-level attacks like throwing a punch or the standard Bash. If you were wondering what it would mean to use one's misery attack, the original line sheds some light: in Mother 2 this action reads "しみったれたこうげきをした", or (appropriately enough) "used a pitiful attack!". The word しみったれた could also be translated "miserly", so "misery attack" is likely a mistranslation or typo.

Unused Music#

Entirely Unused#

An unused version of the "No Sounds" variation of the completed Sound Stone, never played because the game exits the Sound Stone after the melody finishes.

It can be heard by using Pro Action Replay codes C1F04ABD 80214090 at the File Select screen, or by listening to BGM A8 in the Kirby debug menu.

An arrangement of the Underground theme from Earthbound Beginnings (used in areas such as Ninten's basement or the Underground Stream in Magicant) that sounds more horrific than the original. Listen to it by playing BGM 88.

An unfinished-sounding variant of Pokey's Theme (Helicopter). It uses the same looped helicopter sound effect BRR instrument, but is pitched two octaves higher than it should be. It also slowly rises in pitch, which might be to evoke the helicopter taking off. The first three channels contain the sound effect, but it cuts off halfway through the pattern. Listen to it by playing BGM B4. The version of this track that is used in-game is BGM AC.

This sounds like an unfinished version of the Sky Runner crashing sound. Listen to it by playing BGM 6D, and compare it to the version used in-game, BGM 6E.

Partially Unused#

To do: Supposedly, part of "the battle intro music" is unused.

In the game's intro, this plays before transitioning to a different track. This skips the last 15 seconds of the song.

The track used when Ness exits Magicant is cut off around the 23-second mark, leaving 15 seconds unheard in-game.

When Tessie leaves the map on the opposite side of the Winters bank, a few seconds get cut off (the later visit's version more so than the first one). The music then segues into a permanent loop of the standard Tessie travel section of the music with different instrumentation.

The Winters intro isn't intended to be played past a certain point, but if it does, all channels but one cut out at minimum volume and the music eventually loops regardless. Presumably, this intro is just a quick hack of the Snowman theme normally used in the boarding school.

Leftover Music Data#

To do: There are more of these in the game's data. Specifically, in the music for a few battle themes.

Certain music tracks contain data that never gets played. Often, these unused portions are earlier drafts of the music in which they reside.

This would seem to indicate that the attract mode music was initially going to head in a different direction or have a different transitional section but was ultimately replaced. Surprisingly, this bit also went unused for the Mother 1+2 version of the same song with even more transitions starting at 1:10.

An unused section of "Battle Against a Weak Opponent" that's more psychedelic than the rest of the song. It doesn't initialize its own instruments, but they seem to match up when carried over from a used pattern, so this may have been part of a different progression that got scrapped.

An unused section of the Belch battle music, probably an idea for an alternate transition into the repeat. Note that it sounds a lot like the main theme from Super Mario Bros.

A fast set of drums found in the file for Threed's "happy" music. It's slightly different from the fast drums used in the bridge of this song, so this may have been temporary.

A small beat meant for Fourside which seems to indicate it was to have a simpler bridge at some point before getting replaced with a better one.

Seems to be a higher-pitched early draft of the Deep Darkness music, later replaced by the lower-pitched version.

A more complete idea that was never used in-game was this section of music from Magicant. It has the same quirky sound and feel of the final track, but a completely different melody.

This sounds like a potential ending for the music "Good Friends Bad Friends", the pre-credits sequence where the cast of the game appears. It was likely not used due to it being very brief and unsatisfying, and hence requiring the final version's ending to be rewritten.

This outro was actually used in the version of "Runaway Five on the Move!" present in the Super Famicom Magazine Volume 22: New Game Sound Museum compilation CD, released in 1994.

The end credits music has an unused section that initializes all the instruments, indicating that it was used at the beginning, and plays the first three notes of the melody leading into the music. In the final, this was replaced with a more anticipatory section that fades in and builds up musically to match the cinematic of the scene.

Also in the credits music is an unused section that seems to be nothing more than the string section of a portion of the music, however, the chord progression used is slightly different from the final. This would indicate that the music may have been slightly different there as the composer was trying different ideas.

Anti-Piracy#

EarthBound is surprisingly heavy on anti-piracy measures, some of which are quite fiendish. High-accuracy emulators do not trigger these anti-piracy measures.

Layer One - Region Check#

The first layer is pretty simple: it checks the console's PPU to make sure the game isn't running on a PAL (Europe, Australia) SNES. If it is, the game fades in on the usual region lockout error and hangs. (Notice that "game pak" is misspelled as "game pack".)

Layer Two - SRAM Check#

Mother 2	EarthBound

This is the first real barrier against pirates. A subroutine at $C0A11C, called at startup, checks that there's only 8KB of SRAM (cartridge copiers, by their nature, tend to have more). This is done by first writing the developer string HAL Laboratory, inc. (located at $2009B5) to SRAM at every 500-byte offset starting at $306000 to verify that there is SRAM. Next, the game writes two different values at $307FF0 and $317FF0 and checks if they are the same to verify that the SRAM mirror is in the correct location. If either of these checks fail, the game gives you this stern warning and locks up.

In addition, Movement Script 1 calls a subroutine at $C1FFD3 which takes a checksum of the code at $C0A11C-$C0A150. If there are any alterations to that memory range, a non-zero value is stored to $7EB539, bringing up another copyright infringement screen.

Layer Three - Increased Encounters#

A third, far more subtle layer of protection is activated if the game detects that the previous layers have been disabled. There's a check at $C0281A to see if $7EB539 is 0. If it isn't, enemy presence is ramped up to absurd levels to make the game borderline unplayable. Some areas even have enemies that aren't supposed to be in those locations, like Spiteful Crows in the Scaraba Pyramid.

In addition, there are a few locations that try to spawn so many enemies that the game outright crashes. These areas are usually locations which are freed from evil (such as Threed and the Threed tunnel), but may also include unexpected places such as the Topolla Theater main office. If the game doesn't crash, there's a high chance that extremely unusual enemies will spawn, such as enemies which appear as NPCs or player characters and use garbage values for items and Experience Points (giving things like Backstage Passes and 3,000,000+ Exp.), common enemies like Ramblin' Evil Mushrooms and Black Antoids which act like bosses, and even blank NPCs which can't be interacted with in any way! The glitched enemies usually can't be fought and will crash the game in a number of ways if confronted, but this can be avoided by using an "auto-win every fight" code.

Layer Four - The Grand Finale#

Watch on YouTube

And finally, should you brave everything else, there's one final, devious checksum routine at $C3FDC5, checking $C0A11C-$C0A150 to see if all the previous layers had been defeated, which is triggered after Pokey turns off the Devil's Machine and insults Giygas. If the game detects anything awry, it crashes and deletes your save files.

Notes#

For those who'd like to see the effects in action, here are some cheat codes to activate the anti-piracy effects without having to delve into a hex editor. Naturally, you should back up your SRAM first when attempting any of this.

Use Game Genie code DF5E-AAD7 to activate the anti-piracy message (layer two).

Use this code to increase the encounter rate (layer three):

If the above code freezes the game, use this code as well:

This code activates the final save wipe at the end of the game (layer four):

Unused Event#

Watch on YouTube

Normally when battling the Clumsy Robot, you have already helped out the Runaway Five with their debt. At the end of the Clumsy Robot battle, they appear, thus ending the fight. With the assistance of a walk-through-walls cheat, you can bypass the required event of helping the Runaway Five and see an alternate ending: the Clumsy Robot spews out smoke, causing the party to end up being overcome by the smoke. The game then teleports them outside the Monotoli building.

Revisional Differences#

Japanese Text Changes#

To do: Get the original Japanese text.

From Mother 1+2 onward, Mother 2 received minor text changes across various revisions. Most of these changes were made to comply with CERO.

Changes in all revisions

• Pokey's mom originally refers to Buzz Buzz as a "pesky toilet fly". The word "toilet" was removed in future releases.
• A sign in Onett's hospital originally advertises a Gravestone Burial Sale for people that pass away in the hospital. In future releases, the sign states that the hospital is not holding a Gravestone Burial Sale.
• After Paula is rescued, a boy in Twoson originally claimed that Paula kicked her kidnapper in the balls.
  • "Balls" was changed to "vital spot" in Mother 1+2 and the demo included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • The Japanese Virtual Console releases later changed this to "crotch".
• A sign in Threed originally states that players should take a break every two hours. In future releases, this was changed to one hour. However, Ness' father calls every two hours in all releases.
• When the announcer introduces Venus in Fourside's theater, he originally says "Sing and kill me!" In future releases, this was changed to "Sing and love me!"
• When Tony asks for the player's name, he originally refers to "the one holding the controller." In future releases, he refers to "the one playing this game" instead.
• A man in Scaraba originally states that Pokey "crapped on the ground." In future releases, this was changed to "did his business". A similar change was made in EarthBound.
• When Master Barf challenges the party, he originally says "Get covered in puke and die!"
  • In Mother 1+2 and the Super Smash Bros. Brawl demo, this was changed to "Suffer until you vomit!" (the latter being changed is rather strange, as the demo {as with all Brawl demos} has a very short time limit, thus not allowing you to get anywhere near close to Master Barf).
  • The Virtual Console releases changed this to "Get covered in me and suffer!"
• Originally, the hint man in Summers accidentally refers to the Stoic Club as a strip club. In future releases, "strip" was changed to "stri--".

Changes in most revisions

• A mole in Onett originally explains that the TV screen will change colors when you touch an enemy. In Mother 1+2, the word "TV" is removed, while the Virtual Console releases also modify the line.
• After Ness defeats the punks in Onett, the mayor originally states that Ness spit on the bullies and made them wet their pants. This part of the mayor's dialogue was removed in Mother 1+2, and the line was further modified in the Virtual Console releases.
• A vendor in Twoson's park originally states that flies swarm on his goods, giving them a nice flavor. In Mother 1+2, he simply states that his food attracts flies, while the Virtual Console releases state that his goods' flavor attracts flies.

Changes only in Mother 1+2

• A librarian in Onett originally explains that the Town Map can be pulled up with the X button. In Mother 1+2, she vaguely references the Start button instead.
• Two typos were corrected.
• Originally, a newspaper headline in Threed mistakenly says that the zombies have left Twoson instead of Threed. This was fixed in Mother 1+2.

PSI animations#

Both the Wii U Virtual Console and SNES Classic re-releases of Mother 2 and EarthBound add a blur effect to several of the flashier PSI animations, such as PSI Rockin'. This is standard policy for Virtual Console games, with the idea being to reduce the risk of causing seizures. Because the blur effect is applied in real-time, it does, however, have the peculiar side effect of the game blurring whenever any rapid full-screen animations occur (such as when taking mortal damage or using PSI Teleport), or not appearing when it reasonably should.

Instead of using a blur effect, the Switch Online re-release modifies some of the flashier PSI animations.

Brainshock Ω#

The palette was changed to be less bright.

Counter-PSI Unit#

The following content may induce seizures and has been hidden by default. Click to reveal:
Original Switch

The final two frames of the animation were chopped off to reduce the number of screen flashes from 3 to 2.

Fire Ω#

The palette was changed to be less bright.

Flash Ω#

The palette was changed to be less bright and less flashy. The palette cycling speed was also changed from every 2 frames to every 4 frames.

Rockin γ#

The palette was changed to be less bright. The palette cycling speed was also changed from every 2 frames to every 4 frames.

Shield Killer#

The palette was changed to be less bright.

Starstorm α#

The palette was changed to be less bright and less flashy.

Starstorm Ω#

The palette was changed to be less bright.

Thunder γ/Ω#

The palette was changed to be less bright and less flashy.

Cutscene Changes#

In the Virtual Console, Super NES Classic Edition, and Nintendo Classics / Nintendo Switch Online re-releases, the cutscene of Carpainter shooting lightning and the cutscene of the party being transferred to robot bodies were slightly tweaked to reduce the intensity of flashing effects.

These patches are applied by Nintendo's emulator at runtime, not stored in the game file on disk.

Carpainter's lightning#

Carpainter's lightning flash effect was reduced to about one third of its original brightness.

Original game

C38753: 0E 00 0A 00         EVENT_SET_VAR ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $000A
C38757: 42 A8 74 C4         EVENT_UNKNOWN_C474A8    ; Set screen brightness based on Actionscript variable 0

Re-releases

The brightness value was changed from 10 ($000A) to 3 ($0003).

C38753: 0E 00 03 00         EVENT_SET_VAR ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $0003
C38757: 42 A8 74 C4         EVENT_UNKNOWN_C474A8    ; Set screen brightness based on Actionscript variable 0

Robot soul transfer#

The flashing effect as each party member has their soul transferred to a robot was reduced to be half as bright as the original game.

Original game

  C39F67: 0E 00 16 00     EVENT_SET_VAR ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $0016
  C39F6B: 01 0C           EVENT_LOOP $0C
  C39F6D: 42 A8 74 C4         EVENT_UNKNOWN_C474A8    ; Set screen brightness based on Actionscript variable 0
  C39F71: 06 01               EVENT_PAUSE 1*FRAME
  C39F73: 14 00 02 FE         EVENT_ADD ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $FFFE
          FF          
  C39F78: 02              EVENT_LOOP_END

Re-releases

The initial brightness value was changed from 22 ($0016) to 11 ($000B), and the rate of decrease was halved to accommodate.

  C39F67: 0E 00 0B 00     EVENT_SET_VAR ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $000B
  C39F6B: 01 0C           EVENT_LOOP $0C
  C39F6D: 42 A8 74 C4         EVENT_UNKNOWN_C474A8    ; Set screen brightness based on Actionscript variable 0
  C39F71: 06 01               EVENT_PAUSE 1*FRAME
  C39F73: 14 00 02 FF         EVENT_ADD ACTIONSCRIPT_VARS::V0, $FFFF
          FF          
  C39F78: 02              EVENT_LOOP_END

Starman Jr's entrance#

Exclusive to Nintendo Classics / Nintendo Switch Online, the animation of Starman Jr. teleporting in makes the screen flash three times instead of the usual four times. This causes the whole scene to be very slightly shorter.

The following content may induce seizures and has been hidden by default. Click to reveal:
Original Switch

Original game

  C3710B: 01 04           EVENT_LOOP $04

Nintendo Classics / Nintendo Switch Online

  C3710B: 01 03           EVENT_LOOP $03

Other Nintendo Classics / Nintendo Switch Online changes#

These changes only exist on the Nintendo Classics / Nintendo Switch Online release and no other versions.

The palette of these red battle backgrounds (internal IDs 114 and 298 respectively) had their palettes tweaked to be slightly darker. No other changes were made to battle backgrounds. (Note: these GIFs don't make a seamless loop because battle backgrounds don't generally form a perfect loop.)

Original	Switch

The color the screen flashes for a single frame when a party member takes damage on the overworld due to status effects or hazardous terrain was changed from bright red to ugly orange-brown.

Oddities#

Sprite sorting and the invertible light beam#

If Select is held on controller 2 at any time, the game will switch to an alternative routine for sorting sprites by vertical position before drawing them. This makes no difference that anyone ever would have noticed, with one very unexpected exception. Watch on YouTube

The variable for the vertical position of the beam of light from which Buzz Buzz emerges is never properly initialized. It just so happens that the memory it winds up reading is left at a different value by the alternative sprite sorter. As a consequence, pressing Select on controller 2 during this cutscene winds up inverting the beam of light off the bottom of the screen.

Crashed Phase Distorter#

The wreckage of the stolen prototype Phase Distorter is visible at all times when the cave can normally be accessed. However, it is not there by default: it is only set to appear after defeating the Mani Mani Statue in Fourside. This doesn't quite line up story-wise, and either way it's stolen before the player would ever have access to the cave anyway, so it's anyone's guess why its appearance requires a trigger at all.

Pokey Spoken To Again#

Normally, after Pokey sends the two Insane Cultists and a Spiteful Crow after you, he can be seen running away into the entrance leading back to the main area of Happy-Happy Village. Upon closer examination, he actually still speaks (though he says the exact same thing during his cutscene) if a Skip Sandwich is eaten and a walk-through-walls cheat is used, but it’s very precise. However, it locks Ness in place after he is finished, with the game attempting to “start a battle” that was already fought. Thankfully(?), the player is too far away to catch up to him in a normal play session.

References#