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| EarthBound owned by Nintendo. Images used for educational purposes only. |
Fourside Department Store
- After the Runaway Five take off you won’t see any obvious path to the next plot point. It does exist, however, in one of Fourside’s major landmarks: the Department Store. It has been opened again. Be careful entering, as something temporarily irreversible will happen when you try to leave.
- The Department Store is enormous, and offers the usual array of stores. A back room on the second floor is home to the arms dealer, as well, if you want items for Jeff. A hint: If you’re low on money, don’t buy stuff for Paula. You’ll see why in a moment.
- When you attempt to leave the Department Store, a mystery being will swoop down and grab Paula. She’s out of the party for quite a while. Nevertheless, you need to try and get her back. Start climbing the escalators to the top floor.
- The Department Store, darkened, is now home to two odd - but powerful - types of enemies, ones I wouldn’t blame you if you fled:
- Mystical Records aren’t so bad, though they can heal other enemies and have powerful physical attacks. Take them out second.
- Scalding Coffee Cups will tip coffee onto your team and inflict massive amounts of damage. These must die first.
- Fight your way to the top floor and look in the office to your left. (Hopefully you won’t run into too many enemies on the way.) An alien sits behind the desk inside.
Dept. Store Spook
This battle is fast and furious. The Dept. Store Spook specializes in offensive PSI attacks similar to Paula’s, and its PSI Freeze attack is positively devastating. It can take out Ness at almost-full HP, and almost always will kill Jeff in one hit. This battle will be a fight against the HP reels. If you have them, use Bottle Rockets or Big Bottle Rockets courtesy of Jeff while Ness moves between healing and smacking the thing with PSI Rockin. It has very little HP for a boss, but the Spook can annihilate you pretty quickly if you linger over this fight.
- Defeating the Dept. Store Spook will bring the lights back on in the Department Store, though Paula is still missing. Rats. You receive a clue as to her location, but the obvious source, the Monotoli Building, yields no new leads.
- Head to Jackie’s Cafe in the north of Fourside instead. Step inside and speak to the woman on the right side of the Cafe, then head back outside. A crowd has gathered around someone familiar. Bribe the dude with scruffy hair with any item you don’t want (so long as it’s not plot-important or otherwise unsellable), then speak to the fallen man beside the building.
- Reenter Jackie’s Cafe. Step behind the counter and check the wall beside the proprietor. It will take you to…
Moonside
- … huh. Fancy that. You’re now in Moonside, the twisted reflection of Fourside. People talk in riddles here, and everything is backwards. For practical purposes, ‘Yes’ means ‘No’ and ‘No’ means ‘Yes’ in Moonside. Mixing them up isn’t a huge deal, but it can get a little annoying.
- Moonside is home to two new enemies of varying difficulty:
- Robo-Pumps spend three turns counting down. When they reach zero they’ll hurl a Bomb that inflicts a decent amount of damage. They’re easy to kill on their own, and can be left for second in groups.
- Enraged Fire Plugs either smack you normally or hit both Ness and Jeff with a water attack of decent damage. They’re more dangerous than Robo-Pumps, especially in groups, and deserve to go down first.
- Abstract Arts are fairly weak enemies that can put you to sleep, making them more annoying support enemies than straight-up single opponents.
- Dali’s Clocks are often paired with Abstract Arts, and can inflict substantially more damage. Definitely take these things out first.
- Moonside is an obviously-wonky place, and it gets even weirder when you learn how you move around. Some sections of the city are cut off from one another, and you need to speak to the blonde dudes in shades to move around. Do so and you’ll zip to another part of the city. These guys always send you to the same locations, so you can eventually puzzle out where you’re going by memorizing their warp patterns.
- Wander east, ignoring the warp dudes. The local Hotel is over here, as well as the Hospital. Look behind the latter for a Double Burger. That done, speak to the guy out front of the Hotel. He’ll throw you over to a large building that you can’t reach, thanks to a sailor. He’ll tell you to find a dude with a very interesting physical description.
- Return to the same warp dude again, out front of the Hospital. This time you’ll be tossed to a side area. Open the nearby present for a Night Pendant, then speak to another nearby guy to warp. Another side spot, a Handbag Strap, and another warp. Yet another side spot, a Secret Herb, and a dude who will only warp you if you ask for it.
- You’ll get tossed into a room with a Mr. T lookalike. Before speaking to him, as he’ll toss you out, speak to the semi-visible man also wandering this room. When you zip out of here you’ll wind up at the Hotel. You’ll soon realize the invisible dude is following you around.
- Leave the Hotel. If you really want it, you can get a Protein Drink by speaking to a guy outside Jackie’s Cafe and warping to a side area. Otherwise, speak to one of the three guys on the street between the Cafe and the Hotel / Hospital. They’ll warp you to the sailor from earlier. Speak to him with the invisible man in attendance and they’ll take off. Speak to the man in front of the Monotoli Building once they’re gone…
Evil Mani-Mani
The Mani-Mani is more annoying than overly difficult. Aside from normal attacks, it will absorb Ness’s PP with PSI Magnet and occasionally attempt to paralyze your characters. That aside it’s kind of a wet rag. Smack it around with physical attacks, saving your PP for Lifeup. Not much to say, really.
- Defeating the Evil Mani-Mani will shoot you out of Moonside and into the back room of Jackie’s Cafe. Obviously this was all an hallucination. Yikes. Now what?