From: Liquid Wind | #029
right, earthbounds world is completely analogous to ours with the exception of giygas existing
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Way to take me way too literally. It's a simplified parody, sure, and barely touches into it's world with any depth at all, but it is mostly built to be representative (at least on the surface) of the (then) modern world. I really don't see how you can argue with that.
Hell, most of the clear-cut differences are literally jokes about RPGs or video games in general.
From: Kamekguy | #027
To be fair, I can say that the Sharks, Police, and underground through Mr. Everdred work exactly the same as Team Rocket in that 'oh I'm the best now FRIENDSHIP'. But Pokemon feels like you'd encounter jerks like Misty and Gary who are better than you and you want to put them in their place, and ultimately makes it more relateable to the expectations a child might have on the world. Earthbound is just OHMYGODRUNAWAYFIVESOAWESOME
OHGODBLUEPEOPLESHOOTINGLIGHTNINGBUTTHISBADGEISSOFREAKINGAWESOMEREFLECTSIT
YEAHSCREWYOUPOKEYHOWDAREYOUBECOMEPRESIDENTOFSOMETHINGYELLOWSUBARINEWHOO.
Which, I mean, is cool. Earthbound's backdrop is awesome. But just the whole concept of it isn't grounded in reality; it uses the backdrop of reality to make the weird aspects in the game seem weirder. And since Earthbound is full of weird aspects from top to bottom, it works incredibly well. It's just not solidly on its feet in a human experience until you fight Giygas and stuff.
You seem to be judging more on the actual plot and believability of the character interaction. Whereas I'm judging solely on similarity of the world itself. So I can't really disagree with anything you said.
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"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3