Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Ness (EarthBound) – DEATH BATTLE! Analysis

Note: This analysis of Ness will focus on his adventure throughout EarthBound, including any manga, though abilities he’s shown in the Super Smash Bros. series will also be included. As a sort of explanation for how he can use certain PSI abilities in Super Smash Bros., it’s stated he learned some of them from Paula and Poo.


Background

Ness was a normal 12-year-old boy from the town of Onett in Eagleland. He loves baseball, is a nice older brother, and possesses psychic powers like any other boy his age. One day, a meteorite landed in his town, and alongside his neighbor Porky Minch, went in search for Porky’s missing brother. After getting close to the meteorite, it was then that Ness met Buzz Buzz, an alien bug from 10 years into the future, who warned Ness of Giygas, an evil alien who would shroud the world in darkness.


However, luck was not on Buzz Buzz’s side, as Porky’s mom swatted him, thinking of him as just an annoying bug. Before his death though, Buzz Buzz explained to stop Giygas, Ness would need the Eight Melodies from the eight “Your Sancuary” locations to gain power from Earth to be strong enough to defeat him. He gave Ness the Sound Stone to record these melodies. Ness would then go on an adventure, meeting the other chosen heroes Paula, Jeff, and Poo to save the world from Giygas, and he eventually would be able to defeat the evil alien, even with Porky assisting Giygas..


More Info

  • Age: 12

  • Favorite Food: Steak

  • Wears a baseball cap with his favorite team’s logo on the front

  • Likes getting his picture taken

  • Once trusted a guy named Lier X. Agerate

  • Has a phone for a dad

  • Down throw forward air forward air

    • Okay


Equipment

Baseball Bats

LegendaryBat.png

Ness’s main weapons in a fight are baseball bats, which he uses to bash enemies. Hitting enemies with the tip of the bat will deal more damage than normal, and he can even swing it at projectile attacks to send them back to where they came while making them deal more damage. Ness’s most reliable bat is the Legendary Bat, which raises his Offense by 110, though he does have alternatives. His Gutsy Bat raises his Offense by 100 and Guts by 127, which determines the likelihood of landing critical hitting SMAAAASH!! attacks and barely surviving attacks that would have otherwise been fatal. Meanwhile, his Casey Bat raises his Offense by 125 at the cost of being much, much more inaccurate, though using it straight from his inventory does increase its accuracy. Its accuracy and likelihood of landing SMAAAASH!! attacks also increase the more his allies are currently knocked out and when fighting super strong enemies.


Yo-yos

Yo-yos are another type of weapon Ness wields in battle. Usually, he just wacks enemies with them, including yo-yo tricks like “around the world” and “walk the dog”, but he can also keep it spinning in place to deal continuous damage. His strongest yo-yo is the Combat Yo-yo, which raises his Offense by 54. Ness can’t land SMAAAASH!! attacks with yo-yos, and it’s easier to miss enemies with them than with his baseball bats.


Slingshots

Slingshots are an alternative type of weapon Ness can use to shoot at enemies. His strongest slingshot is the Bionic Slingshot, which raises his Offense by 32. Ness can’t land SMAAAASH!! attacks with slingshots, and it’s easier to miss enemies with them than with his baseball bats.


Armor

Ness has impressive gear that raises his Defense, with most of them even having other beneficial effects. The following is the list of all the armor Ness is equipped with:


  • Hard Hat: Raises Defense by 15.

  • Rabbit’s Foot: Raises Defense by 3 and Speed by 40. It also protects Ness from paralysis.

  • Star Pendant: Raises Defense by 30. It also protects Ness from paralysis, as well as fire, freeze, and flash-based attacks.

  • Goddess Band: Raises Defense by 80 and Luck by 30. It also protects Ness from forced sleep.

  • Souvenir Coin: Raises Defense by 80 and Luck by 35.


Items

Ness has used many, many items, both in and out of battle. Some of them can be used only once, while others can be used as many times as he wants without worry of losing them. The following is a list of all the items Ness can use:


  • Bomb: A normal bomb that Ness can detonate against multiple enemies to attack. It can only be used once.

    • Super Bomb: A stronger bomb that Ness can detonate against multiple enemies to attack. It can only be used once.

  • Sudden Guts Pill: A pill that Ness can take to temporarily double his Guts. It can only be used once.

  • Defense Spray: A spray that Ness can use on himself or an ally to raise their Defense. It can be used multiple times, which is good to layer the effect, but goes away once a battle it’s used in is over.

  • Franklin Badge: A badge that passively reflects electricity-based attacks back to enemies who used them.

  • Brain Stone: A stone that passively prevents Ness from losing concentration, which would normally make him unable to use his PSI.

  • Snake: A snake that Ness can throw at enemies before it bites them to cause damage and have a chance at poisoning them. It can only be used once.

    • Viper: A more deadly snake that Ness can throw at enemies before it bites them to cause damage and guarantee them getting poisoned. It can only be used once.

    • Snake Bag: A bag containing many, many snakes that Ness can take out and throw at enemies before it bites them to cause damage and have a chance at poisoning them. It can be used multiple times.

  • Pharaoh’s Curse: An ectoplasmic ooze that Ness can cover enemies in to cause damage and poison them. It can only be used once.

  • Stag Beetle: A stag beetle that Ness can throw at enemies to surprise them so badly that they become solidified. It can only be used once.

  • Mummy Wrap: Mummy wrappings that Ness can use to lash at enemies to damage and solidify them. It can only be used once.

  • Handbag Strap: A handbag strap that Ness can use to lash at enemies to damage and solidify them. It can only be used once.

  • Pair of Dirty Socks: A pair of dirty socks that Ness can throw at enemies to make them so nauseous from its odor that they solidify. It can only be used once.

  • Toothbrush: A normal toothbrush that Ness can brush his teeth with to make his teeth so shiny that it scares and solidifies enemies. It can only be used once.

  • Monkey’s Love: An item that Ness can use to summon a monkey that pins down enemies, solidifying them. It can be used multiple times.

  • Insecticide Spray: A spray that Ness can use against all insect enemies to damage them. It can only be used once.

    • Xterminator Spray: A stronger spray that Ness can use against all insect enemies to damage them. It can be used multiple times.

  • Rust Promoter: An item that Ness can use to quickly rust metallic enemies to damage them. It can only be used once.

    • Rust Promoter DX: A stronger item that Ness can use to quickly rust metallic enemies to damage them. It can only be used once.

  • Zombie Paper: Paper that Ness can apply to surfaces to capture zombies in its stickiness. It can only be used once.

  • Bag of Dragonite: A bag of powder that Ness can sprinkle onto himself to transform into a gigantic dragon that can breathe fire against all enemies. It can only be used once.

  • Teddy Bear: A teddy bear that can take hits for Ness or allies. After taking a certain amount of damage, it becomes destroyed.

    • Super Plush Bear: A big teddy bear that can take hits for Ness. It can take quadruple the amount of damage before being destroyed compared to the Teddy Bear and has more than double the Defense of it.

  • Cold Remedy: Cold medicine that Ness can use on himself or an ally to cure them of colds or sunstroke. It can only be used once.

  • Vial of Serum: A serum that Ness can use on himself or any ally to cure poison. It can only be used once.

  • Wet Towel: A towel that Ness can use on himself or an ally to cure sunstroke or colds. It can only be used once.

  • Hand-Aid: A handmade Band-Aid that Ness can use on himself or an ally to fully restore HP up to maximum, and even make them conscious again if they were knocked out. It can only be used once.

  • Refreshing Herb: An herb Ness can use on himself or an ally to cure poison, nausea, colds, sunstroke, sleep, uncontrollable crying, and feeling strange. It can only be used once.

    • Secret Herb: An herb Ness can use on himself or an ally to cure poison, paralysis, nausea, colds, sunstroke, sleep, uncontrollable crying, feeling strange, and diamondization. It also has a chance of making those who are knocked out conscious again with half of their maximum HP. It can only be used once.

      • Horn of Life: A horn that Ness can use on himself or an ally to cure poison, paralysis, nausea, colds, sunstroke, sleep, uncontrollable crying, feeling strange, or diamondization. It also makes those who are knocked out conscious again with a quarter of their maximum HP. It can only be used once.

  • Pencil Eraser: A machine that Ness can use to erase octopus-shaped things out of existence. It can be used multiple times.

    • Eraser Eraser: A machine that Ness can use to erase Kokeshi doll-shaped things out of existence. It can be used multiple times.

  • Hawk Eye: a tear-shaped gem that Ness can use to light up dark areas permanently. It can only be used once.

  • Receiver Phone: A phone that receives calls from others that Ness can answer, though he can’t make calls himself.

  • Bicycle: A normal bike that Ness can ride to get around faster, though he can’t ride it if he has other people with him, a Teddy Bear, or too much stuff.

  • Exit Mouse: A friendly mouse that can show Ness the way back to the entrance of a dungeon. It can only be used once.

  • Piggy Nose: A piggy nose that Ness can put on his nose to sniff out where Magic Truffles might be. It can be used multiple times.


Foods

Ness can use mostly normal food to restore his HP or PP. There are many types of foods that restore a different amount depending on the food, but the most notable ones are the Kracken Soup, which restores his HP up to maximum, the Large Pizza, which restores about 240 HP to the entire party, the Magic Truffle, which restores about 80 PP, the Skip Sandwich DX, which restores 6 HP and increases his speed for 20 seconds, the Brain Food Lunch, which restores about 300 HP and about 50 PP, and the Cup of Lifenoodles, which cures poison, paralysis, nausea, colds, sunstroke, sleep, uncontrollable crying, feeling strange, and diamondization. It also makes those who are knocked out conscious again with maximum HP.


Lastly, the Lucky Sandwich restores a random amount of HP or PP. It can recover either 60 HP, 240 HP, fully restore up to maximum HP, 5 PP, 20 PP, or fully restore up to both maximum HP and PP. He can also put condiments on foods to make them recover double the HP or PP if it’s a good combination, though he can also eat a condiment by itself to restore about 6 HP. The Jar of Delisauce is a good condiment on any food.


Powers & Abilities

PSI

As a psychic, Ness knows many PSI techniques that he can use, ranging from supportive to offensive. His PSI abilities also have different levels: α, β, γ, and Ω, but they also cost Psychic Points, or PP, to perform, with higher leveled PSI using up more PP. Besides his named powers, he can also create psychic blasts to attack enemies and increase the power and range of his physical strikes. The following is a list of all the PSI Ness can use:



Telepathy

Ness can communicate with and read the minds of others through telepathy. He can even speak with and understand animals, plants, machines, and the undead.


Telekinesis

Ness can use telekinesis with his mind to move objects or grab and throw enemies to attack.


Levitation

Ness can use his psychic powers to levitate and even fight in the air. He can also use it to perform midair jumps or dodge attacks more easily.


Dream Vision

Ness, while dreaming in his sleep, can see visions of others and what they’re doing at the present time.


Creation

Ness can create a dream world in his mind called Magicant. In this world that he can enter when unconscious, he can see the people he’s met in his life by how he remembers them, including his mother, who can heal him completely. He can even take items created in this world and bring them back to the real world to use, as well as take items from the real world to Magicant. He can also communicate with those in the real world over the phone, and even bring other living things in there with him. Lastly, Magicant contains five Flying Men who represent Ness’s courage, who can fight alongside him one at a time, though they can also end up dying. Besides Magicant, Ness can also take items created in illusion worlds made by others and bring them back to the real world.


Absorption

After defeating his nightmare, Ness was able to absorb the power of the Earth’s eight power spots to become an even more powerful psychic. Whether this means he can absorb mind or psychic power in general or not is unknown.


Non-Corporeal Form

If Ness becomes unconscious from taking too much damage, he can move around separately from his body as a floating ghost. He can’t do anything as a ghost, though when his body is healed up, he can return to it.


Possession

While Ness himself hasn’t done this by himself, his soul can be transferred into other types of bodies by putting his mind in them to possess them, with those bodies being able to use equipment and abilities he could use with his real body. If Ness wants to return to his real body, he can release his soul from the current body he’s in and join back with it.


Time Travel

While Ness has never traveled through time without the use of outside equipment, his soul can time travel itself.


Feats

Strength


Speed


Durability


Training & Experience


Weaknesses

Ness, while being a psychic powerhouse, is still a child. He can become homesick from missing his mom and the rest of his family, which can make him lose motivation to fight and reminisce about being home in the middle of a fight. His inexperience has also led him to wonder about his own and others’ fates if he succeeds. Also, while having impressive PSI abilities, they cost PP, and if he runs out of PP, he is unable to use PSI, though he can restore it with Magic Truffles and PSI Magnet, and luckily PSI Magnet costs 0 PP.


Summary

Advantages

  • Has armor, items, and PSI abilities that can protect or cure him from many status effects or defend against certain types of elemental attacks like fire, ice, electricity, and light

  • Can defend himself with the Defense Spray, Teddy Bear, or Shield

  • Can apply status effects using many types of items and PSI abilities

  • Can heal himself with the Hand-Aid, food, or Lifeup

  • Can restore his PP with Magic Truffles and PSI Magnet

  • Teleport and levitation grant him better movement

  • Can instantly kill enemies with PK Flash if he’s lucky


Disadvantages

  • Can become homesick, which can make him lose motivation to fight and reminisce about being home

  • Is still an inexperienced kid and sometimes wonders how his success will affect his and others’ fates

  • Is unable to use PSI, besides PSI Magnet, if he runs out of PP


Disclaimer

I neglected to mention universal feats for Ness, simply due to disagreements I have with them for multiple reasons. Of course, I could be wrong, and it’s possible I could change my mind on my own or if a point I didn’t consider is brought up, but I did talk with others and that has formed into this opinion. I will explain my reasoning for each feat that people tend to look at when talking about universal Ness.


Giygas

Giygas has been stated on multiple occasions to be able to destroy the universe. These are indeed just statements, and while statements like this aren’t inherently a bad thing, especially since they are admittedly consistent, I disagree with them meaning he possesses universal power. At least to me, it seems more likely they mean that in a way that he simply conquers the universe, or just doing it over time instead of all at once. Giygas’s actions also make me suspect him of not having universal power, as he forms and uses an army he probably otherwise wouldn’t need and tries to defeat Ness and his friends by attacking in the past instead of just destroying all in the universe on his own. A line from Porky also has me interpret that him “destroying” the universe is over time.


Not to mention that Ness and his friends only defeated Giygas thanks to Paula’s constant praying that made him weaker and weaker, even after absorbing the power of the eight “Your Sanctuary” locations, so even if Giygas was universal, which in all fairness he could be despite what I’ve said, I doubt Ness would scale to his power. Even scaling his durability to Giygas’s attack potency from him attacking Ness is a bit of a stretch in my opinion, due to Ness being in a robotic body at the time.


Magicant

Ness’s Magicant was created by him after standing on all eight power spots and learning all Eight Melodies, and Ness does absorb the power of the power spots. Magicant seemingly is just as big as a universe according to the Japanese text. Magicant does have planets and stars, but I don’t agree with it being the size of a universe. The text seems to refer to the truth of the universe speaking to mankind, and not Magicants inside people. I find it to just be fancy and poetic writing for something as special as the truth of the universe. Not to mention, it wouldn’t make sense for every person to have a Magicant. As mentioned, Ness’s Magicant was only created after standing on all eight power spots. It’s an example of it not already existing for him, and to assume literally every other person in the world of EarthBound already had a created Magicant just doesn’t make sense.


There is one other person who has a Magicant, that being Maria, or Queen Mary as she is called in there, from EarthBound Beginnings. It was created by her consciousness despite her having amnesia. Hers differs from Ness’s, as it looks completely different from his and affects the real world by having pink rocks that people can use to enter her Magicant. It is also stated to be an illusion, which brings into question if Ness’s Magicant is also just an illusion. It’s most likely not, but the fact that Magicants can be so different, especially since Maria’s affects the outside world, likely means they aren’t very commonly created worlds.


It should also be noted that Maria is the one who created the Eight Melodies, and that she is actually related to the protagonist of EarthBound Beginnings, Ninten, a psychic kid, so it could have been created from her consciousness due to outside reasons like psychic abilities or the melodies, like how Ness only had his created from touching the eight power spots that each had one of the Eight Melodies. Though, the Eight Melodies between the two games are different, and Maria herself seemingly isn’t psychic, which makes it more and more vague and confusing. Either way, since she is an important character who is the adoptive mother of Giygas, it makes sense for her to have a Magicant, and not a common world in every human being. I’m also still unsure about if creating a dream world in your mind actually would apply to attack potency, especially since Maria’s Magicant was just an illusion. Though it does seem to stem from psychic power so it might be fine, but still, I disagree with universal power from creating Magicant.


One with the Universe

This is the big one, and I assume this is the same as “Ness overlapping his psychic consciousness with the universe”, since it’s from the same scene, only from a different translation. In the Japanese text, it is indeed stated that every part of Ness will eventually become one with every part of the universe. However, right before that text, it’s talked about Ness and the universe’s destinies, leading me to believe that what is being said is that Ness and the universe’s destinies are intertwined, since Ness is saving the universe from Giygas, and isn’t some sort of universal power. In the same scene, it’s also outright said that Ness’s destiny will become one with the universe’s destiny, and it’s said in a way that makes it seem like they know they already mentioned it in the same conversation.


The English localization also seems to lean towards this logic, as near the end of the conversation, in the same part as when it’s said that Ness and the universe’s destinies will become in the Japanese translation, it’s said that the destiny of Ness and the destiny of the universe will overlap, which coincides with what is said earlier about Ness overlapping with the universe earlier in the conversation. At least to me, that was the meaning of what this was meant to be interpreted as, as opposed to universal power. Lastly, Ness’s mind and psychic powers are always associated with being the part of him that becomes one with the universe or overlapping it, though, at least in this conversation, they don’t specify it as being just related to his psychic powers, as they say that all of Ness will. This admittedly might include his psychic powers if it were all of him, maybe, but it’s also vague and doesn’t outright mention his psychic powers expanding greatly like that. Ness’s psychic powers are said to expand after absorbing the eight power spots, but this doesn’t indicate that it spreads across the universe and seems to just mean that his psychic power has grown to be more powerful.


Vagueness

I guess my problems can be summarized by the vagueness of these feats, as they are feats all related to statements one way or the other in a game like EarthBound, where a lot of it was intentionally left for the player to interpret, especially when it comes to Giygas. Is it possible I missed something or am just interpreting it wrong? Of course it’s possible, but this is just my way of seeing these feats. Ness’s Magicant is still shown to have planets, and maybe even stars, in the background, though the background also has what seems to be water moving around, which makes it more confusing. His mind becoming one with the universe was also a reason to make him omnipresent, which, from what I have mentioned throughout this, I disagree with.


I always see these blogs as just my opinions on things, but I never outright say things like “I think”, but since universal Ness is such a big thing that is basically common knowledge in versus, I thought to bring these points up.

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