Having never played Earthbound before, but having heard so much about it, I started playing this afternoon. Played it for about 90 minutes, so these are very much just first impressions (with no spoilers).

• Had a lot of difficulty getting past the character naming. Asking for one character name is hard enough... this wants FIVE 😱
• I love the atmosphere of it. It feels like an 80/90s American highschool movie. Chirping insects, spooky music, great!
• Combat initially feels simple, as expected, but I'm not deep enough in it yet to say more.
• After following the obvious sign-posting, I found myself free to explore, then immediately got lost. No idea what to do next, in the way that old games tend to have. I think the key is to speak to everyone and interact with everything, and something will shake itself loose. Interesting to contrast how hand-holdy modern games are in comparison! Not sure which I prefer...

Overall, I'm enjoying it and excited to play more. I'm trying not to read a guide... we'll see how long that lasts!