EB DX is an Earthbound hack made by the very talented Messianic, which is currently in its beta testing phase. The aim of the hack is to enhance Earthbound by increasing its difficulty level and implementing a few handy new features.
How much more difficult, you may ask? Well, as you can see in the video above, I was thoroughly stomped by a Spiteful Crow (one of the weakest enemies in the game) about 10 minutes into my playing experience. The full list of changes can be found on this forum post, but some of edits that jumped out at me were:
-All enemies have 1.5x increased stats on EVERYTHING (hp/pp/speed/off/def/guts/luck), yet their level, exp given, and money given remain the same.
-Many enemies (especially bosses) have vastly altered skill-sets to make them much harder. This includes new actions in the action editor via removing unused ones and altering old ones, however their theme is kept intact.
-Jeff’s items have been altered, Slime Generator effects a row of enemies, Shield Killer and Counter PSI-Unit effect all enemies.
Elements that are yet to be implemented include the run button hack, new areas and enemies, and numerous other tweaks to make the game even harder.
Messianic is currently holding and open beta, so if you are interested in helping out with the testing you can talk to him on the Starmen.net forums. I’m really looking forward to playing the finished game!
