Whose Name Is It Anyway? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Demonic Petunia

Quite frankly, I can think of many plants with threatening-sounding name, but a petunia -- even a demonic one -- just doesn't strike fear into my heart. What's next, a Geranium of Doom?

The rafflesia is a real-life plant, named after Stamford Raffles, who discovered it in 1818 while on an expedition. It seems like a dubious distinction -- I hope no one ever names a revolting plant after ME! (Read on and you'll see why I say that.) Anyway, probably not many people -- especially kids and teenagers -- would know of a plant called "rafflesia," so for the "EarthBound" enemy, a much more common, garden-variety name was used as a substitute.

However, I can understand a plant monster inspired by (and named for) rafflesia -- these plants are borderline creepy! I read a Reuters article that tells all about it, "Mystery of World's Biggest, Yuckiest Flower Solved." The article explains that this is a parasitic plant, and its flowers -- which can weigh up to 15 pounds -- "look and smell like rotting flesh." Well, isn't that delightful! You can check out that article for even more lovely details.

Answer: Soul-Consuming Flame

Quick, someone call an exorcist! Or a fireman! As you traverse the Lost Underworld, you'll eventually come to the cave of the Fire Spring, where magma flows like fiery little waterfalls. The Soul-Consuming Flame frankly looks like it could just as well be called "Red Puddle With a Mean Face," because its appearance belies the danger it poses. It spews fire, and you'll be lucky if everyone survives.

This enemy was actually meant to be even more ferocious than it is, but it instead is actually quite weak, albeit unintentionally so. Page 111 of the official Player's Guide correctly lists this fiend's Defense as an astronomical 262. See, for friends and foes alike in this game, all of their attributes (how strong their Attack, how fast their Speed, etc) are assigned a numerical value between 0 and 255. Well, what happens if that number ever exceeds that range? You get an "integer overflow" -- a value that exceeds what the computer is able to handle.

You know how a car's mechanical odometer eventually "rolls over" and resets to zero? Same thing happened here, in a sense -- as "EarthBound Wiki" helps explain, the game can't handle a value of 262, so the value "rolls over" and gets set at a feeble 6, which is the difference between the maximum value (255) and the assigned one (262).

Any number higher than what the game can handle, it starts over from zero and counts up by the difference between the two numbers. In this case, the difference is seven, so the game counts like this: 255, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. So what was meant to be an exceptionally resilient enemy instead became one of the most vulnerable!

Answer: Pogo Punk

Normally a peaceful town, Onett now can't catch a break, between aliens invading and gang members attacking. The Sharks, the local ne'er-do-wells, are rather odd -- some attack by skateboarding into you, others hit you with a swinging hula-hoop, and -- as the name implies -- Pogo Punks will try to get the jump on you by bouncing menacingly on their pogo sticks. They sometimes lose their balance and fall down, causing them to miss a turn, and that's your best chance to strike back.

I guess that's what the Japanese name was implying -- they fall down, but they "rebound" (get back up) quickly. Talk about a whole new meaning of "catch you on the rebound"!

Answer: Whirling Robo

How long has it been since old-fashioned vinyl records became obsolete? The Mystical Record, another enemy, might know -- and so might the Whirling Robo, which the Player's Guide jokes is made from pieces of broken record-players. Anyhow, there are actually three spinning robots in the game, of which the Whirling Robo is the second -- and what's interesting, as Clyde Mandelin notes in "Legends of Localization" (pg. 324), each of these three metallic menaces are all named after onomotapeias for spinning sounds.

From weakest to strongest, the three enemies in English are the Spinning Robo, the Whirling Robo and the Hyper Spinning Robo. Their onomotapeiac names translate to "Spiiiin," "Spiiiiiiiin" and "Spin Spiiiin," respectively. As Mandelin explains, "The more powerful the robot, the more 'spinny' its name becomes." So the implication is that the faster they spin, the more dangerous they are. Well, that makes sense -- think of touching a fan blade while the fan is set to "low" versus a fan that's set to "high"!

In any event, it's a very clever naming convention, but one that kind of got lost in translation. It's easy to recognize sounds -- a car horn, a dog bark, a car engine revving -- the SOUND is the same regardless where in the world you are. It's DESCRIBING the sounds (e.g., as an onomotapeia) that's the challenge.

Answer: Evil Elemental

Since when is a disembodied evil spirit an "annoyance"?! Talk about understatement! Anyhow, there's no clear reason why this being appears where it does -- most of the enemies of the Fire Spring are, naturally, borne of the ghostly fire of the place.

To that end, this is one of the many instances where the English translation improves on the original. An "elemental" normally means a supernatural force or entity, but here the name gives "elemental" a double meaning -- namely, an indirect pun on the fact that the Evil Elemental appears in the Fire Spring, and fire is one of the "classical elements" (earth, wind, fire and water).

In other words, the translators were clever enough to take a sort-of-unremarkable enemy and make its placement seem more logical, because the English name now creates a logical connection: An "Evil Elemental" in the Fire Spring suggests that this is an angry spirit of the fire. The writers were really clever!

Answer: Cave Boy

A neanderthal kid is strange enough, but why in the world would the Japanese version refer to him as "Bigfoot," the mythical yeti-like creature? Well, "Legends of Localization" helps explain part of what's going on: As you traverse Winters, you'll find that it's home to a lake monster, UFOs, Stonehenge and Bigfoot. In other words, Winters is where all the tabloid-type characters and things are found.

This was an amusing premise. The only problem was that for reasons unknown, the character called "Bigfoot" in the Japanese game ... didn't look anything remotely like the creature of legend. It looked more like an oafish neanderthal kid with a spiked club. Once again, the translators picked up on the problem and turned "Bigfoot" into "Cave Boy," a much more appropriate name.

Inside the laboratory in Winters, there actually is one Cave Boy who is referred to by Dr. Andonuts as "Big Foot." The scientist remarks, "My co-worker, Big Foot, dislikes violence. [...] He often shares his beef jerky with me..." I suppose the writers decided to leave one "Bigfoot" reference intact.

Answer: Guardian Digger

In the desert, after an excavation begins, the miner stops and leaves the gold mines because something big and fearsome that way came. Namely, five vicious, monstrous moles -- the Guardian Diggers.

"We're number three! We're number three!" What's very funny about these five moles is that they're all identical in every way, and each one is convinced that it is the true master (i.e., biggest and baddest) of the mine, and yet none of them claim to be the "number-one" mole -- they're all obsessed with being the THIRD-strongest -- and in fact, each one also thinks that being "number three" is the best "rank" among five members.

Even the psychedelic battle-background for each mole has the undulating text "No. 3."

One of the moles says, "I'm truly the third strongest master of this hole. I'll demonstrate the power of being third to you!" When you've reached the fifth and last one (they can be fought in any order), it will change its tune slightly and concede that it is not the strongest (nor the weakest), but still thinks it's better than the others: "You've fought the strongest master of this hole, the second strongest master of this hole, the fourth strongest master of this hole, and the weakest master of this hole! I'm truly the third strongest master of this hole. Now you see the true advantage of being third!"

There's something rather odd about so many creatures in the game having some kind of association with a given number. As for the five moles, here's an observation I haven't seen made elsewhere, and think about this: There are five moles. All of them claim to be the "third-strongest," and they each say so pridefully. And again, the five Guardian Diggers are absolutely identical (aside from their dialogue lines), so in truth, ALL of the moles can legitimately claim to be "number three" -- because no mole is weaker or stronger than the other, so there's no "#1" (strongest) or "#5" (weakest) -- they're all equally powerful. The only question -- and one I'm sure was meant to have no answer -- is why these five masters all think that being third is so special!

Answer: Dali's Clock

OK, there was a little wordplay in that description, but I don't think anyone will mind too much. The Dali's Clock enemy, which you face in Moonside, has an attack that no other foe does -- it can "freeze you in time," and you become immobilized for a few rounds.

I'm not sure why Salvador Dali's famous melting clock is an enemy, but then again, the game never promised to make much sense! I do find it rather fascinating that an "extract" from a painting titled "The Persistence of Memory" got named a "LOST Memory" in Japanese, though it's certainly thought-provoking.

The enemy is remarkably well-drawn, in terms of resemblance to Dali's original melting clock -- and as Clyde Mandelin notes (pg. 326), it's actually more than a little surprising that the enemy -- both in name and design -- were included, because "Dali's estate [...] is well-known for filing lawsuits against anyone who uses Dali's name, likeness or art without authorization." And one of the things that the "EarthBound" team was explicitly instructed to do was to be hyper-vigilant about removing ANYTHING that could even remotely be considered a reference to a copyrighted name or depiction -- to the point that even the Red Cross logo was removed from all of the game's hospitals.

On second thought, Dali's Clock in Moonside makes sense -- the element of time in Moonside is distorted (it's always night), and "The Persistence of Memory" is epitomizes the Surrealism movement -- and as strange as "EarthBound" gets, no place is more surreal than Moonside! In fact, there's another painting on the rampage too, the "Abstract Art" ("Mystery Art" in Japanese). Who ever thought you'd get ganged up on by art-gallery escapees? Well, in any case, don't let Dali's masterpiece get the upper hand -- or the hour hand or the minute hand, either -- clean its clock!

Answer: Major Psychic Psycho

There are actually two humanoid creatures who emerge from the Fire Spring -- the Psychic Psycho and his stronger counterpart, the Major Psychic Psycho. Boy, now THERE'S a name that tells you this being is serious business. Not only does he command the fiercest of fires, but he can even paralyze those who dare confront him.

By the way, the Japanese name contains an in-game abbreviation -- in English, psychic powers are called "PSI," for "psionics," whereas the Japanese uses "PK," short for "psychokinesis." The weaker, red-flamed counterpart enemy is called "PK Man," and the stronger foe just has "Superior" appended to his name.

I think the Japanese names "Psychokinesis Man (Superior)" are fairly uninspired, to be honest -- this is yet again an instance where the translation team really went the extra mile to come up with some memorable names. To be fair, however, my recollection is that for some reason, the U.S. version was able to handle significantly longer names than the Japanese version, so the U.S. team had more freedom to play with really colorful, unique names.

The one thing I've never seen a good explanation for -- and I don't have one either -- is what in the world these two "Psychos" have on their heads. Their artwork makes it look like something made of metal -- the abovementioned "EarthBound Wiki," for example, remarks that it resembles an "HMD-like device" (that is, "head-mounted display"), but that's much more of a vague, subjective opinion than a substantiated observation.

Knowing the game's artistic style, I tend to think this is one of many instances where the design of certain characters and objects is deliberately abstract. That is, this is a game that often doesn't explain everything it depicts; rather, it leaves it up to the player to use his or her imagination and come up with an idea of precisely what certain details might represent.

Answer: Squatter Demon

I admittedly don't understand the English name at all -- though perhaps it was MEANT to just sound ominously cryptic without having any real meaning. After all, a "squatter" is someone who lives in an uninhabited building (or on an unused parcel of land) without permission.

As for the Japanese name, the nearest I can figure is that it's a reference to the fact that this is one of the few enemies that will never have any accomplices fighting alongside it. I can't think of any other good use for "hermit."

Either way, in both translations we know -- both from the name and from its appearance -- that this is some kind of demonic entity, and one that's definitely meant to be taken seriously. This thing appears fairly rarely, usually unexpectedly, and once it's defeated, it disappears into thin air.

The game does seem to have a certain affinity for floating, spirit-like foes -- I guess it kind of adds to the whole mystique of the game and its narrative, especially the notion of having to fight "unseen enemies" -- even Ness's own (literal) "inner demon," at one point. Throughout the game, evil permeates the air, and you're never quite sure where the next confrontation will come from or what form it may take.