Earthbound -- Pokemon?

[Fellow]

Question, has anyone noticed how, Earthbound, and town's structures, the battle sequences, are very similar to the Pokemon games?

Was Pokemon Red/Blue and so-on, inspired at all by Earthbound/Mother?

The main trainer, in Pokemon games, looks like Ness, large head, red heat, jeans, red shoes, etc.

The towns are structured similarly.

Both battle sequences appear with hardly any visual effects, just sprites, and text boxes. Any connection?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

The only thing that's similar is that they both take place in relatively modern times compared to most RPGs. I'd say EarthBound seems modeled in a 1950's era and Pokemon in a 2000's era. The battle system, story, character design, and styles are both very different. I doubt that EarthBound was an inspiration for Pokemon since EarthBound wasn't developed by GameFreak.

 

[referencer]

I doubt that EarthBound was an inspiration for Pokemon since EarthBound wasn't developed by GameFreak.

Ape Inc developed Earthbound and later changed to Creatures Inc which does a sizable amount of work with the Pokemon series. Game Freak also had something to do with Earthbound and the original Mother if I recall correctly. There was probably a reasonable amount of overlap between employees working on both games.