Arn's Winter Quest

**Arn's Winter Quest** is Toby Fox's first romhack of EarthBound, released on the 1st of January, 2006, for starmen.net's Holiday Funfest.

As the title suggests, this hack takes place in winter. It is very lighthearted, having tons of funny dialogue, as well as moderately shorter than the original EarthBound/Mother 2.

Unlike Toby's other EarthBound hack, it doesn't feature any custom music. It does, however, contain a few already-existent songs with drastically modified instruments.

## Story

The plot/story of this hack is very random. In any case, it starts on an unnamed, small, icy islet near the moon (which is really a recoloured version of Scaraba from the original EarthBound/Mother 2), and takes place on a Starmen.net-specific holiday named EB No Matsuri, which is very similar to Christmas. It's unknown in which year/decade it exactly takes place, however.

Arn wakes up in his house from what appears to be a crash, which turns out to be Ness, who accidentally crashed into his house while teleporting to an EB No Matsuri party. Arn, who's not familiar with EB No Matsuri or the Annual Gift Man, thinks it's 'some sort of cult', and Ness suggests that they should go to the moon and tell him to 'prove a complete stranger to be a fool'. And thus, the two become travelling partners.

In Arn's hometown, Arn and Ness first talk to all of the animals, as well as to 'Luigi' who hides behind a building that's actually the first battling/boss area. 'Luigi' says that he doesn't have anything to say yet, and that Arn and Ness should come back once they're worthy.

Arn and Ness then go looking for spaceship parts in order to go to the moon, and have to defeat a few bosses in order to get them, namely Mr. Evil Nihco in his cave, Satan Claws in a haunted department store, and Thunder Storm in an area similar to the Fire Springs from the original EarthBound/Mother 2.

Prior to going to the Fire Springs-like area and the battle against Thunder Storm, an anthropomorphic mutt named Dog joins the party, even if Arn and Ness seem very reluctant about this, and especially Ness wants Dog to go home.

Eventually, the party returns to Arn's hometown, where an annoying cow blocks the entrance of Arn's house. It crushes the spaceship parts that the party recently collected, angering them big-time. Soon after, the Annual Gift Man shows up and assists Arn, Ness and Dog in the battle against the extremely powerful Annoying Cow. After the battle, however, according to a note where the cow was, the Annual Gift Man got kidnapped to the moon, and the party must save him.

Soon after, the party meets up with an anthropomorphic tangerine and prince from the Far East named Sherman, whom Arn decides to call Sherm to 'scorn EBisumaru even further'. Sherm joins the party, and they go towards the Techno Ruins (which is really a recoloured version of the Pyramid from the original EarthBound/Mother 2), where they defeat the not-so-bright Starman Senior and teleport to the moon via the monolith on which he first stood.

On the moon, the party defeats many an enemy, and eventually meets up with a girl who really turns out to be a boy, who doesn't know Arn and Ness, but does appear to know Dog and Sherm, and tells them that they 'totally need to play the game some more and read some slick signs', and in case a few mandatory equippables (the Cool Sombrero for Arn, the Awesome Hat for Ness, and the Awesome Shades for Dog) have been found and equipped, that they 'totally need to find a secret item to totally give to Sherm'. In the room next to the girl/boy's room, there is a truck in which is a switch, which will be flipped anyway if the player selects 'no'.

The party eventually arrives at a place that's similar to the Chaos Theater in Twoson, where the Ninja Bros. were supposed to perform. Exiting the area leads the party to an area similar to the Fourside Sewers from the original EarthBound/Mother 2, and the only free door there leads them to the 'twilight zone' (as it's called in the official strategy guide of this hack), which looks highly similar to Moonside, and where many enemies are.

In the hostssal*[sic]*, Arn and his companions find a gift that contains a cat that Arn is mandatory to have in his inventory in order to unlock the secret ending. The cat is given to a cat named Cat Lover back in the Chaos Theater, and exchanged for a Pencil Eraser, which, like earlier in the game, is used to remove a truck that blocks another entrance in the sewers area.

Behind that door, there's a more secluded part of the 'twilight zone', where the party finds the Really Rad Rock, which is the aforementioned secret item to give to Sherm. Afterwards, the party teleports back to Arn's hometown, and has to go back to the moon via the monolith in the Techno Ruins. They talk to the boy/girl again, who first says that he/she/they 'totally already talked to [you] and [doesn't] want to talk to [you] again because [you] smell like smelly dogs', which appears to offend Dog at first, who really turns out to be cross with Sherm for stealing his shades. If the description/'Help!' option of the Really Rad Rock has been looked at, the boy/girl will congratulate the party for unlocking the secret ending of the game.

The party goes back to the 'twilight zone', and after levelling up, they go to the gotel*[sic]*, where a bellman-like guy teleports them to an area that's similar to the Topolla Theater from the original EarthBound/Mother 2. In the locker room area of the theatre, the party finds the Annual Gift Man who is disguised as Lucky from the Runaway Five, accompanied by who appears to be The Great SimonBob, who is soon battled along with his cohorts, Apathy and Hatred. If the mandatory steps of unlocking the secret ending are followed correctly, it'll be revealed that SimonBob is actually Mr. Accident in disguise.

Arn and his companions are then warped towards a Magicant-like area that's actually the staff room of the Starmen.net forums and unfortunately has no saving or healing points, but does have stronger enemies on the red path, so the player should be very wary. At the end of the red path, depending on whether the mandatory steps of unlocking the secret ending are followed correctly or not, there'll be a tentacle-like thing that, if interacted with, warps the party to a location that's similar to the Sea of Eden. There, three extremely strong bosses named Last Battles are found (even if only one should be fought according to the strategy guide), as well as the ultimate boss of the game, who first is Mr. Accident, but becomes Death Editor Bound upon combining himself with Map Editor 4.

Death Editor Bound first casts PSI and strong storms that may KO any party member, and once he has been attacked enough, the description of Arn's first ever weapon, the Pillow Shoe, will pop up, he corrupts into his second and last form, dubbed d83eh 84etor hbfen*[sic]*. This form of Death Editor Bound occasionally casts attacks of which one cannot grasp the true form (very similar to Giygas in the original EarthBound/Mother 2), unless he has been paralysed by PSI Paralysis (which Arn and Ness are able to use) or an item named the Photo of NLA. Once this boss has corrupted his own data upon defeat, Arn and his companions have saved EB No Matsuri, and the credits of the game pop up, where the full names of all four party members are also shown at some point.

## Party members

* Arn (full name being Arn Tie Ripped): the titular protagonist of this hack. He appears to be an adult due to having a beard, seems cheery due to his smiling sprite, lives on the unnamed, small, icy islet with his talking animal neighbours, and his favourite food is Brains. At a higher level, he may acquire the status problem 'Zombie', which is similar to Ness's homesickness in the original EarthBound/Mother 2, but unlike homesickness can actually be cured by healing up on benches that are occasionally found in the game. He uses ice skates, skis and eventually Golden Boots as weapons, is able to use PSI Ice (Freeze), Flame (Fire) and Holy (Flash), and his mandatory equippable is the Cool Sombrero, which is found on the moon.
* Ness (full name being Ness Lastname): the guy who is usually the protagonist in the original EarthBound/Mother 2, but now takes Paula's place, since he can even use the 'Pray' ability in this game. He accidentally crashed into Arn's house while teleporting to an EB No Matsuri party with his friends, and joins him in order to go and look for the Annual Gift Man on the moon. He uses baseball bats as weapons, is still able to use PSI Rockin' and Holy (Flash), and his mandatory equippable is the Awesome Hat, which is found near the icy pyramid that houses the Fire Springs-like area.
* Dog (full name being Dog Stupidface): a bipedal and anthropomorphic dog who bears a striking resemblance to Ness's dog, King, and takes Jeff's place. He is often teased by Arn and Ness (mainly the latter, who often tells him to go home), is shunned by other people for accidentally switching his body with a human like in *The Fly* (or so he says), and joins the party on Arn's promise of not saying anything again, which is mostly broken throughout the rest of the game, ironically. He is not able to use PSI, but able to use handy devices like Jeff (such as the Neutraliser), and his mandatory equippable is the Awesome Shades, which are received from a random camel who eventually appears in Arn's hometown.
* Sherm (full name being Sherman D. Orange): an anthropomorphic tangerine and a Prince from the Far East who takes Poo's place. He is there to 'scorn EBisumaru', and has his name, Sherman, abbreviated to Sherm by Arn to 'scorn EBisumaru even further'. He cannot eat regular foods or equip most of the weapons and other equippables due to being a tangerine, similarly to Poo. His equippables include the Citric Blade, Hat of Kings and Grove Armour, which are very occasionally dropped by the Gammaraid, Sir Tenda and Starman Super Duper respectively, he is able to use PSI Ice (Freeze), Electro (Thunder) and, eventually, Darkstorm (Starstorm), and he has no mandatory equippable, but he does have an item that's required to be in his inventory, namely the Really Rad Rock, which is found by the teleporters in the 'twilight zone'.

## Gameplay

The overall gameplay is the same as in the original EarthBound/Mother 2, with the text or battle systems being unchanged. Some of the bosses, however, are very strong, so levelling up a lot is mandatory in order to defeat them quicker and decrease the chance of a game-over.

Also, unlike both the original EarthBound/Mother 2 and Radiation's Halloween Hack, this hack actually has a secret ending that one can unlock by following a few important steps that are listed in its official strategy guide. The following video contains a tutorial with the most important steps to follow in order to unlock the hack's secret ending and what's so special about that ending, if one doesn't want to read the full strategy guide.

## Development

Like Radiation's Halloween Hack, this hack has most likely been made with PKHack, although Toby Fox's Wikipedia page states that it's been made with RPG Maker 2000.

## Reception

On the hack's page (see External links), the game has received two reviews for being good and challenging, despite its very random and mostly unclear plot. However, unlike Radiation's Halloween Hack, it's not very popular among players of EarthBound/Mother 2 and/or its hacks.

## Trivia

* This hack may not have custom music like Radiation's Halloween Hack, but it does contain four already-existent tracks with a few changed instruments, the most notable ones being a variation on 'Franky'/'New Age Retro Hippie' as heard when battling Starman Senior and Starman Funk, and a variation on 'Topolla Theatre, Home to the One & Only Venus'.
* Occasionally, when the player experiences a game-over in this hack and chooses to continue, Arn and his party are warped towards a glitchy area that is impossible to exit, mandating the player to start over. This mostly occurs when the player only just started a new save file.
* If the hack has been played for two hours straight (regardless if the player has saved or not), Radiation will call Arn and his companions. He asks if they think 'using speed-up and save states is cheap', and regardless of answering yes or no, he'll subsequently tell them that 'if they get to a hotel, that'll be lucky because there are none'. (Healing always happens on benches that the player occasionally finds in the hack, and the only hotel in the game is really a warp spot to the near end.)
* There's a glitch in the staff room/Magicant area, where Arn's sprite flashes to Ness's when walking while 'looking' at the player.

## External Links

* The hack's page
* The hack's strategy guide