Earthbound (Blind) - Part 5 : Peaceful Rest Valley (Stream Archive) 

"*TOAST ABANDONED the cookie." is one heckuva sentence. That poor cookie now has abandonment issues... even two-three years later.

I think this is where I called it quits on this game when I played after having bought a used copy (and probably why they gave you the Player's Guide free with it).

I won't lie. As much as I like Earthbound for its quirky, silly humor, and the feeling of being kids on a zany trip around the world, I think Mother 3 is much better in terms of pacing and gameplay overall. The beginning portions of Earthbound are very slow going, with a number of sudden difficulty spikes and forced grinding. It's something that persists throughout the entire game, although the worst of it is at the beginning. So I can see why this would be a deal-breaker for some. Also, fun fact: the Japanese name for Peaceful Rest Valley is "Grateful Dead Valley." It was either changed to avoid a legal conflict with the real life band Grateful Dead, or to avoid saying the word dead, because 90's Nintendo censorship. Either way, I like Peaceful Rest Valley better because of its ironic name.