Ok actually, I shouldn't have said dungeon. Really, the dungeons in Earthbound are more about fighting your way through a horde of enemies, or making you navigate a maze full of enemies (I'm seeing a trend here), which can be annoying in their own right, but then again that's what dungeons are for. More annoying are the non-dungeon places where in order to advance the storyline, you have to explore the entire town, talk to one guy, then explore the entire town again to find out what changed, then explore the entire town a third time just because the game likes watching you cry.
That happened in pretty much every town or main area in the game. A really good example is in the Dusty Dunes Desert, where you have to run all over the same 12 rooms like 30 times, shipping items back and forth between very demanding monkeys, all to get to visit Talah Rama or whatever his name is. Don't get me wrong - solving puzzles can be a rewarding experience, but Earthbound didn't even point you in the right direction half the time, and when it did, it usually meant trekking to the opposite end of the town or area just to chat with someone before running all the way back. Exploring is fun - the first time. Basically my point is that puzzles should be just that - puzzles. Anything that requires huge amounts of time to beat, with little skill involved, tends to get boring and annoying very fast.
Anyway, it's not that big a deal. We're not even up to that stuff yet, and if I tell you to make complex puzzles then I'm going to get stuck coding them, so I need to watch my mouth... As for Earthbound's length, I agree. Games that actually progress a lot are more interesting, because then you look back on it and go "Whoa, I've come a long way!". RPGs that try and cram gameplay down people's throats and are over in a few hours tend to feel rushed and less interesting than those that focus on actually building on the characters that you control. Granted, sometimes I want to get on with killing the badguys as opposed to listening to characters expound on their personal flaws, but there's enough room in an RPG for some non-storyline stuff, don't you agree?
I have to say though, if you're thinking of making your game bigger than Earthbound, it's going to take FOREVER. I mean, it's two people at the moment, and Earthbound had a full development team working on it and it still took them... uh actually I don't know how long it took them, but I'd say at least a year. Not that it worries me, just gotta be realistic here. Big games take time, especially if you have to draw ALL the graphics yourself (or code the entire thing from scratch). I've been working on my mini Pokemon MMO for like 4 years now and it's still not finished, though I attribute that partially to laziness on my part, and partially to the fact that nobody wants to help.
Anyway, custom colors should be a breeze to implement (at least, once I work out the Javascript commands for 'em). It took me a moment to figure out what you were saying about strawberry until I remembered the flavor thing right at the start of the game. Speaking of that, one of the things I really like about Earthbound is the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously (except at the epic boss battles or major plot points). Non-essential characters move in and out of character on a whim, enemies range from ridiculously dangerous to downright laughable with no apparent trend to it, and the game continually introduces random new mini quests that you have to go on to move the storyline along which keeps things interesting. Happy Happy village is a great example of that (blue, blue!).
On top of this, I just finished Earthbound a few hours ago and I have to say, they did a really good job with the final boss battle.
I thought the mood was great, albeit epilepsy-inducing. I got a few more pics for my little scrapbook of amusing scenarios too. I'll upload one more, since it's relevant to the comment you made about your mother encouraging you.
I thought you'd like the Kine one. It fit so perfectly to the character you have that I couldn't resist snapshotting it. Plus, it was a lot more flattering than later on when Dr. Andonuts brings up "Kine"'s bed-wetting habits. I have that one too, though now I've ruined the surprise by telling you about it.
Lastly, I downloaded Mother 3, but I'm scared to play it. If it's anywhere near as big as Earthbound, it's going to eat all my time as I can imagine it eating yours as we speak. This time I'll use their real names though... I think I'm all out of corny name jokes for the time being. I will add though that Prince Poo probably prefers the name I gave him...
I still have to work on my AI project, which is going decently, despite hitting several very annoying snags. Hopefully I'll be able to put all of that behind me soon and get my free time back for doing the fun stuff!
Oh yeah. When we finally put the finishing touches on your game, we should totally take this pic's suggestion!