I played Earthbound Beginnings in the form of the 25th Anniversary Edition a few months ago. I really did enjoy it and it was amazing to see how many elements of Earthbound originated with that game. I will say that I thought they made the game too easy with the rebalancing. I kind of just breezed through it, except for a couple battles. Something in between that and the original would have been perfect.
Director of Chrono Trigger, Takashi Tokita, directed Live a Live the year prior. Definitely a throughline there.