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chuckroEarthbound, which in many ways was just an extremely quirky Dragon Quest clone, was actually one of the best-localized games of my childhood. While there was a bunch of censorship and a few localization changes, the US version of the game managed to have both a decent fidelity to the original and a ton of personality.
Strange, then, that there are so many variations and forks of fan-translations for a game that, at best, needed a handful of corrections. This seems to be one of the more well-regarded ones; and it generally just removes some censored bits (a spanking noise, references to God, the “Drugs” sign on pharmacies, a naked Ness sprite in one area) and fixes the grammar in a couple of places. It also changes the title screen to “Mother 2”, changes the town Threed to Threek, changes the Runaway Five to the Runaway Brothers (there are six of them), and adds a run button. The thing is, all of these are minor changes that aren’t necessary (though I did appreciate that last one). If there was a proper remake of the game I’d expect a few of them, and this is clearly a fan attempt at making a “definitive” version of the game, but it's one of the few SNES games that really doesn’t need it.
The overall plot of this game is just a standard “collect the eight macguffins and defeat the evil warlord” plot that so, so many games use. But it distinguishes itself by being set in a fantasy modern-day; by being quirky and irreverent and making fart jokes; and by being wacky but never to the point where you feel it doesn’t hold together. Everything is internally consistent and you never get thrown out of the story. Like a well-written cartoon show, you go along with the goofy bits because they make sense with the world that was presented.
That said, systems-wise, I think the game has a bunch of flaws. It pioneered a brilliant random-battle management system that I don’t think enough games took (if you’re significantly stronger than an enemy, the battle jumps straight to the win screen and just hands you the rewards, saving you the time), but the map-screen enemies cluster in weird ways and it’s often hard to avoid nasty battle combinations. The battles themselves are much, much more dependent on the RNG than most jrpgs: Critical hits and misses are both very common; plenty of enemies have severely-debilitating status effects that can ruin a dungeon run; summoning more monsters is also a common ability; but almost every enemy also has a “waste time” move that they might use three turns in a row. Bosses might use “Blast away 90% of your health” three turns in a row, or they might stare off into space. The PK Thunder spell class deals more damage than Fire or Freeze, but it also has a random chance of hitting the target, which includes a high chance of just missing or a low chance of hitting a friend. The rolling HP meter occasionally changes the turn-based battles into action battles, because you’re supposed to be able to recover from taking twice your total HP in damage by clicking on healing items fast enough. Dumb luck can throw you back to your last save point more often than I feel is fair; and dumb luck can get you in over your head in a dangerous area very quickly, as well.
(The 1/128 chance rare items don’t incur my wrath. You don’t need them to finish the game; they’re either lucky bonuses or collectables for the completionists to farm for.)
Combine that with the very limited inventory and the very large number of plot-specific items. Ness loses a quarter of his slots for things like the ATM card, the Sound Stone, the Receiver Phone, and the Town Map; which you always need to be carrying but could all have been folded into the base system. You have a storage locker you can call for pickup from (or visit your sister), but by the end of the game, that can also end up packed with plot coupons you don’t need and repaired items you can’t sell.
And finally, the publishers were absolutely right to pack-in the strategy guide with the SNES release of the game, because there are a number of points where you don’t have a lot of useful direction as to how to continue the plot. I played through this multiple times in my teens, but the last time I touched it was apparently a half-playthrough in 2009, and there were a lot of things I had forgotten or remembered in the wrong order. And I’m not sure how anyone would figure out how to beat Giygas without being told.
Overall: I always appreciated the delightful quirkiness of this game. There are some aspects of the systems that hadn’t made it out of the NES-hard era (and the hack doesn’t touch those), but the plot and worldbuilding are whimsical and fun. The translation hack isn’t necessary, but it doesn’t detract either.
Strange, then, that there are so many variations and forks of fan-translations for a game that, at best, needed a handful of corrections. This seems to be one of the more well-regarded ones; and it generally just removes some censored bits (a spanking noise, references to God, the “Drugs” sign on pharmacies, a naked Ness sprite in one area) and fixes the grammar in a couple of places. It also changes the title screen to “Mother 2”, changes the town Threed to Threek, changes the Runaway Five to the Runaway Brothers (there are six of them), and adds a run button. The thing is, all of these are minor changes that aren’t necessary (though I did appreciate that last one). If there was a proper remake of the game I’d expect a few of them, and this is clearly a fan attempt at making a “definitive” version of the game, but it's one of the few SNES games that really doesn’t need it.
The overall plot of this game is just a standard “collect the eight macguffins and defeat the evil warlord” plot that so, so many games use. But it distinguishes itself by being set in a fantasy modern-day; by being quirky and irreverent and making fart jokes; and by being wacky but never to the point where you feel it doesn’t hold together. Everything is internally consistent and you never get thrown out of the story. Like a well-written cartoon show, you go along with the goofy bits because they make sense with the world that was presented.
That said, systems-wise, I think the game has a bunch of flaws. It pioneered a brilliant random-battle management system that I don’t think enough games took (if you’re significantly stronger than an enemy, the battle jumps straight to the win screen and just hands you the rewards, saving you the time), but the map-screen enemies cluster in weird ways and it’s often hard to avoid nasty battle combinations. The battles themselves are much, much more dependent on the RNG than most jrpgs: Critical hits and misses are both very common; plenty of enemies have severely-debilitating status effects that can ruin a dungeon run; summoning more monsters is also a common ability; but almost every enemy also has a “waste time” move that they might use three turns in a row. Bosses might use “Blast away 90% of your health” three turns in a row, or they might stare off into space. The PK Thunder spell class deals more damage than Fire or Freeze, but it also has a random chance of hitting the target, which includes a high chance of just missing or a low chance of hitting a friend. The rolling HP meter occasionally changes the turn-based battles into action battles, because you’re supposed to be able to recover from taking twice your total HP in damage by clicking on healing items fast enough. Dumb luck can throw you back to your last save point more often than I feel is fair; and dumb luck can get you in over your head in a dangerous area very quickly, as well.
(The 1/128 chance rare items don’t incur my wrath. You don’t need them to finish the game; they’re either lucky bonuses or collectables for the completionists to farm for.)
Combine that with the very limited inventory and the very large number of plot-specific items. Ness loses a quarter of his slots for things like the ATM card, the Sound Stone, the Receiver Phone, and the Town Map; which you always need to be carrying but could all have been folded into the base system. You have a storage locker you can call for pickup from (or visit your sister), but by the end of the game, that can also end up packed with plot coupons you don’t need and repaired items you can’t sell.
And finally, the publishers were absolutely right to pack-in the strategy guide with the SNES release of the game, because there are a number of points where you don’t have a lot of useful direction as to how to continue the plot. I played through this multiple times in my teens, but the last time I touched it was apparently a half-playthrough in 2009, and there were a lot of things I had forgotten or remembered in the wrong order. And I’m not sure how anyone would figure out how to beat Giygas without being told.
Overall: I always appreciated the delightful quirkiness of this game. There are some aspects of the systems that hadn’t made it out of the NES-hard era (and the hack doesn’t touch those), but the plot and worldbuilding are whimsical and fun. The translation hack isn’t necessary, but it doesn’t detract either.
