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As someone who couldn't get into and didn't like the original Earthbound, I can safely say this is an improvement. The original script was bland, dry and seemed to try to hard to be funny without actually being interesting. The take on things this mod makes succeeds more where the original failed. While this project may not appeal to the hard-core EB fans, players with a sense of humor will likely enjoy the changes. Refraining from spoilers, if you want to play Earthbound in a way that will be more enjoyable, this is your mod. If you didn't like, or even hated, the original game, this might be interesting and worth a look. Thumbs up!

Having played this romhack for a while, I can say without a shred of doubt that the relocalization on this hack is rather poor work done. Which isn't a surprise as the creator of said hack has stated himself that he/she is not taking this seriously and laughs at our reaction to this be it good/bad.

Humor, a central part of Earthbound it's what added to the enjoyment and helped with the juxtapose of some scenarios of the game. A lot of the dry humor and subtle jokes that were in the original games have been replaced with humor that explains now joke to the reader and/or humor that is instead more cynical such as insulting Porky/Pokey more. Which could be fine if that was what the hacker intended for the whole game to be this. However, this hack seems to have a lack of identity on what it wants to be. Some cases, lines are altered to be closer to what the original text was. However, other lines are merely there to just belittle Itoi calling him a narcissist and other times the humor is just breaking the forth wall. More over just the hackers commentary while he/she played it. The hack is well... a mess. It isn't a hack so bad that you'll be able to laugh and riff on it like "Mystery Science theater 3000" which the author brings up in the game. Nor is it an interesting new way to experience Earthbound again. It's just an plain hack which, while interesting that the creator spent time altering a majority of the lines. It sadly wouldn't be worth your time playing the whole game through. At most getting through Onett and that's it.

If you want to play Mother 2/Earthbound properly re-localized, I would say you're better off playing the hack, MaternalBound. A hack that has two versions for players, one that relocalizes the entire game to match that of the original Japanese text and another version that fixes some mistakes in the localization and makes it uncut.

Mother 2.1 Relocalized is by its creators own admission NOT a serious attempt to relocalize the game. So what is it actually then? That's much harder to say. In some respects it does try to return the game to a state more similar to Mother 2 (i.e Pokey's character), however it is also full of Author inserts where he breaks the fourth wall just to lambastes the game and its creator Itoi. Aside from that you have attempts to explain the more subtle jokes in the game, or at times just replace the original dialogue entirely with a joke that didn't previously exist. For example the NPC that resembles Mr. T will now always have some line about "fool pittying". This all adds up to something that is neither a direct commentary, satire or "jokey-joke" about the game and certainly doesn't present itself as a genuine attempt to improve it. It simply exists. However I do think there is at least one interesting take away: the idea of a ROM hack that basically serves as the creators commentary track for the game, whether it be positive or negative. That is what this hack SHOULD have been. Unfortunately the author inserts are too few, and surrounded by too much confusion for this.

Ever had the issue of playing EarthBound, just to be confronted by a dry humor game with good punchlines, a lot of charm and actual effort in writing and localizing?

Angry that you just finished Undertale (Full disclosure I enjoyed Undertale) just to jump into EarthBound while realizing that this isn't your internet humor indie rpg from the 2010s?

Always wanted to have your game throwing a super self aware line here and there? Without any actual changes? The original script isn't cynical and salty enough? Having your character a slightly different name is a bad localization for you?

Well, fear not! This hack is totally for you! With amazing grade-A gags like "No Fat Chicks" or a totally witty one liner during the death of Buzz Buzz because that's totally """hilarious""".

"Come back if you finish EarthBound"? Nah, that's a good meta joke, let's change it to "Come back if you finish the game"

Mother 2.1 is the romhack for everyone who hates jokes and believe that Itoi's writing is narcissistic and pretentious!

Download now!

When I saw how pretentious the author's description of this mod was, I knew it was going to basically be a parody mod made by someone who had a personal vendetta against the EarthBound series. So I tried to make the playthrough as painless as possible, turning on cheats galore and trying to grit through the pain.

Look, I'll tell it to you straight: I didn't even grow up with this game. This isn't even my favorite EarthBound title. And I still have to admit this attempt at a "better localization" is just... objectively bad. The jokes are hamfisted and sound like something out of a Reddit post. This is just one big "eff you" to Itoi and EarthBound in general. And like, I get it-not every game is for everyone. But clearly, the author has too much time on their hands. Creating a total text conversion just because they found the game unenjoyable? I mean, I guess.

I'm still not sure how EarthBound could possibly be "pretentious" in their eyes, since it's just your basic "power of kids' good hearts triumphs over evil Space Flea" anime plot, but with a bunch of weird child humor. But to each their own.

Don't bother playing this. Try MaternalBound by ShadowOne333 if you want a "re-localized" EarthBound. And if nothing else, the retail game has a pretty good script on its own.

This translation was very clearly made by someone who does not like Earthbound. For example, it replaces a sign that said "Development meeting for Earthbound 2" with a rant about how Itoi and the game are pretentious. I am not kidding. It seriously does that. There's no good reason to play this instead of the official localization.