Mother 1 + 2 fan translation

Back to updating this blog now. I've been too busy the last few months but finally handed in my PhD thesis on monday so have a bit more free time now.

Anyway I've recently played and finsihed the new fan translation of Mother 1 that has been completed by Tomato, one of the people responsible for translating the sublime Mother 3. You can pick up the translation patch for the GBA version of Mother 1+2 here:

http://mother12.earthboundcentral.com/

So far only Mother 1 is fully translated but there's not need for a mother 2 translation since it's available as Earthbound on the SNES with a damn fine localisation job.

When I originally played Mother 1 it was a rom of the unreleased version of the game. I found the ending excellent but thought that a little more exposition would have made it exceptional. I thought that this translation if truer to the original source would give the story of Mother 1 a bit more context. Well the new translation is still very close to the translation of the unreleased game. This isn't a slight on Tomato's translation skills but more an acknowledgement at how fantastic the original localisation was, even more amazing considering it was would have been released around 1990 and how terrible the localisations of games were not only in 1990 but for a decade afterwards. There's some text now included that was taken out such as a child talking about how much they love Dragon Quest 4, however most of the changes seem minor. The big revelation at the end of the game when everything comes together, which I was hoping would be improved, is only improved subtly.

The biggest change to the game is the easy ring, which is a piece of equipment you can find in your room at the start of the game that will increase your defense and also increase the experience and money you gain in battle. Mother 1 is a very old school grind heavy game which may not be for some people. The end game is also notoriously tough with some enemies that are way too powerful. The easy ring will let people that just want to experience the story and world of mother 1 breeze through the game in about 10 hours with little to no. It's a good thing since it allows people who are fans of the series but don't have the patience or time to get through what is normally a very difficult game to see everything the game has to offer. I used it on this playthrough of the game myself. It's totally optional as well in case you want to old school experience.

In summary if you are hoping for a new experience from the unreleased Mother 1/Earthbound Zero rom then this fan translation will not provide it. The original translation was excellent and this adds little to it already. However if you've been curious about this game but have been put off by its grind heavy nature then I'd recommend this version due to the easy ring accessory.