Once upon a time this project had a topic on this website but it was ultimately locked due to controversy and general confusion. These problems have hence been eliminated over the past years and now is back in full swing, better than ever!

Project trailer:

http://youtu.be/NVUecDkdMM0

Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mother-2-GBA-Translation/231332216883157

Patch download:

http://earthboundcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=526

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is this project?

This project is all about hacking the Mother 2 side of Mother 1+2 into English.

But why the GBA version? EarthBound is so much better!

Three reasons: One, I wanted to complete what Tomato started but didn’t finish. Two, it’s a great learning experience for me because game programming and software design is my passion. Three, so fans of the Mother series can play all three games on the go.

What’s with the pictures on some items?

Those are the item icons. They are used with equipment due to character limitations. Without them, there would be a 9-letter limit, which is quite restrictive and doesn’t have much flexibility. With item icons we have much more space. The old Final Fantasy games used this same sort of system (If I’m not mistaken, Final Fantasy 4 used them) and since this game is a parody of them I thought it might be neat to take a page from their book.

Are you re-translating the game from scratch?

No, we are taking the script from EarthBound and modifying it according to Tomato’s Mother 2 vs. EarthBound comparison on Legends of Localization. There will also be some modification because of the smaller screen space.

Is this compatible with Tomato’s Mother 1 translation?

Yes, in fact the patch has his translation already inserted. I don’t think there will be any issues patching over it, but you might want to patch a clean rom just to be sure.

Are you using the Japanese names like Threek, Gumi, etc.?

Yes, we are using Threek instead of Threed, Gumi instead of Tenda, etc, but we will be using Burglin instead of Nusutto because Nusutto literally means burglar, and Burglin was a localization of that. We’ll also be changing the octopus and eraser statues to pencil and eraser statues due to the English wordplay involved. The only thing up in the air right now is the Tonzura Brothers, changing that name all depends on one major factor: the theater sign in Twoson. If we can figure out how to change that, we will change to Runaway Brothers. If not, they will stay Tonzura Brothers for consistency.

What about Everdred?

There was a big issue with him in the last topic, but we have come to the consensus of sticking with Everdred. We’re using other EarthBound things as reference so it just makes sense to stick with EarthBound on his name too. It also make the whole “do we literally translate his name or localize it” issue moot, so that’s a plus too.

What name are you using for the final boss?

We are using Gyiyg because that’s how the actual spelling is on the gas station screen in-game and we want the patch to remain consistent with names. Hacking the gas station screen is way too much work for just a simple localization issue. And before you say Gyiyg sounds weird, it’s said like “geeg”; basically the first “y” is silent.

The text is all messed up, there’s random letters and pictures!

Any dialogue we have not translated is unfortunately affected by this. Long story short, the game is printing out the text like it should, but it comes out like garbage because of the new font and item icons. This doesn’t affect the gameplay, the game still runs perfectly, but it’s an unfortunate downside you will have to deal with until we get all the dialogue translated.

Will my saves be compatible with future updates?

Yes, saves should be compatible with any updates. The only thing that may mess up is the character names, but everything else should work fine.

What’s the current status of the project?

After patch a2 is released, we will be assisting Jeffman with his project which is many many times better than this ever will be. Stay tuned for future updates.

Special thanks to:

Tomato, for his awesome translation and tools and for the help that he has provided, which made this translation possible.

Jeffman, for helping with the translation via his unsuccessful VWF hack. Without him, the translated file select and naming screens would not have been possible.

Pranavmeno, for helping with the project in early stages and being a great internet friend.

Naito, for graphics editing and other various project things.

Lestat of Romhacking.net and Serafym, for creating the item icons

BB Gang Zombie, for assisting in text insertion and just being overall helpful.

Iggy, for assisting with text insertion and giving feedback on ideas.

Pumpkinboy, for designing the intro image.

Known bugs: