amphibious_ReViews

The follow-up to the cult-classic EarthBound , Mother 3 never officially came to the West, but that didn't stop its fans from doing the work themselves. I'm so used to translation efforts for games that I care about petering out before anything playable comes from them, so I was shocked to learn that the fan translation for Mother 3 came out as soon as it did. With an initial Japanese release in 2006, the translation patch came out just two and a half years later and expertly replicated EarthBound's voice and tone. While an official translation would be amazing to see someday, there are certain elements to the game that I think will prevent that from ever happening, and other than a few Easter eggs, I can't see anything that Nintendo would need to change from the fans' amazing work anyway. However, the fan translation wouldn't be very exciting if the game itself wasn't as well-crafted as it was. I loved how Mother 3 approached its narrative. As an evolution ...

I was born late enough that all the discourse I heard about EarthBound described it as a hidden gem, so much so that I wouldn't even consider it "hidden" anymore. Fueled by these discussions and a curiosity about the enigmatic psychic kids in Smash Bros., I was excited to give the series a try. However, being who I am, I couldn't start with the sequel when there's a whole NES predecessor I still hadn't played. After multiple attempts over the past few years, I realized that was a losing battle and ended up playing EarthBound without finishing Mother (EarthBound Beginnings). While I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't maintain my motivation in the NES original, I'm ultimately glad I gave up because EarthBound is just so much better. The SNES is an absolute juggernaut when it comes to RPGs, but this game is genuinely unique amongst its peers, truly standing out amongst the crowd. EarthBound is obviously a JRPG, and it doesn't hide that fact f...