Mandelin certainly did the work here, but this book could only have been written by someone who has been an Earthbound/MOTHER fan for years. There’s an unimaginable amount of research on display here, covering every noteworthy line, every single reference, every graphical change, and even things beyond localization, like inspirations for locations and characters. In other instances, Nintendo of America deftly rewrote a joke into a different, equivalent, or funnier joke, or added richness to a previously boring line. Often, this knowledge was unknown by the (very talented, very thorough, very rushed) localization team, who translated the references literally and lost some of the meaning. The book goes as far as to explain specific references in sidebars, in case someone doesn’t know this one Japanese pop song from the 1960s, or this one Shigesato Itoi side project. Itoi once led an expedition for lost gold (?) on a reality TV show (?) Whole sections of the game reflect his own life, like the Gold Mine area. Characters speak in poetry – that references ancient Japanese poetry while also conveying game information. Writer Shigesato Itoi didn’t just write jokey text, he included layered musical allusions. Basically what I knew about Earthbound was that it was a “quirky,” cute RPG with jokey text.īut reading author Clyde Mandelin’s scene-by-scene examination of the game, I started to understand the depth that Earthbound fans see. Add the fact that I wasn’t lucky enough to get Earthbound back in 1994. I am not an ardent RPG player, and old-school RPGs are often too grindy and time-consuming for me. I’m not exactly an Earthbound superfan, which I hope doesn’t get me removed from Fangamer’s email list. It’s not just for people who already love Earthbound – in fact, it does more to explain the appeal of the game than anything I’ve ever read – but for anyone interested in how games work, how the localization process works, and the intricacies of RPG design.
It’s one of the best game-related books ever.
Legends of Localization Book 2: Earthbound is one of my favorite game-related books ever. Legends of Localization Book 2: Earthbound is a masterpiece about a masterpiece ⊟
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