I'm gonna just sidestep the ridiculous fact that this isn't officially available in the west, which I think overshadows the game itself.
The fan translation is incredibly done, and nails the strange humor and biting heart of Earthbound. (Shoutout to whichever Yinzer worked on the translation and snuck in a recommendation for the Dirty O) The characters and world feel truly human and real.
While the "feel" of Earthbound is very much carried over, the structure is radically different. Instead of the roadtrip-like open exploration of different cities in Mother and Earthbound, here you are mostly staying in one town and seeing how it radically changes throughout the game. There is a much more cinematic quality to the narrative, which, especially in the first few chapters, has an almost "Pulp Fiction"-esque temporality, switching between characters and seeing how they got to where they are now. While this lends itself to a very well-crafted narrative, it sacrifices player freedom- the gameplay is extremely linear, guiding you with map objectives and sometimes literal arrow-lizards pointing you where to go. You rarely have the feeling of stumbling upon a hidden joke or item off the beaten path.
The only other criticism I have is something that feels weird to point out, but I think has to be addressed one way or the other. While its tempting to embrace the Magypsies as like gender icons or whatever, their characterization does kind of rub me the wrong way a bit considering the hot springs encounter (which is kind of hard not to read as a child molestation joke?) and the 02 machines which comically kiss the children in your party. Like, I don't think it's a big deal necessarily, but it's a little weird how much the game plays with the joke of effeminate queer-coded characters touching kids.
Anyway, that aside it's a beautiful game, and the ending (while not as amazing as the surreal horror of the Gygas fight) has an emotional gut punch that totally wrecked me.
The fan translation is incredibly done, and nails the strange humor and biting heart of Earthbound. (Shoutout to whichever Yinzer worked on the translation and snuck in a recommendation for the Dirty O) The characters and world feel truly human and real.
While the "feel" of Earthbound is very much carried over, the structure is radically different. Instead of the roadtrip-like open exploration of different cities in Mother and Earthbound, here you are mostly staying in one town and seeing how it radically changes throughout the game. There is a much more cinematic quality to the narrative, which, especially in the first few chapters, has an almost "Pulp Fiction"-esque temporality, switching between characters and seeing how they got to where they are now. While this lends itself to a very well-crafted narrative, it sacrifices player freedom- the gameplay is extremely linear, guiding you with map objectives and sometimes literal arrow-lizards pointing you where to go. You rarely have the feeling of stumbling upon a hidden joke or item off the beaten path.
The only other criticism I have is something that feels weird to point out, but I think has to be addressed one way or the other. While its tempting to embrace the Magypsies as like gender icons or whatever, their characterization does kind of rub me the wrong way a bit considering the hot springs encounter (which is kind of hard not to read as a child molestation joke?) and the 02 machines which comically kiss the children in your party. Like, I don't think it's a big deal necessarily, but it's a little weird how much the game plays with the joke of effeminate queer-coded characters touching kids.
Anyway, that aside it's a beautiful game, and the ending (while not as amazing as the surreal horror of the Gygas fight) has an emotional gut punch that totally wrecked me.