EarthBound / MOTHER 2 Translation Comparison: Onett

Police World Record

In EarthBound, the police officer guarding a road block at the beginning of the game says, “We are going for the world record…” when talking about Onett’s claim to fame: putting up roadblocks.

In MOTHER 2, he says, “We’re going for the Guinness record.” This very slight change was probably made to avoid any legal issues, however small they may be. You know how uptight legal department people can be.

Liar X. Agerate’s Name

In EarthBound, a strange recluse known as Lier X. Agerate discovers the Mani Mani statue. In MOTHER 2, this same guy is called Lier Horando. In Japanese, “hora” means something like “exaggeration”.

Door Knocking

When Pokey’s pounding on the door in MOTHER 2, the little text bubble says, “DON”. EarthBound’s text bubble just has a big exclamation mark.

”DON” is Japanese onomatopoeia (a sound effect word) often used for loud pounding. It’d be hard to fit anything in English in such a small space and make it look good, so the localizers chose to put an exclamation mark in there instead.

Pokey & Picky Get Punished

In MOTHER 2, Pokey’s freaking out because Picky’s missing and if their parents find out, he’ll “get spanked 100 times”.

In EarthBound, they wrote around this by just using a vague phrase that still gets the general idea across while avoiding the idea of child abuse/violence. The localizers actually did this “writing-around stuff with vaguer phrases” trick a lot, as we’ll see soon enough.

The Dog Speaks

In EarthBound, if you take your dog up to the meteorite, he’ll get scared and run away, but not before saying, “Awooooof!” and then some other stuff in parentheses. In MOTHER 2, He doesn’t make any sort of dog noise, he just makes a bunch of exclamations in parentheses then says his stuff. Not a big deal, and in fact, the English version seems to be cooler/funnier in this case.

Meeting Buzz Buzz

In EarthBound, the helpful bee (or not a bee) that starts your quest is actually a rhinoceros beetle (or not) in MOTHER 2.

In addition, his name is Bunbuun in MOTHER 2, which is the Japanese word for the buzzing sound that flying insects make.

Buzz Buzz Speaks

When Buzz Buzz first starts talking in MOTHER 2, he often speaks in a normal way and then suddenly changes his speech pattern to be that of a stereotypical old wise man. He does it in a funny way that’s hard to describe if you don’t know Japanese, but it’s almost like he forgets to talk old until the very last second. I’m fairly certain it’s meant to parody all the old wise men in other RPGs that tell you about legends and myths and prophecies and stuff all serious-like.

Because of the way English works, though, this little language humor doesn’t really work in translation.

While I’m on the subject of Buzz Buzz’s talking, here’s a side-by-side comparison of what he says in both games.

At first glance they’re not that different. We see that the localizers took out the “hell” mention.

Digging a little deeper, we also see that the legend is ever-so-slightly different, and it’s clear from the Japanese version that the “nightmare rock” is referring to some sort of REALLY big rock, like the size of a boulder or bigger. I’m assuming that it’s referring to Gyiyg himself, since you have to go back in time to defeat him, only after getting powered up by the universe.

You can also see some slight nuance differences between both versions, although it’s mostly pretty minor stuff.

Starman Jr. Speaks

In Japanese, all the Starman characters who talk use only katakana in their speech. This is a common way to denote robotic-style voices, and in English translations, it’s often common to translate stuff like that in all-caps. In EarthBound, they kept Starman speech in the normal speaking style, so it’s not as obvious they should be talking non-standardly.

To make up for this, the localization added in things like “click” and “whirr”, although this gives the possibly false impression that the Starmen are mechanical in nature.

Starman Junior’s Backstory

After the Starman Junior is defeated, Buzz Buzz mentions in EarthBound that the Starman Junior had been sent 10 years from the future to kill him. It’s actually interesting to see the word “kill” used in the English localization like that.

Anyway, in the Japanese version, this particular line is more like, “He was a hired killer/assassin who came here from 10 years in the future to eliminate me.”

Basically, it sounds like Giygas hired the Starman Junior to get rid of Buzz Buzz. Does this mean all Starman enemies are mercenaries or something? Fans have often wondered if they’re Giygas’ creation or aliens or something else; maybe this will offer some extra insight for theories.

Pokey’s Parents

Pokey and Picky get in trouble for being out so late, so their father punishes them. The sound made to signify this is different between MOTHER 2 and EarthBound. MOTHER 2’s version sounds like some kind of crazy beating sound effect, while EarthBound uses the “angry yelling” sound effect there.

We see throughout the game – mostly here and at the end of the game – that the localizers toned down a lot of little things about Pokey’s family like this. It’s nothing too big, but it’s obvious they made a conscious effort to write around stuff like this, since Nintendo games were supposed to be absolutely-family friendly back in those days.

Pokey’s Punishment

After Pokey is punished by his father, if you go talk to him in MOTHER 2, he says, “I was really scolded by my father. Aa, my butt hurts.” But in EarthBound he says, “My dad really got after me. He said I get no dessert for the rest of the decade…”

Financial Assistance

In MOTHER 2, Pokey’s dad says they might’ve lent Ness’ family hundreds of trillions of dollars. In EarthBound, he says it was maybe a hundred thousand dollars or so.

The phrasing of the Japanese number, though, is equivalent to saying something like “a hundred million jillion dollars” in English. Why they edited it to be 100,000, which is a very realistic amount of money isn’t clear. It might’ve been a localization goof.

Buzz Buzz Annoys

When Lardna freaks out in MOTHER 2, she screams, “Eeeeek! A pesky toilet fly! Die and go to Hell!” In EarthBound, she screams, “Ayaaaeee! I think it’s a dung beetle! I’ll smash your guts out!”

Obviously, the last part of the original line had to be changed to meet Nintendo’s standards. I feel the change to “dung beetle” made it funnier than the original, though.

Incidentally, in MOTHER 1+2, this Japanese line was revised to simply say “pesky fly” rather than “pesky toilet fly”:

Later on in Twoson, another line about flies landing on food got changed in MOTHER 1+2. Is there something about flies that’s bad in Japanese games all of a sudden?

Buzz Buzz Fades

Also a common theme to EarthBound’s localization was the “writing around” of references to death and dying. In Buzz Buzz’s final speech, he mentions how he’s about to die, how death is near, etc. but in the English version, they use colorful phrases to write around the actual words of “death” and “dying”. The original text wasn’t dark or anything, so this isn’t a big deal, but you can tell the writers purposely used different phrases to talk about the death stuff in a less direct way.

You can also see that a few little lines were left out or added. None of it matters much to what he’s saying, but it’s still interesting to note.

Photo Man Speaks

In EarthBound, the photographer’s famous line is, “Say, ‘Fuzzy Pickles!'” In MOTHER 2, it’s, “Say, ‘Cheese Sandwich!'”.

In the years since EarthBound’s release, many fans have noted that real photographers have been saying the fuzzy pickles line. Was this started by EarthBound, or is this a real, but lesser-known phrase that photographers have always used? Quick, to the book depository!

Gamepad Color Issue

When you pick up the town map from the librarian, she tells you how to use it. In MOTHER 2, she tells you that if you press the X button, the map will pop up. She then tells you that the X button is the same as the blue button. In EarthBound, she doesn’t mention blue buttons at all.

This is because in Japan the buttons on the controllers are color-coded. But they’re not in North America. Instead, the X and Y buttons are concave, and the A and B buttons are convex.

Map Changes

When you do press the blue button in MOTHER 2, or the X Button in EarthBound, a map of the current town will pop up. As you can see, the localizers made some slight changes to the EarthBound map. “DRUG” has been changed to “SHOP”. I’m not sure why, as the store in the Dusty Dunes Desert has a big sign that says “DRUGS”, so why fix this tiny instance of “DRUG”?

Also changed is the red cross pointing to the hospital. Red cross changes are a big part of the changes made to EarthBound, as we’ll see soon enough.

Lastly, if you look really closely, you can see that the Os in “FOOD” in the EarthBound map are larger than the Os in “FOOD” in the MOTHER 2 map. Somebody was probably just being nitpicky when editing this stuff real quick.

Mayor Pirkle’s Name

In MOTHER 2, the mayor of Onett is named G. H. Pirkle, but in EarthBound his name is B. H. Pirkle. What could’ve caused them to want to change that? What do the acronyms even mean?

We see elsewhere in the script that the mayor’s name is pronounced as “GeHa Pikaru” in Japanese. “GeHa” is an anagram of the word “hage”, which means “bald” or “baldy”.

Incidentally, the “B. H.” in EarthBound stands for “Bald Head”.

Ruffini the Dog Speaks

In EarthBound, Ruffini the Dog is possessed by the spirit of the game designer, then gives the player some gameplay tips.

In MOTHER 2, the dog’s name is “Itako Dog”. An “itako” is a type of Japanese spirit shaman or summoner or medium. It’s tough to explain, so see this for more detailed information.

It’s not clear where the name Ruffini comes from, but I’m assuming it’s a combination of “ruff”, a barking sound, and the name Houdini. I don’t remember Houdini ever possessing anyone though, so I could be wrong.

Classic Comedy Localization

In EarthBound, one of the residents of Onett gives you a pop quiz:

”OK, pop quiz!’A Beatles song, XXXterday. Can you fill in the blanks?”

Your choices are “Yes” and “No”.

In MOTHER 2, the same guy asks this:

”OK, quiz.’OOdi, Girl of the Alps’. What goes in the place of OO?”

You get to pick from “hai” (yes) or “iie” (no).

The answer, “Haidi”, is the Japanese name for Heidi, Girl of the Alps, whose story became incredibly popular in Japan decades ago after an animated TV drama of it was aired there.

Delivery Truck Logo

In MOTHER 2, the logo on the red delivery truck has the word “Come” and a little swoosh underneath it. In EarthBound, the logo is of a stick man running.

Why this change was made is open to conjecture, however, the most likely cause is that the swoosh-like logo looked too much like Coca-Cola’s logo.

Forbidden Crosses

The signs on the hospitals in Onett are different. The MOTHER 2 hospital has a red cross on it, while the EarthBound version does not.

To make the change less obvious, there’s a bunch of scribbling added to the EarthBound sign. But who’d be able to read such small text written on the top of a tall building? Weird.

Also, just as the red crosses on the hospitals have been removed, so too have the red crosses on the nurses’ head thingies:

The reason for this change was to avoid any legal problems with the Red Cross organization. The red cross symbol is actually a copyrighted logo, not a generic symbol. The legal guys at NOA probably were aware of this and told the localizers to ditch the red crosses on the hospitals and anywhere else.

In fact, just very recently even, the Canadian Red Cross has started to go after game creators for misuse of the logo. Related Link Here

Police Superhero

In MOTHER 2, one of the cops you fight says something like, “Policemen are even stronger than Superman, you know!”

In EarthBound, he says, “Your average policeman is stronger than any super hero!”

The legal guys at NOA probably didn’t want to risk any mentions of copyrighted characters in this game, and thus had the localizers write around it with “super hero”.

This same cop also gives a quite unexpected martial arts war cry, often used in things like sumo wrestling.

Captain Strong Speaks

In EarthBound, Captain Strong of the Onett police force threatens to use his “Super Ultra Mambo-Tango-Foxtrot martial arts”.

In MOTHER 2, he threatens to use his “Super Ultra Sambo Mambo martial arts”. I’m not sure if it’s a reference to the martial art known as Sambo or not, though.

Onett Mouse House

In MOTHER 2, the scuzzy guy in the mouse house says something like, “I’m taking the liberty of living in the mice’s home and mooching off of them.”

In EarthBound, he says, “I live rent-free in the mouse’s house.”

The problem here is that the translation sort of glossed over a joke that’s obvious in the Japanese version. The idea in the Japanese version is that this is a juxtaposition of roles — usually mice live in people’s homes and mooch off of them and are pests, but this house is the opposite — mice live here and a bummish scuzzy guy lives there and mooches off of them and is a pest.

The problem is that the Japanese word used isn’t easy to translate into a single English word, so the translators probably said something like, “I live here without paying the mice”, and then the non-Japanese-knowing editors turned that into the rent-free line. The joke is still there, though, but not as obvious. So now you know!

Secret Magazine Story

If you pay $7500 to a guy in Onett, you’ll get your very own beachside house… that’s actually a dump and is even missing an entire wall.

If you look inside the dresser, you’ll find a special magazine with a special story. In EarthBound, the story is translated as:

”My Secret Life, chapter three.” (Story from the previous chapter.)

I was neither a murder suspect, nor a target for an international spy organization. But I drove a car down the Jersey Turnpike at 80 mph.

…A police officer pulled me over and asked for my driver’s license. He said I was going 20 mph over the speed limit.

I instantly pointed to my wife and said “I’m in a hurry, my wife is in labor.” Fortunately, my wife actually had a big stomach. I hoped he’d let me go with this excuse.

”Oh, since it’s an emergency. I’ll lead you to the hospital with my police car,” he said.

”No, it’s not necessary.”

”Why not?” asked the officer.

”Uh… well…”

”Let’s get going,” said the officer…

”No, no! We can’t! This baby is a demon child!”

I’m often asked if the story is different in Japanese. It’s actually almost exactly the same, though. The only major differences are:

• The Japanese version simply says “Koshu Kaido” instead of “Jersey turnpike”
• And the Japanese version says “80 kph” instead of “80 mph”

Incidentally, this story is completely original – it isn’t from any real-life book Itoi wrote or anything. For some reason, people think it is.

Also, it looks like NOA kept the “demon” reference in. I’m glad they did!