EarthBound / MOTHER 2 Translation Comparison: Onett 2

Bookcase Hint

When you talk to the formerly shy guy in the Onett library, he tells you that he read the Overcoming Shyness book earlier. Then, in MOTHER 2, he says, “You should be able to find the book if you carefully ‘Check’ the bookcases.”

In EarthBound, he says, “You should be able to find it on the bookcase.”

Basically, the MOTHER 2 version makes it clear what you’re supposed to do – in fact the wording is exactly the same as elsewhere in the game when you were expected to use the “Check” command. Also, the English version for some reason uses the singular “bookcase”, even though there are multiple bookcases throughout the library.

In the end it’s not a big deal at all. It just seems weird that the localizers continue to go out of their way to make the clear hints less clear.

Overcoming Shyness

When you talk to the formerly shy guy again, in MOTHER 2 he says in English: “Hi! Nice to meet you.”

In EarthBound, he says, “Hi! Nice to meetchya!”

Being able to speak English in Japan is often (but not always) seen as being stylish. So by having him speak English in MOTHER 2, it shows that he’s REALLY broken out of his shyness.

The EarthBound version doesn’t have that same vibe, but the fact that he’s speaking emphatically and using a contraction shows that he’s broken out of his shyness in a different way. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a better way to handle this either, but it would have to involve making something up completely out of the blue.