Earthbound Zero for NES - what's your opinion?

[Snapple]

I'm extremely tempted to just buy the import on GBA and read a translation guide. Has anyone ever tried that? I can't imagine its real easy.

GameFAQs and Starmen.net both have guides to allow non-Japanese speakers to fumble their way through the game, for those choosing to import. There are plenty of people who didn't want to wait to play it, even though they can't read the text.

I think it's going to be worth it to wait though. A big part of Earthbound is the humor and charm, and you can't get that if you can't read the text.

The Mother3.org group seems like they're further along in the project, but they started earlier. I think the Starmen.net translation is going to be the better one, because it has an all-star team working on it. The who's-who of fan translations: Tomato, Demi, and the guys at Aeon Genesis are all in on it. Nintendo themselves couldn't make a better localization.

All things aside I really did not enjoy this game. Nor did I enjoy the SNES release.

Just not my cup of tea?

It's not for everyone. I tried to show my roommate in college the joys of Earthbound, but he didn't like it either. I think both of you are crazy. I don't know what's not to like about it, but even the most critically praised games have their critics.