Mother 2 Deluxe (README)

by Messianic


Come on over to the PKHack Discord at https://discord.gg/ZrNHqjuung where you can find a channel for this hack named “mother-2-deluxe” under the “project channels.” This is the best way to converse and comment on the hack, and to reach me directly! I will sometimes check the romhacking.net Mother 2 Deluxe forum topic as well but know the Discord is the best way to go.

What you need to play this hack:

Earthbound Patcher. This is to apply the ebp. Patch to a clean Earthbound ROM
An EB ROM. Duh. I'm sure you can manage to find this on your own.
The ebp. Patch found with the download.
A hardware-accurate emulator. Do not use Zsnes, No$nes or Snes9x, they will either crash or be buggy. Recommend Mesen-S or BSNES.
Unlearning whatever you remember from EB, this game changes a LOT.



These are some helpful hints for newcomers to Earthbound, or first time players of this hack.

This hack is HARDER than Earthbound, but nothing remotely close to a Kaizo version. Most of the hack is exactly where I want it in terms of difficulty, but there are still some areas that are more difficult than what I want them to be. Notably these areas are Onett, Grateful Dead Valley, Threek, and the Fourside Department Store. Also a few bosses are a bit OP, such as Mani Mani Devil and Ness' Demon. (These issues are being worked on for a 2.022 patch due in 2022.)
The PSI in this hack is rearranged, reorganized, and in the case of Pu, just straight up different. Ness gains Shield at lv 4, and Flash pretty early as well. USE THESE ABILITIES! Flash works properly on enemies and blinding them is a HUGE help.
Yo-yo hit entire ROWS of enemies, while Slingshots do not add miss rate and go through normal shields. Also Skip Sandiwches heal for MORE than Hamburgers. All this info should help you get through Onett more smoothly.
The translation in this hack is MUCH closer to the Japanese text, only exceptions are in places where it is linguistically impossible to translate. In those cases I made up a line that conveys the idea as closely as possible. This is most notable with the jokes of the man in the bar, and the guy in shades in the circus tent in Threek.
Sprites and palettes are changed to be larger, more vibrant, or just not looking like barf.
Enemies are INTELLIGENT now, especially bosses. They can detect status ailments you put on them and HEAL THEMSELVES, they also can react to certain things you do and counter with some nasty attacks. This is mainly for bosses, but late game enemies can do this as well.
If you are familiar with Earthbound you will have to UNLEARN some things as enemies have wholly different attack patterns now, and the game requires much more tactics. You cannot PK Freeze and auto battle your way through this hack.
Much more could be said, but this should be enough to ready people for hat is to come. ENJOY THE GAME! READ THE CHANGELOG!




Credits to people who have helped me make this hack:

The_Kirby: Responsible for the vast majority of ASM work in ALL versions before 2.0.
He Who Shall Not Be Named: Responsible for creating Coilsnake, the EB hacking platform.
Catador & phoenixbound: Responsible for the vast majority of major ASM tweaks in this hack!
JakeTheShrimp, D-Man, Chaz: Also contributed ASM goodness to the hack!
Jeffman: For the amazing PSI Animation Editor! And helping me to add new animations to the game without overwriting old ones!
And a BIG BIG shout-out to MEGAHARV!
Thank you for all your tedious, tedious playtesting, and also for being this hack’s hype-man!