Mother 2 Deluxe is a EarthBound ROM Hack made by Messianic from Starmen.net. It was originally released in 2015, then it was given a 2.0 update in 2021 with a major overhaul.
The overall game experience remains largely the same as the original, but with several major revamps. The translation is selectively more accurate to the Japanese original (Pokey is Porky, Giygas is Gyiyg, the Runaway Five are the Runaway Brothers), but still maintains many elements from the English localization (the Pencil and Eraser statues are unchanged, for instance). The main change is a complete difficulty and balance overhaul, tweaking the game to be considerably harder than the original. Additionally, several issues from the original have been fixed or adjusted, improving the overall player experience (such as Jeff's various battle items being sorted into their own separate menu).
Version 2.0, released in 2021, includes entirely new content such as new enemy types, most drawn from both the previous and future installments, including an entirely new, added dungeon and boss battle after defeating Gyiyg, which ties in with the events of Mother 3.
The most recent patch can be found here
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This game contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Every single enemy, from the lowly Spiteful Crow up to endgame threats like the Ghost of Starman, have had a significant boost in some combination of power, hit points, or AI. This is especially true of the game's bosses, many of whom require crippling via status effects to stand any sort of chance against them.
- Adaptation Expansion: The hack expands upon some areas from the original game, and adds new ones:
- The caves at Winters have gained a new room leading to the entrance to Rainy Circle.
- New bosses were added to the ends of some dungeons that originally lacked them.
- The post-credits ending scene has now been expanded to a full gameplay sequence in which Ness is abducted by Porky and taken to the Paradox, an entirely new dungeon.
- New dungeons besides the aforementioned are planned for an update yet to release as of this edit.
- All There in the Manual: The Paradox dungeon is named only in the secret debug room.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- While the inventory space retains many of its original issues, Jeff's numerous battle items are now sorted into a separate "Tools" category, freeing up much of his inventory space. Also, like Boney in Mother 3, Jeff can actually steal items from enemies mid-battle.
- Many enemy types in the original share overworld sprites (many of the alien and machine enemies share a single floating diamond sprite, for example), making it impossible to tell which enemy you'll be facing until entering a battle. The hack gives every enemy its own unique set of overworld sprites.
- Bittersweet Ending: The game's expanded ending ties into the story of Mother 3, revealing Porky's abduction of Dr. Andonuts and hinting toward Porky's sadness over becoming an enemy to Ness.
- Brain in a Jar: The Mr. Mind enemy in the Paradox dungeon.
- Call-Forward: Porky mocks Ness throughout the Paradox Dungeon, revealing that he has kidnapped Jeff's father and created a pig army, alluding to the events of Mother 3.
- Composite Character: The Old Robot enemy is the Wobbly Robot from Mother 3, but takes the name of the Old Robo from EarthBound Beginnings.
- Developer's Foresight:
- The Eraser Eraser Statue was placed midway through the entrance to the Stonehenge Base in the original. The hack moves it to the very beginning of the dungeon so as to hide the nature of the base until the statue can be removed.
- In the original game, many of the Sanctuary locations can be visited out of order, including the last. In the hack, while some non-linearity remains, you must clear the first seven before you can enter Fire Spring.
- If the "Your Place" dungeons are visited out of order, their difficulty will scale order in which you visit them, with the enemies and bosses receiving upgrades to increase their challenge appropriately.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Much like the original, losing a battle will leave Ness standing with no PP and the rest of your party unconscious. Here, however, you will not lose half of the money you have on hand, making it safer to carry larger amounts of money around freely and use it to revive party members in hospitals.
- Divergent Character Evolution: The 2.0 update made numerous changes to enemy and NPC sprites.
- The Mini Barf is given a new sprite, making it look like a smaller version of Master Belch. That new sprite is also used for the Huge Barfy Slime enemy in the Deep Darkness.
- The Kraken encountered during the trip to Scaraba is given a new battle sprite.
- All enemies that shared overworld sprites in the original now have entirely new, unique sprites of their own. The floating diamond sprite previously used for many alien and machine enemies is now repurposed as a new enemy type in the form of a Octahedron encountered in the Paradox dungeon.
- Gauss in the original had the same sprite as the Unassuming Local Guy, but as given a new sprite.
- The End... Or Is It?: Much like the original game, the end has Ness and and his family being awoken by Picky knocking on the door, wondering where his brother is. Unlike the original, you can travel out to find Porky waiting at the meteorite landing site, whereupon he will drag Ness into the Paradox dungeon, eventually leading to another battle with Porky before the game ends on its "To Be Continued" screen.
- Hard Mode Perks: As seen in a trailer released for the hack, options will exist to tone the game's difficult down to either vanilla EarthBound's or an easier version of Mother 2 Deluxe's, though playing the hack on its standard difficult, or the newly added Insane difficulty will unlock new dungeons for the player to explore.
- Midair Bobbing: Many flying enemies now bob up and down onscreen during battle.
- Mythology Gag: The infamous "Don't go to Heaven!" line remains, since it was always there even in Japanese, but as a nod to the common belief among fans that it was a form of awkward censorship, a completely different Happy Happyist now screams at you to "Go to hell!" as well.
- Railroading: Unlike the original game, certain optional events are now required to progress through the story.
- Talking to Lier X. Agerate about the unearthed Mani Mani Devil at the start of the game was previously optional, but it is now mandatory to meet him before you can battle Frank.
- True Final Boss: Even though Gyiyg is the main cause of the game, he is not the final boss. Porky ends up taking this spot.
- Truer to the Text: The hack's script is generally closer to the original Japanese version in most places, barring a handful of localization changes that are particularly well loved, like some of the enemy names and the Pencil and Eraser Statues/Erasers.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Porky's continuous time-traveling causes him to appear much older as he repeatedly appears to mock Ness throughout the Paradox dungeon, while Ness himself spends only a matter of hours in the dungeon.
