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Discussion It’s time to give up on an international release (localization) of Mother 3

JB2448

JB2448

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Back in February, the Japanese Nintendo Direct announcement of Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Online app was a massive deal. For the first time, people all over the world that were subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack could play Mother 3 legally, albeit only in Japanese. Not only that, but the entire trilogy was getting Nintendo Switch Online icons, the first and second set of which were internationally distributed! For the first time in a long time, there was hope for fans that the third game in the series might get its well deserved international time in the limelight outside of the excellent fan translation that’s been available for a decade-and-a-half.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. The icons for Mother 3 were the first non-live-event example of region locking icons for the service. That said, due to the rather flexible nature of region switching on Nintendo Accounts (the most flexible of the console holders, believe it or not), this wasn’t an issue for diehard fans that wanted access to the icons. Hope still remained that a localization announcement could be around the corner.


www.1101.com

The Music of MOTHER - Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun

A long-awaited MOTHER music event is finally here. Keiichi Suzuki, who created the famous music for the MOTHER series, will be joining us for a live performance of several songs streamed from our studio in Tokyo. We're also planning on a special talk event between him and Shigesato Itoi.
www.1101.com

Even more hope! A concert event for the entire trilogy happening right after Nintendo’s big June 2024 Direct! It’s now or never, but hope’s never been higher! On top of that, Mother 3’s name was scrubbed from the Switch icon pack outside of Japan! We might even get a localized title to go alongside EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound. EarthBound Endings has been a popular one in the community for some time.



Well, the Direct and concert came and went. The concert was good (and you can still buy access to and listen to it via the event link above, if you’re curious!), and it even had a surprise appearance by the composer of Mother 3 Shogo Sakai. It was the first time Itoi and all of the series composers had been together like this ever!



But despite all of the smoke, hope, and opportunity (the Nintendo Switch platform is going to be the best selling one for video games in history if it continues trending the way it has, and the software release cadence absolutely lends to that), no announcement was made.

Where does that leave us?

Well, at this point, every opportunity has been squandered, and we know Itoi and the creative staff involved with the game have wanted a worldwide localized release for years now. But it’s Nintendo’s decision. They have no say in it outside of their already declared support. International distribution rights aren’t an issue either, as it can be downloaded in Japanese right now and played by any active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscriber. It is now an active decision, despite the sales potential exceeding that of similar text heavy localizations like the Famicom Detective Club duology and countless third party projects, to not pursue this release.

Of course, I can say what many have said for many, many, many years: play the fan translation! It’s excellent!

MOTHER 3 / EarthBound 2 Fan Translation

mother3.fobby.net mother3.fobby.net

It is (I’ve played it regularly since 2008), but for many remaining holdouts, the idea of buying a cartridge and dumping the ROM to patch it is a very daunting task, and even if Nintendo has been notoriously hands off in terms of DMCA when it comes to the fan translation and even ROMs of the game (both dumps and prepatched), it’s something many are either unfamiliar or uncomfortable doing. Which is valid!



Look, the game deserves the reputation it has. It’s one of the most emotionally moving experiences you can have with media, and I don’t say that lightly. I’m far from alone in that view. And I’ve long been a proponent of hoping for an official localization and release.

mother 3 (****) | action button dot net

www.actionbutton.net www.actionbutton.net

But at this point, it’s time to give it up. If the Direct that included an announcement for an Ace Attorney Investigations collection, a Marvel collection, and Metroid Prime 4 footage couldn’t have it, coinciding with the opportune time and platform, it’s just not happening. Whatever reservations you have about the fan translation, it’s time to suck it up and play it. Please. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t.



Am I wrong, Fami? After almost 20 years, I’ve been broken. My spirit doesn’t see a light at the end of this tunnel anymore. It’s not as if everyone involved isn’t aware of the demand and persisting fandom. It would be a successful capitalist venture. The RoI is there, but there’s just seemingly no desire to truly pursue it by the one party that can make it possible.

Thank you for reading.
 
I think we should just still be patient. One dream at a time. It'll hopefully be Mother 3's turn eventually. But it's definitely hard to keep the faith, for sure.
 
I'm sure if there's ever a remake, that would be localized, but a localization of the GBA game has LONG since not been on the cards.

I do wish though Nintendo fans would take an interest in seeing other games receive localizations instead of just focusing on Mother 3. Buddy Mission BOND is a contemporary Switch game, but the community couldn't care less about seeing it come over.
 
If anything, it's 1) a victim of the Switch's success being so immense that they haven't needed to pull it out of their back pocket and 2) Nintendo's refusal to make a significantly new release without Itoi's involvement

It's clear that historically, games usually escape "non-localised jail" when they get a modern remake, such that resources are already being invested into a release anyway. If EarthBound was 100% Nintendo-owned, that probably would have happened by now. As it is, the limbo continues

Nintendo doesn't have a vendetta against this game, they just haven't figured out how to make a reasonable profit on an outdated quirky cult classic. I expect that the demand isn't louder precisely because everyone with true interest has indeed played it already.

It'll probably happen someday - or not, I ain't got no Tarot - but not today, or tomorrow.
 
Give up?

d1a79ddcbb093a5cb83ceb5e12a05b5eff22dceb.gifv
 
While a localization of the GBA version is unlikely at this point, I wouldn't rule out a remake somewhere down the line.
 
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ProteusRidley said:
I'll be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if a remake of Mother 3 was in the pipe works.obviously could be very wrong, but it seems like something that Nintendo would do.
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Yeah, I never really believed in an official translation of Mother 3 ever happening, but imo within the next 5 years, it feels more likely than ever to happen through a remake.

We got Famicom Detective Club remade and officially localized by Nintendo this gen lmao. Everything can happen.
 
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Idc about a translation. I’ve believe we will get a remake of the entire Mother series. I will continue to believe that will happen. The game is so old now. Just remake them
 
Nah. This seems an overreaction. Like people seeing Nintendo put the original Fire Emblem on Japan's NSO and deciding that meant a localization would never come to the rest of the world (when that's exactly what happened a few years later, albeit as a timed release)

I think if the last few years should tell people anything, it's that nothing is ever really off the table entirely. Whether it's a more simple translation of the GBA rom or a full-blown remake of some kind, I'm not ruling out anything because Nintendo's been going full wildcard in the Switch generation
 
Chalphy said:
I'm sure if there's ever a remake, that would be localized, but a localization of the GBA game has LONG since not been on the cards.

I do wish though Nintendo fans would take an interest in seeing other games receive localizations instead of just focusing on Mother 3. Buddy Mission BOND is a contemporary Switch game, but the community couldn't care less about seeing it come over.
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And that one doesn't even have a fan translation :/
 
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This is a weird overreaction. Why would you expect and english release announcement at a concert for the game held in Japan. What involvement did Nintendo even have in this event?


They'll remake the game eventually and when they do that version will be localized. Nintendo is more than aware of the games popularity and fanbase.
 
The whole thing about whether or not a remake or official translation is going to happen in the next year, five years, or hundred years is kind of irrelevant to whether or not people should play the fan translation IMO.

The Mother 3 fan translation was probably the biggest, most important thing that one of the most influential fan communities in Nintendo history ever put together and people should give it attention for that alone. It's an artifact of an entirely different era, made by the hands that are responsible for EarthBound being a massively beloved cult classic today moreso than Nintendo's abysmal marketing efforts were. It's a labor of love and dedication that go well beyond whatever the hell your favorite corporation is doing right now.
 
While not being able to play mother 3 in English legally is a bummer, I am still hopeful in potential future re are of the mother games in the style of the clay figures from the promotional material. I will also say, there are plenty of games out there inspired by mother and I'm sure Deltarune will have the same emotional impact when it is finally done
 
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I strongly trust that Nintendo knows the importance of the IP and they are only searching for the right team and the right momento to relaunch it. Something similar to what happened to metroid and to what is probably is still happening to DK.

It could be soon, it could be not but the hope isn’t lost.
 
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tbh the fact that Nintendo had already dumped Mother 3 on the JP NSO service and also Earthbound + Earthbound Beginnings worldwide tells me that they're not planning any sort of remakes for those games at this point in time...if ever.
 
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I’m still confident Nintendo will probably do something with MOTHER (I mean - if dormant IPs like Famicom Detective Club, Advance Wars, Another Code, Endless Ocean, F-Zero, and to an extent, Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi can come back, so can MOTHER).

I’d presume Namco’s dedicated Nintendo studio could be the perfect match for MOTHER (unless that’s just me).
 
Yeah, only shot Mother 3 has at a localization is a remake. Otherwise Nintendo just doesn’t see the value in it. The fan translation is great and a must play for anyone interested.
 
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It won't happen until it happens. They've brought back far more obscure series from the dead during the Switch era (Famicom Detective Club, Endless Ocean, etc.) and I don't see how Earthbound/Mother 3 would be precluded from that.

Until then, there's nothing really stopping you from playing the fan translation.
 
I would argue it was time to give up on it a very long time ago, to be honest.

I am not ruling out the very outside chance of it randomly happening at some indeterminate point of time in the future, but after Nintendo localized the first two games but never the third on the Wii U was when it became clear to me an international release for the third game isn't going to happen. For people who care, the fan translation exists and is apparently great.
 
ProteusRidley said:
I'll be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if a remake of Mother 3 was in the pipe works.obviously could be very wrong, but it seems like something that Nintendo would do.
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A remake will happen eventually, perhaps after remakes of the first two. It's a well remembered series in Japan and has pent-up demand overseas. It will happen one day.

I don't see a translation of the GBA game ever happening. The Magypsies as they currently are would offend both conservatives and progressives too much. If Emily Rogers is to be believed Nintendo got cold feet about releasing a translation because of the potential controversy back in 2016. That would only be worse now. A remake is a good opportunity to significantly adjust them to avoid any controversy.
 
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I think it’s just going to happen one day and when it does we’ll all just wonder why it took so long. I think if it happens on Switch, you’ll be able to buy it standalone like Fire Emblem NES. If it happens this year, maybe that’ll be in August or December which are empty. I only played Earthbound 1 and 2 last year, I’m in no rush.
 
It’s easily the most notable game that has yet to leave Japan at this point, and we’ve seen more and more prominent games get localized in recent years.

I think it’ll happen eventually, just a question of how and when. A remake would almost certainly get a localization.
 
We have gotten the true Vivian in paper Mario TYD, Mature 17 N64 NSO app, and Nintendo allows games with titties out on their eShop. We can have mother 3. Besides, the majority of who will play the games will be adults.
 
I think a remake may happen at some point still (probably the whole trilogy), and that will be the best opportunity for an official release. There was a Retronauts episode last year where Mother 3 came up and one of the hosts mentioned that per someone involved with the fan translation (I think Mato) the way the code was originally structured it was pretty clear they weren’t developing the game with an international release in mind. So it was quite likely way too much effort to do a localization (especially if it needed to be available in say FIGS for outside the US) plus the game releasing during the GBA-DS transition period.

A remake with modern tooling for localization I think eliminates most of the barriers to getting this game out in an official capacity.

It will happen. Just need to be patient.

EDIT: Found one of the blog posts that mentions the code design issues: https://mother3.fobby.net/blog/2008/07/09/translations-into-other-languages/
 
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Grezzo is about to ship that Zelda game and be freed up to do other stuff. I think their Link’s Awakening remake engine/graphical style would be a good fit for an Earthbound or Mother 3 remake project. Let’s see what happens.
 
Mother 3 feels exactly like the sort of game that will be localized eventually via some sort of HD remake to me.

I don't think we ever get an officially localized version of Mother 3 for GBA, but also, anyone that is genuinely very interested in playing the game is absolutely doing themselves a disservice by not playing the fantastic fan translation regardless. It is undeniably a part of that game's legacy and DNA at this point; it would not be forgotten even if Nintendo does do a full translation. I would argue you cannot get the full picture of what Mother 3 is as a piece of art in a North American context without first playing the fan translation.
 
I genuinely don't get why it matters unless you want the game in more languages than the fan communities have gotten to. The game in English has existed for years, and you can just go download it and pop it into any device that can run a GBA emulator.
 
BotenAnna said:
I genuinely don't get why it matters unless you want the game in more languages than the fan communities have gotten to. The game in English has existed for years, and you can just go download it and pop it into any device that can run a GBA emulator.
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It really is just because it's not an official product that's readily available on a modern platform lmao, that's pretty much it.

"Corporate validation" is something that kinda comes into play here, I think.
 
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shoptroll said:
I think a remake may happen at some point still (probably the whole trilogy), and that will be the best opportunity for an official release. There was a Retronauts episode last year where Mother 3 came up and one of the hosts mentioned that per someone involved with the fan translation (I think Mato) the way the code was originally structured it was pretty clear they weren’t developing the game with an international release in mind. So it was quite likely way too much effort to do a localization (especially if it needed to be available in say FIGS for outside the US) plus the game releasing during the GBA-DS transition period.

A remake with modern tooling for localization I think eliminates most of the barriers to getting this game out in an official capacity.

It will happen. Just need to be patient.

EDIT: Found one of the blog posts that mentions the code design issues: https://mother3.fobby.net/blog/2008/07/09/translations-into-other-languages/
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Yeah, just reverse the battle formula (if it isn't written down or recorded) and just redo everything.
 
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BotenAnna said:
I genuinely don't get why it matters unless you want the game in more languages than the fan communities have gotten to. The game in English has existed for years, and you can just go download it and pop it into any device that can run a GBA emulator.
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People like supporting official version.
 
BotenAnna said:
I genuinely don't get why it matters unless you want the game in more languages than the fan communities have gotten to. The game in English has existed for years, and you can just go download it and pop it into any device that can run a GBA emulator.
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because there is a significant number of people in the world who just flatout are not ever going to mess around with anything that has even the moderate barriers to entry that come with emulation/fan translations but would be interested if it's as convenient as "download it on your Switch"

Like, yes, everyone knows emulation exists. It's still cool and fun when games that haven't had official (re-)releases come out and can be marketed to and experienced by that wider audience so they can get that "part of the conversation again" moment. Same reason people are excited for things like the Ace Attorney Investigations collection and the Marvel vs Capcom collection; these new rereleases are infinitely more accessible and convenient than telling people to go install an emulator, download some ROMs, and (in the case of AAI2) download/setup a fan-translation
 
BlackthornOrion said:
because there is a significant number of people in the world who just flatout are not ever going to mess around with anything that has even the moderate barriers to entry that come with emulation/fan translations but would be interested if it's as convenient as "download it on your Switch"

Like, yes, everyone knows emulation exists. It's still cool and fun when games that haven't had official (re-)releases come out and can be marketed to and experienced by that wider audience so they can get that "part of the conversation again" moment. Same reason people are excited for things like the Ace Attorney Investigations collection and the Marvel vs Capcom collection; these new rereleases are infinitely more accessible and convenient than telling people to go install an emulator, download some ROMs, and (in the case of AAI2) download/setup a fan-translation
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yeah most people are tech illiterate good luck getting them to setup an emulator, rom and fan patches. plus an official release might lead to actual new stuff and people like new stuff.
 
BlackthornOrion said:
because there is a significant number of people in the world who just flatout are not ever going to mess around with anything that has even the moderate barriers to entry that come with emulation/fan translations but would be interested if it's as convenient as "download it on your Switch"

Like, yes, everyone knows emulation exists. It's still cool and fun when games that haven't had official (re-)releases come out and can be marketed to and experienced by that wider audience so they can get that "part of the conversation again" moment. Same reason people are excited for things like the Ace Attorney Investigations collection and the Marvel vs Capcom collection; these new rereleases are infinitely more accessible and convenient than telling people to go install an emulator, download some ROMs, and (in the case of AAI2) download/setup a fan-translation
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Yeah, I get all that for sure, especially for primarily multiplayer things like a fighting game, but at the end of the day it's kind of a drop in the bucket from where I'm sitting. Accessibility is good, yeah, but I don't think this current status is affecting my appreciation much. I would like more people to play and appreciate Mother 3, but I don't need the validation or wider conversation. It's there and widely documented in a way that is probably more accessible due to the fact it doesn't require an expensive piece of dedicated gaming hardware or a software purchase. In fact, your definition of accessibility hinges on disposable income and regional availability which imo is less good than what we have now unofficially!

A lot of this feels more like projection wanting corporate and cultural approval of a cool thing rather than actually seeing a spread of appreciation imo. I'm not accusing you specifically of that, but I can't help but feel the conversation around this has a lot more to do with recognition from Nintendo than anything else. That seems kinda weird when if you really want to appreciate the art it's right there, and there's nothing stopping anybody from pushing conversations about the contents of it to the forefront rather than this misguided localization effort. I swear more people know about the corporate politics of this game rather than what is actually in it as a result of all this.
 
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I also feel like I should mention I would welcome an official release enthusiastically, I just don't get being so hung up about it at this point. Go play the game and tell others if you want to. It's right there.
 
Its why I picked up a copy of the game last year so I can play it. Now if I could just find the time…
 
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"It’s time to give up on an Japanese release (localization) of Game & Watch Gallery 4"​

"It’s time to give up on a worldwide release of Star Fox 2"​

"It’s time to give up on an international release (localization) of Flipnote Studio 3D"​



these are all examples of Nintendo holding off on releasing projects for several years, and i'm inclined to believe the same thing happened with Mother 3. where development was likely started and finished during the Wii U Era (the developers for the GBA Virtual Console emulator, M2. had previously done full localizations of untranslated games before.)
they almost certainly realized the translation likely wouldn't have done well on that system, and are still waiting for a better opportunity.
BlackthornOrion said:
Like people seeing Nintendo put the original Fire Emblem on Japan's NSO and deciding that meant a localization would never come to the rest of the world
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this actually was another translation made during the same period. as the standalone app notably uses the Wii U Virtual Console emulator, rather than the newer NSO one.
 
It’s impossible to say that this game will never be officially translated by Nintendo and released. Nintendo will most likely outlive everyone who posts in this thread. Who is to say it won’t be released in 5, 25 or 50 years from now?

The fan translation is easily accessible and it’s perfect.
 
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Kit mentioned/implied in the KitandKrysta podcast Mother 3 is not coming to NA due to problematic content in the game. So it's no longer idle speculation.
He suggests the best solution is to remake it, maybe HD-2D to remove or change the content, but i suspect the die hard fans asking for it will be pissed off by the changes

That said maybe they can do a mature GBA app just for that game :ROFLMAO:
 
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I expect a remake, perhaps even a remake trilogy, will be along someday. I have no doubts that they would likely localize something like that. But in its original form? I lean towards no, but anything could happen really. I think it could be done if they really wanted to. They'd certainly have to make some adjustments, though. It's hard to say if they consider it "worth it" to do that rather than just wait for an opportunity to do a remake and release it that way.

So, yeah, I'd say a remake is plausible, but the ROM translation probably won't see the light of day.
 
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This generation we got Seiken Densetsu 3 after 24 years, and both NES Fire Emblem and Kunio-kun games after 30 years. I've stopped believing there's a point where it's really too late for any localization.
 
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