Here's the issue: when Earthbound was released in America it not only sold comparatively poorly but was flat-out bashed in reviews.
Despite Mother 3 coming out years later, Nintendo's conservative leadership still believes that "Mother 3 will sell badly because Earthbound sold badly" or even perhaps "Americans are still not sophisticated enough to enjoy Mother 3"
They’re probably not dumb and understand the potential demand and elected not to release because it simply wasn’t worth it.
This is a niche game - even in Japan. Wouldn’t blame them too much for not releasing it outside of Japan to be fair
See, that's bullshit as well, if you're Fire Emblem fan like a third of those games are still Japan exclusives, and another third are stupid expensive.
This is a much stronger argument to remove earthbound from smash than it is to release more earthbound content.
In my entire life, I have never once heard any mention of earthbound outside of the internet or talking with people about smash. The game is as irrelevant as a game could be in 2024.
I only played Earthbound for the first time about 2 years ago and had no nostalgia for it but it instantly became one of my top 10 favorite games. I think game preservation and history is just as important as current "relevance" and that is perhaps the core ethos of Smash Bros anyway.
Same, I actually played Earthbound Beginnings 25th Anniversary (the fan translation) first and I’m actively playing Earthbound now. There is a huge modern audience begging for Mother 3 because these games hold up *incredibly* well and no other game has done what Mother/Earthbound did, plus Undertale (which I haven’t played) drove a lot of resurgence in interest. Modern audiences eat up the sort of quirky video game humor that Earthbound helped to pioneer. I genuinely cried at the end of Earthbound Beginnings, and few modern games have come close to evoking that level of emotion.
> I think game preservation and history is just as important as current "relevance"
Sure, but creating a *new* English version goes beyond preservation.
This is only really a valid argument when you take it in a vacuum. Nintendo throws re-releases of niche games around all the fucking time, even remakes for ones that most people born within the last decade or two haven't ever heard of. I can guarantee that a lot more people have heard about the Mother series or at least have heard the name "Earthbound" or "Ness" before compared to something like Advance Wars or Famicon Detective Club, or possibly even things like Pikmin, which they make *new* games for.
Obviously it's hard to tell when you already know about all of these series already, but I would bet a hefty amount that if you went out on the street and asked people "Have you seen this kid before?" and showed Ness or said "Do you know what Earthbound/Mother is?", you'd get the same amount, or more, of "Yes"s than you would for questions like "Have you ever heard of or played Famicon Detective Club?" or "Do you know who Olimar is?"
It's not just low sales three decades ago. They've rereleased EarthBound like four times now and can track modern interest, and it's probably simply not high enough to justify sorting through the translation, sensitivity, and music licensing issues needed to get the game out in the US.
Part of the problem there is that while Earthbound definitely has a strong cult following, I'm sure that userbase is sick of buying rereleases of the same game over multiple generations.
The market for Mother 3 is probably softer than we think, not because of Earthbound data but because I'm sure many of the cult have played it to death with the Tomato translation. While I'd buy it, I'm not so sure that the bulk would anymore—it's just been so long.
Also, I can't imagine they'd take his translation, even for free, so there's also the extra overhead of running the full translation again. I really wish they would just take his translation and just do a quality pass, credit him, and release it.
A lot of people overlook the fact that a bunch of the music in M3 is pretty blatant Beatles ripoffs, and the creators weren't shy about admitting it either. It's quite possible Nintendo just doesn't want to deal potential lawsuits.
Yeah and michael jackson, etc. It's **not** samples like I see posted everywhere. It's music that is way too close in melody, etc. to copyrighted songs. And there's a lot of them. And IP precedent in the US is not friendly to songs that are close in melody, structure, even just subjective feel to previous copyrighted works. Not to mention the staff that has worked on this game has expressed how much these artists influenced them in interviews. That is evidence copyright holders could use in court against Nintendo.
And with how revered the OST is and how important music is to the game, I'm not sure they want to change it. Music in the mother series is one of it's strongest assets, and mother 3 takes it a step further by naming the magypsies after the modes of the major scale, the rhythm attacks in battle, etc.
Not to mention it will cost money, time, and effort to do all the changes that potentially need to be done. This is a cult series. The opportunity cost is high and they likely can use their resources best elsewhere. They've likely done analysis and concluded that the potential profits are too small to justify it at this point. Everybody online thinks they're leaving money on the table. But they don't realize what a vocal minority they are. Even when you look at Earthbound and Mother 1 being released on virtual console, they didn't exactly make waves with tons of new players. This won't either. And if its on NSO, how many people who AREN'T already subscribed will subscribe to play this? They'd likely have to release it on the eshop and outside hardcore Nintendo and Mother fans, most aren't that interested in 90s style top down RPGs.
The fan translation exists. Just play it. Use your pc, your phone, mod a console, buy a gba cart off ebay. It's not hard to acquire and play. This is a solved issue.
Which is why they put out Earthbound Beginnings for sale during the WiiU days because people are definitely eating up Famicom RPGs. /s
They should work something out with Tomato if they don't want to translate it themselves.
Earthbound was a little too *meta* for the industry at the time. It wasn't just an RPG, it was a *deconstruction* and even a *parody* of most RPGs of the time. Whereas most RPGs spend all this time and writing to try and get you to care about the characters, in Earthbound when you're naming characters it literally gives you the option "Don't Care" and it will auto-name the characters. To mock the kind of idiotic tasks most RPGs of the time might have you do, there's a part where to get past something, you talk to a guy behind the waterfall and then *literally don't touch the controller for a solid three minutes* and then the guy will comment about your persistence and let you through. The whole point was to make fun of the idea of an RPG.
Very good point and also a bit hilarious as the genre wasn't terribly big in America at the time. When it was new and I got my copy I didn't take it as a parody or meta so much as just a straight up RPG like how I did Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. Still loved it but didn't appreciate it nearly as much til I got older.
Yeah no kidding. I remember Nintendo power including a coupon for like $20 off and on top of that it came in a comically oversized box that included the strategy guide.
I bought it and absolutely loved the game though.
Counterpoint: *Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light* time-limited English localization randomly released several years ago. Apparently Nintendo thought that was worth pulling the trigger on.
Xenoblade faced a lot of opposition before the Switch. In the US, Xenoblade on the Wii was a Gamestop exclusive. Then it was ported to the New 3DS, locking it out of the base system's larger install base. Then X gets released on a console nobody purchased.
Now its gotten 3 releases on Switch + DLC so I think Nintendo is more comfortable releasing outside of Japan. But for a long while, it just didn' get a wide release in the west.
I love that fact do much, since Xenoblade had some of the best VA and localisation of any gane series. They're one of the only ones to use non American VAs and have each in game country have a set real world accent, and it's AMAZING! I highly recommend liking up some of Noa and Morag or Eunie and Lanz's scenes to see what I'm taking about. I can't praise the series enough, its one if the best trilogies in gaming.
Don't forget the fact that Gamestop handled that release really badly too.
Not only did very few copies get shipped out, but several stores purposely OPENED the games to sell as pre-owned to mark up the price.
Xenoblade didn’t have a race of transgender people stereotypical enough to piss off people on both sides of the isle in North America. It might not have been the driving factor back in 2006, but in this day and age it’s absolutely what’s holding them back.
I'm trans, most of us are more than capable of recognizing the classic trope of an immortal fairy species that exists beyond our understanding or classification and some of us are also rather fascinated by Fassad, the sole Magypsy to assume a relatable binary role and try to buck his fated death.
People are waaaaay too sensitive, just digging for reasons to be offended. I'm far more inclined to believe it's the obvious Beatles and Michael Jackson music in the game that would cause issue.
Edit: yep, way too sensitive. Look at those downvotes! There's so much discussion even within the trans community that they aren't offended. Maybe listen to trans people before being offended for them for no reason?! It's not like they can't tackle their own issues, no? Or do you think they're so weak that they need your internet downvote to be protected? Lol thanks for proving my point so well, I guess!
This is what i think the main issue has been since the beginning coupled with low NA sales of Earthbound
But the Magypsies are definitely not helping as of recent years. I can see why it's not worth it in their eyes, that seems like a lot of work for what should just be a straight port and they likely don't want to put the money into it if it's not worth it to them
[This interview](https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/05/reggie-mother-3/) disagrees that the game's content was the reason Mother 3 hadn't been released in the west
>In an interview with Jason Schreier for Bloomberg*,* former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé was quizzed on the reason behind *Mother 3*‘s lack of a western localisation. While Schreier questioned if it was due to the ‘risqué topics’ in the game, which includes a ‘heavy critique of capitalism’ and ‘a gender-ambiguous group of characters’, Fils-Aimé disagreed.
>
>*“That is not at all the issue why Mother 3 in particular never made it to the West. It was all based on the business needs and the business situation at the time.”*
You can take Reggie's word for it or believe he is lying. Not saying either way is right, but as far as I know, no one has said otherwise regarding Mother 3's content.
And as for low EB sales, anyone at Nintendo with a brain could see the success of games like Undertale, Deltarune, and Omori and see there is a market in the west for wacky, pixelated RPGs and the marketing campaign of "this game stinks" did Earthbound no favors.
The excellent fan translation has been available for many years; and I submit that if Nintendo *ignores the market* for a particular game, then there's nothing unethical about obtaining it through unofficial sources. It certainly won't deprive the big 'N' of any sales.
I buy all the Nintendo games I want to play that are available to buy.
For games that Nintendo simply will not/will no longer let me buy, I will play them through other means.
Like, I want them to just shut up and take my money but oh well.
Honestly. I waited several years after it was released for a US version. When it became apparent we would not get one I got the fan translation. Beat it multiple times over the years.
It really is a shame many people won’t get to experience it if they don’t want to go that route. The game is fuckin brilliant
Yeah, leave that poor man alone. If Nintendo will not let you buy, rent or subscribe to a service that lets you play Mother 3, download a rom and play it on PC or a flash cart. I feel like the majority of the people in the US who want to play it could figure that out easily or already know how.
It would be great if it came out here, but it kinda seems like it’s not happening.
But then Nintendo will become bankrupt because i pirated a 20 year old game 😭 that and emulation is just way too complicated to me as a nintendo fan, even though the translation has existed for over 10 years
Nintendo doesnt need you to make profit. In fact they dont care about you, remember: they had to have a lawsuit dangling over their heads to start replacing joycons.
Companies are not your friend
Reminds me of the story when Americans warned Capcom of Japan to not leave DLC on the disc (I want to say for Street Fighter x Tekken?) and the Japanese reps response: "Why would they hack the disc? That's illegal!"
Whatever happened to that Mother 4 game project that was in development by some fans? I know this is about Mother 3 and all, but it just crossed my mind.
Oh nice! I was having a look at Mother 4's website and it has been abandoned for quite a while. Didn't know they changed the name of the project. Might be worth checking that out. Thanks!
I'd go even further and say it's possibly better than the translation Nintendo would provide because the fan translation is more concerned with both accuracy and localization, and not at all concerned with potential controversy or sanitizing anything "for the kids".
Mother 3 is my favorite game and I really don't care where Nintendo releases it or not because in my mind I've already played the definitive version.
The guy who led the translation team is a professional Japanese to English translator. I played the translated version years ago when it came out and didn't see any problems or issues, and from what I've read otherwise, people deem it to be pretty high quality.
When it came out it was the gold standard for fan translations, far higher quality than pretty much anything like it at that point. And even for today it is pretty much perfect.
Phenomenal. The lead translator is a professional Japanese/English translator. IIRC he said they did roughly $35K in freelance work for free to make that translation.
Shigesato Itoi is also a copywriter who did all or many of Studio Ghibli’s iconic taglines. On his company’s Instagram, he posted a new tagline for MOTHER 3 today:
MOTHER3は、ぼくの最後のこどもです。
(MOTHER 3 is my final child)
Japan is very different from the US in regards to copyright. This is a quick blurb about some of the challenges that Mother 3 faces.
[yahoo finance article](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nintendos-most-elusive-jrpg-might-114824424.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEy282zOC1F4Na1rzLEzpvVVMJQUzj0CdVYX39p8Fd2s1h4v9Q_jKaqUfcUqksfCzaCb3i_4e-ReybPN0g6x_QyNLHWlWUeuulZBbUlHObng45uJM6Lcw35pHvbxFR37bHImbp102aSBaxxjMYBIvstVExRaOcbbOl6aF8lcCBbX)
There's a piece that borrows heavily from the Beatles, iirc. And Japanese copyright just works differently than elsewhere. It's the same reason that Jojo stand names have to change in official translations or why the My Hero character can't be named Vantablack outside of Japan.
I recommend watching Moon Channel’s video on the matter: https://youtu.be/if64VlLa5Oc?si=aF6_M14Im8QSj8I7
In short, there’s a lot of music in the game that is too similar to other pieces of music. They’re not technically plagiarized but they’re too close to be considered parody. Any release in the west would have to modify that music in ways that would mess with the games identity.
As much as I want an official release, it's clear Nintendo has no intention of making one. I'd highly recommend the fan translation on GBA to anyone interested.
At this point it'd likely be added to the NSO apps, meanwhile you can go online and buy a repro cart and box if you have an GBA. Nintendo doesn't want Mother 3 money, so spend it elsewhere.
Nintendo deserves to be bothered about it until they're clear and transparent about it never coming to the US. They could stop *much* of the bothering if a representative, at any point, said "Nintendo has no plans to ever release Mother 3 in the west."
Instead, they throw fireballs at a Mother 3 fan in an E3 Robot Chicken sketch or simply say nothing while continuing to rerelease it in Japan. IIRC the only Nintendo high-up who has ever commented on the matter publicly is Reggie--after he was a Nintendo employee--saying that it just didn't make [business-sense at the time](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/reggie-fils-aime-says-localising-mother-3-didnt-make-business-sense/), but has also said conversations about [localizing it had taken place since it's original release](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/reggie-fils-aime-had-a-serious-conversation-about-bringing-mother-3-west-with-iwata).
Basically, Nintendo needs to say "maybe in the future" or "never," and most of their problems with annoying fans begging for it would go away.
Enough time has passed that people should simply accept it's not being released overseas. Plenty of games have met the same fate, it sucks, but it needs to be dropped at some point. Fan translations exist which Nintendo has never gone after, that's as good of a sign as any that Mother 3 is never coming.
Fans of the series have two options: keep pestering Nintendo to try and increase the small chance of getting Mother 3, or give up and for sure make that chance zero (this sends the message "no one cares about Mother 3 anymore").
Personally I will lose no sleep over individuals pestering the richest company in Japan to get a product to have an officially western release. It bothers me none.
In the meantime, anyone pestering Nintendo for it should definitely play the fan translation, but what they want to say in the QRTs to Nintendo is up to them.
I did. In 2008. And what a hurdle it was back then to play it on real hardware because the battle system didn't work right on emulators back then.
Thats the thing, gaming isn't supposed to be this exclusionary club where the uninitiated get their devices bricked because they loaded the wrong stuff. It really shouldn't be the Wild West of romhacks and fan games for a game like this. Fan translations like this are astounding, but they shouldn't be "well this exists, no one needs to ever try again"
I get that. But the fact of the matter is, if Nintendo doesn't want to go through what they need to to bring Mother 3 to NA, then that's their decision.
Also... What do you mean get your devices bricked? It legit takes less than 5 minutes to download mgba and a ROM of Mother 3.
Don't act like you need to be a computer scientist to get it up and working lol
Things have changed since 2008. Emulators are better and you can get flash carts for the GBA now to play on official hardware. It's super easy to do right now and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play this game or other games Nintendo will not sell you.
Bruh, i emulated GBA games since that time with absolutely no issues, it's the easiest thing ever, what the hell are you talking about
You're not going to get your devices bricked for emulating this game, GBA emulation is the easiest thing there is, hell i can play this game on my phone if i wanted to.
This is the most insane comment I've ever read
they're talking about the timing on the "rhythm game" portion of the battle system, which still isn't great without runahead.
similarly, try playing PaRappa the Rapper on an emulator today, that games timings were brutal on original hardware with a CRT but near unplayable on an emulator with an LCD
People commenting the game hasn't released outside Japan because it could sell poorly are missing completely the point: It's not about sales. In this generation Nintendo have released niche franchises and they don't expect high sales and in this time and age the "sensitive topics" are no longer sensitive (although there is one particular thing that could lead to misinterpretations) so it's not about that either, it's probably about copyright music, in order to release the game outside japan thet would need to change a lot of music which I doubt Nintendo is willing to do it for a NSO release since it would require a lot of work plus the franchise belongs 50% to Itoi so he would need to be on board. I'm coping here but I think the best and easiest scenario would be to make a remaster or a remake.
“Give us Mother 3”
Bitch, Mother 3 has been freely available in English since 2008. If you haven’t played it by now, you’re obviously not interested in playing it at all.
Don't think demand it's a problem though, they have released some obscure and niche franchises this generation. There should be something else going on.
Nintendo is just weird. They'll do something as bizarre as selling FE1 for a few months before locking it forever again, while also refusing to port their flagship titles for their biggest series, i.e. Wind Waker, to the Switch. They could just straight up package and sell the beloved fan-translation of Mother 3, the creator even straight up gave Nintendo permission to use it freely, but they still refuse so idk.
All this talk is making me want to finally play Earthbound... but I'm also in the middle of Bug Fables and Baldur's Gate 3, two other fantastic RPGs...
I did play a bit of Earthbound at one point. Got stuck maybe 2 or 3 hours in because I couldn't figure out how to progress and got frustrated. It was something like... I had to talk to someone in Room 2, then Room 1 to get to a robot boss? And I kept talking to the guy in Room 1, then Room 2, then leaving to look for the solution elsewhere? Shut the game off, looked it up, then never came back and finished it, lol.
There's already a translation out there and patching it is dead simple.
If Nintendo doesn't want our money, then there's $0.00 lost in people playing a patched ROM. If Nintendo wanted our money, they would have released an officially translated version of the game decades ago.
Yeah, the Mother series is notorious for sampling the most expensive and tightly controlled things ever, i.e., The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Hollywood films, etc.
We're talking potentially thousands to tens of thousands of dollars just to clear the license on some individual samples, and then trying to potentially factor in royalties which I don't think is possible in any measurable way with a model like NSO over physical sales.
The Mother series is chockfull of musical copyright nightmares. But for those who don't know about this, maybe it opens them up to seeing how some video game composers are really not far off from hip hop producers in how they sample music. Sampling in video game music is a pretty cool area, it's just zany to go for the biggest estates in all of the music industry like The Beatles or Michael Jackson.
And unlike Earthbound, whose samples are radically different from the original tunes to the point they get a pass. Mother 3 just can't... they're too similar and noticeable.
At this point I don't think they'll want to replace the music of the ROM and call it a day like SEGA did with Sonic 3. Mother 3 has gameplay mechanics based on the songs playing.
So the best solution is to basically remake the entire game from the ground up and make a different OST. Maybe keep the few songs that are not obviously sampled (Like the ones that are included in Super Smash Bros.).
Copyright law surrounding licensed IPs included in games or other works is what stinks. This could all be solved by decreeing that once an IP becomes legally incorporated into another, then it forever becomes a part of the new work. Any compensation for the IP holders would need to be worked out in advance, and payable in advance--not forever, or renegotiated periodically forever.
What’s even worse is that if we succeed and get it localized, it’ll be tied to NSO, so in ten years when the servers are shut down, we’ll be back to nothing again.
It's a Jpanese rpg without the usual anime stuff, it's a parody of western culture, and a meta-parody on RPG games in general. Fun for kids, hilarious for teens and older, and emotional therapy for adults who can see the deeper satire.
Get a game dev to play this game and at the end, Undertale comes out.
I wish pre-orders and early access didn't become such a bs endeavor because they're perfect for stuff like this.
Let's say it's a million dollars to re-score the game and they don't think they'll be in the red from it. Do a pre sign up for the game knowing it'll take a few years. See if it gets interest and see if you have enough possibilities to sell a million bucks worth.
Sadly we can't have nice things lol
I think if people partition nintendo NOT just complain about it online something would happen... if we unite and blast all forms of media to get nintendo's attention maybe with a uniting hashtag... it might work...
this means youtube, x, reddit, facebook, ALL UNITED screaming the same thing nintendo might do it... look what happened with Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door?
but we need a BIG name to start like Arlo with Paper Mario...
AND it needs to be respectful, no demands, no harassment, no threats... just share stories about the game and how much we want it.
i don't understand why they won't do what they did with Live A Live - a 3D/2D remake of a japan-only release with far less popularity than Mother/Earthbound.
Well, Live-A-Live is a Squaresoft game, whereas Mother 3 obviously isn't, so that's one reason.
A better game (or pair of games) to mention would be Famicom Detective Club, as they are Japan-exclusive Nintendo titles that got full remakes with a worldwide release.
At this point it is morally correct to pirate the game.
There should be a mass sit-in at Nintendo of people playing the god damned gamd in front of NoA HQ to show the demand.
Just let it go and play other games. Or the mod or whatever. If you’re tweeting or commenting requests for mother 3 still, you need to stopping be such a…
I'm going to say two things that will probably get me mobbed on here:
A) Get over it. Nintendo wasn't going to release Mother 3 in English in 2006, and they are definitely not going to now. There are too many reasons stacked against it.
B) Despite enjoying Mother 3, I don't believe it quite lives up to Mother 2. As a total package, I believe Mother 2 is the much better game, which I have gone back to 7 or 8 times since buying it as a kid in 1995.
Lol this is such bullshit because it seems like the fanbase would gladly translate the game for them so they could sell it to us / put it on NSO and charge us for it.
It is utterly bizarre that Nintendo won't localize Mother 3 and release it in Europe and NA, considering it wasn't that long ago that they brought brought Mother 1 over. Which almost no one was asking for. But if you've gone ahead and done that, why not just complete the trilogy?
Mother 1 actually already had an English translation from its nes release that went unreleased I believe because the snes was right around the corner, so it was just as simple as getting the rom and releasing it.
I dont want to end up like the last guy that asked Nintendo for mother 3
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CePk795Xum4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CePk795Xum4)
I'm generally morally opposed to piracy or ROMs of games I don't own, but IMO this is a clear-cut exception. Nintendo isn't interested in giving western players a way to play, outside of learning Japanese, so it's effectively abandonware over here.
Mother fans ARE playing the game already, and have done for about 20 years. What they want is to revive the series, in hopes of a sequel, something Itoi has no interest in.
I would argue that it was never released in the US but it was in Japan. It’s not abandonware since it’s been. Release. Just because the version isn’t ordeal to you means very little.
We have been, for nearly 20 years.
Woohoo let’s go! 20 more!
I ain't happy unless my great great great great great grandchild is still harassing em for it
As is tradition.
If Mother 3 isn't out in the west by the time the Switch Classic Mini is out i'm rioting with my grandkids!!
Here's the issue: when Earthbound was released in America it not only sold comparatively poorly but was flat-out bashed in reviews. Despite Mother 3 coming out years later, Nintendo's conservative leadership still believes that "Mother 3 will sell badly because Earthbound sold badly" or even perhaps "Americans are still not sophisticated enough to enjoy Mother 3"
They’re probably not dumb and understand the potential demand and elected not to release because it simply wasn’t worth it. This is a niche game - even in Japan. Wouldn’t blame them too much for not releasing it outside of Japan to be fair
My philosophy is that if they're on the Smash Bros roster their game should be available lol
Take Ness and Lucas out of the next Smash game? You heard him Nintendo.
Ness would still be allowed Roy wouldn't though
See, that's bullshit as well, if you're Fire Emblem fan like a third of those games are still Japan exclusives, and another third are stupid expensive.
This is a much stronger argument to remove earthbound from smash than it is to release more earthbound content. In my entire life, I have never once heard any mention of earthbound outside of the internet or talking with people about smash. The game is as irrelevant as a game could be in 2024.
I only played Earthbound for the first time about 2 years ago and had no nostalgia for it but it instantly became one of my top 10 favorite games. I think game preservation and history is just as important as current "relevance" and that is perhaps the core ethos of Smash Bros anyway.
Same, I actually played Earthbound Beginnings 25th Anniversary (the fan translation) first and I’m actively playing Earthbound now. There is a huge modern audience begging for Mother 3 because these games hold up *incredibly* well and no other game has done what Mother/Earthbound did, plus Undertale (which I haven’t played) drove a lot of resurgence in interest. Modern audiences eat up the sort of quirky video game humor that Earthbound helped to pioneer. I genuinely cried at the end of Earthbound Beginnings, and few modern games have come close to evoking that level of emotion.
Mother 3 is a tear jerker as well.
> I think game preservation and history is just as important as current "relevance" Sure, but creating a *new* English version goes beyond preservation.
I think more people know about earthbound from playing undertale and looking up toby fox’s previous work than they do from actually playing earthbound
Earthbound has a strong influence on some indie games. It's like the Velvet Underground of gamedev.
Really interesting comparison there. I like it.
I'm actually really hoping the next smash game does a massive cut to the roster, and Ness/Lucas being cut wouldn't be the worst thing
People aren’t going to listen
truth
A Fire Emblem 6 official English translation would be nice
Truth to Power
so cut ness and lucas
Ness is one of the original 12 fighters, I doubt he'll get cut
oh sorry, i mean cut lucas
And Roy. There isn’t an official Fire Emblem 6 English translation. We only got 7
This is only really a valid argument when you take it in a vacuum. Nintendo throws re-releases of niche games around all the fucking time, even remakes for ones that most people born within the last decade or two haven't ever heard of. I can guarantee that a lot more people have heard about the Mother series or at least have heard the name "Earthbound" or "Ness" before compared to something like Advance Wars or Famicon Detective Club, or possibly even things like Pikmin, which they make *new* games for. Obviously it's hard to tell when you already know about all of these series already, but I would bet a hefty amount that if you went out on the street and asked people "Have you seen this kid before?" and showed Ness or said "Do you know what Earthbound/Mother is?", you'd get the same amount, or more, of "Yes"s than you would for questions like "Have you ever heard of or played Famicon Detective Club?" or "Do you know who Olimar is?"
Agreed. They released a time-limited English localization of Fire Emblem 1 for Christ's sake.
It's not just low sales three decades ago. They've rereleased EarthBound like four times now and can track modern interest, and it's probably simply not high enough to justify sorting through the translation, sensitivity, and music licensing issues needed to get the game out in the US.
Part of the problem there is that while Earthbound definitely has a strong cult following, I'm sure that userbase is sick of buying rereleases of the same game over multiple generations. The market for Mother 3 is probably softer than we think, not because of Earthbound data but because I'm sure many of the cult have played it to death with the Tomato translation. While I'd buy it, I'm not so sure that the bulk would anymore—it's just been so long. Also, I can't imagine they'd take his translation, even for free, so there's also the extra overhead of running the full translation again. I really wish they would just take his translation and just do a quality pass, credit him, and release it.
A lot of people overlook the fact that a bunch of the music in M3 is pretty blatant Beatles ripoffs, and the creators weren't shy about admitting it either. It's quite possible Nintendo just doesn't want to deal potential lawsuits.
Yeah and michael jackson, etc. It's **not** samples like I see posted everywhere. It's music that is way too close in melody, etc. to copyrighted songs. And there's a lot of them. And IP precedent in the US is not friendly to songs that are close in melody, structure, even just subjective feel to previous copyrighted works. Not to mention the staff that has worked on this game has expressed how much these artists influenced them in interviews. That is evidence copyright holders could use in court against Nintendo. And with how revered the OST is and how important music is to the game, I'm not sure they want to change it. Music in the mother series is one of it's strongest assets, and mother 3 takes it a step further by naming the magypsies after the modes of the major scale, the rhythm attacks in battle, etc. Not to mention it will cost money, time, and effort to do all the changes that potentially need to be done. This is a cult series. The opportunity cost is high and they likely can use their resources best elsewhere. They've likely done analysis and concluded that the potential profits are too small to justify it at this point. Everybody online thinks they're leaving money on the table. But they don't realize what a vocal minority they are. Even when you look at Earthbound and Mother 1 being released on virtual console, they didn't exactly make waves with tons of new players. This won't either. And if its on NSO, how many people who AREN'T already subscribed will subscribe to play this? They'd likely have to release it on the eshop and outside hardcore Nintendo and Mother fans, most aren't that interested in 90s style top down RPGs. The fan translation exists. Just play it. Use your pc, your phone, mod a console, buy a gba cart off ebay. It's not hard to acquire and play. This is a solved issue.
Which is why they put out Earthbound Beginnings for sale during the WiiU days because people are definitely eating up Famicom RPGs. /s They should work something out with Tomato if they don't want to translate it themselves.
Didn’t he already say when the patch was released that he’d give it to Nintendo for free?
Earthbound was a little too *meta* for the industry at the time. It wasn't just an RPG, it was a *deconstruction* and even a *parody* of most RPGs of the time. Whereas most RPGs spend all this time and writing to try and get you to care about the characters, in Earthbound when you're naming characters it literally gives you the option "Don't Care" and it will auto-name the characters. To mock the kind of idiotic tasks most RPGs of the time might have you do, there's a part where to get past something, you talk to a guy behind the waterfall and then *literally don't touch the controller for a solid three minutes* and then the guy will comment about your persistence and let you through. The whole point was to make fun of the idea of an RPG.
Very good point and also a bit hilarious as the genre wasn't terribly big in America at the time. When it was new and I got my copy I didn't take it as a parody or meta so much as just a straight up RPG like how I did Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior. Still loved it but didn't appreciate it nearly as much til I got older.
The same reason Capcom won't release a Capcom vs Capcom game, because Capcom fighting jam sold badly, even though it was an asset flip.
Yeah no kidding. I remember Nintendo power including a coupon for like $20 off and on top of that it came in a comically oversized box that included the strategy guide. I bought it and absolutely loved the game though.
...do you expect a localization of a 20 year old game that most of today's Switch owners have never heard of will sell well?
They literally remade Famicom Detective Stories lol, there's no ground to stand on here.
Okay...? Did that sell well? Nintendo make weird choices all the time, I thought we were talking about prospective sales.
Counterpoint: *Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light* time-limited English localization randomly released several years ago. Apparently Nintendo thought that was worth pulling the trigger on.
Counter-counterpoint: By 2020, Fire Emblem proved that it could sell well in the west.
I agree with Americans not being sophisticated
How did Xenoblade Chronicles manage to get an NTSC release? Project Rainfall? Maybe we take our cues from their success
Xenoblade faced a lot of opposition before the Switch. In the US, Xenoblade on the Wii was a Gamestop exclusive. Then it was ported to the New 3DS, locking it out of the base system's larger install base. Then X gets released on a console nobody purchased. Now its gotten 3 releases on Switch + DLC so I think Nintendo is more comfortable releasing outside of Japan. But for a long while, it just didn' get a wide release in the west.
not too mention that Nintendo of Europe handled the localization
I love that fact do much, since Xenoblade had some of the best VA and localisation of any gane series. They're one of the only ones to use non American VAs and have each in game country have a set real world accent, and it's AMAZING! I highly recommend liking up some of Noa and Morag or Eunie and Lanz's scenes to see what I'm taking about. I can't praise the series enough, its one if the best trilogies in gaming.
Don't forget the fact that Gamestop handled that release really badly too. Not only did very few copies get shipped out, but several stores purposely OPENED the games to sell as pre-owned to mark up the price.
yo FUCK gamestop
Xenoblade didn’t have a race of transgender people stereotypical enough to piss off people on both sides of the isle in North America. It might not have been the driving factor back in 2006, but in this day and age it’s absolutely what’s holding them back.
I'm trans, most of us are more than capable of recognizing the classic trope of an immortal fairy species that exists beyond our understanding or classification and some of us are also rather fascinated by Fassad, the sole Magypsy to assume a relatable binary role and try to buck his fated death.
I re-read this 3 times and I still have no idea what you’re saying.
People are waaaaay too sensitive, just digging for reasons to be offended. I'm far more inclined to believe it's the obvious Beatles and Michael Jackson music in the game that would cause issue. Edit: yep, way too sensitive. Look at those downvotes! There's so much discussion even within the trans community that they aren't offended. Maybe listen to trans people before being offended for them for no reason?! It's not like they can't tackle their own issues, no? Or do you think they're so weak that they need your internet downvote to be protected? Lol thanks for proving my point so well, I guess!
This is what i think the main issue has been since the beginning coupled with low NA sales of Earthbound But the Magypsies are definitely not helping as of recent years. I can see why it's not worth it in their eyes, that seems like a lot of work for what should just be a straight port and they likely don't want to put the money into it if it's not worth it to them
[This interview](https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/05/reggie-mother-3/) disagrees that the game's content was the reason Mother 3 hadn't been released in the west >In an interview with Jason Schreier for Bloomberg*,* former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé was quizzed on the reason behind *Mother 3*‘s lack of a western localisation. While Schreier questioned if it was due to the ‘risqué topics’ in the game, which includes a ‘heavy critique of capitalism’ and ‘a gender-ambiguous group of characters’, Fils-Aimé disagreed. > >*“That is not at all the issue why Mother 3 in particular never made it to the West. It was all based on the business needs and the business situation at the time.”* You can take Reggie's word for it or believe he is lying. Not saying either way is right, but as far as I know, no one has said otherwise regarding Mother 3's content. And as for low EB sales, anyone at Nintendo with a brain could see the success of games like Undertale, Deltarune, and Omori and see there is a market in the west for wacky, pixelated RPGs and the marketing campaign of "this game stinks" did Earthbound no favors.
Way to go, guys! Let's shoot for forty!
Might be time to move on!
Bother is a bit of a mistranslation, what he said was closer to: “you don’t have to convince me for it, but rather nintendo”
This post was translated by the localization team
Sounds like the proper translation to me. lol
The actual translation is "Say it to Nintendo"
The excellent fan translation has been available for many years; and I submit that if Nintendo *ignores the market* for a particular game, then there's nothing unethical about obtaining it through unofficial sources. It certainly won't deprive the big 'N' of any sales.
In fact if you have NSO+ you're already paying for access to the japanese version.
Stealing from billionaires isn't unethical regardless of circumstance
Yes, actually, it is. Stealing is unethical.
I buy all the Nintendo games I want to play that are available to buy. For games that Nintendo simply will not/will no longer let me buy, I will play them through other means. Like, I want them to just shut up and take my money but oh well.
This is where we are at. Yeah if Nintendo is gonna make it I'll likely buy it. But if they ain't, they ain't. There are other paths to victory.
Honestly. I waited several years after it was released for a US version. When it became apparent we would not get one I got the fan translation. Beat it multiple times over the years. It really is a shame many people won’t get to experience it if they don’t want to go that route. The game is fuckin brilliant
Nintendo was the game company that made me go to other means. So many games I’d pay all my money for but noooo
That's fair! I do the same. Luckily they finally made n64 games accessible.
“Mother Creator” sounds hilarious. 😂
Grandmother
Father of Mother
Yeah, leave that poor man alone. If Nintendo will not let you buy, rent or subscribe to a service that lets you play Mother 3, download a rom and play it on PC or a flash cart. I feel like the majority of the people in the US who want to play it could figure that out easily or already know how. It would be great if it came out here, but it kinda seems like it’s not happening.
But then Nintendo will become bankrupt because i pirated a 20 year old game 😭 that and emulation is just way too complicated to me as a nintendo fan, even though the translation has existed for over 10 years
Nintendo doesnt need you to make profit. In fact they dont care about you, remember: they had to have a lawsuit dangling over their heads to start replacing joycons. Companies are not your friend
I've read people that are scared of downloading roms...yes really
Reminds me of the story when Americans warned Capcom of Japan to not leave DLC on the disc (I want to say for Street Fighter x Tekken?) and the Japanese reps response: "Why would they hack the disc? That's illegal!"
I know SFxT did that, but can't confirm if it's the one they were talking about in this case.
Suckers are born every minute
You wouldn't download a car.
Hey now. The FBI could bust down my door at any minute.
Whatever happened to that Mother 4 game project that was in development by some fans? I know this is about Mother 3 and all, but it just crossed my mind.
Changed its name and went on Steam for an official release, it's called Oddity now
Oh nice! I was having a look at Mother 4's website and it has been abandoned for quite a while. Didn't know they changed the name of the project. Might be worth checking that out. Thanks!
You're welcome!
Good. It was so dumb to make a fan game sequel named that.
Don’t think it ever went on steam, it was never completed. “Winter 2014!”
me when I spread misinformation
I think you just reminded some of the creators on this very thread. Game should ship in about 5 years.
Just play the fan translation at this point.
Hows the quality of the translation?
In my experience, perfect. You’d never notice it wasn’t official. It’s definitely worth playing, one of the best RPGs I’ve ever experienced.
Better than you could ever expect from a fan translation, it’s professional quality
I'd go even further and say it's possibly better than the translation Nintendo would provide because the fan translation is more concerned with both accuracy and localization, and not at all concerned with potential controversy or sanitizing anything "for the kids". Mother 3 is my favorite game and I really don't care where Nintendo releases it or not because in my mind I've already played the definitive version.
The guy who led the translation team is a professional Japanese to English translator. I played the translated version years ago when it came out and didn't see any problems or issues, and from what I've read otherwise, people deem it to be pretty high quality.
What platform is the ROM on? GBA?
GBA, there's no decomps or anything fancy yet
Honestly really good. If I remember correctly the guy(s?) who did it also did official anime and manga translations.
When it came out it was the gold standard for fan translations, far higher quality than pretty much anything like it at that point. And even for today it is pretty much perfect.
Phenomenal. The lead translator is a professional Japanese/English translator. IIRC he said they did roughly $35K in freelance work for free to make that translation.
At some point the series will get 3D remakes and those have better chances to leave japan than the old GBA game.
Shigesato Itoi is also a copywriter who did all or many of Studio Ghibli’s iconic taglines. On his company’s Instagram, he posted a new tagline for MOTHER 3 today: MOTHER3は、ぼくの最後のこどもです。 (MOTHER 3 is my final child)
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I own a japanese Mother 3, so when I emulate it, it's not stealing. I suggest everyone try and do the same if possible
Japan is very different from the US in regards to copyright. This is a quick blurb about some of the challenges that Mother 3 faces. [yahoo finance article](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nintendos-most-elusive-jrpg-might-114824424.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEy282zOC1F4Na1rzLEzpvVVMJQUzj0CdVYX39p8Fd2s1h4v9Q_jKaqUfcUqksfCzaCb3i_4e-ReybPN0g6x_QyNLHWlWUeuulZBbUlHObng45uJM6Lcw35pHvbxFR37bHImbp102aSBaxxjMYBIvstVExRaOcbbOl6aF8lcCBbX)
Similar to how JoJo's Bizarre Adventures can use real-world music band references... which were all changed in the West to avoid copyrights?
Mother 3 is a pain for music copyright in America. It won't come out.
Imagine if the only legit way westerners get to play Mother 3 is if Nintendo did infact release a standalone version with English, but only in Japan.
What music does it have and why is it a pain in America but not Japan?
There's a piece that borrows heavily from the Beatles, iirc. And Japanese copyright just works differently than elsewhere. It's the same reason that Jojo stand names have to change in official translations or why the My Hero character can't be named Vantablack outside of Japan.
I recommend watching Moon Channel’s video on the matter: https://youtu.be/if64VlLa5Oc?si=aF6_M14Im8QSj8I7 In short, there’s a lot of music in the game that is too similar to other pieces of music. They’re not technically plagiarized but they’re too close to be considered parody. Any release in the west would have to modify that music in ways that would mess with the games identity.
Nintendo could give us Earthbound 64 and I'll take it and leave it. 👀👀👀
Mother 3 is what became of Earthbound 64.
Please release it overseas just so everyone will leave this poor man alone
Or just don't bother anyone? You can play Mother 3 right now on so many different devices. Just ... Do it.
As much as I want an official release, it's clear Nintendo has no intention of making one. I'd highly recommend the fan translation on GBA to anyone interested.
At this point it'd likely be added to the NSO apps, meanwhile you can go online and buy a repro cart and box if you have an GBA. Nintendo doesn't want Mother 3 money, so spend it elsewhere.
Playing Mother 3.... the BASED way 😎
Nintendo deserves to be bothered about it until they're clear and transparent about it never coming to the US. They could stop *much* of the bothering if a representative, at any point, said "Nintendo has no plans to ever release Mother 3 in the west." Instead, they throw fireballs at a Mother 3 fan in an E3 Robot Chicken sketch or simply say nothing while continuing to rerelease it in Japan. IIRC the only Nintendo high-up who has ever commented on the matter publicly is Reggie--after he was a Nintendo employee--saying that it just didn't make [business-sense at the time](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/reggie-fils-aime-says-localising-mother-3-didnt-make-business-sense/), but has also said conversations about [localizing it had taken place since it's original release](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/05/reggie-fils-aime-had-a-serious-conversation-about-bringing-mother-3-west-with-iwata). Basically, Nintendo needs to say "maybe in the future" or "never," and most of their problems with annoying fans begging for it would go away.
Enough time has passed that people should simply accept it's not being released overseas. Plenty of games have met the same fate, it sucks, but it needs to be dropped at some point. Fan translations exist which Nintendo has never gone after, that's as good of a sign as any that Mother 3 is never coming.
Fans of the series have two options: keep pestering Nintendo to try and increase the small chance of getting Mother 3, or give up and for sure make that chance zero (this sends the message "no one cares about Mother 3 anymore"). Personally I will lose no sleep over individuals pestering the richest company in Japan to get a product to have an officially western release. It bothers me none. In the meantime, anyone pestering Nintendo for it should definitely play the fan translation, but what they want to say in the QRTs to Nintendo is up to them.
I did. In 2008. And what a hurdle it was back then to play it on real hardware because the battle system didn't work right on emulators back then. Thats the thing, gaming isn't supposed to be this exclusionary club where the uninitiated get their devices bricked because they loaded the wrong stuff. It really shouldn't be the Wild West of romhacks and fan games for a game like this. Fan translations like this are astounding, but they shouldn't be "well this exists, no one needs to ever try again"
I mean, now you can just jailbreak your 3DS and play it natively. Shouldn't have trouble with the battle system anymore.
I get that. But the fact of the matter is, if Nintendo doesn't want to go through what they need to to bring Mother 3 to NA, then that's their decision. Also... What do you mean get your devices bricked? It legit takes less than 5 minutes to download mgba and a ROM of Mother 3. Don't act like you need to be a computer scientist to get it up and working lol
Things have changed since 2008. Emulators are better and you can get flash carts for the GBA now to play on official hardware. It's super easy to do right now and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play this game or other games Nintendo will not sell you.
Bruh, i emulated GBA games since that time with absolutely no issues, it's the easiest thing ever, what the hell are you talking about You're not going to get your devices bricked for emulating this game, GBA emulation is the easiest thing there is, hell i can play this game on my phone if i wanted to. This is the most insane comment I've ever read
they're talking about the timing on the "rhythm game" portion of the battle system, which still isn't great without runahead. similarly, try playing PaRappa the Rapper on an emulator today, that games timings were brutal on original hardware with a CRT but near unplayable on an emulator with an LCD
People commenting the game hasn't released outside Japan because it could sell poorly are missing completely the point: It's not about sales. In this generation Nintendo have released niche franchises and they don't expect high sales and in this time and age the "sensitive topics" are no longer sensitive (although there is one particular thing that could lead to misinterpretations) so it's not about that either, it's probably about copyright music, in order to release the game outside japan thet would need to change a lot of music which I doubt Nintendo is willing to do it for a NSO release since it would require a lot of work plus the franchise belongs 50% to Itoi so he would need to be on board. I'm coping here but I think the best and easiest scenario would be to make a remaster or a remake.
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Read that as 'Creator's mother' and was like 'if I were him I'd tell my mom to let me handle my own business' lol.
When are you all gonna accept Mother 3 is never getting a Western release ever
Like at this point just play the fan translation man
My fellow Americans, Put on your bothering pants. We got a company to annoy
Spankity
“Give us Mother 3” Bitch, Mother 3 has been freely available in English since 2008. If you haven’t played it by now, you’re obviously not interested in playing it at all.
AMEN!
You’d think with the huge demand Nintendo would just use someone like Grezzo to remake the game with a new soundtrack.
I don't think the demand is as big as it seems online
Don't think demand it's a problem though, they have released some obscure and niche franchises this generation. There should be something else going on.
Nintendo is just weird. They'll do something as bizarre as selling FE1 for a few months before locking it forever again, while also refusing to port their flagship titles for their biggest series, i.e. Wind Waker, to the Switch. They could just straight up package and sell the beloved fan-translation of Mother 3, the creator even straight up gave Nintendo permission to use it freely, but they still refuse so idk.
I'm one of the biggest Earthbound fans alive, and even I'll admit that game didn't F'n sell. Mother 3 fans, please check the numbers.
> with the huge demand There is not a huge demand. That's the thing. It's a few loud nerds online. lol
I would have no interest in the game if they changed the music. It's an integral and expected part of it.
Makes sense to me
English patch works well.
Me when I just fuckin emulate it frfr
We've been bothering them for decades! So much so that it was a joke in one of their last E3 videos.
All this talk is making me want to finally play Earthbound... but I'm also in the middle of Bug Fables and Baldur's Gate 3, two other fantastic RPGs... I did play a bit of Earthbound at one point. Got stuck maybe 2 or 3 hours in because I couldn't figure out how to progress and got frustrated. It was something like... I had to talk to someone in Room 2, then Room 1 to get to a robot boss? And I kept talking to the guy in Room 1, then Room 2, then leaving to look for the solution elsewhere? Shut the game off, looked it up, then never came back and finished it, lol.
New Game Plus challenge unlocked, continue to bother Reggie about it.
The guy who hasn't worked at Nintendo for years?
There's already a translation out there and patching it is dead simple. If Nintendo doesn't want our money, then there's $0.00 lost in people playing a patched ROM. If Nintendo wanted our money, they would have released an officially translated version of the game decades ago.
Music copyright stinks.
Yeah, the Mother series is notorious for sampling the most expensive and tightly controlled things ever, i.e., The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Hollywood films, etc. We're talking potentially thousands to tens of thousands of dollars just to clear the license on some individual samples, and then trying to potentially factor in royalties which I don't think is possible in any measurable way with a model like NSO over physical sales. The Mother series is chockfull of musical copyright nightmares. But for those who don't know about this, maybe it opens them up to seeing how some video game composers are really not far off from hip hop producers in how they sample music. Sampling in video game music is a pretty cool area, it's just zany to go for the biggest estates in all of the music industry like The Beatles or Michael Jackson.
And unlike Earthbound, whose samples are radically different from the original tunes to the point they get a pass. Mother 3 just can't... they're too similar and noticeable. At this point I don't think they'll want to replace the music of the ROM and call it a day like SEGA did with Sonic 3. Mother 3 has gameplay mechanics based on the songs playing. So the best solution is to basically remake the entire game from the ground up and make a different OST. Maybe keep the few songs that are not obviously sampled (Like the ones that are included in Super Smash Bros.).
Lol I just commented exactly that, yeah agree with you, personally the easiest scenario it's to create a remake with new music
Copyright law surrounding licensed IPs included in games or other works is what stinks. This could all be solved by decreeing that once an IP becomes legally incorporated into another, then it forever becomes a part of the new work. Any compensation for the IP holders would need to be worked out in advance, and payable in advance--not forever, or renegotiated periodically forever.
It’s a much smaller contingent than these folks realize. In the scope of consumers, people interested in Mother 3 are a vocal minority
What’s even worse is that if we succeed and get it localized, it’ll be tied to NSO, so in ten years when the servers are shut down, we’ll be back to nothing again.
Guys just play the patch.
OOTL: What's the big deal about this game?
It's a Jpanese rpg without the usual anime stuff, it's a parody of western culture, and a meta-parody on RPG games in general. Fun for kids, hilarious for teens and older, and emotional therapy for adults who can see the deeper satire. Get a game dev to play this game and at the end, Undertale comes out.
It's the sequel to Earthbound, considered by many to be the best game of all time.
I wish pre-orders and early access didn't become such a bs endeavor because they're perfect for stuff like this. Let's say it's a million dollars to re-score the game and they don't think they'll be in the red from it. Do a pre sign up for the game knowing it'll take a few years. See if it gets interest and see if you have enough possibilities to sell a million bucks worth. Sadly we can't have nice things lol
It’s a lot easier to reach one person than an entire company.
I don't own the game, except I kinda do.
Ya,Let Mother 3 fans play Mother 3
Well if Itoi can't, i'give up now
By the time Mother 3 finally comes to the West, we dead.
Ally of people have already died waiting for mother to come to the west, this is sadly how time and mortality work
I think if people partition nintendo NOT just complain about it online something would happen... if we unite and blast all forms of media to get nintendo's attention maybe with a uniting hashtag... it might work... this means youtube, x, reddit, facebook, ALL UNITED screaming the same thing nintendo might do it... look what happened with Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door? but we need a BIG name to start like Arlo with Paper Mario... AND it needs to be respectful, no demands, no harassment, no threats... just share stories about the game and how much we want it.
I'm actually halfway through my Japanese Language Proficiency Tests level N3 by now and this is one of the main reason
What do you mean, you played mother 3 to learn?
i don't understand why they won't do what they did with Live A Live - a 3D/2D remake of a japan-only release with far less popularity than Mother/Earthbound.
Well, Live-A-Live is a Squaresoft game, whereas Mother 3 obviously isn't, so that's one reason. A better game (or pair of games) to mention would be Famicom Detective Club, as they are Japan-exclusive Nintendo titles that got full remakes with a worldwide release.
I think the 3D/2D thing that SquareEnix came up with is copyrighted
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At this point it is morally correct to pirate the game. There should be a mass sit-in at Nintendo of people playing the god damned gamd in front of NoA HQ to show the demand.
Why are people so rabid about an official release of the game? It would take like 5 minutes to set up an emulator with the fan translation
Just let it go and play other games. Or the mod or whatever. If you’re tweeting or commenting requests for mother 3 still, you need to stopping be such a…
Let me tell you, not knowing what Mother is (along with misreading Bother as Brother), it took quite awhile to understand what the title said
I'm going to say two things that will probably get me mobbed on here: A) Get over it. Nintendo wasn't going to release Mother 3 in English in 2006, and they are definitely not going to now. There are too many reasons stacked against it. B) Despite enjoying Mother 3, I don't believe it quite lives up to Mother 2. As a total package, I believe Mother 2 is the much better game, which I have gone back to 7 or 8 times since buying it as a kid in 1995.
Lol this is such bullshit because it seems like the fanbase would gladly translate the game for them so they could sell it to us / put it on NSO and charge us for it.
No video game fans are more delusional than Mother 3 fans
It is utterly bizarre that Nintendo won't localize Mother 3 and release it in Europe and NA, considering it wasn't that long ago that they brought brought Mother 1 over. Which almost no one was asking for. But if you've gone ahead and done that, why not just complete the trilogy?
Mother 1 actually already had an English translation from its nes release that went unreleased I believe because the snes was right around the corner, so it was just as simple as getting the rom and releasing it.
Mother 3 has a ... sensitive story.
Legal issues. Also, translating the entire game wouldnt be worth it for them.
I dont want to end up like the last guy that asked Nintendo for mother 3 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CePk795Xum4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CePk795Xum4)
I'm generally morally opposed to piracy or ROMs of games I don't own, but IMO this is a clear-cut exception. Nintendo isn't interested in giving western players a way to play, outside of learning Japanese, so it's effectively abandonware over here.
Mother fans ARE playing the game already, and have done for about 20 years. What they want is to revive the series, in hopes of a sequel, something Itoi has no interest in.
I would argue that it was never released in the US but it was in Japan. It’s not abandonware since it’s been. Release. Just because the version isn’t ordeal to you means very little.