MOTHER/EarthBound series

Actually, the legal issues might not be as bad as they seem.

There's probably a fair bit of red tape involved to make even small changes like those, however.

edited 10th Oct '12 9:46:08 PM by DrStarky

I heard Itoi gave his blessing to it, but I'm not sure how true that is.

... That's it? One fucking song is preventing re-release!? I thought it was a lot worse than that!

@Shirow: According to the guys on the blog, the game doesn't rely too much on past references, so they can reskin the game if need be, and remove any references to the Mother series.

He said he wouldn't mind the fans making a Mother 4, not that he gave his blessing to it. I'm not sure if he knows about the existence of the fangame yet.

edited 10th Oct '12 10:06:26 PM by Marioguy128

Even though the specific legal issues page lists those three, there's still the danger of being sued anyway due to today's sue-happy society.

Re: Earthbound's legal troubles: From what I understand, either Itoi or the team in general (I'm fuzzy about which) has been very stringent about nothing about EB being altered, or at least any big things like music or big graphics changes. So there's that too.

It's not just one song, it's two songs and an enemy name.

To be specifc:

Before anybody starts going into NOA lynch mob mode, remember it's NCL, Nintendo of Japan, who isn't giving the okay here.

edited 11th Oct '12 7:41:57 AM by DrStarky

I thought those were for Earthbound and not MOTHER 1.

edited 11th Oct '12 11:14:25 AM by Ukokira

I think it's more like the entire patent and copyright system is horribly broken and needs to be changed.

How come copyright laws are relatively loose in Japan compared to the West?

Probably because the copyrighted material comes from the West rather than Japan.

: It's far from the sole reason, but a man named Walter Elias Disney has a lot to do with how weird and messed up American copyright law is.

Well, I know they altered Wave Race 64 due to license issues, so can they alter Earth Bound and MOTHER 1 as well?

edited 11th Oct '12 3:14:28 PM by WaxingName

They can. It's just that Nintendo of Japan won't let them. That's the main problem here. The Sky Runner song is the only thing they won't let them change. They're fine with replacing the Chuck Berry music and changing the name of the Dali's Clock enemy though.

What about MOTHER 1, which only has the Hippie Battle as the legal problem?

I wonder why the Sky Runner song is such a sticking point...

Listen to "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, then the Sky Runner theme, then speak to me.

The NKC's theme in Mother 3 never seems to be brought up when people talk about legal issues. Though I'm torn between whether it's Beat It by Michael Jackson or Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top.

Maybe it's both. I'm leaning towards "Beat It", though.

Me Too!.

I said sticking point, as in "why is the Japanese team so insistent on keeping it." If they don't mind changing the Dali's Clock and hippie battle themes, which are more obviously referrential, why would the Sky Runner theme (which sounds Who-y but doesn't really reference anything in context) be such a big deal to change? If anything, I'd think they'd be picky about the hippie battle theme.

Changing music isn't as easily done as altering graphics.

However, they've already stated that they're OK with changing the "Chuck Berry" battle theme used for the hippies. They apparently don't want Sky Runner changed.

They must really like that song, then.

Now, I'm curious. I know what Ana says if you say no to her after the dance scene in the "official" translation, but what does she say in Mato's MOTHER 1+2 translation?

I always thought NKC sounded more like the the guitar riff in Sunglasses At Night. I've heard it in other songs too, but only Devil Summoner's boss battle comes to mind(not the Raidou game.)

Just so everyone knows, there's been discovered a method to play very high quality GBA audio, and boy it does wonders for the MOTHER 3 soundtrack.