MOTHER/EarthBound series

It sucks, but its not like they can just take the fan translation and use it for an English version. They have to do the work themselves, and they'd want to.

Just puts me in the mood to replay Mother 3 as an adult.

Like, that game messed me up as a kid.

They technically can and the translators actively offered that they did.

That sets a precedent for support of fanworks that you know Nintendo is wildly uncomfortable with.

Like even if they're cool with this fanslation, the legal miasma and what it will mean down the line is not really worth the paltry subscriptions they'll sell.

That's not how things work. You can't just take a translation that was done elsewhere and put it out there in an official port. Or the hacked ROM itself as an official port. There's potential liability issues - If it were found there's something offensive or otherwise undesirable in there, that's now become Nintendo's problem. And even though the fan translators SAY its okay to use it, there'd still need to be legal hurdles Nintendo would need to go through to make that official. Even if they wanted to just take it without 'permission.' Or C&D the fan translation in favor of their own. (Probably too little too late for that, but I could still see them trying)

And there's also the question of whether Nintendo would see just using the fan translation as an endorsement of piracy, which they definitely don't want that.

Edited by diddyknux on Feb 21st 2024 at 10:14:13 AM

People are theorizing its the music, but that was also the theory behind Earthbound and that ended up not being the case (it was that damn clock enemy). So either there is something more or Nintendo is just being.....I don't know. Tone deaf? Lazy? Spiteful? Indifferent?

Pretty sure it’s been stated that it’s just they don’t feel like translating it would be worth the investment.

Lazy and cheap. Nintendo has the money to remove any and all legal and technical roadblocks around Mother 3's release if they really wanted it done. They just don't care to.

And honestly, with the fan translation existing, there probably wouldn't be a huge market for Mother 3's official release anyways. The people who really want to play it can easily do so for free on whatever Nintendo console of their choice with modding. Releasing the fan translation would be the easiest way for them to go since they've gotten the go-ahead to do so if they wanted, but again, they don't want to.

The only way I see Mother 3 coming out for the English market officially these days is if there were remakes of Mother and Earthbound coming and they wanted the whole series to be accessible for all markets.

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect the fan translation's never been C&Ded because Itoi approves of it. He's always been very fans-first and has encouraged people to make Mother 4 themselves, I don't see him approving of legal action on the fans if they're not doing anything wrong.

Edited by PhiSat on Feb 21st 2024 at 9:33:17 AM

They cared enough to do it for the first game. Hell, it only got the name EarthBound Beginnings from that official international release in 2015; for the longest time, people referred to it as EarthBound Zero.

There is precedent for fan translations getting promoted to official translations. Trails From Zero and its sequel Trails To Azure had that happen, with the publishers basically just hiring the fan translation team to produce the official release.

Not saying Nintendo will do that since they're a more conservative company when it comes to even acknowledging fan-produced content, but at the very least it is an option.

That's because the translation for the first game was already done back in 1990. The English roms available online that people called Earthbound Zero was a beta that Nintendo didn't go through with releasing, that was leaked in 1998. Earthbound Beginnings is just that old translation with the title screen changed.

That game still needs a proper remake. It has a fun story, but the gameplay is positively antiquated. It's as barebones as a game gets. Imagine the game instead being overhauled to use Mother 3's battle system.

A remake should keep Mt Itoi just as brutal though. Just to troll the players.

Edited by PhiSat on Feb 22nd 2024 at 1:03:40 PM

I yearn for a remake of the trilogy in a Claymation artstyle similar to the first two games' art.

Basically I want them to hire the person who made this animation and make all three games look like it.