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.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.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
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
Oissu!![]()
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.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!![]()
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
Oissu!The usual reminder - please don't post external links (including embedded YouTube videos) without context.
As per the rules
, posts with external links need to identify the links' destinations and summarise their content.
Posts that are solely links will be thumped.
Edited by Mrph1 on Feb 22nd 2024 at 10:40:39 AM
I've been replaying Earthbound in preparation for finally finishing Mother 3 (got to Chapter 7 before losing my save file). Honestly the game got better with age since I now get all of the jokes (such as Brick Road being a parody of amateur level designers). Also on a side note related to Mother 3; Do you think any of the people of Tazmily Village thought through how a tribe of only two dozen odd people was going to be completely unsustainable in the long term and would slowly and painfully die? Or do you think they just didn't care since they were erasing their memories?
Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Aug 25th 2024 at 12:37:56 PM
Once Upon A Time.Sorry for the double-post, but I wanted to post something completely different and just gush. I'm finally playing through Mother 3 in order to finish it and thus far it is somehow much better than I remembered. Despite never getting to finish it, the game has always been very important to me. Like Lucas, I went through a sudden, cruel loss of a close relative at a very early age that shattered my family. The way the game tackles it really resonates with. The final battle (which hits me like a train since the family member I lost was a sibling, my sister), is one of the most powerful moments in all of fiction for me and it still haunts me to this day.
Once Upon A Time.Both Earthbound and Mother 3 final battles destroy the player, one with terror and one with tragedy. Mother 3's battle is gut wrenching, especially at the end when Claus fires that bolt of lightning, and there's a sickening gap of silence between the attack and when the Franklin Nadge reflects it. I swear that pause is longer than in regular gameplay.
-Witty line-
I wanted to beat Earthbound first, and am roughly 3/4ths of the way through, but just got out of a low point and the TV my Switch is hooked up to is taken (my Switch's right joycon lock is broken, meaning Handheld modes isn't an option and I don't feel like getting it fixed). Want to see if Giygas, if the rest of Earthbound, got better now that I am older. The final battle against the Masked Man is something out of a nightmare for me as is. It genuinely sucks that Mother 3 is most likely un-releasable outside of Japan. I don't want to say it will never happen (nobody expected Metroid Dread to suddenly be made after over a decade of it being an obscure rumor) but I think actual flying pig chimeras will be invented before it does. The game is a work of art whose themes are genuinely poignant, even more so today than in 2006. I genuinely hope, hundreds of years from now, it will be in museums like other works of great art from the past. It isnpires me as an aspiring writer. I wish to one day create something with the same emotional torque.
Edit: After starting the game myself as an adult and getting up to chapter 3, I feel fairly convinced now that controversy is the real reason why Mother 3 is Japan exclusive. Copyright issues were speculated for Earthbound's lack of a rerelease, which was proven wrong (though the issue is worse in Mother 3). People who think Nintendo don't think it would be worth the effort of localization, to which I point to the enormous sales figures for Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings. Censoring it isn't an option, because people would riot (and would be very intensive). I just don't think Nintendo wants to touch it out of fear of it harming their image.
Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Sep 1st 2024 at 7:04:57 AM
Once Upon A Time.Legal issues are tricky. People always thought the reason Earthbound was not released all those years was because of the music sampling or even the flashing game effects. Then it was neither. It was that stupid Dali's Clock enemy. Is it possible to have a Demonic Spider inside and OUTSIDE a game?
-Witty line-
The real reason was the flashing effects to my knowledge. The Wii U release onwards comes with a real time blur filter. All of the seemingly infringing material is intact with no signs of legal trouble after a decade.
Edit: Someone is making an overhaul hack for Mother 3. I really wish I could suggest renaming DCMC to DMCAC as a nod to the game's supposed legal troubles. Think it would be funny.
Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Sep 2nd 2024 at 6:42:57 AM
Once Upon A Time.It took me two hours to grind for the Mythical Gloves (with a save state to avoid overleveling). The first Heftyhead I fought dropped the Mythical Stick. Edit: Never mind. Reset my save because I triggered the boss too early and wasn't prepared but forgot to save. Fuck my life.
Edited by TheLivingDrawing on Sep 6th 2024 at 11:37:43 AM
Once Upon A Time.

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.