Role-playing game Mother 3 has never been released outside of Japan, but that has not stopped dedicated fans from translating it in its entirety. The team of fans, which also includes a professional translator, has offered up its localisation of the game to Nintendo free of charge in a post on its development blog.
Written under the handle "Mato", the blog post said, "I realize that localizing a game this size can cost a lot, so if it’ll help in even the slightest, I’ll gladly offer to let Nintendo use my text translation files for any use at all, completely for free."
The post also mentioned previous fan translations used by the game publishers, citing Ys: The Oath in Felghana as an instance where a fan translation was used in the creation of the localised version.
Mother 3 is the third game in the Earthbound series. The first and second games in the franchise were released outside of Japan as Mother and EarthBound, respectively. The third game was announced in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance console, although plans for localization in the West were never announced.
Discussion
A little late on this story, there was a huge fan translation almost 4 years ago...
Anyway I hope it Nintendo does release it in English, in America, Europe, and Australia
To everyone here who doesn't know, it has already been announced that Mother 3 is in fact coming to Virtual Console in english on Wii U. For your proof watch the April Nintendo Direct
Probably good enough earthbound is coming to VC at all, whole reason they didn't stock up on the SNES version is they got into deep shit over the copyrighted sci-fi music. I wonder now how it's ever seeing the day of light again.
Nintendo, DO IT! I would so love to play Mother 3 here, even if I have to buy it on a virtual console.
The real cost is in QA - even with the translation done for free Nintendo would need to spend quite a bit of money testing it and making sure it meets all of their requirements. Nice gesture, but it probably won't ever become an official release.
Tomato/Mato and his team put a bit of effort into the fan translation. It's not perfect, but it's actually pretty good. The fact that he's offering it to Nintendo for free shows the kind of fan he is. However, I get the feeling they will probably wait and see how Earthbound's VC sales turn out before doing anything.
Isn't mother 3 an emotional game? I would totally pick this up.
I hope that Nintendo gets on board and should recognize that Mother/Earthbound has a fanbase and should make at least a remake or something
DO IT NINTENDO! I already have the fan translated version on my modded Wii, but it would be nice to see it officially released in USA.
If Nintendo would release a ds/3ds cart with all the mother games on it Id be allover it, but until then I just don't care.
Its great they put earthbound out digitally but I wont buy it or any others digitally just because I don't like digital products. I like to actually own what I buy that I can pull out and play in 20 years, I can let my girlfriend borrow if she wants, I could sell if I want, I could trade if I want.
Now that's what you call a true fan.
Take the translation and release it on the wiiu virtual console.
If Nintendo goes for it, I'll be very surprised. It would be nice for the fans though.
That's really nice of them! Mother 3 deserves an outside Japan release!
Knowing Nintendo, they will probably go 'herp derp downloading ROMs is bad', while not actually releasing the translated game in way shape or form and forcing people to download the ROM....Just like they did with Mother 1 *facepalm*
Is it vital to play Mother before Earthbound?
Played this one in english, definitely awesome. I am actually waiting for Mother 4 to finally be done, hopefully this year (even though it is purely fanbased, it looks official).
Happens all the time. Most of the time the fan translations are better. What's really shocking is why these companies don't license or publicize old or unpopular games. Let the fans do what they want with the franchise and ask for a cut of the sales. We get what we want and they make a little money. It's not rocket science.
OMG, if this is true, then just OMG how many jrpgs we could have in english officially. Like Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, 2 PSP Digimon games, and loads of tactical jrpgs.
Well that's nice of them, don't know the games, but I hope Nintendo accepts.
I love these people who did this. Thank you~
"If you're good at something, never do it for free." - The Joker
I would love to play Mother 3 again in English but to me Mother 3 is the least favorite in the series to me. I prefer they release the Famicom original first since that one was already translated.
I love the fanbase of the Mother series. All they want is for the games to be translated so they can actually own Mother and Mother 3 officially...and Nintendo never really gives them that win. Hopefully Mother 3 does get a localization.
Even though I don't care much for the Mother series, this guy is a GOD among gamers. Unfortunatelly, Nintendo is way too stubborn to accept that. They apply their stupid philosophy where it seems that if they didn't invent something, it's just no good to everything, imagine if they would be humble to accept that.
Then again, Operation Rainfall worked...
A game that elicits that kind of devotion from a fan is a true gem. I really hope Nintendo releases it over here at some point.
I actually enjoyed Mother 3 more than Earthbound : /
(Even when Earthbound was 9.0/10 for me)
NOA SUIT #1: "American fans are begging for the release of the mother series in its entirely in any format. They are not asking for any upgrades to the game. All we have to do is lazily put the source code on something and they will buy it."
NOA SUIT #2: "Are you sure thats what they really want?"
NOA SUIT #!: "They are mailing in blank checks!"
NOA SUIT#2: "Hmmm our research shows that the American audience wants a princess cupcake making simulator, with motion controls, wi-fi connectivity and friendship codes. Oh and they want that the entire last level of that only accessible if you trade special items between 7 different players with 7 different copies of the game. BTW, since we are placing 100% of our resources into this, please change the release dates of our first party line-ups from june 2013 to TBA 4th quarter 2014."
i want this
It would be cool, but I doubt Nintendo will accept anything fan made.
If we all spoke one language this wouldn't be an issue. But that will never happen. I don't want to learn Spanish or Chinese.
How about they do this for Seiken Densetsu 3? One of the best games on the SNES, and only playable in English via hacked ROM
I appreciate this. I will Get it !!!
Most translations by fans usually are free. Be it japanese anime, tv series, manga, or games on net....
But I do apreciate the effort.
I want to play this game so bad, earthbound was one of my favorite games ever
Studios are unlikely to accept fan scripts, but then again who knows anything can happen.
I've finished Earthbound at least 5 times but I couldn't stay interested enough to finish Mother 3 for some reason. It's not a bad game but I really couldn't get into the story. I like the main part of it with Lucas, Claus and their parents, but everything around it I wasn't into.
To be fair, these games would be bashed up and down by Media just to get in the hate bandwagon due to certain stuff these games contain
On the other hand Earthbound is a very niche series and it's only in recent years that these RPG's gained popularity once more
I hope the series get what they deserve like Fire Emblem recently
This "news" is like two days old.
I believe this qualifies as a "Woohoo!" moment.
I don't understand how Emulators can have massive libraries with enhanced graphics, translations and the ability to set inputs to anything you want... While the major companies can barely do an HD remake...
@Gargus and going by mother previous releases in the past.. in a few years it will become a collector's item
@Toysoldier34 no.. all three are different games.. there are references in earthbound regarding mother and similar references in mother 3.. but you wont miss anyhting if you havent played mother..
@Xplode_77 Unless it brings Mother 3 to places outside of Goth- I mean Japan? ;)
@racerxgundam I would totally play a princess cupcake making simulator!
@kohle36 secret of mana 3 you mean. As you have said, its already available as a hacked rom.
@manoogian i ended up getting a flash card on gba for this game... i will still get this if it ever came out
@Chico_Azteca earthbound is niche with its quirky humour and its wierdness.. mother 3 not so much.... its a toned down jrpg with one of the best told stories i have played in recent times
@Adavanter i remember getting the rom for yoshi's island inspite of having the original cart.. super 2xsai.. nuff said
@Adavanter This is one of the reasons so many people prefer piracy over the original material, how many series, comics, cartoons and games are awfully translated, if they are paying they have(or they should have) the right to demand a proper translation, a proper release and a proper distribution.
@torrne667 No, I mean Seiken Densetsu 3. It was never released outside of Japan, and has no English title. Even if it did, it would be Secret of Mana 2, as the original SoM was the North American localization of Seiken Densetsu 2.