It's an old chestnut now. Way back in 2006 it was disappointing — if not surprising — that Mother 3 wasn't brought to the West, but after Lucas came to Super Smash Bros. in 2015 it seemed like a foregone conclusion that we'd see the third part of the EarthBound trilogy officially localised at some point.
It wasn't to be, though — at least not yet. In the video above Mother uberfan Zion-from-Nintendo-Life-here is joined by fellow video fella and EarthBound advocate Jon-from-Nintendo-Life-here to discuss a few facts and theories about the franchise, the years of hearsay, the state of play right now, the forms in which Mother could potentially return in the near future (or, indeed, the distant future), and how they feel about it all.
If you're wondering where he's got to, NL YouTube chief Alex-from-Nintendo-Life-here chose not to join his video chums for this particular discussion following rumours that he is, in fact, vocally and passionately anti-Mother. Either that, or he was already off on his Christmas hols at the time of recording.
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Going to be honest here, if this game ever came to the west then it would get an entirely new narrative which will ruin the game, because the story originally was so dark and twisted.
You wouldn't be able to put that stuff in video games anymore, which is sad but true.
Alex does look like the type of bloke who hates Mothers.
Very great video! Interesting points in there that I hope are true. Give us more Earthbound!
Also, Jon's got an awesome voice.
@Gamer_Zeus I think that’s also the part of me that doesn’t want this game localized, as great as it is. I feel like there’s no way Nintendo would do the story now since it’s so messed up and not like them at all.
You have an earthbound conspiracy theory? Does that mean you're on an alien planet? Nintendo Life broadcasts from an intergalactic space arcade!
Here, I'll open a whole other can of worms. Mother 64, released for Nintendo Switch Online in the same manner as Star Fox 2 on the SNES Mini.
There's this level of uncertainty surrounding how far Nintendo would go to localize Mother 3. One of the things that I think everyone's noticed nowadays is that Nintendo is less risky when it comes to addressing a real-world issue or trend, and as a result, there's this common trend that Nintendo never gets nominated for Best Narrative in many awards ceremonies. This is especially noticeable with modern Paper Mario games.
The only games that truly stick out to the classic Nintendo charm are Splatoon and Animal Crossing, both making numerous references to pop culture from the 80's to the present day. Still, it often hangs more into the background than the main focus of the story.
However, looking at recent re-releases, I'm a little optimistic that Nintendo might indeed bring us localized Mother 3, whether it's the GBA version or the unreleased N64 version.
Maybe Nintendo of America will localize the game in the future as a rated T or M, who knows...
(I think that bayonetta is a good example of nintendo publishing rated M games, so this isn't impossible...)
@StarPoint it wasn't like them in 2006, let alone today.
Hey it could have been worse. Other countries that Nintendo has an official presence like Korea or Brazil never even got Mother 1 and 2.
If Nintendo won’t release Mother 3 at least release other Japan GBA exclusives such as Starfy 1-4.
@7bbbbbbbbb sexual and violent content is different to what this game does.
Kids take hard drugs, turn evil and kill themselves when they learn what they became. Small example.
This won't be localised.
@Gamer_Zeus "You wouldn't be able to put that stuff in video games anymore" Even in 2006 this game would have been incredibly controversial if it was localised. Hence the reason NoA hasn't touched it.
@Gamer_Zeus There would probably have to be a B-movie or epic aesthetic to get away with the themes. Mother goddamn 3 has a darker and more depressing story than the Last of Us, which is mad.
I've never played a mother game.
When I finally sit down and play it.
It better be the best thing ever. It better feel like kissing Kate Beckinsale after winning the lottery after how much people have hyped this game up.
Uhh, wasn't Lucas's first Smash appearance in Brawl from 2008?
Mother 3’s fantastic but I have a repro cart with the translation. I don’t really feel the need for an official translation as I genuinely doubt it’ll be any better than the fan one.
I don't think the mother 3 stuff is that controversial tbh. Just a few edits here and there maybe and its fine. Hell nintendo published devil's third on wiiu, they can bring mother 3 over to switch.
@Maulbert yep.
The chances of 3 getting localized this far out are slim to none. The chances of a new official, and no doubt less potentially controversial, Mother game are higher tbh; however Shigesato Itoi long ago stated publicly he's not interested in making games any more (not to mention he's now well into in his 70s), and frankly I don't think I would bother with a non-Itoi helmed Mother any way.
Following the creators of the Mother 3 translation's blog back in the day was fascinating and made it clear that just injecting new text was very difficult with the way that particular game was programmed and a lot of re-jiggering had to happen under the hood beyond simply the localization itself. It's sort of a minor-miracle we got that at all. It's almost as if the game was intentionally developed to not be translated. Almost.
@tamantayoshi Devil's Third isn't really controversial though, it's got a B-movie camp under it all. Mother 3 is depressing in the areas it touches.
I'm against piracy but they left us no choice and Mother 3 fan translation is really great. You can patch it over your original japanese rom and play it on ur Analogue Pocket or ur GBA ipsv2.
The 1st party NSO absences are really weird such that I'm not sure whether it strengthens or weakens the theory about the Mother trilogy. You have stuff like Fire Emblem Gaiden being missing on Japan NSO despite the remake (Shadows of Valentia) being only on 3DS as well as games like Urban Champion and Pinball being completely missing from NSO despite being released on Wii and Wii U VC (Urban Champion even got a 3D Classics version on 3DS).
@Grumblevolcano
Earthbound still missing from NSO could be Nintendo purposely withholding it until renewal time comes for a lot of subscribers to get them to extend their subscription.
Earthbound Beginnings is the best in the series.
We're playing Earthbound on our channel in January! Can't wait! That after-Christmas winter time feels like such a great time to play this cozy awesome quirky game.
Would be so great if Mother 3 ever gets released, but anyone holding their breath at this point has probably passed out. Still would be great tho!
feel like you guys are kind of blowing up the supposed darkness of mother 3 here, it's got depressing moments, sure, but overall i wouldn't qualify it as particularly more dark than any other rpg
just reminding me of the classic game theory "THIS GAME IS DARK!" earthbound thumbnail
@somebread I've never played an RPG involving murder, drugs and genocide centered around children. Not sure what games you've been playing.
There is a very good reason why Nintendo won't touch this.
@Gamer_Zeus people still put stuff like that in games
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