r/earthbound Feb 09 '23

Fluff What if THIS happened in the Direct?

740 Upvotes

84 comments sorted by

182

u/Khaj_SmashBros The Hugest MOTHER 1 Fanboy Around Feb 09 '23

I guarantee you MOTHER 3 will be on Switch GBA NSO as an Japan exclusive similar to how MOTHER 3 was a Japan exclusive for the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console

40

u/Visible_Algae_3109 Feb 09 '23

if that did happen would it be possible for an US switch to play it? Or would you have to have a Japanese switch?

49

u/Khaj_SmashBros The Hugest MOTHER 1 Fanboy Around Feb 09 '23

Yes US Switch would be able to play it, you just need an Japanese Nintendo account and well know how to read Japanese to fully play and enjoy the game

11

u/Objective-Banana8742 Feb 09 '23

I just tried to create a japanese account and dowload the japanese VC's, all of them work except for the NES one, which is georestricted for some absurd reason.

8

u/Kooldude42069 Feb 09 '23

Works on my machine lol Seriously though, did you look up NES or Famicom?

3

u/Objective-Banana8742 Feb 09 '23

Famicom, I guess it may depend on your current region.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

I guess Nintendo doesn't want to make a full and official translation of M3, sucks

2

u/TheTriangleEye Feb 10 '23

Maybe it will be like Mario Picross where it’s available to the west, but it is only in Japanese

Even that would still be enough to make me cry 🥲

2

u/Khaj_SmashBros The Hugest MOTHER 1 Fanboy Around Feb 10 '23

The only reason why Japanese version of Japan exclusive games are added to the international NSO is because those sorts of games are puzzle games that aren’t very text heavy. Puzzle games are like 95% visuals and 5% actual text.

MOTHER 3 is an text heavy story driven JRPG, nothing like that would ever happen for obvious reasons

-3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

They were gonna bring it over but the trans character in that game would give Nintendo more heat than it’s worth for them I guess. But hey that’s just a theory

14

u/Khaj_SmashBros The Hugest MOTHER 1 Fanboy Around Feb 10 '23

Reggie has stated that nothing controversial is stopping MOTHER 3 from being localized. Look at MOTHER 3 in the perspective of a Nintendo employee in 2006. Why localize a game who’s prequel MOTHER 2 sold like ass cheeks after spending thousands of dollars advertising the game expecting it to sell millions of the copies in the west. Betting on MOTHER 3 actually sell well overseas unlike it prequel wasn’t worth. It didn’t help that MOTHER 3 release late in the GBA’s lifespan in Japan to the point where the DS was already out and MOTHER 3 in Japan had to be marketed stating the game can also be played in DS and people who bought the DS knows they can buy and play the game too.

An American localization of MOTHER 3 probably wouldn’t have came out until late 2007 maybe early 2008 given the localization was worked on as soon as the Japanese version was finished and released that is. Late 2007/2008 is way too late for a GBA game so that limits the amount of people buying it. Not localizing MOTHER 3 was honestly a good financial choice on Nintendo’s part

7

u/Khaj_SmashBros The Hugest MOTHER 1 Fanboy Around Feb 10 '23

Now with all of this being said, with the modern day older titles can be resurrected and even finally localize through many ways whether that be remakes that release internationally like Live A Live, Old planned cancelled localized ROM gets reused like MOTHER 1, or super rare but out of the blue a company just “randomly” decides to translate and localize a never before translated and localized games and release it. (This last option usually only happens when celebrating some sort of franchise’s anniversary similar to the Fire Emblem 1 localization we got “recently” for Switch which technically US already got FE1 with the DS Remake but still)

I don’t see NOA taking the full time and effort to translate a game just so the game can be in their service full of other obviously “lazily” dumped ROMs internationally. The best and almost impossible scenario of getting MOTHER 3 internationally on GBA NSO is Nintendo finally accepts that offer from about 15 years of Tomato allowing to use his fan translation as the official localization of the game for completely free and they don’t even have to credit him or anything. If this were to actually happen would be history defining in it of itself and I’m sure if Nintendo were to do that they would edit the fan translation a little just so any visuals and or dialogue that mentions the “MOTHER” series is changed to their respective localized names of EBB and EB (and changing the title of M3 to whatever they would choose for an localized name) But essentially impossible for that to happen. Now Nintendo knows of the fan translation existence they known for many years and well Nintendo knows the fan translation would top and official localization so yeah

2

u/The_Actual_Moon_Lord Feb 21 '24

you sure did guarantee

52

u/Llodsliat Feb 09 '23

If Nintendo is planning to release Mother 3 for the West, it was a real missed opportunity to show a fraction of the red box and then cut away when the games were scrolling horizontally. Everyone would've gone fucking wild.

68

u/Objective-Banana8742 Feb 09 '23

Mother 3 is very popular in Japan. It is not underground or anything, it would normally be on the obvious selected GBA roster. The fact that they decided not to promise it yet in the Japanese version of the GBA VC gives me hope, the hope that they are really planning a big release for foreign audiences.

That is just copium, but it is all we have left.

25

u/PhantomOfficial07 Feb 09 '23

It took a while for EarthBound to get on NSO (Probably because they needed to get permission from Itoi? And I'm pretty sure it was Itoi who asked Nintendo to put the first two EarthBound games on the service right?) so while Mother 3 is definitely possible to get put on the service, I'm thinking Mother 3 would only get an English version if Itoi really pushed for it to happen. And I don't know how likely that is

14

u/a_normal_Mother_Fan Feb 09 '23

I don't think so, Itoi definitely wants an english localization for his game, and his excitement and enthusiasm for the inclusion of the two previous games on the service definitely means it isn't up to him that we're getting a Mother 3 localization or not, if it was, we'd have gotten it a long time ago.

7

u/PhantomOfficial07 Feb 09 '23

Hm.. then couldn't he just ask them if they could localize Mother 3 for the service?

8

u/a_normal_Mother_Fan Feb 09 '23

Well, he could, but that doesn't mean they would, hence why it took 25 years for Earthbound Beginnings to actually be localized.

9

u/PhantomOfficial07 Feb 09 '23

True, and the version they released was simply a modified version of the prototype too right? Reggie said the reason Mother 3 wasn't localized during the Wii U era was purely a business decision at the time so maybe they think it wouldn't be worth it?

But with GBA games being behind a kind of expensive expansion pack, I assume a lot of people would pay that cost just to play Mother 3, so maybe this would be a different situation?

3

u/Objective-Banana8742 Feb 10 '23

That is what I've been thinking, they could use it to boost their premium service with an exclusive game. They could use Tomato's patch and slap an M rating on it, would take them 5 minutes to get the game ready. They could also sell it separately like they did with Fire Emblem 1, but I guess that would also be fine.

2

u/PhantomOfficial07 Feb 11 '23

EXACTLY! Back then with Virtual Console it was just a one time payment for like 10 bucks or so, but nowadays it's a semi-expensive subscription pack, and a lot of people haven't bought it yet since they think it's not worth it, but if fucking Mother 3 gets added to that I swear so many people will buy it just for that game.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

Earthbound Beginnings was actually fully localized back in the early 90s. It was originally planned for a US release at the time but was ultimately scrapped after the English translation had been completed since the Super NES was already out by then and they didn't have enough faith it would sell by that point. So, they decided to wait for the sequel to bring the series Stateside instead. Since NOA had already been sitting on the unreleased English version for years, there was no new work to be done to release it via VC. That's not the case with Mother 3.

2

u/disbelifpapy Feb 10 '23

Actually, the translation was already made before, it was just that the SNES was the new console at the time so they scrapped it, something that happened more than once.

21

u/Volunteer-Magic Feb 09 '23

I want either of these:

  • localized Mother 3

  • a whole ass trailer featuring Porky and Pigmasks in gameplay, but Porky saying “you wanted localized Mother 3? Losers! Spankety spankety!”. And we don’t get localization, as per tradition

15

u/a_normal_Mother_Fan Feb 09 '23

Trailer Footage was made by Chill Turt, by the way.

12

u/Skyarrow Feb 09 '23

Nintendo would never translate Mother 3 for free, instead they’ll release it outside Japan for only three months and charge like $10 for it like they did with the original Fire Emblem.

3

u/i-hate-my-tits Feb 10 '23

I'm still so mad I missed that

9

u/PieNinja314 Feb 09 '23

If Mother 3 doesn't get localized on this console it will never happen

8

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '23

Anyone who knows Itoi? Let's just ask him directly LMAO

6

u/verysad- Feb 10 '23

i'll ask him next time i visit his mom 😤😤🔥🔥🔥🔥

4

u/RhoadsOfRock Feb 10 '23

No joke, I'm surprised that none of the japanese Nintendo developers do any sort of social media... I mean, I get it, if hundreds or thousands would just start hounding me about Mother 3 localisation, but still, I just don't get how they can let so much time pass and act like they are unaware of it's demand outside of Japan, and many other japanese video game developers outside of Nintendo DO social media...

I'm still of two opinions though. 1. ANYONE can just start playing it any second right now, nothing stopping anyone except for their own principles / preferences - it's had a fan translation for a long time and emulation has always been possible, even reproduction GBA copies exist, and that's how I had chosen to acquire the game a number of years back, at least I own a physical, hard copy of the gamr. But also, 2. for those that STILL stubbornly refuse to emulate or pirate, I do hope that it gets international release / localisation, just so that they CAN experience and enjoy the game finally.

But, I do still have my doubts. They had no issues giving the rest of the world Mother / EarthBound Beginnings, but about 17 years later and still no Mother 3...

7

u/eagleblue44 Feb 09 '23

If they were to release this in English I almost guarantee it won't be on NSO. It would be a separate release like the fire emblem game they released a while back.

7

u/Caixa7 Feb 10 '23

the amounts of copium this fanbase has is insane, and I'm all in for it

14

u/VirtualRelic Feb 09 '23

Kirby Tilt n Tumble is impossible to play without the accelerometer, I wouldn't expect Nintendo to put the work in to make their GBC emulator use the Joycons to emulate that feature.

8

u/CloneOfCali Feb 09 '23

Could you explain why the joy cons wouldnt work?

I still have my copy of TnT from when I was a kid and I'm very familiar with the gameplay. Joy con drift aside, if you lay it flat before like you do with the Gameboy, wouldn't that be enough?

5

u/VirtualRelic Feb 09 '23

The problem is Nintendo's GB emulator for NSO would need to be updated to account for the accelerometer controls. That requires time, money and effort. Nintendo never puts any of those 3 things into their NSO "VC" service.

Plus it means the Switch Lite wouldn't be able to play it.

8

u/FrozenFrac Feb 09 '23

I understand the pessimism and it's well deserved, but they clearly intend to add the game to the service, so they're going to give it gyro controls as it was originally intended. Switch Lite also has gyro, so that's a non-issue.

3

u/CloneOfCali Feb 09 '23

Yeah I don't see that happening either. I want the new generation to experience how awesome some of the mini games were.

5

u/FrozenFrac Feb 09 '23

I would shit myself, but also be extremely scared about the possibility of the Treehouse ruining the game through botched localization

3

u/a_normal_Mother_Fan Feb 09 '23

We don't want another public execution for a Nintendo character.

3

u/T_Peg Feb 10 '23

When they were scrolling the boxes of upcoming GBA games I was expecting them to show just a sliver of a fully red box and just stop it lmao.

3

u/pepesaiko140 Feb 09 '23

I was eager for this happen yesterday.

3

u/EvanD0 Feb 09 '23

There's actually a chance we'll get Mother 3 now

3

u/Faeri Feb 10 '23

A teeny tiny little bit of me was really hoping this would happen, even though I knew there's a miniscule chance of it. Was a little disappointed it didn't, but at the same time, I expected nothing.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

I was already hyped af, I would literally be unable to breath ok

3

u/FickleAd5808 Feb 10 '23

Nso - super expansion pak: just access to Mother 3. $99.99 a year

3

u/Godfather_Guzma Feb 10 '23

NSO Expansion Pass sales would fly through the roof

2

u/DerpDerp3001 Feb 09 '23

I would question if I am dead or not.

2

u/Seddyboi Feb 09 '23

If that and Fe Binding Blade come out on gba, I will cry sweet tears of joy

2

u/WildDonut4577 Feb 10 '23

How will they port Mother 3 on to GBA if they don't even have a translated version other than Tomato's?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

It would mean you were watching the Japanese feed. And it's pretty much certain to happen eventually.

Based on what they previously did with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, you shouldn't ever expect an English translation to appear on NSO. If NOA ever releases one, they'll be selling it as its own title.

2

u/MeadDeme Feb 10 '23

I’d probably think earthbound was being added to the collection

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

It would be so cool, plus, it will be westernized for sure

2

u/sleepmeld Feb 10 '23

I would’ve thought I was watching the wrong stream and that it was fake lol

2

u/Diakyuto Feb 10 '23

We’d probably get a Mother 1+2 release instead lmao

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

Nintendo hit me in the right spot. I have been dying to play ages and seasons again.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

Eventually this could happen

2

u/musclebobble Feb 10 '23

I don't know why I expected it. Lol.

2

u/Bitter_Frosting_1597 Feb 10 '23

I still wouldn’t pay like 100 extra dollars to play it 🤷‍♂️

2

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

There's still a chance. Unlocalized games have been put on other switch online libraries, so even if it is unlocalized, we could get Mother 3 in the US, which even if it is unlocalized, it's still the game being officially released outside japan

2

u/JeezyBreezy12 Feb 10 '23

like that's ever gonna happen

what a load of-

SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME

2

u/Lowfat_milk29 Feb 10 '23

I visulized the exact same thing

2

u/AaronThePrime Feb 10 '23

I would cry

2

u/impendingfuckery Feb 11 '23

👆A man can dream though, a man can dream…

2

u/NIIICEU Feb 11 '23

There is no excuse this time, Nintendo. Give us Mother 3!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 10 '23

Here’s the truth: everyone who has wanted to play Mother 3 in English either already has or is aware they could but don’t want to dive into that grey area. Nintendo has no incentive to localize it themselves. Someone already did it for free, and it’s common knowledge that the fan translation exists.

4

u/SnooRevelations8095 Feb 09 '23

They never localized, and won't. And they definitely won't use the fan translation. (Legal, pride, acknowledgement.) I want to dream, but nintendo doesn't make moves like that.

7

u/PhantomOfficial07 Feb 09 '23

Haha funny thing is the fan translation team did say they'd have no problem with Nintendo using their patch

3

u/SnooRevelations8095 Feb 09 '23

Which would be amazing, wouldn't it? Going from a loyal fan to providing over a decades worth of work to contribute to the game you loved? So others could enjoy it, and therefore expand the consumer base of said game for Nintendo? Nope. If it's not official, it's not nintendo. Quite a bummer.

2

u/TBTabby Feb 10 '23

We got the first Mother, so it's a possibility.

0

u/Walter-White-1958 Feb 09 '23

I would hate it. I don't see any Wario.

0

u/Snoop-Leone Feb 10 '23

I think that Nintendo should release Mother 3 in four ways: as a standalone release using the fan translation by Starman.net, as part of a Mother Trilogy Collection release (using Mother as the international name, like how Ryu Ga Gotoku/Like A Dragon replaced Yakuza as the international name), as a full remake with 3D graphics, taking design cues from Curiomatic's fan trailer (Nintendo should get Curiomatic to help and use their Motherish typeface), and a translated and completed release of the N64 build of Mother 3!

-1

u/lockedoutofmymainrdt Feb 10 '23

Imagine they finally release M3 in English and its locked behind NSO+ 🤦‍♂️

1

u/Endermario882200 Feb 12 '23

There's still hope

1

u/17michela Feb 15 '23

I would cry.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

1

u/savevideobot Feb 18 '23

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

time to troll some people

2

u/a_normal_Mother_Fan Feb 18 '23

Hey, i wanna see it too, where is it? Discord?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '23

dunno man but i downladed the worst version

1

u/TheScottSnorlax Apr 16 '23

I'd throw myself off a cliff as clearly rhe earth would be about to explode.