Mother 3 translation seven months away [update]

by Eric Caoili { Apr 20th 2008 at 11:00PM }

Celebrating Mother 3's release in Japan two years ago today, Starmen.net co-founder and fan-translation project lead Tomato posted an update on the unofficial localization's outlook. With ten months of work already behind them, the team predicts that the completed English patch (GBA ROM required) still needs about seven months of hacking, script editing, and testing.

While that may sound like a long time, keep in mind that some fan-driven translations can take years before they're finished, and that's if they even make it past the first months of work before dissolving. Besides, it's not like Nintendo of America is rushing to translate the RPG.

To help you deal with the wait, Tomato has posted ten minutes worth of video showing the team's progress, all of which you can watch above! So close, and yet so far away!

[Update 1: Corrected Mother 3's age -- two years old. Thanks, ShadowX!]
[Update 2: Straight from the horse's mouth.]

Tags: brownie-brown, earthbound, fan-translation, hal-laboratory, itoi, mother, mother-3, patch, rpg, shigesato-itoi, starmen

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

colin17 @ Apr 21st 2008 6:57AM

man wish I had a gba cart so I could play this. unfortunately just a ds cart is all I have, dang......

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ Apr 21st 2008 10:35AM

well 7 months is plenty of time to pick one up dont you think?

Anthony @ Apr 21st 2008 9:21AM

Isn't it kind of hypocritical to make a specific point of calling ROMs piracy in a post that is pretty much dedicated to ROMs in the first place?

Are you asserting that the people who want to play this translation should go buy the JP GBA game, and rip it to ROM themselves? That's what they would have to do to make it legal, but that's pretty unrealistic.

Sorry, I just don't see the point of mentioning piracy here.

Mr Khan @ Apr 21st 2008 7:16PM

Well, the thing is that these people don't want to resort to piracy. They have stated that, in the event that NoA announces a localization, they will cease the project entirely. Their love of Mother 3 just forces them into this route

I'm just surprised Nintendo hasn't sent a cease-and-desist order for using pirated software, even though technically they aren't losing money, since its reaching an audience they aren't trying to

Christie @ Apr 21st 2008 9:25AM

This looks like pokemon without the pokemon....

Ghaleon @ Apr 21st 2008 10:24AM

EarthBound is nothing like Pokemon. Every Nintendo/RPG fan should play it.

At least they gave a guestimate on complettion -- Policenauts is a big project that's totally translated, but they have no idea when they can overcome certain programming hurdles.

ShadowX @ Apr 21st 2008 11:12AM

Actually, MOTHER 3 is two years old. And Tomato has not come out and given any exact dates on when the translation would be done. Those were only estimates to give you an idea on how much time things could take. So this 7 months tally really shouldn't be paid too close of attention to. Just keep checking the blog for updates. :)

Mato @ Apr 21st 2008 11:36AM

Yeah, I purposely didn't give out any exact totals or exact months or dates or anything because the update was meant to give just a general idea of the amount of time left for each thing. Giving a specific total at this point wouldn't be wise, because there are too many factors between now and then. I would've preferred the title here to be more like, "later this year" or something like that, but ah well, too late I guess.