The History of the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation 

I hate it so much when people online just ignore the fan translation's existence. Most people I see begging for an official translation come off like they think the fan translation isn't legitimate, or even like it doesn't exist at all in their eyes. Very few people asking for an official translation even _mention_ this one. What's even worse is the people who absolutely refuse to play Mother 3 because it hasn't been officially localized even though the fan translation has been out for over 15 years. The team put all that work into this patch, more than Nintendo probably would have, only for it to be ignored by so many people in later years because they think that not having Nintendo's name on it makes it less legitimate. I haven't seen any other series held to this standard that fan-made content is less legitimate somehow, and it's super weird because Earthbound has been kept alive entirely through fan-content since the early days of the internet. What's more, Nintendo has done everything to indicate that this _is_ the official translation for all intents and purposes short of flat-out saying it. No one has any excuse for not just playing this version.

As someone who translated the game into French, I can confirm it’s an extremely hard and time-consuming task to translate the entire script, not to mention the technical stuff (French grammar, among other things, required some additional hacking). I got a lot of inspiration from Mato, Jeffman and their team, when it comes to the amount of love and care they gave to a fan project to make it live up to the standards of an official product. Also, big up to Lorenzooone for his work on version 1.3, which includes a lot of huge technical improvements.

As someone who does translation, I feel that I can cite the Mother 3 fan translation as one of my inspirations for translating. Thank you so much for covering this!

The MOTHER 3 fan translation is a true masterclass of fanmade localization, and I'm glad that its legacy shines just as bright as the original game. I had never known the full step-by-step story of how it came to be though, so this was a really informative watch. Nicely done!

19:29 The fact that they brought in Lucas’s voice actor from the Smash Bros series to do that one bit is all sorts of pure dedication here.

Back when the fan translation released, I thought Duster only had one set of sound combos variations because since he had a limp, he could only kick "a certain way".

I remember checking EVERY SINGLE DAY for updates on this back in the day. Still my favorite game ever and solidified my passion for fan projects. I will always have my fanmade manual for the game proudly displayed in my gaming collection.

Knowing how Nintendo has handled games like Fire Emblem Gaiden and the Famicom Detective Club (generally only doing new translations for remakes), it’s possible that a full remake is the only way for Mother 3 to get an official translation

Amazing video like always. Thank you for covering this. I always knew Earthbound had a dedicated community and their struggles of getting Nintendo to do an official localization but It was very interesting to see how the community took it upon themselves to translate it. I loved your puyo videos as well. Keep up the great content! Some Content ideas: Maybe you could do a video on other fan translations. Some examples I can think of: Touhou Project/Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest/RPG Maker 95 fan translations as I am sure there is a decent amount of history behind those.

Who knew a whole bunch of text would make for such an interesting documentary!

i was following this process throughout all of 2008 when i imported this game & first played it (used like a translation guide on like GameFAQs or something)

Awesome video, really cool to learn the history of the Fan Translation.

Some bugs were fixed by lorenzooone for the italian translation that was added on the english one :p Fixed the Summary’s lag Made it so the menus’ writing buffer is properly cleared (Fixes leftover text issue) Fixed some articles in text in the overworld Fixed missing articles in the battle text Fixed line of Debug Phrygia that was missing one entry Fixed text overflow in various boxes Made it so Soup and Stew are not drinkable Fixed various typoes in the Memo text Fixed line about the position of one of the Needles Fixed article within an highroad dog’s line Fixed small cursor’s issue in the naming screen Fixed issues with the stars in the Battle Memories Fixed “Text Slowdown” when printing text in CPU heavy areas in the overworld Made gray boxes in the overworld more precise Fixed memory OOB writes during Fassad’s low voice speech Fixes of the Japanese version’s bugs/issues: Made it so the Thunder Tower’s frog can still move when in contact with the party (Fixes softlock) Fixed New Game Plus bug (A patch will be made available that removes the fix for those who want it) Fixed swapped gift boxes bug (A patch will be made available that removes the fix for those who want it) Fixed Salsa’s reflect text during the Pork Tank’s battle Fixed various graphical/collision issues in the overworld Fixed Lucas’ talking bug in Chapter 5 Fixed the Skull Gift Box glitch in 3 locations Fixed the Boney’s Sludge Pond Glitch (Could crash the game) Fixed the Steel Mechorilla’s sounds Fixed door’s collision data for one bathroom in Chapter 8 Fixed issue with actions being executed more times than intended Fixed flickering during Fassad’s low voice speech Fixed issue with Claus’ PP if the first battle is lost Fixed wrong text being displayed for the train’s requested money Fixed issue with Thomas disappearing in Chapter 1 after the notebook is collected Fixed issue with mouse talking directly to humans Fixed Debug Room’s Pigmask changing sprite in certain situations Standardized Boney’s minimum level during Chapter 4 Fixed issue with Mementoes being used while in the inventory Fixed issue with Leder’s counter ticking when it shouldn’t and viceversa Fixed 0 damage being reported as > 0 if comboes are used Fixed minor graphical issues within some menus Fixed Nana’s age in Chapter 8’s concert Fixed Caroline’s bakery causing inventory issues in Chapters 1 through 3 Fixed the Delete All Saves menu’s lag Fixed issue with quickly opening and closing maps Fixed the song set for Wess’ house right after Wess joins the party in Chapter 2 Improvements: Optimized text printing for a smoother experience Reduced the load on the GBA’s CPU in certain menus in order to ensure a smoother experience Added NPC in the Debug Room It allows accessing the other tables of the Debug Room It allows viewing the Attract Mode sequences Other useful features Improved Debug Room’s Staff roll option Improved some of the Debug Room’s warps Made it so all the Memoes can be seen Made it so the mother mouse’s text is different if only one mouse is missing Changed “BOM” to “BOOM” Updated some enemies’ sprites to match the translation Restored a trade with a ghost in the castle’s kitchen Restored one of Caroline’s lines for when Wess is in the party Made consuming cheese consistent for Claus Changed the “Ready-Set-Go” voice clip to the one featuring Lani Minella and Karmageddon For the other translations: Made it easier for future translations to edit graphics Allowed more text per line and per screen in the Memoes menu Allowed more text per line in the overworld Debug menus Allowed more text per screen in the overworld notebooks Lowered the OAM footprint of names in the overworld Added guideline that shows which enemy uses which battle text line Added enemy articles in the main script Added program that allows for more custom text lines Added script that makes sure inserted files don’t overlap

Amazing video. Thank you for continuing to talk about MOTHER 3 and it's long translation history !

Another banger, keep up the good work

Welp, Ill leave my existence here.

Oh I didn't know there was a retranslation of Puyo Pop Fever until this video. I have been a bit of a casual fan of that series since 2016 but fell out of the loop for many recent fan translations for that series like how it turns out the first fan translation for Puyo Puyo 7 opted to have references and callbacks that didn't exist in the Japanese version.

That Brawl trophy is hilariously and unnecessarily spoilery. It just. Name drops the Masked Man, for no reason.

I like your videos dude.

to me its more than just a fan translation, its more of a fan localization since they change stuff to be more suited for people from the west (not in a 4kids kind of way)

If they make a retranslation, I'd love them to try again with Hinawa and Wess's names, even if it's just an option. Wess could be like... Ragnus or Brushford or something.

I own the fan translated GBA cart and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, they did a great job!

DaEgg, what's your opinion on OMORI and LISA: The Painful?

Honestly it’s strange how people keep begging for an official localization when the fan translation exists (and is probably better than an official translation), they just pretend it doesn’t exist and it’s very weird to me, like what do the beggars really want?

Nice

If y'all could explain how I download the fan translation, I would be incredibly grateful

19:22 what’s the track that plays here?

14:36 wait there's an arabic fan translation?

Very cool thanks! Do you think the story has any important message for people?

Yo!

if they did end up retranslating the game, it would be nice if they changed the Mag*psies name. I feel really uncomfortable saying their title when it contains a slur.

Fun fact: Jeffman graduated high school in 2008. Really cool/smart guy. He also was the first person to have recorded himself getting every 1/128 item (and actually, I think he did ALL item drops at one point). Also, most starmen.netters already beat mother 3 in Japanese before the end of 2006, with Mato's quick spoiler 3 walkthrough. Some even beat the game before it was released in JAPAN (radiation being one person I remember) because the rom was leaked early. Also the midna video katon animated and reid narrated is still up on RU-vid. 10/10.