It’s been almost seven months since Mother 3 hit Japan, and there has been virtually no mentioning of it by Nintendo of America — not even a “we’ll never release that, stupid!” from Reggie “The Fetid Earthsplitter” Fils-Aime. Though there are some who will never forget nor forgive such a transgression, no amount of petitioning or e-rioting is likely to bring about Mother 3’s English localization. The window for GBA releases is closing quickly; Final Fantasy VI Advance is probably destined to be the last high-profile GBA title released stateside.
Luckily for us, there exists a motley band of holy crusaders putting together a fan translation as we speak. Where most translation projects consist of a second-year Japanese student and a guy who once hex-edited a PSX save, the Mother 3 Fan Translation Project has already completed the bulk of the difficult work — namely, reworking the game to use variable-width fonts and dumping the entirety of the script. Once the translation is handed over, all that remains is to work in the variable tags (for character names, et cetera) and whip up some patches. In short, this is the only Mother 3 translation crew remotely close to producing a completed patch.
If you’re at all interested in one of the more interesting, entertaining RPGs to come out of Japan in recent years, keep on a lookout for this patch when it becomes available — but let’s keep it legit, folks. If you haven’t already, pick up a copy of Mother 3 at your local import shop. It’s one of the best RPGs available and well worth your dollar. Besides, Shigesato Itoi needs to eat too, you know.
