The History of the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Mother 3 is infamously known as a Japan-only game… unfortunately. Let’s discuss something a little more interesting than that tired factoid, this is a history chronicling the making and legacy of the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation! Please enjoy.
Check out the MOTHER 3 Fan Translation here! mother3.fobby.net
Thanks to @snowwood_ for helping design the video thumbnail, and for recording some gameplay footage.
Shoutouts to Aqua MIDI
Check out my other videos on the MOTHER games here: • My MOTHER/EarthBound v...
My twitter: / daegg123
Sources:
• Super Mario Bros. Anim...
www.hamhampara...
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www.romhacking...
forum.starmen....
tomato.fobby.ne...
mother4ever.ne...
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starmen.net/dev...
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legendsoflocal...
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classic.fobby.n...
archive.org/de...
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#Mother3 #earthbound #nintendo
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.
I wish I could like this comment more than once
This, so much. I would totally play an official version if I could but honestly I'll just go and play the fan translation on my everdrive gba if I really want it that bad.
Honestly, some of my favorite games are fan translated and I'm so grateful to the work people put into em, and it doesnt make em official or unofficial it just makes the game playable. Hell, I played Chibi Robo back on Gamecube, and someone came out with their own translation for hte Wii version only released in Japan and while it had to have a massively different translation considering limitations it was just as fun and even nice to see another take on the game.
i personally hope for an official release in the west, ive seen tons of people who never touched earthbound until it got its wii u release so if it got localized on an official platform, even if nintendo just throws the fan translation on nso, would allow a lot of new people to play it who never would before
exactly, and technically even if nintendo did localize it officially itd actually be less legitimate tbh cuz thered probably be censoring and stuff. not to mention lucas’ official smash actor even voices some sound clips in the fan translation so like the official nintendo wouldnt even have that i bet
What gets me is how some people act like emulation is some kind of esoteric magic.
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.
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.
Yo! That's sweet, how long ago did you make the translation!
@@javelincoms4278 We released the translation on April 20, 2016, for the 10th anniversary of the game, and we made regular updates until 2021 to improve the patch!
Thank you for your service (non-French speaker but thank you anyways)
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!
Oh, I am studying translation. How are you doing?
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".
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!
The idea to change Hinawa's name to 'Amber' wasn't just 'because it would sound more natural in English'. The names 'Flint' and 'Hinawa' together are a pun on the Japanese names for a flintlock and matchlock, two types of gun. The idea behind 'Amber' would be to preserve her name being a pun with 'Flint'.
Who knew a whole bunch of text would make for such an interesting documentary!
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.
That would be interesting but I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to any of those games so I think videos about those games and translations would be better suited for someone else, but it would be neat to maybe try and look at every Puyo and Madou Monogatari game that's received fan translations
@@DaEgg123 Madou Monogatari would be a great video!
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
Yup. I was here! I saw how hard you worked on that, Lorenzooone. So, good job!
That Brawl trophy is hilariously and unnecessarily spoilery. It just. Name drops the Masked Man, for no reason.
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.
Oh yeah, part of the reason in this video I made the point about the translator's duty is to keep close to the author's intent was because of that Puyo Puyo 7 DS translation. Learning that they just made up like 70% of the text for that or something was insane
Amazing video. Thank you for continuing to talk about MOTHER 3 and it's long translation history !
I'm also curious- will you also be talking about that MOTHER merch you own? 🤣
@@captaincz5763 maybe someday!
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'd keep Hinawa, but I would definitely want to see Ragnus 😄
The fan translation is superb and I don’t think nintendo could top it even if they translated it themselves officially
If y'all could explain how I download the fan translation, I would be incredibly grateful
Another banger, keep up the good work
I own the fan translated GBA cart and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, they did a great job!
I like your videos dude.
Nice
Very cool thanks!
Do you think the story has any important message for people?
The message is that fan translations are cool and people should keep fan translating stuff :-)
@@DaEgg123 that sounds more like your message, not the game's :)
@@AlastairGames yeah I misread your question, my bad lol, I think the message of Mother 3's story is to stand strong even when it feels the world is against you, even when it feels like it's taken what you hold dear. There's a lot more to it than just that but that's how I would summarise it
@@DaEgg123 good take, thanks for sharing!
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.
It's like magicant
@@isauldron4337 not worried about the magic part
Yah, i think the reason it was named that originally is because back then and even now, English and Japanese speakers are so distant from Romani people and the surrounding culture, that it is pretty much just used in a similar way to Native Americans being called 'American Indians', like its incorrect but is more an indication of a lack of understanding than really any malice. Even now it is more referential to a stereotypical mystierous person, such as how even in Mother 3 there is pretty much no resemblance the the Magipsies and Romani people. Wouldn't mind them changing it, but to be honest that might be the thing the west finds the least offebsive about these characters lol.
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 TH-cam. 10/10.
Insane seeing people still refer to toby fox as radiation. It's gotta be a weird feeling knowing somebody from a forum you used to be active on went on to be one of the most succesful indie devs in the world.
@@honeycrisp808 I'd say the weirdest thing is the people who you THOUGHT would be super successful in music etc didn't get very far. Tansuun was the guy in the community doing super sick music stuff (even got featured in an AVGN video), and i haven't heard from him in years. I also would have bet xfis would have been more popular of a content creator than chugga.
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
Or Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon limited release way is how Mother 3 is released as an translation here in the west.
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)
I just started playing this, and I'm only in the beginning of the game but it really does feel like an official translation. So far, man... the charm is off the hook, even compared to Earthbound
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)
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?
People want to support the series they love. The fan translation is amazing, yes, we all know this. But having an official one would be nice, too.
DaEgg, what's your opinion on OMORI and LISA: The Painful?
Awesome video, really cool to learn the history of the Fan Translation.
19:22 what’s the track that plays here?
14:36 wait there's an arabic fan translation?
Benichi has managed to translate all of chapter 1 into arabic, but wasn't able to import it into the game as the current translation tools lack support for right-to-left text, sadly.
is there a way to check the translation? as an arab mother fan i was very surprised that there was anyone even interested in translating any mother game to arabic @@DaEgg123
@@DaEgg123 is there anywhere I can see the progress?