Welcome to the MOTHER 3 entry into my Legends of Localization series! For the uninitiated, MOTHER 3 is the sequel to what was known as “EarthBound” outside of Japan. Unfortunately, MOTHER 3 was never officially localized and released outside of Japan.
…So why are we looking at the game here if it was never localized?
Well, a group of fans and I created an unofficial localization some years ago, which you can find here. For years people have been asking me to write up translation notes for the project, so doing it as a part of Legends of Localization seemed like a perfect fit. Together, we’ll look at the actual localization process, what difficulties arose, what solutions were found, what would’ve been better (or worse) in an official localization, and even the common pitfalls that face translations done by fans. It’s bound to be an interesting and enlightening read!
In previous entries of Legends of Localization I would regularly point out odd translations and basically ask, “What were they thinking?” This time, though, that won’t be the case – I’m the one who translated the game! So this should give a little more insight into the localization / translation process than usual!
I’m going to be updating this project little by little over time, so check back every so often!
Print version:
After getting a lot of fan feedback I’m considering eventually releasing these notes in book form after I finish everything. I’ll probably include some extra content or bonuses of some sort, but if you have any suggestions in the meantime, please let me know!
I’ll post more about this in the future, for now I just want to get good, solid translation notes up online after all this time.
Status:
These MOTHER 3 pages are going to be slow-going for a good while, but I shared lots of live translation notes during my full playthrough of the game before releasing the Version 1.2 patch. Check it out if you’re hungry for more translation info and trivia!