As for “MOTHER 3 is NOT EarthBound” — thanks for the heads up. I’m a dear fan of A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events (only through “Book the Ninth” so far, The_Carniverous_Carnival), and I loved the intro to _Banjo-Tooie_ (~sigh~ with it then greatly disappointing me by dropping pretty much all the first game’s charm) — therefore, I *love* the idea of darkly charming and charmly darking. Um..right. And anyway, it appears M3 is like that, according to the little bit of previews I’ve seen from you guys (charm) and your commentary in this blog’s comment thread (dark). Rock on. Makes me want to play it even more! $:^ ]

MOTHER 3 is NOT EarthBound.

If you’re expecting EarthBound — or a happy game like EarthBound in MOTHER 3, then you’re going to be severely disappointed. M3 is absolutely not a happy game at all.

I’ve lived in Japan, and have translated for many many years now. Plenty of professional experience too. I’m approaching Mother 3 like any other text. I’m not giving it special censorship treatment because it’s like EarthBound. As I said earlier, it’s NOT like EarthBound. I’m translating it as I would anything else. My goal is to keep it as true to the original version as possible… as the version that Itoi intended. There’s going to be some swearing. There’s occasional harshness in the original version. Seriously, out of like two megs of text there might be like a small handful of damns and craps mostly. No f words, no s words, no a-words. If that’s still too intense, I dunno what to say.

For what it’s worth, EarthBound had several instances of the word “crap” in it. I never heard any complaints about those though

I’m giving this project the same treatment I would any other professional game or project. As such, I think any other professional translator would make similar choices, meaning that an official translation probably WOULD include these damns and craps and such.

Basically, my goal is to keep the text translation true to the Japanese version of Mother 3 and Mother 3 alone.

“But I wanted to alleviate any fears about us possibly censoring stuff for whatever reason.” - Tomato

Actually, -that- was -my- fear. I’m so very happy that the second officially translated EarthBound was almost spic-and-span clean, and although I’ve never played the NES EarthBound, I’m so glad to know it received the NOA treatment. (Minus removing the hospital crosses being just ridiculous–I mean, c’mon, TLoZ had a cross on Link’s shields, and that didn’t mean anything horrible…) But anyway. This is one of EB’s selling points I give people. I agree with “Matthew(Someguy)” that censorship is actually “true to…EarthBound” and certainly “more child friendly”–which leads me to a question concerning Tomato’s knowledge of Japanese language and culture:

(I’m concentrating only on America instead of the general West simply because I don’t very much know what other Eastern cultures are like.) America tends moreso to have vulgar words and phrases. Japan tends moreso to have vulgar etiquette and moods. If the MOTHER series got “All Ages” in Japan, doesn’t that imply that the moods didn’t really get vulgar? I remember EarthBound being devoid of practically ANYthing vulgar–and the things I complain about I realize many people barely even notice–which implies to me that NOA made EB child-friendly like M was child-friendly. Therefore, to keep this translation in line, wouldn’t the hypothetical lack of vulgarity (etiquette) in M3 translate to the same lack of vulgarity (words) in EB2?

Please correct me if I were wrong in guessing that M3 being “All Ages” in Japan meant its child-unfriendly vulgarity is -less- than the “dozen or so” American vulgarities you cite.

Don’t worry. In the end, I realize this is not official; this is just a bunch of vigilante fans realizing their own dreams and hoping everyone else likes it.

team mother 3 for prez

Not that I don’t already like you!

Also, the harsh talking that happens in this game (again, very sparse) is common language in all anime, games, movies, etc. so it’s nothing shocking at all. It’s really hard to explain though, you’d have to study Japanese to understand. But trust me, the harsh words are being handled professionally.

Anyway, for the above reasons, the game is rated “All Ages” in Japan.

I’m surprised it contains those words. What was the rating in Japan for this game if you don’t telling me?

Thanks once again.