MOTHER 3 Fan Translation v1.2 & Translation Tools Released
The newest version of the MOTHER 3 fan translation patch is out!
It’s been almost five years since the last update – during that time, Jeffman and I would fix little things here and there, but we never got around to releasing a new patch. Until today! Here’s what’s new in general:
- A number of minor, rare bugs have been fixed
- A few rare typos and other text issues have been fixed
- Some bugs present in the original Japanese game have been fixed
- Script text encoding has been undone
- Duster’s sound battle sounds play properly – the original game had some problems with this
- And probably some lesser stuff that’s been forgotten over time
If you’ve played a previous version of the translation patch, this version won’t seem very different at all, but it felt like it was time to release what we had rather than sit on our fixes and improvements forever.
Save files from version 1.0 and 1.1 WILL work with this latest patch, so no worries there!
We’ve also released a set of tools and files for fans who want to translate MOTHER 3 into their own language!
The tools have their limitations and weren’t designed to be user friendly, so be sure to read all the documentation first before playing around with them. Part of the reason we’re releasing the tools now is so we won’t have to provide constant support forever and ever – providing support has become burdensome as we’ve all moved on with our lives.
Because different languages have different needs, it’s also important to note that these tools aren’t a magic bullet – they’ll take your translation project 95% of the way, but the remainder will be up to you to solve. Still, if you need some basic help or have some basic questions, you can post them here.
Before releasing this latest patch and these tools, I went through the game and tested it live on stream for everyone to watch. While doing this, I also shared a lot of trivia, memories about the translation project, translation notes, and more.
I even had guests on – Chewy, who helped with the translation came over and we chatted about all sorts of interesting translator stuff, her experiences working with Shigesato Itoi, etc. Jeffman Skyped in one day and talked about how the project helped him get ahead in life… and then he proceeded to fix a glitch in the original Japanese game, live on the stream! Marcus Lindblom, the head localizer for EarthBound, hung around in the chat a few times, which was an incredible honor. Jeff Benson, the EarthBound Saga guy and the guy behind the in-progress EarthBound fandom documentary came by and chatted with us too.
In all, it was a productive, fun, and memorable experience. It was my first time ever streaming, but if you’re interested in MOTHER 3 you can see all the archived videos on my Twitch account here or on YouTube here:
There aren’t any active plans for a version 1.3 patch right now, but I suppose we might make one if any major issues arise in 1.2. For now, it’s just nice to be updating on this blog again after so long, and nice to finally get these files out to everyone after five or so years!
