There is a long history of Japanese-developed games never reaching full localization for Western audiences, for a variety of reasons. Some games are deemed culturally unfit outside of Japan, some are deemed commercially unprofitable, and some games simply take too much time to translate. One of the most infamous and eventful examples of this phenomenon in gaming industry history is the Mother series, published by Nintendo.
The series was conceived by Shigesato Itoi, a copywriter in Japan who became enamored with role-playing games (RPGs) after playing similar games like Dragon Quest. After working on an advertising deal for Nintendo, he tried to pitch his idea for a game that would utilize RPG elements in an everyday-setting where the protagonists had magic powers. Itoi hoped that the unique premise of the game would entice developers to pick up the project, but due to his lack of experience in the gaming industry, many were skeptical.
Itoi’s idea eventually started production through Nintendo Director Shigeru Miyamoto who believed that Itoi had what it took for the project. Itoi took charge of the script due to his background in writing, while he also took development of the game very seriously despite not having any background in game development.
The series’ first title, Mother, was released in 1989 for the Nintendo Family Computer Disk System (Famicom) in Japan to much acclaim for its well-written story and the way it embraced RPG elements. Other RPG titles had been popular in Japan at the time leading to Mother being financially successful, and green-lit for another installment in the series.
Mother’s story revolves around a boy named Ninten who is investigating paranormal activity across the United States. Ninten, along with his party of other children, search for the eight melodies of a song under the request of Queen Mary, the monarch of a magical realm called Magicant, all while facing conflict in different parts of the United States. Despite its lackluster battle mechanics, the setting and script of Mother’s characters are where it truly gets to shine. The parody of American culture gives the game opportunities to make even side characters have memorable dialogue that was unprecedented at the same time for RPG games.
While Mother was successful in Japan, it never found a release in the west for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was deemed commercially non-viable in the United States due to the lack of interest in the RPG genre and the costs associated with producing the game’s cartridge. The game had been fully translated and localized for release in the U.S., but was eventually shelved as a result of these obstacles.
While Mother was never officially released in the U.S., it still had a profound impact on another part of the Western gaming community: Emulation; the digital recreation of video game hardware to play video games on home computers. In 1998 a prototype cartridge of a fully translated and localized version Mother for the West was found and published online to the public domain as a Read-Only Memory (ROM) file. This kickstarted interest in emulation in the West, along with fan-translations that eventually spread to other games with similar Japan-only releases.
Eventually, Mother 2 was released for the Super Famicom in 1994 as a sequel to Mother in Japan, and as a standalone title in the U.S. later that year under the Westernized title EarthBound. While the series once again found success in Japan, it was a commercial flop in the U.S. due to ineffective marketing and the lack of interest in the RPG genre at the time. Despite its inability to catch on in the United States, its quirky parody of American culture and genuinely emotional writing captured the eyes of fans across the world. Although it was a commercial failure, the game developed a cult following online that helped kick start its identity as a mainstay Nintendo intellectual property.
Mother 2 has a parallel plot structure to Mother, following the protagonist Ness collecting eight melodies of a song in order to stop an extraterrestrial evil, all while forming a group of companions to aid him in his battles. Despite how similar the plots of both games are, Mother 2 actually takes place in the same universe several years after Mother. The antagonist from Mother returns to the Earth to take revenge on humanity after Ninten and his allies defeated him in the first game. The series once again parodies American culture in Mother 2, but is praised widely for its better script, and colorful cast of characters.
Fast forward to 2006, when the final game in the trilogy, Mother 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) as a Japan-only exclusive game, much to the dismay of Mother fans in the West. The game once again received praise from Japanese fans for its rock-solid RPG mechanics as well as its emotionally driven story. The game had been stuck in development purgatory in the years leading up to its release due to changes in console and numerous development cancellations.
The game initially started development for the Super Famicom before moving to the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (DD), hoping to give the game an immersive 3D experience, but the project was eventually scrapped due to the DD’s commercial failure in Japan. Project assets were reused for a potential release of the game on the upcoming Nintendo GameCube before being cancelled once more due to the complexity of programming 3D graphics at the time. Despite the project’s seemingly endless development cycle, it was eventually released only in Japan due to the perceived lack of interest in the U.S., and LGBTQ+ characters that Nintendo believed would be controversial in the US.
Despite fans of the series begging Nintendo to officially release Mother 3 in the West, Nintendo has never released plans to do so. Fortunately, Mother 3 received an unofficial English translation through the efforts of fans of the series on the forum Starmen.net. This ties back to the series’ prevalence in the emulation community, as the translation was created through hacking the game and releasing it as a ROM file. The translation was created purely as a love letter to the series and took thousands of hours and dollars from fans of the series to create.
In recent years emulation has become increasingly controversial due to issues with its legality, Nintendo has legally pursued several ROM collections and emulation softwares, and as a result playing the fan translation of Mother 3 has become incredibly difficult.
Although Mother had an unusual line of releases in the U.S., it still developed a massive global fanbase for its rock-solid gameplay and amazing storytelling. From emulation to translation to Westernization, there is no doubt that the series has had a profound impact on the video game industry, and will be remembered as an important landmark for the gaming world.
