Today, Nintendo announced in the beginning of the Nintendo World Championships that Earthbound Beginnings, a translated version of the previously Japan-only NES game Mother, will be releasing in English on the Wii U Virtual Console tonight at 9 PM EDT. A trailer was also released.

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[endoverend]

IDK man, I was looking at the text and it looked exact.

I know, but that's just a few sections of text.

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

Having played Tomato's fan translation and the official "unofficial" one I can say you wouldn't be missing much by playing this version. Just don't go into this one expecting Earthbound. This game can be brutally hard at times and overall just a chore but I'd argue it's still worth it if you're an Earthbound diehard. Still, I'm glad to see Nintendo finally realized sometimes appeasing their fans takes very little effort and goes a long way towards building goodwill with their community.

 

[LightyKD]

Pretty sure it's already been dumped from the original prototype English version of this game.
The only differences this one would have would be the title screen, which will say "EARTHBOUND BEGINNINGS" instead of "EARTH BOUND"

There was an offical one that was never released, you can find dumps of the prototype cart online.

Thanks for the heads up! Time to go hunt this prototype down

 

[GameWinner]

No fucking way

 

[Deleted User]

I know, but that's just a few sections of text.

Other things that would confirm it is if the enemy 'Wally' is still called "Wally" in this version instead of "Middle-aged Man" or something similar. Also, there's a 'forgotten man' at the end of the Crystal Cavern who, in the English prototype, if you answered one of his questions wrong, you'd have to answer them all over again, but in the Japanese version, if you got a question wrong, you would be sent back to the start of the Crystal Cavern.

 

[KingVamp]

Finally something not leaked.

Well, this may be one step close to Mother 3.

 

[the_randomizer]

Other things that would confirm it is if the enemy 'Wally' is still called "Wally" in this version instead of "Middle-aged Man" or something similar. Also, there's a 'forgotten man' at the end of the Crystal Cavern who, in the English prototype, if you answered one of his questions wrong, you'd have to answer them all over again, but in the Japanese version, if you got a question wrong, you would be sent back to the start of the Crystal Cavern.

My only real concern is keeping the encounter rate unchanged; the game is bloody brutal when it comes to how often you fight enemies. The GBA port reduced it to a more tolerable level.

 

[Deleted User]

My only real concern is keeping the encounter rate unchanged; the game is bloody brutal when it comes to how often you fight enemies. The GBA port reduced it to a more tolerable level.

I kinda like the encounter rate. I haven't met any other people who agree, though...

 

[the_randomizer]

I kinda like the encounter rate. I haven't met any other people who agree, though...

Yeah, unless I use an emulator, well, the Wii U VC is an emulator, I can cheat my way outta unfair battles, so I guess it works, but I hope they fixed the translation a bit.

 

[Sheimi]

Fuck it, updating my WiiU and picking this up.

 

[TecXero]

Even if it does have the Earthbound Zero translation stuck in a crappy VC wrapper, I'll probably buy it, just to help show Nintendo there is interest for the Mother series outside of Japan. I'd love to see a 3DS cartridge release with all three Mother games on it.

EDIT: And this is coming from someone who doesn't typically enjoy JRPGs anymore.

 

[the_randomizer]

Even if it does have the Earthbound Zero translation stuck in a crappy VC wrapper, I'll probably buy it, just to help show Nintendo there is interest for the Mother series outside of Japan. I'd love to see a 3DS cartridge release with all three Mother games on it.

EDIT: And this is coming from someone who doesn't typically enjoy JRPGs anymore.

That's actually a very positive way to see things. yes, the translation is rudimentary at best, but the fact there's a legal way to play it now shows Nintendo does care.

 

[Hells Malice]

Interesting, but a bit dated.
A remake/remaster would be more interesting, and something more people might actually play.

 

[Deleted User]

Now I'm even more sure it's the English prototype version.

 

[the_randomizer]

Now I'm even more sure it's the English prototype version.

Bleh, guess it can't be helped, Nintendo never has altered the translations of any of the VC games, except for editing the word "damn" out of Breath of Fire 2 and Mega Man 7.

 

[VinsCool]

Oh boy my heart missed a beat at homepage. I saw Earthbound Beginnings. I was like: "Oh shit! A prequel to the series, the 4th entrie!" I then had thoughts about the adventure of George and Maria, the discovery of PSI, the Magicant and aliens. Then the rise of Giygas, and possibly time travel.

Then I saw the video... A port of the prototype english ytranslation of Earthbound Zero.

Much deceptions
But Glad they released it

Something from the bottom of me is praying for Mother 3. Please Nintendo hear my plea.

 

[TecXero]

That's actually a very positive way to see things. yes, the translation is rudimentary at best, but the fact there's a legal way to play it now shows Nintendo does care.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, unless you mean they care about profit. They probably saw with the VC release of Earthbound that there is a profitable market. I imagine it's not much of an investment to take a game that already has a translation and stuff it into an emulation wrapper they've already developed for other NES VC releases, outside of copyright issues anyway. I'm not saying Nintendo is evil or anything, just that they're a company. A company should be profit oriented to some degree. I'm just saying I'm fine with throwing a few dollars at them for this to help show it is profitable for them, so they're more likely to bring Mother 3 and possibly a cartridge compilation outside of Japan.

 

[Sliter]

fans give nintendo of america mother 1 and 3 translated for free
NOA seens like don't care
nothing happens
Nothing
sudden , they decide to launch it, with the stupid " earthbound" name ... every fan os Ness and Lucas because of Smash known more the series as Mother ... I don't know why they want to keep this name since not even them gave a sheet for this series lol
they could at least make it an remake, idk, someone wasn't using mother 2 engine to make mother with it? XD

And what more? about 20-30 years to get mother 3 ? something they already have all in englsh, very well translated and for free? meh

 

[VinsCool]

Well, I wouldn't go that far, unless you mean they care about profit. They probably saw with the VC release of Earthbound that there is a profitable market. I imagine it's not much of an investment to take a game that already has a translation and stuff it into an emulation wrapper they've already developed for other NES VC releases, outside of copyright issues anyway. I'm not saying Nintendo is evil or anything, just that they're a company. A company should be profit oriented to some degree. I'm just saying I'm fine with throwing a few dollars at them for this to help show it is profitable for them, so they're more likely to bring Mother 3 and possibly a cartridge compilation outside of Japan.

Yeah, because those were translated by fans

 

[Deleted User]

fans give nintendo of america mother 1 and 3 translated for free
NOA seens like don't care
nothing happens
Nothing
sudden , they decide to launch it, with the stupid " earthbound" name ... every fan os Ness and Lucas because of Smash known more the series as Mother ... I don't know why they want to keep this name since not even them gave a sheet for this series lol
they could at least make it an remake, idk, someone wasn't using mother 2 engine to make mother with it? XD

And what more? about 20-30 years to get mother 3 ? something they already have all in englsh, very well translated and for free? meh

Tomato from EarthBound central was (and I think he still is?) remaking MOTHER in EarthBound's engine, but was having a lot of issues since the engine was specifically designed for MOTHER 2/EarthBound. I believe he was having issues with the maps because of how EarthBound's maps are stored and the size of maps in MOTHER, the maps in EarthBound are all stored in one giant map, and the max dimensions of where the maps were stored was too small to hold all the maps from MOTHER In the same way unless the container was enlarged, and there may not be a way to do that at all, so the maps had to be made smaller. Even using EBMUSED, the music in EarthBound is a living hell to edit, and takes a lot of practice to actually do correctly.

Also, as if Nintendo would use Tomato's translation, that's lazy af.