Happy 15th anniversary, Mother 3. While the game still lacks an official English localization, the team behind the Mother 3 Fan Translation project has been working on an updated patch for the game. They've just released v1.3, which consists of just about three years of work done by lorenzoone--the person behind the Mother 3 Italian fan translation--that makes the English patched version of the game run and perform better in general. Some of the changes made include editing out typos, making it so that the game doesn't have slowdown while generating text in the overworld, prevents some softlocks, and other bugfixes and optimizations. As far as the fan translation's text content goes, it's "almost entirely the same" as before, but now it looks better than ever. You can download the latest patch over on the team's official website, in the source below.

WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 1.3:

lorenzoone, the Italian MOTHER 3 fan translator, spent approximately three years improving the English patch. This new version of the patch mostly fixes technical issues and bugs for a better gameplay experience. The game’s text is almost entirely the same as in previous releases.

Fixes of translation bugs/issues:

• Fixed the Summary’s lag
• Made it so the menus’ writing buffer is properly cleared (Fixes leftover text issue)
• Fixed some articles in text in the overworld
• Fixed missing articles in the battle text
• Fixed line of Debug Phrygia that was missing one entry
• Fixed text overflow in various boxes
• Made it so Soup and Stew are not drinkable
• Fixed various typoes in the Memo text
• Fixed line about the position of one of the Needles
• Fixed article within an highroad dog’s line
• Fixed small cursor’s issue in the naming screen
• Fixed issues with the stars in the Battle Memories
• Fixed “Text Slowdown” when printing text in CPU heavy areas in the overworld
• Made gray boxes in the overworld more precise
• Fixed memory OOB writes during Fassad’s low voice speech

Fixes of the Japanese version’s bugs/issues:

• Made it so the Thunder Tower’s frog can still move when in contact with the party (Fixes softlock)
• Fixed New Game Plus bug (A patch will be made available that removes the fix for those who want it)
• Fixed swapped gift boxes bug (A patch will be made available that removes the fix for those who want it)
• Fixed Salsa’s reflect text during the Pork Tank’s battle
• Fixed various graphical/collision issues in the overworld
• Fixed Lucas’ talking bug in Chapter 5
• Fixed the Skull Gift Box glitch in 3 locations
• Fixed the Boney’s Sludge Pond Glitch (Could crash the game)
• Fixed the Steel Mechorilla’s sounds
• Fixed door’s collision data for one bathroom in Chapter 8
• Fixed issue with actions being executed more times than intended
• Fixed flickering during Fassad’s low voice speech
• Fixed issue with Claus’ PP if the first battle is lost
• Fixed wrong text being displayed for the train’s requested money
• Fixed issue with Thomas disappearing in Chapter 1 after the notebook is collected
• Fixed issue with mouse talking directly to humans
• Fixed Debug Room’s Pigmask changing sprite in certain situations
• Standardized Boney’s minimum level during Chapter 4
• Fixed issue with Mementoes being used while in the inventory
• Fixed issue with Leder’s counter ticking when it shouldn’t and viceversa
• Fixed 0 damage being reported as > 0 if comboes are used
• Fixed minor graphical issues within some menus
• Fixed Nana’s age in Chapter 8’s concert
• Fixed Caroline’s bakery causing inventory issues in Chapters 1 through 3
• Fixed the Delete All Saves menu’s lag
• Fixed issue with quickly opening and closing maps
• Fixed the song set for Wess’ house right after Wess joins the party in Chapter 2

Improvements:

• Optimized text printing for a smoother experience
• Reduced the load on the GBA’s CPU in certain menus in order to ensure a smoother experience
• Added NPC in the Debug Room
  • It allows accessing the other tables of the Debug Room
  • It allows viewing the Attract Mode sequences
  • Other useful features
• Improved Debug Room’s Staff roll option
• Improved some of the Debug Room’s warps
• Made it so all the Memoes can be seen
• Made it so the mother mouse’s text is different if only one mouse is missing
• Changed “BOM” to “BOOM”
• Updated some enemies’ sprites to match the translation
• Restored a trade with a ghost in the castle’s kitchen
• Restored one of Caroline’s lines for when Wess is in the party
• Made consuming cheese consistent for Claus
• Changed the “Ready-Set-Go” voice clip to the one featuring Lani Minella and Karmageddon

For the other translations:

• Made it easier for future translations to edit graphics
• Allowed more text per line and per screen in the Memoes menu
• Allowed more text per line in the overworld Debug menus
• Allowed more text per screen in the overworld notebooks
• Lowered the OAM footprint of names in the overworld
• Added guideline that shows which enemy uses which battle text line
• Added enemy articles in the main script
• Added program that allows for more custom text lines
• Added script that makes sure inserted files don’t overlap

Source

 

[PrinceOfBrains]

You know, for as much as I loved Earthbound as a kid (being one of the few that actually owned it at the time, even if it was a year or so later on clearance from somewhere), I still haven't actually finished Mother 3. I tried playing it on an emulator way back when the translation first came out and got like halfway through it before getting distracted by something, as is often the case when I try to play longer games. Maybe this is my year, dang it!

 

[enarky]

LOL at all those Mother 3 bootleg carts that suddenly are obsolete.

 

[Jonna]

You know, for as much as I loved Earthbound as a kid (being one of the few that actually owned it at the time, even if it was a year or so later on clearance from somewhere), I still haven't actually finished Mother 3. I tried playing it on an emulator way back when the translation first came out and got like halfway through it before getting distracted by something, as is often the case when I try to play longer games. Maybe this is my year, dang it!

DO IT

 

[raxadian]

What? New game plus was a bug? I see it as a feature.

You know, for as much as I loved Earthbound as a kid (being one of the few that actually owned it at the time, even if it was a year or so later on clearance from somewhere), I still haven't actually finished Mother 3. I tried playing it on an emulator way back when the translation first came out and got like halfway through it before getting distracted by something, as is often the case when I try to play longer games. Maybe this is my year, dang it!

Long game? The only thing that's a tad long is the prologue chapters but the game itself is quite short.

 

[eriol33]

it's ridiculous how mother earthbound zero and mother 3 never got an official release in the west. btw I finished mother 3. I am amazed that the game's story is one of the darkest I encountered in jrpg.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Pretty cool to keep working on this for so long.

 

[tmnr1992]

Never played this series,
Is this game... .. Good? ?

In my opinion Earthbound is one of the greatest RPGs ever made, and Mother 3 is almost as good, so yeah, it's very good.

 

[raxadian]

it's ridiculous how mother earthbound zero and mother 3 never got an official release in the west. btw I finished mother 3. I am amazed that the game's story is one of the darkest I encountered in jrpg.

Zero got an official release on the Wii U.

 

[DKB]

Cool stuff, gotta play this one day.

 

[matpower]

This is better than anything that Nintendo'll ever release. Amazing job per usual, definitely going to play it again!

 

[Kurt91]

Never played this series,
Is this game... .. Good? ?

Honestly, I didn't like Earthbound itself, but I absolutely loved Mother 3. You really ought to try it at least once, it's easy enough to find online.

Technically it's a sequel, but you don't need to know anything about the previous games to understand what's going in. It's a pretty standalone story. The only thing that might come up is that the villain was a pre-existing character from Earthbound. You don't need to know exactly who he is beforehand, but it's one of those things that's a nice reference for people who played the previous game. It's probably the ONLY reference to the previous games, and the villain's backstory is even explained in a standalone way near the end of the game anyways.

Like I said, I didn't like Earthbound and only got to about the halfway point before I gave up on it. Even then, I enjoyed Mother 3, and even got a few of the references not from experience with Earthbound but with things I knew from cultural osmosis and the Trophy information from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

[SnakeOil992]

As an aspiring translator, the work put into this is miraculous.

 

[xatzimi]

This is pleasantly unexpected! I'm glad they included the voice patch too

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Cool nerds making the world a better place.

That describes pretty much every homebrew project tbh

 

[ShadowOne333]

Updated the Romhacking.net translation page for it just now, as well as added the proper credits for the 1.3 update.
It should be up in a few hours there as well for those interested

 

[Jayro]

Hmm... I wonder if it would be worth buying a bunch of mother 3 repros, flashing them with the new version, and selling them.

 

[Viri]

This was the first game I played and beat when I got my Switch.

 

[BitMasterPlus]

It's a good thing I didn't play this game yet. Gonna download later.

 

[JaNDeRPeiCH]

Great news,now we can play fine with %100 translation english from mother 1,2 and 3 gba version.

You're asking this dude you are wrong the compilation from mother 1+2 gba only translated mother 1 version what you are talking about? if you pay attention this year from romhacking site someone translated the full mother 1+2 game,its not botched.

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

This is better than anything that Nintendo'll ever release. Amazing job per usual, definitely going to play it again!

mostly because Nintendo would charge 60 dollars for it