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Mother 3 translator offers localized files to Nintendo for free
With the recent announcement that Earthbound will be making its way to Nintendo's Virtual Console service, confirming that the publisher hasn't totally forgotten about the series, Mother 3 translator Clyde Mandelin saw an opportunity to extend an offer to Nintendo. Mandelin recently took to the Mother 3 fan translation blog to express his interest in seeing the Game Boy Advance game officially localized for North American audiences."I realize that localizing a game this size can cost a lot, so if it'll help in even the slightest, I'll gladly offer to let Nintendo use my text translation files for any use at all, completely for free," Mandelin wrote. "I'll even edit the files to fit whatever new standards are necessary (content, formatting, memory size, etc.), completely for free. I'll even retranslate everything from scratch if need be. Just whatever it takes to get an official release out."Mandelin, along with a team of devout Mother 3 fans, launched a patch for the game in 2008 that translates the entire Earthbound sequel to English. Mother 3 was originally developed by Brownie Brown, a Nintendo subsidiary now known as 1-Up Studio."In the end, if localizing Mother 3 should ever come up in a Nintendo business meeting or whatever and someone brings up budget concerns or it costing too much, my hope is that someone will at least mention this offer too, even if it isn't accepted," he added.
Brownie Brown changes its name to 1-Up Studio
Nintendo subsidiary Brownie Brown is changing its name to 1-Up Studio, the company recently announced on its soon-to-be defunct site.The developer is known for its hand in crafting games such as Mother 3 and Super Mario 3D Land, as well as its help with Level-5's Professor Layton and the Last Specter. Along with the name change, the studio also announced a new Mother game for North America... oh, it didn't? Well that's too bad.
A brief look into Professor Layton's London Life
If Nintendo released Professor Layton's London Life as a standalone DS game, we'd be totally into it. As this trailer shows, the Brownie Brown-developed RPG offers an alternate take on the Layton world, with sprite-based characters, a top-down, explorable London, and a purported 100 hours of gameplay. We're glad Nintendo didn't find out we felt that way, because London Life is totally thrown in as a bonus with Professor Layton and the Last Specter. We ... hope Nintendo's already printed the carts, now that we've said that.
Professor Layton and the Last Specter includes bonus RPG, dated this October (along with Tetris: Axis for 3DS)
While maybe not technically a 3DS game, the October 17 release date for Level 5's Professor Layton and the Last Specter is of more interest to those of us at Joystiq HQ than the latter half of this post. The fourth game in the popular series, Last Specter also includes, as a North American "exclusive," the bonus Professor Layton's London Life RPG developed by Brownie Brown. We say "exclusive" because the bonus game was included on the Japanese release of Last Specter as well; it appears the exclusive is that North American players don't need to beat the game to unlock the RPG. On to the 3DS: While some of you have 20 free 3DS games to keep you company, newcomers to the system – who, yes, got in at a much-lower $170 asking price – are stuck with a still nascent library of games to choose from. With price out of the way, Nintendo's hoping to remedy this other 3DS shortcoming with a series of major fall releases ... like Tetris: Axis, which brings the always popular block-dropper to the 3DS on October 7 with new features like 8-player wireless multiplayer, augmented reality features and, of course, threedee. It joins Pokémon Rumble Blast, Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS this fall.
Two more Level-5 games moving to 3DS
Level-5 showed strong support for the 3DS platform at its Level-5 Vision event. In addition to revealing Professor Layton vs. Gyakuten Saiban, showing off Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, and announcing Time Travelers' migration to the 3D handheld, the developer also showcased two other 3DS games, both recently moved to 3DS from other platforms. Fantasy Life, Brownie Brown's game about performing various jobs in an RPG-style town verging on apocalypse, was first announced for DS last year, but will now be released on 3DS, with a new polygonal art style, in 2011. It features contributions from Final Fantasy vets Yoshitaka Amano (doing illustrations) and Nobuo Uematsu (composing). Level-5 also announced a 3DS version of Kyaba Joppi, a hostess simulator originally for the mobile game service ROID. Andriasang has screens of this adorable game -- which, we expect, won't leave Japan. It features guest customers like Lupin III.
Level-5 invites players into a 'Fantasy Life' ... in a doomed town
In addition to the London Life RPG inside Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute, Level-5 announced another collaboration with Brownie Brown, the Sword of Mana developer and Mother 3 co-creator: Fantasy Life, a town simulation in the vein of Animal Crossing. Fantasy Life occurs in the world of Fantazeal, which shows prophesied signs of impending destruction after a shadow passes over the moon. If this were a normal RPG, you'd portray some kind of teenaged hero fighting to save the world from this catastrophe, but in this game, it basically doesn't seem to matter: you choose a job and undertake daily "Life Quests" related to that job, to improve your wealth and happiness levels. The game includes local and online wireless functionality, allowing others to visit your town. Aside from Level-5 and Brownie Brown, Fantasy Life features more big names. Nobuo Uematsu is composing an opening theme, as well as ending themes for the ending of each job's "life," and character design is being done by Hideo Minaba, a Final Fantasy series alum who most recently designed the characters in Little King's Story. [Via Andriasang]
Joystiq hands-on: Blue Dragon Plus (DS)
After departing from Square Enix, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi started his own studio, Mistwalker. The small company relies on contracted developers to collaborate on projects, while Mistwalker itself remains lean and back-to-basics. Its first project was Blue Dragon, which, despite being released on the Xbox 360, is also back to basics -- a linear, turn-based RPG with (admittedly high-end) Akira Toriyama character designs that recall the Dragon Quest tradition. Blue Dragon topped Japanese Xbox 360 sales charts, but still didn't necessarily achieve Dragon Quest-like success. So, along with a merchandising blitz that includes manga, anime, a card game, and toys, Mistwalker has taken Blue Dragon to a system that is much more popular in Japan, and much better suited to both the JRPG and Toriyama's cute designs: the Nintendo DS. Surprisingly, despite the move to less powerful hardware, Blue Dragon Plus is a more progressive role-playing experience than its predecessor, and offers elements of post-Dragon Quest presentation.%Gallery-15148%
Brownie Brown interested in DS version of Mother 3
The lack of a localized Mother 3 on the Game Boy Advance must rank as one of Nintendo's more heinous crimes, but that's not to say they can't get out of our bad books. All it would take is, oooh, let's say a DS version of the classic RPG and A MILLION DOLLARS. Or, y'know, just the game.And look, Nintendo, Mother 3 co-developer Brownie Brown is happy to indulge us! Speaking to Siliconera, company President Shinichi Kameoka said Nintendo just needs to give the go-ahead. "If we were asked to make [a DS version of Mother 3]," he said, "then we would definitely like for fans abroad to play the game."The ball is very much in Nintendo's court, then. Until they take a swipe at it, there's only one way to sample (and fully comprehend) Mother 3's myriad delights.%Gallery-34946%
Surprise? Brownie Brown considers Wii development
Brownie Brown has a history of releasing handheld games ranging from okay to good: Magical Vacation and its sequel Magical Starsign, Sword and Heroes of Mana; and, of course, their best work, done in collaboration with HAL Laboratory, Mother 3. But until now, they've only released handheld games. So in a way, it's quite a surprise to hear that, having finished up Blue Dragon Plus, they're thinking about trying their hand at a console game. Brownie Brown president Shinichi Kameoka told Siliconera that "We're optimistic about it and looking into it." But the choice of console platform is rather unsurprising. Brownie Brown is a Nintendo-owned studio, so they basically have two platforms from which to choose for any game they're going to make. Should they move into Wii development, it will be interesting to see if they start with a work-for-hire project or an original work like the Magical Vacation series.
A bombastic trailer for Blue Dragon Plus
With this new trailer for Blue Dragon Plus, Ignition Entertainment seems to be honoring Blue Dragon and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi the best way they know how: by releasing a trailer loaded with explosive, colorful CG, and not one second of gameplay. It does its job well, portraying the game as totally serious business.The trailer originates from the new Blue Dragon Plus website, which currently doesn't have much else on it aside from a story synopsis and a few character profiles. Ignition promises more content in "late November." We can't wait to see more of this game, even though we've been waiting on Blue Dragon for quite some time already.%Gallery-15148%
DS Daily: Motherly love
With the unofficial Mother 3 translation project having reached its goal -- that is, its achievable goal of a playable English version of Mother 3, not the successful shaming of Nintendo into releasing one themselves -- we thought it was a good time to link back to our interview with Starmen.net's Reid Young from last year. And also to talk about the Mother 3 translation project in general.Has the work of the dedicated grassroots Mother 3 movement made you into a fan? Did they make you aware of the series for the first time? Have you been following the progress of the translation? If so, we imagine this is a time to celebrate. Perhaps most importantly, does all this talk about Mother put that Danzig song in your head?%Gallery-34505%
Mother 3 fan translation available this week
After almost two years of hard slog, Starmen.net's Mother 3 fan translation patch has finally been completed, and will be released at the end of this week ... a whole month ahead of schedule! That's according to the latest blog entry on the project's site, in which team member Mato records that, "Testing's pretty much over now. Some bugs did turn up over the last few days, but they were all minor and quickly remedied. Some really hard-to-spot typos were also found and fixed."Joyous news indeed, though the patch will require a few other things before it's of any use: namely a slot-2 flashcart, a GBA emulator, and -- cough -- an entirely unauthorized ROM copy of the Japanese game. While we don't condone piracy, a western localization of Mother 3 doesn't exactly look likely at this stage, and we do condone passionate fan projects such as this one. Hit up this FAQ to learn more, and don't forget to check out some beautiful, Anglicized Mother 3 screens.%Gallery-34505%[Thanks, Joel!]
Amazon casts a Magical Starsale
By now, you've likely forgotten all about Brownie Brown's Magical Starsign, one of the first Nintendo DS RPGs to make it stateside. Its rudimentary plot -- rescue your classmates after your magic school's fleet of space ships crash on a group of planets -- won't set anyone's heart on fire, but, from what we've heard, it's still an enjoyable game. Amazon has Magical Starsign on sale for $8.99, the lowest we've ever seen for the game! If you're looking for a decent (and cheap) RPG to pass the summer with, or if you're just looking to fill out your DS library, pick it up before the day and the sale ends.[Via CAG]
Mother 3 translation seven months away [update]
Celebrating Mother 3's release in Japan two years ago today, Starmen.net co-founder and fan-translation project lead Tomato posted an update on the unofficial localization's outlook. With ten months of work already behind them, the team predicts that the completed English patch (GBA ROM required) still needs about seven months of hacking, script editing, and testing.While that may sound like a long time, keep in mind that some fan-driven translations can take years before they're finished, and that's if they even make it past the first months of work before dissolving. Besides, it's not like Nintendo of America is rushing to translate the RPG.To help you deal with the wait, Tomato has posted ten minutes worth of video showing the team's progress, all of which you can watch above! So close, and yet so far away![Update 1: Corrected Mother 3's age -- two years old. Thanks, ShadowX!][Update 2: Straight from the horse's mouth.]
Blue Dragon Plus touch screen equals new battle system!
Blue Dragon Plus's combat interface has been revealed in the latest set of screens. It involves a set of three icons that appear on the right side of the touch screen. The top icon allows you to set one particular character's movement, and the bottom icon moves everybody. The middle icon allows you (we believe) to highlight multiple characters by drawing a circle around them.Each character has a selection of "killer techniques" accessible via the bottom left of the touch screen. Players cycle through them with the shoulder buttons and then must wait for a countdown before they are activated. We're encouraged by the presence of a new battle system in the DS game. It shows evidence of thought toward the platform, at least.%Gallery-15148%
Mother 3 battle clips snuck up from behind!
Unwilling to compromise on the quality of its project for the sake of a quick release, the Mother 3 fan translation crew has been tweaking every setting and smashing every bug in its path to releasing an English patch for the Earthbound sequel. In addition to posting regular updates on the programming process, the team has put up screenshots and videos from its work so far, like the Flint vs. Mischievous Mole movie above. We can't wait to try out that rhythm combo system ourselves!On a disappointing note, the project's FAQ now states that the translation group no longer has plans to put out the patch before Super Smash Bros. Brawl's North American release, even with the Wii game's delay to early March. It's a painful wait, we know, but at least you'll get a few bonuses* that aren't in the Japanese game, like this secret enemy in the clip after break.*provided that you have a flashcart/emulator and, uh, the Mother 3 ROM
New Blue Dragon screens toast our eyeballs
After the opening of the official site for Blue Dragon Plus late last week, we can start fretting less about the game's protracted development, and concentrate more on gawking at pretty pictures.Conveniently enough, Famitsu has just posted a selection of fresh Blue Dragon Plus screens and art, and things are looking as vibrant as ever -- it's encouraging to see Mistwalker and Brownie Brown cramming so many enemies and pyrotechnics into the DS's relatively small screens. Apparently, finding something/someone to fight will not be difficult.Advance past the break for more screens and art.%Gallery-15148%
One year later: Mother 3 fan translation project
Convinced that Nintendo has no intention of ever localizing Mother 3 for release outside of Japan, fans of the Mother/Earthbound series have been working on their own unofficial translation for the endearing RPG. The volunteer group has put a year's worth of work into the project so far and is celebrating that milestone with two releases: An anniversary video showing the game played with an English script. It's a preview of not only the team's progress, but of the bugs that still need to be addressed at this stage. You can watch the three-minute clip after the post break. An updated menu patch with the most up-to-date translations for Mother 3's menus and chapter titles. Of course, this menu patch and the eventual full translation patch require an unauthorized, completely illegal ROM copy of the game to be of any use. Yarr! Clyde Mandelin's celebratory post at the translation team's page also details the interesting events that went on behind the scenes, covering how the One Piece anime temporarily halted production and why Magical Starsign's failure to sell in the US could've doomed Mother 3's chances of ever receiving an official localization. As Clyde jokes, the project's history really does read like a spy novel!
Heroes, Mana-style
Heroes of Mana may not be the Mana game that fans really want, but at least it's looking pretty nice -- and more strategy on the DS can never really be a bad thing. If only it had WiFi multiplayer, alas. We'll just have to make do with ratcheting up the ol' ranking so we can earn downloadable maps and items. Heroes of Mana is scheduled for release in the US this August. [Via press release]%Gallery-4132%
Magical Vacation 2 coming our way
Nintendo has recently updated their North American release list to include the Japanese RPG Magical Vacation 2, being locally renamed to Magical Starsign. This is the first official confirmation of a stateside release, something numerous fans have been clamoring for; the game is scheduled to be released on October 23rd of this year. Tentative date? You bet. But DS owners can look forward to a healthy bunch of RPGs coming their way this year, as Starsign will complement the already announced Children of Mana and Xenosaga DS. Rock on, role players.
