On possibly losing Itoi’s words with the Mother 3 fan translation patch
Please forgive this long excerpt taken from Tim Rogers’ Mother 3 review, but I thought it relevant to the imminent release of the GBA game’s English translation patch.
Though I expect that the fan translation’s script will be satisfactory and as close to the original as possible — I very much respect the translation team’s talents and project lead Tomato’s experience working with Funimation — it’s still worth reflecting on what might have been lost with this localization:
“Words are very important to Mother 3. Words are at its core; words are its pride and joy. Translating it would, according to a dictionary, involve changing all of the words to another language.
There’s a chance the words could be wonderful in English; after all, English is the language of Shakespeare, and the Bible (according to Henry Higgins). However, in the realm of games, where there are very often text-compression issues when translating from Japanese into English, what are the chances a translation of Mother 3 could be as free-wheeling and humorous as the Japanese version, while still retaining the dramatic weight where it counts?
Mother 3 is as meticulously balanced as a narrative as it is as a videogame … It’s a snapshot of a brainstorm. Translating it would be like making a painting of a photocopy of that brainstorm. You’re bound to lose something, and if it loses something, it’s not perfect.
For example, have you ever read Japanese or Chinese poetry in English translation? Line lengths all distorted all over the place; it’s not worth it, jack. It’s really not. In Japanese or Chinese, that stuff is perfect. There’s a reason they call it poetry.”
For those of you who’re afraid to load Rogers’ review on your browser, unsure if the full text will exceed your cable company’s monthly bandwidth cap, you can take comfort in that he gave Mother 3 a perfect score, ranking it #4 of Action Button’s 25 Best Games of All-Time.
tags / mother 3 / translation / earthbound / tim rogers / ec / shigesato itoi
