As cries for an English version of Mother 3 intensify, the creator of the cult classic JRPG series tells fans to "talk to Nintendo"

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Shigesato Itoi says to take it up with Nintendo if you want Mother 3 in English

Mother 3
(Image credit: Nintendo)

If you want Mother 3 on Switch in English, you'll have to take it up with Nintendo, according to series creator Shigesato Itoi.

In case you missed it, it was announced during the recent Nintendo Partner Direct that the critically acclaimed JRPG Mother 3 is coming to Switch... but only in Japan. Naturally, the news was disappointing to fans living outside Japan, and as demand for an English version intensifies online, Itoi is pointing those fans toward the Big N itself.

"Please talk to Nintendo about that, not me," Itoi said in an auto-translated tweet (verified by a Japanese-speaking member of GR+) responding to one of many fans requesting an English version of Mother 3.

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Mother 3, the final entry in the series and often considered one of the best Nintendo-published games ever, first launched back in 2006 on the Game Boy Advance. English-speaking fans may very well know the series best for the cult classic SNES game Earthbound, which was released as Mother 2 in Japan. Nintendo eventually released the original Mother as EarthBound Beginnings on Nintendo Switch Online, but the third game is still Japan-exclusive with the exception of an acclaimed fan translation.

Among the fervent proponents of a Mother 3 release in the West is the game's own producer, Shinichi Kameoka, who said in 2022 that he'd "also love to see Mother 3 released in the US and Europe." Nintendo has yet to comment in an official capacity, perhaps because it could be worried about legal issues with the game's music and - of all things - a song by Robin Thicke.

While we're on the topic, here's how we ranked the best JRPGs of all time.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.