Mother 3 is finally coming to Nintendo Switch, but it’s exclusive to Japan

So close, yet so far away: Mother 3 has been confirmed as one of the new games coming to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, but it’s still a Japan exclusive with no translation.

The announcement was made by Nintendo themselves during today’s Nintendo Direct, although it only appeared on the Japanese version of the event. No mention of it was made in the western editions of the shows, so it wasn’t until later on that fans caught wind of the situation. Sadly, while it is possible to get a Japanese account working on an international Nintendo Switch, if you don’t know Japanese you won’t be able to enjoy the legendary RPG on your console, as there is no translation whatsoever.

Mother 3 is a legendary Nintendo game, it being the third game in the Mother series (better known in the US and around the world as EarthBound). The game is a wacky yet emotional story of a boy traveling the world to save it from a tyrannical pork-themed army, with plenty of heartwrenching twists and some heavy themes. But even though it is extremely famous for these reasons (and though its protagonist, Lucas, is part of the Super Smash Roster since the Wii) it has never received an official translation, staying landlocked to Japan as a regional exclusive for decades.

As of right now you can play both of the previous games in the series on Nintendo Switch Online, found as EarthBound Begginings for the NES and EarthBound for the SNES. Both are fantastic RPGs that shine for their modern settings, colorful casts of characters, and extremely surreal art design and music.

You can find more news about this latest Nintendo Direct through this link, were we’ll tell you about everything announced during the show, like Grounded and Pentiment, two Xbox games that are jumping over to the Big N.