• Ashtear@lemm.eeOP
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately Itoi didn’t go into specifics, but it’s not tough to imagine the game being controversial if it came out in the west. It’s a scathing satire of capitalism, colonialism, and consumer culture. There are a group of characters that are gender non-conforming, and if their mere existence wasn’t enough to rub certain people the wrong way, their name is also a portmanteau of “magic” and a slur. There’s drug use. There are some shocking plot points early on.

    Nintendo was infamous for censorship in its localizations, but they had generally chilled out by 2006. If I had to guess, I’d say Nintendo saw a game that already came out way late in the Game Boy Advance’s lifecycle and decided it wasn’t worth it to put out a potentially controversial game that had limited sales potential to begin with.

    As an aside, the fan translation of Mother 3 was a rare case where a professional was on the job, so it’s not surprising that it’s a quality English script.