While 2020 has been an unpredictable year for Nintendo fans as it is, it’s safe to assume that nobody expected the publisher to announce that the very firstFire Emblemgame,Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light,will finally be receiving a localizationover 30 years after its original release on the Famicom (NES.) The port ofFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Lightbrings the game to Nintendo Switch as a standalone title on December 4th and marks the first time in years Nintendo has returned to localizing an older title since 2015’sEarthbound Beginningson the Wii U.
Now,Earthboundfans are understandably excited once again as Nintendo’s interest in returning to the originalFire Emblemtitle 30 years after its release has renewed hope thatMother 3could finally see the localization fans have been begging for since the game’s release in 2006.
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Mother 3is the third game in theMotherseries (known asEarthboundoutside of Japan) and was released in Japan on April 20th 2006 for the Gameboy Advance. Much likeEarthbound, the game has a very vocal cult following amongst Nintendo’s audience, who have been begging Nintendo to release an English localized version of the game in the west since its release. Over the years, Nintendo has come very close to bringing the game west, but every time the localization was green-litit has been subsequently canceled. The reason for the localizations' delays have been cited as due to the game’s mature themes such as instances as drug abuse and animal cruelty, which would result in controversy.
This hasn’t stopped Nintendo of America from acknowledgingMother 3’s existence on numerous occasions, with the company’s ex-president Reggie Fils-Amié joking aboutbeing unable to escape fans' requeststo release the game in English even after his retirement. The company even openly joked about the fan campaigns to convince Nintendo to localize the game during its 2014 E3 Digital Event.
While the release ofFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Lighton Nintendo Switch does not guarantee a western localization ofMother 3, it at least allows fans to speculate on its possibility after years of lost hope. It’s also worth noting that the Nintendo of today is far more lenient on the content of the titles it publishes than in the company’s past, with Nintendogoing as far as to publish mature titleslikeBayonetta 2andFatal Frame: Maiden of Black Waterwithin the past 5 years. While this announcement does not makeMother 3any more likely than it was back in 2015 whenEarthbound Beginningsmade its way to Wii U, it at least keeps fans' hope alive that the title will come to western shores one day.
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Lightreleases on Nintendo Switch on December 4th 2020.
