Hobonichi: It’s Impossible For Itoi To Create Mother 4, We’d Be Glad If Someone Else Created It

The September 2019 issue of Nintendo Dream magazine included a 13 page feature on the 30th anniversary of the MOTHER series and an interview with the editor-in-chief Mr. Yasuhiro Nagata and the designer Ms. Naho Sugimoto of Shigesato Itoi’s Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (Hobonichi) company. The key part of the interview was titled “MOTHER 4 is not being made” and is translated below for Japanese Nintendo by BlackKite. Please include full credit if posting any part of it elsewhere. Image thanks to @7c4foh0rwv6oije.

ND: Nagata-san, you seem to have accompanied Itoi-san – who had been involved in the dev scene for MOTHER 3 – 90% of the time. How were things like at that time?

Nagata: When Itoi went to MOTHER-related meetings, I accompanied him as the PIC from Hobonichi. That gradually became talks of “What do you think?” so the role assignments were fuzzy (laughs)

(everybody laughs)

Nagata: In the MOTHER 3 game, there were places where the production staff were chatting; we included the situation at the time [TN: as mentioned above] right there.

Sugimoto: If you knock the door, you can listen to those talks. People who are playing the game wouldn’t understand the meaning. (laughs)

Nagata: The content of the talks was that… the three of us – myself, Itoi, and Mr. Shogo Toda – were creating quotes at the workplace; it’s exactly that kind of exchange.

ND: Later after that, the information magazine BRUTUS published a dialogue between Itoi-san and Iwata-san about “MOTHER 4 is not being made”. That was also Nagata-san[‘s doing], right?

Nagata: I was in charge of the interview and its composition. The fact that “MOTHER 4 is not being released” itself has been told here and there, and we’ve always said it

ND: So after that feature came out, you’re not getting asked about it anymore?

Nagata: We get asked. It’s already shaped like a staple; even now we still keep getting asked about MOTHER 4 and the “buried treasure” (laughs)

(everybody laughs)

ND: What is the current answer regarding that?

Nagata: Our stance is that it’s already impossible for Itoi to create it, and we’d be glad if someone else creates it. This has never changed either.