What we see on this Kotaku Page explains in the form of a comic as to why the very first Earthbound game was without a Western Release, of which was done 5 months ago for the franchise’s 30th Anniversary this year. It’s a good thing that a Western Release for it came around eventually for the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, whilst the wait for Mother 3 coming to the West in some form continues even to this day.