MOTHER 3 Mystery Debug Menus

January 22nd, 2012 | MOTHER 3, Uncommon Knowledge

When working on the MOTHER 3 fan translation, Jeffman and I realized that a number of unused menu systems exist in the game. We managed to make one accessible (hold L and R when entering the Status screen). But there are two others we know about that we never managed to get access to.

Outside Debug Menu
This text data for this menu is in a peculiar isolated block of text. Given what the text says, it’s most likely this debug menu was accessible while walking around outside. It seems like you’d be able to test various things like collision detection, CPU load, and more.

• Reference file

Battle Debug Menu
The text for this menu is found in the same text block as all the battle text. It looks like it’s mostly about checking stats, modifying stats, and stuff like that. We never figured out how to get access to the menu, so it’s still a real mystery.

• Reference file

Since we never uncovered these menus, it’s possible that if someone ever DOES activate them, they won’t look/act right in the translation patch because we never fiddled with the font displaying stuff for them. But I thought I’d share the bare bones info anyway, since I’d completely forgotten about it until now.