I did specify "legal copy of the game". A downloaded ROM is not a legal copy. People are talking here about purchasing the game off Play Asia.

I don't pretend to understand the mechanics of console-based fan translations, but people ofen use ownership of a game as moral justification for having a downloaded copy.

Oh ok. I do that also with DS games, just never with imports. My moral justification for imports is that if they wanted me to purchase it, they would release it in my region and in my language.

In point of fact I actually agree with you, but there are cases where games are never very large and you also want to support the developer with your money - I am embarrassed to admit to the sentimentality in myself, but that's what I did with Mother 3.

I can't justify that for two reasons.

1. It causes you to purchase a game that is not suited towards you, and you're asked to pay more in import fees, etc. for the right to play that game you can't even understand.

2. Supporting the developers would go against my stance to not support publishers that do not support releasing their game in my region. I figure more of the money is going to the publisher, so the good of screwing the publisher outweighs the bad of not supporting the developer.

That's why the sentimentality embarrasses me, but... it was different, at the time. I wanted to give the developer my money because I love his work and I wanted him to keep making more of them. If I could contribute to that in a small way, if I could create the possibility that there would be more games later on, even if I would never understand them in their legal forms, I wanted to.

Sentimental and pointlessly optimistic, yes, but that's what drove me.

the translation files can be saved in a SD card, whether you have a downloaded game or a legal copy of the game, it will work the same

ill have to get this.

when are they bringing this game to the US?

They're not going to be bringing it to the West unfortunately. That's why there's a fan translation in the works. Using the fan translation is perfectly legal as long as you own the retail NTSC-J game. Not too sure how it works tbh but you'll need to install the Homebrew Channel to get it working.