Ask Localization Megathread

[Unelonborro]

I'll start with a recent question.
While "Alluvion" can be considered correct, "Albion" would have been kinda correct too as a transliteration fo the japanese kanji used for the newly added content "Alluvion Skirmish".
Yet Albion bears no particularl additional meaning (other than the ancient UK island references), whereas Alluvion has several meanings related to water.

I wonder why did the localization team choose the latter one? Are there similar semantic references in the japanese kanjis? Was it just a matter of it sounding better?
(I'm not criticizing btw, I'm just being curious!)

For content names, the devs give the localization team a naming request, a spec sheet, and a general guideline of what they want to name to sound like. We then come up with an English name proposal, which the planner in charge either accepts or rejects and tells us to come up with another one. So in this case, "Alluvion" came first and the Japanese reading came after.

Second and last one, it's about the romaji transliteration of "Amanomurakumo".
Why "Amanomurakumo" instead of the more common "Ame no murakumo"? Clear reference to the japanese mythological sword "Ame no murakumo no tsurugi" used by Amaterasu.
As far as I know both transliterations are correct (Ame and Ama), but Ame seems to be the more common one, especially in english language transliterations?

One of the devs is in charge of, among other things, coming up with Japanese names for ninja/samurai weapons and armor. He then provides us with the readings he would like us to use, and we put them in the game that way. In this case, he preferred "Ama," and that's the direction we took.

[Unelonborro]

I have a few questions relating to FFXI's localization versus the naming conventions of previous Final Fantasy games:

Why Inferno and not Hellfire for Ifrit's Astral Flow?(Is it because of the ESRB rating that you can't use "Hell"?.
Why Earthen Fury instead of Gaia's Wrath for Titan's Astral Flow?
Why Tidal Wave instead of Tsunami for Leviathan's Astral Flow? (Is it too sensitive in Japan to use Tsunami?)
Why Aspir instead of Osmose? (FF4/FF9)
Why Spirt Surge instead of Lancet(Dragon Sword) as it's called in the JP and FFV)
Why Sabre Dance instead of Sword Dance as in FFV?
Why Ryunohige instead of Dragon Whisker as in FF9/FFTactics?
Why Souleater instead of Darkness for DRK's job ability?

I'd love to be able to give you an explanation for these, but they are all way before my time, so I'd rather not provide false information. I would instead point to my above response concerning that different projects take different directions in where they choose to stick to precedent and where they choose something new.

[Unelonborro]

Hi Karbuncle,

I have some questions that aren't why why nots.

When it comes to Thief, were there anythings the dev teams wanted to add based on previous FF titles but couldn't fit into the realm of XI? (Like stealing things from enemies hurting/killing them, ala Riku + Machine parts) Later you added Despoil, which felt like something you might have wanted THF to have from the beginning.

When it came to SMN, was there any debate on making it a heavily focused pet job vs making Summoner a nuking job and Summons perform more like traditional FF Titles, such as casting Magic and they would appear > do damage > Disappear like in other FF titles? Similar to how Alexander and Odin work. It just feels like Alex/Odin were maybe a remnant of what SMN could have been.

On the topic of RDM, did you ever think RDM would become the absolute king of Solo like it did at the 75 cap? Were you impressed by some of the things RDMs did back then? (especially one specific Taru). Also, when it came to RDM, did you envision it as a Melee-mage from the beginning or did you expect people to adopt it as a healer/support job it became today?

A non-job related topic. Did you guys ever consider adding "Limit Breaks" in the traditional sense, like in XIV, but to XI? I know we have Weaponskills and our 1hr abilities which could be construed as a type of limit break, but did you ever think or want to implement a Limit-Break type system in XI?

These are all really good questions, but none of which I can provide any good insight into. Wish I could help!

[Unelonborro]

Wow, I cannot begin to express my excitement regarding this thread!

I recently had a chance to whiz back through the level cap quests and I have to say...

The whole "brown mage" storyline had me rolling on the floor laughing.

How much of that is a direct translation? How much of it had to be ad-lib?

Brilliant!

You know, I was talking with the two translators involved in that quest line just now, and they each claim amnesia. However, I can confirm that they took what the Japanese had and dialed it up to 11!

[Malithar]

Thanks much for the answers! ^^/ Loving this thread.

Back when I was a young'un and Japanese video games first started making their way to the US, localization was handled by Japanese nationals who may or may not have had a strong grasp of English--not just at Squaresoft or Enix, but at pretty much every company at the time. This is how we came up with such classics as "A winner is you" and "All your base are belong to us."

Those are indeed classics that I remember well lol. Out of curiosity, with western game developers really booming over the past decade+, has there been any such cases that happened with shoddy localization into the Japanese market? Do you find that western games are localized well, or did they go through a period of infancy as well?

Your bit about actually targeting a western audience with the localization, rather than just a translation, is really interesting. I've never really thought much on it before, but it makes a lot of sense the way you laid it out. Looking back, I've certainly read/played my fair share of media that hadn't had such care given to it. Looking at some recent quests as examples, Saved by the Bell, To Catch a Predator, I'm on a Boat, Don't Ever Leaf Me, Hide and Go Peak, and many others, make sense through English and our culture, they're phrases that we know from life, shows, music, etc. Out of curiosity, do quests like these take on relevant names that may invoke similar "I know what that's from!" feelings for the Japanese community? Any examples to share that we might know?

Is there any chance that someday you may be able to give a bit of a description to some auto translate terms that are ambiguous, or that are misused often? I'd be interesting to know what they actually say/mean in Japanese. "Please use a weak weapon to attack" seems straight forward enough, but I've had a few Japanese players use that in party (not during something like Void Watch) and I was left confused at what they were getting at. Some terms of our's that may not be well known is "Excuse me..." "Are you alone?" "Can you hear me?" and many others. They seem straight forward enough, but whether due to the language barrier being too much of a bother to communicate through, or our knowledge of what the terms come out to be on the Japanese side, it's difficult to get a clear answer from Japanese players.

[Dragoy]

What a delightfully surprising thread indeed!

It's times like this when I want to ask about a plethora of things, but can't think of anything!


Hrm... Something does actually come in mind, that which I have oft pondered about. Why trust and not fa...

I'll lead this into another story. In Japanese, the Trust Initiative is called "Faith." We originally proposed the name "Trust," which the devs absolutely loved, but then right before QA started Japan's Prime Minister Abe gave a widely-panned speech about the Tokyo Olympics in which he used the English phrase "Trust Me"...aaand that was it for "Trust" in Japanese. They decided to go with "Faith," but when considering what the system is about (you earn the NPCs' trust--they dont put blind faith in you) we decided to keep it as "Trust" in English.

...okay. That was quick.

How about del...

I have a more recent localization question, why delve and not menace inspector? I personally like the way the latter rolls off the tongue, so if there's a story behind the change on that one I'd like to hear it.

Also, when you use a delve shard to get plasm, the message has said menace plasm instead of mywea since the event was introduced.

Goddess dang it!

I'll just be here in the corner then. -.-'

That is to say, I, too, have hoped for menace inspection and menace plasm.


Anyblue, I guess I'll stay in the corner until I manage to think of/remember something to ask!

'Til then, I would comment on the need to adjust for the audience. While I do understand and even agree on that it's probably for the best in the bigger-like picture of the schemes and things, I have always been in favour of the “original”. I can't fully enjoy (though at times it can be hilarious) watching a Japanese (or any other language) movie/anime with an English (or whatever) dub for example. English isn't my native language; I probably dislike native-to-me dubs even more, but thankfully that almost only happens with things geared towards children on the TV here, or perhaps similar things screened at movie theatres, but I don't watch the TV or the theatres, boring as I am, so that is as they say, that.

I probably do agree with that Vana'diel should not be Japan, however, and in that sense, it makes sense... I maybe guess!

Speaking of dubbing, that's something that has almost made me angry with the more recent games that have voice acting and no option to switch it (a big thanks to those who did it for titles such as Soul Calibur III, though I realise that such games are likely to have a little less dialogue than, say, FINAL FANTASY X, but I take that as no excuse!). FINAL FANTASY XII might be the last one for me, and I sure am glad XI doesn't have this problem. Not that it's a huge issue since I don't even want to play new games any longer (which makes voting with my wallet most effortless), but I digress!

The so called 'international' releases were/are pretty annoying, too!

Another reason for not always appreciating the variance is that I've played nearly half (4-5 years) of my time here (9'ish years) with German players who are not too skilled with doing the English. While we still had German and French clients around, it was more than a few times confusing when names of something (atma and different events for example) are completely different from locale to another. That is, even though it might make sense to adjust to the specific area, those areas do play together, and when each have an event named wildly differently, it can make things confuddling to say the least. Of course the confuddle will only be initial, and when people learn about the differences, it's not such a big of a deal.

A couple of more examples could be jetton, which was used for two different currencies in the German client, and signet and (kindred's etc.) seals (both siegel in German). The in-game text-command for translating items was most helpful, but it didn't help with key-items, and many of those could not be 'fetched' with the auto-translate function either.

Some, if not most of that is of course a thing of the past now, since those locales are not supported any longer. My personal experiences are no doubt a tiny droplet of minority in the vast ocean, but I simply felt like sharing them.


My gargantuan apologies for not actually having any questions (yet), but I'll work on improving upon that!

Many thanksies to you, and everyone else in the team for your work.

Special thanksies for the quite in-depth indeed replies so far!

[Karbuncle]

Hi Karbuncle,


These are all really good questions, but none of which I can provide any good insight into. Wish I could help!

Da...rn!

Ah well, I appreciate you getting to them , If I think of any more less old questions I'll pick your brain :3

[Olor]

Thanks so much! This is a great thread.

Why did the team choose rune fencer instead of rune knight? Is it similar to the reasons for PLD above?

How come Red Mage is referred to as a fencer via equipment (Fencer's earring & Fencer's ring both RDM only) yet doesn't have the ability fencer?

How do you come up with the names of BST familiars?

[Karbuncle]

Thanks so much! This is a great thread.

Why did the team choose rune fencer instead of rune knight? Is it similar to the reasons for PLD above?

How come Red Mage is referred to as a fencer via equipment (Fencer's earring & Fencer's ring both RDM only) yet doesn't have the ability fencer?

How do you come up with the names of BST familiars?

Follow up to BST names, are they different based on region? Cause it feels like some of the inside jokes might not translate well (Voracious Audrey for one). Whats your favorite, maybe a reference we missed o-o?

[Poo]

You know, I was talking with the two translators involved in that quest line just now, and they each claim amnesia. However, I can confirm that they took what the Japanese had and dialed it up to 11!

Thank you!

Too freaking funny.