The Old English melodrama dialog is a bit over the top

[Dord]

FF14 is a great game, but the English dialog seems way too contrived. I’m sure some drama students might like the dialog, but I hear a lot of complaints about it in my FC chat. It’s not just me. Nearly every cutscene in the main storyline feels like actors forcibly acting out some sort of strange act from a Shakespearian drama. It detracts a lot from immersion. Old English is probably fine in less elaborate doses, but it needs to feel a bit less like the characters (e.g. Minfilia) are reciting some sort of carefully prepared, extravagant monolog for an audience.

The dialog needs to feel more candid.

The dialog in FF12 had a bit of old English, but the localization team for FF12 did a good job in that it wasn't the only thing present (much wider variety of dialects and accents), and it didn't feel like I was constantly being beaten over the head with acts from a Shakespearean drama. In future FF14 content, I suggest toning down the old English to about one third of what is now.

[Dord]

Examples:

• Less “doth”.
• Less “<verb>eth”.
• Less “shall”.
• Less flowery speech.
• More contractions. e.g. “cannot” to “can’t”
• More candor.

Use dialog that someone in a conversation would actually use instead of something that seems prepared for an audience. Here’s a snippet from the 2.5 trailer I would do differently (which is the last straw that prompted my complaint).

From:
Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You are the warrior of light! You are hope for the scions and for all the realm! As long as your flame continues to burn, the light of the dawn may ever be relit!”

To (roughly speaking, not totally sure about the context):
Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You’re the warrior of light! We need you! The whole realm needs you! As long as we have you, we still have hope!”

[Jom]

Well, the dialogue is not Old English. If it was, you would be unable to read it. The dialogue given to certain characters, e.g. Minfilia and Urianger, is an archaic form of Modern English. I do, however, agree with you. The archaic language seems rather forced or poorly translated from perhaps an archaic version of Japanese to an Archaic version of English, and it is not only the word choice that annoys me, but it is also the archaic syntax structures that give the dialogue of certain characters a less fluid and natural feel. In other words, the translators did a poor job of mimicking the syntax structures and word choice of sixteenth century English.

[GalaxyGirl]

I'm a big fan of the English localization, it's intelligent, not some watered down rushed translation that was blunt and straight to the point.

[Issachar]

You could always switch to another, inferior language. There isn't a single thing wrong with the english localization.

[BlaiseArath]

I thought only Urianger and, occasionally, Minfillia talked like this?

I don't find it bad, I mean, I could do with either or, but have no preferences. both sound fine to me.

[Anonymoose]

I'm wondering if its a coincidence that this was posted the same day as the 2.5 trailer, which was heavy on the archaic speech by way of narration by Urianger and the dragons. The dragons are old, so you can't really blame them for using old speech patterns; it shows their age. Urianger, though, that's part of his very character. Louisoix himself said to forgive the guy for having spent more of his life reading old tomes than speaking with modern people. His idiosyncratic speech and social awkwardness have even been utilized by the storyline several times. To complain about Sharlayans (Minfilia included, as she shares in much of their aged research materials) is like complaining about Baderon, whose pirate-like speech is nigh-on unintelligible half the time but really serves to draw you into the world. I'm not quite sure how that breaks immersion, because it heightens mine. Granted, I'm thinking less, "I have to stop and try to figure out what this means," and think more along the lines of almost being in character:

[Varathael]

You could always switch to another, inferior language. There isn't a single thing wrong with the english localization.

Except for the fact that the syntax is absolutely horrible. It's filled with redundancies. Take, for instance, the most infamous: "must needs." You do not need two words that are synonyms right next to each other. It's redundant and not even sixteenth century had that redundancy.

[Kerwin]

You should have seen 1.0's English translations. They did that originally because when making other languages they had to have similar character totals in each chat dialogue box. So they improvised. Now in ARR they leave it there for some nostolgia and lore reasons, but most have been simplified

[Anonymoose]

Except for the fact that the syntax is absolutely horrible. It's filled with redundancies. Take, for instance, the most infamous: "must needs." You do not need two words that are synonyms right next to each other. It's redundant and not even sixteenth century had that redundancy.

What?

/10characters