Greetings, everyone!
We're pleased to present the full digest from the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII! If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!
http://sqex.to/YCd
*Don’t forget to select the 720p option to watch the video in HD!
* Please note that the quality of the video might drop sometimes.
0:04:54
Patch 3.2 Special Part II
The title of Patch 3.2 is "The Gears of Change." Various elements will be changing in Patch 3.2, and this title has multiple meanings.
0:06:10
Stone, Sky, Sea
At the very start of the stream I was showing this off a bit, and I was challenging a striking dummy designed for Alexander: Gordias, The Burden of the Father (Savage) as a black mage. Stone, Sky, Sea will allow you to select challenges corresponding to the most difficult battles in the game. Because DPS requirements vary from role to role, you can use these challenges to check your DPS before diving into the actual battle. Naturally, this includes the newest content that will be implemented in Patch 3.2, and once unlocked you’ll be able to undertake their associated challenges in Stone, Sky, Sea. For example, once you've cleared Alexander: Midas (Normal), you'll be able to undertake a challenge in Stone, Sky, Sea applicable to Alexander: Midas (Savage).
We thought about whether we should add a healer-specific version of Stone, Sky, Sea, as many healers like to DPS as well, and decided to add one just for fun, so give it a try!
0:09:42
Job Adjustments Part I
The method by which physical attack power is calculated for tank roles will be adjusted, and tanks will no longer need to allocate points into strength or use strength accessories. From Patch 3.2 onward, allocating points to vitality will help tanks deal more damage. Because of this change, you'll be dealing less damage if you’re using strength accessories after the patch, so please have your vitality accessories ready.
0:11:28
Job Adjustments Part II
We’ll be making adjustments to the actions of each job. With the change in calculating physical attack power for tanks, we’ll also re-examine the values of the offensive and defensive stances for each of the three tank jobs to make further adjustments. In particular, we’ll be making adjustments to the offensive and defensive aspects of paladin, which we have received a lot of feedback on. In addition, we’ll be making overall adjustments to actions that are difficult to use.
For astrologian, we'll be making changes to Shuffle so that the same card will not be redrawn. To coincide with this change in effect, the name of the skill will also be revised. We'll also be making adjustments pertaining to their ability to lower enmity during raid encounters.
While machinist is a difficult job that deals high amount of burst damage, its DPS is somewhat behind compared to other jobs, and we will be making adjustments to this. We’ll also be making adjustments to bard's The Warden's Paean.
Naturally, we will be making various other adjustments based on everyone's feedback, so please wait for the full Patch 3.2 notes for all the specifics.
In patch 3.1 we made changes to the rate at which the limit break gauge fills, and we plan to make further adjustments to this in Patch 3.2.
0:14:43
Beast Tribe Daily Quest: Gnath
The Gnath beast tribe daily quests will also make use of the level adjustment feature. While it's essentially the same as the system used in the Vanu Vanu daily quests, we plan on increasing the experience points rewarded. The Gnath stronghold will be near the "Vath Storyteller” NPC and of course there will be a mount that you can earn.
Additionally, the Adamantoise mount from the Gold Saucer will become a flying mount. Don't worry though—if you're in first person mode it won't spin.
* The video introduces the mount with gameplay footage.
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02-10-2016 05:20 PM #1
Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII Digest (02/10/2016)
(6)
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02-10-2016 05:20 PM #2
0:18:42
The Feast
The new PvP content we'd been calling "The Wolves' Den 2" has been officially named "The Feast."
0:18:58
Rules Part I
For both 4 vs 4 and 8 vs 8 matches, you'll need to have melee DPS and ranged DPS in your party composition. It won’t be possible to queue up if you have a different composition, such as all melee DPS or all ranged DPS.
0:19:45
Rules Part II
The 8 vs 8 version of The Feast is geared towards those that are not as familiar with PvP and just want to have fun playing. This mode does not feature any ratings that show your PvP skill.
The 4 vs 4 solo mode will include your win/loss rate and this can only be queued for solo. It will match you with other players and form parties that are close to your rating, and your opponents will be around the same rating as well.
The 4v4 light party mode also includes a win/loss rate, and you’ll be able to queue up as a pre-formed party consisting of a tank, a melee DPS, a ranged DPS, and a healer.
These modes feature ratings that fluctuate. There are different ratings for each type (solo mode/light-party mode), so your rating will change based on which type of rated matches you participate in.
We'll also have a 4 vs 4 mode where the win/loss rate does not apply which you can use to practice.
0:21:47
Deciding the Victor
Unlike the Wolves' Den, where you win by completely eliminating the opposing party, the objective of The Feast is to defeat opponents and collect medals.
0:22:17
Medals
At the start of the battle, each player on both sides will begin with 100 medals. Upon defeating an opponent, the medals that they hold will drop to the ground. You can obtain the dropped medals by interacting with them, and once you collect a certain amount of medals your team will be the victor.
I'm sure there are those of you worried about being defeated over and over and weighing your team down, but the more you are defeated the less medals you will drop, so there is really no benefit for continuously defeating the same person.
There will be different graphics depending on the number of medals that have been dropped on the ground making them easily discernible. However, you won't be able to pick up medals that your own team has dropped.
0:24:41
Elements that Sway the Conditions of Battle
0:25:01
Supply Boxes
Upon the start of The Feast, supply boxes will be placed on the battlefield and will continue to appear after a certain amount of time. By destroying these boxes, a Supply Kit will appear. There are different kinds which have various effects:- Offense Kit: Increases attack potency
- Defense Kit: Increases defense
- Medical Kit: Heals
- Adrenaline Kit: Increases the adrenaline rush gauge
0:26:03
Culling Time
If a certain amount of time passes and no one has been defeated, culling time will begin, changing the background and in-game sounds. A stacking debuff will be applied to all players that will only be removed when an ally or enemy has been defeated. Think of it as a situation in a competition where both sides are deadlocked and the crowd starts jeering.
0:27:47
Heavy Medal
I'm sure a lot of you are thinking it would be advantageous for someone good at PvP to be the one to collect all the medals. For example, having someone with high defense, such as a tank, pick up the dropped medals is a basic strategy. However, if you are holding a lot of medals, a debuff will be applied that causes you to take increased damage, so you'll need to be careful.
0:28:34
Result Screen
Simply put, if you can understand the usefulness of breaking boxes, that you'll be in danger when the scenery and music change, and that you’ll become easier to defeat if you have too many medals, then you get the gist of The Feast. The result screen shows numbers categorized as "K," "D," and "A." They refer to the number of players defeated, the number of times you've been defeated and the number of times you've assisted in defeating an enemy respectively. You can earn assists by healing or via buffing, so try to get a lot of them.
0:29:48
Ranks
There are ranks you can reach by increasing the rating that I mentioned earlier, and there are six different ranks for both solo mode and light party mode: no rank, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond. There are promotion battles for each rank, so for example, if you increase your rating from 500 to 1000, you'll begin promotion battles, and winning 3 of the 5 promotion battles will earn you a promotion. However, if after being promoted you continuously lose and your rating falls, you will be demoted.
0:31:05
Ranking
We'll be adding a special ranking section for The Feast on the Lodestone. There will be ranking for each of the aforementioned ranks, so I recommend trying to do your best in a rank that suits your skill level.
0:31:54
Rank and Rating Resets
When it comes to rankings, it often becomes difficult to catch up with those at the top, so we'll be resetting the rankings and ranks every three and a half months, and after we make job adjustments and implement additional elements we will begin a new season.
Upon the conclusion of a season, we'll have special rewards that can only be earned by players who are above a certain ranking in diamond. There will also be special rewards for the player ranked number one in diamond.
Additionally, there will be rewards for the top players in each of the other ranks, and those at the top can also receive the rewards available to the lower ranking players. We'd love it if you aim for the top in the rank that fits your skill level.
* The video shows off an illustration of the reward item the top PvP players can earn.
The number one player in diamond can earn the full set of equipment and will also earn a title and a trophy that can be placed in housing that signifies them as the champion for the season.
0:35:21
Season Schedule (Planned)
When we released Lord of Verminion in patch 3.1, we received feedback saying a staggered release would have been better than a simultaneous release, and so we've decided to do that here with The Feast. At the launch of Patch 3.2 we'd like players to enjoy the main scenario, Alexander: Midas, and all of the new additions to the game first, then in Patch 3.21 we will release The Feast.
While Patch 3.21 will be the pre-season of The Feast, ratings will still fluctuate and promotion battles will occur. However, we'll be looking at everyone’s feedback regarding balance in the pre-season, and make adjustments based on this before starting Season 1 in Patch 3.25. Both ranks and ratings from pre-season will be reset, so everyone will be starting fresh for Season 1. Depending on the feedback from the pre-season, we'll be focusing a lot on balance adjustments, so there is a chance that Season 1 may be slightly delayed, so please keep this in mind.
Season 1 will run approximately three and a half months, and 1-2 weeks prior to its conclusion, rankings will no longer apply. Once rankings have been locked, we will perform balance adjustments, and then kick off Season 2.(4)
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02-10-2016 05:20 PM #3
0:37:33
New Dungeons
* The video introduces a video of the new dungeons.
Stay tuned for the Patch 3.2 trailer, which will show more of the battles to be fought in each dungeon.
0:40:39
Alexander: Midas
For Patch 3.0, after releasing Alexander normal mode we implemented savage mode a short while later. However, this time around we'll be implementing them both at the same time. It's safe to assume that the reward system will be the same as that of Alexander: Gordias.
0:41:35
Alexander: Midas (Savage)
The basic rules for the reward system in Alexander: Midas (Savage) are the same as Alexander: Gordias (Savage), and you'll be able to challenge savage mode after clearing all of the normal Alexander: Midas. Additionally, as I mentioned previously, the DPS checks for the third and fourth areas of Alexander: Gordias (Savage) were much too severe, and giving consideration to this we are in the midst of making final adjustments. However, since this is a raid, the difficulty will still be very high.
* The video introduces a video of Alexander: Midas.
0:44:56
Materia System Changes
As we announced previously, we'll be making it possible to affix materia to all equipment in Patch 3.2. With this change, I'm sure many of you are concerned about the prices for purchasing materia and catalysts, but we'll be increasing the avenues for obtaining the various types of materia. With that said, we're expecting grade IV and V materia to be used for most equipment upgrades, so please keep in mind that the value of materia will be changing slightly.
0:48:09
Orchestrion
* The video introduces the orchestrion with gameplay footage.
By interacting with the orchestrion furnishing, a specialized user interface will appear, and you'll be able to listen to the songs you've obtained inside your house. You'll be able to switch between allowing others in your house to change the background music, or making it so only you can change the music. Furthermore, the music supports 3D sound, which means that as you walk around your house and distance yourself from the orchestrion, how you hear the music will change.
We'll also be adding the "Orchestrion Sheet Music Log" to the main menu, and you’ll be able to keep tabs on what songs you have as well as the conditions to obtain the ones you don't have yet. There is sheet music that you can obtain more easily by selecting the "Minimum IL" setting when using the Duty Finder. However, we haven't set the drop rates to be very low, so you'll be able to obtain them often through normal play as well. We wanted to offer a fun incentive for players who are confident in their skills when it comes to minimum item level runs. Naturally, we'll have the newest music from Patch 3.2 available, and we're planning to add more songs in future patches. I hope you all have fun collecting them!
0:54:11
Mentor System
The first set of requirements to become a mentor is geared towards players who mainly focused on Disciples of War and Magic, and by fulfilling these requirements it will be possible to become a mentor by speaking to a special NPC. After becoming a mentor, a special icon will appear next to your name. You can choose to toggle this on and off, so it's up to you when you want to act as a mentor.
The second set of requirements to become a mentor is geared towards players who mainly focus on Disciples of the Hand and Land. By fulfilling each of the requirements, you will earn the qualification to become a mentor.
As a special privilege for mentors, we'll be adding "Duty Roulette: Mentor" to the Duty Finder, which will include all the trials and dungeons up until Patch 2.55, except for raids. This roulette will grant priority matching with players who have yet to complete dungeons and trials, as well as players who have the sprout icon next to their name.
0:59:57
Containment Bay S1T7
* The video shows gameplay of Containment Bay S1T7 and artwork of the rewards.
The lead designer of Containment Bay S1T7 is the person who created Titan, and he mentioned that the concept of this battle is a large game of jump rope. The mechanics have been built with an understanding of this concept, so definitely look forward to it. This battle will be implemented separately from the main scenario quests, so those who are anxious to try it out can do so right after the patch is released.
1:05:03
Exploratory Missions Adjustments
We’re working on the next set of full-scale exploratory missions and we’re aiming to add them in Patch 3.3 and 3.4. In Patch 3.2 we'll be making adjustments based on the feedback we've been receiving. While we considered removing the time restriction for re-entering the Diadem, we decided to keep it after considering the implementation of the new Allagan tomestone. In relation to the aforementioned materia changes, we will be changing the amount of materia you can purchase with spoils, so if you have any at the moment, I suggest holding on to them and exchanging them after Patch 3.2 is released.
1:09:00
Adjustments to the Disciples of Land and Hand
We’ll be adding a ton of new crafting recipes in Patch 3.2. One of the major points I would like to mention is that we'll be adding new crafted equipment and accessories at the same time, which can be used to challenge raids early, so I believe there will be a large demand for these by the players who are aiming to conquer Alexander: Midas early on. We’ll also be making adjustments in terms of materials, so there aren’t situations like we’ve had up until now where it wasn’t easy to collect them.
While it won’t be difficult to craft equipment resembling Allagan and High Allagan gear, you’ll need to first obtain special blueprints. We’re keeping where you can obtain these a secret for now, but the drop rate isn’t very low, so please try and find them. They are items that can even be obtained when using the undersized party option, so give it a shot.
* The video shows images of Allagan and High Allagan equipment replicas.
We’ve been receiving a lot of requests on the forum for glamour recipes, and we'll be adding job-specific equipment as well as gender-specific equipment.
The development team will be giving a sneak peek of some of the equipment we'll be implementing, so keep an eye out on the forums for their post.
Of course, we'll also be making adjustments to Disciples of the Land and Hand, as well as adding new rewards for red scrips. However, this will take place during a Hotfix on February 25 to coincide with the weekly reset.
1:14:30
Other Updates
Since Allagan tomestones of Poetics will be the first tomestones you earn when reaching level 50, they will remain for a bit longer.
We'll be adding a history category to the teleport UI window, and it will display the recent destinations you've visited.
There are many more adjustments and changes on the way, but one of the big requests we've been receiving was to add a yes or no confirmation window for sorting to prevent accidental sorting. We’ll be adding an option in the configuration to hide the sorting sub-command, and we’ll also be changing certain one-handed thaumaturge’s arms to be two-handed.
Other details about Patch 3.2 will be revealed during the patch note reading.
* The video shows examples of equipment that can be purchased with Allagan tomestones of Lore.
This time around, the Allagan tomestone equipment has been designed with a primal motif. We’ll be implementing many new furnishings with brand-new designs as well, so look forward to them!
1:24:54
* During the break the Eorzea Collection video was shown.(4)
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02-10-2016 05:21 PM #4
1:25:22
Special Guest: Localization Lead Michael-Christopher Koji Fox
1:27:34
Q: Can you explain a bit about the meaning of the patch title and the artwork?
As you now know, the artwork features Minfilia and the Mothercrystal, and those two things play a major role in the 3.2 story.- After being missing for so long, in what manner will Minfilia return?
- While she was missing, what was happening to her?
- How did she “change”?
- What role did the Mothercrystal play in that change?
- Based on how Minfilia has changed, how will the Scions of the Seventh Dawn change?
- Will the path the Scions walk in some way change?
However, FFXIV’s patch titles are usually multi-layered, so the "change" mentioned here is not exclusive to the Minfilia branch of the story. It also ties into the Dragonsong War branch as well. As we saw in 3.1, following the dramatic rescue of an Ishgardian by a dragon, the people of Ishgard have begun questioning their heretofore violent relationship with the Dravanians. They have begun to think that a change towards peace may be possible. In addition, the other regions of Eorzea have also detected a change in the winds, and are now beginning to re-evaluate their stance on the conflict...possibly considering action themselves.
However, when there is a hard push for change, there are always those who oppose that change, and will do whatever they can to stop it.
Finally, you can’t talk about "gears" without mentioning machines...and you can’t mention machines without mentioning the biggest machine in Eorzea—Alexander. So, the third layer of the "Gears of Change" patch title deals with the continuation of the Alexander story and the second "leg"—the Midas sector.
I also work directly with the Main Lore Creator, Banri Oda to devise the backstories to the game’s various content—one example being the new instanced dungeons (the Antitower and the Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)). So I’ll talk a bit about how the Antitower got its name.1:31:52
Q: Besides the localization of the game, what else do you do?
I also work directly with the Main Lore Creator, Banri Oda to devise the backstories to the game’s various content—one example being the new instanced dungeons (the Antitower and the Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)). So I’ll talk a bit about how the Antitower got its name.
Dungeon naming usually starts with design documents from the dungeon team based off of ideas originally submitted by Oda-san, Yoshi-P, and others. At this time, the dev team already had a working name (逆さの塔 Sakasa no To – lit. “the upside-down tower”) and Oda-san came to me for ideas for an official name—they were thinking of going with a English word for the Japanese version as well. The backstory for the area involved a Sharlayan scholar’s work on researching the Lifestream and the Mothercrystal, so I suggested something that had a slight academic feel to it—the Antitower, rather than going with something straightforward like “The Inverted Tower.” When I suggested this to Oda-san, he was worried that the Japanese users would get the wrong impression from the name. In Japanese, the term anti- (アンチ anchi) is used somewhat often, but does not carry all the meanings that it does in English. In Japanese, it basically only has a negative connotation—when you're opposed to something: anti-freedom, or anti-union, etc. I tried to explain to Oda-san that while it can be negative in EN, it can also simply mean the reverse of something. Like in anti-toxin—something that reverses the effect of poison, or anti-aging—flipping the aging process upside-down. After hearing this, Oda-san—while convinced that anti- could mean more than ‘oppose’—was still unsure that Japanese players wouldn’t misunderstand. It was at that time I asked him if there was anything wrong with the working title they already had...and he was like ...”no, it’s actually pretty good isn’t it?” And so he took it to Yoshi-P for final approval, and the rest is history.
Other than the tower itself, naming was also difficult for the boss. The boss for this dungeon happens to be a legacy character from an early Final Fantasy. Since the boss name’s original translation, the spelling has since changed, which posed me with the dilemma—which spelling to use. The reason this problem sometimes comes up is because before there was a localization department at SQEX, there was only chaos. Teams would use different people for different projects and data bases weren’t managed...or even saved. This resulted in a lot of discrepancies. Once the Loc. Department was formed some 15 or so years ago, we began work documenting translations, as well as unifying spellings and cleaning up mistranslations/misinterpretations.
As we get a lot of characters, names, etc. from legacy Final Fantasies, choosing one translation over another is always a tricky job. One of the reasons the legacy characters are used (especially in FFXIV) is to incite feelings of nostalgia. However, what happens when that name which was nostalgic, was actually a mistranslation? Do you maintain the error for nostalgia’s sake, or do you fix the error to get the text back to a state closer to the writer’s original intent. One example that comes to mind is Chupon. Chupon, while a faithful phonetic rendition of the Japanese katakana, was unfortunately not the correct translation—it should have been (the Greek) Typhon (Tuphon), as this was the original writer’s intent (and in fact was updated in later translations). So, when the character’s revival was announced for XIV, I found myself with a choice. I understand that for a lot of players my age who played the original when it was released, Chupon was who we remembered. On the other hand, newer players remember him as Typhon—the name that the original writer intended anyway. Do I go with nostalgia or do I go with intent? GAHHH! Ultimately, we decided to go with Typhon, as we deemed intent more important in this case.
I forgot to bring information on this one. Oops...Q: So what about the Lost City of Amdapor (Hard), then?
When Oda-san came to me with the content and asked me for an idea, the first thing I envisioned was one of those old Kung Fu movies with the wispy white-haired hermit training on some mountain top. What if we made the guy in charge of these battles a master fighter from Doma who left his homeland and sought the seclusion of an (at that time) abandoned Dravania to train in peace. The location being the side of a massive "stone" cliff, situated so high up that one only need to reach out their hand to be able to touch the "sky," while overlooking a never-ending "sea" of clouds. And from there—Stone, Sky, Sea. Think of it like three kanji characters written in calligraphy, hanging in the dojo: 石空海.1:36:49
Q: Okay, then about what about some background on why you decided to name Stone, Sky, Sea what it is?
Oda-san liked the idea, and thus the place was named (the JP version name is also Stone, Sky, Sea in katakana) and the background story of the hermit was also added.
Simply put, we handle the translation of the JP text into English, French, German, Chinese, and Korean. However, our jobs are not that simple, and there is a reason why we are called the Localization department as opposed to the Translation department. It is our task to translate in a manner that fits the cultural “location” of our target audience (the “local” in localization), and to do that we must, at times, make minor adjustments and wield a slight amount of creativity. If a Japanese client user finds something in the game to be cool or interesting, then only when an English, or Chinese, or Korean, or French, or German client user finds the same thing just as interesting in their version can we say we’ve done a good job.1:39:29
Q: What does the localization team do, exactly?
But localization is not always about making things interesting. Making sure things are easy to understand is also important, especially when a lot of words overlap between language clients. One good example of this is the PvP “Danger Time” brought up in the first half of the show. Yoshi-P wanted to go with the English “Danger Time” for the Japanese version because both danger and time were words that most Japanese users would know. I mentioned that Danger Time might be considered over-simple or even silly-sounding by some users, especially in a PvP system where we already have many abstract terms (The Feast, The Claws, The Fangs, etc.). There was a lot of reciting of the Top Gun theme “Danger Zone” during this discussion. Yoshi-P was not against the imagery of the Culling Hour suggestion I had first proposed, but was worried that Japanese players would not get the meaning of culling (a word not known to most Japanese players). In the end, we decided that we would maintain the word Time across the two languages for symmetry, and allow for the difference between Danger and Culling.
Basically localization is having to make decisions just like these...but in the hundreds, or maybe even thousands each day. When faced with so many decisions, there will always be times when some will not produce the best results, leaving us and the players thinking in retrospect that we could have done better. We are human, and will miss the mark every now and again. But we learn from each and every one of those mistakes, and combined with the feedback we get from the users, are able to take that experience and use it to grow as localizers.
All of our in-house DE and FR translators are fluent in Japanese, and therefore fully capable of translating directly from the JP, which, for the most part, they do. However, our translators are also fully functional in EN, as well, and as such will sometimes translate from the EN—most of the time when it is the EN text that is the source (like item names or player actions).Q: Which language do you translate the French and German versions of the game from: Japanese or English?
How long did it take to translate Heavensward compared to a regular patch?Q: How long did it take to translate Heavensward compared to a regular patch?
Well, Final Fantasy games have always been known for their copious amounts of text, and FFXIV has been no exception. As localization is done alongside development (to ensure simultaneous release dates for JP, EN, FR, and DE) the amount of text can sometimes make our jobs a bit crazy. Each section of the dev. team wants to create something that is exceptional—meaning that if they have time to polish, they’ll want to polish right up until our data fix. The thing is, Localization gets text not just from, say, the Scenario team, but also the crafting team, the gathering team, the battle team, the dungeon team, the item team, the minion collective, the programming team, the UI team, the Lodestone team...which means if people are brushing up right to the deadline, there really is no time left for us to localize (let alone QA to check for bugs)! This can make things very chaotic, especially when working on an expansion that had more than 1,500,000 Japanese characters needing to be translated, localized, and then checked for style consistency. To put it in perspective, this was about the same amount of text that the Witcher III had...and we localized it in about 2 and a half months with a language team of 7-8 people. We got so worried towards the end that we wouldn’t make it, that Yoshi-P had to call the directors of Bravely Second and Dragon Quest Heroes to ask if we could borrow their EN translators for 2 weeks. (Thanks Yoshi-P!!!!!!!)
However, since that time in hell, Yoshi-P has reworked how we approach patch development, and in 3.1 and 3.2 we have had ample time to get our work done, without forcing the JP team to compromise their quality. And for that, the Loc team is extremely grateful!
Normally, one would assume that, as a game developed in Japan, all of FFXIV’s names would start out in Japanese. However, FFXIV is different than most Japan-developed games in that I work directly with Oda-san in naming these, and when it comes to most of the in-game naming—from actions to items, to NPC names, to monster names—is a product of a joint EN-JP effort.1:45:08
Q: How are monster and action names translated?
The flow is as follows—the battle and monster teams provide us and the effect team with the type of actions they are considering for their monsters. Oda-san takes that data and does a first pass. At the end of this first pass, he’ll send me the file. The file at this time consists of:- Direct name suggestions
- A general idea, but no concrete name, that needs expanding on
- A blank cell and a request for an idea from me
Once my research is done and my suggestions solidified, I knock on my booth wall (I sit right next to Oda-san) and we begin the “localization” process—trying to come up with something good in both EN and JP. There is a lot of back and forth here discussing how we should each localize the names. A couple of examples include:
The tonberry action: Scourge of Nym. This is a case where the Japanese came first—呪いの言葉 (Noroi no Kotoba lit. “words of cursing”). I mentioned to Oda-san that we had already used the word “curse” in a lot of other actions and statuses and that I wanted to go with something a little bit more abstract...that implied the curse without straight up saying it. He agreed that ‘scourge’ would get across the meaning he wanted to imply with “curse=noroi,” and therefore allowed me the deviation.
On the other hand, an example of the EN coming first and the JP deviating arose when we had to decide on a name for a Cerberus action. In EN, there is an action called “Hound Out of Hell” which consists of a quick, damage-dealing charge. As the monster was Cerberus (imagery tied to hell), and he was moving fast, I wanted to do a play in the idiom “like a bat out of hell.” Oda-san liked the imagery, but unfortunately that idiom does not exist (in the same form) in Japanese. Add to that, when rendered into katakana, hound out of hell becomes long and confusing (ハウンドアウトオブヘル) and Oda-san did not want that cluttering up players’ log windows. So, we decided that the main focuses here were ‘hell’ and ‘moving quickly,’ and as long as those were kept in the JP, we'd be okay—hence the decision to go with ヘルチャージ (hell charge).
The main take-away from this is that both Oda-san and I decide on a main “focal point” for each name, and work to make sure that most of the names include this point. Another example of this is in the title for Aymeric—Aymeric the Blue. The Japanese title is 蒼剣のアイメリク(Soken no Aymeric lit. Blue Sword Aymeric). This even came up as one of the questions for this show. What happened to the 'sword' in the EN? This also had to do with Oda-san and I deciding that “blue” was going to be the focus of the title. The reason that Japanese didn't just remove the 剣(sword) and go with something like 蒼のアイメリク falls under what looks better in Japanese. In titles like these, it is often considered better-looking when it's a 2-kanji word as opposed to a 1-kanji word (most all the titles in the JP version of FFXIV have 2 kanji). Oda-san added the sword portion to complete the compound word, while maintaining that focal point we had decided on.
So, what about katakana word localization—words that are completely made up and do not exist in any Earth language? Is there anything special we do when Romanizing those? One example that came up in the questions posted on the forums was EN’s “Haukke Manor” versus the JP’s ハウケタ御用邸 (Hauketa Goyotei lit. Hauketa Manor). Where did the "ta" sound go? Well...in fact...this was just a mistake on our part. The person who translated this (a guy, we'll call him Mr. S, who is no longer with the company) probably just misread the katakana. That was back during 2.0 when we were extremely busy, and it just slipped under the radar. We only noticed it a few months after release, and by then it was too late...so...
We have two rules regarding style for FFXIV. If the character IN EORZEA can see the text, it needs to follow our Eorzean style (which we loosely base on GRRM’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”). However, if the text is exclusively for the PLAYER on EARTH, then we can play a bit with the titles like a lot of western games do. Here's where we get stuff like "Smells Like Tree Spirit" for the FATE in which you fight a tree spirit 怒れる守護者「グレートオーク」(Okoreru Shugosha Great Oak lit. The Angry Guardian Great Oak). Or "The Orange Boxes" for the FATE where you collect boxes filled with oranges 上には上がある (Ue ni wa ue ga aru, lit. there's something higher than the top, fig. There's always someone better than you). The same can be seen in achievements, such as the Shiva achievement "Let it Go" and the Lv. 50 dragoon achievement "Dragoon Age."1:52:05
Q: Are there any names or text that only foreigners would understand? Additionally, there are a lot of homages to movies and novels in FATE names, so I'd like to know what these are named in the western version of the game.
Since the EN began adding cultural references and puns, the Japanese version has recently decided to follow, and while in 1.0 there were almost none, in 3.x, a good portion of quest and achievement names are now puns based off of Japanese cultural references.
Luckily I have some information that I received from Oda-san before the show.1:54:50
Q: Could you tell us more about the Au Ra?
The Xaela mainly reside as nomads in an area known as the Azim Steppe (which, in relation to Doma is to the immediate northwest). Azim is the sun deity and it is believed that it is her light and blessing that allows the grass to grow that feeds their herds. Now, astute players may recognize a similarity between Azim the sun deity and Azeyma the Warden...also connected to the sun... However, the Au Ra do not worship the Twelve...nor do most other people living outside Eorzea, as belief in the Twelve is pretty much restricted to Eorzea. That is not to say however that somewhere in the past the two gods were...
Now, whereas the Xaela are made up of dozens of small tribes lead by khans, the Raen are mostly stationary and live near Doma or in the Far Eastern islands across the sea from Doma. However, due to the invasion of Othard by the Garlean Empire, a lot of Raen have been displaced and now flock to areas where they can find safety—like Eorzea (as was the case with Yugiri).
Now, as for how the Au Ra are regarded by others living in Eorzea, while there was racial tension in past ages, recently with the onset of the Age of Adventure and an influx in the amount of people of all races flocking to Eorzea, there truly isn’t any form of heavy discrimination towards the Au Ra (it also helps that because very few Au Ra ever visited Eorzea before, there is little deep-seated hate stemming from historical conflict). However, because they are new to Eorzea and there is much mystery surrounding them, a lot of native Eorzeans are still a bit wary (even if they don’t really know why).
In addition to the Xaela and Raen clans there are rumors of a different, much older clan.
This is a question that a lot of people ask me personally at Fan Fests and game shows. Oda-san had an answer prepared for this one as well. This pretty much stated that the third eye is believed to considerably improve the race’s capacity for spatial recognition. Because of this, the Garleans have a decided advantage over other races when it comes to navigating aircraft or firing weapons. You might then think about Cid’s bandana and the legatii’s helms, but Yoshi-P says that armor has been designed not to interfere with the workings of the 3rd eye.1:58:47
Q: What is the Garleans’ third eye used for?
Back before 2.0, when the scenario team was led by Kazuya Niino, they were using the term 信者 (shinja lit. Believer) internally. Niino-san felt that this term was a bit too weak, and wanted something that sounded more exotic. They saw that in 1.x, the EN team had used ‘tempered’ for the servants of Ifrit, and liked the exotic sound of it, so they decided to use the term in Japanese as well. When we told them that in EN we were planning on using different terms for different primals (tempered, meaning ‘hardened in flame,’ didn’t really work for the water-themed Leviathan) Niino-san was fine with Loc’s decision, but decided against using different words in the Japanese, as having the player try to remember more than one ‘made-up word’ was deemed too much of a burden. And that’s why when the EN uses tempered, drowned, touched, etc. The JP sticks only with ‘tempered.’2:00:09
Q: I heard that those tempered by Leviathan are called "Drowned" in the English version, but are there similar names for the tempered of other primals?
Good question! If I was in the same shoes as the English-speaking fans, I’d be just as upset. The problem is, lore books are lore books. Unlike art books, they are extremely text heavy and game-specific. To translate that text would take time, and that would mean pushing back in-game text localization...and that’s something no one wants. It would be great if Famitsu could do that translation, but they lack the resources as well...which means if it were to be done, we’d have to do it. Or in other words...I’d have to do it.2:02:13
Q: Recently a lot of lore has gotten released only to the Japanese side of the fandom (Heavens' Ward character profiles, dungeon lore, etc.), any chance we can get some of that love?
But, it’s about time that we got our own lore book. You guys have had to wait far too long. So, I told Yoshi-P that I would translate a book, should there be one. And he said we’d make it happen...and that we’d try to get it finished (JP and EN) before the Fan Fest in America...so that means October! I’m still trying to figure out if that’s possible...but I promised, so I guess that means I’ll just have to find a way to make it possible.
But yeah. Long story short:WE’RE GETTING A LORE BOOK!(27)
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