Give us our hiragana

[Mrbeansman]

could we stop calling it moon speak or other things other then what it really is? It is the Japanese language, please stop being disrespectful.

I dont/cant speak Japanese, but would love to see this an option, but like others have said, the IME was not licensed to the US copy of FFXI and it the main reason why we dont have the option.

JP onry FFXI is japanese only game I could go on and on about the many ways in which they started it.

[Didgist]

JP onry FFXI is japanese only game I could go on and on about the many ways in which they started it.

All of which is irrelevant to this thread but we appreciate your concern. I can see how this could trouble you greatly, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

[Mrbeansman]

All of which is irrelevant to this thread but we appreciate your concern. I can see how this could trouble you greatly, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Someone offered a solution and I responded to them and told them why it was pointless.

[Malamasala]

I once asked a Japanese person about how well they actually can read Japanese written in our alphabet. He didn't quite tell how hard, but he said it is easiest for them with kanji, then hiragana, then katakana, then our alphabet. So trying to communicate with them in Japanese with our alphabet is worse than writing everything in katakana while speaking with them, which I'd assume would be hard to read.

I'd almost expect them to be better at reading English in our alphabet than Japanese.

Is this issue still in XIV btw? Or did they improve the game so that you can speak between language barriers?

[Alhanelem]

You have me curious if PS2/Xbox releases contain the dictionaries or at least the functionality to access them. In that case you are right, it would just be a matter of flipping a switch and sending a couple small dictionary files to the system.

Also I should have named the thread "Give us our kaomoji"

I'm not sure what yiou're trying to say, but all versions have a japanese character set, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see what the japanese are saying. This is only about input, which has nothing to do with dictionaries. They can almost literally flip a switch and turn it on (it's a little more involved than that, it would require a patch, but you get the idea). All versions of the game have the text for all languages' items, dialogue, interface text, etc. in the data files.

[Olor]

I think that allowing all users to use whichever alphabet they see fit is the right thing to do

[Meyi]

If you can speak Japanese, why not romanize it? Pretty sure some Japanese players can easily comprehend what you want to get through to them.

1. Romaji is difficult to read.
2. Most Japanese are use to reading Japanese, not Japanese in English.
3. They think you're speaking English, not Japanese.
4. lolgaijain (foreigner)

Ah, well, here's a simple sentence to hopefully help make it clear why people want access to the Japanese IME.

With Kanji: 僕の名前はダレルです。
Hiragana Only: ぼくのなまえはだれるです。
Katakana Only: ボクノナマエハダレルデス。
Romaji Only: boku no namae wa dareru desu.

僕(boku) means I, and 名前(namae) means name. Seeing the kanji makes it much quicker and easier to read and understand the sentence. Hiragana is second best, since hiragana is used all the time and is therefore well known. Katakana is okay, but I personally hate it because it's not as common and is mostly used for foreign words (like my name up there).

Think of Kanji as spaces or capitalization of letters. If we had our sentences run into one another, it would be difficult to read. Kanji helps differentiate words' beginnings and ends.

Also, there are a lot of words that have the same reading but mean completely different things. For example:

帰る(kaeru) - To return
変える(kaeru) - To change

As for romaji, well, just glancing at it, it could be English or it could be Japanese. Most Japanese, even though they have taken English in school, do not feel comfortable enough with reading English. Therefore, if they think it's English, they will ignore it.

The whole point of FFXI (and therefore the reason for this thread) is the ability to communicate and play with people around the world. All the servers allow for all languages and all regions. The problem is, not all regions can properly communicate with one another because of the restrictions the company placed upon us. For the last nine years, the game has been a one way street; Japanese can communicate with us (if they want to), but we cannot communicate back (even if we want to).

I understand that the Japanese game cost a bit more because of the IME. However, now that the game only costs $9.99 for the entire game via Ultimate Collection. It no longer costs $50.00 just for the game plus Zilart (like I payed back when I got it XD!). Why can't we add an additional fee to have access to the Japanese IME provided we actually want it?

Please Square Enix, quit leaving us in the dark on this. There are many people very interested in this topic. I'm sick of being outcasted by people because I cannot speak in their language because of your restrictions. If you're not going to give us the IME, then I ask for at least a very in depth explanation why, please.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

There is nothing to be left in the dark about, it was said long ago, hell when the game came out I think.....

SE did not pay for the licensing of the IME for PS2, and of course because of their "all play equally" thing, they did not allow it on the PC version or 360 version. We never got the option because SE never wanted to play for it for the PS2 version. plus if you really want it, like other things SE left out, there are "other" ways to get Japanese into your FFXI.

[Meyi]

There is nothing to be left in the dark about, it was said long ago, hell when the game came out I think.....

SE did not pay for the licensing of the IME for PS2, and of course because of their "all play equally" thing, they did not allow it on the PC version or 360 version. We never got the option because SE never wanted to play for it for the PS2 version. plus if you really want it, like other things SE left out, there are "other" ways to get Japanese into your FFXI.

I'm not big into playing with the illegal windower and its plugins, thank you.

I'm also not a fan of having to buy the Japanese version of the game either.

I understand that they did not purchase the IME for PS2 for nonJapanese, however, what I'm wanting to know is, if we are now willing to pay to have it added, then what's the problem? If it will cost far too much (even after nine years) for far too little pay from players, then I understand. But what I want to hear from Square Enix themselves is if we'll always be shafted and if we will, why we cannot work something out together to make the game more accessible and friendly for everyone.

To be honest, because of this game, a lot of us North American players have grown some great dislike for Japan and its people. It's rude to be ignored and you know what? Japanese players will still frequently ignore the auto-translate.

Being refused IME from the Japanese company and then being refused from group activities from the Japanese playerbase leaves for some soreness. It's a shame and I'd like to make the tension between everyone diffuse.

[bungiefan]

please stop repeating this silly and false explanation. Any developer can use the microsoft IME. it is available by default in all current versions of windows. One does not need any special licensing to use this. the license agreement for the ms ime is between MS and the end user, not the developer.

PS2 version uses the ATOK IME. SE wants the console version to have the same capability as the PC version, or vice versa, so they don't let the game use the Microsoft IME in regions that the console version doesn't have an IME. An ATOK license is about $60 per user, and accidentally triggering it would generate a lot of tech support calls from people that don't know how to use it, or the keystrokes to toggle it.

Hiragana is one of the three forms of Japanese text. You can type Roman letters on JP FFXI, but can't type Japanese text on non-Japanese FFXI.

We petitioned for it in 2003 at NA FFXI launch.and some SE employees explained it on FFXIOnline.com shortly afterward. Johnnyram started the petition.