Ask Localization Megathread

[Zubis]

One example I like to give is what anime fans will recognize as the "tsundere" character. You know, the stereotypical "B-but it's not like I like you or anything!" This works for a Japanese audience. This works for an anime-enjoying Western audience. The problem is that it's a character trope that is incredibly vexing if you're not a Japanophile--and we don't create games for Japanophiles, we create games for a broad Western audience. We don't want you to have to have any prior understanding of Japan to enjoy yourself.

Gotta say I appreciate this a lot, there's nothing worse than playing a game and having an incredibly dry story because someone decided that a direct translation from Japanese to English was better than localising it.

I think FFXI's quest and mission dialogues are certainly more fun and quirky in the last couple of years - some of the very early stuff was not perhaps as entertaining as it could have been.

Some related questions:

• Is there a huge story bible for the game?
• What happens if a quest is added involving a NPC that maybe hasn't been in use in 5 or 6 years? Do you have to go back to the original quests involving the NPC to get a feel for how they speak?

[Unelonborro]

Is there a huge story bible for the game?

Without getting into too much of our internal workings, I can say that we do have an extensive list of resources to draw on!

What happens if a quest is added involving a NPC that maybe hasn't been in use in 5 or 6 years? Do you have to go back to the original quests involving the NPC to get a feel for how they speak?

Oh, most definitely. Every time we have a Trust NPC with an accompanying event, I go back and look over all the quests they were involved in. In terms of the amount of time it takes to translate something, an individual alter ego takes me about three to four times as long as something more recent like the Tarutaru Sauce quests or the Seekers of Adoulin missions. These NPCs are beloved by the playerbase, so we have to do them justice!

The one exception was Ingrid, because she was released nearly simultaneously with her breakout mission and thus was already ingrained into my consciousness.

[Zubis]

Without getting into too much of our internal workings, I can say that we do have an extensive list of resources to draw on!

These NPCs are beloved by the playerbase, so we have to do them justice!

And you did, it's fun going back and seeing the new dialogue for NPCs I haven't spoken to in 8 years :3 Thanks for the reply and thanks for all your team's work on the game.