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Originally Posted by
Hyrist
Stopping you here.
Please don't put words into my mouth. I'm disapproving of a depiction of a character in reference to the world context, not the story itself. Indeed the story is yet to be told, we have but a small fragment of the story as a whole - yet, one localization has Midgarsomrs intent diluted in murky speech and outright differences in information told. And the other three are rather straightforward.
This is where we will have to disagree. I am perfectly ok with the NA localization team altering the tone and even the personality of a character if it, in my opinion, improves the story.
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And I disagree with you referencing fairly tales as a reason to approve of writing discrepancies. This isn't the age of Grim's Fairy Tales, where a story gets retold over generations and gets provided a different viewpoint or even an entirely different plot over and over again. Nor does that sort of logic apply here, as that would imply that the story itself should change to appeal to each individual audience. That only works in individual depictions of a tale. Like how 'The journey to the west' is depicted in many games and litterateurs throughout Japan. or the Hero's Journey is often referenced in game materiel and folklore.
Have you ever played the game "telephone"? Even in a circle of people sitting together, an idea gets encoded and decoded by people differently. The same applies here. Doing a straight English to Japanese translation
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This is the information age, in which we need not be divided by tones of culture, our viewpoints appealed to as if we're too immature to handle that some things are different than what we initially understand. In which people are, at the same time, side by side, being told two different depictions of a story by the very same global storyteller. Sorry, but I don't agree with that vein of logic.
The fallacy here is the claim of homogeneity, that somehow a story that would appeal to a Japanese audience would appeal to an English audience. Any company that develops products in different countries understands those countries have their own culture, and thus they should try to develop and market the product differently. Case in point, a relative of mine, while working in London, got a job as the United States spokes-person for a company that sells snack food. Same product, same basic line, but they hired her because she understood American culture - our history, our references, etc enough to translate from their English message to their US message. Another example, look at the styles and tones of manga as compared to comics. Square may be telling a global story, but they do need to temper that story to the audience in question.
I'd disagree with the claim that the English localization team thought we were too immature. I think the NA version is far superior to the Japanese version.
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And MANY Square Enix fans felt to same way - to the point where there was fan-translations of classic Final Fantasy games on emulators to better depict the story told, and to the point where those same games got re-localized when they were re-released later on.
Having lived in that age, as well as the original Dragon Ball Z, it was because those translations were terrible and heavily censored. That is not the case here. T
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Or how North American audiences pushed hard to get a local version of the 'Ultimate Editions' of many Square Enix games, such as the like of FFX, FFX-2 and the Final Mix of Kingdom Hearts games.
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I do hope you understand the intention in wanting a more universal depiction, as well as the appeal of it. I suppose its the difference of exclusive and inclusive desire, neither one is incorrect. But in a game, a seriese, that often attempts to bridge gaps and traditionally pushes for acceptance and unity, to keep pushing the depictions apart from each other strikes me as rather contrary to overall theme.
Unity does not mean uniformity. A good story teller will tell a consistent story every time. A great story teller will tailor the story to his audience.
Also, Intaki, site your source on the matter of how FFXIV is an exception of localization. I do beleive you're misinterpreting your pet interview.
I believe you have it backwards. Though this matter could easily be resolved by a Community Rep clairfying the matter. However by my participation and research of the process:
The Localization teams do not participate fully in the writing process. Rather it is the writing team that partially participates in the Localization process. And only to a certain extent given all the difficulties an international company of a non-English speaking origin has.
This is easily evidenced in the fate of the use of the name "Acheron" and how the development and writing team did not keep the Localization team informed of future plans. (Localization team used Acheron to substitute for a different phonics of the name Translated as Titan in Japan.)
Regardless, in either of these cases, it's pretty boggling why there's such a difference in tone between the English and other language depictions if indeed your assertion is true. If that's the case, all depictions of Midgarsormor ideally should have been highly similar if not outright the same, yet, such as the case is, North America's is not, thus we are here debating the issue.
And yet you seem to have none of your own at all.
Are you a pawn, or a master of your own fate?
What fate have you wrought with your own hands?
... you know what, I might not mind that particular translation after all.[/QUOTE]