English Translation Terrible.

English voice of Cidolfus still 100 times better than Japanese one.

The JP VAs do tend to do a better job, but there are some exceptions. The difference in voice quality is nothing compared to the sheer amount of EN text that just doesn't line up with the JP equivalent, though.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Have you seen this same thought echoed in recent days?

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Yep, and it's sad that the same problems that were present back in ARR are being allowed to persist now.

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

Does this endless parade weigh heavy for you, or can you take it in stride?

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It wouldn't be so tiring if certain people didn't abandon all logic and sound reasoning to protect their favorite multi-dollar companies. A lot of people these days have no standards and those who do suffer for it.

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Originally Posted by kevin_satron

damn, 2013 post, how did it get here on 1st page

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https://i.redd.it/08qo8jcc6f1a1.jpg

Huh, I didn't even notice it was a 2013 post. Guess the necromancer was successful.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Indeed, people still act as if the English version is a "translation" instead of the reality that the English and Japanese versions are developed together. The English version is not "mistranslating" anything; it is its own version.

And yes, some of the complaints still boil down to the OP's original issue with "What is wrong?" vs. "Is aught amiss?" (In other words, they're complaining about nothing of actual substance.)

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THANK YOU

The English localization isn't your typical localization. It's not translation. It's a re-write, it's done in tandem as the original JP is being made. JP has the ideas and the script, EN takes it and does something of its own. Which is then bundled into the game as it is.

Why does this happen?

Because the EN localization head is part of the development team. That isn't the normal process.

If you want a normal localization, you look at the DE and FR versions, which are a bit closer to the original Japanese, barring some possible changes here and there.

It's inaccurate to hell and back to say that "the translation is terrible". Because it's not a translation to begin with! Now, do you disagree with this form of localization? Sure. But blaming it on translation is an ignorant statement. Because it's not the translator's fault. It's the way the game got designed. By people above the translation team itself.



That said, the reason this topic keeps being echoed is because though this information is readily availably by reading literally anything Koji Fox ever said about the localization process, people haven't committed this.
So naturally you'll still see this topic flying around needlessly. With revival threads so awkwardly done it snatches Jesus's wig.

Damn, call the police!
This is the second thread from 2013 within 1 week.
Yeah SE, DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID?
Give us Content for Gods sake....so that we can leave this Forum for a while.

Despite it being necromancy. . .

For the most part, I'm fine with the English localization team. They get the intent across and what-not, despite their fuck-ups even when it's made public (such as the circle vs square that Yoshida poked fun at Koji about in front of everyone). What I'm not fine with is when they don't get the intent across and completely change the tone of a scene, which they've done time and again since ARR, such as the first interaction you get with Midgardsormr.

Man when you necro an old thread to try and win an argument in a different thread. Just holy fork balls Batman.

The thing that sucks about a necromancer post especially one from 2013 is that there is a solid chance that half the people from the original discussion aren't even playing the game anymore and will never see the replied quotes to them. They might not even hold their original opinion anymore 10 years later either but people will reply to that comment as if they do.
But also, sometimes the forums will be like "That thread already exists why not just use the search function and reply to an existing thread!".

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Originally Posted by Remish

The thing that sucks about a necromancer post especially one from 2013 is that there is a solid chance that half the people from the original discussion aren't even playing the game anymore and will never see the replied quotes to them. They might not even hold their original opinion anymore 10 years later either but people will reply to that comment as if they do.
But also, sometimes the forums will be like "That thread already exists why not just use the search function and reply to an existing thread!".

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Depends. It's silly to repost a topic which already has a thread in the first two pages. It's also silly to bring up a post from literal 10 years ago.

The eternal debate... Is it better to necro a thread from the archives, or make a new one on the same topic.


As for the translation, I can't read the moonrunesKanji so I don't know how accurate everything's been but there hasn't really been anything that felt like it's been overly westernized.

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Originally Posted by CaptainLagbeard

The eternal debate... Is it better to necro a thread from the archives, or make a new one on the same topic.


As for the translation, I can't read the moonrunesKanji so I don't know how accurate everything's been but there hasn't really been anything that felt like it's been overly westernized.

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Depends on the thread I guess. Yet I'm fairly certain I'm correct in why this one got necroed. Course this doesn't stop someone occasionally making newer "Hold my beer. I'm going to tell a bunch of strangers why the localization and translation is really trash. I'm sure I'll persuade people this time." threads from time to time. Normally from someone who doesn't understand how the dev team chose to go about it. Or why they chose more of a Live interpreter style with one of the languages.

Other necros tend to be topics or issues that are no longer the case. So those probably shouldn't get necroed. Except that doesn't stop the necroer replying to the OP with some kind of snark or not realizing the OP as someone else has said quit the game or changed their mind about said topic.

Argh, replying necroposts is boring

I mean, at least the necroed post made a point that has continued to be valid through the game's entire lifespan.

Some of the translations are way off or changed to suit what they want. Haurchefant is a prime example of it. Why did they feel the need to change it! If our boy is a perv let him be.

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Originally Posted by Nyxs

Some of the translations are way off or changed to suit what they want. Haurchefant is a prime example of it. Why did they feel the need to change it! If our boy is a perv let him be.

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because otherwise his character and death would've lost a lot of that meaning if the character you're supposed to be personal connected too happened to be Glenn Quagmire.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Lots of stuff

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Semantics. The end result is what people are complaining about: the EN text not always lining up with the JP text, as in conveying something either partially or completely different. Whether they realize the two are developed in tandem does not really detract from the opinion. The point remains: The EN localization fairly frequently does NOT match up. While not always the case, there are instances where fairly important details, particularly where the story and lore are concerned, are quite a bit different between the two.

People that raise a stink about that "is aught amiss" business are kinda missing the boat, but those who have a problem with the two localizations not properly falling in line with one another have a valid criticism.

To be perfectly honest, I genuinely like the JP version more. I make it a point to play through the MSQ twice each expansion (once with EN text, once with JP) so I can compare and contrast, and boy are there some disconcerting differences. So significant, in fact, that I don't even understand why so many changes are allowed. Or, for that matter, why some people seem to support said changes. The East and West do have different values and standards, but it doesn't mean all of us want to play what is in some ways a different game.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Semantics. The end result is what people are complaining about: the EN text not always lining up with the JP text, as in conveying something either partially or completely different. Whether they realize the two are developed in tandem does not really detract from the opinion. The point remains: The EN localization fairly frequently does NOT match up. While not always the case, there are instances where fairly important details, particularly where the story and lore are concerned, are quite a bit different between the two.

People that raise a stink about that "is aught amiss" business are kinda missing the boat, but those who have a problem with the two localizations not properly falling in line with one another have a valid criticism.

To be perfectly honest, I genuinely like the JP version more. I make it a point to play through the MSQ twice each expansion (once with EN text, once with JP) so I can compare and contrast, and boy are there some disconcerting differences.

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Curious to know some notable examples

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Originally Posted by Nyxs

Some of the translations are way off or changed to suit what they want. Haurchefant is a prime example of it. Why did they feel the need to change it! If our boy is a perv let him be.

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Because that kind of character doesn't really sit well with everyone. Personally I find JP Haurchefant creepy and off-putting. The English version might just be a more "generic nice guy" character, but at least he's not actually offensive.

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Originally Posted by Nyxs

Some of the translations are way off or changed to suit what they want. Haurchefant is a prime example of it. Why did they feel the need to change it! If our boy is a perv let him be.

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Because some character types don't translate well to other cultures. While it's a common trope in anime, in English people tend to get easily offended these days so it's probably less of a headache for SE to simply change a character's personality instead of dealing with numerous people crying about some NPC that flirts and wants to get into bed with the player.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

Because that kind of character doesn't really sit well with everyone. Personally I find JP Haurchefant creepy and off-putting. The English version might just be a more "generic nice guy" character, but at least he's not actually offensive.

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A pervy character would honestly be ok for as some random side npc, but for an important character whom you get to interact with multiple times and have a prominent role in an expansion's story, yeah no, Japanese Haurchefaunt is one of those cultural exceptions where people would not be necessarily happy over him in other countries.

Its the reason why they toned down those two pervy dudes in Persona 5 wanting to have relations with Ryuji. This kind of behavior becomes very creepy.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Curious to know some notable examples

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There's a pretty good one earlier in this thread. Horsefountain is very different in the EN localization. I'm pretty much in agreement with you on him, though. That would not have gone well with Western audiences. Dude had even less chill than G'raha, and that's a bloody accomplishment. Which, speaking of, JP G'raha is also a good bit worse.

I feel …so loved right now with all these npcs jumping on me, none of the ones I actually wanted to but eh…

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Indeed, people still act as if the English version is a "translation" instead of the reality that the English and Japanese versions are developed together. The English version is not "mistranslating" anything; it is its own version.

And yes, some of the complaints still boil down to the OP's original issue with "What is wrong?" vs. "Is aught amiss?" (In other words, they're complaining about nothing of actual substance.)

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You're still parroting this but this has been debunked multiple times. (Maybe this wasn't in your YouTube feed?)
English translation is not in fact being developped concurrently to Japanese translation, it's a misconception born from the role of Koji Fox as a lore lead. Everything is written in Japanese first.
This interview is relevant:

https://na.finalfantasy.com/topics/265

EN localization team has basically no involvement in the story writing itself, they just have an ongoing dialogue with the story team for some aspect (like naming various skills, objects and characters. Song writing and cutscene timing.). More importantly, it also happens with the entire localization team, not just EN like many believe.

EDIT: Here's also a video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M_kVS46AfIs

EDIT 2: Here's another interview where former localization lead John Crow explains the process. He is in fact translating Ishikawa's work.
Yes, sometimes differences could happen because what was originally translated was just an early draft, but this is still very much a translation.

https://gamerescape.com/2018/04/09/p...and-john-crow/

EDIT 3: Or maybe you could just read the credits of the game and notice that none of the localization team are credited for story writing.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

because otherwise his character and death would've lost a lot of that meaning if the character you're supposed to be personal connected too happened to be Glenn Quagmire.

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Yoshi-P chose to kill him off to rectify the problem rather than try to continue writing a game with two vastly different versions of the same character.

The English version was changed by the localization team without permission and Yoshi-P didn't find out until later. They did not intentionally make him less pervy for plot reasons, the localization team just mistakenly thought the English playerbase wasn't thirsty AF and wouldn't like a guy making occasional sex puns.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Indeed, people still act as if the English version is a "translation" instead of the reality that the English and Japanese versions are developed together. The English version is not "mistranslating" anything; it is its own version.

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They only started working closely together after what happened with Haurchefant, most likely to prevent the English team from going rogue again.

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Originally Posted by Corvinoobus

Over the months since, we have taken many measures to ensure that similar problems do not arise in the future, and I am proud to say that the LOC team works more closely with the scenario and cutscene teams than ever before.

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Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

The English translation is incredible. It's one of the few Japanese developed games that doesn't seem like they were trying to straight translate the Japanese to English, either sounding super stilted, or cringe. Instead they tried to convey a similar meaning/feeling and nailed it. This "The English team are a bunch of rogues" is laughable. Good lord people, just look at the English story of Lost Ark (yes, i know it's Korean), or Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Grunting compilation anyone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpEd2yK8KzQ

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

They did not intentionally make him less pervy for plot reasons, the localization team just mistakenly thought the English playerbase wasn't thirsty AF and wouldn't like a guy making occasional sex puns.

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Correct me if Im wrong but I often had the, well now I assume misconception, that Japanese people were less openly pervy and more “respectful”, somewhat reserved, as being openly pervy tends to make society cast them aside in a way, or so Ive seen in documentaries online over the years.

How did it happen that we are experiencing the exact opposite in ffxiv? I was surprised about the differences between both translations, unless online and in game is their only outlet since in reality it’s shameful to act that thirsty.

Im not trying to judge or anything before anyone jumps, Im genuinely curious, because I always expected us to be more open to such innuendos, and often when reading spicy dialogue I thought to myself there’s no way in hell it’s the same in japanese, boy was I wrong.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

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I don't know of anyone that wants a 1 for 1 translation. That wouldn't work anyway, simply because there are some Japanese words and concepts with no English equivalents. There will always be a need to reword things to make sense when moving between languages, especially languages as dissimilar as Japanese and English. That said, it is entirely feasible to do this without losing the message. Unfortunately, the EN localization team tends to take some liberties at inopportune times. I don't know whether it's something Yoshi-P knows about or not, and frankly I don't care. I simply prefer the contents of the JP version, and apparently a not insignificant number of others do as well.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

Instead they tried to convey a similar meaning/feeling and nailed it.

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I encourage you to look into the differences in characterizations between the EN and JP versions of the game. G'raha and Horsefountain aside, there are quite a few other instances of it. Horsefountain simply happens to be the most notable as well as (in my opinion) the most egregious. You might also look into general differences between localizations in Endwalker if you'd like something more recent.

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

Correct me if Im wrong but I often had the, well now I assume misconception, that Japanese people were less openly pervy and more “respectful”, somewhat reserved, as being openly pervy tends to make society cast them aside in a way, or so Ive seen in documentaries online over the years.

How did it happen that we are experiencing the exact opposite in ffxiv? I was surprised about the differences between both translations, unless online and in game is their only outlet since in reality it’s shameful to act that thirsty.

Im not trying to judge or anything before anyone jumps, Im genuinely curious, because I always expected us to be more open to such innuendos, and often when reading spicy dialogue I thought to myself there’s no way in hell it’s the same in japanese, boy was I wrong.

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It's one of those things where it's fine in stuff like anime and games but not anything remotely close to acceptable for real people to engage in.

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

You're still parroting this but this has been debunked multiple times. (Maybe this wasn't in your YouTube feed?)
English translation is not in fact being developped concurrently to Japanese translation, it's a misconception born from the role of Koji Fox as a lore lead. Everything is written in Japanese first.
This interview is relevant:

https://na.finalfantasy.com/topics/265

EN localization team has basically no involvement in the story writing itself, they just have an ongoing dialogue with the story team for some aspect (like naming various skills, objects and characters. Song writing and cutscene timing.). More importantly, it also happens with the entire localization team, not just EN like many believe.

EDIT: Here's also a video
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M_kVS46AfIs

EDIT 2: Here's another interview where former localization lead John Crow explains the process. He is in fact translating Ishikawa's work.
Yes, sometimes differences could happen because what was originally translated was just an early draft, but this is still very much a translation.

https://gamerescape.com/2018/04/09/p...and-john-crow/

EDIT 3: Or maybe you could just read the credits of the game and notice that none of the localization team are credited for story writing.

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The only thing being "parroted" is the truth, which you just seem to not like. Here's direct from MC Koji Fox, aka the English guy who wrote much of the lore: "Koji: Again, a lot of the quests, when we do our translations, we will some times add things — Japanese can be a very vague language — a lot of important information is either cut completely or it’s implied heavily. It can be kind of confusing for western players and readers, so we’ll go in and tweak things to make it a little easier to understand and a little bit clearer. A lot of times the Japanese team will then go back and look at the English translations or the French translations and get ideas on how they can change the Japanese text in turn."

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Originally Posted by Renalt

Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

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Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

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Here's a good video about translations. I liked the bit about the room names.

https://youtu.be/0DMdKDjaNfU

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

You're still parroting this but this has been debunked multiple times. (Maybe this wasn't in your YouTube feed?)
English translation is not in fact being developped concurrently to Japanese translation, it's a misconception born from the role of Koji Fox as a lore lead. Everything is written in Japanese first.
This interview is relevant:

...

EDIT 3: Or maybe you could just read the credits of the game and notice that none of the localization team are credited for story writing.

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Technically Koji Fox used to be in charge of writing the lore. Otherwise, he isn't directly involved in how the story is written, but he does have a larger influence than any other localization member would in any videogame. To do what the localization team does, one needs to have that sort of soft power.

Otherwise, if we take into account it's them passing the game's text from one language and culture to another, then yes, this is a translation. But it's an incredibly atypical one. A normal translation doesn't involve this deep a rewrite of tone and character without long talks with your publisher and editor. And this is stated on the first link you posted:

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Kate (Lore, English):
As mentioned above, FFXIV in particular is a team effort of the sort that’s incredibly rare in Japanese games localization, so it would be hard to really put a number to the people involved in this aspect of the project. We translators are very fortunate to have an ongoing dialogue with the devs regarding the lore, UI, cutscenes, and more. This allows us to spot potential localization pitfalls, but also helps us have a more sound understanding of what we’re translating, and allows the dev team to ask us questions in turn.

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David (German):
The English team is actively involved in naming of skills and location names, etc. and the wider localization team is invited to provide ideas and concepts for new creatures from their various cultures. Then there are situations where we do culture checks and flag potential issues in the story to avoid misunderstandings or to cater to contemporary cultural developments.

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This is, indeed, not normal. The FF14 English Localization Team is very much not doing a normal localization job, they can change things a lot quicker. It's not "in tandem with JP", and I'm sorry if I've ever misled people into thinking that. Because that wouldn't happen either way. They're not at the table discussing it with the writers, but they do have the chance to add their stuff into the game. And for that, they are made aware of what the story is and where it's gonna go, and from that they do what they do on top of it. It's not written at the same time JP's is, but there are considerations that exist on top. Otherwise yes, they need to wait for Ishiwaka to finish her script, then wait for revision and all that.

I wish I had as much leniency as this team...

:p I naturally don't know how they do it verbatim. I'm not in there to know. But I know that their job isn't what normally happens, and that shouldn't be ignored either. No, they are not involved in the writing process. AT BEST they have an impact on some lore aspects, or one member used to, at the least. But the end result is what I think people focus on, and indeed, the end result isn't your standard localization job, there's a bit "more" going on.

It's not just the tone of things or what characters say that gets changed. Because the abundance of memes out there isn't normal for JP. Urianger's sesquipedalian loquaciousness isn't present in other languages.
But they cannot re-write the story. And that's also an even bigger misconception I end up causing. It's still a translation, no doubt about it. It's just got more freedom in it to the point where some stuff are not present in the original and the message can end up distorted. Which I consider a rewrite. And rewrites are natural in translation. Sometimes you even have to due to cultural sensitivity or censorship. BUT it's not normal for the text's changes to be this pronounced as they are in English, which reveals that they have an impact greater than a normal localization team does.

Overall, though? What people need to understand is that for all its flaws and all the stuff people complain, it's still FF14 you're playing. It's the same story, the same script, the same events and largely the same characters. Tone might change, memes might be more present and Koji Fox might have a larger understanding of the story than most due to having been more directly involved in the worldbuilding, but it's still the same game. Whatever you lose out on isn't in comprehension, but rather in the tonal shift of things.

Otherwise, this is a dev team known for caring about comprehension and consistency. Phlegethon is "Titan" in Japanese, due to it being a reference to the boss Titan in FF3. But we already had a Titan, it's just that in JP there's a difference between "Tie-Tan" and "Tee-Tan". So it worked for them. The EN team so changed to Phlegethon, a river in Hades. It then in turn led to a hilarious situation where the Syrcus Tower mobs "Acheron" were named Phlegethon in JP. So back to Hades the EN team went and renamed those to Acheron, another river xD

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Also, just a side-note

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Pierre (French):
We have to use a specific glossary for the other game elements, like skills, place names, and more. Also, the person in charge needs to know a thing or two about the other game. You couldn’t ask someone who’s never played NieR to translate something based on YOKO TARO’s work, for instance. Then, we have to be careful when two very different worlds collide, like with FFXIV and FFXV.

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Yeah... I feel like so many Japanese games end up not having a proper grasp of Translation memories and Termbases, and we get weird consistency problems even in games of the same franchise. It often requires the translation team to be aware of what the other projects did. And not many companies are aware that this is beneficial even for them, and don't keep one. Just a word to everyone who plans on having a translation team in the future: please keep the Translation Memories or Termbases teams make. You'll be grateful in the future and any and all translator you hire afterward will be so, so grateful. And if they don't have any, start using one.

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

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It is. Usually, in technical texts (so think school papers, thesis and instruction manuals), you generally only ever change sentences for the sake of clarity. It's mostly got to do with sentence structure and grammar.

In literary texts, they usually go for a healthy balance. They start out being literal so they stick closely to the text, making the appropriate sentence and grammar changes. However, there's so much more nuance and even author style/intention at times that there needs to be a massive change. Sometimes character dialogue won't sound natural. Sometimes there are references and metaphors. Sometimes there are dynamics at play that we take for granted in our own language but have to be specified.

Some words are super straightforward in English and not at all in other languages, such as "Yes" in Japanese, or in the European variant of Romance Languages, the use of "You", which can change far more than just grammar. It can change the tone of the character's speech entirely.

The key component is to always transmit the same message as the author is transmitting to the reader. But that message will always be distorted due to culture, perceptions, language, etc. Our job is to minimize the impact, not rewrite it from scratch. When we do, it's either minor, or we discuss with the editor (normally).

What the DE and FR versions of FF14 do is way more standard than what the EN one does. EN's translation isn't a typical one, but I wouldn't put the blame on the translators nor say it's a bad one.
It's just different, with a very atypical situation. And while I like to think "atypical isn't bad", some of the results may vary, and that will be 100% subjective and up to the reader.

So if you know JP and feel like the EN version is bad or missed the mark, it's normal. If you were in their shoes, who knows if you'd have done the same. Because if you come into this from the perspective that this translation is like any other, then you'll always have something to nitpick.
('you' in general, not you directly Fawkes)

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

I don't know of anyone that wants a 1 for 1 translation. That wouldn't work anyway, simply because there are some Japanese words and concepts with no English equivalents. There will always be a need to reword things to make sense when moving between languages, especially languages as dissimilar as Japanese and English. That said, it is entirely feasible to do this without losing the message. Unfortunately, the EN localization team tends to take some liberties at inopportune times.

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There are people who want a 1:1 for the English though. As that's how the German and French has been. There's also those who would rather the English localization be aimed more at the European audience instead of the North American audiences. They pop up any time this subject gets brought up time and time again. Or they blame ShB and EW on Koji even after having been told Kate was given the role of lead English localization around the time Koji got moved to do the localization for XVI. And yes those who feel a 1:1 of the English version would be a good thing don't care that there are some words or phrases that just wouldn't work or make as much sense if translated that way.

For example there are many who somehow didn't pick up on the WoL being important to or just how important they were to Emet-Selch until 5.3 when shade Hythlodaeus is handing us the Azem memory crystal. Even though Emet-Selch drops various hints either with what he says, how he says it, or with how he looks at the WoL while saying it. Sometimes I wonder if it's due to these people not being native English speakers and so miss the nuances that most native English speakers tend to pick up.

I know this is a recent interview of Koji and that it centers around XI it matches up with a lot of the things he has said as how things are like with the translation and localization of XIV in the past. I doubt it's changed much.

https://we-are-vanadiel.finalfantasyxi.com/post/?id=632

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Originally Posted by SannaR

There are people who want a 1:1 for the English though. As that's how the German and French has been. There's also those who would rather the English localization be aimed more at the European sudience instead of the North American audiences. They pop up any time this subject gets brought up time and time again. Or they blame ShB and EW on Koji even after having been told Kate was given the role of lead English localization around the time Koji got moved to do the localization for XVI. And yes those who feel a 1:1 of the English version would be a good thing don't care that there are some words or phrases that just wouldn't work or make as much sense if translated that way.

For example there are many who somehow didn't pick up on the WoL being important to or just how important they were to Emet-Selch until 5.3 when shade Hythlodaeus is handing us the Azem memory crystal. Even though Emet-Selch drops various hints either with what he says, how he says it, or with how he looks at the WoL while saying it. Sometimes I wonder if it's due to these people not being native English speakers and so miss the nuances that most native English speakers tend to pick up.

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Too bad Japanese tends to be very wordy and overexplain a lot in their dialogue. And with this game already being wordy enough, I dont think itll sit well with the community having to deal with extra dialogue just to give out the same context.

Itll be like going back to ARR days where so much was said for an idea that you can illustrate with few words

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Too bad Japanese tends to be very wordy and overexplain a lot in their dialogue. And with this game already being wordy enough, I dont think itll sit well with the community having to deal with extra dialogue just to give out the same context.

Itll be like going back to ARR days where so much was said for an idea that you can illustrate with few words

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What!? Are you saying making everyone and their pet Chocobo be as wordy as Urianger is a bad thing? No no no no that can't be right cause everyone EVERYONE just loves how wordy Urianger is. /s There are times when Japanese can get very short hand, but those tend to be in more informal situations. Which isn't going to be used for a video game.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Too bad Japanese tends to be very wordy and overexplain a lot in their dialogue. And with this game already being wordy enough, I dont think itll sit well with the community having to deal with extra dialogue just to give out the same context.

Itll be like going back to ARR days where so much was said for an idea that you can illustrate with few words

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This isn't too much of a problem o: Usually people who know Japanese and do professional work* tend to be aware of these things. English is very curt and short, people speak directly and to the point. And they often go through third party revision work anyway for consistency and to check whether things sound natural.
If it's done right, you won't see the wordiness. And if you do, it's a sign something went wrong.

*The amateur anime and videogame translations I've seen that love being too Japanese-y and stick to how JP words things are terrible and they know it. So much sounds unnatural even for non-native English speakers.

Question is, though, if the stuff we got in ARR was a result of a literal translation, or if it was a product of the style the localization team worked with. If they wanted it to be intentionally redundant and wordy, then might be a style issue. Which is I don't think the issues were language-based though... I'm used to seeing poor translations from fans that are very similar in structure to what I know of Japanese. I think ARR's wordiness comes from them trying to copy 17 and 18th Century formal texts. Which are very wordy and needlessly descriptive.

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Originally Posted by Kibo

English used to be the defacto language of Eorzea, even in Japan. So technically speaking it's the Japanese translation that is off. ;D

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This is the thing a lot of people don’t understand or appreciate. The default language of the “first finalized” script is indeed English, even if the rough draft is Japanese.

In addition, it is hard to translate to an equivalent of “ye olde English” in Japanese without being overly cumbersome/hard to read, so a lot of Japanese comes down to modern dialects and/or stereotypical sentence endings. Polite Japanese + end sentences with “gozaimasu”?? Must be a ninja!