Translation quality

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Spellbinder

As outlined in the post, one would expect a certain suffix to have a certain effect. For example, spells denoted by -ja having X effect. However, that's not the case in FFXIV. The suffix only tells you in what order it was learned.

The same with materia. The suffix only tells you its ranking. However, the ranking wasn't even unified between materia and spells. There's also another set of items that uses these suffixes, but it alludes me at the moment.

But the main point of the explanation was, because the suffix being used for spells, materia, etc. is only telling you the order or ranking, they decided to use unified numbering across the board for everything rather than letters that aren't unified across the board.

---

While that all makes sense, it's still a _little_ strange because the Japanese is basically the same (just a random suffix telling you order with no inherent meaning). If they were making a global decision it would make sense to use numbers in the JP version as well. So it does sound like the EN localization team makes some of these decisions independently for reasons other than straight translation (which is fine, but part of the answer to the original question in the thread).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khyra

If they were making a global decision it would make sense to use numbers in the JP version as well.

---

Which is precisely what they did in Version 1.0. But for whatever reason the JP decided they wanted to use random suffixes, and the English decided to continue using the numbering system from Version 1.0.

Remember a localization is not a translation..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Takfloyd

While I enjoy the localization for the most part and particularly the quality of the writing, some changes in the English translation are really contentious and make absolutely no sense.

For example, one pivotal character was changed from female to male in English, without changing the model, leading to a bunch of nonsensical mumbo jumbo being inserted to explain this obvious discrepancy. This was probably due to a misconception ny the translation team because Japanese doesn't always use gender pronouns, but they should have solved it in a better way. Even something as simple as "she was hiding her gender".

---

Regarding this specific case, the character was never referred to with a specific gender in the JP script. The EN team assumed the character was male, the JP team never apparently clarified since the character in question always wore a helmet that covered their face. So when the face was suddenly shown, they had to scramble to cover their new problem. I guess the decision was made not to retcon her gender but instead try to explain it away. Too bad the explanation was mostly nonsensical, they might as well have just retconned it and saved themselves a lot of trouble.

So as some people already stated, the English translation is good but in some encounters it was really unfaithful and poor. If there is a chance that French is more similar to Japanese text, I would stick with it, if you care about lore.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Illya

Regarding this specific case, the character was never referred to with a specific gender in the JP script. The EN team assumed the character was male, the JP team never apparently clarified since the character in question always wore a helmet that covered their face.

---

At least one reference has been noted from Version 1.0.
ネールはやっぱり男だった (Nael Was a Man After All)
http://jp.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest.../blog/1441865/

Nael Van Darnus (not Nael Deus Darnus) being referred to as a man in the dialogue. Apparently the Japanese description for him on the lodestone referred to him as a man as well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walfan

snip

---

I love this game but the english localization sucks so bad. After seeing a post on reddit about midgardsormr, i realized how different the japanese dialogue actually is. It actually clarified a lot of questions i had about the 2.5 story. Also not a big fan of the ye-old english style they're going for...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Illya

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...mportant-story.

Just leaving this here.

---

If you couldn't reason out what Middy's deal was from the English dialogue that's more of a PEBKAC issue than a localization one.

The linguistic penetrability of the English localization perturbs me. Using words that even native speakers barely understand seems like a poor choice when you realize the English translation is the one most likely to be played by those who don't speak Japanese, French, or German.
But this is just something SE has been doing for a while. DQ9, the FFT remaster/remake, and to an extent FFXII used this sort of translation a lot.
Which is rather jarring when, given the technological level of Eorzea (and Hydaelyn in general if the Garleans are anything to go by) the dialects and word choices used should be closer to the vocabulary used in the 1800s, not 200 years prior.
I mean, here we see characters using vocabulary the Founding Fathers of the U.S. never used!
That's not to say it ALL bothers me. Certain choices like "levin" replacing "lightning" and "anyroad" replacing "anyway" are perfectly fine, but much of the vocabulary and grammar is either so archaic or so bizarre that it took a long time for the voice actors to get used to it, leading to the stilted and rather undignified performances from 2.0's launch.
They seem to be toning it down a bit...but...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aeyis

Why should I be able to ''get'' a joke just because I can read the language its written in? Or likewise, be unable to understand it because its origin is a different language.

---

Why do Hawaiians never need a dentist?

They have good teeth.

That's a Japanese joke translated :P It works as an anti-joke in English, but that's not the original idea. The words for Hawaiians and Good Teeth are very similar in Japanese, its a pun that doesn't work in English.