Fire I, Fire II, Fire III

This was asked about during the beta, specifically about AoE spells like Fire II and Blizzard II not using FFXI naming conventions (aka AoE attack spells having -ga). The reasons the devs gave is that the names were given to show in a simple way the spells and the order in which you got them.

They thought "Fire/Fira/Firaga/Firaja" would confuse people who aren't japanese despite the fact that we've been used to them for decades. The game's dialogue is supposed to be less confusing and a little more racy as well, but the english localization team refuses to cooperate, even when called out.

All the other localization teams fall in line.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Averax

They thought "Fire/Fira/Firaga/Firaja" would confuse people who aren't japanese despite the fact that we've been used to them for decades. The game's dialogue is supposed to be less confusing and a little more racy as well, but the english localization team refuses to cooperate, even when called out.

All the other localization teams fall in line.

---

To be fair, it was mostly for people completely new to the Final Fantasy franchise (and the -ara suffixes didn't exist in English until FFVIII came out).
German uses suffixes (Feuer, Feura, Feuga, Feuka), but French go in a different direction. Feu, Extra Feu, Mega Feu, Giga Feu.

What's interesting is that Astrologian, in all languages but Japanese (they still end with ラ), go by Roman numerals. So Benefic II, Malefic II and Combust II also end with II in German and French (unless xivdb is wrong).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nestama

To be fair, it was mostly for people completely new to the Final Fantasy franchise

---

Even then we were all new at some point, I started with VII way back and when VIII came around when I was still a kid it wasn't any less confusing to me.

Okay, a lot... and I mean a lot of people seem to be confused with why the spells are named I, II, III, over -, ra, ga; and it is understandable, but you are missing the ACTUAL reason, stated by Koji Fox himself, I'll see if I can find the link. The system isn't consistent between each use, spells and items. The Japanese version of the game uses the same system in almost every level based part of the game, but to make it all the more confusing they add in additional suffixes between some of the more common ones, like for the levels of materia, which now has 5 levels now. So in ARR in English we have I, II, III, and IV, semi simple right, they would correspond to the usual suffixes -, ra, ga, and ja, right; wrong. In Japanese the suffixes are actually -, ra, da, ga. See the suffixes are off. So for spells the ga suffix is level 3, but for items it's level 4, if a system like that continued it would get really confusing for English speakers, or anyone really. Not to mention between Classes/Jobs the tiers don't match, Cure and Cure II are single target, but Cure III is an AoE, but Blizzard is a single target, Blizzard II and AoE, and Blizzard III back to single target, and Thunder I, II, and III are all single target. That's why the localization team went with only numbers to streamline it, we get numbers but suffixes that can mean different things depending on what it's used for can get really confusing; and it was done mostly for new players but for veterans as well.

Okay so I didn't find the actual post since it was from the Beta forums, but I found the archived version, here

Also I updated my post to be more inline with what the actual reasoning was. Everythgin I mentioned is still accurate, I was just more focused on the items since that was the main part i remembered, lol.

I don't care about their reason. It's not good.

It's not the worst point in the localization, but it is one I'm not happy with. Can't wait to see how they handle it when it inevitably bites them in the backside like every other needless change they've made.

OP here!

Lots of interesting post I have read all of them and I think what many people don't realize is that the English localization of Final Fantasy XIV is a translation of the original Final Fantasy XIV which is Japanese. And in the Japanese game there is no FIRE I FIRE II and FIRE III. Its Fire, Fira, Firaga so my point here is that all this stuff about lore being attached to "why" is basically a cop out. There is no reason for this translation change.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eloah

Okay, a lot... and I mean a lot of people seem to be confused with why the spells are named I, II, III, over -, ra, ga; and it is understandable, but you are missing the ACTUAL reason, stated by Koji Fox himself, I'll see if I can find the link.

---

Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 did not have FIRE I, FIRE II, FIRE III. It was Fire, Fira, Firaga just like the other Final Fantasy games. There is absolutely no reason for this change because like my previous post in the current game Final Fantasy XIV (Japanese) Fire Fira Firaga is what they have and have been using since Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 and the current game still uses it but for some reason just not in the English localization which is totally unnecessary and absurd.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AshlikeSnow

Lots of interesting post I have read all of them and I think what many people don't realize is that the English localization of Final Fantasy XIV is a translation of the original Final Fantasy XIV which is Japanese. And in the Japanese game there is no FIRE I FIRE II and FIRE III. Its Fire, Fira, Firaga so my point here is that all this stuff about lore being attached to "why" is basically a cop out. There is no reason for this translation change.

---

Well others have explained that -ra means second and -ga means third, or something along those lines. So it kinda makes sense for us to call it Fire II and Fire III.
Personally, I want to adopt the French way. "Extra Fire, Mega Fire, Giga Fire!"