Translation Team: Please stop doing this...

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Originally Posted by Orspeth

If the very simple language used in this game confuses any native English speaker, all I can say is put down the games and do your homework kids - there is nothing difficult used here.

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The problem is a lot of modern day citizens do not use this type of language and so you have people scratching their heads a bit unless they understood a bit from their learnings in school. I sort of like it, but on the boat where they could lessen up a bit more because there are some that are actually a brain cruncher and has me playing The Divinci Code on it...They tend to be redundant with words such as "Mayhap" They use this word near in constants. I'd also like to point out that there is a lot of hostility on this thread because some people have opinions and telling others to "Go back to school" or "*Insert ignorant modern day slang*" and "This complaint makes me sad." and my favorite "Dumb down the game for casuals" I guess only hardcore's can understand this type of literature...what...is nothing but rude. Instead, suggest books that's easier for people to understand as some others have already done. As for the Limnsa people, I know no book with just Pirate's on the top of my head like that but here's one that has Pirate's slang here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirate-Pri.../dp/1599631962. So I'm hoping this helps a few people, you can also just type and google and look up some slang you may see. I personally found The ROG's guild easier to understand for some odd reason...My opinion: Could just tone it down a wee bit...that way this will not deter players from reading the story more...I'm mainly looking at the Lim's people because they are speaking Alien to me haha. This entire topic is completely subjective from one another and there is no need for people to bash each other this badly over it... Oh and I don't know how to source the link directly by the way, so just copy and paste it to your browser. *Edited* Nevermind it linked lol.

I'd like to point out that writing something in a different dialect does not change the meaning of the words, it only changes the possible origin of the speaker.

I'd like tah point uut that writin' sumting in a dif'rent di'lect does not change da meanin' of da words, it only changes da possible or'gin of da speaka.

Its flavor, and the story still gets across the same, its just forcing the mind to apply an accent, much like Old English does. If you cannot read Old English then you should read more of it, or try writing bits of that format. Furthermore, isn't the reason in which Japanese dialogue is 'fluffed' as much as its a pretty literal language? I'm not a scholar in their language but I thought I read somewhere that their written language doesn't really have 'dialect' options. I could be completely wrong, its been a while since I looked in to it.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

I'd like to point out that writing something in a different dialect does not change the meaning of the words, it only changes the possible origin of the speaker.

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I'm no expert on the specifics of Japanese dialect, however:
It can change things a bit. In the ARR quest where you meet Nanamo in disguise she uses ''watakushi'' which implies she is noble. (despite the fairly low grade garment she is wearing) The dialect she uses kind of gives her away, as it's a ''formal/old''ish- dialect. Because of that its fairly obvious that it indeed is Nanamo in disguise.
The dialect she uses is very much a ''highborn'' dialect. Using a different dialect for her would portray her as a different person, I think.


While it doesnt influence the overarching story, it does influence the way you view the characters of the story. To me the characters are an important part of any story.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

I'm no expert on the specifics of Japanese dialect, however:
It can change things a bit. In the ARR quest where you meet Nanamo in disguise she uses ''watakushi'' which implies she is noble. (despite the fairly low grade garment she is wearing) The dialect she uses kind of gives her away, as it's a ''formal/old''ish- dialect. Because of that its fairly obvious that it indeed is Nanamo in disguise.
The dialect she uses is very much a ''highborn'' dialect. Using a different dialect for her would portray her as a different person, I think.

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That. . .rather clearly illustrates his point, no? Her dialect gave away her origin without changing any meaning.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

Honestly, using greetings is probably the worst example you could choose. There's really no good way to translate greetings. And that's true of a lot of common phrases in languages.

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Good point, but you just made me think of some funny examples. If the guy says "konichiwa" don't translate that as "Salutations and greetings, honored friend!" And I think that's the only real problem I have with the common speech in this game, sometimes a modern Japanese phrase is turned into old fashion fantasy English gibberish for no reason.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

I'm no expert on the specifics of Japanese dialect, however:
It can change things a bit. In the ARR quest where you meet Nanamo in disguise she uses ''watakushi'' which implies she is noble. (despite the fairly low grade garment she is wearing) The dialect she uses kind of gives her away, as it's a ''formal/old''ish- dialect. Because of that its fairly obvious that it indeed is Nanamo in disguise.
The dialect she uses is very much a ''highborn'' dialect. Using a different dialect for her would portray her as a different person, I think.

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"Watakushi" doesn't really imply "noble," more like "well-bred." A prominent merchant's daughter would use it as well (such as, say, Lolorito's female family members)
"Wareware" is what they use in "noble" situations, and it's kind of a "royal we", though not limited to nobles in the slightest (Merlwyb, Kan-E, and Raubahn all use it, and it's usually use to imply "we as a group/nation/whatever")
Japanese is very complicated, but everything used in-game with the exception of Urianger, Ramuh, etc. is pretty bog standard Japanese speech still used today. It's entirely possible to run into someone who speaks Japanese exactly like Nanamo in the real world, but night impossible to meet someone who speaks English like her.

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Originally Posted by Gunspec

Good point, but you just made me think of some funny examples. If the guy says "konichiwa" don't translate that as "Salutations and greetings, honored friend!" And I think that's the only real problem I have with the common speech in this game, sometimes a modern Japanese phrase is turned into old fashion fantasy English gibberish for no reason.

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Sometimes, admittedly, it has to do with mouth flap matching. Kon ni chi wa has more mouth flaps that "hello" or "greetings..."
Though they don't always exert the effort to match mouth flaps, so this may be a digression.

Anyroad....

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Originally Posted by kyuven

It's entirely possible to run into someone who speaks Japanese exactly like Nanamo in the real world, but night impossible to meet someone who speaks English like her.

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Yes, I kind of shortened the explanation there.
My original post had royal for ''wareware'' and noble for ''watakushi'' (so you could understand better what meaning I ment with noble: well-bred)
That's my point, in the english you would have to give a similar kind of vibe to the dialogue to give it the same implication.

I didnt want to make it too long as it seemed off-topic :p

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

That. . .rather clearly illustrates his point, no? Her dialect gave away her origin without changing any meaning.

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The opposite I would think? Because her origin is kind of important to the meaning of the dialogue and plot.
He is correct about it pointing to origin. But incorrect in that it does in fact change meaning.


There are many ways to say the same thing.<-
Heh. There are many ways to say the same thing. <-
Heh. Whatever you might think, things can be said in one way or another and still mean the same thing. <-
But depending on how you phrase it, and how much fluff you add; they can mean (be interpreted) in entirely different ways.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

I'd like to point out that writing something in a different dialect does not change the meaning of the words, it only changes the possible origin of the speaker.

I'd like tah point uut that writin' sumting in a dif'rent di'lect does not change da meanin' of da words, it only changes da possible or'gin of da speaka.

Its flavor, and the story still gets across the same, its just forcing the mind to apply an accent, much like Old English does. If you cannot read Old English then you should read more of it, or try writing bits of that format. Furthermore, isn't the reason in which Japanese dialogue is 'fluffed' as much as its a pretty literal language? I'm not a scholar in their language but I thought I read somewhere that their written language doesn't really have 'dialect' options. I could be completely wrong, its been a while since I looked in to it.

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I think people are confused. At best, what we've seen in FFXIV is shakespeare level of obsolete English. Not old English, or even middle English. Most people who speak and read english can't read "old english" (Angelo Saxon) whatsoever. Lord of the Rings may have been inspired by what it sounds like, but it certainly isn't any dialect of English that people would speak.

In the context of FFXIV, anyone speaking "weird" is how an accent or verbal tic (-meow) is just flavor text and the average person who knows English won't pretend to know all the words being said, but they sound close enough to something we do know, so the mind fills in the blanks.

Yeah. Urianger's speech is just painful to wade through. He could say the exact same thing in 1/10th the time if he just spoke like a normal person. He's so long-winded. his text just goes on and on and on and on... It's like he doesn't know when to shut up and just let things die; leave well-enough alone, you know? Just when you think he's done he goes on some more; like he just doesn't get that we're tired of hearing his face hole.

Also, must-needs is redundant.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

The opposite I would think? Because her origin is kind of important to the meaning of the dialogue and plot.
He is correct about it pointing to origin. But incorrect in that it does in fact change meaning.

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Hello. Hi. 'Ello. Hey. Heya.

Notice how the meaning hasn't changed at all, only the origin? And to use your examples, the meaning didn't change until you added a whole additional clause.

That's not technically old english. Real old english is on a much higher level of confusing than how the NPCs talk.

Google the intro to the Canterbury Tales, that's a great example of it.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Exactly! This isn't a Japanese script that's translated and localized into other languages. It's a cumulative effort of all the languages' teams.

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Can you please stop spreading this misinformation? There is an original Japanese script. Koji Fox & other localizers only give advice. There is no magical Writing Collaboration Fairy who compiles everyone's ideas and puts them into 4 languages simultaneously.

Anyroad (see what I did there?), while we're all jerking about our English majors and vocabulary width I should note that you academic geniuses have apparently forgotten the rule of writing we all learned in our honors classes: excessively using large, complex, or obscure words or phrases, while popular and fun in academia circlejerk, is bad writing if those words and phrases are not absolutely necessary or add some value to your work.

Is goofy garbled ye late english used on every character providing any value to the work? I'd say no, because it's not adding any 'character' to anyone if everyone uses it all of the freaking time. Used sparingly, it would be a good way to highlight nationalities or even class differences between characters, and it even actively detracts from characterization if some idiot farmer in Limsa is using the same dialect as the stiff knights in Coerthas or the stuffy Ul'dahn paladins who's jobs mostly involve "standing" and also "standing".

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Originally Posted by Krr

Can you please stop spreading this misinformation? There is an original Japanese script. Koji Fox & other localizers only give advice.

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Just because you downplay it to mere advice doesn't mean that it doesn't affect the JP script.

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Originally Posted by Gilthas

Just because you downplay it to mere advice doesn't mean that it doesn't affect the JP script.

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The differences are pretty staggering for it to be more than "advice," though. The Localization team clearly has a lot of autonomy.

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Originally Posted by Rekujin

http://i.imgur.com/b9J7It4.jpg

I understand it's a "fantasy" game but there's no need to use this really old and quite frustrating to read English...

please phase this out and start using normal words... Portendeth? I speak excellent English but I still had to google this word (even google failed to understand)

The whole limsa pirate thing was frustrating enough, sure it was cool but you're putting way too much effort into it... if you expect me to read all these quests at least make an effort to phase this weird ye olde english style out of the game and start using normal english.

Stop using "Thy" and "Thou" ...

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Meant for deaf players. To get the feel of the voice.

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Originally Posted by Gilthas

Just because you downplay it to mere advice doesn't mean that it doesn't affect the JP script.

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Advice does not a collaborative writing effort with "no original script" make. It is misinformation to claim that there is no "master script" of the game's original language. There is one, and sometimes foreign opinions on the flow of the story are allowed to influence it.

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Originally Posted by Krr

Advice does not a collaborative writing effort with "no original script" make. It is misinformation to claim that there is no "master script" of the game's original language. There is one, and sometimes foreign opinions on the flow of the story are allowed to influence it.

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Of course someone has to write the original script.

But if they're giving advice that affects the JP script that actually makes it into the game, yeah, that's a collaborative effort.

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Originally Posted by Krr

Advice does not a collaborative writing effort with "no original script" make. It is misinformation to claim that there is no "master script" of the game's original language. There is one, and sometimes foreign opinions on the flow of the story are allowed to influence it.

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Except that all four languages are released simultaneously. In that respect, the English is just as original as the Japanese. As are the French and German.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

That is quite true. However for example American English phrases many things differently then UK English. And there are variants of those as well.
This is why I feel that the best localization should focus on translating, rather then phrasing. Make use of words with exact meaning, instead of expressions.

Currently I feel that a lot of color is added where originally there was none.

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The notion that there originally was none is clearly false. All Japanese dialog is full of nuances that English simply doesn't have.

Was it written in casual grammar, polite grammar, formal grammar? English doesn't have any of those, using the same form for all occasions, but you can't form a sentence in Japanese without choosing one. What sort of pronouns are used? Where English just has universal words like "I" and "you", Japanese has a wide array of descriptors to choose from. While any of them indicate whether you're speaking of yourself or your listener, the choice of which is used also gives a great deal of insight into both the speaker's personality and how they feel about the person they're talking to. That can't be done in a language like English that doesn't have any choice in what words are used as pronouns. When a character mentions someone's name, there again, in English all you get is knowing which character is being mentioned, wheras in Japanese the way a person's name is said indicates the speaker's relationship to (and in many cases their feelings about) that person. And so on...

All these sorts of nuances that are built into the way the Japanese language works are used by Japanese authors and screenwriters as one of the primary ways that characters' personalities are expressed and conveyed to the audience. And they're all lost as soon as it's translated into English. Since direct translation alone strips out most of the personality from characters, localization teams often find it necessary to find ways to phrase things that will bring some of that lost information back in. Since English has less to work with in this regard than Japanese, the results sometimes sound a bit rough or stilted or flowery as the case may be, but that's better than having nothing to go by to figure out the characters' personalities just because the original information was lost in translation.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

Or as they put it:

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And then, 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.

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I don't know, personally I would much rather enjoy the original writing rather then someone else's take on what the writing should have been like.

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Ok, now that gets more into content rather than color. When I said it can help to add some linguistic color back in after they've been forced to eliminate a lot of the original color, I was talking about phrasing and word choice - the sort of details this thread is about. When it's a matter of changing the content of what's being said, that's a different issue. Occasionally that too may be necessary to adjust slightly in order for something to be clear in a different language, but I'd agree that it's something that needs to be kept to a minimum.

I'm fine with the "ye olde english" they use from time to time

.....But I can't stand the Lominsan way of speaking. I tend to skip dialogue after a while. It's odd that Merlwyb doesnt have that considering she grew up as a pirate and her dad was a (in)famous pirate as well.

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Originally Posted by myahele

I'm fine with the "ye olde english" they use from time to time

.....But I can't stand the Lominsan way of speaking. I tend to skip dialogue after a while. It's odd that Merlwyb doesnt have that considering she grew up as a pirate and her dad was a (in)famous pirate as well.

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Well that just shows the social class of the pirates the ones lower down tend to stick to their dialect while the higher up ones gain a more proper spoken manner. I like it it gives them all some sort of belonging.

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Originally Posted by Averax

That's not technically old english. Real old english is on a much higher level of confusing than how the NPCs talk.

Google the intro to the Canterbury Tales, that's a great example of it.

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The Canterbury Tales are Middle English, not Old English.

Old English was the language of the Angles and Saxons, as well as some of the other Germanic tribes that spread into and took over much of Western Europe, settling mainly in what is now England.
Angles/Anglo-Saxon -> Angoland -> England -> English.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English


An example of Old English in literature is the non-translated version of Beowulf.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales came much later after the language had altered due to the melding with the languages of other prominent tribes that had settled in Western Europe, primarily the Normans due to their conquest/occupation of England.
At this point the language had evolved into Middle English.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English

Shakespeare, while antiquated, is still just an earlier form of Modern English, often referred to as Early Modern English.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_English

So, again Shakespeare is not Old English although it is old.
Canterbury Tales is Middle English, not Old English.
Beowulf is Old English.

Also somebody already posted the beginning to the Canterbury Tales in this thread on pg.11 and on pg.14 is my quick and dirty translation.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

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Originally Posted by TouchandFeel

Yep, its pretty much the setup for all the other tales to be told as The Canterbury Tales are a collection of tales told to the narrator by people that he meets on the road.

Pretty much it says that during Spring, when the April showers begin and the world turns green and the flowers begin to bloom, people across the land go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.

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Well darn then, i confused my Beowulf with my Canterbury. Since i read them at about the same time.

My english literature class had us do the original and the translations of both side by side.

Respectfully disagree with the OP's opinions.

I love the slightly archaic and alliterative bits like what the OP complained about. (And I adore Urianger's poetry. It's always a delight to talk to him.) I also adore some of the specialty dialects like the goblins and slyphs. I'm sort of wavering on the rogues' brogue. It kind of threw me a little at first, but then as I got a little more used to it I started really liking that one too (and even the fact of taking a while to get used to it fits, as it would have been the same for my character while becoming a part of this shadowy underworld he hadn't previously known existed). For the Lominsan pirate-speak, well, I do like that they have such a dialect, though it could perhaps do with a bit of toning down in places, (not too much, as they should leave enough to keep it clear that there is an accent, but it doesn't really have to be indicated in the spellings of every word).

On the one hand, I do know that not everyone using the English version of the game is a native speaker of English. If someone learned it as a foreign language and is still struggling a bit even with basic standard dialog, then adding flavor to any of it could make it even harder. But on the other hand, I don't really like suggestions that those of us who do speak the language natively should lose out on being able to see it used with a bit of style and flavor. I don't want to be limited to the the English For Beginners version.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

At the cost of enjoying the games dialogue and plot?

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You can enjoy the game's dialogue and plot and expand your vocabulary. And your expanded vocabulary increases your ability enjoy other dialogue and plot in future. That's how knowledge works.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

Hello. Hi. 'Ello. Hey. Heya.

Notice how the meaning hasn't changed at all, only the origin? And to use your examples, the meaning didn't change until you added a whole additional clause.

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Of course the meaning's changed. Just not the primary meaning. A different sort of person says "Hello" than says "Heya". The meaning you convey says something about you, and that changes when you change which word you pick.

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Originally Posted by Averax

That's not technically old english. Real old english is on a much higher level of confusing than how the NPCs talk.

Google the intro to the Canterbury Tales, that's a great example of it.

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I posted the first part of the intro to the Canterbury Tales. It's Middle English, not Old English. Google for the original text of Beowulf if you want a taste of Old English. It is quite literally a foreign language.

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Originally Posted by TouchandFeel

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales came much later after the language had altered due to the melding with the languages of other prominent tribes that had settled in Western Europe, primarily the Normans due to their conquest/occupation of England.
At this point the language had evolved into Middle English.

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My favorite quip on the subject is that Middle English was the product of Norman soldiers trying pick up Saxon barmaids. A little Googling reveals that H. Beam Piper came up with that one.

I can understand it perfectly but I do find it rather annoying, causing me to skip some dialogue when I get the gist of what's going on.

"Ok, so here's 3 chat bubbles of text basically saying he's angry.... Check!" *skips reading all off the words*

While there's many arguments on the side of approval of "ye olde English", I do wish to bring forth the fact that as any maker of content, one thing you ultimately have to understand is the relationship between your creation and your player.
You can convey the tones so much easier, so much simpler and without having to excessively draw it out.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

My favorite quip on the subject is that Middle English was the product of Norman soldiers trying pick up Saxon barmaids. A little Googling reveals that H. Beam Piper came up with that one.

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Ha, I'd believe it and while somewhat of a joke, there is probably a grain of truth to it as the commonfolk of the time, being of Anglo-Saxon origin probably assimilated aspects of the Norman conqueror's language into their vernacular through their day to day interaction with them. So drunken Normans hitting on Saxon barmaids influencing the evolution of the English language, totally plausible.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

My only claim has been that there is no "original" text, because each of the localization teams has a hand in crafting the story.

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This isn't true. In the very interview you linked Koji Fox very clearly states:

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Originally Posted by KojiFox

Then of course I do a lot of translation. On heavy days we do upwards of six, seven thousands characters of translation...

We talk about adjustments… how we’re going to go in and tweak the text, and if those tweaks are big enough to warrant going over to the devs and getting their permission.

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They get the Dev Team's *permission* to change things if it's big enough. Your claim that there is no "original," is simply false. If they were Co-WRITERS for all of Final Fantasy XIV, he'd be talking about something like...

"I go in and begin writing new Quests and new Story Missions. I'd probably CREATE some new Characters and DECIDE what their role is in the Calamity..." etc.

THAT'S what a Dev Team's real Game Designer / Writer does. They are still Localization (with some influence and communication) *back* to the OG Japanese Development Team.

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Originally Posted by KojiFox

If it’s a new character appearing in the quest we will ask them about the background of those characters, where they want to take the characters, we need all that information so that when we translate it, we know that we’re gonna give the player what the developer and the planner really intended. Then, again, if we decide we need to make some changes, whether be characterization or maybe how a character handles a certain happening during the quest, we make sure to talk with the planner and see if that’s okay. A lot of times it is, sometimes he tells us no and we make sure that we follow that.

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Again, more examples of the Localization Team asking and getting permission and approval *from the Original Creators / JP Dev Team* if they are changing / tweaking stuff.

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Originally Posted by KojiFox

G: How much leeway is given to the localization team when translating the script from Japanese to English? Do you prefer a more literal approach or a heavily adapted approach?

MCKF: Well, when it comes to wording we’re given a great deal of freedom, but when it comes to story we make sure to try to stick to the original Japanese.

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Stop kidding yourself. The Localization Team members aren't listed in the Final Fantasy XIV End Credits as "Writer / Planner / Story Designer".

Because they are NOT.

From Koji Fox's interview right there. They take the Original Japanese version and translate and localize it.


Lastly, your previous quotes were about the Localization Team working with "monster names, monster attacks, place names, item names…". And they helped flesh out some Guildleve Quests (minor stuff). They aren't writing the Main Story.

I want to close out by saying I really *appreciate* all the hard work the Localization Team does. It's a thankless job at times. So "Thank You!" :)

But some of the points being brought up here I definitely agree with:

1. They take too many liberties at times, more than what I'd like to see as an avid Final Fantasy fan. (The Midgardsormr 2.5 Story segments / VO were the worst so far (compared to the OG Japanese version).

2. Some things feel excessively wordy at times. (And I like lore and story.)

It gets to the point where even I find myself hitting [ENTER] (repeatedly) to just push through random NPC text (from various small side quests, Guildleves, etc.).

Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Stop kidding yourself. The Localization Team members aren't listed in the Final Fantasy XIV End Credits as "Writer / Planner / Story Designer". Because they are NOT.

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Did I ever say they were? My only assertion has been that calling what the JP client gets the "original" text is wrong, because it, too, is modified. Quite frankly, if anyone wants to see the true originals, they would have to go find the early drafts before a lot of the editing happens. My point this entire time has been that holding up the JP as some mythical "original" is delusional.

Why do people think that the JP version is some master script that the game is translated from? The writing team is going to collaborate with each other to get the point across
that is in the story planner / designers have in their outlines. Their is no master script, there is a master outline and that leaves some room for the teams to collaborate.

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Originally Posted by Mikhaill

The problem is a lot of modern day citizens do not use this type of language

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And the answer is that Eorzorans are not modern day citizens and thus should not sound like ones.

So...

Does anyone wonder why famous/popular texts will often end up with multiple translations and readers pitting translations against each other as far as which is 'best'? This is an argument without resolution. Translation is not an exact science and just like with art, there may be individual liberties taken within the confines of the original text. What defines the original text is something that philosophers have been trying to figure out since the modernist period started...

Everyone likes a certain level of flavor when it comes to word choice. As long as the original meaning is conveyed, translators have some liberty. If you don't like their individual style or the style FFARR has chosen, it's simply like you not liking a particular artist's work. It's not inherently -wrong- or -bad-...just not to your taste.

Which do you prefer -- Time Regained or Finding Time Again? :p

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Originally Posted by Kiara

They get the Dev Team's *permission* to change things if it's big enough. Your claim that there is no "original," is simply false. ...

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But none of this really supports your point either. Of course they have to make sure what they're writing supports the story that the planners and developers designed, but so do the writers of the Japanese dialog.

This game isn't a one man job to develop. No game of this scope is. There's a great deal of planning to decide how the story is going to unfold, and to develop all the lore of the world it occurs in. Then all of that information has to be divvied up into quests, with decisions regarding how to balance story exposition and gameplay pacing, determining which things are going to occur where, which information is revealed when, etc. Then finally, after everything has been planned out, and it's been determined precisely what needs to occur in each quest, that's when the actual writing of the dialog scripts can begin. In that final step of writing, where the choices in wording is taking place, all the writers of all languages need to make sure that their quest scripts are going to match what the game needs to happen at that point in the story.

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Originally Posted by Kiara

Stop kidding yourself. The Localization Team members aren't listed in the Final Fantasy XIV End Credits as "Writer / Planner / Story Designer". Because they are NOT.

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Probably, but lets not forget that Koji-Fox is listed as one of the 2 World Lore Creators, in the opening movie, so his imput might have more weight.