north american players on japanese servers?

I am thinking of transferring to a japanese server and want to know what other experience has been like with lag. is there lag?

Were ever you go there will be lag factor. I Travel a lot to Japan. In the end I switched server to the US being I spend most of year here. I had some issues playing on the Jap servers on occasions. To me it was best just to stay on the US server, get a better internet provider, re config my internet resources on my PC when playing, . Try creating a character there first and see how your experience varies then transfer the main if you wish to do so.

Having polite people on the server makes any lag worth it.

I'm not in NA but I'm also not in Japan and can confirm there is lag. The game is perfectly playable if you're not hoping for world first clears, so long as you can communicate in Japanese. If you can't, it isn't going to provide the same experience as an English-majority server at all.

When I moved servers (I originally started on Masamune - another JP server - but it was full when my friends joined) I made alts on a few to 'audition' them and compare the communities. There was a substantial difference in atmosphere immediately after zoning in, even in Ul'dah, so I picked my new home quite carefully.

Here's what I noticed since I played for a while and started on a very low pop server first, than moved around servers to find my perfect fit static, I decided to try mostly NA servers first, since I live in CA. I have to say, while there are some servers that have more lag than others, depending on where you live and your internet provider does play a role in that as well, community and play style wise every server is different.

I know it sounds funny to some people but it's the truth tho, some servers are plain crafting/gathering/rp communities, these people and even full fc's (100+) do nothing but that. Maybe do a couple of dailies here and there, but they won't do most primals or any raid content, not even the older ones.

Other servers have only raid and x primal communities, sales of this content isn't something nobody every heard off, but you also have to be on your A game, if you are joining these kind of servers/communities, having lag because of your internet provider is not an excuse there and you will feel the toxic vibe much more than on some laid back or more casual server.

With that said, as my static fell apart due to people having a life, moved to other servers or just lost interest in the game, I decided to just take a look at the JP servers. Some people said that servers like Tonberry and Chocobo are great for NA ppl and so I gave it a try.

I have to say, it was a difference between night and day, the community itself was super friendly but still goal orientated, but without the toxicity that sadly a lot of NA servers have. I was surprised how much content you could clear without having a static with just plain out joining PF's or even the DF.

While there was a lot of groups that follow only one method tho, when it came to clearing content, it was easy to understand if you put some effort in researching the content and how it's done on an JP server. But even if you didn't do your homework upfront, people were kind and patient enough to explain it to you. Even if they didn't spoke english, at least they tried to use the translation the game itself has, as well as google translate and I absolute appreciated that.

However, joining a static later on as new content got released was nearly impossible, since of course statics want to get content done and therefore you need to speak the language or at least understand it. For me personally and please don't take it as an offense, chinese/japanese was never very appealing and I think that kind of mindset made me not even want to try learning the language.

Now to the lag you spoke off, on NA servers I was having severe packet loss's and my ping went up and down but it stayed in the 250/280 range, that was with comcast tho. On JP servers the packet loss's went away and I had a ping of around 550. Using different programs etc, I could get it down to around 350/400. After a while I experienced more dc's than someone every could have, so I switched to verizon. By that time my ping to the NA servers are around 120/180 and to JP servers 420/450 without running WTFast etc.

I think at the end of the day, it's up to you and your goals you are having in mind. IF it's just based on ping, as others have suggested, make an alt and see but I would recommend staying on an NA server. Transfer to a different one or even different data center if you aren't happy with your current one.

If you like to experience just a different community, like more random people/groups to play with, more into content clearing instead of server first clears (unless you speak the language, there are good chances you can snatch a spot in the good statics) then go check out one of the JP servers.

Hello, this is just my opinion coming from a JP server. Please please please do not just transfer to a JP server because you think it is much better for you. It isn't for us JP players. There are many times where there will be communication that is needed in Japanese and if you can't read or type to respond back it's troublesome for us（本当に迷惑です）. You will get the outcast treatment from there on out if you try to attempt extreme trials and raids. So please, i can't stress this enough do not transfer to a JP server if you can't speak Japanese. Well tonberry is excluded feel free to transfer there :D

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Originally Posted by KoroushSensei

I am thinking of transferring to a japanese server and want to know what other experience has been like with lag. is there lag?

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there will be lag wherever you go. if you're from NA, you'll be around 150 to 220ms ping to japan dc depending on your ISP and internet type. that's ok with most content and with some rare cases that you have to compensate abit but it's not going to stop you from clearing all the raids.

as others have said, if you are interested in trying out japanese servers you should create an alt first and see if you like it here. i will tell you though, DF and social elements here is very quiet if you don't speak japanese

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Originally Posted by Dalmacus

So please, i can't stress this enough do not transfer to a JP server if you can't speak Japanese. Well tonberry is excluded feel free to transfer there :D

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while you are correct, unless the OP is into savage raiding and using RF and PF to clear/farm there isn't much need to communicate in regular DF unless it's a new dungeon (1st week), and can mostly get by with auto translate with the basics - again, DF not savage raid / ex trial progression/farm - as long as the OP knows the mechanics and plays properly and doesn't hinder the party there will be no issue for him.

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Originally Posted by Astyrah

while you are correct, unless the OP is into savage raiding and using RF and PF to clear/farm there isn't much need to communicate in regular DF unless it's a new dungeon (1st week), and can mostly get by with auto translate with the basics - again, DF not savage raid / ex trial progression/farm - as long as the OP knows the mechanics and plays properly and doesn't hinder the party there will be no issue for him.

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But can you be very sure that OP will not be looking for FC, LS and etc? Even the party finder comments is in Japanese. So if you say that there isn't much need to communicate, OP will be basically playing a single player game just with smart AIs(JP Players) and isn't that boring? imo

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Originally Posted by Dalmacus

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i did state in my post that:

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Originally Posted by Astyrah

i will tell you though, DF and social elements here is very quiet if you don't speak japanese

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but yeah outside of Tonberry, there are small, thriving EN communities in big JP servers: Chocobo, Shinryu, Bahamut and some servers like mine, Masamune have small EN communities also. if he creates a PF entry in english and post in the respective forum here or in reddit, he will surely get into one in due time. he definitely wont get into an english LS/FC within his first hour of playing though unless he's really lucky and bumps into an english player