Big Shout Out to Kate of the Localization Team

As they announced today, Koji has been working on FFXVI for a while now and Kate, who translated the second half of tonight's Live Letter, has been leading the localization team for FFXIV since ShB (which was a pretty big bombshell). Given how well written both ShB and EW have been, she's been doing an incredible job with the English versions, both in story translations and with keeping the funny bits (like item descriptions, fate names, etc) flowing.

So, thank you, Kate, for all the hard work making the English version so good. "The rains have ceased and we have been graced with another beautiful day, but you are not here to see it."

So much this, she's been an absolute gem of a translator!

Agreed. Excellent job!

Good work Kate!

(And of course the team in general, just because someone doesn't get a face in the camera doesn't mean they're not important- but yes here in this situation Kate did well on camera and apparently also in the game itself :)).

Yes, she did a great job.

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Originally Posted by Ryaz

As they announced today, Koji has been working on FFXVI for a while now[...]

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Thanks for the heads-up to get the Japanese version of XVI.

So that's why we've seen less obnoxiously obscure words lately. Other than the "cogitate" spam.

Also why mechanics now have clear names pointing to "left" and "right" instead of trying to be fancy. I welcome the change.

Don't get me wrong, I love Koji -- especially as a figure over XIV's history/recovery -- but I've no critiques to be made of Kate's work in this case. Great stuff, and I'm glad she seemed to be enjoying it.

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Originally Posted by Sicno

Also why mechanics now have clear names pointing to "left" and "right" instead of trying to be fancy. I welcome the change.

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Not necessarily a result of the change in translator. Koji talked about that at a prior presentation, having been caught between keeping the meaning of the Japanese attack names (which is what we ultimately got) and the clear left/right instructions contained within the Japanese words but not the English equivalents. He said after that uproar they'd be working more closely over the attack names to make sure the issue didn't come up again.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Not necessarily a result of the change in translator. Koji talked about that at a prior presentation, having been caught between keeping the meaning of the Japanese attack names (which is what we ultimately got) and the clear left/right instructions contained within the Japanese words but not the English equivalents. He said after that uproar they'd be working more closely over the attack names to make sure the issue didn't come up again.

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(I know, just let me enjoy my witch bbq. I've been waiting many years for this.)

Ahem. Regardless, the new names have been clear enough, so good job on that :)

i guess that explains it. i play normally in german but i watched several streamers in english. and even though the voice actors are mostly better in english i liked the choice of words a LOT better in german. there are exceptions but in many cases the words seemed unfitting.... what i've seen from EW though.... the words fit in many occasions very well.

Did anything happen with Koji?

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Originally Posted by Shironeko_Narunyan

Did anything happen with Koji?

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He got sacked and demoted to lesser title

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Originally Posted by Rhus

He got sacked and demoted to lesser title

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Now that's quite a skew...

*claps in larboard*

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

*claps in larboard*

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No!

Never again!

Pleasse.

Absolutely. She did excellent work in the expansion, and an excellent job translating despite clearly being very nervous!

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Originally Posted by Shironeko_Narunyan

Did anything happen with Koji?

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He's the head of Creative Team III English localization now. He's been pulled to work as the main localizer for FFXVI and remains Kate's supervisor and probably mentor, and he still is Souken's main muse and lyricist.

Kate herself said she is constantly consulting with the lore head Oda Banri to make sure that she is getting the important details right, even for the translation of the Live Letter.

The fact that the transition was so seamless that none of us noticed is a great sign she's doing a fantastic job.

I'd be willing to bet Koji taught her his methods/madness so it would be a seamless transition for the players. I remember back when I played WoW you could always tell when Blizzard had a new loremaster because the flow of the story would shift in such a jarring way.

Does this mean we will be getting less Simpson's references?

Considering how trash a lot of localization in a lot of other games is ( especially with weird overly zealous localizers taking '' liberties '' and '' changing '' stuff nobody asked for to be changed ).
The localization in FFXIV is genuinely incredible it has never even occured to me that it even was localized it just feels natural.