This video does an alright job at explaining why the Localization is so different

https://youtu.be/1DZ56GgKyHk

It's not spoilery and has a few interview snipits.

posting a link in a forum on a game thats already topful of scam links isnt a really great idea

I'm not clicking on that, but I think the localization is just fine.

Imagine being terrified of an innocuous Youtube link lmfao.

The video is titled "Why I Love FFXIV: The Localization (Lore/Analysis)"

I'm only a few minutes in but it seems fairly interesting. I don't know enough about Japanese to say if it's accurate though.

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Originally Posted by BaconBits

Imagine being terrified of an innocuous Youtube link lmfao.

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To be fair, Rick Rolls have taught me more about being wary of links than any scam warning ever could.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I'm not clicking on that, but I think the localization is just fine.

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Go to any youtube video, hit that "share" button, and it'll give you a youtu.be link. It's just a link shortening thing.

I have something shorter for you that wont waste your time nor requires a video:

Japanese and Western cultures are different even without the language barrier. This prevents a 1:1 translation and some liberties with different core values in mind must be taken.

There.

Getting a proper translation is a lost cause at this point. You have plenty of people ready to say "But you can't do a 1:1 translation!" despite the fact it has been done PLENTY of times in other IPs. At this point take the "localization" and just look up/translate the language of what you are enjoying. After seeing what "gamers" did to the Goemon translator, I really don't think we can get proper translations anymore. It's a shame, really. :/

The localization in this game is SHAMEFUL. I don't care what anyone says about different culture. One thing is changing a joke so people can understand, the other is completely changing whole fucking questlines. Just look at the Dark Knight localization if you're curious about it. What people ever saw in Koji Fox I'll never know. I'd sooner laugh at ice melting than those idiotic quest names and puns we got.

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Originally Posted by TheSuperior

I have something shorter for you that wont waste your time nor requires a video:

Japanese and Western cultures are different even without the language barrier. This prevents a 1:1 translation and some liberties with different core values in mind must be taken.

There.

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Mostly we just deal with the divergence Koji added for English. Like the entire personality of the character in my signature.

Oh, and the pain that is Ye Olde Urianger, ugh.

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Originally Posted by TheSuperior

I have something shorter for you that wont waste your time nor requires a video:

Japanese and Western cultures are different even without the language barrier. This prevents a 1:1 translation and some liberties with different core values in mind must be taken.

There.

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I've already explained it in these forums before, but it's a bit more than just a lack of 1:1 translation. There are creative liberties that no good translation team would take without explicit consent from the editor or the author.

However, the leader of the English localization is Koji Fox, who is not only directly involved in the creative process, he's in charge of making the game's lore.

Thus, and this is from a professional standpoint because software localization is my professional field, this a very weird translation. I personally would not say it is translation at all. It's a form of localization to a level that usually, under any other circumstance, would not be acceptable. For all intents and purposes, their re-writing, additions and changes in nuance are too extreme for me to consider it as such. There IS translation and localization involved, but the outcome goes just one step further.

There are some blog posts by the localization team about having to rewrite stuff due to earlier "gaffes", such as Eula van Darnus suddenly being Nael's sister due to the Japanese language omitting someone's gender. Or the change to enemy names in the Crystal Tower raid series because of Japanese phonetics being different, but the translation into English being the same (the Primal Titan is "Tie-tan" while the boss Acheron was called "Tee-tan". Both are Titan, though). Stuff like this is normal, provided justification is given to the editor or publisher. Sometimes we don't do that, fans question it and we go on social media to explain :p a phenomenon that's been happening a lot on twitter.

But this really is something else. There are changes too notorious and drastic to the tone, message and manner of speech that shift perceptions and lore entirely. What we're getting is essentially a new script, very similar to the original Japanese, but with an added layer of nuance.

Translation - the process of translating words or text from one language into another.
Interpretation - the action of explaining the meaning of something.
Localization - the process of making something local in character or restricting it to a particular place.

Doing a strict translation from Japanese may not yield a story that would resonate with (or make sense to) Western players so it gets localized instead. Look at what you get out of Google Transale sometimes - it's an accurate translation but it seems like gibberish because it's been neither interpreted or localized.

If you want the original, use the original language.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

However, the leader of the English localization is Koji Fox, who is not only directly involved in the creative process, he's in charge of making the game's lore.

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When did Banri Oda step down and Koji take over for lore, especially since Koji is now committed entirely to the FFXVI project and has been for several months?

Koji worked closely with Oda-san on lore - he was not in charge of it. He had been the lead of English localization then was promoted to Translation Director before being moved to work on FFXVI. Kathryn (Kate) Cwynar (who co-wrote the Flow lyrics with Ishikawa) now oversees English localization.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Mostly we just deal with the divergence Koji added for English. Like the entire personality of the character in my signature.

Oh, and the pain that is Ye Olde Urianger, ugh.

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Sorry friend I have signatures disabled and all the better overall. And I love how Urianger speaks. As someone who grew up reading books way above my age range, I can relate and I love how they've come up with ways for him to use 100 words to say something that can be said in 2.

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Originally Posted by TheSuperior

I have something shorter for you that wont waste your time nor requires a video:

Japanese and Western cultures are different even without the language barrier. This prevents a 1:1 translation and some liberties with different core values in mind must be taken.

There.

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If that the case, then why are the European languages mostly the same as each other and English is the outlier with loads of instances of contexts changing? When those "liberties" mean that the audience comes away with a completely different perception of a situation, I'd say that's an issue. EN localisers are more interested in scoring points on Twitter than giving us an accurate idea of things lmao

I dislike the liberties taken with localization too. Having played FFXI (which also had a creative localization at times) on the Japanese client for years by choice, dealing with the arbitrary differences between the story and characterization in my version of the game and that of my friends was a constant headache; it even affected gameplay because figuring out which drops we each wanted in group/alliance events was needlessly confusing. Urianger's speech isn't clever or creative, it's full of repetitive, labored attempts to obfuscate the simplest of concepts by shoehorning faux-intellectual nonsense into simple sentences. Wading through the added fluff completely neuters any emotional impact of his lines. And a lot of the characterization suffers from rewriting too. When I play the MSQ alongside my friends we often come away with completely contrasting opinions of characters based on their lines in the same scenes. Not because they're written ambiguously, but because the localized versions say things with completely different nuance to the Japanese script.

And again, it's not just the story. If it was just that I'd switch to the Japanese client again and be perfectly happy, but I deliberately matched my language to my FC buddies this time around and it still makes communicating with other players in the game needlessly confusing. Why are spells renamed in stupid ways (Holy/Holyga becoming Holy/Holy3 instead of Holy/Holy2) in the name of 'consistency' which doesn't exist? Other localized FF games have used the non-numbered naming scheme just fine. Why are player titles arbitrarily changed so that wearing a title you think comes across one way might mean something different to people using FR/DE/JP clients? That's downright bizarre, especially because the titles which were changed in English often make less sense to English native speakers (the Green Eyes title being an example which had its original FF reference torn out in the name of localization - and it's not even a very good title; Dark Knight is a great title, whereas I'd never want to use the gibberish Dark Driver; using Slaughterhouse makes you The Dominator which has a completely different feel for something you're showing to every single person you meet). I understand that Japanese and English are different and that some sacrifices are necessary when a word/phrase has unintended connotations but the JP team still want to use it, but the localization team need to calm down and stop assuming that everyone playing stays in the same monolingual bubble as their friends. Some of us talk to other people using the other clients, as per the game's design, and the localization inaccuracies - because that's what they are - impact upon basic communication.

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Originally Posted by TheSuperior

Sorry friend I have signatures disabled and all the better overall.

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No problems. It reads "やはり、お前は……笑顔が……イイ" (Localised to: 'a smile better suits a hero' or something like that).

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Originally Posted by TheSuperior

And I love how Urianger speaks.

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English is normally the odd one out, but in this case, it's far-and-away divergent from the other languages.

How he speaks isn't a localisation into all non-JP languages, English only. The other languages don't do it.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

No problems. It reads "やはり、お前は……笑顔が……イイ" (Localised to: 'a smile better suits a hero' or something like that).



English is normally the odd one out, but in this case, it's far-and-away divergent from the other languages.

How he speaks isn't a localisation into all non-JP languages, English only. The other languages don't do it.

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That's because the other two localization teams felt using the more 1:1 was more suitable for their target audiences. Meanwhile the English team chose a style that made the localization be aimed at North America. It's not like the JP team doesn't also do this. Look at the Namazu, they used a different dialect than what they use for the majority of the game.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

Getting a proper translation is a lost cause at this point. You have plenty of people ready to say "But you can't do a 1:1 translation!" despite the fact it has been done PLENTY of times in other IPs.

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Or that the fact that they always ignore that the French and German in this game does it. Somehow, EN translation need to "adapted to western values" but not the other two. I've never seen any of the french players I know complain that the values felt dissonant with theirs or some nonsense like that. (and we complain about everything)

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Originally Posted by SannaR

That's because the other two localization teams felt using the more 1:1 was more suitable for their target audiences. Meanwhile the English team chose a style that made the localization be aimed at North America.

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Given averages in scholastic achievement across all English Speakers, I still believe it's a pain they chose EME (Early Modern English) as the dialect for the man.

I'll warrant that it's done purely for flavour, not because this archaic form is more suitable to English Speakers - fluent or native - let alone those with lesser ESL skills.

Whilst I have little issue reading EME, time and time again the complaints on these fora, and in other places, show a significant number of native speakers do have issues with EME.

Taking this idea further, head off into the Localization (sic) forum and look at some of the common complaints about things like "corse" being a mistake. That single word, and how much confusion it causes, is enough to prove these choices were not made with 'more suitability for the target audience' as a reason.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

It's not like the JP team doesn't also do this. Look at the Namazu, they used a different dialect than what they use for the majority of the game.

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I don't have an isssssue with the beast-tribe-ones having unusal speech mannerisms. yes, yes. They are an adjunct to the story.

What's important to consider is that the English version is not a "translation" or "localization" of the Japanese version. French and German do localizations of the Japanese version. The English version is created alongside the Japanese version and gets the approval of the Japanese team.

Personally, I love the English version, and have always been satisfied throughout the time MC Koji-Fox was in charge of it. It's humorous, it's serious when it needs to be, and it tells a solid story. In all seriousness, just sit back and enjoy the game. Some people I think get frustrated because they are taking a form of entertainment way too seriously.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

What's important to consider is that the English version is not a "translation" or "localization" of the Japanese version. French and German do localizations of the Japanese version. The English version is created alongside the Japanese version and gets the approval of the Japanese team.

Personally, I love the English version, and have always been satisfied throughout the time MC Koji-Fox was in charge of it. It's humorous, it's serious when it needs to be, and it tells a solid story. In all seriousness, just sit back and enjoy the game. Some people I think get frustrated because they are taking a form of entertainment way too seriously.

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Is that still the case, that was what was going on with Koji he was part of the development team but he seems to have gone completely to 16 leaving the English team to be in much the same way as the French and German teams just one who want to tell a different story

All the proof of why the English translation is bad always includes "nuance", yes, that's the point of localization, cultures are different, and so a nuanced approach is necessary.

I love the English version, it's amazing really, I haven't seen a single line that I thought "Oh, that's definitely just directly ripped from the Japanese" which is saying something, so many Japanese games do almost a direct 1 to 1 translation and it's super awkward and stilted. If that's because the English localization is developed alongside the Japanese, then keep doing what you're doing. It's wonderful

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Originally Posted by SannaR

That's because the other two localization teams felt using the more 1:1 was more suitable for their target audiences. Meanwhile the English team chose a style that made the localization be aimed at North America

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So the "localizers" think that NA is too immature and needs "liberties" thrown into the story to make it more palatable for what the NA team thinks the NA audience can handle? If you frame it like that then the NA localizers must think the NA playerbase can't handle the story without softening it and making pop culture jokes. That worrying at best and insulting at worst, lmao.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

What's important to consider is that the English version is not a "translation" or "localization" of the Japanese version. French and German do localizations of the Japanese version. The English version is created alongside the Japanese version and gets the approval of the Japanese team.

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I know your post is a very popular claim in the ffxiv community but as far as we know, this is incorrect.
Discussed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscus...f14s_japanese/

EDIT: I should add that the entire thread and interviews linked there are worth reading, not just the top post which kinda summarises the situation poorly.

Ferne (Michael-Christopher Koji Fox) has been part of the localization/lore writing of the game since 1.0 (he even appears briefly in the 'Making Of' video included with the collector's edition of FFXIV 1.0, although doesn't speak in it or offers any insights sadly) - many of the fundamental story aspects of the game are actually his work, such as the secondary name of the Twelveswood (the Black Shroud), Nald'thal being a twin god with a combined name (just so he could make the "Thal's Balls" joke/cuss, famously admitting "he just loves to swear"), and other things. So it's not like he was suddennly dropped into the project and "changed things" from the "original", the "original" has always had a connection to him.

Really this whole pointless arguement about localization just came about because how at the end of 2.55 Midgardsormr's more maternal aspects got lost in translation (figure of speech) and thus resulted in him becoming more like something of a surly bully, and famously how Hauchy's more perverted, even creepy, nature was understandably toned down for Western sensibilities (something Ferne could hardly be faulted for - such things tend to result in higher classifications in some countries).

And now with EW's more controversial story and a certain... character... it's revived the whole "the localization of FFXIV sucks!" arguement for another run around the block. As has been stated, the Japanese version and the English version draw from and influence each other's narrative, the Japanese version is not the "base" version that the English version is merely a pedestrian translation from, the two work hand in glove in writing, which does mean, yes, some minor differences show up, but fundamentally the same story is told.

Also Ferne is still part of the FFXIV team because FFXVI's development is also being handled by it, meaning he's been seconded to FFXVI's localization, so he'll return once XVI is released. And he still did have a very minor part in EW's development - he's the vocalist for the Pandaemonium vocal tracks Hic Svnt Leones and White Stone Black.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Ferne (Michael-Christopher Koji Fox) has been part of the localization/lore writing of the game since 1.0 (he even appears briefly in the 'Making Of' video included with the collector's edition of FFXIV 1.0, although doesn't speak in it or offers any insights sadly)

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That's because he was just a grunt back in the day when he wasn't in charge of localization, merely part of the team. It's like seeing a new manager walk into the project and make questionable decisions from time to time until those questionable decisions start piling up and it becomes VERY noticeable in a project. It's another case of slowly boiling the frog, lol.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

because how at the end of 2.55 Midgardsormr's more maternal aspects got lost in translation (figure of speech) and thus resulted in him becoming more like something of a surly bully, and famously how Hauchy's more perverted, even creepy, nature was understandably toned down for Western sensibilities (something Ferne could hardly be faulted for - such things tend to result in higher classifications in some countries).

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I wonder when Mr. fox took over the localization... :^)

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

I know your post is a very popular claim in the ffxiv community but as far as we know, this is incorrect.
Discussed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscus...f14s_japanese/

EDIT: I should add that the entire thread and interviews linked there are worth reading, not just the top post which kinda summarises the situation poorly.

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And specifically, this comment picks out the relevant parts.

They had a couple more pieces here and here worth reading, particularly the bit re "wiggle" room. There was an older thread on it here for those interested.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Given averages in scholastic achievement across all English Speakers, I still believe it's a pain they chose EME (Early Modern English) as the dialect for the man.

I'll warrant that it's done purely for flavour, not because this archaic form is more suitable to English Speakers - fluent or native - let alone those with lesser ESL skills.

Whilst I have little issue reading EME, time and time again the complaints on these fora, and in other places, show a significant number of native speakers do have issues with EME.

Taking this idea further, head off into the Localization (sic) forum and look at some of the common complaints about things like "corse" being a mistake. That single word, and how much confusion it causes, is enough to prove these choices were not made with 'more suitability for the target audience' as a reason.



I don't have an isssssue with the beast-tribe-ones having unusal speech mannerisms. yes, yes. They are an adjunct to the story.

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English steals from a lot of other places and languages. From my knowledge it's also the only one that has had a major vowel shift to the point that linguists have named it the great vowel shift. Then there is the various reasons why even though the majority of those who founded America were British subjects you have the obvious change in how things are spelled yet are the same word. I.e Color and Colour. Then look at how at least English that makes up the one used in the British Isle and Ireland. You have French, German and a tinge of Scandinavian(whatever survived from the Viking presence). Mixing in with Welsh, Gaelic and a little Latin.

Would you rather want him speak in Transatlantic? Which might not be as bad as the use of EME. I'm just glad they didn't feel the need to go full Chaucer.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

So the "localizers" think that NA is too immature and needs "liberties" thrown into the story to make it more palatable for what the NA team thinks the NA audience can handle? If you frame it like that then the NA localizers must think the NA playerbase can't handle the story without softening it and making pop culture jokes. That worrying at best and insulting at worst, lmao.

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Hi have you met Square? It's not the first time the company has dumbed down or softened things for its Western audience. It's how we ended up with Mystic Quest. It's how some of the differences in not only translation but game play difficulty happened in the earlier versions of the franchise. Heck it doesn't even just happen with SquareEnix but a few other Japanese game developers.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Hi have you met Square? It's not the first time the company has dumbed down or softened things for its Western audience. It's how we ended up with Mystic Quest. It's how some of the differences in not only translation but game play difficulty happened in the earlier versions of the franchise. Heck it doesn't even just happen with SquareEnix but a few other Japanese game developers.

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*looks at the picture of the double funeral of Square and Enix sitting on the mantle*
Yeah, I've met SE...



Though at least back then everyone was openly calling it censorship, not "localizing", and it was the western versions that got censored but that's not surprising if you think about it. Same puritans, different crusade, lol.

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Originally Posted by Lauront

And specifically, this comment picks out the relevant parts.

They had a couple more pieces here and here worth reading, particularly the bit re "wiggle" room. There was an older thread on it here for those interested.

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The idea that the English script is not a translation, and in fact a second master script with equal importance to the Japanese script and inherently superior to the two other translations is most likely a misconception caused by some quotes taken wildly out of context and misunderstood, then parroted ad nauseam by the community. No official source seems to support the claim. In fact, we have many interviews which disproves it.
Basically a case of "if enough people say something it becomes the truth".

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

The idea that the English script is not a translation, and in fact a second master script with equal importance to the Japanese script and inherently superior to the two other translations is most likely a misconception caused by some quotes taken wildly out of context and misunderstood, then parroted ad nauseam by the community. No official source seems to support the claim. In fact, we have many interviews which disproves it.
Basically a case of "if enough people say something it becomes the truth".

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Agreed - I'm pointing to that comment by the user "volentils" because, as you say, the top one is at least a little misleading on that front.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

So the "localizers" think that NA is too immature and needs "liberties" thrown into the story to make it more palatable for what the NA team thinks the NA audience can handle? If you frame it like that then the NA localizers must think the NA playerbase can't handle the story without softening it and making pop culture jokes. That worrying at best and insulting at worst, lmao.

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Honestly? I REALLY wouldn't put it past them if the texts that we end up with are dumbed down and have nuance altered to cater to the reader.

Japanese is a context-heavy language, and English isn't as much, it's a lot more straightforward with minute cultural aspects changing the meaning of things.
But it is still possible to have a proper conversion into English, one just needs to clarify the text so audience can understand. Sometimes it doesn't work, but in translation there really is so much you can do.

Text in FF14 has been re-written, though. And scenes have had their emotional tone redefined. I'm not saying that DE or FR translations won't have moments that don't fully correspond to the original JP text. But neither of them are as noticeable as EN is. You still get the same meaning

And if the text does simplify scenes so the meaning is clearer, then you have to gauge what the team thinks based on occurrence. If it doesn't happen that often, then it's because it was likely tricky to translate from Japanese. If it happens often, then you have several reasons:
- Editor/Publisher's choice
- The team realized it was too nuanced and culturally heavy
- They're involved in making the product

Which they are, because:

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Ferne (Michael-Christopher Koji Fox) has been part of the localization/lore writing of the game since 1.0 (he even appears briefly in the 'Making Of' video included with the collector's edition of FFXIV 1.0, although doesn't speak in it or offers any insights sadly) - many of the fundamental story aspects of the game are actually his work

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The lead of the English localization team is directly involved in the creative writing aspect. He's in charge of making lore. Whether he used to be a grunt who rose to prominence doesn't exactly matter, because as it stands, he does have a hand in how things are written. And thus he can make "his own" version of the text.

I realize now that saying that "it's his version" is a bit misleading, because I don't know how the dev team really feels about the whole thing, nor do I know if it's only him doing it and bossing others around. It very likely isn't.
But the liberty IS there. And we see the consequences of it on the text.

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

Honestly? I REALLY wouldn't put it past them if the texts that we end up with are dumbed down and have nuance altered to cater to the reader.

Japanese is a context-heavy language, and English isn't as much, it's a lot more straightforward with minute cultural aspects changing the meaning of things.
But it is still possible to have a proper conversion into English, one just needs to clarify the text so audience can understand. Sometimes it doesn't work, but in translation there really is so much you can do.

Text in FF14 has been re-written, though. And scenes have had their emotional tone redefined. I'm not saying that DE or FR translations won't have moments that don't fully correspond to the original JP text. But neither of them are as noticeable as EN is. You still get the same meaning

And if the text does simplify scenes so the meaning is clearer, then you have to gauge what the team thinks based on occurrence. If it doesn't happen that often, then it's because it was likely tricky to translate from Japanese. If it happens often, then you have several reasons:
- Editor/Publisher's choice
- The team realized it was too nuanced and culturally heavy
- They're involved in making the product

Which they are, because:


The lead of the English localization team is directly involved in the creative writing aspect. He's in charge of making lore. Whether he used to be a grunt who rose to prominence doesn't exactly matter, because as it stands, he does have a hand in how things are written. And thus he can make "his own" version of the text.

I realize now that saying that "it's his version" is a bit misleading, because I don't know how the dev team really feels about the whole thing, nor do I know if it's only him doing it and bossing others around. It very likely isn't.
But the liberty IS there. And we see the consequences of it on the text.

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You are absolutely right, which is why I don't care to argue about this since the damage has been done. We can go forward and back all day discussing why or why not liberties should or should not be taken when translating and what defines the difference between translating a work vs localizing a work but this song and dance has been done to death for nearly a decade. Why strain yourselves? The writer isn't going to go to the NA's GD board, read this thread and go, "Oh no! I need to fix this!". Just enjoy it for what it is and leave when it's no longer worth your time, lol.

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

You are absolutely right, which is why I don't care to argue about this since the damage has been done. We can go forward and back all day discussing why or why not liberties should or should not be taken when translating and what defines the difference between translating a work vs localizing a work but this song and dance has been done to death for nearly a decade. Why strain yourselves? The writer isn't going to go to the NA's GD board, read this thread and go, "Oh no! I need to fix this!". Just enjoy it for what it is and leave when it's no longer worth your time, lol.

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My follow up to what you just said is to ask people who have such a problem that this is going on whether or not they can enjoy the product they are given. By all means, this is the product Square Enix agreed to present to you. The one that's won accolades, the one people praise to living hell and back, the one people meme with, the one people love. The one people compare to other games in the industry. The one people defend and analyze.

It's fine to want to enjoy the original product, I wholly understand and would even encourage it. But this isn't what you're getting. And if anything? What you're getting is already a really good approximation of the original, it's why I keep saying that it's the emotional tone and nuance that's changed. Not the characters and not the outcome. You want to experience the original Japanese version, either learn Japanese or have someone do a direct translation for you. You're not going to get that from this sort of localization.

But this is not something that needs fixing. It's something that needs to be understood. And the first time I posted about this, I got called out for by some Miqo'te dude because he wouldn't take the fact that he was trying to pin the blame on translators. They're just doing their job, and at least they're having fun with it because the devs allow and encourage it. Because god knows translation can be boring as hell and goes massively unappreciated by readers. People tend to blame translators for every little thing in the text, when really they themselves couldn't do better.

You may not like that this happens, and that's dandy. But you can still enjoy the product you're given. It's not as big a deal as you'd think, because to Square Enix, this is fine and you're still playing the same game JP is, just with some quirks. Did the 7th Umbral Calamity happen in your version as much as it did in JP's version? Just because one character cracks a joke in English and not in Japanese it doesn't make it bad. And like Raoabolic said, this has been happening for a decade now, it's nothing new. (edit, adding something for clarification bc I know people will definitely pick on it but) I know to a lot of people this feels like a violation, but you're not getting a bootleg of the game, nor are you getting such a drastically altered text. Preference aside, the game is the same.

Again, people want the original? Good, support the original text and other languages. But don't diss the work being done just because stuff got re-written. You're meant to experience X lore, not Y lore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

*looks at the picture of the double funeral of Square and Enix sitting on the mantle*
Yeah, I've met SE...



Though at least back then everyone was openly calling it censorship, not "localizing", and it was the western versions that got censored but that's not surprising if you think about it. Same puritans, different crusade, lol.

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Then I'm not sure why you're surprised that split keeps on happening. The NA continues to have a non 1:1 translation and localization while the European continues to get that 1:1 type of translation and localization. While also ending up being the port they use to make remasters of. As you can see with which versions they chose to go with when putting out the newest(er) versions of X and XII.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Then I'm not sure why you're surprised that split keeps on happening. The NA continues to have a non 1:1 translation and localization while the European continues to get that 1:1 type of translation and localization. While also ending up being the port they use to make remasters of. As you can see with which versions they chose to go with when putting out the newest(er) versions of X and XII.

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I think the reason they're so different, at least here in FF14, is because the localization teams for German and French aren't internal to Square Enix. They have to outsource other teams, and I doubt that Koji knows fluent French and German enough to manage them as he would the English version. It's also probably why the FR version had that gaffe in Rhalgr's Reach where an NPC's dialogue leaked Hrothgar were coming in Stormblood xD

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Originally Posted by Midareyukki

I think the reason they're so different, at least here in FF14, is because the localization teams for German and French aren't internal to Square Enix. They have to outsource other teams, and I doubt that Koji knows fluent French and German enough to manage them as he would the English version. It's also probably why the FR version had that gaffe in Rhalgr's Reach where an NPC's dialogue leaked Hrothgar were coming in Stormblood xD

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The German and French teams are internal to Square Enix. We have no indication they're managed differently.

(It's not even hard to prove. Take any of the names in interviews we posted recently in this thread and you'll see LinkedIn pages which confirms they're currently Square Enix employees working directly in the Tokyo HQ. The idea that the other two translation are outsourced is based on nothing.)

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

misconception caused by some quotes taken wildly out of context and misunderstood, then parroted ad nauseam by the community.

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A very common occurrence on FF14 discourse, if I had a cent for every "Yoshi-P said"...

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Originally Posted by Raoabolic

Getting a proper translation is a lost cause at this point. You have plenty of people ready to say "But you can't do a 1:1 translation!" despite the fact it has been done PLENTY of times in other IPs. At this point take the "localization" and just look up/translate the language of what you are enjoying. After seeing what "gamers" did to the Goemon translator, I really don't think we can get proper translations anymore. It's a shame, really. :/

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Ah, thanks for saving me the effort of writing basically the same thing (English is not even my first language but it still pisses me off, lol)