Might one of XIV's biggest new problems be that localisation has gone downhill?

Might one of XIV's biggest new problems be that localisation has gone downhill?
Could it be that:
a) this is the case?
and
b) CBU3 have a complete blind spot about this as we speak?

This is as much a question as a statement. I'm not very aware when it comes to anything requiring literary appreciation.

Because I haven't seen much talk about it?
Has anyone with great skills in English and JP compared the subtleties of all those unvoiced quest dialogs?
Both for MSQ and side quests?

Because it just occurred to me, I personally was much happier with the last Valentino's side quest and all that stood between that and being as meritless as the Xmas and Halloween events was the better 'personality' conveyed in the dialogs?

Is it right that Michael Koji Fox used be a big part of English localisation but no longer is for XIV?
It's it that XIV can't improve adequately unless they fix a problem with their translations?

There have also been those various QA mess ups with untranslated text.
The plays on words, in even just what quest titkles used to be was something that put a smile on my face every 4th quest I picked up. They really are a part of the 'personality' of the game. Making up part of the games distinct character and tone.

Havent seen any examples of this in FFXIV but a lot of Japanese rpgs in particular have had meanings and character motivations stripped away cause of the translators personal beliefs.

Theres a guy who does localization reviews. Valkyria Chronicles I think was the one where one character was like "I just wanna get married and be a housewife" translation: "I dont need no man to be happy" or something blatantly similar

But I dont think its that drastic in ffxiv. We wouldve heard of it with such a big community

If anything I’ve heard JP is jealous of the English localisation as the characters can be quite flat and stiff in JP whereas EN doesn’t take itself too seriously

Localisation always took many creative liberties here. It is still the same. Jpn players are unhappy with this expansion no less than the western players. You can check Amazon Japan reviews (where is a popular place to leave them for games).
I think one person stating that memes in en are smth they wish they would see in jpn instead is a bit too big a reach to think that’s what jpn players are thinking. I never once regretted a switch from en personally.

Well for starters, EN/JP convey different nuances and sometimes even entire messages. It's not literal translations but all in all the JP is typical anime territory with stereotype (bold/cute/stoic/weird/etc) personalities whereas the EN seems a lot more mature and believable like it was actual people talking.

Localizers injecting their politics does worry me. For example, how they made the Fae non-binary in ShB. Idk if I can say its a negative change, but it just rubs me the wrong way that the localizers are making such non-insignificant changes. Leave the writing and characterization to the writers.

I'll always be wary of the localizers after what they did to the DRK 50 quest. COMPLETELY changed a beautiful scene with Fray. On the other hand, I also think the changes they made in Our Compromise and Our Closure were better than the original. So its a mixed bag. But damn, that DRK 50 quest is beautiful in Japanese.

that cider spider person is right
you are a goober

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Localizers injecting their politics does worry me. For example, how they made the Fae non-binary in ShB. Idk if I can say its a negative change, but it just rubs me the wrong way that the localizers are making such non-insignificant changes. Leave the writing and characterization to the writers.

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Supposedly it was the localization team that came up with the lore for the faeries’ language, which could mean they were probably always meant to be that way and it’s the fact that other languages lack non-gendered pronouns why they are like that outside of English.

The English localization team as well as the others are part of the overall writing team. They’re not siloed off completely separated and doing their own thing alone without supervision. A lot of the game’s lore came from Koji and the localization teams.

Wasn’t the lead of the localization team also really involved in writing the game’s lore for a while? If I remember right, they were not just translating but actually part of the world-building. So I do not think the problem is with localization itself. It feels more like an issue with the writing, and the localization just ends up showing those flaws.

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Originally Posted by Bonoki

Wasn’t the lead of the localization team also really involved in writing the game’s lore for a while? If I remember right, they were not just translating but actually part of the world-building. So I do not think the problem is with localization itself. It feels more like an issue with the writing, and the localization just ends up showing those flaws.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Supposedly it was the localization team that came up with the lore for the faeries’ language, which could mean they were probably always meant to be that way and it’s the fact that other languages lack non-gendered pronouns why they are like that outside of English.

The English localization team as well as the others are part of the overall writing team. They’re not siloed off completely separated and doing their own thing alone without supervision. A lot of the game’s lore came from Koji and the localization teams.

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Yeah, I've heard from Reddit that the localization team is involved in the actual writing. But I haven't been able to find any interviews or press releases confirming that localizers are substantively involved in lore development.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Yeah, I've heard from Reddit that the localization team is involved in the actual writing. But I haven't been able to find any interviews or press releases confirming that localizers are substantively involved in lore development.

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Then you weren’t looking hard enough.

https://www.fandom.com/articles/koji...e-localization

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Originally Posted by Fandom

How did you make the switch from translator to lore creator? How is your day-to-day different?

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Originally Posted by Koji Fox

There hasn’t actually been any switch. I’ve been doing both jobs since back before 1.0 was even released, it’s just that my help with the lore creation wasn’t officially recognized until Yoshi-P decided to reward (?) my work in that area of the game by adding my name to the opening credits (which, I have to admit, is the single coolest thing that has happened in my 15 years at Square Enix).

That said, my contribution to XIV’s lore still only constitutes about 10% of my workload, the remainder being mostly allocated to localization duties, as well as to assisting the team in various fun and exciting (and not exciting) ways such as interpretation, text checks, media relations, fan fests, promotional events, etc.

Though, a lot of the actual lore creation I do actually comes during the localization process. The main scenario writer, Banri Oda, will send me rough ideas for place names, monster names, character names, and whatnot, and I will oftentimes come up with backstories for those while I’m doing my translations and send them back to him for implementation in the game. Two birds with one boulder.

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Originally Posted by SongOfTheWind

Localisation always took many creative liberties here. It is still the same. Jpn players are unhappy with this expansion no less than the western players. You can check Amazon Japan reviews (where is a popular place to leave them for games).
I think one person stating that memes in en are smth they wish they would see in jpn instead is a bit too big a reach to think that’s what jpn players are thinking. I never once regretted a switch from en personally.

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Switched to JP after Dawntrail. Because the VA's aside from Koana started sounded wooden and emotionless. Bad direction / scheduling prolly.
Only one I cant stand is Urianger in Japanese. He puts me to sleep. He legit kills scenes from what I watched in youtube on other expacs.

*Serious scene* *wooden JP Urianger calmly* "hurdigurdi hurr hurr"

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

Switched to JP after Dawntrail. Because the VA's aside from Koana started sounded wooden and emotionless. Bad direction / scheduling prolly.
Only one I cant stand is Urianger in Japanese. He puts me to sleep. He legit kills scenes from what I watched in youtube on other expacs.

*Serious scene* *wooden JP Urianger calmly* "hurdigurdi hurr hurr"

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I had swapped to JP a little bit before Dawntrail released and for the most part I enjoyed it. Hearing some of the character's voices surprised me because I could recognize them from other games I've played, like Thancred having the same voice as Joon-Gi Han and Zoraal Ja having the same VA as Jotaro Kujo

Even some of the old duties were better
I hated Fandaniel's voice, but I also just didn't like Asahi in general so that could've been it
but I always found his english VA to sound like a try-hard with the forced evil laugh

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Then you weren’t looking hard enough.

https://www.fandom.com/articles/koji...e-localization

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I've seen that. I need more substantiated specifics than "I give notes to the actual writer and then he implements them." What backstories is he referring to? What was actually implemented from his notes? I just can't take his words at face value considering localizers have a tendency to exaggerate their importance in crafting narratives.

The English localization has always been questionable.

They changed and even cut out whole lines of important lore-relevant dialogue from the Ascians in ARR, for just one example.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

I've seen that. I need more substantiated specifics than "I give notes to the actual writer and then he implements them." What backstories is he referring to? What was actually implemented from his notes? I just can't take his words at face value considering localizers have a tendency to exaggerate their importance in crafting narratives.

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He’s still a member of the development team and has been since 1.0 and not some third party so I’m not sure why we shouldn’t take him at his word unless you’re trying to prove some point about people injecting “politics” into translations.

On the official website, his successor, Kate’s title is given as “lore” in an interview with her.

https://eu.finalfantasy.com/topics/266

The French localizer even brings up the pixies and says “One lore point is that those creatures are agender.”

Edit: Kate’s actual credit in the game is “Lore Consultation and English Localization Lead” so I don’t think you can get any clearer than that. Other hard sources besides Koji himself talking about his contributions are him being credited for writing many of the songs.

I wouldn't say it's gone downhill, but rather that they make mistakes sometimes. They admit they do it very fast: they see a word, they translate it, then move on. The result of this is very literal translations that didn't account for context - such as the Tank Mastery trait that has been wrong for 6 years. In Japanese, it says there is an "adjustment" to stats appropriate to the tank role. In English, it says there is a "bonus" to VIT and STR. A "bonus" is different to an "adjustment". In reality, VIT is adjusted up and STR is adjusted down (ie. not a bonus to STR). They didn't spend more than a moment translating that.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

I haven't been able to find any interviews or press releases confirming that localizers are substantively involved in lore development.

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Having played for 10 years I can say with confidence that they have said they work directly with the rest of the team to make sure they account for all the localizations in the actual development, and this helps bounce ideas and inspire new ideas for the development. It also always seemed that Koji was effectively helping with the lore. (Oh and let's also say there was a time Koji got in trouble at one of their round table meetings for Larboard/Starboard being too confusing in Omega, which indicates they are in these meetings.)

There was a dev panel a while ago where they talked about their localization process in depth and for important things like they MSQ, they ask thorough questions of the writers, often the same questions in different ways, to the point of being annoying. Because they want to make sure they understand what the writers intend to convey, and if that requires asking too many questions they will do it so they can convey the intended emotion in the localized version.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I wouldn't say it's gone downhill, but rather that they make mistakes sometimes. They admit they do it very fast: they see a word, they translate it, then move on. The result of this is very literal translations that didn't account for context - such as the Tank Mastery trait that has been wrong for 6 years. In Japanese, it says there is an "adjustment" to stats appropriate to the tank role. In English, it says there is a "bonus" to VIT and STR. A "bonus" is different to an "adjustment". In reality, VIT is adjusted up and STR is adjusted down (ie. not a bonus to STR). They didn't spend more than a moment translating that.

Having played for 10 years I can say with confidence that they have said they work directly with the rest of the team to make sure they account for all the localizations in the actual development, and this helps bounce ideas and inspire new ideas for the development. It also always seemed that Koji was effectively helping with the lore. (Oh and let's also say there was a time Koji got in trouble at one of their round table meetings for Larboard/Starboard being too confusing in Omega, which indicates they are in these meetings.)

There was a dev panel a while ago where they talked about their localization process in depth and for important things like they MSQ, they ask thorough questions of the writers, often the same questions in different ways, to the point of being annoying. Because they want to make sure they understand what the writers intend to convey, and if that requires asking too many questions they will do it so they can convey the intended emotion in the localized version.

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There is a world of difference between a localizer asking questions to make sure the English text is consistent with the lore written by the Japanese vs. actively taking part in creating the lore itself.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

He’s still a member of the development team and has been since 1.0 and not some third party so I’m not sure why we shouldn’t take him at his word unless you’re trying to prove some point about people injecting “politics” into translations.

On the official website, his successor, Kate’s title is given as “lore” in an interview with her.

https://eu.finalfantasy.com/topics/266

The French localizer even brings up the pixies and says “One lore point is that those creatures are agender.”

Edit: Kate’s actual credit in the game is “Lore Consultation and English Localization Lead” so I don’t think you can get any clearer than that. Other hard sources besides Koji himself talking about his contributions are him being credited for writing many of the songs.

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Titles such as "Lore Consultant," are nonetheless simply titles. If we're gonna give credit to localizers for playing a meaningful part in lore creation, then we should we be more discerning than simply looking at self-aggrandizing snippets from interviews. We need to see the proof in the pudding. That said, I'm still on EW, but from some of the negative things I've heard about DT, then maybe Kate really is involved in the lore to a greater extent than localizers were in previous expansions. Heh.

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Originally Posted by Underscore

The English localization has always been questionable.

They changed and even cut out whole lines of important lore-relevant dialogue from the Ascians in ARR, for just one example.

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This also makes me question how involved localizers are in lore creation. If they truly were so involved, then how come there are some glaring mistakes or inconsistencies with the original JP version? I don't think of deviating from the source material as "lore crafting." More like lore butchering.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

There is a world of difference between a localizer asking questions to make sure the English text is consistent with the lore written by the Japanese vs. actively taking part in creating the lore itself.



Titles such as "Lore Consultant," are nonetheless simply titles. If we're gonna give credit to localizers for playing a meaningful part in lore creation, then we should we be more discerning than simply looking at self-aggrandizing snippets from interviews. We need to see the proof in the pudding. That said, I'm still on EW, but from some of the negative things I've heard about DT, then maybe Kate really is involved in the lore to a greater extent than localizers were in previous expansions. Heh.

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Not sure what else to tell you if Koji himself says 10% of his job was lore creation in the link you claimed to have read, Kate’s credited title is “lore consultant” and you’d rather believe there’s some conspiracy to inject “politics” by “translators who have nothing to do with the ‘original’ text” despite the French localizer also saying that pixies are agender according to lore.

What “proof” are you looking for?

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Not sure what else to tell you if Koji himself says 10% of his job was lore creation in the link you claimed to have read, Kate’s credited title is “lore consultant” and you’d rather believe there’s some conspiracy to inject “politics” by “translators who have nothing to do with the ‘original’ text” despite the French localizer also saying that pixies are agender according to lore.

What “proof” are you looking for?

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Proof of where exactly the localizers have directly contributed to the fundamental lore of the game. Its such a big talking point from pro-localization FFXIV players that you would think someone would be able to point to something, anything specific.

I don't know, but Wuk Lamat constantly saying "papa" instead of dad or father or even "pops" (which I felt suited her personality more) definitely didn't help with her already childish mindset. I hope I'm not the only one who was annoyed by this, especially since I play using JP voices and she was definitely saying "father."

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

Switched to JP after Dawntrail. Because the VA's aside from Koana started sounded wooden and emotionless. Bad direction / scheduling prolly.
Only one I cant stand is Urianger in Japanese. He puts me to sleep. He legit kills scenes from what I watched in youtube on other expacs.

*Serious scene* *wooden JP Urianger calmly* "hurdigurdi hurr hurr"

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Yeah, definitely prefer EN Urianger, but I also prefer EN Krile over JP one

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Proof of where exactly the localizers have directly contributed to the fundamental lore of the game. Its such a big talking point from pro-localization FFXIV players that you would think someone would be able to point to something, anything specific.

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We only know of what he’s specifically said in interviews but you seem to dismiss him saying his own contributions. There’s nowhere else specifically pointing out who made what other than those people themselves saying they were responsible for something in an interview. There’s no compendium with every single lore fact in the game with a tag crediting who came up with it.

Some things we do know are that the dragon language was invented by Koji before 1.0 even launched. He also has written quests and is responsible for the Lambs of Dalamud. He’s also credited on the lyric for the game’s songs.

This isn’t like the old days where the translators are outsourced to someone else with no connection to the game. At least in the case of EN version, they’re right there in the writing room and credited for lore.

And like I’ve said before, pixies being non-binary wasn’t a “change” one of the sources I’ve linked in a previous post says it’s lore.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Proof of where exactly the localizers have directly contributed to the fundamental lore of the game. Its such a big talking point from pro-localization FFXIV players that you would think someone would be able to point to something, anything specific.

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Back when they did lore panels--look back for around 2014 or 2015, I believe--they talked a lot about the writing process. Koji and Oda worked pretty closely, especially when the team was smaller. There's specifically one around that time about levequests, and how much color Koji and his team injected into the world by writing them the way they did.

Loads of extra details in the ENG version of the text, versus the JP ones which were often pretty stiff and simple. It was so significant that JP users used to have a website back in the day translating lore from ENG levequests back into JP. This is, of course, just one example.

Basically, a lot of the language you like in ARR through SB that's gritty, weird and colorful can be attributed to the old localization team. A lot of extra world building about the smaller, more insignificant people on Hydaelyn can be attributed to them, too. And, if I'm remembering you correctly from other threads, we both think that shit matters a lot.

I'd let go of whatever weird grievances you have about localization from social media or whatever. Yeah there are some that suck shit and inject a lot of weird and awkward characterization or "politics(?)", but the FFXIV localization team cared a lot about their world and worked in tandem with the writers. Their worst case of actual change was Haurchefant, admittedly, though I'd argue he's still the same character, just less overt in wanting to. You know.

Anyway, most changes people complain about the localization doing are just changes in dialect. Like 99.9% of the time the message the character is conveying is the same, they're just saying it in a less overt or direct way, as befitting the type of archaism FFXIV characters use in the ENG localization. Of course since it's not a 100% literal, awkward translation, the same (ENG first language) players who think Urianger's high school level of Shakespearean is difficult to read can't actually understand what the character is saying.

The pixies (and all of the Fae in SHB, if you've noticed) are still non-binary in JP; the Japanese language just possesses ways to refer to people in a more ambiguous manner, since the language relies less on personal pronouns. In ENG they just have to use "they". Fae are genderless in a lot of folklore, too, so it's just playing into that aspect.

Back to the topic of the thread, I do speak in past tense because I do think the localization has gotten worse since changing the team. There is significantly less color in the world where the old team used to inject it, and, personally, I can feel that a lot.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Localizers injecting their politics does worry me. For example, how they made the Fae non-binary in ShB. Idk if I can say its a negative change, but it just rubs me the wrong way that the localizers are making such non-insignificant changes. Leave the writing and characterization to the writers.

I'll always be wary of the localizers after what they did to the DRK 50 quest. COMPLETELY changed a beautiful scene with Fray. On the other hand, I also think the changes they made in Our Compromise and Our Closure were better than the original. So its a mixed bag. But damn, that DRK 50 quest is beautiful in Japanese.

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Everyone keeps saying french and german translations are pretty faithful.

But yeah -- has it been confirmed that the fairies they/themming themselves was definite attempt to bring in some non-binary visibility?
If so, yikes at that intent.

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Originally Posted by TheBigE

I don't know, but Wuk Lamat constantly saying "papa" instead of dad or father or even "pops" (which I felt suited her personality more) definitely didn't help with her already childish mindset. I hope I'm not the only one who was annoyed by this, especially since I play using JP voices and she was definitely saying "father."

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That was not on my long list of issues. "Papa" is commonly used in the SW US by Latinx. "Pops" would be bizarre IMO.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

There is a world of difference between a localizer asking questions to make sure the English text is consistent with the lore written by the Japanese vs. actively taking part in creating the lore itself.

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Here is a video where they talk about the localization being involved in the lore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGq...YVlCnU&index=2

"One thing that's not known a lot about the localization process at Square Enix is that, rather than being off-site, all of the translation and the localization staff is on-site and we work directly with the team. We sit right next to the planners and right next to the world lore creators and so we're working with them every day."

"Something that a lot of people may not know is that not all of the game Final Fantasy XIV originates in Japanese and some of it actually starts in English. For example, monster names and place names - a lot of these are ideas I give to the team and then they're translated back into Japanese. And so rather than it all being one way from Japanese into other languages, it's a collaborative process where we work together and create something that, you know, can truly feel global."

As it says in the video, Koji (former English Localization Lead) created the Dragon language and I believe was involved in a lot of the 1.0 lore such as the leves and the Twelve and the associated swear words such as "Seven Hells" and "Thal's Balls". Even recently, the English Localization Lead discussed how they came up with place names for Elpis.

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This also makes me question how involved localizers are in lore creation. If they truly were so involved, then how come there are some glaring mistakes or inconsistencies with the original JP version? I don't think of deviating from the source material as "lore crafting." More like lore butchering.

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The Localization Lead noted that this is a common sentiment, and she dedicated a lot of a dev panel to disagreeing with you on this point. Since you are so interested in this, you will most likely want to watch this the whole way through (from the 2024 Vegas Fanfest) - it's like an hour segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YozopuVW8Mo&t=24529s

Dawntrail's story and lore fails no matter what language you're listening to.

Anyways, localizing a game is more than just translating a language from one to another. For starters, Japanese and English are very different languages, both in sentence structure and how tone is presented. Japanese is very direct and based around respect and the relation between who is speaking to who. English is more casual but flowery, using many adjectives and adverbs where it's not really necessary. Japanese jokes also rely heavily on puns, and puns do not translate at all into other languages.

Cultures also have be taken into consideration, as what one culture might find acceptable could be deemed very offensive in another. A very good example is Haurchefant: In English, he's a friendly man that looks up to the Warrior of Light and is one of the first people of Ishgard to give outsiders a chance. In Japanese, he's extremely flirty and makes it very clear he wants to get into the Warrior of Light's pants, regardless of their gender. A common trope in Japan, but that doesn't go over too well in the west, particularly of those that have been victims of SA.

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Originally Posted by Burmecia

But yeah -- has it been confirmed that the fairies they/themming themselves was definite attempt to bring in some non-binary visibility?
If so, yikes at that intent.

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The Japanese text doesn't use gendered pronouns for the fae because it doesn't need to. You can also look at literally everything else in the game for more LGBT representation. Mitron and Loghrif were in a relationship in the Unsundered World when they were both women. Sadu has plenty of female admirers and explicitly prefers the company of women to men. Alisaie and Alphinaud have male and female advisers. There's literally everything coded into the Eden raids. The Loporrits consider the notion of gender quaint and can identify as male, female, or anything in-between based on what's currently interesting, hence many of them using they/them pronouns along with he/she.

Heck, even in ARR, there's a male Lalafell dreaming of being held in Raubahn's arms. Haurchefant is explicitly attracted to the Warrior of Light regardless of gender and the dragons freely choose their sex since they can reproduce sexually or asexually. Then in Kugane there's a sidequest where a man falls in love with another man playing a female part on stage. When the actor reveals that he's a man beneath the costume, the admirer is not repulsed at all.

There's no reason to believe the fae aren't genderless/non-binary, especially since it doesn't make sense for them to have biological sex as they don't reproduce, nor is it out of place in the rest of the game.

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Originally Posted by JohnLakeside

Localizers injecting their politics does worry me. For example, how they made the Fae non-binary in ShB.

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Regardless of what positivity or negativity you associate with the term "non-binary", it's not the right term to be using for the fae. They are simply genderless. There's no binary for them to not-be.

Honestly, even if they still work in the same room, the fact that EN localization is often being the only one different will not change how I feel about them. Which is, I dislike it.
And yes I also think that EN is less "dry" compared to JP, but doesn't mean they're not without their own problems.

Used to like EN localization, but since late ShB I come to question a lot of them and do some cross check with other languages.

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Originally Posted by TheBigE

I don't know, but Wuk Lamat constantly saying "papa" instead of dad or father or even "pops" (which I felt suited her personality more) definitely didn't help with her already childish mindset. I hope I'm not the only one who was annoyed by this, especially since I play using JP voices and she was definitely saying "father."

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I just took it to be the local (suitable for location/setting) variant of "Dad", and another poster seems to have confirmed this.

If anything, I associate it with being an older word than Dad. The only character I can think of who uses it is Belle from Beauty and the Beast – it conveys closeness without seeming modern.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

Here is a video where they talk about the localization being involved in the lore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGq...YVlCnU&index=2

"One thing that's not known a lot about the localization process at Square Enix is that, rather than being off-site, all of the translation and the localization staff is on-site and we work directly with the team. We sit right next to the planners and right next to the world lore creators and so we're working with them every day."

"Something that a lot of people may not know is that not all of the game Final Fantasy XIV originates in Japanese and some of it actually starts in English. For example, monster names and place names - a lot of these are ideas I give to the team and then they're translated back into Japanese. And so rather than it all being one way from Japanese into other languages, it's a collaborative process where we work together and create something that, you know, can truly feel global."

As it says in the video, Koji (former English Localization Lead) created the Dragon language and I believe was involved in a lot of the 1.0 lore such as the leves and the Twelve and the associated swear words such as "Seven Hells" and "Thal's Balls". Even recently, the English Localization Lead discussed how they came up with place names for Elpis.

The Localization Lead noted that this is a common sentiment, and she dedicated a lot of a dev panel to disagreeing with you on this point. Since you are so interested in this, you will most likely want to watch this the whole way through (from the 2024 Vegas Fanfest) - it's like an hour segment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YozopuVW8Mo&t=24529s

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ARR felt like a real world to live in. NPCs had quips, idioms, and swears they use all the time like you've mentioned. And the open world was full of locations that NPCs visit and places they've lived in. I still remember wondering who lived in that little cabin down the mountain trail in Outer La Noscea (the one you visit in the MCH quest). Man, those were the days.

Zones nowadays are just so dead outside of cities.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Regardless of what positivity or negativity you associate with the term "non-binary", it's not the right term to be using for the fae. They are simply genderless. There's no binary for them to not-be.

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This is pretty well said in my opinion. There's no binary for them to not-be.

Also @Dikatis: clearly you're done your homework, so good job with that.
I'm myself GSRM and I would do little less coding and pushing and representing and nudging and wink-wonking.
I am at the point where calling anything in supposedly fantasy world with fantastic and fictional social constructs LGBT is jarring.
Similarly jarring as if I walked through Ul'dah and suddenly NPC would be trying to sell me bitcoins.
(As in, I like modern LGBT activism-ing in my fantasy fiction as much as I do explicitly modern financial scheming. Which is to say, I don't like it at all.)

The English localization in particular has various parts that are way off from the original Japanese. The German / French version tends to be far more faithful to the Japanese text.
I only play games made by Japanese developers in Japanese, because localization more often than not does a bad job.

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Originally Posted by SongOfTheWind

Localisation always took many creative liberties here. It is still the same. Jpn players are unhappy with this expansion no less than the western players. You can check Amazon Japan reviews (where is a popular place to leave them for games).
I think one person stating that memes in en are smth they wish they would see in jpn instead is a bit too big a reach to think that’s what jpn players are thinking. I never once regretted a switch from en personally.

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I find it really friggin funny that you have people from both sides of the fence that immensely prefer the other.

Not bad, mind...just funny.

As for lore--it's a small thing, but according to the original translation, use of aethersight will not kill you. It just exhausts the body to do it long term. RPers that know this (and if they have the ability to do so with their characters) have kind of run away with this...and I think for good reason. Y'shtola seems fine after 5 expansions and (given her time on the First) several years of doing it constantly.