The Old English melodrama dialog is a bit over the top

[Dord]

Examples:

• Less “doth”.
• Less “<verb>eth”.
• Less “shall”.
• Less flowery speech.
• More contractions. e.g. “cannot” to “can’t”
• More candor.

Use dialog that someone in a conversation would actually use instead of something that seems prepared for an audience. Here’s a snippet from the 2.5 trailer I would do differently (which is the last straw that prompted my complaint).

From:
Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You are the warrior of light! You are hope for the scions and for all the realm! As long as your flame continues to burn, the light of the dawn may ever be relit!”

To (roughly speaking, not totally sure about the context):
Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You’re the warrior of light! We need you! The whole realm needs you! As long as we have you, we still have hope!”

[Jom]

Well, the dialogue is not Old English. If it was, you would be unable to read it. The dialogue given to certain characters, e.g. Minfilia and Urianger, is an archaic form of Modern English. I do, however, agree with you. The archaic language seems rather forced or poorly translated from perhaps an archaic version of Japanese to an Archaic version of English, and it is not only the word choice that annoys me, but it is also the archaic syntax structures that give the dialogue of certain characters a less fluid and natural feel. In other words, the translators did a poor job of mimicking the syntax structures and word choice of sixteenth century English.

[LunaHoshino]

Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You’re the warrior of light! We need you! The whole realm needs you! As long as we have you, we still have hope!”

Ugh, no. That's horribly generic-- there's no personality to it at all.

In other words, the translators did a poor job of mimicking the syntax structures and word choice of sixteenth century English.

They aren't trying to mimic sixteenth century English, though. What they're trying to do is create their own syntax and language that is specific to the FFXIV world. See their use of 'sellsword' instead of 'mercenary,' for example. That's a word that was coined in sci-fi and fantasy novels, not medieval English. It sounds unnatural because it is unnatural-- that's the entire point. It isn't supposed to sound like 21st century English or sixteenth century English. It's a language all of its own, and on that front, I think they did just fine.

[Diarumuid]

Minfilia: “Please, you must go on! You’re the warrior of light! We need you! The whole realm needs you! As long as we have you, we still have hope!”

Oh my god, that's a even worse localization. You could plop that line in any random shounen anime/video game - sci-fi, fantasy, horror, katamari damacy - and it would not sound out of place in any of them because of how generic and devoid of flavor it is.