I would like a more loyal localization (story quest dialogue)

[MageBlack]

The localization uses such archaic and obsolete language it's irritating to experience.
The Japanese dialogue is fairly straightforward with the odd colloquialism here and there, while the English dialogue looks like something Tolkien would raise an eyebrow at.

Whereas I have been in several Shakespearian plays and really enjoy that style of speech, especially when spoken correctly (Sir Aymerick does it particularly well) and it adds to the medieval theme of the game. What I would find irritating to experience is a game set in that era (swords and sorcery) all speaking "Brah" speak or even modern english. Also consider that the elvaan names and culture is very much influenced by the french language and colloquialisms (House Foretemps "foh-tomp") so if you really wanted to get picky, why do they not all have french accents?

[Cynfael]

Overall the localization team does an amazing job.

There are artistic choices that I question, with my biggest peeve being "Why are Urianger's lines written as if he had the collected works of William Shakespeare lodged firmly up his ass?" I love a good archaism here and there, but Urianger originally sounds nothing like that.

Anyway, back to the good: it's extremely challenging not just to translate but to adapt a Japanese-language work to be entertaining and relevant to an English-language audience. There's a lot that just doesn't translate effectively, and it can be easier to establish your own sort of internal consistency.

I would have made a few different choices, but if the goal was to create a smooth and effective adaptation, they largely succeeded.

[MageBlack]

I noticed these changes everywhere as you say,-snip-

I think i understand what you are talking about. The differences though are more about the flavor of the story or text (difference of emotion, phrasing, etc) but the core of it remains. I am probably taking it completely out of context but I think a direct translation would be more broken than anything given the differences in verbing and sentence structure etc. also, by directly translating we will not get many of the cultural references they make because they pertain to a completely different culture. sometimes trying to localize cultural references, more things need to be changed to make them fit the rest of the core of the story. I'm sure this may not be the case in every instance but I'm not doing a side by side comparison. Also, I wonder if you are not interested in a different experience altogether that the one we are presented with (looking at your sig that is).

I watched the tokyo fanfest live and got to listen to the localization team talk about some of the very things you are unhappy about. after hearing them speak, i'm not concerned about them taking a few liberties. Although I am finding your "outrage" amusing, I will leave it at that since i'm not trying to pick a fight, only provide you with another perspective.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

Some people make the assumption that if you criticize the localization it must mean you want a dry translation. That's not the case. Add puns, make jokes, and spice up the dialog all you want just stay true to the story.

[Cynfael]

Some people make the assumption that if you criticize the localization it must mean you want a dry translation. That's not the case. Add puns, make jokes, and spice up the dialog all you want just stay true to the story.

They generally are true to the story, or at least to the version of it they want to deliver to English-speaking audiences.

I wouldn't make all of the same choices they did (I admit that I would have wanted to handle our Koori no Miko ("Iceheart") a little differently), but overall it works. I'm inclined to be forgiving because their job is harder than it looks.

[kyuven]

Whereas I have been in several Shakespearian plays and really enjoy that style of speech, especially when spoken correctly (Sir Aymerick does it particularly well) and it adds to the medieval theme of the game. What I would find irritating to experience is a game set in that era (swords and sorcery) all speaking "Brah" speak or even modern english. Also consider that the elvaan names and culture is very much influenced by the french language and colloquialisms (House Foretemps "foh-tomp") so if you really wanted to get picky, why do they not all have french accents?

I would prefer French accents to use of words like "mayhaps" and "mummery"

[Renik]

snip

first, my sig is usually misunderstood, i love this game so much and i can't leave it, these are things i would like just to add more flavor to the game.

and now on topic:

The straight translation was more an example of a bad solution than what i want, i'm not native English speaker, i have translated a few literate texts and articles to my native language, so i know what localization means, that's why i don't want a straight translation, just a more accurate one which is more true to the original story.

Anyway, you have your opinion and i have mine, i just wanted to let the forums know how i feel about it, that's why the title says "i" instead "we," i just hope this get passed to the dev and localization team alike so they can make a decision, who will this decision please? i can't know and it's not in my hands, as long as they base their decision on a big number opinions it will be good.

Edit: Sorry about my "outrage" i can be very temperamental, but i have no bad intentions.

[Vilhem]

There was a whole panel on this at the NA fanfest (with Michael Christopher Koji-Fox aka Fernehawles). He works directly with the head Lore planner, as stated in this article:

http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/06/...tion-and-lore/

I also work directly with the Main World Lore Planner on naming and background stories. I get to play through early builds of the game, usually in Japanese, to see what the game is looking like so I know that when I do actual translations, how things are going to go in the game and how they’re going to work.

I also spend a lot of time working with the other guys in our team: the English team as well as the French and German teams. We talk a lot about what we’re going to do with the characterizations, certain stylistic issues, everything down to how we’re going to spell certain words… If we’re going to go with English spelling or British spelling… How certain races are going to talk, what kind of words they’re gonna use, the overall styles for cities… things like that.

We talk about adjustments… how we’re going to go in and tweak the text, and if those tweaks are big enough to warrant going over to the devs and getting their permission. That leads to the next part which is actually going over to the devs and talking with them about the stuff that they have written. We ask them a lot about intentions… Why they wrote a quest a certain way, what they want the players to get out of it.

If it’s a new character appearing in the quest we will ask them about the background of those characters, where they want to take the characters, we need all that information so that when we translate it, we know that we’re gonna give the player what the developer and the planner really intended. Then, again, if we decide we need to make some changes, whether be characterization or maybe how a character handles a certain happening during the quest, we make sure to talk with the planner and see if that’s okay. A lot of times it is, sometimes he tells us no and we make sure that we follow that.

G: I read that the localization of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn isn’t exactly a straight one-way affair from Japanese to English like the usual video game translations. Can you elaborate on how this works?

MCKF: Oh, yes, localization is definitely not a one-way affair on this project. Actually it hasn’t been back since the beginning of the project and before then into Final Fantasy XI. The localization team has always worked closely with the online teams to provide a little bit more than what the Japanese developers can provide, because when you come down to it, both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are massively multiplayer online games that are played on servers with players from around the world. They want to give it a more global feel… something that’s not strictly Japanese… something that has a feel of being international since there’s no borders in this game.

One of the things that they do is instead of making things solely Japanese and then ask us to translate those, they’ll talk with the localization team and collaborate with us to get more western ideas in the game itself. This comes down to things like monster names, monster attacks, place names, item names… these are all conceived by myself and the other members of the English team and we work directly with the world lore planners to come up with these, and then help them translate them back into Japanese.

tl;dr version: Ferne works directly with head loremaster and all the dialogue and stuff in the English localization is approved.

[seida]

In general I really like the localisation. The humour is mostly good. For example, when the Doman children ask you how to become a great adventurer, in Japanese there is no option for "buy weapons and armour from Rowena."

On the other hand, it's a bit sad what they did to characters like Haurchefaunt. I would appreciate more consistency in characterisation. Don't really care about "flavour text" in fates and such, as all the Japanese ones are really serious and quite boring.

[Velox]

in Japanese Ser Aymeric talks about how the new generations could change Ishgard, in the English text, he says something about the road less traveled, which is the name of said quest. Its not what the writer wanted to say.

Actually, it's almost exactly want the writer wanted to say, just with an English twist and reference (to a very famous work). Taking the road less traveled was not to do something unique, but a referral to the necessity of choice. In the original work, both roads are evenly worn and evenly covered when approached. It is only after the traveller picks one that he, in the future, is able to look back and notice how everyone seemed to go the other route. He wouldn't have known it at the time, and has no regrets, but his CHOICE had an effect on his life and the other generations that come after.

In essence, Ser Aymeric is saying the same thing in both Japanese and in English. What is done today shapes tomorrow.