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

[lololink]

I always wonder how many of the people asking for a more "loyal" translation would want the final boss of LotA to be named Titan. >_>

That being said, with the way that FFXIV's Lore teams work, I also don't really understand how any of the languages can be claimed to be the original. I mean, I get that the first round of development is usually primarily Japanese, but all finished products (not counting dev posts and such) are released concurrently in all languages, as far as I can tell. I mean, the English versions of Iceheart and Haurchefant are just as old as the Japanese versions. . .

Still the texts are first written in japanese which is then translated by the localization team, so the japanese version is the original one, and having the last boss of the LotA be named Titan or Titân wouldn't bother me, it didn't in FF3 so there is no reason that would change. Still it's a special case, most of the time the english text is different not because it's hard to translate it but because they want to change it.

[Viridiana]

Still the texts are first written in japanese which is then translated by the localization team, so the japanese version is the original one. . .

We've already established that this isn't always the case. Besides, at that point it's still a work in progress. They're both released to the public at the same time.

[lololink]

That's not because it's released in one language first that there is no original, the original one is the first one ever written, which is the japanese one. The only thing that are originally in english are the names of the places, which are in english in the japanese version too.

[Viridiana]

That's not because it's released in one language first that there is no original, the original one is the first one ever written, which is the japanese one. The only thing that are originally in english are the names of the places, which are in english in the japanese version too.

From the same interview linked earlier:

"A lot of times the Japanese team will then go back and look at the English translations or the French translations and get ideas on how they can change the Japanese text in turn."

So while, yes, the bulk of it is written first in Japanese, you can't deny that in "a lot" of places, the English or the French (presumably the German, too) is the original. Or, y'know, we could just acknowledge that with something so collaborative there is no true original. . .