Translation Team: Please stop doing this...

[Niwashi]

Adding color to the dialogue changes much of the original meaning. Regardless of actual translation skill it makes for a terrible translation.

So does removing color from dialog, but that's unavoidable because different languages have different ways of adding "color" and it's not the sort of thing that can generally cross from one language to another, especially if they're unrelated languages like Japanese and English. Removing color and then adding a rather different color back in is slightly closer to preserving the intent than removing color and leaving just the bare literal meaning to stand alone.

[TouchandFeel]

The opening of the Canterbury Tales, to be exact.

Yep, its pretty much the setup for all the other tales to be told as The Canterbury Tales are a collection of tales told to the narrator by people that he meets on the road.

Pretty much it says that during Spring, when the April showers begin and the world turns green and the flowers begin to bloom, people across the land go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.

[Viridiana]

The only team to develope content is the japanese team. This would be the first time that I hear of a localization team having input in the development of the story or plot.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Done and done.

[DrOstler]

If you was asking to permanently shut Urianger up I would definitely have to agree. But nobody else bothers me

[Gunspec]

Correct me if I'm wrong.

The localization team has stated numerous times that they work together, I think the Dev Fernehalwes has a lot of posts on the matter. Certain things like player titles are actually made by the English team and then translated INTO Japanese, and they have worked together on specific characters and quests.

I DO think that the English devs greatly over value their contribution though. When a scene is COMPLETELY different in Japanese and English, I don't care if the teams worked together, it is STILL an extremely shoddy end-result. I'm from a generation where Japanese scripts were often changed at a whim by lazy and unprofessional English translators, so my knee jerk reaction is to hate it, even IF the Japanese team approves of the change. I'm waiting for Yugiri to pull out a rice ball and loudly declare in English how she LOVES jelly donuts.

[OMEGA_HACK]

Personally, I like the different dialects that are spoken, Ancient beings like the Ascians and Primals are bound to have a different dialect, because they primarily speak within their own cliques or with no one at all, so their dialect would not change. If you cannot read old English then I recommend reading some Shakespeare, because the Old English being used in this game is minimal at best and really shouldn't be hard to read assuming you paid attention in public education.


I mean we have Ramuh saying "Knowing that thy mere presence here portendeth tragedy, wilt thou persist in this pretense of peacemaking?"

While we have Shakespeare saying "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come here as before, never, so help you mercy how strange or odd soe'er I bear myself--As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on--That you at such time seeing me never shall with arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase as 'Well, we know' or "We could an if we would' or 'If we list to speak' or 'There be, an if they might' or such ambiguous giving out, to note that you know aught or mee--this do not do so grace and mercy at your most need help you, swear."

I believe Ramuh (and the rest of the Old English speaking cast of FFXIV) is quite easy to understand...

[Aeyis]

Done and done.

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.

The interview you linked only mentions working together with other localization teams.

The following part indicates how its largely up to the localization teams judgement:

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

This is precisely the point I was making before. Localization often changes dialogue from the intent with which it was originally written.
Personally I consider this the worst kind of 'translation'. Because it's pretty arrogant to change a different writers text into something you feel is more fitting.
Translation should be all about accurately conveying the originals intent.


Localization teams can get away with a lot. That should already be obvious considering the phrasing of certain quest (names) and the usage of certain words.
I just wish they would use that creativity to accurately translate the dialogue.


Again I should stress that I do not question the translation teams ability. Merely their overlocalization.

So does removing color from dialog, but that's unavoidable because different languages have different ways of adding "color" and it's not the sort of thing that can generally cross from one language to another, especially if they're unrelated languages like Japanese and English. Removing color and then adding a rather different color back in is slightly closer to preserving the intent than removing color and leaving just the bare literal meaning to stand alone.

That is quite true. However for example American English phrases many things differently then UK English. And there are variants of those as well.
This is why I feel that the best localization should focus on translating, rather then phrasing. Make use of words with exact meaning, instead of expressions.


Currently I feel that a lot of color is added where originally there was none.Or as they put it:

And then, again, a lot of the quests, when we do our translations, we will some times add things — Japanese can be a very vague language — a lot of important information is either cut completely or it’s implied heavily. It can be kind of confusing for western players and readers, so we’ll go in and tweak things to make it a little easier to understand and a little bit clearer.

I don't know, personally I would much rather enjoy the original writing rather then someone else's take on what the writing should have been like.

I DO think that the English devs greatly over value their contribution though. When a scene is COMPLETELY different in Japanese and English, I don't care if the teams worked together, it is STILL an extremely shoddy end-result. I'm from a generation where Japanese scripts were often changed at a whim by lazy and unprofessional English translators, so my knee jerk reaction is to hate it, even IF the Japanese team approves of the change. I'm waiting for Yugiri to pull out a rice ball and loudly declare in English how she LOVES jelly donuts.

And that summs up my own reaction pretty nicely.

How can anyone with a straight face say that the teams are closely working together when the dialogue is so different between languages? I do not understand.


I hold no love for localization, I admit. But this only because of the results I see.

Having Lady Iceheart swear to me in english, calling me a fool and more...while in japanese her only words are a subdued (in a slight pleading voice) ''warrior of light''
How do these 2 very different characters carry the same intent?

[Gralna]

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Koji also revealed in a lore panel, how leve quests backstory was really bare, but that the english localization team wanted to add some flavour to it so they created these elaborate over the top backstories for why you are killing such and such enemies, or trying to find the hidden enemies. It got such positive results, that he was asked to translate them into the japanese version.

[Almalexia]

Since ARR launch, I've assumed that they're doing it just to screw with you.

Not with me, because I find it funny that people don't like a perfectly valid English phrase. But with you, and people like you, who don't like or understand the phrase.

And I find it hilarious.

"Must needs" is used liberally in the ARR dialogue to the point of grating my eyeballs every time I see it.

You don't have to agree with me, but I appreciate someone stepped up to the plate to be the condescending jackass in an English thread. I can only regret being too late.

[Viridiana]

The interview you linked only mentions working together with other localization teams.

With reading comprehension like that, it's no wonder you don't like the dialogue in the 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."

"For example, the hyur and miqo’te names for NPCs are all done by the English team, the Elzen names are all conceived by the French team, the Lalafell names come from the Japanese team, and the Roegadyn names are a joint effort between the German and English teams and so, again, you have all these aspects of the game that are being created by not just the Japanese side, but also by the localization side as well."

"And then, again, a lot of the quests, when we do our translations, we will some times add things — Japanese can be a very vague language — a lot of important information is either cut completely or it’s implied heavily. It can be kind of confusing for western players and readers, so we’ll go in and tweak things to make it a little easier to understand and a little bit clearer. 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."