1 Month in impressions/criticisms...

[Noxifer]

we speak in a slalom around issues and avoid being too direct, but that's very much part of our identity, too.

Now, in the English, which could be just as indirect and get the point across nevertheless, everything's spelled out and sometimes, the thing unspoken in the Japanese, becomes something totally unfitting for the character in the English, when they try to "fill in the blanks".

It's rather interesting that this argument has been used in the opposite direction to defend the localization of the first Midgardsorm conversation. "But in the JP text he's being too forward and straight to the point, at least the EN version doesn't assume the player is an idiot who can't read subtext." (paraphrased from various comments made)

Personally I also go with JP voices and EN text. I'm not good enough at Japanese to understand everything, but I prefer the voice acting. And even with my poor understanding, I catch some 'translations' that make me go "wait, what?" And sometimes I can point out the Japanese term used to my flatmate or FC mates and explain (some of) the implications of that term.
Like the difference between Iceheart and Koori no Miko. I understand the Japanese term doesn't quite have an English equivalent, but it did help to make me realize a lot earlier in the storyline what was going to happen (without spoilers, that is).

[Tenkuu]

Localization, I'm one of the weird ones and actually prefer it in English. Questionable voice acting and localization and all. Sue me.

Some people prefer to use english because it's less work to understand overall, ie they prefer what they hear to match what they read. In my case, I've heard too much of the wooden voice acting on YouTube and see too much of the poorly translated lines in the subs that I honestly can't stand to play this game fully in english. If I understood japanese more fluently, I'd even fully switch over to the japanese client. At least you're aware that the voice acting in english is questionable. It's not a big surprise considering that they take voice acting much more seriously as a career in Japan though, whereas here it's mostly normal actors filling in for voices every once in a while between their other jobs.

[Tenkuu]

For XIV, I opted to play in English but kept the voices in Japanese as is my preference. It made communication so much less confusing since all of my pretentiously-named items at least had the same names for everyone else in my FC. But hearing the Japanese dialogue being translated so differently at times completely alters the way some characters come across. Alphinaud is one of the worst for me; I really like him in Japanese but his English lines often sound dismissive, ignorant or pointless. It's as though I'm watching two completely different characters at the same time and it makes talking with my friends who use the English dub jolly confusing.

This. I think most people who hate Minfilia and Alphinaud aren't getting the full picture of who these people are. Alphinaud is very capable, intelligent and polite, and this reflects quite clearly in the japanese version. You still get the impression that he's a bit arrogant and very confident in himself, but not to the extent that the english version makes him sound. I really like even the 2.0 Alphinaud because he makes such genuine efforts to help everyone and come into his own. I even see similarities with Thancred's character there.

And seriously, I don't understand most of Urianger's English dialogue even though I'm familiar with many forms of classical English; the words are familiar but the meandering way he talks is completely unlike anything which approaches plausibility. Some of the quirky accents and styles of speech are inaccurate Hollywood-style approximations of Shakespearean English or regional (often British) accents and they sound super-weird, just like someone impersonating a regional accent they don't actually use in real life.

Most of the time I understand Urianger fine, but then there's the scene when you're sent by Minfilia to ask if he needs anything while she's being visited by Elidibus: Urianger ends that conversation by implying that something he said in the middle of all that was somewhat insulting to you (or he felt that you might take it that way), but I had to re-read it several times to even get a clue as to what it was, and I'm not even sure I get it even now. Checking the french version made it a little clearer, but still not completely clear.

Don't get me wrong, some of the localisation choices are absolutely inspired; I've found several of the jokes beyond hilarious and someone on the English script team has a real talent for writing appropriately nasty dialogue for the more arrogant characters. Overall, it's a solid adaptation. But I wish they'd rein themselves in from time to time with the weirder styles of speech or when they're 'reworking' the way a character comes across in English, because we really do miss out on a lot of the nuances in the English script. Maybe that would be ok if everyone played in a bubble and only spoke with people using the same version of the game as them...

The localization for me is passable. Some of the jokes can be interesting, but when the original intent of the character isn't a joke (like with Thancred sometimes), it comes off as akward at best. For me some of the best pieces of authentic humor are the linkpearl conversation between Thancred and Urianger after the 2.0 endgame (during that one quest when you're still with Thancred), and later on Moenbryda's first introduction to all of the Scions and the little episode that follows when Urianger finally shows up. The nastiness you speak of is part of the way those characters speak in japanese too, and it can translate well because the general intent of speaking coarsely is the same. However, with characters like Thancred, it feels like his personality is wholly less serious in the english version. Generally speaking he's a charmer with a tendency to speak in a very roguish manner, except at the beginning where when you first meet him, he gets tripped up in starting to speak formally (likely because he spends a lot of time at the Ul'dah court), then immediately switches over to casual speech. Heck, from what I can tell in the Nanamo Tales from the Calamity story in japanese, he's speaking very casually to her, in a completely friendly manner even, like they have had this sort of easy relationship for a while, which would make sense if he's been serving as her advisor. In the english version, she makes a reference to him being irreverent, but doesn't seem to have a problem with it, instead acknowledging that she's the one behaving like a spoiled child. His honest and straighforward attitude is probably refreshing to her.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

I'll never understand why gamers nowadays have to pick apart entire games and critique every little thing. Do you find the game fun or not? if it's not fun, dont play it lol. Everyone is Siskel and Ebert all of a sudden.

[Tenkuu]

I'm gonna point out some things

[LIST][*]Unlike a niche anime set in a Japanese high-school where the audience is small enough to be expected to know something about the county of origin, an 100 accurate translation down to the retaining of honorifics is not necessary.[*]The game (and Franchise) are inspired by western fantasy and mythology, and I'm pretty sure Toliken (which all modern fantasy rips off by default) did make his world similar to the eras that inspired his epics in many ways, dialogue especially included, XIV's localization does the same. You are in a medieval fantasy world? expect medieval sounding dialogue, not chanspeak, memes and esoteric abbreviations (well except in the chat itself)

Language quirks are fine as long as you don't use them as an excuse for outright inaccurate translation of what someone is saying. Honestly, there's no excuse for that. No one is asking for a fully literal translation, but at least stop omitting words when they should be there and don't add in unnecessary words when they shouldn't be there. As to the honorifics, they're not hard to translate in the first place. Then there's the fact that when characters are speaking casually to each other in the original japanese version, the english version for whatever reason adds in some unneeded formality, and at times does the exact opposite by ignoring a formality used in the japanese version. It's all very disorganized and imo a sign of lazy efforts at localization. They could definitely make it better. The german and french versions generally don't have these issues, so why is the english version making excuses for having them? More to the point, why does it allow itself to have these issues?

It's rather interesting that this argument has been used in the opposite direction to defend the localization of the first Midgardsorm conversation. "But in the JP text he's being too forward and straight to the point, at least the EN version doesn't assume the player is an idiot who can't read subtext." (paraphrased from various comments made)

Personally I also go with JP voices and EN text. I'm not good enough at Japanese to understand everything, but I prefer the voice acting. And even with my poor understanding, I catch some 'translations' that make me go "wait, what?" And sometimes I can point out the Japanese term used to my flatmate or FC mates and explain (some of) the implications of that term.
Like the difference between Iceheart and Koori no Miko. I understand the Japanese term doesn't quite have an English equivalent, but it did help to make me realize a lot earlier in the storyline what was going to happen (without spoilers, that is).

I really hate the spoonfeeding argument. Americans are too dumb to understand your complicated japanese speech so let's spoonfeed them everything to the point of sounding ridiculously overstated. The Koori no Miko difference is one of the ones I abhor the most tbh: the name of Iceheart makes a mockery of Ysayle by comparison. And I absolutely am not interested in a smartassing dragon just because Americans are going to identify with him more if he's portrayed that way. Even with my limited understanding of japanese, it was so clear from the japanese audio and general logic that an ancient dragon is not going to spend time that he considers far more precious than you smartassing you and generally not getting to the point. I respect japanese Midgarsormr far more.

[Tenkuu]

I'll never understand why gamers nowadays have to pick apart entire games and critique every little thing. Do you find the game fun or not? if it's not fun, dont play it lol. Everyone is Siskel and Ebert all of a sudden.

This is what these forums are for: discussions. And that's specifically what this thread is: a critique. You knew that coming in here, so why even bother with a pointless comment like that? Make your own thread complaining about others' complaints if you want, but don't bring your meh attitude into a serious exchange of ideas and opinions. Besides, the OP has made it very clear that these are minor annoyances to him and that they not detract much from his overall enjoyment of the game as a whole.

[kazeandi]

Like the difference between Iceheart and Koori no Miko. I understand the Japanese term doesn't quite have an English equivalent, but it did help to make me realize a lot earlier in the storyline what was going to happen (without spoilers, that is).

"koori no miko" would be a ”shrine maiden of ice"

[Tenkuu]

"koori no miko" would be a ”shrine maiden of ice"

More simply, you could translate it as "priestess". If the Sahagin can have a character clearly named as a priest, what would be so wrong with giving Ysayle her due (in terms of how her followers revere her) and calling her a priestess, after all?

[DragonSlayer45]

To each their own, I think this game's localization is one of the game's high points. Admittedly, this is the first time I have seen anyone criticize the localization. I even see people praise it over the Japanese script.

Face it, some things in Japanese don't translate well into English or other languages so expect a few things to get lost in translation. This has been a thing since the very first Final Fantasy game was localized in English, and we can't forget about old Ted Woosley and the creative liberates he took with FFVI.

The English localization team is given free reign over the translation. Can't speak for the German and French localization teams though.

[kazeandi]

More simply, you could translate it as "priestess". If the Sahagin can have a character clearly named as a priest, what would be so wrong with giving Ysayle her due (in terms of how her followers revere her) and calling her a priestess, after all?

You can simplify it and make it "priestess", but that's not what a miko is.
However, this would at least not take the characters, their relationships, their personal quirks that reflect in the language they use (and with whom they speak how, and in which situation they use which technique to express something they find hard to say or don't want to say for obvious reasons) and transform them to a point that you can't tell in the English version who's speaking with whom if you only got the text with no names and a blacked out screen.

I can read one line and know "that's tataru, only tataru speaks like that". In the English version? Nope. Tataru, Minfilia, Haurchefant, all the same. No soul, no personality. And worst of all, all those subtle nuances are gone that help transport the bonds they share.