[Spoilers, kind of] Characters who are completely different between JP/ENG

[Ametrine]

Heh. When was the last time you saw an R rated movie?

JP FEFates had a male character, Saizo, reacting to your avatar petting his face with the tone of being forced into physical assault against his will, only letting you do so because you are a royal, and not letting you would mean death. There is also another character, Zero (Niles in EN version), who asks avatar how they would react if he forced himself upon you right then and there.
It ain't subtle, and these moments are totally cut from the English version.
I think sexual assault references (threats, accusations) are perfectly kosher to put on the chopping block to keep the rating on teen. Neither character was changed otherwise. There are actually many lines in the petting minigame that are really sketchy ranging from the person being baffled and uncomfortable to liking it way too much.

[Brannigan]

Neither character was changed otherwise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6A-ySMHYI

I mean, just saying. It's a game about war. Referencing rape and atrocities but not depicting them is solidly in T territory. FFXIV does it all the time. (It's possible that these rapeferences are another Koji-Foxism)

The biggest thing that has always bothered me, while not a character/story thing for say, is one of the tank titles.

English: The Meat Shield

Japanese: White Knight

It's something that will bother me for the rest of this game, cause I would love to have the Japanese title in English.

Yeah. We got Meat Shield and Meat Axe instead of White Knight and Bloody Warrior, but then they chickened out when it came to Meat Sword. Thanks for the meme titles, Koji-Fox. They sure make me want to run content for the achievements! Americans hate cool titles. Now is the age of memes.

[CosmicKirby]

The English version generally suffers from overly-flowery language more than actual mistranslation, but that's just the style that Koji Fox likes.

Dueling Circle. The inevitable title of his portfolio.

[dinnertime]

They changed almost every scholar skill name in 2.0. Scholar skills in Japanese have a tactician-themed flavor, like they do now with stuff like Deployment Tactics. Koji and friends renamed their stuff to make them sound like priests (Sacred Soil) and stripped the tactician theme from them.

Aside from Sacred Soil (roughly “Team Treatment Field”) and Lustrate (“Life-Activation Method”), they actually mean the same. They did it to simplify things.

EN: Adloquium (encouraging words), JP: “Encouragement Tactics”. Adloquium is also in FFXI.
EN: Succor (to aid/support in times of distress), JP: “Morale-Raising Tactics” or “Morale Elevation Tactics”. Even though the wording for both definitions are different, I believe it's synonymous.
EN: Indomitability (impossible to subdue or defeat), JP: Roughly “Inflexibility and Indomitabilitiy Tactics” but can be "Indomitable Tactics". One of the words literally mean indomitability and inflexibility is synonymous with it.
EN: Excogitation (to think out carefully), JP: Roughly “Careful Thinking Tactics” Honestly for this one it literally means cogitate/excogitate.
EN: Broil (To "cook" with intense heat), JP: I guess "Aetherflame Method". EN: Broil II, JP: "Magic Flame Method".
Pretty much every other skill Scholar has that isn't listed here is worded the same in Japanese.

[Brannigan]

Aside from Sacred Soil (roughly “Team Treatment Field”) and Lustrate (“Life-Activation Method”), they actually mean the same. They did it to simplify things.
-

I'd give you Adloquium because it's in XI, except only seven people in the English speaking world knew what Adloquium meant without looking it up. Like I guess you could maybe go Loq->Loquacious->Something to do with talking, but c'mon. That isn't simplifying things. Also it doesn't evoke tactics, tacticians, battlefields, or anything like that. IMO a better alternative would have been Rally, Praise(FFT Orator), Encourage, or even Pep Talk. I can't agree with morale raising and succor being synonymous at all though - maybe it's Japanese nuance? Succor for me evokes images of the red cross or the church providing relief after a disaster or something, or letting someone into your house to ride out a storm. The point is I think they could have easily mentioned formations, regrouping, etc and it would have maintained the flavor a lot better. Leeches also aren't something you'd use on a battlefield, I think. Emergency Medical Aid, Treat Wounds? There's gotta be something that

Also specifically the terms "Lustrate" and "Sacred Soil" are overly priestly and taint the whole thing when scholars really have dick all to do with religion/holiness, which is WHM territory.

The others are post-2.0, where they stopped doing that.

[Nestama]

snip

From what I've looked up, they went with numbers because of intuitiveness (numbers = order or learning), or something. I originally found it odd, but I've grown used to it (and when you look it up, only Japanese and English localisations are consistent with the spell naming convention. French and German seem to bounce back and forth with using numbers or suffixes/words)

• With the exception of Sacred Soil (Field Therapy Team) and maybe Lustrate (Life activation method), Adloquium and Succor in Japanese are pretty much the definition of the spells (Latin). Adloquium (Measures to encourage inspiration) is encouragement and Succor (Measures to raise morale) is "give assistance or aid to" which roughly has the same meaning.
• Changing Invincible to Hallowed Ground works better behind Paladin lore (sanctified, blessed, etc). Plus, in FFXI, Invincible was a lie... as it did not protect you from magic spells
• They probably replaced Doom with Scorn because Doom has some infamy in the FF franchise.
• I'm looking up Defender, but all I'm finding are weapons (sword), a Job (Bangaa using lance, Sentinel from XIII) and enemies. It was never an ability in English. Defiance works better for WAR due to the fact they use an Axe and do not use a shield (which would provide better defence). Deliverance is a tough one, though... though if you're still holding hate while in Deliverance, I guess you are still technically "rescuing" your group from danger and are helping by killing the monster faster (it still sounds tanky for a tank Job, even if it's technically DPS stance).
• I'm giving Infuriate a pass, as Warcry is inconsistent in the Final Fantasy franchise. In FFXI, it's an AoE party buff. In FFTA, it's an AoE debuff. In FFTA2, it's an AoE buff again. In FFXIII, it's an enemy ability that gives them Haste and Bravery. Also WAR lore or whatever.
• Which is probably why they went with Cleric and not Crusade (I don't think there's even much of a religion in FFXIV. Conjurers are mostly hippies with super powers).
• Protection of the Goddess... which kinda implies you'd be getting a defensive buff of sorts, when really all you're getting is MP. Shroud of Saints at least sounds 'White Magey' (they're kinda saint-like. Being kind and all that to those in need of heals). But now it's gone in place of Lucid Dreaming~

Fun fact, the French spell name for Combust is Superior Conjunction. I love it!

[dinnertime]

Snip

I think Adloquium is fine. Scholar has this theme of having a deep vocabulary in their skills in English, which I think fits Scholar. At least now they're also fitting that theme of them of being a tactician while having deep vocabulary in skills. Other than Lustrate or Sacred Soil (the most disappointing one), It works.

Also for Succor, I just used a general definition but yeah, it can go that way. As for Leeches...it's also an archaic word for a doctor apparently. Still that name makes no sense to me.

[Daralii]

I think Adloquium is fine. Scholar has this theme of having a deep vocabulary in their skills in English, which I think fits Scholar. At least now they're also fitting that theme of them of being a tactician while having deep vocabulary in skills. Other than Lustrate or Sacred Soil (the most disappointing one), It works.

Also for Succor, I just used a general definition but yeah, it can go that way. As for Leeches...it's also an archaic word for a doctor apparently. Still that name makes no sense to me.

Doctors would try to treat disease by applying leeches to a person, thinking that they would suck out the infection through the patient's blood. I think the practice still sees some very rare use.

[dinnertime]

Doctors would try to treat disease by applying leeches to a person, thinking that they would suck out the infection through the patient's blood. I think the practice still sees some very rare use.

Yeah. I can see why they named it that way but it's so random.
Also just to add, the Japanese name of Leeches translates to "Life-Purifying Method" but simply "Purification Method".

[Cidel]

Sort of more back to the original topic at hand:

Have players out there noticed some other characters who VO choices make them seem like completely different characters?

I think the biggest one in recent memory definitely is Lakshmi, as discussed previously. Her tone varies for sure, and you're probably going to prefer one over the other(s). I do see the point about justifying she (should be) upset, but I find her facial expression far too stoic and borderline serene; thus I prefer the Japanese presentation simply because its more fitting, for reasons.

Another one that stood out to me was Papalymo, though I shouldn't have to elaborate further.

But I was not aware how Soroban comes off with a somewhat different demeanor until I changed the language to rewatch cutscenes after seeing this topic. Well, I knew immediately after hearing Soroban who was voicing him; his voice actor has a lot of roles (fun fact, his Japanese voice actor does Thancred) and I could just hear the Blazblue's Hazama channeling in his voice, so much that I thought for sure he wouldn't be trust-worthy simply-based on his manner of speech. His English voice makes him seem much less "shifty" (for lack of better word) and his voice actor is unknown to me. Overall though, I don't think either representation suits him any more or less than the other, so I'm neutral on it.