As a Non-Native English Speaker This Game is the Most Hellish Game I Have Ever Played

[Krotoan]

Isn't ''essential'' also used for the things means important, crucial? I thought so

But Quintessential does not mean that in any way. They are not synonyms.

[StriderShinryu]

I see this sort of complaint from time to time, and I don't really agree with it at all. Granted, I am a native English speaker but, to me, the language used in the game just reads as a stylistic choice. It's basically world building. Are there occasional words that I don't understand at first? Of course. Could they use simpler words? Sure, but that would make the game feel on one hand dumbed down and on the other hand too modern/normalized. People in this world speak a little differently because, well, it's a different world. If they spoke just like you or me it would feel less like a different setting to me.

[Enkidoh]

Its old english. When Urianger speaks that is the real hard point for most english speakers, non native or native. His dialogue is often confusing and requires re-reading his lines between 2-5 times.

Actually, it's not. Old English is pretty much completely unintelligible to a Modern English speaker unless you're a specially trained linguist, and has a lot of roots in Celtic and Germanic/Norse languages, especially the use of letters/characters that Modern English has long abandoned, and pretty much resembles Modern English in the same way a kite resembles a helicopter.

What people call 'Old English' is instead more truthfully called 'Mock Shakespearean', which is just Modern English peppered with lots of archaic or old-fashioned seeming words and phrases, like 'ye' and 'thou' (such words were actually common in Early Modern English). It's generally considered cliched nowadays but is so pervasive in fiction no one usually calls it out.

Thankfully in FFXIV only Urianger really speaks like that, and even in ShB SE seem to have mostly toned his Mock Shakespearean dialogue down considerably (and to be fair, Urianger was hardly the first FF character to speak that way - remember 'Mr Thou', I mean, Cyan in FFVI? )

[MikkoAkure]

I prefer unique dialogue that's different between characters and shows their personality more than 3rd grade level words spread across the whole game with no sense of individuality or creativity.

You could just do what I do and look up the weird words that Urianger says, find out what they mean, and then move on. Or you could infer what is meant by the context. If there's a word you don't know being used, you usually can figure out what it means based on the context in which it's being used. One of my friends from Russia loves Shakespeare and wanted to read it in the original English and she gets by using both ways, and the dictionary in the back of her book.

But considering Koji Fox is the co-head of both lore and world-building for all language editions of the game, as well as the head of the English localization, and the fact that he seems to be a big fan of the FFXII and FFT writing, it doesn't seem like this is going to change anytime soon.

[Jin-]

It's pretty stupid and same with the dragon dialogue. Gets better later on thankfully

[Harlot]

But isn't this odd don't you think. I wanna play a game, if i wanted to study english with looking at the words i don't know the meaning of and try to learn them i would have just do that. Like i said i would have study english. And isn't it odd to say that in order to understand some of the words you need some what basic knowledge of Shakespeare. Last time i checked mmorpg didn't require knowledge of old, or Shakespeare english.

[Snorky]

Well okay then.

[Krotoan]

But isn't this odd don't you think. I wanna play a game, if i wanted to study english with looking at the words i don't know the meaning of and try to learn them i would have just do that. Like i said i would have study english. And isn't it odd to say that in order to understand some of the words you need some what basic knowledge of Shakespeare. Last time i checked mmorpg didn't require knowledge of old, or Shakespeare english.

While I can appreciate not wanting to get all that deep in a language to play a game for fun, limiting the writers to a basic vocabulary hobbles what they can do with the storytelling and how deep they can make the characters.

I won't say that certain characters aren't annoying to read, but that may well be the intention. They're supposed to be frustrating or confusing to listen to. It's really not any different for the Japanese version of Urianger, (according to my Japanese speaking friends) he speaks using a very formal style and a lot of older words that most people don't use anymore, so it's not just the english localization that requires deeper language comprehension to fully get.

[Herebedragons]

Readeth festinate, if't be true thee wanteth to reacheth endgame apace.

[Nishira]

English isn’t my native language either but I love Urianger, he cracks me up. It’s part of his character, you’re supposed to go ‘what the heck are you going on about?!’ And when you get to the essence of it, it’s often spot on, he’s brilliant imo. I understand your complaint but it’s flavour, and while liking that comes down to personal taste, the design behind it is obvious. It’s intentional.

Like others already did, I would recommend looking up words you don’t know. It’s an excellent way of deepening your understanding of a language. Instead of being frustrated, try being curious Different mindset to the same situation, different experience. You’re free to not want to, but sometimes changing the way you engage with something can yield unexpected results. Which is interesting, at least to me haha.