English Translation Terrible.

[Renalt]

Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

[Absimiliard]

Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

I don't know of anyone that wants a 1 for 1 translation. That wouldn't work anyway, simply because there are some Japanese words and concepts with no English equivalents. There will always be a need to reword things to make sense when moving between languages, especially languages as dissimilar as Japanese and English. That said, it is entirely feasible to do this without losing the message. Unfortunately, the EN localization team tends to take some liberties at inopportune times. I don't know whether it's something Yoshi-P knows about or not, and frankly I don't care. I simply prefer the contents of the JP version, and apparently a not insignificant number of others do as well.

Instead they tried to convey a similar meaning/feeling and nailed it.

I encourage you to look into the differences in characterizations between the EN and JP versions of the game. G'raha and Horsefountain aside, there are quite a few other instances of it. Horsefountain simply happens to be the most notable as well as (in my opinion) the most egregious. You might also look into general differences between localizations in Endwalker if you'd like something more recent.

Correct me if Im wrong but I often had the, well now I assume misconception, that Japanese people were less openly pervy and more “respectful”, somewhat reserved, as being openly pervy tends to make society cast them aside in a way, or so Ive seen in documentaries online over the years.

How did it happen that we are experiencing the exact opposite in ffxiv? I was surprised about the differences between both translations, unless online and in game is their only outlet since in reality it’s shameful to act that thirsty.

Im not trying to judge or anything before anyone jumps, Im genuinely curious, because I always expected us to be more open to such innuendos, and often when reading spicy dialogue I thought to myself there’s no way in hell it’s the same in japanese, boy was I wrong.

It's one of those things where it's fine in stuff like anime and games but not anything remotely close to acceptable for real people to engage in.

[SannaR]

I don't know of anyone that wants a 1 for 1 translation. That wouldn't work anyway, simply because there are some Japanese words and concepts with no English equivalents. There will always be a need to reword things to make sense when moving between languages, especially languages as dissimilar as Japanese and English. That said, it is entirely feasible to do this without losing the message. Unfortunately, the EN localization team tends to take some liberties at inopportune times.

There are people who want a 1:1 for the English though. As that's how the German and French has been. There's also those who would rather the English localization be aimed more at the European audience instead of the North American audiences. They pop up any time this subject gets brought up time and time again. Or they blame ShB and EW on Koji even after having been told Kate was given the role of lead English localization around the time Koji got moved to do the localization for XVI. And yes those who feel a 1:1 of the English version would be a good thing don't care that there are some words or phrases that just wouldn't work or make as much sense if translated that way.

For example there are many who somehow didn't pick up on the WoL being important to or just how important they were to Emet-Selch until 5.3 when shade Hythlodaeus is handing us the Azem memory crystal. Even though Emet-Selch drops various hints either with what he says, how he says it, or with how he looks at the WoL while saying it. Sometimes I wonder if it's due to these people not being native English speakers and so miss the nuances that most native English speakers tend to pick up.

[Fawkes]

Believe me you do NOT want a 1 for 1 translation from Japanese to English unless you want the most nonsensical drivel ever. But hey if you don't like the english then don't use the english.

Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

[Renalt]

Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

Here's a good video about translations. I liked the bit about the room names.

https://youtu.be/0DMdKDjaNfU

[Midareyukki]

Localization is a balancing act. If you want to do it well you can't translate too directly and you can't stray too far from the translation.

It is. Usually, in technical texts (so think school papers, thesis and instruction manuals), you generally only ever change sentences for the sake of clarity. It's mostly got to do with sentence structure and grammar.

In literary texts, they usually go for a healthy balance. They start out being literal so they stick closely to the text, making the appropriate sentence and grammar changes. However, there's so much more nuance and even author style/intention at times that there needs to be a massive change. Sometimes character dialogue won't sound natural. Sometimes there are references and metaphors. Sometimes there are dynamics at play that we take for granted in our own language but have to be specified.

Some words are super straightforward in English and not at all in other languages, such as "Yes" in Japanese, or in the European variant of Romance Languages, the use of "You", which can change far more than just grammar. It can change the tone of the character's speech entirely.

The key component is to always transmit the same message as the author is transmitting to the reader. But that message will always be distorted due to culture, perceptions, language, etc. Our job is to minimize the impact, not rewrite it from scratch. When we do, it's either minor, or we discuss with the editor (normally).

What the DE and FR versions of FF14 do is way more standard than what the EN one does. EN's translation isn't a typical one, but I wouldn't put the blame on the translators nor say it's a bad one.
It's just different, with a very atypical situation. And while I like to think "atypical isn't bad", some of the results may vary, and that will be 100% subjective and up to the reader.

So if you know JP and feel like the EN version is bad or missed the mark, it's normal. If you were in their shoes, who knows if you'd have done the same. Because if you come into this from the perspective that this translation is like any other, then you'll always have something to nitpick.
('you' in general, not you directly Fawkes)