Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[Rannie]

Kate Kate was introduced officially via a Live Letter or fan Fest to have taken over Lead Localization for the game. This was done before Endwalker after Shadow Bringers. Announced in about 2021.

Koji ended up localizing ffxvi if I remember the credits correctly.

[ReynTime]

I think I remember hearing Koji, like Ishikawa, was in more of a supervisory role now and Kate took over as the localisation lead? Can't give you the source on that though unfortunately, maybe it was a fanfest panel? Kate was definitely in the credits for it, and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Koji's name there too

Obviously there's been some oversights- I mean the "??!?" face I pulled when my friend told me Cahcuia is American lmao, but I don't know how much of the issue is just the poor overall writing and how much is how it was localised. I've definitely seen lines that were only in the Japanese text (Ketenramm saying Cahcuia seemed like a difficult/harsh mentor) or many cases of small things being left out that make the meaning of a line seem more ambiguous when it was clear cut in Japanese (Iyate saying Erenville would cry & beg to go with his mother on adventures, which could be read as he was throwing tantrums, when in the Japanese it specifies he was lonely/missed her so much he would cry and he was frantically/desperately begging her to take him with her).

But it's very likely this is something that happens in all previous expansions too- I know I've heard Haurchefant was characterised differently between EN and JP dialogues, so I'm not gonna sit here and act like this is some new issue that only DT is suffering with. It's probably only more of an issue because the base materials they had to work with weren't up to standard. I'd rather it felt empty than find they added in a bunch of plot stuff that wasn't in the original tbh.

A year ago there was an entire thread pointing out how much of Endwalker's EN dialog changed compared to the japanese, french and german scripts.

[SummerAnt]

I had to gather my thoughts about Wookie Lamat. I fully agree that she ruined DT's story.

They gave us a whole new continent to explore but the world felt so small for me because I was tied to WL all the damn time (except maybe Shaaloani). As a hobby writer, I find this really weird. Even Middy (the father of dragons observing me) or Ardbert (a literal ghost bound to me) gave me more privacy than her. I didn't feel like having a nice laidback adventure but having a summer school trip led by Wookie. Like why couldn't I wander around a bit? It should've been more interesting if they're introduced to the Promises by each zone (before/during the zone-branching) THEN decide who to choose to support. I know I was forced to choose her (worst mistake ever) but at least, it could've given me the illusion to think: why shouldn't I support Koana or heck Zoraal'ja?

I hate the cope about "we're mentoring her" or "we already had our spotlight" or "it's a new arc so ofc it's a slow start". Even as a silent MC, we have NO other choice but to agree with her. If we were her mentor, we would've challenged her ideals based on OUR experiences about the world. How peace and understanding is very hard to earn? How one's ambition could potentially ruin the lives of others? How is keeping one's legacy in respect while moving forward is difficult? It's like the writers couldn't implement those ideas into the story. If we were a mentor for Wookie by nodding and clapping for every small thing she did, I think we failed miserably. We could've been an Auron-like mentor for 'her' Tidus (except he's been a more compelling character overall).
We already had several instances where the focus was shifted to others. HW was mostly about Alphinaud's development yet we had an overall presence within the plot. Yoshi P literally said: 'Alphinaud can be considered to be one of the protagonist's of Final Fantasy XIV'. Yet I don't think he choked us with his presence.

And it's a minor nitpick but I'm not very fond of her design. It's Aloy's hair with Naruto colors plus a cat. It's probably a unique model but the small muzzle looks so uncanny. She reminds me of those toothpaste ads. The more you look at it, the more creepy it becomes. ;-;

[DeadlyAlbatross]

At least we know that Final Days never affected anyone on Tural because Wuk Lamat lived there.

[Wingale]

For those who play HSR, March 7th's sidequest in patch 2.4 is more interesting than Wak Lamut's arc in Dawntrail.

[Shibi]

...but he generally tried to keep things accurate, tone especially...

Koji learnt a lot after the hot-mess EN localisation of Haurchefant, whom he'd tried to neuter into US sensibilities.

[aTanpopo]

A year ago there was an entire thread pointing out how much of Endwalker's EN dialog changed compared to the japanese, french and german scripts.

I'm not surprised honestly. Part of me thinks its a shame, but also up until this point I've felt FF14's story and characters are really engaging so I haven't had the need to even look into localisation differences. I'm sure if I went back and checked everything I'd be more disappointed. Obviously I didn't join up here until DT, so I didn't see that thread, but do you remember if the changes to the dialogue felt jarring/particularly bad? I might try and dig that thread up myself so I can see what people were saying.

I guess the issue I'm personally left with now is that how I look at characters like Wuk Lamat and Erenville is going to be very different than how their EN characterisation show them, so I will probably have to keep going back and reading the quests in JP and come to some middle ground conclusion. Sometimes its great to see the little bits of nuance that can only be shown in the JP text- I love how from a character design perspective you can do so much subtle story telling just through how someone talks, but at the same time that will just come back around and slap me in the face with disappointment if I see something that felt missing in the EN translation.

Guess I have to suck it up and study more Japanese or just get over it lmao

[Serilyn]

I was pondering watching a streamer play DT to make a list of all my issues with it. But in the end after taking what has felt like forever to drag myself through the expansion (I started on launch day! But I've just found it so difficult to get through this expansion that I frequently just have to stop playing because its so unenjoyable and dull. If it were an anime I'd have stopped watching long ago, same with anything else. Instead because this is FFXIV I keep watching every cutscene and reading everything, talking to NPCs, just in case there's actually something interesting that comes up.) I'm just mentally exhausted by all the constant Wuk Lamat and just abysmal writing and story decisions in general (I actually think her voice is fine, its just her character and the writing that I take issue with).

On the up side? I guess I am starting to learn from it. I now know that if a character talks to mine, they are a) going to actually be talking to Wuk Lamat who is nearby me, b) if she isn't there, they will be asking about her, c) if by some miracle they do talk to me, it will be telling me to go with her.
If I get a private moment alone, Wuk Lamat will interrupt it.
If the group ever needs to split up, I will always be paired with Wuk Lamat.
If I get dialogue choices, 98% of the time all of them will be positive ones in favour of whatever Wuk Lamat wants.
If I need to go anywhere or do anything, I always have to talk to Wuk Lamat first.
Any conversation will always involve or relate to Wuk Lamat.
Wuk Lamat is always the first character to leave a scene, leading the group, I am always the last.
Wuk Lamat makes all the decisions, that rare 2% of the time that I am allowed to disagree? Get ignored.
If I do anything, even side quests, Wuk Lamat gets all the credit. I am not an adventuerer, I am her retainer. I have no identity of my own anymore.
I am not actually needed for combat either, Wuk Lamat could handle all this stuff solo especially with her multi-limit breaks.
I must smile, nod and agree with everything Wuk Lamat says.

I think this expansion has made sure that I really do need a holiday. From Wuk Lamat. I feel like I am absolutely burnt out on FFXIV now. Fortunately I was already considering a break to catch up on other games, so it seems a good time for it.

[Midare]

Koji learnt a lot after the hot-mess EN localisation of Haurchefant, whom he'd tried to neuter into US sensibilities.

As far as I remember, that was not Koji, but the guy who also sings that deep voice part in the theme for Thok ast Thok.

[ChouetteChouette]

I had to gather my thoughts about Wookie Lamat. I fully agree that she ruined DT's story.

They gave us a whole new continent to explore but the world felt so small for me because I was tied to WL all the damn time (except maybe Shaaloani). As a hobby writer, I find this really weird. Even Middy (the father of dragons observing me) or Ardbert (a literal ghost bound to me) gave me more privacy than her. I didn't feel like having a nice laidback adventure but having a summer school trip led by Wookie. Like why couldn't I wander around a bit? It should've been more interesting if they're introduced to the Promises by each zone (before/during the zone-branching) THEN decide who to choose to support. I know I was forced to choose her (worst mistake ever) but at least, it could've given me the illusion to think: why shouldn't I support Koana or heck Zoraal'ja?

I hate the cope about "we're mentoring her" or "we already had our spotlight" or "it's a new arc so ofc it's a slow start". Even as a silent MC, we have NO other choice but to agree with her. If we were her mentor, we would've challenged her ideals based on OUR experiences about the world. How peace and understanding is very hard to earn? How one's ambition could potentially ruin the lives of others? How is keeping one's legacy in respect while moving forward is difficult? It's like the writers couldn't implement those ideas into the story. If we were a mentor for Wookie by nodding and clapping for every small thing she did, I think we failed miserably. We could've been an Auron-like mentor for 'her' Tidus (except he's been a more compelling character overall).
We already had several instances where the focus was shifted to others. HW was mostly about Alphinaud's development yet we had an overall presence within the plot. Yoshi P literally said: 'Alphinaud can be considered to be one of the protagonist's of Final Fantasy XIV'. Yet I don't think he choked us with his presence.

And it's a minor nitpick but I'm not very fond of her design. It's Aloy's hair with Naruto colors plus a cat. It's probably a unique model but the small muzzle looks so uncanny. She reminds me of those toothpaste ads. The more you look at it, the more creepy it becomes. ;-;

I've been comparing their use of Ardbert to Wuk Lamat as well. The guy had literally nothing better to do then follow us around and talk to us yet we don't always see him in every scene. We don't have him literally following us 24/7 like a minion, we don't see his reaction to everything, he doesn't have something to say in every scene. He's not the only character Shadowbringers revolves around. Instead we have key moments with him, spaced out over the expansion. Did they realize how suffocating his character would feel otherwise? So what in the world happened in DT?