Feature Request/Suggestion - English (JP) Language option in Launcher

[Akria]

Original Post.

Honestly, I agree with you, and I don't understand why you're getting so much pushback for this suggestion.

Not only is the English localization objectively harder to read, but a lot of their localization rewrites also often get in the way of story, and sometimes I feel like they're even disrespecting the work the writers have put in by changing things so drastically. I saw a comparison between a very important cutscene involving [SPOILER] Minfillia and the Warriors of Darkness [/SPOILER] and it completely blew my mind with just how messed up the localization rewriting was in that scene.

I'm lucky because I happen to speak French as fluently as I speak English, and after taking 2 years to get through the MSQ in English I've decided to re-do the story in French to see the difference and it's so much easier to read, it's not even funny.

No "ye olde French", no unintelligible Urianger, way less liberties taken, things are more to the point. I'm still in ARR patches currently, yet MSQ just feels so much easier to get through. I only wish that my fellow English-speaking players could have a similar experience.

I would have caught up with Endwalker in less than a year had I played in French from the start, since the main reason it took so long is that I had to parse my way through the absolute word salad that we have in English. It was giving me headaches and I often had to take breaks to even realize what was being said. My sub time would have literally been used more effectively, and it's something I regret a lot.

People keep suggesting to "learn Japanese if you hate it so much" and it's just not a fair thing to say at all. The idea that people should learn a whole other language just to get the accurate, easier to read version of the story is ridiculous.

Personally I just wish they never took such liberties altogether, yet here we are... So your suggestion is probably the best case scenario, especially considering that not that much work would need to be put in when it comes to the implementation.

However, this issue has always been quite bad, and not just with this game, but with tons of games from Japan. I hope I can one day learn Japanese so I don't have to gamble on middlemen interfering with the original work.

Thank you for posting about this, it was quite a good read. I will be sharing this around with my friends and see what they think. Have a good day/night wherever you are.

[AllenThyl]

Honestly, I agree with you, and I don't understand why you're getting so much pushback for this suggestion.

Not only is the English localization objectively harder to read, but a lot of their localization rewrites also often get in the way of story, and sometimes I feel like they're even disrespecting the work the writers have put in by changing things so drastically.

The voice of the mage soul in p9 in the JP dub is young and energetic, but old and smokey in EN. Absolutely baffling how people can defend this. This isn't even some "nuance" thing, this is straight up change in character.

[PorxiesRCute]

The voice of the mage soul in p9 in the JP dub is young and energetic, but old and smokey in EN. Absolutely baffling how people can defend this. This isn't even some "nuance" thing, this is straight up change in character.

P9's voice actor choices in English were straight-up ridiculous, but that's not something that OP's suggestion would have changed; this suggestion is only about offering a different on-screen text that's more faithful to the Japanese dialogue.

OP has said multiple times they're not suggesting multiple VA recordings, and even if they were, "faithful translation" and "similar-sounding voices" are different topics.

[Telkira]

P9's voice actor choices in English were straight-up ridiculous, but that's not something that OP's suggestion would have changed; this suggestion is only about offering a different on-screen text that's more faithful to the Japanese dialogue.

OP has said multiple times they're not suggesting multiple VA recordings, and even if they were, "faithful translation" and "similar-sounding voices" are different topics.

It's semi-relevant. It goes to show that a lot of the localization choices factored in things like voice talent and how voice direction, accents, etc. influence how these characters are intended to be received or perceived by the playerbase. Like you don't want to give a character a certain type of voice or accent that the player might not 'hear' when they read their dialog in a text box.
But a lot of players (myself included) choose to play with Japanese voiceover and audio, so we're not considered in that.

As you pointed out, my ask would basically just be to have the EN text-content be representative of the spoken Japanese dialog you hear in cutscenes.