Please Provide Englsh TRANSLATION For The Japanese

[CCheshire]

Why would you be okay with the integrity of the original writing being compromised by the English localization?
Also, I'm not fluent in Japanese.

Because since you admitted you're not fluent in Japanese at all so how could you judge the accuracy of the localization in the first place?

It would be the same as me saying I studied 4 years of Spanish in HS, so I understand like 20% of the script alone, but I know the Spanish to English localization is wrong, and I want it changed because I said so? SE would casually ignore it since it's not based on anything other than vibes.

[RaionKansen]

Because since you admitted you're not fluent in Japanese at all so how could you judge the accuracy of the localization in the first place?

It would be the same as me saying I studied 4 years of Spanish in HS, so I understand like 20% of the script alone, but I know the Spanish to English localization is wrong, and I want it changed because I said so? SE would casually ignore it since it's not based on anything other than vibes.

You have to be trolling. You can understand some of a language without being fully fluent.
If anything, it forwards my point even more. Someone with an elementary school level understanding of the language and find and identify errors and inconsistencies.

[Canadane]

It was much worse back in ARR and HW.
While a lot of the localisation added a lot to the games flavour and lore, the direct script was quite bad when you hear one thing spoken and seeing another thing written.
Thankfully it hasn't been that bad in a while.

[CCheshire]

You have to be trolling. You can understand some of a language without being fully fluent.
If anything, it forwards my point even more. Someone with an elementary school level understanding of the language and find and identify errors and inconsistencies.

I mean, all professional translators have more than an elementary level of Japanese unless you have a lot of professional J>E game localization exp hidden away in your resume too.

[Xuled]

well hopefully with the cuts recently we'll get better localization instead of whatever "it" was

[FuturePastNow]

I've seen it. Koji fox is part of the problem. Koji is why we had a bunch of memes in our minion descriptions even when some of them were heartfelt in Japanese. So much so that they apologized and changed them, like with the Wind-up Moenbryda.
Koji was in charge of 16, and they didn't seem to care about when Clive calls his father "father" or when he calls him by his title in the Japanese. They didn't always differentiate it and its important. Its not even a Japanese thing. Its a common literary device in western fantasy as well.

Did the puns in FATE names hurt you? Did you cry the first time you saw a Simpsons reference?

[Gaddes]

It's my understanding that they claimed they were going to get better about their localization moving forward, as some others have already noted the very obvious stuff in ARR that was fundamentally altered (*cough* Haurchefant *cough*) so that the EN version is no longer exactly the same as JP. I don't expect them to make any massive retroactive changes to established stuff at all though, since it's almost impossible to get them to change things unless they're trying to make things easier for themselves (like the over-simplification and alteration of previous dungeons).

This reminds me of the age-old "subs vs dubs" arguments I always head about anime though, and it seems like the best resolution is honestly just if you have JP audio selected to have the subtitles be accurate to the JP audio, and let EN reflect EN dub specifically.... because currently if you switch your stuff to JP audio with an EN version of the game, doesn't it still just show dialogue text from the EN version? Having respective text subtitles for each version allows people to have the choice, since I'm sure there are some people that actually like the EN adapted stuff. And also, doing it that way doesn't radically alter some characters' consistency throughout the expacs (like how different Urianger would be if he lost his EN Urianger-speak instantantously).


edit: ah my bad, I re-read the starter post and that's what you were asking for, I totally thought you were asking for a proper retranslation across the board. This is what happens when I post right after waking up from a nap, lol. But yeah, I agree.

[Fawkes]

I'm mostly only bothered by system-level localizations these days.

Like, Phantom Jobs in OC are called support jobs in Japan. It was already in english, there was no need to change anything. Also there are things called support jobs in older FF games so it feels like a bit of a horsebird to rename them.

The upcoming command panel is called the quick panel in Japan, again already using english words and making perfect sense the way it was. It's like the localization team just want to give themselves some extra job security by making things only translatable by people who've learned all the ways they renamed stuff. You can't just hire somebody off the street even if they're fluent in both english and japanese because they need to also know that 'Cleric Stance' is 'Crusade Stance' in the japanese version.

[Underscore]

Did the puns in FATE names hurt you? Did you cry the first time you saw a Simpsons reference?

It's not just FATE names. There are many instances in the Japanese where quest names are used as foreshadowing, only for the English to either replace them with a random pop culture reference or change it to something else for the sake of it - missing the memo and sometimes even undermining the tone of the story.

For a couple of examples:

- The Shadowbringers MSQ quest "光をもたらす者", which translates to "The Bringer of Light". This is where you ascend Mt Gulg to fight Don Vauthry (yes he's called Don in JP, like a mafia boss, they got rid of that too). The quest has Vauthry in the picture, so naturally you assume the title is referring to him. Vauthry is defeated, you know what happens, the sky turns bright again and you pass out. When you wake up later and step outside, the quest ends and you unlock an achievement of the same name... and you realize that the bringer of light is you. The English changes the quest and achievement name to "Extinguishing the Last Light". So much for that.

- In EW there's a quest in Garlemald called "あたたかな日々は遠く" which translates to "Warm days are far away", where you, the twins and Jullus go to scavenge for ceruleum in a park. At the end there's a bittersweet scene where the group sits around a campfire and Jullus tells you about his old life in the city with his family. The camera slowly pans away as the 'quest complete' box appears on screen, reminding you of the quest name which you now understand the meaning of.

The English changed this one to "His Park Materials". As in the book His Dark Materials, but it's park instead. Get it? Because you're in a park. haha. How's this book relevant to the quest, and how many people will get the le funni reference? No idea, but visualize that final campfire scene with the English quest name appearing on screen instead. Doesn't quite hit the same.

[Shialan]

Why would you be okay with the integrity of the original writing being compromised by the English localization?
Also, I'm not fluent in Japanese.

Not what anyone said.

Also, you are not only not fluent in Japanese, you don't even know the difference between localization and translation.