Please Provide Englsh TRANSLATION For The Japanese

[Mikoko_Miko]

My first language is Japanese, and I play the English version to help with my language learning. In some tooltips, the English version adds a bit of flavor or descriptive context that isn't literally in the original Japanese, but it often makes the effect clearer. For example:
Synastry
Literal translation: Targets a single party member. [...]
Actual tooltip: Generate an aetheric bond with target party member. [...]

Horoscope
Literal translation: Grants Horoscope on self and nearby party members.
Actual tooltip: Reads your fortune and those of nearby party members, granting them Horoscope.

Ley Lines
Literal translation: Generate Ley Lines beneath your feet. Ley Lines Effect: Reduces your own spell cast time, recast time, and auto-attack delay by 15%.
Actual tooltip: Connects naturally occurring ley lines to create a circle of power which, while standing within it, reduces spell cast time and recast time, and auto-attack delay by 15%.

However, I am dissatisfied that the Astrologian's card names have been simplified in the English version. Their original names are The Balance of Azeyma, The Arrow of Oschon, The Spire of Byregot, The Spear of Halone, The Bole of World Tree, and The Ewer of Thaliak.

Speaking of kanji, there are two types of readings: on'yomi, Chinese-derived reading, and kun'yomi, native Japanese-derived reading. I suppose this makes them difficult to translate into English. "Kaze" in Hakaze is the kun'yomi reading, while "Pu" in Jinpu, "Fu" in Shifu, and "Hu" in Huton are the on'yomi readings. They all use the same kanji and mean "wind". IIRC they all are read as "Fēng" in Chinese. ("Huton" is actually just another spelling of "Futon". Likely changed to avoid confusion with the homograph referring to traditional Japanese bedding.)

[Astronis]

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).

I pretty much agree with you about the rest, those sound like better names, but this...this is a good change. 'Don Vauthry' sounds ridiculous and I would have instantly refused to take him in the least bit seriously if they'd made me think of Don Corneo rather than Owzer when I first saw him.

[Shistar]

This. I still remember EN localization straight up remove a line (the meaning of "Etheirys"), and I only found out because I was talking with my EU friend (they play in FR).

Like, why would you do that? What even is the purpose here? And the line was spoken by the Watcher, so it's not VA related as he uses the garbled Ancients sound.

Huh, is a line about that missing? I play in English, and unless I somehow found out from somewhere else, I'm pretty sure we do know why it's named that way...

For something more specific; there's a bit in Endwalker during the apocalypse where someone is in the process of transforming into a monster, and IIRC they say "help me" (助けて, tasukete) three times. The first time it's written with kanji, then with hiragana, and finally with katakana. It's supposed to represent them losing themselves and no longer understanding the meaning of their own words, since katakana is the writing system used for foreign loanwords and it's very unusual to write 助けて using it. I believe there's a scene where Meteion does something similar, switching between different writing systems to represent her language becoming more/less familiar to the lifeforms she's addressing.

It's really cool, but something you basically can't do in English - so if you want to get the intention across you need to get creative. They didn't quite do that, but perhaps they could have.

Undertale does this fun thing about having the text move, tremble, etc. It's not the same, of course, but perhaps playing with the text bubble's style + this would get a similar enough vibe across?

That is cool! And it is something that can be represented in English text, though obviously not in the exact same way, since we don't have a writing system that denotes foreignness--something like, "Help me, helllp...meee, H.eL..P mEE" would probably get the growing insanity across well enough.

This, too. They don't always have to write so perfect, especially in these situations where they wouldn't be able to speak clearly.

[virianna]

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.

But how can you be so sure you can actually point out errors if you're not fluent? Localization that you clearly dont understand a concept of aside, there are idioms, sayings, slangs that don't literally mean what you think they mean - due to your own lack of experience with a language or not knowing the sayings. It's a meme in my country at this point, but for something as simple as 'thank you in advance' we say in my language, literally translating 'thank you from the mountain'. And even if i am sitting on top of that mountain and say thank you in advance, i will always mean thank you in advance. For you, with elementary language knowledge you may think i am literally meaning 'thank you' and saying my location depending on the context of the entire conversation/letter/etc.

There is entire keigo. There are honorifics that are tough to translate to english, because english doesn't have a formal you, so -san or sama will likely be dropped or you will have every sentence ended with ",sir." English don't have equivalent to for example -kun or -senpai that would show the age difference and expected level of respect from the other person. Both will be likely dropped in english translation, or translated to stuff like bro/lil bro, but direct meaning behind the honorific is still lost. You can use more polite words but the direct meaning will be lost unless you want to have characters showing their juniority by speaking like this 'i would be absolutely delighted if I could be permitted to ask Mister a question'

And so on.

Bottom line - unless you're fluent in the language and understand nuances you don't really have means to judge the quality of translation & localization.

[jadeharley]

I used to be a crazy literalist like OP, but the localization in XIV is very high quality. Thank you to the team for doing such a good job! Those who wish to play in Japanese can always do so.

[Valence]

I pretty much agree with you about the rest, those sound like better names, but this...this is a good change. 'Don Vauthry' sounds ridiculous and I would have instantly refused to take him in the least bit seriously if they'd made me think of Don Corneo rather than Owzer when I first saw him.

Sounds to me that's a you problem if the first thing you think about is Don Corneo and not Don Corleone, honestly.
I think removing the title actually diminishes the character quite a lot, especially if the name is vain or above his station.

I didn't even know about this, and now this makes me even more annoyed they're changing the base material for zero reason. Some things have to be changed, but this is just random af.

[Yencat]

Sounds to me that's a you problem if the first thing you think about is Don Corneo and not Don Corleone, honestly.
I think removing the title actually diminishes the character quite a lot, especially if the name is vain or above his station.

I didn't even know about this, and now this makes me even more annoyed they're changing the base material for zero reason. Some things have to be changed, but this is just random af.

Isn't he referred to as Lord Vauthry as well? 'Lord' and 'Don' effectively mean the same thing so it's really not a big change.

In popular culture in the west the 'Don' title has a mafia connotation which doesn't fit his character (he is a villain, but not an organized crime boss) so I can see why they localized it to that.

[Kozh]

Bottom line - unless you're fluent in the language and understand nuances you don't really have means to judge the quality of translation & localization.

Idk why y'all act like we (who dislike EN localization) is scrutinizing and nitpicking the quality of it. What we question is why do EN takes liberties with the localization even though the changes serve no purpose.

We're not complaining (at least I'm not) about how EN doesn't use the same "thank you" or whatever, we're complaining about EN arbitrarily making a character sounds more annoying compared to its JP counterpart. Or how they subtly the tone of a dialogue (i.e in JP the character is sympathetic towards some event, while in EN they're not).

That's not a quality issue, I know the localizers are capable people who can stick closer to JP if they wanted to, yet for some reason they don't. If FR and DE can do that, why EN not?

[Valence]

I just had to go back and check the french loc and they also just call Vauthry, Vauthry. And it suddenly felt so weird to have Y'shtola showing up just after and casually starting a sentence with "fwens" (les amis), and Urianger speak totally normally.

Isn't he referred to as Lord Vauthry as well? 'Lord' and 'Don' effectively mean the same thing so it's really not a big change.

In popular culture in the west the 'Don' title has a mafia connotation which doesn't fit his character (he is a villain, but not an organized crime boss) so I can see why they localized it to that.

Because Don doesn't have the same meaning in japanese?

[virianna]

Idk why y'all act like we (who dislike EN localization) is scrutinizing and nitpicking the quality of it. What we question is why do EN takes liberties with the localization even though the changes serve no purpose.

Well I was personally responding to a person who acts like elementary language comprehension is enough to view localization/translation choices as ERRORS. Nowhere in the post i was responding to they claimed it boils down to characterization of the character. The thread literally starts with a discussion about Fire II vs Firaga as if both aren't functioning in FF depending on the game in the series. If this isn't nitpicking i don't know.

We're not complaining (at least I'm not) about how EN doesn't use the same "thank you" or whatever, we're complaining about EN arbitrarily making a character sounds more annoying compared to its JP counterpart. Or how they subtly the tone of a dialogue (i.e in JP the character is sympathetic towards some event, while in EN they're not).

I think characterizations might also be part of localization duty and as much as I don't like it myself I can see how a character thats viewed in japan as cutsy and kawaii will be viewed as obnoxious and annoying in english if translated literally especially if combined with similar voice to japanese voice actor.

That's not a quality issue, I know the localizers are capable people who can stick closer to JP if they wanted to, yet for some reason they don't. If FR and DE can do that, why EN not?

SE is overall weird if it comes to english localization, not only in FFXIV but also their other games. I do not know how much control and liberty over English translation japanese side has but I would imagine they care about it more than about FR/DE which is much smaller market. It's not translation issue per se, but for example when releasing Nier Replicant outside of Japan they built entire new version of the game because, they, japanese, thought WE wouldn't like a brother-sister story and needed to rework it into father-daughter story. It is much beyond translation, but i wanna imagine english translators might be getting some demands DE/FR translators don't get. It might be that a japanese side thinks we wouldnt like an antagonist who is stoic and sympathetic and forces EN translators to portray such character in more 'western' way.