Misleading English translation of a major story element in the 7.4 MSQ (Big Spoilers)

[0blivion]

I dunno, I'm starting to play in French and there are a lot of wacky choices and quality differences made in the English version that are wholly unique to it that I never understood it because I never tried this experiment.

Suddenly the players that constantly harp on the English localization don't seem nuts after replaying my favorite scenes in another Western translation and it being both faithful but also way less loaded with "purple prose" on a level I was not prepared for.

Welcome to my life! At this point, I just have English on to pick up localization terminology to be able to talk to other friends; and to raid obviously. I do speak all four DF languages with French being my worst, and most of them over two decades at this point (JP happened in the last decade). I get that the monolinguals out here love pretending that EN loc is great, which— even if you do speak Japanese— you would not know that the other Western languages have way more intact translations, lol.

[Chasingstars]

My personal favorite example of this is when riding with Erenville in Shaaloani.

Where in the japanese version its rumors and hearsay. The blue phosphorous water is presented as this strange combusting substance that is a reminder of death. Yet also a kind of folk tale passed down by locals about how the water is believed to be sacred by some, maybe the whalaqee.

While in english, its more matter of fact. That its not water but ceruleum, and that from its eruptions of flames its a sight to behold. But also a substance that creates cautionary tales for those who encountered it. And that the whalaqee tribe do worship the blue flames from the ceruleum.

In a sense, the player is getting two different conversations that are similar in context. And yes the blue water and ceruleum are the same thing. Its not a big moment or of grand importance in the full picture, but the choice to rewrite the dialogue is odd. And that this extends to other parts of FFXIV's worldbuilding and character interactions, where the story being talked about is not always the same in different languages.

[eloralora]

My personal favorite example of this is when riding with Erenville in Shaaloani.

Where in the japanese version its rumors and hearsay. The blue phosphorous water is presented as this strange combusting substance that is a reminder of death. Yet also a kind of folk tale passed down by locals about how the water is believed to be sacred by some, maybe the whalaqee.

While in english, its more matter of fact. That its not water but ceruleum, and that from its eruptions of flames its a sight to behold. But also a substance that creates cautionary tales for those who encountered it. And that the whalaqee tribe do worship the blue flames from the ceruleum.

well, if i know anything about the english-speaking audience, it's that they're often extremely resistant to accept that something could possibly be true about the ffxiv world or lore unless the text confirms it in a way that is absolutely undeniable. jokes aside tho... this is a really interesting example. to my understanding, japan has a very high-context culture, so i would imagine there are more instances of things that are implied/hinted at in the original japanese text becoming more matter-of-fact in english