SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Rydin]

Hello all

This is more of a response than I could have ever hoped for...
I don't care what Bayohne says about you Fernehalwes, you're a good guy!!!

[OJtheLIONKing]

Glad to hear from Fernehawles. I haven't had much time to visit the localization forums, but I do miss his posts being on the dev tracker. I kind of wish there was a centralized placed to get those tasty morsels of lore he drops without having to sort through a bunch of minor grammatical errors. And, if you haven't guessed from earlier, I'm quite fond of the localization style (although there's only so much pirate speak I can take in one sitting. Arrrh)

Still, I suppose if there's something that his post illuminated for me, it's that the localization team is aware of the issue of pacing and just do the best work that they can with what they're given. I think it's a great story regardless, but hopefully through making our opinions known we can get the dialogue writers to pace themselves a little better. In any case, it looks like we have yet another thing to look forward to in 2.0.

[Denmo]

Super cool to hear from someone on the Localization team! Thanks for the explanation and insider info.

[Rane]

Wow, that was a really enlightening response. Thank you, Fernehalwes!

Like most people posting in this thread, I really value the story in a Final Fantasy game. In XIV I try to talk to every NPC and get every single piece of lore. But yes, I agree with what many people in this thread are saying about the need to focus the narrative. And I, too, think the pirate-speak goes a bit overboard at times. (Has anyone made this pun yet?)

With that said, all of you on the LOC team do an awesome job. I'm especially impressed by the way that your text is completely free of the lingering "funkiness" that often accompanies English text that has been translated from Japanese. I'm not referring to grammatical errors, but rather errors in usage that stem from keeping English structures too close to the original Japanese.

Many game translators, for example, choose to translate every instance of お待たせいたしました as "I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Sometimes that's OK, but in other cases it comes off as a little awkward in English. The end result of sticking too close to Japanese is a translation that feels vaguely unnatural. But you don't find that kind of thing in FF XIV. You'd never know that those NPCs originally spoke Japanese!

You all are a truly talented bunch, and I really appreciate all of the work you put into FF XIV. Thank you.

It also seems to me that the story makes more sense now than it used to, and characters are doing a better job of finishing their thoughts when they speak. Characters jumped around from topic to topic a lot in the original Limsa storyline, making it hard to follow (though that certainly wasn't the LOC team's fault). I enjoy the new story a lot more, though I'm still a little perplexed as to why the Garleans love hiding in caves in Coerthas so much.

Above all, I hope that FF XIV focuses on delivering a strong core narrative rather than looking cool. (This video does a much better job of explaining what I'm talking about than I could hope to.) In general, every element of a cutscene should be in service of the story. I know the cutscene at the climax of "Future's Perfect" has its fans, but I think it's a good example of making something look cool just for the sake of looking cool. I get the feeling that Gaius van Baelsar called down that badass aerial strike (after the badass fight scene) mainly for the photo op. I'm 100% certain that we could use the story to explain why he would do something like that, but therein lies the problem.

All in all, I'm confident that this ship is now heading in the right direction. I can't wait to see where the seventh umbral era storyline goes from here. Thank you, LOC team, for working to make FF XIV a better game!
...and for listening.
...and for keeping such a great presence on the forum.
...and for giving us so much insight into the game lore as well as what's happening in the studio.
...and for all of the puns in the achievement names. Those are some great puns.

[Bayohne]

I wanted to pop in here and point out the lengthy response from Fern on the subject, so that everyone forum wide had a chance to see it. Thanks for the insight, Ferny!

This is more of a response than I could have ever hoped for...
I don't care what Bayohne says about you Fernehalwes, you're a good guy!!!

What is this, I don't even...

[LlenCoram]

Brilliant post Fern, much appreciated. Though I'm one of the people who thinks the current NPC dialogues are well written and fun to read (especially the apostrophes URRYWHERE for pirates), I'm glad to see that the localization team is trying to streamline things. Keep up the good work, we all appreciate it!

[Kiara]

Hello all,

For those of you who don't frequent the Localization forum, this is Fernehalwes, one of three members who make up the FINAL FANTASY XIV English Localization team stationed here at Square Enix headquarters in Tokyo.
...

When it comes to the overall writing style employed in the game, it looks like there's a clean split between those who enjoy it and those who find it either overwhelming or overbearing (or a combination of both).

There does appear, however, to be one thing that a majority of you agree on--and that is that there is a tendency for most NPCs to fall into the trap of over-exposition, and how this can, at times, seriously bog down the game's flow.

Hi Fernehalwes,

Thanks for the thorough explanation and thoughts on localization. I would say that I really enjoy lore and story, and the dialogue and writing has improved greatly since the original Day 1 launch many moons ago.

That being said, one area that would probably make some lengthy NPC dialogue sequences be a *lot* more enjoyable by many (including those that don't like the current length) is:

* Cinematic Camera Work for the NPC Quests.

Now I realize this is beyond your department, but one thing you might pass on to your supervisors is the fact that if we got more NPC Quests with some sort of Camera Work / Cinematic Treatment (even a programmatic Camera that drew from a few preset angles), it'd go a long way to engaging the average / mainstream player that doesn't appreciate lore as much as the more story-driven fans.

I realize Camera work is very expensive (in terms of man-hours, etc.) and it'd be impossible to get Camera Work done on even a fraction of the Quests, but the more that can be applied to various Quests, the more engaging they become.

Look at something like Metal Gear Solid (with its HOURS and HOURS of Cinematics & Text). Their "walls of text" were much more palatable due to presentation with Camera work etc. If they had no Camera work and it was purely Text Only, I think a lot more people would've complained and "buttoned through" the story moments.

Ultimately, I look forward to what you'll be doing in 2.0, and thanks for the explanation!

[KumaAkuma]

But does that mean the JP do enjoy the lenghty speaches themselves? (English people get lenghty texts, because JP have lenghty texts)

[Kraggy]

Sad SE seem to be being asked to pander to ADD suffers.

The one thing SE do so well and most other MMOs fail at abysmally is STORY TELLING, there are plenty of games where there's precious little text to read that's of any value and few 'stories' which are engaging in any way at all.

[Colino]

Sad SE seem to be being asked to pander to ADD suffers.

It's not about having ADD, it's about playing a videogame and sometimes wanting to move along.

I'm one of those people that really enjoys the current dialogue and HOW it's written, but you have to admit that at times it's nearly unbearable when an NPC goes on some tangent that lasts far too long and gives you far too little.

I'm glad the localisation team is looking into it while hopefully keeping the same standard and quality of dialogue.