Haurechefant portrayed differently in EN compared to JP (spoilers for everything)

[Saikou]

Seemingly, he's far more ridiculous and pervy in the original Japanese. The whole Heavensturn event was a big cue leading towards this fact. It seems that perceived mood whiplash with this character has lead to theories that he may be tempered or controlled by Iceheart/Shiva/Ascians.

I'm reading this here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...odd_character/

I don't remember anything more than this guy being the one nice guy among a bunch of stuck up Ishgardians in the leveling experience. Seems he was a lot more Godbert Manderville / Hammon Holyfist like in the JP version.

I wish I could get his script from the JP client and put it side by side with his EN script and see how much was actually changed. This guy is supposed to be our man in Ishgard, so finding out that the ridiculousness that was his appearance in the Heavensturn event and the reference to Cascadier "Armor" were not anomalies for this character...

Well, as you may have seen me post elsewhere, I find translation, localization, cultural and linguistic differences to be fascinating. I'm curious if Fern felt the need to tone this character down or, as suggested in the Reddit threat, simply wished to make him more believable as a feudal lord. I'm wondering if this decision was more one of tone, which I have been a critic of at times, or if this is an example of the "bleached underpants" trope and/or blatant censorship. I find the last very hard to believe precisely because of what they have gotten away with in Hildibrand, Heavensturn Event, and the Longhaft delivery quest.

I just wonder what's going through the mind of Localization sometimes. "The line," as it were, has always been in a very different place with this game as compares FFXI even in the 1.0 days. Finding out about this gives me so many questions about where and how the line is drawn in this game as far as questions of taste are concerned.

[Nialle]

I play the game with JP voice with English text, and he really sounds like a smarm in the new quests. I mean, the way our character reacts to him is one clue.

But I don't recall him talking or behaving in such an overtly silly way in the original storyline Ishgard quests (he is not voiced in them). Maybe I just totally spaced?
I think they need to go back and adjust his older written lines now, because in English now the personality really seems to come out of left field.

[Saikou]

Yeah, here's the thing. We don't have the Japanese text of the unvoiced scenes. Those of us without a JP client and JP reading skills would not know. =/

[Teakwood]

Ahahahahaha, this makes my day. :3 :3

I'd gotten the vibe from him even so far as back as the Ishgard MSQ that he wanted to make me the meat in a Haurchefaunet and Francel sandwich, there's a reason he was one of my favourite characters in the MSQ, after all~. I just assumed I was reading into things again, though; it's pretty amusing to find out he was kind of over-the-top like this all along in the Japanese text. No complaints here. :3 I am a bit curious what went into the decision to tone his dialogue down, but, I mean, I think I'm okay with the idea of him starting to cut loose a little now that we've gotten to know each other...

Edit: AFK rewatching all of those scenes in Japanese, *whistles innocently*

[Brannigan]

Yeah, here's the thing. We don't have the Japanese text of the unvoiced scenes. Those of us without a JP client and JP reading skills would not know. =/

I think everyone has the JP client. If you turn your launcher's language to Japanese you get Japanese text in game. It helps a lot when you want to check out a tooltip or piece of dialog you think might be wrong, since the loc team has messed up a few before. In the hunt thread on the bluegartr forums they have translations of the JP text for The Hunt hints, and they're a bit different than ours.


Also I really dislike some of these "flavor" changes like with characterization, skill names, monster names, etc. IIRC the clockwork knights and stuff in coil are Allagwork knights, scholar skill names are all messed up, and there's other minor stuff. Really makes me wonder what else has been changed.

[Rasenore]

Comments like that really makes me want someone to write a comparison guide between the JP version and the English localization. It's kind of fascinating. It makes me wish I bothered to keep up with learning Japanese when I was younger, because I'd do that myself.

[Alice_89th]

Good to know that it wasn't just my imagination that he seemed more normal at first. Still, he made me laugh so I enjoy this "new" Haurechefant.

Also I really dislike some of these "flavor" changes like with characterization, skill names, monster names, etc. IIRC the clockwork knights and stuff in coil are Allagwork knights, scholar skill names are all messed up, and there's other minor stuff. Really makes me wonder what else has been changed.

Overall I think they did a great job on all of the sidequests, leves, fate titles, minion descriptions and other stuff like that. All of the references and silly descriptions are fantastic.

But I am less convinced when it comes to the main story.
Sure, some name changes can't be helped (although the Archeron thing was a bit of a fiasco), but other changes in the text are just odd, even when considering differences in syntax an narrative culture between the languages.

[Saikou]

So it's all there, eh... I'll have to replay Ishgard in my inn room on JP sets and see what I come up with...

[PArcher]

I knew I wasn't imagining that in that CS. Never thought he was tempered, just that I missed something (which, technically did lol). Hope we see more of the real him


Also...I wish the Heavensturn CS were rewatchable

[nevaeh]

Oh, I didn't know he sounded that normal in English. ^^; I play the whole of MSQ in Japanese and yes I remember his "ii"s very well. Even his letter to help us get into Stone Vigil has "ii" in the description. =D;

Comments like that really makes me want someone to write a comparison guide between the JP version and the English localization. It's kind of fascinating. It makes me wish I bothered to keep up with learning Japanese when I was younger, because I'd do that myself.

I clear story quests in Japanese, but I can't read it fast enough during battles so I alternate between Japanese for quests and English for serious dungeoning. There are a lot of things that are more convenient in Japanese on titles and names. For example, you can know if the FATE is a boss FATE or not just by looking at the title. Or the city aetherytes, the changes they did for Blue Badger/White Wolf Gate in English, it was there in Japanese way way before.

As for English, I noticed that it's usually more humurous. From the titles and names to the way characters talk. Some NPCs come out as much more mean to me too when in English (Gigiyon at Scorpion Crossing. He was more matter of factly in Japanese...). My starting city is Limsa and the pirate talk is well, it's kinda a English thing so it's not really there in Japanese (they just talk more rudely). Because of this, Baderon and Merlwyb feels different. Though on Merlwyb's part, I'm pretty sure they purposely made her more tough lady for western audience. If you have heard her in Japanese, she is definitely less pirate lady sounding compared.

There are more but I'll just leave it at here for now. ^^;; Anyway, I personally find that both Japanese and English has their own charm. They can feel very very different; I imagine because they have to cater to different audiences. Kinda wish it's either just Japanese or just English so I don't have to feel so torn between them.

For those who can read Japanese, I found this site that records convo from quests. It doesn't have the latest patch's yet, but you can check how Haurechefant talks previously? Clicky