Issue with the Japanese to English translation

[Grayve]

I have read that part of the issue is they can't add extra dialogue windows, so they have to make use of the same space that the other languages use, and English needs more words and letters, so some changes must be made. When it comes to spoken dialogue, they have to keep the same length of time as the other languages as well.

In the specific case of the lancers quest, I thought it was to build suspense for the big shocking reveal at the end.

[point09micron]

I just want the puns for the English text to be dialed back a notch. I get immersed in the world and then yanked back out when I see an NPC make a Family Guy reference.

What NPC and what did they say? I haven't watched Family Guy in a while, but from what I remember of FG it's probably a situation of FFXIV alluding to something that FG alluded to, instead of being a reference to FG itself.

That being said, I enjoy the punny names for quests/FATEs/titles. I would burst into random laughter several times a day after the EX primal patch, anytime I thought of "Quake Me Up Before You O'Ghomoro" because I could hear it in the song in my head.

[LunaHoshino]

I have read that part of the issue is they can't add extra dialogue windows, so they have to make use of the same space that the other languages use, and English needs more words and letters, so some changes must be made. When it comes to spoken dialogue, they have to keep the same length of time as the other languages as well.

In the specific case of the lancers quest, I thought it was to build suspense for the big shocking reveal at the end.

Checking that particular exchange, there was more than enough space in the dialogue window to have left that line in, which makes the omission even more puzzling. I wouldn't really call it a shocking reveal either-- it was heavily implied throughout the quests, but the Japanese came out and said it outright.

[Grayve]

I don't recall it hinted at. but it was ages ago that I did lancer.

[JaydeDancer]

I am still following this thread, I promise. And I appreciate all of the responses to my post. But in a way, I do wish that they would treat this more like an anime by making the translations a bit more faithful to the Japanese text. At least for the job classes and the main scenario quests. Change the quest names and the FATE names to make Western references all you want; I just want to make sure that we are getting a truer translation of what the writers in Japan initially wrote than what we appear to be getting. Pretty sure Urianger doesn't speak Ye Olde English in the Japanese version. Although he may speak very formally, and at great length.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

As others have said, not every single piece of text from Japanese translated to English would make sense for English readers. I remember reading in a guide for FFX where one event in the game had "Operation" in the title since it was a military based gathering and battle. The Japanese name was different (don't remember what) and it didn't make sense in English due to how the word is used and defined between the two languages.

Trashy summed it up best; you can't do a literal translation due to (grammar issues aside) the direct translation getting mangled in places.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

While my opinion of the translation is generally positive some changes are downright baffling. Among those are the Megaflare joke taken out from Gilgamesh trial and making Shiva speech flow in a way that makes her not call out her Diamond Dust attack. Also removing Ninja's unique naming system for the relic though I can kinda see why that was swept under the rug. Still, they didn't alter their Ninjutsu skill names, so why here? Guess they didn't want to confuse people? Maybe.

And Medicara -> Medica II etc of course but that horse is dead.

[Vorpal_Spork]

Short version; Ted Woolsey (and his modern equivalent) is the devil. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Woolseyism

[MercuryD]

...making Shiva speech flow in a way that makes her not call out her Diamond Dust attack.

I don't see this instance as an issue at all, none of the primals do it. They all directly go to something in their story with Shiva's being the absolute MOST tied in. For example, [風よ、光よ、そのすべてを凍てつかせ、 世界に静寂をもたらせ！
砕け散れ！　ダイアモンドダスト！] Wind, Light, freeze everything and hold this world in silence! Scatter, Diamond Dust!

Compare to:

[Embrace the serenity... Renounce the hatreds that consume you... And scatter them like dust in the wind... ] This actually SOUNDS like Shiva or Iceheart in regards to the war and their roles in it (sacrificing self in order to bring an end).

Overall, I prefer almost everything in the EN version compared to JP.

[Nyalia]

In general, I do like the localization, personally, but there's one huge problem I have with it: puzzle clues. The S-rank hunt mark spawn condition clues are totally different in JP and EN, and a large number of the EN ones omit the actual clue part of the text. Some suggest spawn conditions that have nothing to do with the actual spawn condition, like the mess with Eastern La Noscea, where the EN clue highlights fire and a cave but never mentions rain, and the JP clue mentions rain but nothing about fire or a cave. The actual spawn condition involves rain and has nothing to do with fire or a cave.

I had to give up on the Siteseeing log, because the clues there are so poorly localized that in many cases, one of the conditions is totally unclued in the EN translation. The Greatest Story Never Told appears to also have some clues that are just missing.

It's almost like the EN localization team was given these puzzle clues and told to localize them without ever being told what was actually important and what was misdirection or fluff. In some cases, they preserved the fluff while leaving out the important part of the clue. In other cases, they just wrote something else entirely that had nothing of the original clue in it, but instead had a similar feel to the fluff in the clue.

As someone who really likes puzzles and who was super excited about the Siteseeing log, this makes me so sad.