I would like a more loyal localization (story quest dialogue)

[Radacci]

i just know some words, from watching anime but yah, sometimes they say stuff, that don't get translated at all.
but from the iceheart CSs, i got the impression she was both sad and angry (i use JP voice, and eng sub)
well, i don't know Japanese, so i can't say; but translation is kinda difficult...I know Eng and Swedish, fluently, but i'm terrible at translating between the two Some stuff sound really retarded/cheesy, if you try to translate it directly, and if you don't, it completely looses its meaning; so it's kinda loose/loose situation, where you need to use some equivalent, and still loose the original meaning.

[Renik]

snip

I'm not your bro, and you seem to be very misinformed, about me, because you assume i'm looking at the game from an anime perspective, and about how a game development team works, i can't know how they do it in the FFXIV dev team, but main characters are usually designed by a single person, because having more than one person involved on a single character leads to changing and poorly defined personalities, the responsible of these characters is usually the story writer and/or screenwriter, then the lore gets created around the characters and their story to complete the world, or vice versa, and the lore team is there to make sure the world presented in the game stays true to the story.

Again i can't know if there are more than one person working on a single character development, but Kazutoyo Maehiro, the main scenario writer, is from the Japanese team, and he should be the only responsible of all the main characters involved in the main story (not true because most characters are from 1.0, and there was different main scenario writer) right now.

[Jin-]

It's because english script is slightly different than the original. Same goes with other FF titles. Really easy to notice it on FFXIII when playing with japanese VA where english subs feel sometimes childish and totally unrelated to the actual plot.
USA versions have these stupid memes included in to many games where they dont belong. Like Tataru saying Trolololol, totally unrelated to the plot. But some american thinks its cool and should be there.
Reason why i always watch anime with fan subs, because they are professional and loyal to the original script while official translation is localization for better understanding for people in that area.

[Viridiana]

I always wonder how many of the people asking for a more "loyal" translation would want the final boss of LotA to be named Titan. >_>

That being said, with the way that FFXIV's Lore teams work, I also don't really understand how any of the languages can be claimed to be the original. I mean, I get that the first round of development is usually primarily Japanese, but all finished products (not counting dev posts and such) are released concurrently in all languages, as far as I can tell. I mean, the English versions of Iceheart and Haurchefant are just as old as the Japanese versions. . .

[lololink]

I always wonder how many of the people asking for a more "loyal" translation would want the final boss of LotA to be named Titan. >_>

That being said, with the way that FFXIV's Lore teams work, I also don't really understand how any of the languages can be claimed to be the original. I mean, I get that the first round of development is usually primarily Japanese, but all finished products (not counting dev posts and such) are released concurrently in all languages, as far as I can tell. I mean, the English versions of Iceheart and Haurchefant are just as old as the Japanese versions. . .

Still the texts are first written in japanese which is then translated by the localization team, so the japanese version is the original one, and having the last boss of the LotA be named Titan or Titân wouldn't bother me, it didn't in FF3 so there is no reason that would change. Still it's a special case, most of the time the english text is different not because it's hard to translate it but because they want to change it.

[Viridiana]

Still the texts are first written in japanese which is then translated by the localization team, so the japanese version is the original one. . .

We've already established that this isn't always the case. Besides, at that point it's still a work in progress. They're both released to the public at the same time.

[lololink]

That's not because it's released in one language first that there is no original, the original one is the first one ever written, which is the japanese one. The only thing that are originally in english are the names of the places, which are in english in the japanese version too.

[Viridiana]

That's not because it's released in one language first that there is no original, the original one is the first one ever written, which is the japanese one. The only thing that are originally in english are the names of the places, which are in english in the japanese version too.

From the same interview linked earlier:

"A lot of times the Japanese team will then go back and look at the English translations or the French translations and get ideas on how they can change the Japanese text in turn."

So while, yes, the bulk of it is written first in Japanese, you can't deny that in "a lot" of places, the English or the French (presumably the German, too) is the original. Or, y'know, we could just acknowledge that with something so collaborative there is no true original. . .

[LunaHoshino]

The thing you're overlooking is that translation and localization isn't just about the words-- it's about the tone, the sentiments behind those words, and the overall culture that influences all of those things. Japanese culture and Western culture are two very different beasts, which affects how things are phrased in each language. A phrase that is perfectly common and acceptable in English might come off as offensive in the eyes of a Japanese person simply because of cultural differences.

The lines of Lucia's that you gave are a good example of that. In Japanese culture, you would never, ever presume to speak on a superior's behalf or issue a command in front of them the way she does in the English text. It simply isn't done and would be considered overstepping your boundaries as a subordinate as well as an insult towards your superior. However, if you look at the Japanese lines, you realize that she's saying the same thing as she is in English: she's objecting to what was said and implying that it was not what Aymeric meant. She's just doing so in a way that is considered more acceptable to Japanese. A Japanese person would look at that line and likely get exactly the same meaning from it as an English speaker would from looking at the English version.

TL;DR translation is a complicated thing and relies on far more factors than just the text itself.

[Squa11_Leonhart]

I would like to see all usage of american english abolished from this game.