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

[Renik]

I play with text in English and VA in Japanese, and i noticed how some times, and with some i mean a lot, the localization team changes a phrase just to make it look "better," affecting the overall dialogue

As an example, in one of the last CSs of the 2.4 main story-line, in Japanese Ser Aymeric talks about how the new generations could change Ishgard, in the English text, he says something about the road less traveled, which is the name of said quest. It may look nice, but it's not what the writer wanted to say.

I noticed things like this in a lot of CS where even the mood or the nature of certain characters gets changed, a good example of this is Iceaheart, who seems more sad than mad in Japanese, but more mad than sad in English.

Please i would like you to be more accurate to the text and VA of the original version and take way less freedom when localizing or translating it.

I have seen a lot of people in these forums complaining about how the main story is bland and bad written, or how Hildibrand story is better written, and i think this could be one of the reasons.

[AdamFyi]

Doesn't a "road less traveled" mean to divert away from what one has, and embrace an alternative? Either that or I'm sorely mistaken. Then again, a lot of meanings do genuinely get lost during translation. While one sentence means one thing in one language, translating it to another may alter the meaning entirely. Almost nothing can be done about that other than to change the phrases used so that the meaning is as close to the original as possible.

[Shamo_Lomenzo]

Although this might not be the case as far as what OP is talking about, sometimes there's sayings or references that are widely known in one area of the world (such as Japan) that nobody uses in the NA or EU regions, so sometimes those idioms have to be changed so the audience can actually understand what an NPC is talking about.

[Renik]

Doesn't a "road less traveled" mean to divert away from what one has, and embrace an alternative? Either that or I'm sorely mistaken. Then again, a lot of meanings do genuinely get lost during translation. While one sentence means one thing in one language, translating it to another may alter the meaning entirely. Almost nothing can be done about that other than to change the phrases used so that the meaning is as close to the original as possible.

I got the meaning of that sentence, but in this case, the message in English has nothing to do with the one in Japanese.

"the road less traveled" English -VS- "don't forget about the new generations" Japanese. You could say the message is implicit, but i don't think anyone can get the same message w/o actually knowing what he is saying in Japanese.

[Sadana]

I notice this too. Even though I can only understand snippets here and there, there are many times I see the EN text and go "That's not what they said!" It's not so much that it's flat wrong in it's entirety (from what I can tell), it's more that some characters' personality or tone is changed quite a bit. :/ I notice this too with the voice overs, how the characters' personalities are portrayed by the voice actors.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

It's always hilarious when someone says one word like "Yes" and then we get a long ass sentence in the English text.

[Gunspec]

It's been a while so I may remember it incorrectly, but I noticed an annoying issue during the early Gridanian city state quests when you first meet Yda. In Japanese, she tries to warn you abut a suspicious person and pleads for you to return to safety, assuming you are a weak civilian. In English, she accuses you of BEING the suspicious person and demands you confess to what you are plotting. Either way, Papalymo corrects her by identifying you as the adventurer they have been told to expect.

While both conversations tag Yda for being a bit scatterbrained, the English version makes her seem excessively hostile. Of course Yda isn't like that, but it's a strange way to introduce the character.

[Sadana]

This makes a problem for lorehounds too when it comes to attempting to guess what future stuff will be added to game or the meaning of stuff already in game. If the translation changes the tone or even entire sections of information (remember the hunter-scholars, for example), then we're working off misinformation. :/ I know the translation team has an IMMENSE task of working with this stuff, but I wince at the changes sometimes.

[Lukha]

We have the ability to change the text language used in the game, so obviously what we need is a new option. Rename English to 'English (localized)' and add 'English (JP voice pack)', with the straight pre-localization translation to match up to the Japanese voices.

It's not that I don't like the localization; I think it's very well done in a lot of respects? But the puns are getting out of hand, and between them and random personality changes (Haurchefant! Urianger!) that aren't even being kept *consistant*, I'm really worried that the story is suffering for it. Stop treating it like you're writing your own story, and show some respect for the original writers' work.