I'm one of those people who always want their games/anime to include the original Japanese VOs as well. Going just by the voice acting, FFXIV is no different - the way Japanese voice actors deliver their lines simply can't be matched. So for patch 2.5 I switched back to Japanese because... why wouldn't I switch to the original VOs in the first place?!

Well, after watching the new cutscenes I remembered why I had it set to English: The writing is just SO much better. I don't even speak Japanese and only understand a handful of words, I shouldn't be able to judge the quality of the Japanese writing. Yet even with my basic knowledge it feels like I could easily translate half of the Japanese dialogue because they keep using the same clichéd phrases over and over and over. It's like they have a holy codex with thousands of story stereotypes written down.

It may be just a cultural thing of course. Maybe they like repetition and familiarity and their understanding of good writing is completely opposite to mine. Either way I'm sure the Japanese team is doing a great job for their target audience, but the English version just seems much more sophisticated and interesting to me. In fact it's one of the main reasons why I'm still playing this game and the main reason why I'm posting. So once again thanks Ferne and of course everyone else in the English localization team! You're still doing an awesome job!