Various english titles..

[QuinceTaru]

Thanks for the explanation!! I was recently wondering about this, as I was watching my bf play and he uses the JP client. I saw a character with the title "Cloud Controller", which I thought sounded really cool and hoped to get it myself. But... when I checked, turned out it's just the JP version for "of the silver lining".

I am curious as to why "Cupid" became "Observer of Love", in this case it seems the JP became more complex than the English?

Thanks for the post!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day#Japan

If you look they have a different story so the title "Cupid" would prolly not mean alot to most Japanese players. That would be my guess at least im not expert on Japanese culture or anything just what i read on wiki!

[ChoasRex]

Personally, I'd like to know what's up with the title for racing a Chocobo race for the 1st time (Bug Boy/Bug Girl), my only guess is that was either a mistranslation of some kind, or possible a reference to something like a 1940's Horseracing term that was almost forgotten by most people that weren't either teaching history or history buffs of some sort, in either case, I think a title that would be more recognizable to the fans as being specifically related to either racing or chocobo's to most of the current fans and player may be a more appropriate choice.

[QuinceTaru]

Personally, I'd like to know what's up with the title for racing a Chocobo race for the 1st time (Bug Boy/Bug Girl), my only guess is that was either a mistranslation of some kind, or possible a reference to something like a 1940's Horseracing term that was almost forgotten by most people that weren't either teaching history or history buffs of some sort, in either case, I think a title that would be more recognizable to the fans as being specifically related to either racing or chocobo's to most of the current fans and player may be a more appropriate choice.

I submit to you the title "Boco's Buddy"

[Anonymoose]

my only guess is that [bug boy] was either a mistranslation of some kind, or possible a reference to something like a 1940's Horseracing term that was almost forgotten by most people that weren't either teaching history or history buffs of some sort

It's a reference to ... bug boys. It's all horse racing lingo, from "bug boy" to "the sport of kings sultans."

[Brannigan]

The only titles I really wish we had from the Japanese client are White Knight and Bloody Warrior in place of Meat Shield and Meat Axe. Yeah, I know that meat shield has been around forever as a term and has a lot of presence in MMORPGs, but White Knight/Bloody Warrior are just cooler. Meat Shield/Axe are goofy.

[aisustrong]

The only titles I really wish we had from the Japanese client are White Knight and Bloody Warrior in place of Meat Shield and Meat Axe. Yeah, I know that meat shield has been around forever as a term and has a lot of presence in MMORPGs, but White Knight/Bloody Warrior are just cooler. Meat Shield/Axe are goofy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgk-lA12FBk

[Zophar]

The only titles I really wish we had from the Japanese client are White Knight and Bloody Warrior in place of Meat Shield and Meat Axe. Yeah, I know that meat shield has been around forever as a term and has a lot of presence in MMORPGs, but White Knight/Bloody Warrior are just cooler. Meat Shield/Axe are goofy.

Meat Shield I kind of get, as it's a very classic NA term for a tank in MMO's, going back, Oh, I don't even know how long. First time I heard it was almost 20 years ago back in Everquest. Meat Axe though... That one has always really bothered me. It just sounds so off. I always felt it should have been, like, Meat Cleaver. THAT at least is an actual term. Though I do kinda like White Knight And Bloody Warrior :x

[Anapingofness]

I, for one think the localization team does a great job with FFXIV.
As someone who is bilingual and has had to translate from one language to another, in my case, Serbian to English and vice-versa it is not an easy task.

People who complain about how "bad" the localization team is should go and try do what they do, even for a day, and then come here and qq.
Seriously, even when you don't get "fancy" with it translation is tough.

[StarDrake]

Man, this gets right back to that awful thread about Midgardsormr. I greatly dislike how people fixate on some mythical and pure "non-localized" version of the game, as if every new patch is equal parts Ted Woolsey and 4Kids.

People who complain about how "bad" the localization team is should go and try do what they do, even for a day, and then come here and qq.
Seriously, even when you don't get "fancy" with it translation is tough.

This is an old, old problem though; forget "puritan" translation arguments going back to anime fansubs all the way back in the 70s and 80s, there's a long history of claiming that "only one translation of a work from one language to another is pure and good, and all others are trash" for centuries, at the very least. Hell, the concept of localization really caught on from discussion about Bible translation, and those discussions often get heated even today.

At the risk of sounding like far too much of an elitist snob, it stems from laymen not quite understanding how the craft of language works - that is, it's very very rare for words to map 1:1 between any language. Even a "literal" translation, especially from languages with entirely different root-families like Japanese and English, is going to be full of linguistic best-fits. And I'm not even talking about grammar changes, I'm talking about things like what いただきます, そうか or even はい and いいえ actually mean. (Hint: they don't actually mean yes and no, and the structure of Japanese and the use of the words and their variants reflects this.) Many people who are only familiar with their native language or have perhaps only surface-studied another language in compulsory K-12 don't really have a grasp of this best-fitting, though, and often continue to think that in most cases, there is a single "correct" translation for any given sentence or passage, when language and the process of human expression are actually far more complicated.

(And this isn't limited to just English-speakers; as even one other example, a lot of Japanese run into this problem going JP->EN as well, because of the way English is taught in their version of K-12. I'm sure Ferne or some of the other localization staff have their own stories about running into this.)

Now, has the FFXIV team made a few choices I wouldn't have in their shoes? Of course. That's inevitable. But posts like Ferne's make it abundantly clear that nothing goes into the game thoughtlessly; a lot of consideration goes into everything we see, straight down to silly things like cosmetic titles, and I can appreciate that. And that's really the very best you can ask of any translator/localizer; consideration towards the craft of language and the ways of expression are the real core of any translation project. Chasing after some kind of perceived "pure" translation reflects a misunderstanding of how language works.

While I appreciate and support localized translations over literal translations (even if there are the occasional speed bumps along the way), I didn't know (though have, at times, suspected) that so much of this game was English FIRST, and then localized into Japanese! That's very interesting.

Makes me wonder if there's a clique of Japanese translation snobs overseas heckling THEIR localization team over every percived slight?

You joke, but there actually has been a decent bit of complaining over the 2.x cycle from the Japanese fanbase about parts of the English script having significantly more "flavor" than Japanese counterparts. It's gotten better, in parts because the JP writing team has stepped up, but there's a segment of the JP community that has been somewhat discontented with how their version turned out linguistically.

[Adrian74]

whenever I see a post from Fernehalwes I know it is time to read a big wall of text during half of an hour, however, never disappointed!

I don't find English that cool, (And not my native language), but, I understand a lot the fact that for many many Japanese persons it can sound epic, just as Japanese all around sounds epic for me and whenever I can use it, even romanized cheapy form (Only knowledge I have of it) i do!


PS: English is not cool (for me), but, we have to admit many of the dialogues we have in the EN version are epic, thanks for it!