Translation quality

[Spellbinder]

It doesnt really explain why they decided to change the names tho. As originally in ffxiv they did have the usual names.
I get the impression they changed it simply because they wanted to to ''mark'' their localization work.

Example please?

From what i gather it's because their suffix system is meaningless to us, and that they didn't want us confusing the effects of spells.... or something.

Meanwhile (and i know the teams are different) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days had, for example, "Cure, Cura, Curaga" and all 3 had different effects.

It just feels off for a FF game to use numbers for spells. Through my THM leveling process i was like "okay, haha but where's fira and firaga"

As outlined in the post, one would expect a certain suffix to have a certain effect. For example, spells denoted by -ja having X effect. However, that's not the case in FFXIV. The suffix only tells you in what order it was learned.

The same with materia. The suffix only tells you its ranking. However, the ranking wasn't even unified between materia and spells. There's also another set of items that uses these suffixes, but it alludes me at the moment.

But the main point of the explanation was, because the suffix being used for spells, materia, etc. is only telling you the order or ranking, they decided to use unified numbering across the board for everything rather than letters that aren't unified across the board.

[Averax]

Here you go.

Warning: Very lengthy detailed post.

From what i gather it's because their suffix system is meaningless to us, and that they didn't want us confusing the effects of spells.... or something.

Meanwhile (and i know the teams are different) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days had, for example, "Cure, Cura, Curaga" and all 3 had different effects.

It just feels off for a FF game to use numbers for spells. Through my THM leveling process i was like "okay, haha but where's fira and firaga"

[Eej]

From what i gather it's because their suffix system is meaningless to us, and that they didn't want us confusing the effects of spells.... or something.

Meanwhile (and i know the teams are different) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days had, for example, "Cure, Cura, Curaga" and all 3 had different effects.

It just feels off for a FF game to use numbers for spells. Through my THM leveling process i was like "okay, haha but where's fira and firaga"

Have you never played a Final Fantasy game before 8 or something?

[Kazumac]

I like the dialogue in the English version but the dialog and some personalities are different. Wife plays the game completely in Japanese and I in English since they are respectively our native languages. It is fun to discuss differences but I feel overall tone and story are the same. As in we both feel like we are playing the same game and same story despite minor differences and nuances.

[Shougun]

The translations are pretty good, imo, and at least if what has been dev said is true we often get quite a bit more flavor for non-important items too. There was the case where Midgardsormr spoke less and in a different way than the Japanese version, but imo it was better that way. I dislike bad/good guy monologues - and that's what it really seemed to be on the other side. Besides, made him feel more powerful by the fact he was like "-yoink-, thats mine, and yeah I suppose I'll answer some of thi - but I hope you remembered the last few quests and did not expect me to do "LAST TIME ON ARR"".

wow! thank you for this post. This cleared up MANY questions I had about that encounter. This however makes me wonder how much of the story im actually missing from the weak translations we where given. Im kinda depressed now lol

I wouldn't be depressed besides their job is actually localization (to bring a foreign item and change it for the market), technically they don't have to verbatim translate and not doing that does not make it bad, but imo all the information missed was there (in dialog or by previous information given) or would have been confirmed naturally through progression if unsure.

[Terrini]

About the Midgardsormr encounter, there is much contention over it since Fernehalwes (Koji Fox) is in charge of a lot of content, like the specific in-game languages of Sylphic and Draconic. So Koji made the Dragon language and his localization stayed true to the grammar and a more direct translation of someone who normally spoke using Draconic and is speaking in another language (so when he speaks to you he is speaking in your tongue so the echo isn't helping)

Some people may dislike this approach but to others it's a good experience. The English Lore team has a HUGE amount of input in the game Lore, so they have this kind of power.

[RaijinSupreme]

it's localization and rephrasing rather than an actual translation. because of culture differences, some phrases said in Japanese may not make any much sense if it was translated directly to English, or any other language. I like it better this way, for it respects other languages and the people that speaks them, while still protecting and telling the story of the game.

[Onikimaru]

it's localization and rephrasing rather than an actual translation. because of culture differences, some phrases said in Japanese may not make any much sense if it was translated directly to English, or any other language. I like it better this way, for it respects other languages and the people that speaks them, while still protecting and telling the story of the game.

Without localization there wouldn't be translation. You could say it's because of culture differences, you could also say that they could do a better job while respecting other languages and protecting the story.

[Saccharin]

I heard the english translation added lots of extra fluff and actually even altered some personnalities, how true is that statement ?

You should think of it more as a localisation than a translation.

Something's like jokes for instance that might be funny in Japanese don't translate well into other languages. Take the endings of spells for ranks in Japanese, they work logically in Japanese text but don't in English so SE (NA) game them numbers, to some controversy. If you also look at some fate names in the English client you can see references from English pop culture.

[Aeyis]

You should think of it more as a localisation than a translation.

Something's like jokes for instance that might be funny in Japanese don't translate well into other languages. Take the endings of spells for ranks in Japanese, they work logically in Japanese text but don't in English so SE (NA) game them numbers, to some controversy. If you also look at some fate names in the English client you can see references from English pop culture.

American english (popculture) or england english? Or european english? Or one of the few others?
Why should I be able to ''get'' a joke just because I can read the language its written in? Or likewise, be unable to understand it because its origin is a different language.
That's why I feel ''localization'' is a bad thing imo. Display language =/ as culture.
If anything only having one set of cultural references (regardless of origin, even if its just a made up culture) is always the best choice, if you ask me.


Especially in fantasy games, where most of your culture will be made up to begin with. How do you localise made up cultural references? How do you localise made up characters and their personalities?


As far as references to rl things go. Why not leave the original ones there?
Mind you, I'm getting tired of seeing random references to rl things in a fantasy game.