1 Month in impressions/criticisms...

[Kosmos992k]

Personally I prefer "I am eternal! I am immortal!" because there are other characters that are whiny as it is. How could you feel good about defeating somebody crying for their life? This way he seems more like a worthy foe.

Now for the "W" conversation. In Czech, Slavic language, we also call "W" double "V". We even pronounce it as "V". Also we pronounce almost every character the same way no matter the word. English is pain in arse to learn, because there is barely any connection between written and spoken form. I know that we can blame all the influences from Celts, Romans, French and Vikings (sounds better than Danish) etc. Still English could use a lil bit of reform. It would be nice if you guys finally decided if you want to write the way it sounds, or pronounce it the way it is written.

LOL, don't forget the labyrinth that is English grammar.

[Archaell]

LOL, don't forget the labyrinth that is English grammar.

Oh yeah the hated labyrinth.

Starting with irregular verbs, continuing with perfect aspect, and ending with unisex sentence structures. I have honestly spent few minutes during one of my exames talking about an author using wrong pronoun... Like common, throw me a bone and at least use different colors for male and female names. In Czech we don't have this issue as female speakers use different verb suffix than male ones.

[Alahra]

English localization is always a quagmire. Go too literal and it feels wooden, go too loose and it feels unfaithful. I prefer a more literal translation, generally, but my favorite Odyssey translation is a rather loose one, so that's not always true for me.

I do wish they had erred on the side of caution in the localization. I've hated Alphinaud since he first showed up in game, and I always had this suspicion that I wasn't *supposed* to. So it's interesting to me to learn that he comes across as markedly different in the Japanese.

[adn]

OP, what you need to realize is: though FFXIV is a Japanese game, the "original" script is not the Japanese one. The Japanese scripts are made at the same time as the English ones, and it may shock you to know that the ENGLISH lore is often "back-translated" back into Japanese. So any inconsistencies you see? Those are the JAPANESE translators changing things, not the English ones.

It's a common mistake to assume that because the development team is Japanese that the Japanese text/VAs are the original, which is not the case in FF14, sorry.

You can see this here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2804270
They talk about it in this panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvNpO4gy_Tg
Transcript of that: http://gamerescape.com/2014/10/18/fi...nel-live-blog/

FFXIV has one of the best localizations and localization teams in the entire industry. I will agree with you that the English localization is not friendly to non-native English speakers, however.

[Roegadyn_Bear]

Art thou complaining about the w'rds spoken from mine lips? I hest satisfaction! Meeteth me at the fields of hon'r and prepareth to loseth!

[Kallera]

Which script do the french and german translations derive from? As they are often different as well.

This is the current problem with the localization, it is resulting in changes in character attitudes and responses that simply do not exist in other versions. This is not the result of"the best in the business".

[Kosmos992k]

Which script do the french and german translations derive from? As they are often different as well.

This is the current problem with the localization, it is resulting in changes in character attitudes and responses that simply do not exist in other versions. This is not the result of"the best in the business".

No, the French and German are translated from a direct english translation of the japanese original.

OP, what you need to realize is: though FFXIV is a Japanese game, the "original" script is not the Japanese one. The Japanese scripts are made at the same time as the English ones, and it may shock you to know that the ENGLISH lore is often "back-translated" back into Japanese. So any inconsistencies you see? Those are the JAPANESE translators changing things, not the English ones.

I believe that is incorrect actually. The English Lore team works with the Japanese Lore team to make sure that place names, NPC names and 'fixed' things in the game both fit the lore, and are consistent. The Lore teams don't write the dialog, the original story and dialog are written in Japanese by the main story team, with the combined input of the lore teams, including back translating certain names and other lore related matters.

The japanese originsl is translated into an English reference version. The French, German and other languages are translated from this, which is why they *all* match the Japanese script - give or take minor translation issues. The English version of the game is however the product of taking the reference version and 'localizing' it for the English market. This is why the English client sometimes differs from all of the others - Midgardsormr being a prime example.

From one of your links; "Due to the organic process of localization, the most creative ideas often get re-translated back into the Japanese version." He's referring to lore and the process of creating parts of the lore for the English localization and says that the most creative ideas get back-ported into the japanese lore. That's not the translation of the script or story, it's talking about the background material, names, places and so forth.

Also the forum post in your first link is not talking about the script, it's talking abput GC titles which falls well within the kind of things that the lore teams would want to be consistent and which the English Lore team could easily have useful input in.

[Sapphic]

In response to 7, the story.

I agree with that sentiment prior to HW, but heaavensward story they learnt and took to heart the critique in regards to the 2.0 onwards story. As there is a massive drop in filler quests (which you refered to as Fedex) a lot less reunning over the same patch of land until you leave a rut XD It gives you a sense of constant progression through the lands as you move with the story. Albeit with 3.1 and future that will become more difficult as there wont be any new zones to explore so we will get some of that. But if the quality stays the same as it did during the MSQ for heavensward, I don't think it will be as much of an issue.

[Murakami7]

The very notion of localisation is to convert the content into something that is suitable and appropriate for the target audience of that area. You seem to want a literal translation (直訳) of the Japanese script which would be completely bland and boring. Now, the localisation team didn't have to localise the English script into a sort of medieval, game of thrones-like way but it works for this game (especially in Ishgard) though I think it can be a bit irritating at times.

[kazeandi]

The very notion of localisation is to convert the content into something that is suitable and appropriate for the target audience of that area. You seem to want a literal translation (直訳) of the Japanese script which would be completely bland and boring. Now, the localisation team didn't have to localise the English script into a sort of medieval, game of thrones-like way but it works for this game (especially in Ishgard) though I think it can be a bit irritating at times.

Not a literal translation, but one that transports the characteristics of the characters and conveys what they say properly - this didn't happen at ALL. It's like they had a rough draft of the original and wrote their own version.