1 Month in impressions/criticisms...

[Krissey]

Pray tell, fair madam, why hast thou taken a gripe with mine way of communication?

[Panzer]

the game is actually localized in English first then it is relocalized in Japanese. This is from one of the devs words himself while talking about titles in game

Thank you for posting this. It's a genuinely excellent read and it's a shame that many have apparently never seen it.

Unfortunately many people (especially those with both Japanese and English language backgrounds) seem to forget that localization is not translation. Sometimes decisions are made to modify or adjust the "script", while still in the context of the events being presented, based on what that region will best respond to. This localization team does, in my opinion, pretty sensational work - especially when compared to some other MMOs that have truly terrible localization teams.

[Firepower]

I am amazed at how many people seem completely baffled by what is nothing more than old English, perhaps they don't teach this in America but in UK it is pretty much taught from the time you can read a book and start reading Shakespeare. So perhaps instead of saying how annoying it is to not understand what they are saying how about educating yourself about some of the early forms of the language you currently speak. In fact I would be interested if the other clients in French and German use similar text in their localisations.

Would you people prefer they spoke modern Americanism's? Maybe Estenien can post a twitter message whenever he goes somewhere new and shout #YOLO before he runs into battle.

[Aeyis]

Thank you for posting this. It's a genuinely excellent read and it's a shame that many have apparently never seen it.

Unfortunately many people (especially those with both Japanese and English language backgrounds) seem to forget that localization is not translation. Sometimes decisions are made to modify or adjust the "script", while still in the context of the events being presented, based on what that region will best respond to. This localization team does, in my opinion, pretty sensational work - especially when compared to some other MMOs that have truly terrible localization teams.

I have seen that post used far too many times im afraid. It tells you about quest names and titles. Thats all.
How one sees that as content is beyond me.
For that matter this post which is considered something of a bible for the ''Localization Cult'' doesnt even make mention of the item descriptions which are entirely there by courtesy of the localization team.
Something which is generally considered a big plus.


We cannot forget that localization is not translation. Translation stays true to the source, whereas localization takes a walk, or a run with it.
There is no ''need'' for a localization to understand a story, or dialogue. Or to understand context.
All it does is substract from the actual meaning.

This localization team does, in my opinion, pretty sensational work - especially when compared to some other MMOs that have truly terrible localization teams.

Interesting you say that. I've just started playing EoS, and blimey! They actually have pretty well written english quest dialogues. Altho the VA is kind of amusing.

Translation =/ Localization


The english 'localization' team we have is great at translation. But they take too much liberties with localization (or you could say they are bad at localization)

[Kallera]

snip.

Not everyone speaks english as a first language, or understands old english (and ffxiv doesn't quite follow that either.)

[T2teddy]

I am glad you're so into this great game, Zipzo!
Now about your comment about the story and character memorability...I see you're not yet at the end of the 2.55 storyline? WAIT... your next 9 quests will set you on your ear!
Seriously, you're in for some mind bogglers my dear! heehee...and then even bigger mind bogglers in HW!
Enjoy!

By the way, take a comparison in En/Jap between the versions of anything Haurchefant says, will you? His dialogue, and intent towards the Warrior of Light, appears to be not even remotely similar between the two languages

[Ayuhra]

By the way, take a comparison in En/Jap between the versions of anything Haurchefant says, will you? His dialogue, and intent towards the Warrior of Light, appears to be not even remotely similar between the two languages

I feel like one of the few people who prefers En!Haurche over Japanese. In English he seems like a knight with decorum and dignity who is probably a complete eccentric crackpot pervert when nobody is looking (which, going by Heavensturn and him ordering himself a mankini is basically what's happening). It feels like a more complete character to me. In Japanese... goodness.

Anyway, on another topic this is just me nitpicking but the game's dialogue is EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (if not outright Modern English in Early syntax), not Old English. The two sound very different.

Early Modern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt7OynPUIY8
Old: https://youtu.be/zfaEGU45lKA?t=11

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

I love the localization teams work when it came to quest and FATE names and the way all the Beastman tribes talk. But I might be going cross eyed with all the eye rolling I do when it comes to story dialogue. Cheesy faux Shakespearean does not impress me.

[Tenkuu]

I want to start off by saying that I, like you, played with japanese voices and english subtitles. The reason for me was different from yours though. Since I live in Canada, I had the default english audio from the start, but the first cutscene with audio, in my case with Thancred in Ul'dah, immediately made me look for a japanese audio option before I was even sure there was one. From what I've seen on YouTube, this was absolutely the right choice. I've heard some pretty wooden performances in this game, and others that are just plain overacted. In short, my main beef is less with the localization and more with the poor quality of the English voice acting. Since I barely understand a bit of japanese, I couldn't play this game with the japanese version client, only japanese audio, sadly. Now, to address your other points:

Leveling: As long as you're leveling your main job with the main scenario quests, it goes fine, but once you get to a secondary job, it starts to require some unfortunate dungeon and FATE grinding. The leves are boring enough that they get repetitive pretty fast. Even leveling your main job requires that you do at least some side quests in order to keep up with the main scenario quests' level requirements. I personally rate it as Good rather than excellent.

Graphics: For me this rates as Excellent. I don't see any problem with the way my character's face looks and I use a darker skintone than most. I love the way I look in direct sunshine, and I absolutely love the little details in my surroundings, like the street signs actually showing correct names quite clearly instead of the game skimping on that as would have been easy to do.

Story: I personally rate it as Excellent, but this is because, unlike you, I love the vast majority of these characters for their personalities, quirks and all. I really like both Minfilia and Alphinaud, for instance, and my favorite is Thancred, whom I see as a very multi-layered character with more to him than meets the eye, not to mention easily the most personable of the Scions. Of course, I also find the plot to be intelligently written and I've had a few shocks along the way that have kept this exciting for me. However, as a result of the Scions being absent, for me Heavensward has been far less interesting than A Realm Reborn, with only a few of the new characters and plotlines really grabbing my interest. Estinien, for instance, inspired no sympathy in me for the majority of his time with us. I also think there is no comparison between the Coils and Alexander: Coils clearly have far better music, plot and graphic design, not to mention they're more emotionally impacting without the need to introduce a random new character who fits way too many tropes to truly be interesting.

Teleporting: I would rate it as Good. I truly see no issue with the actual teleporting itself, the issue you described would lie more in the story itself, imo.

Localization: I wouldn't say they're that terrible, but in some cases they sadly change a character's personality to something it's not, and that's actually the saddest loss that occurs when translation is not accurate. Nevermind being literal, which of course is bad, but it ought to at least have the same meaning. The scene you described with the Ascian Nabriales is the absolute perfect example of this being quite lacking. Other people may pretend that the same feeling is there in spite of the way of expressing it being different, but in truth different words mean different things, quite simply. With his words in english, you do not truly get a sense of his terror, merely his arrogance. Among the characters I like best, the biggest losses in personality that we have come imo from Thancred, Yda, Papalymo and Haurchefant. Thancred in particular I would say sounds quite a bit more cheesy in the english version where in the japanese version he has his interesting quirks, like when you first meet him, he starts to speak formally (using "watashi") before switching over to casual (using "ore"), and also is a generally more serious person. There's even important differences in his portrayal in Nanamo's Tales from the Calamity story. Even story-wise, so much gets lost because of the localization: you can literally hear them mention something important in japanese sometimes, and the english subs will be some glossed over version or some stupid unimportant character comment. Heck, Midgarsormr's portrayal was even different, and in a pretty bad way imo. In short, I'd rate it as Passable but very nearly bad.

Essentially, all english translations tend to fall under the very sad habit that I like to call Americanization: dumbing something down for American audiences specifically regardless of whether it's an accurate translation or not. Look at the french and german versions: their translations remain much more faithful and they don't come up with excuses for deviating off the script. This is what the english localization team needs to work on. I've noticed a few definite improvements in Heavensward, and even 1.0 seemed to not have such a problem with Americanization, but more work definitely still needs to be done. As it is though, I want to take the japanese script out of the game and try to translate it better myself.

[TheUltimate3]

While teleportation is still a very big thing, I believe they've more or less worked on that with Heavensward, in my humble opinion.

In ARR, you've had several quests that would start in the Shifting Sands, then send you to far flung La Noscea for one quest, send you back to the Shifting Sands to send you deep into the Black Shroud only to then call you back to the Shifting Sands and finally sends you back to La Noscea.

In HW, you would be sent to a zone and unless for whatever reason you decide to leave it, all the quests keeps you going in a path through the zone until you're sent back to Ishgard briefly before they send you to another place (Western Coerthas/Sea of Clouds situation) or you just move on to the next (Dravania > Churning Mists).

Localization, I'm one of the weird ones and actually prefer it in English. Questionable voice acting and localization and all. Sue me.