1 Month in impressions/criticisms...

[Morningstar1337]

When is a double 'u' not a vowel?

[Kosmos992k]

Someone had to do it, I just beat you to it...

[Tenkuu]

OP has never studied Shakespeare. The English localisation is good.

Localization is not about language quirks, I couldn't care less how they talk. What I want is proper translation, and I believe localization in this case is an excuse for bad translation. Not that most of it is bad, just the important parts, which in a way is far worse than if the whole thing were bad, because then we could just commiserate about the whole thing sucking. We can't say that here, but the aspects of localization that have outright changed many characters' personality are rather disturbing. Japanese Haurchefant, for instance, is simply fabulous. You don't know what you're missing out on when you don't play with the japanese audio and, if you can, the japanese client.

[Noxifer]

OP has never studied Shakespeare. The English localisation is good.

Well, the thing is also that English is taught as a second language to far more countries than German, French or Japanese. Which means that most people who don't come from an Japanese-, English-, German- or French-speaking country are going to be running the English client, no matter how poorly they speak that language. And while yes, you can't always cater to those who aren't fluent, let's face it, there's no real need to make it overly complicated.

Also, most second-language courses don't go into Shakespearean English unless they're the more advanced classes. Most second-language classes tend to focus on the relatively current language.

[Dotsusama]

I'm with you on the localization sometimes. Instances where people have (like someone linked earlier) closely compared Midgardsormr's dialogue from both versions is one prime example. The second being Haurchefant's dealings with the WoL and even his own close ties at Camp Dragonhead... Go look up some 2.x translations on tumblr for Haurchefant some time, and if you are as attached to him as a lot of people are, you'll see a whole different side of him that way.

[Kosmos992k]

xD point. Though in most Nordic countries, it's called "double-v", at least as far as I know ^_~ (And often counted as the same letter as V in dictionaries, phone books and the like ^^; Probably because there are very few words and/or names starting with W in the first place.)

Someone earlier mentioned that in welsh 'w' is pronounced as a 'u', for example Cwmry, the 'w' is an extended 'u' as in rude. Double 'v' makes some sense since 'v' is at least a consonant. However we are stuck with 'w' as is, I wonder whether we have the Welsh to thank for that.. sadly the real explanation for the name of that letter is boringly simple with 7th century scribes writing 'uu' for a 'w'. Early print sometimes used a 'vv' instead of a specific 'w' character. See? Not quite as much fun as the Welsh explanation...

[Archaell]

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.

[Noxifer]

Someone earlier mentioned that in welsh 'w' is pronounced as a 'u', for example Cwmry, the 'w' is an extended 'u' as in rude. Double 'v' makes some sense since 'v' is at least a consonant. However we are stuck with 'w' as is, I wonder whether we have the Welsh to thank for that.. sadly the real explanation for the name of that letter is boringly simple with 7th century scribes writing 'uu' for a 'w'. Early print sometimes used a 'vv' instead of a specific 'w' character. See? Not quite as much fun as the Welsh explanation...

Yeah I know ^^ It's one reason I mentioned it. (I like "different" languages, so I picked up an audiobook language course in Welsh back when I was sixteen or so... Not much of it stuck; I sadly only remember two words from it. And one of them only cos of the to me funny spelling: siwgwr, aka sugar)

I'm guessing Nordic languages also got stuck with "double-v" since it's a Germanic language, and W in German is a V sound (unlike the German V which is an F sound... @_@) In general, the F, V and W letters have seen a lot of different use in at least Swedish language history xD Going back a century, you'd find a lot of Swedish words using either f or fv for V sounds, for example.

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.

xD I have that feeling every once in a while when it comes to foreign languages in general. Though part of that feeling I think is due to the various sounds of the letters being 'pre-programmed' into your brain based on your native language. And, of course, some grammar rules being 'unspoken' =/
(Swedish, as an example, has a lot of grammar rules that people today have no clue about. We have two different "a/an" words, but instead of the relatively simple "not vowel sound/vowel sound" rule that English has, it has to do with what gender the noun has... and Swedish hasn't officially used genders on words for a couple of decades or more. But the rule's still there ^^; Same with what the plural form of the noun is supposed to be. I think there's three or four different plural endings to words x_x)



(Sorry for the language detour, btw, OP... I just find etymology and languages in general highly interesting.)

[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.

[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.