Why is the NA team so loose with dialogue?

[Alahra]

because people don't say the same thing in the exact same way across languages. square Enix has some of the best localizers in the business; trust that you're getting an accurate translation.

But by definition, if a line of dialogue has a character reference another character by name in the voice track, and that line of dialogue, in translation, doesn't reference another character at all, it's inaccurate.

There are numerous instances of the Localization team taking liberties that are rather different from the original intent, such as with Haurchefaunt's entire character, and even with things like Achievement titles (White Knight vs. Meat Shield, for instance). That's not accurate by any definition of the word.

Much of my education was in the field of comparative literature and I'm well aware of the need for translations to not always be literal, as not all words translate properly from one language into another. But the meaning should be captured, and when the meaning is clear while being literal, the translation should, in general, be literal where ever possible.