[Spoilers, kind of] Characters who are completely different between JP/ENG

[Brannigan]

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-paladins, especially in 2.0, had little lore beyond "pretty righteous knights." They aren't affiliated with any Eorzean churches. This was changed to add lore, not to reflect it, which I think is a bad practice. There's also some more to this change, though, because it happened waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1.x. In datamining early 1.x files, an early version of HG could be seen that stopped working if you moved. This never made it live, but I'm like 70% sure they chose the name HG because of that effect. Also, HG protects you from everything in this game.
-Past FFs seem to have no bearing on how they name things if -aga spells and a ton of other stuff are any indication
-Defender: War's defensive stance from FFXI. http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Defender
-You shouldn't give infuriate a pass. Go look at the animation. The warrior lets out a war cry - something you do before going into battle and unleashing your special moves and stuff. This change is one of the dumbest imo. Why change it to Infuriate of all things?
-Cleric/Crusade doesn't matter much but it's just another example of a why change. Religion actually is pretty big in FFXIV. You have to pick a guardian deity at character creation and every nation-state has its own patron deity, which leads to
-Shroud of Saints is another one that effectively accomplishes the same thing. Protection of the Goddess likely refers to Nophica in this case, since CNJ is from grid and all. You'd be Nophica's saint in this case. Also the shroud/her protection lowers your enmity by half, effectively protecting you from attack.

It all boils down to why fix what isn't broken for a lot of these. There are some changes that are good. It's hard to translate a lot of Monk's stuff or Chaos Thrust without just changing them outright, but the ones I've talked about, I think, are either unnecessary or actively bad.
(as an aside, speaking of saints, "The Wanderer's Shadow" title is "Oschon(?)'s Saint" in some of the other versions. For whatever reason the loc team almost always refers to the gods by their nicknames. Wanderer's Palace, etc.)
then they don't go and fix stuff like Dancing Edge/Armor Crush in loc. Why? It layers on top of other questionable loc changes (and lots of tooltip mistakes) and makes the game feel cheaper. All of this is my opinion, obviously, so you don't have to agree, but that's what I think of it.

Anyway the names are pretty much uniform since 3.x from what I bothered to look into. The bad deeds are done. I don't think we're going to agree so I'm just gonna duck out. good talk.

[Ametrine]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA6A-ySMHYI

I mean, just saying. It's a game about war. Referencing rape and atrocities but not depicting them is solidly in T territory. FFXIV does it all the time.

YMMV, but their coversations in both versions, as bad as it is in the EN version, still covers the exact same topic and comes to the exact same conclusion.

Worth mentioning that other rough details like Jacob's abuse, neglect, and jealousy towards his children are left as is, just with different dialogue. Peri's character was not changed at all. Both of which are characters I can't stand, but both are faithful.

Compared to say, Effie, whom Treehouse opted to make her all about training and "gains" on top of her sweet nature and intense dedication to Elise. Both versions are very different in the end.

Treehouse just looked at the two scenes with men that our avatar is supposed to be having a personal moment with being turned into something a bit rapey as unnecessary and cut them.

I've had pretty intense discussions on the changes made towards Niles in particular, as his threat to rape you is just his attempts to deflect anyone growing too close to him, and making people as uncomfortable as possible tends to do that. EN version speaks in heavy innuendo and trolls Corrin instead. Same effect, less nightmare fuel inducing, but Niles "arc" is still rooted in the atrocities a poor Nohrian child had to face and how the trauma damaged him.

Despite finding the differences improve my PERSONAL experience, most I've discussed this with hate any and all changes.

That being said, I'm pretty comfortable saying I draw the line at a game that has a character reacting to a mechanic I'm encouraged to use to grow affection with them as me basically molesting them . That's too far. I don't see why this would be an argument, but I've done this song and dance before and know how people get over localization changes.

It's jelly donuts all over again.

[Nestama]

snip

• Given they learn other 'Divine' and 'Holy' type moves, the name of the skill still works.
• Which is why Koji argued that the numbers indicate spells learned and not power. In past Final Fantasy's (excluding XI, which had its own system that worked), -ragaja spells indicated that the spell would be stronger. In this game, that is not always the case.
• Defender also raised a WAR's defence in FFXI. Defiance does not.
• Do they also look angry while doing it, though? People tend to yell when infuriated.
• And I chose Rhalgr, not Nophica. If I were expecting protection from someone, it would be from the deity I chose for my character, who is quite clearly not a Goddess (and that's not assumption).

I feel the localisation team knows what they're doing when it comes (came?) to naming abilities and such. I'm fine with how they look (and not everything needs to be a direct translation) as they do not impact my gameplay whatsoever.

[Ametrine]

I actually prefer the naming convention put towatds EN SCH over the JP one entirely due to ease of use and clarity, along with it giving SCH the feel of being highly learned. I'd rather not have sic skills with "tactics" in it's name.

AST skills give (gave, as some were cut) off that superior air that the ivory tower society of Sharlayan is oft hinted to have in comparison to the other healers. Esuna to Leeches to Exalted Detriment was always my favorite.

[Alleo]

I've heard a few bad things around the German version being very crass and a bit unhinged. Lots of swearing for the sake of it, kind of thing.

I am using German for the game and I am not really sure where it would be crass or unhinged. ö_ö And I also dont remember any unnecessary swearing.

[Ametrine]

I am using German for the game and I am not really sure where it would be crass or unhinged. ö_ö And I also dont remember any unnecessary swearing.

It may just be a few cases then, as the specific quest I recall the complaint geared towards was in regards to the Bard quest including an NPC that's quite foul. Lol.

Maybe unhinged is the wrong word. More that the German version holds nothing back.

[Theodric]

The English version doesn't shy away from mature language, either. Though that is precisely what the game's ratings outline. If people are bothered by it, tough - there's plenty of family friendly games out there that they can play instead. FFXIV has a specific style and is tastefully mature and that is precisely what a lot of us want out of it.

[Averax]

Major differences. This is not only in FFXIV... you get this in games, movies, anime, music, heck it is in everything.

Once you figure this out you are kinda screwed also; you've gotta choose to experience the original setting, or go with the translation. Or watch stuff multiple times. Personally I think this really blows, and when being serious about it the original always seems 'better'. (How strange, how the producer meant it to be, seems better?!)

Each their own, of course, some friends can't stand foreign languages / voices. (And I wish I knew more of them!)

If you've ever watched an anime called "ghost stories" trust me, it's way better in english dubs than it ever was in japanese.

[Soul_Mythrim]

JPN Lalafells are the best <3

Tataru is cuter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue4IS3DseyM

Pipin has a more Heroic voice that trumps anything we've heard in ENG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTWiGaOu2aU

and sometimes you get moments that are just plain hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj6eQ7oitJo

I recommend if you are starting a alt switch it from ENG to JPN and you'll see a whole lot of differences in ARR & HW which are awesome

it's like they took those voices straight out of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

[TaleraRistain]

Someone mentioned Cleric making sense for attacker "if you like D&D I guess". Crusade is much more of a reference to paladins in D&D than any pure healer class. So Cleric makes perfect sense for the stance of a non-paladin healer.