English translation lacks charecter compared to other translations

[MistakeNot]

The occasionally hamfisted use of old English in this game makes it difficult to understand at times even for native speakers and also sounds bad while simultaneously stripping the dialogue of emotion because it's so rough. Urianger is a really bad offender in this department. His dialogue is absolutely unbearable to listen to at times. The cinematic where you meet the Warriors of Darkness is a really good example of his terrible dialogue. Being in faux medieval world doesn't mean we need to use medieval language. It's not like England existed in Eorzea. Do the other clients use archaic language?

You are lucky in that neither Urianger nor anybody else in the game speaks medieval English. Then you would really have trouble understanding it.

The main problem with understanding Urianger is not so much that he uses some archaic words and phrases, but that he speaks in a "poetic" language which makes it hard to understand no matter how good you are at older versions of English.

[Solarra]

Urianger is a really bad offender in this department. His dialogue is absolutely unbearable to listen to at times.

It's meant to be though. If you follow the story, you'll notice that Urianger is mocked gently but quite often by the other Scions for the way he speaks. Moenbryda quoting his summons was hilarious as it did indeed sound much more like a declaration of love rather than a simple request for aid. I do find his speech difficult to follow at times because it's flowery and often he's quoting some obscure prophesy but I wouldn't want it changed, at this point l find it rather endearing.

Haurchefant and Minfillia both came over as rather cold and flat in English. I'm not sure how Minfillia was in other languages but in English, her dialogue coupled with the extremely poor voice acting (imo) made her particularly unsympathetic as a character.
Haurchefant, I really didn't know he cared until that point in the plot where we find out just how much he does care. It's a shame the localisation team did such an extreme job on him. Was it fear that some English-speaking players might react poorly to a male NPC hitting on their male character?
I believe that Matoya made a remark about Alphinaud being effiminate that wasn't in the other language versions, too. Changes like that, which can completely change how you view a character, I'm not in favour of.

[TheHeavenAbyss]

I play with the japanese voices and I've noticed that sometimes what they say doesn't match the text. That is to be expected, of course, and I won't complain too much, but sometimes I notice changes that don't really need to be there. Yes, localization and making things more understandable for differents cultures could be an argument, but one example is, in 4.2, in Asahi's flashback with Zenos.

In the original japanese, it goes something like:

Asahi: Lord Kaien is up ahead and we're having trouble with him.
Zenos: Is that person strong?
Asahi: Lord Kaien is the best swordsman in Doma.

In the english text, Zenos says "Lord Kaien?". It still serves as a segue to Asahi's next sentence, but why would that need to be changed? Is "Is that person strong?" too weird for a western audience? I would say it gives a different characterization to Zenos. Like, in the original, it looks like he doesn't care about who Kaien is, he just wants to know if he might be good sport. In english, it makes it seem like Zenos just wants to know who that guy is, which doesn't make much sense. In Zenos' Tale of the Storm it's pretty clear that he knows who Kaien is since he was sent to Doma to deal with him.

Yes, it's a small change, but it's not the only one that I've noticed (when Zenos kills himself, he says in japanese "Farewell, my first and last friend", he doesn't call WoL "his enemy" like in english). I understand the localization argument, but I fear it might be used as an excuse for the localizers to mess unnecessarily with the original story to make it more appealing to them. Their main job is to translate. If there's something that might sound weird in english, then they can change it a little bit more, but I think that should be it.

[Elamys]

You are lucky in that neither Urianger nor anybody else in the game speaks medieval English. Then you would really have trouble understanding it.

The main problem with understanding Urianger is not so much that he uses some archaic words and phrases, but that he speaks in a "poetic" language which makes it hard to understand no matter how good you are at older versions of English.

Yes, true medieval or really old English would definitely be a problem for pretty much anyone. I'm just more wondering why they felt the need to go the route of using more dated English which is why I'm really curious as to if the other game translations in other languages went the same route. Unfortunately the only other language I know is Spanish so I can't check for myself. It just comes across as really awkward sometimes to have a character who otherwise speaks in perfectly modern English occasionally sticking in words or phrases that, while not necessarily extinct or impossible to understand today, are really out of the timeline with the rest of what they said. (Especially when I'm standing there in a fluffy sweater and a miniskirt with sunglasses though that's just one of the setting discrepancies I've come to love about the game.)

To clarify, I think most players with a decent grasp of the English language can understand perfectly what's being said, but it flows badly and sounds unnatural.

Haurchefant and Minfillia both came over as rather cold and flat in English. I'm not sure how Minfillia was in other languages but in English, her dialogue coupled with the extremely poor voice acting (imo) made her particularly unsympathetic as a character.

Minfilia was definitely bad. To the point where I have felt zero emotion for the various times she's come up in trouble. My relationship with her is like the relationship I have with my real life boss. Friendly and we joke sometimes, but I'm not about to sacrifice my life to save her. Which is a problem given that the writing implies we are the best of friends.

[Telkira]

I'd be much happier of the devs gave players the option to have the Japanese text and script simply translated, rather than localized. I read about Koji Fox's approach, and it's a dumb one. The goal should be to ensure that the primary version of the game is the 'real' one.

Taking liberties like dumbing down entire characters because they may come off as 'offensive' to the target market is censorship. And it's not like the game would be any worse for wear if all of the liberties hadn't been taken, I can sort of understand people being discomforted, but in any case, pandering in this regard isn't good for the game. People will still buy and play it, regardless of the familiarity.

I would also just prefer to play the game in a way that's as close to the original product as possible, without all the localization. I genuinely believe that it would be conducive to a better experience, at least for people like me who are bothered by deviations from the original.