Differences between English and Japanese MSQ Dialogue (bit of a rant)

[Alleo]

Which is good because even if certain character are a trope, it was still how the writer saw them. Changing it, is also changing the purpose of these characters in my eyes.

I remember also the story of some NPCs (speech bubble only) that left Ishgard behind to start a new life at another place. She had a baby with him at the end and the JP version had her be hopeful, while the english version made her question her decision to come with him..This has really nothing to do with having to change the dialogue a bit, this is straight making another ending to someones character. And I honestly dont understand why.

[Dualblade]

Which is good because even if certain character are a trope, it was still how the writer saw them. Changing it, is also changing the purpose of these characters in my eyes.

I remember also the story of some NPCs (speech bubble only) that left Ishgard behind to start a new life at another place. She had a baby with him at the end and the JP version had her be hopeful, while the english version made her question her decision to come with him..This has really nothing to do with having to change the dialogue a bit, this is straight making another ending to someones character. And I honestly dont understand why.

Spoilers for Automata that are relevent to this specific type of situation.

When you beat the Emil Heads bonus boss the Emil who has been your shopkeeper Emil also dies due to wounds he got from before you got there. In English his final words are about seeing NieR and Kaine and thus dieing somewhat happily, but in Japan he only sees darkness and dies sobbing and afraid. The same scene, similar outcome, but completely different feels depending on which language you were playing with.

[AlliciaCapulet]

To be honnest, I also find problems in the english version. I'm native french, also speaking english and I understand japanese quite well too (been studying it for the last 6 years). And, I've tested the french translation and the english translation, and I find that the french translation is better. I agree it's sometime hard to make things exactly the same between 2 languages, but sometime I just feel the translation is not right in english. That's why I switched the game in french here since I feel that the translation japanese->french is better.

[TheGrimace]

The English localization is fantastic and I can confidently say that we have the best version of the game, even if it's not originally written in English. Koji Fox, John Crow, and the rest of the staff really pour their hearts into the game and it shows.

[Kaedan]

To be frank, OP, it sounds like your Japanese isn't very high level. I'm not saying that to be offensive, just perhaps you don't have enough experience with it.

Localization is an art form in itself. As someone who is fluent in Japanese myself (been here 10 years and married), and I'm sure to others who are as well, if you try to translate verbatim, you end up with really convoluted and unnatural sounding English. While translating verbatim would certainly convey the exact words of the Japanese, it will usually come out odd, dry and boring.

So good localizers will communicate the meaning of what's being said, but using familiar language and idioms to make it sound natural.

I have to say, SE's localization team for FF14 are PHENOMENAL. They do a superb job of exactly that: communicating the meaning in a culturally accurate way.

So yeah, there's going to be a lot of words that aren't exactly translated and some words that won't even be translated at all, but that's okay. It's a sign of a very good localization.

[Cidel]

Okay since the relevant topic came up again, I have to ask anyone particularly fluent in Japanese (Spoilers, but that should be obvious at this point for a MSQ thread):

In the last series of cutscenes where Estinien is in the Garlean imperial palace with Gaius, what exactly is his comment in Japanese that simply gets turned into "Hmph" in English? I imagine it's nothing "story-changing," but this has been bothering me.

Aside from that, I don't think there ever needs to be/can be a literal translation on a lot of things if they more or less say the same thing, but turning something like a short sentence into "Hmph" may lend some credence to the discrepancies about the translation.

[Halivel]

Okay since the relevant topic came up again, I have to ask anyone particularly fluent in Japanese (Spoilers, but that should be obvious at this point for a MSQ thread):

In the last series of cutscenes where Estinien is in the Garlean imperial palace with Gaius, what exactly is his comment in Japanese that simply gets turned into "Hmph" in English? I imagine it's nothing "story-changing," but this has been bothering me.

Aside from that, I don't think there ever needs to be/can be a literal translation on a lot of things if they more or less say the same thing, but turning something like a short sentence into "Hmph" may lend some credence to the discrepancies about the translation.

I can't say I'm fluent, but he speaks about lookout people being dead again (suppose they saw few dead groups on their way). And yes, seeing it like "Hmph" in English was weird. XD

[Cidel]

I can't say I'm fluent, but he speaks about lookout people being dead again (suppose they saw few dead groups on their way). And yes, seeing it like "Hmph" in English was weird. XD

Thanks. I had a suspicion it was probably a comment about the bodies, but that only makes me wonder why it was decided to have him simply utter "Hmph" rather than something like "-and yet more slain soldiers."

[Tsukino]

I can't say I'm fluent, but he speaks about lookout people being dead again (suppose they saw few dead groups on their way). And yes, seeing it like "Hmph" in English was weird. XD

Yep, this is it. "また見張りがやられてやがる……。" Not really important, just kind of weird that it's different.

I typically play with English text and Japanese voices, and I didn't notice anything particularly strange this time around. Almost everything that was voiced in the main story quests carried the same meaning, and I am very critical of this localization team in general.

There is one reference that they did not carry over this time, just like they dropped the ball on "The Floating Continent" and "Knights of Round" in Heavensward. And that is that the Gunbreaker ammunition is called "soil" in Japanese, in reference to Final Fantasy: Unlimited of all things.

[Kaedan]

Okay since the relevant topic came up again, I have to ask anyone particularly fluent in Japanese (Spoilers, but that should be obvious at this point for a MSQ thread):

In the last series of cutscenes where Estinien is in the Garlean imperial palace with Gaius, what exactly is his comment in Japanese that simply gets turned into "Hmph" in English? I imagine it's nothing "story-changing," but this has been bothering me.

Aside from that, I don't think there ever needs to be/can be a literal translation on a lot of things if they more or less say the same thing, but turning something like a short sentence into "Hmph" may lend some credence to the discrepancies about the translation.

I'll watch it again tomorrow and give you my take. ^_^