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

[Cidel]

In Estiniens case... I dunno. I'll need to know what he says exactly in Japanese so I can find a way to explain why it's one way for us and another way for JP players. It's possible his "hmph" could somehow mean exactly the same thing as he says in Japanese (they are meant to be sneaking about. Talking at all could potentially alert any nearby soldiers. This is ignoring the fact they were sprinting, of course. Let's pretend that didn't happen).

A few of us were having this discussion earlier and someone kindly provided the translation of the JP version:

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

It's minor, yes, but I still just find it odd that a phrase telling people to be alert since there's more corpses up ahead is omitted simply for "Hmph."

Without more information I can only guess, but perhaps the localization team found it redundant to have Estinien remark on the status of the guards they'd run into twice in two consecutive lines.

In light of his next spoken line, I've considered this possibility. Again, the whole thing is fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. At best you could say the Japanese version makes it apparent slightly sooner that this isn't the first set of corpses they've ran into. In English, after Gaius sends his sidekicks off elsewhere, Estinien then mentions how they were killed, "same as the others." But playing with Japanese voices and reading the English lines just makes it baffling how a curt utterance is a stand-in for actual commentary. I personally wouldn't find it redundant for him to say "Be alert, more dead guards" and then mention in his next line that they've all been killed the same way as the rest. I dunno, maybe their voice actors are paid per word; so the less the better.

[Waliel]

Why not? What Lyna says in EN perfectly matches her body language. I may need you to specify what you mean by "clearly not localisation decisions," as everything localised is a localisation decision and has been given the okay by the higher ups (as mentioned in the link I posted in the previous page).

I think the issue here might be that if you take that one single line out of context the translation is kinda weird, but when you consider her whole rant it fits... just fine.

And as somewhat related on the topic, I as a non-native English speaker prefer a more literal translation. Another thing as a non-native that I've noticed is that in almost all of the examples of bad and too literal translations that don't flow well and what have you, I find myself thinking: "I don't understand what the problem here is." I have to wonder how much of that is the fault of early fansubs, which could be, for the lack of a better word, quite wild at times. Clearly the solution here is to go the way of Judgement and how Sega basically translated the whole game twice. Dubs are your usual full localisation like FFXIV with dubtitles, but if you want, you can choose to use JP voices with subtitles that retain some of the Japanese flair while still being of excellent quality you've come to expect from the Yakuza series.

[Celestene]

True but for some direct translates is much harder. It does not make sense to many americans so it is pretty close. I think they try hard to make it close as can make sense.

[Halivel]

Well what would be a reason to remove a complete sentence and replace it with "Hmph" to begin with in case with Estinien? (Last MSQ quest, don't remember number for cut scene... second from the end at least).
Though, considering that not all scenes are originally Japanese (and we have no chances to know where is the original one) it would be correct to ask the question from two points:

Option 1: There was a sentence in original Japanese. Why, for the Twelve's sake, they removed it if there is zero reason for this?
Option 2: There was a "Hmph" in original English. Why, for the Twelve's sake, they wrote a whole sentence if there is zero reason for this?

And btw Estinien is not the only case when sentences are drastically shortened (or opposite) but it's the recent content so most fresh in mind. Do these differences are really important for MSQ? Not really, mostly these are minor differences (I will not call them mistranslations, because it's not so simple in case with FFXIV). But do they still confuse you or change the atmosphere of a scene in specific situations? Hell yes they do.

[Rosenstrauch]

Well what would be a reason to remove a complete sentence and replace it with "Hmph" to begin with in case with Estinien?

Without more information I can only guess, but perhaps the localization team found it redundant to have Estinien remark on the status of the guards they'd run into twice in two consecutive lines.

[Fhaerron]

True, but it's still pretty acceptable here.

If you take a look at Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for example ... That's not localisation that's just downright censorship.

Certain western religions are one of the things for this particular case.

For anime, if you don't understand Japanese you're almost always better of using fan subs. Horrible Subs for example are pretty good but there are many other fan subs who're really great.

[Halivel]

I will give an example of actual… I don't even know how to name this, because it's not even a mistranslation, it's nonsense. I have many questions for translation team, but our translators always were bad so I can't even say I was surprised when I saw it.

It's not for FF14, but also for FF - 15th, in fact.

Somewhere in open world between side quests there was a short random dialogue, that happen from time to time.

Japanese (translated in English literally):

Ignis: Should we go?
Noctis: Yeah.

Russian (also translated in English literally):

Ignis: Isn't it time to go?
Notic: Onwards, four-eyes.

………………………...wha? <kupo!> WHY!?

After this almost every case of different text in FF14 will look a joke really, but still.

[Kallera]

I think it was Lyna's last line that may have needed a tone change to fit. "...And now they will never see it." It's...too flat? It doesn't seem to match with the mix of emotion that was building in the other lines, no payoff of teeth gritting rage or word choking anguish.

[Alucard135]

Here's something different that is a bit spoilery for 5.0 final boss story

It is when we rejoin with Ardbert and Emet Selch sees an Amaroutian for a brief moment.

The Japanese text, from my limited understanding, goes something like this "Impossible! Why are you here?!" and once the light fades he says "No, wrong... It's not him. (then I'm not sure what he says after)".

The English one goes "No... It can't be..." And then "Bah, a trick of the light. You are a broken husk, nothing more."

Even though it's a minor change, but story wise the Japanese one is revealing something different. Who is this "him" that Emet Selch is referring to? Are we somehow related to the Amaroutian that he created and had his own will and could see that our soul and Ardbert's are the same? In the English one, you wouldn't think that and probably just think that the WoL is becoming more like the Amaroutians.

[Krotoan]

Here's something different that is a bit spoilery for 5.0 final boss story

It is when we rejoin with Ardbert and Emet Selch sees an Amaroutian for a brief moment.

The Japanese text, from my limited understanding, goes something like this "Impossible! Why are you here?!" and once the light fades he says "No, wrong... It's not him. (then I'm not sure what he says after)".

The English one goes "No... It can't be..." And then "Bah, a trick of the light. You are a broken husk, nothing more."

Even though it's a minor change, but story wise the Japanese one is revealing something different. Who is this "him" that Emet Selch is referring to? Are we somehow related to the Amaroutian that he created and had his own will and could see that our soul and Ardbert's are the same? In the English one, you wouldn't think that and probably just think that the WoL is becoming more like the Amaroutians.

But the one self aware Amaroutian alludes to you being someone in particular as well. I'll have to rewatch it but I remember they say something that suggests that not only are you one with Ardbert, you are someone he recognizes and thinks is notable. I definitely got the idea the WoL was not only part of a shattered soul, but an important one.

crouching spoilers, hidden plot elements.