This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[GrizzlyTank]

I like that the English localisation is different. It's not that I consider it to be better or worse than the other languages, but for me, it is an enjoyable experience taken by itself, and studying the differences in how certain characters are written or portrayed between languages is extremely interesting. Writing, including translation and localisation, is an art, and one which there are no simple facts about. If you ask multiple people to translate a text, the end result will be slightly different each time and I actually think that's really cool in how it reflects factors like culture and personal experience. I've never felt that the English localisation left me hard done by or strayed too far from the original in a way that fundamentally altered the story or message to an objectionable point.

We all have our opinions, though - perhaps I'm biased as a linguistics/literature nerd, but there it is

Having studies, a funny thing is that a reference no longer counts as a "direct citation" if it's translated. Even if both languages are from the same language family with near similar sentence structure. Because as you said translations will always be up for interpretation.

Can't recall the name of an article, but it went into depth of how to properly translate a product and why the end result often ends up being "technically" a rewrite for the script. So yes the translators could translate the script directly but often the end result of doing that is that the translated script will either sound incredibly boring with a poor pacing (might not be much of an issue for scientific articles), contain nonsensical euphemism (can't recall a more appropriate word at the moment) or cultural references/memes that are going to be unknown and make little sense for the vast majority of those who read the translation.

So a translation ends up being a multi-step process to make it as engaging as possible even if some nuance in the source text is lost, while some has been added.

Prime example is Urianger who seems to have a different quirk in each translation, in Japanese he speaks in poetry, English/French it's archaic and for German he's... somewhat normal (from what i read).

[Tsukino]

The translations have been like this as far back as HW because of how the english script is written. Its spoken in an old english style while JP and other languages are translated more straightforward. IMO we get the better experience and the scripts are still the same overall, just spoken slightly different due to the old english style.

There's more cultural nuance to this than I think gets discussed very often.

There is just as much uncommon, unusual, and archaic speech in the Japanese script. It's all over the place, and different characters and races/species use different forms of Japanese that are all not used in real life in Japan today. However, all of this vocabulary and these speech patterns are commonly found in pop culture media scripts, most notably in video games. So the difference is not in the English scripts using more antiquated English than the Japanese scripts do antiquated Japanese, but in the average exposure the audience has to those versions of the languages.

[Fawkes]

Is it possible the EN localization team has some kind of hidden hatred for the players? Are they purposely giving us a worse experience?

This has been my assumption since the Mug tooltip.

[Lunalepsy]

They're getting lazy!

[Rulakir]

Is it possible the EN localization team has some kind of hidden hatred for the players? Are they purposely giving us a worse experience?

I don't think it has anything to do with the players, but I am starting to question if perhaps localization has bias when it comes to certain characters or story elements. I think they're managing to fly under the radar by giving the vaguest, passable translation possible while stripping the material of its intended meaning.

Also, in regards to other comments, I don't mind the old English. I mind when context is removed or dialog is completely rewritten to something not even remotely resembling the original text. It's not "hand-holding" to want to know details that are clearly laid out in JP (or other languages in general). I don't feel like I, as an EN player, am getting the full story and I consider that a problem. Getting the gist of something is a poor substitute, especially when outside of a few exceptions there's no reason why we're not having the same experience as everyone else. As several EU players have noted, it's even made discussing the game with people who play with other localizations difficult.

[Graeham]

Ok I understand now. Because of localization problem translating from German to Japanese the story is wrong. So how do we get German story to replace incorrect Japanese one?

Does this change whether Garlemald loses the war? I would like to see version where they win.

[Necrotica]

Ok I understand now. Because of localization problem translating from German to Japanese the story is wrong. So how do we get German story to replace incorrect Japanese one?

Does this change whether Garlemald loses the war? I would like to see version where they win.

Me too buddy. Me too.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

Has anyone here actually worked in localization/translating in some form of media?

I have, and this is a pretty frustrating topic to read whiteout me having one of these moments:

I don't have to be a brain surgeon to know they don't make the incision in the foot.

[DarthXelion]

Something to point out. The english localization since ARR has been this way. It always has been for one reason. The devs know english players like to have more intrigue and mystery in their story so the characters are written far more obtuse. Japanese players found out about this and said it is REALLY REALLY cool. But also felt they got a dumbed down version (Citation needed its been a long time since I remembered what happened) Because the english players got all this mystery and intrigue. For example in ARR middy in japanese states he is testing us to see if we truly are worthy of hydaelyns blessing. But in English he is far more cryptic about what his goal is and comes off as an antagonist. It has always been this way and a vast majority of people REALLY like it. so it seems kind of dumb to complain about the localization. Don't fix what isn't broken.

[Fawkes]

Because the english players got all this mystery and intrigue. For example in ARR middy in japanese states he is testing us to see if we truly are worthy of hydaelyns blessing. But in English he is far more cryptic about what his goal is and comes off as an antagonist. It has always been this way and a vast majority of people REALLY like it.

I remember a lot of people complaining when they found out midgardsormr's dialogue was so different.

And I strongly disagree that a lot of people like it. A lot of people have no other option, or don't even know about the differences. And those that do speak other languages usually don't seem to prefer the english version.