This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[KariTheFox]

Weren't you guys in another thread talking about how the script was hastily rewritten over the course of two weeks before the release of Endwalker? (And that was the reason for the two week delay.)

There's a reason people are making fun of you guys.

[Theodric]

I think - as always - such comments are rather disingenuous and framing statements deceptively to try and paint absolutely anything critical of the story as unreasonable and 'conspiracy theories'. I believe sources were provided at the time showcasing that the story was rewritten up until the deadline. Certain posters have a trend of going 'so what you are saying is...' only to follow it up with a false version of what they believe is being stated. Even when it blatantly isn't true.

Personally, if people are going to make fun of anyone in these threads I think it'd be better directed at the unhinged posters who insinuate that if someone likes the antagonists in a fictional setting, then they're 'bad people' or 'dictator apologists'. Or perhaps the bizarre claims that various posters here are just alts of one another.

Not those of us who find a hastily rewritten story to be full of all sorts of glaring plot holes and who aren't inclined to bend over and accept that genocide is perfectly acceptable so long as 'mOmMy HyDaElYn' does it.

[Jagick]

Weren't you guys in another thread talking about how the script was hastily rewritten over the course of two weeks before the release of Endwalker? (And that was the reason for the two week delay.)

There's a reason people are making fun of you guys.

That's being pretty facetious. Ishikawa herself admitted in a March 31, 2022 Famitsu interview that her initial run of Endwalker was handed over two days before whatever her deadline was. That has nothing to do with two weeks before release. Yoshida and the team couldn't agree with what she had initially written and had her do rewrites before finally accepting it. If people are making fun of them over something documented and easy to find on the first page of google, it's proving their point. People are attacking them because they have no argument of actual substance.

It's also implied that Ishikawa had content written enough for one expansion, but initially took issue with it being -the- finale. Yoshi had decided that the story needed to end. This is also where we see the mention of Endwalker having potentially taken place across two expansions, one focusing on Garlemald. In the end he decided to cram everything into just one.

Here is the source, by the way: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._with_yoshida/

[KariTheFox]

To be clear, this was people who seemed to be saying that the delay 2 weeks before the release of Endwalker was due to last minute story rewrites, not that rewrites and reworking of the script happened up until the deadline during preproduction (which is a totally normal part of the process.)

And specifically, that these story rewrites were to sanitize Venat and make her look better, somehow.

Now, I'm not sure how this squares with the new theory about the English localization team having a secret pro-Venat agenda. Did Yoshi-P request a 2 week delay so that more pro Venat localization could be hidden from him?

And here's the actual article people are talking about - Yoshi-P was examining the story yes , and his examining took time that ate into QA time so they pushed the release date back so QA would have thier required two weeks.

They want to tie up all the loose ends and Yoshida wanted to examine a lot of subtleties with this regard.

These examinations ate into the master quality assurance time, which necessitated the two-week delay. It was a matter of a few business days in the schedule, but with concerns with congestion they wanted to take time with QA as that is intertwined with how smooth the launch will happen.

No where here does it talk about last minute rewrites or reworking the story, I promise you - if that had been done, the delay would have been a lot longer than 2 weeks.

[Theodric]

As an aside, for those curious this one of the posts addressing the topic of the delay and rewrites - with sources - that is being pushed as something different to what it was:

It's worth noting that the 2 week delay just prior to EW release was for knock-on QA work to be done after further work was done to tie up "loose" ends to do with the story (see here - they discuss it here). This is very vague, and while it does sound like the decision to compress this came sooner (and even so, Ishikawa had concerns about this as she felt she had material for 7.0 and possibly even up to 8.0, and was worried about whether she'd be able to manage this time compression), this does suggest more rewrites past that point. The expansion (usually planned to release every 2 years, so around June 2021) was delayed over and above the time they said they'd need to account for COVID as well, which we could put at around 3-4 months. Whilst we can all only speculate, I don't think what Anhaato is proposing is at all implausible - bearing in mind, it would've not been during that 2 week period but before. That added time was to get the QA up to scratch.

In response to receiving the sources, well...this was the reaction - there's a number of similar posts around the same time in the thread in question:

Well, I can see why this thread is 500 pages, anytime anyone disagrees with your takes, half a dozen of you will start dogpiling in order show them how wrong they are. It's impossible to talk about a subject when the goalposts are constantly being shifted by people who clearly have no interest in trying to understand other perspectives.

It's no wonder most people who like the story give up and leave after a few posts, you people are insufferable to talk to.

And yes, I fully expect you all to declare victory in response to this post and pat yourselves on the backs for how your facts and logic won the day.

I daresay it speaks for itself.

Then again you were rather annoyed when they removed the Moenbryda joke, which actually was a fully English creation with no basis in anything else so perhaps your double standards are just par for course here.

Oh, the Moenbryda joke wasn't present in the other language versions? That's a shame. I wasn't aware! I hope the English localisation can match the Japanese script more closely across the board. Since the precedent has been set to retroactively change things, then perhaps there is hope yet that Endwalker's MSQ's can be tweaked.

[KageTokage]

While I mostly enjoy the colorful prose the English localization adds, I would much prefer that when it comes to important story elements they kept it as close to the original as possible because it's been mentioned that there's small bits of lost nuance, foreshadowing, etc that while not essential to one's understanding of the story, can nonetheless steer someone's train of thought in a different direction and color one's perceptions of a character differently.

Emet-Selch exclaiming "You!? It can't be..." vs. "No! It can't be..." after our rejoining with Ardbert is an example of how even a one word difference could alter one's perception of an event significantly. The former makes it readily obvious that we are someone important he recognizes and it's much easier to correlate this to Hythlodaeus' prior musing of "I wonder if he has noticed the hint of him/her within you". Most people I've seen did not even draw the connection of us being Azem's reincarnation all the way until 5.3, but I feel like the former makes it a lot easier to put two and two together.

[Necrotica]

And that have been amended now so...

I would like them to ammed everything else they changed.

[Rulakir]

Does Emet-Selch work without the bond with Azem? Yes, he's a fantastic character and ShB is still an enjoyable experience without that context. However, does it add complexity and depth otherwise enhancing not only his character but the interaction with yours? Definitely.

Does Hydaelyn's dialog regarding the Azem crystal make any overall difference? No, not particularly. Does it cause confusion and take you out of the moment because you're asking yourself, "Wait, what? How does that make sense?" Absolutely.

Saying the dialog is the same between languages though is patently false and I'm somewhat amazed at the brazenness given the multiple examples throughout this thread that prove otherwise.

[Ransu]

Does Emet-Selch work without the bond with Azem? Yes, he's a fantastic character and ShB is still an enjoyable experience without that context. However, does it add complexity and depth otherwise enhancing not only his character but the interaction with yours? Definitely.

Does Hydaelyn's dialog regarding the Azem crystal make any overall difference? No, not particularly. Does it cause confusion and take you out of the moment because you're asking yourself, "Wait, what? How does that make sense?" Absolutely.

Saying the dialog is the same between languages though is patently false and I'm somewhat amazed at the brazenness given the multiple examples throughout this thread that prove otherwise.

Every example given literally portrays the same message...