This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[einschwartz]

Then play with JP text? I've played through the game in both JP and EN languages and the nuances in the story are minor. 1:1 translations are impossible, especially with style of English they use for the localization.

I cannot read JP text as well as I understand the audio. I know a few kanjis but will definitely be lost on more serious or heavy-plot points where non-common words are used.
Yes, I know 1:1 translation is impossible. I never rely or expect a direct translation.

*I'm self taught. I listen to JP audio drama CD a lot but not much on reading / writing lol

[MimiParmentier]

Really the key thing with the English localization is that it has balls. I mean, metaphorically. For instance, fairies. What does the French localization do? It looks at pixies and goes "well they kinda look like they have cleavage" and it slaps a "elle" on them. Nu Mou look vaguely genderless so it defaults to "il." Typical Académie cowardice right there. What does the EN localization do? Every fairy is a they/them. Bam! Immediately shocking and intriguing! Immediately makes you think about gender and performance! Reconsider what superficial appearance tells you about true identity! Spot the subtle design choices which go into making the various fairy species androgynous! Titania is a female name but King is a male title, we're transgressive boundaries here, real Jadwiga hours. On épate la bourgeoisie.

Imagine if FFXIV FR had been the first major game to have an entire chapter dealing with characters going by iel. Now that's powerful. Imagine Valeurs Actuelles learning about it and blowing a gasket. We'd be on front page news.

Look at the FR quest line names too. Barely any of them is a hideous pun. Meanwhile, over in EN? "Let Me Gubal That For You." Quake Me Up Before You O'Ghomoro. You Have Selected Regicide. Funniest thing I've ever seen. Or the fact that Stormblood's mediocre story is elevated by the absolute commitment to a Hamilton running gag, of all things. FR is too cautious. You have to go in. You have to have style. Like yes, there are absolutely some lines where a sentenced has been truncated or something that can kinda go into a pro-Ascian reading if you squint really hard was cut off, but if you understand French and English you can compare those lines and also realize that the French version sounds really lame. And I don't mean any insult to the FR localization team! They're tasked with a huge job, translating a game with enormous amount of texts reflecting some complex story, and so they decide to operate the cautious way - to prioritize conveying the exact meaning of the original text over making the prose flashy and stylish. The EN lines aren't just conveying meaning, they are pleasant to read.

(Split for length.)

[MimiParmentier]

(Cont'd)

Like, let's take a concrete example, Dark Knight lv70.

"Pourquoi lutter? La seule issue du combat est la mort... Toujours plus de séparation, de tristesse... Vous pouvez endurer la douleur et combattre pour protéger les autres... Mais vous savez que quoi qu'il arrive, vous les perdez un par un..." ("Why struggle? The only outcome of battle is death... Always more separation, more sorrow... You can endure pain and fight to protect others, but you know whatever happens, you lose them one by one...")

vs

"Woe betide the man who stands opposed to the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him, and his kin, and all that he holds dear. Woe betide the man who stands with the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him, and his kin, and all that he holds dear."

One of them is probably closer to the JP text, and is a fairly generic sentiment. The other hits like a sledgehammer to the gut. I know which one I prefer. The dialogue choice is "The path of the Dark Knight is made of suffering and sacrifice."/"You don't know what you're talking about!" in FR vs "Justice demands no less."/"I tire of this charade." in EN, which just drips with character. "I am on your side, of course." in FR is "No hard feelings about Whitebrim, eh?" in EN. Fantastic stuff.

So yeah. There's a general stylistic choice in the EN localization to give the text weight and impact and flair. And sometimes that means information gets lost or reframed or presented misleadingly, but not to the extent that the entire plot becomes incomprehensible. Attributing this to some kind of translator conspiracy strikes me as more than a little far-fetched.

And remember - AFAB: All Fairies Are nonBinary.

[Necrotica]

(Cont'd)

Like, let's take a concrete example, Dark Knight lv70.

"Pourquoi lutter? La seule issue du combat est la mort... Toujours plus de séparation, de tristesse... Vous pouvez endurer la douleur et combattre pour protéger les autres... Mais vous savez que quoi qu'il arrive, vous les perdez un par un..." ("Why struggle? The only outcome of battle is death... Always more separation, more sorrow... You can endure pain and fight to protect others, but you know whatever happens, you lose them one by one...")

vs

"Woe betide the man who stands opposed to the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him, and his kin, and all that he holds dear. Woe betide the man who stands with the Weapon of Light, for death will be his reward. Death for him, and his kin, and all that he holds dear."

One of them is probably closer to the JP text, and is a fairly generic sentiment. The other hits like a sledgehammer to the gut. I know which one I prefer. The dialogue choice is "The path of the Dark Knight is made of suffering and sacrifice."/"You don't know what you're talking about!" in FR vs "Justice demands no less."/"I tire of this charade." in EN, which just drips with character. "I am on your side, of course." in FR is "No hard feelings about Whitebrim, eh?" in EN. Fantastic stuff.

So yeah. There's a general stylistic choice in the EN localization to give the text weight and impact and flair. And sometimes that means information gets lost or reframed or presented misleadingly, but not to the extent that the entire plot becomes incomprehensible. Attributing this to some kind of translator conspiracy strikes me as more than a little far-fetched.

And remember - AFAB: All Fairies Are nonBinary.

Faeries are why I switched to JP voice audio.

[Slatersev]

Ah, well, that explains it. Twitter is probably the worst of all the social media platforms when it comes to FFXIV fandom, so it's to be expected. I've blocked everyone who's obviously only here to cause trouble rather than engage in the discussion. Like I said, it's keeping the thread bumped though so they're doing me a favor.

Your scorn for twitter is hilarious because the only takes from this thread that got posted there are the one calling the localizers the scum of the earth and another claiming the devs/localizers clearly hate the playerbase and are deliberately giving us a worse experience. Both obviously nonsensical takes that would never be taken seriously by anyone regardless of what corner of the internet they reside on.

Get off the high horse, sometimes stupid takes happen here and they aren't above mockery for it.

[Theodric]

The Twitter account in question is notorious for ignoring far worse comments and having a very biased slant towards what it does deign to showcase. I'm sure a quick glance at the typical account commenting on each piece will reveal a similar trend, though!

That aside, it's rather telling that the same posters who have spent years attacking anyone who dared cast a bit of doubt towards their genocidal waifu are now openly trying to supress any discussion that maybe, just maybe, there's pandering towards the same crowd that actively tries to drag the game away from nuance and consequences in favour of a bland broken aesop where none of the comfort characters are ever harmed or wrong and genocide is excused if the culprit is a narcissistic bimbo 'supreme deity'.

[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.

[Slatersev]

The Twitter account in question is notorious for ignoring far worse comments and having a very biased slant towards what it does deign to showcase. I'm sure a quick glance at the typical account commenting on each piece will reveal a similar trend, though!

That aside, it's rather telling that the same posters who have spent years attacking anyone who dared cast a bit of doubt towards their genocidal waifu are now openly trying to supress any discussion that maybe, just maybe, there's pandering towards the same crowd that actively tries to drag the game away from nuance and consequences in favour of a bland broken aesop where none of the comfort characters are ever harmed or wrong and genocide is excused if the culprit is a narcissistic bimbo 'supreme deity'.

Claiming you don't hate Venat just writing around her but then adding stuff onto her that has no bases in any form of the writing is very funny.

I wanna peak at the universe with bimbo Venat.

This is so funny its like calling Emet-Selch a slut, are we just making stuff up now? I thought this thread was against that.

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.

[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/