This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[PorxiesRCute]

While it is much less present than it used to be in ARR-SB, there are still stylistic changes done by the EN localization team in the current expansion that are a little baffling.
I only started noticing it when I switched to Japanese audio and realized that not only do subtitles not always 100% match, but sometimes the intended meaning is completely lost too.

For example, in Living Memory, Wuk Lamat ends her conversation with Namikka by saying "And one day...we'll meet again!", Namikka doesn't say anything back, Wuk Lamat just leaves, and then there's a long shot where everyone crosses the bridge except Namikka. That's how she says her final farewell to her. It's incredibly awkward, especially with that long, silent bridge cutscene.

But in Japanese, she says "それじゃ、いってくるぜ!" (which roughly means "Well then, I'm off!", and is also commonly used by children to announce to their parents that they're leaving the house, which is especially relevant here considering the relationship between the two characters) and much better illustrates the metaphor that is going on: Wuk Lamat is moving forward, crossing the bridge towards a hopeful future, leaving Namikka and the past behind.

In English they speak of reunion, in Japanese they speak of separation. Considering the line is followed by a scene displaying a literal and metaphorical separation, which version makes more sense?

(also lore-wise they can't ever really reunite, right? iirc there were similar discussions around the scene where Erenville says something similar to his mother, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was another confusion caused by localization)



I'm very interested in this, particularly the blessing/echo/primal/deity stuff because Endwalker left me very "???", is there like a written summary somewhere of all the differences? I've only read an old reddit post about how drastically different Midgardsormr's first speech in ARR is.

いってくる literally means "I'm going and I'll be back", so yes, there is an implication of meeting again. It's what you say when you leave the house for the day intending to return later. We don't have a set phrase for that in English.

[Lorika]

Don't compare English localization to French one too much.

The French localization was very crappy at first. ARR is just plainly horrible, especially the patch (Midgardsormr monologue is almost complete nonsense with a lot of ommited or deformed things for exemple).
HW is a tad better but still have a lot of things ommited or deformed.

Stormblood get better and it's closer to JP text but it's not perfect. And from Shadowbringer it's really good, with some error from time to time, but thoses doesn't really affect the story.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

This is why literal translation to English doesn't work.

You may understand the "deeper" meaning of the Japanese, given familiarity with cultural aspects to which the rest of the world has little or no clue. The poignancy you see within the scene in Japanese doesn't resonate without cultural familiarity.

"And one day ... we'll meet again!" is equivalent in sentiment, as a child in Japan fully expects to return at the end of the day.

I agree that a direct translation wouldn't work here for cultural reasons, but what I'm arguing is that the choice of words in English followed by that bridge scene I mentioned is dissonant, when it's a lot less awkward in the original version.
(I also... don't think a child or even any family member in any culture would leave the house saying something as solemn as "we'll meet again", so even if the same sentiment is conveyed to the player, the original stylistic choices that convey the personality of the character are not imo)

いってくる literally means "I'm going and I'll be back", so yes, there is an implication of meeting again.

Thanks for the correction. I still think that the idea of separation (or at least departure) is a lot stronger in Japanese, which, again, is important to convey due to the bridge scene coming right after.

[Valence]

I don't like the french localization out of fundamental differences in writing appreciation and I find the overall tone and syntax clumsy and amateurish at times which is why I play in EN. But one thing that I will always appreciate with the french translation is that it's (generally) extremely literal and has always been a good basis to fall back when I want to have an idea of what jp does since I unfortunately don't speak or understand japanese.

[Lorika]

I don't like the french localization out of fundamental differences in writing appreciation and I find the overall tone and syntax clumsy and amateurish at times which is why I play in EN. But one thing that I will always appreciate with the french translation is that it's (generally) extremely literal and has always been a good basis to fall back when I want to have an idea of what jp does since I unfortunately don't speak or understand japanese.

Ther is one thing that French localization do very well since the beginning : Quest and Achievement name based on French pop culture. There is a lot of pun based on saying, old TV advertisement, series, book, comics/manga/bande déssinée etc... and some are plainly hilarous.