This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[PharisHanasaki]

Has someone drained you of your reading comprehension? I'm talking about the thing that is present in the EN version but not the FR one.

It's been said many a times that the English team is also involved with the lore team, unlike the rest of the translation teams. That would of course influence the localization.

From what I gather you want a literal translation for whatever reason. I remember Koji san once mentioned that Japanese storytelling isn't as interesting as western's, and that if they just translated the dialogs it might even seem plain or boring. I do believe other localizations have been called plain or "flavorless" at times.

As for which is better, I guess it's down to preference.

[Lauront]

It's been said many a times that the English team is also involved with the lore team, unlike the rest of the translation teams. That would of course influence the localization.

From what I gather you want a literal translation for whatever reason. I remember Koji san once mentioned that Japanese storytelling isn't as interesting as western's, and that if they just translated the dialogs it might even seem plain or boring. I do believe other localizations have been called plain or "flavorless" at times.

As for which is better, I guess it's down to preference.

The "whatever reason" here being so I don't have to refer to the French version to pick up on stuff that has been dropped in the EN version, or to resort to it where the vague phrasing used in the EN version introduces ambiguities. I don't know who has called the FR localisation "flavorless" but it certainly has not been in SHB or EW. I could just drop the EN version and play in French, of course, but it still does not resolve the fact that there are these differences where, IMO, there really should not be.

If the EN version has access to the lore team that the other translators don't, that's even more concerning given where the errors tend to creep in, but the way Kate phrased this in interview is: "On the development side, there is a lot of back-and-forth between Japanese lore folks and the localization team, as well as within our own team, when establishing those unique terms, because when we decide something, it will keep cropping up forever─to our eternal regret if we get it wrong."

To me this sounds like the entire team has access to the Japanese lore gurus.

But doesn't that make Thancred's question more confusing if they don't answer that way?

Seeing zodiark as a threat would make them opposed to his creation. I think this is just language nuances lol.


If someone is creating something that I see as a threat, I would be opposed to it being created.

This is not a language nuance. They are framing this in a different way. If the EN version is using this phraseology because it started on the wrong foot, it does not change the fact that the difference exists and it is adding information - whether accurate or not - about her faction which the FR version does not contain.

[PharisHanasaki]

If the EN version has access to the lore team that the other translators don't, that's even more concerning given where the errors tend to creep in.

Unfortunately, the English language isn't as rich conceptually as French, or Spanish for that matter (my native language). One example would be the fact that until recently you didn't have a way to refer to a human being in a gender neutral way. In other languages there was always a way to omit gender information, or keep it neutral.

Some of these bigger mistakes were made during the early days of ff14. Some of these are honestly very small differences, and some even share the same meaning but you are complaining of them not being literal translations. Which could be attributed to western storytelling.

If it was translated literally, I'm sure we would still have these threads. Because as I said, this is all down to preference. I am fine with it because it's not like it said Venat summoned Zodiark, while the 13 opposed her. Or like we got a completely different story from the original. It's just told in a different way.

[Lauront]

Unfortunately, the English language isn't as rich conceptually as French, or Spanish for that matter (my native language). One example would be the fact that until recently you didn't have a way to refer to a human being in a gender neutral way. In other languages there was always a way to omit gender information, or keep it neutral.

Some of these bigger mistakes were made during the early days of ff14. Some of these are honestly very small differences, and some even share the same meaning but you are complaining of them not being literal translations. Which could be attributed to western storytelling.

If it was translated literally, I'm sure we would still have these threads. Because as I said, this is all down to preference. I am fine with it because it's not like it said Venat summoned Zodiark, while the 13 opposed her. Or like we got a completely different story from the original. It's just told in a different way.

At this point I am afraid I am simply going to disagree. These issues have nothing to do with how conceptually rich English is or not (as evidenced from the fact that they can be readily translated from French to English without any real loss of meaning), and the ones in this case are specific to SHB and EW. I am not sure where you are getting that info about referring to humans in an gender-neutral manner, as English has pronouns which have been geared to this and used in that way for quite some time (several centuries now), but it is neither here nor there. Once more, I am not faulting them for being non-literal - it is because they are omitting information or context present in the original, and in some cases like Y'shtola's comment in the OP, are flat out wrong.

A further example is this in the JP version, where it is made clearer that Zodiark was seeding new life with the second round of sacrifices, which you would think is relevant given what we learnt in 6.0 about how the ancients accomplished this via creation magicks:

[Teraq]

A further example is this in the JP version, where it is made clearer that Zodiark was seeding new life with the second round of sacrifices, which you would think is relevant given what we learnt in 6.0 about how the ancients accomplished this via creation magicks:

(snip)

Please don't tell me the "myriad tiny lives" bit is where some people got into their mind that Ancients were about to feed babies to their Blood God lmao

[Catwho]

One example would be the fact that until recently you didn't have a way to refer to a human being in a gender neutral way.

They/them for an unknown gender has been in use for centuries. It was just stupid language purists who argued otherwise.

English makes up for some of the problems in its base grammatical structure by begging, borrowing, stealing, or inventing new words whenever it finds a concept it can't properly express with the existing ones. This seems to be the issue that many of those fussing over the localization do not like; letting the English localization team tap into the deep well of weird words to attempt to convey a mood, instead of doing a literal translation, which would be very plain and limited.

It is unfortunate that the French and German teams aren't allowed the same liberties, because German especially is about as good as flavor compound words as English is (to the point where English routinely steals German words for stuff they're already describing that we don't yet have a word for.)

[icemage]

This is hardly an issue. "She was also the one who kept him alive to protect us" means Venat kept Zodiark alive somehow... which is explained by the story saying that it's because she bind Zodiark in his cage. Stop making a fuzz out of nothing. The localization team is better at writing than most AAA games right now.

[Iscah]

I am struggling to see the difference you are trying to point out amid so many words. It all seems to say the same things in a slightly different way.

[Xirean]

I am struggling to see the difference you are trying to point out amid so many words. It all seems to say the same things in a slightly different way.

If you're referring to the OP's post. The EN line falsely attributes the forestalling of the final days to Venat/Hydaelyn and makes Zodiark sound bad or as though he directly caused destruction. The other line gives the credit of forestalling the final days to Zodiark and communicates concern over the misuse of Zodiark's power in the wrong hands.

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

I speak both English and Japanese, but I always play this game in Japanese because so much is lost in translation. It is clear the localizers take liberties with the English version possibly because they think it is funny -- as I see some puns added (such as "Tanlkless Job", etc). Unfortunately, I don't think Yoshida-san has caught onto this, as he thinks the localization is fabulous when the actual story is different as a result.