This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[anhaato]

Well it’s bad and I don’t want it. They can make it “work” in our “cultures” without making shit up and changing the tone.

[Midareyukki]

5. But is this fine? And does this not cause any problems?

Whether it's fine or not has to go through 2 sides. In order:
1 - The dev team overall
2 - You, the player
And I say "in order" because you aren't given a choice as to what you'll be consuming. It's up to you to give feedback on this. And so far, the feedback they got was that the English Community finds the changes acceptable. There is a positive outlook.

If you're bothered, then you're free to state as much, of course. It's just that it doesn't make it a bad translation in itself. It's at least a special translation.

As for problems? They exist. Creative freedom away from the original author's intent will always cause setbacks, and off the top of my head I can name two:

1 - Nael van Darnus's gender was unknown in Japanese. They never referred to Nael with a gendered part of grammar, since Japan can keep gender vague. English cannot, and they assumed Nael to be male. Come Coils and she's a woman. So the English team had to rush to Koji Fox about this, and he had to make up on the spot a bit of canon to justify the change. That the Nael we see is Eula van Darnus, his sister who took over his position when the real, male Nael died.

2 - Phlegethon, the final boss of Labyrinth of the Ancients. Until then, Titan in JP was called "Tai-tan" (I think?). But then came LotA and the final boss's name was "Titan", but read "Tee-tan" in Japanese. Now, English makes no such distinction, so they renamed him to Acheron, a palette swap of the FF3 boss the LotA boss is based on. All fine there... until Crystal Tower added Acheron mobs. The dev team again had to scramble for a solution. Acheron is a river in Hades, along with others like Lethe and Phlegethon. Thus they renamed the boss into Phlegethon.
And there's even an NPC acknowledging this about Phlegethon.

6. But that's still the sign of a bad translation, right?

...that's where I can't exactly say for certain. I called it a special translation, but I'm hard-pressed to call it a translation at all. It's a localization for sure. But with a lot of creative differences (which are allowed in this one case) that I can't tell if it's a simple case of software localization or just "an added author".

Regardless. You're getting exactly what the others are getting, but with minor tone differences and different mentions. The text may be altered in a scene to better fit this tone shift or to just make the situation clearer or consistent with the rest of the game. For better or for worse. So in all fairness, you don't lose out on much, and it's still Final Fantasy XIV.

There's far worse out there in the market. This is just a quirk of the FF14 team.

[Midareyukki]

Well it’s bad and I don’t want it. They can make it “work” in our “cultures” without making shit up and changing the tone.

You're being petulant. Please read what I wrote. I understand it's long, but keep in mind: sometimes, it's not up to us translators. Sometimes, it comes from directly above us.

And if the guy directly above us is also the guy in charge of writing stuff for the game, then yeah. Expect a silly situation altogether.

Don't blame the localization team. Understand the situation first.

[Theodric]

Uhh, he sacrificed half the population? That havoc?


Look, we know you are a zodiark fan boy. Keep it to the other threads lol

It has nothing to do with being a Zodiark 'fan boy'. Let's not forget that the only reason Zodiark needed to be called forth in the first place was due to Venat refusing to forewarn her people of the approach of the Final Days. As a consequence, Zodiark needed to be conjured forth in order to ensure that Etheirys persisted - which is what the first and second set of willing sacrifices accomplished.

[Lauront]

Uhh, he sacrificed half the population? That havoc?


Look, we know you are a zodiark fan boy. Keep it to the other threads lol

Why? It's directly relevant to this topic. What "havoc" has Y'shtola or any Scion personally seen Zodiark unleash? The sacrifices were voluntary and essential to summon him at that stage in the star's demise, and it makes zero sense to be what she could be referring to. The French version makes considerably more sense in this context, i.e. the potential misuse he could be put to.

[anhaato]

You're being petulant. Please read what I wrote. I understand it's long, but keep in mind: sometimes, it's not up to us translators. Sometimes, it comes from directly above us.

And if the guy directly above us is also the guy in charge of writing stuff for the game, then yeah. Expect a silly situation altogether.

What’s your point? I didn’t say anything about the translators I said the *localization* is making unnecessary changes, regardless of if it falls upon a single person’s shoulders or not. I’m really failing to see what this has to do with the quality of the localization.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It has nothing to do with being a Zodiark 'fan boy'. Let's not forget that the only reason Zodiark needed to be called forth in the first place was due to Venat refusing to forewarn her people of the approach of the Final Days. As a consequence, Zodiark needed to be conjured forth in order to ensure that Etheirys persisted - which is what the first and second set of willing sacrifices accomplished.

You guys have made up your mind, that 130 page threads is proof enough of that. Nothing anyone says will change your mind.

[Midareyukki]

What’s your point? I didn’t say anything about the translators I said the *localization* is making unnecessary changes. I’m really failing to see what this has to do with the quality of the localization.

Yeah. But without understanding the situation, just saying "the localization" doesn't really cut it. Stuff that you find "unnecessary" truly isn't when you understand what's going on.

TLDR: stop saying they're "unnecessary changes", when it's not even their job to change things. Their job is to do what the scope established for them is. What was "unnecessary" to you really depends on what the team works with. And that's what I explained.

[Lauront]

I've been comparing the EN version to the FR localisation for some time now and there were some other issues which come to mind as well, where points of information are completely dropped out altogether (in yellow) - the three which come to mind are these - there's a few more from EW which I will post if I get some time later on, where you have further context dropped:





(Council in this context is the Convocation)





And...

[anhaato]

Yeah. But without understanding the situation, just saying "the localization" doesn't really cut it. Stuff that you find "unnecessary" truly isn't when you understand what's going on.

TLDR: stop saying they're "unnecessary changes", when it's not even their job to change things. Their job is to do what the scope established for them is. What was "unnecessary" to you really depends on what the team works with. And that's what I explained.

The localization team is being directed to make bad changes. Is that good enough for you?