This frequency of English localization issues is unacceptable

[aveyond-dreams]

I can't say that his opinions factor into my own view of the story given that apparently Hythlodaeus is somehow scary to him and this "she was definitely an ancient huh?" line. It has severely reduced my confidence in their storytelling going forward combined with the localization issues that have already been discussed at length.

[ArslanMalqir]

There is no reason to look at this mountain of evidence and come to the conclusion that they are victims of cruel trickery that they are not just unaware of, but incapable of noticing—they don't understand nuance, you see. They're not native speakers. The team is hiding it from them, and they never get a chance to hear it from anyone else. Poor Yoshi-P's close friends are pulling the wool over his eyes while writing the scripts with him. Poor Ishikawa thinks that the scripts are 1:1 and would be devastated to learn the truth. There's just nothing they can do but be taken advantage of.

I don't understand how people don't see how insulting that is—it's an argument rooted in the idea that the native Japanese speaking producers and writers of the game are fundamentally incapable of understanding they are being tricked, incapable of understanding the words on the screen in front of them even when they can speak and write and read English, incapable of even listening to fans when they say that there are clear issues that need to be taken care of. I don't understand why people would rather argue that the entire Japanese side of the development of this game is just so woefully incompetent that they don't even realise when their pride and joy is bastardized in the localization for its widest audience and that every native English speaking worker is malicious and out to change the game to suit their whims than just accept that maybe the team is just happy with the product the EN localization team delivered, and doesn't feel the need to change it.

[Lauront]

There is no reason to look at this mountain of evidence and come to the conclusion that they are victims of cruel trickery that they are not just unaware of, but incapable of noticing—they don't understand nuance, you see. They're not native speakers. The team is hiding it from them, and they never get a chance to hear it from anyone else. Poor Yoshi-P's close friends are pulling the wool over his eyes while writing the scripts with him. Poor Ishikawa thinks that the scripts are 1:1 and would be devastated to learn the truth. There's just nothing they can do but be taken advantage of.

I don't understand how people don't see how insulting that is—it's an argument rooted in the idea that the native Japanese speaking producers and writers of the game are fundamentally incapable of understanding they are being tricked, incapable of understanding the words on the screen in front of them even when they can speak and write and read English, incapable of even listening to fans when they say that there are clear issues that need to be taken care of. I don't understand why people would rather argue that the entire Japanese side of the development of this game is just so woefully incompetent that they don't even realise when their pride and joy is bastardized in the localization for its widest audience and that every native English speaking worker is malicious and out to change the game to suit their whims than just accept that maybe the team is just happy with the product the EN localization team delivered, and doesn't feel the need to change it.

You can keep going with your "would haves", "should haves, "uhhhmagerd it's so insulting", "you must be insinuating the localisers are satan/the devs are dumb", I couldn't care less. The differences are there. It is not necessarily due to incompetence, but merely the fact that fairly subtle omissions can be easy to miss if you are not at a high proficiency in a language. But the reasons are of lesser import than the fact that there is some loss of/difference in meaning. It may be due to writer/dev intent, in which case I'd ask "why?", but in my mind that's little more than an assumption at this point.

Like, I don't get it, a root of this particular argument as far as I can get is over the depictions of particular characters in Endwalker and how they obviously differ from the original intent, but to use a live letter that had an entire section to Q&As about it:



you got that general sentiment of "She's not a bad person but she was also still an Ancient with all the flaws that came with it" which is pretty clear throughout the English localization, the game just doesn't go "see she was secretly evil against you the whole time", which would fit with the localization also generally being sympathetic towards Emet and Hermes?

I mean I got kinda baffled reading some of the earlier posts saying how nearly nobody on the English side likes the Ancients/Ascian characters and how they're unfairly maligned because man that is not my experience at all with the more active FFXIV places on the internet.

Sorry, but what's this got to do with localisation? We're aware of that Q&A that casts her in an even worse light. But it's rather besides the point of ostensible differences in meaning in the localisation that go beyond mere "cultural differences".

[KariTheFox]

merely the fact that fairly subtle omissions can be easy to miss if you are not at a high proficiency in a language.

Congratulations, you have identified the central dilemmna at the heart of all efforts to translate something from one language to another. A translation will never be perfect, and a choice somewhere will always be made to leave something out or translate in a way that emphasizes one aspect of the original text over another. It's normal, it happens with every localization and translation.

If it bothers you, I'd suggest looking into multiple different translations to get a fuller picture, or become fluent in the original language. That's what I try to do. It's a lot more satisfying than deranged conspiracy theories.

[Lauront]

Can it with the gaslighting. No one is demanding a "perfect" translation - what we are disputing is that the differences identified are at all necessary. As should be evident from my posts, I do tend to check the FR localisation. I understand that for your diet of deranged conspiracy theories, you prefer consuming a particular subsection of the forum.

[GrizzlyTank]

Congratulations, you have identified the central dilemmna at the heart of all efforts to translate something from one language to another. A translation will never be perfect, and a choice somewhere will always be made to leave something out or translate in a way that emphasizes one aspect of the original text over another. It's normal, it happens with every localization and translation.

If it bothers you, I'd suggest looking into multiple different translations to get a fuller picture, or become fluent in the original language. That's what I try to do. It's a lot more satisfying than deranged conspiracy theories.

And even if he were to learn japanese he would still get the issue of "Death of the Author"! : D

Edit: In hindsight, we are all victims of that.