Feature Request/Suggestion - English (JP) Language option in Launcher

[Telkira]

If I were someone at Square-Enix who had the power to change how localization was done, I'd want to see some kind of research or statistical data to back up these claims. It's all too common for an individual to hop on a forum and announce that your average customer wants X, when in fact they've just assumed that other people align with their own preferences. For change to occur, they'll need to see something that convinces them that a pivot will improve their profits. That could be research data, it could be an outpouring of support for this claim on the forums, etc. But without something that feels tangible, they're unlikely to change direction or add new features.

I don't see how pivoting towards content parity between languages would harm their bottom line, nor do I see how implementing a secondary English language option that is simply a faithful translation of the JP script and devoid of all the fluff and revisions made by the localizers would make the game any less harmful.
I'd even (re)assert that the entire model of 'localizing' is built on a set of assumptions which are biased or fallacious. If a title is so unfit to be sold in a foreign market that it needs to be egregiously altered just to appease cultural sensibilities, then it probably shouldn't be sold in said market, but made available to those willing and able to partake via translating it, and nothing more.

Genuinely, if characters like Haurchefant were to have been released in all languages as he does in the JP script, there wouldn't be any backlash. People might express distaste, but certainly not anything more than the inclusion of Lalafells in the game already has, and continues to do so, with arguments about how the game itself sexualizes them, as they are adults.
I mentioned how the German and French audiences seem to be largely unaffected by this, considering how those scripts are largely consistent with the JP script.

If I were a gambling Lalafell, I'd place my money on Square-Enix having done some due diligence on the topics of translation and localization over their many years of offering goods and services across the globe; when there's money to be made, most multi-national corporations aren't simply winging it, and localization is a long-established concept that will have a measurable track record.

Regardless, with your interest in translation and localization, I bet you'd be interested in this story: https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20...remy-blaustein

I think you're giving SE too much credit. I looked into the history of SE's approach to dealing with foreign markets and specifically with FFXI and FFXIV, much of the localization lead's (Koji Fox) positions were "the Japanese script is boring. What if I added this?" but going too far in the realm of content revisionism, to the point where whole dialog trees were being changed and characterization itself was being altered. You shouldn't want that, otherwise, why even bother allowing different regions to play together? Why not segregate/region lock since they'd be playing different stories?
One of the worst localizations I've ever seen was the recent Elyuden Chronicle game, and seeing discrepancies as egregious as those are in FFXIV genuinely makes me not want to play anymore.