Response to Yoshi P: you can fix it.. but

[AnimaAnimus]

- Your claim about Haurchefant and sexual innuendo ... seriously are you sure you're not getting your accusation backward here? The JP Haurchefant was a total flirt and that's exactly why he got tone down in the English version. This one is hilarious to me because - full disclosure - a lot of my practical experience with Japanese came from reading eroge so his JP line was very familiar to me.

The thing with Haurchefant and the innuendo was that Koji removed it due to something about him feeling that since there was the possibility of it being gay if your character was also male and him not thinking that would not sit well with NA audiences which would cause backlash. He didn't add it, he subtracted it, and his reasons came off as, and frankly were, very homophobic. He was even scolded by Yoshida for it publically. I don't remember the details, but it was a big thing back then. To me it came off as the same sort of unintentional homophobia all my straight friends are guilty of, and were not aware of it being homophobic until it was pointed out. So I will give him a pass since it was just a singular incident in a game they were being extra careful in. He has gotten criticism over changing major story beats that do drastically change things, but that was addressed as well and while the excuses made sense, they also didn't. It was something about social and cultural differences, which didn't make sense with the changes since there was nothing that could be considered offensive or polarizing. It was reductive, however, with key plot points being lost. I know in ShB, esp toward the end, there were a lot of changes, but idk if he was still the lead back then or if Kate already had her fingers in it. That being said, Kate needs to go, she doesn't have a job, she has an agenda and its getting tiresome. I would love Koji back, even with his slip ups.

[Supersnow845]

Games just seem to have a massive deficit of one way homosexual attraction

Games either seem to say “no gay characters at all” or “confirmed reciprocal gay romance”. There never seems to be the casual flirting that’s common amongst straight relationships in the gay space where one character flirts at someone of the same gender regardless of if the recipient is or isn’t attracted to the same gender

Horesfart was actually a breath of fresh air in this field for male WOL’s in the JP version and the decision to tune it down to the graha style “trusted companion wink wink nudge nudge” was definitely a misstep in my eyes

[PercibelTheren]

The jobs are so dull and one dimensional because the players implicitly asked for it.

Which players? I keep seeing this argument yet I have never seen a significant amount of people asking for jobs to be braindead copies of each other. Are those players in the room with us right now?

Seriously, it is very hard to predict, whether the players will like a story or not. In DT, they tried something new and they failed.

Did they try something new? DT has another world-ending threat we have to deal with, one who is basically Emet Selch but with worse writing. It has a well-intentioned but inexperienced young person who wants to unite people, like Alphinaud was with his Crystal Braves, except Wuk Lamat's story is worse written and she faces no consequences for her foolish decisions. The theme of loss and having to let go has been something we've been getting beaten over the heads with since Shadowbringers.

I think a large part of people's anger is caused by the fact that the expansion was incredibly falsely advertised. The only one who got a vacation was Estinien and there was no rivalry between Scions.

[PercibelTheren]

The thing with Haurchefant and the innuendo was that Koji removed it due to something about him feeling that since there was the possibility of it being gay if your character was also male and him not thinking that would not sit well with NA audiences which would cause backlash. He didn't add it, he subtracted it, and his reasons came off as, and frankly were, very homophobic. He was even scolded by Yoshida for it publically. I don't remember the details, but it was a big thing back then. To me it came off as the same sort of unintentional homophobia all my straight friends are guilty of, and were not aware of it being homophobic until it was pointed out.

I guess this comes down to people's experience. I've seen JP Haurchefant and I think he would have made me pretty uncomfortable. Not because I'm homophobic (at least I like to think I'm not, being a queer woman) but because he would have felt like he's coming on WAYYYYY too strong. I like the headcanon that JP is what he things, EN is what he actually says. I thought ARR Thancred was really pushing too hard onto the drunken lecher trope, too.

[Hallarem]

Probably have to get direct translations from someone who knows JP. Ive heard a lot of things changing in translations. And even with my anime level / jp gag comedy show level japanese. Its not hard to figure out if the English sentence is "We'll help" and the JP goes on for like 3 sentences more theres something missing.

Recently watched someone in youtube review Valkyria Chronicles and the localizer butchered the original meanings probably cause they hated the characters' opinions or something.

Hot take. Translate directly. If theres something that loses meaning and is a JP cultural meaning / word THEN do a English equivalent. DONT change the character or their personality / their opinions. You didnt design the character, you didnt write the lines, tone down the ego and do your job.

[Valence]

Not saying anything about the story's quality, saying that the vacation was falsely advertised is disingenuous as heck. They specifically, many times mentioned in every live letter that this was a vacation, but nudge nudge wink wink, they'd probably get more than what it seems to be at first. Did people seriously expect that a RPG final fantasy title would be a beach filler episode?

[Larirawiel]

Which players?

These players, who start a whine thread and complain about it, that job X is unplayable now because job Y does 0.7675% more dps. SQEX listened to it and they removed almost all differences, which made the jobs somehow unique. And now, a job is only a skin over a role.

Did they try something new?

You are not the main character now. This is ... somehow new, yes.


Cheers

[ArchlordPie]

Games just seem to have a massive deficit of one way homosexual attraction

Games either seem to say “no gay characters at all” or “confirmed reciprocal gay romance”. There never seems to be the casual flirting that’s common amongst straight relationships in the gay space where one character flirts at someone of the same gender regardless of if the recipient is or isn’t attracted to the same gender

Horesfart was actually a breath of fresh air in this field for male WOL’s in the JP version and the decision to tune it down to the graha style “trusted companion wink wink nudge nudge” was definitely a misstep in my eyes

Alternatively, you could be Bayonetta, where it's "sisters, hint hint nudge nudge wink wink" in 2 and then all of a sudden the character gets hard confirmed to be straight in 3.

[Avoidy]

Think about the appeal being made in this thread. Final Fantasy XIV prints money no matter what because of its whale player base with 0 standards. They can continue to do nothing and keep making money. Or they can do something that, by your own admission, is quite challenging and even a bit risky. And even if they do that, there's no guarantee that they'll win back disgruntled players who've left, or make more money going forward. They probably would. I certainly think they would. But why even take that risk to begin with, when simply doing nothing lets them remain profitable?

The XIV situation mirrors modern gaming as a whole. Corporations are always gonna be chasing more profits at any cost, but whales buying into this crap every single time are why it's allowed to keep getting worse. Square's shareholders will hound them for greater returns, and "the scary cash shop lady" will push out some grossly overpriced garbage emote that could've been an earnable item via an event instead... and for every responsible consumer who refuses to accept that and votes with their wallet, there'll be a whale who's buying a single one for every alt on his bloated account. Then they'll turn around and tell me not to judge their purchases, even though on the whole, these types of people have turned my favorite hobby into an endless grift.

Nothing will be fixed. The game printed money even during covid lockdowns when there was no content for close to a year because of the shutdowns. And sure enough, after all that, they began pushing the envelope on how long we could go without updates. From three months to four. 4.5 if we're being realistic. But they continue to charge each month, so ... think about that, right? Every four months we hand them the equivalent of a new game's worth of money, and what do we get in return? Like... one dungeon? A 24man raid? A boring story? But even if you quit, these whales will stay subbed and buy four fantas every day until their eye color is just right. We're cooked, fam. The game's being driven over a cliff, and whales are in the back seat screaming "faster, faster!"

[PercibelTheren]

These players, who start a whine thread and complain about it, that job X is unplayable now because job Y does 0.7675% more dps. SQEX listened to it and they removed almost all differences, which made the jobs somehow unique. And now, a job is only a skin over a role.

So they made balancing easier on themselves by removing all the differences and somehow them being lazy is the players' fault. Got it.