The localization team

[Aegis]

I don't think this can be stated enough: The EN localization team for this game may be the best part of it.

I've lost count of the number of memes, TV shows, music and general pop culture references scattered throughout this game.

Add onto this the great job they do with the (often salty) dialects in places like Limsa and it gives the game a really polished, professional feel that makes it hard to believe it is a translation of a foreign game.

I look forward to hearing all your examples of the localization team's genius below. ..

[3Jane]

Too many to list, sorry. One off the top of my head 'Sic' as a pet attack instruction.

[Icefall]

While I understand some people enjoy the references, every time I see a western pop culture reference in this game I die a little inside. Shouldn't translations be as literal as possible? I fansub anime and always, ALWAYS as a rule keep translations as accurate as possible to the sentence structure and name order.

Translating and localizing are two different things. Localization is about taking that translation and presenting it in a way that keeps the core spirit of the original script while retaining an understandable frame of reference and culture for the local audience to connect with. It's a tricky balance to be sure, and there are always spots where something might have been handled differently had someone else had a chance at it. Legends of Localization (http://legendsoflocalization.com/) is a good blog to read about the trickiness of it all as well as comparisons between literal translations, various official localizations, as well as fan localizations.

[Anima]

While I understand some people enjoy the references, every time I see a western pop culture reference in this game I die a little inside. Shouldn't translations be as literal as possible? I fansub anime and always, ALWAYS as a rule keep translations as accurate as possible to the sentence structure and name order.

Ferne commented on this. He says that each language (loc) team has their own style, and in particular, the JP is kinda bland on the names.

He mentioned that a levequest from Bentbranch that sends you off to kill marmots will probably be named 'Bentbranch Leve: Killing Marmots' or something along the line (not exact quote from Ferne, but you get the Idea)

Also, he mentioned that in JP, there are no pirate-talks or polite and medieval talks that we have in EN, and each cities' 'way of talking' is not very different. Not to mention that If the JP dialogue has a joke inside and you literally translate it to EN with the same words, people aren't going to get it; 'What's up with this ? I don't get it ?' or when they use JP Idioms, If you translate it literally to EN, people won't get it and it'll just be lame.

Other Localization team has their own style as well (FR, DE) but what I get from Ferne is that he and his team wants to have fun with the quest-names and stuff so that the 'Western Audience' can enjoy the game as much as the JP do.

I'm sure you'll get a better understanding If you read it yourself ^^ I'll try to get the link

Interview with MCKF (Ferne) Dualshockers

Interview with Micael Christopher Koji Fox (Ferne) GamerEscape

Fun thing

Translating and localizing are two different things. Localization is about taking that translation and presenting it in a way that keeps the core spirit of the original script while retaining an understandable frame of reference and culture for the local audience to connect with. It's a tricky balance to be sure, and there are always spots where something might have been handled differently had someone else had a chance at it. Legends of Localization (http://legendsoflocalization.com/) is a good blog to read about the trickiness of it all as well as comparisons between literal translations, various official localizations, as well as fan localizations.

Thanks for explaining it better

I really respect the works of the localization team ^^ (I can feel the passion they all put inside the game !)

[Fuddy]

While I understand some people enjoy the references, every time I see a western pop culture reference in this game I die a little inside. Shouldn't translations be as literal as possible?

Simply put, No. Most people I've met who are that into Anime are just too in love with Anime and Japan to see it in an unbiased way.

Why even translate it then? Just play the game in Japanese if you understand it. Once I learned Japanese I went back and played some classic games from when I was younger and I've actually been disappointed sometimes at the original Japanese text as it does have differences in nuance. It's just my personal preference there but just because something was originally written in one language does not make that language inherently better. I haven't played much of FFXIV in Japanese but if the English team is more creative they very well may have created much better text.

In fact, I went through and looked at the achievement names in both English and Japanese. Look at the names for the 10 level increment achievements. The Japanese achievement names are just like "Level 10 Conjurer" (幻術士：レベル10) while the English one is "I got the magic stick." I don't know about you but I think the English is WAY more interesting. That's not to say there aren't other achievements with good names in Japanese too.

One of my favorites was "It's not Lupus"... cuz... it's CANCER!!!! It's so stupid and I know it's a House reference but for some reason I find it too funny.
Now we need two more fates "It's never Lupus" and "Ok, it's Lupus"

The old english speak is a little overboard IMO though. A little dialect is ok here and there but something about "give succor" just sounds wrong to me. Oh well, thanks for expanding my vocab SE.

[Nahaara]

one example I have is there's a very clear doomguy reference in the level 15 Pugilist quest, "The Spirit Is Willing".

[AmoNox]

I really lol'd when I read "I just died in six arms tonight"

[iRanOverYourMom]

This is exactly what I'm worried about. Something that was called "Leves of Gridania: Marmots" have now been given a completely inaccurate funky name.
Worse, the pirate speak has been added in, when it was nonexistent in JP. They're changing the atmosphere of the game, the story. If this is true perhaps JP players will have an entirely different perspective of the story. At least they didn't change npc names.

I'm sure "I just died in six arms tonight" was NOT Watashi wa shinda roku te konban (pardon the bad reverse translation I'm an editor not a TL :P).

What?? Who gives a crap, the quest names are witty as hell. I don't want any generic-title quest name that had no thought in it whatsoever. The pirate speak in the game actually FITS the atmosphere imo(especially in La Noscea), I mean come on...who would want a gruffy guy with a PIRATE HAT speaking american english?