The localization team

[Wolfwood_Belmir]

For a role playing game (a massive online one at that) I feel the localization team not only did a brilliant job, but have upped the entertainment drastically. I needed very little encouragement to get my pirate talk on in Limsa, and yet there was plenty of triggers to be found :P
Kinda feel like I should be doing my part by using cat talk in the game from nyo~ on you know? ^^

Last game that impressed with like this was the localization of the Neptuna series with a ridiculous amount of japanese game meme's and reference's most wouldn't get applied to ones we've spammed around here.

Actually translating Japanese to English is like an artform. Studying it myself you start to see where and why things were changed for better or worse. But in this case, it went beyond artful crafting and into a class of its own ^_^ keep it up with an expansions and events that come from this game guys.

[Skies]

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.

Man, you are wrong, lass. Localization is all about changing the words without changing the meaning, whereas translating is about keeping the words and ignoring the meaning. Let's take a real example that does not involves japanese, an example that involves English (your language) and Portuguese (mine) and a very common phrase for both "Kicking the bucket"
What does "Kicking the bucket" means? In english, it means to die.
But a direct translation to portuguese... It means "To not give a fuck"!
A completely different meaning and would leave everyone guessing! Hence why localization is superior to translation. Hell, if you're a subber and don't work in localization efforts then do tell me what group you work on so I can suggest my friends avoid it.

[Nayto]

As long as there's no hashtag YOLO or swag reference...

[Vilhem]

My favorite: "Ziz is so Ridiculous"

I am a translator, and I can honestly say that what Ferne/EN Loc team has done is excellent. The whole point of localization is to transform the game into something that feels as if it was natively made in that region. And quite frankly, we get the better end of the deal, since English lends itself to many different cultures and regions of the world. Limsa represents that sort of Irish/Scottish/English feel, while Ul'dah is remniscent of the Middle East, and Gridania the nice forests of the Andes etc. It shouldn't read like a clunky, literal and awkward English translation that I often see in fansubs, littered with Japanese buzzwords that only the otaku community know.

You may be an anime fansubber, but anime is just that: anime. The anime community standards need not apply here. Not everyone is an otaku or even watches anime here. This game is made to appeal to general audiences, so a more than literal translation is ideal. If you want literal translations, stick to anime and manga. But don't try to push those standards onto something that clearly lends itself to so much more. Nothing has been "lost" persay, but we have gained a lot.

[Aegis]

There's no need to attack leafy. His opinion is as valid as any other. Patently wrong, but still valid.

Keep it civil guys