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[Koozek]

As a German, Armiger sounds weird; like a superlative of the word 'arm' (body part).[/SPOILER]

Noctis, ein einarmiger Bandit.

It'll be interesting to see if any feedback from the demo affects the VA or localization at all in the final product. If a LOT of people dislike what they're hearing, would they really just keep it as it is?

Well, they're the most open and transparent they've ever been, so I think there is a chance they'll listen if they get enough feedback. It would be more effective if the press mentioned the wack localization more, as I'm sure SE is feverishly reading every single preview of the demo. So far, though, I heard surprisingly little negative about the VA itself besides the repetition issue. Has any gaming site mentioned the localization at all?

 

[Zoe]

Japanese -> English

Ability -> Technique
Guard -> Defending
Assault -> Attacking
Shift -> Warp
Shift Break -> Warp Strike
Break -> Crush
Rush -> Ravage
Slash -> Vanquish
Raid -> Descend
Phantom Sword -> Armiger
MP Burst -> Stasis


There are probably more but these are just ones I noticed.

Geez, I didn't know we were talking about commands.

Why do they need to retranslate English terms :\

 

[zennyzz]

Simple English Word -> Arbitrary Change to a word that is no better, worse, or just bizarre.

Square Enix localization.

The only words that are simpler on the left are MP Burst and Phantom Sword.

In fact shift and raid are pretty obtuse given what we know those skills do.

 

[Dark_castle]

Time to start a petition people

Better yet, start #translationgate.

*slapped*

 

[wmlk]

The only words that are simpler on the left are MP Burst and Phantom Sword.

In fact shift and raid are pretty obtuse given what we know those skills do.

It's not really about that, it's about getting it right the first time and keeping it the way it is for all versions of the game.

I don't know why they have to change something in the same language.

 

[dramatis]

Geez, I didn't know we were talking about commands.

Why do they need to retranslate English terms :\

Depending on the word, sometimes it has a different meaning in Japanglish than it does in actual English.

Over there they call movie premieres "roadshow". So what we're thinking of as meanings from what we're reading in the JP English might really mean something else.

 

[Kagari]

Geez, I didn't know we were talking about commands.

Why do they need to retranslate English terms :\

They did this with XIII as well. It never made any sense to me.

 

[Dark_castle]

The name changes serve no purpose.

But I like Attack over Assault. It's recognizable and simpler.

 

[Geg]

Okay, I'm listening to the interview with the main FF voice director I posted before, right now.

Some stuff about FFXIII:
- Trivia: Ashe's VA (Kari Wahlgren) from XII could have been Lightning, as her performance was very convincing, but SE doesn't want to reuse main character VAs in other mainline FFs
- Says they constantly received new versions of cutscenes and had to revise lines all the time which had to strictly fit into the same animations and speech durations as the most recent Japanese version, even though they later on got lip-synced to the English VA (about 20% of the scenes weren't lip-synced and they had to rewrite the English lines so that they fit the JP lip animations)
- Roughly 20% of the VA work had to be rerecorded when some stuff ended up sounding wrong later on for any reason
- The whole last chapter got rewritten by the Japanese side towards the end and split in two new parts before the JP VAs recorded it completely, so they had to wait for a translation of new stuff first (huge script, "stood at least 3 feet high")
- Generally got granted a lot of freedom from SE ("they had bigger fish to fry over there, so they trusted us") and changed intonations and pauses that might be impactful in Japanese but don't sound natural in English
- Sometimes added dialogue themselves to flesh out and pad some scenes that he felt were repetetive and SE just trusted them about it ("two months in you're like, hey, I'm kind of recording the same "Hey guys, don't be down! We can do it if we all work together as a team!" scene again 14, 15 hours in the game, so it's my job to understand where this comes in the story, when it's appropriate to happen again, and breathe new life into it")
- SE basically gave him free license to add his own lines ("Sometimes when you get a literal translation from the Japanese there isn't quite as much fun or as much color in, let's say, the sardonic or sadistic attitude of Lightning, the sort of bitter room that she's in as a character in the first half of the game") and he thinks the new lines "added a flavor to the English version that felt really good"

Honestly I'm fine with most of the changes made in XIII's localization. The Japanese script was pretty bland and needed the added variety.

 

[Nerokis]

Geez, I didn't know we were talking about commands.

Why do they need to retranslate English terms :

They're English, but probably have somewhat different connotations in the Japanese. Words like "technique" and "warp" more clearly describe what those commands do. The parts of the script (or whatever commands fall under) that happen to be English need to be localized, too.

 

[Antilurker77]

The Phantom Sword one is the only one that really bothers me.

 

[Muffdraul]

Names of moves are negating your hype for the game? Come on now

I'd classify it as "irksome".

I think it's down to the localization staff justifying their jobs. Not joking.

 

[Nibel]

Does SE even care about petitions?

Well, according to them they made Type-0 because of the fans! ...

Noctis, ein einarmiger Bandit.

And now the name is even worse.

Better yet, start #translationgate.

*slapped*

#StopTheLoLcalization

 

[Kozmos]

Nobody knows what an "armiger" is, but mention "Phantom Sword" and you already have more information simply based on word choice.

This really is the issue. Armiger means nothing to me, Phantom Sword at least evokes an image.

It's the same thing with 'Cidney' and 'Cindy'. 'Cidney' (Sidney) is a western name and also evokes 'Cid'. Cindy is just a name... I don't understand.

 

[wmlk]

Okay, I'm listening to the interview with the main FF voice director I posted before, right now.

Some stuff about FFXIII:
- Trivia: Ashe's VA (Kari Wahlgren) from XII could have been Lightning, as her performance was very convincing, but SE doesn't want to reuse main character VAs in other mainline FFs
- Says they constantly received new versions of cutscenes and had to revise lines all the time which had to strictly fit into the same animations and speech durations as the most recent Japanese version, even though they later on got lip-synced to the English VA (about 20% of the scenes weren't lip-synced and they had to rewrite the English lines so that they fit the JP lip animations)
- Roughly 20% of the VA work had to be rerecorded when some stuff ended up sounding wrong later on for any reason
- The whole last chapter got rewritten by the Japanese side towards the end and split in two new parts before the JP VAs recorded it completely, so they had to wait for a translation of new stuff first (huge script, "stood at least 3 feet high")
- Generally got granted a lot of freedom from SE ("they had bigger fish to fry over there, so they trusted us") and changed intonations and pauses that might be impactful in Japanese but don't sound natural in English
- Sometimes added dialogue themselves to flesh out and pad some scenes that he felt were repetetive and SE just trusted them about it ("two months in you're like, hey, I'm kind of recording the same "Hey guys, don't be down! We can do it if we all work together as a team!" scene again 14, 15 hours in the game, so it's my job to understand where this comes in the story, when it's appropriate to happen again, and breathe new life into it")
- SE basically gave him free license to add his own lines ("Sometimes when you get a literal translation from the Japanese there isn't quite as much fun or as much color in, let's say, the sardonic or sadistic attitude of Lightning, the sort of bitter room that she's in as a character in the first half of the game") and he thinks the new lines "added a flavor to the English version that felt really good"

I never understood the complaint about how the English version tried to imitate the Japanese version. It doesn't seem to be the case for this game.

Troy Baker said the same thing.

 

[Kagari]

I never understood the complaint about how the English version tried to imitate the Japanese version. It doesn't seem to be the case for this game.

Troy Baker said the same thing.

Voice direction most certainly did. See: Vanille.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Japanese -> English

Ability -> Technique
Well ok...
Guard -> Defending
Yeah, no problem here
Assault -> Attacking
...um..ok, not that bad
Shift -> Warp
I don't like it, but at least makes sense
Shift Break -> Warp Strike
I don't see it, nope
Break -> Crush
What...
Rush -> Ravage
Now you're being silly translator-san
Slash -> Vanquish
WTF..
Raid -> Descend
I'm...just...what
Phantom Sword -> Armiger
the fuck
MP Burst -> Stasis
Ok, this is just silly

There are probably more but these are just ones I noticed.

I know the translator team of XIV changes a lot of things, but at least is for the better.

 

[Dark_castle]

#StopTheLoLcalization

#NoBwothForIgnis

 

[Koozek]

I somehow can't quite differentiate the JP voices of Noctis and Ignis^^ Probably always thought it was Noctis when I only heard Ignis.

 

[Kagari]

I somehow can't quite differentiate the JP voices of Noctis and Ignis^^ Probably always thought it was Noctis when I only heard Ignis.

Really?

 

[Zoe]

Guard -> Defending
Assault -> Attacking

These are stupid simply from being the only two commands to have been turned into gerunds. At least be consistent.

 

[Gbraga]

Definitive Edition:

Ability
Guard
Assault
Shift
Shift Break
Crush
Ravage
Slash
Raid
Phantom Sword
Stasis

 

[Nerokis]

These are stupid simply from being the only two commands to have been turned into gerunds. At least be consistent.

Could it have to do with the "press button to go into defensive stance" thing? Since attacking and defending seem to be implemented that way, it does make some sense.

 

[Koozek]

Voice direction most certainly did. See: Vanille.

In case some of you missed my post from before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsSY4svjABA&feature=youtu.be&t=3m30s



I think Vanille was the only one with this extreme kind of approach, though, since SE themselves deliberately wanted her VA to have a "foreign" accent and to use Japanese mannerisms to come as overly happy to deceive the rest of the party, bla bla. Still, it was absolutly painful and way too ham-fisted.
But I actually found most of the voice acting fine for what they had to work with, honestly. Sazh, Noel, Caius, or Hope in FFXIII-2 and LR weren't bad, imo. To be fair, I didn't have high expectations and have never taken the stories and dialogue serious enough to really care, anyway.

Really?

Don't you think they're pretty similar?^^ I had to do a double take in some parts. Maybe it's because I haven't listened to the JP trailers for a while now.
Again, for reference:
- Noctis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzofDeBSZwM
- Ignis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB6vF4JZ-l8

 

[Squire]

I think you mean Voice Acting.

SE's localization's some of the best in the industry.

"Moms are tough."

 

[Kagari]

"Moms are tough."

That line is in the Japanese version though.

 

[NoirVisage]

If the Demo is a digital Download I'll give it away on GAF, I'm actually looking more forward to Agito/Type-0 more than Jpop prince and crew go on a roadtrip -__-

let me stop, I'm sure it will be good, but I'm not going to waste time downloading the demo, I'd rather someone else who is strongly looking forward to it enjoy it.

 

[Zoe]

That line is in the Japanese version though.

That's an instance where a localization would have been better than a straight translation.

 

[robertsan21]

Personally, I hope it won't come out this year since I don't want them to rush it out. I'd be okay with spring-summer 2016.

Rush it out??

Its been in development for how many years now? 6 ?

 

[Koozek]

If the Demo is a digital Download I'll give it away on GAF, I'm actually looking more forward to Agito/Type-0 more than Jpop prince and crew go on a roadtrip -__-

let me stop, I'm sure it will be good, but I'm not going to waste time downloading the demo, I'd rather someone else who is strongly looking forward to it enjoy it.

Really? Are digital vouchers region-locked, by the way?

Rush it out??

Its been in development for how many years now? 6 ?

In July it would be 3 years since the reboot as FFXV for next-gen only.

 

[wmlk]

Rush it out??

Its been in development for how many years now? 6 ?

3 years for PS4 and XBONE.

 

[DeSolos]

The only words that are simpler on the left are MP Burst and Phantom Sword.

In fact shift and raid are pretty obtuse given what we know those skills do.

1. Ability -> Technique
shorter word to longer word

2. Guard -> Defending
short 1 syllable verb to longer word, more syllables, and a present participle

3. Assault -> Attacking
two syllable word->three syllable world and a present participle

4. Shift -> Warp
Arbitrary change

5. Shift Break -> Warp Strike
Arbitrary change

6. Break -> Crush
Arbitrary change

7. Rush -> Ravage
Short 1 syllable word-> longer two syllable word

8. Slash -> Vanquish
Short 1 syllable word-> longer two syllable word

9.
Raid -> Descend
Short 1 syllable word-> longer two syllable word

10.
Phantom Sword -> Armiger
Two common words, 3 syllables->1 uncommon(made up?) word, 3 syllables

11. (I'm kind of ok with this change, but these two words don't evoke the same meaning)
MP Burst -> Stasis
game term+1 syllable word-> 2 syllable somewhat common word


Side note, if it isn't clear, fewer syllables are easier to remember.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Really? Are digital vouchers region-locked, by the way?

They are locked to the region of the disc. Region 2 disc = Region 2 PSN account only

That line is in the Japanese version though.

Yeh, but it made more sense in Japanese because they have a similar saying in Japan, whereas it made no sense for the localization to keep the wording.

 

[Squire]

That line is in the Japanese version though.

And that's the issue. A good loc team would've altered that to sound less akward. It didn't ned to be that specific line.

What Nora wants to get across in that scene is she can take care of herself, so hope shouldn't worry. They should've taken that intent and come up with s new like that communicated better.

The bullets from Fletchdr are interesting. I LOVE Wahlgren, so I was pulling for her to play Light from quite literally day one. Hillis is good casting with very poor material though, I maintain.

Persona has an outstsnding localization. Not sure where that other poster is coming from there.

Edit: FFXIV has a phenomenal script and the puns are brilliant.

 

[Zoe]

Yeh, but it made more sense in Japanese because they have a similar saying in Japan, whereas it made no sense for the localization to keep the wording.

Yeah, "women are weak, mothers are strong".

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Well even then SE doesn't bother including two sets of subtitles. If you've seen any of the XIII stuff the sub translation is way off from what's being said in Japanese a lot of the time.

thankfully my speaking and listening Japanese is just about good enough to pick up upon stuff that would probably be butchered in the translation

but yeah it would be nice if they included two sets of subs like we had in Valkyria Chronicles, although I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Kozmos]

thankfully my speaking and listening Japanese is just about good enough to pick up upon stuff that would probably be butchered in the translation

That's the tough thing. I'm a strange breed that has fluency, but still likes having the English subtitles. The more interpretive the translation gets, the weirder it is to do that. Ni no Kuni has an amazing localization, but is incredibly interpretive (Mark --> Philip wtf?). Because of that, it was so difficult to listen to the Japanese while reading the English that I ended up having to switch the VO. I just hope it's not that bad for FFXV, because I've spent years with the JPN VO for these characters...

 

[Kagari]

thankfully my speaking and listening Japanese is just about good enough to pick up upon stuff that would probably be butchered in the translation

but yeah it would be nice if they included two sets of subs like we had in Valkyria Chronicles, although I'm not holding my breath.

VC did?

 

[Nibel]

Rush it out??

Its been in development for how many years now? 6 ?

It has been announced a long time ago, yes, but the actual game we are seeing now hasn't been in development for that long.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I also don't like them changing Phantom Sword -> Armiger.

da flying fuck!?

 

[Icyflamez96]

Geez, I didn't know we were talking about commands.

Why do they need to retranslate English terms :

The "English" terms sounds cooler tbh

*looks at post above*

Well most of them

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

VC did?

It's been like nearly 7 years? Since I played it but I'm almost certain it did. Not a direct option in the menu but basically the subtitles were most definitely different when you choose between English or Japanese dub.

If you have the game check it out.

 

[brandonh83]

One week. It's almost here. Not much longer now...

 

[Koozek]

One week. It's almost here. Not much longer now...

Oooh, before I forget: the first thing you guys playing the demo should do is check the credits for Jun Akiyama, please! I so hope he's in.

 

[Philippo]

Plese god no Armiger, i fear what my language (italian) translation could be... ugh

 

[JuanLatino]

I am curious if Nomura will be mentioned in the credits (apart from character design)

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

Aside from this silly localization stuff, one thing I really liked is their experimentation with the health system, and magic consumption from everything from blocking to specials.

I am curious if Nomura will be mentioned in the credits (apart from character design)

It would be ridiculous if he's not at least credited for base story.

 

[Koozek]

I am curious if Nomura will be mentioned in the credits (apart from character design)

Imagine how he would feel if he only got credit for character design as in any other FF. Though, I have to honestly say that at this point a large part of the recent presentation-style and game design in general is definitely attributable to Tabata and his team now. It doesn't quite look like what I imagine Nomura would have wanted anymore, I think, in some regards. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know... it's just a feeling.

However, one should obviously never deny Nomura his groundwork and original vision for the story and setting. He should definitely get a Director credit, anything else would be cruel.

Aside from this silly localization stuff, one thing I really liked is their experimentation with the health system, and magic consumption from everything from blocking to specials.


It would be ridiculous if he's not at least credited for base story.

Yup, I really like that, too. Refreshing mechanics for a FF. I welcome them.

 

[BocoDragon]

One week. It's almost here. Not much longer now...

Hell yes. I am so ready for some next gen FF.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

I am curious if Nomura will be mentioned in the credits (apart from character design)

I thought he was being credited as "Scenario Concept"