Ul’dah (middle eastern style merchents city):”‘Tis plain to anyone with eyes that you don’t know your way around here.Now, I’m sure yer busy, so I’ll come straight to the point. Limsa Lominsa (port town, lots of seafarers): “I thank ye fer takin’ the time to ‘elp me out.It’s very interesting reading the different dialogues between different cities and different classes. Every person will speak slightly differently depending on where they were brought up, what their life was like, their racial ticks, etc. This led to a wide variety in how people spoke with one another. Much better than being given a document with just the script and nothing else to go off of! This helped him get a feel for their personality to use when localizing their dialogue. In the same 2013 interview with GamerEscape, Koji Fox discussed how the great thing about his job was that he could approach the game planners and ask them what kind of person each character in the game was. So him and his team have the freedom to have a lot of fun with the translation, which is evident in the localization! He mentioned in an interview with GamerEscape how all the localizers for Square Enix (including the French and German teams) are given a lot of freedom in terms of working.

His relationship with the development team was strong and was eventually asked to lead the localization for FFXIV. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox began working with Square Enix on Final Fantasy XI as a support desk translator. Why would you change the original? Is the original meaning even maintained? But when you hear the localization lead and co-writer for Final Fantasy XIV, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, you begin to see just how genius his process and decisions have been. The localization of Final Fantasy XIV hasn’t just translated the original Japanese text in a very creative and entertaining manner it has shaped the lore for the game itself.Ĭreating brand new content through localization might be un-thinkable to some.

This creates fun localizations that don’t sound like they’ve been translated at all. In Ni no Kuni and Final Fantasy XV the localizations reflect the original meaning without directly translating them.

I’ve discussed before how localizations for video games which directly translate don’t work as well as those that vary from the original Japanese. Depending on the type of text and the company, the level of how much a text will change from the original will vary. Many translators, when hired for a job, will translate the text given to them.

Final fantasy tactics translation