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FFXV in English doesn't give the option to toggle Metric Units and that's dumb

So many people in this thread not realising that the UK still uses miles to measure distance on all its road signs and in cars XD.

I mean, I prefer metric anyway (mainly because I work in science and I find anything else ass-backwards) but I'm "used" to miles as a measure of distance so it didn't really bother me. I suppose it's weird that it switches to metric in other languages and there isn't an option to choose, though. We're metric everything else here, but for some reason on road signs and in cars the switch was never made (miles and Km are both shown in car speedometers with miles the dominant number). It's the only thing we still use the imperial system for.

Don't forget about stone and pints. Also, nearly the entire world uses inches to measure computer displays, automobile wheel diameters, and certain industries. Most of the world uses nautical miles and knots, and even measure flight altitude in feet. The point and pica in typography are defined by inches. US or imperial measurements will not disappear from certain aspects of life for quite some time.

Still, I believe the US implemented a process of metrification by legally defining U.S. units by their metric equivalents.

I did, however, notice that the game only let you use US units, and I thought it was silly as well.
 

Orayn

Member
Even though I'm an American who uses Imperial for most things, I found this weird because a lot of other open world games I've played used metric and it threw off my relative sense of video game distance.
 

bomblord1

Banned
Still, "the user is wrong" is not a valid reason for not having the option to toggle between the two systems, especially when both are fully implemented into the game already.

It's inconsequential in every circumstance. No reason to get upset over it.
 

Misterhbk

Member
This might be the most entitled post I've ever seen on here. It's damn close if it isn't. Jeez, people will bitch about anything. Why doesn't every game ever have the option to convert miles to kilometer and vice versa??
 
FFXV works with Metric units. I tried toggling every other language and the meters were there for Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, French, German, and both versions of Spanish. Why not give the option to use Metric when playing in English?

Wait, what? I assumed it was the same in any version. What the fuck, Square Enix. Your western branch is based in the UK FFS and no-one ever wondered if you could just make it an option?

Imperial is a garbage, nonsensical system. I hate it.
 
Wait, what? I assumed it was the same in any version. What the fuck, Square Enix. Your western branch is based in the UK FFS and no-one ever wondered if you could just make it an option?

Imperial is a garbage, nonsensical system. I hate it.
I'm pretty sure Square Enix has offices in California. I'm not so sure al their English localization is being done in the UK.
 

Kent

Member
They shlould've useed Yalms, Ilms, Malms and Fulms.
Considering that these are the established units of measurement in at least two other Final Fantasy games, they really should've. It could easily become another series standard, just like gil is for money.
Imperial units is just evil.
This is a recurring theme in the game.
 

Xater

Member
Because to people in the civilized world it's not relatable.

I'm 2 miles away, move 0.1 miles forward and suddenly this system switches to 800 ft.

It's confusing when you're used to the logical and actually useful system in which 1 big unit consists of 1000 small units

Exactly. It was kinda hard to tell if something is a quick walkable distance. Especially in the example someone else gave. 0.18 miles makes no sense to me.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
No, it 5280 feet in a mile.

And for the record according to google-

1760 yard in a mile.
3 feet in a yard.
12 inch in a foot.

Do you see how nonsensical it is? When you can have-

1000 metres in a Kilometer
100 centimeters in metre
10 milimeters in a centimeter

/rant

No, because we make up all the units anyway, so whatever you're raised using you'll be more comfortable with. I certainly can convert kilometers if you tell me the distance using that unit, but if you say miles I know instantly how far it is, and can convert to smaller units if necessary (which it never is). For everyday usage, Imperial is no better or worse than metric. Unless you're chronically terrible at math, I guess. But it really comes down to what you're used to.

That said, it makes literally no difference whatsoever in FF15. I doubt the "miles" are even different from "kilometers" in the game. Certainly they don't feel long enough to be miles. But it's a fantasy world, so it doesn't matter. Although it could be argued that since so much of the world is nonsensically based on Americana, it makes more sense for them to use miles due to the setting.
 

Eumi

Member
So does anyone in this thread actually not know that feet are smaller than miles and that when the small miles number changes to the big feet number as you get closer you are indeed getting closer still?

Or are we arguing for some hypothetical people who don't?
 
The number gets smaller as you get closer, wtf difference does it make.. It could be called jizziles... Doesn't matter

Ding Ding Ding. It really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. I put a waypoint marker somewhere and the number gets smaller the closer I get that's all that matters.

While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away as 1 mile.

I've never quite understood this complaint in video games.
It's not like it's actually a measurable mile to me.
The number gets smaller as I get closer to the waypoint no matter what letters symbols or nonsense is after the number.

lol

And I say this as someone that converts imperial units to metric on the fly for my girlfriend often:

This is like saying that mass units don't matter because smaller number means less mass anyway! So if you don't know scientific notation or the concept of powers it doesn't matter, after you try holding a stone that weighs 3^5 kg you will be dead anyway so you won't even get a chance to hold a smaller weight x)

The point of a distance unit is to be able to know how far away something is WITHOUT having to actually go there. Of course IF I'm moving towards it I will see how fast the units fall and can estimate how long it will take me to get there after the while, but the POINT of having units is not needing to estimate.

Like, if I know the car goes at 40 MPH and something is 20 miles away, that's easy - it'll just take me 30 mins, regardless of how much the distance actually is. However, when you start getting different units like feet then you can't possibly know unless you know the units and guess what, most of the world doesn't give a shit about imperial units :p

Maybe they should display all numbers in binary next time because it doesn't matter anyway~

So does anyone in this thread actually not know that feet are smaller than miles and that when the small miles number changes to the big feet number as you get closer you are indeed getting closer still?

Or are we arguing for some hypothetical people who don't?

Pretty sure some people don't know, and they have really no reason at all to know.
 
This strikes me as an extremely petty thing to complain about in a game with a map. You can more accurately judge distance by a quick glance at the map than any kind of distance unit would tell you.
 

FingerBang

Member
I've been playing the game in Italian (metric), Japanese (metric) and English (the one that doesn't make any sense) and it doesn't really bother me in this game (I see that numbers getting smaller and I know im going the right way), but I agree, the option to choose should be there and not be tied to the language.
 
No, because we make up all the units anyway, so whatever you're raised using you'll be more comfortable with. I certainly can convert kilometers if you tell me the distance using that unit, but if you say miles I know instantly how far it is, and can convert to smaller units if necessary (which it never is). For everyday usage, Imperial is no better or worse than metric. Unless you're chronically terrible at math, I guess. But it really comes down to what you're used to.

That said, it makes literally no difference whatsoever in FF15. I doubt the "miles" are even different from "kilometers" in the game. Certainly they don't feel long enough to be miles. But it's a fantasy world, so it doesn't matter. Although it could be argued that since so much of the world is nonsensically based on Americana, it makes more sense for them to use miles due to the setting.
Here we go again. Imperial units are only more familiar to you than Metric because you were born in them but trust the rest of planet Earth when we tell you Metric is better at everything, even, yes, everyday use.

And no it cannot be argued that Miles were used for a more "Americana" feel since, like I've said multiple times now, in the other 8 languages in the game it switches to Metric. 9 languages total: one uses imperial, eight use metric. No Americana whatever with these units in FFXV.
 

DSix

Banned
People saying it doesn't matter are very wrong (or americans), because it's a game where you actually need to know if something is within driving or walking distance. I can tell right away in meters, but I have no idea when in it's in imperial system.
 
This honestly sounds like an easy patch for Square Enix at some point.
They're already talking about letting us create an avatar, adding cutscenes and new dialogue lines that are going to have to be dubbed into 4 languages and subtitles in 9. Patching a metric system in the English text thats already used in all the other languages certainly has to be a very easy patch in comparison to all the other shit they're planning.
 

ED Cantu

Member
OP's situation was exactly like mine, I played all the past FF games in english so I decided to play XV with english subs instead of spanish because I'm just used to the terms like Fira instead of Pyro and other names (BTW why does Cindy calls Cid Belo in spanish?), I asked in the OT if it was possible to change it and no one answered so I assumed it couldn't be changed.

People saying it doesn't matter are very wrong (or americans), because it's a game where you actually need to know if something is within driving or walking distance. I can tell right away in meters, but I have no idea when in it's in imperial system.

That happened to me, once I reached the second region and Prompto asked to go to see the chocobos I thought I was very near and decided to go on foot, I ended up having to make camp and fighting monsters at night lol
 
OP's situation was exactly like mine, I played all the past FF games in english so I decided to play XV with english subs instead of spanish because I'm just used to the terms like Fira instead of Pyro and other names (BTW why does Cindy calls Cid Belo in spanish?), I asked in the OT if it was possible to change it and no one answered so I assumed it couldn't be changed.



That happened to me, once I reached the second region and Prompto asked to go to see the chocobos I thought I was very near and decided to go on foot, I ended up having to make camp and fighting monsters at night lol

Seriously just bumping it again if only to have a higher chance of somebody at Square catching it so we can hope for a patch.

Compared to the patches they have planned in the future this has to be an easy one.
 
People saying it doesn't matter are very wrong (or americans), because it's a game where you actually need to know if something is within driving or walking distance. I can tell right away in meters, but I have no idea when in it's in imperial system.

That's not true because the distances in game are arbitrary. It does not take 2 hours to drive 2 miles in real life but it does in-game.

If it's 5pm in-game and I want to get to a camp by sundown and the camp is 2 miles away I probably won't make it running flat out. Meanwhile, in real life, you can walke 2 miles in 30 minutes.

TL:Dr- A mile in FFXV is a really big distance.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Here we go again. Imperial units are only more familiar to you than Metric because you were born in them but trust the rest of planet Earth when we tell you Metric is better at everything, even, yes, everyday use.

And no it cannot be argued that Miles were used for a more "Americana" feel since, like I've said multiple times now, in the other 8 languages in the game it switches to Metric. 9 languages total: one uses imperial, eight use metric. No Americana whatever with these units in FFXV.

The problem is my language is not supported and I don't know other lanuage than my native and English so I'm stuck with this weird system.
 

Tyaren

Member
That's not true because the distances in game are arbitrary. It does not take 2 hours to drive 2 miles in real life but it does in-game.

If it's 5pm in-game and I want to get to a camp by sundown and the camp is 2 miles away I probably won't make it running flat out. Meanwhile, in real life, you can walke 2 miles in 30 minutes.

TL:Dr- A mile in FFXV is a really big distance.

That just means that time isn't realistic. The distances however are pretty realistically measured. Two kilometers in the game feel like 2 real life kilometers. I will have to walk for more than twenty minutes, not using the car or the chocobo. If the suns sets and rises in these 20 minutes I don't really care. I want to have a concept of the space, not the time.
 
The problem is my language is not supported and I don't know other lanuage than my native and English so I'm stuck with this weird system.

Out of curiosity: what language is your native one? And had you have that choice would you had chosen that instead of English (provided that this Metric-Imperial debacle wasnt an issue)?

My native tongue in Spanish and I naturally speak and read Spanish better than I do English but even after having the choice for my native one (FFXV even gives the choice of Latin American Spanish on top of Spaniard Spanish!) I still choose English 99% of the time. Why? Because videogames coming out in Spanish in Mexico have been a very very recent thing and I've been gaming since the late 80s only in English. All the terms, lingo, technicalities, and in the case of long running franchises like Final Fantasy, names, items, enemies, magic spells, summons, have always been in English my entire life. I'd have to relearn everything and just me thinking how they translated Blizzard into Spanish and how it'd work with Blizzara and Blizzaga makes my brain hurt.

I'll continue to game in English for as long as I can with very few exceptions. For example FIFA stays in Spanish and the day I buy a DBZ game is because they dubbed it into Latin Spanish with the legendary voices from my childhood's dubbed DBZ.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Out of curiosity: what language is your native one? And had you have that choice would you had chosen that instead of English (provided that this Metric-Imperial debacle wasnt an issue)?

Arabic. The best solution is to have that for text and subtitles (Like Witcher 3, best example) and English dub.
 
That just means that time isn't realistic. The distances however are pretty realistically measured. Two kilometers in the game feel like 2 real life kilometers. I will have to walk for more than twenty minutes, not using the car or the chocobo. If the suns sets and rises in these 20 minutes I don't really care. I want to have a concept of the space, not the time.

Does it make sense that the entire world is like 5 miles across?
 
I haven't been paying close attention for fear of spoilers to all the updates Square has announced they plan to release for FFXV. Have they announced anything regarding us giving the option to toggle Metric units when playing the game in English? I hate the mile/feet measurement so much. Not enough as to break the game for me but I hate it nonetheless.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
In the PAL versions of FFXV the game displays meters even when being played in English? Can you confirm this? Because we're 4 pages and almost 200 posts in and this is the first time I see someone reporting this. Many Europeans here have expressed their annoyance at the Imperial system when playing FFXV in English so either I'm getting something wrong or you're confused.
Since this hasn't been answered yet: the PAL Version in english uses the imperial system.
 
Since this hasn't been answered yet: the PAL Version in english uses the imperial system.

That's what I thought. The gaffer that said that threw me off so thanks for answering.

Does the PAL version include the same amount of voice and text options as the NTSC one? Sometimes we get games only in a few languages and Europe get more. For example The Last of Us we got it only in English, French and Latinamerican Spanish and I know for a fact that the game was dubbed at least into Spaniard Spanish, German and Japanese as well.

NTSC FFXV feaures spoken English, Japanese, French, and German. Text for these 4 plus Latin Spanish, Spaniard Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and Italian. And like I said, all of them use Metric except English regardless of your geographical region.
 
I've never quite understood this complaint in video games.
It's not like it's actually a measurable mile to me.
The number gets smaller as I get closer to the waypoint no matter what letters symbols or nonsense is after the number.

Exactly. This like being upset that the currency is gil instead of Euros.
 
Exactly. This like being upset that the currency is gil instead of Euros.

No its not. I don't have grasp of how far or near 0.20 miles is. I do know what 320 meters is though. Having a grasp of distances is kind of a thing. Euros and Gil is just another name for a currency. 0.20 miles is not the same as 200 meters.

Its not a deal breaker but it's cumbersome and the game already features Metric for 8 out of its 9 languages. Just give the option!
 
No its not. I don't have grasp of how far or near 0.20 miles is. I do know what 320 meters is though. Having a grasp of distances is kind of a thing. Euros and Gil is just another name for a currency. 0.20 miles is not the same as 200 meters.

Its not a deal breaker but it's cumbersome and the game already features Metric for 8 out of its 9 languages. Just give the option!

Bull. You don't need to have a grasp of distances anymore than you need a grasp of currency value. The game clearly shows you how far away your objective is, just like it clearly tells you what the price of a hi-potion is. The distance could be measure in generic Final Fantasy Distance Units and it would have zero impact on your ability to tell how far you need to travel.
 
Bull. You don't need to have a grasp of distances anymore than you need a grasp of currency value. The game clearly shows you how far away your objective is, just like it clearly tells you what the price of a hi-potion is. The distance could be measure in generic Final Fantasy Distance Units and it would have zero impact on your ability to tell how far you need to travel.
Tell that to the people on this very thread, including me, who misread a distance as being shorter than it was and left the car behind thinking it was only short run when it wasn't.

It's not that big of a deal but how about a little empathy for us who never touch the imperial system of measurements that's only used in 3 and a half countries in the world?
 

Jisgsaw

Member
Well, happy to see I'm not the only one to have been pissed of by this. Though to be honest, FFXV has a fair share of more aggravating strange design decisions (why the fuck are the run and jump buttons not the same when I'm on foot and on Chocobo???)

Yes it's annoying but I just washed it off as being some fantasy units

That's not too hard to believe, unlogical as they are ,-)

While I agree that it should be a choice, I'm not sure what it really matters in this game. Yes, it says "miles," but what does that correspond to? It doesn't really feel like it has a 100% realistic scale, and I don't feel like I factor that into my experience. Distance in FF15 is a number relative to other numbers in FF15, and as such, could be labeled anything and accomplish the same exact goal. The only relevant piece of information is that 2 miles is twice as far away as 1 mile.

The annoying thing is that, imperial unit being as dumb as they are, the switch from miles to feets is completely unlogical and unexpected.
Or to say it another way:
It isn't relatable in a world where there is magic and eidolons? Ehhh. As another user said: Why would you care if it's called Hufflepuff or inches. The fact is that it serves a simple purpose, to indicate whether you are closer to your objective or not.

I don't care at all what they call the unit; I'd have been fine with an imaginary unit. I do care that the unit is nonsensical, and jumps from 1.8 miles to 700 feet, making it difficult for me to estimate the distances.

Not that it's a major nuisance, as I said, just a bit jarring and pretty stupid, as the metric system is already implemented anyway.
 
Tell that to the people on this very thread, including me, who misread a distance as being shorter than it was and left the car behind thinking it was only short run when it wasn't.

It's not that big of a deal but how about a little empathy for us who never touch the imperial system of measurements that's only used in 3 and a half countries in the world?

Ok, but after the first time of you (or others) regretting leaving the car behind because you found out that anything over .2 miles was a bit too far to walk, wouldn't you recalibrate? Wouldn't you think, "This distance is .35, the last distance was .20 and it was too far, therefore this is probably too far as well!"

As someone who is familiar with the imperial measurement system, even I had to do the same calibration and learn what the distances really meant in game. There's nothing unique about your experience solely due to the metric system.
 

Muffdraul

Member
I'm playing it in JP now, after putting 120 hours into the English version. Weird difference is, it never says 1.x km, unlike it did with miles. It just says 3 km, 2, km, 1 km, and then it starts counting down from 999 m.

EDIT: So if you want to know when you're 3.5 km from your objective, you're shit outta luck.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
Ok, but after the first time of you (or others) regretting leaving the car behind because you found out that anything over .2 miles was a bit too far to walk, wouldn't you recalibrate? Wouldn't you think, "This distance is .35, the last distance was .20 and it was too far, therefore this is probably too far as well!"

But that's exactly the problem: I will once see I'm 3.5m away from my objective, remember that and see how long I take to get there.
For another quest, I'll then be 870 ft away from the objective. How the hell am I suppose to know how long I'll take (approximately)? I'll know it's closer than the 3.5m, but by how much? That's exactly why everyone is saying that metric > imperial, because you can relate one unit to the other extremely easily.

It's not dealbraking, in the end I just learned to estimate once in miles, once in feets (or what those unit translate to in FF XV, as it doesn't seem to scale), but it's kinda dumb I had to do that when the metric system is already implemented.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
If I remember right it was in miles while I was playing with French voice acting as well. So it's entirely based on the UI language?

If so, that sucks. I honestly have no concept of the Imperial system.
 

Rookhelm

Member
If I remember right it was in miles while I was playing with French voice acting as well. So it's entirely based on the UI language?

If so, that sucks. I honestly have no concept of the Imperial system.

In a game like this, it really doesn't matter. Just knowing the numbers are going down, and how quickly they're going down, is what is important. Knowing that something is "2 miles" away, even if I know exactly how much a mile is in real life, is meaningless if I don't know how fast I can traverse that in the game (assuming it's probably faster than a real life person could).

Equating 2 miles to 2 kilometers is probably good enough for this purpose, when precise distances don't really matter.


Take a space game, for example. knowing the enemy ship is 25,000 kilometers away is absolutely meaningless knowledge (other than the basic concept of knowing that it is closer than something which is 50,000 km away). All I know is that when I hit my boosters (which I also have no real life concept for how fast I'm actually going), I know I can get to that ship in about 10 seconds. "miles" or "kilometers" are practically meaningless in a game world where speeds and distances don't really match to real life stuff.
 
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