The voiced FFXI videos at the Famitsu Youtube account
On September 14th, before Rhapsodies of Vana'diel had even ended, the official FFXI Twitter account posted a video at the Famitsu Youtube account which consisted of the early scene from Rise of the Zilart missions that completed the end of the Shadow Lord fight.
It was an interesting surprise that not only was the video voiced, but more so that it had subtitles in english despite being associated with a Japanese publication. Other surprising aspects were the correct pronounciations for Zeid and Lion's names (like "side" and the animal respectively, while I've been thinking "zeed" and "lee-on" for years), and that one of the voices was that of Norio Wakamoto, so I figure this initiative couldn't have been cheap. The video also finished the the appearance of Bahamut from the initial Chains of Promathia cutscene, also voiced.
On October 13th this tweet posted a Treasures of Aht Urghan video covering the end of that story, also voiced and with English subtitles, and at the end it either had a scene with Carbuncle or Diabolos - I can't check because the video, like the previous one, is now set to private for some reason.
It was a bit strange that the video sequence jumped straight from Zilart to ToAU when Chains of Promathia was released between them and is one of the more respected stories in the game, but I guess the Bahamut and Diabolos scenes were meant to cover more of that than of the other stories over time, who knows...
And on November 12th, the day after Rhapsodies was released and theoretically some people "finished" the game's story, this tweet posted the Wings of the Goddess ending video, which like the others was voices, subtitled with with a shorter scene at the end.
That was also the last tweet about such videos the official FFXI account posted, which is strange, because there's a more recent one covering a decent outline of the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel story, clocking at over 16 minutes and multiple characters, which implies a considerable amount of work and expense.
All of these videos used to be part of a Youtube playlist maintained by the corresponding Famitsu account, but for some reason now only an ealier more general one and the more recent Rhapsodies video are there. I don't know what to think about the lack of mention of the latest video on FFXI's social media or the fact that the prior 3 videos are now private...
Why would SE and Famitsu go to the trouble of voicing and subtitling these critical story moments and then not telling the game's own audience about some of them and making previously available ones unavailable?
An ideal scenario might involve getting these voices integrated into the game now that it's not bound by console constraints, applying the voice work to the planned mobile version, or maybe a single-player adaptation that FF series fans might warm up to if they've been weary of trying an online game with a subscription model, but as it stands I don't know.
One of my favorite things about FFXI is its story and it would be great to be able to share these glimpses of it and more with people who know nothing about the game (most of them being ending might spoil a few things) other that it's a MMO and Shantotto's source game, but that's less of an option now.
Maybe there's some issue being negotiated that's getting in the way (something with Famitsu or some voice actors?...) which involves maintaining some secrecy, but I wonder if there's anything the community team can clarify about the issue...