[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

from what i can tell, this is there first time doing something major. Hoping that they can get the character down by release. or even more practice

Weird people are so being so hypercritical about the voice acting, Meanwhile Krile sounds like an AI/Robot in a majority of her dialogue in the same cutscenes.

Not too fond of the voice. It sounds off compared to the other voices in the same scenes.

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Originally Posted by sindriiisgaming

em? have u read the original? she was from denmark, was white and had blonde hair. she 100% suffered from her horrible casting choices

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TBH, most people know it from the Disney cartoon.

feel free to skip over this and i dont mean to derail the topic either but g'raha va changed?

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Originally Posted by Axxion

feel free to skip over this and i dont mean to derail the topic either but g'raha va changed?

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No, but they sounded ever so slightly off - It could just be a change in recording equipment.

If the intention is to treat such individuals as no different to anybody else in the name of equality, then there should be absolutely no controversy involved when it comes to providing either praise or criticism relating to the role. It isn't much deeper than that, really.

The report and ignore functions exist if someone takes things too far, make use of them if need be. There's no need to try and deflect away from any and all criticism especially when the individual in question is very active on social media and incredibly opinionated; hardly the scared little lamb who will melt until the tiniest bit of scrutiny that some seem to be envisioning.

I can't say I care much for either the character or the voice, though that extends to certain other characters such as Krile, Y'shtola and Alphinaud as well these days.

Had it not been for that other forum thread I would not have known that about the VA but that isn't the point of the discussion. Honestly, I too felt like something was off and I couldn't really put my finger off on it. Some of the delivery just didn't seem right but all in all I like the character and I hope in the future the voice acting is better.

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Originally Posted by Karious

I'm also upset that we finally had our chance for South American voice acting representation and they blew it! I know Kate (the localization lead) said they didn't want an Apu situation like with the Simpsons... So why didn't they give an opportunity to someone from down south???

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To be honest the whole Apu situation is complete BS anyway. Its reverse racism where people care more about the color of the skin behind a VOICE actor than the performance. That being said, while I dont mind Wuk Lamat's ENG VA, even more so because I never play this game with the ENG dub anyway; I play with the superior French VA, I do believe its a missed opportunity for the NA side to not cast a South American VA for Wuk Lamat.

I can't quite put my finger on why but the acting for everyone sounded very off this last patch. It was like they used different takes that didn't flow well or just bad takes in general or something. Very odd.

I love her voicework.

I thought Wuk sounded fine personally. Then again, it's pretty rare for voice acting to bother me.

In this game I only really remember being bothered by Nanamo's ARR voice, and even she improved by the patch quests.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

To be honest the whole Apu situation is complete BS anyway. Its reverse racism where people care more about the color of the skin behind a VOICE actor than the performance. That being said, while I dont mind Wuk Lamat's ENG VA, even more so because I never play this game with the ENG dub anyway; I play with the superior French VA, I do believe its a missed opportunity for the NA side to not cast a South American VA for Wuk Lamat.

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I admit that the one thing that has got me a little concerned with DT from even before its announcement was how the ‘New World’ is gonna be treated. There is a big risk of them falling to stereotyping and white washing, and the very fact the story will seemingly involve cities of gold raises some flags. The idea this could be seen as a missed opportunity for representation is the more important issue mentioned at large, I would say.

I do think however its a bit early to totally discredit the actress and her nationality in this though. We do not know just how much Tural is based on South America alone. It seemed clear thanks to the zones we saw that other aspects of America and perhaps beyond are also being used. What we know of it in the lore seems to hint that the nation at large is more then just one culture, with multiple peoples and aspects united under the banner of Tuliyollal. Not to mention the fact that

Wuk Lamat is adopted, under circumstances we do not know

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

superior French VA

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https://media.tenor.com/KZSCnVzDgKcA...h-laughing.gif

The performance was really bad. It didn't help that none of the VAs seemed to have been recording in studio or next to each other / listening to each others performances. Wookie Lamar says the name of Tural's capital, and then Krile says it in the very next line, and it was super jarring as they sounded like they said completely different words. And that's even accounting for accent and such. It was as if the VAs were told to do a couple of reads, and then the production team rolled with whatever came out, and then didn't cross reference the performances, just lumping them into the scenes together.

Also I know it's bordering that line that makes people uncomfortable, but I hate that German, French, and Japanese all gave Wuk Lamat very convincingly feminine voices, whereas our VA for EN didn't pull that off. I don't care if they're trans, NB, man, or whatever. But if the character is intended to sound feminine, then the VA has to bring that to the table.

Look at shows like Bob's Burgers, The Simpsons, or The Incredibles.

Tina Belcher is voiced by a guy.

Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman.

Edna Mode is voiced by a man.

But these performances all give the viewer the impression that these voices match the character on screen. We need a better VA for this role, or the VA for Wuk needs to get a lot of coaching/new techniques right quick and in a hurry.

I hate this extra hard because it feels like this was a corporate maneuver where they could hire a cheaper VA, and then shield themselves from legitimate criticism using her identity. :/ Incredibly divisive move, as if this community needed anymore fractures when its narrative was doing that just fine...

There is lore reasons.
People gotta stop trying to get VAs be forced to be of said location, or close enough to it. (that's forcing discrimination, in order to have a VA be of a specific origin. Which doesn't affect or improve Quality)

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One of the lore reasons is that their generations grew with the language based on those of the three great continents.

Yall literally just heard that recently in MSQ.

Also, what will matter in the end, is what image SE and the Voice Actor will interpret.

If they are happy, that's all that matters.

[You also got to keep in mind, many of the new NPCs will not be "Perfect" at the start. Just like Wuk Lamat's clear personality and struggles. (Which are kinda endearing) while we won't truly know which is which. be it the needs of the character, or her needing to adjust. "VOICE ACTORS ADJUST. LOL"]

In the end, we won't get a full image til we see all the ranges and evolutions of the character.
Which is why in hindsight it is easy to use the twins as examples.

This is what happen when you hire based on race instead of culture or/and ethnicity, you get american born and raised latinos who have to make an accent.

I feel like the people saying "her voice acting sounded fine" just don't know what any South American accent is supposed to sound like. Wuk Lamat legitimately sounds like they hired an American to try to sound Spanish or Portuguese, and she ended up sounding like some weird, mixed, broken, offensive caricature the same way Americans sound when they try to speak with a Japanese, Chinese, or Indian accent.

They would have been better off just having her use her natural accent, whatever it is.

That said, I have noticed in the past that people are much less likely to think a voice actor is not doing well if that voice actor is speaking with an accent they don't speak or hear very often. Americans, in particular, almost always think British voice actors, regardless of dialect, are "doing a good job" even if they... aren't. I'm sure the same happens in reverse, but there it is.

I thought it was a little rough but mostly fine.

This game doesn't exactly have the best VAs in the business so I don't really mind much. But I am reminded of when people in this forum got upset with how "fake" a Scottish accent sounded from a VA from Scotland. Or when people thought Vanille's Aussie VA was putting on a fake Australian accent.

At least this isn't GW2, who hires a bunch of known VAs who can't pronounce the word "quay" right.

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Originally Posted by GTK0HLK

People gotta stop trying to get VAs be forced to be of said location, or close enough to it. (that's forcing discrimination, in order to have a VA be of a specific origin. Which doesn't affect or improve Quality)

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Ironically Sena has made tweets in the past supporting people do exactly what you're saying not to do.

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

I thought it was a little rough but mostly fine.

This game doesn't exactly have the best VAs in the business so I don't really mind much. But I am reminded of when people in this forum got upset with how "fake" a Scottish accent sounded from a VA from Scotland. Or when people thought Vanille's Aussie VA was putting on a fake Australian accent.

At least this isn't GW2, who hires a bunch of known VAs who can't pronounce the word "quay" right.

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Ohno do they say "Kway"?

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Originally Posted by OgruMogru

Ohno do they say "Kway"?

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Yep. Classic mistake of someone reading a word they've seen written but never said out loud. And no one corrected them before it made it to the game and she had to say it over and over for this one quest.

The JP voice is great by the way. Ayaka Shimoyamada. Doesn't seem to have had any major roles yet, but I'm glad they found her. She plays off so well with Erenville's JP voice (which sounds so much better in that dry tone.)

I feel like the accent is not the problem, but the consistency of the performance is. Like, there are some lines that are delivered greatly, while there are some that range from "meh" to "huh?". In my opinion, the VAs has to work on the consistency in delivery and so on, making it nature like talking or walking normally. If you reference Wuk's voice line with G'raha, you can see the difference in consistency.

VA stands for Voice Acting, and acting is a set of skills. With enough practice, everyone can be skillful regardless of sexes, genders, and ages, that's why we have so many old but experienced people voicing young characters. I can only hope that the VA looks at the performance and strive for excellence.

The voice is literally perfect. The acting is expected. It can take some sessions for actors to find their footing. It wasn't flawless but it wasn't bad either.

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Originally Posted by xxmiamorecadenza

I hope they don\\'t change it. I actually really love her voice.

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Same though

Before the thread gets deleted, spammed or mass reported I'll say this in brief.

Ill give everyone a fair shot in voice impressions and the voice direction might be stronger in the expansion than in the patch. BUT for first impressions I wanted to like the character but I feel the current direction of the voice hindered rather than helped.

I get ff14 English VA isn't always 100% but at least for long occurring characters or characters who will have many voiced scenes it should at least feel like they are acting the character.

The current Wuk direction felt flat, with a bad accent, didn't really feel like they were as expressive as the character was posed to be in animation, and overall felt like they were reading lines from the script rather than talking/acting as the character.

Still as stated before everyone gets a fair chance to flex their talents, but first impressions it felt amateurish compared to the other trained VA's

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Originally Posted by Magma442

Before the thread gets deleted, spammed or mass reported I'll say this in brief.

Ill give everyone a fair shot in voice impressions and the voice direction might be stronger in the expansion than in the patch. BUT for first impressions I wanted to like the character but I feel the current direction of the voice hindered rather than helped.

I get ff14 English VA isn't always 100% but at least for long occurring characters or characters who will have many voiced scenes it should at least feel like they are acting the character.

The current Wuk direction felt flat, with a bad accent, didn't really feel like they were as expressive as the character was posed to be in animation, and overall felt like they were reading lines from the script rather than talking/acting as the character.

Still as stated before everyone gets a fair chance to flex their talents, but first impressions it felt amateurish compared to the other trained VA's

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Krile in the exact same scenes sounds like they are reading off a script in multiple lines, like a robot, like every word is the start of a new sentence.
G'raha sounds tired the entire time, like he didn't even want to be there.

Both returning voice actors in the same scenes with a new character we just met, yet only one of them is being hyper-scrutinized?
Not saying the new voice actor is perfect, but I wasn't very impressed by the voice acting as a whole this patch, so I find it kind of weird the new voice actor is the only one being judged harshly here.

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Originally Posted by kayll

Krile in the exact same scenes sounds like they are reading off a script in multiple lines, like a robot, like every word is the start of a new sentence.
G'raha sounds tired the entire time, like he didn't even want to be there.

Both returning voice actors in the same scenes with a new character we just met, yet only one of them is being hyper-scrutinized?
Not saying the new voice actor is perfect, but I wasn't very impressed by the voice acting as a whole this patch, so I find it kind of weird the new voice actor is the only one being judged harshly here.

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I personally didn't get robot from Krile or G'raha, but you can also not like the voice work of this patch, I didn't like early HW alph, but i feel the VA got used to the character. The issue still lies that this is the FIRST IMPRESSION of the character and acting goes flat. with G'raha and Krile we know that the actors have done great scenes in the past so a "robot voice" now doesn't mean it will be later, but this is our first time hearing a new character and current scenes feel stiff. there's a worry that the next big expansion will have flat acting for scenes with certain emotions and we have nothing to compare to, (other than the few seconds in the trailer.)

Sounds like a budget VA for Sqex to cut some budget.

From a lore standpoint, it's not at all unthinkable that Wuk Lamat may have a northern Latin American accent rather than a southern one. Though Tuliyollal is geographically where South America is in our world, in universe, it is much more culturally diverse due to its ruler uniting many of the disparate peoples of Tural. I would assume this includes people from Xak(North) Tural as well.

While there may have been a few instances of stiff delivery of lines in this patch, I think the VA did a good job of getting me invested into the character of Wuk Lamat and I look forward to hearing more from her in Dawntrail.

I like the voice, and I could've sworn I heard it somewhere before in another game (Deus Ex series), but when I checked Sena's IMDB page, I didn't see anything there. Performance wise, I think it was just okay. New actors and actresses tend to be nervous for their first role, I'll wait til DT to see if it improves.

I didn't notice anything particularly glaring about Wuk Lamat's voice, as someone that didn't really hone-in and listen carefully at her voice. Yeah, the Tural accent hasn't been fully established yet, and we don't have a super consistent "this is the accent" stream for the new nation, but honestly? I don't think I really care. Pile-on that Tural is a "melting-pot" of warring cultures that came together to form a nation, I think the inconsistencies can even be easily explained in-universe.

Her voice is good enough that I didn't notice any massive inconsistencies, and anything is better than British VA #199230, so I'm still looking forward to the VAs coming out of Dawntrail. Will they be perfect? Consistent? Maybe not, but hearing Erenville and Wuk Lamat in contrast to our normal VAs (not including the extremely-limited Thavnair VAs,) was a great breath of fresh-air that I hope continues. Hell, I think I'm looking forward to the "New World" voice acting more than even the main cast, at this point.

Holy hell, the way some of you guys speak makes it sound like she did a horrible job. It was fine. I didn't notice anything glaring. Characters voice seemed to fit her just fine. I don't see the harm in her having a slightly deeper voice. Its not super deep. She doesn't sound "American". She has a slight accent. You guys just went off the rails over nothing lol.


And I was paying far more attention to intonation and all that than i normally would after the fires you guys spread here. I wouldn't have even thought anything of it if the fuss hadn't been kicked up on here.

Just chalk any wonk in her accent up to being raised alongside Erenville and his Icelandic accent influencing her inflection.

I've been on this game since 1.0, and ARR. Got used to the voices then, only for them to be replaced by the time Heavensward came out. I'm even biased in regards to a few of the actors, having followed their careers.
The voices changed. There was a point when the whole cast was brand-new and fresh and no one was acclimated to them.
I can't speak for everyone, but I got used to them pretty fast, all things considered. I like them. They're lovely and charming. Based on this prior experience, I expect it will be no different with Sena. Until it's shown otherwise, until something actually bad occurs, this is a non-issue for the type of folks who have been picky about subs-vs-dubs for even longer than I've been alive.

I feel she sounded lovely. S'all I care about.

The difference between JP and ENG voice is way too jarring. You are essentially presented with two completely different characters. JP Wuk is a energetic and rambunctious young woman who is adventurous and expressive, perhaps a bit loud and unladylike, yet she is clearly inexperienced and somewhat cowardly, and these flaws she covers up with her loud personality. And despite being unladylike and having some non-stereotypical traits for women, she is clearly presented as a youthful woman with a sensitive side. ENG Wuk sounds like a confident village elder type of character and her youth and her excitable, hot-headed personality do not come through one bit. Because her voice is more deep and... just kind of uncanny, the inexperienced, sensitive side of her doesn't also come through as much. Though I suppose Wuk Lamat could be older than expected, but I'd find that a weird turn of events.

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

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Originally Posted by OgruMogru

Just chalk any wonk in her accent up to being raised alongside Erenville and his Icelandic accent influencing her inflection.

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My thinking also included Erenville, though slightly different.

If the two of them were childhood friends, or acquaintances as Erenville preferred, then I don't think it's a good idea to believe that the accents of those from Tural are intended to all be Latin/South American in nature. Erenville's clearly isn't. We've been given the information that Tural residents are very diverse in nature so chances are good any accents are intended to be related to race and not culture/nation.

If that is the case, then perhaps we should be wondering why Wuk doesn't sound more like the male Hrothgar that have had voice acting. I don't think we've had any voice acting for any of the Mamool Ja characters we've met so far - perhaps they'll be the ones represented by Latin/South American voice actors. I definitely agree that it's a missed opportunity for SE if they haven't included them.

Accent aside, did the voice acting feel a little off? Sure. I felt the same way about Lyse when she finally showed up at the end of HW and early in SB. It could be the voice actor trying to settle into a new character on fairly short notice. It could have been a decision of the voice director about how to portray a character that is relatively young and uncertain but trying to achieve great things and pretending confidence they really don't have yet.

Please remember that Wuk is effectively our new Lyse for Dawntrail. The WoL gets to be big brother/sister while we watch Wuk grow up, just as we did with Lyse.

Because we're dealing with a character that is uncertain, I was fine with the voice acting being a little off because the voice should and did reflect that uncertainty.

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Originally Posted by Tehmon

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

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I disagree as someone who was born a woman and identifies as a woman. There was no moment in playing through the MSQ today that I thought of the character as anything but female when listening to the voice actor.

Seriously, trying to blame real life gender identity for any dissatisfaction is ridiculous. Men have been doing some female parts in acted entertainment for centuries. Women have been doing some male parts in acted entertainment for centuries.

It doesn't matter what gender identity a voice actor has. What matters is whether the voice acting helps to create the character the content director and producers want for their content. SE feels that this voice actor is the one they want for this character.

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Originally Posted by Tehmon

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

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Had it not been pointed out in the thread, I wouldn't have known. Even knowing it now... still doesn't much matter to me. Strangely, the tall puma lady wielding an impossibly unwieldy highway road sign made of chunks of local landscape just sounds... like a lady, to me.

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Originally Posted by Leohra

From a lore standpoint, it's not at all unthinkable that Wuk Lamat may have a northern Latin American accent rather than a southern one. Though Tuliyollal is geographically where South America is in our world, in universe, it is much more culturally diverse due to its ruler uniting many of the disparate peoples of Tural. I would assume this includes people from Xak(North) Tural as well.

While there may have been a few instances of stiff delivery of lines in this patch, I think the VA did a good job of getting me invested into the character of Wuk Lamat and I look forward to hearing more from her in Dawntrail.

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Why does Wuk Lamat have to has American/Latin accent? Can't they have Southeast or other types of accents? Why does it have to be American accent? Would it be a problem if she has English or Yorkshire accent? From my point of view, it's a fictional world, accent or not depends on the character design, not the "real" world location. In my opinion, accent or not, the Voice and its acting must come first. If it does suit the character, the accent doesn't matter to me.