[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

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Originally Posted by Sharie

Glad we come to an Agreement that the English VA of wuk(no matter what this person says it is) and the writing is Dogwater. And both need to be replaced and changed if she is in post 7.0 content.

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This had a better resolution than DT <3

The writing and VA work for Wuk was sub par. There was no range on that characters voice other than happy and naive. There was no range. When you go from Shadowbringers and Endwalker to this it felt like a massive step back in quality for the story and voice acting. If Wuk was a side character it would have been find but the character being to integral to the story really made it less than appealing. I was more interested in the final zones story with Erenville. Overall so far the story and voice acting of Wuk leaves a lot to be desired and if I had to give it a grade it would be a C. Which is a drastic drop because Shadowbringers and Endwalker were both an A.

The difference between JP and EN voice is night and day for Wuk Lamat. It's different for all the characters but Wuk's difference is the biggest I'd say.

JP: Naruto
EN: Spongebob's grandma+Squidward

I've been playing with English voice-over for 10 years and honestly prefered it to Japanese.
Wuk's English VA single-handedly made me switch to Japanese voice over and stay there.
At the start her voice sounds fine, however the more you hear it the more you start to notice that is strains at times to keep the tone, and every time she needs to emote or change the tune, you could feel the struggle.
The more you hear her talk the more you notice that strain and it really takes you out of the scene.
This VA would perfectly fit to voice a female side character 100%, but main character with prolonged talking moments eally shows how ill-equipped she was for THIS job.
i don't know who's fuck up it was, voice director or casting director, but Wuk's english VA's perfomance drags the whole english dub down.

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Originally Posted by ViaDesperare

For those from Latin America, if you don't enjoy the representation from the VA as Wuk from the game then it's ok to call it out. It's ok to ask her to step down from the role so someone who can better represent your culture can take up the role. It's not hate-targeting to ask for Sena to step down, because she herself has done it before and believe that to be the case as well. Sena is white, and faking an accent that your people find offending so it's fine if you have to call it out.

https://i.imgur.com/hJT8jcA.png

https://i.imgur.com/RtDvlWq.png

https://i.imgur.com/K5VRnqC.png

People should understand your want for representation for a role that should've been thought about more from Kate to not misrepresent your country, culture, and people. I don't think SQX ignoring the outcry of Latin America will do them well, especially since the role was taken by a white woman. To our knowledge, Wuk Lamat isn't trans as well, and gender does matter a lot to Sena and Kate. Sena also can't fake the accent to represent your culture, and seems to break the American accent in, so by her word it's ok because she's unfit for the role.

https://i.imgur.com/1BcUVWG.png

Kate should agree with you too. She's pushing to bring more Latin American actors to the scene, which does help authenticate the culture that the races in the New World represents. So don't fear it as wrong to want to have someone better represent your culture, if you're mad then say something about it or bring it to the attention of SQX.


For those of us who are not of Latin America, we can't say that for you. It'd be quite rude and racist for us to talk for you. You should have the support of Luis, Koana's VA, as well.

https://i.imgur.com/NamLaxX.png

https://i.imgur.com/AyGGSSA.jpeg

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On a personal note, I really hope that the reason the Scions got barely any lines this expansion wasn't due to their English Voice counterpart being white. Kate, Sena, and Luis seem like they REALLY have a problem with white people, which shouldn't be an issue that goes on to affect the rest of the world, especially those of us in Asia and Latin America or just those that use the JPN/FRE/GER voices. I love rewatching the story and hearing Yuichi Nakamura and Ai Kayano, so I don't want their roles to be diminished if it's because Kate has an issue with the British VAs.

For the X/twitter stuff, I had some stuff leftover. You can get A LOT of stuff if people have been using the thing for like 10 years, assuming you are able to grab them.

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Square Enix should fire these racists ASAP

Honestly why don't let their work speak for themselves? I do not understand why they need to constantly remind other people about that stuff.

Some of the best iconic voices in anime have been voiced by girls voicing guys and vice-versa and nobody gives a s- because it's great voice acting, their range is incredible and they do a damn good job.

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Originally Posted by SteakDriven

Square Enix should fire these racists ASAP

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Yeah, I was surprised to see the nasty things that Sena has tweeted. I've never even criticized the voice acting (the least of my problems with Dawntrail to be honest) so I have no horse in this race... But man... Why does everybody need to air their dirty laundry on Twitter nowadays. So unprofessional. And yes, quite ironic reading some of those tweets. I certainly wouldn't hire someone like this, simply based on what her Twitter looks like.

I said this in my last post but the only way I can make a comparison of Wuk Lamat's voice acting is Ricky Ricardo from the old I Love Lucy TV series, where he often delivered his lines with a mixture of lecturing Lucy while simultaneously sounding unsure of what he is saying.

Go look up some clips on YouTube and you'll get it immediately. Wuk Lamat is basically a female version of Ricky Ricardo

As for the RL political stuff, this is supposed to be a fantasy world. Perhaps some aspects of it are influenced by South America but its supposed to be a different fantasy world. I don't think RL politics should be issues in this game which takes place in a fantasy universe. No one in the real world lives in the fantasy world of FFXIV

I thought the British Japanese actors voicing characters in Stormblood were good and the same with the British Indian actors performances in Endwalker. Where there no British Hispanic or Latino/a actors available for Dawntrail? Did we have to go back to American voice actors?

There was bad voice direction all around :T

I play the game in Japanese, so I had to go back and listen to the cutscenes to see first hand what people are talking about. And yes, it's terrible. Everyone already noticed it before the expansion, and despite the hopes of some that the quality would improve in 7.0, apparently the same issues are still there. The acting range is not very good, and both the tone/pitch and accent sound really forced, especially at times (and worse, it's the most important ones, like when the actress should put her all in delivering an emotional line).

I think that an effort is made, but the talent and/or experience to achieve the intended result is not there. As I commented when this was discussed before the expansion, the actress tries to do many things at once with her voice because they don't come naturally to her, and ends up failing on them all. Moreover, due to focusing on that the acting also suffers.

It was not the best casting for a character with so many lines of dialogue, where these issues become even more glaring. For that reason I can definitely see it downgrading the whole experience, and I can understand people's complaints.

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Originally Posted by Karious

It's bad. I feel like the character was miscast. Why did an American get hired for the role when the hiring studio is based out of London and everyone we've gotten has been from the UK so far?

The accent and pronunciation varies wildly and it shows how amateurish she is in comparison to the rest of the cast. I don't want to have to listen to a mid delivery from a character we're going to be stuck with for the entire expansion.

Give us the ability to swap language for specific characters so I can listen to the superior Japanese Tomboy Wuk.

TRANSPHOBES NOT WELCOME. THIS IS A TOPIC ABOUT BAD VOICE ACTING.

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I love the VA, she did a good job IMO. Also love the msg at the bottom of your post.

Aside from Wuk, something feels like it changed, which is a huge problem given that the 3.0 cast and direction is what really gave XIV a lot of legitimacy in the West with voice work on par with old PC RPGs.

Dawntrail by contrast sounds far more akin to a rote JRPG, especially the newer voices. It sounds cheap and flat overall and comes across as very awkward compared past expansions.

It's like going from FF12, which used hand cast theater actors to... some rando Atlus game which uses social media or a cheap anime dubbing house to fill roles. Something is **off** ...Did Square lose so much money that they need to penny pinch XIV localizations?

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Originally Posted by Mapleine

Aside from Wuk, something feels like it changed, which is a huge problem given that the 3.0 cast and direction is what really gave XIV a lot of legitimacy in the West with voice work on par with old PC RPGs.

Dawntrail by contrast sounds far more akin to a rote JRPG, especially the newer voices. It sounds cheap and flat and overall comes across as very awkward compared past expansions.

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There's a new VA director and she's been hiring her friends from twitter instead of people actually qualified for the roles.

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Originally Posted by ClayyLmao

There's a new VA director and she's been hiring her friends from twitter instead of people actually qualified for the roles.

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This would explain so, so much. The quality in both voice acting and localisation seems to have gone down tremendously. Including the bad writing in the MSQ , these practices are making me reconsider continuing my subscription. Sadly, the battle content does not make up for it at the moment.
I don't want this game to rot from the inside like other media I enjoyed before, and would rather keep my fond memories of FFXIV safe.

I hope this is a wake up call for SE and they reel in Kate's power over hiring. I don't want American anime dub quality in this game.

I'm not even kidding when I say that Wuk Lamat's english voice acting could be replaced with an AI voice and there would barely be a difference in quality. The VA director being this incompetent needs to have consequences and be removed from their position, no ifs, ands or buts.

Swapped to JP voice and it's so much nicer... I'll be going through msq on an alt in JP and see the full experience vs english.

I hope they go back to the UK studio rather than the American one, they did not do a good job at the LA studio.

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Originally Posted by starstorm91

I'm not even kidding when I say that Wuk Lamat's english voice acting could be replaced with an AI voice and there would barely be a difference in quality. The VA director being this incompetent needs to have consequences and be removed from their position, no ifs, ands or buts.

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That's an insult to AI, AI could do a better job.

Wuk Lamat's performance was good. People are being overly-dramatic because a few bad takes that was likely due to bad direction.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Wuk Lamat's performance was good. People are being overly-dramatic because a few bad takes that was likely due to bad direction.

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Found Wuk's VA. Cause there ARE no good takes with that character. Every single thing they say is flat. This isn't direction. They literally have no range. They can't yell, they can barely put inflection into anything. They are an F tier voice actor with a big time mentality, because everyone is afraid to tell them how much they suck for obvious reasons.

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Originally Posted by Isala

Found Wuk's VA. Cause there ARE no good takes with that character. Every single thing they say is flat. This isn't direction. They literally have no range. They can't yell, they can barely put inflection into anything. They are an F tier voice actor with a big time mentality, because everyone is afraid to tell them how much they suck for obvious reasons.

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Dude it's actually really weird how you are following me around multiple random threads to respond to all of my posts shortly after they go up. Can you just leave me alone?

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Dude it's actually really weird how you are following me around multiple random threads to respond to all of my posts shortly after they go up. Can you just leave me alone?

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Who are you? I've literally been in these threads all week. Like, don't get me wrong, I appreciate a fan, but I'm not sure why you're stalking me.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Dude it's actually really weird how you are following me around multiple random threads to respond to all of my posts shortly after they go up. Can you just leave me alone?

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Nobody is following you anywhere, it's just that you post every five minutes. This bumps threads to the top of the board. Those threads are more likely to draw traffic. Tone down the unwarranted sense of self-importance.

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Originally Posted by Tullius

Nobody is following you anywhere, it's just that you post every five minutes. This bumps threads to the top of the board. Those threads are more likely to draw traffic. Tone down the unwarranted sense of self-importance.

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You don't think it's weird that this person has almost immediately responded to me across like five different unrelated threads? Including one where they called me cuck? That's okay with you? If they really are just all over every thread and insta responding to people who don't hate DT then that is terminally online behavior and not much better

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Dude it's actually really weird how you are following me around multiple random threads to respond to all of my posts shortly after they go up. Can you just leave me alone?

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Brother in Hydaelyn, literally, who are you :'D

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Originally Posted by Venarius

Brother in Hydaelyn, literally, who are you :'D

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You are right. It's not at me specifically after looking at their profile, just thought after a few instances of them responding to me so frequently and calling me a cuck I thought it might be targeted but this person really is just monitoring every thread to argue with people over DT. It's pretty sad

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

You don't think it's weird that this person has almost immediately responded to me across like five different unrelated threads? Including one where they called me cuck? That's okay with you? If they really are just all over every thread and insta responding to people who don't hate DT then that is terminally online behavior and not much better

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Oh wow. That was you? I've just been responding to anyone with braindead takes. Like Xenos's L opinion, the conversation about Metacritic. The healer strike. A LOT about how terrible Wuk Lamat is. Also, you're really mad at a joke that actually didn't call you anything, but made a joke about the people defending DT at all costs.

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Originally Posted by Isala

Oh wow. That was you? I've just been responding to anyone with braindead takes. Like Xenos's L opinion, the conversation about Metacritic. The healer strike. A LOT about how terrible Wuk Lamat is. Also, you're really mad at a joke that actually didn't call you anything, but made a joke about the people defending DT at all costs.

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Wuk Lamat is legendary for how much she is making weirdos online seethe. After this post I am blocking you. Genuinely get help dude, you are on here way too much.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Wuk Lamat is legendary for how much she is making weirdos online seethe. After this post I am blocking you. Genuinely get help dude, you are on here way too much.

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Awww. Now who's insulting? I'll miss you, though. I might not know who you are, or pay attention to your username, but you've apparently been quite the engagement for me. I'll be sad to not have as much to respond to.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

Wuk Lamat is legendary for how much she is making weirdos online seethe. After this post I am blocking you. Genuinely get help dude, you are on here way too much.

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I would argue that its more legendary how people try to defend the bad voiceacting just because the VA is a part of a certain group.
Or how it makes you guys insult other people or label them names. *Shrug*

At the end the VA was a bad choice for a main charakter because the VA clearly lacks the skills.

And judging by some more reading the VA also seems to be a bad person overall... makes it even more weird that you guys keeps defending? But I guess as long you are a part of a certain group you can behave like this... *shrugs*

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Originally Posted by Isseki

I would argue that its more legendary how people try to defend the bad voiceacting just because the VA is a part of a certain group.
Or how it makes you guys insult other people or label them names. *Shrug*

At the end the VA was a bad choice for a main charakter because the VA clearly lacks the skills.

And judging by some more reading the VA also seems to be a bad person overall... makes it even more weird that you guys keeps defending? But I guess as long you are a part of a certain group you can behave like this... *shrugs*

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I didn’t even mention her “group”. I said I enjoyed the performance. The only person bringing her “group” into this is you.

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Originally Posted by Amh_Wilzuun

You don't think it's weird that this person has almost immediately responded to me across like five different unrelated threads? Including one where they called me cuck? That's okay with you? If they really are just all over every thread and insta responding to people who don't hate DT then that is terminally online behavior and not much better

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Me when I forget to take my schizophrenia pills

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Originally Posted by Isseki

I would argue that its more legendary how people try to defend the bad voiceacting just because the VA is a part of a certain group.
Or how it makes you guys insult other people or label them names. *Shrug*

At the end the VA was a bad choice for a main charakter because the VA clearly lacks the skills.

And judging by some more reading the VA also seems to be a bad person overall... makes it even more weird that you guys keeps defending? But I guess as long you are a part of a certain group you can behave like this... *shrugs*

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On Twitter I see a lot of people praising the voice actress (usually with certain flags next to their name), going so far as calling the performance "perfection", "life-altering", "Mind-blowing". It's quite bizarre to read as I have no clue how anyone with ears could listen to this performance and then have those conclusions.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

On Twitter I see a lot of people praising the voice actress (usually with certain flags next to their name), going so far as calling the performance "perfection", "life-altering", "Mind-blowing". It's quite bizarre to read as I have no clue how anyone with ears could listen to this performance and then have those conclusions.

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I genuinely believe it's virtue signaling.

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Originally Posted by AddictedToWitches

Me when I forget to take my schizophrenia pills

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Redacted comment

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

On Twitter I see a lot of people praising the voice actress (usually with certain flags next to their name), going so far as calling the performance "perfection", "life-altering", "Mind-blowing". It's quite bizarre to read as I have no clue how anyone with ears could listen to this performance and then have those conclusions.

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It's a coping mechanism. In their social bubble, the louder you yell something is true, the more likely it is that your reality will bend to conform to that truth.
Much like what happens with a beloved main character from the critically acclaimed FFXIV expansion, Dawntrail.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

On Twitter I see a lot of people praising the voice actress (usually with certain flags next to their name), going so far as calling the performance "perfection", "life-altering", "Mind-blowing". It's quite bizarre to read as I have no clue how anyone with ears could listen to this performance and then have those conclusions.

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And there's also people on that very same site being openly/blatantly transphobic toward the VA.

I get it, you didn't like the voice and that's okay! This is a feedback thread, so we're gonna see people saying they either loved her voice, hated it, or were fine/indifferent about it... or is this thread now just a circlejerk on putting down others who liked her voice?

Just coming in to comment that, I'm one of many that don't like the character, like, at all; but also I recognize that how much I dislike Sena's performance is probably intensifying my emotional attachment to my otherwise valid criticisms. But also chiming in that I have something important in common with her, and man, this topic is really a minefield—it's not rare to see comments that are coming so close to mask off, and that's disappointing.

Also if she got re-cast, that'd be pretty cool honestly. It's awesome to have one of my people in the seat of such an important role in one of my hobbies, but she's making something bad even worse. :/

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Originally Posted by Nestama

And there's also people on that very same site being openly/blatantly transphobic toward the VA.

I get it, you didn't like the voice and that's okay! This is a feedback thread, so we're gonna see people saying they either loved her voice, hated it, or were fine/indifferent about it... or is this thread now just a circlejerk on putting down others who liked her voice?

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Originally Posted by Petroglyph

this topic is really a minefield—it's not rare to see comments that are coming so close to mask off, and that's disappointing.

Also if she got re-cast, that'd be pretty cool honestly. It's awesome to have one of my people in the seat of such an important role in one of my hobbies, but she's making something bad even worse. :/

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I think that's one of the main gripes for a lot of people regarding the choice to cast Sena: they're not allowed to be (validly) critical of the performance because anything they say is deflected on merit of her being who she is. What makes matters worse is that both sides will accuse one another of circlejerking the moment the discussion sways in a direction they don't like, positive or negative.

That being said, I studied media, written and visual. I identify a certain way but I don't feel the need to brandish a flag or five on my profiles. Does that make me qualified enough to say some opinions are wrong?

Objectively speaking, many times Sena's delivery falls flat - it doesn't matter if there was a director to step in, a professional VA would be able to tell by themselves. The people praising her feel disingenous but overly loving, akin to a parent putting a fingerpainted artwork on the fridge.

Sena however, is not a child to be coddled. She got paid money for this, while there were probably better VAs lined up. Perhaps with a similar background as her. Perhaps VAs who better embodied the spirit or heritage of Wuk Lamat's character design.

It doesn't matter, this is what we got. This is who was paid to be the face of this expansion, and her performance soils the experience for many who don't even know the person behind the character.