[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

Yeah, I'm sorry, but this voice casting was pretty baaad. I don't really want to argue about politics or anything, so please dont try to hide behind some shield like that as a reason to why everybody should be ultra accepting right now-that shouldnt be the main focus, as right now, we're currently talking about character accuracy, ok, not whatever causes you may virtuously support irl. Ok,

The voice casting just doesnt sound South American at all, and it fluxates in a way that suggests that they likely dont even know what a South American is lol. You're telling me not ONE South American woman with a genuinely heavy accent was available for this? Because that person whoever they are does NOT sound like they speak even a lick of spanish LMAO. They focused way too much on trying to sound like a genki anime tomboy girl instead of sounding like a South American woman from a very distinctly cultured far away land. and I say this all as someone who doesnt even usually CARE about VA stuff. I'm usually pretty lenient-like, some of the other VAs clearly arent what their voices should be from either, right? But at least you can't tell. It's not that blatant. This however, was a bit cringe. Come on. Come on guys. It sounded like they were half going for an Indian accent at times lol-like it just kept going all over the place. If youre going to fake an accent, that's fine! British actors do it all the time in American movies and vise-versa! However! You need to learn how to PICK! JUST ONE! accent, and keep it consistent. and that's what this person is currently unable to do. and also, most importantly, it should actually sound like the people/culture that you're going for. How you can do a borderline Indian accent for South American, whenever everybody in the WORLD knows who Shakira is, is just astounding. It's just astounding to me. Try harder, do better.

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Originally Posted by Batbrat

Yeah, I'm sorry, but this voice casting was pretty baaad. I don't really want to argue about politics or anything, so please dont try to hide behind some shield like that as a reason to why everybody should be ultra accepting right now-that shouldnt be the main focus, as right now, we're currently talking about character accuracy, ok, not whatever causes you may virtuously support irl. Ok,

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I can't help but feel if "politics" here wasn't involved nobody would be up in arms about the voice acting choice. Awfully strange for everyone to be sooo angry about this, to the point that people are saying they'll never listen to the English version ever again, but I'm supposed to leave "politics" out of it. Riiight.

Mao gonna chime in here. Mao actually liked Lady Fuzzy Cat. Mao had to muchly resist urge to pull out whiffle sticks and brushes and start brushings and pettings Lady Fuzzy Cat. Mao needs to remember to bring Mao collection of whiffle sticks and brushes to new land. Is time for Mao to get SERIOUS!

This got the most unnecessary intense reaction for a voice, damn.

I thought she was alright, really enjoyed her banter with Erenville but she could use better consistency but that's it from me.
Also telling to switch to Japanese voice acting despite forgetting how different all the cast sound is jarring.
If you want the highly energetic Wuk Lamat, the door is open for japanese, she sounds great but I am fine with a lower tone and I do not want to lose Erenville's english voice as well as Krile, Estinien etc.

I am more curious how the future characters sound especially the Miqo te in the Dawntrail poster

Alright, since the last thread got deleted, I'll write this again.

I didn't enjoy Wuk's english voice.
Not because the VA is trans, and not because they are not south american enough.
The voice is simply not good.
The delivery is shaky, inconsistent and lacks the energy required for a tomboyish character like Wuk Lamat. And the awfully forced accent doesn't help.
I probably wouldn't mind that much if Wuk was just a side character, but she is supposed to be a major part in the coming expansion.
So I'll probably switch to JP for Dawntrail, since we've reached a point where the downsides outweigh the upsides in my opinion.

I don't think the VA should get fired over this, but I think it is important to give honest feedback, so Squeenix can make better decisions in the future.

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Not because the VA is trans

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This unfortunately hampers discussion or criticism of such things.

Better to just generate all voices with AI in video games when tech is perfected to avoid any controversies and issues IMO.

Who I am kidding, somebody would complain about stereotype accents despite them being the result of actual AI model training data on real people :)

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

Better to just generate all voices with AI in video games when tech is perfected to avoid any controversies and issues IMO.

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That's got to be bait.

Meh the vocal timbre of the voice was fine the acting sounded bad and that she wasn't used to voice acting period. Also the accent wasn't all that great and sounded unnatural....

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Originally Posted by Rannie

Meh the vocal timbre of the voice was fine the acting sounded bad and that she wasn't used to voice acting period. Also the accent wasn't all that great and sounded unnatural....

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Exactly. She'll improve over time. Like I said in the other thread, her girlvoice is great, better than mine.

If the intention was a south American/Spanish accent they didn't get it
As a Spanish person myself and who's had the pleasure of working with latin people in English environments, as well ln this game on a static, you can clearly see a distinction on the accents when one of us talks, and I can say they just, didn't get it
Now this is only IF the intention was going for a Spanish one, if not I don't have a word

That aside I said it on the deleted thread, don't know if it's the accent she's trying to make or her range but it feels limited in terms of expressions, I swapped to JP to make a quick comparison and I was happy to see how much of a cheerful personality she expressed on japanese, whereas on English I CAN see they're intending too but it's like, midway
This seen pretty much in the bird scenes where she's supposed to be scared or when hunting with the excitement, as others have said it falls flat

Maybe not a recast like people say, I just hope she gets better at it, I really do, but dependant on the rest of the cast on Tural (in the sense if same as Thavnir with the Indian accents wich came wonderfully) I'll just play on japanese no problem

Speaking of picking nationality for VA, didn't they hire actual Indian people for Endwalker and came out pretty good if you ask me, it really felt natural(this last part is genuine curiosity)

The voice acting was kind of bad, the whole character is so far bad and the reason we're going along with them is terrible.

If Wuk is a strong indicator for what we can expect out of Dawntrail I hope the gameplay can carry the expansion.

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Originally Posted by ArcaviusGreyashe

That's got to be bait.

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Only because there is a controversy about that as well. I personally would take subpar voice quality if:

* Everything is voiced (Even BG3 added some new reaction dialogue lines for rare stuff that are unvoiced which is very immersion breaking)
* NPCs can actually use my character name (event the stupid VASCO robot in Starfield that is supposed to use your name doesn't if its not in the list of pre-recorded ones)
* Have to hear less drama

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Originally Posted by WantlessYoYo

That aside I said it on the deleted thread, don't know if it's the accent she's trying to make or her range but it feels limited in terms of expressions, I swapped to JP to make a quick comparison and I was happy to see how much of a cheerful personality she expressed on japanese, whereas on English I CAN see they're intending too but it's like, midway
This seen pretty much in the bird scenes where she's supposed to be scared or when hunting with the excitement, as others have said it falls flat

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Pretty much. Whenever Wuk Lamat talks normally and is just sharing information and having banal dialogue during a cutscene, the English VA is not offensively bad or anything. It's fine, still a completely different character that lacks the nuances of the JP voice acting, but it's whatever. But when there's a scene that requires exaggerated emotion, the English VA is REALLY bad imo. Like, really terrible, Wuk Lamat ends up sounding like a bad cartoon. No such issues with the JP voice acting though. She does a great job at delivering the emotion, comedy and intensity that the scenes require.

Why this matters so much is because Wuk Lamat is going to be a main character and there are bound to be tons of emotional scenes and scenes that require exaggerated emotions from the voice actors. And from what was previewed in 6.55, the English VA is inferior to the Japanese VA. And overall, the Japanese VA makes me like the character more, perhaps because Japanese voice acting is often very categorized: this type of voice actor works for this type of character, and the Japanese VA does a great job of playing that archetype of a rowdy tomboy, which makes me understand the character more, and what the writers are trying to accomplish with the character.

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Originally Posted by Somnolence

Only because there is a controversy about that as well. I personally would take subpar voice quality if:

* Everything is voiced (Even BG3 added some new reaction dialogue lines for rare stuff that are unvoiced which is very immersion breaking)
* NPCs can actually use my character name (event the stupid VASCO robot in Starfield that is supposed to use your name doesn't if its not in the list of pre-recorded ones)
* Have to hear less drama

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It's not so much about quality, a properly trained AI can feel pretty natural in most discussions, it would, as of now, using state of the art AI, clearly lack in more dramatic/comic scenes, but given enough time, that can surely be worked on. The issue lies with the fact that doing so would be laying most VAs off, possibly stealing their voices at the same time. Even if they were to earn royalties for the model they were the inspiration of, it would then spark outrage because "they don't do anything" or some shit.

Eventually we'll get there, because that's how companies work, but AI are a shitshow, both technically and socially.

I really loved her performance. She and G'raha were the highlights of this patch.

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Originally Posted by Tehmon

Pretty much. Whenever Wuk Lamat talks normally and is just sharing information and having banal dialogue during a cutscene, the English VA is not offensively bad or anything. It's fine, still a completely different character that lacks the nuances of the JP voice acting, but it's whatever. But when there's a scene that requires exaggerated emotion, the English VA is REALLY bad imo. Like, really terrible, Wuk Lamat ends up sounding like a bad cartoon. No such issues with the JP voice acting though. She does a great job at delivering the emotion, comedy and intensity that the scenes require.

Why this matters so much is because Wuk Lamat is going to be a main character and there are bound to be tons of emotional scenes and scenes that require exaggerated emotions from the voice actors. And from what was previewed in 6.55, the English VA is inferior to the Japanese VA. And overall, the Japanese VA makes me like the character more, perhaps because Japanese voice acting is often very categorized: this type of voice actor works for this type of character, and the Japanese VA does a great job of playing that archetype of a rowdy tomboy, which makes me understand the character more, and what the writers are trying to accomplish with the character.

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While I agree in some areas Sena Bryer has a few bad takes we'll say. I do think she overall gets the energy of the character across. It's also the character's first and only major in game speaking role so far, as well as possibly her first time recording alongside the other VAs. Look around about voiceover work and you will find a lot of veterans in the industry say there is a HUGE difference recording lines alone and recording with a group. Though, that is just speculation on my part. I don't know how she recorded her lines for this but...imo it was fine. Nothing outstanding. But also not nearly as awful as some seem to believe. It's really clear that Sena Bryer is still trying to settle into the role and find Wuk Lamat's voice. While I won't say something like "oh, it's her first speaking role in the game. You can't critique that!" because you absolutely can. I think it IS a bit ridiculous for people calling for her to be fired off this one performance...but that's my two cents.

American? She has a Puerto Rican flag in her bio on twitter. I'm confused. Like yeah PR is part of the USA, but to play it like she's a just some American when she's Latina feels really disingenuous.

Anyways. I loved Wuk Lamat and I can't wait to hear more from Sena. I thought she did a great job and I would not like it if the character was recast. I already love her.

I had no issues with her voice, actually liked her sounding a bit latina too considering where we are going, what's wrong with you people?

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Originally Posted by Volgia

what's wrong with you people?

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It's called feedback, as long as the manners are correct don't find the need to call now wrong for having their thoughts now lol

I play with JP voice, but people criticizing the casting made me curious. So I checked the English cutscenes and she sounds fine to me.
Maybe the acting could be better, but the actress’ voice fits the character very well.
Just wanted to give a positive word out for her!

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Originally Posted by WantlessYoYo

It's called feedback, as long as the manners are correct don't find the need to call now wrong for having their thoughts now lol

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Bro the feedback was literally "Why did they hire an american when everyone is based on the UK". I assume they hired her because she sounds hispanic or latina. I don't care how "polite" anyone's being about this I don't like where the conversation is headed.

I didn't think anything was wrong with her voice when I was watching the cutscenes and I wouldn't have guessed people were going to complain about it here.

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Originally Posted by WantlessYoYo

It's called feedback, as long as the manners are correct don't find the need to call now wrong for having their thoughts now lol

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More like crapback because I wouldnt want to feed my birds with it.

Since the game's japanese I would like the other languages to follow the same practices; if you use a woman or a woman-sounding voice in japanese do the same in other languages.

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Originally Posted by Tehmon

Pretty much. Whenever Wuk Lamat talks normally and is just sharing information and having banal dialogue during a cutscene, the English VA is not offensively bad or anything. It's fine, still a completely different character that lacks the nuances of the JP voice acting, but it's whatever. But when there's a scene that requires exaggerated emotion, the English VA is REALLY bad imo. Like, really terrible, Wuk Lamat ends up sounding like a bad cartoon. No such issues with the JP voice acting though. She does a great job at delivering the emotion, comedy and intensity that the scenes require.

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I actually disagree, I think she's the worst when it comes to calm exposition. It sounds to me that she's completely focused on maintaining the fake accent (which she doesn't manage -at all-) and performs the lines way too stiff as a result. The switch to the exaggerated cartoon voice is then even more jarring.

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Originally Posted by Rekh

Since the game's japanese I would like the other languages to follow the same practices; if you use a woman or a woman-sounding voice in japanese do the same in other languages.

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The VA is a woman, so she sounds like a woman.

Do all the VAs get this level of vitriol attention? Or just the one everyone knows is trans?

I just cant unhear the deeper undertone in her voice like i said in the deleted thread. Like bad audio mixing but naturally.

I don't understand how this got okay'd by SE. I genuinely don't. Perhaps it's the corny dialogue that's the issue, but man, how can anyone defend this line delivery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CfnJsSZeyg&t=27s

JP voice actor in comparison.

https://youtu.be/OKNJ01gSxV8?si=093NrqUQQY3D1xfS&t=719

In other news, I felt like this was one of the worst lead ups to a new expansion we had. This is barely even a cliff hanger. If they were wanting to go for that relaxed Summer Vacation feeling, they definitely got it but honestly I'm not vibing with it. This feels like the exact same way we went to Sharlayan in the current expansion. "Wait for boat to be prepared and sail out". One quest, see a quick CS and you are in the new place. At this current rate, we're going to wait for a boat in 7.55 to go south.

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Originally Posted by Tehmon

I don't understand how this got okay'd by SE. I genuinely don't. Perhaps it's the corny dialogue that's the issue, but man, how can anyone defend this line delivery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CfnJsSZeyg&t=27s

JP voice actor in comparison.

https://youtu.be/OKNJ01gSxV8?si=093NrqUQQY3D1xfS&t=719

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To be fair, it doesn't sound like the JP VA is hindered by having to deliver an accent.
I am assuming until proven wrong that non-english VAs are not having to imitate an accent alongside their original/native langauge.


Edit:

In addition, as a non-jp speaker, English VA is just not on the scale/nuance/quality that JP is. Big reason as to why JP is preferred over ENG dubs.
And in the ears of a english speaker, JP VA just sounds better and for reasons I can't quite explain why. Perhaps I've had too much anime in my younger years haha. Voices are more expressive and perhaps it's because of anime? I don't think ENG speaking countries really have a big VA scene.
BG3 is a big outlier, the VA there is superb.

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Originally Posted by Nepentha

Do all the VAs get this level of vitriol attention? Or just the one everyone knows is trans?

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Yeah, how about you take a stroll over to Audible.com...

A bad performance is a bad performance.

Maybe watch some anime while you are at it, and go to forums or discord servers talking about the casting choices. Trust me friend, most people don't care who you are, its if you did a good job or not.

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Originally Posted by VirusOnline

To be fair, it doesn't sound like the JP VA is hindered by having to deliver an accent.
I am assuming until proven wrong that non-english VAs are not having to imitate an accent alongside their original/native langauge.


Edit:

In addition, as a non-jp speaker, English VA is just not on the scale/nuance/quality that JP is. Big reason as to why JP is preferred over ENG dubs.
And in the ears of a english speaker, JP VA just sounds better and for reasons I can't quite explain why. Perhaps I've had too much anime in my younger years haha. Voices are more expressive and perhaps it's because of anime? I don't think ENG speaking countries really have a big VA scene.
BG3 is a big outlier, the VA there is superb.

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In my honest opinion, they shouldn't bother with the accents.
It can work, but most of the time it doesn't.
All the other dubs don't make this an issue, so why does EN have to?
It shouldn't be that hard to give Wuk a fitting voice.

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Originally Posted by Nepentha

Do all the VAs get this level of vitriol attention? Or just the one everyone knows is trans?

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Just look at all the characters that had wildly different vocal qualities between JP and EN dubbing. Like that one lala in ARR that sounded like Barry White on testosterone in the JP dub but didn't in EN, to Tsukuyomi that sounded like a little girl in JP and like a granny (according to Japanese players) in EN. No other VA got zeroed in so much for sounding "too different from the JP voice actor", I wonder why? I'd wager most people don't go out of their way to compare and contrast the voice of every new NPC they meet in game.
Or an entire race (Viera) that doesn't sound British and nobody got a problem with that, but Twelve forbid a character from a different continent speaks with a different accent.

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Originally Posted by Rekh

Since the game's japanese I would like the other languages to follow the same practices; if you use a woman or a woman-sounding voice in japanese do the same in other languages.

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Wuk Lamat does sound like a woman. Her voice is similar to mine.

You know its common for Va's to have roles that don't match their gender?

Honestly, i felt some of accent felt off in delivery, but i think that's just because they are a new character. Had no idea the Va was trans and franky i dont think it matters. Yes the performance wobbled at times, but overall it was good and certainly carried the energy of the character.

I hope they stay and improve over DT.

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Originally Posted by Alarath

Just look at all the characters that had wildly different vocal qualities between JP and EN dubbing. Like that one lala in ARR that sounded like Barry White on testosterone in the JP dub but didn't in EN, to Tsukuyomi that sounded like a little girl in JP and like a granny (according to Japanese players) in EN. No other VA got zeroed in so much for sounding "too different from the JP voice actor", I wonder why? I'd wager most people don't go out of their way to compare and contrast the voice of every new NPC they meet in game.
Or an entire race (Viera) that doesn't sound British and nobody got a problem with that, but Twelve forbid a character from a different continent speaks with a different accent.

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You're kidding? Yuyuhase has like one or two voiced scenes and doesn't play a big part of the story. Even with Pipin, his track record is pitiful in terms of voiced cutscenes and in general being important.
For Tsukuyomi sounding like a little girl in JP does not ring true at all. Yotsuyu in general ticks the same archetype in both dubs, an evil seductress, and even if the English VA has a deeper, raspier voice, she did an amazing job with her voice acting.

Wuk Lamat's English VA is not doing an amazing job with the voice acting though (for the time being, at least), WHILE being very different from the characterization, tone and vibe established with the Japanese voice acting. All this while being a main character in the next expansion so we are going to hear a lot of Wuk Lamat unlike Yuyuhase, Pipin or Yotsuyu/Tsukuyomi, so this is a cause for criticism and concern for some people, and why some are opting to perhaps changing to JP voice acting for this expansion.

I like how the Voice Actor outright states that they automatically block people with a blue checkmark on their profile on twitter.

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Originally Posted by SwadTheFrog

Yeah, VAing so bad it made me sign up on the forums just to add my voice to it. Kind of incredibly insulting to have my own culture be represented by an american putting on a really fake accent. As an actual native speaker of both portuguese and spanish, I cringed with every line. And I was excited to finally have some South America love.

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This is easily the most disappointing thing about it but it's not the VA, it's the devs.

How is she whiter than I am???