"I have no mouth and I must scream"

<silly rant>

In reality, I do have a mouth but I cannot produce a sound.

What I'm referring to is the cutscene at the very start of the new main story quests. The one where you speak to the Crystal Braves dude in the Rising Stones HQ (who appears to have a questionable past with Raubahn).

First, it made me jump to hear a voice-over o_o Wasn't expecting it as it's been a while since I did the previous quests. He goes on about speaking words to my char, fine but, then "I" speak back to him, only I do not speak.... I appear to be a mute and he luckily can read my lips and my vague hand signing.

Not sure why I was so thrown off by this and not like I was expecting my Roe to actually speak back but, it just seemed very, very odd after the NPC was so articulate and it kinda broke the moment for me.

</silly rant> ^ ^;

I imagine its to let us have our own thoughts on what our character is saying.

Personally, I was always imagining my character swearing like a drunk pirate. :D

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJRjJZrpOM

I better not imagine what mine is saying >.>;;; Ahem....

That can work, sure :) It's just my personal preference that my char either just nods or shrugs or is, at the very least, shown from behind so that I can't see his mouth opening to no sound.

Since our characters never do speak, I just imagine my character giving the most sarcastic response to everything. It's times like these I wish we had more dialogue choices when talking to people.

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Originally Posted by Cluebilly

Since our characters never do speak, I just imagine my character giving the most sarcastic response to everything. It's times like these I wish we had more dialogue choices when talking to people.

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Ah, dialogue options that had actual consequences would be nice. Even if the "consequence" would lead to something not game/lore/mechanic breaking like either obtaining vanity item/furniture "a" or "b".

I agree. The best one I can think of off the top of my head is the level 15 Lancer quest, when one of the NPCs asks if you remember their name. Of course choosing No gives you a hilarious response.

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Originally Posted by Cluebilly

Since our characters never do speak, I just imagine my character giving the most sarcastic response to everything. It's times like these I wish we had more dialogue choices when talking to people.

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Just try SWTOR for a bit. You cannot have the character you want. It can be rather annoying. Then you pick something cool and imagine what they are going to say based on the selection, and then it's just bland and borderline stupid comments and actions. I picked this option thinking I was going to have a witty comeback, instead I forgot the past 3 missions and looked like a jackass.

Is the title a reference to the book/game?

If I remember correctly that was mostly so they could recap a whole conversation that already happened without actually recapping it. After many of those silent scenes the other characters would be filled in on all the details we were already appraised of.

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Originally Posted by TeaTimeBear

Is the title a reference to the book/game?

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Yes, both ^ ^

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

If I remember correctly that was mostly so they could recap a whole conversation that already happened without actually recapping it. After many of those silent scenes the other characters would be filled in on all the details we were already appraised of.

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Pretty much this. Whenever your character silently mouths things during conversations they are relaying information that we have already been given. It helps avoid massively repetitive dialogue and allows us to give our character the voice and personality we want rather than being forced to choose from a selection of options that would never suit everyone.

I personally miss the age where final fantasy lacked voice acting. Fortunately I enjoy the vast majority of english voices in this game.

But FFXIV's writing is superb in the quest dialogue, and it would have been dreadful to hear it wasted away on bad NPC voice acting.

Oddly i thought it was MORE jarring when, during the ninja job unlock quest, you're giving option of what to say and "mummery" is one of the words used.
I found it jarring because I NEVER use that word, and had to actually look up what it means. That's a bigger disconnect to me than the pantomime mouth movements.

Would be kool to have everyone beable to have voice dialog in the game including your character, but that would take alot of work to implement and then maintain, you have to remember its an mmorpg that must continue to produce efficient content. I believe thats why they are selective as to sometimes in some quests there is voice dialog and in others there are not.

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Originally Posted by Cluebilly

Since our characters never do speak, I just imagine my character giving the most sarcastic response to everything. It's times like these I wish we had more dialogue choices when talking to people.

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Yeah, the times they have used dialog choices, such as the beginning and the conversation with Gaius, were nice. I wish they did more of those. It would make it feel like you are actually having a conversation instead of just being talked at.

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Originally Posted by Resolute

Yeah, the times they have used dialog choices, such as the beginning and the conversation with Gaius, were nice. I wish they did more of those. It would make it feel like you are actually having a conversation instead of just being talked at.

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Sometimes it feels like the Scions and grand companies keep us around and promote us so easily because we don't talk back :D

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Originally Posted by kyuven

Sometimes it feels like the Scions and grand companies keep us around and promote us so easily because we don't talk back :D

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Ha, yeah. On one of the new quests Alphinaud asks if we would be willing to do something, and, before we can say anything, he says "of course you are." We are such pushovers. :P

I just imagine my character saying random Samuel Jackson movie quotes, makes the conversations pretty hilarious.

There was one point where your character is asked retell your encounter with Ramuh to the elder seedseer. They speak silently but it's way too brief to actually say the full story so I can't help but imagine the warrior of light boiled the whole thing down to "I kicked his ass"

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Originally Posted by Unholychinchilla

There was one point where your character is asked retell your encounter with Ramuh to the elder seedseer. They speak silently but it's way too brief to actually say the full story so I can't help but imagine the warrior of light boiled the whole thing down to "I kicked his ass"

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The whole point is to shortcut the conversation so the player doesn't have to sit through it again. This is always done at times where it's information we the player already have but has to be passed from our character to another for story purposes. It's not meant to be taken literally.

We are the Crono's, Link's, Ryu's (Breath of Fire) of Eorzea.

Nobody hears us, but all understand us.

Echo yo, echo

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

The whole point is to shortcut the conversation so the player doesn't have to sit through it again. This is always done at times where it's information we the player already have but has to be passed from our character to another for story purposes. It's not meant to be taken literally.

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I realise this and wasn't complaining. It's just that this particular instance of this amused me as that line popped into my head and didn't conflict with my view of my character. It was fun to imagine the Elder Seedseer carrying on because "well that's just how Synove is. She'd tell me any urgent details. I'll get the full story story from someone more talkative later."

Depending on my mood, my character is either a totally sarcastic female dog, or shy (the shy being her canon temper)."You must defeat Shiva!" "Um...how about I...um...don't...okay..."

My favorite bit of dialogue is with the crafting guildmasters. "Oh, this is a nearly perfect piece of armor you've made!" She has to bite her tongue and hope they don't see the actual signature of the creator..