Improved voice acting

Did anyone else notice that after 2.4, the voice acting got A LOT better? It sounds no where near as forced. Especially the actor for Aymeric, was in complete shock. I don't know if they sent them to voice acting school, or they just got better on their own but amazing job either way.

I did notice that, actually! I greatly look forward to more voice acting in future patches and especially the expansion!

Due to the compressed time schedule between announcement and launch, there was probably a lot of voice work that had to be rushed or done last-minute. I imagine many of Thancred's were done on one take (he stumbles on the name 'Amajina' if memory serves), for example. They have a bit more breathing room without the threat of impending launch creeping up on them. I'd expect better quality all around.

It's all about the direction as well.

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Originally Posted by Ephier

Did anyone else notice that after 2.4, the voice acting got A LOT better? It sounds no where near as forced. Especially the actor for Aymeric, was in complete shock. I don't know if they sent them to voice acting school, or they just got better on their own but amazing job either way.

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If you look back at a lot of TV programmes, film and games some earlier versions or the first episodes the acting is atrocious, or really low budget.

Either the actors become more comfortable, or simply improve.

The voice acting in; SPOLIERS;

The Final Coil of Bahamut story-line is fantastic.

Louisoix, Alisae and Alphinaud suited their parts perfectly, it didn't feel jarring, unbelievable or overacted.
Louisoix had that perfect deep husky voice that you'd expect, whilst the twins that refined, higher class up-bringing tone.

Still not as good as the voice-acting in 1.0 (but yet again, neither are some of the cut scenes)

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Originally Posted by Shioban

If you look back at a lot of TV programmes, film and games some earlier versions or the first episodes the acting is atrocious, or really low budget.

Either the actors become more comfortable, or simply improve.

The voice acting in; SPOLIERS;

Final Coil of Bahamut story-line is fantastic.

Louisoix, Alisae and Alphinaud suited their parts perfectly, it didn't feel jarring, unbelievable or overacted.
Louisoix had that perfect deep husky voice that you'd expect, whilst the twins that refined, higher class up-bringing tone.

Still not as good as the voice-acting in 1.0 (but yet again, neither are some of the cut scenes)

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Thats another portion I was primarily talking about as well, just didn't want to mention it.

Im still not convinced Urianger is not actually Agent Smith.

http://i.imgur.com/dh2JR4D.gif

I stopped listening to the dialogue in English about a week into version 2 because it was simply so wooden. Switched to a new laptop after 2.4 and it reverted to defaults again, and yes, it is a lot better, actually.

Everyone is doing better - smoother and more believable. Also the new guys are awesome both fit their character at the get go. Still a couple people I'm not crazy for but I think that is inescapable, because SE always seems to have this voice type in at least one person lol.

It didn't demand a mute before, but sometimes I had music going and just didn't care to stop playing it on the side; however, a lot of recent voice content I've pre-muted my music if on to let the game play its story out on its own - good work :P.

I just remember laughing at Yda's voice actor and how misplaced it felt, because the only other place i've heard her is Rachel Alucard from Blazblue. Literally complete opposite spectrum of a character.

I've always loved SE's english dubs though. Except for Vanille in XIII. Single handedly destroyed cutscenes, that girl...

Another reason i'm looking forward to Heavensward. The entire game, not just the voice acting, is likely to get better.
The immediate SE example of FFXI... the storyline in the original game (Pretty forgettable) vs. CoP.

All I can say here is...

It might be just me being sensitive but Louisoix' final words were utterly beautiful and the resonance in his voice really touched me. I was astonished and at the same time sad to see him go for the last time. :(

Also importantly: the English dialogue is written increasingly better to fit the length of time their mouths are moving.
That means the Voice Actors don't have to talk as painfully slow anymore to fit the animation.

The English VAs have always been good (not amazing maybe, but good). But earlier dialogue forced them to talk unnaturally slow, because the animations are done for Japanese, which takes a longer time to say the same thing, and the English dialogue was simply not padded out enough to fill that time.

I have to second TheTen here, the acting in 2.0 ranges from sorta decent to pretty good, but what sticks out to me is more a matter of awkward scripting and most of all, poor voice direction. Merlwyb's atrocious over-acting feels to me like a real bad case of poor direction. She can emote damn fine but doesn't know when to.

Minfilia, on the other hand, just needs to stop faking that accent dear god.

Just as an aside, I was never really in doubt on the casting. Just about anyone should recognize Kan-e-Senna's voice immediately, and she's no slouch.

Thought the VA in ARR was atrocious. Always seemed to be Americans stumbling over European accents which rather than creating a new 'Eorzean' accent (thanks Moose^^) was very jarring, especially as inflection and cadence was often messed up (the 'wooden' sounding VA mentioned above).

Yes, 2.4 was much better and I really noticed the difference. I hope this upward trend continues into Heavensward!

I never liked English dubs for anything, so I switched it to the Japanese voices and English subtitles.

I think Aymeric's voice actor also did Alvis in Xenoblade.

Pretty distinctive voice!

I think Hildibrand should be voiced by this guy:

http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Patrick-Warburton/

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Originally Posted by coldreactive

I think Hildibrand should be voiced by this guy:

http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Patrick-Warburton/

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Totally could get on board with that. He would be perfect.