Heavensward Voice Acting

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to whoever is directing the voice acting this go around. When I play these games, I hope to be immersed, and while playing A Real Reborn hearing the slow, monotonous, dictated script reading.....zzzz... I could not stand it!

This go around, the characters have some inflection. Lines are being read quickly, and slowly, with emphasis. I don't know if anyone else listens for it, or cares, but I do! I LOVE this go around! Please continue. For the love of Haedelyn continue!

It is better, but also the voice actors are different? I found it a little jarring

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Originally Posted by Deifact

It is better, but also the voice actors are different? I found it a little jarring

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Pretty sure Urianger isn't voiced by Gideon Emery anymore.

Yea the voice acting in this expansion is really, good so far I was very impressed.

It's true, that was sort of a surprise to me as well. But I instantly fell in love with them because conversations flow more easily. I'm actually wanting to hear them speak to experience the story, instead of speed reading while muting the sound to get it over with.

I agree. It was nice to hear the emotion and life in the characters' voices this time around. I had been considering just switching to Japanese voice over, but I'm really enjoying the English version so far.

Heard mixed reviews of the new English voice actors. Not sure who they are yet not tried the English version in ages since I found the ARR ones flat and emotionless like they just didn't give a damn. The Japanese cast has some well known people in it but the English subs are for the English language version so unless you understand Japanese you are not really understanding what's being said which is a shame because some jokes and traits characters have don't get translated.

Wow this is interesting. I did not like the English Voice Acting of 2.0 and just like I do with anime.. I set it to Japanese audio with English subtitles. But this is not anime.. I want to enjoy the visuals while listening instead of fixing my eyes down at the subtitles.

This is good news. Will switch to English to check it out! Thank you for bringing it to my attentnion.

Merlwyb's voice is really not my cup of tea.

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Originally Posted by Ahmed

This is good news. Will switch to English to check it out! Thank you for bringing it to my attentnion.

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Absolutely!

I disagree, I prefer the English voice actors from 2.X. They didn't start off so great but towards the end they got better.

I was enraged when I found out Urianger isn't voiced by Gideon Emery anymore. I found the changes otherwise to be passable. Midgardsormr in particular sounds a lot better this time around.

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Originally Posted by NeoBlueFalcon

I was enraged when I found out Urianger isn't voiced by Gideon Emery anymore. I found the changes otherwise to be passable. Midgardsormr in particular sounds a lot better this time around.

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Yeah, losing out on Gideon Emery wasn't a plus, but I do agree wholeheartedly with Midgardsormr! I'm much further now, and I'm feeling completely sucked into the story because of the voices.

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Originally Posted by FridgePanic

Pretty sure Urianger isn't voiced by Gideon Emery anymore.

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So far this is the only change I'm NOT happy about. Not only because I liked Gideon as Urianger but he also doesn't talk all poetically anymore and all the other NPC's don't seem to notice that he isn't talking in old English anymore :/

I really liked the way he talked :(
He talked like that since I first saw him in 1.0 & now he's just another average Joe ; ;

Ysayle.. IMO whoever that is, is doing a great job with her lines, this go-round (I'm only now in the Forelands, L53...)

Hildas' voice is my favourite imo :), although I do like them all. I think the English translation must've been done at English studios because the whole cast all sounds very English now :p.

I'm not far into the story, but I'm liking the new voice direction and actors a lot.

I have mixed feelings about the voice changes. Some of them are good. For instance, Alphinaud's and Urianger's voice changes were good. Alphinaud now sounds a bit more mature, and Urianger is less annoying for me now (which is odd because I normally love Gideon's voice). But some were weird for me--like Raubahn's.

It was a bit jarring, but I think I'll get used to them. I'm just used to continuity with voice actors in my games.

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Originally Posted by Chiramu

Hildas' voice is my favourite imo :), although I do like them all. I think the English translation must've been done at English studios because the whole cast all sounds very English now :p.

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It does sound like they hired the cast of Harry Potter to do voices.

I'm a huge fan of the voice acting this time around. In general, story, voice acting, emotion of characters etc SE has really redeemed itself from what I (personally) considered a kinda meh performance in ARR.

Only voices i'm not too sure are great: biggs , wedge and (i'm not sure if i'm right that this voice has been changed) Cid. They don't really seem to fit.
Merwylb (sp) fits well now imo.

I'm almost done with the new story, and the voice acting's been holding up. I'm definitely not saying that every single thing is the greatest voice I've heard, but I've felt this way of all English voice actors, some just don't hit it for me. But, looking at the overall picture of all the voice acting, I've been enthralled, and found myself listening to the entire dialogue box, instead of reading it really quickly, and clicking to go forward to get the cut scene over with. I can't speak my enjoyment, and appreciation enough about this go around!

Voice acting got wayyyyy better. Cid sounding all British now was a bit of a shock but overall it's 100x better performance wise than the previous installments.

I explain Alphinaud's voice by saying he hit puberty. Although he pronounces some words awkwardly now.

Alphinaud's new voice I actually like, in ARR he always came across as very cocky, arrogant even, here he's kind of more likeable, even though he gets Raubahn's name wrong.
Overall though i'm not too happy with the new VA's, by the end of ARR I found myself liking the characters, the new voices though just totally destroyed any connections I was starting to feel toward the characters.
Merlwyb for example, she used to sound so badass and commanding, why replace her?! Raubahn just doesn't feel right to me anymore, and Urianger! Why! his new voice just destroyed any charm he used to have for me.
I'll get over it eventually, but please, please don't just decide to replace the voice cast everytime a new expansion or story arc comes along, quickest way to destroy the players immersion.

You're not alone! the voice acting was amazing this time around! I stopped skipping CS and started watching for just this reason lol.

Yeah, I miss the old guys cause we got used to them. It's jarring to hear new voices. However, I know contracts change and Sqare/Enix doesn't have the same pull over the english voice acting community as it does the japanese, so they were probably busy with another project. But... I donno. Tataru sounds off to me, and Merlwyb, and I loved Urianger and he's different, and suddenly Raubahn and Illberd have accents outta nowhere and it's all weird.

only voice i cant stand now is merlwyb i had to skip the scene its just so wrong

I guess I'm in the minority then... I dislike some of the new voices and miss the old voices from 2.0. Alphinaud's voice is worse now, it would better fit him if he was older, and at times the voice acting is "emotionless" on some scenes where he should be more shocked and sad like the "NOOOO!!!" part towards the end of the MSQ with a certain someone.

Raubahn sounds worse now and doesn't fit him, but some of the new voices same roughly the same as the old voices so it's not that bad. But honestly not feeling the voices this time around for some of them.

Though I do like Ysayle (Iceheart), Hilda, and Yugiri's voices.

Overall, I don't mind the new voice actors. Urianger sucks now, but I approve of Tataru because <3Fiora<3. The quality of acting itself has been improved. I just got to the 2nd major scene involving Raubahn at around 55. His speech before he sends me on my way to find someone, got me going "f**K yeah!"

I had changed my voices to Japanese forever ago because I really didn't care for the English ones at the time, this was probably 7 months ago. I've been so impressed since I've changed it back to English with Heavensward. It's sooooo much better!

It all went rather well. I never had too much of a problem with Alphinaud to begin with, and too be honest I was skeptical about the extra emotion felt from the new VA (fear he would seem a more typical whiny brat rather than a rich, can-do young man that rarely lets up).

I think the only change I disliked was from Merlwyb. She was fine as she was. Her pirate side has been forced a bit too much now. I preferred the no-nonsense, almost strict-headteacher-like angle over the "Aye aye u wot m8. Oi'm the cap'n oi am!" one.

I have mixed feelings on this. Some of the changes are alright, like Alphinaud - despite having a slightly deeper voice, he actually sounds younger now instead of like a 30something with a high voice, as good as Sam Riegel is. But Merlwyb has, with this lighter, more girlish voice, lost a lot of her badass pirate admiral gravitas. And Urianger has lost all of his character and uniqueness now that he's no longer voiced by Gideon Emery.

In the end I would rather have kept the old ones. These new ones are not that much better than what the old ones were doing by 2.55, and it just breaks so much continuity and immersion to have every single actor replaced.