Better Writers

There's wayyyyyyy too much dialogue to have such stilted writing. You need to cut 50% of the dialogue, most of it is trite and redundant. It's gotten to the point where all I need is to listen to the first sentence, maybe two and then skip. It's twice as interesting, twice as fast and it doesn't sound like someone doesn't know anything about writing or Shakespeare. It reads like you're trying to make it sound more sophisticated, but don't actually know why people spoke that way.

On top of that, your "epic movie story" is mostly faux-tech-jargon and pretend politics, nobody enjoyed Star Wars Episode I for this exact reason. And the big bullet points of the story are just standard JRPG fodder - I was bored watching Omega get released. It's BORING.

Also, you should get people who actually understand how accents work. Clearly, none of you do. Also, try hiring at least one American, not everyone needs to be British.

Also, FF7 had better looking cinematics.

Also, casting more then one person to the voice for one character is beyond stupid. And extremely obvious since the performances aren't consistent. Your directors are amateurs too.

The accents seems fine, and are actually real British accents, 2.0 had Americans doing the pretend British accents and it wasn't the best. Also, why does the game need more American VAs? Not everything in this world has to cater to the USA.

I don't get this post, do you think SE are goin to read this and hire a completely new writing staff, voice actors and cutscene director?

Do you get bored same way with narratives from Walking Dead (the game)? MMOs aren't designed to be box office scripts fit in 2-3h duration. I can tell you there's over 40h worth of cutscenes just from MSQ and job quests, and this is only up to 4.1. If we're comparing even with common tv scripts that's 2 seasons worth. Not all of them has voice acting so you don't get attached to the actor. Try the Japanese audio, they're very excellent imo

SW1 sucks because how they portrayed Anakin, I think they did fine on everyone else.

The decision to make use of mostly British voice actors is a stylistic choice that makes a lot of sense and adds to the game's appeal, depth and charm. It sure beats what many other MMO's do in regards to making every character - regardless of race - speak like a modern day teenager.

The storytelling in this game isn't perfect and I believe some parts are worthy of criticism...but if you're not going to bother doing so constructively then there's zero weight to your post as far as I am concerned. The developers have taken constructive criticism offered up in the past into consideration, after all. As evidenced by their decision to cut out a lot of 'filler' as well as their decision to give more screentime to the antagonists.

The only thing I can agree with is that the game needs a wider variety of accents. Having everyone speak with an English accent kind of ruins the immersion - while it makes sense for some characters to speak as such, if we're to believe the peoples of Hydaelyn are diverse they need to speak with different accents. Languages are understandable since having language barriers would be extremely inconvenient, but having, say, the Xaela speak with the same accent as the Garleans is kind of jarring, given their peoples are not known to have any interaction.

While the political intrigue is boring to some, others enjoy it, so please consider that. There's not much else to say but that I disagree with most of the rest.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

The only thing I can agree with is that the game needs a wider variety of accents. Having everyone speak with an English accent kind of ruins the immersion - while it makes sense for some characters to speak as such, if we're to believe the peoples of Hydaelyn are diverse they need to speak with different accents. Languages are understandable since having language barriers would be extremely inconvenient, but having, say, the Xaela speak with the same accent as the Garleans is kind of jarring, given their peoples are not known to have any interaction.

While the political intrigue is boring to some, others enjoy it, so please consider that. There's not much else to say but that I disagree with most of the rest.

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That's true, the Othard side should have had a non-English accent for sure, that was quite jarring. It fits well for Garlemald and Eorzea though.

This is coming from the same OP who wants vote kick removed because a very small minority only he has encountered abuse it... Who is now insulting an entire staff of writers and actors, placing his opinion above everyone elses’ because it doesn’t fit or cater to his interests or needs. Not worth arguing about with him, but, I personally enjoy the time you spend seeing every part of the story. Its pretty indepth and lets you peer even into the context of past events that inpsired a character to act the way they do.

I disagree - give us more. \o/

Mayhap find a different game? Not every game can be about angry Americans shouting and shooting at each other over a misplaced grilled cheese sandwich.

you sound like a fool trying to make demands of sqeenix just because you don't like certain things about the game is all good but the moment you start whineing instead of giving constructive criticism its over for you.

i disagree - more story plz ._.

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Originally Posted by Chewy2nd

That's true, the Othard side should have had a non-English accent for sure, that was quite jarring. It fits well for Garlemald and Eorzea though.

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Yes and no. The main reason it "fits well" is because that's what we started with and have grown accustomed to - and, well, the faux Elizabethan script. While having some characters speak with English accents is perfectly reasonable, the fact that everyone speaks with an English accent is... unrealistic, I guess is the best way to put it? I mean, there are considerable cultural differences and geographic distances between the three city-states from 2.0, to say nothing of Garlemald, which is on an entirely different continent. Having the same accent makes little logical sense, yet everyone spoke with an English accent so that's what we grew to accept as "normal" in-universe.

... and, well, the faux Elizabethan script would probably sound kind of awkward with any other accent. All I'm gonna say is, if we make it to the New World or Meracydia someday and everyone's still using an English accent, I'm calling shenanigans.

EDIT

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Originally Posted by Yuriane

Mayhap find a different game? Not every game can be about angry Americans shouting and shooting at each other over a misplaced grilled cheese sandwich.

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Hey! I'd at least need it to be better than a grilled cheese to shoot them over it!

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Originally Posted by Cilia

Yes and no. The main reason it "fits well" is because that's what we started with and have grown accustomed to - and, well, the faux Elizabethan script. While having some characters speak with English accents is perfectly reasonable, the fact that everyone speaks with an English accent is... unrealistic, I guess is the best way to put it? I mean, there are considerable cultural differences and geographic distances between the three city-states from 2.0, to say nothing of Garlemald, which is on an entirely different continent. Having the same accent makes little logical sense, yet everyone spoke with an English accent so that's what we grew to accept as "normal" in-universe.

and, well, the faux Elizabethan script would probably sound kind of awkward with any other accent. All I'm gonna say is, if we make it to the New World or Meracydia someday and everyone's still using an English accent, I'm calling shenanigans.

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My theory?

https://i.imgur.com/QND88Qm.jpg

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Originally Posted by Yuriane

Mayhap find a different game? Not every game can be about angry Americans shouting and shooting at each other over a misplaced grilled cheese sandwich.

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^ Best reply I've read for today! X'DDD

As for the main post:
At least give constructive criticism to your suggestions or else people aren't going to take it seriously.

P.S. I like the British VAs, their voices fit the characters A LOT better than the ones from ARR (fake British accents *shudder*). Furthermore, I'm okay with the dialogue because it makes the story interesting and reasonable and ay, I love to read :p

I won't go and say find a new game but I will say that I respectfully disagree with the OP. Not all writing in an open world game needs to be specifically about providing immediate and relevant information for what is happening right now. General observations and comments as well as banter between characters serve the purpose of world building as well as establishing character relationships and perspectives.

As for the voice acting, accents and so forth, much of it is thematic and intentional to the cultural leanings of the characters. Shalayans tend to be more flowery than say Ala Mhigans. Nobles tend to be more flowery than commoners. I get the impression they go for a diverse range of actors. When they change an actor it tends to have more to do with availability of the actor than anything else and in a service based game there really isn't any way around that.

The funny thing about accents and so forth is the fact that realistically in a lot of cases, the WoL perceives language in a way we cant. After all, the WoL can understand any language even if they haven't heard it before. How does that sound to their ears? Does their brain auto translate? Do they hear it as the native language but it just makes sense in their heads? Does it sound like they are speaking a familiar language instead of what is actually being spoken? I mean, an accent wouldn't even really make sense at all if what the WoL's thinks they hear is different to the actual words being spoken.

Mostly, I just don't enjoy the overly elaborate language, myself. There's ways to sound eloquent and sophisticated, without having to fall back on antiquated patterns just because it sounds "fancy."

I mean, I'll be the first to say that the writing varies in quality (as do the voices, although the localization team seems to be at least be able to WRITE a variety of accents and dialects, even if the voices have become more homogenized post-Heavensward). That said, in no way do your complaints apply to this game as a whole. It has strong story arcs and weak ones; great characters and forgettable ones; well-executed themes, and ones that fall more flat. This is true even within individual patch series, and it's because there are a variety of writers working on the game, some of whom are better than others. If absolutely nothing has been your jam so far, I dunno what to tell you.

Although, yeah, they could do with better cutscene directors. And maybe fewer invisible items. It always feels so weird when someone gives a big handful of nothing to someone else.

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Originally Posted by fodare

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Time to leave if you dont like it.....

Go back to LOL.


Or just do the oh so difficult task of changing the audio language to German, French or Japanese :rolleyes:

Accents? Why would you play this game in anything other than JP?

What accents should they use? There's always the risk when using accents of getting called racist or culturally insensitive... fantasy has this sort of auto default setting when it comes to accents theatrical British speak has been the staple since forever

Sir, you are speaking hyperbole and absurdities in the absolute. Stop that.

Did you come to the LORE forums of all places to try and troll? "Oooh I bet i can rile up the lore nerds by taking pot shots at their precious story and characters"

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Originally Posted by Chewy2nd

My theory?

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I thought we agreed it's all his fault.
http://i.imgur.com/WHkFGHw.jpg

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Originally Posted by uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu

I thought we agreed it's all his fault.
http://i.imgur.com/WHkFGHw.jpg

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Either that or
https://i.imgur.com/OVHWymu.png
in general

Agree that vanila ARR & pre-heavensward MSQ is nothing special and could use trimming.
It is servicable at parts for introducing us to the world and its state, but there are many redundant dialogues/monologues.
Again - the pre-heavensward 101 quests are often horrible drag.

There is also significant lack of voice-over, many early important story events are only subtitled (perhaps only in non-JP version??).

IMO quality picks up significantly in both HW and Stormblood. There are some weaker parts here and there, but its big improvement none the less.

I did not rly registered any big problems with change of voice-actors. It is understandable, that for game running X+years the same voice-actor might not be available.

PS: One faulty thing that i see in cinematic consistently, is where dialogue is concluded, but instead of fade-away and end, you need to watch each individual character turn and walk of the scene before its concluded. Not sure what's up with this obsession..

In my opinion, each and everyone of us have our own preferences, therefore I respect the OP’s position. In my case however, I like the story/lore, the dialogue and the voice acting. I do agree that accents can be improved.

There always going to be some kind of limitation to the story and the voice acting. Due to MMO being very long term games with constant development cycles it often times forces the story to fit into the development timeframes created for the game itself in comparison to a single player game where the development is done once. Voice Actors can easily become unavailable due to other projects, life issues, moving, and so on making consistency there difficult. Why there is so much dialogue is the same reason, because they have such tight development schedules it forces much of main premises to be forced within Dialogue Cut scenes because they are easier to render in the amount of time development actually allows for and why they pool the kind of voice actors that they do.

I think for the most part I think FFXIV tells a good story, for a MMORPG, which means I hold a different standard for these kind of games then I do other types of games including other RPGs. There are simply things I'll let slide because of the nature of MMOs that I wouldn't accept in other circumstances.

I disagree. I have thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Does everything with the voice acting and some of the conversations feel seemless? No, but it's 100x better than any other game I've played and its minor compared to the interest of the over-arching storyline.


Give me more please. Endgame is fun and all; but the story is what keeps me attached!

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Originally Posted by Yuriane

Mayhap find a different game? Not every game can be about angry Americans shouting and shooting at each other over a misplaced grilled cheese sandwich.

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As an American, this made me snort my coffee.... XP

To OP:

I only miss Urianger's VA since it was Balthier's VA in erm, ARR?

The only thing they should've done is change the Othard character VA's. The British accent is fine for the rest of Eorzea, but Othard shouldn't have the same accent.... but thats just my opinion.

As for dialogue....Just because it doesn't interest you, doesn't mean it doesn't interest others. So go ahead and keep skipping, but don't try to ruin it for others.

Right my new headcanon is that my WoL has gotten so used to the Echo's auto translate at this point that her brain just hears everything in an accent she is familiar with. Simply put, she listens to people more with her echo than her ears at this point. Except Urianger. Even the echo struggles to translate his tangle of words. J'taldhi needs a pencil, some paper and a dictionary for that.

Not that I would want that to change. Its part of what makes Urianger Urianger. It just wouldn't be the same if he talked in an easily comprehendible fashion.

OP was just trolling with a troll account. Don't bite the bait, don't feed the troll!

^what iam thinking too. Op make a quite impression thread to trigger a lot of people and then never appear again. Usually in thread like this will have fast reply because the need to defend the argument / hard debate, but nope... no op in sight.

Combine with jan 2018 join date and 5 post make it even more likely to be troll thread.

And if anything in rpg game, LESS writing is probably the last think to pop in dev head. What part of role playing game make you think it need less writing lol

More fool OP, because it turned into an actual discussion about accents and such.