So after hearing SE was finally heavily investing in FFXIV, giving the game the budget it deserved at last, I had thought going into EW that they would start putting more money into voice acting. Well when I accepted the very first quest of the MSQ and saw it had zero voice acting, I realized nothing had changed sadly.
Now having done the Role quests, and the new Normal and Alliance raid stories, we see this trend of non-voiced side stories has continued. Not that I have a problem with reading, but it does beg the question. There is so much story in this game, but it is never voice acted if it's not MSQ, which itself is only like 50% voice acted even now. Very few big-budget story games of this level invest so little in voice acting. And while I'd rather they don't go the route of SWTOR and invest hundreds of millions into voice acting everything with high-end actors which results not enough money for actual gameplay content, I do seriously question why they don't invest more into voicing, why they are so strict about not voicing anything outside of MSQ.
At this point I don't really buy that they can't afford it, even considering the number of langauges this game is in. I just want to know what the reason is and if we ever will see that new big budget go to more voice-acting at all? Surely it doesn't cost THAT much money, does it?
Will we ever have voice-acted side stories?
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05-09-2022, 06:53 AMYukikoKurosawaWill we ever have voice-acted side stories?
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05-09-2022, 07:42 AMKolsykol
Imo I like the way the voice acting works, I think certain scenes make sense to be voice acted but honestly a lot of the time things being voice acted actually makes me pay less attention to the dialogue.
It's just very different when you actually have to read it yourself, you take it in a different way.
Often times the dialogue also suffers because of voice acting because voice acting is expensive, time-consuming and it's hard for a voice actor to voice too many lines ( some of them also voice multiple characters ).
Imo voice acting is actually the major reason why writing in RPG's has gotten worse and so inhuman and overly simplified and dependent on one liners and dialogue choices not lining up or making sense.
The only exception where I'd maybe like voice acting as far as side-stories goes is the Manderville storyline.
But outside of that I like that they're not so dependent on it and trust people to read. -
05-09-2022, 07:45 AMVahlnir
Maybe I'm old school, but more often than not I prefer not to have it. For raids and such, however, it definitely helps.
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05-09-2022, 07:54 AMValkyrie_Lenneth
Voice acting is incredibly expensive, and this last patch had more voice acting than any previous non expansion patch did.
SWTOR was the most expensive game ever made, (at the time) costing over a 200 million, most of which, from what i remember, went into voice acting, as EVERYTHING has voice overs in that. It didn't recoup profits fast enough for investors and went F2P shortly after to go after quick cash from cash shops. -
05-09-2022, 07:56 AMTheMightyMollusk
Unlikely for cost reasons.
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05-09-2022, 08:15 AMKaurhz
Unlikely, it's far too expensive, and eventually it'll lack the 'diversity' - Like it would be painstakingly obvious of overlap and I think even with the voice acting we already have, some of the 24-man raid encounter dialogue I believe is also voice acted by people who have been in MSQ previously. I'm pretty sure Byregot is Vauthry at the least. Similarly, Vrtra is Gosetsu. Just as Zenos and Sicard are the same VA -- Honestly this one shocked me... Well done Luke Allen-Gale.
It's just too expensive... But I do think for major side-story quests a little narrative voice wouldn't do any harm, like summarising the sequence of events type deal -
05-09-2022, 08:19 AMHaruka_R
Small indie company once again.
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05-09-2022, 08:25 AMEorzeaWanderer
I’m in the camp that says voice acting is not strictly better than no voice acting. There are many nice touches of personalization in text you can get with a create-your-own-character game such as this one, the most important one being characters addressing you by using your name! Also GC rank, possible side quest completion, etc.
One thing I think they REALLY need to step up their game on though is alternate responses to your dialog choices. These are extremely minimal compared to other games with heavy conversation and honestly most times I wonder if a person’s response would even be different because what they say seems to be cleverly written to make sense no matter what you actually picked. -
05-09-2022, 09:07 AMYukiB
Where'd you hear SE is investing in the game? It's not crypto.
I've been playing ESO the last few days. Everything is voice acted in that. Including quests like "Collect 3 daedra hearts". It's really great when you sink into a big, meaty quest line, but for random side quests it's really a waste, and most of the time I play with sound off and read instead.
A mix of non-voiced in-game dialogue and voiced cutscenes is a good way to go. FFXIV does have quite a few non-voiced semi-cutscenes which I wouldn't mind having voices, so I don't have to keep switching auto advance on and off.
And I certainly wouldn't say no to voice acting in the next raid tier so I can hear Elidibus's gorgeous voice again. -
05-09-2022, 09:19 AMYukikoKurosawaI never said completley voiced acted, just more. I would like at least some of the side story scenes to be voiced. I dont even think all the MSQ needs to be voiced, it's just the total lack of voice-acting outside of MSQ to this very day that I don't understand.Quote:
Originally Posted by YukiB
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05-09-2022, 09:22 AMJirah
Gotta say it’s a travesty the raids the “premiere” content isn’t VA and from little I know about Ultimates I’m sure that isn’t either for all the culling and cutting they due to make all content bend backwards for it
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05-09-2022, 09:49 AMKolsykolI feel like in RPG's the voice never lines up with my character, either that or they play it too wooden and neutral to try and fit as many fantasies as possible which in and of itself is bad and makes it harder to imagine your character.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vahlnir
It's one of the things I hated the most about Cyberpunk 2077, V never felt like my character.
I get that V was meant to be an established character but they still marketed it with a heavy emphasis on RP and female V at least just didn't make any sense for some backgrounds.
I hated how condescending and sarcastic she sounded constantly too and how she tried too hard to sound tough, her voice acting wasn't bad on a technical level but it was just very clear it wasn't her real voice and it's hard to believe she'd have any friends or that anyone would take her seriously the way she talked.
She sounded very '' performative '' if that makes sense and not natural at all both in voice and how she said what she said.
Female V was a more extreme case but I never rly liked the voice acting for Shepard in the Mass Effect games either it only felt like it limited my character and it was noticeably more monotone than NPC's.
I just much prefer non-voiced RPG protagonists unless I guess it's a character like Geralt in the Witcher.
But if I am being told that it's MY character and that I am creating them myself then it never feels that way when they're voiced. -
05-09-2022, 10:40 AMDarthgummibearThe reason swtor's VA cost so much was because it was all star power.Quote:
Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth
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05-09-2022, 12:55 PMRaoabolic
When did "gamers" suddenly hate reading in an rpg? I feel like i'm taking crazy pills!
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05-09-2022, 02:12 PMMinarisweet
We can't have that there's no way an mmorpg can be fully voiced acted especially one that is story telling focused... *looks at swtor*
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05-09-2022, 02:13 PMRobynDaBankI mean, it does look awkward in some scenes. I'm remembering the end of Ivalice raid series when the two siblings burst into song and there was... no voice. I was seriously hoping they voiced at least that because it looks so silly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raoabolic
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05-09-2022, 02:30 PMSoma_Farkreath
imma be honest that i need the voice acting to actually pay attention to the story. if there's no voice acting i find it hard to pay attention to what they are saying, weather its my dyslexia or my ADHD it really helps. i feel I've missed a lot due to it not being voice acted
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05-09-2022, 03:06 PMDeveryn
I've looked into working as a VA and the cost is probably at least 100/hour just for the actor. Add studio time, which is also not cheap.
Please watch some playthroughs before weighing in on the value of voice lines. There's a lot that goes on and none of the prior ultimates or their source content even had voice lines. They got their own music track though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jirah
The main story is the premiere content. I think we've seen a little more of that voiced than before. I think it's also worth noting we have our first alliance raid with all original / exclusive tracks. -
05-09-2022, 03:36 PMRein_eon_Osborne
Honestly I'm quite surprised to see the latest Alliance Raid is partially voiced in their encounters. I loved it.
Voice acting does affects the experience, I would love to have more of them. But I won't keep my expectation high. -
05-09-2022, 03:46 PMRitsukoSonodaI think they've just been not wanting to read anything. Hence all the "must have voice chat", "I need tutorial video", "Game needs to mark everything for me cause I'm not reading dialogue". Who knows how many of them have agreed to be guinea pigs for various company's experiments because they just click agree on digital agreements without reading them... >.>Quote:
Originally Posted by Raoabolic
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05-09-2022, 04:09 PMIlisidi
The Ivalice raids are also partially voiced. It's a nice touch and I hope it continues. But I also prefer not having everything voiced. It gives more options to imagine you're own voices for the characters instead of having a "fixed" template.
(Unless it's the German voice of Aymeric, he should serenade us in every appearance of Aymeric.) -
05-09-2022, 07:37 PMTheGrimace
I'd love more voice acting in the game, but it's not even just about cost. The development team has to plan well in advance what story beats will be voice acted so that each region- English, Japanese, French, and German can all be recorded and placed. I think it's fair to criticize SE will the whole "small indie company btw" meme for a lot of things, but not this. There's a ton of work required in coralling all of the voice work necessary in the game, and given how much has been added over the years, I think they've done a damn good job.
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05-09-2022, 10:43 PMTastydoorstop
They have to choose what to voice act and what not to.. not only for money.. but time, and being able to use your name in the plot points.. it a lot better when they say your name indeed of just saying "you" "warrior of light". they need to make you feel apart of the story.
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05-09-2022, 11:10 PMIckeDerTyp
They refused to spend money on the new races and you hope they'll spend money on voice acting? :D
One can only hope~ -
05-09-2022, 11:49 PMOM3GA-Z3RO
What bothers me is the inconsistency, take Eden raids for example. the story is not voiced. Some of the fights is not voiced and there is like 2 fights where it IS voiced!
Eden Shiva, it is voiced but the aftermath cutscene it stops adding voices again. It is extremely jarring to see so much body movement and them opening their mouths and laughing but there is no sound of laughing coming out of them.
"BURN AWAY THE BAD!" Imagine if that was voiced it would've been amazing and pack a bigger punch on the situation, the part where Valens started laughing hysterically when the wife asked if they were free because her (now) dead husband did what he was told, it would've been brilliant if it was voiced. They put so much in the cutscenes of their side content but their impact they are trying to portray seemed lackluster because they miss the VA's -
05-09-2022, 11:56 PMIlisidi
No thank you. Werlyt was horrorfying enough without voices.
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05-10-2022, 12:03 AMDeverynThink about the timing. Covid interfered with a few things here and there and even stalled production of the whole game for a bit. Actors would have to reocrd at home, though I imagine not everyone had that ability.Quote:
Originally Posted by OM3GA-Z3RO
Werlyt took a hit on that too. I think they definitely had it in mind to have people like Gaius and Valens voiced more, but there were probably some issues that prevented that. -
05-10-2022, 12:22 AMOM3GA-Z3ROWhat's Panda's excuse then? The little teaser scene of Panda raids had VA but after that there is not a single bit of VA, what about all the other side content stories that was inconsistent in the VA department before Covid hit? I just gave Eden raid as an example of their inconsistencies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deveryn
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05-10-2022, 02:18 AMDeverynWhat teaser scene? Was it part of a trailer? If it was, then there's no reason for it to be in the raid series. The raid series is better without VA, especially given who we're dealing with. While many know, many probably don't and it would be more impactful to hear that voice at the end of it all.Quote:
Originally Posted by OM3GA-Z3RO
What about all the other stuff? ARR is what it is because of that time period and trying to restart this thing. By the looks of it, they reserve VA for the major notes. I don't know what else you're looking for or what further answers could possibly be given. This has all been covered here. There's nothing to be fixed. We're talking about a game that's produced in 4 languages. Who else is doing this and why does the XIV team owe you an excuse? -
05-10-2022, 04:01 AMRokke
Panda not being voiced is tragic because we're all missing the hilarious juxtaposition of Themis being the cutest little anime blob but having the deepest voice of the cast.
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05-10-2022, 04:16 AMTeenaThey're talking about the end credits teaser for Endwalker itself. The character we're dealing with in Panda appears as an Easter Egg teaser and is voiced by the same VA then. Everyone has already seen and heard that character in game, not in an external trailer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deveryn
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05-10-2022, 04:22 AMTeena
Responding to the Op, I'd like to see the MSQ fully VA (there are still bits skipped) and I'd like to see major side quests like the Job/Role quests and Raid quests voiced too as they feel like core content. Going off to deliver someone their packed lunch because they left it behind that morning type quests... couldn't care less.
So I guess that boils down to... MSQ and Blue+ quests. -
05-10-2022, 07:00 AMIkaraGreydancerA bit off topic but I had no clue Zenos and Sicard shared VA's and now that you day that I can hear it lmao. I also heard some folks say xiv was that VA's first game role?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaurhz
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05-10-2022, 09:01 PMOM3GA-Z3ROAt the end of Endwalker, once the credits are done there was a little scene in Elpis of Themis talking and it was voiced, that was a teaser for the coming Panda raid.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deveryn
Because Every expansion they like to cut corners more and more while they brag about how much money they are making and how successful they have gotten, the amount of content they drop can be completed within less than the minimum subscription time and now Patch cycles are going to be 4 months, at the end of the day even if they decide to have more time they will continue to cut more corners (Endsinger EX was the biggest slap in the face for how lackluster and disappointing it was compared to the other MSQ end bosses in EX), I will let it slide on Shadowbringers during Covid but they cannot keep making excuses in cutting corners and keep being inconsistent while they are making major profit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Deveryn
ARR is excluded because there are so many factors they cannot change, they cannot add VA's in ARR because it is not the same VA's in the English dub (As far as I am aware), they switched studios after the end of ARR.