Story and voice acting future

[NovaUltimatum]

I agree that the English voice acting is not good enough for a Final Fantasy. The key question though is why it is so bad. I get the impression that they had a less experienced voice director than FF10, FF12, FF13 since nearly all of the character's lines are timed or pronounced wrongly.

I think if they got Jack Fletcher (the guy who did the previous FF games) to do it, they'd have gotten better results. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282027/

[Onidemon]

So i see that 90% of people agree that the story sucks and voice acting is embarassing. The real question though is, are Yoshi and the dev team aware of it? Obviously they dont speak english so they couldnt give a rat's ass about how bad the english voice acting sounds, but the story? Yoshi is a gamer and i'm sure he has higher standards than this. Did he or the dev ever commented on this or hinted at better quality for the expension? If not, can we please get a comment from the dev team on this!

[Onidemon]

I agree that the English voice acting is not good enough for a Final Fantasy. The key question though is why it is so bad. I get the impression that they had a less experienced voice director than FF10, FF12, FF13 since nearly all of the character's lines are timed or pronounced wrongly.

I think if they got Jack Fletcher (the guy who did the previous FF games) to do it, they'd have gotten better results. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0282027/

It looks as if they didnt have time or budget for voice actors and instead used people that worked on the english localization/translation of the game to do the acting. They obviously have 0 talent and or experience. Minfilia was beyond horrible and i'm pretty sure that because the dev team doesnt speak english they didnt even notice how bad it was.

[NovaUltimatum]

It looks as if they didnt have time or budget for voice actors and instead used people that worked on the english localization/translation of the game to do the acting. They obviously have 0 talent and or experience. Minfilia was beyond horrible and i'm pretty sure that because the dev team doesnt speak english they didnt even notice how bad it was.

Here's a list of the english VAs. The ones in bold are at least known professional actors. That's why I'm inclined to believe it was more of a director's fault.

Gaius van Baelsar: Richard Epcar
Lahabrea: Kyle Herbert
Urianger: Gideon Emery
Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn: Jean Gilpin
Raubahn Aldynn: J.C. Miller

Minfilia: Amy Bolton
Thancred: T. Axelrod
Yda: Mela Lee
Papalymo: Steve Cannon
Y’shtola: Emily O’Brien
Alisaie: Simone Bee
Alphinaud: Sam Regal
Kan-E-Senna: Cindy Robinson
Nanamo Ul Namo: Haley Alexander
Biggs: CJ3
Twin Adder Dispatch: Ian Steele
Nero tol Scaeva: Ian Steele
Livia sas Junius: Karine Foviau
Rhitahtyn sas Arvina: CJ3
Louisoix: David V.O. Lodge

[Onidemon]

Here's a list of the english VAs. The ones in bold are at least known professional actors. That's why I'm inclined to believe it was more of a director's fault.

Looking the pro actors on Wiki i see that most of them worked mainly on Anime. English voice acting for animes is horrible, which explains everything. Americans got that mentality that everything that is drawn, cartoony, is to be acted with silly voices that will only appeal to 3 years old. Japanese voice actors will act with emotion and accuracy as if they were dubbing a real movie.

we should start a petition to make sure Yoshi doesnt renew these people's contract for the future and instead hire actors that worked on western games and MMOs like WOW, Warhammer, Mass Effect and so on.... Actors that worked on Anime are a big no no and shouldnt be considered even if they are willing to work for free. Hell, i'm even willing to start a kickstart page to raise money for real actors....

[ShadowDan]

The voice acting is very good if you listen to the original version, i.e. in japanese. The english and french translations are ok, with some good and some bad moments. The german version is absolutely horrendous and should be avoided at all costs.

I was also quite surprised that there was no voice acting in the main story quests of patch 2.1. Maybe it's a contract problem with the voice actors but whatever the reason, it was missing.

As for the story, well designing an MMO storyline that fits for any kind of character must be a little hard. That being said, yes it completely sucks if you compare it to any story form a single player main title. One problem is the way it is compartmentalized into little quests. Another is that the cutscenes never feature any action; they are all about chit chat and that gets dull quite fast. The story never advances with the cutscenes, so they feel lackluster and somewhat like filler a lot of the time.

[MeeDeggiThePunisher]

Can I just say that the "feast" quest alone mad me angry? I mean they are talking about a primal and urgency- and yet waste the hero's time gathering food for a feast... then sit around gabbing and eating.

I was furious. There was ZERO empathy for people in trouble. What kind of hero are we? Can you imagine the amount of anger people would feel if they found out that while they were in peril, you were "questing" for an epic party?

Outrageous. It made me completely dislike the npcs... and I questioned my own character for not killing them all for being so heartless.

That pissed me off as well, but I can forgive SE since they where pretty much rebooting the game. Now that ARR is out please SE, take your time with the expansions. I don't want to see a situation where Shiva is about to destroy Coerthas but before I can take care of her I need to shovel snow out of some rich nobels driveway.

[Langureion]

I found 90% of the English VO on Japanese games are horrible.
Nothing wrong with the actors, it's the VO directors.
Feels like the VO director doesn't know how to grasp japanese anime characters.
So it ended up like Gears of War characters talking in Japanese games. lol

[Nabiri]

The English voices are terrible. I was shocked at how unprofessional it sounded.
Raubahn Aldynn's voice makes me cringe the most..
It's just impossible to take any of the characters seriously with English voices. They turn a serious moment into a comedy.
I had to switch to Japanese voices to enjoy the cut-scenes.

1.0's cut-scenes felt exciting - like you needed to rush somewhere to fend off some danger, but 2.0's feel like I may as well be just making dull chit-chat with NPCs about the weather or such.

Actors that worked on Anime are a big no no and shouldnt be considered even if they are willing to work for free.

I second this.

[EdwinLi]

I find that there was not enough effect put into English VO.

The Japanese VO actaully put real effort into their VO and it really shows.

There is also the issue of certain dialogue changes in English translation. I felt all those minor dialogue changes wasn't needed.