Story and voice acting future

[Deedsie]

I found myself agreeing with the Garleans about the stupid primals and ending this stupid cycle.

Same here, really.

English voice acting for animes is horrible, which explains everything.

In a lot, yes, but not all. I've got one series in particular on DVD where the English voice actors did a better job at bringing out the characters' personalities AND sounded better than the JP counterparts, so I can't agree to a blanket statement.

However, Spanish dubbings done in Mexico are by far the worst I've ever heard.

[EdwinLi]

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Well I'm not quite certain about Primals yet since history of Eorzea showed the first contact with Primals was during the Allagan Era when the Allagans invaded a continent far from Eorzea. There they first encountered the Primals and due to losing to Primals they sought ways to fight Primals leading to the discovery of Summoners and Ultima Weapon.

The Primal threat returned to Eorzea after the Aether Seal in Silvertear late was destroyed. I can't help but thing the Ascians planned for the Garleans to break the seal in Silvertear lake from the start which could mean the real power in the Garlean Empire are the Ascians and the Garlean Empire is just their puppet to set in motion certain events.

Gaius was already shown to be Lahabrea personal puppet with Lahabrea using Gaius personal beliefs by turning those beliefs into obssessions to drive Gaius into using Ultima Weapon and continuing the invasion of Eorzea.

[Espon]

I'm surprised this game has very little quality voice acting. I was really disappointed that none of the cutscenes added in 2.1 had any voice acting as I think some of them could of benefited from it a lot, especially the Hildibrand ones.

If you look at WoW, the few cutscenes it has are usually fully voiced, NPCs greet you when you click on them, bosses yell stuff while you fight them, and it just makes things feel a lot more lively.

[TomTom1968]

The story is not that bad after all in my opinion. But the voiceovers and general presentation are. I started the Game in my Mother language but watching the cutscenes with voice overs made me switch to the English language because I couldn't listen to it. The German voice actors give me a feeling that they hired random people from pubs with zero voice acting experience. A very cheap synchronization for SE obviously but I just don't get it. Previous FF Games did not have any synchronization besides subtitles but at least the English voices were always very good, professional and a pleasure to listen to. And then for a Game from the same Universe with a monthly fee we get this kind of sub par voice acting and only on a handful of cutscenes?

Another problem with the story is the WAY it’s told. The vast majority of cutscenes is based on dialogues. That's nice and there have always been long dialogue heavy cutscenes in the FF series. But there have also been mindblowing cutscenes with ACTION. Lasers, epic fights, graphic effect heavy sceneries. I barely see any of these elements in FF14AAR. Instead I go through a dialogue monster where I have to click through each line somebody says and there is also zero identification with the character I am playing because all I do in these cutscenes is nodding to what everybody else said. Actually was there ONE cutscene where you char doesn't silently nod lol?

FF14ARR is actually the 1st episode I play that has an at best poor presentation of the story. Normally this is an absolute highlight of the FF series. Dunno why their MMO doesn't follow what made FF famous. Seeing that not even the main story quests in 2.1 have any voice acting makes me think that the Future won't get much better. Seems it is an element Yoshi and his crew do not care that much about sadly (or don't have the budget for it). I just wish at least the story part would provide me with epic cutscenes like I know and love them from previous FF titles. Nothing better than watching a 15 minute long epic cutscene after a tough fight. I also would love to watch something at least for a few minutes without having to click through the dialogue lines...oh well.

Last week I tried Bethesda's new MMO and everybody in there talks, even the completely unimportant NPC you walk by has something to say. Each quest, no matter if main or side quest comes with nice voice acting. That's allowing me to immerse in the Game, silent nodding does not lol.

[KarstenS]

The german version is absolutely horrendous and should be avoided at all costs.

Yes. The german voices are really mostly bad. The onliest voice in my eyes, that is quite good, is the voice of Gaius. But the others...

When I do remember, the german voice acting of Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 was very well in my eyes. At last I did hope for a quality equal to these games.

[Mezolitik]

Last week I tried Bethesda's new MMO and everybody in there talks, even the completely unimportant NPC you walk by has something to say. Each quest, no matter if main or side quest comes with nice voice acting. That's allowing me to immerse in the Game, silent nodding does not lol.

But, like Skyrim, is it six voice actors for 30,000 NPCs?

I missed a lot of the voice acting in FFXIV because I turned the voices off. I don't like the constant sighing, and oohing, and aahing that comes with a lot of Japanese games. A good example is Resident Evil 5, 6, and Revelations; every action is accompanied by an audible gasp, from picking something up to turning around.

...and my Bard yelps like a child pretty much every time he draws the bow. He also has a female scream that he uses from time to time.

However, the absolute worst voice actor in the game is the leader of the God's Quiver. He made me LOL for all the wrong reasons.

[TomTom1968]

[...]But, like Skyrim, is it six voice actors for 30,000 NPCs?[...]

haha I know what you mean. I played it for 2 afternoons so it is too soon to tell but chance is high you are correct :P

Still better than Silence imo.

[Onidemon]

Same here, really.



In a lot, yes, but not all. I've got one series in particular on DVD where the English voice actors did a better job at bringing out the characters' personalities AND sounded better than the JP counterparts, so I can't agree to a blanket statement.

However, Spanish dubbings done in Mexico are by far the worst I've ever heard.

Which Anime is that?

[Langureion]

Good good example of English VO is Princess Mononoke.
Btw, the correct terminology is VO (Voice Over), fyi.

[FelisC]

They would have been better off not having any voice acting in the game at all. It was very distracting to have the characters sometimes talk out loud and sometimes speak in text, and the actual acting was terrible.