Why did they change all the voice actors?

[RaideDuku]

Gods, they didn't even try to get people that sounded the same. Some are worse then others. Cid and Alph were ok. Yuguri and Merlwyb were bad (like pulled some folks out of HR one day and said "Hey, read some lines in "X" accent" bad), and Urianger and Illberd's VOs were CRIMINAL.

Oddly enough, I didn't mind Rubahn's, but then again, I wasn't a big fan of the original voice actor, either.

Anyway, I understand VO actors might not be available, or they might want more money and you don't want to pay it, but you can't just throw whoever you want to do the voices. Completely different sounding with completely different accents? Totally immersion breaking. It's bad enough that I'm considering turning voices off. Not to mention a lot of the performances were so stiff and wooden that it makes 2.0 core story performances seem lively and emotional in comparison.

[FoxyAreku]

English VA in this game is sweet. I wanna marry Merlwyb's VA.

I never understood people who blindly think japanese voices are good regardless of their actual quality just for the sake that it's japanese. I'm American and I speak english, english will always be better for me.

[SpiritMuse]

You know for a game developer who seems to place importance on story to the point where even their MMO is heavily story based, these voice actors sure feel like an afterthought.

I am both disgusted and disappointed. If I wasn't already stuck with the early access I might well have canceled my preorder.

[Synapse]

I always wonder why they speak in the aristocratic era european english.. it suppose to sound sophisticated?

[ohmRICE]

I didn't have too many issues with most of the new voice actors until Urianger showed up and he wasn't voiced by Gideon Emery anymore...the new VA isn't BAD but he doesn't have the same emotion that Emery brought to the role.

Ilberd's VA change is a crime against humanity though.

[dice137]

I thought Merlwyb's new VA was surprisingly spot on, but she sounds more genuine/friendly now, as opposed to that very dry/sarcastic overtone she had to everything she said before. I prefer her old VA very much, but what we've got isn't the worst, imo. Raubahn and Alphinaud are vast improvements. Tataru... I'm on the fence about.

Yugiri sounds... ick. They couldn't decide if they wanted her to keep the whole British thing or if they wanted her to sound obviously foreign, so they got an actress who could pull off some odd mashup of both? Her odd emphasis on certain words is... just no.

[Kaedan]

English VA in this game is sweet. I wanna marry Merlwyb's VA.

I never understood people who blindly think japanese voices are good regardless of their actual quality just for the sake that it's japanese. I'm American and I speak english, english will always be better for me.

Never understood people who assume that anyone who prefers Japanese voices "blindly think they are good regardless of quality, blah, blah, blah". Stop being insulting and trolling.

[Eirwen]

This is loosely related, but wouldn't it be cool if, for one glorifying moment, in a cutscene somewhere in the game, your character spoke ONE line? I think I saw that done in one of the Grand Theft Auto games, where your character is silent all game, and then, out of nowhere, says something.

This would be great if they did something like this

As for the voice changes, it'll take some getting used to. It has happened in the past with other games. I'm gladded Alphinaud's voice "manned up". His bratty, cocky voice made me yell "shut up" to him everytime he would open his mouth.

[SummonerSenah]

Plus they can replace them and nobody can tell the diddly-ifference.

The existence of this topic shows otherwise, js.

[Berethos]

English VA in this game is sweet. I wanna marry Merlwyb's VA.

I never understood people who blindly think japanese voices are good regardless of their actual quality just for the sake that it's japanese. I'm American and I speak english, english will always be better for me.

I personally didn't think one was any better than the other...

Except for Minfilia. I just did not like the English VA for her, and thought the Japanese VA did a much better job of conveying emotion and reactions.