Immersion

[Bacent]

Having your character be silent lets you project what you want them to be like though. I personally don't want my character to have any verbal speech during cut-scenes.

[Mikki]

While it seems kind of cool, I think it would kill immersion more than it would help it, since everyone would have a different image of their character and also we have different voices to pick from so they'd probably have to do several different recordings with different voices to suit each one or it would be strange.

Overall, I'm just really happy that SB gave us a lot more options with our dialogue, even if it didn't really change anything. At least it felt like I was able to give my WoL some kind of personality.

[Sylvina]

Voiced PC works in SWTOR only becuase you have reasonable control over your reactions and replies in that game. in FFXIV its almost not there.

[Serilda]

I was under the impression that the voices were actually all done by English-speaking actors from the way some of the female ones sound in tone, or perhaps a mix; I play with Japanese dialogue so how would that work? Would my character speak in English while everyone else carries on in Japanese, or would I get a mismatched voice? In any case, this would cost an absolute fortune. They'd have to get four complete sets of actors together for every single word spoken and people would moan about it even if it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (which it would). I find my character smiling gently at Minfilia cringeworthy enough, so I'm fine with him being mostly mute.

[Zfz]

Isn't this just a difference between western RPG and JRPG?

Western RPG is often more about how the player would act under those circumstances, hence choices are given and alternate courses of action are available. But JRPG is often more about becoming the character, hence player choice is mostly irrelevant, it's not about us the players, but it's about putting ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist.

In western RPGs, you decide who the protagonist really is, by making choices. In JRPG, you are a passive observer who is living out the protagonist's story.

[Niwashi]

Western RPG is often more about how the player would act under those circumstances, hence choices are given and alternate courses of action are available. But JRPG is often more about becoming the character, hence player choice is mostly irrelevant, it's not about us the players, but it's about putting ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist.

I never minded putting myself in the shoes of the protagonist rather than the other way around in any of the single player Final Fantasy games, and in nearly all of them (all except the very first one) SE decided everything about who the characters are and what their personalities are, in addition to the story that's going on. While there are certainly some characters I like more than others, I never got the feeling that I should have had more control over who they are. (In fact, when I looked back at it after playing a few of the others, the absence of pre-determined personality in the first game's characters seemed a bit of a weak point in it.)

But in an MMO, due mainly to how long people spend playing them, more time and attention is spent on things we can do on our own or among our friends than on the main storyline. (That's true even among those of us, like myself, who regard the story as the biggest draw and primary focal point of the game.) That makes a lot of people want more control over just who their character is.

[Shihen]

Unlikely to happen, but for good reason. Your imagination fills in mental blanks with the colors you like the most. It's why a lot of old games were able to invoke strong feelings despite working with very limited tools; they pointed your imagination in the right direction and let it do the heavy lifting. Voicing the WoL would definitely paint a more vivid picture, but it would be someone else's picture.

There's definitely a place for it in games where telling a specific story is paramount, but when player perspective is the focus you want to give immersion priority.

[AngelCheese77]

Anyone thinks that if FF14 would give us ''the warior of light'' some speeches/real voice dialogues it would be quite pleasent? or is it just me? I know it takes a lot of time and resources but wouldnt it make the fans really happy? I dont mind if its only in the main story. So what is your take on this?

This is the same 'problem' that came up in Dragon Age. People loved the game, and wanted a voiced protaganist in DA:2 .... but then no one liked the voices cause it wasn't what they had in their head. I think the big point here is that we aren't just a character that was pre-made and plopped in game like Y'shtola. We create our characters from scratch. And there is no way Squeenix can know what we all want to sound like.

[GetFoesReqd]

I'm totally cool with the no words, that would definitely be a pain to add now. What hurts this for me even more though is the awfulness of all the WoL "sound/voice acting." I'd love to have even one lady highlander option that wasn't brutish, terribly edited, or possibly, just possibly, from a porn reel. No proof of course. But that's beside the point. I'm just happy they're starting to give us fake Mass Effect dialogue options in the text. It's something, at least. I think my favorite still has to be "piss off, kupo." It's perfect.

[J1992]

Its true that that it might change the JRPG to a RPG, but putting in voices in every single conversation is not what i want either. In the game they sometimes would ask your opinion as the strong silent guy, no problem with me, but those very few moment of speaking could be done with voices. I dont mind that we can choose 2 options and that this option occurs maybe 5-6 times in the entire expansion, because you are the silent type. But I wish some sound would come out of his mouth, and SE can even put a silent option for those who want to be silent. Just try babysteps, no1 should invest all their resources in 1 thing, Always do babysteps. Heck wouldnt mind if it would occur 2-3 times in the entire expansion.