Dear Square Enix,

[WilhelmWhite]

No, I disagree, I do not wish to see more fully voiced cutscenes, let alone the entire main scenario, and that is for one simple reason which is why SE does not already do so (and cost actually is not really a deciding factor despite first impressions).

The reason why not all cutscenes are voiced is because many cutscenes identify the player by name, which is completely impossible to do with a fully voiced cutscene, unless they identify your character in a default manner (which the currently voiced ones already do, identifying your character with generic pronouns or boilerplate terms like 'the adventurer', 'the champion', the 'Warrior of Light' etc). It's no surprise that when SE started to add voice acting to the FF series the player suddenly lost the ability to personalize their party's names, MMOs like FFXIV and FFXI before however it's a necessary component of the game, and thus they couldn't avoid it. Games like Mass Effect and The Old Republic which do have all cutscenes in the game fully voiced usually sacrifice personalization for this reason (requiring the player to have a default name that is what they are actually identified by in cutscenes, regardless of whatever name the player happens to have given them).

So I do not see this changing, and I'm glad, because voice acting in games in general tends to gravitate more towards the good side of "Z-grade bad", and FFXIV is no different.

^This. While voice acted scenes are nice, it's even more nice to see a story NPC addressing me by my name. Hell, there are some games with voice acted scenes where, if your name should come up during the scene, the NPC will literally become silent for a brief moment where your name would be spoken, and then continue with the rest of their dialogue. With FFXIV, voice acted characters will refer to us almost always as "The warrior of light". While that is probably the best option for voice acted NPCs communicating with a custom character, it starts to feel very... generalized and unnecessarily formal.

It works in Skyrim because your character mostly works alone. In the main story the main character doesn't build a strong bond with anyone in particular. It's the opposite in the msq. Your character has a strong bond with the majority of the main cast because you work closely with them. It wouldn't make sense for them to never call you by name. Your character has fought, bled and grieved with those people. How could they not be close enough to drop all titles and use their real name? Exactly this happened in FFX and it bugged the hell out of me for the entire game.

^^^Thank you! After everything we've been through with certain characters, constantly being referred to as "The warrior of light" seems rather silly. Piggybacking off of Penthea, I couldn't agree more. I love Skyrim, and the formality with how you're addressed makes sense in that game. Even the potential followers you can recruit are never emotionally close enough to warrant a first name basis.

I find it amusing how people assume that a given company has more than enough money when they are clueless as to how much things actually cost.

^^^I have to agree with this as well. Voice acting is not cheap at all, and unless people are somehow able to obtain intricate details of SE's expense reports, "Lol SE has money" isn't much of an argument.

[NephthysVasudan]

^^^I have to agree with this as well. Voice acting is not cheap at all, and unless people are somehow able to obtain intricate details of SE's expense reports, "Lol SE has money" isn't much of an argument.

Yeah...I just hope that kind of foolishness isn't contagious...because its getting far worse than I'd like to admit. People do not think past their fish bowl viewpoint anymore.