Lack of voice acting is really hurting the emotion of the story

[Elladie]

No thank you. I absolutely don't want my character saying anything I haven't opted for myself or talking in some 'random' voice I have no control over. In your opinion it causes an emotional divide; in my opinion, it really doesn't. This story has been incredible and powerful, and I have lived every moment of it. Some random voice actor speaking as Elai would TOTALLY throw me out of the story

[kidalutz]

Does anyone else feel this way? The devs seem to be steadily getting better at making good storylines and likeable characters, but our own character is really falling short in contributing any proper emotion because of their lack of voice. There will be a tense scene of characters talking back and forth, then a small action sequence and then...

Pan back to your character, they make fish lips for a second, complete silence, and then back to the action.

Please, either give them a voice or STOP doing this. Either have our character be a main contributor to these scenes through a real voice, or make them a bystander, because this midway point where we are actively making emotional scenes worse by our very presence is incredibly frustrating from a narrative perspective.

not really when it comes to va its not nessecarry at all. Plus you got to consider cost of what you're suggesting there are (currently) Hyur, Roegdyn,Lalafel,AuRa,Elezen,Viera,Hrothgar of them Hyur Roe Lala AuRa Elezen Have two genders and all have two tribes 12 different voice options each thats 168 different voice actors figure 200 bucks an hour to do the voice acting. now figure the volume of things the MC has to say and figure each of those three choices takes at the very minimum 3 hours to make sure the lines are said perfectly to convey the emotion of the moment thats 100,800 bucks per line choice.

[Katie_Kitty]

More dialogue choices is the better option, and Shadowbringers did a good job with that.

[Reimmi]

Not at all
i get to imagine what my character is thinking, adding a voice to my character would kill my entire image

I'm 100% on board with more dialogue options so we can have a personality for our character that way,

[Listrella]

you are aware some of the best final fantasies, such as 4, 6, 7 and 9 have absolutely no voice acting right, as well as a bunch of other great game series such as suikoden and dragon quest, voice acting is not required to have a good story.

[Averax]

If they give your character a true voice of their own, it would stop being your character with the personality and voice you gave it.

The closest we're gonna get is when... *spoilers*

Ardbert was speaking through us.

[Evergrey]

I've played ESO for almost 2 years now while taking a break from FFXIV and I have to say, returning to FFXIV and there's almost no voice acting feels pretty boring.
Everything except the main character (you) in ESO is voice acted. All those voices makes the game world feel so much more alive.
Perhaps I'm spoiled or whatever, but I miss the voice acting when playing my MMO.
The story in FFXIV is top notch this time around. Interested to see where it will take us during Shadowbringers.

[White_Wolf_X]

[Kaethra]

you are aware some of the best final fantasies, such as 4, 6, 7 and 9 have absolutely no voice acting right, as well as a bunch of other great game series such as suikoden and dragon quest, voice acting is not required to have a good story.

My favorite version of 4 had voice acting.

[CazzT]

One of the worst additions to Fallout 4 was the "voice protagonist". It's not MY character at that point. The WoL is MY character, it's MY story. If Kyssa has a voice different than what I hear in my head, she's not MY character anymore.

It's OK to have a character who doesn't actually have an audible voice. It actually provides for more immersion than a voiced character, most especially when the character is controlled by the player. In some games, a voiced protagonist works. Witcher series is one of the best examples. You're playing as a specific character, Geralt of Rivia, so that being a voiced character makes sense. Here we're not playing a character who already has an established backstory, we write that story ourselves as we progress through the storyline. Therefore, the best approach is no audible voice.

TLDR: No. This is not a game where a voiced protagonist would be a good thing.