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

[Schwarzwind]

As much as I love the voice acting in other games like SWTOR I have the feeling that it would not really fit into the potrayal of FFXIV's hero. I would rather see more varied dialogue options to choose from.

[kidalutz]

I see you know that about as well as you know whether people are playing on controllers or not.

I gotta ask is it easier on a controller?

[Kurando]

And I'll throw this one in there. I'll pay for it. They have my contact info. If its that much of a issue, I'll cover the cost. I can afford it.

If your contribution potential was so important you wouldn't even need to come to their forums, such money could give you a direct line to SE. They won't contact unless you are in the Forbes list of millionaires, so contact then yourself with your business plan. Unless the general player support is there, it won't get far though...

[IttyBitty]

Theatre of the mind, people.

Adding voice acting would really add...nothing of value. Would actually be more of a detriment, both to the install size (those lines in all those voices in all those languages would add up fast) and to people's perception of their characters. Even tiny things like the specific intonation of a sentence can ruin it.

All I want is more things to pick from.

[Krotoan]

I gotta ask is it easier on a controller?

I dunno if it's "easier" but I can lay back with my controller resting in my lap VS the usual KB/M upright with hands out pose. I don't find it to be anymore difficult to play though. The only place KB/m performs better is placing AOE circles. With a mouse it's much faster.

[Rysir]

At this point it would be too jarring to just suddenly start having voiced dialog for our characters.

Id rather we get to actually participate in combat scenes instead so we are not just drawing our weapon and standing there menacingly.

[Schan]

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.

Uhm... I dunno. I like the voice in my head better than what some actor can do more often than not.
Also the parts the WoL's lips move are usually referring to the WoL telling people what just hapened. You want them to voice act them telling others what you've just played? why waste the time? I was always appreciative of that method because it would save time. I don't want to sit there listening the WoL putting into words what i've just played. I mean... I was there.

[Kiryoku]

I already cannot stand some characters in the story just imagine that one of those characters would be the protagonist you created.

I mean that's basically how I feel. Whenever my character is in a cutscene I just wish it was someone else instead. They rarely contribute anything of value besides being the WARRIOR OF LIGHT, HERO OF THE REALM and all. So yeah, I can imagine that.

Uhm... I dunno. I like the voice in my head better than what some actor can do more often than not.
Also the parts the WoL's lips move are usually referring to the WoL telling people what just hapened. You want them to voice act them telling others what you've just played? why waste the time? I was always appreciative of that method because it would save time. I don't want to sit there listening the WoL putting into words what i've just played. I mean... I was there.

No, there's no point to voicing that. Even for other characters like Alphinaud when he explains things its not voiced, its just lips moving/maybe a fadeout. Would be a waste of time to re-explain everything every time a new character is introduced. There are a few instances of cutscenes where your character looks like they are actually saying something but they just don't.

[Halivel]

There was quite the same be meaning post not so long ago, will just quote my own answer from there.

/imagines making VA for 12 voices for 8 races in 2 genders in 4 languages every patch/

As much as it could be cool, just... no. Not only it will be extremely expensive and time-demanding, it also will break an RP aspect for some players, because I'm quite sure that a lot of people have their thoughts about how their character's voice could sound (as do I personally, and while my chosen voice is near to what I imagine, I doubt that it would sound properly in cut scenes).

For understanding what "VA for 12 voices for 8 races in 2 genders in 4 languages every patch" means: 672 voice actors (768 if we ever will have counterparts for Viera and Hrothgar) would need to record lines every three months (that's how often we have major MSQ updates). Long, expensive and this not to mention that the way how they speak could completely break the atmosphere of the scene for you and the voice could sound just weird with your character. Thanks, but no, I would prefer to imagine my character's voice by myself in appropriate way.

And in case if anybody thinks "just make one voice per gender so 8 VA overall to save the time that would be so cool!" - no it would not be cool because just imagine Lalafell and Hrothgar speaking with one voice. Or even better: "picked low brutal voice in options; hearing high-tone nonsense in the cut-scene 30 minutes after".

[Edax]

Theatre of the mind, people.

Adding voice acting would really add...nothing of value.

Disagree. One of the reasons I don't bother to record the cutscenes of my WoL to upload on Youtube is because the silent protagonist translates very very poorly into a video. It's just awkward.