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

[Edax]

In your opinion, it was better for it. In your opinion, this game will be better for it. In my opinion, I don’t think there’s a need to VA every cutscene and sidequest and speech bubble in this game. I’d rather the expansion budget be distributed to things other than VAs—like battle content.

Well I've not heard anyone say SWTOR was bad because all the quests were voice acted. It was objectively better to have voice come out of NPCs. It increase immersion and made quests more important when you actually had someone to talk to. And I'd rather the expansion budget be focused on the story over the battle content. Few people are going to remember these battles in 5 years.

[HyoMinPark]

Well I've not heard anyone say SWTOR was bad because all the quests were voice acted. And I'd rather the expansion budget be focused on the story over the battle content. Few people are going to remember these battles in 5 years.

The expansion includes more than just the MSQ—therefore, resources have to be allocated to EVERYTHING. Not just the story. Expansions include all the content we get in patches, including new dungeons, trials, raids, crafting/gathering content, glamour, the new areas, content surrounding housing, etc.. If they started leaning more heavily towards voice acting, they would have to pull from the budgets that fund these other areas. Such is the way of budgeting.

People already lost their minds when we got one less dungeon in the odd patches in Stormblood. They lose their mind when they get to endgame and there’s “nothing to do”. Patches 3.1 and 4.1 were some of the worst patches in this game’s history because there was no content aside from Thordan EX/Diadem (3.1) and Shinryu EX/UCoB (4.1). I’d imagine more cuts would have to be made from the endgame content should the developers opt to voice act everything, and I’d rather not see that.

[Edax]

If they started leaning more heavily towards voice acting, they would have to pull from the budgets that fund these other areas. Such is the way of budgeting.

That's fine by me. I don't care about SE other projects, they should invest FFXIV profits into FFXIV and make it ever better.

[HyoMinPark]

That's fine by me. I don't care about SE other projects, they should invest FFXIV profits into FFXIV and make it ever better.

You completely missed my point. Congratulations.

I don’t think voice acting everything in this game would make it better. More endgame content, however, would.

[Edax]

People already lost their minds when we got one less dungeon in the odd patches in Stormblood. They lose their mind when they get to endgame and there’s “nothing to do”. Patches 3.1 and 4.1 were some of the worst patches in this game’s history because there was no content aside from Thordan EX/Diadem (3.1) and Shinryu EX/UCoB (4.1). I’d imagine more cuts would have to be made from the endgame content should the developers opt to voice act everything, and I’d rather not see that.

You completely missed my point. Congratulations.

I don’t think voice acting everything in this game would make it better. More endgame content, however, would.

I don't think you understood my point, voice acting does not mean taking anything away from the game. A bigger budget means you can add to the game, not take it away. It's SE whose chosen to deprive FFXIV of its own money.
FFXIV can absolutely afford a bigger staff and a bigger budget.

[HyoMinPark]

I don't think you understood my point, voice acting does not mean taking anything away from the game. A bigger budget means you can add to the game, not take it away. It's SE whose chosen to deprive FFXIV of its own money.
FFXIV can absolutely afford a bigger staff and a bigger budget.

If the budget cannot afford the extra content after all the money spent on VAs, then yes, it does take away from the game. Unless you have control over SE’s larger finances and budgeting, you cannot definitively say that we will not lose anything. Nor can you control where the money goes. I dislike that FFXIV’s money goes into other projects, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Any money that goes into FFXIV that is deviated to voice acting is taken away from other aspects of the game. Expansions are given a budget, which includes the base expansion and all the patches involved—which include all the content included in said patches. I already listed them once; I won’t do that again. Considering the sheer amount of quests and dialogue in this game, you are looking a very, very, very large sum of money to cover complete voice acting like you would want. I would rather the larger budgets go to other aspects. I don’t see the need for random NPCs I interact with once or twice to have a voice.

At the end of the day, you also need to consider where we spend the majority of our time in this game. Story and sidequests are one and done unless you make alts (and until NG+ comes out). Endgame is where most people spend their time unless they unsubscribe for several weeks at a time until the next patch comes out. Perhaps more money should be spent on that instead of something far more transient.

They had a good balance with ShB. I don’t think we really need more than that.

[ForteNightshade]

I don't think you understood my point, voice acting does not mean taking anything away from the game. A bigger budget means you can add to the game, not take it away. It's SE whose chosen to deprive FFXIV of its own money.
FFXIV can absolutely afford a bigger staff and a bigger budget.

If SE did invest more money into FFXIV, those funds could be used to address pressing issues like inventory space, or adding a fifth or sixth encounter for Eden. Putting resources means something else either loses out or doesn't benefit.

As for SWTOR. Considering the sheer amount of money invested (half a billion dollars), it did nowhere near expectations. And if I recall, it several years before consistently turning a profit. They didn't abandon the subscription model without reason, after all. That isn't to say voice acting was the cause but rather they invested into the wrong things.

[Edax]

If SE did invest more money into FFXIV, those funds could be used to address pressing issues like inventory space, or adding a fifth or sixth encounter for Eden. Putting resources means something else either loses out or doesn't benefit.

As for SWTOR. Considering the sheer amount of money invested (half a billion dollars), it did nowhere near expectations. And if I recall, it several years before consistently turning a profit. They didn't abandon the subscription model without reason, after all. That isn't to say voice acting was the cause but rather they invested into the wrong things.

Perhaps, but admitted I ended up far more invested into the SWTOR story then I ever was with FFXIV.
FFXIV may definitely be a better financial model, but it suffers in the story department for it. For the sake of SE making more money for themselves, they made the right call.

[ForteNightshade]

Perhaps, but admitted I ended up far more invested into the SWTOR story then I ever was with FFXIV.
FFXIV may definitely be a better financial model, but it suffers in the story department for it. For the sake of SE making more money for themselves, they made the right call.

Which is perfectly fine but also entirely subjective. I found Shadowbringers captivating from start to finish. And the absence of full voice acting didn't ruin that. Suddenly adding a voice to our character—one which may not resonate with our own canon—has a much higher chance of hurting the story. It'd be one thing if XIV started with full voice acting but adding it now would likely be more jarring than anything else.

[Edax]

Which is perfectly fine but also entirely subjective. I found Shadowbringers captivating from start to finish. And the absence of full voice acting didn't ruin that. Suddenly adding a voice to our character—one which may not resonate with our own canon—has a much higher chance of hurting the story. It'd be one thing if XIV started with full voice acting but adding it now would likely be more jarring than anything else.

I kind of agree it's too late to introduce a voice actor for WoL. Too many people would complain I would think.

I think the other problem I have with the silent protagonist is that the WoL just doesn't have enough effect on the plot. The WoL doesn't get to make enough decisions that matter or have enough choices for the sake of roleplay. The WoL is just too passive in cutscenes in my opinion. If people want to roleplay a personality, they basically have to headcanon it because the ability to express it in cutscenes is just simply not there. You could basically replace a cardboard cutout of the WoL in most cutscenes and lose almost nothing.

All the personality seen from the WoLs in the original trailer is just not an option in this game. You can't exactly be a fiendish rogue like the Miqo'te in the trailer.
https://youtu.be/opQjN74Meec?t=52