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

[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.

[MOZZYSTAR]

I like my silent protagonist. I DID love how so much of SHB was VA'd in comparison to other expansions (or it felt that way), but I don't want my own character VA'd for FFXIV. I'm fine with it in games where it starts out that way, like ME and .hack//GU, because we're RPing as the character that game made, pretty much. But my FFXIV character is MY character. Them adding dialogue options only made this "fact" better.

[Narangerel]

Nah, keep 'em silent. So many people referencing Swtor, which has essentially become a giant contradiction as a "Single-player MMO", because be honest...no one plays swtor for it's endgame, it's mostly for story and even that's gone off the deep end, somewhat. No, not every NPC needs voice acting. To say that they do is an opinion and not a fact, and the story has never hurt for having a silent protag, much like the other FF games who have had them.

[IntrovertAnt]

A protagonist not having a voice is a useful narrative tool. It makes it so that all of us playing cater the character we're playing to ourselves, in our heads.

It's used in many different famous book series and video games and it works to keep a majority of people satisfied and engaged in a character they have agency with.

[Selova]

A voice being attached to the player character has way greater of a chance of hurting the story then there not being one. It's a way for a person to immerse themselves into their character. Not to mention that after 9 years of a silent protagonist all of a sudden attaching a voice actor for your character would be extremely jarring and off-putting. It's not like FFXIV is the only RPG that does this, pretty much every JRPG from 1995 to the early 2000's also had stories with a silent protagonist and none of those games ever suffered because of it. I highly, highly doubt they would ever consider doing this due to how much it would detract from the story experience.

[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

[Relmitos]

I don't think lack of voice acting hurts emotion, I give the characters my own voices etc.
If anything adding voice acting to a whole expansion everywhere tends to make it so you get less dialogue, lore and detail and sometimes in the case of dubbed voices for example the deliverance just doesn't work.

We have more than 2 decades of games and hundreds of years of books proving that text alone does a great job. animal crossing and golden sun for example just use weird sounds sped up etc.

I understand where this is all coming from, But I see it more as a lack of taking the time to read and truly understand the character, even npc's rather than just having to hear them cry or laugh to acknowledge it.
It's like when one recommends to a friend to read this fantastic book or read this manga but they're like ''I don't have the patience to read and take it in'' But they have the patience to wait 6 years for it to come out and then watch 1 episode a week

Now those few scenes where we get voice acting are nice, But I appreciate them way more because you then get to hear their actual voices vs how you interpreted them. If there has to be a tradeoff between detail and voiced dialogue though, I'd much rather keep having just text that I can immerse myself in while imagining scenarios in my head.

There are ofc games out there with full voice acting but that shit takes a lot of effort and time, especially in an mmo where you're already doing a lot of other stuff


I've assigned a personality and voice to my WoL headcanon already

[Fynlar]

It's like when one recommends to a friend to read this fantastic book or read this manga but they're like ''I don't have the patience to read and take it in'' But they have the patience to wait 6 years for it to come out and then watch 1 episode a week

I personally can't blame them too much, really. Some people are simply more visual and can't really enjoy material in written, static form as well.

A format like what this game has is fine because it still has user interaction and dynamic/visual elements, but if this entire game was presented as a book or manga instead I'd be bored out of my tears.