Nice find Rowyne. Serves to illustrate the level of talent procured for this game. The opening Limsa Lominsa scene is so good. If they could just get those voice actors to do readings every week until 2.0 I think that would go a long ways.

Quote Originally Posted by lackofwords View Post
Yeah, the first sentence was just for TLDR purpose, giving my thoughts as concise as possible. Although, I didn't really mean 'forbid it' if I've given off that sense. More like, 'dialog serves its purpose in text for all the minor roles'.



Do you mean story telling with full voice acting? If so, then in short, maybe. It would be as much as I would enjoy a movie adaption of a book. Meaning it depends on who they've casted and the direction's portrayal of the work. Could be awful, or could be good.

Or if you're talking non-voiced scenes, like the scenes where main characters like Yda appear up in text instead of speech, yes it was awkward. However, I already had in mind what she sound like from her speech previously, thus there was already established context for me to infer off of.

I was even some what attached to minor characters with no story roles, such as retainers. They still have a personality that clearly is reflected by carefully chosen words. Such as shyness, ambitious, or elegance. Sadly, this does not become apparent until you actually pick them.

Or if you want me to refer to a text-only quest line,
(spoilers warning)

The THM class quest line, (below)
It pits you against a fellow THM in training, upon the first meeting with this character, you can already sense what kind of character she is by her actions and philosophy. Her personality clashes with your character's is clearly depicted without the need of voice. (well what SE makes out your character to be) You were made to hate that character, and I did.


However, as I mentioned, voicing story based characters would inherently give them more life when carefully casted by a director. But when applying it to a scale where everyone is voiced, minor characters get the short end of the stick. Where it might even break the player's immersion* in the game with poor acting, such as the examples given, where text alone would have still kept it intact.

Or in a worst case scenario; ever read a book or played a character where you've inherently gave the character a voice in your head, then went to see a movie or tv show adaption of it, and it breaks your vision of the character? This happens because of variance in how people interpret the work, and allows movies of the same story be directed differently.

A funny worst case scenario;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPxY8lpYAUM

*About immersion, voice only plays a small role. The sound, the environment, the music, the characters, all those sum up the full picture. Such as why does the club Afterlife in Mass Effect 2 give off a stronger impact than the bar in Dragon Age 2 where you meet Isabela? They both had similar elements, but where did Dragon Age 2 fall short? For me it was the visual design of the bar itself.
Overall, great contribution to the discussion. Are you trying to say that minor character in Skyrim broke the sense of immersion because of the careless attitude behind the voice. I agree that it doesn't sound very moody, but it's not that much of a stretch that random woman #2591 in Skyrim would really sound like that. In any case, Skyrim is a terrible example of quality voice acting. For one thing, you have the same 3 gd males voice acting nearly every character in the game. It's impossible for 3 people to represent all the different sides with enough variety, unless it's South Park. FFXIV already has a lot more voice actors than Skyrim, and they're all damn good.