Cutscene text position

[Aron73]

This is a bit random, but it's something that has always bugged me a tiny bit so I wanted to see if anyone else agrees.

Why is it, that in all the cutscenes the text is at the bottom of the screen? Why not have the text appear in a position near the character who is speaking, like in FF7, FF8, FF9, etc.

Maybe other people are different, but when I'm reading the text at the bottom of the screen, I can't actually focus on any of the character animations at the same time. So I'm reading text, then just looking at a still image.

I'm not saying it's a huge issue or anything, just seems like a really strange change to make from previous games.

I think this is a valid question.
In my opinion, the most boring part (mainly because I'm a slow reader) is to read that wall of text, so seeing some movement indicating who is talking instead of like me I read and I read, and in the end, I wonder what the hell I was reading because I did not understand at all what I was reading because mainly I did not realize someone else was "talking."
As a person with Dyslexia, I would prefer to have everything voiced, but that's a tall order, so I doubt that's going to happen.

[kaynide]

I think this is a valid question.
In my opinion, the most boring part (mainly because I'm a slow reader) is to read that wall of text, so seeing some movement indicating who is talking instead of like me I read and I read, and in the end, I wonder what the hell I was reading because I did not understand at all what I was reading because mainly I did not realize someone else was "talking."
As a person with Dyslexia, I would prefer to have everything voiced, but that's a tall order, so I doubt that's going to happen.

If you don’t know who is talking (in FFXIV at least), the name is almost always at the top of the text box. Not meant as an attack, just an FYI.

That said, many other games do utilize a variety of methods to make clear who is talking. Some older RPGs used portraits, some used a variety of text colors or fonts (like the old Enix games or even Undertale), some use generic grunts or noises (like 3D Zeldas). I don’t know how much extra work it would be to implement something like this, but it could help, even if it’s just like the name tags above the text having some flair.

[Aron73]

If you don’t know who is talking (in FFXIV at least), the name is almost always at the top of the text box. Not meant as an attack, just an FYI.

That said, many other games do utilize a variety of methods to make clear who is talking. Some older RPGs used portraits, some used a variety of text colors or fonts (like the old Enix games or even Undertale), some use generic grunts or noises (like 3D Zeldas). I don’t know how much extra work it would be to implement something like this, but it could help, even if it’s just like the name tags above the text having some flair.

Some things that you mentioned do help like a portrait and also as an FYI Urianger has a really special way of talking so that makes it easier to notice oh this is a different char.
But portraits always work for me it kind of breaks my "tunnel vision" while reading.
It is hard to explain but for me it is so easy to miss that Giant ass name in the top left corner for some reason, I usually call it tunnel vision