[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

[OliverQ]

That's your opinion, quite a few people think it doesnt sound right, that the tone isnt right and that the voice is just way too deep, people have a right to their opinion, and it aint transphobia to have one.

I think the only people who think it sounds too manly are the ones being transphobic. The ones who think the delivery or emotion are off are the ones who have a more legitimate criticism.

[SwadTheFrog]

How is it both? Sena is (seemingly) a white American. But the devs chose someone who isn't South American.

In other words, I would rather somrone who has the actual heritage instead of a fake accent, but it's the devs who opted for this.

It's possible for someone that's not South American (or any other ethnicity for that matter) to put on a fairly good (or at least fun) south american accent that isn't offensive. While I'd say that "sure, I prefer someone that has a similar heritage" too, if the VA is good enough to make me go "Screw it, I like this, it's got charisma", I'm happy to accept it. DiMaggiio with Wakka ,for an example, absolutely did that. Wuk Lamat...doesn't.

[SannaR]

You said it yourself, you're a gringo. You can't get into the mindset of someone who speaks Spanish or is from a Spanish speaking country and might be offended by a performance that mocks their language.

Dude your problem is that it's not an accent of your liking. A Puerto Rican spanish accent is going to sound different from someone who grew up in the South Western states, let alone from ones from Mexico, or Spain. I'm sure that someone from Columbia is going to do a head tilt if they heard someone from Texas or even Cuba speaking Spanish. We also don't know if Wuk Lamat is from Southern or Northern Tural. We don't know if she is meant to have a South American accent or not. Heck I bet that there's a difference in accents between people from Argentina and Venezuela. I know that people from Portugal say others who speak Portuguese who are from Brazil or Cape Verde have a difference in their accent.

Let's take a look at American accents. It would probably be hard for someone who normally speaks in the slow twang that you can find in Texas to try and get a perfect Bostonian accent since a lot of the time they drop their Hs and have a faster clip. Or for that Texan to sound like a person from New Jersey. Even in Texas there are two distinct dialects and that's just one state.

[Turtledeluxe]

It's possible for someone that's not South American (or any other ethnicity for that matter) to put on a fairly good (or at least fun) south american accent that isn't offensive. While I'd say that "sure, I prefer someone that has a similar heritage" too, if the VA is good enough to make me go "Screw it, I like this, it's got charisma", I'm happy to accept it. DiMaggiio with Wakka ,for an example, absolutely did that. Wuk Lamat...doesn't.

I don't think being good at a fake accent makes it any less insulting. But you do you. I think that kind of logic is extremely problematic.

But apparently they may be Puerto Rican so, idk.

[KuroMaboroshi]

I think the only people who think it sounds too manly are the ones being transphobic. The ones who think the delivery or emotion are off are the ones who have a more legitimate criticism.

The transphobic people are the ones who purposefully misgender or deadname her, not the ones who simply express criticism of the voice in game. If they don't like the voice, that's that. Nothing wrong with it and nothing to be done about it. You can't feel wrong. Even if their point of criticism is that they wanted a more feminine voice for the character, that doesn't mean they wish harm upon the VA or want to treat her badly. Sure, there are some bad actors in this thread, but to put out such blanket accusations is not helpful.

As another user put it earlier...

And thus has the well been poisoned and camps set up for people to preemptively fall into based on their political views, rather than their opinions on a subpar performance. The modern internet sure is a marvel.

I want to give most people here the benefit of the doubt and assume they just want to honestly discuss their opinions of the VA's work, not the VA's personage. Tastes vary, and there is no such thing as "feeling wrong". If you enjoyed the voice, okay. If you didn't enjoy the voice, that's also okay.
Sure, there are definitely some transphobes trying to stirr up drama in the thread and the OP clearly started this with trolling intent knowing it would happen, but to assume everyone criticising the voicework to belong to that crowd is neither helpful nor fair. At the same time, the other side accusing those defending the voicework of only doing so out of similarly external reasons is equally silly. I wish we could all just take a deep breath and calm down, but alas, this is the internet and the official forums to boot.


On the actual topic, I don't really have a horse in this race, as my native German's dub is awful (mostly its utterly poor voice direction) and when I started playing I had a choice to switch to one of two foreign languages whose sound I was at least somewhat used to - sorry, French. I vibed with the JP dub more than the EN one and have stuck with it since, grating though JP Tataru is on my ears and I wish I could have something closer to the English dub for her - you win some, you lose some.
I've not listened to the English dub much since, outside of trailer material and watching some streamers who play with EN dub, so for what it's worth, the only time I've heard Wuk Lamat's English VA so far was during the Fanfest trailer, where I thought she sounded fine.

The one thing I do want to push back a bit against is the "compare it to JP" argument that keeps cropping up. Fact is:

Square Enix does not and has never tried to keep character interpretations by their VAs consistent across languages.

This is true for both long-established characters and newcomers alike. Some examples have already been named in the thread, and I'd like to add Tataru, Alisaie, or even a really minor part like the magician's voice in P9(S) to the list.
JP Tataru sounds nothing like EN Tataru, EN Alisaie emphasises completely different traits in her performance than JP Alisaie, the P9 magician soul is a young witch in JP and Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie in EN. Not to mention EN had the whole VA cast swap after ARR, none of whom tried to sound much like the character's previous VA. And who knows how it is with the French and German dubs. Many of these characters are well liked, in spite of these glaring differences that if we subscribe to "diffent = bad" they should receive an equal amount of pushback.
Best faith assumption is that those interpretations, while not the same, did not bother people, so they feel no need to compare in the first place and now that it does, they start doing so and suddenly notice those differences.

If so, that's okay. I hope they compare a few of the other voices and will find that this is not about Wuk Lamat's voice, but about all of them. If that's a problem, then the criticism should be directed at this phenomenon in general.

[NiceNox]

I don't know if it's only me, and I hope this doesn't come of as offensive, but the Wuk voice reminds me of the character "Angel Dust" from Hazbin Hotel. Also, as I stated before, the main criticism I have is VA's voice inconsistency, which can be iron out with practice and so on, and I hope the VA takes rational criticisms and strives for perfection.

I hope that we can talk and discuss this topic civilly and focus more on skills and merits instead of personal stuff; It's "Voice Acting" and its a skill-based job.

[SwadTheFrog]

I don't think being good at a fake accent makes it any less insulting. But you do you. I think that kind of logic is extremely problematic.

I'm literally South American, and I'm quite literally telling you if I see a character voice acted by someone that isn't a South American, but they put in a good enough job in understanding the pronounciation and accent from one of our regions, and knock it out of the park, I don't mind, yes. But the casting decision was bad, and the VA was bad. So I don't like it.

But thank you very much for telling me that I should be offended on your behalf, when it's my culture we're talking about, I guess? Savior Complex, much.

[WantlessYoYo]

.
the P9 magician soul is a young witch in JP and Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie in EN.

You just made my day with this LMAO

[Volgia]

Im trying to be respectful about it by saying ''deep undertone'' but what i mean by that is essentially under the umbrella of ''calling up what it is''

How am i supposed to word my issue with her voice acting?

Sorry did you read what I posted. I have no qualms with people not liking her voice acting. The people who defend her identity as a trans person didn't poison the well on this discussion, the people who came with the bigotry did.

[MagiusNecros]

Wuk Lamat sounds like a female Wakka and I can't unhear it. It's hilarious in hindsight.