Wuk Lamat's Poor EN Voice Acting

[Vyrerus]

Those that I saw said that she sounded like she was reading her lines from a book or speaks very stiffly. It just shows how different you can perceive something.
I find it difficult to assess the quality of a voiceover if I don't speak/understand the language myself. Japanese often sounds very good to me and yet I'm sure that there are differences in quality that I don't even notice because I have no idea about the language itself. In the same way, certain other languages sound quite aggressive to me. (Just like they always say that we Germans sound very harsh)

I guess if we're hearing from other languages that other VAs in those languages also sounded stiff and odd, then maybe it really can mostly be blamed on the direction and remote working conditions this time around.

Here's to hoping.

[Swordsman]

As has been said, and as has now been censored repeatedly by deletion, the voice over segments done in English for patch 6.55's introduction of the character Wuk Lamat were done very poorly.

The voice over work for the patch itself was rather lackluster all around, but Wuk Lamat's rendition was significantly lower in quality than every other VA in EN. This may have been exacerbated by expedited, remote recording conditions, but the fact remains.

I found myself switching to German for the duration of the patch, even though I do not speak it, in order to try and enjoy the character more. This was overall a degradation to the experience, since I could not enjoy the other English VAs that I am accustomed to hearing.

In the censored threads, other players who pay for and love this game echoed this same sentiment for a variety of reasons.

I have played and paid for this game for almost 11 years. I have played and paid for SE's first MMO, FFXI, since 2003. My feedback should matter, just as every other paying customer's feedback should. Feedback should not be subject to deletion, especially when it is genuine.

Please get the Voice Actor for Wuk Lamat training or improve on her performance in some discernible way. Or give us the option to switch out specific spoken characters.

As it stands, her direction in EN specifically comes off as an offensive caricature, does not match the character in other languages, and does not let us all enjoy the character in a similar way, negating the shared experience aspect that make MMOs great.

Yeah, I wasn't very impressed with it either. It doesn't sound too bad when Wuk Lamat is just casually conversing with other characters, but any voice lines inside the mini-dungeon or during battle just fall kind of flat. IMO, it's like the VA doesn't know how to properly express excitement or stress.

[ShaylaSakura]

Her voice didn't bother me in the slightest. I also didn't know or care that the actor is trans. Doesn't bother me.

[sindriiisgaming]

So I've already gone over why her va wasn't instructed to sound "south american" due the games accents not being geographical. And tbh this is a meaningless post that singles one actor out without bringing credence to other bad actors like ereville (if that's how you spell it) who also has a poor accent. But see now ppl will jump on me because I attacked there precious bunboy prince. So you see this debate never has been about her voice. It's a disdain for 1 or all of these 3 things.

1. Her va and her views
2. The fact its a hrothgal
3. An expectation of an accent that was never jn any way promised to you

[DiaDeem]

Why are you guys discussing the same thing on two different threads while achieving nothing???

[TheMightyMollusk]

Because the other twelve or so fell off the front page or got scrubbed by mods.

[Pip_Chick]

I will give my 2 cents on this: All the VAs sounded weird in this last patch, not Just Wuk's. People are mostly singling her out for no reason. No one talked about Graha's monotone/bored interpretation, how robotic Krile sounded and even Alisae's sounded off, and even the precious Erenville sounded at times like he was hiccuping in between the lines (Someone give that man some water). I will hazard a guess that the Voice instructor (or however you call that job) was not giving the VAs the best indications + they were not in the same studio to get a feel of the others on how to act.

I think the VA is good, I will not go by the very small patch that we had where everyone was off-sounding. But by the Trailer, where her voice sounded great and most people seem to agree.

I say wait until DawnTrail to see if it is really that bad. Remember how Fandaniel's VA sounded in the Prepatch and how good it got in EndWalker.

And for those misgendering the VA, go touch some grass. You are pathetic.

[Falkyron]

I really enjoyed the voice work. I thought she was energetic and fun. Kind of reminded me of Hange and Sasha from Attack on Titan. Seems like an enjoyable companion for another adventure. Wuk Lamat and Erenville have a good double act going on, and I look forward to more.


As for the reason "criticism" is coming off as disingenuous is because people keep claiming that other voice work as been subpar but you don't see threads about that. Where the 17 page thread about G'raha Tia sounding tired and totally checked out this patch? Where's the threads about all the other voice work people are saying is subpar? Nowhere.

People are dog-piling on this one voice actress. I would ask why that is, but...

It's crazy to me that somebody would ever post this when the scene at the balcony wishing you farewell exists. Wuk Lamat calls out in a monotone voice with no emotion or volume, apparently shouting a few hundred feet to you, and the VA having forgotten that they are meant to be faking an accent. It's the worst example I've seen so far, and it's not an isolated incident of the VA dropping her accent or not managing delivery.

Not every criticism is due to identity politics garbage. I don't care that they're trans. Do you even realize what players you're talking to right now? This is FFXIV. My entire clique is freakin' LGBT. You're actually going to paint a large swathe of the playerbase of this freakin' game as transphobic? Of all games!? That's a bold move, Cotton.

That said, my annoyance isn't directed at her. I'm actually more agitated at whoever was directing the VAs because there is no freaking way that was an okay take. Why would they use that take!?

[Tullius]

Because the other twelve or so fell off the front page or got scrubbed by mods.

Square Enix West can force this all they want, run cover, damage control, what have you, but it's not going to result in acceptance. It's just going to build resentment.

[Shibi]

I will give my 2 cents on this: All the VAs sounded weird in this last patch, not Just Wuk's. People are mostly singling her out for no reason. No one talked about Graha's monotone/bored interpretation, how robotic Krile sounded and even Alisae's sounded off, and even the precious Erenville sounded at times like he was hiccuping in between the lines (Someone give that man some water).

None of the English VA was great, but the specific performance by the VA behind Wuk Lametea's English Voice took away a lot of enjoyment for a lot of people.

For a headline character role, someone the entire expansion rested on, I don't know how the performance got signed off on by SE. Even an employee who was heavily enamoured of the character - on listening to the rushes by the VA - couldn't have thought, 'Wow! this is top work!'. They should have gone "shit, this bad" and called for a retake.

And if the chosen VA - whomever they are - hadn't of been up to the retake, the casting director for the English talent should have hired someone else.