Graha Voice Actor Change?

[claustromania]

One can never be too clear on that! I don't want to relive how many times I've been called "parasocial" over caring about consistency in performance in an entertainment product, which some have confused to mean I am obsessed with a specific actor on a personal level.

Nevermind that this whole debacle is just the most recent in a long line of complaints many, many people in the community have toward Dawntrail's EN voice direction in general, from broom closet Y'shtola and other sound quality issues to very tonally-off line delivery by multiple characters, but now that it involves this specific character, we're all suddenly being obsessive and unreasonable. G'raha, though the most egregious, wasn't even the only one with issues this patch; Alphinaud's voice sounded weirdly deep to me, and Y'shtola's delivery very flat. This is a recurring issue and fans are understandably getting fed up.

If someone doesn't care about all of that, that's fine. I could care less about the two minute meta, job adjustments, weird spaghetti code hangups, how easy or hard or replayable certain content is, but I'll never ridicule people for caring about those things as that's what they value and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm personally primarily in it for the story and its characters, but some people simply cannot comprehend or accept that someone could have different priorities for the product they pay for.

[peachsyder]

Nevermind that this whole debacle is just the most recent in a long line of complaints many, many people in the community have toward Dawntrail's EN voice direction in general, from broom closet Y'shtola and other sound quality issues to very tonally-off line delivery by multiple characters, but now that it involves this specific character, we're all suddenly being obsessive and unreasonable. G'raha, though the most egregious, wasn't even the only one with issues this patch; Alphinaud's voice sounded weirdly deep to me, and Y'shtola's delivery very flat. This is a recurring issue and fans are understandably getting fed up.

If someone doesn't care about all of that, that's fine. I could care less about the two minute meta, job adjustments, weird spaghetti code hangups, how easy or hard or replayable certain content is, but I'll never ridicule people for caring about those things as that's what they value and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm personally primarily in it for the story and its characters, but some people simply cannot comprehend or accept that someone could have different priorities for the product they pay for.

Well said. There are things about the game that are incredibly important to others but not to me, yet I've never had the instinct to join in their discussions and complaints to shout about how much this doesn't matter, how it's not a big deal because I don't care about it, how they're insane for saying their interest in the game might disappear entirely over this. Different things matter to different people, and as someone whose main reason for playing and being invested in the game is the story and characters, of which the voice performances are a crucial part of—of course this matters a lot to me. Especially when it comes to my own favorite character and my favorite voice performance in the game.

I made a couple of posts on social media doing little more than encouraging people to post here instead of just on their personal accounts, since the forums are supposed to be the place where Square Enix actually reads feedback, and was quite stunned by how strongly many people reacted to it. As in, throwing insults, saying I was delusional, parasocial towards Bailey, a danger to myself and to him, even. All of that because I said if people care about this huge voice discrepancy in this patch and want to let SE know Bailey's performance as G'raha matters to them, they should post here.

That said, I don't regret doing so. A lot of people here have voiced their sentiments incredibly well as well as provided some very interesting insight on the UK voice acting industry, what Bailey's schedule was like this year, and other bits of information I wasn't aware of myself. I wish we didn't have to be speculating among ourselves, but it's been heartening to know I'm not alone in the way I feel.

[claustromania]

I made a couple of posts on social media doing little more than encouraging people to post here instead of just on their personal accounts, since the forums are supposed to be the place where Square Enix actually reads feedback, and was quite stunned by how strongly many people reacted to it. As in, throwing insults, saying I was delusional, parasocial towards Bailey, a danger to myself and to him, even. All of that because I said if people care about this huge voice discrepancy in this patch and want to let SE know Bailey's performance as G'raha matters to them, they should post here.

I did see some of that, unfortunately. One lovely individual was even relishing the turmoil among EN G'raha fans because they just don't like G'raha themselves, which, okay lol. Thankfully most of what I saw was so absurd and weirdly deferential toward SE that it could hardly be taken seriously ("Stop posting about severe quality issues in the official forums!!", "SE owes you NOTHING no matter how much money and loyalty you've shelled out for them!!"). That said, having vitriol directed at you personally for daring to care about characters in a game that specifically touts its story and well-written characters is a whole other ballgame. I'm sorry people are being vile.

Yet another reason why SE's handling of this (or lack thereof) is so disappointing. There would be no cause for hostility in the community if they'd been transparent.