Graha Voice Actor Change?

[Daralii]

1. Correcting the sheer flood of misinformation that people kept throwing around matters when it comes to keeping this thread on topic and away from baseless speculation, which doesn't help the situation.

2. If the vocal performance/quality issues regarding Aymeric and Y'shtola mattered so much to you, then maybe you should have bothered to raise your concerns when it might've made an impact instead of coming here to point fingers at the people who are here doing just that when it comes to an issue that we care about. If I'm paying 15 dollars for a sandwich I like and I suddenly end up with a different sandwich, I'm going to focus on what's up with my meal instead of whatever's wrong with a meal two tables over. If you wanted a tantrum, you should've thrown it yourself; clearly you're capable.

And on that note, nobody here is hassling Bailey for information on the situation despite whatever rumormongering you heard on whatever social media platform you picked up every mud slinger's favorite buzzword from to hurl it at the people participating on this thread. That's why we're here in the one place that actually stands a chance at bringing our requests for transparency/clarification to the eye of the corporate entity that literally runs in part on our dime. We're paying customers; we have every right to ask questions. Whether they're willing to answer is beyond our control, but at the very least, we're entitled to the opportunity to try and make our voices heard to them no matter how much you want to rant about it.

You're about to get called out for using a food analogy while the rest of your post is ignored.

[illiere]

...yshtola sounded different

Y'shtola's audio quality was absolutely 1000% brought up multiple times when discussing 7.0's EN VO quality, both here and on other SM sites. The reason why it didn't garner the same level of worry as G'raha 7.4 EN VO is because fans understood that Y'shtola's actress just had a child at the time and would be recording from a home set up. I believe her lines were replaced/fixed as well, the same patch they released other 7.0 EN VO fixes/rerecordings.

It was understood that Y'shtola's actress hadn't been replaced, and people were more critical of Square's lack of quality VO direction/control after switching to the US for DT; Square understandably wanted S./N. American accents for the fantasy S./N. America setting, but they seem to have bad luck with US VO direction/quality control as DT shared a lot of issues with ARR EN VO (was also based in the US.) Hopefully moving back to whoever they used in the UK for the next expansion gives us an EN VO consistent with HW -> EW.

However, with G'raha 7.4 EN VO, you have an extremely popular character whose fans are now worried over having his actor replaced. Bailey is in the unique position of becoming a Hollywood A-lister after initiating his role of G'raha which might impact his capacity to continue the role, other VO roles have been recast for less.

(Eg. Prismo from AT was recast for F&C S1 as the actor's agent refused to communicate the role to him when the F&C reached out, in S2 Prismo's original VO was reinstated and they even gave his replacement VO a new character to voice (who's amazing btw.) The original PowerPuff Girls actresses were all replaced in the Reboot without even being contacted, assumed due to hiring unknown talent being cheaper then hiring the original actresses. The Mihoyo games have replaced a lot of VO due to the strike, but prior to that the EN VO for Argenti/Mr Tails and Huohuo were replaced out of the blue for reasons unknown; the Argenti actor said he'd recorded missing lines prior and didn't seem to be aware he'd been replaced until it was added ingame.)

I hope Bailey is able to keep the role, outside of extraneous circumstances I don't want any of the characters to 'lose' their voice.

[mildlymoonstruck]

You're about to get called out for using a food analogy while the rest of your post is ignored.

I've been called mean, immature, entitled, and even bigoted all over encouraging fellow fans who care about the incredible work that Bailey has done these past years to come post on this thread, so one more drop in the functionally illiterate bucket won't make much of a difference to me. But I appreciate the warning lol.

[Liyinabi]

I thought Jonathan Bailey had just wrecked his voice from the Wicked pt. 2 tour or something, or is using a different recording setup than normal. He's a busy man, but I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that he's been recast.

[CosmosNovaRose]

Whilst I will continue to wait until we have some formal information is announced, when I heard it I really thought it sounded like an AI voice lacking any warmth or depth like a terrible Siri voice.

No one's performance should ever be baselessly accused of being AI. It is a soul-crushing and gutting insult to any artist who pours effort into their craft.

[peachsyder]

I thought Jonathan Bailey had just wrecked his voice from the Wicked pt. 2 tour or something, or is using a different recording setup than normal. He's a busy man, but I wouldn't immediately jump to the conclusion that he's been recast.

This isn't direct at you, necessarily, but mostly at the part of the fandom that is clearly distressed about this yet choosing to cope by vehemently denying there's any chance it wasn't Bailey.

The deciding factor to me that makes it clear it's not him are this VA's vocal inflections.

Vocal inflection are the unique traits of someone's voice—their speech patterns and quite literally the unique ways in which their mouth forms certain sounds. While one's pitch can change due to illness, fatigue or strain, their vocal inflections won't.

If you truly listen for Bailey's vocal inflections in past patches and expansions and really compare it to G'raha in 7.4, you should definitely able to tell it is simply not his voice in this patch. Trust me when I say there's nothing I hope for more than to be wrong. I certainly tried extremely hard to convince myself I could still hear Bailey if I did this or that—but I just couldn't. Because it isn't his voice.

So coming from that premise, much as I loathe it, the issue at hand is:
1) Square Enix was clearly aware that the difference was immediately noticeable, hence them omitting G'raha's voice line from the English 7.4 trailer, when it was present in every other language.
2) Square Enix has chosen to not say anything to their fanbase about it.
3) Fans are being left to speculate and worry over whether this recast is a temporary thing, likely due to Bailey being an incredibly busy man who may have finally been at a point where he truly could not fit a recording session into his schedule prior to the release of the patch, which is perfectly understandable—or that this is a permanent, unannounced single character recast for reasons yet unknown, which, by the way, has never happened in this game other than in the case of a voice actor dying.

Whichever is the case, it would certainly help calm people's emotions if we were told literally anything about it. Instead, many are worried if this is just what G'raha is going to sound like from now on, if it's a Troy Baker situation (actor being recast due to being assumed to "just be too big for the role" without ever being even asked to return), and many other unfortunate scenarios.

Even to those still clinging to the firm belief that it's totally Bailey, I wish they'd consider that there is a possibility it isn't. And if that upsets them so much they'd rather keep convincing themselves otherwise, maybe they should be in this thread voicing to Square Enix that maintaining G'raha's seven year long voice actor is important to them rather than burying their heads in the sand.

We're lucky enough to be talking about a live service game in which things can be patched and adjusted on the go, after all. So if Bailey wishes to (because no one is trying to hold the man hostage if he wants to let go of the role) and could come back, Square Enix should know that many, many of their paying costumers want him to.

Otherwise, I'm sure they'd be happy to just know they can replace any character they want with soundalikes whenever they feel it's convenient and there'll simply be no backlash against it. Or if there is, they'll hardly have to do any work to cull it—they'll find plenty of willing, unpaid volunteers doing their utmost to yell insults at anyone complaining, to call them parasocial, delusional and mentally unstable, and to ramble endlessly about how not big a deal it is. Leave the multimillion dollar company alone, you creeps! They need that Bailey money to invest into more AI slop.

[shoebilldreams]

From my perspective, as the person with the hundreds of hours of listening to the English voices specifically to analyse every last thing - the guy in 7.4 does certain consonants differently, and JB always does those ones the same, even as Growingway and the random Garlean soldier.

Plus, I've got this, I don't know exactly, but when people speak I feel their voices as if it's me making the noise (so, in my face/throat etc. in the right places) and JB's is one of the most distinctive physical sensations I've ever felt in nearly four decades of living with this whatever-it-is. Hence me fighting so hard to prove Nald'thal wasn't him, and having to find other reasons that weren't just "my nose feels wrong, it's not him" so people didn't think I was unhinged

[KiraRavens]

The deciding factor to me that makes it clear it's not him are this VA's vocal inflections.

So much this.
And this is also the main reason the new VA makes G'raha seem like a whole new person.
These things are so unique to people that it's almost inevitable with a new VA - so if they absolutely need to recast, at the very least I hope they'll look for someone who can mimick the established voice better than whoever voiced him this patch.

[CosmosNovaRose]

From my perspective, as the person with the hundreds of hours of listening to the English voices specifically to analyse every last thing - the guy in 7.4 does certain consonants differently, and JB always does those ones the same, even as Growingway and the random Garlean soldier.

Plus, I've got this, I don't know exactly, but when people speak I feel their voices as if it's me making the noise (so, in my face/throat etc. in the right places) and JB's is one of the most distinctive physical sensations I've ever felt in nearly four decades of living with this whatever-it-is. Hence me fighting so hard to prove Nald'thal wasn't him, and having to find other reasons that weren't just "my nose feels wrong, it's not him" so people didn't think I was unhinged

This is unhinged and yet we love you for it <33

[lievaordiea]

Hence me fighting so hard to prove Nald'thal wasn't him, and having to find other reasons that weren't just "my nose feels wrong, it's not him" so people didn't think I was unhinged

NGL i was one of the ones really thinking it was him at the time. its close enough to JBs voice at least. dont know if the person was attempting to mimic or if it was just something that occurred. it was only a couple of lines though.

curious on what you feel though, ive never heard of that. such wonderful things us humans are. only just vagularly remember how cynthia says she sees music as colours which i have heard about before.
My brain is apparently completly duff as I dont get anything XD

Though..curious where do the scions reside? is graha a nose feel?
ooh if you don't want to answer to an extent (on such a personal thing perhaps?) .. please do shale her voice is so soothing to me i can only imagine its something along the top of your head like a head massage