Quote Originally Posted by LlenCoram View Post
The problem is trying to make the responses so vague that they don't presume to be speaking for you. If an enemy jumps my character out of nowhere, how's she supposed to respond? Is she going to turn to them and say, "Ha! Bring it!"? My character won't. Will she jump at the shock? Mine probably wouldn't either. Choosing the voice is fine, but it's the responses that just don't work. Mass Effect did it really well, but even that had a misfire 1% of the time, when Shepard would say something I had no intention of saying.

I just don't see how it can work, and in the end it'll really detract from any connection to our characters in a big way.

I'm starting to think you and I have very different definitions of immersion though. Personally, I like being my character. From your threads/posts, I'm starting to think you prefer controlling a character.
Well our characters respond to those situations without our consent even without speaking. Many times when something surprising would occur our character would cower in fear, even if the player wouldn't really react that way. But we could still choose a response even if they were surprised, but the end result would always end up being the same, perhaps with a change in dialogue.

This was present even in 1.0 though, when you meet Darnus after first fighting Ifrit he asks your name and you can choose to tell him, or say it isn't of any importance. The answer won't change the result of the scene, but how he responds to you differs slightly. Why would applying a voice to those multiple choices be any different?

By giving our character a voice, I think I'll immerse further into the game because it would just be like playing an non-MMO game where the protagonist can actually effect the flow of conversation. That is what I've always adored about FFXIV, is that our characters are actually in the cut-scenes, like a modern RPG. I initially picked Limsa, and I have to say that intro had me hooked.