"I have no mouth and I must scream"

[Alberel]

If I remember correctly that was mostly so they could recap a whole conversation that already happened without actually recapping it. After many of those silent scenes the other characters would be filled in on all the details we were already appraised of.

Pretty much this. Whenever your character silently mouths things during conversations they are relaying information that we have already been given. It helps avoid massively repetitive dialogue and allows us to give our character the voice and personality we want rather than being forced to choose from a selection of options that would never suit everyone.

[Edellis]

I personally miss the age where final fantasy lacked voice acting. Fortunately I enjoy the vast majority of english voices in this game.

But FFXIV's writing is superb in the quest dialogue, and it would have been dreadful to hear it wasted away on bad NPC voice acting.

[kyuven]

Oddly i thought it was MORE jarring when, during the ninja job unlock quest, you're giving option of what to say and "mummery" is one of the words used.
I found it jarring because I NEVER use that word, and had to actually look up what it means. That's a bigger disconnect to me than the pantomime mouth movements.

[RyuuSkyez]

Would be kool to have everyone beable to have voice dialog in the game including your character, but that would take alot of work to implement and then maintain, you have to remember its an mmorpg that must continue to produce efficient content. I believe thats why they are selective as to sometimes in some quests there is voice dialog and in others there are not.

[Resolute]

Since our characters never do speak, I just imagine my character giving the most sarcastic response to everything. It's times like these I wish we had more dialogue choices when talking to people.

Yeah, the times they have used dialog choices, such as the beginning and the conversation with Gaius, were nice. I wish they did more of those. It would make it feel like you are actually having a conversation instead of just being talked at.

[kyuven]

Yeah, the times they have used dialog choices, such as the beginning and the conversation with Gaius, were nice. I wish they did more of those. It would make it feel like you are actually having a conversation instead of just being talked at.

Sometimes it feels like the Scions and grand companies keep us around and promote us so easily because we don't talk back

[Resolute]

Sometimes it feels like the Scions and grand companies keep us around and promote us so easily because we don't talk back

Ha, yeah. On one of the new quests Alphinaud asks if we would be willing to do something, and, before we can say anything, he says "of course you are." We are such pushovers. :P

[TouchandFeel]

I just imagine my character saying random Samuel Jackson movie quotes, makes the conversations pretty hilarious.

[Unholychinchilla]

There was one point where your character is asked retell your encounter with Ramuh to the elder seedseer. They speak silently but it's way too brief to actually say the full story so I can't help but imagine the warrior of light boiled the whole thing down to "I kicked his ass"

[Tiggy]

There was one point where your character is asked retell your encounter with Ramuh to the elder seedseer. They speak silently but it's way too brief to actually say the full story so I can't help but imagine the warrior of light boiled the whole thing down to "I kicked his ass"

The whole point is to shortcut the conversation so the player doesn't have to sit through it again. This is always done at times where it's information we the player already have but has to be passed from our character to another for story purposes. It's not meant to be taken literally.