Improved voice acting

[Hito-Shura]

All I can say here is...

It might be just me being sensitive but Louisoix' final words were utterly beautiful and the resonance in his voice really touched me. I was astonished and at the same time sad to see him go for the last time.

[coldreactive]

I think Hildibrand should be voiced by this guy:

http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Patrick-Warburton/

[Wobble]

I think Hildibrand should be voiced by this guy:

http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Patrick-Warburton/

Totally could get on board with that. He would be perfect.

[NefarioCall]

Another reason i'm looking forward to Heavensward. The entire game, not just the voice acting, is likely to get better.
The immediate SE example of FFXI... the storyline in the original game (Pretty forgettable) vs. CoP.

[TheTen]

Also importantly: the English dialogue is written increasingly better to fit the length of time their mouths are moving.
That means the Voice Actors don't have to talk as painfully slow anymore to fit the animation.

The English VAs have always been good (not amazing maybe, but good). But earlier dialogue forced them to talk unnaturally slow, because the animations are done for Japanese, which takes a longer time to say the same thing, and the English dialogue was simply not padded out enough to fill that time.

[Penguinmayhem]

I have to second TheTen here, the acting in 2.0 ranges from sorta decent to pretty good, but what sticks out to me is more a matter of awkward scripting and most of all, poor voice direction. Merlwyb's atrocious over-acting feels to me like a real bad case of poor direction. She can emote damn fine but doesn't know when to.

Minfilia, on the other hand, just needs to stop faking that accent dear god.

Just as an aside, I was never really in doubt on the casting. Just about anyone should recognize Kan-e-Senna's voice immediately, and she's no slouch.

[Mjollnir]

Thought the VA in ARR was atrocious. Always seemed to be Americans stumbling over European accents which rather than creating a new 'Eorzean' accent (thanks Moose^^) was very jarring, especially as inflection and cadence was often messed up (the 'wooden' sounding VA mentioned above).

Yes, 2.4 was much better and I really noticed the difference. I hope this upward trend continues into Heavensward!

[RuruKun]

I never liked English dubs for anything, so I switched it to the Japanese voices and English subtitles.

[Kowen]

I think Aymeric's voice actor also did Alvis in Xenoblade.

Pretty distinctive voice!