New Gunbreaker Sound Effects are Disappointing

[Mahvir]

I want the old ones back, i hate the new ones. I didnt even know people were complaining

[Valic]

Very Merri even made a few tweets about how disappointing they sound and the JP forums seem to be of the same mindset now. I did a fight just now and I swear all I heard was lots of bludgeoning sounds, hardly heard the fight itself or the voices in it. Its ridiculous and really turns me off of playing this.

[Lumina]

Having had some time to digest the sound changes - I do think that the 6-hit Continuation combo as well as Fated Circle were greatly improved by the louder explosion sounds, definitely an improvement. They feel a lot more impactful and have more "oomph".

That said, I still do not like the changes to the Solid Barrel combo or the Demon Slaughter combo one bit. A big part of my enjoyment with Warrior, before I made the switch to Gunbreaker was how heavy and impactful the sound effects for their attacks were. Gunbreaker gave me that same feeling when I heard the Solid Barrel combo the first time, the slash, click, and boom of the gunshot, I immediately loved it. I remember doing it several times in a row to show my girlfriend and going on about how amazing it sounded and felt and how perfectly they had captured it.

Honestly I think everyone likes the changes to cartridge abilities for the most part, so just change back the others an I think almost everyone would be happy. It's impossible to make everyone happy, but I think this would appease the vast majority.

[Cetek14]

Having had some time to digest the sound changes - I do think that the 6-hit Continuation combo as well as Fated Circle were greatly improved by the louder explosion sounds, definitely an improvement. They feel a lot more impactful and have more "oomph".

That said, I still do not like the changes to the Solid Barrel combo or the Demon Slaughter combo one bit. A big part of my enjoyment with Warrior, before I made the switch to Gunbreaker was how heavy and impactful the sound effects for their attacks were. Gunbreaker gave me that same feeling when I heard the Solid Barrel combo the first time, the slash, click, and boom of the gunshot, I immediately loved it. I remember doing it several times in a row to show my girlfriend and going on about how amazing it sounded and felt and how perfectly they had captured it.

Honestly I think everyone likes the changes to cartridge abilities for the most part, so just change back the others an I think almost everyone would be happy. It's impossible to make everyone happy, but I think this would appease the vast majority.

Continuation combo sounds like very fast swinging with hammer now though. Explosions are kinda bland. We need to go back, and if developers really want to support ideas of minority at least work on original sound, which was already perfect imho.

[Juzjuzz]

I think they need to take back the old slashing sounds and make the explosions more loud. Add somme "gun" sound with that and it's perfect. A nice "PAN" folowed by a louder "BWOOOM".
I did the drowned city of skalla and even the small bombs that we use to kill the adds of the 2nd boss sound like some decent explosions. My poor gnb was like a silent tank lmao.

[Mylionare]

I will straight out say I do not like the new sounds on both the gnashing and cartridge combo. The explosions on gnashing fang is fine so is fated circle but I genuinely dislike everything else.

Gunbreaker is meant to be a swift sword fighter as it is not just based on Squall but other Gunblade users in the series, a majority of which, use single handed gunblades Akin to arming swords. I personally feel as if the weapon is meant to be one handed because of this, it is not meant to be a heavy weapon like a DRKs or a WARs it is a swift weapon that should sound as such. Clean slices being made in conjunction with large impactful explosions, not heavy blunted strikes.

I still enjoy playing the job as the playstyle is my favorite and it's aesthetic for me is second to none, but I really feel shafted by these changes. As they've altered something I was relatively okay with in a way that dampens my enjoyment and it frustrates me.

If people wanted heavier sounding attacks why not just play DRK? it's weapon is specifically designed to be heavy and meaty, GNB's is not. I apologize if this post comes off as offensive or dismissive but these changes genuinely irritate me.

[Machka]

Just to weigh in as well, yeah the new sounds are quite frankly pretty awful. A blunt sounding Solid Barrel combo makes no sense for the class and takes away from the overall feel/flavor of the class.
The idea of a gunblade is that you have a blade and a gun, so it would make sense that the sound effects should reflect that as well. Instead the new Solid Barrel combo now sounds more like a blunt weapon than a blade.

Also, the new sound effects feel too noisy. I know that might sound a bit funny since we're talking about a weapon that involves gunshots/explosions, but it feels like many of the new SFX drag on a bit too long. So instead of the clean and distinct sounds GNB originally had, where the Solid Barrel combo felt very clean and sharp in contrast to the explosions from cartridge skills, now everything just sounds loud and bassy. This extra noise doesn't enhance the feel of the class, however. Instead, the extra noise actually muddies the skills, causing everything to sort of blend together. This basically has the opposite effect of what SE was probably going for with these changes.

While this isn't to say the new sounds are all bad, there are some sounds that should definitely be reverted/readjusted. I'm sure SE was trying to respond to feedback and make GNB feel more powerful to play, but the new Solid Barrel combo sfx just doesn't really work well for the class flavor. I think the Solid Barrel combo going back to having a cleaner, sharper sound would provide more of a contrast, which would in turn make the cartridge skills sound and feel more powerful.

[VenKitsune]

Yea they really need to revert back to the old sounds. The current sounds doesnt even make it feel like you're slashing or stabbing, it sounds like someone put a sock over a party popper and taped it to your gunblade and its going off every time you swing it.

[firedrake]

I made an account on the forums just to add my agreement that the new sounds for GNB are disappointing and not good at all. It had a distinctive and crisp sound before, and now is just sounds muddied and generic. It's like other class sound effects mushed together.

It's really frustrating because aesthetics, including sound design, are a big part of the fun of a job for me. GNB was one of the things I was most hyped for this expansion simply because of the sound effects. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and it was going to be the job that got me out of my shell and into tanking. I had planned on leveling the job once I was done going through the main scenario as a RDM, but now I have lost all interest. I truly hope that SE listens to the feedback and rolls these changes back.

As a side note, this is the first time I can recall changes this drastic being made to a jobs sound effects. I never once thought that this would possibly be changing. I really wonder what their thought process was behind this since there is really no precedent for them making this kind of change.

[Valic]

Can I just say... Rather than being nit picky and trying to make everything perfect... I would VERY VERY HAPPILY just take back everything we had for its SFX, every single bit if it meant I could have back the oomph I felt before of both my gnashing fang combo and solid barrel combo. Even if our fated circle is lame, at least our blasting zone and main combos were amazing sounding. I won't even ask or be picky to change things so specifically, just make it NOT what we have right now and return what was released and how it sounded when it was originally showcased in the job actions. No one had issues back then during its job trailer actions, why should they after its release when they knew how it sounded.