How can an AAA title like FF 14 lack voice acting in 90% of the quests?

[RagingStallion]

You pay for not only the initial cost which is $60 but you also have to pay a subscription fee which is $13. On top of that because the retainer spaces are so limited to fully play the game you actually also need to pay at least 2 retainers each month which is $4. So over six months, you're paying $102+$60, which is $182.

Now $182 is basically equal to three the Last of Us II. But TLoU 2 has voice acting everywhere and even the menu has voice acting. Sadly while the story of this game is entertaining I always have to lower my eyeballs to read the text and I can't look at the characters' facial expressions and follow the dialogue at the same time which ruins my immersion. Has Square Enix considered investing more into voice acting? A story game should have voice acting. This isn't 1990.

[Alleluia]

You pay for not only the initial cost which is $60 but you also have to pay a subscription fee which is $13. On top of that because the retainer spaces are so limited to fully play the game you actually also need to pay at least 2 retainers each month which is $4. So over six months, you're paying $102+$60, which is $182.

Now $182 is basically equal to three the Last of Us II. But TLoU 2 has voice acting everywhere and even the menu has voice acting. Sadly while the story of this game is entertaining I always have to lower my eyeballs to read the text and I can't look at the characters' facial expressions and follow the dialogue at the same time which ruins my immersion. Has Square Enix considered investing more into voice acting? A story game should have voice acting. This isn't 1990.

To be fair, a single expansion has WAY more content in it than Last of Us 2. FF14 as a whole is about 4 or 5 games' worth of stuff.

And they do have hardware overhead to worry about, as well as be continually paying a dev team that brings us new patches. I'd love for there to be more voice acting, but I feel like we'd end up with less quests overall.

Also, you do not *have* to buy additional retainers. I've been on since launch and never felt the need to get 1 till a few months ago. And that's just my hoarding finally getting the better of me.

[GrizzlyTank]

Something, something budgets.

[RagingStallion]

To be fair, a single expansion has WAY more content in it than Last of Us 2. FF14 as a whole is about 4 or 5 games' worth of stuff.

Also, you do not *have* to buy additional retainers. I've been on since launch and never felt the need to get 1 till a few months ago. And that's just my hoarding finally getting the better of me.

But it's also 4 or 5 times more expensive so why is there so little voice acting? I don't need famous actors like Game of Thrones actors for the voice acting. I'm fine with regular voice acting. Why can't they just let fans voice act random NPCs? I'm sure a lot of people on the forums are willing to voice act for free to have their voices in the game.

[craybest]

i wish all quests, even sidequests had voice overs, it would make it feel less tiresome, like in ESO.

[Yuella]

no VA is better than bad VA

[Kolsykol]

no VA is better than bad VA

So much this omfg lol.

I feel so old when I see people in RPG's complain about lack of voice protagonists or voice acting in general.
It's like people are just really desperate to avoid reading or something, and the dialogue in RPG's has suffered immensly because of it because money becomes a big issue with voice acting. You can just flesh out the dialogue so much more with text.
I especially hate that damn wheel in Bioware games o_o...
So often I feel like I am not sure what my character is going to say or I am but then they say something totally different or they sound so inhuman because they have to shorten their sentences as much as possible because the voice actor had another 500000 lines to read too.

Like I am not saying that voice acting should never be a thing and isn't valid, but damn a game isn't bad because it lacks voice acting and you DO give up on other things when the game is voiced.

[Absurdity]

Is there a single day where the OP doesn't create some kind of bait thread?

[Hysterior]

Is there a single day where the OP doesn't create some kind of bait thread?

(I am eagerly anticipating the next thread each day...)

[Stanelis]

(I am eagerly anticipating the next thread each day...)

I introduced my GF to FFXIV the other day and she asked the exact same question as the OP. Just saying.