ARR needs two simple fixes until an actual revamp

[Puremallace]

Even SWTOR cheapens out on voice acting a lot. I know that the Huttese is a favorite way of theirs to cheese the voice acting while still being able to say 'everything is voiced'.. the Huttese being generally reused gibberish that literally is just there to ensure a character has a voice.

Well the issue with SWToR was the base game was 100 million dollars built on a bad game engine. So adding new content when the expectation is always voiced is a problem. I understand why Square Enix does not want to do that because it lengthens your content cycle.

My idea is to make it less of a novel and add voice acting in the same spots you would expect it in Shadowbringers.

[GeminiReed]

Well the issue with SWToR was the base game was 100 million dollars built on a bad game engine.

While there are multiple issues with SW:TOR engine issues are very far down the list. Yes their Frankenstein version of Hero is a disaster but that pales in comparison to the other issues that saw their population collapse down to 5 servers.

Essentially they naively though MMO players would be perfectly happy with just story. Even the people who took their time were asking "Where's the beef?" once they hit endgame.

Anybody who scratched the surface of their single player games was well aware that they did not have the technical chops to tackle an MMO. Sadly LucasArts was also significantly ignorant what it took. Story is a nice "extra" but it cannot carry an MMO.

[AngelCheese77]

I feel it’s more the issue on how weak classes feel in ARR areas. The stronger abilities come much later.

The easy chance of outleveling the MSQ is a pain as well. The removal of all side quests could help in that regard.

More voices aren’t neede but could be nice. Coming from a standpoint where I grew up with Zork and games with no graphics let alone voices, it doesn’t bother me. But I guess with this generation of games and gamers they need to feel a part of the story.

[Pirana1]

I feel it’s more the issue on how weak classes feel in ARR areas. The stronger abilities come much later.

The easy chance of outleveling the MSQ is a pain as well. The removal of all side quests could help in that regard.

More voices aren’t neede but could be nice. Coming from a standpoint where I grew up with Zork and games with no graphics let alone voices, it doesn’t bother me. But I guess with this generation of games and gamers they need to feel a part of the story.

I'm right there with you. I grew up the 80's and 90's, so having.... to put it politely, questionable graphics and almost no voice overs aren't really a big deal. Anyone that was around during that era, knows exactly how far gaming has come. The thing that baffles me regarding the ARR story is your own character has nothing to say, notably on the Minfilia quest chain. You would think, the character would at least have some voice overs, other than a few grunts and/or hand gestures... lol It is what it is, not a big deal, just strange.

[Iscah]

I'm right there with you. I grew up the 80's and 90's, so having.... to put it politely, questionable graphics and almost no voice overs aren't really a big deal. Anyone that was around during that era, knows exactly how far gaming has come. The thing that baffles me regarding the ARR story is your own character has nothing to say, notably on the Minfilia quest chain. You would think, the character would at least have some voice overs, other than a few grunts and/or hand gestures... lol It is what it is, not a big deal, just strange.

I also come from that era of gaming, but I'm on the opposite train regarding silent protagonists because that was pretty common in that era of games too. You just imagine what your character is saying in response; at least that's how I've always worked with it.

The game does get a bit better with letting you pick text responses in some key moments, particularly Shadowbringers.

In any case, the sheer range of characters and voices available would make voice acting for the player character very expensive, and they'd need to add recordings for new races as well.

[Penthea]

1. Voice acting. It is seriously lacking. Some of your FF14 players are actual voice actors and will probably do this for free. Just add it already.

I agree voice acting would improve things but this is not a simple fix. It's not simply a case of get a bunch of people to say some lines, record it and slap it into the game. Voice actors do several takes of lines to get it right under the guidance of a director. This is actually very time consuming. Never mind the challenges of doing this remotely due to the pandemic. You would need to make sure the voice actors have excellent recording equipment of their own.

I also don't like how you're advocating for people to do this for free. People should get paid for their work especially if it's done for a huge name like SE. And please no one give the "exposure!" argument. Exposure doesn't pay the bills. And it would be plainly bad pr if SE took advantage of fans to get them to do professional work for no money. It would actually look better on a resumé if the voice actors were paid to do their work instead of volunteering for free. By being paid it would show that SE value their talent and that on its own would say a lot about the voice actor.

[GeminiReed]

1. Voice acting. It is seriously lacking. Some of your FF14 players are actual voice actors and will probably do this for free. Just add it already.

Never going to happen. MMO volunteer programs are rare. AOL lost a class action lawsuit for theirs. Basically the Court agreed that it was an employment arrangement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_Co...Leader_Program

[Liam_Harper]

Have to admit the English voice acting, particularly in ARR is ridiculously bad and I'm surprised so many people are fine with it. That said, it's definitely not a simple fix, especially when adding extra voiced scenes needs to be done across multiple languages.

But yes, it's appalling. I guess players just get used to it over time.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Have to admit the English voice acting, particularly in ARR is ridiculously bad and I'm surprised so many people are fine with it. That said, it's definitely not a simple fix, especially when adding extra voiced scenes needs to be done across multiple languages.

But yes, it's appalling. I guess players just get used to it over time.

A couple of them aren't bad. I still prefer the earlier voices for Raubahn, Merlwyb, and Midgardsormr. But a lot of them are pretty bad.

Although I'm not sure how much of it is the actual actors' fault versus how much is just bad directing. I still laugh at the scene where we find out about Lahabrea possessing Thancred, with Minfilia's half-hearted "Thancred, nooooooo....." as if the actress just had no idea what was going on and nobody bothered to call for a do-over.

[Artemiz]

I've no idea if changing the voice acting in ARR will change much, I suspect not. I did look back at some of the early cutscenes recently though having not seen them since I played through them at launch and some characters are..... challenging. I have finally convinced my Brother to try the game again after we both started playing at launch so I watched them to see, and hope they would pull him in. Compared to newer cutscenes the quality is very poor and some character are like nails down a chalk board. I hope he accepts my promise it gets better, but from a new player experience its not a great opening act.