I can't believe how little of this expansion was voiced

[Tlamila]

I think the VA was no less than usual tbh, in msq. Side-quests are fully unvoiced yeah.

What really struck me though is that Nero doesn't get a single line, and I don't mean a voice line, he doesn't speak at all, he just sits behind Cid in silence, very unlike him. I was told it's probably cause the cutscene was voiced and they didn't have his voice actor, but it's sad.

[Erendis]

Tbh, I get the feeling that they get less funding every time...

[Rufalus]

They explained in the past how they might be changing lines up until the last minute. If they voice everything, the scripts need to be finalised more ahead of time so this doesn't fit with their workflow and wanting to avoid delays. I would like better animation in cutscenes too but that's another sacrifice to achieve this volume and pace of content.

[MsQi]

Unrelated question but how do I use spoilers? I have tried the usual [SPOILER][/] but it didn't seem to work when I hit preview.

HB tag. It's available in the advanced editor. The button is a speech bubble with a red question mark.

Spoiler!

[Espon]

I thought the amount of MSQ voice acting was fine. There could of been more, but it seems to be on par with previous expansions.

Side quests are almost never voiced, so not sure what the surprise is there. I would love for there to be more voice acting, and I'm sure a storyline like future Hildebrand one coming would benefit greatly from it, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

One thing that I did wish they would start doing more voice acting for are raids. They don't necessarily have to voice the cutscenes, but the encounters should include voice acting. Listening to the boss shout things just adds a whole lot more to the atmosphere of the fight. They do it for most trials, yet almost all normal and alliance raid encounters lack it. Some of my more memorable fights are in the Ivalice raids just because of the voice acting, with Yiazmat and Agrias being at the top.

[KariTheFox]

Pippin suddenly becoming mute was a little jarring, considering how distinctive his Japanese voice is. I assume that Nobuyuki Hiyama was too busy at the time of recording, he is in pretty high demand.

[KuroMaboroshi]

I don't have any strong feelings on this topic either way. I think the amount of voiced lines in EW was standard, and if I wanted something about it to be fixed, then giving the English cast a pronunciation guide for names would be much higher priority.
That being said...

I also understand that to do this they need'd a bigger budget because VA is not cheap. Especially if they want to do it for all supported languages.

I am not sure if budget is the biggest factor here. Sure, it would be expensive, especially for the Japanese and German version, since you reach a comparatively lower number of people with that (~130 million) compared to French(~270 million) and especially English (~1350 million). (Source) So with the former two you get much less, pardon the joke, bang for your dub. But I also think they'd be able to afford it if they thought it worth the trouble.

The much bigger factor probably is the development cycle.
Voice recording takes, first and foremost, time. The more you have, the longer it takes and you can't really rush it either as a VA can only record so many lines a day. And usually you want to record as much as possible at once, cause you have to book those voice actors and their schedule probably doesn't allow that you call them into the studio every other week. So with this time investment and "speed limit" it then basically means you gotta move up the "deadline" for any voiced line compared to a non-voiced line. It has to be written, proofread, translated and proofread again at a much earlier date if the recording is to be finished by the time production wraps.
Once a line is recorded, you also can not change it any more. So it is and always will be a balancing act.

[Jettinson]

Pippin suddenly becoming mute was a little jarring, considering how distinctive his Japanese voice is. I assume that Nobuyuki Hiyama was too busy at the time of recording, he is in pretty high demand.

Yeah that was probably the only part I really felt weird.
The fact that A-Ruhn-Senna got voiced lines threw me off while many didn't get anything.

[kaynide]

I’m of the mind that the story underwent some pretty big changes late in development, so they just didn’t have time to redub. Especially regarding the later Labyrinthos section. Makes me think hydaelyn was written differently, or perhaps the order that things like pacing were redone or adjusted (eg how we get to the moon, or how the omicrons/ final dungeon were handled for obvious real world connections. )

[StriderShinryu]

Pippin suddenly becoming mute was a little jarring, considering how distinctive his Japanese voice is. I assume that Nobuyuki Hiyama was too busy at the time of recording, he is in pretty high demand.

Yeah, that sort of thing is really more my issue than the exact amount of stuff voiced VS not voiced. There are characters who have established voice actors, some who have been around for a long time, that just aren't voiced. Pippen, Raubahn, Kan E Senna, Hien, etc. (not to mention Fordola again). Yes, they are just in "side content" in some cases but not in a throw away side quest or cameo, it's in fairly important side content that is meant to be an addition to the MSQ to the point where it was actually suggested that you at least play the role quest for your chosen role alongside the MSQ so it makes better sense. We know these characters do have voices so to not hear them, especially in important moments and scenes, was just very noticeable and jarring.