[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

[Nestama]

Yikes...

Anyway, I found her voice to be pretty decent. Not the worst, not the best. Just fine.

[Undeadfire]

As I say again mate, I care less if they're trans, gay, w/e.

My opinion is the Voice acting is ARR level, it's poor and doesn't fit, lacking emotional responses and expressions, showing no signs in caring about their role like in 90s Anime dubbing for English. If people think it's good then I seriously question the opinion. And I am very aware some are only saying it because they're transgender, and how we gonna follow the twitter post to get clout for 10s. Otherwise, fair your opinion.

For me, I expect at least on par with other voice actors for example Zenos, Emet Selch. Not someone with bare enough experience, podcasts are not experience. You can find Voice actors on Youtube who are seriously high grade, believe me some are REALLY good.

[MorfineCeres18]

I play in japanese so I didn't listen to her voice in EN until I saw the multiple threads about this.
First I don't think being trans or not, or being from america or not has anything to do with her work, as long as someone does a good work that's all that should matter.

I do agree she sounds a bit amateur compared to the others, but I think people is missing the point here, or maybe just don't know much about how dubbing works.
She's not at fault for anything, the one at fault here would me the voice director, he's the person thal told her how to portrait the character and gave the ok to her performance.

I think she can do a much better dub with some work and a good direction, but she needs proper direction from someone interested in teaching her a bit.

[VerdeLuck]

I play in japanese so I didn't listen to her voice in EN until I saw the multiple threads about this.
First I don't think being trans or not, or being from america or not has anything to do with her work, as long as someone does a good work that's all that should matter.

I do agree she sounds a bit amateur compared to the others, but I think people is missing the point here, or maybe just don't know much about how dubbing works.
She's not at fault for anything, the one at fault here would me the voice director, he's the person thal told her how to portrait the character and gave the ok to her performance.

I think she can do a much better dub with some work and a good direction, but she needs proper direction from someone interested in teaching her a bit.

Why can't players demand AAA quality from a game that charges AAA prices? I don't see the reasoning behind this. If I'm paying 40 dollars + a monthly sub for an expansion, I expect the voiced story content to not have a main character that "needs teaching a bit" or "sounds a bit amateur compared to the others".
I'm paying this much for the game, there is an expectation of a certain level of quality. The main characters should be voiced by experienced actors, they should be pretty much up to speed when they get in to record.

[VirusOnline]

After finishing the last few MSQ up, I think there are some fair points made here.

Fact:
Wuk Lamat is a key character in DawnTrail and DawnTrail's plot as has been introduced in the MSQ.
Key character meaning someone who is pivotal or required for a plot to take place.

My thoughts:

• Initially, I never questioned the gender of Lamat's voice. To me, it sounded like a woman so that did not disrupt my immersion. I have never heard of Sena or knew her before this.
  
  
• What I did notice was how the accent was not entirely genuine or consistent. There are a lot of American sounding pronounciations where my brain was actually expecting something different. (What different that is, I don't know, but there are distinct American sounds). But I dismissed it because I'm not hispanic nor do I have a lot of experience with hispanic accents. So again it did not bother me.
  
  
• Upon finishing the MSQ, what really I noticed is that Lamat's voice isn't quite up to par in cadence, nuance, expression, emotion, and a unique identity that reflects their character. Ie the way Estinienne talks is graveled and low, Yshtola is stern and confident, Alphinaud is far too happy that it drives me deeper into despair. Lamat on the other just seems to be a single mode, if this makes sense.

As a key character, Lamat's voice isn't as good in those sections at times. While it's not bad, it doesn't strike me as MC energy. For me, is it a deal breaker ? No, in fact I enjoy the VA for what it is, but I myself do question the hire. But, I do understand why people are questioning the hiring/directing of this VA for such an important character given the quality VA of the scions and other key characters like Emet-Selch. What was the process ? Why is it that a less experienced person who has skills to reflect their experience put in a key character ?

[Theodric]

Why can't players demand AAA quality from a game that charges AAA prices? I don't see the reasoning behind this. If I'm paying 40 dollars + a monthly sub for an expansion, I expect the voiced story content to not have a main character that "needs teaching a bit" or "sounds a bit amateur compared to the others".
I'm paying this much for the game, there is an expectation of a certain level of quality. The main characters should be voiced by experienced actors, they should be pretty much up to speed when they get in to record.

I think that's a fair point. I know that extra time was already added to each content patch but perhaps it would be beneficial for the development team to delay things a little further if it allows for more overall polish. This late in the game's development I do not expect a PTR to suddenly be added so although that is something other MMO's benefit from, it isn't applicable here. Granted, my personal preference would be no delays at all.

[kayll]

Why can't players demand AAA quality from a game that charges AAA prices? I don't see the reasoning behind this. If I'm paying 40 dollars + a monthly sub for an expansion, I expect the voiced story content to not have a main character that "needs teaching a bit" or "sounds a bit amateur compared to the others".
I'm paying this much for the game, there is an expectation of a certain level of quality. The main characters should be voiced by experienced actors, they should be pretty much up to speed when they get in to record.

2 hours of content in 3 months = ok
Meh/Average voice acting on one character = pitchforks
Priorities

[DeathNoodles]

They've changed voice actors before - noticeably in Heavensward. I remember being very put off by new Alphinaud cause I was so used to ARR. If they are unsatisfied with current VA there will be a change eventually. Personally I think the casting is poor but her work is not terrible to me.

[Neetborn]

Never been a fan of English voice actors ever since FF10 and thank god 14 gives the option to play voices in Japanese. Good professional voice actors will cost and I'm assuming hiring amateurs helps with cost. SE always focus on JP more than EN since 11 and not surprised that the quality of EN voice is way worse than their JP counterparts.

[Folsom]

[*]What I did notice was how the accent was not entirely genuine or consistent. There are a lot of American sounding pronounciations where my brain was actually expecting something different. (What different that is, I don't know, but there are distinct American sounds). But I dismissed it because I'm not hispanic nor do I have a lot of experience with hispanic accents. So again it did not bother me.

I can tell you that Wuk Lamat's accent (which is inconsistent, as you say) is not the accent of any South American or Central American country. It is very much American trying to order in Spanish at a Mexican restaurant/Puerto Rican who thinks they speak with a Spanish accent but actually sounds like a gringa/or Saturday-morning-cartoon/bad-anime-dub level bad, maybe mixed with a tiny touch of Portuguese.

As I said further up in the thread, if they had instructed the voice actor to speak naturally and not in an accent, it would probably have been fine, and she'd likely have given better delivery as well because she wasn't trying to stick all of South America in a blender and produce bad accent paste. But her accent is the equivalent of an American from Idaho making fun of a Japanese accent, and people would definitely not be fine with that.