[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

[LittleArrow]

Didn't know much about this controversy, so I'm coming in with just my own personal opinions - not adding politics or anything like that in regards purely to the voice acting.

I stayed away from the forums when Wuk was first introduced and I loved this voice. It was so unique, fun, and portrayed the character as extremely cute, insecure, and overconfident with room to grow. I've been poking through the forums since then and saw a lot of criticism in regards to the acting and I was honestly really confused. I'm only in the second or third quest so I have no idea how bad / good it gets, but due to the criticism I was trying to watch out for the poor acting.

My thoughts: I don't think the accent is meant to be South American, at least no South American accent I ever heard. I just assumed Wuk's accent was meant to be some fantasy made up accent with some hard consonants, so I didn't find that very off-putting. I just took it as, made-up fantasy accent.

My criticism comes in the actual acting / tonal choices. This is the first red flag I've found so far. 90% has been fine, but maybe this is where criticisms are coming from. While I was on the boat, Wuk has a line stating, "I'm not seasick, I never get seasick! /almost throws up." Now, watching anime almost all my life this totally came off as a very cliche joke that I've seen in many anime, shoot a very comedic cliche in comedy in general: character overconfidently makes a declaration, then proves declaration false - haha, funny and cute. I'm 100% positive the Japanese reading of this would've been like a joke, setup: I don't get seasick; punchline: almost vomits. However, the American VA read as almost malicious or defensive - the tone was low and even, not flighty / high pitched as I would've expected. It didn't make the character cute or endearing, it almost made the character seem threatening as in they're trying to hide something.

I don't know if this is where the criticism is coming from, because I don't know if the very strange and odd tonal choices continue in this way. If it is continued in this strange direction, I very much get the criticism, and honestly I too will be going the JP VA route. However, I'm hoping that was a very bizarre acting choice and I don't continue to get strange whiplash with the character being airheaded / over confident to defensive / insecure.

Just my thoughts so far.

[LittleArrow]

<SNIP>My thoughts: I don't think the accent is meant to be South American, at least no South American accent I ever heard. I just assumed Wuk's accent was meant to be some fantasy made up accent with some hard consonants, so I didn't find that very off-putting. I just took it as, made-up fantasy accent.

My criticism comes in the actual acting / tonal choices. This is the first red flag I've found so far. 90% has been fine, but maybe this is where criticisms are coming from. While I was on the boat, Wuk has a line stating, "I'm not seasick, I never get seasick! /almost throws up." Now, watching anime almost all my life this totally came off as a very cliche joke that I've seen in many anime, shoot a very comedic cliche in comedy in general: character overconfidently makes a declaration, then proves declaration false - haha, funny and cute. I'm 100% positive the Japanese reading of this would've been like a joke, setup: I don't get seasick; punchline: almost vomits. However, the American VA read as almost malicious or defensive - the tone was low and even, not flighty / high pitched as I would've expected. It didn't make the character cute or endearing, it almost made the character seem threatening as in they're trying to hide something.

I don't know if this is where the criticism is coming from, because I don't know if the very strange and odd tonal choices continue in this way. If it is continued in this strange direction, I very much get the criticism, and honestly I too will be going the JP VA route. However, I'm hoping that was a very bizarre acting choice and I don't continue to get strange whiplash with the character being airheaded / over confident to defensive / insecure.

Just a little update: It seems the ENG Wuk VA does a great job when the emotion is neutral / positive, but this is the second or third 'cutscene,' where I was just really confused between the tone choice and the character animation. I honestly can't read the character's emotions when it goes below "I'LL BE THE NEXT DAWNSERVANT!" or "OOOHH ERENVILLE YOU'RE SUCH A STINKER!" It's very bizarre how the VA chooses to read disappointed, surprised, and scared so far. Anger, I get it, but the more subtle emotions kind blur together to either a middle to very low energy. It's almost like the VA chooses to read those lines crashing from a sugar high or something - really that's what it sounds like LOL.

Wuk Lamat SUGAR HIGH WOOO to ...no one likes me... meh... nothing in between.

On a sidenote just met Bakool Jaja and omgah, those VA's are killing it! I'm super impressed and I love their interactions! I get the hot headed typical anime villain with that cool even toned anime villain. Those VAs are doing a great job and I'm so super excited to see them both again!

Anyhow, probably last post because I was intrigued by the criticism. I definitely think I'm seeing where the amateurish statement is coming from. There's just very poor translation between the character's emotions and the VA's range / skill in portraying them. Wuk seems like a very almost child-like character with very adult problems on her shoulders and I don't think I've seen those emotions properly portrayed through the ENG acting. I still really enjoy the spunk and excitement of Wuk's ENG VA - it's very contagious, but yeah complicated emotions are really falling through, for me at least.

[Azureskies01]

I went to JP voices it was so bad. I was looking forward to watching the voiced cut scenes too.

They really gotta re-record all the lines and get a woman in there that can voice act like in the JP version.

I said what I said.

[BeoCat]

I'm fine with Wuk Lamat, my bigger issue is having Thancred's va voice 3-4 characters at the same time. If i'm not mistaken Koana is voiced by him.

[Wildheaven182]

I'm fine with Wuk Lamat, my bigger issue is having Thancred's va voice 3-4 characters at the same time. If i'm not mistaken Koana is voiced by him.

And all he does is talk about how much he misses Minfilia. Ten years later.

[Turnintino]

I'm fine with Wuk Lamat, my bigger issue is having Thancred's va voice 3-4 characters at the same time. If i'm not mistaken Koana is voiced by him.

Koana is voiced by Luis Bermudez.

I kinda wonder if it's UK actors trying to do US/Canadian accents? It's not just Wuk, it's all the voice acting in the wild west zone where they characters have American dialects. They seem to over articulate words at times in a way that feels unnatural for a US accent, and in general the American voice acting just was sub par compared to the voice acting with a British accent.

Wuk isn't AS bad... though it does feel a bit like she's holding back a laugh constantly even when the nature of the scene doesn't call for that emotion.

The vast majority, if not all, of the Turali characters are played by American actors (including Lamat).

[caffe_macchiato]

It looks like Square Enix listened to the criticism, because most of her early scenes are unvoiced. I don't know what's worse!

[LittleArrow]

Ok sorry, last last thought! I think...

I'm so intrigued by trying to figure out what feels weird with these scenes, and I think it's a combination with the VA director and the VA themselves, because so far for me Erenville and Krile have been carrying every scene despite who's the focus or not. Surprisingly, I thought Alphinaud and Alisaie were really disappointing. I get there's no reason to be pitchy or trying to take over a scene when they're there for support, but even so, Alphi and Ali have always held their own despite their role in a scene. They had charisma, they sounded awake and so far they both sound just tired. It sounds like everyone took some sleepy pills and they're trying to shrug it off, except for Krile and Erenville, well and Wuk when the character isn't anything but super excited. Knowing how well Ali / Alphi are in the other expansions, I think the VA director needs to carry some of the blame here. Whelp, anyhow! Maybe JPN VA here I come lol.

[Lieri]

Switched to JP voice for now. I don't mind the EN voice but JP sounds better to me for some reason, JP is just how I imagined her to sound in my head. Maybe because EN is trying so hard with mixing accents. JP just sounds JP.
Is accent the responsibility of VA? I don't think so. I don't get it either, why did SE decide EN voice has to imitate certain accents? when for other languages the VA don't have to try as hard when it comes into accents.

[PaulusHamsteru]

I switched to JP voice because her voice and accent are like nails on chalkboard to me.