[Feedback] Wuk Lamat's English Voice

[Leohra]

From a lore standpoint, it's not at all unthinkable that Wuk Lamat may have a northern Latin American accent rather than a southern one. Though Tuliyollal is geographically where South America is in our world, in universe, it is much more culturally diverse due to its ruler uniting many of the disparate peoples of Tural. I would assume this includes people from Xak(North) Tural as well.

While there may have been a few instances of stiff delivery of lines in this patch, I think the VA did a good job of getting me invested into the character of Wuk Lamat and I look forward to hearing more from her in Dawntrail.

[Rehayem]

I like the voice, and I could've sworn I heard it somewhere before in another game (Deus Ex series), but when I checked Sena's IMDB page, I didn't see anything there. Performance wise, I think it was just okay. New actors and actresses tend to be nervous for their first role, I'll wait til DT to see if it improves.

[MontecristoSandwich]

I didn't notice anything particularly glaring about Wuk Lamat's voice, as someone that didn't really hone-in and listen carefully at her voice. Yeah, the Tural accent hasn't been fully established yet, and we don't have a super consistent "this is the accent" stream for the new nation, but honestly? I don't think I really care. Pile-on that Tural is a "melting-pot" of warring cultures that came together to form a nation, I think the inconsistencies can even be easily explained in-universe.

Her voice is good enough that I didn't notice any massive inconsistencies, and anything is better than British VA #199230, so I'm still looking forward to the VAs coming out of Dawntrail. Will they be perfect? Consistent? Maybe not, but hearing Erenville and Wuk Lamat in contrast to our normal VAs (not including the extremely-limited Thavnair VAs,) was a great breath of fresh-air that I hope continues. Hell, I think I'm looking forward to the "New World" voice acting more than even the main cast, at this point.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Holy hell, the way some of you guys speak makes it sound like she did a horrible job. It was fine. I didn't notice anything glaring. Characters voice seemed to fit her just fine. I don't see the harm in her having a slightly deeper voice. Its not super deep. She doesn't sound "American". She has a slight accent. You guys just went off the rails over nothing lol.


And I was paying far more attention to intonation and all that than i normally would after the fires you guys spread here. I wouldn't have even thought anything of it if the fuss hadn't been kicked up on here.

[OgruMogru]

Just chalk any wonk in her accent up to being raised alongside Erenville and his Icelandic accent influencing her inflection.

[Davy_M_Jones]

I've been on this game since 1.0, and ARR. Got used to the voices then, only for them to be replaced by the time Heavensward came out. I'm even biased in regards to a few of the actors, having followed their careers.
The voices changed. There was a point when the whole cast was brand-new and fresh and no one was acclimated to them.
I can't speak for everyone, but I got used to them pretty fast, all things considered. I like them. They're lovely and charming. Based on this prior experience, I expect it will be no different with Sena. Until it's shown otherwise, until something actually bad occurs, this is a non-issue for the type of folks who have been picky about subs-vs-dubs for even longer than I've been alive.

I feel she sounded lovely. S'all I care about.

[Tehmon]

The difference between JP and ENG voice is way too jarring. You are essentially presented with two completely different characters. JP Wuk is a energetic and rambunctious young woman who is adventurous and expressive, perhaps a bit loud and unladylike, yet she is clearly inexperienced and somewhat cowardly, and these flaws she covers up with her loud personality. And despite being unladylike and having some non-stereotypical traits for women, she is clearly presented as a youthful woman with a sensitive side. ENG Wuk sounds like a confident village elder type of character and her youth and her excitable, hot-headed personality do not come through one bit. Because her voice is more deep and... just kind of uncanny, the inexperienced, sensitive side of her doesn't also come through as much. Though I suppose Wuk Lamat could be older than expected, but I'd find that a weird turn of events.

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

[Jojoya]

Just chalk any wonk in her accent up to being raised alongside Erenville and his Icelandic accent influencing her inflection.

My thinking also included Erenville, though slightly different.

If the two of them were childhood friends, or acquaintances as Erenville preferred, then I don't think it's a good idea to believe that the accents of those from Tural are intended to all be Latin/South American in nature. Erenville's clearly isn't. We've been given the information that Tural residents are very diverse in nature so chances are good any accents are intended to be related to race and not culture/nation.

If that is the case, then perhaps we should be wondering why Wuk doesn't sound more like the male Hrothgar that have had voice acting. I don't think we've had any voice acting for any of the Mamool Ja characters we've met so far - perhaps they'll be the ones represented by Latin/South American voice actors. I definitely agree that it's a missed opportunity for SE if they haven't included them.

Accent aside, did the voice acting feel a little off? Sure. I felt the same way about Lyse when she finally showed up at the end of HW and early in SB. It could be the voice actor trying to settle into a new character on fairly short notice. It could have been a decision of the voice director about how to portray a character that is relatively young and uncertain but trying to achieve great things and pretending confidence they really don't have yet.

Please remember that Wuk is effectively our new Lyse for Dawntrail. The WoL gets to be big brother/sister while we watch Wuk grow up, just as we did with Lyse.

Because we're dealing with a character that is uncertain, I was fine with the voice acting being a little off because the voice should and did reflect that uncertainty.

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

I disagree as someone who was born a woman and identifies as a woman. There was no moment in playing through the MSQ today that I thought of the character as anything but female when listening to the voice actor.

Seriously, trying to blame real life gender identity for any dissatisfaction is ridiculous. Men have been doing some female parts in acted entertainment for centuries. Women have been doing some male parts in acted entertainment for centuries.

It doesn't matter what gender identity a voice actor has. What matters is whether the voice acting helps to create the character the content director and producers want for their content. SE feels that this voice actor is the one they want for this character.

[Davy_M_Jones]

And anyone saying '' her voice actor's identity has nothing to do with why her performance is bad '' is also wrong. Of course someone who merely identifies as a woman isn't going to be able to pull off the same performance for a female character as someone who was born a woman. Not all roles are perfect for every person, and this was sadly clearly miscast, hopefully not because of ideological reasons.

Had it not been pointed out in the thread, I wouldn't have known. Even knowing it now... still doesn't much matter to me. Strangely, the tall puma lady wielding an impossibly unwieldy highway road sign made of chunks of local landscape just sounds... like a lady, to me.

[NiceNox]

From a lore standpoint, it's not at all unthinkable that Wuk Lamat may have a northern Latin American accent rather than a southern one. Though Tuliyollal is geographically where South America is in our world, in universe, it is much more culturally diverse due to its ruler uniting many of the disparate peoples of Tural. I would assume this includes people from Xak(North) Tural as well.

While there may have been a few instances of stiff delivery of lines in this patch, I think the VA did a good job of getting me invested into the character of Wuk Lamat and I look forward to hearing more from her in Dawntrail.

Why does Wuk Lamat have to has American/Latin accent? Can't they have Southeast or other types of accents? Why does it have to be American accent? Would it be a problem if she has English or Yorkshire accent? From my point of view, it's a fictional world, accent or not depends on the character design, not the "real" world location. In my opinion, accent or not, the Voice and its acting must come first. If it does suit the character, the accent doesn't matter to me.