Wuk Lamat's Poor EN Voice Acting

[Embran]

That's not a latina accent. I know because I am one who has an accent and I know the latin accent doesn't sound like that.

My suspicion is that she was told by the director to try to imitate Erenville's accent, which is a more nordic accent funnily enough and she kind of winged it, and the director kind of rolled with it.

The voice acting sounds amateurish in her case, which is obvious considering she only has another role as her whole experience, and the rest of the cast don't sound much better either so, imo, the problem is not the VAs, but the directorial part of it.

But hey, that's my opinion as someone who heard it while someone else was playing, I don't deal with this since I stick to the japanese voice over.

It is absolutely meant to be a stereotypical American-Hispanic accent, like you might find from Mexican-American English/Spanish speakers in the United States. Whether or not she is doing it well is another discussion, but it's absolutely MEANT to be that, and that is the direction she's been given.

She also has many roles? She's primarily in anime but she's also been in other video games, including Hearthstone and WoW.

[Karious]

But the actress is Latina

Also you're implying there's a universal Latina accent when speaking in English. There isn't. I wish people would stop pulling the "I am this" card. Secondly this is an actress that's half German and you don't know where she has lived or grew up, being 37 years old. Or maybe you do. Lots of you have half doxxed her already so let me know. Do you have footage of her actual voice? Maybe she has an unusual accent that she's exagerrating, I am unsure. I don't even consider the accent itself Latina. I've said in other posts it seems to be intended to be a Tural accent.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6407291

Also I don't think she sounds amateurish. She doesn't have a lot of experience with high profile roles and people are just jumping on that to sound like they're VA specialists. Some of the VA in the patch is legitimately unnatural, but it's not Wuk Lamat. You may dislike their accent but accents are not what make delivery amateurish, slow, or flat which is how several of the Scions sound.

And by slow I mean literally, no one speaks that slowly, not implying a lack of intelligence.

You're really just going to casually disregard posters identities because their words don't align with your narrative? People aren't 'pulling' any cards, they're speaking from personal experience and apparently that's just something you'll dismiss because I guess they're not experts or something?

[Turtledeluxe]

You're really just going to casually disregard posters identities because their words don't align with your narrative? People aren't 'pulling' any cards, they're speaking from personal experience and apparently that's just something you'll dismiss because I guess they're not experts or something?

Because I have my own experience, especially with Puerto Rican women and people who grew up in different locations who have unique accents or pronunciations. They do not have a universal way of sounding when they speak English. And I'm not disregarding, I don't even think the accent sounds like a strict real world accent, but your statement is just misleading. Maybe in your town everyone sounds exactly the same. That doesn't apply to every Latina woman in every geographical location. I'm surprised you're surprised at my reaction because there's definitely not a single Latin country or single way of sounding if you're from a Latin country (or even a non Latin country because even those in US, once again, do not have uniform accents).

It's not a statement you'd really make about anyone or anywhere. In England for example everyone has English accents but how you sound depends on whether you're northern, midland or Southern. You'll also sound different from Scotsman or the Welsh. It's just kind of like..duh. And perhaps you'll sound doubly unique if, for example, one of your parents is in the armed forces or moved around a lot for various other occupations/reasons.

And also yes-- it's totally a card. It's "I'm this, what I say is right"-- that's not how that works. You can be a doctor and still make an erroneous or misleading statement about health. When people are on forums, they like to make these mic drop statements over very complex things that require more consideration, more of an open mind. Then they call other people dismissive.

And I'd like to point out someone already quoted your post just to say "This is someone making fun of Latina women"--- exactly. We don't even have enough information yet to really say that. We don't know what the developers were going for and we don't know enough about the actress. One of the localizers has literally said that in the past, they haven't always represented cultures accurately and the last few expansions they've really tried to do that. I see no reason they'd hire someone and tell them to put on a stereotype fake accent-- that's the exact opposite of what they've been doing and what their stated mission is. The person who quoted you is probably now going to say "thEy LivE in L.a" for the 50th time -- let me dismiss that in advance because I don't want to hear it. More forum logic-- it's the worst. First of all, lots of actors live in California and secondly, where someone lives right now at 37 doesn't represent where they've lived historically or their family.

[LilimoLimomo]

I'll respect that it's different strokes for different folks, but I can't relate to thinking any of the English voice-acting is good. To me, the English voice-acting sounds overwhelmingly stilted, like they were all instructed to do "the Shakespeare voice" and got so focused on that that they forgot how to emote.

Starting over with Japanese voice-acting has literally been the difference between my feeling irritated by the characters and my loving them, because even though my ears don't entirely understand their words, the Japanese performances are full of emotion that brings them to life.

Different strokes, tho.

[Caesius]

Considering Wuk Lamat was adopted within a multicultural fantasy civilization, I think it's perfectly acceptable for the character to have an accent that can't be placed or is otherwise non-representative, whether because the actress herself has a "melting pot" accent or even because she's faking it.

For this reason I think asserting that she has/does not have/is supposed to have a particular accent already has a flawed premise.

[Midare]

It is absolutely meant to be a stereotypical American-Hispanic accent, like you might find from Mexican-American English/Spanish speakers in the United States.

If that's the "stereotype", then that's not a good thing. That is not the accent of someone speaking english and is from south america. And I will inform that Mexico is not south america.

No, not everyone from this part of the globe sound the exact same way, but there's some inflections and tone when pronouncing some words that are commonly shared because of how each letter sound to us in comparison to english speakers, none of which I heard from her, instead, her inflections are closer to Erenville's.

And the only role I was able to find from her it's from the movie Inu-Oh, where she voiced a character called Tomoari.

But the actress is Latina

Also you're implying there's a universal Latina accent when speaking in English. There isn't. I wish people would stop pulling the "I am this" card.

And I really would like it if people stopped caring so much about the origins of VAs and focuses on their works, but here we are. But at the very least, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and blame the director in this one, because her accent sounds like a bad imitation of Erenville's more nordic one as I said, and I stand by that one.

Lots of you have half doxxed her already so let me know. Do you have footage of her actual voice?

Lots of you? I don't even remember her name, I barely looked up her work and she sounded normal and perfectly in character in her portfolio reel. Again, directorial issue, stop being so defensive of her when my criticism is not even aimed at her.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6407291

So now not liking the character means it's an attack on the real person? Breaking your arm with that reach? I hope not, that'd hurt. I personally liked Wuk Lamat, but as I said, I listen to the japanese VO, she comes off as more genuine there.

Also I don't think she sounds amateurish. She doesn't have a lot of experience with high profile roles and people are just jumping on that to sound like they're VA specialists. Some of the VA in the patch is legitimately unnatural, but it's not Wuk Lamat.

In Inu-oh, her only other work, she sounded perfectly fine. In fact, I heard her in a scene where the character was distressed and she seemed to have nailed that well enough.

As Wuk Lamat, she sounds nervous, the accent is not consistent at all, and she comes off as awkward when saying the name of her own city. As I said, everyone else was not doing well either, but as the new character, the bad direction shone through more.

[SieyaM]

I think everyone needs to remember that a VA doesn't just get do whatever they want. They are usually being told how to sound, what inflections or accents to use and what emotions to convey by a director. There is also a number of people that have to ok they recording before it actually goes into the game. There are a lot of people that may be to blame for what you are dissatisfied with.

[DejikoChocolla]

I think everyone needs to remember that a VA doesn't just get do whatever they want. They are usually being told how to sound, what inflections or accents to use and what emotions to convey by a director. There is also a number of people that have to ok they recording before it actually goes into the game. There are a lot of people that may be to blame for what you are dissatisfied with.

Yeah, and that probably the reason why these threads are made. Showering the VA with shallow praise will only hurt the game in the long run.

[SieyaM]

Yeah, and that probably the reason why these threads are made. Showering the VA with shallow praise will only hurt the game in the long run.

I'm not sure where you think I a giving any praise by stating that many people are involved in the process and the VA alone is not responsible for the end result.

[Bitmoar]

I loved it, thought it was perfect, and I will be VERY upset if they change anything about it. Uh oh, what a conundrum. I guess SE can't please everyone.