Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[EdwinChucklenuts]

Wuk Lamat is a more interesting character in half an expansion than most of the scions have ever been

The EN voice is good, too

Cope and seethe

Based take.

[Sayo_]

change to JP voices it's much better

JP voices might help with the bad english VA but it doesn't change just how annoying the character is.

[Sayo_]

I don't know how much I'm allowed to spoil here in the forum but there's a part where you interact with her father and he explains why she isn't truly educated on their people, ie knowing OF their cultures but not KNOWING. He explains the nature of the contest, if you've gotten that far.

Haven't gotten there yet but I'll have to see if the explanation is good enough. Although I doubt it will be enough to excuse her instantly doing what Erenville told her not to do.

[Nitelancer]

I support Zoraal Ja. Make Tuliyallol great again!

[Abriael]

JP voices might help with the bad English VA but it doesn't change just how annoying the character is.

The thing is, it would if you understood Japanese.

I'm far from one who believes that scripts should be literally translated. That's usually just awkward, but there are very big differences in tone and in the way characters interact with each other between the Japanese script and the English one, and IMHO the Japanese version is clearly superior. I won't pretend I know why the localization team decided to go for such a big departure from the Japanese version. I'm sure they had their reasons, but while I normally expect some editing, many of the differences I'm seeing simply struggle to fit my "ok, this makes sense" bucket this time around.

A couple of very obvious spoiler-free examples: one of the most grating aspects of Wuk Lamat in English is that she calls Gulool Ja Ja "papa" like some spoiled heiress thanking her billionaire daddy for the new private jet. In Japanese, this doesn't exist. She calls him "Oyaji", which is a bit of a rough and pretty tomboyish way to call your dad, and is perfect to represent the fact that Wuk is rough around the edges.

I have no idea where they got the "promise" thing. That's just spurious fancy-zation of the dialogue. In Japanese Wuk's simply the "third princess," which makes sense, since she came third in Gulool Ja Ja's family.

This is just the tip of a massive iceberg, but can't really say more to avoid spoilers. My point is that (while I don't dislike her nearly as much as some do in English. She is pretty fun and in any case, I've seen sooo much worse in both games and anime) Wuk is a much better and more coherent character in her Japanese representation, and it's sad that most in the west are missing it.

[Scruit_Bigtime]

but every time her character has to yell or just speak beyond a normal six-inch voice it sounds absolutely horrendous and forced. Completely takes you out of the experience.

this is the one that frustrates me, anytime she's yelling it comes out feeling flat and empty, scarcely more than a raised talking voice.... it feels lacking in any real emotion, like when someone tries to sound angry but doesn't want to put effort in. it tends to undermine any sort of emotional impact the scene would have had.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I support Zoraal Ja. Make Tuliyallol great again!

Actually if they kept the general “make your candidate a better leader” plot they are going for, Zoraal would be vastly more interesting to work with as the WoL than Wuk, who pretty much has the same temperament as half the cast already.

[Zaniel]

I am usually a super FF14 booster, I loved the entirety of ARR, I never found it a slog, I didn't mind Lyse, I loved ALL the expansions in their entirety, I really like Zero, she made sense to me.

That said, Dawntrail's early section is TERRIBLE and incredibly BORING, the Hanuhanu section is just such a charmless illogical slog and Wuk Lamat is an imbecile with fairly much no depth or other interesting traits. Also to be clear I actually have no issues with the VA, there are so many voices in FF14 and she's just one more, in fact at least she DOESN'T sound like a Sharlayan scholar which in and of itself is realistic.

I've read every single line of every single quest in the game, I obsessively read all the books littering the dungeons and have never skipped a single cutscene yet for the first time EVER in my FF14 history last night I found myself clicking through the quests as fast as I could. I still read it but I was just thinking "please lord just let me get through this". The sidequests are no better than the MSQ, 20 sidequests all about delivering reeds from one side of the zone to the other is not fun.

I like the setting, Tural is (in theory) a great setting, I love the technical aspects of the expansion, I like everything, I even like the BGM in the city. But holy moly the story is NOT good so far and that is kind of a problem in THE vaunted story MMO. It is also not a positive that the delivery of said story has become "The Wuk Lamat and her 5 spear-carriers Show". This was meant to be the holiday expansion but I didn't think holiday meant "not actually show up until next season".

I am gonna be fair and withhold judgement because its so early, I'll assume the people who brought us Emet-Selch and the Walk of Tears won't drop the ball but if there isn't some point where the plot and its delivery style redeem themselves then it's gonna be rough.

[Lieri]

Recently SE has been into making characters with a lot of weaknesses at the start then they will grow over the story. Which is fine, I get it you want to have character development. But its getting a bit boring. We had Zero like that and now Wuk Lamat as well.

If Wuk Lamat started in the same way as the first promise but had that twin headed annoying hybrid lizzer playing dirty tricks to win the throne, I feel like the story would be more interesting. Its about time we get a character whos a badass from the start.

[Shibi]

The thing is, it would if you understood Japanese.

I'm far from one who believes that scripts should be literally translated. That's usually just awkward, but there are very big differences in tone and in the way characters interact with each other between the Japanese script and the English one, and IMHO the Japanese version is clearly superior.

I must say, since flipping to the JP original text, the story is a bit - but not a lot - better.