Graha Voice Actor Change?

[Wasselin]

No one even votes for People's Sexiest Man Alive. People Magazine editors decide.

The only reason I can think that they (Jonathan Bailey or Square Enix) haven't announced anything is because they are negotiating a contract. Or maybe Square Enix thinks people just don't care who plays G'raha Tia or that he sounds completely different for the patch?

I can't remember... did they mention anything when Alphinaud was recast?

[peachsyder]

No one even votes for People's Sexiest Man Alive. People Magazine editors decide.

No, no. You heard the guy. It was the Final Fantasy Fourteen G'raha Tia Fans. It's their fault. Clearly.

Or maybe Square Enix thinks people just don't care who plays G'raha Tia or that he sounds completely different for the patch?

Wouldn't put it past them, frankly. Main reason I've tried to rally people to post here, myself—in the off chance they're just like "well, let's just replace the guy and see if we can get away with it without any fan backlash". Would certainly prefer this to not be the case, but who knows at this point? Their silence means all we can do is speculate.

I can't remember... did they mention anything when Alphinaud was recast?

They didn't mention anything, as far as I'm aware, because everyone was recast, not just Alphinaud. In the jump from ARR to HW, they changed studios, and every VA that came from the previous studio was recast. It was when they started being based in Britain rather than the US.

After that, we've only had one recast that I'm aware of: Yugiri. And that was because her original voice actress, Sian Blake, was tragically murderered. Edmont's original voice actor, Stephen Critchlow, also passed away, however, he has not been recast as he has not had any new voice lines since Critchlow's passing in 2021.

Hence why a sudden single character recast, even among the English cast, is entirely unprecedent. Jonathan Bailey is very much alive.

[LycanAshe]

I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said. But I would like to add my voice in saying that Bailey's performance as G'raha is important to me. It elevated Raha from being likeable, to being my favorite character in the entire game. He has become integral to my enjoyment and is the main thing I look forward to each patch. If Bailey and SE choose to part ways, I will respect it regardless of how hard the change will be.

However, SE purposely omitting G'raha from the English trailer without comment was already in bad faith; If it comes to light that Bailey was recast without being notified, I fear it may sour the game for me permanently. It would be incredibly disrespectful of both Bailey and the EN fanbase. G'raha and Bailey are both incredibly beloved, and I truly hope that if there is a permanent recast it was absolutely necessary. SE should spare no effort in maintaining the integrity of the main voice cast, in any language. These actors are what breathe life into the characters and writing, and their role reprisals deserve just as much respect and care as the JP cast.

I truly hope that SE will make a clear statement about this before the credits roll in April. We deserve that courtesy.

[astorianightingale]

I don\\'t have much to say that hasn\\'t already been said. But I would like to add my voice in saying that Bailey\\'s performance as G\\'raha is important to me. It elevated Raha from being likeable, to being my favorite character in the entire game. He has become integral to my enjoyment and is the main thing I look forward to each patch. If Bailey and SE choose to part ways, I will respect it regardless of how hard the change will be.

However, SE purposely omitting G\\'raha from the English trailer without comment was already in bad faith; If it comes to light that Bailey was recast without being notified, I fear it may sour the game for me permanently. It would be incredibly disrespectful of both Bailey and the EN fanbase. G\\'raha and Bailey are both incredibly beloved, and I truly hope that if there is a permanent recast it was absolutely necessary. SE should spare no effort in maintaining the integrity of the main voice cast, in any language. These actors are what breathe life into the characters and writing, and their role reprisals deserve just as much respect and care as the JP cast.

I truly hope that SE will make a clear statement about this before the credits roll in April. We deserve that courtesy.

Agree with this completely!

[CosmosNovaRose]

1/3 On patch day, I was among the first to log in when servers went live, and the first thing I did was start MSQ. I was joking to a friend about JB being replaced with circumstantial evidence being that the EN trailer for 7.4 omitted his speaking line. I was joking about the doomposters claiming he was recast, literally seconds before I heard his first line. I had a severe double-take, expecting Bailey's voice, and I did not hear it. I leaned in and tried to listen closer, maybe I misheard.

I had watched EN cutscenes on repeat that include G'raha Tia. I had watched Wicked, Jurassic World Rebirth, and Wicked for Good just because I wanted to support Bailey's career. I checked out some of his press tour footage and watched some of his interviews. Hell, I've even listened to one of Bailey's narrated sleep stories. I'm quite confident that I can pick out his voice- his natural speaking voice is how he delivers G'raha in FFXIV.

I did not hear his voice the second time, or the third. To me, it sounded egregiously like someone else. The accent was all wrong. The delivery was not congruent with the delivery that Bailey usually puts out. The audio quality was egregiously lower than the other speaking characters. Whether it was the audio quality responsible or not, Bailey's signature velvety, breathy, bass-y tone was absent. In its place was a performance that made me fully believe Bailey had left FFXIV.

So, as one rabid fan does amidst panic, I logged out of the game, took to Bluesky, and shouted to the void that G'raha Tia was recast. I may have unintentionally kickstarted some amount of the panic in the fanbase, as people who had yet to play the patch had read my post there and started parroting my fears. I was sleep deprived from an all nighter and an 8 hour shift, and went to bed without playing further. For jumping to an early conclusion and inciting fear, I apologize sincerely- it was disrespectful of me on multiple fronts, from the spoiler embargo on social media, to whoever actually voiced G'raha in 7.4. It insinuated that whoever is behind the microphone did horribly, and I don't believe so in the slightest, and it's not fair on them to have the fans tear their audio apart to compare it to prior recordings. I was just entirely surprised and disappointed that we had no idea beforehand that he would sound different.

[CosmosNovaRose]

2/3

On Bsky, some remained hopeful and posted an outdated article from March 2024 (nearly 2 years ago) that shows Bailey loves acting for G'raha Tia, and will do what he can to keep the role. In that stated interview, he even praises the writing for being 'Shakespearian' and admits that a few years prior, recording for Shadowbringers, he had been working on Company and injured his tongue. He still performed with a lisp, was how much he was dedicated.

Some also tried to assuage the fears by claiming that it sounds closer to Bailey the deeper into 7.4 you go. While I was unable to play until the following day, I tried to remain hopeful that maybe I was wrong, maybe it is just Bailey with a nasty illness, and maybe the fans are just insane (we are.)

So I gave it another day before coming back and resumed MSQ. And after considering that prior feedback, I tried to remain keen-eared. But I am sad to say that after finishing the patch, I remain skeptical that it is Bailey, and sit in the camp that it is a stealth recast. I've listened to some of the 7.4 dialogue on repeat, and someone was even diligent enough to provide a back to back audio clip of G'raha in 7.0 against 7.4. The more I listen, the more I am convinced it is not him. I hate having nothing to go off of outside of what we do have, and I repeat, it is awful that we are left scrambling for answers amidst this confusion, and it is awful that we are doing this to begin with, judging something that may have been performed by a temporary fill-in.

[CosmosNovaRose]

3/3

Whether or not fans should have reached out to Kotaku, they reached out to Kotaku. Kotaku gave the update from his representative that he "won't be commenting or participating in any interviews regarding FF XIV at this time.". This to me doesn't clear anything up, and makes the situation even stranger to people like myself who aren't familiar with how contracts or NDA's operate in this. If it's a contract issue, wouldn't it have been resolved *before* the patch dropped to prevent this entire discourse from happening? If there's a negotiation to keep Bailey for 7.4 and onwards, were his managers involved in gatekeeping Bailey with a price tag? Was Bailey genuinely sick, and didn't want to comment on it? Is Bailey parting ways from FFXIV to focus on his charity, and under an NDA to not disclose this? Is Square Enix, currently under fire from investors and having mass layoffs, trying to silently recast him and pull a Troy Baker on Bailey and the community? Or maybe Bailey was sick and recorded with a subpar set (highest grossing actor of 2025, recording in a subpar set, when his at-home recording sounded fine enough to use previously? I don't think that's likely, but goes to show what I know of the industry.)

There are so many things this could be, with stranger circumstances, which is why it's got the community gripped. EN actors have not been recast since 3.0 barring actual literal death. And I believe others when they say that Square would *never* have done something like this to their JP cast and community. G'raha's JP actor, Yuma Uchida, is also a star singer in Japan who has MANY roles. I don't buy the argument that Bailey is too expensive, if they have an all-star cast in JP.

All of this to say, I will be more than happy to be wrong when we eventually find out what happened this patch. If Bailey reprises G'raha going forward, I will be glad- just take care of yourself Bailey!! I will also be happy for Bailey if he decides to move on from FFXIV and focus on his career and his charity. He gave us the best performance we probably could have gotten for G'raha Tia. Hell, he's one of the big reasons why G'raha is my favorite character in this game. What I *don't* want is some corporate technicality being the reason we can't have Bailey return, and Square disrespecting the fans and whoever picks up the role by not announcing his departure and not introducing us to the new one. I *don't* want this to be about Square cutting corners and replacing more expensive actors with cheaper ones to appease their investors.

[peachsyder]

If it's a contract issue, wouldn't it have been resolved *before* the patch dropped to prevent this entire discourse from happening? If there's a negotiation to keep Bailey for 7.4 and onwards, were his managers involved in gatekeeping Bailey with a price tag? Was Bailey genuinely sick, and didn't want to comment on it? Is Bailey parting ways from FFXIV to focus on his charity, and under an NDA to not disclose this? Is Square Enix, currently under fire from investors and having mass layoffs, trying to silently recast him and pull a Troy Baker on Bailey and the community? Or maybe Bailey was sick and recorded with a subpar set (highest grossing actor of 2025, recording in a subpar set, when his at-home recording sounded fine enough to use previously? I don't think that's likely, but goes to show what I know of the industry.)

There are so many things this could be, with stranger circumstances, which is why it's got the community gripped. EN actors have not been recast since 3.0 barring actual literal death. And I believe others when they say that Square would *never* have done something like this to their JP cast and community. G'raha's JP actor, Yuma Uchida, is also a star singer in Japan who has MANY roles. I don't buy the argument that Bailey is too expensive, if they have an all-star cast in JP.

All of this to say, I will be more than happy to be wrong when we eventually find out what happened this patch. If Bailey reprises G'raha going forward, I will be glad. I will also be happy for Bailey if he decides to move on from FFXIV and focus on his career and his charity. He gave us the best performance we probably could have gotten for G'raha Tia. Hell, he's one of the big reasons why G'raha is my favorite character in this game. What I *don't* want is some corporate technicality being the reason we can't have Bailey return, and Square disrespecting the fans and whoever picks up the role by not announcing his departure and not introducing us to the new one. I *don't* want this to be about Square cutting corners and replacing more expensive actors with cheaper ones to appease their investors.

Just want to say I agree with you on all counts, especially that last paragraph. And most especially the part I bolded for emphasis. Imagine the reaction of the JP side if SE were to replace a major voice actor because they're too expensive now and they'd rather cut corners and replace them with actors willing to charge less. I joke—you don't even have to imagine it, because it'd never happen. They'd have to protect their headquarters from the molotov cocktails that'd be thrown at them, and we'd have a 12-paragraph long letter of apology from Yoshi-P himself the day patch dropped and a hotfix with the original VA yesterday.

[shoebilldreams]

As the person who overreacted to everyone thinking JB was Nald'thal by starting a video series identifying just about every uncredited voice from 3.0 to 6.55... I don't think it's JB.

And I say that as someone who was there in the dark of the night, listening to individual lines from TV shows and voice reels and old insta lives, trying to match individual syllables or the way people even breathed between words to confirm identities in some cases.

I'm not some great authority on JB, but I did dedicate far too much of my life to the project, enough to have known in one line of 7.4 that I wasn't hearing him.

[Tatiana]

I think it had something to do with the actors strike which ended up conflicting with production and they ultimately decided to recast the role. Some game studios (like Blizzard) respected the strike and just released the content without the voice overs they hadn't already completed, which they're having to play catch-up with now that the strike is over. Others just recast roles, this would also explain why he won't comment on anything to do with FFXIV. His career has exploded since Bridgerton and now Wicked, he can't afford to go against strikes and dropping FFXIV if they wouldn't wait would be the unfortunate but most reasonable decision.