Graha Voice Actor Change?

[Bantochan]

I want Bailey to continue voicing G'raha going forward more than anything because he is the definitive G'raha to me (and no, bad faith readers, that's not the same as having a delusion that he is literally G'raha), which is why I'm here voicing my wish for Square to clarify what's going on with the recast and if we should expect it to be a permanent thing. But I think it's insane to suggest that if it is a permanent recast that G'raha ought to be written out; that's not for the best, that's ridiculous. Even the people for whom having Bailey's voice behind him is a make or break deal on whether or not they'll keep playing the game aren't pushing for something like that, nor should they.

Agreed. For me, a change in voice for a character (or even a live action recast) takes me out of the story that is trying to be told. I wouldn’t go as far as to promise that I would quit the game over it, but I would be more inclined to switch to JP voices just for the consistency. It’s a matter of personal preference. However - I MUCH prefer Jonathan Bailey voicing G’raha as he has done it through the major character arcs and pivotal story beats. To have someone new voice him, even if they do a good job, would create a discrepancy that I could not ignore moving forward. It seems many people feel this way. I also love the rest of the English cast so this would be an issue if any of them were recast for me.

[RedLolly]

I've been gifted a bunch of books and tools on learning French for Christmas, so I intend to swap to French in everything I can to help with immersion learning.

I've heard the French localization it top notch from so many players. But damn, I hope for the sake of everyone upset it's just the understudy theory and Bailey can return for 8.0. i still like the performance of 7.4, but man. I don't like seeing y'all upset.

[shoebilldreams]

After all that time spent listening to the voices for my videos... I don't think I'll ever play a video game again with British voices without half my brain searching the internal library for who it might be

I'd miss JB, but at this stage I'm so invested in all the English voices that I wouldn't want to change. I loved that little catboy when he didn't even have a voice, I'll be fine if he has a different one.

[MoonPhaseAlpha]

Just completed the 7.4 MSQ. Yeah, that's not Bailey voicing Graha. It's someone else entirely. After a while, the only thing I could think of every time he said a line was: Imposter.

Very disappointing in SE's lack of transparency; super disrespectful to the EN players. Clearly something is up when they omitted his voice line from the trailer.

[peachsyder]

I can only hope the omission of G'raha's voice in the trailer was due to the fact that they were waiting until the very last moment to try and work around Bailey's schedule. When it didn't end up being possible, they went with a soundalike for this patch and this patch only, and that Bailey will return (and hopefully rerecord those 7.4 lines) as soon as he's able. Hopefully even as soon as 7.5.

That's the most optimistic and good faith scenario I can imagine.

The opposite, most pessimistic scenario would be that Bailey was permanently recast with no announcement, intentionally omitted from the trailer in order to not cause preemptive fan uproar, and that they're hoping to just ignore any complaints and pleas for clarity (and for Bailey's return). All of which will only put the new VA in an incredibly rough spot, and any expression of sadness and frustration from fans will immediately be painted as harassment and lunacy—because of course it will.

Again, all speculation that could have been avoided had they simply been transparent with players from the start. I can only hope we're dealing with the more optimistic scenario.

[Lord_Umbra]

Funny people trying pin it on SE maybe Bailey just doesn't care as much as his PR speak from ages ago let on cause this would all be on Bailey not being able to make time for it & not SE, they didn't cut him he just couldn't make it if was in fact a new VA.
Considering loyalty factor for Japanese Companies I imagine they might not go with him in future even if can get him back since he's proven not be able to be relied on if this was in fact not him Voicing Graha.

[Regis_Paran]

Funny people trying pin it on SE maybe Bailey just doesn't care as much as his PR speak from ages ago let on cause this would all be on Bailey not being able to make time for it & not SE, they didn't cut him he just couldn't make it if was in fact a new VA.

Because usually big corpos are not known for lying and scr***ing both employes and customers, right? Oh wait...
It's really strange that people are still willing to defend SE (it's especially visible on Reddit, some "explanations" why they wouldn't tell us are beyond convoluted) after them proving in recent years they don't want to properly communicate with the players.

If this was JB's decision, it would be even easier for SE to confirm the change. They would just put all the fault on him - "Dear players, we would love for JB to still voice Graha, but it's his decison to leave blah blah blah".

[Elvirawynter]

I've completed the MSQ now and I'm so confused. At parts it sounds like him, but if anything a little off. Then it just goes out of whack randomly.

I'll echo others here, it would be nice if they could tell us already. I've not seen many people commenting about it directly on their posts, rather more on their own individual posts if anything.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I was going to say, this could just as easily be the VA's fault as Square-Enix's, and they can't very well force him to come and record for them if that's the case.

At this stage most of us are blaming SE because it is within their power to address their customers with a simple yes or no answer to this question.

If JB chose to leave the role, I'm sure most of us would understand and accept that. (I'm still not entirely over Gideon Emery being replaced as Urianger, but that's another story given that was SE's decision to recast everyone).

But as customers we pay SE, not JB, so we are hoping for just the tiniest bit of consideration from the company we give money to.