Having your character talk during cutscenes

[LlenCoram]

That's the same old problem: however generic your line will be, it will always end up being something OOC (Out of Character) for at least somebody. FF MMO are about immersion, usually identifying with your character, which ends being not just a bunch of polygons.
The moment they make they speak, they're taking your character away from you.

I'm glad someone else mentioned this. I thought it would be cool that my character had a voice in GW2, but then she started saying things and responding in ways I'd never do. Just due to her having a voice, she ceased being me and was instead just some person I happened to control.

Giving my absolutely not to this idea. I know I'll get flamed for it, but this is one of the biggest immersion destroyers out there.

[Loggos]

I disagree on vocal dialogues for my character for the said reasons. Please don't make it happen.
I imagine to be this character and hearing her talk will never be like I would react, no matter how amazing the voice actor is. In the latter case (having a good voice actor) I play a character with a physical design I like and with a vocally greatly realised personality. But it's not me and to have my char be "me" is excactly what I want. :/

I think the idea of choosing text-based answers is ok though. If I had different options to answer something but it is not dubbed I could choose what would represent me most and still imagine how I'd say it.

[Yrusama]

I'm glad someone else mentioned this. I thought it would be cool that my character had a voice in GW2, but then she started saying things and responding in ways I'd never do. Just due to her having a voice, she ceased being me and was instead just some person I happened to control.

Giving my absolutely not to this idea. I know I'll get flamed for it, but this is one of the biggest immersion destroyers out there.

I think this is true of all voice-acted RPGs, which is part of why more recent FFs are having trouble. Even in the "silent era" of SNES, you could still interpret spoken lines however you wanted. I felt I was able to identify with almost every character in FFVI because they didn't have their own voices or defined faces.

[SkyeWindbinder]

That's the same old problem: however generic your line will be, it will always end up being something OOC (Out of Character) for at least somebody. FF MMO are about immersion, usually identifying with your character, which ends being not just a bunch of polygons.
The moment they make they speak, they're taking your character away from you.

+1

I couldn't have said that better myself.

The best kinds of RPGs are the ones that allow you to step into the shoes of the protagonist through who's eyes you experience the world of the game. If our characters are given voices to speak as the NPCs do, that will put up a barrier between us and our protagonist. It would be almost no different from reading a book.

[Duelle]

The moment they make them speak, they're taking your character away from you.

Depends on whether you see the characters as characters or as an extension of yourself. I personally decided that if my taru in XI was to ever be voiced, I would accept none other than Yamaguchi Kappei.

Besides, character behavior and responses are dependent on whether we'd have varied dialogue choices to represent different moral standpoints and attitudes. That's where it would get real tricky and make the OP's request unlikely.

Also, I'm a dude playing a catgirl. Unless there's some impressive vocoder stuff happening, that's going to be really unnerving.

The funny thing is that female voices knocked down an octave or so can pass off as male. Male voices don't have that luxury because you go from male voice to squeaks very quickly.

[Yowyow]

oh... lets look at other MMOs (ok the ONLY mmo to ever do this), they failed miserably after a year or so. I'm refering to Bioware's horrible SWTOR. The resources needed for this type of thing would take months upon months if not years. Its not as simple as plugging in some bum's voice into a character. its the cutscenes, the dialogue, the facial expressions, the models. Sorry for being Mr. Negative Nancy but dont ever expect this from SE for FF14.

[rina_inverse]

Sorry for being Mr. Negative Nancy but dont ever expect this from SE for FF14.

for any mmorpg in fact

[Venat]

oh... lets look at other MMOs (ok the ONLY mmo to ever do this), they failed miserably after a year or so. I'm refering to Bioware's horrible SWTOR. The resources needed for this type of thing would take months upon months if not years. Its not as simple as plugging in some bum's voice into a character. its the cutscenes, the dialogue, the facial expressions, the models. Sorry for being Mr. Negative Nancy but dont ever expect this from SE for FF14.

Not talking about voice acting. Just the dialogue.

[Einherei]

The only way i'd see this working in line with SE is the example from God Eater Burst.
It too is a game where the player character does not directly speak or say anything even in the voice acting segments when other characters speak. The main character only nods or does gesture similar to XI or XIV.

However at one point during the main climax when the stakes are high at the end point they shout out (with the same voice you chose for basic battle grunts/emotes) "Don't give up on living!" and charges in to help one of the main characters in the story, it really surprised me because i wasn't expecting it, it immediately made the last fight very memorable as it was a quote said earlier in the game - something similar where you could believe that's actually what your character would say at a climactic moment would be something great to experience in XIV if they ever did limit voice acting.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

You don't need him to talk to be awesome