What's up with the lack of Voice acting in this game?

[ScMerlin]

So i decided to try out the free trial today. I played for 10-15 minutes and lost all interest. Not once in that time did i ever hear any NPC's speak. Not even characterss who progress my main storyline. You would think the first 15 minutes of the game would be important to give a voice. I guess i am spoiled other mmos who at least had the time to give voices to their characters.

What makes it worse is that i can see their mouths movie as they are speaking, but all i get are text.

Is this really how the full game is? With Voice acting on only super uber important scenes?

[Gabby]

The majority of the game is in fact voiced. Just some parts of the intro and side quest cutscenes are not.

Though I'd love to point out that voice acting is not as prevalent as you seem to think.

[ScMerlin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Seraphna:

The majority of the game is in fact voiced. Just some parts of the intro and side quest cutscenes are not.

Ok i will try to endure a bit more to see how it is. I would think that the intro would be one of the most important places to focus on. As that is where new players can get put off like i did

[Gabby]

Scenes where they don't have a voice actor for some characters are not voiced to reduce confusion.

This is a bit of a spoiler, but this is some of what you have to look forward to:

https://youtu.be/J3OlJKlbC3I?t=2556

If you'd like to see it live, message me and I'll do a run, my Steam Watch is turned on.

[ScMerlin]

When i talk to someone and the camera zooms in on their face and you can see them saying something, i would expect a voice. If they are not voicing their characters, they should stop zooming in

[Gabby]

Silly reason to change things, honestly. You're suggesting they change production value and detail to be less just because some scenes aren't voice acted.

Final Fantasy didn't have voice acting until they were 10 titles in. <_<;

Just because what they say in a text box doesn't mean their mouths should magically stop moving.

[Gabby]

More VA Examples: All spoilers since most of the VA is storyline...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhXBVtWT988

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laTHafKXMdU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INzA1l4oV6A

(Not VA, but an example of the vocal tracks too:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJiH8HLZw4

Do realize there's FAR more story in this game than any other MMO out there except maybe SW: OR.

[Logicdecker]

It's typical for all final fantasy games to have voicing only in cutscenes. Most of talk is mouth opening and comic style bubble.

[Luckiernut]

There is indeed alot of story but even if you skip through the majority of it you get the general idea of whats happening.

[Tumas Altaawus]

Game doesn't have much voice acting. Only certain cutscenes, and cutscenes in the newer story are voiced. Even then, some of the voice acting is pretty poor anyway. Game is still great though, and passing it up on the fact there's not much VA is gonna cause you to miss out on one of the best MMOs currently available.

[ScMerlin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Seraphna:

Silly reason to change things, honestly. You're suggesting they change production value and detail to be less just because some scenes aren't voice acted.

Final Fantasy didn't have voice acting until they were 10 titles in. <_<;

Just because what they say in a text box doesn't mean their mouths should magically stop moving.

I am not saying their mouth should stop moving. I am just saying it is weird to focus on it when nothing is actually coming out.

I played for an hour and haven't heard a single voice so far. I guess i got spoiled by other mmos..

[Tumas Altaawus]

You definitely did get spoiled. To my knowledge, all cutscenes in the original FFXIV were voiced, on top of this, many western MMOs are fully voiced such as WoW and The Old Republic.

I believe the issue was likely budget. I assume Square Enix did not expect this level of reception from the revamped game, therefore underfunded the project. The game has other issues that show possibly due to lack of funding too, such as poor server infrastructure.

[ScMerlin]

I was thinking of Guild wars 2, pretty much everything was voiced. What annoys me the most is the "lets zoom in all the way to the face when character is speaking" when there is no voice

[Tumas Altaawus]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Though it zooms in and shows them talking because even though the game isn't voiced, they are still talking, and the text is what they're saying.

[Ruse]

Voice acting is expensive. Voice acting for a game you rebuilt from the ground up that failed once is more expensive. Voice acting missing from games isn't that big of a deal. Reading won't kill you.

[ScMerlin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Theresa Barkskin:

Voice acting is expensive. Voice acting for a game you rebuilt from the ground up that failed once is more expensive. Voice acting missing from games isn't that big of a deal. Reading won't kill you.

Even if there were voice i would still be reading. It's just much faster. It creates a better immersion when there are voice acting though.