(09-27-2013, 07:51 AM)Theodric Ironheart Wrote: The voice acting industry is pretty stagnant and has been for a long while. The same handful of successful voice actors tend to be employed and involved in quite a few major titles.
Oh, you mean like the period of about five years where Johnny Yong Bosch was every major protagonist on every anime dub? Those were some dark times. I mean I like the man, I've met him before and he's a genuinely nice guy, but hearing him five hours a night on my anime night was getting downright depressing.
I see where you're coming from though, and I don't disagree. I'm just saying there's a standard I think of with this company, and I don't get the feeling they were too discerning with the choice of VA's for this game. Given, it's a small amount of voice acting, and it hardly calls for busing in, say, Crispin Freeman. But branching out to other talent shouldn't mean compromising quality.
A bit more 'constructive' look at what specifically has rubbed me the wrong way about FF14 is everyone is over acting so hard. It's like a soap opera. And they're all so loud.
What comes to mind prominently is Merlwyb. No matter what she is trying to express at any point in time, its sounds like she is thinking so hard about what she is saying and trying to sound the most dire one can make their voice. It comes out so over the top instead of serious she sounds comical, and it causes me to actually physically cringe, then lean over and turn off my speakers.
And with Kan-E-Senna she never changes tone... ever. Having normal conversation with adventuerer? Same tone. Giving a spirited memorial service? No inflection. Having a fucking meteor dropped on her head? Might as well be picky daises with how involved she sounds in what's going on. Then again, it's the same stuido that gave us true voice acting gems like these two.
It's a lot of hair splitting on my end, and I certainly don't mean to imply my personal tastes are the end-all be all of voice acting! I just think this isn't up to par for a Square production... and my standards are pretty low.and my standards for them are pretty low.
