Final Fantasy 14's first major patch since Dawntrail's release is finally here, with some much-anticipated changes and those more questionable in nature. Among the preliminary patch notes last week, I noticed it mentioned that "English voiced dialogue in certain scenes has been adjusted," specifically for the latest expansion.
Some endgame Dawntrail spoilers below, you've been warned!
As I guessed, the change is for a scene that plays during the transition phase for Dawntrail's final boss fight against Sphene, who has now become a giant killing machine. Its dialogue delivery has spawned countless criticism and memes: It sees the Marmite-y Wuk Lamat rattle off an oddly-worded line of dialogue, before diving in mid-fight while yelling "Sphene, listen to me!"
I say yelling, but it was more of a lower-case shouting situation. The delivery of that line and her subsequent speech was very much at odds with what we were all seeing on the screen. Despite Wuk Lamat fighting to lift and free herself from being crushed under what is presumably a very heavy metal hand, there's not a hint of strain to be heard in her voice. The English dub sounded more like the two were having an intimate heart-to-heart, rather than an impassioned plea mid-battle.
The juxtaposition of the original delivery becomes even clearer when it's compared to the Japanese voice lines, which were notably far less disjointed with what was actually happening in the cutscene.
The second take has seen the first line rewritten—which, I'll be honest, still feels poorly worded with a slightly strange delivery to boot—with the rest of the scene revoiced to a much higher standard. There's a ton more passion behind Wuk Lamat's lines now, with her actually belting them out in a way I would've expected her to do in the first place.
Now, I definitely don't want to be pointing fingers at Sena Bryer, Wuk Lamat's voice actress, here. Dawntrail's English dub as a whole had some mighty strange directional choices. Even voice actors who've been in the game for several years had confusing line delivery or sounded particularly crunchy—looking at you, Y'shtola. Bryer's re-do of the scene proves that she was perfectly capable of getting across the emotional nuance required, and I'm so glad Square Enix took in the various critiques and gave her another shot at the whole thing.
The new dialogue recordings will be much appreciated with the newest patch introducing an extreme difficulty version of the trial the cutscene appears in. Though admittedly, it still won't stop me from thinking about Vinesauce's "speen" every time it plays.
