Ultimate Fantasy 14 followers are involved Jonathan Bailey, this 12 months’s Individuals’s Sexiest Man Alive, could have been recast in Sq. Enix’s MMORPG – or at the least has recorded below unfavourable situations.
Bailey has voiced fan-favourite cat boy G’raha Tia because the Stormblood enlargement, launched in 2017. However this was earlier than he starred within the likes of Bridgerton, Depraved, and Jurassic World Rebirth, from which his fame has risen significantly.
This week, the 7.4 replace was launched for Ultimate Fantasy 14, bringing an extension to the story and a brand new track from Rage Towards The Machine’s Tom Morello. But followers have seen G’raha Tia’s voice sounds a bit off.
One reddit thread posits both the character is now not voiced by Bailey, or he is been recording away from the studio – probably between different main tasks he is labored on.
“It additionally looks like they’re minimising his talking – he had a complete of two traces within the first two quests, and at one level simply emoted a thumbs up,” the submit reads. “He felt conspicuously silent for G’raha, somebody who’s approach too sentimental to barely say something at a goodbye.”
The poster later added they suppose it’s nonetheless Bailey, however a mix of hoarse throat and a subpar microphone “provides some gruffness to his voice”.
Followers have additionally been sharing comparability movies on social media, to focus on the variations within the voice work.
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In an interview with BAFTA final 12 months, Bailey recognised Ultimate Fantasy 14 alongside his different voice work, and the way necessary the character is to the fanbase.
“I am conscious of how necessary this character is to so many individuals,” he stated. “I used to be so decided to not step away from this character, that once I was doing Firm [in the West End in 2018] I needed to file this within the day for a few week doing eight exhibits an evening and my tongue infected. So I feel, any die-hard followers on the market, there’s just a few hours of enjoying the place I sound a bit lispy, that is due to that. So I apologise.”
As such, followers hope he’s nonetheless engaged on the sport, regardless of the obvious adjustments in high quality.
That stated, a consultant for Bailey advised Kotaku he “will not be commenting or collaborating in any interviews concerning Ultimate Fantasy 14” at the moment. Sq. Enix has not responded to Eurogamer’s request for remark.
What is obvious is the scale of the position of G’raha Tia has definitely diminished because the highs of Shadowbringers, although whether or not that is on account of Bailey or just storytelling is unknown. Certainly, one criticism of newest enlargement Dawntrail is that a number of standard characters do not obtain sufficient display time.
“On the subject of the Scions enjoying a extra energetic position solely in a while within the story, reality be advised that is one thing I deliberately needed to check out,” director and producer Naoki Yoshida advised me final 12 months.
“I do perceive there are individuals who all the time need the Scions to be on the centre of the story, however on the identical time there are people who find themselves additionally requesting one thing new as a substitute. So it was a acutely aware effort on my half to experiment and see how the stability would play out.”
It stays to be seen, then, whether or not G’raha Tia or different standard characters might be written out of the sport in future. Little doubt we’ll get solutions on the Fan Fest occasions subsequent 12 months.
