Final Fantasy 14's newest patch re-does one of Dawntrail’s most criticized scenes

Final Fantasy 14's major patch, the first since Dawntrail was released, is finally here. It includes some changes that were highly anticipated and others that are more questionable. In the patch notes for the first week, it was mentioned that the "English voiced dialog in certain scenes" had been adjusted. This was specifically for the new expansion.

Warning: This article contains some endgame Dawntrail spoilers.

As I suspected, the change was made to a scene during the transition phase of Dawntrail's last boss fight against Sphene. He has now become a giant killer machine. Its dialogue delivery has been the subject of countless criticisms and memes. The Marmite-y Wuk Lamat utters an oddly-worded dialogue before diving into mid-fight while screaming "Sphene listen to me!"

I would say that it was a shouting situation, but in lower case. Her delivery of the line and her subsequent words were very different from what we all saw on screen. Wuk Lamat is not straining to lift herself out of the way under what appears to be a very largemetal. The English dub made it sound more like they were having a heart-to-heart than a passionate plea in the middle of a battle.

The original delivery is even more apparent when compared with the Japanese voice lines. They were noticeably less disjointed from what was actually occurring in the cutscene.

The second take has the first line rewritten, which, I'll admit, still feels badly worded, with a slightly odd delivery, and the rest of scene revoiced at a much better standard. Wuk Lamat now delivers her lines with a lot more passion, and she actually belts them out the way I expected her to.

Sena Bryer is the voice actress of Wuk Lamat. I don't mean to point fingers here. Dawntrail's English Dub had some very strange direction choices. Even voice actors that have been in the game for years made some strange choices with their line delivery. Y'shtola, you are one of them. Bryer's rework of the scene shows that she is perfectly capable of conveying the emotional nuance needed. I'm glad Square Enix listened to the criticisms and gave it another go.

The new dialogue recordings are much appreciated, especially since the latest patch introduces a version of the trial with extreme difficulty in which the cutscene appears. It won't stop my mind from reminiscing about Vinesauce's "speen", though.