Final Fantasy 14 fans are concerned Jonathan Bailey, this year’s People’s Sexiest Man Alive, may have been recast in Square Enix‘s MMORPG – or at least has recorded under unfavourable conditions.
Bailey has voiced fan-favourite cat boy G’raha Tia since the Stormblood expansion, released in 2017. But this was before he starred in the likes of Bridgerton, Wicked, and Jurassic World Rebirth, from which his fame has risen considerably.
This week, the 7.4 update was released for Final Fantasy 14, bringing an extension to the story and a new song from Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. Yet fans have noticed G’raha Tia’s voice sounds a little off.
One reddit thread posits either the character is no longer voiced by Bailey, or he’s been recording away from the studio – likely between other major projects he’s worked on.
“It also feels like they’re minimising his speaking – he had a total of two lines in the first two quests, and at one point just emoted a thumbs up,” the post reads. “He felt conspicuously silent for G’raha, someone who is way too sentimental to barely say anything at a goodbye.”
The poster later added they think it is still Bailey, but a combination of hoarse throat and a subpar microphone “adds some gruffness to his voice”.
Fans have also been sharing comparison videos on social media, to highlight the differences in the voice work.
In an interview with BAFTA last year, Bailey recognised Final Fantasy 14 alongside his other voice work, and how important the character is to the fanbase.
“I’m aware of how important this character is to so many people,” he said. “I was so determined to not step away from this character, that when I was doing Company [in the West End in 2018] I had to record this in the day for about a week doing eight shows a night and my tongue inflamed. So I think, any die-hard fans out there, there’s a few hours of playing where I sound a bit lispy, that’s because of that. So I apologise.”
As such, fans hope he is still working on the game, despite the apparent changes in quality.
That said, a representative for Bailey told Kotaku he “won’t be commenting or participating in any interviews regarding Final Fantasy 14” at this time. Square Enix has not responded to Eurogamer’s request for comment.
What is clear is the size of the role of G’raha Tia has certainly reduced since the highs of Shadowbringers, though whether that’s due to Bailey or simply storytelling is unknown. Indeed, one criticism of latest expansion Dawntrail is that multiple popular characters don’t receive enough screen time.
“With regards to the Scions playing a more active role only later on in the story, truth be told this is something I intentionally wanted to try out,” director and producer Naoki Yoshida told me last year.
“I do understand there are people who always want the Scions to be at the centre of the story, but at the same time there are people who are also requesting something new instead. So it was a conscious effort on my part to experiment and see how the balance would play out.”
It remains to be seen, then, whether G’raha Tia or other popular characters could be written out of the game in future. No doubt we’ll get answers at the Fan Fest events next year.