I mean, some of them were pretty bad an needed replacing, but Alphi and Cid were really good and they've been replaced too. Apparently almost everyone has been replaced. So jarring and it's honestly kinda taking me out of the story having all these characters I've grown attached to over the last year or two have COMPLETELY different voices..

Have they said why they did this? I hope they come back later and this was just a weird expansion thing or something.

I don't think they specifically stated why they changed everyone's voices (at least I never read or saw anything), but there's been a pretty vocal consensus amongst the playerbase that the English VA was kind of laughable (many just played with the Japanese voices on with English subtitles). Most people seem to think the expansion was a significant step up in terms of quality.

I dont know why, but all the voice I've heard so far sound better acted.

It's jarring at first, but I think overall it's better. (The old voices were kind of hit or miss, but I still preferred them to Japanese, because they felt wrong.) It seems they went and got actual British/European voice actors this time around, instead of Americans with fake accents. (Alphinaud and Tataru are Shulk and Fiora from Xenoblade.)

I don't like Merlwyb's new voice though, it lacks the authority of the old one. I'll also miss the voices of the Scions if they return. They grew on me.

I agree that most are better then the old ones were (though I wonder if that was more on the VA's part or Square's poor voice directing), but I think Alphi, Cid and Merlwyb are just straight up downgrades. Yugiri also sounds absolutely terrible in the expansion, but I can't really remember what she used to sound like. Merlwyb just kind of sounds like Not-Merlwyb now. :/

It's just strange to me that EVERYONE got replaced, even the ones people generally considered good. The only character I've bumped into so far that's had the same voice is that Ishgardian Elezan guy with the blue sword (can't remember his name), which is strange because if you ask me he's pretty terrible.

Oh, but I will say this: OH MY GOD DOES URIANGER SOUND SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER

It kinda makes sense that everyone was replaced, because they obviously went to a completely different source to cast the voice actors this time around. I don't think a lot people realize this, but most developers don't just pick and choose voice actors they want in their game, they go to a casting agency and they'll offer up suggestions of who might suit the role and who they have available. Since they clearly went outside of the usual American anime voice actor pool I'm not surprised that the original voice actors got left out. (They probably could have gotten more back if they really wanted, but I don't think they care to go to that much trouble.)

Alphinaud, Cid, and Yugiri are all fine IMO. In fact I think I like them better. (Alphinaud especially feels like he has some actual personality now.) Merlwyb is the only one I consider a clear downgrade. She sounds way too mellow now.

Agreed. It takes a bit to get used to but everyone else sounds so much better. The old actors did the thing I see in Anime a bit of talking with weird or forced voices. Everything sounds much more natural now.

Ah, well that explains it. I wasn't sure if they changed the voices or if I just forgot what everyone sounded like.

Not that it matters much in my case. I play with sound off most of the time anyway...

Personally i listen to the Japanese language with subs but i seem to be in the minority of my friends who all listen to the English dub and most of them where horrified at the new casting. The only thing that was off to me was every reference to the Church Knights being called "The Heavensward" in the subs you can hear the Japanese voice actor saying "Knights of the Round". I knew the subs would be off a bit but just shows just how much a script can change between regions.

I never really thought it was the voice actors that were poor in FFXIV; it was the crummy script. Unnecessary exposition, overuse of ye olde English, and some pretty wooden emotional ties. You could put Daniel Day-Lewis in front of the script and it would still sound bad.