Colin Ryan, the English voice actor of Final Fantasy 14's Alphinaud, seems completely inseparable from the character now that I've spent several expansions with my lad. So inseparable, in fact, that it's easy to forget the character was initially voiced by Sam Riegel for its launch storyline, A Realm Reborn.
When Heavensward launched, Square Enix swapped studios from Formosa Interactive to Side UK for the game's English voiceover—which meant swapping out most of the voice actors, too.
This leads to a moment where Riegel's (appropriately) smarmy, know-it-all tones give way to the softer croon of Ryan's stellar work in the span of one cutscene. It's referred to, affectionately, by the community as a bit of a 'jumpscare' moment—like your parents swapping out your pet hamster. It takes a minute to re-adjust, is what I'm saying.
Ryan has been playing A Realm Reborn on his Twitch channel, and has only recently wrapped up the post-expansion content, meaning he's been able to enjoy this switcheroo firsthand. You can see the moment, shared to his YouTube channel, below.
Ryan's never played FF14 before, so beyond a fun moment of empathy for all the players who were spooked by the sudden inclusion of a far gentler lad, it's his first instance hearing his own work in its full-blooded context, too. "This is so weird, that is really weird," he says, in between bouts of giddy laughter. "Was it the first thing I recorded? I guess so. I think it must've been. Bear in mind everyone, this is 10 years ago that I recorded this. Wow."
Potentially even more. A Realm Reborn came out in 2015—but voice actors will, naturally, record their lines while an expansion is still in development. You could safely add a year onto that number, at least.
In particular, Ryan references a line following the bloody banquet of A Realm Reborn, wherein Alphinaud references 'specious accusations. "Even that line alone, that makes so much [more] sense now that I've lived through the whole of A Realm Reborn, now I know what these 'specious accusations' are." Turns out—they're regicide.
"I'm buzzin', this is amazing. This is so cool. I can see why people had the jumpscare when they started this," he admits. There's more where that came from, for sure—earlier this year, a data sleuth discovered that Alphinaud is the king of yappers, so Ryan's about to hear a heck of a lot more of his own work.
