The Destiny 2: Edge of Fate launch has gone remarkably smoothly so far, with most players – including myself – reporting few issues jumping in and loading up the expansion's campaign. The first cutscene in that campaign, however, has perked up some ears, with players quickly noticing that Warlock Vanguard leader Ikora sounds a little... off. Not bad, but not quite Ikora.
In a May blog post, Bungie announced that "some voice talent has been unavailable for recordings." Consequently, some Edge of Fate content "will have different voices" for a few characters, namely Ikora, Orin, and Chioma.
In a new post pre-seeding an upcoming blog, the Destiny 2 Team Twitter account says the "conflicts" that prevented the original voice actors from working – perhaps related to that massive video game actor strike, which was suspended last month – have been resolved.
"We're actively re-recording lines for affected characters," Bungie says. "While we do not have a specific date for when these lines will be updated, we are aiming for a future update. When we have more details, we will let you know."
Until those recordings are finished and swapped, Bungie warns that "some characters will have temporary voice casting or be silent. As we did for Destiny 2: Heresy, subtitles for story content will be enabled by default to ensure narrative content is not missed."
A follow-up reply adds: "To clarify: The Edge of Fate includes all English voice acting, while some languages (French, Spanish) will play English voiceover instead."
So, if you were caught off guard not only by Ikora's new voice but also the sudden appearance of subtitles, now you know: you're not losing it, things are just shifting in Destiny 2 right now.
As a 10-year player I'm kind of scared of the Destiny 2: Edge of Fate patch notes, which might be a Bungie record for new currencies and MMO loot MacGuffins.
