Riot’s decision to update Akali’s voice. Will they bring back the previous voice actress?
Have the creators of League of Legends made the final decision to change Akali’s voice actress?
The topic of Akali’s new voice, which appeared on the test server a while ago, got really loud and probably caused more controversy than expected at the beginning. As soon as the community noticed that Riot wanted to replace the heroine’s texts and hired a new actress to play Akali, the Internet went wild.
The players were very disappointed that the developers did not inform them in advance that they planned such a character update (see: Riot changed Akali in LoL and didn’t let anyone know about it. Players have mixed feelings).
The heroine’s fans expressed their dissatisfaction on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter. They hoped the developers would notice that the voice update and actress change weren’t needed at all.
Some time passed and Riot finally made a decision. Will the new voice be introduced to live servers?
Problems with Akali’s new voice
Before any decision was made, the developers asked the community to think carefully about the topic. According to Rioters, each change takes time to get used to it and it makes no sense to be critical of it from the very beginning.
A quick reminder for those who haven’t followed the topic – Akali’s current voice actress hired on the heroine’s rework is Krizia Bajos. It is her voice that can be heard while playing the character.
In the legendary Star Guardian skin, Akali speaks in the voice of Ashly Burch. While recording the Star Guardian lines, Riot decided that it was worth refreshing the basic-version lines of the heroine. A new voice kit was recorded and added to the PBE. It was that which caused such a big storm among the fans.
This is what both versions of Akali sound like:
Ashly Burch
Krizia Bajos
What was ultimately decided?
There is information that Riot has withdrawn from the recent plan to introduce new lines from the heroine. Krizia Bajos’s voice, which was in the game so far, will still be there. Ashly Burch, on the other hand, will speak as Akali in the Star Guardian skin.
Fans were happy with this decision and think that they “won” in this case.
