Voice acting in video games can sometimes mean you’re acting alone in a room. Though the increasing prevalence of motion capture in games has given actors more opportunities to perform together in real, physical space, a lot of roles still have people recording lines in a booth. In the case of Final Fantasy VII Revelation, a lot of the cast has to work against recordings from other actors to try to match their intensity and keep the energy of a scene consistent. Despite not getting to work in the same room all the time, the members of the cast still have actors they love to work with and bounce off of in the series, and they all shared some stories at a New York City Comic Con panel.
Panel host Lucy James asked the cast about their favorite performances and if they felt they had scene partners who were particularly good at bringing out the best in them. They all had different answers.
Max Mittelman (Red XIII): I most often ask for a Cait Sith line to be played before I do something because I love the accent, so, I’ve probably asked 20 times for them to play your line for me in the booth, yeah.
Matt Mercer (Vincent): I was gonna say like I’ve a number of scenes with Yuffie and Vincent, two very different personalities on adventures together. It’s been so fun to listen to the energy you’re bringing to it and figure out how I could just be the wall that stops it.
Suzie Yeung (Yuffie): I love their dynamic. I remember texting Matt. I was like, “I love our scenes together. It’s gonna be amazing.”
John Eric Bentley (Barret): Well, I was about to say I couldn’t say nothing because it might spoil something. Listen, because I think my character is like a point man for everybody, I was just, like, asking for anybody who I was responding to. There’s stuff that we get to do—I think I talked to you about it when we saw each other, J. [Michael Tatum, voice of Cid], and then you already know. Matt—it’s like we get to do stuff that I don’t remember from the OG, so it’s just like, “Oh my gosh, I get to talk to you Paul [Tinto, voice of Cait Sith],” and then anything I get to do, counterbalance with the girls is outstanding, but this dude, we got some real fun stuff coming.
Britt Baron (Tifa): Yeah, I was gonna say that we all record completely alone, so I actually don’t get to hear most of your performances until the game comes out with everyone else. Once in a while if I’m lucky they will play Cloud stuff for me and sadly, I feel like Cody [Christian, voice of Cloud], you always record before me. So sometimes I luck out and actually it may be my second-to-last recording, they wanted to do a pick-up and they played what you had done. I hadn’t heard it the first time I recorded. You’re getting an Oscar-worthy performance. In a game that I feel like it can be very silly and fun and lighthearted with these big characters, I am sometimes just knocked back by how grounded and real and honest you are, your performance always is, and I felt like I was like, “Okay guys, we have to pick up more than just that one line of mine because I sound like trash compared to what he’s doing.” So I do feel like you bring out the best in all of us.
Cody Christian (Cloud): I have such a soft spot in my heart for the Cloud and Tifa interactions. I think there’s so much nuance and subtlety that Britt brings into these sorts of scenes and I’m not gonna embellish too much, but there is a specific scene that I’m thinking of in my mind. Also, I was lucky enough to, when at certain parts within the game, to hear Travis [Willingham, Sephiroth] and everything that he was doing. And I feel like Sephiroth as a character, as a presence, is in a weird way this like, lifeforce for Cloud, right? Like you, you trigger me in a way that like no one else could. You bring out emotions, though, that are very strong and just truthful, and so any time I was able to hear your voice I took the opportunity because I felt it gave me the fuel that I needed to reach those sorts of emotions in the work, so, this guy, he’s the shit.
Briana White (Aerith): I can’t not mention Britt. Like, her Tifa voice, the way that she is so soft and strong, both at 100, instead of warring with each other, it’s just so beautiful. And the fact that, like, her character is the way her character is so that Aerith can be the other way where it’s like, soft and strong but almost like, inside versus outside, and so we complemented each other so well in so many of the scenes that we got to do together that it’s just absolute joy. Like I know y’all have talked about, “Oh, I love the Aeirth and Tifa scenes,” we do too.
Caleb Pierce (Zack): Okay, wait, and I just want to shout out Bri for a second, for her performances. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve got a bit of a chaotic energy just in general, in life, and when I come into that booth, I’m excited to record, and there’s something about when they play just some of the lines that you’ve done that just, it can calm me and ground me to feel like I can bring what I want to bring. So yeah, I’m just so thankful for that.
Travis Willingham (Sephiroth): You know, I, I think that Matthew Mercer guy is just kind of phoning it in. But he’s pretty, so that’s okay. I do have to give Max some love though, because I had a chance to play both the ’97 original game and then Remake/Rebirth with my son, and he absolutely loves Red XIII and he followed everything that he did and then when the voice changed, he was like, “Dad, he’s young like me.” And so I think we’re probably gonna go get matching back tattoos, my son and I.
Mercer: I mean, I’m just going to jump on the bandwagon here. Like, as some of you may know, I like Final Fantasy VII, and so the buildup to this Remake series, there was like so much as a fan being like, “Don’t mess it up, please.” I was the guy on Reddit going like, “Oh, please.” And so playing through the first game, I remember with each one of your performances being so elated with the heart and joy and genuine respect and intent that you brought to it before I was even really involved aside from doing some tiny voices in Walmart. But I remember going on social media to find out which one of you I had contact with or could be like, “You, you’re great.”
Yeung: That was a really surprising DM actually.
Mercer: I had to get it out of here. I was like, “You did great. thank you for doing great. That’s all.”
J. Michael Tatum (Cid): I had a similar experience because Final Fantasy, the original, that was part of my childhood. I grew up on those games and my life kind of orbited around the franchise in weird, unexpected ways all of my life, that I won’t go into, but so when those auditions came down to the wire, because I had watched my husband play the first game because I would never make it past the first level. I’m a terrible gamer now. But my husband, thank God, is really good. I’m such a backseat driver. But we’re listening to the performances, both of us are actors, so you know, we’re listening to our colleagues being like, “Man, oh God, these people are so good, like they never make the obvious choice. They’re so grounded, they’re so beautiful.” I remember thinking, “My God, never in a million years did I think I would ever be part of this cast, ever.” I thought, “I’m just gonna be an armchair critic, and have the easiest job in the world.” And so then when I got the part, I was like, “Oh shit, now I have to be good.” I often was the last to record on a lot of stories for some reason, just kind of worked out that way. I think they were saving me like, “Oh, Tatum, just wait. I need more energy to deal with Tatum,” so I was always the last person. So I got to hear everyone else like 90 percent of the time, which is such a gift because I usually tend to find a character through how other characters are reacting to them. You know, this is the, it’s the relational thing, and you guys made it so easy, so easy. I just had to show up and do what was there and, and it was perfect. So thank you guys.
Christian: I would love to add to this real quick before we go. Briana, I have some scenes with you in this game, and I’m not even just saying this, like this is not some sort of tactic to gas up Revelation, some of my most favorite performances lie within this third game just because of the subject matter and and where we get to go. I have some some scenes with you that are, they’re heavy, they’re heavy, heavy, heavy. It was a very cathartic experience kind of going in there and getting to do it, so I just want to tip my hat to you in front of everybody, I think everyone is going to thoroughly enjoy. You’re gonna feel something.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2 on April 8.
