When it came toFinal Fantasy VII Remakethe creators behind the multi-part project decided to replace the old voice cast from otherFinal Fantasyprojects likeFinal Fantasy VII: Crisis CoreandFinal Fantasy VII: Advent Children. With a new voice cast of these incredibly well-known characters, they were able to talk about their experience recording their lines in the booth during aReddit AMA.
“I recorded a lot of my lines out of order, sometimes to picture, sometimes not,” said Baron (voice of Tifa). “We are usually given context of where we are and who we are talking to but what is challenging is that we don’t have a script ahead of time so you are reading lines and making choices on the fly! Luckily you may do a line a bunch of times to make sure you get it justttt right. Also we were dubbing Japanese so all of our lines have to fit in the exact right time, down to the millisecond. It really was a fun challenge, felt like rubbing your stomach while tapping your head. Creative and technical!”
While not getting a script ahead of time is almost always the case when it comes to voice acting, Gideon Emery who voices Biggs (and Balthier for youFinal Fantasy XIIfans) and Aerith’s Briana White go more into detail on the process. “You got your script and that’s pretty fixed. Director will always provide context and answer questions. Usually, we’re working within a scene but occasionally there may be lines out of context and we’ll be guided as to where and why. Definitely it helps when there’s visual reference,” explained Emery.
“… Sometimes we do things in sequence and sometimes we don’t but there are lots of conversations happening around ‘Where are we? Who are we talking to? What are the circumstances we’ve past and are in now? What’s the thought process behind the character at this moment?’ It was a very collaborative process,” said White.
Now, this particular process is anything out of the ordinary for voice actors, but it is always interesting to hear their side of things when recording for a role, especially for something as big asFinal Fantasy VII Remake.
