The build up to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has sparked some interesting conversations around voice acting and scene-setting in RPGs. In what will surely be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) PS5 releases of the year, Square Enix is once more balancing new and nostalgia, catering to a modern audience of fast-firing role-playing game enthusiasts alongside retro gamers who long for the heady polygonal days of last millennium.
Our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review suggests Square Enix has made a pretty good job of it – but whether this is the first time you're guiding Cloud and co. around the Grasslands and beyond; or whether you're a 27-year PSOne veteran, one thing is more important than visual nuance and powerful technology: storytelling. Narrative is the bedrock of the abiding Final Fantasy series, after all, and in today's market a successful story is driven by its voice acting. With Ben Starr and Ralph Ineson leading the charge in Final Fantasy 16 as Clive and Cid, the talent in last year's sprawling fantasy role-player was never in doubt. But their chemistry might not have been the same had they not been performing in the same room.
