FF7R features a completely new voice cast from past releases

[Sephiroth]

Do you think that maybe they have a proper idea and vision with their current cast as well? I mean, they are still the authoritative ultimate figure making these casting call decisions.

It was Square Enix USA that chose the voices, not Japan (which of course is the authoritative instance that I always speak of when I am talking about their ideas). Just as George Newbern mentioned them. And there has not been anything said right now that they did it to still match the characters similiarly to how they were supposed to be. Aerith's voice actress is the only one so far that we know of tries to pay some sort of tribute to the former VAs.

EDIT: And if you mean SE USA also picked the former English voice cast, of course they did. But as I said before, the old VA had his own style of fitting the original Japanese vision of "majestic and inhuman Sephiroth" without just sounding like an evil human. It is not that he does not match anything at all but the "inhuman" or "superhuman" part in the (so far few) lines just was not given enough attention. That is why I said, maybe that will change once he speaks more. One can dislike George Newbern's work, just as Fox obviously did, but he at least had a style that matched the original thought to a certain extent to make Sephiroth sound "different from the basic human". The new one's work did fit a lot better than the first time we heard him when he asked "Can you bear the planet's suffering?" to say something positive about him so obviously he can "sound different".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVjwc1H7r74

That is the voice I speak of when it comes to the idea of what he is. Sean Schemmel e.g. sounds nothing like Masako Nozaawa but he still can match the "kind-hearted man-child" idea that Goku is supposed to personify. If they have this guy by the end of the day sound otherworldy than he does exactly come of as what Sephiroth is supposed to be.

[Freya]

Do you assume that SE NA makes decisions in a vacuum without consulting the parent company?

[Sephiroth]

Do you assume that SE NA makes decisions in a vacuum without consulting the parent company?

No, I do not "assume" but it is a fact that company branches don't ask their parent company (everyone that has more buildings globally, not just Square) for absolutely everything and that the company also does not tell or send them everything they need all the time. Which is also how translation errors happen. They do not send them to the parent company and then say "please check if it is okay". And it would also be a wasted effort because if that were the case the parent company could do the work by itself. And same goes for voices. It is not like they meet up and converse about, "so, what do you think? it matches your idea, right?" When it comes to the voice acting Japan often knows way less than we think about what our voice actors sound like.
I have seen that for many products by now that are not just from Square. And I do not mean that in a bad way. It is just like that. So if you ask me "has Yoshinori Kitase seen the trailer?", obviously he did. He was at E3. But to think they actually went through the process of casting the VAs while asking the original creators "and? is that okay" - I think you don't really expect them to have gone through that effort. And nobody expects that. The West should do a faithful adaption with their own efforts. People are already mad enough if a slight scene changes.
But if there is a nuance of a character changing when it comes to what his/her voice implies that character is like then this is also relevant (kinda like what Fox meant with Aerith but not voice-wise but that her behaviour seemed to be a bit too much exaggerated for him even though it is not all that off). You probably would understand better what I mean if Sephiroth sounded like some junkie or whatever because then it would be a lot more obvious that he is off. I know the German voice of Sephiroth. And he sounds nothing like what Sephiroth is like despite being one of Germany's greatest voice actors. He sounds like an evil guy but way too, let's say "cheery" and is not completely as dark and deep which is also why he did fit Heath Ledger's Joker. Which is also why I hope Sephiroth has a different voice actor in the Remake in Germany.

It is also why I like, while liking Steve Burton and Andrea Bowen a lot more, the new Cloud and Aerith voices enough. Because they come close enough to it. And the moment the new voice of Sephiroth gets some more "otherworldly" he also does completely sound like what he is supposed to sound like.

If you want another example, the first voice actors of Silent Hill 2 are (on a level of professional voice acting) horrendous. But they are supposed to sound like amateurs because they are supposed to express how those people are normal people like everyone else. And while I do dislike how they sound I can absolutely see how fans of it want this feeling of "this is how they are supposed to be according to the creators". Just in my FFVII example we have no horrendous sounding people but still the "ok, something is missing". It also fits what Fox said about Mr. Newbern. You can find someone's work good or bad but that does not mean it does not fit the original idea. It is not the perfect example though because afaik SH2's orginal voices are the English ones anyway. But you probably still get what I mean.

[Freya]

You think selecting the main voice actor would be as insignificant to not consult them main company? That they'd just do it and main SE would be like, okay? I feel you're reaching a lot. I do expect them to go through that, most DO expect that. Why would they not go "hey, these are the voices that a large market is going to identify with, we need to you approve and review them". Yes, that's a perfectly reasonable and acceptable thing for a company to do.

With my own interactions with SE NA (as well as our SE EU interactions) for this site back when we did have contact with them, and my own meeting of Kitase, I feel that yes, they do have to consult SE Jp a lot.

[Sephiroth]

You think selecting the main voice actor would be as insignificant to not consult them main company? That they'd just do it and main SE would be like, okay? I feel you're reaching a lot. I do expect them to go through that, most DO expect that. Why would they not go "hey, these are the voices that a large market is going to identify with, we need to you approve and review them". Yes, that's a perfectly reasonable and acceptable thing for a company to do.

With my own interactions with SE NA (as well as our SE EU interactions) for this site back when we did have contact with them, and my own meeting of Kitase, I feel that yes, they do have to consult SE Jp a lot.

And I feel like you did not even read a single line I wrote because there was not a single one that said "btw they do not contact them a lot". My very first sentence said that they do not contact each other all the time. That is much different from "a lot" or "often". And it is not "reaching" as by your logic voices from other countries that I even mentioned would also have gotten an okay from Japan when it comes to "indepth analysis if it is appropriate and faithful". Now Japan going through the process of giving an okay for every single language and checking "does that meet the thing according to the three people that actually wrote the characters" is really reaching and you very well know that this was what a was talking about.. Especially Nojima-san who is not even an ordinary Square employee but Stellavista and is hired by Square occasionally. I went through the effort of explaing it very clearly that I was talking about nuances and indepth stuff and not "is that okay? do you like them?" and obviously the faithfulness is not what you are expecting as you simplified it way too much thus completely missing what I am talking about.

I also do not know what that nod to the contact of you with Square was supposed to help. I also worked for a German website for years that was in contact with Square and was talking with Kitase-san in Munich about FFXIII. It still is not helping against what I mean.

[Freya]

Yeah but the english version is quite a bit more widespread than any other language.

No, I don't know what you're talking about seph. I find it ridiculous that you think that main SE weren't more involved with casting and decisions of casting for one of their main VA leads. I feel you're trying to justify your critique of it based on your intense perceived impression of the character vs the people who actually made said characters.

How do you think companies with large IPs operate? That they are hardly involved in one of the largest translation and promotion of the IP?

[Slothy]

A casting director at SE NA that didn't get approval for their picks from Japan and the dev team would find themselves out of a job in a hurry. I would literally bet money on it. If you are assuming otherwise then I doubt you've ever worked at a large corporation before. Nothing that big would ever be done without approval.

On an unrelated note George Newbern sounded bored as sephiroth and I didn't really care for any of the compilation voice acting. If I actually intended to buy the remake I'd be very glad they were gone.

[Sephiroth]

Yeah but the english version is quite a bit more widespread than any other language.

So that is your argument then. English is more widespread and because of that they even ask people like Nojima-san who only occasionally work for them to check if what he intended fits a foreign voice.

No, I don't know what you're talking about seph.

Obviously. You did not even bother properly reading what I wrote.

I find it ridiculous that you think that main SE weren't more involved with casting and decisions of casting for one of their main VA leads. I feel you're trying to justify your critique of it based on your intense perceived impression of the character vs the people who actually made said characters.

The only ridiculous thing is this evident "Sephiroth posted something so I have to try and contradict it" bias. What you say does not even make a lick of sense since I am the one all the time that goes after what "they who actually made said characters" defends. So much to the extent that it is hated by many people.

How do you think companies with large IPs operate? That they are hardly involved in one of the largest translation and promotion of the IP?

I would actually properly answer more but your constant hyperbolic twisting of me saying that they are not in contact for absolutely everything and that they do not ask people like Kazushige Nojima - the one who decided what I explained recently - if the character's voices fit in a language that some of them do not understand or speak as much as you might think shows me that this is wasted effort. There is no meaning in discussing if you go all the way down the route of acting like I do not know that they have contact, which I evidently never denied. That is exactly the problem why so many arguments happen. By not bothering properly understanding what the other one means.

EDIT: Just chiming in here for a moment after a few years to update you fools on the fact that - as usual - I was right. Nojima-san in 2020 said he did not even know about how much of the story in the remake would be differently translated. So trying to make a fool out of me like Bob did why claiming it is a "bizarre knowledge" to say that obviously a writer would not be brought in for everything foreign - in this context the choice of a voice actor based on an intentional way of speaking and overall voice - was as usual here just another idiotic attempt of "let's take our prejudice towards the guy because so many of us have a problem with him so only he can be the problem and none of us others share characteristics that may also be reasons for arguments."

You can all thank Psychotic that I did not call you out 1 1/2 years ago when I found it out because then the post would have been way different.

But what else is there to expect from humanity ...

[Freya]

I did read what you wrote. It's my job here to do so lol. Just because I don't agree with what you wrote doesn't mean I didn't read it.


I think the voice actor, from what we have seen, is just fine and that the previous one was just okay. I trust that this adaptation will try to be faithful to their characters while also expanding on it. That's my opinion here.

[Slothy]

The only ridiculous thing is this evident "Sephiroth posted something so I have to try and contradict it" bias.

"Someone disagrees with me! They must be biased and didn't read what I said! *Rabble rabble*"

This is a piss poor defense of your argument. Do better please.

What you say does not even make a lick of sense since I am the one all the time that goes after what "they who actually made said characters" defends. So much to the extent that it is hated by many people.

This entire statement literally makes no sense grammatically. I'm not even entirely sure what you were trying to say.

[Loony BoB]

Obligatory request to avoid making things personal, even if that includes making it about yourself.

I think the new Seph VA is great and I think it would be a massively stupid thing for SE Japan (or, to be more specific, the director) to not have approval over the VAs for their game. I work in an international company and this...

it is a fact that company branches don't ask their parent company (everyone that has more buildings globally, not just Square) for absolutely everything and that the company also does not tell or send them everything they need all the time. Which is also how translation errors happen. They do not send them to the parent company and then say "please check if it is okay". And it would also be a wasted effort because if that were the case the parent company could do the work by itself. And same goes for voices. It is not like they meet up and converse about, "so, what do you think? it matches your idea, right?" When it comes to the voice acting Japan often knows way less than we think about what our voice actors sound like.

...this is exactly what happens in international companies. All the things you said they don't do? They do. We do. Having worked in multiple international companies, they all do. It's completely normal. I even went overseas to do similar things myself. It's normal business. We have people from other countries in our office daily. Any business worth it's salt will have people in the parent country approve notable decisions and will discuss even the dullest of things. Meanwhile, those overseas will carry out business as usual - sales, interviews, meetings, PR, HR, etc. But the decisions they make - and this is probably the biggest possible decision they COULD be involved in - are done with the approval of the parent company. They get signed off by the director. It's absolutely normal and quite common, to the point that it's a very boring thing to discuss, really.

[Jessweeee♪]

best sephiroth:

[maybee]

Good. The old FFVII voice actors were terrible. Okay, Zack was decent though.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

Just popping in to say how awesome it is that Badger from Breaking Bad is playing Wedge.

[Fynn]

I also really like the new Sephiroth so far. There’s just something really out there about his performance that gives me goosebumps.