A Final Fantasy 7 mod is bringing voice acting to the classic RPG 26 years after it was first released.
Final Fantasy 7 was revolutionary when it arrived on PlayStation in 1997. But despite being spread across multiple discs, there still wasn't enough space to add voice files to the game, so the dialogue was strictly text-based. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, and a group of dedicated modders, we can soon enjoy the iconic role-playing game with full voice acting.
The mod, dubbed Echo-S7, is due for release on January 13, and its creator Tsunamods has released a trailer giving us a sneak peek of what to expect... and what you should expect is a lot of swearing. The trailer's not all that long, but give it a watch, and you'll hear Cloud, Tifa, Reno, and more saying some naughty words.
Upon reflection, the modders regret including so much profanity in the footage. "It seems we may have added too much swearing in the trailer specifically," reads the video's description on YouTube. "The mod doesn't actually contain that much at all, it just happened to be in areas/features we wanted to show off. So we may have falsely represented ourselves a little there."
The team even added their own humourous spin on a memorable minigame that tasked you and your AI companions with pressing three buttons simultaneously, and getting the timing right could be rather tricky. "Rather than Tifa saying 'Let's try that again' over and over until you get it right, which gets real annoying, real fast. We decided to add upon it and then the part you seen in the trailer is the extreme if you fail a ridiculous amount of times." Now Tifa shouts, "What the ****, Cloud!" if you continually mess up.
Despite being a bit potty-mouthed, each of the characters sound impressive, and Tsunamods has gone to major lengths to achieve that. The modders gathered trained actors from all over the world to voice all major and minor characters in the game. Even the observations of inconsequential NPCs can now be heard instead of read. "All the NPCs are voiced by our community, giving us a great range of accents and voices to make the game feel real," says Tsunamods.
In addition to giving the characters of Final Fantasy 7 voices, the modders are hard at work adding full voice over to Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9. No release date for either of these projects has yet been announced, but expect more updates after Echo-S7 launches.
Check out our guide to the best Final Fantasy games for the most memorable entries in Square Enix's long-running RPG series.
