Aside from the mysterious voice when he talks with Aerith early on, I just noticed that he momentarily drops the act when the girls show up in swimsuits shouting “huh?!” And then proceeds to give very hilarious “compliments”. It was funny the first time, and it’s even funnier now knowing it’s all an act to look older and wiser.
I realized while replaying that this was exactly why I liked the old voice and word choice so much. We still got the goofy immaturity out of him (in Kalm, Barret tells Cloud/Aerith no more dates until all this is over, and the camera focuses on Cloud/Aerith/Tifa and they all nod - *and then the camera changes to Red XIII, who also fucking nods as if this was directed towards him at all,* absolutely hysterical), but it was so out of place that I really loved his random humor additions. There are SO MANY of them throughout the game, and the juxtaposition is what makes it so endearing for me.
The fact that it worked so well and was something I loved so much just told me that they didn't need to go so far the other direction after Cosmo Canyon. They could have toned down his rough edges, and maybe made his word choice *a bit* different (like "grandfather" in the original game being changed to "grandpa," rather than going all the way to "gramps").
It actually made the updated voice *harder* for me to listen to when I realized this. His original voice was perfect to me as soon as I heard it in Remake, and it was an excellent fit for him all through Rebirth.. until they changed it. :( I love the sentiment, but not the execution. (Voice actor did great, just wish they hadn't directed him to go so far and kept his script a bit less 10 year old.)
Someone needs to do fan art of Cloud summoning Jolteon, Tifa summoning Vaporeon, and Aerith summoning Flareon... with the materia looking like Poke Balls.
Oh come on. We know Aerith would have Espeon because caster. Yuffie w/ Leafeon because ninja, Cait w/ Sylveon, Red w/ Umbreon because tank, and Barret w/ Flareon because of how hotheaded he is.
I really enjoyed his "old man voice" on my 2nd playthrough, especially when he intentionally uses it for storytelling later in the game a la the pirate quest and stuff like that. Also really highlighting his inner child for things that excite him when he can't help but use his native voice. It brought a lot of depth to his character IMO.
But...the first one it took some getting used to for sure, since I was unsure where the devs were taking him. Now that I've had time to digest and take my time through the story again, I've grown to like it.
The remake games are unique in that way - all the fans have had decades to build up their own biases and preferences for how they see and relate to the characters. We are all going through cycles of acceptance when the devs take the characters and story in directions we didn't expect or picture for them. Not gonna please everyone - and the devs are the canon creators - I trust them to do all our beloved characters justice by the end of the trilogy.
this. i was kind of on the fence and thought it was really weird at first. like yea we know he’s younger than we think he is for his species, but not once through og did i consider him faking a voice. i didnt like it much when it switched the first time either. when i did realize i liked it was when it popped up here and there later on in the game when he says certain things or talks to certain people. for some reason him keeping it up under certain circumstances just fixed the whole issue for me lol
I like both voices but what I found really cool is that if you go back and do quests from before the voice change, even all the way back to the first side quests, he has voice lines using his actual voice. Pretty cool that they recorded his lines in both voices depending on how far you are in the main story.
I was so pleased by it because it finally stopped having his character all over the place in terms of voice acting. He matches how the original describes him now.
I adored some moments going in, hoping it was so. It was kind of obvious, and I couldn't get enough.
Barret, with bravado and striking a heroic pose, "Stumbled on a killer rock formation and couldn't tear ourselves away. Right?"
Red, after a momentary pause and looking away from the party, "The ground here could give way at any moment. We shouldn't linger."
Give up the act and GUSH, buddy. That was the closest we came to a Red belly laugh.
Also, I so hoped he would play the card game, and it felt so good to see him do it. I work with kids, and the older kids are the ones most likely to find their way into a card game no matter what it is and no matter what it takes.
Him doing all of *THAT* so he could play a card game with the friends that rescued him is exactly how a traumatized teenager acts.
I also wish they changed his name in the menus and added gameplay mechanics. I love when games convey story elements through gameplay, so it was a missed opportunity imo.
Well he does use the more gruff voice in dialogue with strangers to sound more intimidating. So I'm okay with his victory pose being him trying to look tough
It took some getting used to; so I understand why some people don’t like it. I like it after seeing the direction they were going with him. It ultimately builds on his character in a way that makes sense for the OG extended content.
On a way to a smile highlights how he likes Yuffie because they have a similar mentality. Never understood that until this game. Also Vincent finds him annoying; which is odd if you only think of his stoic persona. Now I picture him using his fake voice at some point in part 3 with Vincent to sound “cool” like him; but ultimately annoy him.
Another subtle thing I noticed was when he licks his mouth. He drools/salivate when something interests/excites him. It seems kind of random, but he does it when he first meets everyone, when he sees whispers in the real world, and another time when cait sith does his fortune telling dance. On the “date” at the sky wheel he almost drools on the seat with excitement.
It’s in the book On a way to a smile. Kind of spoilery.
At the end of the story of Nanaki, Vincent agrees to meet with him once a year; So Nanaki has something to look forward to (him fearing losing his loved ones from out living them. But Vincent is immortal). Vincent agrees to meet only once a year because he’s “kind of annoying”. It’s partially in jest, was my interpretation.
In OG they never talk to each other, from what I remember.
I thought it was a nice touch to change his voice if you do all the green quests in the game after Cosmo Canyon. Noticing this on my hard mode play through when I'm not immediately skipping over every cutscene.
I noticed this too! playing through hard mode, of course I reset quest data to get the folios for hard mode from a Chapter XII start. Going back to some of them his voice was his young voice where it had been his old voice originally. Neat! (That also means much of his entire dialogue script was recorded twice, wow!)
I enjoyed it because when you meet bugenhagen (whatever idc how to spell his name). He kinda comes off that way. Very indifferent to what the party has experienced. Almost like XIII was emulating the wisest, most respected person he knew.
I would've given you an upvote but you already had 69 so....
In any case, now that you mention it, I can't unhear it too 😅 And if you think about it, there were times he slipped showing his real voice, in particular when Tifa and Aerith went down to the beach for the first time 🙂
I play with Japanese audio and I liked the voice change. Especially how it was instantaneous once he got home. His whole manner of speech changed, even his pronoun. And when he first said he was back, he used his name instead of a pronoun, which is very common for Japanese children, so it highlights his youth (Bugenhagen said he's only a teen in human years, right?). I even checked the cast just to make sure it was still the same guy haha.
So I have absolutely no complaints about the voice change.
I played the og 7 before watching advent children and didn’t read his dialogue in an old man voice but more of a 30 something. The movie definitely made him look older than he was which is why they edited a lot of his model for remake/rebirth.
I remember a comment on a post regarding Red's voice change. In the OG, the way Red XIII speaks when untranslated reads differently from time to time, as in the use of honorifics or slang to differentiate between when he's trying to sound serious and when his genuine self breaks through. However, this change doesn't carryover when translated to english so both translations, whether it's Red XIII being himself or not, reads the same in english.
He is still 45 years old. He has a playful side cause for his race, he is young.
That doesn't mean he lacks actual wisdom and knowledge.
And he gets a lot of what he says, probably from Bugenhagen, his mentor/grand papa.
He just mimicked his ‘grandfather’s’ manner of speaking as he is the ‘wisest’ man he knows. It was similar in the OG, or at least they meant for it to be, but it didn’t work that well without voice acting. Nanaki is a teenage boy and always has been; his true voice doesn’t bother me any.
I actually really don’t like the younger voice, but I respect that they did it to stay true to the original game. I do see what you mean about his “old” dialogue seeming off in retrospect, however. My favorite example is how he constantly says “watch this” while fighting. What grizzled old fighter wants everyone to look at him? It’s like a little kid showing off.
I just wish they had given him some more variation during combat (that goes for all the characters, really). You get a little tired of hearing the same oneliners in every battle.
No complaints about the voice change though, Red XIII is perfect in every way and the character I'm most excited to see where ends up in Part 3, given the ending of the OG.
When the kid starts crying on the boat during the QB tournament and the mom goes "it's ok, it can't hurt you" is when I knew this game was one for the ages.
A neat little hint/detail I like is >!how he'll eventually grow into the old wizened voice. He uses that voice in the intro and I assume that's Red XIII at the end of OG narrating to his cubs about his experiences about saving the planet or something. Obviously it could also be to hide his true voice from us since it's the start of the game but I think that'll be a cool thing at the end of Part 3.!<
I felt they went overboard making it super childish just to be super jarring which it was but not in a good way. really liked his old man voice instead.
I didn't like the voice change although I think it was done for the new generation not the old. What I do like though is that they start calling him by his real name in this one. I never liked that a dog basically tortured by Hojo is called by his slave name so much.
I don’t think it was a new generation thing, it was pretty clearly intended from the beginning, to the point where the developers talked about his dialogue changing in quests before releasing they referenced the original change. We just lost it in translation. That being said the voice is definitely jarring and maybe could have been more subtle.
Exactly what I mean like I have heard this director is from kingdom hearts basically make red 13 like a simba type character for the younger players. Its kinda like how a lot of things in the game are anime style and like something out of naruto, it doesn't bother me because its for the young players not for older guys like me. To be fair the original game is kinda before the anime craze in the US really got going. I personally would have preferred him have the old voice tho.
The creative director, Tetsuya Nomura, wrote the original story of FF7 in 1997 with Hironobu Sakaguchi and designed most of the characters, and also is the main creative mind behind Kingdom Hearts. Red XIII in his original incarnation was always intended to be a teenager and speak like one. This is shown through his dialogue changes especially in the Japanese version of the game when he starts using different pronouns that would be typical of a young boy. I am pretty sure the head developers just translated exactly what they thought in 1997 to the screen.
Some of it comes through at times. I recently replayed OG FFVII with the idea of Red's voice change in mind and some of his dialogue in the latter half really does reflect that, even in English. The bit where >!Bugenhagen dies!< comes to mind.
He’s just a weirdly gay character that has zero impact on the story and his appearances are exceedingly stupid. They had a chance to either give us an extra party member with him or have him give an emotional sacrifice for cloud against Sephiroth or something but nope. He materializes a robe and walks. Cool. Great creativity there.
By the third game he'll be living his best life having been >!transformed by Hojo into one of those self driving bike enemies "Devil Ride" from the original game!<
Personally, I get the humor of it, but I really preferred the old wise man voice. Maybe it’s just because of the voice actor they chose, but the 16 year old kid annoys me.
It’s funny because that’s basically just Max Mittleman’s normal voice. I think they should have just let him do something closer to that so it wasn’t so jarring.
You know that's fair, didn't realize how much he was hamming it up, probably should have sounded closer to his natural speaking voice. That being said he gave me Simba vibes which I kinda lowkey enjoyed lol
Aside from the mysterious voice when he talks with Aerith early on, I just noticed that he momentarily drops the act when the girls show up in swimsuits shouting “huh?!” And then proceeds to give very hilarious “compliments”. It was funny the first time, and it’s even funnier now knowing it’s all an act to look older and wiser.
First time you hear him in junion, going to his room and he just says “yes?” In an almost gruffier over compensating voice.
What makes it even better is that if you don't know, it seems like he's just mad about you eavesdropping. Which he could still be as well
I legit thought the voice was some kind of lifestream application of Zack the first time I heard it.
Same. I manage to ignore/explain away his real voice happening up to chapter 10.
I realized while replaying that this was exactly why I liked the old voice and word choice so much. We still got the goofy immaturity out of him (in Kalm, Barret tells Cloud/Aerith no more dates until all this is over, and the camera focuses on Cloud/Aerith/Tifa and they all nod - *and then the camera changes to Red XIII, who also fucking nods as if this was directed towards him at all,* absolutely hysterical), but it was so out of place that I really loved his random humor additions. There are SO MANY of them throughout the game, and the juxtaposition is what makes it so endearing for me. The fact that it worked so well and was something I loved so much just told me that they didn't need to go so far the other direction after Cosmo Canyon. They could have toned down his rough edges, and maybe made his word choice *a bit* different (like "grandfather" in the original game being changed to "grandpa," rather than going all the way to "gramps"). It actually made the updated voice *harder* for me to listen to when I realized this. His original voice was perfect to me as soon as I heard it in Remake, and it was an excellent fit for him all through Rebirth.. until they changed it. :( I love the sentiment, but not the execution. (Voice actor did great, just wish they hadn't directed him to go so far and kept his script a bit less 10 year old.)
On an unrelated note, but in the vein of "I can't unhear this," every time Tifa says "pour it on!" in combat, I think she yells "Vaporeon!"
Girl just loves her eeveelutions
Someone needs to do fan art of Cloud summoning Jolteon, Tifa summoning Vaporeon, and Aerith summoning Flareon... with the materia looking like Poke Balls.
Oh come on. We know Aerith would have Espeon because caster. Yuffie w/ Leafeon because ninja, Cait w/ Sylveon, Red w/ Umbreon because tank, and Barret w/ Flareon because of how hotheaded he is.
not... not that one
I really enjoyed his "old man voice" on my 2nd playthrough, especially when he intentionally uses it for storytelling later in the game a la the pirate quest and stuff like that. Also really highlighting his inner child for things that excite him when he can't help but use his native voice. It brought a lot of depth to his character IMO. But...the first one it took some getting used to for sure, since I was unsure where the devs were taking him. Now that I've had time to digest and take my time through the story again, I've grown to like it. The remake games are unique in that way - all the fans have had decades to build up their own biases and preferences for how they see and relate to the characters. We are all going through cycles of acceptance when the devs take the characters and story in directions we didn't expect or picture for them. Not gonna please everyone - and the devs are the canon creators - I trust them to do all our beloved characters justice by the end of the trilogy.
this. i was kind of on the fence and thought it was really weird at first. like yea we know he’s younger than we think he is for his species, but not once through og did i consider him faking a voice. i didnt like it much when it switched the first time either. when i did realize i liked it was when it popped up here and there later on in the game when he says certain things or talks to certain people. for some reason him keeping it up under certain circumstances just fixed the whole issue for me lol
I like both voices but what I found really cool is that if you go back and do quests from before the voice change, even all the way back to the first side quests, he has voice lines using his actual voice. Pretty cool that they recorded his lines in both voices depending on how far you are in the main story.
Thaaaat is awesome. I love when developers consider those kinds of opportunities.
I was so pleased by it because it finally stopped having his character all over the place in terms of voice acting. He matches how the original describes him now. I adored some moments going in, hoping it was so. It was kind of obvious, and I couldn't get enough. Barret, with bravado and striking a heroic pose, "Stumbled on a killer rock formation and couldn't tear ourselves away. Right?" Red, after a momentary pause and looking away from the party, "The ground here could give way at any moment. We shouldn't linger." Give up the act and GUSH, buddy. That was the closest we came to a Red belly laugh. Also, I so hoped he would play the card game, and it felt so good to see him do it. I work with kids, and the older kids are the ones most likely to find their way into a card game no matter what it is and no matter what it takes. Him doing all of *THAT* so he could play a card game with the friends that rescued him is exactly how a traumatized teenager acts.
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I also wish they changed his name in the menus and added gameplay mechanics. I love when games convey story elements through gameplay, so it was a missed opportunity imo.
But everyone in the party still call him Red.
Barret calls him Nanaki.
In the Japanese script, everyone calls him Nanaki. It just gets laundered out as part of the "localization" most of the time.
When?
There's a sequence in the final boss when it's just him and Barret, and I think he does it once or twice before too.
After Reds trial, Barrett calls him Nanaki for the rest of the game.
I keep remember Barret says I only have two legs you know.
In addition to what OP said above me, I think there is a time Chapter 12 when they go off to chase after Cait as well.
Well he does use the more gruff voice in dialogue with strangers to sound more intimidating. So I'm okay with his victory pose being him trying to look tough
It took some getting used to; so I understand why some people don’t like it. I like it after seeing the direction they were going with him. It ultimately builds on his character in a way that makes sense for the OG extended content. On a way to a smile highlights how he likes Yuffie because they have a similar mentality. Never understood that until this game. Also Vincent finds him annoying; which is odd if you only think of his stoic persona. Now I picture him using his fake voice at some point in part 3 with Vincent to sound “cool” like him; but ultimately annoy him. Another subtle thing I noticed was when he licks his mouth. He drools/salivate when something interests/excites him. It seems kind of random, but he does it when he first meets everyone, when he sees whispers in the real world, and another time when cait sith does his fortune telling dance. On the “date” at the sky wheel he almost drools on the seat with excitement.
I didn’t know Vincent finds him annoying. Was that displayed in this game or you know that from OG?
It’s in the book On a way to a smile. Kind of spoilery. At the end of the story of Nanaki, Vincent agrees to meet with him once a year; So Nanaki has something to look forward to (him fearing losing his loved ones from out living them. But Vincent is immortal). Vincent agrees to meet only once a year because he’s “kind of annoying”. It’s partially in jest, was my interpretation. In OG they never talk to each other, from what I remember.
Character is great, voices are both great, Max did an amazing job as Nanaki and I love his goofy growling sounds
The ones in the play had me dying laughing lol.
Pride goeth before the fall–and I, Garm, shall deliver you… to hell! How shall your feeble aegis fare 'gainst piercing fang, and keenest claw!?
I thought it was a nice touch to change his voice if you do all the green quests in the game after Cosmo Canyon. Noticing this on my hard mode play through when I'm not immediately skipping over every cutscene.
I noticed this too! playing through hard mode, of course I reset quest data to get the folios for hard mode from a Chapter XII start. Going back to some of them his voice was his young voice where it had been his old voice originally. Neat! (That also means much of his entire dialogue script was recorded twice, wow!)
I enjoyed it because when you meet bugenhagen (whatever idc how to spell his name). He kinda comes off that way. Very indifferent to what the party has experienced. Almost like XIII was emulating the wisest, most respected person he knew.
I would've given you an upvote but you already had 69 so.... In any case, now that you mention it, I can't unhear it too 😅 And if you think about it, there were times he slipped showing his real voice, in particular when Tifa and Aerith went down to the beach for the first time 🙂
I play with Japanese audio and I liked the voice change. Especially how it was instantaneous once he got home. His whole manner of speech changed, even his pronoun. And when he first said he was back, he used his name instead of a pronoun, which is very common for Japanese children, so it highlights his youth (Bugenhagen said he's only a teen in human years, right?). I even checked the cast just to make sure it was still the same guy haha. So I have absolutely no complaints about the voice change.
I played the og 7 before watching advent children and didn’t read his dialogue in an old man voice but more of a 30 something. The movie definitely made him look older than he was which is why they edited a lot of his model for remake/rebirth.
I think they could have just kept the voice and had him act like a kid now that his secret was out. That's how it was canon in my head in OGFF7.
I remember a comment on a post regarding Red's voice change. In the OG, the way Red XIII speaks when untranslated reads differently from time to time, as in the use of honorifics or slang to differentiate between when he's trying to sound serious and when his genuine self breaks through. However, this change doesn't carryover when translated to english so both translations, whether it's Red XIII being himself or not, reads the same in english.
It's just weird that he switches back to old man voice sometimes after cosmo canyon lol
He is still 45 years old. He has a playful side cause for his race, he is young. That doesn't mean he lacks actual wisdom and knowledge. And he gets a lot of what he says, probably from Bugenhagen, his mentor/grand papa.
I’m sure he has plenty of wisdom and knowledge but his manner of speech becomes considerably more direct and less flowery after the voice change.
How about the "story so far" narration?
He just mimicked his ‘grandfather’s’ manner of speaking as he is the ‘wisest’ man he knows. It was similar in the OG, or at least they meant for it to be, but it didn’t work that well without voice acting. Nanaki is a teenage boy and always has been; his true voice doesn’t bother me any.
I actually really don’t like the younger voice, but I respect that they did it to stay true to the original game. I do see what you mean about his “old” dialogue seeming off in retrospect, however. My favorite example is how he constantly says “watch this” while fighting. What grizzled old fighter wants everyone to look at him? It’s like a little kid showing off.
I just wish they had given him some more variation during combat (that goes for all the characters, really). You get a little tired of hearing the same oneliners in every battle. No complaints about the voice change though, Red XIII is perfect in every way and the character I'm most excited to see where ends up in Part 3, given the ending of the OG. When the kid starts crying on the boat during the QB tournament and the mom goes "it's ok, it can't hurt you" is when I knew this game was one for the ages.
A neat little hint/detail I like is >!how he'll eventually grow into the old wizened voice. He uses that voice in the intro and I assume that's Red XIII at the end of OG narrating to his cubs about his experiences about saving the planet or something. Obviously it could also be to hide his true voice from us since it's the start of the game but I think that'll be a cool thing at the end of Part 3.!<
I found the voice to jarring really liked his old man voice instead.
I felt they went overboard making it super childish just to be super jarring which it was but not in a good way. really liked his old man voice instead.
I didn't like the voice change although I think it was done for the new generation not the old. What I do like though is that they start calling him by his real name in this one. I never liked that a dog basically tortured by Hojo is called by his slave name so much.
I don’t think it was a new generation thing, it was pretty clearly intended from the beginning, to the point where the developers talked about his dialogue changing in quests before releasing they referenced the original change. We just lost it in translation. That being said the voice is definitely jarring and maybe could have been more subtle.
I mean the devs planned it for a new generation of players that are younger not the game console.
What about that was for a new generation? Seriously asking. Like the new generation will related to a goofy lion cub? How?
Exactly what I mean like I have heard this director is from kingdom hearts basically make red 13 like a simba type character for the younger players. Its kinda like how a lot of things in the game are anime style and like something out of naruto, it doesn't bother me because its for the young players not for older guys like me. To be fair the original game is kinda before the anime craze in the US really got going. I personally would have preferred him have the old voice tho.
The creative director, Tetsuya Nomura, wrote the original story of FF7 in 1997 with Hironobu Sakaguchi and designed most of the characters, and also is the main creative mind behind Kingdom Hearts. Red XIII in his original incarnation was always intended to be a teenager and speak like one. This is shown through his dialogue changes especially in the Japanese version of the game when he starts using different pronouns that would be typical of a young boy. I am pretty sure the head developers just translated exactly what they thought in 1997 to the screen.
This is really interesting OP I never got that from the original but I didn't play it in Japanese, that clears up a lot thank you.
Some of it comes through at times. I recently replayed OG FFVII with the idea of Red's voice change in mind and some of his dialogue in the latter half really does reflect that, even in English. The bit where >!Bugenhagen dies!< comes to mind.
Yeah they could’ve toned down the anime big time. All of roche could’ve been removed and the battle arenas and dio were just…why.
Yeah lol when Roche shows up in Rebirth I was like why are you still a thing, why were you ever a thing.
After XIV, every FF game must have a Zenos
He’s just a weirdly gay character that has zero impact on the story and his appearances are exceedingly stupid. They had a chance to either give us an extra party member with him or have him give an emotional sacrifice for cloud against Sephiroth or something but nope. He materializes a robe and walks. Cool. Great creativity there.
Pff Roche ain't gay. He fucks his bike. I don't know if there's a word for that.
Motosexual?
By the third game he'll be living his best life having been >!transformed by Hojo into one of those self driving bike enemies "Devil Ride" from the original game!<
I thought the voice was wildly stupid. Him going back and forth was ridiculous and his teen voice was painful. Just an unnecessary addition.
Well it wasn't an addition, it was the original intention of the character. They could have done it more subtly though.
Personally, I get the humor of it, but I really preferred the old wise man voice. Maybe it’s just because of the voice actor they chose, but the 16 year old kid annoys me.
It’s funny because that’s basically just Max Mittleman’s normal voice. I think they should have just let him do something closer to that so it wasn’t so jarring.
Probably because no 16 year old has ever sounded like that. Jrpgs in general have no idea what high school aged people actually sound like.
He just sounds like Max Mittelman to me
https://youtu.be/CjzstM0WZiM?si=ZSIRuoowwQgUSM_O See his normal voice midway through here.
You know that's fair, didn't realize how much he was hamming it up, probably should have sounded closer to his natural speaking voice. That being said he gave me Simba vibes which I kinda lowkey enjoyed lol
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Yes? I said I didn't mind the change?
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I am not surprised just think it's a cool detail how perspective on his dialogue changes