Final Fantasy 16 doesn't have any American English voice acting because Square Enix was worried it might offend... Americans.
This is according to Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida, who touched on this aspect of Final Fantasy 16 in a recent interview with Dengeki Online (translated by @aitaikimochi). Yoshida explained that the English version of the game will be voiced solely by actors using British English, as the developers worried that American English-speaking characters would upset American players hoping for an authentic representation of medieval Europe.
"Even though the script is written in English, we made sure to not include any American accents," Yoshida said. "We decided to do this to prevent Americans from playing the game and getting mad and saying something like, 'I was looking forward to playing a game set in a fantasy Medieval Europe, but why are they speaking American English!?' (laughs). To prevent this, we made sure that all the dialogue was recorded using British English.
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In the past, Final Fantasy characters have spoken in a variety of different accents. Tidus from Final Fantasy 10, Noctis from Final Fantasy 15, and most recently, Cloud from Final Fantasy Remake, just to name a few notable examples. Still, with Final Fantasy 16 bringing to life a distinctly European setting, it's understandable to have European talent voicing the characters for the English version.
Final Fantasy 16 is due to launch on PS5 as a console exclusive sometime in Summer 2023.
GamesRadar recently had the chance to sit down with Yoshida to chat about Final Fantasy 16's battle systems.
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