Final Fantasy VII Revelation Cast Shares Their Favorite Scene Partners

Building Chemistry in Empty Rooms

Voice acting in video games often means performers record in isolation, speaking their lines into the void and matching emotions to recordings of colleagues they never see. Despite this challenge, the cast of Final Fantasy VII Revelation has developed genuine collaborative chemistry, and at a New York Comic Con panel this week, they opened up about the scene partners who pushed them to deliver their best work.

Hearing Partners, Creating Presence

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When Playback Becomes Essential

Recording alone creates a unique obstacle: actors must match the intensity and energy of performers they’re hearing only through playback. Max Mittelman, who voices Red XIII, has solved this by repeatedly asking sound engineers to play back lines from Paul Tinto, who plays Cait Sith. “I’ve probably asked 20 times for them to play your line for me in the booth,” Mittelman explained, citing Tinto’s distinctive accent as a key anchor for his own performance.

This need to hear colleagues’ work isn’t unique. Britt Baron, who plays Tifa, revealed that she records entirely alone and rarely hears other performances until the finished game releases. When she did get to hear Cody Christian’s Cloud work during a pickup session, it shifted how she approached her own lines. “You’re getting an Oscar-worthy performance,” she told Christian. “I felt like I was like, ‘Okay guys, we have to pick up more than just that one line of mine because I sound like trash compared to what he’s doing.’ So I do feel like you bring out the best in all of us.”

Dynamic Pairings Across Characters

Matt Mercer, recently taking on the role of Vincent after previous actor Tyler Hoechlin stepped down, described the dynamic between his character and Suzie Yeung’s Yuffie as a collision of contrasts. “I have a number of scenes with Yuffie and Vincent, two very different personalities on adventures together,” Mercer said. “It’s been so fun to listen to the energy you’re bringing to it and figure out how I could just be the wall that stops it.” Yeung echoed the sentiment, texting Mercer during production: “I love our scenes together. It’s gonna be amazing.”

This complementary pairing extends beyond Vincent and Yuffie. Briana White, voice of Aerith, praised Britt Baron’s portrayal of Tifa for creating a dynamic where both characters could be strong without contradiction. “Her Tifa voice, the way that she is so soft and strong, both at 100, instead of warring with each other, it’s just so beautiful,” White said. “And the fact that her character is the way her character is so that Aerith can be the other way where it’s like, soft and strong but almost like, inside versus outside, and so we complemented each other so well in so many of the scenes that we got to do together.”

Calming Presence in the Booth

Caleb Pierce, who plays Zack, credited Briana White’s performances with grounding his naturally chaotic energy in the booth. “When I come into that booth, I’m excited to record, and there’s something about when they play just some of the lines that you’ve done that just, it can calm me and ground me to feel like I can bring what I want to bring,” Pierce said.

Sephiroth, Emotional Fuel, and Strategic Recording

Cody Christian’s approach to Cloud revealed how much Sephiroth, voiced by Travis Willingham, influenced his emotional choices. Christian heard Willingham’s work during certain scenes and found it essential to his own performance. “Sephiroth as a character, as a presence, is in a weird way this like, lifeforce for Cloud, right?” Christian explained. “You trigger me in a way that like no one else could. You bring out emotions, though, that are very strong and just truthful, and so any time I was able to hear your voice I took the opportunity because I felt it gave me the fuel that I needed to reach those sorts of emotions in the work.”

J. Michael Tatum, who voices Cid, described recording in an unusual sequence on many scenes. “I often was the last to record on a lot of stories for some reason, just kind of worked out that way,” Tatum said. This placement actually became an advantage: hearing the rest of the cast first allowed him to build Cid’s responses naturally. “I usually tend to find a character through how other characters are reacting to them,” he explained. “You guys made it so easy, so easy. I just had to show up and do what was there and, and it was perfect.”

Legacy, Fandom, and Performance Pressure

Tatum’s casting held special weight. Growing up with the original Final Fantasy VII, he never imagined joining this particular production. Watching his husband play through earlier Remake entries and hearing the cast perform, Tatum said, “I remember thinking, ‘My God, never in a million years did I think I would ever be part of this cast, ever.’ I thought, ‘I’m just gonna be an armchair critic, and have the easiest job in the world.’ And so then when I got the part, I was like, ‘Oh shit, now I have to be good.’”

Matt Mercer embodied the fanbase’s anxiety about the Remake series. As someone who loved the original Final Fantasy VII, he spent the production worried they would misstep. “There was like so much as a fan being like, ‘Don’t mess it up, please,’” Mercer recalled. “I was the guy on Reddit going like, ‘Oh, please.’” Playing through early entries in the series allowed him to hear his colleagues’ work before recording his own parts, and he was consistently impressed by their choices. “With each one of your performances being so elated with the heart and joy and genuine respect and intent that you brought to it,” he told the cast.

Heavily Weighted Material and Remaining Secrets

Cody Christian hinted at emotionally demanding material in Revelation, particularly between Cloud and Aerith. “I have some scenes with you that are, they’re heavy, they’re heavy, heavy, heavy,” he told Briana White. “It was a very cathartic experience kind of going in there and getting to do it, so I just want to tip my hat to you in front of everybody.” The specifics remain under wraps, but Christian’s description suggested the game will push these characters into new territory.

John Eric Bentley, who plays Barret, proved similarly guarded about his material. When asked about favorite scene partners, he quickly pivoted to spoiler concerns: “I couldn’t say nothing because it might spoil something,” he said. Still, he acknowledged recording with various cast members on sequences he doesn’t remember from the original game, describing interactions with J. Michael Tatum’s Cid and ensemble work with female characters as “outstanding.”

Travis Willingham, who voices Sephiroth, also praised Max Mittelman’s work as Red XIII, recalling how his son’s reaction to the character across the Remake series had been meaningful. His son noticed Mittelman’s younger portrayal immediately, noting to his father, “He’s young like me,” Willingham said.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation launches on April 8 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Source: Kotaku