Wark Digest #111 - Starrgazing
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and today on 7/07, our eleventy-first issue is about finding a protagonist’s voice, a turning point for a modern juggernaut, and a couple of amusing hypotheticals.
This week’s newsletter is 1607 words, a 8-minute read.
Finding Clive
We’ve been getting to know Ben Starr, the English voice and motion capture actor for Clive Rosfield, pretty well over the last month or so—which, as he discussed in an interview on the Square Enix blog, is a refreshing change after keeping the secret to himself for so long.
What they’re saying:
Finding Clive’s voice was “a really instinctual thing, but it was also something that was built over a long period of time […] We would talk about the interrogative inflection—for example, Clive doesn’t ask a question, he demands an answer. We didn’t realize we were doing that for a couple of years.”
Though we follow Clive at three distinct points of his life, the team was more focused on maintaining a sense of “reality and honesty” to Starr’s performance
“When he’s younger, we thought ‘Oh, we need to see this man break. We have to see him be utterly destroyed.’ So there’s a cockiness to his voice when he’s younger - he’s very much put together. He’s more uptight too because he’s very constrained by the rules of Rosaria. It’s not until he’s shattered apart that we hear that in his voice. So we start with him being young, and proper, and then tear him apart and bring that feeling out.”
Doing justice to the tragedy and depression in Clive’s life was paramount—”allowing that vulnerability to sound organic”
Working with Susannah Fielding (Jill) was especially fulfilling for him, as Clive acts differently with Jill than most other characters—”we were able to show that tenderness that you don’t really get when he’s fighting enemies or calling for Ifrit.”
As mentioned before, Starr’s favourite game in the series is Final Fantasy VIII:
“It doesn’t mean I hate all the other ones, or even that I think it’s the best, but it’s the one I have the strongest relationship with because it’s the first one I played. It’s the game that introduced me to this world, to this series. For me, there was life before Final Fantasy, and life after Final Fantasy, and that happened to me with VIII. But I could go to bat for pretty much any of them. I think there are aspects of all of them that are completely brilliant.”
What about FFVIII hooked him? “It was the scope. I could travel the world, capture all these beasts. […] My dad was always into fantasy books and fantasy novels, and I hadn't had the opportunity to read the massive tomes - the Robert Jordans of this world. This was my way into a rich, deep fantasy world, so I felt a connection with my dad as well.”
“It’s been a real journey and it still doesn’t feel real. And I can’t wait until it’s out there and people can play it, so this experience kind of stops being mine and becomes theirs.”
What we thought:
Starr’s earnest comments put a finger on a lot of my gut feelings about Clive, and it’s quite fitting that his favourite game is FFVIII, as I saw many parallels to Squall
Both carry the burden of loss and grief, and turn somewhat inward to cope with it, yet are also pushed by duty to turn to others
A particular connection to someone else helps thaw his icy exterior, as Rinoa did for Squall (not to mention the Angelo/Torgal association)
If not for Clive, Starr could make a pretty good voice for the broody SeeD
There’s something neat about seeing a big fan get a role in their beloved franchise—being a fan isn’t a prerequisite, but it does help foster emotional investment
They understand the assignment a little better, especially when familiar themes come up
Reading about Starr’s introduction to the series and the impact it had on him, I was reminded of the stories many of you shared for our special issue at the end of last year, and the effect the games had on me as a kid—Ben, you’re truly one of us!
What’s next? Starr already accepts the inevitability of being asked to say one of Clive’s most famous lines at public events forever: “I think I will probably have to say, ‘Come to me, Ifrit’ at conventions for the rest of my life. There will probably be T-shirts made. But I will happily shout that for anyone.”
Call Cid, It’s a Lightning Round!
If you applied for the closed beta of Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis on Android, the long-postponed event has finally arrived for a lucky few
Square Enix publishing has announced a slew of new books, including:
The Art of Final Fantasy XVI - March 19, 2024
Final Fantasy XVI Poster Collection - Spring 2024
Encyclopedia Eorzea III ~ The World of Final Fantasy XIV - December 19, 2023
… and a slew of other unrelated manga, with… “colorful” names
Meanwhile, the quirky Final Fantasy XIV: Eorzea Academy is still on course for September 19
Final Fantasy XVI received an update this week which includes the anticipated ability to turn off Motion Blur (to the relief of many players), and some other smaller fixes
On the music front, a five-track sampler of the FFXVI Original Soundtrack landed on streaming platforms
In an interview with Kakuchopurei, Naoki Yoshida and Michael-Christopher Koji Fox chimed in on Eikons they would personally like to see as DLC in FFXVI:
Yoshida: Alexander “won’t fit in the game, but it would be really cool to do!”
Koji Fox: Hades, one of his favourite summons overall
Yoshi-P also thinks it would be fascinating to have Cid playable in some form, while Koji Fox would give the goodest boy Torgal the spotlight
Shadowbringers Turns 4
The first of three Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest events is later this month, but this week marks the fourth anniversary of one of the game’s most successful expansions: Shadowbringers. Let’s look back at one of the MMORPG’s shining moments.
What it was:
Shadowbringers is FFXIV’s third expansion of the A Realm Reborn era (or in patch terms, patch 5.0)
The story focuses on a parallel world called the First, turning the “Warrior of Light” concept on its head in a way reminiscent of Final Fantasy III (with its Warriors of Darkness and Flood of Light/Darkness)
The conflict with the Garlean Empire took something of a backseat for a bit
The Scions went through some powerful (re-)development in this new world
This campaign also saw the proper introduction of Emet-Selch, one of the game’s biggest breakout characters
Players gained access to two new classes, Dancers and the gunblade-wielding Gunbreakers, as well ass two new races, Viera (female) and Hrothgar (male)
The FFVIII homages didn’t stop at gunblades, as the Eden raid series brought back some of its music and themes
This also saw the advent of the Trust system, which allows players to use NPCs as party members in dungeons
What we thought:
In a lot of ways, narratively, Shadowbringers laid out the carpet for Endwalker
Much of the conflicts in Endwalker were set up, or at least heavily fleshed out, in this part of the story
Player growth during this era set the stage for FFXIV to finally dethrone World of Warcraft around Endwalker’s launch—it had passed 16 million players by July 2019 when Shadowbreakers launched, and by the time Endwalker arrived in December 2021, it had surpassed 24 million
For me, though I had dabbled in FFXIV previously, it was the addition of Gunbreakers, the idea of Warriors of Darkness, and an epic trailer that really drew me in for good
(Seriously, that trailer still gets my blood pumping a thousand views later)
For critics, it became the highest-rated FF title since FFXII 13 years prior
Its commercial success was a massive boon for Square Enix and, in retrospect, was an early sign of the franchise’s recent return to form in Endwalker and FFXVI
What’s next? With Endwalker’s post-campaign nearing its logical end with one more major patch, we’re bound to find out about the next expansion sooner versus later. One of the Fan Fests would be a natural place to announce it, but the question is, which festival will get the honour?
Around the Union
Our latest video comes with a heavy caveat. As you may guess from the title, "Final Fantasy XVI: The Ending Explained” covers the ending of FFXVI in detail, discussing the implications and insinuations of the game’s epic conclusion. As such, be warned, you should not watch it until you’ve beaten the game! We’d love to hear your thoughts, but be mindful of others who may not be as far as you, or maybe haven’t embarked on Clive’s journey at all yet.
And on that note, we want to know: have you finished Final Fantasy XVI yet?
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Until next time, kupo!