The below story includes discussion of death and grief.
Final Fantasy XVI is nearly here, and with a lengthy demo for the game having just dropped, the folks at Kinda Funny had the chance to play it alongside Ben Starr, the voice actor for the game’s protagonist, Clive, and talk about bringing the character to life.
Near the end of the broadcast, which you can watch here, Starr reveals that his father passed during the production of the game and that the actor leant heavily on those emotions to bring Clive to life, while also using the parallel’s between the game’s themes and Clive’s own journey to help him process his real-life grief. Starr also credits his late dad for introducing him to the series by way of Final Fantasy VIII (ie, the best one). You can read what he said below:
“Fuck it, I’ll say it. My Dad died, in the making of this video, and there is a lot that Clive goes through – and I’m sorry to get heavy but it’s true – but it’s amazing how much this game allowed me to process that loss and channel that loss into something good and creative. And the team were incredibly good at allowing me to be as expressive as I possibly could and so, yeah, when you’re hearing some of that stuff that’s kind of real, because of that.
“And Clive, crazy name, saved my life. This game saved my life. The last time I ever spoke to my Dad was on the way to recording this game. He was the guy who first bought me Final Fantasy VIII, he is the guy that supported me through, you know, he’s the person that you look up to the most and that loss was devastating and it destroyed me, but this game helped me build myself, that armour. [Tim: Rise like a phoenix] Rise like a phoenix!
“So yeah, I’m trying to vocalise it, get it out there as much as possible because I really want him and his memory to kind of be remembered as much as possible and he is so much a part of the fabric of this game and a fabric of who Clive is and I wouldn’t be here doing this if it wasn’t for him because he wouldn’t have bought me that game, he wouldn’t have changed my life in that way. So that’s why, if it feels raw, a lot of the stuff as the game goes on it’s also raw.”
