Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Cloud’s Japanese Actor Likes Tifa the Most

Iyane Agossah April 9, 2020 7:28 PM EST

Takahiro Sakurai, the Japanese voice of Cloud, shared some input on Final Fantasy 7 Remake in this week's Famitsu magazine.

Takahiro Sakurai, the seiyuu voicing Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, said he prefers Tifa between her and Aerith. In case you needed more material for the next big best girl war.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available, or will be in a few hours depending on your country, on PS4. To celebrate, this week’s Famitsu magazine included a feature on the remake. The feature summarized everything Square Enix revealed prior release. Through the 77 pages of material, Director Tetsuya Nomura and Producer Yoshinori Kitase shared some new comments as well. Famitsu magazine also included an interview with Takahiro Sakurai, the Japanese voice of Could Strife. He’s among the most popular seiyuu, Japanese voice actresses and actors, with an incredible amount of roles.

In the interview, Takahiro Sakurai shared many interesting anecdotes on his relationship with Cloud. As you might already know, he first voiced Cloud in Kingdom Hearts I, released in 2002. Before that, in 2000, Sakurai voiced Sion Barzahd, the protagonist of The Bouncer, another game with Tetsuya Nomura’s touch. This is how Takahiro Sakurai got involved with Square Enix, and how he was picked to voiced Cloud.

Takahiro Sakurai also chatted about his own impression of Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Overall, he’s impressed with the huge content the game has to offer, and he’s particularly bluffed by the cool battle system. Dubbing is recorded very early in Japanese games’ development, meaning he didn’t see much, if anything of the game while he was doing his job. He’s purely judging from the script he saw, and discovered what he knows through the game’s promotional material. Just like any of us. However, he pointed out how even by just reading and acting the script, he saw just how different and how impressive the story of this Remake is.

Takahiro Sakurai’s thoughts on Final Fantasy 7 remake, Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith

Most of the rest of the interview deals with Cloud’s differences between his various iterations: the original game, the Remake, Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts… In a nutshell, Takahiro Sakurai mentioned how they are all different, so he voiced them differently as well. Just like Tetsuya Nomura in another interview, he also stressed out Cloud in the Remake isn’t cool but lame. He also pointed out Barret’s personality became hyper.

And here’s the funniest part of the interview and why you probably clicked on this article for:

Famitsu: “In the Remake, players control Cloud doing exploration, but you can switch to the other party members during battles. Which character will you use the most? I guess Cloud, right?”

Takahiro Sakurai: “No… I’ll use Tifa (laughs). I like Tifa.”

Famitsu: “Which one you like the most between Aerith and Tifa?”

Takahiro Sakurai: “Definitely Tifa (laughs). Since the original game, I’ve always liked Tifa the most. I wouldn’t admit it to Maaya Sakamoto though (laughs). In the Remake, Tifa feels and looks even more like a strong woman. Meanwhile, Aerith gives off a stronger feminine and delicate vibe than ever, so there’s an interesting contrast between the two.”

Maaya Sakamoto is the seiyuu voicing Aerith. Tetsuya Nomura talked about this contrast between Aerith and Tifa’s designs and personalities in another interview we covered.

A few weeks ago, Dengeki Online published another interview with Takahiro Sakurai. This interview covered more or less the same themes as the Famitsu one. You can read about it here. Be sure to check our written review of Final Fantasy VII Remake as well. Nomura also shared a pretty cool Cloud illustration for the Remake’s launch.

