As a lot of fans had predicted,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthmakes some pretty big changes to Red XIII’s character after a specific moment in Cosmo Canyon.
One of the most interesting things that was said about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth before it released was regarding Red XIII, who finally becomes a playable party member after sitting on the sidelines forRemake.During an interview, game director Naoki Hamaguchi revealed there are two versions of every quest because of Red XIII, although he didn’t go as far as saying why. Well, now we know.
Spoiler warning for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and how it changes Red XIII.
As you make your way through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, a few story scenes will tease a big element about Red XIII’s character - his voice. Since we met him in Remake, he’s had a deep, frankly badass, voice that makes him seem a lot older, but that’s not actually how he sounds. Rebirth starts teasing this early on in the game with scenes that don’t show his mouth moving, but make it clear that he’s speaking.
This is teased fairly early into the game (and was also something that fans speculated about after the most recent trailer for Rebirth), but it all comes to a head when Cloud and the party travel to Cosmo Canyon, which is where Red XIII grew up as Nanaki. While here, Red XIII will completely drop the act and speak with a much higher-pitched and younger-sounding voice, which he keeps throughout most of the rest of the game.
With his real voice, Red XIII also sounds a heck of a lot like Ryuji from Persona 5, which makes sense since they share a voice actor in Max Mittelman.
Although Red XIII does occasionally slip back into using his old voice when he’s trying to be tough, his real voice sticks around for the rest of the game. This means that there are technically two versions of every side quest in the game to account for whether you do them with Red XIII before you visit Cosmo Canyon and if you choose to do them after.
It’s a very neat detail that also calls back to the original Japanese release of Final Fantasy 7, which has Nanaki changing the way he speaks slightly after visiting Cosmo Canyon. It’s the same here too, which is exactly what fans predicted when this little detail was announced.
