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Everyone involved in Final Fantasy VII Remake, from the actors to the directors, wanted to show more layers to the characters

Both Aerith and Barret get more depth thanks to the advances in voice acting since the original Final Fantasy VII came out.

Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake — Image credit: Square Enix

Features by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Thu Nov 06 2025

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Video games have come a long way since the original Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997. Not only have graphics made the jump from 3D, but the writing has gotten deeper and more nuanced over time. Fast forward to the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, and the actors behind Barret and Aerith have said that both they and the writers wanted to give more layers to the characters than they originally had.

It was the subject of some discussion during the Final Fantasy VII Remake panel at MCM London 2025. John Eric Bentley, who voices Barret in the game, explained that he wanted to give more depth to the character than we got back in 1997. The temptation to make him too much like Mr. T was there but it was one he wanted to resist.

Barret In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth — Image credit: Square Enix

“I didn’t want to make Barret a caricature,” Bentley explained to the audience. “I didn’t want him to be an, I’ve said it before, an angry black man who knocks Wedge across the pool table or anything. I just wanted him to be relatable so that the fans could see how many layers, so to speak, this man has and how many responsibilities that he puts on himself, some too much. With his team members. With his daughter, Marlene. So I just wanted all that to be, I guess, developed into the character so that I did justice to the fandom, what I played growing up, my culture, and me as a man, and Barret as a man. I wanted to do it justice. I wanted this man to shine.”

The idea of giving these characters layers was paramount to other cast members and was even impressed upon by the directors and writers.

“I distinctly remember one of my very first sessions in the booth,” Briana White, who voices Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, says a little later on in the panel. “We were working on a few lines and they asked me to kind of lean into a certain emotion, and I was like, ‘But does that really fit with her character, you know? She’s like a, she’s a sweet flower girl,’ and they pulled me out of the booth and they were like, ‘Well, let’s just have a talk. Let’s talk this over.’ And they told me, ‘You know she is a sweet flower girl, but that’s not all she is, and we wanna showcase that. We want to acknowledge that.’”

That other side of Aerith comes from her difficult childhood. Not to get too deep into spoilers, White said that, “She’s had a very tough life.

"She grew up in the slums, and she’s tough as nails, so when she’s sassy or she’s teasing Cloud, that’s because of her very real background and all of the layers that they wanted to show in her in Final Fantasy VII remake. So, I very distinctly remember that conversation and thinking, ‘Oh, I’m ready now. This is gonna be awesome.’”

Just like Barret, there is more to Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake that the actors are getting to explore thanks to advances in video games over the past nearly three decades.

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