Just One Question..

[Firefly]

Ok,somebody might have already posted this,and I am sry if so,but I was lazy and didnt want to look.Ok this may sound stupid but here is the question:
Ok I was playing Tomb Raider(PS1 edition) and I noticed they were talking on it,and then I thought if this PS1 game can talk why cant PS1 Final Fantasy games talk too? Sry if its a stupid question,I was curious.

[Victoria]

Because they didn't want it to? Couldn't afford it? There's a numerous amount of possibility.
In the end it doesn't really matter because they games were already made.

[Dodie16]

There were a ton of PSX games that had voice-acting in them. The Legend of Dragoon, Spyro the Dragon, and Metal Gear Solid are the ones from the top of my head.

I don't really know why SquareSoft decided to introduce voice-acting when the Final Fantasy franchise made the leap to the PS2, especially when there are games that they made for the PSX had voice acting in them. My guess would be what Mistress Sheena suggested, either there wasn't any money put aside for it, or they just didn't want to. I honestly still enjoyed those games without the voice-work.

There is a little bit of voicework in those PSX FF games though, but it's in song. Eyes On Me, One-Winged Angel, and Melodies of Life are the ones that come to my memory.

[IceColdPillow]

I did a half-hearted research on the issue, and found literally nothing! So, it was probably an already mentioned reason. I'm leaning towards a money issue, the cost of voice synching and the actual actors [you know Square wouldnt hire some janitor that works in the office to do it, just look at ffx's quality] would add onto an already large budget.

To be honest, I ended up making the voices in my head so I was never to bothered by it at all. Plus, some scenes call for odd dialogue that would sound very off and awkward. I believe it's a good call

[KeybladerXIII]

Pillow brought up a good reason. When they decided to have voice actors in FFX, they wrote dialouge that would fit the character and wouldn't feel awkward (except for that painful laugh scene). Can you imagine how sterotypical a voice actor would have to be to voice Barret? How exactly would they be able to show Sephiroth's insanity and menace in his voice when he's a one-inch polygon visually? Can you picture Cloud saying "Let's Mosey" in his deadpan voice? (And that's just FFVII) They weren't ready for voice work at that time, they just wanted to focus on their fledgeling 3D visuals. When the PS2 came along they had a much easier time about voice acting.

[loaf]

Only reason I see not having voice acting in FFVII, VIII and IX was to keep the game a fantasy, the reading makes you think up the sounds of voices of characters. I mean X and beyond have voices now but that's now and this was then.

[Josh_R]

Honestly I couldn't imagine any of the older FF's having voice overs. Big fan of the older FF's by the way. As for a reason for it I would have to go with everything Mistress Sheena has said. Could have been they didn't have enough money at the time. Maybe they just didn't feel like it. It is a mystery that will never be solved, unless we call up Scooby Doo and the gang....

[Leksandar]

[you know Square wouldnt hire some janitor that works in the office to do it, just look at ffx's quality]

Funny you should say that as it's exactly what it sounds like they did. Not that I mind, it's a vital part of a game I love, and I wouldn't want it any other way, but come on.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the reason they didn't voice the game was space. Whereas Tomb Raider contains little dialogue and just a few, short FMVs, Final Fantasy VII already occupies three discs as it is. I mean, Metal Gear Solid was a disturbingly short game for its time and had no FMVs, yet it covered two discs. So the cost of hiring voice actors would be the least of their economical worries, not to mention what it would do to the game's marketing. Anyone is intrigued by big, exclusive looking stuff, but there's a limit to even that. Something that doesn't look like something is difficult to sell as something.

Because there's no way it would look like a game considering how big the packaging would have to be. Now I imagine the industry standard for voice tracks aren't anywhere as high as that of CDs, but there's a reason CDs never last longer than 80 minutes. It's space, and even compressing the sound to half of that quality I'm guessing would still at least double the amount of discs the game would need. This also makes sense when it comes to explaining their sudden switch to voicing X as the PlayStation 2 uses DVDs.

Personally, I'm happy there aren't any voices. VIII and IX could probably work for me, but adding voices to VII would take away some of the game's sense of desolation and do unpleasant things to the mise-en-scène.

[IceColdPillow]

Funny you should say that as it's exactly what it sounds like they did.

Hmm, I personally thought they did a decent job with the voice acting but I have an odd picture of quality

Well, you prove a point of the disc space issue, it could be a combination of things. I believe the lack of voice acting benefited the older games. It allowed for a larger story like Leksander said plus it personally expanded the imagination and epic feel of the game. I personalized the characters to my own liking which made for a closer bond to the game. Maybe I'm overthinking things a bit...

[Maciariello]

Pillow brought up a good reason. When they decided to have voice actors in FFX, they wrote dialouge that would fit the character and wouldn't feel awkward (except for that painful laugh scene). Can you imagine how sterotypical a voice actor would have to be to voice Barret? How exactly would they be able to show Sephiroth's insanity and menace in his voice when he's a one-inch polygon visually? Can you picture Cloud saying "Let's Mosey" in his deadpan voice? (And that's just FFVII) They weren't ready for voice work at that time, they just wanted to focus on their fledgeling 3D visuals. When the PS2 came along they had a much easier time about voice acting.

*shudders* This is the single most awkward thing in any Final Fantasy game I've played. It's so horrible!