Voice actors don't always get the credit they deserve. Despite bringing characters to life and then representing games at events, they're sometimes treated as mere footnotes in the development process. A performer on Dragon Age: Inquisition credits two stars of Baldur's Gate 3 with helping to raise the status of such contributors across the board.

"Video game acting is, at times, hard, demanding, and also challenging, and it's also joyous, and it's filled with, literally, blood and sweat and tears, especially if you're on the [performance capture] stage," Alix Wilton Regan, who voiced the female Inquisitor in Inquisition, told GamesRadar+ at the BAFTA Games Awards. "So video game actors, they deserve their flowers, because we help pull the audience in to elevate the writing, the animation, the direction, the tone."

Truer words are rarely spoken. Voice actors give nuance and personality to the cast, deepening the narrative and creating a closer connection with the audience. They can, and often do, help elevate great games into masterpieces.

"I give a massive shout-out here to the Baldur's Gate 3 crew, because they were the ones who made all the other video game actors sit up and take note and realize, 'Yeah, actually, we are loved, our work does have value, and we too deserve to stand up and be counted,' Regan continues.

"I've literally said this to, like, Jennifer English's face, or Neil Newbon. I've been up to Ben Starr, and I'm like, 'You changed the game,'" she adds. Starr, ever the charmer, turned it around on her by pointing out that she voiced the Inquisitor, a huge role in a widely-regarded RPG.

Baldur's Gate 3 might be more pertinent to recent memory, but the third Dragon Age installment was the fantasy adventure du jour for a while there. It's hard to imagine any of these projects without these performers involved, and long may their success continue.

Baldur's Gate 3 was "lightning in a bottle," Astarion actor says, and "proved a lot of things" that big companies "who are just really chasing the money need to learn from"

Video games have become the Hollywood gold rush du jour, with Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter still to come this year, after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie already bounced through the box office. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is up for a silver screen version too, but voice actor Ben Starr believes the medium is more than capable of standing on its own, without validation from TV or film producers.

He spoke about the subject to Dexerto at this year's BAFTA Games Awards. "I don't think video games need adaptations to justify them," Starr begins. "I think it's exciting, I think it's a testament to the power of video games that we're having so many people want to go to the well of games."

He mentions how powerful game franchises have become to production companies. "We've got so many strong IPs, you're already seeing God of War, we're seeing Assassin's Creed," he states. "Good luck to them. I don't think we need them. I think TV needs us, I think film needs us."

He then clarifies it's not us vs them, because he and his fellow voice actors will work in other mediums too, but the point stands. The God of War show from Amazon and Netflix's new Assassin's Creed adaptation wouldn't be happening unless there was some perceived value in their fanbases. They and many like them are overflowing with ideas that other creative teams could explore to everyone's benefit.

"It's nice because it allows games to expand beyond the remit of gamers," Starr muses. "We saw that happen with The Last of Us, it was amazing, we're seeing that with Fallout, people revisiting Fallout 4, and it's nice to get more people into those."

That's what's worth celebrating, he believes, over video games crossing some imaginary threshold of legitimacy. "If it means that more people can play video games, the better," he adds. "But I don't think video games need to justify their existence by being TV shows. They are great because they are games."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a "great example" of a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass likely helping sales, analyst says

Verso actor Ben Starr says he's never romanced Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3 as it would be a bit weird for him after acting alongside Jennifer English in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

At a panel at Emerald City Comic Con 2026, a fan asked the panel of Starr, English, and Aliona Baranova (who performed motion capture on Baldur's Gate 3) asked the trio if they each tend to play the games starring their co-stars, and capped it off with a question to Starr "have you ever romanced Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate." Starr quickly shot it down with an "I haven't" to which English responded with a somewhat offended "why not!"

Starr explained "If I'm going to be honest, I always see myself as a bit of a Gale girly," which led to English accusing him "Is that because you're a bit of a Gale and you just really love yourself?" However, Starr says it's all down to Gale actor Tim Downie, which in turn leads to him and English swooning over the actor.

After a prerequisite amount of love for Downie, Starr gets back to the question, explaining "no, I haven't romanced you, but I think that that would be weird. It would be so weird." To which English agrees "that would be so weird now, that would be incestuous." Of course, this comes down to the roles Starr and English play opposite each other in Expedition 33, which I won't spoil for you, but they definitely take on a sibling-like role for a majority of the runtime.

Getting back to the original point, Starr adds, "We do, I think there is not just a great love between all of us as people. I think there's a huge respect for the work that we do and I think as actors we wouldn't be doing our due diligence if we weren't playing the games that are out there that you guys are playing."

Personally, I was also a bit of a Gale girly, but he gave me the ick after a moment in act 2 where we had to kill a boy's ghost parents and ghost dog, and in the sombre moments that followed the guy immediately tried to initiate something. And while I let him eat my magic shoes every so often (or whatever he does with them) the relationship was ruined.

Baldur's Gate 3 Shadowheart actor says Hades is a comfort game, though she's "too bad" to get into Silksong

Prominent video game actor Ben Starr - who you might recognize as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Verso or Final Fantasy 16's Clive - wants the games industry to embrace more original IP rather than be stuck digging through its own past.

The topic came up during a panel at Emerald City Comic-Con 2026 when Starr mentioned how much he adores Legacy of Kain, the dormant action-adventure series about vampires and free will.

"I've been very vocal about how I would love to be a part of the Legacy of Kain franchise," he says in the discussion embedded above, "but this is a panel about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I think the reason we're here is because original IP in 2026 should be king. We shouldn't be looking back."

Starr goes on to say that he'd love to be a part of Legacy of Kain, should the franchise ever come out with a new game, of course, "because of the performances that have inspired me as an actor." But he still believes "we should be building new IPs, not always looking back to the past."

He then points to Resident Evil, a long-running franchise that's on an "insanely good" run. But even there, he'd prefer to "be in the next whatever Clair Obscur is. Let's originate characters... That's what we should be looking towards."

If you know where to look, plenty of the most exciting new games of 2026 are entirely original concepts, but it's predominantly indie developers who are banging that drum the loudest. Most of the biggest AAA releases of the year are continuations of long-running franchises (GTA 6), re-remakes (Halo: Campaign Evolved), or an adaptation (Marvel's Wolverine).

"You can't build clever little games anymore," says RPG legend, unless you get lucky like Clair Obscur Expedition 33: "That doesn't please the stock market"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Final Fantasy 16 lead Ben Starr says Marathon has a special trick up its sleeve that will nab it Game of the Year.

If you think about the three games in recent years that have absolutely demolished the Game of the Year running in their given years, it's Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, and – most recently – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. All three of these games have something in common, and not just being fantasy RPGs. No, all three have a prominent role played by Jennifer English, who plays Latenna the Albinauric in Elden Ring, Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate, and Maelle in Clair Obscur. So naturally, fans have dubbed her power the Jennifer English effect, and are now looking for more games to see if her luck rubs off on it.

At Emerald City Comic Con 2026, Popverse interviewed some of the cast of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, with English joined by Verso actor Ben Starr, and Aliona Baranova who played multiple characters in the game (as well as motion capture on Baldur's Gate 3). During the panel, host Ashley Robinson explained "Are you familiar that Reddit has dubbed the Jennifer English effect? A game that creeps up and becomes deeply popular following the release of Clair Obscur."

English, seemingly unfamiliar with her lucky charm status, responded "That's really nice! What?" Starr on the other hand started looking towards this year, saying "That means Marathon is gonna be Game of the Year." The panel took place during the weekend Marathon first debuted in, and while it's not quite lighting the world on fire the same way Clair Obscur did, the Bungie sickos seem to like it.

Of course, Mewgenics is going to be Game of the Year in the only awards that matter (my choice) but sadly I think this year's awards are already locked in for GTA 6 unless Rockstar Games somehow royally messes up with that game. But maybe Ben Starr's prediction will come true if that does happen, even if he seemed to be joking.

Marathon just buffed the best loot you can find outside Cryo Archive and nerfed the Thief exploit

Incredible – and romantic at heart – Final Fantasy 16 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr is ready for the next step in his already stunning career, as a love interest in the RPG that tracks my period, Love and Deepspace.

He isn't coy about it. "I want to be in Love and Deepspace," Starr announces to narrative designer Alexa Ray Corriea on a recent episode of the Game Maker's Notebook Podcast. "I never will be. But I love dating sims."

I've been playing the gacha / life sim / NSFW dating game with sci-fi RPG battles Love and Deepspace for 393 days according to my iPhone widget, and my step-brother boyfriend Caleb is currently sitting on a bench staring at a closed door in our in-game home. Through him, I understand the suffering of the pinned butterfly, and I also know what Starr means when he says, "I love feral people."

"I read the fanfiction," Starr continues, pleading. "It's so silly and so fun. And, also, it's so creative. Shoutout to every single person who writes fanfiction about a character that either I have done or I'm adjacent to. It's fucking awesome."

Given Starr's familiarity with unrepentantly freaky gamers, his enthusiasm for them, and his pleasantly honeyed voice, I think all his comments here function as an impressive resume for Love and Deepspace.

But developer Infold can be secretive about the game's production – who can blame them when some of the most feral fans among us have a tendency toward stalking and conspiratorial thinking when their favorite romance option's washboard abs don't seem to glisten like they used to. So it's unlikely that Infold would ever choose an English actor as recognizable as Ben Starr to voice a love interest – too much of a risk – but if it ever did, I hope they name him Xylophone.

Desperate for a guy who stinks a little, fans of one of the most popular RPGs in the world can't believe the update makes love interests take a shower: "I blocked the door to the bathroom."

We were all a bit blindsided by the sheer success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It always looked like a great game, but to be zeitgeist-defining the way it was in 2025 took us all a bit by surprise. That includes those involved, as voice actor Ben Starr didn't expect the J'RPG to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16.

In the Game Maker's Toolkit Podcast with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Starr recalled how he thought 2025 was going to "be the year of me dressing up as a clown at the BAFTAs," but the acclaimed RPG changed his trajectory. "That's what I thought was going to be my biggest contribution to the gaming landscape, was me being an idiot with Balatro," he recalled, laughing.

"I thought I was just going to be in some really cool games. Date Everything!, Hades 2, these are indie games, I'm not in AAA video games," he says. "So I didn't expect them to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16 had, because that's a AAA game."

But "the fact they had the significant impact they did" speaks "greatly to what the landscape of 2025 was." True enough, between Hades 2 and Clair Obscur, Starr was in two of the biggest, most beloved games of the whole year, the latter setting records in The Game Awards and for Game of the Year awards industry-wide.

There was some buzz and expectation for the second Hades, as Supergiant Games tends not to miss, but Expedition 33 truly was a juggernaut. Soon after release, it became clear it was striking a chord with players searching for a particular kind of role-playing game, and Starr is absolutely correct that it managed to rival the fervour of a new Final Fantasy.

We could split hairs here in that Expedition 33 is a bit larger scale than your average indie game, but publisher Kepler Interactive definitely doesn't have the reach and publicity power of Square Enix. The reaction was organic, and it continues to ripple because people are still finding and loving the game.

I'm not sure Marathon is going to have the same momentum for Starr. But maybe Fallen Fates will, whenever it arrives.

"How wrong I was" – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ben Starr told friends to keep expectations "in check" before the RPG's launch because "this isn't going to be a smash hit"

Ben Starr, the actor best known for his role as Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield, had the misfortune of going up against the extremely challenging antagonist he plays in Hades 2, and he had such a tough time that he says he "hated" himself in that moment.

Starr plays Prometheus in Hades 2, widely recognized as one of the hardest bosses in a game known for its brutal boss fights. In a recent interview with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, he admits to having been utterly entranced by Hades 2 but also incredibly frustrated by his own character.

"There are certain games that really immerse me, like hours went by," Starr says. "Hades 2, I put 90 hours into that game, just traveling."

Acknowledging that he himself acted in Hades 2, he says Prometheus was such a struggle for him that for those brief moments, he wasn't his biggest fan.

"I hated myself, because he's a hard boss when you first meet him. I sent a picture of Prometheus defeated when I finally beat him to one of my friends and went, 'fuck me, I guess.'"

If you're finding yourself in a similar predicament to Starr's, you've come to the right place. Our guide on how to beat Prometheus in Hades 2 explains exactly which weapons and Boons you want to have equipped to take down the Titan of Foresight, not to mention a handful of tips specifically geared toward this boss fight. Now, if you end up hating yourself during the fight, that's something you might want to consult a therapist about, or maybe ask Starr for some self love advice.

I spent 507 days obsessed with playing Hades 2, so I'm revisiting the first roguelike to decide which is my actual favorite

I feel like you don't need to be told at this point about how big of a deal Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became. It is already the most-awarded game ever, and that lead keeps growing. It is also on course to be the second game ever to take home the big five Game of the Year awards after Baldur's Gate 3 in 2023. Safe to say it's pretty big. But it's a game that almost felt like it came out of nowhere from first-time developer Sandfall Interactive, so naturally, many are surprised at how well the game actually did.

Among them is lead actor Ben Starr, who has spoken with Aztech: Forgotten Gods narrative designer Alexa Ray Corriea on the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences YouTube channel. Starr recalls, "2025 was an interesting year for me because I remember speaking to you about Expedition 33 coming out and I really played it down to a lot of people." And while the actor admits, "I don't like hyping up my work really before it's happened. I really like it to speak for itself and then we kind of talk about it." He wasn't expecting it to become so huge.

Starr admits that "I think there was so much excitement about the potential" of what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could be to people, but "that I kept being like, just keep your expectations in check." He explains, "You know, it's a team. They've made it. It's a brilliant expression of what they want to make, but this isn't going to be like a smash hit video game."

"And how wrong I was."

Starr continues, "It wasn't a lack of faith in the material. I believed in the material a long time before that ever came out." Starr also says that anyone he spoke to knew "how excited I was about this video game," but adds, "no one could have predicted that."

He explains that with 2025, "I thought it was going to be the year of me dressing up as a clown at the BAFTAs. I thought was going to be my biggest contribution to the gaming landscape – me being an idiot with Balatro."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ben Starr worries the video game industry will learn the wrong lessons from its success.

Bungie has unveiled a massive cast list for its upcoming shooter Marathon, featuring the likes of Baldur's Gate 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hades 2 actors.

Alongside confirming the March release date, Bungie confirmed that Marathon will feature the voices of a very short cast list including, ahem, "Krizia Bajos, Samantha Béart, Beau Bridgland, Ry Chase, Roger Clark, Darin De Paul, Jennifer English, Dave Fennoy, Nika Futterman, Morla Gorrondona, Reina Guthrie, Donnla Hughes, Keston John, Sohm Kapila, Rich Keeble, Elliot Knight, Erica Lindbeck, Piotr Michael, Brent Mukai, Neil Newbon, Ariana Nicole George, Emily O'Brien, Lee Shorten, Jason Spisak, Ben Starr, JB Tadena, Fred Tatasciore, Craig Lee Thomas, Elias Toufexis, Oliver Vaquer, Scott Whyte, Tracy Wiles, Erin Yvette."

So yeah, basically every single voice actor ever at this rate. Baldur's Gate 3 is well represented with Newbon, Béart, English, and Wiles, with the latter two also representing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 alongside Starr and Keeble. And, of course, there's a nice helping of industry legends like Fennoy, Clark, O'Brien, Lindbeck , Tatasciore, and Yvette for good measure.

Given it's a multiplayer game, obviously the voice acting isn't going to be as in-depth as some of these actors' other roles, but as far as I'm concerned it's already given Marathon a leg up over Arc Raiders for seemingly caring more about its voice acting instead of letting AI do a significant portion of the work. Embark uses "a combination of recordings of real actors" and text-to-speech (used for player pings, for example), with the former trained on those actors, but studio co-founder Stefan Strandberg previously said "there's no end goal in replacing any actors." Even so, the usage in Arc Raiders has been very controversial.

Of course, with the art plagiarism issue last year, I'm prepared to eat crow if AI use does somehow make it into the game, but as of right now, this stacked cast is a win for Bungie in my eyes.

Bungie shows off Marathon's reworked "Runner Shell" classes, and I'm still worried about invisibility and wall hacks

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr has explained why he thinks the RPG has been such a hit, even if no one expected it to be.

It's undeniable to say the biggest gaming success story of 2025 has to be Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The debut of an independent studio with its beginnings in Reddit threads, it became a massive hit, taking home seven awards from the Golden Joysticks and is currently the single most-nominated game in The Game Awards history (with it looking very likely to take home a majority of those awards). No one, least of all the game's director, expected that.

Starr – who plays the role of Verso – talks to GamingBible about the game's massive success, saying, "I always thought that this game was going to be remarkable, but I had no idea how huge this game would become." He recalls that when he saw Maelle actor Jennifer English after being cast in the role, they "told each other that this was going to be really good." However, despite him knowing deep down, Starr explains, "you can never really tell how good something is truly going to be until it’s out there."

"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a cultural moment that’s happening," Starr explains, adding, "I’ve seen hundreds of fans dressed up as its characters. We talk about art inspiring art. People want to celebrate this game in so many ways because it has had such an impact on their lives."

As for why he thinks the game resonated with players, Starr explains, "It's a game that’s the child of a small group of people who had an unapologetic vision and understood what they wanted to create, and it’s been received in that way. I think it's the honesty with which that video game is made that resonated so much, and it’s why so many people are emotionally attached to its characters. There's nothing cynical about it."

Fallout and The Elder Scrolls boss Todd Howard's GOTY pick just so happens to be the current game of the year frontrunner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

You wouldn't understand the relationship between Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr and Balatro banana Gros Michel. It transcends words. It's an expression of belief… the belief that banana is good.

Banana is just. Most of all, banana is ripe. Starr alludes to these tenants when WhatCulture Gaming asks him during the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 what feels better, winning Best Supporting Performer as Verso in Expedition 33, or "having Gros Michel last one more turn?" He answers swiftly, "Gros Michel's my boy. This award can fuck itself."

"I want to experience the thrill of that sweet, sweet banana just lasting that one more round," Starr continues, becoming more passionate with each word. "15-times Mult, baby, let's go."

Yep, that's Gros Michel, the additive Mult Joker named after a type of cultivated banana. Disease rendered the Gros Michel fruit "commercially extinct" in the '50s, according to the American Society for Microbiology, and since then, much of the world has instead munched on the Cavendish variety. Though, it's not quite as beautifully stout as Gros Michel.

This grocery store tragedy plays out in Balatro, in which Gros Michel applies +15 Mult to whatever poker hand you play – though there's a one-in-six chance at the end of every round it spends in one of your Joker slots that it'll disappear. Then, the only banana you can obtain for the rest of that run is the Cavendish, which alternatively offers a three-times Mult to all hands played. Frustratingly, it also has a one-in-1,000 chance of self-destructing at the end of a round. Monkey business, that's for sure.

Balatro creator says "I'm slow" and "I am sorry" and update 1.1 is not coming this year for good reason: "The prospect of rushing the work and going back into crunch mode to get it out this year just felt terrible"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 owes its spectacular success to burning love, says Verso actor Ben Starr in an interview with GamesRadar+ and Future Games Show during the Golden Joystick Awards 2025. It "was made with love, and it was made for a very specific audience, and it just turns out that the audience for this game was bigger than people thought."

"As a huge fan of RPGs, a person who was raised on these things – what an amazing thing to have a game that is so widely loved, and celebrated, and represents so much of the reason why I continue to play games," Starr continues. "It's the reason I'm in games. And I think it's a timely story."

With characters hopeful for salvation as often as they are forced to despair, Expedition 33 is a storm "in a very specific way that asks incredibly hard questions, and it doesn't give you an answer, and it doesn't resolve," Starr says.

"It basically says, 'Here is existential pain, live with it. Ask yourself questions, go out in the world and see how you feel about it,'" he continues. The JRPG's angst is familiar to its most dedicated players, who perform the ultimate act of devotion: wearing a beret.

"If you go to a convention you'll see thousands of people – I mean, literally, hundreds of people – in berets," says Starr. "Every time any person who says, 'OK, this game affected me, I'm going to spend hundreds of hours making something, and allowing this to empower me as a person, and I'm going to walk up to the convention dressed like this because Maelle empowers me, or Sciel gives me strength, or Lune's loss is my loss,'" Starr says, addressing director Guillaume Broche and writer Jen Svedberg-Yen, "that's the power of what you guys have created."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Jennifer English says it was "hard" playing two characters in the RPG: "I had to find the subtlety of it being the same but different."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is beautiful and melancholy, sure, but I think there are two adjectives that go above all others: French and sexy. That's how co-stars Jennifer English (Maelle) and Ben Starr (Verso) see it, at least.

Asked what excited him about taking on the role of Verso in a new Future Games Show interview, Starr says that "It cannot be understated how sexy this game looked." (I'm sorry to be pedantic, Ben, but I think you meant "overstated.")

"I am such a huge turn-based RPG fan," Starr continues, "so what excited me most is being a part of something like that. This is inspired by the games that I grew up with. So, it was really cool, and [Verso] was so sexy."

"Do you think they would be as sexy if they weren't French?" English, who's sitting across the table from Starr during the interview, asks her co-star.

"I think about this all the time," he responds.

"French people are just sexier," English asserts.

"Yeah," Starr agrees. "I get really intimidated. We went to Paris recently for the concert and how sexy everyone was there."

"Everyone was so sexy."

"It was wild and everyone just looked cool," Starr concludes.

Starr and English go on to reminisce about trying to bust out some wine at the concert event early and being firmly told off by the event staff for the attempt. French people may be good at being sexy and making cool RPGs, but I guess they're a lot stingier with wine than all the other cultural stereotypes would've led me to believe.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr is still ready to "lose to Megabonk" at The Game Awards, since one "person's game of the year is going to be another person's worst game of all time."

Indie megahit Megabonk may have officially dropped out of The Game Awards after being nominated for Debut Indie Game along with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but voice actor Ben Starr is nonetheless readying himself for a public bonking.

Starr, the silky voice of Expedition 33's possibly evil Verso, and Maelle actor Jennifer English share their thoughts on the French JRPG's stuffed awards season in a new video with Future Games Show, which asks them to predict how many categories Clair Obscur will win at this year's awards shows. The JRPG and developer Sandfall Interactive crushed the Golden Joystick Awards like a beer can, winning seven categories, and they're up for a record-breaking total of 12 nominations at the upcoming Game Awards. With that in mind, "Don't know," both Starr and English say.

"It's going to lose to Megabonk in all [19 category nominations]," Starr adds jokingly. "I don't know."

Actually, Megabonk's solo developer decided to withdraw from The Game Awards after explaining they've made other games in the past and don't "feel right" in the 'Debut Indie Game' category – though some fans urged them to stay in the race if a huge game like Expedition 33 got to fudge the rules and classify as "indie," too.

Starr likely wouldn't be disturbed by this debate. "I really, really stand by this, and I will stand by this for the rest of my career," he continues to say in the Future Games Show video: "a game doesn't need to win awards in order for it to be justifiably excellent, because your relationship with that video game in the context in which you play is the most important thing."

"Some person's game of the year is going to be another person's worst game of all time," Starr concludes, and then shrugs. "Because that's the beauty of opinion."

Despite the JRPG love letter dominating award shows, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative lead insists the game really was "not supposed to be big."

Daredevil lead Charlie Cox can't really comprehend the excitement about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, despite playing its tousled engineer Gustave, but he is happy for you. Verso actor Ben Starr can relate. He didn't expect Clair Obscur to go supernova, either.

"I didn't expect it to be this big," says Starr, whose breakout role as Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive made him a certified video games spokesperson, on a recent episode of the Kit & Krysta podcast. "So [Charlie Cox is] not going to expect it to be this big."

According to Cox, he only worked on Clair Obscur for a total of four hours, "maybe." When was the last time something you tinkered on for four hours received a record-breaking number of The Game Awards nominations?

"I do sympathize with Charlie a lot, actually," says Starr. "It can't be underestimated the speed and efficiency with which Expedition 33 was made."

"I think it's so funny now," he continues, "him just constantly being asked about this video game that he's going, 'I-I-I don't know.' I don't think he needs to play the game; I hope that he does. I hope that, maybe, someone just shows him how good he is in this game."

Starr knows that "Charlie's unbelievable in this game. I think he brings such a humility to Gustave." But humility can be a lonely quality to have when unaccompanied by love. It's a good thing, then, that "Gustave is rightly loved by the fanbase, and I have been very vocal about how much I love the Verstave fanfiction."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says "cult classic" Xbox 360 JRPG from Final Fantasy creator is "one of the best games of its kind" and "the last game that made me cry."

Final Fantasy 16's lead actor Ben Starr is back and flexing his vocal chords in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, notably as a character "who's very different" to everyone's beloved Clive Rosfield – and "kind of a piece of shit," actually.

In The Ivalice Chronicles, Starr plays antagonist Dycedarg Beoulve, a role he's been discussing in a new Square Enix video alongside some of the other cast. During their chat, voice director Oli Chance notes that in the new tactical RPG, "Ben, you are also horribly duplicitous and kill people," to which Starr somewhat concerningly replies: "Yes, and that's why I said I want to do it."

Don't worry, though, he's not been filled with a sudden bloodlust in real life. He's actually got a good reason for wanting to take on such a different character, and it comes down to something he's mentioned before – the fact that he's been part of the series already.

"You've been able to be a part of creating something that's very iconic in a lot of people's eyes," he begins, "and certainly coming off Clive Rosfield, which a lot of people have this very intense relationship with because they've been with him for a long period of time, and they've been with my voice – or my performance – for a long time, it was a very difficult decision to come back to this franchise because I thought, 'I don't know, do you want to come back? Is it going to be as good?'"

That's where Dycedarg and his wildly different vibes come into play. "I think we managed to have a conversation about how in which we can do a character who's very different," he continues, before adding: "And Dycedarg is… he's kind of a piece of shit, really."

Starr acknowledges that "there's a beauty in it, and there's a playfulness, and there's all this plotting and scheming," noting that "obviously you don't want to play him as a piece of shit, but he has to have his own reasons." Dycedarg "believes his reasoning," he adds, even if that reasoning doesn't line up with the goals of protagonist Ramza.

Of course, the rest is history, but it's clear that Starr was thoughtful about his return to the JRPG series and didn't want to voice just anyone. There's no doubt fans will always be happy to hear him wherever he pops up again, though.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles lead hopes it "will appeal to people who aren't particularly good at tactical RPGs," since devs "hopefully reduced some of the frustration."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actors Ben Starr and Jennifer English, also known for leading roles in great games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy 16, say they'll inevitably also appear in crappy games.

In a video interview with Todd Kenreck, Starr explained how an actor's performance is just one small factor among a ton of other variables that decide whether a game is any good or not, and that, because a lot of the time actors don't even know what game they're performing for, they will eventually end up playing characters in not-so-great games.

"It's fortunate that people want to come to us and express their love for this game, but also, we are not the reason why the game is amazing," Starr said. "We are an aspect of why people enjoy this game, but the game is great. And we're gonna be a part of some absolute stinkers, I imagine, in the future."

English, agreeing, joked that she's "got 17" of these stinkers on the way, adding, "we don't have control." English also recounted a story where she recorded lines at a studio only to be told by Starr that, "oh, it's just that."

"We sometimes will only get our characters' lines, let alone a whole script," added English.

As an outsider looking in, I would think you'd want to know what games you're acting in for all sorts of reasons from awards to money to personal pride, but it sounds like that's just not always possible. Still, Starr admitted, "I am trying to change that for myself. I'm trying to curate a - god, this sounds awful - I am trying to curate a portfolio of work that I'm proud of."

English very recently said she's already been in plenty of "shit games," but said you'll have a hard time finding them as she's managed to keep them off of her CV. As for Starr, well, there's that Balatro commercial. (I kid.)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was inspired by JRPG greats like Final Fantasy, but its director loves gaming because of an old-school 1988 beat 'em up

You might have heard, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a rather good game. It's so good, in fact, that it's amassed a very large group of fans, and where there are fans, there's character shipping and fan fiction galore – something Verso actor Ben Starr is now thanking the community for.

Speaking to a crowd seemingly made almost entirely of people dressed in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's iconic "baguette" outfits at PAX West (below), the Verso actor is immediately full of love. "I would personally like to say thank you, because right now I have a sea of people in red berets." The flock of people in red berets promptly cheers.

"This is a video game that is art, that has inspired your art. And thank you to every single member of this community who has allowed this game to inspire what you're wearing right now, to inspire the illustrations that you do at home, to inspire the music covers that you do. This community is truly incredible," he continues, before turning his attention to one particular section of it.

"And also, thank you so much for the fan fiction," he adds, greeted with more cheering and applause, presumably from the proud authors in the crowd. "To all my Verstaves out there and my Scielunes, thank you for taking very specific license with this classic masterpiece. We see you, we hear you, we appreciate how detailed you can truly get."

So, if you thought your fics about Verso and Gustave holding hands had gone unnoticed by the game's cast, think again. But also, stand proud – Starr has nothing but praise for you.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says the RPG went up against "one of the biggest remasters" with Oblivion Remastered – but it worked out: "I feel like it makes us even more deserving in a way."

Final Fantasy 16's Clive actor Ben Starr is set to return to the franchise in a new role in the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, The Ivalice Chronicles, but he's now admitted that he was "quite nervous about agreeing" to do it.

Unlike the original tactical RPG, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles features fully voiced dialogue. Starr voices Dycedarg Beoulve, one of the tactical RPG's antagonists, but switching away from being the good guy isn't what made him apprehensive about taking the role. As reported by Popverse, speaking at PAX West, the actor explains that he didn't want to "soil" his previous contribution to the series.

"I was quite nervous about agreeing to be a part of Final Fantasy Tactics, because I was really happy with my contribution to the Final Fantasy franchise as Clive," he says. "And I didn't really want to maybe kind of soil that. I didn't want to come back in and do something badly, because I was so happy... But when I was given the opportunity to do Dycedarg, he's so textually different from Clive; very, very different."

While it's fair to say that Starr's performance as Clive would be a hard one for anyone to beat, the actor has been continually brilliant in his other video game performances since FF16, from Verso in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to Dorian the door in Date Everything. As such, he almost certainly has nothing to worry about.

The good news is that there's not too long to wait to see him in action in his latest role, either. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is set to launch across PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2 on September 30.

Square Enix isn't ruling out another Final Fantasy Tactics-style game if the strategy RPG's remaster sells well: "We sincerely hope that this happens."

Dead Take's luxurious Hollywood mansion is dark and disordered. The labyrinthine layout is inhospitable yet inviting, holding secrets I want to know – need to know. I find a flash drive and take it to the basement's cinema room. Neil Newbon, the actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion and now Dead Take's curious actor Chase Lowry, dominates the wall-sized screen, reading lines for an audition. There's an enthralling combination of talent, ability, and desperation.

It's enough to make me forget the terror of the hallways I had to traverse to reach this moment, but then it abruptly ends and I'm back in the room, a thumping knock at the door demanding I answer as my instincts plead uselessly with me to ignore it. But as terrifying a predicament I now find myself in, I can't stop thinking about what I just saw on the screen.

Dead Take is a fascinating, if somewhat familiar, horror game. Playing in first-person perspective, you take on the role of Chase, who is searching for his friend Vinny Monroe (played by Ben Starr of Final Fantasy 16 fame). It doesn't take long to suspect foul play, as the mansion is seemingly abandoned and in a state of disarray. The delicious sense of mystery and eye-shutting fear is up there with the likes of Outlast and Amnesia.

Take a bow

Dead Take goes beyond the other games I mentioned in one core area: performance. I don't just mean the packed cast of Laura Bailey, Sam Lake, Matthew Mercer, Alanah Pearce, Jane Perry, Travis Willingham and Alix Wilton Reagan, as well as the aforementioned Starr and Newbon. No, it's the quality of the performances on offer that elevates Dead Take beyond other first-person horror titles.

Part of this is in the live-action element of Dead Take, where cast members appear in-game via recordings of auditions, interviews and so on. Without giving any spoilers away, these segments may seem one-dimensional at first, but there's a nuance to the performances that's made apparent as you progress the story and revisit these scenes from new perspectives.

One such example is a Vinny Monroe (Starr) interview where he is seemingly a friendly and respectful soul when talking about a director whose presence looms large over Dead Take. However, we see a darker side to Vinny upon a revisit of the footage, now recontextualized, and the apparent sweetness of his words turns toxic, revealing Starr's acting to be deeper and even more impressive than you may initially realize. It's no surprise that Ben Starr gives an excellent performance of course – just look at his work as Clive Rosfield in FF16 – but Dead Take makes a clear point of how much depth is on show from him here.

Thrill of the Chase

Without diminishing the contributions of anyone else to Dead Take, it's Newbon who stood out to me. Although we play as his character Chase, we only really see him in the in-game recording files, and each one is a moreish morsel of an overall sumptuous meal. The Resident Evil and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 actor portrays a thespian in search of his big break, and this is communicated through expertly agonized eyes in his audition tape sequence.

Newbon relishes the opportunity to flex. In one scene, Chase shifts from a meek, hopeful, wannabe star consumed by a severe yearning to an intense force of nature unleashing an animalistic stare into the camera, burning himself into the super 8 lens of my mind.

The key difference between Newbon's presence in Dead Take and the many other games he's worked on is that it feels more physical, more personal, because we see him clearer than ever. This isn't a CGI creation brought to life by his movement and voice – not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. He's unencumbered by the technology required to make games like Resident Evil Village, instead facing the camera and giving us everything he has directly. It's magnificent.

While we've no shortage of wonderful Neil Newbon performances, seeing him in live action brings another level to his work. He's exceptional when providing voice and motion-capture performances, and we can see his likeness in games like Detroit: Become Human, but it's clear he's an actor who deserves to be on-camera more, with his performance in Dead Take showing precisely why.

By removing the technological toys that helped give us Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion and Resident Evil Village's Heisenberg - two exceptional characters - Dead Take has given us as the audience a full-powered Neil Newbon performance, and it's one I'll never forget.

Looking for more? Here's the 25 best horror games you can play right now.

Despite what the internet's rapturous praise might make you think, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn't revive a dying genre. At least, that's what Expedition 33's Verso actor thinks.

Final Fantasy 16's lead actor and an Expedition 33 cast member Ben Starr is a known JRPG sicko – any Final Fantasy 8 fanatic is welcome here – which puts him in line with the rest of the Sandfall Interactive development team, who have been very loud about their collective love for the genre's giants.

But even though Expedition 33 was obviously inspired by JRPGs and classic turn-based games, it often gets praised as some sort of subgenre pioneer or savior rather than, I dunno, a really good game in an existing canon. Starr somewhat acknowledges that disconnect in an interview with the Destin channel.

"I'm so lucky that I'm in a videogame right now [Expedition 33] that is celebrating a combat system that is alive and well," he said. "It hasn't brought [turn-based battles] back, but I'm glad that people are discovering it again through that."

He then goes on to shout out some newer gems in the genre. "If you're loving Expedition 33 right now, go and play Chained Echoes. That is a beautiful, beautiful RPG with a stunning 2D art style," Starr said of the amazing but overlooked indie game that makes an old-school style feel truly epic. "It's really, really beautiful. Obviously Octopath Traveler 2. Love it.

"If you're discovering turn based combat for the first time, and understanding the intricacies of turn based combat and how it can create complex combat scenarios, there is a really rich well of games out there, that are out recently, that can exist," he continued.

"I understand that a lot people are put off by certain art styles, but you're sticking with Expedition 33 because it's an amazing turn based combat system. And believe me there's some amazing turn-based combat systems, and one of them is Chained Echoes. It's brilliant. And once you learn the ropes it's fascinating. It has an amazing story to tell that's just as heart-wrenching. And the same with Octopath Traveler 2."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 update removes immortality, finally adds the "Battle Retry" option I want in literally every JRPG from now on

Speedrunners work fast - it's kinda part of the territory - and despite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being out less than two months, the completion record is down to sub-90 minutes. That's a pretty incredible feat for a story-dense action-RPG, and Ben Starr, one of the voice actors, poked some fun at the notion of someone glossing over all the narrative elements.

A fundamental element of any speedrun is skipping as much as humanly possible. In Clair Obscur, there's a lot of cut-scenes to bypass, vastly reducing how much of the plotting and performance work the player encounters.

During an episode of Devs React to Speedrun on IGN focusing on the French game, the cast got to see speedrunner Oh Snap do his thing with Expedition 33, for which he's currently fifth in the world for completion time. In the demonstration, they chat about seeing players already carve out such impressive records, leading Starr to sprinkle in some sarcasm.

"Thank you so much for respecting our work, it really is amazing," he says, adding on a more sincere note: "It's so cool to see the ways in which audiences have engaged with this. [Director] Guillaume [Broche] has said himself, he wants to see people do no-hit runs."

Starr goes on to state there are multiple ways to enjoy something like Clair Obscur: "This game is obviously a really beautiful narrative and an amazing, immersive world, an amazing story, but also it's a playground for fun."

He then makes another lighthearted jab as Oh Snap clips through a bush. "It's just really cool to see people play the game the way that it was intended," Starr laughs.

Speedrunning gives a whole other perspective on most games, as people demonstrate wild ways of traversing any given release. Clair Obscur is a gorgeously presented, incredibly deep RPG, and it's positively cartoony to watch someone quite literally fall through parts of it to make progress.

Achieving these outrageous runs takes a lot of discipline and granular knowledge. If you just want to enjoy a game, playing the regular way, with all the cast doing their thing in full, is advised.

"That was me at three in the morning trying to come up with something": Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's silliest moment came to its writer when she was very, very tired

You don’t always know what you’re going to get when you open up your casting call to blind auditions. For the team at Sandfall Interactive, this meant judging every audition in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 solely by the performance, not by famous names.

As CEO and Creative Director Guillame Broche explains in a recent interview with Pirate Software, this process led to a genuine surprise. “It was, yeah, blind auditions, which is very funny because we got Ben Starr and Jennifer English, but when they sent their audition, we didn’t even know it was them. So it was just random, and they were just that good.”

Instead of targeting well-known actors, the studio sifted through a pile of anonymous recordings, just voices, with no background information or hint at the person behind each character. It wasn’t until the team picked their favourites that they realised who they had actually chosen. “Yeah, it turned out they were quite big in the voice acting world.” Guillame laughs.

If you’re not keeping score, Ben Starr is known for playing the beloved main protagonist, Clive, in Final Fantasy XVI, and Jennifer English is known for fan favourite and God’s favourite princess, Shadowheart, in Baldur’s Gate 3, two of the biggest roles in modern RPGs. Both actors landed roles in Clair Obscur, not because of their reputation, but because their auditions stood out.

Ultimately, the team’s commitment to a fair audition process meant they accidentally stumbled onto top-tier talent. The result? Two standout performers are joining the cast, chosen on merit alone, before the developers even realised they’d recruited some of the most recognisable voices in games right now.

Sometimes, you really do get lucky.

Life imitates art: Clair Obscur Expedition 33 sold 3.3 million copies in 33 days – "Seriously. As of today. We couldn't make that up."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an RPG adventure that sticks with you in more ways than one. There's oodles of clutch boss fight victories thanks to its twitchy parry and dodge battle system. The emotions that swell as the party faces twists, turns, and tribulations through its narrative. And, of course, the ever-present score that accompanies all of it, the beautiful (and sometimes quirky) music looping in my head long after hitting credits. I got the chance to speak to composer Lorien Testard about how it all came together.

Oscar Taylor-Kent: Lorien, thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!

I loved the game, and the soundtrack really stuck out – I'm still humming the themes. How did you get involved with the project? What did they tell you about it going in?

Lorien Testard: Thanks for having me! I joined the project after Guillaume sent me an email – he had discovered my music on SoundCloud, where I was posting one new song each week. One day, he listened to some of my tracks, loved them, and reached out to ask if I’d be interested in composing for the video game he was creating.

At the beginning of the project, he showed me a trailer for We Lost (initial name of the project) and shared some early ideas about the gameplay system, the story, and the world he wanted to build. We realized we shared a deep artistic connection and a similar vision of what our "ideal game" could be.

OTK: Game genres can be so different from one another – what specifically do you have to keep in mind when composing music for an RPG?

LT: In RPGs, I love the adventure and the feeling of traveling a long road filled with beautiful landscapes and intertwined stories. Those ideas of expedition and adventurous journey were kept at the heart of the music. I hoped to make the player feel like they were exploring a fantastic world full of wonder and secrets.

OTK: As games are such long experiences – even short ones are often longer than movies – do you think there's something extra powerful about the breadth a game soundtrack can offer?

LT: Yes, I do think there’s something special and inspiring about the scope of a game soundtrack. Games are long and immersive experiences, and the music has the time and space to evolve with the player and reflect their journey. It can build emotional depth over hours, weaving itself into the world and its characters.

OTK: I love the approach to the musical motifs here, especially the use of vocals in the soundtrack. What can you tell me about the approach, and why was it done that way?

LT: The voice is the instrument that moves me the most emotionally. It can express the full range of what the characters go through in the game, from fragility to anger, from despair to acceptance. I feel all the humanity in the voice of a singer, so it felt natural to create music with vocals at the heart of it.

I feel incredibly grateful and lucky that Alice Duport-Percier agreed to work with me on the project. She composed most of the vocal lines in the game – she has an incredible talent and an angelic voice. Her arrival was a turning point in shaping the tone and atmosphere of the game’s story-driven tracks.

The voice also allowed me to bring lyrics into the songs – and that’s something close to my heart. I enjoyed so much writing the lyrics for the game; it’s a way to speak directly to the player, to create a connection and a link within the world of Clair Obscur.

OTK: Clair Obscur might be inspired by JRPGs but its French identity comes through in the visuals and music especially – do you agree that the music is a big part of representing that identity for the game? Are there any specific elements of the instrumentation you were hoping would drive that home?

LT: I’ve listened to French music and French songs my whole life, so all those memories blend into the way I hear and compose music today.

Between my personal background, the Belle Époque feeling that comes from the game’s concept art, and the fact that most of the songs are written and sung in French… I understand why players feel that strong French identity in the soundtrack.

And one time I had fun pushing that even further. When I had to compose the battle theme for the mimes, who wear a marinière, a beret, and carry a baguette on their back – it felt like both a duty and a guilty pleasure to include the accordion in the song!

OTK: Creativity is a big theme in the game. At least two party members have a deep love of music, others for painting etc. Did that theming create any additional pressure, or sense that your music would have to stand out even more as a core game pillar?

LT: The artistic themes in the game were a source of inspiration for me. They helped me find the emotions I wanted to express in the music of the game, and they guided the writing of the song titles and lyrics.

Une vie à peindre, Une vie à t’aimer, and Une vie à rêver are deeply connected to that central theme – both in their lyrics and in their place within the game.

There are also parts of the gameplay that are closely tied to music or painting – like the Sirène sequence – that meant the music had to be carefully crafted to match that level and make the player’s experience as immersive as possible.

But it was actually a lot of fun, and I have great memories of composing those songs!

OTK: The music sequence with Ben Starr... How was it working with Ben for that? What's it like having to weave essentially an acting performance into a piece of music like that, which at the same time becomes a core narrative beat?

LT: The song Ben Starr performs alongside Alice Duport-Percier is called Until Next Life.

It’s a song I wrote while thinking about Verso. For a long time, the song was only sung by Alice, but the lyrics were closely tied to Verso’s story that, from the moment I wrote them, I had the desire to have Verso sing his song one day.

I’m really glad Ben accepted to join us on the track. By bringing in Verso’s raw and human voice, it added the weight and weariness of Verso into the song.

OTK: The battle system in Clair Obscur features timing elements like parries, which have their own sound cues to clue the player into when to respond. At the same time, many battle music pieces are big and powerful in and of themselves. Did you have to think much about how your music would be interfacing against player input in this way?

LT: Yes! It took a lot of fine-tuning for us to balance all the audio elements in the game so that each one could shine at its full potential.

The way the game sounds is really thanks to the incredible work of the entire audio team. They used a variety of techniques to make sure everything – from voices to music to sound effect – could weave together and give each element its moment, in the most natural and seamless way possible.

So a huge shoutout to them, they made it all work!

OTK: I also can't stop thinking about the sequence with Sirene – a whole dungeon where you're constantly surrounded by musical performance and dance. How was it approaching that section of the game, about midway through, in particular?

LT: For Sirene, I received the concept art very early on, which really guided the music creation for that level. With the sirene at the center of the Colosseum and the player slowly circling around her until they finally meet, the main feeling I wanted to express was softness.

Because of the sirene’s charm and her story, I imagine the entire environment to be filled with tenderness through the music and her voice emanating from her and being heard differently depending on the player's progression.

I started composing the piece on classical guitar, played fingerstyle to capture an intimate expression. After I added the low whistle, I find that instrument has an incredibly soft tone, and it evokes me the feeling of wind slipping through the walls, making the clothes of the ballerinas and dancers of the level gently move.
Finally, we added the siren’s voice, spatialized in the level so that the sound feels like the voice [is] coming from her in the world.

OTK: On top of these wonderfully emotional moments backed by your just-as-emotive score, there are definitely moments of whimsy as well, like the bopping Gestral Beach music. How did you find shifting those modes, and how did you approach the sillier, whimsical stuff?

LT: There’s a lot of contrast and many different scenes to illustrate musically in Clair Obscur, so I wanted to have fun with it. I love so much the Gestrals!

I tried not to overthink things, I enjoyed writing funny music and experimenting with different ideas as I composed.

For the Gestrals and their chaotic, goofy energy, I imagined what it might sound like if they were the ones creating the music that defines them. It made the whole process really fun.

When I saw those Gestrals tracks in-game, like Megabot #33 or the Gestral Merchant. I loved the quirky and high energy feeling they gave me!

OTK: As well as 'Creativity', 'Performance' is another big theme of the game. There's a moment towards the end where a character has to play piano without really wanting to. Is that a feeling you can relate to? Is that theme of 'having to perform' something you're in conversation with musically at times in the game?

LT: It’s not something I experimented with while creating this OST. I feel incredibly grateful to have had the chance to compose for Clair Obscur, to bring this world and its characters to life through music. Over these five years, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy throughout the process. Sometimes mixed with difficulty, anxiety and stress of course, but now, looking back, what remains is mostly a deep sense of bliss and good memories for having lived this experience.

OTK: With the collected soundtrack, what's there to keep in mind for a produced original soundtrack mix versus how you might hear the tracks in-game?

LT: The full game soundtrack is available now on all streaming platforms. It’s made up of 154 tracks that follow the journey of the Expedition – from their departure in Lumière all the way to the end of their adventure.

When I was putting the soundtrack together, I really wanted to keep the feeling of that journey in mind. So the order of the tracks closely mirrors the progression of the game. That way, players can relive the entire adventure by listening to the eight-hour soundtrack from start to finish!

I approached it like a full album experience. I spent a lot of time listening to the transitions between each song to make sure everything flowed seamlessly. It took many iterations before I was happy with the flow and the rhythm of the whole album

I’m also really happy with the final runtime of the OST and each act. That took a lot of editing and preparation, but I love how it all came together!

OTK: Did you look to many other RPG game soundtracks for inspiration? Do you have any particular favorite RPG soundtracks?

LT: I tried not to listen to other soundtracks while working on Clair Obscur, to stay as close as possible to my own instincts and to what I was feeling for the game.

But I’ve loved video game music and listened to a lot of it when I was younger – Zelda, Xenoblade, Nier, and Joe Hisaishi’s work [a film composer best known for his Studio Ghibli scores and collaborations with Beat Takeshi], along with all the French music I’ve grown up with. That music has been part of my life for years, so it’s shaped the way I hear and write music.

OTK: Finally, if you could summon any instrument to your side with pictos power, but only one – which would it be?

LT: Haha! For the players, the answer is actually hidden in the game!

Sandfall gave us the incredible honor of naming NPCs and diaries after the developers, and they let me choose how I wanted to be represented in the world of Clair Obscur.

You can find me in the game playing the song “Aux lendemains non écrits” with my instrument of choice!

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack is available now across a variety of digital platforms via Laced Records. Need some help? We've got Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tips to help get you started!

It's a phenomenal week for RPGs, as hot on the heels of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is here, and it's tied for the best-rated game of 2025 on Metacritic. Just in case you needed more convincing that it's worth your time, though, Final Fantasy 16 actor Ben Starr doesn't just voice one of the game's characters; he also sings in its soundtrack.

Starr, who was the protagonist Clive in Final Fantasy 16, voices a mysterious character named Verso in Clair Obscur, and he also lends his talents to the RPG's music. "Yes," the official Clair Obscur account writes on Twitter. "Ben Starr sings on our OST, because there is nothing this man can't do apparently."

The actor has also spoken about the experience of singing in the game in an interview with GameSpot, where he notes that when composer Lorien Testard first asked him to do it, "I genuinely thought I'd misheard" what he'd said. "I didn't want to say yes immediately, because I was just like, 'Why? Why would you want me?' But without even thinking I just said yes, not really thinking about the consequences of my actions," Starr adds.

Lo and behold, it did happen, albeit with the recording for the song Starr features in taking place the day after he "introduced a large portion of the team to tequila shots," and ended up being "left with far too many" himself.

After listening to the final version, Starr adds that he's "so proud" of the result, and that it "isn't a stunt, it is narratively really intriguing and I think it adds a lot to the story." We'll just have to dive in ourselves to see what it's all about, but if really you want to hear it for yourself, you can have a listen on the digital soundtrack – just look for "Until Next Life."

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Starr previously told us that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 offered him a "dream for any actor," with the opportunity to "build a character who was iconic from the ground up."

Baldur's Gate 3 star Jennifer English, who voices Maelle in the game, told us that she and Starr had both "wanted to be careful about what we chose next" after their breakout roles, as they "both just wanted to do something very special." Based on the reactions to the game so far, it seems that they definitely found it here.

Be sure to check out our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review to see what all the hype is about.

Final Fantasy and Sekiro-inspired RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is almost here, and with a blend of turn-based combat with real-time elements, as well as an intriguing story, there's a lot to be excited about. It also has a stacked cast, including Ben Starr and Jennifer English, who've been given the chance to build something "from the ground up" after their previous roles in Final Fantasy 16 and Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ in an interview, Starr and English discuss each other's characters – Verso and Maelle, respectively – with Maelle described as the "beating heart and emotional core" of the game, who Starr thinks offers "such a refreshing take on the female lead." Verso, on the other hand, is so "mysterious and important" that English says "we can't talk about him." Very intriguing.

Given that the two actors have become so synonymous with their roles in extremely popular, previously-established franchises – with Starr, ahem, starring as protagonist Clive in Final Fantasy 16, and English taking on the role of Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3 – I was curious if they felt more freedom or more pressure when it came to bringing their talents to something totally new. "I think the most exciting part is we get to build it from the ground up," Starr tells me. "This is a dream for any actor, to get to create and originate a character.

"I had so many people ask me after Final Fantasy came out, 'What character would you like to have played?'" he continues. "And there are characters from previous franchises I would love to have been a part of, but the reason I want to be a part of them is because they're so iconically crafted by people who built them from the ground up.

"So really, the answer is, 'I want to build a character who was iconic from the ground up.' And we literally get to do that here. We get to create characters. They're going to inspire artwork, they're going to inspire fan fiction, they're going to inspire so many different artists to create their own art off the thing that we're creating, and that is so cool. And that comes along very, very rarely."

English adds that both of the actors "wanted to be careful about what we chose next" after their breakout roles, noting: "It would have been very easy for us to kind of do anything really, and I think we both just wanted to do something very special."

She continues: "What was so wonderful is the writing was [...] so brilliant that we can kind of just bring ourselves to it. We didn't have to put a silly voice on, or change ourselves too much, because we just had to bring our humanity to it. And yeah, these kind of games don't come around very often."

Starr notes that the team "kind of welcomed and embraced the imperfections of our performances," retaining things that might not necessarily "sound good." More importantly, however, the result is that it "sounds real." He adds: "Hopefully that's what will come across, is these characters don't feel like they are manufactured in a lab. They feel like they are human beings who have serious flaws."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 24 April 2025.

While you're here, be sure to check out our roundup of the best RPGs you can play right now.

Balatro is the viral indie poker roguelite that's taken the world by storm, and also caused quite a few of us to lose our senses a little bit. Maybe none more so than Final Fantasy 16 star Ben Starr. 

Balatro has become an absolute sensation, causing our team members to definitely (not) play it during meetings and winning some Critics' Choice awards, too.

The voice of Clive has become somewhat of an industry darling in recent years, and most recently used his talents to play a live-action Jimbo, the funny and slightly disturbing jester that's become the mascot for the game.

Starr features in an advert that promos the new card themes in Balatro, allowing you to change the face cards in your deck to cards inspired by Don't Starve, 1000xResist, Divinity Original Sin 2, Shovel Knight, Enter the Gungeon, Warframe, Potion Craft, and Cult of the Lamb. It's already a little unhinged, showing him swiveling around in full harlequin makeup, laughing maniacally, and chomping down on some bananas. The outtakes are even more baffling.

"Behind the scenes insanity of Balatro," Starr tweets alongside a video of himself tonguing a banana he's dangling above his mouth and gobbling down on it in a truly, truly horrifying manner.

He says in a sing-song voice, "there are two bananas in my hand, would you like to see me eat them?" while silhouetted in the dark studio. He continues, "bananas in Ben's mouth."

It's no surprise these are the outtakes because, as I said, they're disturbing. Incredibly funny, though. It's good to see Starr hasn't let the stardom get to his head, and I hope he continues to play the role of Jimbo in all Balatro's adverts to come. There's a big Balatro update set for 2025, so we could see more of him then.

In the meantime, check out some of the best roguelike games you can play right now.

This year's Golden Joystick Awards isn't far away now, so you'll want to get your stream of choice bookmarked before the big event.

The Golden Joystick Awards 2024 will kick off on Thursday, November 21, at 8am PST / 11am EST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CEST. You can watch the showcase on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Steam, and more.

Watch the Golden Joystick Awards LIVE below

This year, over 125 games, studios, hardware, and TV shows are represented across 21 categories, with the winners decided by the public, such as Ultimate Game of the Year, Most Wanted, Best Gaming Hardware presented by EE Game Store, and Studio of the Year. Then you've got three categories decided by an expert panel of journalists and content creators: the Streamer's Choice Award, Breakthrough Award, and Critics' Choice.

There are also new awards to reflect the times, such as Still Playing - PC & Console and Still Playing - Mobile. You can also vote for the Best Game Adaption, which honors the best game adaptation to the silver screen that year.

So far, Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth lead the shortlist with six nominations each, followed by Helldivers 2 with five nominations and Balatro with four nods.

As for who is presenting this year, Final Fantasy 16 Clive Rosfield actor Ben Starr is hosting, though you'll also see plenty of familiar faces such as Baldur's Gate 3 stars Neil Newbon and Samantha Béart and much much more. 

To break up the action, you've also got video game composers Lucia La Rezza and Mark Choi, who will perform music from several games featured in the award categories alongside some classics for good measure.

You can see all the Golden Joysticks 2024 award categories and nominees here.

Actor Ben Starr has once again spoken out against the widespread layoffs hitting the games industry after the team behind Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, his "favorite game of this year," was disbanded.

Ben Starr's bellowing voice is making its way into more and more games after his lead role as Final Fantasy 16's Clive, his upcoming and mysterious role in turn-based JRPG love letter Clair Obscur, and a spoilerific boss role in Hades 2. But while his own star is on the rise, he's not been quiet about the poor job security affecting game developers.

Last year, the actor criticized the game industry's nasty habit of laying off literally thousands of developers annually while many companies were still bragging about record profits. The problem has only worsened for the folks who make games in 2024. Countless publishers, from Microsoft and PlayStation to Embracer and Take-Two, have either laid off hundreds of workers or shut down entire development studios - sometimes they do both at the same time!

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Ben Starr doubles down on his stance. "I think we're continuing," he says. "We're continuing to see more and more and more people laid off, because there is an industry that is not an industry in decline, but it certainly there seems to be a lot of companies that are having to make hard decisions, and they are losing great, great people from this industry, and there's a bit of a brain drain."

"I really, really hope that we can find a way of rectifying it. And I think it's really, really sad, because I love these games," he continues, pointing to his personal GOTY Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and how Ubisoft recently disbanded its development team. "I just hope people stay in the industry. That's what I hope. I hope that we can find some good from what is happening, that people find new homes, that new creativity is born out of it."

"It is not a good situation to be in, but right now, I hope in that adversity, we find fertile ground to create new things. Because, certainly, a lot of people are suffering right now. And I really, really hope that there is a safety net for people creatively to come and make really cool stuff, whether it's in the AAA space, whether it's in the AA space, whether it's in the indie space." Here here. 

In the meantime, see our upcoming games of 2024 and beyond list to find out what’s on the horizon. 

The 2024 Golden Joystick Awards will be hosted by Final Fantasy 16's Clive Rosfield, actor Ben Starr.

Starr, who is also set to appear in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Warframe 1999, will host this year's awards, which will be broadcast live from London on November 21. He'll be joined by a number of guest presenters representing some of the best talent in the industry, including Baldur's Gate 3's Astarion, Neil Newbon, Red Dead Redemption 2's Sadie Adler, Alex McKenna, game developer and Assassin's Creed Origins actor Abubakar Salim, and Princess Zelda herself, Patricia Summerset.

Voting for the 42nd Golden Joystick Awards is still open, and is more competitive than ever. With more than a week to go until voting ends for most categories on November 1, more than 8.4 million votes have already been cast - a huge increase on last year's total.

Right now, Astro Bot and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth are leading the charge with five nominations each, closely followed by Helldivers 2, which has four nominations, and Balatro, with three. All in all, however, there are 120 games, studios, and hardware releases represented across the Awards' 19 categories. 

And while voting for those early categories closes soon, you'll have another chance to cast your vote, as the shortlist for the biggest prize of the night - Ultimate Game of the Year - will be revealed on November 4.

If you want to be sure that your favorite game goes home with a prize, be sure to cast your vote right here. And to keep track on the night, Viewers can watch the ceremony live via YouTube, Twitch, Steam, Facebook and X as well as Future Games Show, GamesRadar+, PC Gamer and TechRadar Gaming.

The inaugural Mobile Gaming Show, built in collaboration between GamesRadar+ and our friends at the Future Games Show, is set to air on Thursday, September 26. The showcase is looking at the upcoming mobile games that you should absolutely have on your radar right now, featuring fresh looks at titles from CCP, Coffee Stain Malmo, Digital Extremes, NetEase Games, The Game Kitchen, and more. 

Actor Ben Starr – best known for his wonderful performance as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy 16 – will be on hand to guide you through the Mobile Gaming Show. Starr says: "Great news folks! I am hosting the Mobile Gaming Show on September 26 when I will be bringing you exclusive reveals, developer interviews and all the latest news from the world of mobile. Join me then. I can’t wait!" 

The 30 minute broadcast will feature studio visits to some of the best mobile developers and exclusive interviews, new trailers, exciting reveals, and more as we explore the constantly expanding smartphone gaming space. You can watch the Mobile Gaming Show on YouTube, Twitch, X, Facebook, and right here on GamesRadar. 

How to tune into the Mobile Gaming Showcase 2024:

Date: Thursday, September 26, 2024
Time: 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST and 7pm CEST
Streaming on: Streaming on YouTube, Twitch, X, Facebook, GamesRadar

As we gear up to the Mobile Gaming Show, GamesRadar+ has launched a dedicated Mobile Gaming Week which is designed to showcase some of the mobile games we can't stop playing, the best titles on Apple and Android, and some of the upcoming games you just can't ignore. We'll be launching new articles all week and collecting the in our dedicated Mobile Gaming Week coverage hub.

GamesRadar+ is excited to announce the Mobile Gaming Show, a new collaboration with our friends at the Future Games Show, is set to air on September 26, 2024. This showcase will explore the latest and greatest in mobile gaming, the fastest-growing platform for play in the world. 

Hosted by actor Ben Starr, who turned in an incredible performance as Clive Rosfield in last year's Final Fantasy 16, the debut Mobile Gaming Show presented by Future Games Show will feature exclusive reveals, trailers, developer interviews, and deep dives into the most exciting mobile games of 2024. The digital showcase will run for 30 minutes, and include insight from publishers such as Digital Extremes, CCP Games, NetEase Games, and more. 

"Mobile is now the world's most popular gaming platform with billions of people playing games on their phone every day," says Jake Tucker, Editorial Director of the Mobile Gaming Show. "The Mobile Gaming Show will shine a spotlight on some of  the very best mobile games available and the people that make them. We'll also look at the most innovative and exciting titles coming soon that demand your attention. Join us on September 26 to discover the mobile games that everyone will be playing in 2024 and beyond!"

The Mobile Gaming Show will air on Thursday, September 26 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm BST and 7pm CEST on YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok, and Facebook – you can also watch the show right here on GamesRadar+. 

The Mobile Gaming Show is presented by the Future Games Show, the world’s biggest quarterly video game showcase which brings viewers world premieres, exclusive game demos and new trailers from upcoming AAA and indie studios. Averaging around 40 million total views per show, with over 120 million views in 2023. The Future Games Show has featured more than 500 games, from big budget franchises such as Lords of the Fallen and Warframe, to acclaimed indies, including thrilling driving adventure Pacific Drive, and the world premiere of action racer Resistor.

For more information, please visit futuregamesshow.com. And for sponsorship and partnership inquiries, please email Melissa Makhmaltchi: melissa.makhmaltchi@futurenet.com.

Final Fantasy 16 and Warframe: 1999 actor Ben Starr has been caught up in the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree hype, and it sounds like he's having a rather traditional experience with FromSoftware's action RPG, because he has "no idea" where he is. 

GamesRadar+ recently had the chance to catch up with Starr, who voices Final Fantasy 16's protagonist Clive Rosfield, as well as Arthur in the upcoming Warframe: 1999 expansion, which is set to release later this year. Before our interview, though, he'd spent three hours adventuring through the Realm of Shadow, which I have nothing but respect for.

"I have no idea where I am in Shadow of the Erdtree because I don't play games normally," he begins, later clarifying that while he plays a lot of games, he just doesn't play them in what he'd call a 'normal' way. 

"It's why I don't stream games, I'd be the most infuriating person to stream games," he continues. "I can see where I need to go, and I refuse to go there. I found myself going down, down, down – I'm down a waterfall somewhere, I jumped in a coffin. I landed in the area, and a load of those little furnace boys were burnt out –  it was like a furnace boy graveyard that I was just running around."

It sounds an awful lot like Starr has made his way to the Castle Watering Hole, which is a rather difficult area to get to since it's tucked behind an easy-to-miss ladder in the Shadow Keep, as well as an illusory wall that you've got to break through before you can even find the coffin that'll transport you there. Clearly, he's being super thorough, which adds up to the fact that he's a self-described Platinum trophy hunter. "I think I've got, like, 80," he tells us.

Starr still has "a lot more to go" of Shadow of the Erdtree, though – he thinks he's "seen like one cutscene boss" so far, which was almost certainly the first main DLC boss, the Divine Beast Dancing Lion. His Tarnished sounds pretty strong for that point in the expansion, though – he's been playing with an Intelligence-focused build and was level 197 when we spoke to him, with a level eight Scadutree blessing. I'm sure he'll send Messmer packing in no time.

Be sure to check out our guide to all Shadow of the Erdtree areas and locations if you need any help filling out your map of the Realm of Shadow. 

The build up to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has sparked some interesting conversations around voice acting and scene-setting in RPGs. In what will surely be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) PS5 releases of the year, Square Enix is once more balancing new and nostalgia, catering to a modern audience of fast-firing role-playing game enthusiasts alongside retro gamers who long for the heady polygonal days of last millennium. 

Our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review suggests Square Enix has made a pretty good job of it – but whether this is the first time you're guiding Cloud and co. around the Grasslands and beyond; or whether you're a 27-year PSOne veteran, one thing is more important than visual nuance and powerful technology: storytelling. Narrative is the bedrock of the abiding Final Fantasy series, after all, and in today's market a successful story is driven by its voice acting. With Ben Starr and Ralph Ineson leading the charge in Final Fantasy 16 as Clive and Cid, the talent in last year's sprawling fantasy role-player was never in doubt. But their chemistry might not have been the same had they not been performing in the same room. 

"I have to shout out to Ralph, obviously," Starr tells GamesRadar+. "I felt like when I first started the game I was perhaps a little out of my depth. Then we did the sessions together, where it's like: 'Oh, there's another human here, I know what I'm doing', and that was great, being there together. Ralph turned up and was so fucking good, and I was like, oh shit, I need to be as good as him."

Real-People Games

Starr hails the entire process of acting for video games, echoing the sentiments of Final Fantasy figurehead (and producer on FF16 specifically) Yoshi-P, saying a game like Final Fantasy 16 is the equivalent of four full seasons of television, in terms of its size and scope. By filling the shoes of Clive for dozens of hours, charting his in-game journey from his teenage years through to his 30s, Starr says the range and demands of getting into this space are nothing to be sniffed at. "I would recommend it to any actor," he says, "if you want to know a bit about yourself, get into a booth or get into a mo-cap studio and do some practical video games because it's really hard."

Starr says that he put so much of himself into Clive's character, and as a result can still vividly remember where he was when recording specific lines, or when recording particular scenes. Ineson underscores the inherent humanistic value of recording shoulder-to-shoulder with his co-star, suggesting their relationship on and off record benefited from being in the same room at the same time. 

"The good thing about [Final Fantasy 16] was that for the first time in as long as I can remember, certainly in my time working in games, we were put together," says Ineson. "We had two actors working together in a session, which might not seem like much, but usually you're working against nothing. You're on your own delivering lines. Obviously, it brings everything to life if you've got something, and someone, to work off of. Ben and I got together, we got on very well, and we fired off one another as performers. I think that elevated our relationship, the character's relationship in-game, and the game itself."

With that, Ineson expresses pride in working alongside Starr, noting his passion for games and the overarching Final Fantasy series as a whole shines through in everything he does – making him the ideal person to play such a central role in such an epic RPG. Ineson even believes that the main reason he was able to deliver such a convincing performance as Cid was down to Ben's in-person presence and infectious enthusiasm for his work. 

Ineson says: "I only managed to produce the level of performance that I did in Final Fantasy 16 because I was guided by Ben. We've been together for a while now, all over the world promoting the game – he loves it, he knows it, and that's why he's so good at what he does."

Shortly after Starr won Best Actor at last year's Golden Joystick Awards, Ineson wrote a series of tweets again praising his colleague and the circumstances during which they brought the characters of Clive and Cid to life. Ineson spoke about the lengths Ubisoft went to when bringing its cast together for 2013's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag – "Ubisoft invested in flying me, Mark Bonnar and lots of other actors to Montreal to rehearse like a theatre company then perform in full performance capture suits, it was brilliant" – before saying a decade on and he feels lucky to be in the sound booth with one other person. 

In the case of Final Fantasy 16, that's exactly what happened – and I don't think it's unfair to say the game, its storytelling, and our enjoyment of it hugely benefited as a result. Ineson adds: "Final Fantasy 16 was one of the few video game acting jobs I've done where we had the chance to be in the booth together as actors, and the chemistry really helped. I hope the games industry does more of this, it's much more fun." And I, for one, hope so too.

Need more Final Fantasy in your life? Check out the best Final Fantasy games of all time

The Future Games Show Spring Showcase returns next month, and this time will be hosted by Baldur's Gate 3 and Final Fantasy alumni.

On Thursday, March 21 at 13:00 PT/ 16:00 ET/ 20:00 GMT, Ben Starr and Samantha Béart will join forces to host the latest iteration of the Future Games Show. Two of the breakout game acting stars of 2023, Starr is best known as the voice of Clive in Final Fantasy 16, while Béart lent her talents to Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3.

While the pair might not have acted together in-game, they did join forces for their own recent social media skit, 'Clive and Karlach start a dating agency.'

Future Games Show: Set A Reminder To Watch Below

Featuring more than 40 games, the Future Games Show Spring Showcase will highlight games from big-name developers and publishers like Bandai Namco, Spotlight by Quantic Dream, and The Chinese Room, with upcoming games across PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.  

As well as the show itself, this year's Showcase will feature a new post-show broadcast. Dubbed 'The Expansion Pack', it'll follow directly on from the main show, and will feature exclusive developer interviews, special guests, and surprise reveals.

The Future Games Show Spring Showcase will be broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, X, Facebook, TikTok, GamesRadar, IGN, BiliBili and more, with co-streams from several notable creators. And for the first time, attendees at PAX East will be able to watch the show in the Albatross Theatre, as well as via the  PAX East Twitch channel. 

For more details on the Future Games Show Spring Showcase in the run-up to this year's show, keep an eye on  Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, as well as right here at GamesRadar+.

Ben Starr has won the Best Lead Performer prize for his role in bringing Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield to life at the Golden Joystick Awards 2023 powered by Intel. 

Starr’s Eikonic performance as the firstborn son of the Archduke of Rosaria saw him beat out the competition from the vocal talent contributing to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and more. Check out the full Golden Joystick Award 2023 nominees below:

• Ben Starr - Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy 16 (Winner)
• Yuri Lowenthal - Peter Parker in Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Cameron Monaghan - Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Ilkka Villi and Matthew Porretta - Alan Wake in Alan Wake 2
• Nadji Jeter - Miles Morales in Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Ellise Chappell - Kathy Johanson in Deliver Us Mars
• Melanie Liburd - Saga Anderson in Alan Wake 2

Clive Rosfield’s journey in Final Fantasy 16 provided Starr with plenty to sink his teeth into. Eventually set on the path of revenge after suffering a cutting betrayal, Rosfield is then swept up into something much grander as the stakes only get bigger and bigger. Starr’s gravely gravitas clearly resonated with many who clicked with Final Fantasy 16’s pulsating highs and crushing lows – as the fanfic that Starr’s been reading clearly attests to.

While we didn’t review that literature, we did check out the game. In our Final Fantasy 16 review, we praise the actors who brought the story to life, the willingness to try something new, and much more.

“In ditching turn-based combat for combo-heavy melees, Final Fantasy 16 recaptures the spirit of reinvention that the series lends itself to,” we said. “This new approach to action coalesces with a world you'll want to explore, and an endearing story which is powerfully executed by its voice cast.”

Discover the best games of 2023 at the best prices by checking out the Golden Joystick Awards Steam sale page

The actor behind Final Fantasy 16's Clive has spoken about how the role helped him process his father's death.

Appearing on the Kinda Funny Games daily show, actor Ben Starr was asked by a viewer if he drew any "outside inspirations" for his performance as protagonist Clive in Final Fantasy 16. Starr reveals his father passed away while he was shooting the new Square Enix game and that his performance allowed him to process his loss.

"Listen, let's get real," Starr begins. "So this game means a lot to me... my dad died during the making of this game, and there's a lot of loss that Clive goes through, and I'm sorry to get heavy but it's true - it's amazing how much this game allowed me to process that loss into something good and creative."

"The team were incredibly good at allowing me to be as expressive as I possibly could," Starr adds. "So yeah, when you're hearing some of that stuff, that's kind of real," the actor says, alluding to the grief it sounds like Clive will be going through in Final Fantasy 16. 

"Clive saved my life. This game saved my life," Starr continues, adding "The last time I ever spoke to my dad was on the way to recording this game. He was the guy who first brought me Final Fantasy 8. He was the guy who supported me through, you know... who I look up to."

"That loss was devastating, it destroyed me," the actor explains. "I'm trying to vocalize it and get it out there as much as possible because I want him to be remembered, and he's so much a part of this game and a part of the fabric of who Clive is. I wouldn't be here doing this if it weren't for him, because he brought me that game, and he would've have changed my life in that way."

"And so a lot of the stuff, as it goes on it feels raw," Starr says of Final Fantasy 16's progressing narrative. "It's that, and it's him, and he's in this game as much as I am," the actor concludes. 

Final Fantasy 16 launches next week on June 22, exclusively for the PS5. You can read our full Final Fantasy 16 preview to see what we made of the early hours of the game, as well as developer comments from Square Enix. 

You can also read our upcoming PS5 games guide for a full look ahead at how the rest of the year is going to play out for the new-gen console.