Square Enix has finally put an end to a 26-year-old debate ahead of the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: Cait Sith is pronounced just how it looks.
"We saw many of you were asking so we hope this helps! In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Cait Sith is pronounced 'Kate Sihth,'" according to a message from the game's official Twitter account. With that, Square Enix casually brought an end to a GIF-style war that's been raging since the original Final Fantasy 7 launched 26 years ago.
We saw many of you were asking so we hope this helps! #FF7R pic.twitter.com/ZC4WAu9IpEOctober 3, 2023
Cait Sith is a playable party member in the original Final Fantasy 7, and after a brief cameo at the end of the first entry in the FF7 remake trilogy, he's taking a much larger role in the upcoming Rebirth. He's a cat-like creature based on a creature from Scottish folklore called the cat-sìth - which, in proper Gaelic, would sound about like "ket shee."
The original Final Fantasy 7 did not have voice acting, so we never heard anyone say Cait Sith's name out loud. Naturally, most players just sounded out "kate sihth" phonetically, but pedantic FF7 superfans were quick to make "um, actually, it's pronounced 'ket shee'" a common point of trivia. In later, voice-acted games, Cait Sith was given a Scottish accent, but we still never heard his name spoken out loud, so the "kate sihth" holdouts still had reason to hope.
But hey, now it's all moot. Cait Sith is "kate sihth," so it seems we have a Lady Dimitrescu situation where the canon in-game pronunciation is quite different from the real-world name on which it's based. But look, here's the secret: you can still pronounce it however you want. No one will know. Just like no one can stop me from pronouncing the name of FF10 lead Tidus in the only way that makes sense.
Check out our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preview for more on the game - our list of the best JRPGs might just be due for a new entry.
