Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts Union

It's crazy to think Final Fantasy IX released over 15 years ago! To celebrate this milestone, Darryl and Lauren are joined by self-confessed Final Fantasy IX fanboy Jared, as the trio share first memories of Final Fantasy IX, discuss their favourite characters and some of their favourite moments from the game. There's even a bit of time left at the end to discuss Uematsu-san's monumental original soundtrack!

In the last of our Final Fantasy Type-0 HD voice actor interviews (conducted in partnership with Square Enix!), we decided to go back to where it all began. Yes, that means we are again speaking with Orion Acaba, the voice of Nine. The interview provides an insights into what has been an interesting transition for Orion. When we first spoke, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD was yet to release and Orion's new hit show (Critical Role) had not gone to market. It means we have plenty to talk about, as Orion (a self-confessed Final Fantasy addict) shares his thoughts on mass array of topics including how he feels after playing Type-0 HD, the Final Fantasy VII Remake and his relationship with Liam O'Brien. It makes for a bumper interview, the perfect way to round the series out.

For the eleventh interview in our Final Fantasy Type-0 HD voice actor series, we got the chance to speak with Matthew Mercer (the voice of Trey). This, as with all the previous ones, was conducted in partnership with Square Enix. You might also know Matthew from his roles in various other games including Resident Evil (Leon S. Kennedy), Persona 4: Arena (Kanji), and Super Street Fighter IV (Fei-Long). He's also been in a number of anime shows/films including Sailor Moon R (Prince Dimande), Naruto: Shippuden (Shiranami), and Fate/Zero (Kiritsugu Emiya). He even lent his voice to a number of characters in the series "There Will be Brawl". In this interview, we talk about his love for Final Fantasy and his Trey similarities, amongst other things!

Even though E3 2015 was over a month ago, it's still difficult to fathom how awesome it was from a Kingdom Hearts perspective. It looks like it's going to get better though, as Branden and Churro discuss provisional information about D23 Expo in Anaheim. In addition, the pair field questions from the community - primarily about what they feel would ruin the Kingdom Hearts 3 experience for them. Bets are also placed about a potential release date for Kingdom Hearts 3 making it another action-packed show!

We are joined by Robbie Daymond, the voice of Kurasame in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for another of our special interview episodes with Square Enix! Stepping into a somewhat unfamiliar role, Robbie takes on the role of Kurasame, the sullen commanding officer of Class Zero and does it with some serious style. We ask a whole host of fan questions throughout and engage in a fun chat with Robbie that tackles numerous topics, such as his favourite game in the franchise and his horse riding hobby.

There's no two ways around it, E3 2015 was awesome for Final Fantasy fans. Not only did we get a new game announced (World of Final Fantasy), Square Enix also announced the holy grail... yes, we will be geting a full-on remake of Final Fantasy VII on the PS4. In this episode, we sift through the announcement and give our thoughts about key decisions that will need to be made. We also take some questions from the community, which sees us discussing which Final Fantasy character we would most want to punch... nice!

We are joined by Mike Vaughn, the voice of King in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for another of our special interview episodes with Square Enix! Mike has been voice acting for quite some time now and has been featured in numerous games, ranging from Iggy Koopa through to Spider-man. We talk about numerous things, such as gamer being night people and how Mike's career has changed over time. It's a great interview, that's actually a lot longer than some of the others we have done. We hope you enjoy it!

This year's MCM Expo was a blast for Lauren and I, but the clear highlight was getting to meet up with Ali Hillis, the voice of Lightning in the Final Fantasy XIII franchise, to have a face-to-face interview. It was a bit shorter than we had hoped for, but the planning was all pretty last minute and the interview almost didn't take place! We're very happy it did though, and hopefully you guys are too. With no Final Fantasy XIII game coming out (shock), we took the time to ask Ali about some other topics relating to voice acting and also her surprise cameo in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD as Emina. Enjoy!

E3 2015 was an intense experience for fans of Kingdom Hearts and we were there first-hand to experience the euphoria and soak it all up. Branden and Churro are joined by Sabrina this episode as they all discuss their experience at this year's show, recanting stories of what it was like to be in the Square Enix press conference as well as sitting down for a round-table interview with legendary Kingdom Hearts creator, Tetsuya Nomura. The gang also take the time to dissect the E3 2015 trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3 and run through some of the various theories that have been filtering through the internet. It's a show you won't want to miss.

We are joined by Corri English, the voice of Sice in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for another of our special interview episodes with Square Enix! Corri has dabbled with voice acting over the years, having appeared in franchises such as Skyrim, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but is also part of a successful band called Broke Down Cadillac. In this interview, we ask Corri about her role as Sice and also what it was like to be featured on The Mentalist! Corri has had such an interesting career so far and is incredibly passionate about Sice as a character, so we hope you enjoy listening to the interview!

Branden, Darryl and Churro sit down for a special podcast to talk about the absolute truck load of news that came out of E3 2015. Not only did we get to see extended coverage of Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as the announcement of a completely new world, but we also got to hear more about Kingdom Hearts Unchained Chi. But that's only half of it, during the Sony Press Conference, two new games were announced from the Final Fantasy franchise: World of Final Fantasy and a full-on Final Fantasy VII Remake. Both of these titles will be timed exclusive for PS4, as well as a shed load of other titles that were shown off, including Star Ocean 5 and a new extension to the NieR franchise. Sure, Final Fantasy XV missed the show as we expected, but with everything that we got, this one was hell of an E3 for fans of Square Enix!

There have been some Final Fantasy XV bombshells since the last episode, as Hajime Tabata took to the stage in the latest Active Time Report to share some details about the game's development. There was a primary focus around the story and we now know that Stella Nox Fleuret has been cut from the game and replaced by Lunafreya. Nojima's role has also changed and some of the initial scenes shown off when the game was Final Fantasy Versus XIII have also been cut. It means there is plenty to talk about and that's without even getting into the other news (Episode Duscae 2.0) and the return of the quiz!

We are joined by Bryce Papenbrook, the voice of Machina Kunagiri in Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for another of our special interview episodes with Square Enix! Bryce has been voice acting for many years now and it has seen him fill some pretty legendary roles, such as Eren Jaeger in Attack on Titan and of course, Zidane Tribal in the Dissidia: Final Fantasy series. We question Bryce about numerous things, such as whether Zidane is a better ladies man than Machina and whether his martial arts training helps at all with his voice over work. It makes for a rather curious interview and we hope you enjoy it!

With E3 2015 right around the corner, it's the perfect time for some Kingdom Hearts-related predictions. Branden is joined by Churro as the pair talk about their hopes and dreams for this year's premium trade show, from both a Kingdom Hearts perspective and with a view of wider gaming. There is also some news too! The mobile project that was teased last month has been announced as a full on game called Kingdom Hearts Unchained Chi, something which has the hosts and fans pretty stoked. The show also talks about the KH2.co.uk going into "silent mode" and there is a fan question from someone who thinks that Branden's "What If?" segment is a pretty stellar idea.

Eliza Jane Schneider joins us for our sixth Final Fantasy Type-0 HD interview, which are being undertaken in partnership with Square Enix! Eliza has been involved with voice acting for many years and has had roles within Assassin's Creed and also South Park. In Type-0 HD, she plays "mother" aka Dr. Arecia. Throughout the interview, we talk about her role as the mother of the group, but also discuss Eliza's keen interest in dialects. It even gets quite technical, so be sure you listen for some interesting facts about languages.