Friends, we finally live in a world where Final Fantasy 7 will have voice acting. No, I'm not talking about the "Final Fantasy 7 Remake" (open in new tab), a polygonal bustle that mimics the PS1-era classic; thanks to the dedicated work of a modding community called Tsunamods (open in new tab), Final Fantasy 7's very, very long script (opens in new tab) can now be enjoyed not only with the eyes but also with the ears, thanks to the Echo-S 7 mod (opens in new tab).

The voice work was done by a global team of volunteers from the Tsunamods community who voiced "all main, minor and NPCs" in the game. If, like me, you remember more than a few scars from past "community voice acting" packs, don't worry: Tsunamods promises that "all main and minor cast members are well-trained actors with great singing skills and techniques."

There is some grating abuse in the trailer, but the creators explain that they did not expect the mod to attract attention outside of their own community.

The mod does not use the original English script of FF7, choosing instead to retranslate the game's Japanese script, cutting out some of the odd (or straight-up bad) translations of the original English version.

I must say I am impressed. I can't judge the full extent of the work, but what I see in the trailer looks good for a community effort. Plus, as someone who played the Nameless Mod (opens in new tab) for Deus Ex and got voice actors from the community, but remembers that half of the NPCs sounded like they were speaking through a layer of tin foil, in an era where everyone has a microphone good enough to do a decent voice acting job It's great to live in a time when everyone has enough microphones to do a decent voice-over job.

The Echo-S 7 can be obtained from Tsundamods website (opens in new tab).