Final Fantasy 16: Should you play the game with the Japanese dub?

If you’re just about to start Final Fantasy 16, you might be wondering if you should play with the English or the Japanese dub. Well, there’s a surprisingly clear answer to this.

As FF16 is a game made by a Japanese developer, some players might think that playing the game in the Japanese dub is the way to go. After all, that is the case with many anime shows as Japanese dubs are typically considered as the better option among many anime fans.

So, what about the latest Final Fantasy game? Of course, personal preference plays a big part in this, but given the Medieval European-inspired setting, the game defaults to the English dub in English-speaking regions.

Though both version are equally good, it turns out that the English dub can be considered the best language option, and that’s because of the game’s lip syncing.

As mentioned in a pre-launch stream (as translated by Kitguru) Final Fantasy 16’s Japanese dub does not feature lip syncing. This is interesting given that previous entries in the franchise such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 15 has lip syncing for both the English and Japanese dubs. This was done through procedural tools. Specifically, both FF7R and FF15 performance capture was done in Japanese, and tools were used to sync the English version to the dub.

But with FF16, the performance capture was done in English. Given that the lip movements of the characters (especially in cutscenes) are based on facial capture data, the game’s English version can be considered as the default.

As for the Japanese dub, the team shared that it would’ve taken too much work for that version to get proper lip syncing. While the team tried AI tools, these didn’t produce the right results, so they decided not to push through with it.

So, the English dub is definitely the way to go in Final Fantasy 16 over the Japanese dub. Unless of course you’re not a fluent English speaker. In that case, the Japanese dub or the other options are the way to go as the game features several languages.

Though no matter whichever language option you choose, you should still get a good experience overall.

Final Fantasy 16 is available now exclusively on the PS5.

In case you need more convincing though, in our review, we called Final Fantasy 16 “a complete experience from start to finish and it is one that is worth taking.” You can check out our full review here:

Final Fantasy 16 Review | Reinventing an ‘Eikonic’ Franchise