It goes without saying that Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy are some of Square Enix's biggest and most well-known properties. Part of this comes down to the fact that Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy are rather interlinked, and there's a considerable overlap of fans between both IPs as they're both large, sprawling RPG franchises. Kingdom Hearts has even offered screen time to a few Final Fantasy fan-favorite characters over the years, most notably the Final Fantasy 7 cast.
However, FF7 has seen quite a few change-ups since Kingdom Hearts 3's release. With the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake in 2020, Square Enix has essentially begun slowly shifting and even fixing what fans expect from the lore of FF7. For English-speaking fans, the biggest adjustment series loyalists had to get used to is the new voice actor cast, and Kingdom Hearts may end up signaling that they're here to stay for good.
The Impact of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion
After 15 years of Zack Fair's solo title being abandoned on the PSP, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion not only brought the game back from obscurity but updated it to match what was expected of the series after the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. This included a brand-new UI, replacing older models with more recent ones that matched the style found in Remake better, and even included entirely redone localization and English voice acting with the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake voice cast.
While the new voice acting in CCFF7R helps tie it closer to Remake, it almost seems like a bit too much effort on Square Enix's part to keep things cohesive. While the developers of Crisis Core Reunion said it was more than just a remaster, the new translation for the English dialogue changed very little. It's almost as if Square Enix means to use Crisis Core to say that this new cast is the definitive voice of these characters from now on.
Kingdom Hearts' Final Fantasy 7 Cameos
If Square Enix truly sees the latest voice actor lineup used in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake games as the ones it prefers, then what happened with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion may happen to a number of Kingdom Hearts games in the future. For the past 17 years, up to Kingdom Hearts 3, several FF7 characters have appeared in the KH games. As Advent Children and even the original Crisis Core set the stage for a full Final Fantasy 7 voice cast around that time, those actors notably reprise their roles in Kingdom Hearts.
While the roles that Final Fantasy characters play in Kingdom Hearts are small at best and have seemingly faded into obscurity in KH as time passes, their old voices still remain in games such as Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. This may clash with the image Square Enix aims to present with FF7 today, which might mean that compilations like Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far may have a few lines redone in the future with the Remake cast.
However, this is only if Square Enix feels like redoing the original contributions to the classic Kingdom Hearts games is worth its time and money. It also depends on if this new cast truly is the one Square Enix wants fans to know more than the old actors. There could be a chance that in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion's case, it was about keeping things consistent with the Remake project rather than the Final Fantasy 7 series at large. Regardless, if Cloud Strife and friends return in Kingdom Hearts 4, they'll likely be played by their FF7 Remake actors, which may take some getting used to for those who only play Kingdom Hearts games.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is in development.