In the Zen Room at the Tennocon 2024, as I’m getting familiar with the place, I hear to my right “Try these Santi, they’re amazing.” It’s none other than voice actor Ben Starr, best known for his role as Clive in Final Fantasy 16, who points at what might be the comfiest, coziest bean bag sofas I’ve ever sat on. We’re quickly joined by Alpha Takahashi (Hanako Arasaka in Cyberpunk 2077) and Nick Apostolides (Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil). Apostolides sits with a thump and says “We’re gonna have lump sack races later”.
Starr immediately fills the confused silence. “So, I don’t know what you mean by that”, and we all laugh. The chemistry between the trio creates an easy-going, relaxed atmosphere, and I almost forget why I’m here - Warframe: 1999. The upcoming major update will introduce players to the two opposing groups called the Hex and the Technocyte Coda, and these three will play some of the center figures of that arc.
Starr and Takahashi play two of the Hex members, Arthur Nightingale and Aoi Morohoshi, who try to find Dr. Albrecht Entrati on the last night of 1999, before their humanity is lost and they become fully-fledged Warframes themselves. On the other hand, Apostolides plays Zeke, a member of the On-Lyne boyband, now turned into an infested monster, part of the Technocyte Coda group.
“I like the dimensions to him,” Starr says. “He is a proto-Excalibur, so everyone has kind of those pre-existing ideas of what that might be like, but one thing that we tried to do at all points is bring out the humanity even in small moments. These characters interact with each other, and through those interactions, we get to reveal how fun they can be, and those quirky, lovable things that are going to make you want to play as those characters in the main game.”
In the past, Starr has referred to his FF16 role Clive Rosfield as a “very human character”, which seems the opposite to Arthur, who is halfway into converting into a Warframe. Does the potential loss of his humanity play a part in his journey, or can he still be a relatable heroic figure? “I think that’s where you find your humanity when you’re trying to battle for that very thing,” he explains. “If you were to do parallels with Arthur and Clive, it’s that same thing; how do you desperately cling onto your humanity when you’re seemingly fighting against it?
“You can see how much Arthur is losing control over his own body, and I think that his humanity shines the brightest when it’s fighting against its own extinction. In that moment, how do we cling to that? You do it through your friends, you cling onto it through human relationships. And that’s where you’re going to see most of this humanity reflected”.
As for Takahashi, it was Warframe’s aesthetic that had the biggest impact. “I think the visuals are such a big part of the fantasy here; before I started playing the game myself, I saw some of them, and I just remember how gorgeous it was,” she says. “Yesterday I got to meet the designers for my character, and to be able to speak with them - it’s kind of a dream come true. Aoi is so different from what I look like, and yet I love her; I love so much about how she has colored hair, which I do, and how much love and passion she has towards her friends. There’s so many things that are relatable to me that I can find and it is a joy to play her.”
She offers an example of the origami crane Aoi makes in the trailer. “I think that’s a very good way to capture who she is and also her story, because origami is like being folded into whatever shape you want, and she’s taking a choice to crush that story and trying to make it into something else”.
With Apostolides, he’s a little bit against type as a dorky boyband singer, which he finds very rewarding. “For me, it was a breath of fresh air; I would say for the second half of my career with TV, film, and video games, I’ve always gravitated towards these stoic serious protagonists more on the dramatic side,” he explains. “And once in a while I get to play something closer to my personality, which is like 50 percent SpongeBob. To play a character who’s more excitable, and enthusiastic, is just more liberating for me because I feel that all I have to do is show up as Nick, so I had fun in the booth with the whole team.”
As well as different personalities, Apostolides has voiced characters across the spectrum of heroism and villainy, from the manipulative Frank in Life is Strange to the force of good that is Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil. Now he’s part of a mutated boyband from the ‘90s, which is the coolest possible concept, but where does that put his character, Zeke? “Oh, that’s a good question. I would say that I think he’s a good guy,” he says laughing. “I think he’s a good guy that loses control.”
The Tennocon 2024 is the annual convention that sees long-time fans of the game converging in London, Ontario, to celebrate the popularity of the game, and bear witness to what the future entails for it. For Starr, Takahashi, and Apostolides, this is their first time attending, letting them see first-hand how passionate the audience is.
“It’s been amazing, organized, the fans are so excited, and the whole team has been responsive on top of things,” says Apostolides. Starr tells me he’s “been going around doing fun stuff with the team for a couple of months”, but that this is his first time seeing the fanbase at such a scale as Tennocon.
Jumping into a game with such a huge fanbase can be difficult, given the high expectations and excitement, but none of these actors are strangers to that with their CVs. But Starr says the warm, polite, and supportive audience has made them all feel welcomed by all the Tenno around the world.
“Oh, they’re so cool, I think that even at some of the [Warframe] events that I’ve done, I see familiar faces; it feels like a real family every time they turn up,” he tells me. “Coming into something new, you want to make sure that you don’t do it a disservice, but everyone has been so, so lovely, and it’s fascinating to see the creativity; even within hours of being announced as Arthur, there was already fan art, and that’s one of my favorite parts of any community - the incredible artists.”
Takahashi agrees. “It’s fascinating to know that this is the first time they get to put faces on the Warframes, and I’m thankful to be a part of that. I find the fanbase to be very kind! They have so much love for the game and are very respectful in person as well, so it’s really nice to be able to interact with them in person.”
According to Apostolides, this all “trickles down” from the values of developer Digital Extremes, which encourage a more welcoming community. “That’s how they treat their company, and that’s how the fan base comes off to me as a relatively new entrance to this whole world here. And when you are a part of something that’s been established, there’s a slightly different sense of responsibility; you want to do it justice because those fans were here before you were”.
As we part ways, I can’t help but think how the three actors’ eagerness and professionalism are reflected in the reception the audience has shown for them. Warframe: 1999 is releasing in Winter 2024, but I’m already excited to see what the future holds for all of their characters.
