As someone who appreciates the guts out of Sephiroth and has for around 20 years, I still cannot like George Newbern's portrayal of him- his voice is too old, too deep. He's okay for a stand-in of the character, but as a total embodiment, I still disagree. Sephiroth's between 25-30 years old- he shouldn't sound like he's 40-50-ish. I know they're still keeping the Japanese voice actor for a long time- but he gets the idea of the character down better than Newbern- arrogance. Newbern just gets Sephiroth's monotone down and his menace to a degree (I guess professionalism, too)- barely his insanity or intelligence- which I think the Japanese voice actor gets better, too, without sounding biased here.
Another reason why I liked Lance Bass as Sephiroth's voice actor, despite the higher-pitch and greater lean towards a "teenage sound". His voice was pretty unique- his arrogance on point, and he sounded sophisticated and intelligent.
Well, from what I've seen on Twitter, fans keep wishing for the original VAs to the point of calling for signing petitions and spamming SE account.
Aside from perhaps Barret and Tifa, the newer voice actors are much better. Even Cloud's and I really enjoyed Burton's rendition of Cloud. I guess there's purists around, anyways.
Also, I think that there's no way Newbern would have nailed the: "I am?" line. The new voice actor starts sounding like he's unhinged and crazy and sophisticated then. Very Sephiroth-esque.
I haven't seen any conspiracy theory behind that though. Most people seem to be most displeased with Zack's English VA Caleb Pierce since the voice tone and the delivery are drastically different from his Crisis Core counterpart Rick Gomez.
And the new dude sounds better. I am not a fan of nostalgia for Crisis Core- I remember when that game was still in development. The emotional beats are still cheap in the game, but fans fall for them all the time. I see reaction videos on YouTube with fans crying over Zack getting killed after defeating 1000 soldiers, and I'm like :/ or
. I really, honestly don't care (not to sound heartless, but I don't), especially since the original scene was more intimate between Zack and Cloud, with Zack getting killed on accident after checking on Cloud's condition. To me, it's more personal and caring if Zack decided to check on Cloud, pick him back up, or go back to fetch him, rather than, "here, go hide behind this rock while I fight off 1000 soldiers". All the better if Zack got gunned down because of it, since it shows that he cares enough to possibly make a risk in order to see if Cloud's okay, rather than making a heroic stand, when Zack knows that Cloud's well being is going to okay as long as Cloud stays there or if he makes his stand. The scene is honestly one of the most superficial reboots/retcons of a scene in video games that I've ever seen to date.
Fans still want Rick Gomez because I think he voices (and also embodies through the game) a very stereotypical form of a hero from Crisis Core, without giving thought to morality, love, or compassion in smaller ways. I dislike those types of heroes- who are heroic or honorable on the outside but care little for the smaller details or for the people they are protecting themselves. But it's appealing and emotional to see someone die after hanging on for so long for many fans- but it's hollow to me compared to Zack caring for Cloud, which I did like in the original and to some extent in Crisis Core- but not in respect to his death scene in CC.