Breakdown
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth used AI for the game's lip-syncing
- The game's cutscenes still have man-made lip-syncing, but the rest of the RPG uses AI lip-syncing during conversations
- It's a good way to use AI since no one's job is on the line and it makes a developer's job easier
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth used AI to improve the game’s cutscenes, which is actually a practical use of the technology. While many artists tend to be up in arms about AI, this is one of the rare cases where the program is actually used to help the developer instead of hurting them.
Cutscene programmer and lead animator Ryō Hara told the Rebirth Ultimania (via Shinra Archaeology Department), that AI was used for lip-sync movement in-game. The actual cutscene lip-syncing is still animated by artists, but an AI module was trained to move lips during gameplay.
Like we said, this is a rare case of AI being used to help an artist with their work and it’s good seeing that in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. With AI becoming more prominent in generating stolen art and assets these days, it’s good to know Square Enix hasn’t completely gone down that road (yet).
The folks at Square Enix previously said that they would “aggressively” use AI for game development, which worried a ton of fans and developers. If Rebirth is any indication, it seems that the company isn’t using AI to replace anyone’s job and we hope it stays that way. That’s expecting a lot from the company, since they’ve made plenty of bad decisions in the past and might make more.
Even with the success of games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the company has tried getting in on failed trends before. It wasn’t that long ago when Square Enix wanted to dedicate a ton of their time to NFTs, given what little value they have these days. Now that the company has lost plenty of money, it will be interesting to see what decisions they will make in the near future.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is readily available on PlayStation 5, with many fans hoping for a PC release in the future. Square Enix will likely release a third game to finish off this trilogy and we don’t mind if they use AI there just for lip-syncing.