When I first saw Warframe 1999, I immediately went ‘that’s Metal Gear Solid.’ Mixing pure grit and grunge with Digital Extremes’ signature cybernetic style, it’s a far cry from the twisted art deco and almost Egyptian-inspired designs we’ve seen in the Origin System. At the core of it all is Arthur Nightingale, the protoframe for Warframe’s beloved poster child, Excalibur. While he’s certainly giving Solid Snake vibes, with perhaps a little bit of Raiden thrown in for good measure, I ask his voice actor, Ben Starr, if Metal Gear Solid inspired his performance, and his answer wasn’t what I expected.
The Warframe 1999 trailer is playing on a loop in Digital Extremes’ office, ending in that epic still of Starr’s Arthur and fellow Hex member Aoi, voiced by Cyberpunk 2077’s Alpha Takahashi. As we crowd onto a sofa at the back of the room, I feel my eyes drift from Starr to the television just behind him – it’s like seeing Arthur’s two selves; a glimpse behind the mask, as it were.
When I ask Starr, Takahashi, and Resident Evil’s Nick Apostolides (he’s playing Zeke, the frontman of 1999’s boy band On-Lyne) about what inspired their characters, I notice that there’s a distinct lack of Metal Gear Solid. I ask Starr directly if MGS had any impact on his portrayal of Arthur – especially given Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford’s comments an hour or so earlier about how Metal Gear directly inspired the multiplayer game‘s new questline.
“I drew absolutely nothing from [Metal Gear Solid],” he says. “Metal Gear Solid was everything in the ’90s, and it was such an important and influential videogame.” He notes that, as Digital Extremes has said before, “Dark Sector was inspired by MGS,” and of course Dark Sector evolved into Warframe, so “I didn’t need to take anything [from MGS] because if you’re doubling down on it, it becomes too obvious.
“I went ‘no, I’ll do what I feel is right.’ Yeah, there’s obviously a gruffness, but I could never do David Hayter; I could never do that sort of vibe.”
But there is a certain grittiness to Starr’s characters that made his performance as Final Fantasy 16’s Clive Rosfield so iconic. When we talk about what inspired Arthur more generally, it’s immediately apparent that the leader of The Hex is more Clive than Solid Snake.
“The reason I’m here is because I was a part of Final Fantasy [16]. It’s the role that’s enabled me to play a diverse roster of roles. So I think there is a connection – there’s a direct through-line with some of the aspects that were interesting about Clive, and bringing them to Arthur. It’s a case of ‘we like what you did with Clive, but how do you transpose that into a different key and bring it into our world?’
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” he continues. “You have to figure out what works for that character, and what you can bring to that character. Sometimes you want to be like ‘I want to do a completely different voice,’ but that doesn’t suit the part.
“I bring all the things that I’ve learned. I don’t think I’m a better actor than I was five years ago, but I probably am because of all the skills I’ve learned and all the time I’ve spent making mistakes and figuring out what works and what doesn’t – like in a videogame where you go down the wrong corridor and the character goes ‘not this way.’ Sometimes you have to go down that wrong corridor.”
A part of me is relieved to hear that we’re not getting a carbon copy of Hayter. It’s something Apostolides also touches on with his role as Resident Evil’s Leon Kennedy, which Capcom told him to “forget everything [he] knew” before performing. We love characters – and specific renditions of characters – for their voices; I was heartbroken when I thought they’d changed out Solas’ VA in the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard. His uniqueness made him so special, and Warframe 1999’s cast seems to be channeling this, too.
I can’t wait to see the full voice cast in action when the Warframe 1999 release date rolls around, bouncing off of one another and causing chaos. If you’re interested in my full chat with Apostolides, Starr, and Takahashi, check out our Tennocon interview. Otherwise, we have a list of all the current Warframe codes for you to grab some goodies ahead of 1999.
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