Final Fantasy's Ben Starr on saying goodbye to Clive, and his hopes for The Golden Joysticks

In the interview, Ben Starr opens up about his "peaks and troughs" of the past year, which saw him catapulted to fan-favourite status across the gaming industry.

His role as Clive in FF16 is now wrapped up, though, the game and its DLCs all leading to a fairly final ending for the character. What was it like for Starr to put Clive to bed after all of that?

In Starr’s words: "It's always weird to say I'm done with [a character], and I think the people will decide when they're done with it. I don't think they're done with Clive.

"I will never be one to say 'I want to get rid of that character', because that character is always going to be with me, you know? On my tombstone, I'm sure it will say, 'Here lies Ben Starr, he was Clive Rosfield at one point.'

"I'm so thankful for the opportunities that character gave me. It means that whatever I go on to play, if I ever get to play anything as iconic as that character, it will be because of him, it will be because of that opportunity, so there will always be the DNA of that experience in it.

"And there will be some people who will only ever play that game that I'm in, they will not play anything else that I'm a part of. So, you know, understanding that and respecting that is part of the job.

"I don't certainly want to be like, 'I'm done with that now.' Like, if that is how you know me and that is how you want to remember me, then cool, I will always be that character for you and that's good.

"But yeah, professionally I've moved on, but personally I never will, you know? It's too cool. It's Final Fantasy. It's my favourite franchise of all time. I'm never going to forget it, whether I try to or not. But I've just gone, 'Let's look to the future now, not the past.'"

Speaking of the future, Starr’s schedule seems pretty full in this post-Clive era, with the actor nabbing roles in various upcoming games including Hades II, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and The First Berserker: Khazan. Starr teases all of those in the full video interview!

In amongst all that, how has Starr been preparing for his hosting gig at The Golden Joysticks? Has it been hard to find time to play all the nominated games? Apparently not.

Starr says, "I play all the games naturally, which, I'm very lucky, because I only play good games."

Instead of bingeing through his backlog, then, Starr’s prep for The Golden Joysticks has been about "finding ways in which we can honour and reflect on the year that we've just had and reflect on it in an honest way".

He added: "I don't speak for the games and I don't speak for the industry. I speak for myself, but I hope that I can help usher in a ceremony that allows us to feel like we can speak freely.

"That’s what I want, and so my preparation is kind of, 'How can we create an environment that people feel safe, they feel seen, and most importantly they feel heard?'

"And that probably seems really high and mighty that I'm saying that, but, like, I really feel like that's it, right? It’s the people who win awards, not the games, so I am hoping that [kind of environment] is what we have.

"And I'll be an idiot, I'll just be an idiot for you, I will be your court jester, so you can have a good time."

The Golden Joysticks 2024 take place on Thursday 21st November 2024, streaming at 4pm UK time on the GamesRadar YouTube channel.

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