Here's a sparknotes version in case you can't listen!
Ray was excited to do the interview, but it always nervous to do anything Kingdom Hearts-related because of how little he knows about the series. He respects our patience, even though the fandom does seem very unhappy all the time. He hadn't played KH before voicing the MoM, but he's played Unchained X since then, and 0.2.
He doesn't know what's in the box. The directors gave him very little direction and character info, particularly because it was a movie - and everything not in the script was under wraps.
Ray was born in New Jersey but grew up in Las Vegas, totally in love with Cartoon Network and animation. He went to USC in LA for college where he studied acting. There he met Master Eraqus himself, Mark Hamill, during a production of the musical Brigadoon. Mark took a liking to him and they spent an afternoon hanging out.
He didn't think of video games as a viable way of making a living but set out to act, regardless. It wasn't until he graduated college that he realized that he could do everything. He started working with apps first. But before really getting into voice acting, he worked as a bartender, taught SAT prep, worked as an usher at the los angeles music center. He realized he was getting too into bartending, and wanted to return to his ambitions of being an actor and focused solely on that for two months. That's when he booked a coke zero commercial campaign without an agent, and from there got one and started auditioning formally. He did 150+ audio books for like two years while booking more.
For us, it seems he's done a lot of titles recently, but the fact is that he did a lot of projects over the years and then they all decided to come out at the same time.
He suspects he was able to voice so many characters in different Square Enix games at the same time because all the games are part of different business divisions and they were all secret from each other. He's amazed that he hasn't gotten complaints for over-saturation of his voice in the market yet.
Keeping roles secret sucks. He was anxious about FFXV because it had to be kept under wraps for so long, and between Episode Duscae and the final game he almost lost the role of Noctis because the voice he had to use had to be changed so much.
The timeframe for projects was fun, he's super organized so he's got them tucked away in an excel sheet - in october 2014 they began the demo, in April they redid Noct's voice in the demo, then in August in 2015 he did Star Ocean 5, they started properly recording for FFXV in October of 2015 and worked pretty much the whole way through the rest of development. He auditioned for World of FF in 2015, but didn't start recording until February of 2016. Nier Automata recorded in August 2016. He keeps getting cast in the same roles of Tatsuhisa Suzuki.
He definitely knew more about Noctis as a character but doesn't think it mattered for the Master since he's so enigmatic. He was sent a character breakdown for the Master, samples of the Japanese voices and sent in the audition. They recorded Back Cover in April 2016, but he'd sent in his audition like five months before. The turnaround time was quick because it was a movie instead of a game.
But with Noctis he had to audition multiple times, and his first call back apparently wasn't very good. When they had to change the voice after the demo, they had to do an impromptu second audition to prove Ray could convincingly change the voice after Episode Duscae.
Even though FFXV will probably be over once the DLCs are done, it's exciting to think about Noctis being a part of the FF canon - and it's also exciting for Ray to play Edgar. He's honored to be one of the few voices of characters from FF6.
While recording for the Master of Masters, Matthew Mercer (Ira) recorded before Ray did. Ray and Matt have similar voices, and so he made sure to sound deeper than Ira in the scenes where the Master has to talk to him. It was fun to record for him, the jokes were funny and he tried to keep up with the energy of the Master's gestures. Even though there were no lipflaps, they recorded Ray's face "just in case."
We walked Ray through some of the lore of the series, his biggest question was why the the master and the foretellers were all so secretive (IE: the masks and robes and legacy of the keyblades etc etc etc) and unfortunately there's no known reason why - yet.
ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS:
Ray's favorite character he's voiced, overall, has been Noctis. It'd been such a long process and he was so involved, Noctis will have a special place in his heart.
It's very amusing to Ray that the Master's chosen successor Luxu is voiced by one of his closest friends and podcast co-host Max Mittelman. Max was actually requested for the role of Luxu.
Ray and his friends Max and Robbie Daymond (Prompto in FFXV) started Loud Annoying and Very Annoying as a segmented sketch comedy and improv kind of group to keep them busy at conventions where they'd do panels together, and it ended up sort of melting into a streaming based show on Twitch where they play games with other voice actors.
The next two months they're doing overwatch themed stuff and on Wednesday they have Chris Parson (Gladio in FFXV) to play Episode Gladio and play as his Overwatch character JunkRat
There was no prepping for the Master's role, but Ray took his cues from the Master's body language.
Ray says if he ever cosplayed as one of his characters, it'd be the Master because he could hide his face - I drew a picture of him in the organization robe and the eyepatch he wore a few weeks ago and I was inspired...because the master has one eye now.
Ray laughed at the idea of Noctis driving Lightning McQueen in KH3 instead of the Regalia. If he could imagine Noctis in a Disney world for KH3, he thinks he'd fit in Notre Dame because the architecture is similar to Insomnia and he could spin around and warp as Quasi bounces around the cathedral. I suggest shoving him in a wacky world, like in 100 Acre Wood. Ray said he'd enjoy seeing Noct as a carefree kid in KH, because he'd definitely deserve it.
He thinks Chuman is right and that Noctis doesn't have a permit and is breaking traffic law.
As for potential DLC, he'd love to play a DLC of Arden's past. He honestly has no idea what's coming next with the DLC, though, but the theories and rumors sound cool.
Since he never gets to work in the same booth as his castmates, he'd love to actually work with Max and Robbie in the booth.
The most important thing for aspiring actors to remember is to be patient, even if you are working - it may take a very long time to get any kind of acknowledgement. On that note, if anybody can edit IMDB for him to include his missing credits from Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5 he'd appreciate it.
