Twilit Archon, you're only addressing some of the many elements to this argument.
Look, I get it, voice-acting would be cool. But the absence of a common element in game design in one series does not mean that the creators of that series are avoiding it just to save money, especially since the series already makes a massive amount of money and I guarantee you it has a huge budget (especially Skyward Sword). You just seriously can't argue that. Especially not given the circumstances.
Voice-acting is not objectively better. It's cool for presentation, yeah, but it also diminishes imagination, can be hard to follow if the dialogue is complex, etc. It's also far more generic. I've always enjoyed the Ocarina of Time method, with the text but odd noises and sound effects to go along with it. This is a great and unique method in its own right and I find it enjoyable. I am not against voice-acting, but I am literally unable to choose between it and the current style of text and sounds. I like them both equally.
As for the whole taboo thing about Link talking, this is complete BS. Non canon excursions aside, Link has talked at least twice that I have noted. The first time was in AoL when he finds a mirror under a table and says "I found a mirror under the table". While I have heard debates from some people as this being a mistranslation, or its someone under the table talking or something like that, the second time is clearly unmistakable. In Wind Waker when he is trying to get something to follow him in an escort mission, he clearly shouts "Come On". Link has spoken. The gimmick is over. Nintendo is avoiding voice acting to avoid costs and drama, which is fine, as long as people understand that fact.
Neither of those can be considered serious instances of talking, one being from an old video game before a standard exists (and really it was the first Zelda game to feature any real dialogue outside of cryptic hints and victory messages like the original LoZ), and the other being a perfect example of the "odd sound effects" I mentioned. Link does not have dialogue. Nothing is over, and regardless, plenty of people still want him silent even if he doesn't have to be, so clearly if Nintendo ever implemented it, then they should keep him silent (and you even discussed how this was possible in a later post).
Update: Talk about under the radar. Anyone remember that announced game Tetra's Trackers wayyyyyy back when? Well It actually came out... In Japan... With Four Swords Adventures... With full Japanese voice acting that could synthesize names... and was called Navi trackers... and had English localization work going on it... but was never brought to America because Nintendo was too lazy to program vocal synthesization of the Latin alphabet. While this is probably very old news for many people, it proves my point nicely. Nintendo is avoiding voice work to avoid cost and hassle.
I already knew about this. This doesn't prove much of anything. They made a spinoff game with a feature that deviates from the main series. This is common, including in other Zelda spinoffs. It doesn't indicate anything that should be done with the main series.
What's more, being able to name Link is really kind of a joke isn't it? In the early games it was cool to name a character what you wanted, but come on, he's Link. I'd be willing to bet that 99% of people are jarred after they are out in a dungeon or Hyrule field or whatever for an hour, then come back to town and talk to someone, and that person calls them "Bob". The character is plainly Link and naming the character should never factor into the decision for whether or not voice acting should be involved.
The character is Link. Issue is that Link isn't intended to be purely his own character and there has always been room for people to self-insert into the role. And no, I do not find it jarring for the character to refer to me as Axle/Graham/Zephyr/Cobalt/Kraken/Eldritch, or any of the other names I've used. The majority of people still want to be able to self-insert into the role, and that's how it's always been so there's no reason to change it. Again, it's unique. That's not a bad thing.
People tend to focus on the bad voice acting over the good voice acting. I'm not saying that the Zelda series needs to be voiced at all costs. I'm just saying that as the cut scenes get more and more in depth, it is just as increasingly irksome to me that no one is speaking aloud. I find the concept of characters mouths moving to just text and no audio weird at the best of times, and sometimes even down right unnerving. The Zelda series is great without VA work, but with good VA work, I think that it would be as close to perfect as a video game series possibly can be. Keep in mind that this is Nintendo, this is ZELDA, not some little third party dev starting up a new IP. They could get REAL Hollywood actors to voice characters if they really wanted, not just anime VAs.
I am with you here. If Nintendo is going to do this mouthing crap, then they need to follow through. It's annoying. But that doesn't mean that just because of it, there should be voice-acting. They add the voice-acting or cut the mouthing. It's still not black and white. And of course Nintendo would handle it well, but that doesn't mean they should do it just because they can. It's fine to have a series without voice-acting.
