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Pols Voice in LoZ

Mases

Lord of the Flies
Administrator
Site Staff
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Location
West Dundee, IL
Looking at the their description in the Legend of Zelda 'Tips and Tactics' Strategy guide we see this...


"Monsters that have big ears but their weakness is loud noises. So far the only way you know to attack one is to surprise him by making a loud sound. There will be other opportunities to attack him but you must use your own own imagination. Even if you don't come up with any new ideas to attack him, you can always try the sword"


Then again if we look at the American strategy guide we see...

"A ghost with big ears and a weak point - he hates loud noise."



Now, other than the fact that the Tips and Tactics description sounds like it was written by a 2nd grader... neither of these make sense for the American version of the game. Why you might ask? Well, the Recorder (Flute/Whistle) DOES NOT work against the Pols Voice. Instead... arrows work and will kill them with one hit. The sword works as well, but it isn't effective.



I read this at Zelda Wiki...

"Originally, they were meant to be sensitive to input into a microphone peripheral for the NES, however that weakness was lost in translation."



Seems odd really. The whole thing just seems weird. If anybody has played the Famicom version, it would be interesting to know whether or not the Recorder was effective against the Pols Voice, since it is clear in the American version it is not. Yet... the fact that they never took that out of the game manual and the official strategy guide is extremely odd. In future games Pols Voice were defeat by playing loud instruments, so you would think that would be useful in Legend of Zelda.

Perhaps its just one of those odd things that seem to be forgotten.
 
Joined
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I remember this. I kept trying to play the Flute to kill them, thinking my cartridge was junk. I think they should have at least changed it for perhaps the GBA release or something to where the Flute worked to defeat them. Or maybe in the BS edition. As far as the Famicom version goes, I don't know if it works in that game. I'm pretty sure it does not though. I read about the mic input on Zelda Wiki, and I'm pretty sure that was what was supposed to have happened. NoA is notorious for bad translations in LoZ, so its likely that it was translated without the consideration.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Yeah I think it was just mixed up with the enemy, Digdogger. Since that enemy is hurt when you play the flute. But I found the weak point for Pols Voice to be Arrows.
 

angelkid

TRR = SWEET
Joined
Apr 19, 2009
I was always confused by this. I actually died a couple of times because I'd think, 'maybe I have to be closer' then they all jump on me and deal big hits of damage.

I like how it is done in PH though. I was trying to blow up bombs next to it with no sucess until I looked down and saw 'mic' written. I promptly screamed into it :D.
 
L

Lysia

Guest
Apparently the Famicom controller had a built-in microphone, and making a noise into this could kill them. That's why the enemy is called Pols Voice, because the microphone "polls voice" from gamers to kill them.

But back in the day, before I knew this, I also played the recorder and exploded bombs near them because the manual told me they hated noise. Then later on I realised how well the arrows can kill them.
 
L

luminifer

Guest
confirmed

I just tried it on the Japanese rom, and it works.

You need to yell about 6 times, then all the Pol's Voices in the room die instantly!
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2008
Seems odd really. The whole thing just seems weird. If anybody has played the Famicom version, it would be interesting to know whether or not the Recorder was effective against the Pols Voice, since it is clear in the American version it is not. Yet... the fact that they never took that out of the game manual and the official strategy guide is extremely odd. In future games Pols Voice were defeat by playing loud instruments, so you would think that would be useful in Legend of Zelda.
Well, it makes sense if you think about it.

The old days of the NES (and gaming in general) were chalk full of translation and localization screwups. And not small ones. Colossal atrocities in some cases. Remember "Ganondorf Dragmire"? So, considering that, I don't find it terribly surprising.

It is odd, though, that's true. The NES/Famicom in general was odd. R.O.B.? Power Glove? :P
 

xandar

World's Dumbest Zombie.
Joined
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Colorado
It brings up other such silly issues with translation as "All your base are belong to us." Oh, what the Japanese language has done!

I don't know, I only had the version on NES and I got all the remakes, obviously, but it seems like they would have at least changed the game content because it seems like I remember an old man in a hidden passage in a dungeon telling me to make loud noise for big ears or some such thing along those lines, which lead to much F***-uppery.
Eventually, I decided, "Okay, what's the thing that makes the least noise in my inventory?" and despite the fact that the act of imbibing a potion technically being a relatively silent act, I gave it to the arrows because of the noise that went off when you filled your hearts all the way that took a million friggin' years to even get done. Much to my surprise, the arrows worked.

This, however, is one of the silliest things I've ever heard, and I intend to make sure, but if this is true, that's made my day right there.
 
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Temple of Time
This would have been a cool feature if nintendo didnt screw up on the translation. It would have actually been played about like PH with the pols Voice, and the loud sound would harm them. I really don't know how a professional translator, that works for a huge company can even screw that up.
 

NorthApple

GIVE ME THE APPLE!!
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UK :D
This. really. confused. me. Until afterwards when I heard of that mic thing...

I remember trying as many things as I could think of to make noise, eventually (after wasting all my bombs) resorting to smacking at the walls with the sword in a desperate attempt to produce sound... in the end I accidentally hit one with an arrow and realising that worked...
And I had the same problem before I realised how to damage Digdogger... I thought my disc (Zelda Collection version hurr) was scratched because the sprite kept flickering. Urgh. Translation and version differences be damned.

But still, it served to make me smile when I got up to this in PH, now that was finally done well. Killing enemies by yelling "YOU MUST DIE" in a Ganon cd-i voice... it doesn't get much better than that... I hope they come back in ST :3
 
Joined
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Kentucky, USA
After recently beating the Japanese version of LoZ, I realized that the Pols Voice cannot be hurt by the arrows in that one. There is a mic button that comes with the emulator I was playing LoZ(J) on, but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe if you actually had a mic hooked up to the computer, it may have some effect. That, I would not know. The only way I could kill them was by hitting them many times with the sword.
 

Juxtor

aka. musician_4_life
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Jan 18, 2009
Location
Melbourne, Australia
On the Famicom...there is two controllers that are attached to the console and cant be released. Well the first controller is the standard controller setting (D-Pad, start, select, A and :cool:, well the second controller also has the same buttons except for the start and select button's instead there is an in-built microphone with an adjustable volume control just above the D-pad.

Famicom_controllers.jpg


The Pols voice trick was only available in the Japanese (Famicom) version, its really weird that it didn't work on the emulator...
 
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octorok74

TETTAC
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Location
Joliet, IL
I tried killing the Pols Voice with the flute around 30 times before I gave up and went on a slashing spree. The people who make these guides and walkthroughs should really play through the game first and know what does and doesn't work.
 
K

Kite

Guest
ask the AVGN he owns a famicom and he has said about it in his transformer review about the microphone and pols voice i forget what he said but it sorta explains it
 

CZG

Joined
Dec 16, 2009
I was wondering about this for a long time, thanks for clearing that up. The mic thing sounds like fun, but I already heard many complaints about the pipes in the new Zelda game.
I also tried lots of times with the flute, since they had big ears. Then I forgot about them because you kill another beas with the flute, so I assumed I got them mixed up.

I always wondered if they meant bombs? They are loud too!
The problem was that you could carry 8-12-16 bombs, which wasn't enough to spend them on darn enemies, you needed them to blast through walls. You would never come across 10 of them, giving you new bombs, but you don't want to battle some extra Darknuts or Wizzrobes to be sure.

If all else fails, whack them with your sword!
 

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