Voice Overs?

[SinkingBadges]

Not only that, SinkingBadges, but tons of modern video games have quality voiceacting. Even if you exclude video games entire, there are tons of well-voiceacted cartoons, anime, and cgi movies that have excellent voiceacting, not to mention the general quality acting you see in live-action films and series. There's just no shortage of talent or success stories. The extreme concern for it being done badly is unrealistic.

Retro did do a really good job, and I'd definitely say Prime 3 is exactly what we'd be going for with the Zelda series here.

Yes, tons of modern franchises do it, but I mentioned franchises as old as Zelda because of the following:

Modern franchises like Mass Effect, Assasin's Creed or Uncharted, while having truly solid fanbases, don't have the same burden as Zelda. Namely, a fanbase that has been built over the course of 25 years that has VERY specific things to expect out of it. The series suffers from a lot of traditions that the fanbase has grown fond of, the approach to dialogue being one of them. If one of those traditions is broken, the possibilities of either, getting new fans or alienating the already established ones arises.

New franchises start out fresh and don't have any expectations to fulfill. Zelda has made changes in some places, but avoided touching others.

Meanwhile, franchises like Final Fantasy or Sonic The Hedgehog, which are from roughly the same time, have already made the jump with varying degrees of success. You could say that they adapted, or ruined themselves. A common complaint with Zelda that I've seen people have is that the franchise doesn't "get out of its comfort zone". While it's not exactly the case, as things like going for a more modern aesthetic (like Spirit Tracks or Majora's Mask) have been done, that is true in other ways.

Those ways are presentation and the standarts for it that keep growing as time goes by. Voice acting today, just as the expected emotion from charaters, are pretty much a given today. Zelda is between a rock and a hard place because it's too late and the change is too big, or that's what it seems, at least.

EDIT: Weeeeell, looks like I got carried away a bit. The point I was trying to get to was that I used older franchises as an example just because they had more in common with Zelda. The new ones are following their current standarts. Sorry, but I was in a huge writing kick.

 

[Deniro]

If voice overs will be in Zelda, I would like it in hylian, not english, or just random gibberish like Midna or Okami

 

[MoblinPiglet]

Dont you think that they make Link say some dialogue without a voice over before they add voice to him?

 

[JuicieJ]

Giving Link a talking role would definitely ruin the series, but I think other characters talking would be a great addition to the series. Many people say that Other M proves that statement false, but that was tha voice actors and the script, not the aspect itself. Zelda's script is always top-notch, ever since ALttP, and especially in WW and TP. Voice acting adds a more armospheric feeling to things and would highly benefit the Zelda series imo. Maybe it should just be in the cutscenes, though, like in SMS. That way the animated text style of talk could still be in the game. I don't know, but I do not only believe that voice-acting would be a great addition to the series, I believe that it will be implamented at some point.

Dont you think that they make Link say some dialogue without a voice over before they add voice to him?

Link will never have lines. The reason he doesn't is so it feels like we're Link.

 

[DLC]

I wouldn't mind, but if they got the wrong voice actors.... it'd suck. a cool idea would be to sync your own voice to link, so he sounds like you. just an idea. unless a girls playing zelda cause, link ( i hope) is not a girl. ( i think.)also, it would feel like you were link even more.

 

[Yonatesf]

Other M also was not Nintendo, just as CD-i wasn't. That was Team Ninja. Either way, the thing with Other M wasn't that the voiceACTING wasn't bad. It was writing and the voices themselves. Very different issue. The voices, particularly that of Samus, was pretty bad. Aside from that, the writing was terrible, and would have been an issue even if it wasn't voice-acted (although I will admit voice-acting intensifies writing problems).

Not entirely true, Team Ninja and Nintendo co-produced the game. Nintendo did have quite a hand in development.

 

[SinkingBadges]

I wouldn't mind, but if they got the wrong voice actors.... it'd suck. a cool idea would be to sync your own voice to link, so he sounds like you. just an idea. unless a girls playing zelda cause, link ( i hope) is not a girl. ( i think.)also, it would feel like you were link even more.

LOL, you mean like Mass Effect? Where you can decide if Sheppard is a dude or a girl? I think that would be cool, but I guess I'm alone on that.

 

[AustinFox33]

I honestly think the series is ready for the change, if it was done right. Bad voice acting would honestly ruin the game for me. As long as its good, Im all for it. However, giving Link a voice would ruin my role as him in the game. He has just enough personality for him to be his own charecter and you to still feel like hes you in a sense. The only voice Link should ever have is in the off chance of a movie, and even then it should be done right.

 

[JuicieJ]

The real question is...will it be local languages or Hylian?

 

[AustinFox33]

Local language definatley. Hylian would be alot of work and probably not very popular with casual or core gamers.

 

[SinkingBadges]

Local language definatley. Hylian would be alot of work and probably not very popular with casual or core gamers.

That's not exactly true, it has been done before. Have you heard of the Panzer Dragoon series? They made up their own language there and it was actually pretty effective. That would also eliminate the need for voice acting localization, and would therefore be easier in the long run.

Here's a sample of that:

[video=youtube;Dsc7mdI_hpY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsc7mdI_hpY[/video]

 

[unknown_user]

Voice over would be VERY bad for link and any one else in the game

 

[AustinFox33]

Its possible, it was done alot in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Replic games. It had several languages created for the games. I just think English, or the local language would be more appealing to fans. It would to me at least.

 

[zeldahuman]

They did "voice acting for everyone but the hero" in Super Mario Sunshine. the game was alright, but I kinda felt sorry for Mario. i mean, he didn't talk throughout the whole game! that must have been tough.

but anyways, judt giving Link text boxes would suffice, but no voice acting. uh-uh... absolutely horrible idea.
i like that there's no voice acting, that way you can make up what teh person sounds like... :yes:

 

[Dio]

I think Aonuma said that zelda would eventually have no choice but to have voice acting in their games and I think with the wii U we will se our first zelda with voice acting. I believe they will still keep link silent though. Fallout 3 had voice acting for all but the character you play as and that worked well, perhaps a system like that could be used in zelda.