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Would the Addition of Voices Be a Plus or a No-no?

Are voice actings a good thing or not?

  • AWESOME!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Forget about it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

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    0

geek4887

The Unknown
Joined
Jun 19, 2011
So, Zelda, as we know, is a pretty mute game. It has a pretty good soundtrack, but sometimes the whole overworld (despite its largeness) feels...claustrophobic.

So let me go to Twilight Princess. This game is pretty well known in the series because of its cool cutscenes. Some of those parts, though felt, lonely. There's an awesome soundtrack going on, the castle's being attacked by Zant, and what? No one talks. No voices except for a few gasps and grunts.

I can't think of another Zelda game that could've gotten voice actings besides TP. Sure, Link is a mute character, but that doesn't mean that everyone else are really turned mute and aren't given voice actings. Sorry for making you guys read this rant, but what do you think voice actings would bring to the Zelda series?

Edit: Okay, I'm not saying that Link should have a voice, but don't you think everyone else should?
At least, they should just voice the cutscenes, and not necessarily everything else.
 
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Maikeru

Piper of Time
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Location
The Lost Woods
^That's a sort of extreme example. The CD-I games weren't made by Nintendo, so I don't see why what CD-I would mean anything. The old Zelda cartoon wasn't really great with it either. A lot cartoons were cheesy back in those days though.


For me, I can't give a real answer. I would have to see and hear the voices before formulating an opinion on it. I think it could work out great, but if the voice acting is bad, I think it would be horrible. If they were to do it, I would like an option to have either the voices or sound effects however.

All I will say is, Link can't have a voice. That would just be weird. I think they could do well, and I don't think Nintendo will ruin the series with it. Zelda is too big of a franchise for them to risk productivity with bad voice acting or the inability to turn the voices off.

So, I think it would be worth a shot, and don't think Nintendo would screw it up. So, I'd have to to see it before having a real opinion on it.
 

Cuju

私はカウントダウンを実行します。
Joined
Jan 19, 2011
Location
Canada
God no! It's like a futuristic setting, it would be too strange for me, and I probably wouldn't be able to play through it. I much preffer having characters voices in my head, rather than cheesy voice acting.
 

JerônimoLink

New Hyrule's Engineer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Location
Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Link can't have a voice, because the games were created for people to be Link, so he can't say anything. Other characters could have a voice, but it would be too strange, like Zelda tells him something and he doesn't say nothing, so, yeah, I think it would be a bad idea.
 

Big Octo

=^)
Joined
Jul 2, 2011
Location
The
It would be interesting to see some high quality voice acting one of these days. I just want to see what a Zelda game would be like if people were actually projecting their voice to you. If it seems bad, forget about it. If it's amazing, they could use it more in the future.
 

Xinnamin

Mrs. Austin
Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Location
clustercereal
A lot of people are opposed to voice acting because it wouldn't allow the player to imagine their own voices for the characters. The Zelda characters are so established and people have developed their own ideas for a lot of voices, which could then cause fans to be upset when the voice turns out to be drastically different from what they imagined. However, most of the characters already have voices, established through their grunts and gasps and other sound clips, so if voice actors can keep true to the feel given off by those voice clips, the actual voicing of the characters wouldn't be that bad I think.

What I'm more concerned about is not the way the voices sound, but the tone the conversations would take. There are many games with voice acting where I didn't like the tone used in the conversations of a particular scene, or where the way the characters talked really turned me off because I thought it would have sounded so much better a different way. There are also times where the lack of voicing makes the game more fun for me personally because I can make up dialogue or imagine what the conversation sounds like myself.

On the other hand, spoken dialogue may make it easier for the player to immerse themselves into the world of the game, because with voice comes emotion, which can really draw the player into the story. Granted, it has to be done really really well, but I think Nintendo could pull it off if they really wanted to. Nintendo has certainly taken risks that have paid off, even if the choice was a controversial one. WW's graphics are an example of risks that worked out, and I think voice acting has similar potential. In the end, we won't know unless Nintendo tries, and I think the Zelda series certainly has a large, supportive enough fanbase that it's worth a shot to venture into this territory.

I do agree that Link must stay mute no matter what. Voiced games with mute protagonists CAN work, and work well. I also think dialogue from non-human or non-humanoid species should remain gibberish, like Midna and Phi.
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
I say yes, definatly. Although I would have to be a more meture game, because voice acting with cute characters could turn out bad.
Link can stay mute, it been pulled off before. Half Life's Gordan Freeman never speaks, in fact you barely ever see his face. Portal's Chell, Hell Metroid Prime 3 had voice acting and Samus was still mute! It turned out great.
Change isn't always a bad thing.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2011
In both Metroid Prime 3 and Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the main character doesn't speak at all.
You can probably get away with Link saying something as a response like "Whoa!" or "Huh?" or "Wow...". But other wise, no actual in game dialogue... unless it was Mass Effect 2 and you can choose what he'd say.

As I once said in my topic about whose voice you'd choose to hear out of the mouths, which no one ever posted a reply to... :dry:, voice acting COULD work if done well and using voices that fit the character. You could get away with, say, Clancy Brown or Frank Welker as Ganon.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
Voice-acting would bring nothing but positives to the series. (So long as Link remains silent.) Just look Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Its voice-acting was phenomenal and worked wonders for the gameplay. And the kicker is Samus didn't speak. Voice-acting in Zelda would add an extra sense of it being us in the game communicating with the other characters in the game. They'd be speaking, giving more emotion to their words and bringing them to life, whereas text is just text. Now Zelda does a great job with how they do the text thing, as the sounds the characters make really capture the emotion(s) they have. But actual dialogue would take that farther. Much farther. Now, there are always those who will say "NO!" to voice-acting in Zelda, so I think there should be an option to turn it off when it happens (yes, I'm confident it will happen eventually). Some people say it would slow the game down, as it takes longer for things to be said rather than read, but look at the cutscenes it Twilight Princess. Their mouths move to where, even if the text is skipped, the phrases must be completed, as well as the motions. Yet the game wasn't slowed down. At all. In fact, it flowed magnificently with the style of the game. I see nothing put pros for voice-acting in Zelda and really no cons. I'm all for it.
 
K

Kirikaiten

Guest
I would prefer them to just keep there gasps and grunts, those voices established that way should be the only voice work, now im not saying during cutscenes and dialouge it be silenced , or you just hear ambience and bgms, but you know grunts and gasps have worked for Zelda ever since OoT.

To me if you add full fledges voices to the dialouge..it would actually take away the appeal Zelda has on me. Adding voices wouldnt do anything to differentiate it from the next action adventuring dungeoning game, Take for example NieR, Game is just as fantastic as Zelda, maybe even has its moments it surpasses it, And the VA is AMAZING in that game, probably one the best voice over work ive experienced within a game series, but I digress...

Allowing Zelda to remain for the most part without voice work is a true blessing in disguise, it allows the game to remain true to the original, without allowing voicework to distract its players. Another side note, if all games go to voice work whats to happen to reading text, kids reading more then a few lines, engaging thier imagination? Zelda has remained Original in every sense of the word , and I for one want it to remain that way.

Althoguh im sure voices would work for Zelda, Im just against it to many times things that arent broken get tampered with to much and ends breaking..badly. And i just see no reason for something that isnt broken to be "fixed"
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
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Hylian Champion
I'm with Kirikaiten, leave the voicing to grunts and gasps.

Yes, leaving it like that can take away from any potential graces 'real' voice work could bring, but many a people can also imagine the character in question's voice just by having one word or even their breathing done for them. Not to say that real voice work would be a huge detriment to the general player's experience, but in my opinion having full voices would kind of kill the Zelda I once knew.

That said, full voices if done right and are consistent (meaning, Nintendo doesn't have to hire and rehire new VAs every Zelda game), that could lead to some really rich cutscenes in the SFX department, which in turn could lead Zelda to a brighter future with the 'hardcore' gamers as well as increase its 'casual' gamer inlet. Conversely though, that would also lead to even longer development periods, maybe even as long as Final Fantasy Versus XIII if they want the utmost game quality possible for any given game.

All in all, I truthfully do not want voices but they could lend a lot to the series simply because of the extra quality they would necessitate (Nintendo clearly does their first party games right the first time).
 

zeldahuman

Graphic Designer
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Location
Akkala
Voice-acting in Zelda would be a great idea. I'm all for it. I mean, look at Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, everyone EXCEPT the main character had dialogue. Super Mario Sunshine implemented voice-acting in such a great way, it made the game feel..real. If Nintendo can pull off Voice-Acting in a Mario game, they can definitely pull it off in a Zelda game. I think adding voice-acting to Zelda would give the game even more depth than it already has, and add emotion to the game that plain text cannot.

I'm all for this. I know that one day, there will be voice-acting. And until that day comes, I am going to stay as optimistic as possible about this! I don't anything wrong with voice-acting, so long as Link stays mute. :yes:

/mini rant.
 
Joined
May 25, 2008
Location
In my house
[video=youtube;bNpLXo55yfw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNpLXo55yfw[/video]
This tells me that it would be a bad idea.

I know your intent sir, but wow, what a bad example. I'm going to leave out the rant about it though, so you're safe for now.

As for the topic.....honestly, I'm not so sure. In Zelda Games, Games, and most other things I do in life, I don't notice anything until it's pointed out to me. This includes voices, they're never there, so I never care. And honestly, that's really my opinion on it: I don't care. I've never had a problem with it in 10ish years of playing Zelda, and I sure won't throw a fit if they don't start including it now. If they do, fantastic, if they don't, doesn't really matter to me. I'm fine without it; I still know how to read.

If they do, I guess the only problem I would have is the one most others would have: an annoying voice. If I have to play a Zelda game where there's some high whiny voice that just makes me want to cut a *****, then we're going to have a problem.

We'll see.
 

butterbiscuit

- Do Not Eat -
Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Voice acting could be a good thing for the series or a very bad thing depending on how they present it, so I voted for neither. Allow me to explain.

If they had voiced, high quality cutscenes with decent voice acting, it could be very beneficial, although I don't want Link to talk. Link shouldn't really have a character, that should be made by the player- that's why he's named Link. A mixture of the type of voice acting that was found in TP- the various grunts found at the beginning of every time you talk to someone and Midna's garbled language, although possibly in English.. it could be beneficial if it was executed professionally. But if it wasn't, it could seriously downgrade the game.
 

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