Yes yes, I know Link will never talk, but how about everyone else?

I would be amazed if there is.

I would be amazed if there is.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I would be amazed if there is.

it's 2011 yes you can still have a silent protagonist, but a purely silent game is almost unacceptable.

No. There are some voices in it but it's still text based. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being the last Zelda game to be like that. Some people are still too fucking scared to think of a voiced Zelda game but it can be done well. I doubt Nintendo would fuck up something like that.

@kingzetta said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I would be amazed if there is.

it's 2011 yes you can still have a silent protagonist, but a purely silent game is almost unacceptable.

It's Nintendo we're talking about here. They can get away with things like no voice work. Not saying that is a good thing, just the way it is.

Cannot say for spoiler reasons.

Voice acting does not a great game make. In some cases it can actually detract from the experience. I personally get the impression that Zelda games are one of those cases.

@dankempster said:

In some cases it can actually detract from the experience. I personally get the impression that Zelda games are one of those cases.

Can you elaborate on that? I will grant you that bad voice acting would detract from the "Zelda experience", but bad voice acting would detract from nearly any experience. I don't see anything in particular to the Zelda franchise that would be lessened by the inclusion of voice acting.

Voice acting does not a great game make. In some cases it can actually detract from the experience. I personally get the impression that Zelda games are one of those cases.

Probably not.
 
and I'm ok with what.

funny now that i think about it, i would find it really fucking weird if anyone in a zelda game started talking.

I will forever prefer my Imagination over traditional voice work in the Zelda series. Nintendo have good reasons for not implementing it, and those reasons relate to why they don't release the time-line also. The Zelda series continues to thrive because of players imagination and emotional intelligence, it's become core to the Zelda franchise, Nintendo will never sever this link or put in place features which lessen this connection.

edit:

What we get instead something far more potent in my eyes, and longer lasting. I can still vividly remember subtle animations that worked wonderfully in tandem with the dialogue sections in Wind Waker. The emotional power Nintendo are able to convey in cut-scenes which lack traditional voice work, is exemplary.

@tsiro: @kingzetta: To continue with the Zelda example, I think a big part of the charm and aesthetic of those games is the total lack of voice acting. For me personally, the absence of spoken word in games like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess acts as a means of detaching that world from our own. Because the characters never audibly speak, it amplifies that sense of detachment and makes Hyrule really feel like it's part of a completely different universe. If the characters were to start articulating in English it would kill that sense of detachment. I'm really not articulating this idea very well, but it's almost 6am here, so hopefully you'll at least forgive my incoherence if you can't understand it.

EDIT - See Contro's post for a much better articulated version of what I was trying to say above.

There's also the fact that voice acting distracts the brain from processing other aural cues. Some games (I'm thinking specifically Final Fantasies VII and IX here, but I guess the Zelda games fall under this category too) use music as an important framing device for the narrative. Characters and events have leitmotifs which recur and often weave in and out of each other over the course of the game, like an extended piece of classical music I suppose. If you were to layer voice acting over the top of Final Fantasy VII, that would dull a lot of the music's impact on the flow of the narrative.

I guess what I'm getting at is that a handful of games are designed to tell stories and evoke moods in ways that don't involve actors reading from a script, and those are the games whose narrative impact could be hurt by voice acting.

All these reasons people are giving for how voice acting would ruin the game. Remind me why I've never liked zelda games.

What's your problem? Can't you read?

Nope. Because its a zelda game. But honesty, if everyone around link started talking that wouldn't that be more than a little jarring at this point in time? I dunno. In some way... even though I agree that the use of text and soundbites only is antiquated, I don't think I want the alternative either.

@kingzetta said:

@dankempster said:

Voice acting does not a great game make. In some cases it can actually detract from the experience. I personally get the impression that Zelda games are one of those cases.

I can't see anyway that it would make it worse. Only if they got really horrible voice actors, which I don't think they would do.

They allowed Team Ninja to implement voice work in Metroid: Other M, and we see how well that ended up. So I wouldn't say Nintendo wouldn't allow shitty voice acting into a game. I'd rather err on the side of caution and just do without.

Really, Zelda is probably the one dialog-heavy game franchise that I will never mind being devoid of voice acting. It's just part of the atmosphere that the games present, and I have no problem using my imagination to fill in that particular blank.

Metroid is a similar case, but for different reasons -- the lack of voice helps drive home the feeling of isolation. I wouldn't mind Samus having a voice actress, as long as they could get someone that can actually do justice to the role (Jennifer Hale, maybe?) and pretend the actress in Other M never happened. But I don't want constant inner monologuing. If she's going to talk, it should be due to one of the rare instances where she actually needs to interact with someone.

@dankempster said:

For me personally, the absence of spoken word in games like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess acts as a means of detaching that world from our own. Because the characters never audibly speak, it amplifies that sense of detachment and makes Hyrule really feel like it's part of a completely different universe. If the characters were to start articulating in English it would kill that sense of detachment.

Ah, this makes sense. I'm still not convinced that it would detract as much as people claim (or as much as people would claim if there were to be voice acting), but I can understand the argument.

On a tangentially related note, I sometimes wish that Shadow of the Colossus had no dialogue and no text. A game with no explanation except for contextual clues, but one that still maintains an interesting story. I wish someone would make a game like that.

@kingzetta said:

All these reasons people are giving for how voice acting would ruin the game. Remind me why I've never liked zelda games.

So, wait, you've never liked the Zelda games, but for some reason it's really super important to you that the next game in a series that you don't like have voice acting? Why? If you don't care about a series I don't see why you should really care.

I can understand not letting Link talk but releasing a next generation console game in 2011 with no voice acting is fucking insane.

Yes it does. It has the purest and most basic form of voice actor possible. And I'm fine with that.

@Milkman said:

I can understand not letting Link talk but releasing a next generation console game in 2011 with no voice acting is fucking insane.

Next generation puzzle games are so fucked then! (I kid, I kid)

@tsiro said:

A game with no explanation except for contextual clues, but one that still maintains an interesting story. I wish someone would make a game like that.

Are you aware of Journey? It's a game currently in development for PSN, by the guys who made Flower. It's a multiplayer game that's designed to supposedly encourage cooperation without the aid of voice or text chat. I realise it's not exactly what you're looking for, and from what I've read the story is barely existent, let alone interesting, but it does seem like at least a step in the direction of what you're aspiring to here.

I also agree that'd be a great concept for a game, and I think the potential is definitely there to make it happen. I hope that as the industry continues to grow and evolve, we'll start to see people pushing those possibilities more often.

@kingzetta said:

@Afroman269: Claudia Black as Zelda, done sold.

Yes.

@dankempster: Yeah, I'm super excited for Journey. Really, in my mind, I guess it isn't important that it still tell an interesting story without the use of text/voice (though I still think that'd be a pretty cool thing to pull off), but about being able to communicate any sense of motivation, direction, and interaction with such a restricted palette from which to do so.

Dunno, never really bothered me as much as it does other people, I don't mind reading text. I guess I am used to it anyway as I am not a native English speaker.

Wow, there's actually people who don't enjoy a Zelda game just because it doesn't have voice acting? I'm shocked...

I'm glad they've stayed away from proper voice acting though. I could never see it working, it'd just ruin the experience for me and make it too film-like and serious. Having no speaking voice and conveying character communication through animation and imagination is something far more impressive and adds a lot more charm, in my opinion. It reminds me of classic Disney cartoons, like Oswald.

@kingzetta said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

I would be amazed if there is.

it's 2011 yes you can still have a silent protagonist, but a purely silent game is almost unacceptable.

There are tons of text-heavy Japanese-developed games with little to no voice acting. Yeah, Nintendo has the cash to pay voice actors, so they're just doing it out of tradition at this point, whereas other developers might not have the budget for voice acting, but Skyward Sword is hardly the only game this year to not be fully voiced.

But I imagine the purpose of this topic you've created is to be flamebait and draw out the crazy people who insist that voice acting would ruin the game. I just doubt you're seriously asking this, because you could go and watch any trailer to answer your question, or read the wiki page for the game.

I don't want voice acting, that would be weird.

No Zelda game needs voice acting. 

@kingzetta said:

All these reasons people are giving for how voice acting would ruin the game. Remind me why I've never liked zelda games.

So, wait, you've never liked the Zelda games, but for some reason it's really super important to you that the next game in a series that you don't like have voice acting? Why? If you don't care about a series I don't see why you should really care.

A Zelda game should NOT have voice acting. Making the game text based almost seems like the text is a translation of a foreign language (the Hyrulian language) and I like that. I don't want all the same voice actors we know to put their voices to characters we loved since before they even were in the business.

Could you picture it?

- Jennifer Hale as Zelda

- Fred Tatasciore as Ganon

- Nolan North as Link

Kill me now if Zelda ever gets voice actors. Voice actors are overused this day and age.

@kingzetta: He's actually a really popular voice actor. He does Vamp from MGS, that's my favorite anyway. He is known for being very versatile and doing strange things with his voice.

Look him up and all his credentials, you'll go "ohh no way!"

Upon just finding out that he did Saren from ME1, now Saren is my favorite of his.

EDIT: Apparently he didn't do Vamp. I can't remember that guy's name...

EDIT2: Phil LaMarr.

@kingzetta: He's actually a really popular voice actor. He does Vamp from MGS, that's my favorite anyway. He is known for being very versatile and doing strange things with his voice.

Look him up and all his credentials, you'll go "ohh no way!"

Just because Zelda has never had voice acting, doesn't mean it shouldn't. They've been trying to pull off the cinematic style since Ocarina, and while it was okay back then, having to read those backstory flashbacks about the Tri-force is getting old. Link doesn't need to talk, but everybody else has written dialogue, so why can't they have voice actors? If done properly, I don't think it would detract at all. I'm sure a lot of people would be a lot more hostile to a game without voice acting if it wasn't Zelda.

@RandyF said:

Just because Zelda has never had voice acting, doesn't mean it shouldn't. They've been trying to pull off the cinematic style since Ocarina, and while it was okay back then, having to read those backstory flashbacks about the Tri-force is getting old. Link doesn't need to talk, but everybody else has written dialogue, so why can't they have voice actors? If done properly, I don't think it would detract at all. I'm sure a lot of people would be a lot more hostile to a game without voice acting if it wasn't Zelda.

Most important part underlined. The thing is, if it was done it probably won't be done properly. The voice actors simply won't be able to capture the same magic that Nintendo manages to create from their jibberish noises and the little text art and cues that give each character's dialog personality.