Not Fully Voiced - Is It A Deal Breaker?

Zelda games haven't been voiced in the past, not sure why adding voices, even if they weren't "fully" voiced, would be a deal breaker.

@tobbrobb said:

Yeah, I tend to agree. Like, random example that comes to mind: original Knights of the Old Republic. I played it quite a few years after it first came out, and here is the sum total of what I remember about the voice acting in that game:

• Bastila Shan is just Naomi from Metal Gear Solid, because it seems like Jennifer Hale can get away with using a slightly more refined/formal version of her normal speaking voice in a lot of roles
• there's a sidequest involving some poor guy wrongfully (or rightfully? I think it takes a turn) accused for a crime, and the prosecutor is Cam Clarke doing his snide Liquid Snake voice pretty much verbatim, and it's great
• Ed Asner plays a grumpy old Jedi who might as well literally be named Ed Asner. Celebrity stunt casting at its finest!
• Mission Vao had an appropriately bubbly, street urchin-esque attitude and voice performance
• HK-47 is great, 80% because of the writing, 20% because of the deadpan delivery. Sorry to that guy, but I think a lot of people could pull off "deadpan robot voice saying vaguely menacing things", so it really comes down to the writing.
• Most of the male characters are just Grim ToughGuys, except for Carth who is just kinda lame.

And that's about it. I'm sure BioWare spends a lot of money on VO for their games, but aside from being worth it for the occasional "Wrex, Shepherd" memes, most of that incidental dialogue (especially with minor NPCs) could be unvoiced and it probably wouldn't dramatically make a difference to what I really take away from those games.

I mean, I guess if there is some audio engineer at Nintendo who really wants to take a crack at a cool voice effect to give every Zora and Goron and Deku, then go nuts, I guess, and until then I just have to imagine that. But it sounds like whoever oversees most of the big Nintendo franchises isn't interested in transforming them into fully voiced epics, the same way they'd rather not make a full console Pokemon RPG since they'd have to gamble like 10x the budget and those portable Pokemons sell just fine as is. The only one I can really even think of that got a big story and VO upgrade was Metroid: Other M, which had abysmal melodramatic writing and voice acting that didn't make a good impression on players and critics. I can't imagine it gave Nintendo much confidence to suddenly give more story and VO to their other 20+ year-old franchises.

Honestly, if Zelda eventually transitioned to the point where it is semi-voiced, like the recent Fire Emblems on 3DS, that's probably close enough. Most characters just have like 10-20 generic lines that kinda indicate their mood and give you a sense of their personality, with only a few story-central characters actually having significant custom VO for story cutscenes.

It hasn't been in the past, whether you look at the zelda series or even other games with silent protagonists (of which there are many examples). To think anyone would consider it a dealbreaker to what looks like a very special game is kinda crazy.

TBH, I just don't care. That being said, I do feel the silent protagonist needs to be done away with.

I'd actually prefer either entirely voiced or not voiced at all. Partial voice ends up making the non voiced sections feel awkwardly quiet. Still, most of the time I end up not really caring too much unless it's unusually obnoxious. Generally it's the cutesy anime voices that get to me.

No, lady, you don't sound 8. You sound like a 40 year old pretending to be an 8 year old.

It's not a deal-breaker but it's lame. Either you don't have voiced lines and you make that work, or you go with full-on voice acting and you commit to that (which doesn't mean that the player character has to be a chatterbox -- see MGSV). This in-between thing of voicing only certain lines is something that might be understandable in a low-budget game with tons of dialogue where it's simply not economically feasible, but a huge company like Nintendo have no excuse for going that route with the next major entry in one of their biggest franchises. It just feels cheap and half-assed.

It's not a deal breaker, and to be honest with or without voice acting, I don't think I would mind.

Though, I have to applaud Nintendo for trying it out with the new Zelda game (and from the looks of the trailer), doing a good job with the voice acting. I'm really hoping for some great things with this one.

Given the quality of the voice acting in the trailer, it might be better without.

No, but it would be nice. Never really been a "fan" of the silent protagonist. Not against it by any means, but a fully voiced cast of characters means a lot when I'm trying to dive into the story it's providing.

@cikame: I thought the voice acting was spot on during the trailer, both the narrator and zelda. Perfect fit in my opinion.

Idk if the partial voice acting will bother me, but I think silent protagonists are pretty dumb and weaken the story. I guess the fact that Zelda is light on story is the main reason the silent protagonist isn't that big a deal in these games.

I wish they would get past no voice in Zelda. It just seems like they are clinging to old traits.

I don't mind link being silent. Maybe even do something interesting with it. Have it as a character trait rather than something ignored in universe. But the lack of voice seems to encourage the awful practices they have when writing dialogue.

Not a big deal either way I suppose but I feel like silent paragraphs reiterating points need to go away at the very least. And I'd really like some damn voice acting honestly.

I can read. I'll be fine.

I don't mind it. Voices for the big, important cutscenes, no voices for the third time Beedle invites you to look at his wares. That's totally fine.

These thoughts mirror mine.