Skyward Sword General Discussion V.2

I'd like them to speak gibberish (Hylian or whathaveyou) to give them a little more character, and to keep the boxes of text the way they are. Putting a voice to a face can be fun.

Originally Posted by Panique

I'd like them to speak gibberish (Hylian or whathaveyou) to give them a little more character, and to keep the boxes of text the way they are. Putting a voice to a face can be fun.

That has been what I have been trying to say, thank you sir. I don't mind the characters talking, I just don't want them to speak English. There Hylian they should speak Hylian.

Originally Posted by Jxcrust

That has been what I have been trying to say, thank you sir. I don't mind the characters talking, I just don't want them to speak English. There Hylian they should speak Hylian.

Hmm... carefully considering the reasons I've been against VA in Zelda... I guess I can approve of gibberish VA.

Agreed, though perhaps we can make the mouths match the words yessss? Seriously, Midna was all over the place!

I don't really care either way. Not against none, VA or any kind of gibberish. All would do me good.

But Midna was all over the place, I agree. That kind of sucked.

Recall Rayman 2's gibberish? I thought that was well done.

Not Link, though. He's never said anything. It's tradition.

Ok, Hylian-gibberish could work. At least it'd be a step... It would give the characters a little more personality, they'd feel more real. I was totally surprised when Midna started talking in TP, took me a while to get used to it, but it did work pretty well.

Still, something about this idea bugs me. I keep trying to imagine different cutscenes with gibberish voice acting, and some of them suggest it could work, but... I don't know, maybe my imagination just doesn't feel like cooperating with this, but it appears to suggest that if Ganondorf were to talk nonsense I'd have serious difficulty respecting him anymore. And I want to have respect for my enemies.

It would probably depend on what kind of gibberish it would be, if it sounded real enough, then maybe.

I still vote for real voice acting though. I just think watching a scene and listening to it is more immersive. Reading distances you from the events, you're not in it, you're reading about it. There's a text box between you, the people you're supposed to care about, and the guy who's supposed to be you. At least that's what it feels like to me.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I prefer to use my imagination when I'm playing a game. I don't want to be told "how it is" by the devs, and VA is one of the ways in which that is done.

I have mixed feelings about voice acting.. especially with Zelda. There have been many characters in video games that have been ruined for me because of terrible or annoying voice acting, and I don't want that to happen with these games. Plus, Link should never speak :3

I don't think voice acting would work. It was OK with Midna but I wouldn't want all the characters to have voice acting in SS. I think they should select a few to speak "gibberish" and leave it at that.

If they are going to have cinematic cutscenes that are anywhere near to what they were like in TP, then I want English acting. having gibberish voice acting will still require me to read subtitles, and I HATE having to read subtitles in movies.

I would also hate having to imagine what the characters sound like while I'm watching a movie.

Originally Posted by Double A

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I prefer to use my imagination when I'm playing a game. I don't want to be told "how it is" by the devs, and VA is one of the ways in which that is done.

Maybe there could be an option to turn it on or off? I can see how it might get annoying.

I think voice acted gibberish worked well in Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

Originally Posted by Panique

Maybe there could be an option to turn it on or off? I can see how it might get annoying.

Obviously this is the best way to go. But if Nintendo plan on playing "artist" rather than "entertainer", I wouldn't count on it.

Gibberish reminds me of Banjo-Kazooie:



Gorgeous on the N64, but I'd absolutely hate every character speaking in gibberish throughout the SS game.

I'd rather have english speaking people than gibberish. I think it could work. I have a feeling though it will be classic subtitled stuff. Sometihng just gives me that feeling.

I really want to see a town or some form of life.

Not "nonsense" gibberish, "mysterious" gibberish.

Though having humanoid hylians talking like Midna might be a bit awkward...

In other news, watching the Gametrailers Skyloft Demo gets me more and more excited every time.

We don't dub movies here, so I'm used to subtitles. Though as soon as I learned English they started bugging me. They're unnecessary (to me) and in the way... They break the illusion. Especially if there's a black screen and someone's talking, big white letters when there's supposed to be nothing, it's annoying. In 3D movies, though they try to put the text in places where they'd be the least trouble, still, the picture moves and the words don't, it breaks the illusion. Thankfully DVDs have a no subtitles option.

In games, there's a well constructed scene, things in motion and you fall into the world... until a text box pushes you out again and makes you concentrate on something else. In worst cases the text makes that annoying noise while it writes itself there. At least remove that, please.

I was against voice acting until TP came and I started thinking how much more whole the cutscenes would be with voices. I simply don't see any reason to not include it anymore, optionally at least. Except that localizing would take even longer and the voices could be terrible, but... I'm dreaming about good voice acting here, not just voice acting.

I am very aware of the unlikeliness of voice acting in Zelda, Miyamoto seems to still be dead set against it. And that's fine, I won't hate the games if they keep them silent. I like Fire Emblem too, and those games are nothing but huge amounts of text. But at least they have (the few) cutscenes with voices. Could we at least have that?

Originally Posted by IGNIS

Gibberish reminds me of Banjo-Kazooie:



Gorgeous on the N64, but I'd absolutely hate every character speaking in gibberish throughout the SS game.

I LOVE YOU! for mentioning Banjo Kazooie. Best games ever.

Originally Posted by Double A

Hmm... carefully considering the reasons I've been against VA in Zelda... I guess I can approve of gibberish VA.

But it could get annoying fast!

I cannot stand sound effects when having text scroll, it get's entirely monotonous. Leave the silent text scrolling with the beautiful soundtrack thanks

Also, if there was V.O. english is fine, we don't speak italian, but we can watch movies set in italy with english actors. It's irrational to not apply this logic to games.

Lastly, I didn't think you could understand Hylian in the zelda games anyway? Hylian is an ancient language that isn't native anymore iirc? However, the native tongue SHOULD be english (or the release countries language) if they do V.O. for any characters who would otherwise have engish text.

---------- Post added at 07:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:23 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Meralia

I still vote for real voice acting though. I just think watching a scene and listening to it is more immersive.

I actually think animation is even more important. Twilight Princess has some good animation moments, but far better facial animations would be great. I like seeing expression, which is key to understanding anything particularly emotional over VA which can go pear shaped if it sucks.