Text vs. Voice Acting

Nintendo has a history of using text for dialogue. They show a text box, and you hear the speaker making sounds, but not really saying what's written in the text box. It's been in every 3D Mario game and every 3D Zelda game. Getting rid of it would just anger fans.

Originally Posted by Majoraman

Nintendo has a history of using text for dialogue. They show a text box, and you hear the speaker making sounds, but not really saying what's written in the text box. It's been in every 3D Mario game and every 3D Zelda game. Getting rid of it would just anger fans.

Actually, Peach had VA in Super Mario Galaxy. I don't think it was bad at all.

I also hate it when VA comes up and people say "ZOMG, LINK SHOULDN'T TALK!!!!!!" Why can't it be everyone but Link?

Also Ganon the King, there still needs to be text. Sometimes you can't understand some words in song and movies, so you need lyrics and subtitles, right? That's what the text would be, subtitles.

It would be weird it they talked too me...besides, whats wrong with the little grunts and gasps and weird noises and laughs the charaters make? You don't need words to show your surprised, or scared, or happy.

Originally Posted by WindWakerrules

It would be weird it they talked too me...besides, whats wrong with the little grunts and gasps and weird noises and laughs the charaters make? You don't need words to show your surprised, or scared, or happy.

My main problem was sometimes I couldn't tell who was talking. But now their mouths move, so either way is fine for me.

Maybe then we could choose if we want it in the game or not. I know some stubborn ol' Pro-Text-Boxer is just gonna restate their reasons here and just add a few details to it, but at least you could choose whether or not you want voice-acting. I personally think that It would add a ton of emotion to powerful cutscenes like the TP Ending Scenes. I would feel just like Link when Ilia gives him the beef for hurting Epona in TP. Maybe in PH I'd get some emotion out of Linebeck shouting "WAHOOOOOOO!" when you jump over a sea trap. For those against additional emotion and want their peace, let them have a text-box.

Originally Posted by Triforce of the Gods

Actually, Peach had VA in Super Mario Galaxy. I don't think it was bad at all.

I also hate it when VA comes up and people say "ZOMG, LINK SHOULDN'T TALK!!!!!!" Why can't it be everyone but Link?

Also Ganon the King, there still needs to be text. Sometimes you can't understand some words in song and movies, so you need lyrics and subtitles, right? That's what the text would be, subtitles.

Super Mario and the Zelda games are two diffrent genres, Super Mario is a platform game while Zelda is a adventure game.
Having VA in a platform game isn't the same as having VA in a adventure game.
In a adventure game like Zelda you get a closer relationship to the charachter that you can't get in games like Super Mario.

Super Mario is based on jumping back and forward and avoid diffrent enemies while Zelda is about exploring and solving puzzels while getting forward in a much more deeper story.

I don't have any closer relation to Peach and therfore I don't care about if they spoil her voice with a bad VA, It's diffrent with Zelda that has been in all the games of the zelda series.
I have developed a pretty close bond to her and have my own imagination of how she sound and how she are for kind of person.
It's the same with all the charachters in the Zelda series, I really don't want to see that mine picture of Zelda is ruined becuse the developers decide to bring in some VA.
Even if it's a good VA the game is ruined for me, not only for the future games but for all the old zelda games as well.
They might be fun, but not as fun as the time you got the option to self decide how a charachter's voice sounded.
And the deal that Link shouldn't talk is simple, Making him not make any sound enable you to see your self in him for me is it so anyway.

This is just what I'am thinking and people maybe have totally diffrent opinions.

Sorry for bad spelling and grammar.

I think this shows that Zelda is nearly perfect. People wouldn't like, or at least the people I know, changes to Zelda

Change is good though, and I dont think there has been a near perfect Zelda game since OOT.

Despite disputes I can safely and I think, positively, say that Zelda games will remain without voice acting or at least, remain with Link being voiceless. And THAT is a fact (the Link part). I wouldn't mind too much the other characters having voice acting, although I would prefer Zelda to sustain its trait of just text and simple grunts and sound effects, but I definitely think that Link should remain the player's character and I think it may remain this way, too.

Originally Posted by Grumble Guru

Yeah, the voice acting in Corruption was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnntabulous.
They handled the voices very well, and Samus still didn't talk, the way we like her. I feel like Samus when I play Metroid since she doesn't talk, and I'm a dude.

Alright, I'm hearing a lotta people complaining about how the next Zelda game should be different, and why can't character voice acting be the first step? Link will never need to talk in his adventures, but with voice acting I'd feel more emotion coming out of the game, making me want to keep on keepin' on.

I don't know why Goran refers to OoT, I mean, why does it matter? It's not like they're doing any kind of remake of OoT.

The other races... Hmm.
I'd like to see:
Gerudos with African voiceovers
Kokiri with child voiceovers (obviously)
Gorons with a deeper American voice (and proud-sounding)
Zoras with... I dunno, I'll think of something
Hylians with many varied European voices
Link with no voice (since he won't be talking)
Monsters just continue on howling and whatnot, I mean monsters don't really talk, save for TP's King Bulbin.
Ganondorf... I dunno

If somebody would help me out here... that would be great.

Zoras should sound like they are underwater or at least some very soft voice.

I think the whole Voiceacting idea might work, but it would be very hard and much work!
The VA of MP3 was awsome but Nintendo could pull that of pretty easy, because there are not much characters and thus not much voice acting.

As most of the people here I too think that Link needs to remain silent.

So all those who want no voice acting want Zelda to stay in the dark? Is that right? Link doesn't have to speak, but no-one else should either? Because that's just stupid! Gaming is changing, becoming more realistic, more immersive. And part of that is adding voice, adding character, to games. In real life, people don't draw textboxes with what they're saying, unless they're a mute. Gaming is trying to become more life-like, and Zelda will have to move with the times or get left behind. As far as I know, sales for TP in Japan, the home of gaming, were horrible. Sales will start to decline, and then, possibly, Nintendo will see the dead weight they're carrying, see it as worthless, and dump the series.

Yes, a grim insight into the future...

Originally Posted by bitterlime

Zoras should sound like they are underwater or at least some very soft voice.

I think the whole Voiceacting idea might work, but it would be very hard and much work!
The VA of MP3 was awsome but Nintendo could pull that of pretty easy, because there are not much characters and thus not much voice acting.

As most of the people here I too think that Link needs to remain silent.

Yeah, it would take work, and it may not feel "Zelda" to some. I want Link to be as silent as a blade of grass like most everyone here too. The only thing is, though, I think the others should have voices. Link never does talk anyway, and that lets players become more immersed in the game as they feel they are Link, and if it had voice acting, players would be even more immersed.

Many of us on this forum say that Zelda is getting old, so why can't we have voice acting on Zelda Wii and make it feel new? Zelda's getting behind, since the game with the best graphics was really a Gamecube game, and they've never had voice acting.

What's the probability of bad VA anyway? How often does it happen. Not that often, I'd say. Decent voice acting would be good enough, as long as the actors could put good emotion into it. If we want to get a foreign accent going on, we get the people who naturally have that accent. Duh, and I think Nintendo would be smart enough to get good voice actors, since they've done it before. It's nothing new to them.

The quality of Voice acting is getting better and better, there shouldn't be much of a worry of bad voices. Nintendo knows that this is one of their top franchises, they won't just pick some random people off the street and say "hey, read this!" they're going to pick some professional people.

Like many have said, Link does not need to be voices but everyone else should be voices, of course there doesn't need to be a voice every single time you go and talk to someone but there should definitely be voices during story progression or any sort of event. If the voices don't sound like the voices in your head, it won't mean that the quality of the game is decreased.

No one in Final Fantasy 7 talked but Advent Children featured some great voice acting, same can happen with Zelda. So many games have stepped into Voice acting and it's helped them so much, Metal Gear wouldn't be as great if it weren't for the superb voice acting, none of the RPG's I've played would feel as powerful if I were reading text boxes through the entire game. Heck, even Sonic the Hedgehog, a game with fairly low Voice Acting Quality is made a bit better just by the fact that they're talking.

As for myself I don't care if the VA is good or not, I still don't want to have any voice-acting for the Zelda games.
Why?
Becuse I don't like to hear any english in a land like Hyrule or maybe Termina.
Even if you will see english text my imagination don't want to think they do talk any english in the diffrent worlds of the zelda games but that's
maybe just me who thinks that.
And I think the goal with any zelda game is not to be realistic or such, it's already very immersive and also have great charachters, but by adding any VA for these would spoil the fun for me anyway.

It's true, the sale for TP wasn't good in Japan but sold over 5 million units totally making it the third-best-selling game in the franchise's history.

I know that many here that want to have VA in Zelda games, and I respect you all to have your own opinion I just want to say mine.


Sorry for bad english and grammar.

Zelda needs to get with the times.

With all the dramatic scenes, they'd only be even more captivating if Nintendo were to implement voice acting. Whether or not they take a Final Fantasy XII approach by combining both text and voice acting is debatable, but it would work out rather well. Voice acting has made games so much better, compelling, and realistic. And there is some really great talent out there in the voice acting world these days. Why shouldn't the Zelda series be a part of something that has been in some of the best games of all time? It only enriches the experience and dramatic effect of the story.

Originally Posted by Dark Link

Zelda needs to get with the times.

With all the dramatic scenes, they'd only be even more captivating if Nintendo were to implement voice acting. Whether or not they take a Final Fantasy XII approach by combining both text and voice acting is debatable, but it would work out rather well. Voice acting has made games so much better, compelling, and realistic. And there is some really great talent out there in the voice acting world these days. Why shouldn't the Zelda series be a part of something that has been in some of the best games of all time? It only enriches the experience and dramatic effect of the story.

If they ever should implement voice-acting I would as mention before like to be given the option to only have the text, I might be very conservative but I don't want voice-acting for any Zelda game.
I usally don't like any game with voice-acting it ruins my gaming experience as it forces you how the charachter sounds when talking do they talk with a noble tone or do they kinda shout when speaking?
I don't want to hear a goron shout "Hello brother!" that would just sound silly.
Another point is that speaking in english could ruin the emersion of the game. Everyone is meant to be Hylian and they have their own language. Hearing english would kinda ruin that emersion. Reading letters on a screen however
allows you to understand what is happening without breaking the immersion.
Also if there will be any voice-acting it has to be done good, I liked Tidus from final fantasy untill they got him a voice in Final fantasy10.

I might or more likely I surley are very conservative person, and I don't like that any Voice-acting would spoil the spirit that the Zelda games has given me. (Please don't call me fan-boy)
The first time I saw zelda, was when I was 4-8 years old, and my brother who was 16 then I think bought OoT.
I loved to sit in the couch watching him, and maybe laugh a bit when he got stuck in the game after the fire tempel.
From that very moment I saw him pick up the OoT box and began to play it, I developed a own imagination of the entire Zelda universe and how everyone is, Link for exampel is to me a shy, but stands for his belives and others saftey.
Back then I sometimes when I was bored I did often dream about being Link and walk around in Hyrule.

So if they ever should put VA in a zelda game, then please give me the option to turn it off.


Sorry for bad english and grammar.

Originally Posted by Goran

If they ever should implement voice-acting I would as mention before like to be given the option to only have the text, I might be very conservative but I don't want voice-acting for any Zelda game.
I usally don't like any game with voice-acting it ruins my gaming experience as it forces you how the charachter sounds when talking do they talk with a noble tone or do they kinda shout when speaking?
I don't want to hear a goron shout "Hello brother!" that would just sound silly.

I don't think any game has that option. Although, they could just make a volume bar for the voicing with a mute option and have subtitles implemented like so many other games do.

You also have to realize that not all games have an RPG-esque feel to the main characters. Just imagine trying to play God of War (I, II) without hearing the incredible voice cast, and, needless to say, Krato's badass voice. And if you truly hate voice acting like you wrote you do, then you must hate a lot of new generation games, since a majority of them have voice acting one way or another.

As for silly. Well, I'd take actual talking over grunts any day.

Another point is that speaking in english could ruin the emersion of the game. Everyone is meant to be Hylian and they have their own language. Hearing english would kinda ruin that emersion. Reading letters on a screen however allows you to understand what is happening without breaking the immersion.

Reading text is about as non-immersion as it gets. And with a combination of grunts and little sounds that attempt to make it seem like the characters are talking? Oh, that just makes matters worse.

Also if there will be any voice-acting it has to be done good, I liked Tidus from final fantasy untill they got him a voice in Final fantasy10.

So you do like voice acting. See? Not all voice acting is bad.

I might or more likely I surley are very conservative person, and I don't like that any Voice-acting would spoil the spirit that the Zelda games has given me. (Please don't call me fan-boy)
The first time I saw zelda, was when I was 4-8 years old, and my brother who was 16 then I think bought OoT.
I loved to sit in the couch watching him, and maybe laugh a bit when he got stuck in the game after the fire tempel.
From that very moment I saw him pick up the OoT box and began to play it, I developed a own imagination of the entire Zelda universe and how everyone is, Link for exampel is to me a shy, but stands for his belives and others saftey.
Back then I sometimes when I was bored I did often dream about being Link and walk around in Hyrule.

Well, I can't debate against personal fantasies. Personally, it's my 'belief' that the video games should do the imagining for you. That's pretty much the whole point.

I voted for both. At least, that would make a good transition, right? To all of a sudden switch to voice acting for a Zelda game would be so...alien. It might not feel like Zelda.

Originally Posted by Mayor Adam West

As far as I know, sales for TP in Japan, the home of gaming, were horrible. Sales will start to decline, and then, possibly, Nintendo will see the dead weight they're carrying, see it as worthless, and dump the series.

Yes, a grim insight into the future...

Everything sells horrible in Japan nowadays. Zelda has NEVER been big there compared to America and other regions.

TP is the third best selling Zelda, only under LoZ and OoT.

Oh yeah, and if it started to bomb, I think they WOULD try and change it rather then just kill it off. Right now they don't see the need, it gets excellent reviews and sells very well. (and TP is the best game if you ask me)

Originally Posted by jehuty

Heck, even Sonic the Hedgehog, a game with fairly low Voice Acting Quality is made a bit better just by the fact that they're talking.

No, it isn't helped. It's god awful. It would be 10000x better if they didn't talk.

I dont see why people so much want to keep Zelda in the dark ages and keep it the same for another 15 games, things NEED to change, and text is old and unemersive. Nintendo is japanese, so they will take notice of Japan more, obviously, and if Zelda is bombing, they would just say "Hey lets invest millions on a failing project!" No, they just shelf it. Zelda needs to move with the times or die, and most people admit its getting stale as it is, another game thats the same as the last won't do the series any favors especially with the reviewers. Voice acting is a simple neccesity thats been around a long time, Video Game Voice actors now is a recognised job market, and there some very good people who do it.

Originally Posted by Celvantis

I dont see why people so much want to keep Zelda in the dark ages and keep it the same for another 15 games, things NEED to change, and text is old and unemersive. Nintendo is japanese, so they will take notice of Japan more, obviously, and if Zelda is bombing, they would just say "Hey lets invest millions on a failing project!" No, they just shelf it. Zelda needs to move with the times or die, and most people admit its getting stale as it is, another game thats the same as the last won't do the series any favors especially with the reviewers. Voice acting is a simple neccesity thats been around a long time, Video Game Voice actors now is a recognised job market, and there some very good people who do it.

You say keeping Zelda in what you call in the "dark ages"
People still hype the series and TP was a pretty succesfull and was warmed welcomed by newcomers in the series.
Also, Super Mario has almost not changed a bit but is still very popular.

And again, I said this thousands of times and I don't think I'am the only one that feel like this.
Putting in voice-acting would destroy all the pre-conceived ideas about how all the charachters sounded.
I already have a voice on how in the zelda game sound, putting in VA would spoil that feeling not only for me I think but for a whole bunch of *gulp* fanboys.
And don't you think it would strike pretty hard if all these fanboys was dissapointed that zelda had VA and maybe left the series to start playing all the old zelda games over and over agains instead of buying the new ones that have VA?
I would probaly leave the series if the bring in VA becuse I'am a fanboy.


Sory for bad english and grammar.