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Should Zelda Wii U get Voice Acting?

Nanashrew said:
Sound bites? Like conversations in FE:A with one or two words with accompanied text? I'd be fine with that to a degree. Though, I am strict on this. I would still prefer it to have the Japanese VAs speak in Hylian. I actually did like Zelda singing in Skyward Sword.
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By sound bites I just mean exactly how Zelda is today: the character says "Hey!" or grunts but their lips continue to move as you read the mostly unrelated text below.

I know it seems unorthodox to offer the option to turn off the voice acting, but Zelda is clearly a special case with a very conservative fanbase. I think it would be an elegant compromise and wouldn't be too hard to implement from a technical perspective.
 
Dolobill said:
Metroid had been mistreated by Nintendo for a while now. I think they can learn from that though. Naturally there might be growing pains. Maybe the first voice-acted Zelda game won't sound that great, but they need to start somewhere.
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I'm certain the voice-acting will be better than Other M, but that doesn't mean it will be good.
Mysterious said:
Other than Samus (and that was due to Sakamoto's insistence on her sounding monotone), what's wrong with the voice acting? Obviously the plot sucks.
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Adam Malkovich is just as boring as Samus.

Anthony Higgs is barely restraining laughter with each line.

MB's robot imitation sounds like a parody.

And Colonel Burrito is evil, mmmmyessssssssss.
 
No. For a simple reason, I want to play the new Zelda as soon as possible and decent voice acting will add at least a year delay for us in Europe - they wouldn't have to just do it for English, but French, Italian, German, Spanish too. As someone that always presses A to speed through the cutscenes as much as possible, it would be a waste of money.
 
Absolutely all the NPC should have voice acting. Well, truthfully I don't care if they speak Hylian, but this whole grating chime and GIANT COLORED TEXT on screen has got to go. I rather have silent cinematics over that junk.
 
No. Give me the gibberish voice effects from Banjo-Kazooie.
 
If all the characters speak in Hylian (sans Link), then sure. Even speaking in a country's native language (English, French, German, etc) will be alright with me, as long as Link stays quiet.
 
Citing Other M as an example of why not to include voice acting is kind of silly. Lots of reasons for that game to end up as it did, a combination of using Team Ninja's go to CG/cutscene studio plus poor localization (apparently thanks to Sakamoto) and going "oh, this didn't work well the first time, lets not do it ever" isn't very progressive.
For what they were, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and W101 all had great VA, and I'm sure after Metroid Other M Nintendo would make sure not to screw up with their big money maker.
If they want to appease the fans, put in a "classic" version which eliminates VA in favor for the normal speech bubbles
 
Fantasy language, so they less likely screw anyone up (which would be likely, especially considering the amount of weird characters the series has), while cutscenes aren't awkward because no one has a voice despite a strikingly increasing amount of ,,talking'' and cinematic scenes.

James Scott said:
Citing Other M as an example of why not to include voice acting is kind of silly. Lots of reasons for that game to end up as it did, a combination of using Team Ninja's go to CG/cutscene studio plus poor localization (apparently thanks to Sakamoto) and going "oh, this didn't work well the first time, lets not do it ever" isn't very progressive.
For what they were, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and W101 all had great VA, and I'm sure after Metroid Other M Nintendo would make sure not to screw up with their big money maker.
If they want to appease the fans, put in a "classic" version which eliminates VA in favor for the normal speech bubbles
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Xenoblade's furball character offers some of the worst examples of voice acting in recent memory. Zelda is full of these wacky characters. Just imagining a world full of such cringeworthy voice acting... yikes.
 
I'm a fan of the emoting the voice actors do already, including the more substantial voicing done for companion characters like Midna and Fi that are largely gibberish. It gives them an opportunity to add more personality in their animations and character design.

Plus, who can forget the time-honored tradition of making up funny voices for Zelda characters? Good times.
 
i feel as though this would require a rather huge reboot [stylistically / art-direction wise] of the series for it to not feel out of place.

obviously i could be wrong, but i've never felt anything was amiss in this regard in any zelda game to date.
 
Dolobill said:
Metroid had been mistreated by Nintendo for a while now. I think they can learn from that though. Naturally there might be growing pains. Maybe the first voice-acted Zelda game won't sound that great, but they need to start somewhere.
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I don't see it like that. If no one at Nintendo knows how to manage voice acting, they need to hire someone who does. I'm not going to accept bad voice acting just because it's there first shot.
 
A short voice clip when you start talking to NPCs is all that's necessary. Anything more would be overkill and just plain odd for the series, imo.
 
they should go the minimalist route and tell the story though the environments, puzzles, art, etc. no cutscenes. almost no dialogue or text.
 
HoJu said:
they should go the minimalist route and tell the story though the environments, puzzles, art, etc. no cutscenes. almost no dialogue or text.
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I'd rather they didn't tbh.

Also, at the thread, if they went with a made up language can Link shout/speak Hylian, but just not have a text box? It's not like it's be the first time within a mainline Zelda game that a Link has spoken, see the Hero's Shade.
 
If they are willing to create a language and pay voice actors they might as well go all the way and just use normal voice acting.
I feel that, if they feel like they can do the series justice, they should give everyone a voice.
 
I don't think voice acting is necessary at all and has at times actually hurt dialog or at least reduce the amount of dialog in games. I'd rather have voice acting than Banjo Kazooie/Okami style grunts though. Those are sooooooo fucking grating.
 
As long as Link doesn't talk, sure.

I think a good middle ground is to select whether or not you want a VO at the start of the game. People who want it can have it, those that don't will just get text cues like usual.
 
Yes. Given the graphical fidelity they seem to have been able to achieve in their trailer, it would be disruptive and weird to rely on text. Relying on text also would look cheap and low rent compared to other AAA games. A fully orchestrated score also is a must. Because Nintendo likely will be spending a lot of resources on this game, it doesn't make sense to cheap out on the game's production values in areas that would detract from the game's presentation.

Personally, I am a fan of the idea of inventing a language for the Hylians to speak ala Avatar or GOT. That would help circumvent issues with poor voice acting, dialogue, and expenses related to localization. With the complexity of the "gibberish" used in games like Pikmin 3, Nintendo is already a considerable way there. It would be even neater if Nintendo could somehow invent languages for all of the different races in the game.
 
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