Could voice acting work in The Legend of Zelda series?
The potential use of voice acting for the Legend of Zelda franchise has always been an interesting topic of debate among many Zelda fans. Some think that the use of spoken dialogue could help make the stories more engaging, while others believe that it could take the charm away from the Hyrule inhabitants.
Should voice actors be brought in to give the characters more depth? Or would taking away the giggles, sighs, grunts, and emphasis on body language take away their respective personalities?
GameInformer’s Phil Kollar had the chance to ask two of the most important members of Zelda’s development team, producer Eiji Aonuma and Nintendo sound group manager Koji Kondo about the issue.
Where do these gentlemen stand? Well, Kondo said he thinks giving Link a voice would damage his connection to the player.
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"The most important thing about the Zelda series is that the player becomes Link. One of the challenges with full voice is that if we’re trying to convey the player’s emotion through Link, but you hear Link talking in somebody else’s voice, that creates a disconnect between you and the role that you’re taking on."
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What does Aonuma think? Well, he agrees that giving Link a voice would also be a bad idea. However, his reason is a bit different. He thinks that it would look just a little too strange if Link remained a silent protagonist, as everyone else became more vocal. However, he didn’t completely rule out the possibility of voice acting become a new staple for the series somewhere down the line.
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"Of course, this was the first time we went with fully orchestrated songs in the game, and we’ve seen what that can do to help bring the world alive and make the game that much more fun. We’re continually looking at ways that we can evolve the series. We’re not confident that we can find the right balance with full voice, so we’ll see."
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He also joked about how even if there were voiced actors brought in to fill the roles of these characters, they would have to be speak Hylian, which no gamer could possibly understand.
But all joking aside, it seems that we aren’t going to see (or hear in this instance) voice acting in a Zelda title any time soon. Which is too bad. I mean, I can’t see how giving an epic hero like Link a voice could be anything but a positive.
Yup. Nothing can possibly go wrong in that situation. Absolutely nothing….
OK. So, maybe that was a bad example. But surely if Link, Zelda, and the rest of Hyrule Kingdom were given speaking roles in an actual game made by developers that had Nintendo’s approval, then things would turn out better right?….Right?….Why isn’t anyone answering?
Sigh. On second thought, maybe the citizens of Hyrule were never meant to talk.
In all seriousness though, I don't see how Nintendo couldn't keep Link as the silent hero and have a talented voice cast fill the rest of the roles. Maybe they can make Link's voiceless tendencies a pivital plot point?
But hey, I can see why they wouldn't want to change an established winning formula. I mean if it aint broke, don't fix it, right?
That's all I have to say about this topic for today, as I must go, for it is time for DINNER!
What do you think about this g1s? Should Link be given the gift of speach?
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
They Call Me The Fizz
Link works best as a mute but it would be nice to have the rest of the universe voiced. Purists however would throw a hissy fit at the very notion.
...you know who you are...
Ouch4u
Nah reading in the legend of zelda is like you're reading a story (a legend). If they add voice acting i think it will ruin the experience, think about Zoras or Gorons with voices just wouldn't be right, especially if they lip sync it would look crazy weird. Only the humans wouldn't look weird talking. Another thing is with all the speech they do have its much faster to read it than to wait till they say it all.
I had a similar problem with Final Fantasy i liked how they portrayed emotion through character expressions and the soundtrack in 7 and 8. The first FF with voice acting i played was 13 and man did the talking last forever, If it had been text that i could speed read through, it wouldnt have felt so dragged out.
So I prefer Zelda's style and i don't want it to be ruined like it was for Final Fantasy.
Mcgunn
I hate to say that I hope the Wii U fails so that Nintendo can stop making shitty consoles and focus all of their time on their priceless franchises having the production they deserve. Link has no dialogue as it is. Put voices where the text is and everything will be fine.
eRageHybrid
Made an account just to reply to this (whew making a password was such a bitch)
Alright then, my good sir--care to explain your logic? Making the Wii U fail to have voice acting in the game or in your interpretation--better. Pfft you think that if Big N's main console fails it will help them make better games? If it fails, Nintendo will barely have enough strength to stand on it's 2 legs. Not sure if you notice but retirement hasn't treated Atari and Sega too well. But don't take this to offense, feel free to respond back and let me know what you think.
Double-T
It would need to be done right, with care and precision.
smoke108
All voices, Fraser Agar.
Ninja_Commander
I feel that voice's in Zelda could help the games. But they need to get a good voice cast to match them. They are out there, just need to get out and try and experiment to see if it can work.
zgamer007
Absolutely not. I already can't stand the stupid voice acting they gave Link since OoT...you know those yells, grunts, and screams. It's incredibly annoying & it pisses off the people around me when I play those games (I don't blame them).
I wouldn't mind if they add it but give us the option of turning all of it off (including those damn yells from Link or any other character) so that we can get the silence of the earlier Zelda titles.
j0rdanp
yes, if done well. Maybe go the Final fantasy way or Kingdom hearts way, only voice acting for cutscenes
abINC88
For a game like Zelda, there shouldn't be full voice acting. I mean Mario's fortunate enough to get an matching voice BUT even when he speaks it's kind of annoying and the voice Samus was given plus the amount of pointless dialogue (not saying it was all pointless, she just kept on saying obvious things) made it painful to listen to her. I honestly don't see why people complain that they have to read to gain the full experience. I mean when I was playing Lost Odyssey and I encountered those dreams that were all text, I found that to be one of the most original and interesting aspects of the game because you learned of background experiences of each character through an finely crafted short story.