Poll: Should Zelda games have voice acting?

[Zetsubou^-^]

i could see possibly other characters talking, but link should stay silent. the problem with American voice actors is that they are very few and far between, so lots of characters sound alike, and your screwed of you hate one or more.

I'm not sure why everyone is equating voice acting to modernization. its been around since cartridge games (much longer for cartoons)and its always been hit or miss. honestly, the characters have so much more expression than most of the above examples because of body language. I've never played a Zelda game expecting high end gaming, although i think most Zelda games have a high amount of polish some people overlook.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Anything more then a grunt, or a un-intelligible mess of garbled up words, and I SWEAR TO GOD THERE WILL BE BLOOD SPILT AT NINTENDO HEADQUARTERS!

(Just kidding, but it'd REAAALLY ruin the whole "Silent Hero" or "Retro" feel the games have.

 

[striderkiwi]

Remember Metroid? Yeah, you do. Not really much of a great success.

I like silent Zelda, personally.

metroid other m was bad for many MANY reasons. the dialogue was just plain terrible, along with the voice acting. I doubt that would happen to Zelda.

 

[PinkiePyro]

just no...

we do not need a second coming of the god awful cartoon

 

[deathbyoatmeal]

Remember Metroid? Yeah, you do. Not really much of a great success.

I like silent Zelda, personally.

Remember metorid prime 3? that had voice acting for everyone but samus and that added alot in my opinion

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm a fan of voice acting. However, Zelda is an exception. I think I finally figured out why that is, too: the music.

Zelda almost doesn't even need any captions to tell its stories. The series has such rich music that is used to set the tone so well that those songs never leave me, and they always remain tied to images. I just can't imagine a Zelda game where the music fades into the background so we can hear characters speak. It doesn't fit the series.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

No, Zelda shouldn't have voice acting, because bad voice acting exists, and if Zelda gets voice acting, then its voice acting will automatically be bad and not good, because good voice acting doesn't happen with any movie or video game ever created, especially not with companies like Nintendo who have the resources to hire good voice actors!

 

[girzwald]

Remember Metroid? Yeah, you do. Not really much of a great success.

I like silent Zelda, personally.

Prime 3 had voice acting. But Samus was still the silent protagonist, and it worked extremely well.

And the metroid you are talking about. Other M.....the problem with that game was a terrible terrible script, not the voice acting or the existence of it.

 

[xyrafhoan]

I found the sound effects in Skyward Sword fit in lieu of voice acting, but the opening when you first load the game could have really used a narrator. The text was kind of iffy to read on top of those beautiful watercolour slides. Would have loved say... Patrick Stewart. But that's the ONLY time I was craving voice acting. With the little quips every NPC in the game has, I can make up the voices in my head well enough.

 

[LtWiesel]

Doesn't really need it but if they ever try it, i hope it's in the half-life way...lots of voice acting around you but Link remains silent.

 

[Roganzar]

Short answer; No!
Long Answer; Noooooooooooooooo!
After Metroid Other M Nintendo's silent protagonists need to stay that way.

Don't blame the voice-actors, blame the shitty script and moronic writers

as for whether or not Zelda need voice-acting, only if they can get Crispin Freeman to play Ganon.....that is all

And that is where the majority of the blame rests with that game. However a good voice actor/actress should be able to improve on terrible writing, so the actress in this case is not blameless.
Now to amend my knee jerk reaction and say that giving Link or Mario a voice would lose a lot of their charm.

 

[Guffe]

I don't know if I would care or not.
Of course Zelda has always been silent...
But if voice acting / script would be good, it wouldn't be a bad thing right?
So... were's the "I don't care alternative?"

 

[Emperor Nat]

HEY, LISTEN. HEY, LISTEN. HEY, LISTEN.

...

HEY, LI- *Crack*

Zelda is not a series applauded for snappily written dialogue. Although I don't mind the idea of Link being voiced beyond his normal DWAH... It would have to be done very, very carefully.

 

[Fishyash]

I voted yes, but that's just idealistic of me.

The problem with the zelda series though is two things, 1st being the nostalgic players thinking it will ruin the aesthetic of the game (although I don't think it would really matter if it was only the supporting characters).

Secondly though, with large games with lots of sidequests, I personally think having to voice act everything would be a major hassle. Also, I do think it's a plus of a game has voice acting, but I only consider it a very minor one (let's just say I really wouldn't mind if the elder scrolls games had minimal/no voice acting), especially since it's something that you can mess up really easily, and it takes away resources from other developments to the game.

It's much easier to do voice acting for a linear game. While the zelda series has a linear story, there are always lots of sidequests and secrets.

 

[MaxiP62]

At first I thought no, but after playing skyward sword, I think they should. But Link should NEVER be voiced. Ever. But I think it would be okay if it was simply just Hylian.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Nope, not needed. The grunts are amazing and hilarious.

 

[babinro]

Should it have Voice Acting? Yes. In this generation of gaming it's silly to have an rpg title like this where you still have to read text. It takes you away from any sense of immersion the game is trying to create. Considering the character of Link changes with almost every game...if the voice is received negatively they can always just change it with the next outing.

That said, I don't feel the product as a whole suffers without it. I'm not actually angry or remotely surprised when a Zelda title doesn't have voice acting.

 

[wooty]

Nope, the Zelda series has always seemed right for having no voice acting.

Yeah sure, newer characters such as Midna or Fi have some sort of language there, but it fits in well as its not really a real language and its just in snippets.

 

[QPCloudy]

Geez, I dunno.I mean, sure, it get a little annoying with the super fast Japanese mumbling, but to be honest, if they all started talking, it would be kind of weird at this point.