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Should Winds&Waves have Voice Acting?
Comments
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There are many reasons.
Just to look at one thing, 'immersion' is not just higher quality. A book can be immersive without actually letting you see or hear anything. A scratchy bunch of drawings can tell you more than a high-quality movie.
Immersion is not a good reason to say 'yes', certainly. Charm in what the words of the characters say are more immersive than hearing them say it aloud.
And if its just because other games do it… so what? Other games do real-time combat much more often than turn. Doesn't mean Pokemon should pick it up as their norm too.
You could say no because their voice acting could easily end up being low-quality.
Or maybe because you'd rather focus on other aspects.
Or maybe because you hear characters better when they aren't talking aloud.
Or simply because you cannot think of a reason to say yes beyond 'why not?'
Voice acting is not a priority if its going to cut other things out. Most likely on the chopping block is going to be charm. That's the LAST thing I want to lose.1 -
Yes
I'm not advocating for full blown voice acting on every interaction in the game but just for important cutscenes. Like hearing Nemona before the final Champion fight or hearing everyone before diving down into Area Zero(and while venturing from Rest Area to Rest Area would have been a nice touch). Zelda never had voice acting until BotW came along in 2017. It's had it for over 10 years(and four games: BotW/TotK for mainline and two Hyrule Warriors games in AoC and AoI) and they only have it for important cutscenes and never while in gameplay. The fact they added voice acting into Ocarina of Time speaks volumes and why Pokémon hasn't done it is inexplicable to me.
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Yes
The first part is so much pseudo-intellectual claptrap. Different media have different conventions and means of conveyance. Obviously the painted picture or the written word does not need voice acting (although, have you ever heard of an audio book?)
But video games are an audio-visual medium. In many ways comparable to an interactive movie, though I feel that sells the concept and its potential short. There is a clear intention to convey actual speech in Pokémon, from the text appearing on screen, to the way the characters are animated, to the awkward and bizarrely muted lip flaps the characters conspicuously mouth to the camera.
Surely you do not expect me to believe that the humans of the Pokémon world are entirely struck dumb and soundlessly convey their thoughts by manifesting diegetic text boxes?
Absurd.
Actual speech is clearly the intention being conveyed.
And yes, it is possible that the casting or direction might produce awful results, but that doesn't mean the practice is bad. It means that the execution was bad.
And it is shameful that such a thing should even be a question for the world's most profitable franchise, that occupies the most enviable position in the entire gaming industry, that they have so consistently, despite all their privileges and advantages, snatched failure from the jaws of victory time and again.
Endless failures. Feature after feature slowly removed game after game. Buggy games with visuals that would embarrass a Wii title, never mind the Switch. And yet, because of their name and popularity, they are STILL rewarded with chart topping sales that other franchises could only dream of. AND TCG and merch sales on top of that.
How is this even a question, when studios with a fraction of their resources could successfully execute voice acting twenty years ago? But Pokémon is so frequently disappointing and pathetic, that fans will forgive its exclusion with the excuse that they are so incompetent that they would likely screw it up anyway, so we shouldn't even bother to ask for it.
I am so sick and tired of being disappointed by this franchise. I am so sick of the endless excuses to defend the perpetually plummeting quality and inability to realise even the most basic, minimal standards, for which other studios would be ridiculed and bankrupted for failing to reach.
At this point voice acting in Winds and Waves would be far from an achievement. It would be too little, too late.
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Yes
The dub better not be horrendous or else I am playing undub.
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No
I have to agree that voice acting is a low priority for me. I might like to have some grunting like in Undertale or Zelda, but full-on conversations don't sound right for Pokemon. I don't know if I'd like it. There's a good chance I'd just turn it off if we got it.
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Many many many video games are simply played on mute. And of course I don't expect you to think that every Pokemon human is magically mute and summons text boxes. Rather, I'm saying, there's a million things to put BEFORE voice acting. If adding voice acting were to cut something else, I would pick most other things before voice acting. And I'm not saying that necessarily Pokemon is too incompetent for voice acting- I'm saying 90% of video games are! I RARELY think voice acting is actually good in games. I think my only exception has been Xenoblade- every other game with voice acting, I've typically winced at least a dozen lines.
Obviously the painted picture or read word does not need voice acting. Agreed. Additionally, Why not silent words from a character? Do we not have minds to imagine the character's voice, better than most video game voice acting is anyway? If it's going to detract from the charm or cut something more important, don't do it! That's like throwing your friend's favorite extra little spice into the cookies because they like it when they're made that way… only to ditch an important ingredient in the process. Get the essentials first. Extras can come later.
I am sometimes as well disappointed by Pokemon. On occasion, I was disappointed more than sometimes. But I'm not disappointed by comparing them to another studio and saying, 'why isn't my rival talking to my face?' I'm disappointed when they ignore what makes it fun, and neglect the charm. When they throw bonuses on without the essentials.
(And yes I have heard of audiobooks. Generally I dislike them.)0 -
Yes
My argument is not that I cannot cope without voice acting. Many of my favourite games do not have (or have very little) voice acting, despite typically being very dialogue heavy. I've been playing Pokémon (and other games) since the 90s. That was the norm back then.
My argument is that they clearly intend to have characters voice acted, down to animating the movement of their mouths, but then cut it short of actually applying voices. It looks more like audio files got corrupted than intentional design.
I am not accepting poverty as an excuse. So many other franchises manage to include voice acting and many more features than your average Pokémon game, all with a fraction of Pokémon's resources.
If the highest grossing media franchise on Earth cannot find the time and money to implement voice acting, the how does any other game even get made today?
I think this is all cope and excuses. I cannot believe you genuinely think the games are better without voice acting. I cannot believe that in a world where Pokemon games did have voice acting, you would be advocating for its removal.
I think your position would be "of course it has voice acting. Why wouldn't it?"
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I'm basically saying voice acting is (in case you need bullet points):
a) last on my priority list. Sure it might be cool to have voice acting. But let's focus on basically everything else first. First let's focus on doing Pokemon designs. Interesting new moves. Charming characters and curious dex entries. A fun region to play in. Voice acting can come LATER.
b) not necessarily great in video games anyway. In general video game voice acting is NOT great. Occasionally it is, I won't say it's all terrible. But overall? There tends to be consistent times where I can't hear the voice over the ambient music of the scene. Or the line is delivered in the worst possible tone. Or a character has the LAST voice you'd expect. Even in games with voice acting, I read the lines to myself in the way I imagine it.
c) charm. I am making a point about CHARM. Charm is the very first thing I want in a game. If a game is without charm, in my opinion, it is a bad game. If the voice acting is going to be bad, or if it cuts out something better, it will detract from the charm of the game.
If Pokemon had voice acting from since I started playing, sure I would think, 'yeah, it has voice acting'. Chances are, I would treat it like any other voice acted game. Reading lines aloud in my own tone with the characters.
I'm not necessarily saying there should ABSOLUTELY be NO voice acting in Pokemon. I'm saying that there are priorities, most importantly, the charm of the game. If we can have voice acting and retain the charm and keep the priorities, they can go ahead. I didn't vote 'no'. I never said I like it better without it.0
