Nintendo and Voice Acting

[windlessusher]

I don't see a topic for this using the search function, so apologies in advance if this already exists.

So, as far as I know, aside from the occasional situations like Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Other M, voice acting has more or less been exclusive to Star Fox, as far as "top Nintendo IPs" goes.

Do you guys think Nintendo should put an effort in putting in voice acting in their games? OR do you think they should stick with the silence and the gibberish noises?

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Star Fox isn't really what would be considered a "top Nintendo IP", at least not as of late. But I digress, that's an entirely different topic.
Onto the topic at hand, I'd like Nintendo to use voice acting more often, but it's not really necessary.

 

[cpm]

I think Nintendo should use voice acting.

 

[_Sheik]

From the usual full-voiced Star Fox games and the occasional Metroid/SMS and such, to the gibberish/coded languages as is featured in Animal Crossing and Star Fox Command, to random sentences said by the characters in latest FE games, to none, I'm fine with that mix Nintendo has put up in the past years regarding voice acting.

 

[windlessusher]

With all that said, I still think Fire Emblem and Legend of Zelda in particular could benefit from being fully voiced.

 

[finalark]

We live in 2015. Voice acting is a must these days. Seeing gorgeously animated cut scenes in Hyrule Warriors but getting little more than grunts out of the characters was just ridiculous.

 

[windlessusher]

Hmm, I disagree, I don't think it's as much a must as it is a style choice.

Like, I see the animal noises working to Animal Crossing's favour over actual voice acting.

 

[justaway12]

Eh, depends on the game, I don't particularly care if the next Mario or Kirby has voice acting really, the only series that I feel would greatly benefit from voice acting is the Legend of Zelda.

With all that said, I still think Fire Emblem and Legend of Zelda in particular could benefit from being fully voiced.

Fire Emblem does have voice acting though.

 

[windlessusher]

Yes, but most of the time it's text.
Unless they had fully voiced cutscenes in those Gamecube games I've never played.

 

[justaway12]

Yes, but most of the time it's text.
Unless they had fully voiced cutscenes in those Gamecube games I've never played.

It's like Awakening, they both have voiced cutscenes and VAs but it's mainly text-based, it's actually a bit worse than Awakening IIRC, as they have no crit/skill quotes or confessions and whatnot, I don't really have a problem with FE's method though, adding a voice over the text in the main plot would be cool tho.

 

[Foxus]

I don't see a topic for this using the search function, so apologies in advance if this already exists.

So, as far as I know, aside from the occasional situations like Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Other M, voice acting has more or less been exclusive to Star Fox, as far as "top Nintendo IPs" goes.

Do you guys think Nintendo should put an effort in putting in voice acting in their games? OR do you think they should stick with the silence and the gibberish noises?

I feel like this goes hand-in-hand with the importance of cutscenes.

I'd like to see Mario or Fox speak more than the same saying "Its a me, Mario!" or "Let's a go!" It would have been icing on the cake to have dialogue in Subspace Emissary rather than random shrieks and moaning. I watched a interview with Maurice LeMarche and he said "Video game voice acting is some of the most difficult voice acting" and he goes on to talk about how it takes a toll on the voice. I honestly don't know how Charles Marinet can continue doing what he does.

But yeah, more emphasis being put on voice acting all the way. If you're gonna go into a studio for a recording session, you might as well put words in the mix.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

For Zelda, it has no voice acting due to a stylistic choice.

Hence how we've had fully voiced characters like Midna and Fi. They just spoke gibberish. They were given fully voiced lines to emphasize how odd they were compared to everyone else.

I enjoy voice acting when it's done right but I do think some games shouldn't really delve into them for art's/style's sake.

Plus I will bring up that fully voiced cutscenes can be REALLY tricky to do in certain games like Zelda or Animal Crossing or Pokemon where you can name tons of stuff. Moreover, voice acting can be quite expensive and time consuming, while gibberish and grunts can be just as charming with a fraction of the cost.

I see Mario and Link as I see Tom and Jerry. They shouldn't speak actual words that much. Being "silent" is part of their charm.

 

[Frostwraith]

Talking about voice acting in Nintendo games and no mentions Kid Icarus: Uprising? Preposterous.

Anyway, I feel that the quality of voice acting in Nintendo games has overall improved in the last few years.

I feel they lack a lot of story-driven IPs to make full use of voice acting, though Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are shaping to be franchises to use voice acting consistently.

As for Zelda, I feel that a game with full voice acting could have mixed reception. They'd have to nail it very well and not repeat the same mistakes as Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid: Other M.

 

[Champ Gold]

To me, voice acting works well depending on the franchises.

Reason why I'm so down on voice acting for certain Nintendo franchises is due to two games


Super Mario Sunshine and Other M. I just don't have as much faith for voice acting in Nintendo games because of what they will do towards the characters. KI Uprising is a great example of great Nintendo voice acting but I bring it up for on point localization.

 

[windlessusher]

I don't think a few bumps in the road should mean they ought to stop trying.

 

[Albie83]

I think it depends on the game. I would love Fire Emblem with full voice acting (as long as it is decent). Forgive me, I do not have a 3DS so I don't know how much voice acting is in those games compared to the others that I played.

 

[windlessusher]

I think it depends on the game. I would love Fire Emblem with full voice acting (as long as it is decent). Forgive me, I do not have a 3DS so I don't know how much voice acting is in those games compared to the others that I played.

In Awakening, the cimematic cutscenes are fully voiced, but otherwise it's all text with specific voiced lines.

 

[LIQUID12A]

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

At risk of inciting flame war, Other M, for instance, had the potential to be a good VA'd Metroid game, but executive meddling and to a lesser extent the story screwed it over, particularly for Samus herself. Corruption didn't suffer from this despite being dialogue heavy as well because it was not nearly as story heavy as OM was, plus there was no meddling and we had some good talent in there(Vegeta as Rundas FTW).

And at the same time, sometimes needed, sometimes not needed. Mario doesn't need anything beyond short sentences for it's characters or we risk another Sunshine.

 

[Space Stranger]

Voice acting would only benefit what Melee describes as "Nintendo's most realistic stars (i.e. Metroid, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, etc.)" since they create the setting for dialogue. I doubt Metroid would be able to make full use of voice acting outside of Samus talking to herself due to the prevalent theme of isolation within the games. In Fire Emblem,a game with multiple interactions between units, there is a wide variety of opportunity to provide voices for the characters.

I'd say provide full-VA when its appropriate and needed.