Speculation Should there be voices in a Pokémon game?

[~ Blazing White Yang]

After all these years, I honestly think it'd be kinda jarring. lol.

Although some games have done Pokemon voices already, like Smash or the PokePark games. After Pikachu in X & Y, I kind of expect them to do the same. Although I prefer the cries...I think voice acting can add a bit more life and emotion to the Pokemon, but I never understood the name calling thing...

 

[jayrachi]

Maybe little noises here and there, but voice acting would detract from the game overall. Pikachu's voice acting already kind of throws me off. It throws off most people that I know of, too.

 

[glow]

Maybe a little bit. Like when you first fight certain trainers (gym leaders, rival, E4...) they could have their introductory sentence spoken, as well as their in battle quotes or any other meaningful messages. Just not all of their dialogue. I don't believe the voice acting would be lacking in quality - since Pokemon is such a huge franchise, I don't think Nintendo would cut any corners with that kind of thing and accept mediocre recordings. So I'd like to believe.
For the Pokemon, no, just leave them as they are.

 

[Ampharos King]

I'm not sure how I would feel about the voices, to be honest. There are thousands of lines of text in each Pokémon game, from major characters to minor NPCs. Having each of those lines associated with a sound file will take up precious memory space. Pokémon games already use plenty of data; OR/AS each use 1.8 GB (or 14,993 blocks of space) if you download them digitally. The updates/patches take up even more MBs. The SD card in my 3DS has limited space as it is, so I wouldn't want the space to be wasted on features that appear to be unnecessary to enjoy the game.

 

[Krash]

I vote no. The voice acting in Bravely Default made me cringe, and has turned me off from video game voices for a while. Not only that, but it adds pretty much nothing to the game. Also, the money spent on paying voice actors, as well as the localization of said voices are an unnecessary expense that could otherwise go toward improving aspects of gameplay.

Also, I find having a voice for Pikachu in the games kind of awful. It's just a sour stand-out that throws people off each time they encounter one.

 

[Vegito]

What if there was voice acting in the games? How would nicknames work? Would classic characters use their anime voices? And what about the Pokémon cries?

According to past information from GameFreak and The Pokemon Company they voice acted all of the Pokemon for Generation 1. Then converted it into monotone or something which made them all sound the way that they did. They didn't have time to fix it supposedly so they have kept with it every since accept for the Pikachu part.

I think they should all be voice acted but that would take up so much space per cartridge they wouldn't be able to (with current technology) do very much in the game.

 

[Osprey]

No. It's unnecessary and would just be another bell or whistle that could break. First of all, there's the potential for really, really bad voice-acting work, whether it's in Japanese or dub. If you want to claim that they could just keep it all Japanese to avoid a bad dub... well, I'll remind you that the target audience is children. Speaking for myself, as a kid, I would've been kind of turned off by a game that had readable dialogue, but chattered in a language that I didn't understand. There's no way they would ever risk alienating their target audience like that.

Then there's the problem with customization with names. Nicknames of Pokemon aside, there's the problem of the PC and namable rivals/characters throughout the whole game. Either this'll be approached by simply dodging the actual use of names, or the game might just have a set name that it reads regardless of what you call yourself or your rivals. I don't really know. It sounds like more hassle than it's worth.

Also, for he love of everything, anime voices for the Pokemon? How about a flat NO. Anime voices sound ridiculous, and I would REALLY hate to see something like Infernape's cry being reduced to an adult screaming "IN-furrrr-NAPE!!" I would have the hardest time taking any battle seriously if the noise that always kicked it off was a hammy screech of a Pokemon's name. I try to ignore Pikachu as much as possible. Pokemon don't say their names as their voices, not any more than a wolf, gorilla or human would.

 

[jayrachi]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

Is there a source for this factoid? It's not the first time I've heard someone say that, but I find it very hard to believe.

 

[Osprey]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

Really, huh? The more you know. Still, note the "massively compressing data" part there. The cries don't sound exactly like someone just yelling the name in a quirky way, does it? There's a pretty long shot between a Bulbasaur's original cry and someone actually saying "Bul-BA-sauuur!", and they don't make you cringe like Pikachu's god-awful Gen VI "PIKA PIKAAA!"

 

[jayrachi]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

Is there a source for this factoid? It's not the first time I've heard someone say that, but I find it very hard to believe.

You know what, upon actually looking for a source, I am finding myself corrected. Guess I should question information a little more often than I already do.

 

[JBX9001]

Voices in the Pokemon series could actually work well, if done the right way. In the case of the Pokemon themselves, it would be rather easy; just give them their voices from the anime and viola, a bunch of time saved (except for possible new ones)! As for the human characters, yeah, it might be best to not implement full voice acting, so to speak, since you can name the player character almost anything. Like everyone else here on the thread, I think it should be limited to important characters, and have certain noises made based on particular emotions. I suppose if the character has a particular catchphrase, that can be fully voiced. I guess a feature to turn voices on or off would be welcome for those who don't care about it, but I for one really like cutscenes in video games, so I'd take the time to appreciate it.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

May be they have voices in the game. Pikachu had it so it is possible to have other voices. It is just the matter of how Game Freak would do it and if they can have all 721 pokemon have voices.

 

[Vegito]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

That's what I was saying.

 

[Vegito]

^Funny thing about that, the original cries of the original 151 Pokémon were actually developers recording themselves saying their names, and then massively compressing the data.

Really, huh? The more you know. Still, note the "massively compressing data" part there. The cries don't sound exactly like someone just yelling the name in a quirky way, does it? There's a pretty long shot between a Bulbasaur's original cry and someone actually saying "Bul-BA-sauuur!", and they don't make you cringe like Pikachu's god-awful Gen VI "PIKA PIKAAA!"

No it's actually true. However it wasn't the devs that said it it was voice acted. At least only for generation 1 and 2. They converted it into a different frequency.

 

[BlackButterfree]

I'd be strongly against it. Japan would be all set. The entire voice cast is still there. But as for other languages, specifically English, a LOT of work would have to be done. Pokémon would need to get brand new voice acting (many older Pokémon haven't been seen since the 4Kids days) and then the legendaries SPEAK, not cry their names, which is even more headaches.

Not even for people. I'm fine like how it is. They CAN create artificial voices, however. The technology is there and I would support this direction.

 

[Jammy2A]

I wouldnt be for voices, but I would be for a more accurate cry for each pokémon. For a while now Pikachu is the only one to have had a proper cry, which is awesome, and thatd be great if they could do it for the rest too. I know it d be a little long (thats about 720 more to go), but it would really be cool

 

[Muur]

Some voice acting now and then would be okay.

Such as when N does that big speech... it'd probably be best to limit it though.

Pikachu's cry puts me off tbh, always unexpected. If all had them it wouldn't be I guess.

 

[winstein]

I like the idea of grunts similar to those used in other Nintendo games like Zelda, Animal Crossing, the Mii games and Splatoon. It gives them a more universal personality since you can picture them saying the text in your language of choice. This is especially the case for people. As for the Pokemon, I am fine with the digital gibberish, though a cleaner version for all the Pokemon is preferable if the technology and time allows for it.

Thanks for reading.

 

[HRRlion]

I'd be fine with them using voices in important cutscenes, but I'd also like them to distinguish them a bit. What I mean is like the intro cutscene in xy or any of the ones with the characters in their full models, not chibi ones. That said, I highly doubt it'll happen and the games have much more important issues right now that take priority over voice acting in any significant role so I wouldn't hold your breath.