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Speculation Should there be voices in a Pokémon game?

SeanWheeler

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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?
 
There's already voice acting in the games since XY - Pikachu uses its anime voice.

But Pikachu aside, I do find the concept of voice acting rather interesting. Maybe not all NPCs and pokemons could have unique voices, but maybe rivals, profs, gym leaders, evil team admins and up, celebrity NPCs etc having voice acting would be a nice change.

Nicknames can be set to skip. A lot of dating simulation games with full voices do that. Like, even if you set your name to be 'Red', they'd just address you generally instead of saying your name. The dialogue box would show your name, but they won't actually say it. Though maybe they can say certain names that's in the default database.

In most games that are fully voiced, there's an option to turn off voice acting, so that shouldn't be a problem if people don't like listening to voices at all.
 
I'd say no. Mainly because Pokemon has a very wide audience. From its target market (very young kids) to uni students and adults. All of these people think of the games in a different way. And voices could ruin a lot of that, not to mention the games themselves. For instance, I think of the PC and their rivals as early-mid teens, even though they're not canonically. I just think it's too odd to have 10 year olds running about, now that I'm older.
 
I don't see full on voice acting happening any time soon. In the main games at least...if they ever make another stadium-type game sure, but yeah not in the main games.

Since pokemon relies on "insert name here" most of the time, the dialog will result in awkward pauses and grunts to make room for the names to pop up.

"Yes, well you see..." (Long explanation starting with the player's name." "and that's why" (More exposition) "Tch." (SO MUCH EXPOSITION ABOUT EVIL PLANS!) "Well you don't seem like you want to go down without a fight..." (Player name pops up in the text box after what has already been said.) "Well no matter...Here I come!"

After a while I can only see that become very annoying.

Also I'm someone that finds Pikachu having it's anime voice a little jarring. Especially seeing as how other pokemon, including Pichu and Raichu, keeping their random noises calls. Sure it may have had it technically in gen I, but even back in Yellow it was still a little out of place and gimmicky. Like there really should be a special "Pikachu call" option just for consistency's sake.
 
This would be terrible. Not only would the nicknames and such cause the obvious problems posted above, but the game would take so much longer for me. The first thing I do in every game is go right into the settings and change the text speed to FAST. If there was voice acting, it would either force you to listen to the entire damn thing, or it would awkwardly cut off the voice when I hit the button to go to the next dialog.

That said, however, some cutscenes COULD plausibly utilize voices. If anyone else has ever played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, they did it very well, where all in-game dialogue used text-boxes, cutscenes that addressed the player personally used text, and then certain backstory-based cutscenes used full voice acting.

Pikachu having its anime cry also bothers me.
 
Full voice acting is definitely a no. Though I wouldn't mind, say, Legend-of-Zelda style vocal emotes when characters are speaking....
 
Voices only in the major cutscenes, not in all dialogues during the game. So pronouncing the nicknames wouldnt be necessary.
 
Ugh no. I'd have to brace myself for the inevitable awkward English voice acting.

Plus, since the main target audience is kids, it's probably better that they encourage reading instead of just watching/listening.
 
Part of Pokemon's...charm, let's say, is that voices are left down to the player's imagination. Like Stratelier pointed above, having Zelda style sounds when someone speaks would be really nice. That could help convey emotion in certain scenes more.

Plus taking the time to translate all the Japanese voices would likely add onto the translation time. I loved the X/Y worldwide release, I'd rather we keep to that in future.
 
I don't know to be honest. I was quite happy with Pikachu's anime cry; it brought me back to the times that I enjoyed watching the OS anime. If anything, I wouldn't mind if there was an option to toggle Poke-speak on/off for, say the next set of starters. (I've always considered that Poke-speak wasn't used simply because of technical issues in Gen 1-3, and grandfather clause thereafter.) It'll be a bit awkward having voices all the time, though. Perhaps maybe Zelda-style calls, grunts would be the best, given how Nintendo does voices. And most importantly, allow an on/off toggle so that those who ain't got time for that can simply switch off.
 
The voices themselves don't necessarily have to be replaced. In the case of Princess Maker 4, they kept the Japanese voice acting exactly as it is and only translated the dialogie script appearing on the screen when they localized the game. No awkward dub voices (keeping the initial voice acting). And they had the options to turn on/off the voices as well. Why is everyone assuming 'voice acting included'='getting stuck with horrible dubbing throughout the entire game is going to happen 100%' when there are examples that says otherwise?
 
The voices themselves don't necessarily have to be replaced. In the case of Princess Maker 4, they kept the Japanese voice acting exactly as it is and only translated the dialogie script appearing on the screen when they localized the game. No awkward dub voices (keeping the initial voice acting).

It seems like they did that for Fire Emblem Awakening too. I've played a couple of chapters (of the game in full; not a demo version) over at the Nintendo Experience booth at EB Games in Melbourne, and they were Japanese voices with English text.
 
The voices themselves don't necessarily have to be replaced. In the case of Princess Maker 4, they kept the Japanese voice acting exactly as it is and only translated the dialogie script appearing on the screen when they localized the game. No awkward dub voices (keeping the initial voice acting).

It seems like they did that for Fire Emblem Awakening too. I've played a couple of chapters (of the game in full; not a demo version) over at the Nintendo Experience booth at EB Games in Melbourne, and they were Japanese voices with English text.
^ This. They can just keep the Japanese voices with whatever translated language for the text without having to dub over. Plenty of games these days have the option to turn on/off the voices as well. Also, in Kiniro no Corda 3 (the initial version), only major NPCs had voices and only storyline events had voice acting as well. Minor NPCs such as Student A didn't have voice actors, and minor comments didn't have voice acting, either.

If voice acting happens, I want (and expect) this to happen.
1. Keeping the Japanese voice and just translating the text.
2. Options to turn on/off the voices.
3. Only important events/battles before or after said events having voice acting. (example: N saying he's the king of Team Plasma) Minor events (example: Joey bragging about his top percentage Rattata) will not have voice acting.
4. Only important NPCs have voice actors. Gym leaders, rivals, professors, elite 4s, champions, side characters (example: Lisia, Aarune, Riley), evil team members Admin and up (example: Courtney, Mars, Archie)... pretty much anyone who's got a unique sprite/3D model.
5. None of the Pokemon except Pikachu. Maybe, MAYBE event legendaries.

I'll add more if I can think of it, but this is pretty much the gist of what's done in other games that have voice acting.
 
I would like voices for Pokemon, but human voices could ruin the game if the voice acting is bad or the type of voice does not match the appearance of the character. When I play Suikoden for the DS, for instance, I always turn the sound off when people are speaking. If you can choose to turn voices off or on as you like in the options menu, then it would be good. If you can change language, that would be fun too.

For your character and the nicknames, I guess that would be voices during battle. Why not enable the option to record your own character voice and quotes? The 3DS has a mic, so that would be possible.
 
It's not impossible for Game Freak to develop voice acting as a new feature in the next generation. However, simply to put it in mind the kids won't probably gonna like it due to their imagination which are still high.

Young players love to play with the Playable Character and sometimes they're going to imagine if he/she IS a character itself. By putting the sound act, the young boys/girls' imagination would get ruined for good. As if like them isn't the character although they've played through the game for long.

It's a good idea I'd say but It won't work totally.
 
For your character and the nicknames, I guess that would be voices during battle. Why not enable the option to record your own character voice and quotes? The 3DS has a mic, so that would be possible.

Alternatively, they could just not say your nickname and just address you generally. Say, if your nickname is ASDF1234, they wouldn't try to pronounce it, but just call you by 'Hey!' or 'So you are that kid' or something like that. The script on screen, of course, will show your nickname. They just won't say it.

It's not impossible for Game Freak to develop voice acting as a new feature in the next generation. However, simply to put it in mind the kids won't probably gonna like it due to their imagination which are still high.

Young players love to play with the Playable Character and sometimes they're going to imagine if he/she IS a character itself. By putting the sound act, the young boys/girls' imagination would get ruined for good. As if like them isn't the character although they've played through the game for long.

It's a good idea I'd say but It won't work totally.

Most otome games that are fully voiced to the last minor NPC do not have the PC voice at all to enable the players to fully see themselves as the PC. The developers can easily just leave out the PC voice.

In Pokemon, the PC doesn't have any lines except for Yes/No selections. So the PC doesn't need any voices in the first place.
 
Alternatively, they could just not say your nickname and just address you generally. Say, if your nickname is ASDF1234, they wouldn't try to pronounce it, but just call you by 'Hey!' or 'So you are that kid' or something like that. The script on screen, of course, will show your nickname. They just won't say it.

Final Fantasy X had that problem in a bad way; shortly after Auron joined your party he needs to grab Tidus's attention and so he calls out "Hey, new guy" when he could have just left it at "hey" like everyone else did. (To be fair, "new guy" kind of did fit the context since it was shortly after Tidus was officially declared one of Yuna's guardians, but even so, Auron and Tidus already knew each other before that so there was no need.)

Dragon Quest 8 had a similar issue, but the dialogue was written better so when a voiced cutscene happened, your name appeared in the subtitles but the voiced lines sounded just fine without it, too (plus Yangus already nicknamed you "Guv").

And in Persona 4 your circle of friends simply called you "senpai" and it worked (this even carried over into Persona Q, where Rise refers to the Persona 4 protagonist as Senpai regardless of whether he's acting as the combined team's leader or its 'vice leader') .
 
Alternatively, they could just not say your nickname and just address you generally. Say, if your nickname is ASDF1234, they wouldn't try to pronounce it, but just call you by 'Hey!' or 'So you are that kid' or something like that. The script on screen, of course, will show your nickname. They just won't say it.

I was thinking about the Pokemon nicknames. When you call them out in battle.
 
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