There Will be Voice Acting in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, But Link Stays Silent

[Lizzy Finnegan]

There Will be Voice Acting in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, But Link Stays Silent


In a recent interview, Eiji Aonuma talked about voice acting in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

In an interview with Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/21/11996478/why-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-is-getting-voice-acting-and-sci-fi-elements], producer Eiji Aonuma addressed the addition of voice acting to the Legend of Zelda franchise in the upcoming release, Breath of the Wild. The decision was made because "it's really difficult to leave an impression on players with just text," adding that while not every bit of dialogue will be accompanied by voice acting, there are instances where the team wants to "leave impressions on users." For those instances, Aonuma says "I add voice there."

Link, however, will remain unvoiced. In my personal opinion, this is a smart move - Link, as a character, has always served as a conduit for players, an actual "link" between the player and the story. Aonuma appears to agree, as he wanted to maintain the relationship between the player and the Hero of (yea, we still don't know his Hero Title yet).

"If Link said something the user doesn't agree with, that relationship between the user and Link would be lost," said Aonuma. "That's why I chose not to go with that."

Also in the interview, Aonuma talked about the game's sci-fi elements, saying that he wanted to add technology to offset the ruined and very natural world that Link is adventuring through.

"Link basically adventures through a ruined world. I wanted to add technology as the opposite side of that," he said. "I thought it would be interesting for Link to use technology to explore through this wild and ruined world. I figured that would add another layer to the game."

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is set to be the largest game in Zelda's 20 year run, with Nintendo getting some assistance from Monolith Soft with the development process [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167770-Monolith-Helping-with-Breath-of-the-Wild-Development#&gid=gallery_6301&pid=1].

You can check out my hands-on impressions of Breath of the Wild from E3 (here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk].

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will release in March 2017 on the Wii U and Nintendo's new system, codenamed NX.

[gallery=6306]

Permalink

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Ten bucks says it's just common vocals like laughs, reactions or murmurs, or that the vocals are all in some mysterious gobbledygook language made for the game.

 

[Veldel]

Ten bucks says it's just common vocals like laughs, reactions or murmurs, or that the vocals are all in some mysterious gobbledygook language made for the game.

actually they seem to have done some decent work based on game play i watched during E3 I was worried they would have link voiced at first xD

 

[-Dragmire-]

I kinda want people to talk like Midna. Enough voice acting to get across emotion but foreign to us to maintain a strong sense of this being an unfamiliar world.

 

[Benpasko]

"If Link said something the user doesn't agree with, that relationship between the user and Link would be lost," said Aonuma. "That's why I chose not to go with that."

I wish someone had told Bethesda this when they were making Fallout 4.

OT: This game looks awesome, it's definitely making me consider finally getting a WiiU.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

As someone who incredibly unfamiliar with the LoZ series, that title confused me for a bit.

 

[OuendanCyrus]

Which is about what I expected. So it's the Half Life 2/Dishonored treatment then.

 

[teh_Canape]

but did they say if the voiced cahracters will refer to link as "Link" or will it go the way of P3 and 4, that doesn't voice names? in which the text line will say "my buddy canape here" but the voiced line says "my buddy here"

 

[Saulkar]

In other words, Link's wild breath would scare everyone away if he so much as opened his mouth. That or Shadman traumatised him.

 

[Orga777]

"If Link said something the user doesn't agree with, that relationship between the user and Link would be lost," said Aonuma. "That's why I chose not to go with that."

I wish someone had told Bethesda this when they were making Fallout 4.

OT: This game looks awesome, it's definitely making me consider finally getting a WiiU.

Why get the Wii U when it is coming out with the NX next year? Why get the inferior version on the older hardware?

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm guessing that he'll still delight us with his usual "Hyaah! Haaah! Heeeeaaaah!" though.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

but did they say if the voiced cahracters will refer to link as "Link" or will it go the way of P3 and 4, that doesn't voice names? in which the text line will say "my buddy canape here" but the voiced line says "my buddy here"

The gameplay footage has a voiced character refer to him as Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZj8q9PqzzY

 

[teh_Canape]

but did they say if the voiced cahracters will refer to link as "Link" or will it go the way of P3 and 4, that doesn't voice names? in which the text line will say "my buddy canape here" but the voiced line says "my buddy here"

The gameplay footage has a voiced character refer to him as Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZj8q9PqzzY

I know, but I still hold out hope it was just for the demo
dangit, I really don't want them to take this away from me
don't take away ganon saying "I have once again been defeated by donglord, the hero of ttme"

 

[Igor-Rowan]

I wish someone had told Bethesda this when they were making Fallout 4.

OT: This game looks awesome, it's definitely making me consider finally getting a WiiU.

Why get the Wii U when it is coming out with the NX next year? Why get the inferior version on the older hardware?

Because the Wii U still has games for it? Yeah, the games for the Wii, for the Wii U combined with the eshop makes a sizeable library. The reason to buy a console is for the games, but right now we know nothing about any games exclusive for it, there were the rumor of four Wii U titles will get a NX version, then there were those news that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was gonna be a NX exclusive as a launch title, but both Ubisoft and Nintendo neither confirmed nor denied it. And considering how much everybody is pressuring Nintendo to forget the Wii U, aka remove backwards compatibility completely, the Wii U is still a good console for the exclusives.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

but did they say if the voiced cahracters will refer to link as "Link" or will it go the way of P3 and 4, that doesn't voice names? in which the text line will say "my buddy canape here" but the voiced line says "my buddy here"

The gameplay footage has a voiced character refer to him as Link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZj8q9PqzzY

I know, but I still hold out hope it was just for the demo
dangit, I really don't want them to take this away from me
don't take away ganon saying "I have once again been defeated by donglord, the hero of ttme"

Yeah, I know the feeling. I like being able to name my character and have it reflected in the dialogue. Fuck voice acting, it should be banned forever.

*imagining CoD with text boxes*

 

[rgrekejin]

I really have nothing in particular to add one way or the other about the voice acting - I could have taken or left it, but at least Link remains a silent protagonist.

But what the hell is wrong with the texture on the cliff face in that first preview image there? I know the WiiU is old tech at this point, but damn, that wall looks bad on the left near the camera.

 

[Quellist]

The more I hear about this game the more quietly excited I get

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to get this game because I'd be a fool not to, and I don't mind a silent protagonist, but I don't feel a connection to 'Link' one way or another, because Link constantly does things I don't agree with. Mido's in the way and we need to save Saria... time is short, so why not just deck the guy in the schnoz and explain things later? Yeah, yeah, I know we're supposed to be the 'good guy' and all that, but would a good guy peacefully talking things through and then proceed to wreck the townsfolk's pottery or pumpkin harvest?