Your video game hot take(s) thread

[Drathnoxis]

Cutscene of Link trying to break his sister out as Tetra and her pirates show up. This is really dumb. When they made A Link to the Past, Link not speaking wasn't an issue because the game had very simplistic cutscenes and so few of them. That he continues to be this way in these later games, which are much more cinematic and three-dimensional, as everybody around him does speak, looks ridiculous.

Look at him. He is so weird.

At least in WW his face and body language are very expressive. You'd be better off using the dead fish expression of Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword as an example.

 

[Ezekiel]

At least in WW his face and body language are very expressive. You'd be better off using the dead fish expression of Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword as an example.

In a way that makes him even more awkward. He waves his sister goodbye as the pirate carries her off while still unable to say anything. He should be a boy of few words, his dialogue mostly reactive, but he has to speak. I'm not even asking for voice acting, since Nintendo have shown that they are bad at it with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

In a way that makes him even more awkward. He waves his sister goodbye as the pirate carries her off while still unable to say anything. He should be a boy of few words, his dialogue mostly reactive, but he has to speak. I'm not even asking for voice acting, since Nintendo have shown that they are bad at it with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

>mentions voice acting
>doesn't mention that Link makes quite a lot of vocalizations, especially in Wind Waker, that add to his expressiveness and his participation in major cutscenes

Make it make sense.

(I'm not a fan of Wind Waker on the whole, but Sachi Matsumoto did a great job as Link.)

 

[BrawlMan]

>mentions voice acting
>doesn't mention that Link makes quite a lot of vocalizations, especially in Wind Waker, that add to his expressiveness and his participation in major cutscenes

Make it make sense.

(I'm not a fan of Wind Waker on the whole, but Sachi Matsumoto did a great job as Link.)

Don't expect consistency and expect a whole lot of nonsense from a old man contrarian who can't handle simple truths.

 

[Ezekiel]

Full voice acting. You knew what I meant.

I have to mention that because the response to wanting Link to talk is always "Excuse me, princess." Still, though I didn't watch the cartoon, silent Link is probably WORSE.

 

[BrawlMan]

Then I suggest you never touch a Zelda game ever again. Because he will be around forever.

 

[Drathnoxis]

In a way that makes him even more awkward. He waves his sister goodbye as the pirate carries her off while still unable to say anything. He should be a boy of few words, his dialogue mostly reactive, but he has to speak. I'm not even asking for voice acting, since Nintendo have shown that they are bad at it with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Well, maybe it's a little weird, but silent protagonists have never bothered me and Link in WW has the most personality that he ever has. It's a dangerous tightrope to give a voice to a previously silent protagonist because everybody has a version of Link built up in their head, then they start talking and it comes out like:

"Excuse me, princess."

Or he's voiced by Chris Pratt and loses all identity.

>mentions voice acting
>doesn't mention that Link makes quite a lot of vocalizations, especially in Wind Waker, that add to his expressiveness and his participation in major cutscenes

Make it make sense.

(I'm not a fan of Wind Waker on the whole, but Sachi Matsumoto did a great job as Link.)

Come on, grunting is hardly acting. It's voiced sound effects. Link is a silent protagonist and you can't pretend otherwise.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Come on, grunting is hardly acting. It's voiced sound effects. Link is a silent protagonist and you can't pretend otherwise.

I get that, but the grunts are a part of Link's character in every game, even as far back as the first one on the NES. Even just the difference between the damage grunt from LoZ and ALTTP is significant IMO, even before you get into Matsumoto's take in Wind Waker and how distinct it is from both Nobuyuki Hiyama (adult Link) and especially Fujiko Takimoto (child Link).

That isn't something that can just be written off.

everybody has a version of Link built up in their head, then they start talking and it comes out like:

Takimoto, or Hiyama, or Matsumoto, or Akira Sasanuma (TP), or Kengo Takanashi (BOTW), or Jonathan Potts (well, excuuuuuuse me, Princess!).

Or Jeffrey Rath (gee, it sure is boring around here.)

 

[BrawlMan]

Link from both Hyrule Warriors games have the best grunt, shout, and "HIAH!" inflictions. He's given a great variety of them. Age of Calamity also gives him some of the best reactions in cutscenes.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I get that, but the grunts are a part of Link's character in every game, even as far back as the first one on the NES. Even just the difference between the damage grunt from LoZ and ALTTP is significant IMO, even before you get into Matsumoto's take in Wind Waker and how distinct it is from both Nobuyuki Hiyama (adult Link) and especially Fujiko Takimoto (child Link).

That isn't something that can just be written off.


Takimoto, or Hiyama, or Matsumoto, or Akira Sasanuma (TP), or Kengo Takanashi (BOTW), or Jonathan Potts (well, excuuuuuuse me, Princess!).

Or Jeffrey Rath (gee, it sure is boring around here.)

There's a big difference between having different vocal tone and using that tone to express a personality through speech. The last two you list are the only two that do that and are a perfect example of the danger that comes with it. Most of Link's vocalizations are completely interchangeable:



Maybe they are all well performed, but that is completely beside the point being discussed, which is whether it's better to deal with the inherent awkwardness of a silent protagonist among a speaking cast or give the protagonist the potential to say dumb things and become unrelateable to the player.

Personally I find the weird mute character kind of endearing, especially in Wind Waker. Like, he has this unexplained defect that makes it impossible for him to speak, but manages to get along regardless.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Cutscene of Link trying to break his sister out as Tetra and her pirates show up. This is really dumb. When they made A Link to the Past, Link not speaking wasn't an issue because the game had very simplistic cutscenes and so few of them. That he continues to be this way in these later games, which are much more cinematic and three-dimensional, as everybody around him does speak, looks ridiculous.

Look at him. He is so weird.

It was one of the things that bothered me about Breath of the Wild as well. Granted there is my bias- I love me my cinematic games. I want the person I'm playing to talk! And yes I do have that problem with Bethesda games and RPGs but at least there's the whole RPG of it that I can look past it.

Overall- and this is the "hot takes" thread, so this may be my hottest video game take of all- certain mechanics and things are just OLD and out of date. And that includes a LOT of stuff that dominates the indy space, and I've lost interest/patience for much (not all) of it.

 

[BrawlMan]

When it comes to silent protagonists, I really only make exceptions for Link, Crash, Grave, and Doom Guy/Slayer. They're either very expressive or their body language does either all or most of the talking (Doom & Grave).

Most other cases, either don't work or feel too archaic. The Call of Duty franchise had this issue since MW. Certain characters you play as, either never talk in gameplay (when controlled by the player), and only in cut-scenes. Price in his younger years flashback chapter. Soap for the entire first game and the last two missions in the second game. Mitchell from Advanced Warfare, suffers from this even worse. There's at least actual cut-scenes, where you can see the other characters, and he's talking to them. Yet as soon as you jump into the gameplay engine, he doesn't talk. Mitchell, at least has screams of pain when in certain in-engine cut scenes. It's why I prefer WW2, IW, and Vanguard (the first chapter being the only exception) when it comes to the characters you play as. Regardless of who you are playing, all the characters you play as actually talk during gameplay, and while you are shooting.

 

[BrawlMan]

Overall- and this is the "hot takes" thread, so this may be my hottest video game take of all- certain mechanics and things are just OLD and out of date. And that includes a LOT of stuff that dominates the indy space, and I've lost interest/patience for much (not all) of it.

I'm not here to defend every indie game nor game design decision done by them, but there are reasons why they keep a lot of the old stuff. A lot of them work or know how to refine the formula or do something unique with it. Even then, I've seen a lot of other indie games have a casual mode or those that don't care about the challenge and want to chill out so that, you know, they're at least thinking about casuals in mind as well. Or those who just want an easy snd chill playthrough. Most importantly, more than a good amount know how to make these games fun. Regardless ofchallenge or not.

 

[BrawlMan]

Speaking the truth there, GCN!

Two takes: Gaming is only dead in your head, and long games do not mean they're automatically good.

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Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

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[thebobmaster]

When it comes to silent protagonists, I really only make exceptions for Link, Crash, and Doom Guy/Slayer. They're either very expressive or their body language does either all or most of the talking (Doom).

Most other cases, either don't work or feel too archaic. The call of duty franchise had this issue since MW. Certain characters you play as, either never talk in gameplay (when controlled by the player), and only in cutscenes. Price in his younger years flashback chapter. Soap for the entire first game and the last two missions in the second game. Mitchell from Advanced Warfare, suffers from this even worse. There's at least actual Ch cutscenes, where you can see the characters, and he's talking. Yet as soon as you jump into gameplay engine, he doesn't talk. Mitchell, at least has screams of pain when in certain an engine cut scenes. It's why I prefer WW2, IW, and Vanguard (the first chapter being the only exception) when it comes to the characters you play as. Regardless of who you are playing all the characters you play as actually talk during gameplay, and while you are shooting.

Just out of curiosity (and I definitely don't disagree with you), where do games like Dragon Age: Origins fall into that? What I mean is, where everyone else is fully voice acted, and your character gets dialogue...but only dialogue trees, with no voice acting.

 

[BrawlMan]

Just out of curiosity (and I definitely don't disagree with you), where do games like Dragon Age: Origins fall into that? What I mean is, where everyone else is fully voice acted, and your character gets dialogue...but only dialogue trees, with no voice acting.

Not really into those either. I didn't even know Origins did that. Though I never played any of the DA games.I know BioWare are big DnD fans, but they might as well had gotten actual voice actor. They didn't have a problem with giving Shepard a voice in Mass Effect 1 (2007), and I have no idea why they chose differently for this one title. DA1 came out two years after ME1; it makes no sense.

 

[thebobmaster]

Only the first DA game did it, probably as a throwback to the Baldur's Gate and KOTOR games. The rest use full voice acting a la Mass Effect.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Not really into those either. I didn't even know Origins did that. Though I never played any of the DA games.I know BioWare are big DnD fans, but they might as well had gotten actual voice actor. They didn't have a problem with giving Shepard a voice in Mass Effect 1 (2007), and I have no idea why they chose differently for this one title. DA1 came out two years after ME1; it makes no sense.

The reason Origins did that is so you could actually choose what you are saying when you say it rather than the vague prompts that the dialogue wheel showed you in Mass Effect and later Dragon Age games. They didn't want to have you read the dialogue and then have you wait for your character to say the exact same thing.

 

[BrawlMan]

The reason Origins did that is so you could actually choose what you are saying when you say it rather than the vague prompts that the dialogue wheel showed you in Mass Effect and later Dragon Age games. They didn't want to have you read the dialogue and then have you wait for your character to say the exact same thing.

Good to know; still not a fan.

Only the first DA game did it, probably as a throwback to the Baldur's Gate and KOTOR games. The rest use full voice acting a la Mass Effect.

I know. Hence my rant specifically to the first game. Sorry I didn't make it clear.

 

[Worgen]

Black Ops III campaign is pretty universally agreed to be one of the weakest CoD campaigns, if not the absolute weakest.

Call of Duty Ghost.