I know it's a potential mine-field, maybe so much that it's best that it never happens, but what does everyone think about Link and Mario being voiced protagonists?
Not too sure about link, although I kind of see him as a very stolid, focused character that somehow acts as though he knows the gravity of his own destiny. He might have a kind of otherness about him, and a reticence, maybe stemming from him growing up as "the only boy without a fairy".
As for Mario...playing the Thousand Year Door, there are often so many text bubbles on screen that you loose track of who's talking at any given time and a great many of those lines kind of can feel like it could be Mario speaking...there's just something in the writing that makes me feel like it may as well be Mario speaking those lines. Were I tasked with the job of building Mario's voice and character through sample dialogue, that's where I'd start...also, that way, it should feel more natural for the people who have played the Paper Mario series from its inception (maybe only Paper Mario really need be voiced and regular Mario needn't speak?)
Also, would the physical sound of Luigi's voice need a slight overhaul to make it a little easier to bare? (maybe similar to Mario but a little more nasal and awkward)
What do people think about these characters being voiced? Should they forever be silent protagonists, or do they need to be heard?
The Zelda characters all talk already. They all have their own voice actors and they use Hylian phrases.
For full voice acting, it worked with Super Mario Sunshine, but we didn't miss it when there was little in Super Mario Galaxy. It didn't felt like it's making a difference.
And from my own experience voice acting in games is often rather distracting than pleasing. Imaginative fantasy world games like Zelda don't need it at all, really. Custom made fantasy language is an art in itself.
@Ultimategamer132 I kind of agree that Link shouldn't be too vocal, but it gets to a point with silent protagonists that their not saying a single word begins to feel a bit strange. I think Link should talk but should definitely be a man of few words, talking just enough so that it doesn't just seem weird that he's remaining silent...
...but yeah, that's just my personal preference and everyone's going to have their own opinion I guess.
I think it's like when you read a book and then see it made into a film or T.V. show and none of the characters sound like you thought they should. I guess with Link there are already some vocal samples to suggest how he might speak.
"I try to put good out into the world, that way I can believe it's out there". --CKN
I think the only time silent protagonists feel weird is when the writing isn't written for a silent protagonists. Characters shouldn't be asking Link questions and pretending he said something, that always feels weird. However, it doesn't feel weird for characters to talk to Link and tell him what to do. As long as the writing supports a Silent Protagonists, it shouldn't matter.
People keep saying the Xbox One doesn't have Backwards Compatibility.
I don't think they know what Backwards Compatibility means...
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I'm all for voice acting. It can enhance a game when it's done well. The problem is that it ruins a game when it isn't very good. I'd love to see Nintendo put some serious voice acting in their games, but I don't think they should be testing the waters with Zelda. Most of Nintendo's games aren't realistic games and are cartoony/fantasy, so the lack of voice acting wouldn't really hurt them either.
Anyway, I'd like to see them try it out with some other games first, and I don't mean those half-baked attempts from the treehouse. Get a proper studio sorted out and hire some real voice actors. Localisation has to be on par as well, so they might as well hire a serious localisation team that can do their work without referencing 5-year old memes in every other sentence.
I think Mario should be voiced, but only by Charles Martinet. Everyone knows his voice as Mario, having someone else voicing him would be weird.
Keep Link mute, though. At this point in time, giving him a voice will bring more problems than its worth, since every gamer has a different idea of what Link's voice should be like.
Honestly, while voice acting in games is nice in games, it isn't a make or break point for me. I'll still rely a lot on subtitles to understand.
Looking back, yes, Mario is voiced. But as others have said, Link shouldn't be the character used as a test subject for attempts at voice acting. To start off, Link should keep his grunting noises only, but like Dragon's Dogma, add different voices as a starting point to see how voice acting works out for Link.
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Pandora's Tower has a silent protagonist who basically speaks just one line, at least in the introductory section of the game. It's pretty jarring.
Maybe now that Zelda's going open-world they could give Link dialogue options as they're more neutral and less suggestive of character. I think that would work out. It's just that when you get the sense that the character is for some reason totally mute and no one seems to be acknowledging the fact it just feels (at least to me) really really weird. It's almost like the elephant in the room is that the silent protagonist isn't really present but is just a symbol or icon. The character can begin to feel really really empty and insubstantial. In many senses Link might be a generic hero but that does suggest a basic character-type that could be quite easily expressed, just through a few generic character traits (link doesn't strike me as being a character with many complexities and/or idiosyncrasies).
I'd say my personal preference is for games where the protagonist is fully characterised and having lots of dialogue with other characters (I love Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth for that reason. The character has something to say about almost everything you a-button in the environment, and his interpretations and reactions to it all are all really evocative of character.) . I like games that have interesting characters, entertaining stories and character interactions. Having said that I'd take silence over generic dude-bro every time.
But even so...when the character's just totally mute and none of the other characters in the game seem to think it odd, that just seems odd to me. Maybe dialogue trees such as those in Bathesda's games are the way to go.
Pandora's Tower has a silent protagonist who basically speaks just one line, at least in the introductory section of the game. It's pretty jarring.
It's design. By keeping Aeron out of the conversations with Elena, you make him more of a stand-in for the player. Same reason why first person perspective is adopted while talking to her, it makes the bond between the character and the actual player on the other side of the screen stronger. The moment Aeron gets a voice to have conversations with Elena, the player becomes a spectator watching how the relationship between both characters unfolds, like Shulk-Fiora or Vaan-Penelo.
This is not to say that an alternative version of Pandora's Tower with a voiced Aeron would be a bad game, but some other things should be reworked to emphasize the change of focus from "take care of this girl" to "watch how these two bond".
About the topic, I agree with the general consensus: Mario should be voiced, Link shouldn't. However, I think it also depends on the game. In 3D titles, Mario is already voiced, he just doesn't have a lot to say. Given how those games are structured, I'd say keeping VA at a minimum is for the better. Spin-offs, on the other hand, could use a fully voiced, dialog-heavy Mario cast. I wouldn't be too sad to see Mario and Luigi actually speak in the M&L series. Same thing with Zelda, Hyrule Warriors was the perfect chance to make the characters talk, including Link.
@Marce2240 I know what you mean, I do understand the reasoning behind it and I think it's often a good idea, and that Nintendo should wait as long as they possibly can before voicing the characters and that it should be introduced slowly and developed from whatever existing text is available, but I think games have just reached a point now where remaining mute (in current context) is beginning to speak louder about the character than would just a few words from the character here and there. It's almost like silence has become interpretable as a stylistic choice that informs character.
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Topic: Should Link and Mario be voiced on NX?
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