Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@N00BiSH Speaking of voice acting...Rayman comes to mind. With Rayman 2, they spoke gibberish which added a lovable charm to the game itself. I can't say I'm impressed with Rayman 2 Revolution's "proper" voice acting...

Now...with Rayman 3...that's a matter of one's thoughts and opinions. But I didn't mind the voices in that one...since Ubi had a few top-notch voice actors. Like Billy West. Which everyone knows about. Then when Rayman origins and Legends came out...well...they went with pig latin. Which was also helped set the tone and whimsical atmosphere well.

Thinking of it, Pokemon would be a hard series to have voice acting in given the nature of the series. The games are made on a tight time schedule and each game features an entirely different cast of characters with no overlap generally. Especially since newer generations cut out the returning characters like Looker.

Not saying it couldn’t be done, but I feel like the quality for each generation would feel even more unpredictable if it’s done. Masters kinda has voice acting, but I remember the quality being a bit rough at times as well.

@VoidofLight Well...Legends arceus had a bit of voicing with the gasps and grunts for the MC abit. Can't say for the rest of the cast since it was mostly silence...at least last I remember when I played the game a couple of years ago....

My entire opinion of voice acting in games is "do it right or don't bother".

It was annoying but kinda funny in a way when Nintendo finally gave into people's complaining about voice acting in Zelda, and it was a bare minimum amount of voice acting that is as mediocre and lacking as voice acting gets. At least in the NOA release, genuinely comes across like they didn't want to actually do it, but they felt they had to. Why would Zelda not have high quality voice acting when deciding to put voice acting in Zelda when random niche games do so much more in terms of quality and quantity? At that point, why bother if you're not gonna make it good? (to the voice actors' credit, they are generally better in TOTK and AoC)

But it is a still a huge pet peeve of mine when they're too inconsistent with it. I noticed this first with Tales of Symphonia, where its practically just random when voice acting happens. It is anti-immersive to be arbitrary on when voice acting happens.

@DanijoEX-The-Kumiho True, the grunts are something I think added a bit of oomph to the protagonist. I just don't see them doing any voices or grunts for the people outside of the protagonist. Stuff like that is stuff I can see continuing through the games. I just don't see Pokemon ever having voice actors that'll say actual speaking lines.

@Buizel Honestly, I get that feeling of Pokemon no longer being about our journey. I think one of the reasons why I enjoy Scarlet and Violet and PLA more than Gen 8 and Gen 7 is because they finally went back to making these games more centered around your journey through the world- whilst keeping the intensity of the plot aspects that Gen 7 and 8 had. Heck, SV even has a "villain" tied to a main rival- and yet you still have a personal reason for why you get involved in the action/get to actually get involved in the action without characters stepping in and telling you to not focus on that.

My frustration with modern Nintendo voice acting in a nutshell. There really is no reason that a company as big as them shouldn't have higher standards for quality casting and direction. If they could get it right occasionally(Kid Icarus, Star Fox, Xenoblade, etc.), they shouldn't have trouble getting it right constantly - especially for their major franchises.

@kkslider5552000 shrugs I don't mind BotW and TotK's voice acting. I quite like Zelda in particular but I know her voice is controversial.

@VoidofLight Yeah I did like that about SV - this is why I point to it more of a "general trend" rather than something that has been happening with every entry in the series.

Tbh I'm open to them actually going down the route of a pre-defined MC - think something like Wes in Pokemon Colosseum - if that improves the storytelling at all, at least for a game or two. I just find with the current mid-way point they're achieving the worst of both worlds - sacrificing player agency for a story I don't feel particularly interested in.

@Buizel Yeah, that's another thing. I keep saying how if they wanted to go the route of more focused narratives where the character in the focus isn't the player character- then they should've just made it to where we play as said character. In Sun and Moon, the story would have been more impactful if we played as Lillie rather than playing as a character with no real stakes in the narrative at all.

I like reading text boxes (reading at my own pace) and not hearing the barking of npcs around me. Not having voice acting helped games like Final Fantasy VII-IX to make them feel more concentrated on the important stuff, and therefore it felt more meditative. Of course having a pre-rendered background instead of a 3D one, where you can look in every direction helped too.

@Jhena
I personally prefer modern games have voice acting as possible as long the voice actors can deliver great way of dialogues and intonation.
Maybe I have grown up by 3rd party games standard so I prefer characters at least can talk even with a few words.
I'm not a fan of always silent characters which cannot describe their opinion properly because of being silent and used other characters to describe the main character opinion. Not a fan of bleeping sounds anymore as it sounds too old fashion for me.
I prefer alternative way by character grunts or sound effects at least when I talked to them, but during the special cutscenes, I want to look at them talking properly with great voice acting.

Btw...

This is one example of improvement from Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar by having character voice acting from the NPC rather than old fashion bleeping sounds from NDS era.

@Anti-Matter
It is alright in the video. Still I prefer silence or funny sounds like in Starwing or Animal Crossing.

Silent protagonists spark your imagination while the voiced ones are kind of set.

For example, in Half-Life it works PERFECTLY.

While playing as Gordon Freeman, you can voice him in your head and give him the personality you want.

I think it works the same way with Link as well.

@Anti-Matter
I should have added to my last reply, that the scenes you showed me, would feel more fitting and natural without voice acting to me. As it is, it feels a little bit fake.

@Jhena
Well, different people have different personal taste.
I personally prefer good voice acting in almost every video games if possible as i'm not a fan of silent protagonist or old fashion bleeping sounds anymore.
I expect something better after I got impressed by mostly 3rd party games.
And about new Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar, to have voice acting for the first time it was really huge step forward for me as the acting voice will be my pleasure in my mind when they choose the right voice actors to give the dialogue with right intonation and not in cringey way.
For example, I grew up by some voice actors voice such as Cree Summer (Susie in Rugrats, Numbuh 5 & Cree from Codename Kids Next Door, Princess Kids from Atlantis), Tara Strong (Bubbles from PPG, Timmy Turner from Fairly Odd Parents, Omi from Xiaolin Showdown), James Arnold Taylor (Tidus FF X, Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob & Gary, Raimundo Pedrosa from Xiaolin Showdown, Mayor from PPG), etc.
I will appreciate the other voice actors to give their voice acting for video games in a good way.

@Anti-Matter
I agree, it is about personal taste.

You mentioned some nice examples though, like Ratchet & Clank. Haha, I did not know it was Tidus. I liked his voice acting in Final Fantasy X, even the laughing scene. Maybe some games are better with voice acting and some without it.

My thing with Pokémon is that there is just so much text that full voice acting would probably muddle the experience. A few for important moments told via cutscene (think the opening to Sword and Shield) would do wonders to flesh out the characters though.

They should make an actual 3D Pokemon game that isn't a huge downgrade from the DS era aesthetic before worrying about voice acting tbh.

It is admittedly funny to say this about the franchise that popularized English dubbed anime.

Joy Cons Switch 1 with rally is more comfortable to use than the magnetic Joy Cons Switch 2 in my opinion after some thought, even I haven't have Switch 2 yet.
The magnetic factor that I have concern about.

Something I thought was self evident and not controversial and I'm probably also preaching to the choir somewhat. But if feels like with the Switch 2 launch especially people are just spending a lot of energy complaining about things that functionally don't matter. Academic and theoretical points but ultimately ones that don't impact you

For example, there are people complaining about the price of the Pro Controller 2 and the fact that it doesn't have Hall Effect sticks. These people then go on to say that there are better controllers, also compatible with Switch 2, that cost less. Putting aside my views on the value of the controller (it's great, definitely worth it) if this is your view.... what's the issue? If you think there are better, cheaper controllers out there get that one instead. Problem solved. So why put energy into complaining?

It's a similar deal with the dock. I've seen people complain about how it has some kind of tricksy voltage handshake that locks out some existing USB docks. The same thing the original Switch Dock did mind you. Or complain that it's too expensive for what it is. And frankly, I totally agree with those complaints. No question. But also.... it comes with a dock in the box. Unless you have a need for a second dock, and I would suggest most people do not, this doesn't impact you at all. So why expend energy on it? I don't get it

Also, side tangent. I have a Steam Deck, I love the Steam Deck. I'm glad I have what is ultimately an ultra portable PC that happens to have a gaming friendly UI. It's nice. And I feel a similar way about the handheld PC market in general, I've been wanting to see this happen for ages. But can we stop pretending that the Switch 2 with it's NVidia/ARM SoC doesn't just straight up outclass it? There's just no contest here, especially for the price. NVidia GPUs and ARM CPUs are just straight up more efficient architectures and mobile devices is their domain

If hell froze over and somehow we got an NVidia/ARM based Steam OS running portable with a compatibility layer that allowed the library of PC games to run? Don't pretend that that wouldn't be the dream scenario for the PC gaming crowd. Because I know it's my dream scenario. The difference is, I also recognise that Switch 2 is literally that device, on shelves, right now, ready to buy... just with the eShop instead of the Steam and with games being ported rather than some kind of ARM/Linux translation layer

I would've thought this kind of opinion would require actual use of the device rather than just... thoughts and opinions....