I’ve been thinking about this ever since I played Breath of the Wild. I don’t think I care much for full voice acting in the Zelda games, but I can also understand its purpose.
Obviously, Breath of the Wild isn’t the first time that we’ve seen voice acting in general in a Zelda game. It’s not even the first time we’ve seen full voice acting in a Zelda game if you’re brave enough to include the Philips CD-i titles into the mix. However, most Zelda games have opted to go for vocal sound bites rather than full voice acting.
After the newest trailer for Tears of the Kingdom dropped and fans started speculating that long-time Zelda villain Ganondorf could be heard speaking, there were all sorts of think pieces mulling over just how perfect his voice actor needs to be. After Princess Zelda’s voice actor Patricia Summersett had to ‘build a thick skin‘ after negativity online despite it not actually being that bad (but not a favourite with fans), I can understand why.
Me personally? I’m one of the many, many, many people that grew up playing The Legend of Zelda series. My favourite Zelda game is Wind Waker, and I always loved how they did a lot with a little in terms of voice acting and really leaned into facial expressions telling a story. That being said, I’d argue that while every Zelda story is epic in its own way, Breath of the Wild has definitely solidified itself as one of the more in-depth narratives of the series.
And that’s why I can understand the shift to semi-full voice acting. Of course, not every character has a voice in the Switch title. Link still doesn’t talk, and it’s probably for the best that he never does. But with the scale of Breath of the Wild (and presumably Tears of the Kindgom) in a narrative sense, the shift to voice acting does make sense for an easier way to get a girthy narrative across. Reading is hard!
But alas, I still don’t think it’s for me. Breath of the Wild was and continues to be a masterpiece in gaming and I’m sure Tears of the Kingdom is going to blow me away, but years of being used to “Huh? Eh? Hyaa! Ugh…” has sound-bite-pilled my brain into getting a funny feeling when hearing full vocal lines come out of Zelda games. But hey, that’s just me.
How do you feel about it? Would you like to see more voice acting in Zelda games of the future, or do you prefer less talk-y and more read-y? Let us know!
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