Breath of the Wildwas a revolutionary game forThe Legend of Zeldain a lot of ways. It broke away from the action-adventure formula by introducingSkyrim-esque elements. Link can explore the world at his own pace, complete the story in his own order, and spend as time as he likes on traversing the wilderness in search of resources and equipment. However, arguablythe most shocking change Nintendo madeinBreath of the Wildwas introducing voice actors for the major characters. Spoken dialogue was a fresh and exciting change for theZeldagames. However, some players felt a little let down by the voice acting because the game wasn’t fully voiced, only certain characters and certain scenes had voice acting.
Now that it’s moving beyond the firstBreath of the Wild,Nintendo has the opportunity to correct that inBreath of the Wild 2.It looks like a precedent’s already been set, however, thanks to evidence from the demo ofHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.TheBreath of the Wildprequel indicates that partially voiced dialogue is the status quo. Some fans are probably frustrated to learn that Nintendo is still doing this halfway, and disappointed about what it might mean for the next game.
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Is Silence Golden?
To be fair toAge of Calamity, it’s probably going to have a higher percentage of voiced dialogue thanBreath of the Wild.However, that’s largely by virtue ofAge of Calamitybeing a story-driven game, rather than the fairly sandbox model of its source material. Between each mission in the game, there’s probably going to be plenty of voiced cutscenes. Seeing these regularly might please fans wanting to hear more from their favorite characters, but it’s hard to make up for the fact that the battle dialogue isn’t voiced. Even if there’s lots of cutscenes inAge of Calamity,the majority of the talking lies in the actual gameplay, and if that dialogue isn’t voiced, it’s a letdown.
This seems to set a precedent that, althoughNintendo is open to itsZeldacharacters speakingout loud, it only wants them to speak in specific circumstances. Maybe it wants players to be able to pause and appreciate voice acting, rather than having to split attention between dialogue and the heat of battle. Regardless of Nintendo’s intention behind handling voiced characters this way, it means a pattern is starting to develop leading up to the much anticipatedBreath of the Wild 2.Unless there’s some drastic changes in design, that game will probably be only partially voiced too.
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A Game of Sidon Says
It’s probably at Nintendo’s behest thatAge of Calamitydoesn’t have full voice acting.Koei Tecmo’sDynasty Warriorsseries, the classic hack and slash franchise thatHyrule Warriorsspins off of, has had voiced battle dialogue for many installments. The inclination at Koei Tecmo is probably to get the game voiced, but the firstHyrule Warriorsgame acquiesced toZeldatradition and kept the dialogue silent. It looks like inAge of Calamitythe developers are acquiescing to a newZeldastandard. It may be a spinoff, but what Nintendo says, goes.
It’s something of a shame that that’s apparently the model that Nintendo wants to go with. Some players can’t help feeling that only implementing voice acting halfway does a disservice toThe Legend of Zelda.Adding spoken word to the games is a great update to the franchise formula that opens up a lot of potential. Voices go a long way to characterizing anyone from the protagonists to the shopkeepers,as games likeSkyrimdemonstrate. Maybe Nintendo just needs a little time to wade into the waters before it makes sure every bit of dialogue is spoken.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityreleases November 20th for the Nintendo Switch.
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