You don’t need great voice acting to have a great story

Many people feel that voice acting gives their virtual avatars more personality. While this might be true, good voice work is not necessary to create a fully fleshed out, emotive character.

[randomass171]

Absolutely not, but depending on your narrative it can definitely help. The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite would be quite different in feeling without the voice of Troy Baker.

[3-4-5]

A Great story is always a plus & the pic is perfect for this.

Wind Waker has a cool story, without using very many words.

It's all the small details in that game that help bring the story to life.

[randomass171]

Wind Waker's narrative worked quite well for what it was and didn't need a lot of spoken dialogue. They were able to convey a lot of emotions in that game, so you see a lot of cutscenes where it's just characters emotionally reacting to certain situations at least in HD, I dunno if the GCN game is any different.

[ColManischewitz]

I prefer my games without voice acting. I just read the text, and I read quicker than someone speaks.

[MurDocINC]

I prefer reading cause I can give the characters my extra charm.

[Good-Smurf]

ํYeah a DIY voice acting is a lot of fun especially last night with The Wind Waker!

[thehobbyist]

I prefer games that has voice acting as an audio que. Games like Persona where a character audibly says "What?!" and the text reads "What the hell?!"
I like that. It allows for some voicing to give some life to the game but allows me to read it as well.

[Ksar]

Final Fantasy XII Thread.

[Metallox]

Wind Waker is not a good example, Skyward Sword is.

[IMissJimRyan]

The best exemple is "Journey".

[Geekman]

I had no idea what was going on in Journey until near the end of the game.

[linkenski]

In Skyward Sword the characters constantly flap their jaws and make annoying groans. It detracts a lot from the charm you get when most is just text IMO.

[Metallox]

@icomorales Because Journey it's a great Zelda game, you know.

[Summons75]

No...

Wind Waker's story was way better and darker.

[Metallox]

Here's why I think Skyward Sword story is way better, this guy really knows:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

What do you need to do in Wind Waker? Get these random spheres so you can get the Master Sword or whatever in order to beat Ganondorf. Oh, and Tetra is Zelda. That's Wind Waker's story for me.

Skyward Sword expresses more and it's only about Link in his journey to find Zelda, but Nintendo knew how to attach both characters in a good way, they need each other and it was an overwhelming way to start all the stories that happen after Skyward Sword.

[Summons75]

@ Metallox

Getting those "Random orbs" is only half the game. Skyward Sword was go here, lose your items, gather them, do other long tedious pieces, repeat. Skyward Sword was not a very strong title. Navi got a rival in annoying (Fi), they put a lot of things in that made the game needlessly long. Windwaker was straight to the point and a much darker story.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

So Demise revival wasn't Dark or Ghirahim rage.

[RosweeSon]

Hope that's not chris' blood.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Jill-Sandwich

[rextraordinaire]

Some games are better with voice acting, others not so much.

An exemple would be Dragon's Crown. The narrator does all the voice work and it goes a long way making it feel like a true tale read from a book. If characters had their own voice, there would be a huge disconnect between the voices and the game's presentation. LittleBigPlanet does it too, and it's great.

But sometimes, each character with it's own voice is the way to go, like for Persona games.

[MysticStrummer]

Of course not, but great voice acting can add to a story just like bad voice acting can take away.

[deantak]

I think it's worth noting that you can get by with undiscovered voice acting talent in a game, rather than getting famous actors to do the voice acting.

[A2X_]

Shadow of the Colossus agrees.
But really it depends on the game's type. If the story relies heavily on dialogue then u'll probably need decent voice acting.

[Gezmoyassine]

As they say "if it ain't broken,don't fix it"

[Wni0]

Does nintendo have a single solid franchise with solid voice acting / story?
Mario, no.
Zelda, no.
Metroid, no.
Uhhh pikmin im sure

[SweetDangos]

Kid Icarus

[randomass171]

Yup, that'd be the one. :P

[Nate-Dog]

I have never ever heard anyone making such a claim. Voice-acting is voice-acting. It hardly ever affects a narrative. It might affect how well a part of a narrative is taken in by a player because of the quality (or lack of quality) of a voice-actor in certain moments but it does not change the narrative.