The Power Of Silence

There’s many things that go into making a game. What the player will be seeing, what they will be doing and what they will be hearing. In terms of sound design it might be simple things such as sound effects. However, depending on the scope of the project it might even expand to include things such as voice acting. Its importance can vary from genre to genre, however, at a certain point a game can get popular enough that fans will sometimes question why a game doesn’t have any.

Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in the world with their games selling over millions of copies upon release. However, one complaint that fans have somewhat recently had is the fact that there is no voice acting in their games. Many fans feel that the franchise is big enough that it can afford to finally have some voice acting in it. But that’s just the thing; this franchise has grown this big and still continues to grow despite never once having voice acting in their games (aside from the Pokemon cries). So why is it that now fans want to have voice acting, especially when they don’t expect the same from other big franchises?

Mario and Zelda are two other big name game franchises that had essentially no voice acting besides character sound effects. In fact it’s only in their most recent games that they had any real voice acting, and even then the amount they have is very limited. What’s even crazier is the fact that despite being about as popular as Pokemon, fans didn’t demand for them to have voice acting. If either of the two were to go back to having none aside from what they were used to already, fans likely wouldn’t even bat an eye. And yet for whatever reason Pokemon is held up to a different standard.

So why is that Pokemon is looked at differently than other games? I believe that with most games that don’t have voice acting, they do their best to make sure it isn’t missed. While nowadays most big games are expected to have voice acting in them, the extent that is expected usually isn’t that great or even present. Most games can likely get away with having only a few voice lines here and there and leaving the rest blank. This helps players get a feel for the character, but not having the voice acting being a requirement. The problem with Pokemon however is that they’ve made it so that the lack of voice acting is felt.

Voice acting wasn’t really a requirement for Pokemon until Sword and Shield. In that game they had a character who would sing fairly often. The obvious issue with this is that in a game with no voice acting, how are you supposed to make a singer without it feeling awkward? This issue was made worse when they focused on these scenes. As a result the lack of voice acting was made apparent and caused fans to want it for themselves despite it not being an issue in the past.

Voice acting isn’t something that’s required to make a game good. Sure it can help, however at the end of the day it’s only an add-on to make the game better. The problem only acquires when lack of it becomes apparent. In order to move on without it, it’s important to understand the limits of your story now that it’s no longer there and make a game where it won’t be missed.

Logan Floyd-Mcgee | Writer
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