No One Seems to Understand Voice Acting Would Ruin Pokemon…

Every so often, I see a comment or a colleague opine that Pokemon needs voice acting. They argue that Pokemon Wind and Waves needs voice acting when Gen 10 finally drops at the very least. And every time I hear this, it almost feels like a slap across the face. I've been playing Pokemon since I was 5 years old, and never once in the 25+ years since has any type of acting mattered to me (for Pokemon games anyway). In fact, I think it might be one of few things that could ruin the franchise for me.

Let's get some caveats out of the way real quick: yes, I am aware that if Pokemon Wind and Waves introduces voice acting, I can just turn the volume all the way down. It's exactly what I intend to do if it does happen. I definitely agree that Pokemon games without voice acting should not have cutscenes that necessitate voice acting, i.e., Gen 8's awkward singing scene with Piers. And I have never once played on my Nintendo Switch docked. I love the Switch as a handheld and love it for folks who want the hybrid functionality, but I don't care for that feature.

Finally, I think my experience matters here. I've always read at higher-grade levels and incredibly fast, which I partially attribute to my experience playing Pokemon Yellow as I was learning to read. I was the kid playing Pokemon and hiding my Game Boy Advance under my pillow at night, so my mom could not hear that I was up past my bedtime. But all of this is to say, while I am aware that my opinion is colored by all of this to some degree, I still think that voice acting would fundamentally change, and potentially ruin, Pokemon games and what they offer for players like me.

Voice Acting Impacts Everything About the Pokemon World

Let's set aside the obvious opinions of mine. I think the reading aspect of Pokemon makes it super valuable to younger children, and as a father, that maybe matters to me more than you. Introducing voice acting would shift Pokemon development drastically, adding new steps and phases and elongating the time between main games. As one of the few franchises that can release games consistently, I don't see why a new step should be added to the series. It works, and I am a big proponent of: "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" Beyond these simple aspects, there are many deeper issues.

Red, Blue & Professor Oak Standing In Oak's Lab In Pokemon Red & Blue Versions

Everything in game development is a compromise. Time and resources spent on VO recording, localization, audio implementation, and so forth are resources not spent on improving animations, smarter AI, world density, and post-game content for a Pokemon game—all areas where the games are already inconsistent and where I would prefer improvement and more resources be spent overall.

It Immediately Breaks the Player's Projection

Pokemon is not a choice-heavy game, but who the player character is becomes a projection of every kid and player who steps into their shoes. Giving them a voice breaks that projection in the same way that Fallout 4 fans were not happy about a voiced protagonist. They may not be entirely blank slate protagonists, but they are enough that players can project onto them. Now, you might think, well, make the protagonist silent and voice everyone else. That, too, creates major problems.

Some popular Pokemon characters appear both in games and anime, and while the anime does not break immersion, that's not really a concern with average NPCs, gym leaders, etc. Players lose the "voice in my head" aspect of the Pokemon games with voice acting.

Pokemon Dialogue is...Something

Pokemon dialogue is good for learning to read, yes, but it's not like it's classic literature or a well-written story.

"I'm too young for math," says a child in Pokemon Sun and Moon
"I may be bad and stupid, but I'm serious about Pokemon" - another zinger from Pokemon Sun and Moon
"Pokemon with cool knees are so neat!" Is a line that should never have a voice
"It's like my Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattatas," thanks to Youngster Joey.

That's without even highlighting how Pokemon games, like good animated movies, hide adult-only jokes that kids won't hopefully get. Pokemon Legends: Z-A NPCs make some wild remarks about Pokeballs, and there's the classic Pokemon Black and White swimmer remark about a "woman's secret." Those lines do not need to be given voice or be spoken to children.

The obvious answer to that is, yes, make the writing better, make the translations better, and cut the jokes, but they are an iconic part of the experience. Even if that is the choice, we circle right back around to how this could lengthen development time with added translations and quality checks. What's fine in a textbox can become worse when in a spoken line. Already, plenty of older Pokemon fans think the games are too easy...and voice acting would only highlight the painfully childish parts of the series.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen - the final battle against Blue-1

Bark, Bark, Bark

I love barks in video games, but turn-based combat in Pokemon games does not need them to be read aloud. That would be bark hell, given that Pokemon can only use four moves in combat. The obvious answer here is, yes, don't give voice acting lines to combat. But if we don't need it there because of how repetitive it would be...I once again point to the simplistic dialogue in Pokemon games...that is almost certainly repetitive to some degree. I'd assume that barks and voice lines would not be given to Pokemon, but that's even more terrifying, nightmare fuel even. Some Pokemon have basic noises and whatnot, or rarely say their name like Pikachu, but the limited implementation already works. Pushing more is pushing an envelope for the sake of pushing an envelope.

VO Would Change Everything About Pokemon Stories

Not even the best Pokemon game is ever going to win a prize for best narrative in the industry, but that's not the point. It's childhood splendor. It's nostalgia. It's fun and cool creatures. I'd even argue that most text in Pokemon games has always been designed to be skimmable, not necessarily to be read by more experienced readers. However, throw acting even into just cutscenes, and the self-guided pacing of cutscenes is over, tutorials are forever changed, and replays become more painful. There may be development tricks to alleviate these risks, but that give-and-take would make for a less holistic game.

the world's greatest pikachu side mission in pokemon legends za-1

Pokemon Simply Doesn't Need It

At the end of the day, I think the possible drawbacks of Pokemon voice acting far outweigh the benefits. At the end of the day, Pokemon is one of the biggest franchises in the world, and any perceivable attempt at doing something cheaply—as some have criticized Pokemon Legends: Z-A's budget and shortcomings—ought to be criticized. But injecting more money and more time into voice acting would not make better Pokemon games, it would make different ones. And I do not think different Pokemon games, at least in this regard, are what's best for the franchise.

It did not become one of the biggest franchises in the world without at least decent resource management and the ability to prioritize. Perhaps it has experimented too much at times and played it too safely at other times, but the priority has always been about what the games need, what the new generation needs, and what to bring to players. I just don't see voice acting as a priority, far from it in fact.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image