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A group of actors has provided voice-acting to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
Voice actor and YouTuber Joe Goffeney, also known as Dr. Bonehead, teamed up with his fellow friends in the industry to dub characters in certain cutscenes of the Generation IX games. Goffeney also posted a side-by-side comparison of certain scenes with and without voice acting to his Twitter account. The multiple actors provided voices to characters like Nemona, Arven, Penny and Clavell, giving life to once-silent NPCs. The five-minute video gave fans a taste of what Pokémon titles would sound like fully voice-acted. Although many fans responded positively to the video, some users expressed uncertainty that Game Freak would ever implement that feature in future games.
“I want Pokémon to have voice acting, but I only want it in pre-rendered cutscenes, not in the regular ‘press a to continue’ scenes,” one Twitter user wrote. Some users doubted Scarlet/Violet frame rates could handle voice-acting with its array of technical problems. Others were concerned if the longtime franchise could continue to regularly release titles, considering fully voiced characters would lengthen production time.
For example, it’s unclear if Pokémon could have released Legends: Arceus, Scarlet/Violet and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl over the last two years if the games featured voice-acting. While the Generation IX games lacked voiced characters, some NPCs’ mouths moved when they talked to coincide with the words on-screen. Furthermore, Scarlet/Violet‘s NPCs are incredibly expressive, despite no voice-acting cast.
One Twitter user pointed out their disappointment with how games keep up with other titles in terms of voiced characters. “I’m sorry but I like my RPG games to stay silent so I can imagine what they sound like myself,” they wrote. Other RPGs, like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, will break the tradition and feature a fully voiced cast. The PSP version previously only had voice-acting during important cutscenes, and the game presented the dialogue in a text-only format.
While the Pokémon franchise hasn’t featured a voice-acting cast since the video game series began with Red/Blue in 1996, it’s unclear if the titles will ever go in that direction. Even if it’s unclear what the Generation X games will entail, some believe Game Freak has already hinted at the future setting of the next region. In Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, players meet Junichi Masuda, under the name Game Director. The first thing he says to players is “Ciao,” the Italian word for hello and goodbye. Scarlet/Violet also contains a painting that resembles an Italian street with the caption, “a beautiful town in a different region.”
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: YouTube, Twitter
