I read plenty, but in a Video game reading a pop-up thing does absolutely nothing to help immersion.

Nothing against it personally, it just has to be done really well or else it will take away from the game.

No way. I much prefer having these characters speaking a foreign language and needing subtitles. Although some sort of explanation for Link being a mute would be quite cool.

No voice acting.

Haha aside from the weird talking water hose I didn't think it was too bad, well to my recollection (might have to refresh from YouTube ;-P). The funny thing is I think Nintendo realizes they aren't very good at implementing voice acting so more than likely they will not do it in Zelda U (or whatever it will be called). They MIGHT just do like a small amount of voice acting just to test the waters and please the fans who are desperate for it. 

one reason i'm usually a bit iffy about VA is accents. hearing different accents in a language i'm familiar with, would sorta "ruin the illusion" of hyrule as a fantasy world. and generally speaking, using accents as means of characterization CAN turn out rather cringeworthy... in the case of zelda i must say i'm not as familiar with different japanese accents, so i wouldn't find japanese VA distracting. but i think i'd just be annoyed if i'd walk around in the lost woods and stumble upon a character with a distinct british/american/aussie/etc accent.

i guess the same could be said about text. vocabulary and stylistic level affects my perception of a character... though i don't find the structure of a text as distracting as the sound of a voice.

i'm not against VA per se, but i'd prefer it to be in a made up language, to keep the illusion of the fantasy.

Nintendo is conservative yes, in some ways, and a few Nintendo gamers are conservative. But when I read "most of Nintendo's IPs haven't really changed much since years gone by" it baffles me really, since Nintendo ans Nintendo gamers are actually the ones who endure more new and different things. I don't want to make a big thread on this since it's not the right topic for it but so I'll make, instead a few topics.

Consoles/controllers

N64 - Gamecube - Wii - WiiU: Nintendo owners see Analog - Dual Analog - motion controllers - tablet controller, everyone else see: gimmick - gimmick - gimmick

PS1 - PS2 - PS3 - PS4: don't need to point out, controllers are pretty much always the same

Xbox - X360 - X1: don't need to point out, controllers are pretty much always the same

Games (Xbox/PS heavy sellers)

Uncharted - 1 to 4, all in same generation, all same game, improved visuals, different story

CoDs - 1 to 367th, mostly 7h generation, all same game, same visuals, differente story (worse every itineration)

FIFA - every itineration same game,  different teams (a few players that is)

Assassin's Creed - Same game, same visuals (improved with unity), same gameplay, different story, gets worse every new itineration, they now seam to release 2 games per year (!)

GT/Forza - same games, same gameplay, improved visuals (only per generation, but they release more than one game per generation), hell until PS3 generation GT had 7 entries (not counting prologues and such) while Mario Kart had until Wii 4 entries and has been around since SNES (one generation earlier)

Games (Nintendo heavy sellers)

Mario - Super Mario Bros (SNES) - Super Mario 64 (N64) - Super Mario Sunshine (NGC) - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - NewSMBros (Wii) - SM3DW (Wii U) which are: 2d mario - 3d Mario open worldish - 3d Mario open worldish where gameplay revolves around a waterthrower - can't really describe what Galaxy is but again it's completely differente gameplay - again back to 2d Marios 3 generations later - 3D mario in closed levels (can't find the words to describe it)

Metroid: Super Metroid - skips generation - Prime Trilogy - Other M and that is 2D Metroid - (skips generation) - 1st person adventure - 3D Metroid on 3rd person, different games, different stories, same skin

Zelda: Started as 2D open world from the top down, to 3D Zelda, to Celshaded Zelda, to linear Zelda with "gimmicky" motion controls, to open world 3D Zelda, i.e., it keeps changing with different aesthetics/art styles and gameplay tweaks

Mario Kart - Until Wii, 4 entries for consoles, few gameplay improvements over predecessor, improved graphics. This changes as much as a driving game can change, i.e., very few, the difference is you get one entry per gen while GT/Forza get get 2-3 games per gen;

SSBros - the same as for Mario Kart, Fighting genre doesn't change that much, but use Tekken/Street Fighter instead of GT/Forza

And  could go on saying Nintendo publishes the likes of Bayonetta/Devil's Third, introduces motion control sports gaming in millions of homes with new concept called Wiisports games, several Mario games (Super charged, Tennis, Party - footall, Tennis, Party game, different games same skin), etc.

Long story short you might not like their games, might not like Mario & Co., might not like the "non-mature" and "gimmicky" way of Nintendo, they sure as hell have made several mistakes in the past, but to argue their IPs haven't changed much and they are the conservative ones (at least gamingwise) when other consoles sell tons of the same stuff every year, is just plain stupid, no offense.

The best solution would be the Animal Crossing approach (or Midna, more pertinently). Just get a few voice actors in for a day to record some phonemes, have the game engine compile random honks, burps and warbles from them, then just say everyone's speaking Hylian.

Aonuma is just evil enough do this. This is what he has been "considering".

That is really only true with the wii, Nintendo constantly innovated with ever other console, then they hit a gold mine and didn't want to mess anything up.  They've learned their lesson and now the wiiU has some of the most innovative and fresh games out there.  There is a reason that outside of remakes the xbox one and ps4 aren't getting great exclusives, they are playing it safe.  Though I never knew that hardcore nintendo fans are conservative, I've been around them for awhile and I always thought the opposite, silly me.

Well, by timeline wize, yes, Link/Zelda/etc are "different" but when people first hear their voice, they won't justify the voices like that if they don't like it. There will just be hate and nothing else and the few people that try to justify it won't matter cause it butchered the sales regardless. And bad VA is a valid argument and you havn't really disproven it at all... All you essentially said is that it can't happen which isn't really disproving it but rather just ignoring the fact that its a possibility.

But okay, the other issue is that what's good enough for Nintendo might not be good enough for their fans. Another example of this is Mario Sunshine which had good enough VA for Nintendo cause they released it but the VA was terrible and cringeworthy at best for the rest of us and this was one of their main franchises! Compare that to GTA 3 which had excellent voice acting by comparison and it came around the sametime. Sure, times have changed and Zelda has more dialog than Mario but that does not mean that what's good enough for Nintendo might be good enough for the rest of us. And its not really unacceptable, look at the 3ds, look at Pokemon X and Y as well as other 3ds games, they sell a shit ton without any VA what so ever. And imo, the best way to get money from its fans is to make sure Nintendo doesn't piss them off by taking unnessary risks and most fans won't care about VA until Nintendo puts it in themselves

And we won't know this for sure but of course, if they hit the right strides, then it will be a positive, no one is arguing that fact, the issue is that if it doesn't, it will be a huge issue that will plague the franchise forever. And I am pretty sure the reason they couldn't take say SS (cause it was the last console Zelda) seriously is cause of its handholding, annoying Fi and motion controls as well as other things and not cause the lack of VA.

And its not really settling for less cause Zelda exceeds in many other aspects where many games in its genre has failed or give a sub-par experience and those parts are far more important than any kind of VA