I don't think that's a good comparison because there is a 3D Zelda game with closer elements, that being WW. It's the only Zelda that's actually a seamless open world, just like Zelda U.

That's the problem, I'm reading it faster than I have the option to get rid of it. The dialogue appears too slowly and I have to mash the button to get rid of the box. And I believe voice acting would work faster than having the dialogue having to be spelled out everytime. Come on, you know that takes forever.

Also, your next point, about the series not needing to be cinematic for you, the problem is the developers have been increasingly making it more cinematic, just without voice acted dialogue. Skyward Sword had a ton of cutscenes in the beginning that all got slowed down because of dialogue boxes. I say if you're going to go for it, go all in. The way they've been doing it is cumbersome and frankly at this point antiquated.

I actually think the new game takes a lot of inspiration from Skyward Sword. However, it's clear that Aonuma listened to common criticisms of the game and is applying those to newer games -- this was evident in Link Between Worlds.

Check this old Iwata Asks:

"Fujibayashi: So for a time we had the idea of jumping from a tower.

When I was talking about not thinking one was superior, I was talking about the quality of text written to be read vs. text written to be spoken. I was not talking about the implementation of VA in video games vs text. VA is absolutely superior in that regard, for reasons I've already stated.

It's not just "immersion." It's flow and it's pacing. It's quality of animation. It's the syncronization between what you see and what you hear. None of that is possible without VA. The stop and go effect is something that hampers the quality of both cutscenes and NPC dialog. Not only are the animations never finish or connected, but they can never hope to be in sync with an individuals reading pace. Some will read the dialog before the matching animation has even started, some will see an animation before they finished reading the animation associated, and all will miss something because they were reading text during the animation. That's such a stupid problem to have when the solution is so simple and is perfectly additive.

I absolutely am saying that it would make for an objectively superior experience, and I've given objective reasons for it.

The dialogue would not appear more quickly if it was voice acted. If you're saying you would sit and listen through the dialogue even after you had finished reading it, that would not speed things up. Also, there's no mashing of buttons involved. You tap a button once or you hold a button down.

Having lots of cutscenes doesn't make a game cinematic -- and even Ocarina of Time had lengthy cutscenes, so I don't feel the modern games are increasingly cinematic by that definition, anyway. Generally, "cinematic" is used to describe games with lots of scripted sequences and a high ratio of cutscenes to gameplay. Being that Skyward Sword is a roughly 40 hour game, some talky moments does not make it cinematic.

Again, you say dialogue boxes slow the game down, but that is not the case. They allow you to control the pace of the cutscenes. I guarantee that if those scenes were voice-acted, you would still finish reading the text before the characters had finished reading their lines. This means without the option to cut characters off mid-word, the scenes would actually take longer to play out. And if you take that option, you aren't really listening to the voice acting at all, making it irrelevant.

Lack of voice acting is not antiquated. It is a choice. It is a different style. Games have had voice acting for over 20 years -- over 30 if we count voice synthesis. It is no more "antiquated" than unspoken text, it is simply more common now. It is the majority. Which is why I say pushing for every game to have voice acting is doing a disservice to the medium. It is censorship. There is absolutely nothing, not one single thing, wrong with a developer choosing a text-based approach over a voiced approach. -- or to be more on-topic, there's nothing wrong with this specific developer choosing a text-based approach for The Legend of Zelda. It fits the series tone.

Voice acting could also fit the tone. But it is not necessary and the games would not be objectively superior for having it. They would simply be different. Some people would like them more, others would like them less.

Well, I disagree. Voice acting does not affect flow or pacing. Toggling between voice acting and no voice acting would impede the flow. Synchronization between what you see and what you hear doesn't make any difference at all except to "immersion." This so-called "stop and go effect" doesn't hamper anything. It gives the player the power to control the pace of the scene, and many games with voice acting still give the player this power (see: Xenoblade). You really say it's not just immersion and then go on to describe how much more immersive voice acting is.

The objective reason you give is a simple facet of the style which you describe as a problem. To be clear, this is a not an objective problem with the game. This is a subjective problem you have with the game.

You're assuming that there would still be a dialogue box even if it were voice acted. I've never seen that done and with good reason. And yes, the dialogue box's writing does slow down the length that the cut scene would hypothetically take without it. Sometimes the character animation is done playing while the writing is still happening, so no, you're wrong on that one.

And your criticism that skipping through written dialogue vs spoken would take the same amount of time is wrong as well. If implemented correctly, I should be able to skip an entire dialogue box worth of words at the beginning of the sentence. Skyward Sword did not allow this.

Lastly, once again, you and I both agree that the series has been moving in a more cinematic direction in regards to their cut scenes. For reasons I've already said and for reasons Spenamig just laid out, VA for those scenes would absolutely be better.

Reading the arguments here I'm constantly thinking about Bravely Default, have anyone here played it? It has a LOT of voice acting moments both in Japanese and English, and although it's cool at first it becomes so annoying! As the_dengle is saying, I usually finish reading and they are still in half of the dialogue, so I'm constantly pushing buttons to move to the next text.

In this particular case voice acting made the game worse imo, it detracts from the experience and I find the game more enjoyable without them.

In other games it works better, in others not, or maybe are the circumstances. Like some people are saying, in a specific cinema it might work (although Link should never talk).... but everytime like buying in a shop? I think not, I have no doubt it would be very very annoying.

BTW, I played A Link to the Past in GBA and Snes, and I prefer the Snes version cause I don't have to listen Link shouting everytime he attacks, maybe is just me but is really distracting and I prefer him quiet.

Yes mate, I need voice acting. English or hylian I don't care. I'm just tired of great animations without sound. I can play it without voice acting because I'm a fanboy, but the inclusion would help the game a lot!

Considering that Aonuma wants better cinematics than hyrule warriors (that's what he said), I expect some sort of voice acting. Zelda would be great like a Persona game, silent hero, voice acting for the story events, but text bubbles when you talk to a random NPC.

Uh, what? So you've never played Mass Effect? Or Xenoblade? Or The Elder Scrolls? Or... seriously what the hell are you talking about?

No, I am not wrong. There is absolutely no reason voice acting would cause the game to move more quickly. All you are saying is that you want text boxes to go more quickly, not that you want it to be voice-acted. If you are skipping an entire dialogue then you aren't even listening to the voice acting. VA isn't going to cause an entire paragraph to be spoken in the 2 seconds it takes for a few words to appear on screen.