Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Players Want Voice Acting in Future Pokemon Games

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet might have one of the most heartfelt storylines in the history of the Pokemon franchise, but players feel that it is let down by a lack of voice acting. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is a divisive game for a number of reasons, including the rather miserable performance of the game's graphics. However, a YouTuber recently churned up another well-worn criticism of Pokemon games – the lack of voice acting. Joe Goffeney, who runs the Dr. Bonehead YouTube channel, recently went viral when he and several voice actors did a demo video demonstrating how much better the game if cutscenes had voice acting. You can check out the full video down below:

Traditionally, the Pokemon games haven't used voice acting, even after moving to consoles like the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Switch that could support deeper and more complex audio files. While earlier Pokemon games didn't really have cut scenes that would have required voice acting, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet notably had a handful of pure cut scenes and flashbacks that didn't involve any player character involvement. 

Should the Pokemon franchise opt to use voice acting in a future game, it can look to The Legend of Zelda as a potential example of how it could move forward. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the first Zelda game to use voice acting, although it only had certain characters and cut scenes with voice acting. That might be a compromise that Game Freak might be willing to accept, although any voice acting would come with additional localization costs and time. 

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is available for the Nintendo Switch now.