Pokémon’s musical arrangements? Exquisite. Monster battle cries? Iconic. Pokémon’s voice acting? Still mostly absent, despite nearly 30 years of mainline entries and spin-offs. Though the lack of voice acting is not new for the series, the topic has surfaced once again within the fandom following the recent release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Like most Pokémon games, the first few hours of Legends: Z-A are full of explanatory hand-holding and plenty of cutscenes. And these cutscenes are highly produced affairs, at least when it comes to the animation. From the opening moments, Z-A is full of dramatic moments and creatively-framed shots. It’s clear that a lot of love and attention has been placed on the Pokémon themselves, and that’s especially evident when it comes to the new mega evolutions. Most creatures bust out into their mega forms with a scream, and those few seconds are imbued with personality. Hawlucha spreads his wings proudly; Greninja’s shuriken spins with a menace. Even the running animations catch eyes, as mega Starmie’s goofy legs will attest to. No one would compare the game’s overall animation to games flush with ornate details, like Hollow Knight: Silksong or Cuphead. The graphics, stylized and serviceable as they are, are not particularly impressive. But within the confines of the franchise thus far, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is a slick product.
So why doesn’t it sound like one? Why even bother with so many cutscenes if they’re not going to give anyone voice work? This is a question that the community has been discussing in earnest recently all over social media, and posts on the subject are going viral.
“It was fine on the DS and even for the first couple of Switch games but ever since Scarlet and Violet it’s really apparent that Gamefreak needs to get with the times,” reads one highly-upvoted thread on Reddit.
“There are plenty of games that don’t have voice acting, but it’s fine because they’re designed around that limitation,” reads one response within that thread, which points out that the cutscenes look like they’re supposed to have voice acting. One infamous example hails from Sword and Shield, which depicts a character singing at a concert while being completely silent. The moment stands out because much older games have had the sense to imbue similar moments with actual songs. Simple melodies with basic lyrics, but voice acting nonetheless.
“You can make a game work without voice acting,” reads a post on X. “But Pokémon’s modern cutscenes genuinely feel unfinished with how they’re directed while lacking voices.”
“I could care less if a Pokémon game has voice acting or not but why even bother animating their mouths if they’re not even gonna talk,” asks one fan.
The topic has also felt particularly contentious with the recent leak of the apparent budgets for major Pokémon games, which suggest that the games are made at a fraction of the cost associated with AAA experiences yet routinely make profits that place the franchise in the big leagues. The developers Game Freak have more or less managed to avoid widespread backlash because the series has traditionally been slow to modernize. Recent entries like Scarlet and Violet and Legends change up the gameplay formula and improve the visuals without being full-on reinventions. The peculiar circumstances surrounding Game Freak also influences how fans perceive the series. Pokémon is one of the most recognizable brands in the world, and generates billions in revenue. The Pokémon games are also largely exclusive to Nintendo platforms, a company known for highly polished products. But Game Freak is a relatively small studio with only a few hundred employees. They’re helped by plenty of contractors, as most game studios are. But key figures at the company say they’d work with even smaller teams if they could. This strange in-between state for Game Freak, where it operates similar to an indie studio but has the weight of a big-budget entity, makes it difficult to form specific expectations for its products.
But a new Pokémon game begets discourse about the franchise, so voice acting is once again on the tip of everyone’s tongue. It doesn’t help that this year also saw the release of a new, critically-acclaimed Digimon game with voice acting. If a smaller franchise like Digimon can pull it off, why not Pokémon? Or: why do spin-off games occasionally feature voice work, but the main attraction never does?
“I feel like voice acting in RPGs is associated with overall quality,” explains one fan on an X post where someone asks why people want voice acting in the games. That thread is also full of teachers who maintain that, as a series that appeals to children, having voice work would be an enormous boon for younger players.
One teacher says, “having the words spoken out loud while the children are simultaneously reading the text is one of the most effective strategies for increasing reading comprehension and literacy skills.”
No fandom is a monolith, and there are plenty of fans who see no issue with the lack of voice acting. Some fear that any attempts to voice characters would risk producing a cringe product. And with legacy characters or fan favorites, expectations will be high. What should your rival Blue sound like? Does Nurse Joy sound different from game to game? What about the protagonist? Should they get voice acting? The chances of betraying whatever feeling players attribute to these figures in their head seems high, especially this far in. This doesn’t mean Game Freak shouldn’t try, but I understand the hesitation.
For all of this discussion and frustration, one has to wonder: is Pokémon a juggernaut precisely because Game Freak refuses to appease fans? Is it actually a good thing that Game Freak is selective about where it places its resources? The franchise has come this far without voice acting, and people still love the games.
Possibly, it’s just a matter of time. If the leaks are to be believed, Game Freak countenanced voice acting for the first Legends game. Maybe fans will get exactly what they’re asking for when the third Legends game that’s apparently in the works eventually comes out.
