No One Seems to Understand Voice Acting Would Ruin Pokemon (For Players Like Me)

I often see people suggest that the Pokemon games should include voice acting, especially for the next generation, Pokemon Wind and Waves. Honestly, as someone who’s been playing Pokemon for over 25 years, since I was a child, it feels strange to hear that. Voice acting has never been important to me in these games, and I actually think it could potentially harm what makes the franchise so great.

Just to address a few points upfront: I know I can simply mute the game if Pokemon Wind and Waves includes voice acting, and that’s my plan if it does. I also agree that Pokemon games shouldn’t add voiced cutscenes if they traditionally haven’t had voice acting, like that strange singing scene with Piers in Generation 8. Finally, I only play my Nintendo Switch in handheld mode. I appreciate the Switch’s versatility, but I personally prefer playing it as a portable device.

I believe my personal experience is relevant here. I’ve always been an advanced and rapid reader, and I actually credit playing Pokemon Yellow as a child with helping me develop those skills. I remember secretly playing Pokemon on my Game Boy Advance, hiding it under my pillow so I wouldn’t get in trouble! While this definitely influences my perspective, I still strongly believe that adding voice acting would fundamentally change – and likely harm – what makes Pokemon games special, especially for players like me.

Voice Acting Impacts Everything About the Pokemon World

Putting my personal feelings aside, I believe the reading component in Pokemon is really beneficial for young children, and as a parent, that’s particularly important to me. Adding voice acting would significantly change how Pokemon games are made, creating new stages in development and likely making it take longer to release new main series titles. Considering Pokemon is one of the few franchises that consistently releases games, I don’t think adding another step to the process is necessary. It works well as it is, and I believe in the saying, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” There are also more complex issues to consider beyond these basic points.

Game development always involves trade-offs. For example, time and money spent on things like voice acting, translating the game into different languages, and sound design take away from what could be used to improve areas like animations, enemy intelligence, how detailed the game world is, and what players can do after finishing the main story—all things that already vary in quality in Pokémon games. I’d personally like to see more focus and resources dedicated to improving those core gameplay elements.

It Immediately Breaks the Player’s Projection

While Pokémon doesn’t offer a lot of choices, the player character is meant to be an everyperson – a blank slate for players to imagine themselves as. Giving that character a voice disrupts that connection, similar to how Fallout 4 fans reacted to a voiced protagonist. These characters aren’t completely empty, but they allow for enough player projection. Simply making the main character silent and voicing everyone else isn’t a perfect solution either, as it creates its own set of issues.

Many well-known Pokémon characters show up in both the video games and the animated series. While the anime doesn’t disrupt the experience, this isn’t a major issue with typical non-player characters or gym leaders. Adding voice acting takes away the way players imagine the Pokémon speaking for themselves in the games – that internal ‘voice in your head’ is lost.

Pokemon Dialogue is…Something

While Pokémon games can help with learning to read, the writing isn’t exactly high-quality literature. It’s simple and functional, not beautifully crafted.

“I’m too young for math,” says a child in Pokemon Sun and Moon
“I may be bad and stupid, but I’m serious about Pokemon” – another zinger from Pokemon Sun and Moon
“Pokemon with cool knees are so neat!” is a line that should never have a voice
“It’s like my Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattatas,” thanks to Youngster Joey.

Many Pokemon games, similar to well-made animated films, include jokes that are meant for adults and will likely go over kids’ heads. For example, Pokemon Legends: Z-A features characters making surprisingly suggestive comments about Pokeballs, and Pokemon Black and White had a famous line from a swimmer referencing a “woman’s secret.” These kinds of lines aren’t appropriate for children to hear and shouldn’t be voiced in the game.

The most straightforward solution is to improve the writing and translations, and remove the jokes, though they’re a well-known part of the games. However, even if we do that, it could take longer to develop the game because of the extra translation and quality control needed. What reads well might not sound good when spoken. Many longtime Pokémon fans already feel the games aren’t challenging enough, and adding voice acting could make the more simplistic aspects of the series even more noticeable.

Bark, Bark, Bark

As a big fan of hearing little vocalizations in games, I’m not convinced we need voiced battle cries in Pokemon. Honestly, it could be a disaster! Pokemon only use four moves per battle, so hearing the same sounds over and over would get old fast. It makes sense to skip voice acting during combat, and it actually reminds me of how simple the dialogue is in Pokemon games – it’s probably repetitive there too! I’d even be worried if they did try to give every Pokemon full voice lines – that would be terrifying! Most Pokemon just have basic noises or occasionally say their name, like Pikachu, and that already works perfectly fine. Adding more voice acting just for the sake of it feels unnecessary and could really ruin the experience.

VO Would Change Everything About Pokemon Stories

Let’s be honest, Pokémon games aren’t known for their amazing stories, and that’s perfectly okay. They’re about capturing the magic of childhood, reliving fond memories, and enjoying cool, unique creatures. The writing in Pokémon has always been simple and easy to scan, meant for a younger audience. But adding fully acted cutscenes would change the experience. It would remove the player’s control over the pace, make tutorials feel clunky, and generally make replaying those scenes less enjoyable. While developers could try to work around these issues, doing so might compromise the overall feel of the game.

Pokemon Simply Doesn’t Need It

Honestly, as a long-time fan, I really think the downsides of adding voice acting to Pokemon outweigh any potential good it could do. Pokemon is huge, and when a franchise this big seems to cut corners – like some people are saying about the budget for Pokemon Legends: Z-A – it deserves to be talked about. But I don’t believe that spending more on voice acting would actually improve a Pokemon game, it would just change it. And I don’t think that’s what the series needs right now, at least not in this way. I’m happy with how Pokemon games have always been!

Becoming a major global franchise requires smart planning and knowing what’s most important. While the series has sometimes taken big risks and other times played it safe, it’s always focused on what would best serve the games themselves, the latest gaming technology, and the players. I simply don’t believe fully voiced dialogue is a key focus, and it certainly doesn’t seem to be a priority.

2026-01-26 22:35