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During the Gamecube generation voice acting was mainstream already and Zelda was still holding on to the voiced emotional and physical status cues and still refusing to speak, still opting for text-based dialogue. It's not like there weren't any technical limitations standing in the way now, so why did Nintendo stick with a mute Link? Maybe it was because giving a character a voice after so many years can ruin the “voice” you gave him yourself, or maybe it was a cheap way to save a couple bucks instead of getting an actor to go through all the dialogue. We may not ever find out, unless it becomes a subject of discussion in the Iwata Asks series, but I'm not really focusing on why the company opted for this direction exactly, but how we would feel about if they did go this direction.

Personally I feel that current format is the best, somehow the emotion of the characters in the game are conveyed perfectly fine without the dialogue, maybe it's because my mind has already hired the perfect voice for the characters, and any other actors and actresses may fail. Maybe it's because I don't want Link to talk to himself about everything all the time a-la-Drake from Uncharted. When we preform all the actions in Zelda games, we don't need all the dialogue drowning out the mood setting music, or having Link say something in the middle of a battle that we personally were not thinking, or thinking the exact opposite of what's being said. It's player-character connectivity at it's best, we are able to project ourselves into a silent character much more easily than talkative characters, take Grand Theft Auto for example, If you were a fan of GTAIII and any entry after this I would bet that you agree that Claude (believe it or not thats III's character name) felt more personal than Tommy, CJ, or Niko despite having much more archaic graphics, physics, and controls. You felt more like you were stealing the cars and taking the mob hits, where-as in a game like Vice City you felt you were guiding Tommy through his rise to power, and not yourself.

In regards to the Zelda games, as soon as they voice Link, they essentially change everything Link is to each and every one of us, whatever we see in him can be undone simply by the way in which he speaks, just as it does when a fully voiced character gets a new voice actor, anyone remember the fan reaction to Sonics new voice? It's like they killed Sonic and got a look-alike to take his place, though to be fair we all loved how Sonic sounded when he actually got his voice the first time (in the games, not the cartoon). But Sonic started talking as soon as he was able to, Link on the other hand has passed that moment long ago, and his silent nobility speaks volumes now. Link, to me, comes across as an honorable young man who values listening more than speaking. He takes advice from wise sages, old combat instructors, accomplished knights, humble old ladies, and even innocent children. Link is not the kind of hero who will burst into the scene and demand everyone to “make way for teh hot sauce” because he just defeated a 50 foot tarantula, no he takes his accomplishments to heart, and bravely accepts that there is still a princess to rescue, and plenty more villains wait before him, stronger than the last. What would link say after defeating a boss even if he did have a voice actor? “Oh man that was tough!” - yeah total mood killer right? I watched Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva before I began playing Professor Layton and the Last Specter, both of which included a police character name Clamp Grosky. His voice in the movie was perfect, it matched his visual style perfectly, and his attitude and physical motions too. When I finally met him in the game it was painfully obvious they changed actors, and now every time he pops up it ruins what I inherently know, and I am mentally back outside the story thinking about voice acting once again. It's too late to change what we know to be true about Link.

One argument I notice some people take is that it may be a good idea to fully voice the entire game, but write it so that Link doesn't speak much anyway. So Zelda, Ganondorf, and whoever else has anything to say can just say it, and let Link nod or shake his head or even face-palm if he needs to. This is tricky though, because now as everyone has a quick noise and follows up with a bit of dialogue, we feel as if everything is normal, but if everyone has a whole hell of a lot to say around Link, and he never says anything but “hut” “ugh” and “heeya”, it's going to shine a constant light right on Link, and why this weird boy can't talk. It's like watching a black and white movie, after a few minutes you don't really notice it's in black and white, and everything is normal, but if you were watching a color movie and one character is black and white for no reason... what the hell is wrong with black and white guy?

Skyward Sword actually gives us more voice acting! But not in a talkative kind of way, in this one we get to hear Zelda sing, not hum, not play a flute, but sing. Thankfully the words are not english or any other known language, more like the Sims sounds like language but is really nothing at all. This works great and adds even more depth to what is already amazing music for a video game, but this is as far as I would like to see it go. Maybe one day Nintendo let's these characters talk, and maybe it's actually good, but as far as I see it, it's just trying to invent a better mousetrap – you're just further destroying something that works perfect.

What do you think about all this? Am I way off base here? Or are these the words you were trying to say all along?