If you watched any bit of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild footage that multiple websites hosted, you might have noticed something you’ve never heard before: full voice acting! The voice that speaks to Link near the beginning of the game speaks in complete audible sentences — and this is the first time in Zelda history that has happened.
Does it mean everybody else will be fully voiced as well? According to Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, not exactly. There were just some parts where he felt hearing a voice would make more of an impact. “It’s really difficult to leave an impression on players with just text,” he said to Polygon. “It’s not that I made everything voiced. But I have these moments where I want to leave impressions on users. I add voice there.”
There is one character that we’ll never hear speak complete sentences, Aonuma says, and that’s Link himself. “If Link said something the user doesn’t agree with, that relationship between the user and Link would be lost. That’s why I chose not to go with that.”
Another Zelda First is the apparent use of technology in Hyrule — or at least they were using some form of it before everything went to pot. “There is a little bit of a sci-fi element to [Breath of the Wild],” he said. “Link basically adventures through a ruined world. I wanted to add technology as the opposite side of that. I thought it would be interesting for Link to use technology to explore through this wild and ruined world. I figured that would add another layer to the game.”
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild comes out in 2017 for Wii U and NX.
