What I Want in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:01 am
With the upcoming game's eventual release still up in the air here's there's something I would like to see in the future of the Zelda series and that is, having Hylian as one of the language options for the games. I'll be honest and say that I have mixed feelings about the Zelda series having voice acting as the series manage to go 30 years without voice acting and I felt that was part of the series charm.
But I'm not against the idea as most of the voice acting is honestly really good but I would like to have the option of giving us the option of listening to a Zelda game in Hylian. And it's not like a linguist who would be hired to create this fictional language would be working from scratch as there have been two characters in the series that were fully voiced. Midna and Fi.
Midna was the first character in the Zelda series to have has much lines as she did text in her dialogue boxes and Fi followed suit in Skyward Sword as she too had as much dialogue as she did text. Now mind you both are speaking completely gibberish but linguists have done a lot more with a LOT less. Case in point take Klingon from Star Trek. Until the first film in the series Klingon's only ever spoke in English and when they were given their own "language" it was nothing but a series of sound that James Doohan aka Montgomery Scott just put together for the few lines of dialogue the Klingons in the film would have.
Later, in The Search for Spock, Marc Okrand was hired to take those few "Words" and create an entire language that is still being used in the series to this day. And an advantage that Zelda has over Trek is that Hylian actually sounds pretty nice. As Chuck and others have pointed out, which includes MANY Trek fans, Klingon sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball and while it's fun to have the occasional word slip through or have a few scenes that are fine to listen to on their own having every episode where the Klingons show up and listen to them "Speaking" in their native language the novelty wears off rather quickly because it's not really that nice sounding.
However, as Midna and Fi proved "Hylian" can be rather pleasant to listen to for over several hours. Sure, Fi constantly interrupting was annoying but most fans would agree that her voice is actually very pleasant. Same with Midna, who many fans would consider to be the best character in the series and many love the fact that she is fully voiced.
So, if Zelda is to continue including voicing acting I would love to have the option to listen to it in Hylian throughout the entire game. And I'm sure most fans would also love that idea as well. And it's not like it's not something that hasn't been done in games before. Zelda's rival the Ico series has had every game spoken in a completely made up language so far and those games are critical darlings with fans and critics alike and the fact that they aren't spoken in Japanese or English adds to their charm.
But I'm not against the idea as most of the voice acting is honestly really good but I would like to have the option of giving us the option of listening to a Zelda game in Hylian. And it's not like a linguist who would be hired to create this fictional language would be working from scratch as there have been two characters in the series that were fully voiced. Midna and Fi.
Midna was the first character in the Zelda series to have has much lines as she did text in her dialogue boxes and Fi followed suit in Skyward Sword as she too had as much dialogue as she did text. Now mind you both are speaking completely gibberish but linguists have done a lot more with a LOT less. Case in point take Klingon from Star Trek. Until the first film in the series Klingon's only ever spoke in English and when they were given their own "language" it was nothing but a series of sound that James Doohan aka Montgomery Scott just put together for the few lines of dialogue the Klingons in the film would have.
Later, in The Search for Spock, Marc Okrand was hired to take those few "Words" and create an entire language that is still being used in the series to this day. And an advantage that Zelda has over Trek is that Hylian actually sounds pretty nice. As Chuck and others have pointed out, which includes MANY Trek fans, Klingon sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball and while it's fun to have the occasional word slip through or have a few scenes that are fine to listen to on their own having every episode where the Klingons show up and listen to them "Speaking" in their native language the novelty wears off rather quickly because it's not really that nice sounding.
However, as Midna and Fi proved "Hylian" can be rather pleasant to listen to for over several hours. Sure, Fi constantly interrupting was annoying but most fans would agree that her voice is actually very pleasant. Same with Midna, who many fans would consider to be the best character in the series and many love the fact that she is fully voiced.
So, if Zelda is to continue including voicing acting I would love to have the option to listen to it in Hylian throughout the entire game. And I'm sure most fans would also love that idea as well. And it's not like it's not something that hasn't been done in games before. Zelda's rival the Ico series has had every game spoken in a completely made up language so far and those games are critical darlings with fans and critics alike and the fact that they aren't spoken in Japanese or English adds to their charm.
