The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild broke the Zelda mold back in 2017 by including a great deal of voice acting, something the trailer for its upcoming sequel neglected to follow up on. However, the spinoff title Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity includes a fair amount of voice and, to be frank, it does not bode well for the kind of performances players will see in BOTW2.
To start with, it should be noted the original Breath of the Wild’s voice acting wasn’t exactly top notch to begin with. A lot of this has to do with how underdeveloped many of the game’s characters were, relying on fairly predictable tropes to get by. Some characters, like Urbosa and Daruk, are brought to life by their voice actors despite this simple method of characterization. Others, like Mipha and Zelda, are hindered by it to a higher degree. Both of their voices are fairly generic “posh royalty” accents that already fit a pre-established mold for what players expect from them. There’s no real identity there for players to connect to, even though Nintendo tried their best to add some real personality to characters (Zelda especially) through their interactions with Link.
It’s those kinds of interactions that players will get to see more of in Age of Calamity and BOTW2 since both of them take place in time periods where Link isn’t the only major character walking around the land of Hyrule. The problem is that Age of Calamity’s voice acting doesn’t seem to have made any marked improvements on the content in Breath of the Wild. The official announcement trailer from Nintendo only lets players hear a few lines from Impa, the King of Hyrule and Princess Zelda. All of these characters appear to be using the same voice actors they had in Breath of the Wild, and unfortunately that probably means they won’t be anything special. What’s worse is that the chances of these characters redeeming their poor performances in the original is very low. Age of Calamity is a prequel story, so there’s not exactly a lot of new ground for these characters to cover. There’s not much they can do to enchant audiences that players probably don’t already know about.
Why Hyrule Warriors’ Acting Means For Breath of the Wild 2
Thankfully, none of this means that Breath of the Wild 2’s acting is sure to be just as bad. Nintendo has revealed very little about what will happen in this upcoming sequel, so the opportunities for improvement are definitely present. However, based on what can be seen from both Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild, that likely won’t happen, and it’s likely to have more dire consequences considering the implications of the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer. The events of this trailer show a lot of Link and Zelda spending time together as they explore the caverns beneath Hyrule Castle. Assuming a portion of the game will be spent during this time, players will be hearing a lot of Zelda. If her voice acting hasn’t improved since the last game, then that could severely inhibit the level of enjoyment players will get from her scenes.
Perhaps even more calamitous is the implication that Ganondorf will make a return as a character. More so than Link or Zelda, Ganondorf absolutely requires a solid performance behind his voice. He’s the main villain, the imposing warlord intent on dominating the entire world for his own personal gain. He’s evil incarnate, and if his voice in Breath of the Wild 2 doesn’t carry that level of gravitas; an indisputable sense of intimidation, then his performance would be a failure. Ganondorf’s voice should make a fully-grown marine quake in their boots with a single word. Anything less is a disservice to the character.
But as previously said, Nintendo has yet to reveal their cards with Breath of the Wild 2. It could be that Ganondorf, Zelda and the other characters will receive amazing performances all around. However, judging from what has been shown in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, that’s not the likeliest case.
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