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What if Pokémon had their anime voices?

Would you be okay with that?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • No.

    Votes: 6 66.7%
  • Maybe every now and then.

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Total voters
    9

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
What if future Pokémon games gave Pokémon their anime voices instead of their computer generated ones? They technically already did it with Pikachu and Eevee up until the most recent games, but would you be okay with them breaking such a norm for every pokémon?

Personally, I would be okay with it happening every so and so, but I'll sway from voting since I'm the one asking the question.
 

vondecayle

Well-Known Member
I prefer the noises. It doesn’t bother me that they have used Pikachu’s and Eevee’s voice, but that’s quite enough for me.
 

MidnightHo-Oh

Well-Known Member
It would require a LOT of work. They would have to record every Pokémon's name in every language available for the game, which would be:
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Traditional Chinese
So, that would be at least 9 different calls for every Pokémon, and some Pokémon (such as any with cutscenes) would likely receive more than one call in each language.

Sooooooo, with our current 1,008 Pokémon, that'd be a minimum of 9,072 calls having to be recorded and programed into various games if you wanted to account for every currently existing Pokémon. Even if you say only record for the 400 currently in Scarlet and Violet, that'd still be 3,600 total calls for each game. And considering most people only ever play in one language, there'd be 3,200 wasted Pokémon calls just taking up space on every game.

Considering all of that, I'd personally MUCH prefer the current non-anime video game calls over having so much time, effort, and money wasted on calls that will go largely unheard and unnoticed.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
It would require a LOT of work. They would have to record every Pokémon's name in every language available for the game, which would be:
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Traditional Chinese
So, that would be at least 9 different calls for every Pokémon, and some Pokémon (such as any with cutscenes) would likely receive more than one call in each language.

Sooooooo, with our current 1,008 Pokémon, that'd be a minimum of 9,072 calls having to be recorded and programed into various games if you wanted to account for every currently existing Pokémon. Even if you say only record for the 400 currently in Scarlet and Violet, that'd still be 3,600 total calls for each game. And considering most people only ever play in one language, there'd be 3,200 wasted Pokémon calls just taking up space on every game.

Considering all of that, I'd personally MUCH prefer the current non-anime video game calls over having so much time, effort, and money wasted on calls that will go largely unheard and unnoticed.
The one contention I have with what you said is that you mentioned Simplified and Traditional Chinese as spoken languages while they are only written ones. However, there is the matter of Mandarin versus Cantonese, and there has already been contention with people in Hong Kong over pronunciations of how certain traditional Chinese Pokemon names present themselves in games. (Also, why did you put Spanish in between the Chinese languages, lol!) Other than that, I agree with you, and we had Pikachu speak since the creature has the same name everywhere, and Eevee is either Eevee (or some equivalent), or Evoli in a couple of different languages.
 

MidnightHo-Oh

Well-Known Member
The one contention I have with what you said is that you mentioned Simplified and Traditional Chinese as spoken languages while they are only written ones. However, there is the matter of Mandarin versus Cantonese, and there has already been contention with people in Hong Kong over pronunciations of how certain traditional Chinese Pokemon names present themselves in games. (Also, why did you put Spanish in between the Chinese languages, lol!) Other than that, I agree with you, and we had Pikachu speak since the creature has the same name everywhere, and Eevee is either Eevee (or some equivalent), or Evoli in a couple of different languages.
Thank you for the extra knowledge! So the over all number could potentially be slightly less, but still an overwhelming amount. As for the placement of Spanish, I literally just copy and pasted the list from another website, but had the very same question myself xP

And yes, to OP, Eevee and Pikachu literally only worked because the names are identical or near identical in every language, so they're voices only needed to be recorded once.
 

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
It would require a LOT of work. They would have to record every Pokémon's name in every language available for the game, which would be:
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Traditional Chinese
So, that would be at least 9 different calls for every Pokémon, and some Pokémon (such as any with cutscenes) would likely receive more than one call in each language.

Sooooooo, with our current 1,008 Pokémon, that'd be a minimum of 9,072 calls having to be recorded and programed into various games if you wanted to account for every currently existing Pokémon. Even if you say only record for the 400 currently in Scarlet and Violet, that'd still be 3,600 total calls for each game. And considering most people only ever play in one language, there'd be 3,200 wasted Pokémon calls just taking up space on every game.

Considering all of that, I'd personally MUCH prefer the current non-anime video game calls over having so much time, effort, and money wasted on calls that will go largely unheard and unnoticed.

An idea that came to mind is that they could use archive audio from past episodes, and only have a few new lines for pokémon featured in cutscenes.

The lines themselves would only consist of a few cries, maybe around 6-10 in total; one when the pokémon is released, one when it does a physical attack, one when it does a special attack, one when it is hit, one when it faints, etc.

A lot of pokémon like Pikachu and Charizard also share VAs across every language, so that would also slim the work down.
 
Last edited:

lolipiece

Pictured: what browsing Serebii does to a person
Staff member
Moderator
Actually, the Spanish and Italian versions just reuse the English names (with some exceptions like Type: Null), so that'd be less work.
 

MidnightHo-Oh

Well-Known Member
An idea that came to mind is that they could use archive audio from past episodes, and only have a few new lines for pokémon featured in cutscenes.

The lines themselves would only consist of a few cries, maybe around 6-10 in total; one when the pokémon is released, one when it does a physical attack, one when it does a special attack, one when it is hit, one when it faints, etc.

A lot of pokémon like Pikachu and Charizard also share VAs across every language, so that would also slim the work down.
So, that'd be between 2,400 and 4,000 different calls for a game of 400 Pokémon for one language alone. Even if we slim that number down to 5 languages per game, that'd still amount to between 12,000 and 20,000 unique calls/lines per game with majority still going unused for an individual player.
 

Auraninja

Eh, ragazzo!
Actually, the Spanish and Italian versions just reuse the English names (with some exceptions like Type: Null), so that'd be less work.
They're not always governed by the same pronunciations though.

Take Illumise for example. In English, it would be ill-oo-me-say, but in Spanish, it is ill-oo-meyez.
(I don't get why the Spanish pronunciation uses the silent e, but that's beside the point.)
You can check this in the Pokedex 3d Pro if you happen to have the app on the 3ds.
 

OwensJB

Well-Known Member
Goddamn that would be horrible lol. Have you heard the anime's English Pokemon voices in the dub? They're lazy sounding with the actors just repeating the Pokemon's names over and over. Piplup's is probably the worst Pokemon voice in the entire series because it's so damn shrill like nails on a chalkboard.
 

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
So, that'd be between 2,400 and 4,000 different calls for a game of 400 Pokémon for one language alone. Even if we slim that number down to 5 languages per game, that'd still amount to between 12,000 and 20,000 unique calls/lines per game with majority still going unused for an individual player.

No, I meant that they could use archived recordings that were used in the anime to fill in those lines.

Like for Bulbasaur for example, they would just need to get a SFX where it cries out its name, one where it gets damaged, one where it faints, etc. Easy peasy. It's work, but it wouldn't require them to call people to record those lines.

In my opinion, this video alone goes to show that they already have a variety of stock footage that they could integrate into the games if they chose to. They could also use simple audio effects to distort certain sounds as well.

 
Last edited:

BCVM22

Well-Known Member
No, I meant that they could use archived recordings that were used in the anime to fill in those lines.

Like for Bulbasaur for example, they would just need to get a SFX where it cries out its name, one where it gets damaged, one where it faints, etc. Easy peasy. It's work, but it wouldn't require them to call people to record those lines.
You still have to pay the actors and actresses the residual fees for using their voice work, and you would further still require some talent to do new recording work because you don’t necessarily have a whole library of archival recordings for all 1,000+ Pokémon.

Financially and practically it just isn’t feasible to introduce everything this would require into the game design and localization process when you can have the sound department do the same work without the same complications.
 

Rune Knight

Well-Known Member
You still have to pay the actors and actresses the residual fees for using their voice work, and you would further still require some talent to do new recording work because you don’t necessarily have a whole library of archival recordings for all 1,000+ Pokémon.

Financially and practically it just isn’t feasible to introduce everything this would require into the game design and localization process when you can have the sound department do the same work without the same complications.

I didn't know that residual fees were a thing. I presumed that the Pokémon Company already owns the rights to those assets and is allowed to use them however they want. My mistake and I apologize.

In the end of course this doesn't need to happen, and I'm personally fine with them continuously using computer generated cries for future installments.

It was just a fun idea that came to mind and felt like throwing in.
 
Last edited:

KyogreThunder

Call of Fate
Never liked the idea at all, and in fact, I've thought that the opposite should have been the case, i. e. Pokemon in the anime actually having cries instead of saying their names, or at least making animal-like noises, like they did in Pokemon Origins.
 

TwilightBlade

Well-Known Member
I mean it might be nice but it's not something that's needed honestly. Pikachu being voiced by its voice actress starting in X and Y surprised me and it was a cute little detail but that's about all I can say about that.
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Doesn't seem very practical. I imagine that they'd recycle as much stock audio from the anime as they can, but I assume that they'd still have to pay royalties to the voice actors, which I think would be the main crux of the issue.
 
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