Pokémon players are demanding voice acting in Gen 10

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has been met with mixed reviews from the Pokémon community, with many commending the sheer number of things to do and places to explore, but there have been just as many airing frustrations with the bugs and glitches. Another criticism has now been added to the ever-growing list: there is no voice acting.

Pokémon games have been around since 1996 and there has not been any voice acting for the most part for the entirety of the franchise’s existence. But once YouTuber, Dr. Bonehead, decided to show just how much voice acting would improve Scarlet and Violet, causing a major uproar.

The YouTube video, titled “Pokémon NEEDS Voice Acting,” has the content creator and his voice actor friends dubbing various scenes from the new game. Dr. Bonehead then begged Game Freak to add voice acting to the next generation.

After watching the video, many Pokémon fans were in agreement that having characters that actually talk would add a lot more depth and emotion to the cut scenes and interactions. It had a lot of fans agreeing that scenes would have “hit harder” if there was voice acting.

Others felt that Game Freak and The Pokémon Company made enough money on the franchise to pay for something that would instantly improve the game. It has been an opinion for years now that the Pokémon games do the bare minimum when it comes to graphics and quality, leaving many gamers frustrated and insulted.

But some Pokémon fans were fine without voice acting, saying that it would make the games take “massively longer” to finish and drastically increase the file size. Others replied, however, that they’d prefer to wait longer for a “better game.”

For now, Pokémon has not mentioned any plans to add voice acting to Generation 10. But with the anime possibly struggling, the next video game may be a good opportunity for Pokémon voice actors to bring characters to life.