Topic: Tri Force Heroes Communication Detailed, No Voice Chat

[Shaymin]

Can you solve the mystery of the pom-poms?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/40546/tri-force-heroes-communication-detailed-no-voice-chat

The Legend of Zelda Tri Force Heroes will not have voice chat for the online modes.

First revealed by The Verge, director Hiromasa Shikata cited concerns about players being alienated during play: "Higher (level) players would tell lower players what to do, and lower players would wonder why they're being told what to do."

During today's Treehouse Live demonstration, Shikata also mentioned that emotive faces can be used for communication, and they are easily accessible on the bottom screen.

[ejamer]

He's not totally off-base -- there is some validity in wanting to prevent experienced players from just "taking charge" and telling everyone else what to do, because that's not an ideal experience for most people.


But I don't agree that removing voice chat all together is the right solution. With Nintendo especially, it seems like just another cop-out because they've clearly established a pattern of behavior: refusing to support voice chat in any online game experience no matter how beneficial it might be.

[Ian Sane]

Okay, who the hell is the dipshit with lots of clout at Nintendo who clearly hates voice chat?

I'm thinking to myself that this Zelda game might be fun to play with my brother and a friend of mine.  Since we, you know, don't live in the same damn house, this would be done online.  The naturally instinct in a co-op game like this is to communicate with each other about how to tackle the objectives placed before us.  How the hell do we do that without voice chat?  What do we have set up three-way Skye session on our computers so we can talk while we play?  Fuckin' ridiculous.  Co-op games are the exact type of game that benefit the most from voice chat.  If you don't think THIS game is appropriate for it then pretty much NO game is.

This company's philosophy just seems to be to do the exact opposite of what any sane potential customer would want.

[Adrock]

Besides multiplayer games just being more fun for me locally, this kind of cooperative game with puzzle solving and whatnot is just not worth it without the ability to communicate. Granted, I doubt the puzzles are especially mind-bending, but it's still silly to have cooperative gameplay where you just scramble around until you figure out as a group what to do. No bueno, Nintendo.

[NWR_insanolord]

The lack of voice chat seems like it would hurt this game a lot more than it did, say, Splatoon. That game should have had it on principle, becaude it's the industry standard, but it doesn't really need it in terms of gameplay. Something like this, though, seems like it would be a mess without the ability to effectively communicate.

[Mop it up]

Still don't care.

[Adrock]

I care inasmuch as its given me even less reason to want this game. I was already on the fence due to the barrier for trying to play this locally. Playing this game online isn't very cooperative, and it looks like you actually need that here. Looks like a pass, but we'll see.

[Phil]

I care inasmuch as its given me even less reason to want this game. I was already on the fence due to the barrier for trying to play this locally. Playing this game online isn't very cooperative, and it looks like you actually need that here. Looks like a pass, but we'll see.

You can at least play the game locally with one game card among multiple 3DSes. Is that the barrier you mean, or something else, Adrock?

[fred13]

You can? If you're correct and you can do 3 players locally with just 1 cart it'll be a day 1 buy for me! We have exactly 3 3DSes and we have 3 or 4 of us that would enjoy playing.

[Adrock]

You can at least play the game locally with one game card among multiple 3DSes. Is that the barrier you mean, or something else, Adrock?

While that's certainly a bonus, I was specifically referring to the lack of people to play with, notably my brother since he's up at college most of the year and I have a full time job. It isn't as easy as it used to be to get together and play games. When we do, we have other, better options (e.g. Super Smash Bros.) It's the same reason why I haven't finished Trine 2 yet. I really enjoyed my time with Four Swords Adventures in particular, but it isn't fun single player and I suspect Triforce Heroes isn't either. I strongly prefer local multiplayer, but I would have entertained online multiplayer if there was voice chat here due to the cooperative nature of the game.

[ShyGuy]

Shocking and Outrageous!

[Enner]

Video game director afraid players might have even a moment of a bad time due to playing with other people online.

[nickmitch]

What would stop higher level players from bossing around lower level players in local play?

Also, am I supposed to be playing this with strangers?  It seems more like a game where I would schedule a time to play with specific people.

[Stratos]

Monster Hunter's community is founded on the more experience players guiding newer players in the art of hunting. Pretty sure the community would not be where it is today without this aspect.


Sure, there can be bossy people. That is part of life. Don't need Nintendo to play papa and mama, protecting me or my kids from "mean people". Leave that up to me to resolve.

[Wah]

Fricken Pokémon has voice chat POKEMON! so why can't Zelda? this game is stupid on so many levels three players not four and now no voice chat? what the hell was going on a Nintendo when they made this? Did sonic team help them with this game or something like god I don't normally rage at Nintendo but this is unforgivable!

[Enner]

Fricken Pokémon has voice chat POKEMON! so why can't Zelda?

My guess is that Game Freak and The Pokemon Company get the latitude to do whatever they want and are not influenced by whatever culture there is at Nintendo Co. LTD. or EAD.

[NWR_insanolord]

If that's what it is, EAD needs some new blood. Splatoon shows they're still capable of innovating despite being so insular, but it seems like the same kinds of things tend to hold them back over and over.

[Soren]

lol Nintendo.

[ejamer]

Monster Hunter's community is founded on the more experience players guiding newer players in the art of hunting. Pretty sure the community would not be where it is today without this aspect.
...

But the depth of gameplay in Monster Hunter is much greater than Zelda.  You need to know some detailed stuff, but you also need enough skill to be able to act out what you've learned.


In Zelda the game relies more on action-based puzzles a lot of the time. Execution of the solution is often easier than figuring out what the solution should be - so maybe they want to leave some aspect of making people figure things out for themselves instead being able to have one player explain how to solve everything.


That's a weak excuse - the game definitely should have voice chat, even if limited to people on your friend list. But I think communication in Monster Hunter is different (probably even more important) than it is in this game.


I also agree that whoever it is in Nintendo that hates voice chat needs to get over it or move on.  Seriously. 2015 and Nintendo still won't do online voice chat?  (Then again, if we can't have SwapNote what makes me think we could have voice chat?)


 

[Stratos]

Nintendo should just build voice chat into the system infrastructure and tie it to the parental controls. Then it could be blocked or restricted to friends only by a parent. Problem solved.

[Ian Sane]

We don't want the more experienced players to boss everyone around... but we put characters like Fi in Zelda games that BOSS THE PLAYER AROUND.  I guess it's okay when a Nintendo programmed AI character does it.

We're mentioning other Nintendo games with voice chat.  Splatoon doesn't have it and neither does this.  What if this is a new policy?  What if the only reason those other games have it is because Nintendo had not yet come to the ridiculous conclusion that voice chat is bad?  It will be interesting to see if we get a post-Splatoon Nintendo game with voice chat in the next little while.

[Adrock]

Nintendo should just build voice chat into the system infrastructure and tie it to the parental controls. Then it could be blocked or restricted to friends only by a parent. Problem solved.

[Adrock]

I just read that, unlike Four Swords Adventure/Anniversary, three players is required for multiplayer. You either play alone or you need two other people to play with you. I was having enough trouble trying to get one person...

[Ian Sane]

I just read that, unlike Four Swords Adventure/Anniversary, three players is required for multiplayer. You either play alone or you need two other people to play with you. I was having enough trouble trying to get one person...

So do the Four Swords people not work for Nintendo anymore?  How do you go backwards with this stuff?  We KNOW you can do four players.  We KNOW you can do it with any amount of those players.  It's been done already a good ten years ago.  So what's with all these restrictions?

This game is becoming like some weird personification of everything bad about Nintendo.

[Oedo]

I agree with the idea that being told what to do would ruin the game for a lot of people. It takes all the difficulty out of the game and if the dungeons/puzzles in this game are anything like the ones in ALBW, they're going to be easy to begin with. You're just along for the ride at that point and that's not the least bit fun to me.


That said, I don't think that's the actual reason they left out voice chat. Yeah, it's more than likely no voice chat because they have some sort of (weird) fundamental issue with it. I'd like to say that eventually their hand is going to be forced and they're going to have to change their stance on it, but, sadly, I don't think that's necessarily true. It's always frustrating to see them limit people's options like this.