{"id":9073,"date":"2022-01-29T14:11:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T05:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=9073"},"modified":"2022-12-01T16:17:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T07:17:46","slug":"20220129-9073","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20220129-9073\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus brought back Pikachu\u2019s original cry sound"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article<\/a> (original article’s publication date: 2022-01-29 14:02<\/em> JST)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Highly anticipated action RPG Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus<\/strong><\/em> launched for the Nintendo Switch on January 28, and players have noticed a major change from previous titles, besides the gameplay; the game uses Pikachu’s original digitized cry sound instead of the newer one voiced by Ikue Ohtani. The pika pika anime voice is gone.
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Although Ikue Ohtani\u2019s Pikachu voice was used in some older titles like Pok\u00e9mon Stadium, <\/em>it became the standard from 2013\u2019s Pok\u00e9mon X<\/em> and Y <\/em>onward. Her iconic Pikachu voice from the anime series crossed over to the videogame series and has remained ever since. (Pok\u00e9mon Brilliant Diamond<\/em> and Shining Pearl <\/em>do have an option to toggle on the original Pok\u00e9mon cries from the Nintendo DS era, though.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many players are feeling nostalgic about it, with some of them welcoming the change, while others not so much. Opinions vary depending on personal taste, and that goes the same for players in Japan<\/a> and regions outside Japan<\/a>. The combination of the modern Pikachu graphics and the retro cry sound might feel a bit jarring for those who are used to the new anime cry, but at least younger fans who haven\u2019t played the earlier games get to hear the original sound for the first time. When I (the original author of this article) asked my elementary school daughter about it, she said she only knew the \u201cpika pika\u201d cry sound. I could feel a strong generational gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pikachu first appears in the game during the tutorial and makes a memorable entrance and a strong impression. The fact that Pikachu\u2019s cry sound can be heard in such an early part of the game where a majority of players would see, was probably one of the reasons why it drew so much attention right after the game\u2019s launch.
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The earlier titles in the series had technical limitations in regard to creating cry sounds, especially in the Game Boy era. As the hardware specifications have improved, more natural-sounding cries were introduced. Pikachu received some special treatments along the way, though. Pok\u00e9mon Yellow,<\/em> an enhanced version of Pok\u00e9mon Red <\/em>and Blue<\/em>, recreated the anime Pikachu voice using digitized sounds, which was an astonishing feat of its own considering the hardware limitations. Junichi Masuda, who worked on the title as a programmer at the time, previously wrote a blog post<\/a> explaining how challenging the process was. A deep dive analysis<\/a> conducted by Retro Game Mechanics Explained on this matter is quite interesting as well.
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Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus<\/em> is a Nintendo Switch game, and I doubt technical limitations were the reason behind the sound change. Some players speculate that the cry sound had changed because Arceus<\/em> serves as a prequel to Pok\u00e9mon Diamond<\/em> and Pearl<\/em>, and timeline-wise, the game takes place way before other titles in the series. Pok\u00e9mon, including Pikachu, are still relatively unknown to mankind at this point, so it makes sense to emphasize the fact that people and Pok\u00e9mon have not bonded as close as they have in other titles. Using primitive cry sound could be a way to express that emotional distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eevee\u2019s cry sound reverted back to the digitized one as well, by the way. Many other Pok\u00e9mon can be heard making their original cry sounds in Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus<\/em>. Of all the Pok\u00e9mon, Pikachu has attracted the most amount of attention, likely because of its popularity and how we got so used to hearing Ikue Ohtani\u2019s Pikachu voice. The original cry does have a unique quality to it that fits with the electric-type Pok\u00e9mon, though. Whether you like the original sound or not, I don\u2019t think Pikachu\u2019s cuteness will be compromised because of it.
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Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus<\/em> is now available on Nintendo Switch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus brought back Pikachu\u2019s original cry sound. Modern Pok\u00e9mon games uses Ikue Ohtani’s anime voice for Pikachu, but Arceus went for the original digitized cry sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":9075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,70],"class_list":["post-9073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nPok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus brought back Pikachu\u2019s original cry sound - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Arceus brought back Pikachu\u2019s original cry sound. 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