It was brought up yesterday that the newly announced The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes game, although massively focuses on multiplayer, won’t include voice chat. The director of the game, Hiromasa Shikata, has spoke about this issue in an interview and revealed why they decided against including it in the game. He said:

Yes, we did (consider voice chat). With voice chat, what we would see is a highlight in the difference of experience levels between the players. Higher players would tell lower players what to do, and lower players would wonder why they’re being told what to do.

It’s a fair explanation, it puts all players on a level playing field to avoid upset, but it could cause communication issues and more frustration down the line. The game does include a feature with pre-selected messages for Link to somewhat communicate, and on this issue Shikata says:

It’s actually creating a new form of communication. I believe it might be a little bit stressful for players to try to figure out how to communicate what they want to do, but I think that because of that feeling, when you’re able to do it successfully there’s a level of satisfaction that you don’t find in other games.

So, there’s that. What do you think of their decision?