Japanese actress for Zelda in Breath of the Wild details the recording process

The following Zelda: Breath of the Wild dev blog features an interview with Yu Shimamura, who voices Princess Zelda in the Japanese version of the game.

- she felt pretty uneasy at the beginning, and she even remembers asking “Is it really OK for me to talk?”
- she was told that “It’s all part of our challenge to revisit the conventions of the Legend of Zelda series.”
- the scene at the beginning of a ceremony caused Shimamura a bit of trouble
- the lines of the ritual did not properly reflect Zelda’s personality, her motivations, her powerlessness, and awkwardness
- Shimamura talked about it with Naoki Mori (who was in charge of Cinematic Design, including screenplay, and cutscenes)
- the whole thing was rewritten several times, until they arrived at the final result
- there’s quite a lot of scenes she really likes in the game
- her favorite line is the “Yes” Princess Zelda gives as an answer to the Deku Tree in a particular scene
- in that scene, Zelda thinks about what she should do, but she cannot see it at all
- she refuses to give up, and wants to give hope to Link
- Shimamura tried to convey all of those feelings through the single "Yes" she spoke
- recording felt completely different than for animation, the dubbing of (foreign) movies, or other games
- there was no fixed routine of how to approach it, as all different things were being tried out
- lines were redone even after other lines were implemented in the game, as the team found better ways to say things
- Shimamura finally managed to beat the game the other day, but she wants to keep practicing her shield surfing
- Shimamura explains that she really gave it her whole when voicing Princess Zelda, to give her emotions
- she hopes that players will remember their memories of Princess Zelda