Pokemon Speak vs. Animalistic Sounds

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FroyoDragon

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Posting it here since it probably affects more than the games :p

So, Pokemon have two "types" of voice work. "Pokemon Speak" is a term I've seen used to describe when Pokemon say their name as their method of communicating, like Pikachu saying "Pikachu" or "Pika" and variations thereof; while what I refer to with "animalistic sounds" is when they make other, more natural noises, like growling or screeching, like actual animals do (nevermind that some Pokemon aren't actually animalistic lol, I just lacked a better name xD)

So, which one of these do you prefer, and why? :3 I personally like the latter, as the former sounds... Out of place, to me; the concept of communicating with your name only is just odd :v

I like it only with Pikachu because I'm accustomed to it, like, a lot lol, so Pikachu making noises *other* than his name is what's out of place for me.
 
"Pokémon Speak" is foul nonsense, if you ask me. I can excuse it for Pikachu because it's the mascot (though I do miss its actual cry), but everything else needs to sound animalistic. It makes the world feel more believable and real, and gives us things like the pure silky divinity of Staraptor's cry on the DS speakers. "Star, Staraptor, STAR!" is aural refuse compared to that majestic, confident, piercing "Kreeeeeeeeeeeee!"
 
Pokémon speak for me. Pokémon cries are perhaps the least memorable things about the Pokémon if you ask me. Probably because Bulbapedia doesn't record them for easy listening.
 
I liked Poké-speak a lot more with the earlier anime. As a rule of thumb it was conveyed with more imagination than later seasons - some were obvious (Squirtle, Jigglypuff, Drowzee), others with a bit of spin on them (Arbok, Tentacruel's bubbling syllables, that good old Magnemite drone). Yeah, it was still nonsense, but nonsense with a bit of imagination to it. I think Poké-speak is best seasoned with some "syllableless" sounds in any case.
 
Animal speak, by miles. It was cute in Generation 1 (and by cute, I mean tolerable), but after a while as I got older, it's pretty grating to hear, even as I look back and watch Generation 1 shows again. The reason why I like the Japanese version of the anime more is because the Pokemon tend to have more animalistic cries. Some do repeat their Japanese names, but there will be more feral noises to their speech, such as growling or barking, compared to the English dub. I kind of wish Pikachu in the games got an updated feral cry instead of its anime voice. It's unbelievable, and not in a good way.

Also, imagine walking up to your cat and it goes "Cat! Cat, cat, cat!!" in a voice so human-sounding that it scares you. Go to the zoo and you'll hear "Monkey!" "Tiger! Ger!" all over the place. It's silly. I know Pokemon is supposed to be it's own thing but the Poke-speak is a little annoying to hear.
 
Animalistic sounds. I really like the way the Pokémon made actual animal sounds instead of just repeating their names in Pokémon Origins. Sometimes it works in the anime, but I always get slightly annoyed when I hear a pokémon with the voice of an old man saying its name over and over.
 
While in-game Pokémon cries are very cool and I love and imitate them a lot, for me, they are bested by anime Pokémon cries by however a small margin. Probably, because the anime cries are what I grew up hearing (I did not play my first Pokémon game till I was 16), and the anime cries have, and will always have, a special place in my heart. (The same is true for in-game cries as well.)
 
most of the time I like feral sounds, but the occasional poke-speak is good for varrity. (and emotional moments in the anime sometimes)
 
It really depends. Some Pokemon really benefit from Pokemon Speak because of their appearance or character like Wooper, Arbok, Magnemite and Hawlucha. But others are more fitting with animalistic sounds like Charizard, Gyarados and Lucario. I do think that the games should stick with their current cries though.
 
I actually quite like Pokémon Speak. The interpretation I’ve always given is that the Pokémon are actually using cries, and humans started naming them like that by simply copying said cries.

So, say that an ancient human has seen a weird green dinosaur thing and heard it cry “Bulba saur!”. After observing it interacting with its kin, said human tried to imitate the creature’s cry by saying “Bulbasaur”, and the creature reacted to that by being attracted by the “name” and interacting with the human. As such, the human transmitted this knowledge to other people, who all started naming the species “Bulbasaur”. Same thing happened with other species, with the names sticking throughout all the centuries.

So, it wouldn’t be that the Pokémon are saying their names, but rather than humans are imitating their sounds.

Sure, the more realistic sounds make more sense, but I’m so used to the Pokémon Speak that the more squeaky and growling sounds don’t appeal me as much. I wouldn’t mind a compromise with stuff like Pikachu sounding more squeaky and Rapidash being pronounced with a more whiny tone, though.
 
I much prefer the animal sounds over Pokemon saying their name. Pokemon have different names in different languages. Not only are these Pokemon making a sound that would be incredibly difficult for them to make naturally given their physiology, yet they can only say that particular set of sounds in that order (for instance, Pikachu is inexplicably unable to make "chi" or "poo" sounds even though they are simple rearrangements of sounds it is already able to make), but they are also somehow able to discern which language a person is speaking and change their cry to match. It was fun for me watching the anime as a little kid but it is rather grating now.

Another point is that the gen 1 games were unable of producing the diverse sounds to make realistic cries, so there really wasn't a problem with Pokemon saying their names in the anime and having some jumbled synth sound in the games. (Due to limitations on the game boy cartridge, most of the cries in gen 1 are actually the same sound bite, just distorted and/or played backwards.) Now that the games are able to produce sounds that can match real animal cries, it makes the discrepancy even more jarring.

Besides all of the above, the following scenario happens way to much in the anime, and it drives me up the wall:
*Ash encounters new Pokemon for the first time*
Pokemon: *Says its name in plain English*
Ash: "Gee, I wonder what Pokemon that is!"
seriously?
 
Maybe it's not p-i-k-a-ch-u, it's pi-ka-chu, which cannot be arranged into pah-koo-chee but only into chu-ka-pi.

And Pokémon can manage to learn human languages anyway so there could be a Pikachu that can say pah-koo-chee.

And for that, well how can you tell if it's a Zei-tra-norr or a Tra-norr-zei, or even a Tra-zip-ke-norr-zei?

Anyways usually for my Poké-RPs I mostly use sounds based on the in-game cryes. As well as other in-game based sounds from the text.
 
I prefer the animal cries because that's what Pokemon are. Though I do admit that for the more intelligent species, the Pokespeak implies they have an actual spoken Poke-language.
 
Synthetic pokémon like Voltorb, Magnemite and the like are given pokémon speak.

For more animal-like ones, growling and similar animal noises are used.

In the rare occasions when animal-like pokémon are given pokémon speak, I imply it by simply referring to the pokémon having said several syllables of its name or something along those lines. For short exclamations (like a word or two), I write it out.

Of course, if I am implying a spoken pokémon language, I simply go the easy way and render it as English.
 
I wanna say Pokespeak, just for the fact that it's unique. It adds a little charm, gives Pokemon something to stand out with (not that it needs to, I'm just going by principle).
 
Never liked Pokemon Speak, it just doesn't feel right to me. That being said, some of the in-game cries are irritating, too (Electabuzz, Luxio and Zebstrika all come to mind). I liked the animalistic sounds they used in Pokemon Origins and the animated trailers quite a lot, actually.
 
I much prefer pokemon cries in the games. It's much more realistic for a bird to caw, or scraw, or pipipi over PIDGEY, STARRAPTOR, or ARTICUNO! Did the humans go "Human! Human hu! Manman! Huhuman!" until they branched off from being near the same as pokemon?

I feel like they just made up the pokemon speak for the anime for some weird reason and thought it was a good idea. *punts Pikachu into the sun for bringing that garbage into my games*
 
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