Zelda’s Voice Actress From Breath Of The Wild Looks Back On The Negative Reception Towards Her Performance

For many longtime fans, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the first time ever that Princess Zelda spoke with fully voiced lines by voice actress Patricia Summersett. While many became fans of Summersett’s work in the game, however – there were certainly just as many critics that shot down Zelda’s English dub for missing the mark. Well, following the return of her voice talent in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Summersett finally reflected upon such challenges in her career.

During Zelda Dungeon’s The Champion Cast, Summersett shared about her experience dealing with some of the ongoing criticisms about Zelda’s English voice in both Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity. Like anyone else, she initially struggled with some of the online negativity she observed – but eventually learnt to overcome some of it:

“That was tougher to deal with at first, because I was very sensitive to it, and just wanted everybody to be as happy as possible for such a big game [Breath of the Wild]. You really have to keep that kind of stuff in perspective, or one does. You really got to be positive about that stuff. I’d say the negative people tend to be more vocal online, just by default – that’s the nature of the algorithms of the net, and it does take some getting used to. One has to build a thick skin, I think, with something like this. I’d definitely say my skin has gotten a lot thicker over the last years, since taking on this particular role, just because it’s required more thick skin than some of the other kinds of failures or critiques I’ve had in the past.

There’s something in that to channel as well, because that’s how Zelda feels, and she’s doing great, but she feels that way eternally, and that’s her plate. It’s very relatable in that way, I think. Anybody who’s taking risks and trying to work very hard at anything, you come across that. I do love that about her character in general, the fact that they dig into that part of the storyline for her: what it means for her to feel like a failure, but keep pushing forward and striving for something bigger, and for the benefit of all. One can use that as inspiration as one uses heroes as inspiration.”

All in all, it looks like Summersett has settled well into her role as the heir to the Hyrule throne! Let’s hope she continues to enjoy reprising her role in many more games to come!