Like a Dragon Fandom Divided After Hearing Kiryu's New English Voice

Most of the people who are complaining will be playing the games in Japanese anyways.

That Yong's voice is so Cringe

This should be played with Japanese voices. It enhances the experience no end

@CWill97
Can't deny that, still I would like a bit better representation. Koreans are not Japanese, for example. Would be nice if they kept it authentic, would help getting a native Japanese who can speak English well because then they can pronounce the names of people, places and whatever else more appropriately.

This is probably the only series I leave the Japanese audio on. The characters get very animated and it's hilarious 😂

Only Yakuza games ive played with english audio were the judgement spinoffs. Mainly because it made it easier to follow the court stuff. Only time ive heard kiryu speak english was in the original ps2 game

I like yong, but honestly, who cares, this game should just be played in japanese.

Now that I hear it, I'm not a fan. He sounds waaaay too young for a man in his 50's.

The most authentic experience is to play with the Japanese vo with no subtitles and the tv set to mute. Lip reading Japanese is the only way to play *****!!

Why would I use English audio?
What next? Playing Atelier games with English audio?
Playing Dynasty warriors in english?
Playing warriors orochi in english?
Playing Samurai warriors in english?
Playing blue reflections in english?

Also that voice sucks, I hope they didn't waste much money on this.

I usually prefer English dialogue but not if it sounds like this

I cannot imagine ever playing these games in English.

Ugh, the usual pretentious, "ov and subs are the only true way" discussion we know all to well from the anime scene. Yes, we all get what purists and connoisseur's you are!

It's always jarring being used to one vo, that you've heard for years and switching to another. While this short clip also felt that way, within its entirety I'm sure Yong will do fine.

I switch back and forth depending on the genre and mood. Feudal or modern Japanese setting usually OV, western setting often English. Hell, crayon shin Chan I even prefer in German.

Doesn't sound bad to me. But don't matter to me if it was bad, as I'll be playing in the original voice language.

The Yakuza/LaD series and Ghost of Tsushima are the only games in which I prefer the Japanese VO.

The English dubs in this series are always predictably terrible (George Takei notwithstanding). I'm glad they do it because I do know people that just can't touch the series with subs so only the English ones count, but it always just sounds bad. The characters don't even come across as the same characters. Ichi is cold and serious and that's just not how the animation and story works, Japanese ichi is a whole other personality. It's worse with kiryu and majima, they're iconic and their Japanese vas are iconic with them. It reminds me of the German dubs of Robin Williams films in the day. It can't work at all. Yet I hope they keep doing English for all the people that just can't play otherwise but I wish they'd try to keep the character personalites even vaguely similar for a change.

I knew about Yong and had reservations about the quality of his commentary on YouTube. He seems to be trying to drum up drama, mostly, but probably have been voicing genuine criticisms and opinions as well.

So, I am the type of guy who would disqualify him on name only, but I like that he is honestly trying to appeal to doubters by releasing more evidence.

The sound byte was OKAY - if the sound directors know what they're doing it could be an impressive performance in the end.

Yong has a good voice. Whether it's a good voice for a hard-boiled badass like Kiryu is a different matter. The nasal aspect of it alone kind of already clashes with Kiryu's whole image.

I don't play these games without their original audio and I don't intend to ever start, though, so it doesn't affect me either way. Hopefully more people will warm up to his performance when they hear it in full I guess.

@themightyant In this case I don't think anybody's very accustomed to the PS2 Dub, since a great amount of players got on board with zero. I started with kiwami. But yeah, listening to the clip I couldn't un-hear Yong 😂

People play Yakuza games with English voices?? Are you nuts?!?

Huh? People play this with english voices?
Nonono... this has to be japanese.

It just sounds... unfitting like Higashi and Steve Blum. For Yong it sounds like his voice is slightly too high of pitch for a character like Kiryu. Doesn't matter to me though, in Like a Dragon games I always stick with JP because everyone sounds accurate while everyone in English sounds out of place.

I dunno. He sounds far too young to me.

Can't even conceptualize listening to my boy Kiryu without the iconic voice of Takaya Kuroda.

I can't fathom playing a Yakuza game with all the characters speaking English. Talk about an immersion destroyer.

@Fishnpeas My man I tried with Judgement and it was hard to get through the first chapter due to it.

You should be in jail if you play in English anyway

The voice sounds good to me.word up son

isn't too bad, I always play with English dub when the option is there as I want to focus on the screen rather than reading subs. Never understood the JP subs snobbery myself.

YongYea's a great youtuber but this is hella wack lmfao
Sounds like some discount asmr.
But who cares man, a travesty playing these games with the english dub anyway unless you're forced to.
Truly yongyea out lol

I've only ever played the Yakuza games in Japanese, so I don't know what Kiryu's English voice even sounded like before this

I will stick to the japanese voice anyway. So, I don't mind the change.

Angry manly Japanese voices are hilarious to me especially in Yakuza games, so this news means nothing to me. No issues with Yong voicing Kiryu though, watched a lot of his vids over the years and its not like he's replacing David Hayter (Snake) in MGS

Yh I could not imagine playing Yakuza in anything but Japanese.

I've only ever played Yakuza/Like a Dragon game with Japanese VO, so the one time I tried playing one in English it all sounded wrong anyway. But I don't see the issue with Yong's performance from what little we've heard so far.

Sounds appropriately manly/husky to me. I don't see the issue.

I'll be honest, I never played LAD (aka Yakuza 7) with English voices as I only watched a streamer play it dubbed and I didn't like Kiryu's English voice at all. No hate towards Darryl Kurlyo but Takaya Kuroda is THE voice of Kiryu for me. I haven't heard YongYea's portrayal of Kiryu but I just might. On another note, the Judgment games have fantastic English voice acting which is why I played Judgment and Lost Judgment in English.

For me the voice isn't deep enough. I think if someone is going to do the voice it needs to be close to the Japanese voice actor. Secondly knowing that Yong Yea is doing the voice is off putting for me (and probably most people too) so I'd probably play it in sub anyway. And lastly I'm not knocking Yong Yea but he comes across as someone that has the personality of a plank of wood and that watching paint drying would be more interesting than this guy.

People play Yakuza games in English?

First thing I do is set the voices to Japanese.

It sucks. But also, why would you play this in english?

@tameshiyaku
I never understood why people insist on telling the world that dubs are a crime against humanity. It's okay to prefer one or the other but I never understood why it has to get so hostile.

Like them or not dubs open the game up to a wider audience to enjoy the media you enjoy as well which is only a good thing! I truly never will understand the "Dub watchers are the enemy!" people.

Yong just has a higher pitched voice for kiryu and it shows he basically has to prepare to deepen his voice. The judgement kazzy clip was in front of the audience and impromptu. Throughout it you can hear his own voice which is more nasally and higher pitched than kiryus would sound like

The clip yong posted obviously he had more time to make his voice go more deep and admittedly it sounds pretty decent up until he shouted step up which just let out his normal shout

At risk of sounding like a weeb I can’t imagine playing this series in English.
Kiryu’s Japanese VA does such an amazing job nobody would come close.

Wasn't saying Yongs voice isn't manly enough, nothing wrong with it. Just saying I've never used the English voice in any Yakuza game. Just feels more natural to me to be playing Yakuza games with Japanese voice and English subtitles. Sounds more authentic and at the same time more hilarious this way

So this guy is a voice actor?

Naniga okiteiruno? I love the Japanese voice over and I'm seven games in so won't change now. Great for those who struggle to read/ keep up with subtitles.

@Korgon It goes both ways as far as attacks. I personally always use Japanese VA when available. But I don't begrudge anyone wanting to listen in English. I just want the option to be there.

Last time I played yakuza with English voice was the original PS2 game. The English had me laughing so much, Micheal Madison voiced a character his big entrance was SHUT THE F**K UP and it didn't suit it at all and another character voiced by the luke Skywalker guy. English voice acting for these games are so bad it's funny. And I do not like they have a Korean doing a Japanese characters voice. That's like Brad Pitt as scorpion in an mk movie, just plain wrong

It does not sound good.

I watch anime with dubs all the time but here it just doesn't sound right, he's too young to voice the character and I also would have prefer they've gotten a Japanese American like the Ghost of Tsushima voice actor.

@Synthatron_Prime
Your right it does go both ways for sure. I was just saying I never understood why it seems like it gets so heated between both sides is all.

I go back and forth myself depending on what it is. Generally speaking I do prefer sub for Yakuza mostly because I'm just used to it after being with the series for so long but I'm happy it's dubbed nowadays since it can appeal to other people more.

@Ralizah Not really. Obviously if you're used to Kuroda anything just sounds wrong but also, Kyroda is a baritone. Kiryu is a huge beast. It fits. Big guy like kiryu just wouldn't have a tone like this. This is the casting directors fault though. Just not the right fit. Plus at the end he's trying to imitate the crazy battle screams the Japanese actors do and it just doesn't work out in English.

But it consistent. Whoever does the voice location for rgg games just sucks. Consistently has. Maybe it's a group used to anime localizing and they just don't "get" more realistic content enough to localize well.

Shame because I want to see more English dub... Some people just won't touch subs with a barge pole, and the deserve to see the series better than what they get. Takei excluded of course, he was an excellent choice but he's an obvious insta win.

If you’re not playing the game and enjoying the soothing voice of Takaya Kuroda then you don’t deserve to play the games and profess your love for Kiryu. No other voice can ever replace his for Kiryu channnnnnnnnnnn!

While I don't think it's bad, I'll still be playing it in Japanese. I've spent so much time in the Yakuza games and even though I do not understand Japanese I'm not going to change voice actors now. I've heard these characters speak for more than a decade and I'm not about to swap.

Yong has a very pleasing and rich voice, but I don't think his take on the character quite works. Hopefully with additional direction/guidance, he'll find it. Not that I have ever played these games or ever will.

They should have hired Dwayne Johnson to voice Kiryu

Original English kiryu VA - sounds like killbane a scary dude

New English kiryu VA - some dude who clickbaits

Must have been hard up for cash at sega America if they went from Will Yun Lee and Matt Mercer to random you'd bump into in walmart

Yakuza & Judgment games are meant to be played in Japanese.

Adds so much more to the game.

Good for him but I'll likely never use the dub.

@Czar_Khastik Chris Pratt as Majima

Doesn't sound right. That Daryl guy sounded more fitting, though like many others I'll be sticking to the Japanese VA.