Even in a Wacky Nautical Spin-Off, Yakuza Just Feels Wrong in English

I would unfriend someone if I knew he played Yakuza in english. Even if he was from my family, I would never talk to him again

While I haven't play all of the Like a Dragon series (I have played 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, and a little bit of 3), I only play them in Japanese.

It just feels...right.

If Kiryu is the protagonist, I play in Japanese with subtitles. If Kasuga is the protagonist, I play in English. I tried English with 7 just to try it, thinking I'd switch back after an hour. Fell for the game hard and never switched back. This new one... I don't know. Gonna be fun to find out though.

I guess I am in the minority but I played LAD and IF in English, I just don't like subtitles it breaks my immersion tremendously. I am not a massive fan of the series though admittedly until the recent releases

rollseyes last one was fine In English

Japanese w subtitles and heavy use of the skip button (if it's an option)

I played Judgement in English, for whatever reason that didn’t seem sacrilegious, but never for Yakuza…

@MikeOrator So I hear. The only one that I could take was Lost Paradise. I should try again some time. I'm not as averse to cutscenes as I used to be.

@Logonogo I agree on subs I want to watch the picture not read some lines but you get a situation where you want suitable dubs from rare enough the same nationality at least, if not even rarer the actors themselves but you usually get mismatched comedy which only suits a certain type of film rofl. But with games if you can skip the chat in turns I’ll leave subs on so I can process fast and move on ->

If you play Yakuza games in English then you ou might as well watch EastEnders with the Japanese dub.

Japanese with subtitles all day long. More authentic this way and it's far funnier sounding

English dub? Dame da no thanks.

Queen Michele - Debra Wilson

Please! You don't need to convince me anymore!

I always play games in the language native to the setting. It just feels so much more immersive and Ichibans Japanese voice actor is incredible.

Watching anime in Japanese is one thing since you’re just watching. Playing and reading is too much for these old eyes.

Nah, the Yakuza dubs are always awesome and very well done. I will continue to use the dub and always will. It's really not that serious and people that think it is need to go outside lol.

@Alps_Stranger 100% this. Kaiji Tang deserves far more recognition for his performance as Ichiban. But I'm also so used to Kiryu's Japanese voice actor and I felt the need to switch to Japanese during his chapters.

@Burnish1619 oh good lord, is that the creepy bug-eyed lady that seems to be in every other game? Yeah lmao, I wasn't ever gonna touch the dub but this is a nice big additional nail in the coffin.

Japanese with subtitles, always.👊

I play Japanese games with Japanese voices, Korean games with Korean voices, French... you get the idea. I'm pretty happy that Mafia Old Country will be getting Sicilian dub. The only exception was Trails of Cold Steel: Japanese voice actors couldn't correctly pronounce German names of their lives depend on it.

I played the Judgment games in English, because I didn’t know what the characters were ‘supposed’ to sound like. Ditto for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but then there were those cameos of characters from the Yakuza games and that was jarring.

Kiryu and Majima must sound like they should. I played the English demo for Infinite Wealth at the end of Gaiden and couldn’t stand the new Kiryu voice, so that was that for the English dub. I like the rest of the English voice actors, so I’ll try English again if classic Yakuza characters aren’t in the game.

If the acting is good I always play in English, infinite wealth was great,however I certainly understand some people's disgust at those that don't play with subtitles , I feel the same about people who watch dubbed versions of foreign films, ugh, just no 😂

I cannot imagine playing these in English. Possibly if your jumping on point was 7, that’s it. Fun to see Señor Joe here though, they say that all men are created equal.

I use Japanese voices whenever possible, except for Tales games.

To be honest, playing Infinite Wealth in Japanese was oddly jarring, too. It’s unusual to run into a single American who is fluent in Japanese, but everyone in Hawaii is? Some of the major characters give reasons for their fluency, but that just makes you realize that every lifeguard, taxi driver and hot dog stand operator also speaks it.

It doesn’t matter, play what you want. I just need Kiryu and Majima to sound right.

Everything sounds bad in asian squeaky, moaning languages. Everything looks awkward in asian cartoons (anime and what not). 12-year old girls in miniskirts eith huge udders... Stop praising asian culture as if it was something great. It is awkward to Westerners and always will be.

@nessisonett So youre the one that plays Stalker 2 in Ukrainian, right?

I unapologetically play them in English.

Why? Because I'm English.

And game dubs are nowhere near as jarring as a normal shows or movies are for example, with the whole mouth actions throwing you off. Would rather spend more time looking at the game than at subtitles.

@N0CYmr0k I haven’t played Stalker 2 yet but I played the Metro games in Russian. Depends how good the dubs are in most cases but some games feel far better in the original language. I wouldn’t play Witcher 3 in Polish though so it’s a case by case basis.

@lazarus11 dubbed movies, especially live action and not cartoon/animated, are tons more of an eyesore though when it comes to mouth movements etc during speech.

Samoa Joe? Big Poppa Pump is seething at the mere sight of him right now.

Can't recall having played any of these before but it would probably end up being in Japanese. I always start Japanese stuff in English b/c it makes life easier and occasionally they do get it right and I'd prefer if I don't have to read. But I prefer reading to really terrible voice over work. I don't understand why some voice over work has to be so terrible when some of it is just perfect. 🤷‍♂️ Cost cutting I guess. 🤑

@nessisonett So You are THE One...

@N0CYmr0k I have no idea what you’re talking about.

@Corc11 yes, it's truly horrible

日本語が好きです... I've been learning since February, but tbh I don't think some of the VAs were bad. You just need to cast correctly. Netflix definitely had a problem where they kept using the same VAs and it became tiresome to watch them in English, so now I tend to watch in Japanese, but for this? I could probably go either way.

Hello there fellow gamers.
Yeah, no. Yakuza/like a Dragon games always in their original Japanese voices thank you very much.
In that regard, I´m like my friend @Dalamar, I try to play most games in their original language.
Just like I´m doing with Black Myth Wukong, playing in Chinese.
It just feels more authentic that way..... To me at least.
Plus, Hidenari Ugaki is Majima. He is just perfect for the role.
Cheers and happy gaming everyone

I'm a japanese audio purist when it comes to LaD and especially so after they ruined Kiryu in the dub. I watched a scene from LaD 8 where he makes his cameo and i started laughing at everyone's voices, they were so bad.

@RaZieLDaNtE Wukong in chinese makes sense but the dub voices were good so i didnt regret my choice.

English all day. Japanese voice acting is overrated.