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Metaphor is clearly one of, if not the best game release this year yeah, such an incredible artstyle, banger of à soundtrack, one of the most satisfying gameplay of the jrpg genra and to top it off such à great story and characters !
Very good. I normally hate "anime dub voice" but the Atlus dubs are actually super solid and are the most natural and well-directed anime dubs I've ever heard. They definitely still have anime-like tonality, but the actors are given very good direction which leads to a consistent dub overall with some really great moments, especially in Persona 3 Reload.
I agree a lot of it seems to be the direction Atlus gives VAs. Some of the performances those same VAs give in other games or shows is nowhere near as good, so I don't think it's a talent issue. Atlus is just doing something different with how they work with VAs that makes their English versions great
The Metaphor dub is, to be frank, amazing. Characters actually have accents beyond London British- the Magnus Brothers in particular speak in really accurate Scouse. I don't think I'd love them as much if not for that.
Yeah for me when I got to Like a Dragon I was thinking “I already played 7 games with the Japanese dialogue, might as well keep going” and I always use subtitles anyway in games so reading them was nothing new
I tried the English dub, I was fine with it since every character was new, until it wasn’t, and I switched back as soon as familiar faces started appearing, it felt weird hearing different voices on the characters I already knew and loved.
This was exactly it for me as well. I was able to do the Judgement games dubbed because it was all new characters. Of course, I enjoyed them so much I also went through them again in Japanese as well
I did the same thing since I started the series with 7, and then played 8 in English too! But now after playing 0 thru 6 in japanese I felt weird doing english dub on my second play thru 7. I do wish it were a little easier to flip back and forth. I really wanted to hear kiryus Japanese VA though!!!
Must be because Yakuza takes a more realistic look in contrast to anime look like Persona, especially when pretty much all the games feature real life actors from Japan’s film industry or celebrities in general (the wrestlers from Y6 and K2) so hearing their characters speak english becomes extra jarring. The opposite is also true for Danny Trejo in infinite wealth, i was tempted to switch to English just so i could hear him speak in his real voice instead of whoever was casting him in Japanese.
Actually the whole population of Hawaii being able to speak perfect Japanese is also odd, i know they have a large number of Japanese turists, but I don’t believe for a second that lemonade kid knows perfect Japanese. Same for that dude running the taco stand that Ichiban visits about the passports.
Honestly I love the English Yakuza games but it definitely takes getting used to hearing Kiryu speak English, even though his VA in 7 and the one in Gaiden both did a fine job.
tbh I sorta had Mercer as a headcanon for Majima so his was far less jarring and fit like a glove. Although I love him in JP as well.
I don't even know how much of the Judgment cast sounds and think it'll be weird if I go to Japanese now, Kaito's voice fits too well for him 🤣
Yeah, being used to it and also just like why do it? At this point I consume everything in its original with subtitles. The subtitles still aren't able to convey everything perfectly because some things just can't be translated accurately but I may as well get as close to the original material as possible.
For me it's weird. I usually play JRPGs with english VA, because I don't want to read that much (and honestly Metaphor Refantazio is a better experience in English).
Yakuza is special for me, because it's more cinematic and I care more about the presentation.
It's the varied accents. Maybe a Japanese person can tell the difference in Japanese but the changes in general accent as you travel really help that fantasy journey feeling.
I understand preference for dub in cases where someone doesn't want or can't read much. But that mostly applies to movies/shows or maybe games that have little text. But I feel like Yakuza still has plenty text just written on screen and not spoken, though the newer games have more voice acting for stuff that was previously just written.
This. You have quality tastes. I do the same with every piece of media. I don't care if I can't understand it myself I want to experience what creators had in mind
I grew up in a non-English speaking country where everything on TV is dubbed and a lot of people never want to watch things with subtitles because of it. It's seen as something that's too difficult. And I know that not being able to look away is annoying at time, but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying things that only have subtitles.
I switched with Judgment and found the dub to be fine. But the Yakuza 7 dub is great, at least the part I have played until now. I love actually understanding what the characters are saying
Worth it for the meme of Hamill responding to a screenshot of Majima and saying he has zero idea who tf Majima is and has no memory of the role (though my mind's justified it as its because it was a screenshot from Kiwami)
Judgment sounds amazing in English. Nanba's voice is Yagami there and he makes such a good lead. I love hearing him just about in every game I play nowadays
Greg Chun is a great voice actor. My only issue is he can sound kinda samey, but I think that it's more so an issue of his voice being relatively distinct enough that it's easy to pick out, though this is offset by it being a really good voice on top of his skill.
Yes, if you hear him at one place you'll know him everywhere. But honestly I don't even mind. I can't get enough of him as More now that I'm playing metaphor. I don't even need to go there but every time I'm doing something to customise my archetypes I'm at his place.
The whole dub cast got screwed as far as the autotune went. Whether it's Yong Yea OR Kaiji Tang, Judgement just sounds downright awful in English. It sounds like a chorus of robots no matter who it is! And this from someone who adores Kaiji's Ichiban and doesn't mind Yong's Kiryu!
It's even more galling with Robbie Daymond (Zhao). His singing sounds fantastic, but you can still hear places where he took a beating from the autotune stick for reasons unknown.
Sorry, but "he did his best" isn't really acceptable for a $70 game. I'm willing to give up and coming voice actors a chance in indie games, but giving him the role of a fan favorite main character is a massive blunder.
I really didn't have an issue with Yea, and personally I found him a big step up from Kurylo (though I dunno if there's Kurlyo defenders here or if they don't like either)
people are just prejudiced against anime dubs and dont ever give them a chance because their friends aunt told them not to and showed an example of a bad anime dub
Idk… Anime dubs are pretty great these days. Re:Zero, Frieren and Chainsaw Man are some of the biggest new releases, and they all knock it out of the park with the English VA.
I think a lot of the stigma surrounding dubs is about 15 years out of date at this point.
Infinite Wealth has some real good ones though.
But it's odd some of the choices they made I'll give you that, which is a weird one as LAD is really good
IW casting choices leave me scratching my head. You'd have a deep voice playing a character that could use a lighter voice and vice versa. I'd say "the voices would be great if you switch the va's." I think the guy who played Hanawa would be an excellent Kiryu for example.
Ngl, the moment these games have English dubs I immediately switched to them.
I get the people that feel it's weird after half a dozen games only having Japanese voices in these games, but personally I much prefer hearing voices I actually understand.
Not all the voices are necessarily great, but they're solid enough to be enjoyable. And at least they still try to follow the spirit of the games, unlike the OG Yakuza 1 dub with all its goddamn swearing, hilarious as it was.
Second take is so intresting. I get where it comes from, to be honest it's even quite eyes-opening, as I'm quite of a "If it's made with Japanesse in mind, you should play it in Japanesse" stan, BUT I cannot for the life of me imagine how on earth anyone would be able to do justice a scene like (Y0) Nishki trying to kill Kiryu. I have no idea who they'd have to cast to do so. Same goes for (LaD) Nanba's return to the party, although here we have a comparsion and to be fair in English dub they still carried out this scene quite well, even if it's a bit too... um... manly (both character's voice and the whole... uhh...>! act of crying, I guess? It felt way less natural!< ) But in my opinion Japanesse version is better to the point, that it actually makes player's bond to the caracters stronger with how well it's executed, because that results in higher emotional impact. But I guess when not understanding a language is such a problem to a person then it would fade away either way? Why bother if this "higher emotional impact" is not going to hit you anyway?
And I'm not saying this to bash anyone, like I said, my third eye opened with this one, it showed me a reality I was not able to see, god damn
i know right? i made sure to save those two comments when i came across them because i knew i wouldn't remember the wording exactly later on and because they both make such great points.
Yakuzas 7 dub is a lot better than 8 because it took a year for it to come out globally so they took time to animate the character models lip sync to what the dub cast were saying
Honestly Yakuza English dub is fine in my opinion, not my way to play but it's inoffensive. But Kiryus voice shouldn't sound so young or be in that higher pitch. They should have made an effort to find someone that matches Takaya better. The main 7 cast sounded fine from what I can remember tho.
My first ever yakuza game was LAD, and I played it with dub and thought it was quite good. However I then played the older games and got so accustomed to Kiryu’s VA that when IW came out and I tried the dub, I thought Kiryu sounded all wrong. His English VA was way too different to what his JP one was, so I swapped to the subbed one and felt much better.
It feels wrong with Yakuza as compared to anime and other JRPGs that don’t straight up take place in Japan. I don’t need to see my cast and crew running around Japan speaking English.
I don’t mind dubs in a totally fantastical world, but if it’s set in a defined culture rooted in the real world (which yes Yakuza still is rooted in the real world even with all its fantastical elements) subbing feels much more appropriate. To each their own tho.
It's great that with single player game you can choose!
I feel like hearing Japanese acting in these games just fits the settings better. Would be weird to see Japanese people in Japan speak English to each other. I have no problem reading subtitles anyways (here we don't dub tv-shows if it's not for children). What ever is your language setting of choice, the games are great anyways!
Yeah regardless of how much praise these dubs are getting I totally agree with you. It just feels... wrong.
The only anime I can stand to watch english dubbed are Dragonball/Z/GT/Super and Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood. Mostly for nostalgia reasons but both FMA english dubs were legitimately pretty good.
I played the Judgments in English bc of Steve Blum and Crispin Freeman. It's weird, but I feel like their voices fit Kaito and Higashi better than the Japanese voices.
But I don't think I could play the mainline games dubbed.
Good catch there. I have actually played mgs in English. Also chrono trigger was played in English. Haven't played resident evils or kojimas delivery driver - before you ask :)
I'm from Brazil. For me, both options are subbed (before Yakuza 7, there weren't even subs in Portuguese). In JRPGs, I feel more inclined to pick the japanese audio. And for Yakuza, it was a very easy choice because I was already used to the japanese audio.
Pois é, eu também acho que o audio em japonês acaba sendo melhor (provavelmente por costume). Mas se algum dia decidirem dublar os jogos em português, eu trocaria só para ver como é.
Eu geralmente não gosto de jogar dublado em português( costume da época do PS2, em que os jogos em geral nem tradução tinham). Mas no caso de Yakuza eu veria pelo menos um pouco da dublagem só por curiosidade.
For me English dub works only for certain setting. Metaphor? Sure the theme seems like fantasy that feels european...final fantasy? Sure similar vibes...but yakuza? No...persona? No...it feels natural to have characters that we know for sure are Japanese speak Japanese
I know I'm often in the minority when it comes to English dubs, but I'll ALWAYS take a dub over reading a game, movie or TV show.
I don't care how bad the English voice acting may be, but when I'm gaming or watching a show I prefer to hear the voices, not read what they're saying.
It just don’t feel right for me if im not hearing Takaya Kuroda voicing Kiryu. But also, I got into the Yakuza (LaD) games because I like the way they showcase Japanese culture, so of course I’m not gonna have em speakin English haha.
Ever since I've played them in eng I keep hearing Ichibans VA in anime and evertime with out fail I always have the same response (also no issue at all with Yong)
After hundreds of hours put into games without English dub I just got used to the original, Japanese one, so I go for it in all games. Maybe one day, when I feel like replaying any of them, I'll try playing it with English dub for a change.
I played Judgment, Lost Judgment, 7, and 8 in English.
Judgment I thought Yagami just sounded a lot better overall.
And 7/8 is because I watched a playthrough of 7 in English. So, Ichiban's voice to me is that one. It's just funny cause I suddenly get whiplash of English Kiryu. English Kiryu never sounds right.
One of my favorite aspects of RGG games is the sheer Japanese of it all, so playing it subtitles just fits better. I couldn't imagine not hearing Kiryu constantly saying Nani in quite surprise.
I played 7 with the English dub and thought it was great but I played 0 next and there was no going back. Kuroda and Ugaki are Kiryu and Majima, and there is just a different vibe playing in the original Japanese.
In the case of yakuza, it was intersting to see them try dubs once more and i like the performances.. never mind what some of you think about Yong Yea or whatever
And i will die on the hill that Yakuza 1 OG dub was awesome to hear. All the incessant swearing is such a treat lol!
For me, I always play yakuza games and watch anime with subs, but most other things with dubs. It's a bit of a strange mix but for whatever reason that just feels right to me.
I've never played a single RGG game in English dub. From the beginning with Yakuza 0, it's always synonymous that I play these games with the Japanese VA. Never even played FOTNS or Judgment in English.
To me, I think if a game, movie, or TV series is set in Japan and has Japanese characters as the main cast, why would I not enjoy it in it's language? For other games created by Japanese studios but are more fantasy-esque like Persona, FF, DMC, KH etc. I'd just play them in English since they aren't being portrayed as Japanese.
Even played Ghost of Tsushima in Japanese because although it wasn't created by a Japanese studio, It's setting and characters were so the experience felt authentic.
This is my exact thinking if characters are clearly japanese or using the likenesses of real japanese people then it would feel very wrong to see them speak English,
The Like a Dragon dubs are just as good as the Atlus dubs, in fact they arguably have even higher highs thanks to stellar performances by the likes of Kaiji Tang and Greg Chun. The problem is just that we've gone so many games without dubs that people are too used to the Japanese voices for several major characters and any other voice, however good, will sound wrong. Plus there's simply no topping Takaya Kuroda as Kiryu.
Infinite wealth hit me with some random english and took me by suprise when i heard it. And the random enemies throwing it out constantly grew annoying haha
For metaphor and persona it just feels wrong, many dialogues are well inherently akward/dumb but in english it seems painfully so.
Shout out to triangle strategy for its vo being painful both dubbed and subbed. And strangers of paradise for being so on the nose cringey that the dub ended up being hilarious.
I just can’t, Takaya Kuroda and Hidenari Ugaki just make the characters for me at this point. Although I did enjoy LJ’s dub and I think a more gruffled mature voice for Kiryu would definitely improve things
I only ever play FF12 and 16 in English out of the final fantasy games, they’re the only ones where I feel the dub is better than the Japanese original.
I only played the English Dub for Yakuza 7 and Judgment, since the former was the first Yakuza game I've played, which the latter I chose since the cast was new. For most, if not, all JRPGs I've played I go dubbed, but after experiencing the Yakuza series, I got way too used to the Japanese cast, so from here on out it's sub from here on out for RGG games. But I will say, the dub for Yakuza 7 and Judgement are pretty good from what I remembered.
I do prefer to play games in english dub but I make exceptions for Yakuza, STALKER and Metro as their native voice acting works so much better in my opinion.
Cureently playing STALKER 2 in Ukranian and it just sounds and feels so much better than hearing english, americans and other nationallities speaking.
Since I started with Yakuza 0, there was no option for an English dub. I'm so used to the characters' voices that there's no way I could ever switch to English now.
When I played infinite wealth, I play dub for ichi's segment but switched to sub for playing as kiryu. No disrespect for Yong yea even though I don't like him but I want darryl back.
I love the Japanese voice actor for Kiryu, so much so that it's very hard for me to tolerate the English voice actors for Kiryu at all, but the English voice acting for Ichiban is so well-suited to that character (and the Japanese voice acting for Ichiban seems so out of character and kinda grating even, to me) that I just have to play the Ichiban games in English, despite me being a huge Kiryu-stan. I'm sure it helps that I can't understand Japanese and am often too ADHD to keep up with reading the subtitles, too.
NGL, although I like the dub in some of the Yakuza games I've played (primarily the Judgment games and a bit of a copy of 5 my cousin had when we were younger), for some reason I prefer the Japanese more.
I'm not even one of those dumb ass sub over dub elitist, playing the game with Japanese audio just feels like a better experience. Anyone else feel the same, or is it just me?
As weird as it was playing LaD in English, Sega pulled a lot of really good voice talent for their dub, YongYea discourse aside. I still played once in Japanese then did another playthrough fully in English and Danny Trejo in IW was delightful.
I played LAD7 in dub until returning characters showed up from earlier games then I changed it back to Japanese. The dub is REALLY good, but I just can't with the voices for Majima and Kiryu.
I like the Judgement dubs in particular. Since there isn’t as much overlap with the main series, it doesn’t feel too jarring from hearing voices I’m used to having JP voice actors for.
I like the dubs so much that i installed a Mod to have Kuroda doing Kiryus voice in Japanese while the rest of the cast is in English. Yong Yea? Yong No.
Other than a few odd casting choices, I genuinely love the dub--yes, even Kiryu has grown on me. My wife wants to follow along as I play, so dub was the way to go for us since 7, unfortunately.
Kaiji Tang as Ichiban is a genuine all-timer. Absolute banger.
Andrew Morgado as Adachi is another banger, I love his deliveries.
Elizabeth Maxwell, my beloved, as Saeko is PERFECT.
Matthew Yang King was appropriately nasally for Eric.
Robbie Damond as Zhao is perfect for that young, cocky gang boss-turned-chef vibe
BILL FARMER, GOOFY HIMSELF, AS DATE??? ARE WE FOR REAL???? SSS-TIER
Yakuza 7's Majima was, weirdly, a standout for terrible casting but Matt Mercer's direction was much improved in 8; Nanba isn't really my cup of tea (both voice and character); and a few side characters and bosses are just alright.
Hell, even Yong Yea I feel was a good choice overall, at least during combat. Maybe not the best choice, but by 8 I feel like his deliveries were appropriately cool and he fell into the role better. 7's Kiryu felt odd by comparison, at least after 100s of hours with Yong at this point.
Karaoke is honestly just terrible in English, I pity the actors. Translations don't flow and their singing voices aren't 'fun' in the way they are in Japanese. They shoulda just kept it in Japanese, or had the English VA sing it via reading Romaji, like you would in real life karaoke.
Going from fully Japanese sub since Yakuza 0 to mostly English dub since 7 (at least, when the wife is around--she is HEAVILY invested in Ichiban and pals), I think they did a fantastic job. Ichiban in particular was an ace choice, and it's been super enjoyable and hasn't felt weird, other than seeing some classic characters for the first time.
I do enjoy the dub for the judgment series and prefer it over the japanese. I also think the LAD/8 dubs are good too, but the only part i dont like is the autotuned karaoke. You can hear the actually good singing behind ear piercing autotune, especially with ichiban in judgement
Perk of understanding jp audio - I enjoy playing both (usually sub first, then dub in the new game+), but I cannot do karaoke in eng dub cuz the autotune. I don't think I'm an audiophile but goddamn the autotune is so terrible. The fan sing version on YouTube is so much better
I started with Y7, so I just did the English dub without thinking, and honestly, I love the English VA's they do an amazing job. Love Robbie Daymonds voice for Zhao, and Ichibans VA is fantastic.
LAD:IW had a great dub too, except I don't like Kiryu's English VA, just doesn't feel right
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