Yakuza Fans Divided Over Kiryu's New Voice Actor, Especially His Karaoke Performance

10.11.2023 - 12:36 / ign.com / Ryu Ga

Yakuza fans are once again debating the performance of longtime protagonist Kiryu Kazuma's new voice actor Yong Yea after Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth clips were shared online.

While Yong Yea himself posted a clip of his English voice acting performance alongside the original Japanese version, it was a karaoke clip that really blew up in the Yakuza community. Many fans have shared their less than enthusiastic response to the performance while others have rushed to defend Yong Yea, and some have even called out developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio for not bringing in professional singers.

The song on blast is one of the most popular Yakuza karaoke tunes, Judgement. The voice actor and YouTuber is replacing Darryl Kurylo in Infinite Wealth and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

Come ON they could have just brought in a crazy professional rock'n roll singer to do this, instead of putting the dub cast through that. Nobody would have cared lol

We need some @Crush40Johnny do-overs patched in to clean the timeline https://t.co/yiAYGwezsT

"Oh my god it sounds horrible," said @2005Dojima on X/Twitter. "My ears still hurt," said RainBoyThatBoy on Reddit. "No way this s**t is real," added another user, and plenty more shared similar sentiments. Many defended Yong Yea, however, acknowledging the difficult position he's in, having to replace an actor who previously played Kiryu across seven mainline games plus remakes.

"Come on, they could have just brought in a crazy professional rock and roll singer to do this instead of putting the dub cast through that," said DeadknuX on X/Twitter, above. "Nobody would have cared."

SuperM0haned6 on Reddit also urged fans to remain respectful even if they dislike the voice over. "If you don’t like the dub you can say that all you want, it’s only right to express your opinions on the game," they said. "But going to the voice actor himself and saying it’s ass, no. That’s just straight up extremely rude. Don’t you think he has feelings that can be damaged too? No one forced you to play on dub."

Here is an official look at Kiryu in English. Did a side-by-side with J for those wanting to hear the difference. This is some of the first stuff we ever recorded a year ago, performance got more refined as we went further along. Excited for y'all to experience the full games! pic.twitter.com/xAzxdtXbHY

Yong Yea's clip, above, was also criticised, but the voice actor said this was "among the first stuff we ever recorded" and his performance has improved since. "Honestly, even for me it's kinda strange hearing a voice that isn't [Japanese voice actor] Kuroda's come out of Kiryu's mouth, especially one that I can recognize as my own," Yong Yea added. "There's gonna be an adjustment period