As we covered a month ago there was news that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name would release without the English dub attached to it. While many were dismayed by this news, as they find it easier to consume media with English audio rather than subtitles, there was also a very vocal part of the fanbase that were glad first-timers to the series would essentially be forced to play with Japanese audio, one of the primary reasons being that there were many disagreements in the community over the casting of YouTuber YongYea as the voice of main character Kiryu Kazuma. In the past few days, there has been footage of YongYea’s performance as Kiryu and the reception has not been kind to the casting.

I just heard actual English Kiryu voice and uhhhh……. YоngYеа as a casting choice fuсking sucked I am so sorry

— Дастанович @ Judgment/LAD Gaiden (@Dastanovich_) November 6, 2023

@discodivekick @Avito502 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/jCxAeZqI4d

— Дастанович @ Judgment/LAD Gaiden (@Dastanovich_) November 6, 2023

Many detractors claim that YongYea’s performance is flat at best and doesn’t fit the character. Not helping is that Kiryu Kazuma is a character whose Japanese voice is iconic, and any change from that was always going to attract negativity, but YongYea’s performance does leave a lot to be desired, especially the karaoke songs, which are heavily autotuned and sound uncanny and unnatural.

Omg it sounds horrible 💔 pic.twitter.com/aFW6vtNKhH

— Judgment Kazzy 1988 (@2005Dojima) November 9, 2023

The official Yakuza Games subreddit has seen an enormous influx of posts tearing down YongYea’s performance, to the point where a moderator had to step in and tell the community that it was fine to criticize and joke about YongYea’s performance, just don’t cause too much trouble doing it.

Not helping things are past tweets being dug up by the audience of YongYea’s reaction to Chris Pratt’s casting as Mario in Universal Pictures’ Super Mario Brothers movie, which many find to have aged poorly in light of YongYea’s recent performance as Kiryu.

Lol Mario just sounds… like Chris Pratt?

— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) October 6, 2022

The thing about Chris Pratt voicing Mario is he’s not coming up with a new voice for a new character, it’s someone very iconic & recognizable. He doesn’t have to go 100% Charles Martinet, but Mario sounding mostly like Chris is jarring. I hope future trailers change my mind.

— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) October 6, 2022

Yeah sure let’s get Chris Pratt to do an imitation of Mario for the animated Mario movie instead of getting, you know, the literal authentic voice of Mario who’s been the character for 3 decades to play the real deal. Let’s relegate Charles Martinet to “special cameos” instead.

— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) September 24, 2021

As stated before, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will be releasing without an English dub initially, and while that could be for any number of reasons one can’t help but speculate if the possible reception to the English performances in this game were a factor in delaying the game’s English voices.

This entire debacle has raised a debate on the internet as to whether or not celebrity guests such as YouTubers should be allowed as voice actors to major projects such as this, especially in iconic main character roles such as Kiryu Kazuma. Said debates will only be exacerbated upon the release of Atlus’ Persona 3: Reload where YongYea is cast as Mamoru Hayase, an extremely minor role in the game, but with this recent controversy, it’s an action that will likely drum up some drama when that game releases down the road.

I can finally announce I’m in Persona 3 Reload as one of the social links, I voice Mamori Hayase from the rival track team! Persona 3 was my introduction into this amazing series, it’s a huge honor to be a part of it. Thank you @Atlus_West and @pcbproductions for having me! pic.twitter.com/ndj9Ifhe0Y

— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) November 10, 2023

Though if you want to experience Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name you can do so right now (without English voices for the time being) as the game was released on November 9^th for Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, and for PC through Steam.