Kazuma Kiryu is a gaming icon. His booming voice and daunting presence has long been a staple of the Yakuza franchise, more so even than the name itself as it switches to its new ‘Like a Dragon’ moniker in the West. Takaya Kuroda’s take on the character is seen by fans as impossible to replace. He isn’t going anywhere, but with the return of English dubbing to the series with Judgment, now mainline Like A Drag𒐪on titles are receiving the same treatment.
This means, for the first time outside brief cameos and the PS2 original, the protagonist will be fully voiced in English. YouTuber-turned-voice actor Yong Yea landed the role last year, and with the arrival of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like a Dragon Gaiden and a playable demo of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Infinite Wealth, we fina🌄lly caught a snapshot of his perform🐭ance. Sadly, it isn’t good. He’s unable to capture the gravitas of Kiryu in any of the scenes we’ve seen so far, mostly since he is basically making use of his regular voice, albeit with a stern, authoritative twist.
From Yakuza 7 onwards, the series changed its name to Like A Dragon as a way of better matching the Japanese title. That, and it doesn't revolve around Yakuza happenings much these days.
Kiryu’s cameo in Yakuza: Like A Dragon wasꦉ voiced by Darryl Kurylo, who does a better job at conveying the character’s weathered experience and undying loyalty, but still sounds like a clumsy facsimile of the Japanese original that tries awkwardly to translate a legacy built over decades into a few lines of dialogue. There were too many expectations attached to Kiryu for anyone to d📖o it justice in another language, let alone impress us with their take on it. It was a monumental task almost impossible to succeed at, and that was only going to go double for whoever carried on this mission with Infinite Wealth.
Follow🔯ing the release of the demo, Yong Yea comparing his performance as the Dragon🍬 of Dojima directly alongside Kuroda, and as expected, attracted quite a bit of criticism. Many brought up Yong Yea’s mockery of Chris Pratt’s Mario voice for sounding just like him, despite his own Kiryu take being the very same.
All of these jabs are being made in bad faith, especially as Yong Yea is pretty up front about the fact that these clips are taken from some of the first recording sessions he ever did, claiming they have become more refined over time. That doesn’t mean we’ll enjoy the final performance in Infinite Wealth, but no wool is being pulled over our eyes here. The original Kazuma Kiryu isn’t being replaced, nor is 𝓰the option to play the game in Japanese being taken away from us.
The character is being dubbed because the entire experience is being dubbed, so leaving Kiryu behind was always an impossibility. Now here he is, and, of course, we aren’t happy about it. Fans were always going to have this reaction, braced to hate whatever the final outcome was. It’s not productive, and like many, I’ll be going into the game with Japanese language options but I'm still happy the English option is there. For those who find it difficult to keep up with subtitles, whatever the reason, the dub can make the game both more enjoyable and accessible. Something which is never a bad thing.
Kazuma Kiryu’s English voice was always going to be met with derision. Yakuza has always had a possessive mass of fans, those who have followed it since its inception long before Yakuza 0 catapulted it iﷺnto the mainstream. Human beings also hate change, and to see characters they’ve grown so familiar with suddenly shaped into something unknowable is a huge one. This would be a big problem if Yakuza’s original form wasn’t being pushed first and foremost in its marketing, but it is, and no other option has ever been entertained. People come to this series for its melodramatic stories and larger-than-life characters, and to explore lifelike recreations of locations across Japan with streets, shops, and culture either untouched or exaggerated in the best ways.
It’s akin to the protectiveness anime fans hold over subtitles, believing that dubs will always be inherently inferior because it isn’t what the creators originally inte🐼nded. I get that, but I’m also aware how much care goes into the craft of voice acting and what parameters actors in games and anime need to work within, let alone language barriers and existing expectations att𝄹ached to characters. Kazuma Kiryu isn’t immune to this environment we’ve helped foster, and no matter whose feet fill his shoes, they will never be big enough.
