Is this one in english?

[SometimesBread]

I doesn't say it is on the store page but I know 7 is and 8 is going to be now that they have an english voice actor for Kiryu. I was just wondering because it seems kinda wasteful to hire a voice actor for 1 game. If it's not in english is there any news on whether or not it will get an english update?

[retsa2b]

They're tiptoeing around the Kiryu voice acting topic because the backlash has taken them aback. Nothing strikingly new here—the industry has stumbled into terrible, unpopular decisions before. They probably feel they're stuck using YongYea in Y8 as planned because reverting to Kiryu's original VA would generate even more backlash and it would be lose-lose, but since they have time to think about it, I suspect they're not 100% on keeping YongYea for Gaiden and it would certainly be hopelessly tone-deaf of them to keep using him in other games/remakes/whatever.

[SometimesBread]

From what I heard of the VA that is doing Kiryu in 8 I thought it sounded pretty good. But those were just random live dialogues on a booth mic not using studio mics and then edited. I wish people would stop gatekeeping dubbing japanese works into english. I prefer to intake media in a language that I understand fluently. Yeah, I've ran across my fair share of things that were translated or localized poorly and that does suck but for the most part it's better than not being able to fully enjoy something. Besides it's not like they can't also keep the japanese dub in the games. It doesn't take anything anyway from people that want the games in japanese for there to also be an english version as well. They did 7 in english and that one sounds just fine to me.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

I wish people would stop gatekeeping dubbing japanese works into english.

A valid issue but definitely not where the vast majority of the criticism is coming from. If you hunt around for threads on the topic, you will find that it's more or less evenly split between how the guy is a poor pick for the character, how he can't act or sing at all (Autotune was used pretty flagrantly to address this), or how the person himself has a history of scamming his own audience and how that turns this casting into a moral conundrum.

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

They did 7 in english and that one sounds just fine to me.

7 had a good cast. Reasonably on par with modern dubs of Japanese media. That's part of what makes this casting choice tragic. That will be going to waste. Fans of 7's dub will be forced to use one or another mod that replaces Kiryu's voice utterly.

The script was the usual devil-may-care fare from localizers who are just a bit too comfortable with reinventing dialogue from scratch rather than following the lead of the anime industry and generating a good sub/dub that doesn't needlessly deviate from the original dialogue.

[SometimesBread]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

A valid issue but definitely not where the vast majority of the criticism is coming from. If you hunt around for threads on the topic, you will find that it's more or less evenly split between how the guy is a poor pick for the character, how he can't act or sing at all (Autotune was used pretty flagrantly to address this), or how the person himself has a history of scamming his own audience and how that turns this casting into a moral conundrum.

Oh I didn't know he was doing all that. It sounds like he's not a good fit for the character then.

Originally posted by retsa2b:

7 had a good cast. Reasonably on par with modern dubs of Japanese media. That's part of what makes this casting choice tragic. That will be going to waste. Fans of 7's dub will be forced to use one or another mod that replaces Kiryu's voice utterly.

The script was the usual devil-may-care fare from localizers who are just a bit too comfortable with reinventing dialogue from scratch rather than following the lead of the anime industry and generating a good sub/dub that doesn't needlessly deviate from the original dialogue.

Are they using the same localization team from 7? If not it sounds like they need to get that team again or get a new one. Even if that means unfortunately delaying the game outside of japan. I'd rather have a good localization and a good dub that fits ALL of the characters. I hope the story doesn't suffer from the localization team's lack of attention to detail. I guess we'll see in about 2 months if it doesn't get delayed.

[SometimesBread]

I hope that once they get the voice actor situation sorted they make an english dub update for gaiden. Of course keeping the japanese dub too so that everyone can enjoy the game how they want.

[Mario Tainaka]

The English dub will be added in a future update as listed on the Store page and the official website. Given where they were with recording when AX happened the recording for Gaiden should be done by now

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

Are they using the same localization team from 7?

Almost without question. While I won't be playing the Y8 demo anytime soon, I've already seen people complaining about the usual disregard for what the original Japanese dialogue was saying.

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

I hope the story doesn't suffer from the localization team's lack of attention to detail. I guess we'll see in about 2 months if it doesn't get delayed.

Delay won't be happening. They've got this down to a science now and will probably continue to outright mistranslate until somebody at SEGA Japan catches wind of discontent over their shenanigans. Maybe the whole YongYea situation will wake them up a bit in that regard.

[SometimesBread]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

Almost without question. While I won't be playing the Y8 demo anytime soon, I've already seen people complaining about the usual disregard for what the original Japanese dialogue was saying.

Well if that's been going on since the early days then I'm not really sure I care then. the games are still fun to me and the stories are still mostly comprehensible.

Originally posted by retsa2b:

Delay won't be happening. They've got this down to a science now and will probably continue to outright mistranslate until somebody at SEGA Japan catches wind of discontent over their shenanigans. Maybe the whole YongYea situation will wake them up a bit in that regard.

Maybe, I just got done watching the demo and yeah the guy made no effort to actually sound like the character. Hopefully it's at least edited to sound more like him in the game's actual release.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

Well if that's been going on since the early days then I'm not really sure I care then. the games are still fun to me and the stories are still mostly comprehensible.

It's not your job as a consumer to care about these things. If I were to pigeonhole this topic more meaningfully than to simply opine a desire that the localizers respect the source material the way the entire anime industry manages to, then it would be this:

SEGA's localizers did an AMA four years ago, and when directly asked how they handle localizations, they went out of their way to brag about how their driving goal was to seek clarity and, in their words, "authenticity".

To give you an example of the authenticity they've pumped out since then, I'll provide the two specimens I've been brandishing around because they seem to make the apologists pretty uncomfortable.

In Like a Dragon, they localized "Arigatou" ("Thank you") to "You make me proud to be a mother."

In Judgment, they localized "Muron! Otoko ni nigon ha nai!" (essentially: "Verily! A man's word is his bond!") to "Never! ...But I guess I could dial it down a bit, at least around you. You have earned my ninja respect."

Again, it's not up to the paying customer to care whether or not the localizers have decided they'd rather rewrite SEGA's game into their own personal fanfic. But it is, nonetheless, the localizers' stated goal to provide "authenticity." And within that context, there's no defending this.

Originally posted by retsa2b:

I just got done watching the demo and yeah the guy made no effort to actually sound like the character. Hopefully it's at least edited to sound more like him in the game's actual release.

You can count on mods to solve this, I expect. One mod to replace his voice with the Japanese dialogue so you're then playing a "mostly dub". Another mod to replace his voice with that of Kiryu's original VA, through AI. That option won't solve the bad acting and singing but it'll solve the bad voice issue.

[SometimesBread]

If they're suppose to be striving for authenticity and they're puposefully not localizing it properly behind sega's back then they shouldn't be on the project. Does sega just not care? I'm sure a lot of people have brought up dialogue inconsistencies.

Honestly, I'd rather just have someone who sounds more like kiryu mod in their VOs or someone they know with their permission. There's so many people that can do the voice and actually put some type of emotion into it instead whatever yongyea dumped out onto the mic in that demo and probably the finished game.

[retsa2b]

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

If they're suppose to be striving for authenticity and they're puposefully not localizing it properly behind sega's back then they shouldn't be on the project. Does sega just not care?

I think that's what the main issue is. SEGA Japan is allowing the Western team to do whatever they desire, and that includes both running riot with the localization and bringing on Youtube influencer names—first in Ishin! as card characters for that game's major minigame, and now as the English voice for the franchise's most iconic character. SEGA seems very eager to rubber-stamp any decision the Western team makes and leave it all in their hands, without bothering with due diligence on the advisability of any of those decisions.

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

Honestly, I'd rather just have someone who sounds more like kiryu mod in their VOs or someone they know with their permission.

One possibility I hadn't brought up before is that of using AI trained on Kuroda's voice to completely generate the English dialogue from the English script. While I don't personally believe generated AI is ready for an all-encompassing project like an entire major role in a AAA game (at least, not without considerable hand holding), honestly this would still be miles better than putting up with YongYea's voice and desperately mediocre acting.

If you don't mind some first-10-minutes Y8 spoilers, you can check how this would hypothetically work out in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h6jPfe2NxI Should be no surprise that franchise fans are busying away at solving the YongYea problem.

[SometimesBread]

Originally posted by retsa2b:

I think that's what the main issue is. SEGA Japan is allowing the Western team to do whatever they desire, and that includes both running riot with the localization and bringing on Youtube influencer names—first in Ishin! as card characters for that game's major minigame, and now as the English voice for the franchise's most iconic character. SEGA seems very eager to rubber-stamp any decision the Western team makes and leave it all in their hands, without bothering with due diligence on the advisability of any of those decisions.

Sega of Japan needs a wakeup call, nobody wants phoned-in voice acting. Maybe they should contact square enix's localization team. Their english dubs always sounded good enough.

Originally posted by retsa2b:

One possibility I hadn't brought up before is that of using AI trained on Kuroda's voice to completely generate the English dialogue from the English script. While I don't personally believe generated AI is ready for an all-encompassing project like an entire major role in a AAA game (at least, not without considerable hand holding), honestly this would still be miles better than putting up with YongYea's voice and desperately mediocre acting.

If you don't mind some first-10-minutes Y8 spoilers, you can check how this would hypothetically work out in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h6jPfe2NxI Should be no surprise that franchise fans are busying away at solving the YongYea problem.

That actually sounds really good for AI driven. I'd rather have that than a half-baked dub from some youtuber who doesn't even sound anywhere near like the Kiryu.

[♥]

there is only one voice to kiryu, and its not an english actor, if he can do double the work and dub in english it would atleast create consistency, even if it would be broken english.

[SometimesBread]

Originally posted by ♥:

there is only one voice to kiryu, and its not an english actor, if he can do double the work and dub in english it would atleast create consistency, even if it would be broken english.

Yong Yea is doing Kiryu's english voice. I guess the game is getting a english dub update sometime this month so that it's in line with 8.

[♥]

Originally posted by SometimesBread:

Originally posted by ♥:

there is only one voice to kiryu, and its not an english actor, if he can do double the work and dub in english it would atleast create consistency, even if it would be broken english.

Yong Yea is doing Kiryu's english voice. I guess the game is getting a english dub update sometime this month so that it's in line with 8.

that excuse of a person you mentioned should at most be an npc, not go anywhere near important character voicing, and if you want consistency, bring the yakuza 7 english kiryu wich voiced him in yakuza 1 and 2.