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

ign.com:

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