This is a paraphrasing of the quote given by director Boon Joon Ho when he received an Academy Award for the film Parasite. So why am I quote a director talking about film when this is an article about video games? One of the hurdles for Yakuza getting traction in the West because gamers didn’t want to see Japanese men talk in Japanese. However as the series found its place in the West, publisher SEGA has offered this kind of accessibility to lure more curious gamers to try their series of action and now RPG titles.
So with that Yakuza 0 is getting a release on the Nintendo Switch 2 (pre-order on Amazon here), one of the changes the title will be getting is a brand new English audio track. Today the publisher revealed the voice talents will be participating in this dub. Some returning voices include Yong Yea and Matthew Mercer, each reprising their role as Kazama Kiryu and Goro Majima. Perhaps reacting to criticisms by the fans, a separate voice actor was hired as the singing voice for each character.
In a twist that mirrors the Japanese voice cast, Kaiji Tang who has been the English voice actor of new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga is now also portraying Kiryu’s brother in arms Akira Nishikiyama (In Japan , Kazuhiro Nakaya voices both Ichiban and Nishiki). Other than David “Solid Snake” Hayter and Fred Tatasciore, I can say I recognize any other names in the cast. However that might necessarily be a bad thing.
Here’s the full list which has been released
- Kazuma Kiryu –Yong Yea / Topher Ngo (Singing)
- Goro Majima – Matt Mercer
- Akira Nishikiyama – Kaiji Tang / Greg Chun (Singing)
- Makoto Makimura – Risa Mei
- Osamu Kashiwagi – David Hayter
- Jun Oda – Alejandro Saab
- Tsukasa Sagawa – Andrew Kishino
- Tetsu Tachibana – Howard Wang
- Wen Hai Lee – Bill Millsap
- Daisaku Kuze – Keston John
- Hiroki Awano – Eliah Mountjoy
- Homare Nishitani – Vic Chao
- Keiji Shibusawa – Jon Ohye
- Masaru Sera – Nobi Nakanishi
- Osamu Kashiwagi – David Hayter
- Billiken – Adam Gold
- Sohei Dojima – Imari Williams
- Takashi Nihara – Frank Todaro
- Futoshi Shimano – Fred Tatasciore
- Shintaro Kazama – Paul Nakauchi
In addition to this English dub, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut will also feature 20+ minutes of cutscenes and an online brawler mode called Red Light Raid. Players can experience this groundbreaking title in the series for the first time or revisit it on the go on the Nintendo Switch 2 when the game releases on the same day the console launches on June 5th 2025.