YouTuber Yong Yea Is the New English Voice of Kazuma Kiryu

Voice actor and YouTuber Yong Yea has been announced as the new English voice of longtime Yakuza/Like a Dragon protagonist Kazuma Kiryu.

[cerpintaxt44]

damn grats

[mastershredder]

oh yeah…that person :/

stop it with the voice talent “news”

[Hofstaderman]

He must be so psyched. But I will opt to play the game how any Yakuza game should be played; in Japanese with English subs

[LOGICWINS]

Happy for Yong! Rooting for him to succeed in this legendary role!

[thejigisup]

He needs to work in a "yong out" somewhere in there. Congrats to him for sure, I hope this will open him up too many more opportunities too. Like others have said, I'll be playing this in Japanese with English subs tho

[GoodGuy09]

Oh cool, happy for him. Fan of his youtube content.

[StormSnooper]

I liked his voice, how is this new guy then?

[lukasmain]

He can change his voice as needed. I'm sure you'll like it

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

not a fan of his yt content, personality, or anything i've seen/heard him in, tbh. i love the yakua franchise, so unless there's an option for japanese dub, i'm sitting out,

[Vanfernal]

Personally I don't like his YT videos precisely because of how nasal his voice is... Odd choice...

[lukasmain]

The voice acting won't sound anything like him. He can change his voice pretty well. I've heard him

[Gatsu]

That's like his normal voice.... Voice acting works often a bit differently if you didn't know. He told how he got the role and the guys at SEGA picked him from the audition, after hearing his take on Kiryu.

[CDbiggen]

Really weird choice, not a fan at all. But always played Japanese anyway, and so do most people I assume so no big deal.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

He’s a pretty boring content creator if you ask me.

[Exvalos]

That's inspiring to hear, that man followed his dreams and looked what happened he did it!

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I personally dislike Yongyea’s YouTube channel and channels that do similar reactionary content as him. However, he is a pretty stood voice actor. Enrico Pucci in the English Dub of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is probably Yongyea’s most notable voice work.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Edit: “solid voice actor”

[staticall]

Wish there would be any voice sample of him doing Kiryu. I'm watching Yong Yea content occasionally and don't think his voice will fit here, japanese voice actor did an amazing job, not sure if Yong will match the performance. I'm saying that after watching his voice reel, his voice for Yasutaka Shirakaba kinda doesn't feel right. Trying to be optimistic though.

[lukasmain]

His voice won't even be recognizable when you play the game. He can change his voice really well

[staticall]

Yeah, i was impressed with his JoJo characters but Yasutaka Shirakaba from Lost Judgement sounded kinda like him and didn't match the visuals. So he's talented as a voice actor, no doubt about that, but i'm trying to stay cautiously optimistic.

[aqarita3]

I like Darryl because not only has he aged with the character, unlike Yong, he isn’t trying to sound like Kuroda, in an interview Darryl said that the only thing he got was a brief description of Kiryu’s voice to go off of and from that we got his legendary Yakuza 1 voice. Happy for Yong but this is a genuine disappointment for Y7 dub fans who finally began to enjoy the consistency.

[anast]

This is cool. I've been a fan of Yong for a long time.

[Ashunderfire86]

I see alot of people here disagreeing with the comments about Yong Yea. He is a good dude that speaks for the gaming community! Why the hate? 🤦‍♂️ Happy that he got this role!

[bangoskank]

I don't know who the guy is. All I know is I see "youtuber" and think 'can the guy act?'. IMO youtubers have only personality where they lack talent. You need talent to act, even if it's in a video game. That said, I only care about the Japanese acting anyway. Just feels more authentic.

[Gatsu]

He is also a voice actor. Been for a few years already. The guys at SEGA picked him from the audition, after hearing his take on Kiryu. That doesnt happen without talent.

[Good-Smurf]

Watch his stuff from time to time but Yakuza English dub had always been just OK at best.
So I'd love to be proven wrong on his ability but I'd just stick to original VA as always.
Always Nice to see ESL person got better voice role though.

[Kaii]

I used to listen to his YT vids back In the day but when you can summarise points In 3 minutes and he expands it to the 10+ minute mark I just can't be bothered, It's so painful when you stretch something out for that length of time, constantly.