When the Yakuza voice cast was announced I was depressed—well, as depressed as one can justifiably be when learning of a potentially bad dub for a video game. Enlisting a handful of B-minus acting talent filled my head with awkward, phoned-in performances from an all anglo cast doing their worst Japanese gangster impression. Since Sony—not to mention the gross majority of Western PS2 owners—would never go for a subtitled localization with the original Japanese language track intact, we're stuck with, well, shit.

Fortunately, the gameplay and unique setting still let Yakuza stand out, it's just a shame that, based on the first taste of English dubs, we'll be unnecessarily cringing at every other line.

Warning: NSFW language and kind of a bummer. Michael McWhertor

Yakuza Game Intro [GameTrailers]

Send an email to Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com.