Persona 5 English and Japanese Voice Acting Comparison

For the first time in the series Persona 5 lets you pick if you want to play the game in English or Japanese. This comparison video gives you a sample of some dialogue to help you decide which to play with.

[edwnx]

i always appreciate it when games give us the option.

[Thenewkrookkud]

Without a doubt, Ryuji had the best voice actor in this game!

[JJsAdventure]

I like ryujis English voice, I like how he gives out emotion when he yells out

[quito]

I usually prefer the Japanese dialogue, but for this game I think both English and Japanese voice overs are both good overall. Just comes down to player preference.

[jahlilmilis]

Besides the pronouncing of names I am good with the English VA.

[alepmok]

I might get hate for this, Persona series have one of the best English dub other than jrpg i had played.

[HellGatyr]

english : JACK FROST !
japanases : JECKTO FEROSTOOO

[SpankSandwitch]

my only real issues with the English dub are the pronunciations of names being off, and that some of the females sound older than the actual character should

[henryaung]

I've been a weeb too long now. I don't do that "sub is always better" crap. It's better to actually give both variants a chance, and though most Dubs prove to be sub par, god dammit ATLUS. Have experienced both, they're both very good.

Some thoughts, Ryuji sounds tons better in English. Pronunciations sometimes in Dub are off. Yusuke is fabulous from Matt Mercer. Both variants give it their all when it comes to those special moments. Honestly, though you'll notice some voices sound completely different to their counterpart in Sub or Dub, they end up suiting their character when they switch language.

So either way, try both, expect quality, and "Go the fuck to sleep" - Morgana 2017.

[Zichfried]

I already played the game twice, once with each dub, I know what I am talking about. Both are nice, and that is surprising since most of english dubs on japanese products are often.... "not that good", but this game is not the case. Anyway, since this game is still japanese, personalities and voices were planned to be perfect with japanese actors, they have been acting characters like this for a long time. The perfect examples for this are Futaba, Yusuke and Haru; the english voices are nice, but the real feeling of the characters are in the japanese voices, Futaba as a "weird girl", Yusuke as an "stylish-elegant guy" with a deep voice, and Haru as a "shy-kind girl", and those personality traits are almost ignored by the english dub. Futaba sounds more like an energic girl, Yusuke sounds like a casual smooth guy, and Haru sounds more like a random friendly girl. I think this is because english actors are not completely used to this so-japanese kind of characters. That kind of details listed before just give me personal reasons to prefer the japanese original version. Also, I allways prefer to go in context; the game happens in Japan, then I want to hear the japanese audio.

As other guy commented, there is no need for complaining, just play with your favorite dub, but we have to say it, the japanese one captures the original feeling in a better way because of this game is actually japanese, and for that, even if the Futaba's, Yusuke's and Haru's actors made a nice acting work, they cannot match the characters' original idea that accurately. The rest of the english cast is OK, specially Ryuji, Mona and Sojiro, they were awesome.

[satuki]

I'm Japanese and I didn't really mind on the English VA pronunciation. I think they did good job localizing. :)

[robsgamingchannel]

I think both VAs sound great, I dont think Atlus has ever screwed Persona's English VA.

[nawab]

The english dubbing in this game is actually pretty good and thats coming from someone who usually prefers the Japanese dub.

[Ilvuldrdruid]

Maybe I'm too used with the English VAs.. I really like the english dub more than japanese dub. especially Ryuji's english voice. Fits him really well ^^

[DoggyDisk]

I normally only rock with Japanese VAs but Persona usually has pretty good English VAs too.

[chapachuu]

Just like with FF15, it's a tough call. The Japanese cast are top Japanese voice actors and I love Jun Fukuyama as the MC. However, I think they did a great job with the English dub and Robbie as Goro is awesome :D I usually prefer Japanese voices, because a lot of the time they ARE better quality (and the people hating on weeaboos argue otherwise probably because all Japanese sounds the same to them), but I've noticed that for high tier games the quality of English VA has improved over the last few years.
I'll be playing in English this time around, but I might do a play through with the Japanese voices at some point.
PS Name pronunciation can be a little cringy at times, but Atlus USA has done a decent job so far (not perfect, but not super cringy either). And Japanese mangle English too, so it evens out :P

[acidpop]

One of the rare moments I prefer English VA. Ryuuji for example sounds better in English IMO.

[matthewevans]

I said it on your twitter and I'll say it again:

You shouldn't be comparing the cast, English VAs always say they don't try to sound like their Japanese VA counterpart or imitate them, that's not acting

[BJZRE]

Personally, I think people should just shut up and play with the audio they personally prefer. There's really no need for all this useless drama. People who prefer the japanese voices immediately get labelled as weaboos and something similar vice versa so it never ends. I also hear a lot of people who dislike the japanese VA's using the argument that all females sound like squirrels/mice or too over the top. While it may sound like that to some people, realize that some people also hear the english voiceovers to be something similar, sometimes sounding way too old for how they look or sometimes trying to imitate the high pitched voices of japanese voice actors only to sound even more unnatural. Over the top is subjective as well. Personally, i feel like some of the english voice actors are a bit lackluster delivery wise and sound pretty monotone (not all) so it really comes down to preference. I would rather take something over the top than something that lacks emotions. The japanese voices are what i chose since i just feel like they fit like a glove especially since their voice actors were chosen with the characters in mind, making it the original. Watching an english cartoon or movie with a japanese dub on the other hand makes the english dub better for me since they are what makes the character for me so hearing them in another language just doesn't seem right.

[PaT]

I prefer Japanese VAs because:
MC (Jun Fukuyama; Code Geass Lelouch, Assasination Classroom Koro Sensei, Kuroshitsuji Grell, Ao no Exorcist Yukio, Noragami Kazuma, Seven Deadly Sins King)
Ann (Nana Mizuki; Naruto Hinata, Tales of Symphonia Colette, Seven Deadly Sins Margaret, Symphogear Tsubasa)
Ryuji (Mamoru Miyano; Death Note Light, Gundam 00 Setsuna F. Seiei, Bungou Stray Dogs Dazai, Seven Deadly Sins Gilthunder)
Morgana (Ikue Ohtani; One Piece Chopper, Pokemon Pikachu)
Yusuke (Tomokazu Sugita; Gintama Gintoki, Blazblue Ragna)
Makoto (Rina Satou; One Piece Baby 5, Ao no Exorcist Shura)
Futaba (Aoi Yuuki; One Punch Man Tatsumaki, Youjo Senki Tanya, Seven Deadly Sins Diane, Symphogear Hibiki)
Haru (Haruka Tomatsu; Sword Art Online Asuna, Magi Morgiana, Re:Life Rena, Gintoki female ver.)
Goro (Soichiro Hoshi; Gundam Seed Kira Yamato)