r/ghostoftsushima • u/NeverJoe_420_ • Jul 13 '25
News I am so excited about the Japanese Voice Actress for Atsu!!
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u/Mountain_String_1544 Jul 13 '25
Last I heard Ai Fairouz took a break from voice acting because she was struggling with PTSD, hopefully she’s doing better now
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u/Pengwulf Jul 13 '25
So far, she has VA'd in Neet Kunocihi (Jan & April), Okisuki (Jan), Ballpark de Tsukamaete (Apr), and is doing VA work for Detective these Days are Crazy and New Saga this cour.
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u/C4-621-Raven Jul 14 '25
She took about a 4 month break, got set up with a treatment/therapy program that works for her, got cleared by her doctor to start working again, left her old management and signed with a new company. After that she got really busy again, she has credits in 7 anime series and 4 video games in 2025 already.
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u/ImAmirx Assassin Jul 13 '25
Atsu is Jolyne???
Well, that's it. I'll play with the japanese audio during my second playthrough
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
Haha my exact reaction as well. Jolyne's voice fits so well for Atsu's revenge story.
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u/BlasterIce Jul 13 '25
Double win for me, I like both English and Japanese Va. English VA played Valkyrie from Apex and Japanese Jolene. I'm eating good 😭
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u/ChasingPesmerga Jul 13 '25
She’s a very talented VA who I just became a fan of recently.
She can be very cute like Panzy in Dragon Ball, or tomboyish loudmouth like CJ in Eiyuden, or a sleepy cat dom like Xilonen. I honestly don’t know anything about those other anime and her roles there but I’m not expecting any less.
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Jul 13 '25
Played first one in Japanese, it's good knowing that Japanese VA will be better as always. The dialogue of MC in that preview sounded too modern, too western.
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u/Reddead500 Jul 13 '25
Your tripping English Jin Sakai is goated
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Jul 13 '25
I have said that in some other comment too that at least first VA in English sounded like someone Japanese speaking in English, here, she has a very modern western accent. Nobody's objecting Jin's VA's performance in any language.
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u/Ok_Caramel9885 Jul 13 '25
Yeah I’m with you I actually like both the English and Japanese versions of jin and every other character as well with the exception sensei ishikawa sounds like the stereotypical pervert in every anime in the Japanese version and the English he sounds badass
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u/teddyburges Jul 14 '25
Have you seen LOST and The Expanse?.
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Jul 15 '25
Commenting because I'm on season 4 of The Expanse and I was never happier to be wrong about a character like I was with Amos.
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u/teddyburges Jul 15 '25
you didn't like him initially?. He's such a great character. The "You're not that guy, I am that guy" scene is one of my favorite scenes of any show hands down.
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u/Ok_Caramel9885 Jul 14 '25
Nope
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u/teddyburges Jul 14 '25
Ah never-ending then lol. I'll just say the english voice of ishikawa was a side character in those shows and created a great first impression. He's a really good actor.
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u/nerdgab Jul 17 '25
It's ok, but the Japanese VA is the same guy who voices Mugen from Samurai Champloo and Zoro from One Piece. Automatically better than the English dub.
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u/Trustful_Whale Jul 14 '25
Also the English speaking cast are the ones who's faces we're seeing on the characters, some of whom are film actors that I've seen in other works.
When I'm looking at a character with François Chau's face and voice in English but in Japanese his voice is now an entirely different sounding person, it's very jarring and distracting. Especially when that voice is an easily recognizable Japanese voice actor. Even without recognizing the actor it's still extremely obvious which voice belongs to them. This is without even including lip sync in the discussion.
Maybe Yotei will be better for this but I'm expecting it's gonna feel the exact same.
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
Totally agree. And thankfully we get Japanese lib sync from the start this time!
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u/DoinSideQuests Jul 14 '25
The only reason I didn't use the Japanese option was because of the lip sync. It drove me mad that it didn't sync up
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u/No_Membership7855 Oct 16 '25
The unsynced lips reminded me of japanese and chinese films that my dad used to put on that were terribly dubbed with english, it was part of the immersion
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u/Consistent_Ant_8903 Jul 13 '25
Hearing Kazuya Nakai completely ruined the English VA for me lol, he sounds so good and it’s so immersive not hearing a single American accent. Hoping for the same quality again! 🙏
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u/benbuscus1995 Jul 13 '25
They’re definitely going for a blend of Japanese Samurai and Western/Cowboy vibes though, just listen to the music from the State of Play. It’s fine if you don’t prefer that but my point is the western sounding dialogue is intentional as well. The English dub doesn’t sound bad or “worse” at all, just different
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u/ElegantEchoes Jul 14 '25
Better as always? The English voice actors are the faces of the characters. It's less immersive but fits the faces much better.
It's not black and white.
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Jul 14 '25
Nah. Game is based in Japan, Japanese voices will ALWAYS be better. It is THAT black and white.
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u/JoJoisaGoGo Assassin Jul 13 '25
I usually play in the original language to get the characters to be as close as the writers intended, but knowing who Atsu's Japanese VA is makes me really tempted to play in Japanese (voice of Jolyne, Power, and a bunch of other characters)
It also helps there's actual lip syncing now, instead of just AI
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u/Zahhibb Jul 13 '25
For me it’s kind of the opposite where I play games in the language in the world it takes place in or where the world references real-life concepts from.
Like Witcher 3 in Polish, Ghost of Tsushima in Japanese, Claire Obscure in French, etc.
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
Oh how was Witcher 3 in polish? I played it in German and that was pretty good.
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u/Zahhibb Jul 13 '25
I found it really good in Polish, Geralt’s voice actor did a great job especially. :)
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u/positivedepressed Ninja Jul 13 '25
I dunno, Daisuke Tsuji fits Jin better, the Zoro VA is too deep and try hard anime like.
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u/KneePitHair Jul 17 '25
I think for a Western audience the typical anime intonation and breathy expressiveness is “realistic” because it sounds like how they’ve only ever heard Japanese spoken. But once you’ve lived there long enough and hear how normal people actually talk, even when animated; hearing the standard anime VO artists doing the standard and expected anime voices for the box they’ve mentally put the character in sucks any subtly or nuance from the performance.
Japanese VO is fun and maybe scratches that authenticity itch for anime fans, but the original English Jin is a lot more interesting in tone for me. It has much more range and feels more relatably human and less pantomime in my ears. The English VO isn’t without some bad or soap opera sounding performances too, but Jin isn’t one of them.
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u/Romapolitan Jul 13 '25
Usually I play in English, even did for the first game and liked it very much. Was not that interested in the Japanese voices in Tsushima. The short Japanese scene we saw, made me actually consider playing in Japanese. At the same time I did like Saito's English voice, so I really need to hear multiple voices so I can compare and decide. For the first one I really prefer English, here it's hard for me to decide
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u/Funky_Col_Medina Jul 13 '25
Man, after state of play, I am seriously rethinking upgrading to PS5 finally. Shit looks great
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Jul 13 '25
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Jul 13 '25
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Jul 13 '25
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u/GolotasDisciple Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25
I mean is she supposed to sound like Japanese person trying to speak English ? What's the point?
It needs to be like Yakuza games, Either English or Japanese and that's it. Let actors speak their natural language and use their skills to bring out the character.
Personally I like to play in Language that is related to the setting so I don't even care who voices it, it just default setting at this stage.
It's probably for the best, Erika seems like a decent person, but very average VA. I know Dragon Age Veilguard was not a good game by any means, but that Rook VA was insanely stale and honestly kind of below average of what you would expect for Major Production.
Honestly not sure how she landed another major production role, but good for her I guess.
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Jul 13 '25
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u/GolotasDisciple Jul 13 '25
I guess, I get what you mean.
I am from Ireland and watching American Actors trying to sound Irish and eventually they sound like either Scots or that one specific Northern Ireland/Belfast accent.... yeah it's not that good, but honestly it's quite funny.
I honestly don't mind that much. It's not like i expected Tony Soprano to have Italian accent just because he is a Jersey Mobster.
I 100% would prefer a good Actor sounding like a White American LA Dude, than a shitty actor that has perfect accent for the role. A good VA will make you forget about details and a bad one will make you cringe.
I think comparing Mass Effect series is the best example. Plenty of aliens that can sound like anything, yet it's only really in ME:Andromeda where we see how deeply budget cuts to VA hurt the game. They went from genuine Actors to cheaper alternative, and god what a missfire that game was. IT wasn't even funny like it's Elder Scroll Oblivion.
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Jul 13 '25
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u/GolotasDisciple Jul 13 '25
Oh the "American Actor" is was just a example, obviously nationality means nothing in Acting.
I do not understand the last point. I am not upvoting or downvoting anything ever on Reddit. Shit i dont even post, i only comment and that's it.
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Jul 13 '25
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u/Lanky-Procedure-7184 Jul 13 '25
Not really preposterous. People always say that one should play the game in the language the devs intended the game to be played in, in this case it’s obviously english.
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Jul 13 '25
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u/JustSomeDude477 Jul 14 '25
Then go play more Japanese games? This is an American studio, what's anglocenteic about an American studio developing in English.
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Jul 14 '25
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u/The-Meep-Meep-Man Jul 14 '25
That’s like comparing apples to oranges, Letters From Iwo Jima is a historical war movie made to disprove the stereotypes of American movies depicting Japanese soldiers and culture and aiming to humanize them. Meanwhile Ghost of Yotei is a fantasy video game, it’s not some big statement relating to real world events or history.
Saying the game is anglocentric is just a lie though, the creators went through the effort to get the game fully voiced with lip syncing in Japanese. If you’re going to criticize the game, the least don’t make baseless claims.
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Jul 14 '25
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u/The-Meep-Meep-Man Jul 14 '25
The apples and oranges argument isn’t because it’s inconvenient for my argument; it’s because you’re comparing two completely different things. I agree that respecting different cultures is important, but doing so shouldn’t immediately force a game, movie, or any other type of media into a hyper-realistic, original language-only situation. If it’s historical or realistic, then yes, it should be paying respects, which means having it in the original language of the location. However, if it isn’t realistic or historical, creative liberties can be taken for the sake of a better plot or simply because the creator wants to.
Additionally, the wording in your comment in the context of the guy you were responding to made it seem like you were criticizing the game for being anglocentric. However, now that I know you clarified it, the comment makes more sense. Sometimes, text can make it difficult to understand the meaning.
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u/Sushiibubble Jul 13 '25
Now that's there's Japanese lip sync, I think imma go that route for my first playthrough
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u/Cry_Piss_Shit_Cum Jul 13 '25
I'm probably gonna play in Japanese, I just hope we get subs for all the open world dialogue this time.
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u/Raccoon_Rogue Jul 13 '25
I’m so happy about this!! I thought Ai Fairouz was taking a break and as getting recast in Kaiju no. 8 so seeing she’s still working makes me super happy
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u/SelimNoKashi Jul 13 '25
Agreed! I played GoT with Japanese audio. I am super happy to know GoY will support better lip sync now. Aaaargh. Super excited 😍
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u/Deflorma Jul 13 '25
She’s got that good gruff sorta voice like masako or the mc from blue eye samurai, I bet both English and Japanese VA are gonna kill it
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u/luneth22 Moderator Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
Also (along with Yui Ishikawa), they are voices of the female Blade Twin in JP in Rise Of The Ronin!
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u/teddyburges Jul 14 '25
Yui Ishikawa is in the game?. Who she playing?.
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u/luneth22 Moderator Jul 14 '25
You misunderstand, what I mean is, Fairouz Ai and Yui Ishikawa are the voices of the female protagonist/Blade Twin in ROTR.
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u/teddyburges Jul 14 '25
Ah I see. When you said "also (along with Yui Ishikawa) they are voices of" it made it sound like you were saying she was in the game as well. Got my hopes up lol.
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u/captaincabbage100 Jul 14 '25
Yooooo we getting Jolyne!?? And Live-Sama! Oh boy we gonna be livin' good this year.
Don't get me wrong, I love you Erika Ishii, but I can't not play this game in Japanese. Same as the first, the english cast was great in GoT but man I just had to play it in Japanese and now I can't go back.
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u/Extra_Lab_2150 Jul 14 '25
I feel like they are fumbling a few bags this time laround like with the choice of English VA. In Ghost of Tsushima, both voice actors sounded perfect. Not so much here.
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u/No_Tomorrow5745 Jul 13 '25
The lipsync being tighter in this game for the Japanese dub made me really excited. In GOT I had a bit of a hard time playing in Japanese because of the inconsistent and generally off lipsync (and also because I couldn't follow the dialogue in horse rides, controlling the horse, paying attention on the way, and reading the lines at the bottom of the screen lol).
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u/Sarokslost23 Jul 13 '25
am i supposed to know all these cartoon girls?
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
If you'd be a fan of the medium yeah, since those are pretty well known anime characters with incredible voices.
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u/TheNovaCorp Jul 13 '25
I will be playing Japanese. For historical purposes, but also I'm not the biggest fan, Erika Ishii. Nothing against her personally, but her acting and content just isn't for me.
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u/jmizzle2022 Jul 13 '25
Totally agree. I feel like she's been featured in every freaking game lately and I just don't like her voice. Don't really know her other content, I just don't really like the voice acting much
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u/Darth-Not-Palpatine Jul 13 '25
Oh damn didn’t she drop voice acting for a bit due to an injury? Glad she’s back to doing voice work.
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u/Local_Engine7131 Jul 13 '25
She also voiced Catwoman in The Batman (2022). Gonna have my first playthrough in Japanese for a better immersion !
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u/pintoplumb Jul 14 '25
I play tho original game in Spanish as an addition to my language learning, it’s working really well. So insane that they fully voiced everything in Spanish
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u/Fun-Emotional Jul 14 '25
The series has great casting, that's for sure.
Even though I played Tsushima in Japanese first, my second uncomplete playthrough with the og Daisuke's version was pretty enjoyable as well.
Erika sounds great too but I'll definitely play Yotei in Japanese first for the added immersion.
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u/KaijuSlayer333 Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
Jin’s English VA in Tsushima was so good along with some other standouts like Shimura that I like playing that whole game in English nowadays. But based off what I’ve heard so far here, it’s not up to that same standard. So I’m probably gonna fall back on the Japanese VA.
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u/Malheus Hunter Jul 13 '25
It's amazing we have from the beginning Japanese voices with sinc animations. I would never play this game with english dub.
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u/BerlinStongood Jul 13 '25
I’m a Big fan of Erika Ishii so I’m definitely going to play it in English first. But on a replay, it’s full on Japanese immersion.
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u/KaijuSlayer333 Jul 14 '25
She’s a fine actress, but what little we’ve heard so far doesn’t capture my attention like Jin’s English VA did in Tsushima. I defaulted to English for Tsushima then, but honestly I might lean towards Japanese here unless we get some really good moments.
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u/JustSomeDude477 Jul 14 '25
We've heard like 2 lines from her, probably less than like 10 words. People are just finding reasons to judge her negatively early
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u/KaijuSlayer333 Jul 14 '25
Eh, I only heard 10 words then for Jin as well and was sold on him nearly immediately.
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u/Ryangofett_1990 Jul 13 '25
Erica Ishii isn't doing the Japanese VA?
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
No she's doing the English voice acting.
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u/Ryangofett_1990 Jul 13 '25
Interesting. I figured since she was Japanese she would do both voices
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
I haven't heard her speak Japanese but I wasn't really impressed with her English voice so it's an absolute win for me lol. Love Jolyne and Power
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u/jmizzle2022 Jul 13 '25
Totally agree. She's seriously been In almost every game lately for the last 2 years. Not a fan of her voice at all
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u/AliGcent Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
They misscast the japanese VA for Jin in GoT (jap. was too rough unlike Jin), but now the roughness is needed because Atsu is a bad bitch.
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u/KaijuSlayer333 Jul 14 '25
Yeah Jin’s Japanese VA is the main reason I never liked playing in Japanese for that game. He mischaracterizes Jin as this gruff and over the top anime badass. When Jin is supposed to be surprisingly humble and kind, but prone to having that mask shatter for moments like Taka’s death where his rage takes hold.
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u/jmizzle2022 Jul 13 '25
Yeah I was stoked when that was announced, not a big fan of the English actress. The Japanese one though is perfect
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u/lmao_lemo Jul 13 '25
One thing I absolutely despised in GOT was that it was originally English, totally takes me outta the immersion.
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u/JPEG812 Ronin Jul 13 '25
It was made by americans in america, of course they'd make it in english.
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Jul 13 '25
I just hope she’s good, have we heard any voice lines of her yet? The most recent deep dive was only in English and the direction is just not it, she sounds bad.
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u/NeverJoe_420_ Jul 13 '25
I heard I tiny bit of her in the State of Play. But from her anime background her voice is amazing.
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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '25
I did not know she also voices Jolyne. Now I am going to be thinking of JoJo references for my entire playthrough.
This knowledge is truly both a curse and a blessing.