I'm going Japanese audio. I don't think the English sounds awful, but there's always something off about English dubbing of Japanese media to me. The way people speak and the sentences they use.. It just doesn't sound like how English speakers speak in real life, or like English dubbing of local media like Pixar films or Avatar The Last Airbender, or like how people speak in movies. It's its own weird thing, and I'm not a big fan. It sounds unnatural to me.

But besides that, when they make spinoffs in five years, I don't want to be disappointed again because half the voice actors were busy/have left the industry and were replaced by others. New Chie and New Teddie are never not gonna weird me out.

Dude, I actually don't know - definetely leaning to JAP, but as I am not a native speaker (English one) I hope I'll be able to keep up with just the subtitles. I have no problem with ENG movies with ENG subtiteles, but for example in Final Fantasy XV I was getting lost in the story but then when I switched to ENG it didn't make any more sense at all, because that game was a total garbage as far as script and story-teling goes. Then again my only exposure to Persona was the Endurance Run, which I watched three times over the years, so that pushes me to going with ENG audio. I have no idea how to decide!

A question for people who have a copy already: are even the battle shouts translated in subtitles? If I would miss an equivalent of "Aha, is this our chance?", I would just go with the ENG audio I guess.

English, cause too lazy to follow subtitles.

Japanese because Maximum Anime.

English, that game has WAY too much text to read exclusively from. And judging from the Quick Look, the dubbing seems pretty good. With the exception of that lady teacher. She sounds like she's reading from a script.

Going Japanese first because it's an option I've wanted in Persona for years and there's an all-star cast of voice actors on that side. I am absolutely going to play this game more than a couple of times though, so I'll put it on English my second time through. There's quite a few English VAs that I like that are working on this as well, like Matt Mercer who's one of my favorites in anything, and Cassandra Morris who I enjoyed hearing as Fie in Trails of Cold Steel. Dunno how much the protagonist will actually speak, but I really liked his voice actor as Dagda in SMTIV:A.

Going with English, at least for my first playthrough. I don't mind reading subtitles, but it's easier for me to invest in the characters when I can hear what they're saying rather than just reading it. It's never been perfect, but I do get attached to (most of) the voices. Obviously, the anime scenes are a bit clunkier since they have to match the voices to the animation, but ehhh, I can deal.

English. Those localizers work hard, and I trust those talented people to bring me a quality experience... also I already played a good chunk of the game in Japanese...

P.S. I know that the English version will have a Japanese voice option, but will the reverse happen. I know it's a longshot, but if I could download the English V.O. that would be awesome.

I've beaten the game, the english VO is way better than P4 if that's your only point of reference.

Although one support I had to stop because I couldn't stop laughing because it's literally Rita Repulsa doing the voice.

Well I am assuming on Wednesday there will be a day one patch as the physical copy I've been playing since Saturday doesn't have the option.

TBH if Igor sounds more like I expect him to in the Japanese Audio I will straight away switch to Japanese Audio and English subs as I find all the English velvet room voice work extremely jarring.

I am playing in English. I hate most anime voice acting but this is fine, like Persona 3 & 4 were. I might switch to Japanese on new game plus but I like the english voices.

Judging by the quick look the English ain't too bad!

The Japanese cast is stellar (Ikue Otani as Morgana is maybe the most tempting reason to play with the Japanese dub first), but my first playthrough will be with the English dub. I definitely plan on experiencing the story through both dubs, though.

I can't decide. I actually wish they hadn't included Japanese voice over so I wouldn't have to make such a hard choice.

I'm usually going to prefer the language I can understand over the one I don't. That tends to overshadow the occasional stilted delivery or awkward line read in your average anime/video game dub for me, though there have been more than a few times where the English VA was bad enough that I just switched over to Japanese (or wished I could switch over to Japanese)

In Persona 5's case specifically, Atlus has a pretty good track record for localization and what I heard of the voice acting in the quick look sounded just fine, so English it is.

First playthrough, Japanese. Second, English.

I understand going for the Japanese on things like animes with bad dubs, but why do it for a game like Persona that's known for good localization?

English easily. I don't always stay put during cutscenes. I get water, check emails, etc. so with English I can pay attention to what's happening. With Japanese I would have to wait until there is a pause to do that

Playing with the English VO first time through and honestly I'm loving it so far, although every time I hear them pronounce ryuji or Ann's last name wrong I get kinda annoyed

Like many others, I'm going to go English first, but I'm very excited to do a Japanese run afterwards.

@lutonhatter: yeah it's free DLC for launch day

Japanese audio DLC is actually up already, at least in North America. Seems like they put it up today.

Atlus and Persona in particular have a track record of good to great dubs, so English.

English because the VA in P3 and P4 was real good and those characters are their English voice actors, to me. Gonna assume the same level of quality has been put forth with Persona 5

Also this.

English. I wouldn't have a huge problem with the game if it were only in Japanese, but I spent a lot of my time with Tokyo Morage Sessions wishing for English VO.

I've seen the beginning in English so I'm gonna play in Japanese first and if I like it more, then I'm gonna stick with it.

I didnt find the japanese voice track download until after I started. Those characters are English to me now. maybe I'll go japanese for new game +.

Japanese for me. Ordinarily I'd do the opposite (even if the dub isn't perfect), but having played dozens of hours of the game in Japanese already, changing the voices is a little jarring.

Anyone got the Japanese audio working with a physical copy? When I try to install it days it didn't found the game

I'm with you haha. Started in english, played for maybe 5-8 hours, then the japanese dlc became available (Had the game a couple of days early). Switched to japanese for 2 hours, then english, then japanese again aaaaand now I just dont know lol. Haven't played the game since.

I got that when I downloaded the VO DLC before inserting the game. Because I'd never put the disc in then there was no cache/install for it to install the DLC into.

I fixed it by inserting the game and then doing the continue/install for the DLC from the notification area. It worked after that.

If you've installed the game from disc already (seemed to take a few seconds, I assume it continues to install as you play it for the files it wants to cache to the HDD) and it still gives you that message then maybe try deleting the install (with the game disc out) and then reinserting the disc so it recreates the folders and you can try installing the DLC once more.

I really like the English dub and also there are things like News reports, DVDs, movies etc. that have no subtitles so unless you speak Japanese you won't understand them.

@shivoa: What a weird thing. I downloaded it after playing the game for 2 days. Also tried installing from the notifications area, both with the game running and closed. I'll try turning the PS4 off and on again see if it helps, before trying to uninstall the whole thing.

Decided I would try the English first and if it was bad jump to jap but honestly the English is so very good that I kept it, while going jap on my second, but really if I ever play through a third time or if there's a golden-esk re-release I'll probably always use English since it's just that good.

It really has nothing to do with the dub being good or not for me. It's a Japanese game that takes place in Japan focusing on Japanese culture and civilians. The Japanese vo just helps to complete the whole experience nicely.