I 've been meaning to pick up P3: FES and P4 for some time. Yesterday, I was going to order both but realized that the game is only in English (duh). As in, I can't have the Japanese audio with English subs. Obviously there isn't enough room on a PS2 disc and the fact that it's meant for NA makes this no surprise. With that said, I enjoy anime and really dislike English (or any other language that isn't the original) dubs for the most part. More often than not I find them to be extremely cringeworthy. Anywho, are the English dubs passable, or do they detract from the overall experience? I'm interested in hearing from both people who don't watch anime and those that prefer Japanese Voice/English Subs. Appreciate it.

I can't speak about Persona 3: FES, but for Persona 4 just watch the first couple of Endurance Run videos. The quality is basically at that same level throughout the entire game. Unless you're scared of spoilers or something. Spoilers for the first 20 minutes of the game. lol. I think that'd be dumb, but to each his own. Besides that, I can't speak to the quality of the dub. It sounds good to me.

If you REALLY dislike English dubs, you may have a problem with anything dubbed in general... I know people like that. 
I watch a lot of anime too, and usually prefer the Japanese dubs. That being said the voice acting in Persona 4 is totally fitting and well done... except maybe Naoto. I never felt like that voice was well done for the character but whatever. 
There's more bad voice acting in Persona 3... but they tend to be pretty minor characters so it wasn't a problem for me.

You will love Kanji's VA.I will bet money on it.

Having watched the ER: very passable imo. Sure the lines can be a little strange at times, but I found that that just added to the likability. But yeah, definitely check out the first episode of the ER if you're really concerned. 
 
(I don't watch anime, though I'm not sure why that matters. :P)

I actually think a good lot of the Persona 4 dub is phenomenal. Kanji is amazing, and the rest have their moments, but it hits home a lot.

Better than most japanese language voice actors, lemme tell you. 

after hearing the japanese voice actor for Rise, I don't think I could ever play that game with japanese voices.

Check out any one of the 156 endurance run videos on Giant Bomb that demonstrate the English voice acting for PE 4.
 
Kanji is quite good.

Thanks for the quick responses. Watching the ER videos or Youtube came to mind, but I was just wondering how consistent it was throughout the game. Now I know. Even if  the dubs aren't quite to my personal liking, these game seem too good to pass up.  I'll be ordering them both tomorrow.

I thought the dub on Persona 4 was excellent, every voice fit and all the line reads hit the right emotions for the situations.

One of the best voice acting I have heard in a JRPG.

The English VA beats the shit out of the original VA.
 
If your going with an undub:
 
Have fun bleeding out of your ears listening to Rise and Teddie's Japanese VA.
 
@Laketown said:

" after hearing the japanese voice actor for Rise, I don't think I could ever play that game with japanese voices. "

"One of the best voice acting I have heard in a JRPG. "

I've heard both the Japanese and English for Persona 3 and 4, and I personally think the English cast, with the exception of a small number of characters (Fuuka & Ken come immediately to mind), is exceptionally better.

The English voice acting really drives home how awful most VA still is in videogames.  It's excellent in P4, and adds a lot to the characters. 

I think it's one of the best dubs I've heard. It's pretty much all really good. 
 
Except for AHA! IS THIS OUR CHANCE?!? Which is beyond good.

The VA in both games is better than most English-only video game acting I have encountered. I would say I prefer P3 a little over P4 in this regard, there seemed to be fewer lines that just fell flat, and all the main characters (except yeah, Fuuka) sounded really natural. Mitsuru, Junpei, Yukari, etc. all excellent.

I only played Persona 4 for about 10 hours, I thought the VA was solid.
 
Persona 3 has some great voice acting too. There's one character in particular who gets kind of annoying at times though. But it's really good for the most part.

Why don't you listen for yourself?
  

Just for the record, most people agree that Persona 4's English dub is an improvement over the Japanese dub, if only because of how much Rise and Teddie suck in Japanese.

When it comes to making English dubs, Atlus are fucking gods. You never get the feeling that things are lost in translation, and if a joke or something just doesn't work in English then they drop it and do something else. One of the main reasons that a lot of translations come off as weird and stilted is because companies try to make the dub identical to the original Japanese script. Atlus and their very talented staff of writers know this. The characters are all charming and likable and in a lot of ways feel like real teenagers.

The voice acting in P3 FES is fine, I think and I watch a lot of subbed anime so I am used to (even prefer) Japanese voice actors when given the choice.  I had no problems with any of the characters in P3 FES though and quite liked some.  Junpei and Mitsuru are well performed by their English speaking actors, and Yukari is okay too.  The kid might be a tad annoying but kids are in other games, too and you don't need to hang with him if you don't want to.  Aigis has a nice sound to her I think.  The only one I'd have been really interested hearing in Japanese would have been "Death". 
 
There are videos on YouTube if you are really curious.