Lost Judgment has looked exactly as good you’d expect in all that we’ve seen so far, but even so, some fans have noticed that the quality of the game’s lip syncing with English audio doesn’t seem to be on the same level as the likes of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, or the first Judgment game. Recently, Lost Judgment’s localization director Scott Strichart of Sega acknowledged those issues in a thread on Twitter, and explained why that is the case.
Essentially, Strichart says that given the fact that Japanese voice recordings for Lost Judgment wrapped up just four months before the game’s launch (as opposed to the nine month gap for Yakuza: Like a Dragon), the localization team simply did not have as much time to perform and record English words into Japanese lip movements, and that Sega did not want to delay the game’s western launch for that purpose.
After talking about the complex process of localization, Strichart said that this is only going to improve in the future.
“I’m sorry if the LJ dub feels like a slight step backward to go forward,” he wrote. “It’s a miracle it exists, given that we did it all during a pandemic, and I stand 100% behind the writing, the performances, and the studio’s efforts to make it sound amazing.”
Strichart added that even if players choose to play the game in Japanese, “it won’t hurt the dub’s future.” He added: “It helps us land opportunities, it helps us grow the brand, and it’s only going to get better with time. Thanks for playing, in ANY language.”
Given that Sega intends to ensure simultaneous global releases for more of its games going forward, it’s safe to assume that they’re working hard to bring their localization pipelines in line with those goals.
Lost Judgment is out on September 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One.
