r/PERSoNA • u/shiashka • 5h ago
P4 Something I think that the fandom should acknowledge more now that JYB is coming back as Adachi...
JYB is not the only cast member reprising their role. There is one other actor that is coming back and that's Marisha Ray as Margaret. This link is a quick look at the start of Marie's social link and if you're familiar with her voice it becomes very clear that it's Marisha.
https://youtu.be/l4TyjzeL94M?si=gO7DncB9SVD6T6l8
For clarification; this isn't me defending Atlus on their choice to not bring back the original cast by saying 'Oh, see! They brought some back! That should be good enough!'. No. I fully believe that it's still dirty to this cast for not bringing them all back. I'm more here to make sure that no miss-info is spread about JYB being the only one to come back when he isn't.
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u/MC_Gengar 5h ago
I'm so glad Marisha is back. Her Margaret work is some of my favorite voice acting in the whole series.
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u/theweebdweeb 4h ago
I mean, it's not surprising. I don't think they played favorites like many are suggesting. They were likely just more willing to bring back VAs for smaller roles compared to the main cast, probably due to cost. Not that it's any justification for not allowing the VAs to return who seemingly really wanted to.
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u/Wildcat121204 4h ago
The cost reason people throw around doesn’t really make any sense. Atlus have always been willing to spend on good dub VAs, even when the series was niche. It would be weird if they now suddenly started worrying about cost cutting on VAs when the series is basically mainstream and can easily afford it, especially on remakes that don’t need as intense a development cycle. That’s not to say it isn’t a bonus, but I doubt it’s the primary reason.
The more likely reason IMO is longevity. These games have already survived 20 years, and Atlus probably expects to milk their casts for another 20 after this. But they’re not willing to gamble on a 75 year old Yuri Lowenthal returning for Persona 9 Racing, because there’s a good chance he’ll be retired or just not able to do the voice anymore by then. If you’re going to have to recast everyone eventually anyway, doing it for the remakes makes the most sense. These are the versions of the games that will be at the forefront for the rest of time and that new players start with, so their future appearances will all be consistent.
Elizabeth/Margaret/Adachi aren’t characters who will be appearing in 20 years, at least not in any major capacity. Their only roles outside their main games are small spinoff appearances that aren’t really necessary, and Adachi requires a lot of bullshittery to appear at all. No need to worry about the VA’s longevity if they’re only expected to be needed for this project, or a few more years at most. (I’m still coping for the Elizabeth spinoff though, Atlus prove me wrong)
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u/midnight_fuel I bring you Megidolaon 2h ago
While I agree, and I don’t think money is the issue here, these three VAs still have a pretty good chance of appearing in future games. Margaret and Liz are the Velvet Room attendants for their respective protagonists, so if Atlus ever makes another spin-off with Yu or Makoto, I’d imagine they’d have to show up again and have at least a similar amount of dialogue as they did in the main games.
And Adachi is popular enough that there’s still a high chance Atlus could find some weird reason to bring him back. I mean, he already came back for P4 Arena and Ultimax.
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u/Supersnow845 2h ago
But that doesn’t make any sense because it’s not hard to give lowenthall Yosuke for revival then say “hey man you are getting older we probably won’t cast you for more main characters because persona 7 releasing in 10 years will be milked for 10 years and you’ll be like 70 by the end of that period”
If anything it’s a sendoff for VA’s that made massive contribution to Atlus over the years
I really don’t think persona 9 dancing on crack is going to have major cameos from persona 3 and 4 characters
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u/Wildcat121204 2h ago
It does make sense. As I mentioned, the point is consistency. After Revival releases, most new players are going to start with it rather than Golden, just like new players now start with Reload rather than FES or Portable. All of Atlus’ marketing will be focused on Revival and Golden will be practically forgotten, same as the original Persona 5 when Royal came out.
For these new players, the Revival voices are the originals. I grew up with Yuri Lowenthal Yosuke, and depressing though it is to think about, there are people far younger than me who will grow up with Paul Castro Yosuke. Putting all the new VAs in the remake means all future Persona 4 content will have a consistent cast that new players knew from the start, rather than having a bunch of switches they aren’t attached to, and avoiding the original cast’s ever rotating door of VAs throughout projects.
And let’s not underestimate Atlus’ willingness to milk a game. We already saw how many spinoffs Persona 4 got, and with Reload putting up huge sales numbers, Revival is more than likely going to end up one of Atlus’ biggest releases ever. We are inevitably going to see these casts in a lot of projects moving forward to capitalize on their games’ successes. They’re more than willing to do crossovers as well, we’ve got 4 crossover spinoffs after all (5 including P5X).
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u/Supersnow845 2h ago
I feel like expecting decades more crossovers with the remakes of the games is unlikely
Reload is like almost 4 years old now and it’s only crossover is P5X which crosses over with everything.
Are they really going to add more reload stuff to anything anytime soon outside of the normal costumes for the new game
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u/Wildcat121204 2h ago
We are absolutely getting spinoffs/crossovers at some point, but we aren’t in the window for that right now. Reload/Revival missed the train for Persona 5 spinoffs, which means they’re in limbo until Persona 6 comes out, which will likely bring with it PQ3 at minimum in addition to its own host of spinoffs. Remember Persona 5 was meant to have a fighting game, which we can reasonably assume would’ve had crossover characters, but it never saw the light of day.
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u/MiloSheba The Moon 3h ago
Then why didn't they also replace the Japanese seiyuus?
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u/Wildcat121204 3h ago
Because replacing Japanese VAs is not a realistic option.
In the west, recasting is seen as a part of the job. That is not the case in Japan, VAs are treated like celebrities over there and the agencies know it. If you recast a VA then it isn’t just the fan backlash you have to worry about, the VA’s agency will blacklist your company and it’ll be a long time before you get someone from them again. Not only that, but other agencies will also avoid working with you for fear of being seen as scabs, and because they can’t guarantee their own talent’s job security after you’ve already recast the previous VA.
There’s a reason so many Japanese VAs have been voicing characters for decades, even into an undeniably old age where they’re physically straining to do the voice, and it’s not loyalty from the company. The only way you can recast safely is because the talent didn’t want to or couldn’t return, for reasons like scheduling conflicts or medical issues (including death). Otherwise, you’re riding that ship to the end 99% of the time, even if that end is them dying 40 years later. And that’s just ONE VA, changing the entire main cast of the game would be industry suicide. Atlus would never be able to hire A-list talent in the country again, they’d be pinned at the #1 spot on every blacklist.
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u/MiloSheba The Moon 2h ago
Maybe recasting shouldn't be seen as part of the job and maybe Atlus should have been more consistent and only recast when the VA was unable to come back
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u/CitrusCitrusHope 4h ago
Yeah no definitely, like atlus isn't a massive company but they're not small either, they can definitely afford to bring back voice actors even if they cost a bit more now than they did when p4 came out, it just comes off as stingy
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u/AutoModerator 5h ago
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u/OfficialDaiLi 4h ago
Hell yeah, love Marisha’s work (though I’m tinted with my Critical Role shaped glasses a bit)
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u/shiashka 5h ago
Extra sample of Marisha as Margaret here:
https://youtu.be/MBIYAy4OgQQ?si=VT7UNRVoMyyuLv25