Excitement has been building for Shin Megami Tensei 5. As Atlus continues marketing the game, the company finally revealed its English voice cast this week to much excitement. The subs versus dubs debate continues to rage on, but even the most diehard subtitle supporters can recognize when an English dub cast is solid. Luckily for Atlus, the general consensus seems to be that the Shin Megami Tensei 5 English cast looks good.
Following the news from last week's Nintendo Direct that announced Chris Pratt in the title role of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie, fans waiting to hear news on any castings have likely been cautiously optimistic. While no one would expect an actor like Pratt to be cast in SMT5, the game being miscast was still possible. However, it seems Atlus has taken a few steps back to keep its cast on the smaller side, ensuring the performances are what's emphasized, not the actors.
Shin Megami Tensei 5's English Voice Cast
Announced via the latest trailer for Shin Megami Tensei 5, the English voice cast consists of actors known for video game and anime roles, which seems like it might be to the benefit of the game. The official cast list is as follows:
- Casey Mongillo as Protagonist
- Jeannie Tirado as Tao Isonokami
- Mark Whitten as Yuzuru Atsuta
- Ashlyn Madden as Miyazu Atsuta
- Stuart Allan as Ichiro Dazai
- Sean Crisden as Hayao Koshimizu
- Cissy Jones as Abdiel
- Ben Lepley as Shohei Yakumo
- Laura Post as Nuwa
- Daman Mills as Aogami
Notable Work from SMT5's English Cast
The standouts in terms of notable gaming work are Cissy Jones, Mark Whitten, and Laura Post. Cissy Jones is the voice of Delilah in Firewatch; Joyce Price, Chloe's mom in Life is Strange; and Katjaa in The Walking Dead: Season One. Mark Whitten recently played Shiden Ritter in Scarlet Nexus, as well as giving voice to characters like Kaedehara in Genshin Impact, Seteth in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Kyojuro Rengoku in Demon Slayer. Laura Post is perhaps the best-known voice actor in the cast for fans of JRPGs, as she played Kasumi Yoshizawa in Persona 5 Royal. Additionally, Post has voiced characters in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Batman: The Telltale Series, Scarlet Nexus, Octopath Traveler, and World of Warcraft.
This isn't to say that the rest of the cast hasn't done good work, but most don't have as many notable gaming roles outside of a handful of appearances. Some might remember Casey Mongillo, the voice of Shin Megami 5's protagonist, from Bugsnax, where they played Floofty Fizzlebean; the disrespectful scientist. The Shin Megami Tensei series has a tradition of mostly silent protagonists, so it will be curious to see how much they speak in the upcoming title.
The Merits of Casting Smaller Actors
While the cast of Shin Megami Tensei 5 has done a lot of work, it's safe to say that most of them aren't mainstream voice actors one might expect from a larger Hollywood production. This comes as something of a relief to many fans of the franchise, who should be excited to hear a range of voices in the game instead of the many popular actors who are frequently cast in these types of roles. SMT5 could be beneficial to much of the cast, as the game is set up to be the biggest in the franchise following Persona 5's success.
Shin Megami Tensei 5 releases November 11 for Nintendo Switch.
