It’s neat that this 5D’s Duel Chronicle event included this Nazca arc on a map, given how the dub left the corresponding episodes undubbed; lets us see how it would’ve probably been dubbed, and while most of the event text here is pretty accurate iirc (save for Jack’s “[Bommer]’s a fortuneteller, is he?” 4K/KCMism line early on), a few observations here:
It’ll be interesting when we get the next 5D’s Chronicle event that includes the Ark Cradle/Divine Temple events, since they still included Aporia saying “ThE tEmPlE iS gOnE aNd ThE cItY aNd ItS pEoPlE aRe SaFe” lol. I figure Duel Links was eventually going to have to give us stuff from what the dub didn’t get to; since we already have Judai/Yubel, it was at least a given we’d get GX S4 stuff too. But at least only GX and 5D’s have this unfinished-dub problem, to KCM’s credit.

Wow, can’t believe Konami did THE MANLY GONGENZAKA this dirty with his starter deck, jeez
I get they’ve been locking aces away in boxes since 5D’s World, but at least give the man one Superheavy lol
UTSUKUSHII
KENN really doesn’t sound like he’s missed a beat as Supreme King Judai which is awesome (I still remember the chills I felt when I first heard him in GX 138, and I feel like I have a lot of his taunt lines memorized from the show
😅), though it does sound like he slips into his Judai voice a little explaining Dark Gaia’s effect, haha. chOOOOUYUUUUGOOOOUUUU!!!! Also, I like his losing lines since we never did hear him react to O’Brien actually defeating him, outside of a few gasps and yells, and it’s neat that they gave him so many lines for cards he didn’t use but Judai did like Mirror Gate or even Skyscraper 2, and even the manga Heroes, at that.
Matt Charles sounds like he’s putting in a better performance here than in Season 3′s dub (the lack of the voice filter helps, which felt like it was added to compensate for his lackluster performance there; he sounds a bit more convincing as Jaden’s “evil” side), aside from the awkward pauses before calling out some of the Monsters (though that’s kind of a universal thing). I like hearing the lines for all those other cards in his English voice, too. Weird that they used “Feel the power of the shadows” at his Duel Links line when SK Judai said “Show me the darkness in your heart” there…
One of my main gripes is still there, though, in how Konami skimps out on the extra detail to the effect explanations that’s there in the Japanese dialogue (Malicious Bane lowers my Monster’s ATK, but what’s it do with that difference? Oh, Supreme King Judai mentioned it gets powered up). I feel like they could get away with it, lol. Also, did they really need to give his Sparkman line the “Light ‘em up!” bit, or use “Centrifugal Cyclone Slash!!” for Wild Cyclone’s “Cyclone Slash…?” (Also, still weird that they’re using the dub’s attack names for Avian/Burstlady/Sparkman when the TCG cards and the JP dialogue reference Featherbreak/Burstfire/Spark Flash.)
I do appreciate that maybe 50-70% of his English lines are more accurate to the Japanese dialogue, like the “you’re no hero you’re one of my victims” line (though “you brought this upon yourself” not matching his “all is powerless against my ultimate power” line is a bummer since it’s so iconic lol); maybe that’ll come in handy for a thing later…
(Also, his theme isn’t bad, even if it’s hard to top Sad Duel)
Swoldier_X out here doing the Egyptian Gods’ work with their Duel Links Anime-OST replacement mods; check out the Antinomy Theme/Clear Mind use near the end! I also love that they snuck in the unreleased “First Move” theme from GX for O’Brien.
There’s a link in the Description for you to apply the mod to your Duel Links on PC, and I’m not sure if it’s cumulative with their other music mods, but if not, the ones he did for 5D’s and GX World are there, too. Also recommend their mods using the OCG Card Artwork!
Disappointed, yet not surprised really, that Konami and 4K/Cross Media rewrote the dialogue here to legitimize the dub’s unnecessary shoehorning-in of an amnesia subplot when Yusei’s found by the twins. A chance to actually do the story straight, which I’m pretty sure Duel Links has done a couple of times…
We need an English text option based on translating the Japanese text already… 🤦🏽♂️ has anyone figured out how to modify the in-game text yet