During a Japan trip a few years back, I picked up a dirt-cheap copy of the MMO Dragon Quest 10, knowing full-well I'd probably never be able to play it. Not only is the disc region-locked and incompatible with my American Wii U, but the dang thing's in Japanese with no English option.
The fact that I bought it shows two things: I'm a sucker for a bargain, but more importantly, I've really, really wanted to play this game for a long time, so much so that I deluded myself into buying it with the hope of one day being able to play it through some modern technological miracle.
Well, it's been three years and I still can't play my copy of Dragon Quest 10 because, unsurprisingly, it's still region-locked. But the fantastic news that I'm sharing today is that I can now play the PC version of the game, in English, and for free up until a certain point.
DQXClarity is a fan project I'm somehow just now learning about that's translating Dragon Quest 10 piece by piece into English. Its most recent update provides full English translations for most in-game text and cutscenes up until version 5, which I've been told is roughly the equivalent of five mainline Dragon Quest games. The general consensus seems to be that it's also on par quality-wise with the main series, so don't be turned off by the fact that it's an MMO.
This extremely comprehensive guide from DQX Abbey includes step-by-step instructions and detailed images to get the free trial of Dragon Quest 10 up and running on your PC, complete with translations provided by DQXClarity. I will admit that it's a fairly involved process, but if you're anything of a preservationist, or as big a Dragon Quest fan as me, it's worth the effort.
Nevermind the question of how in the name of Yggdrasil I'm going to find time for five full-length Dragon Quest games when I still have Diablo 4, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and plenty more in my backlog to play through. That's a problem for another weekend.
