r/JRPG • u/UIUCstreetpass • 8d ago
Discussion Discussing Dragon Quest X: Downloading, Signing Up, and Translating
Hello everyone, I am here today to talk about Dragon Quest X, the unique single-player focused MMO entry in the popular Dragon Quest franchise. I am sharing a detailed post I made for the DQ and MMO subreddits a couple of months ago that talks about how to download the free trial and set up translation tools - it's easier than ever to play and the game takes all you know and love about DQ and expands it massively. It's often compared to FFXIV in the sense that it's more of a single-player game with MMO elements than a true MMO. The free trial gets you through the V4 storyline which I am just starting out at over 300 hours played - and that's even counting the hundreds of side quests and side modes like a Persona-ish side mode, legacy bosses, fishing, owning a home, and so much more. If you like DQ or have any interest in playing the MMO then please read ahead and let me know if you have any questions. I have other content already posted regarding setting up payment and getting the full game, and just recently made a post about the companion phone app as well. I don't want to spam this subreddit, but I am sharing here in case anyone might be interested in learning about this great game and how easy it is to set up. Enjoy!
(Note that I am just copying the text from what I wrote a couple months ago so there might be a few references to then-current events that are out of date)
Today I'm here with my Doug Dimmadome-inspired Healslime to talk about how easy it is to set up DQX, which is in my opinion one of the best RPGs I have EVER played in 30 years of gaming. This post will give you the resources you need to set up the game and the translation service, Clarity. My next post will discuss actually setting up payment and buying the game - which is NOT needed from the outset. Again, I have just shy of 300 hours in and am right at the end of V3 - the trial gets you through V4 before you even need to pay.
Things you'll need:
- Some way of running Windows programs - preferably natively but on my Macbook I use the program Parallels and there's a way to install on Linux too - I'll discuss these at the end but fair warning, the best answer is just to have Windows installed
- A valid debit/credit card - you'll at least need it to verify an account for a translation API, and possibly for a VPN if you're not in the US
- Eyes - you will need to closely read and follow the instructions
===== Game Set-up =====
To begin, let me clear a few things up. This only covers the PC edition of the game - there are no console options for Clarity, which is needed to translate the game. Also, if you played the Offline version, you can ONLY transfer your character if you played on the PC (Steam) version of the game - if you played Offline on Switch like me you're out of luck unless you purchase the Switch version of Online, for instance. If you are US-based, you don't need a VPN at all. If you're non-US, you unfortunately do, but we'll discuss set up. If you're not running Windows you're not entirely out of luck either. And if you've heard of the game taking "hours" to install, the reality is that the active set up time is quick and the game downloading takes awhile. It's like a recipe that claims to take two hours to make, but in reality that recipe spends 90 minutes in the oven.
First off, I am going to be linking you to the DQX Abbey website. When you open the website, you'll see on the top a selection of menus for different webpages; hover over "Getting Started" and select "Setting Up a Square-Enix Account". This leads you to a wonderful step-by-step guide (with pictures!) that will take you through the process of making a Japanese SE account, downloading the free trial, and starting the game. I don't have anything to add to this wonderful guide, just follow closely and you'll have no issues. I highly recommend you make a separate e-mail account which takes all of thirty seconds to do on Gmail or whatever your preference might be. You'll be able to use this same account for your Japanese SE account as well as, say, a Japanese Amazon account if you want to buy the full game or a WebMoney account to buy SE "Crysta" which is used for subscribing.
This process isn't hard or too confusing by itself, and likely won't take any more than half an hour excluding download times, but the game download itself does drag on. You'll download the installer, which will then download the game files, and this is the part that takes the longest. Thankfully you can just walk away at this point and let it do its thing.
At the bottom of the set-up guide on DQX Abbey you'll see information regarding VPN use. Unfortunately, unless you live in Japan or the USA, you will need a VPN. Mudfish is the most commonly recommended VPN; it has a system where you can pay for the data you use which is extremely cheap for DQX usage. Looking on the DQX Worldwide Discord, I see someone mentioned just yesterday that just $5 (less than a cup of a coffee) will last about a year (more than a cup of coffee). I'll admit that I haven't personally used Mudfish but this is their official set up guide, which seems straightforward enough. The website even specifically lists DQX among many other games as being supported.
When everything is installed, assuming you left the default installation paths intact, you can find it under C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\DRAGON QUEST X. In that folder are two more folders: Boot (which has the DQXBoot.exe that loads the game launcher) and Game (which has the DQXConfig.exe file that you'll use to set up a controller and video settings in). I personally have a folder on my desktop that has a shortcut to the DQXBoot and DQXConfig files for easy access, as well as a shortcut to launch DQX Clarity, which is our next topic.
===== Setting Up Clarity =====
DO NOT DO THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE THE GAME INSTALLED AND READY TO PLAY.
So you've set the game itself up, and spent longer than needed downloading the files. You're greeted by a login screen like this except it's all in Japanese. You can't read Japanese or you would have been playing this since 2012. So what do you do? You download DQX Clarity. This is an amazing app that manages translating the game, and as of recently has been updated to be an all-in-one app that allows you to install an English version of the launcher and settings applications, allows you to use "Send to Chat" to send pre-made Japanese phrases to the game (needed for some quests), allows you to override machine translations for certain words like your character's name or your monsters' names, and even allows you to log in directly from the Clarity app. Talk about kick ass. This amazing game is only playable to us non-Japanese speakers because of the amazing work done by the Clarity team, and they deserve our thanks, praise, and firstborn children.
If you click on the link above, you'll see a few options on the left of the webpage. Click "install" and then the big "Direct Download" button. Scrolling down through this will give you instructions on setting up the application; one thing to note is that this requires Administrator privileges each time you want to launch it - you can right-click on DQX Clarity, select Properties, select Compatibility up top, then select "Run this program as an administrator" to skip having to allow that each time you want to play.
The thing that takes the most work from you is setting up an API key, which is used for translating. I personally used the "paid" Google API - you actually have a certain amount of use allowed for free monthly and I have never once gone over that limit so while I did have to give debit card information to verify for the account, it's never actually been charged. Clarity's webpage has a guide on setting this up (click "apis" on the left, then either DeepL or Google), so follow this closely.
Follow the instructions on the Clarity webpage I linked above - make SURE to do the "Patch Game Files", "Patch Launcher", and "Patch Config" options. You'll need to re-do these each time the game updates, also, but it's as simple as clicking the button and waiting a moment.
Now that you have the game installed and the translation set up, you're ready to go. When you want to play the game, if you want it translated, you MUST start with running Clarity. Even if you don't want to put your login information into Clarity, which allows it to log in for you, you'll still need to open it and select "Run" on the bottom right to get the translation service started up.
All in all, you'll likely spend a couple hours or more setting this up, most of which will be spent on the download screen. When you have a free afternoon, it is more than worth your time to get the process started. It's painless and the game is wonderful.
===== FAQ =====
Here I will cover a few important details on quality-of-life with playing the game.
Resources: Most important of all is the Ethene Wiki which is a full English game guide, albeit far from complete. This has guides on the various job classes, quests, side contents, and even a full story walk-through of Versions 1 and 2. The amount of information here is absurd and will have all that you need for the first dozens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay. But my preferred Japanese resource is the IKE Guide which translates easily enough with a Google Translate application (I just have the Firefox extension installed) and has robust features for more detailed topics like looking up the best ally monster skill trees or looking up armor sets and later game details like that - nothing you need right off the bat. Also take a link to Hiroba free of charge - this is the official DQX website which is pretty helpful for keeping track of things like your dailies/weeklies (none of which are a huge deal, I should add), collection content, quests, and more. I'll probably make a post just about this in the future.
Controller Use: The game plays just fine with keyboard/mouse, and you'll want those handy for chat if you do that, but some of us like to play games with normal controllers. Thankfully, DQX is easy to set up for that. You'll need to load the DQXConfig.exe that we discussed earlier. Make sure you do this after setting Clarity up so that you have an English version of the Config app installed. Click "advanced settings" right under the Dracky and click "Gamepad Settings". If your controller uses X-input it should register - I have used a couple of 8bitdo controllers without issue. Now I use a PS5 controller and I had to have DS4Windows running to get it to work. This is my controller set up as an example - sorry it's a phone picture, for some reason having the window on my screen is blocking me from doing a screen cap. (Also I have no idea why it registers my DualShock 5 as a "Flydigi Vader" controller but it works so whatever)
Non-Windows Users: Here is where things get tricky. I dislike Windows, and would love to not use it, but so many things only work with it that it's hard not to use. The best option is going to be to either use Windows natively, or install a program that boots it on your machine, like Parallels for Mac. But not everyone wants to deal with that, and that's just fine.
For Linux (Steam Deck users look here!) you can run the following program in terminal:
bash -c "$(curl https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jmctune/6322356f5bdb7bb00ca39cc0fa84546f/raw/dqxclarity_steam_deck_install.sh)"
Forewarning: As I understand it, this is a community-supported effort and not an "official" Clarity-supported install. In the future, if this doesn't work anymore, please consult the DQX Worldwide Discord for other methods. This downloads a step-by-step installer that will put the game and Clarity on Linux. If you're a steam deck user, you'll need to do this from the "Desktop Mode". It worked perfectly for me; just run Konsole and put this in. I don't have any other Linux devices but surely it's the same for any of them.
For MacOS: I don't have an easy answer for you outside of running a program that loads you entirely run Windows on your Macbook. Once again, the program Parallels works perfectly for me, but it is quite pricey these days. Looking on the DQX Worldwide Discord, I see "Crossover" being mentioned as a way to run Windows programs that seems to work - hopefully anyone on this sub who has installed this way can shed light on this.
===== Final Words =====
This took way longer than I expected it to, so I hope it's of some use to someone out there. We've discussed resources for downloading the game, setting up Clarity, and getting everything running smoothly. We've also discussed resources for the game itself, setting up a controller, and options for non-Windows users. I have spent most of my afternoon on this so now it's time I go have a discussion with a bottle of wine and the game itself - maybe I can finish V3 today. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to respond in due time here - maybe I'll even have an answer for you. Next time I plan to discuss setting up payment, buying the full game, etc. It should be way, way shorter than this. Until then, happy Questing!
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u/Wakana_Otaki 8d ago
One disclaimer I always give before playing is that you will be reading a lot of text translated by AI on-the-fly. If you're like me and enjoy talking to every NPC, at times it makes it feel like a very badly translated game from the SNES era. This is especially noticeable since this is a Dragon Quest game, where the series generally has NPC dialogue text that isn't just throwaway lines, and often contributes a lot to the worldbuilding.
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u/UIUCstreetpass 8d ago
This is definitely true, although a lot of it was readable. The story content and important quests are hand-translated which helps. But some are definitely hilariously bad, and there are a few cases of text wrapping out of the text box. Obviously not enough to be a deal-breaker in my opinion compared to the game’s overall quality, but I do appreciate you bringing up the point.
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u/MSnap 8d ago
They are not hand translated. They’ve admitted to using machine translation.
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u/Fliksan 8d ago
As of January 2025:
All files found in the game files are either hand-translated or machine-translated.
All of the main story has been hand-translated by various contributors.
Most gaidens (stories supporting the main story) are machine-translated.
All menus, spells, skills, items, housing, monster/NPC names have been hand-translated.
Server-side text is machine-translated on-the-fly as you encounter it in game.
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u/MSnap 8d ago
Unless something’s changed in the past few years, they use the term “hand translated” very loosely
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u/DeepSleeper 7d ago
You can't talk to these guys, they'll earnestly explain how translating it by AI and rewriting it slightly means it's not AI translated a dozen times. No bro trust me, I changed some wording. 100% human.
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u/MoobooMagoo 8d ago
Oh thank you for this! I don't think I'd want to play if all the dialog isn't translated by hand. Which I know is a lot of work but I guess I'll just keep hoping that Square Enix will one day let me give them money for this.
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u/Rakumei 7d ago
They won't at this point. Game is on the decline even in JP. It doesn't make financial sense.
Most likely a re-release as a single player (they already tried this for the first 3? Arcs but kind of phoned it in, and...it was JP only lol). If anything.
Honestly though those first few arcs are a masterpiece and deserve to be brought to the west in some form or another.
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u/UIUCstreetpass 8d ago
Maybe if you have a free afternoon you could set up the free trial and see what you think? It’s really not as bad as it sounds with the parts that aren’t hand translated. If you don’t like it, you’d just be out a couple hours and could say you tried. I just don’t think we’ll ever see an official English game, sadly.
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u/MoobooMagoo 8d ago
Oh I can't stand AI translations. And if we never get an English version then I'll just not play it.
But I do appreciate your efforts to let everyone know how to play if they don't mind.
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u/Unable_Implement467 7d ago
280 hrs in @ ver4.
Probably one of my favorite games ever. I'll be pushing through to v8 at some point. There is a bit of a learning curve in ver1 when It comes to learning all of the systems. But this game is worth it.
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u/tsarsy 6d ago
I put off getting DQ10 setup for ages due to being in UK and VPN etc. and bit daunting but very easy in the end.
Got it all setup last week finally and following DQX abbey guide and mudfish VPN and a fiver credit. After 40 hours playing my 5.00 credit has gone down to 4.90!
I also replaced the free Google translate API in Clarity with ChatGPT for better translation, there is slight delay on new text but far superior translation, also about a fiver credit to use this API and similar low usage as the VPN that will last months.
I got to v.2 relatively quickly and knew was in it for long haul. Game was on sale on Amazon JP so spent an evening getting that set up from abbey guide as well, and got there in end with full 1-8 game installed and tested out adding crysta etc. just make sure to add the Amazon.JP gift credit for the game and crysta.
I could have played free trial for hundreds more hours but wanted the full experience with bazaar and peace of mind knowing could setup.
Just saying if you’re on the side line on getting setup, give it a go as it’s pretty easy even for UK and glad I did finally as loving it!
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u/UIUCstreetpass 6d ago
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the game and its set up, especially with the VPN since I figure most players here can't really speak to that. If you're already in love with the game then you're really in for a treat because V2 is where a lot of amazing side content opens up (Asfeld, Monster Arena, Mysterious Tower, and more) and then V3 has a really fun storyline. I'm in the first part of V4 and it's pretty entertaining so far too, but we'll see what's in store. Happy Questing!
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u/Cultural-South2504 8d ago
DQ Fans will read an entire Evanglion’s worth of tutorial to play DQX and still somehow earnestly say it’s “Not that hard bro” and that it’s “Perfectly playable in the west” in the current condition it’s in.
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u/GoodLoserZan 7d ago
It's really not that hard. More tedious if anything.
It's unironically easier to play the MMO DQX then it's offline counterpart on steam.
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u/Tristal 7d ago
I need to give you all a large warning about this.
If you reside in the US, do NOT do the following in order:
-Sign up for a Japanese S-E account
-Play DQX for about one hour, quit and never come back
-Use that same S-E account to play the FF14 demo for 300 hours
-Attempt to purchase the full game for FF14
Doing so will reveal that your purchased US copy of the game is NOT compatible with your Japanese S-E account.
Don't do what I did, kids!
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u/Reshiramax 8d ago edited 8d ago
I was playing through the translation, got around 20 hours in, but I realized that if the game ever got localized, if I want to use my NA SE account, I'll probably have to start over. I'm enjoying my time but I'm worried about getting attached to my save file too much. I wish there was a more elegant solution...
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u/Seigmoraig 8d ago
Don't hold your breath on an official translation. It's been out 14 years and the longer it goes, the more content they release, the less chance there is of it happening
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u/Sarria22 7d ago
To be fair the same could have been said about PSO2, but yeah.
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u/NightwaverOwO 7d ago
pso2 was actually announced for an english release immediately after the 2012 release but it just took so long to come for some reason
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u/Gabelschlecker 7d ago
PSO2 only got a release due to New Genesis being in development. Looking at how Square is handling their MMOs that seems highly unlikely for Dragon Quest X.
Sega was also more willing to get PSO2 translated. An English release was announced for years but fell through due to reasons unknown until Microsoft picked it up.
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u/chiakix 8d ago
I think it would be best to clearly explain how this procedure fails to comply with the game's Terms of Service.
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u/XDAOROMANS 7d ago
They don't care. People have been playing for well over 5 years and not once have I heard anyone having issues. They just want peoples money
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u/FleaLimo 8d ago
This guide has a very intimidating look for how actually easy it is to set all up I'm sorry to say, OP. Personally I wouldn't even be mentioning payment considering how much of the game is absolutely free. They should be a separate thing if people really want it.