Guide: How to Deal with Dark Souls III's Japanese Text

You want to play Dark Souls III, we want to play Dark Souls III – everyone wants to play friggin' Dark Souls III. Unfortunately, publisher Bandai Namco has forgotten that we live in an age of the Internet, and has decided to release the game in Japan – weeks ahead of its Western launch. What a bloody ball ache that is, eh?

The good news is that, if you simply can't wait, help is at hand – and lots of it. You can, of course, purchase the game from the Japanese PlayStation Store, and all of the dialogue will be in English. The problem, of course, is that the text will be in a foreign tongue – but assuming that you're willing to work with a couple of guides, it's easy to get around this.

This visual aid, for example, translates all of the game's main menus, as well as some early dialogue trees. Handy, huh? Meanwhile, you can find item translations though here, and a complete class guide through here. Because the Dark Souls series is very visual, you should have no problem navigating most of the game using this information alone.

It is worth remembering that if you do play the Japanese version, the controls will be slightly different, too; circle will act as your confirm button, while X will back you out of menus. This is true in gameplay as well, where circle will become the examine button – while X handles all of your dodging and running. Weird, right?

Alternatively, if you can't be doing with all of the hassle, then you could just wait a couple of weeks until the English language version deploys. We'd recommend cursing Bandai Namco under your breath while you twiddle your thumbs, because there appears to be no rhyme or reason to dividing the release date like this. Bleh.