Genuinely might be my new all-time favourite metroidvania. Astonishingly good spritework, a bone-crushingly oppressive atmosphere, and engrossingly grotesque imagery; all rooted in Spanish, penitence driven catholicism, elevated by a profoundly evokative native voiceover, and backed by traditional latin accoustics. I was initially hesitant about the insta-deaths, but every time I fell into spikes or a pit actually felt like my fault. It really just makes for a sort of hybrid game offering the non-linearity, character progression and customisation of a metroidvania with the skill curve and precision platforming of a late 80s-early 90s action sidescroller. It's like, if Castlevania II was made with 30 extra years of game design knowledge and sucked a whole lot less. And I actually like Castlevania II, so that's a pretty big compliment.

In an era of fan translation patches, emulation, and rereleases, region locked games and/or games with language barriers have slowly become more of a rarity. It's super weird to look back on a time where JRPG releases in the west simply weren't lucrative in the eyes of publishers, and the amount of games that recieved half-assed localizations or simply never released outside of Japan were in the hundreds. Despite the new age of game accessibility through emulation, however, Dragon Quest X long stood as an outlier. This holy grail of untranslated, generally percieved to be untranslatable media due to its status as an MMO and a live service game.

Whether there were plans for a worldwide release or not, the fans took up the gargantuan task of translating it anyway, and there's quite a bit of history surrounding it. I want to talk about both how I fit in to it as a Dragon Quest fan, why DQX getting translated means so much to me, and what finally drove the community to take action.

See, Dragon Quest IX was probably the most defining game of my childhood, and it's what shaped my love for the JRPG genre as well as Dragon Quest as a whole. I loved the story, the world, the vocation system, grottoes; all that stuff that DQIX is known for nowadays, and it was a game I made an active effort to 100%. I finished every quest, maxed my levels (no MKS grottoes btw! only pure slime hill grinding), abused the DS' internal clock and hoimi tables to rig rng in my favour and get the ultimate equipment..and I did all of this TWICE in the 2010s. Imagine my excitement then, when Square decided to announce not just a sequel, but a sequel with online multiplayer. I was a real lonely kid - didn't even know anyone who I could play the local co-op with, so it was probably the first time I saw a game announcement that I was subsequently immediately excited for it. I remember watching that reveal trailer over and over again on the family computer, and it was something I'd return to every once in a while over the following days, weeks, months, and subsequently years. I'd frequently find myself typing "Dragon Quest 10 English" into google, hoping to uncover some news of a western release.

But I never found anything.

Fast-forward a couple years, and with the announcement of Dragon Quest 11, my hopes of ever playing DQX stagnated. I got 11 once it came to Switch a few more years later and adored it, by then having played every entry in the franchise available to me, but that only made 10 being unplayable more of an annoyance. It only fueled my desire to keep looking out for potential DQ10 news, rumours, and leaks. I did find stuff like the director saying they'd like to make it available via an offline mode, and a rumoured DQIX remake with online multiplayer, but neither of those actually came about.

A few more years passed, and Dragon Quest's 35th anniversary was just around the corner. Some of you probably know exactly what I'm going to be talking about next, but for the sake of those unaware, a synchronous worldwide livestream was announced to celebrate, with dozens of game announcements teased. Speculations of DQ10 getting a worldwide release were abound. I didn't care if this stream was at 3am in the morning, I had to watch for myself, and lo and behold, Dragon Quest X got a trailer.

But there were no plans for a worldwide release.

Of all the shown games, only DQ10 was to remain locked to Japan. Even the aforementioned potential offline version became a reality, but with no sign of an overseas release. 10 years. 10 goddamn years waiting for any news on this game, and nothing but a reminder in a worldwide stream that the game won't be releasing worldwide. Screw you Square Enix.

For many fans including myself, this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and almost immediately, in-development translation tools became public. Tools that I uh, didn't find out about until a month ago. In the three years since then, a bustling community has formed, with extensive English documentation, a wiki, and a large discord server, all in efforts to spread the word of DQX and its availability, assuming people are willing to jump through a few hoops to play it (which they really should be!). Playing it now, the tools the community have developed to get this game playable in English are of exceptional quality, are constantly updated, and allow for full comprehension of the main story via hand-translated text. For the sake of letting the devs work on translating the most important stuff first though, most NPC dialogue is AI translated on the fly at the moment. It's not perfect, but it's still in very active development, and even in its unfinished state might just make for one of the most comprehensive, extensive, passion driven fan translations a video game has ever recieved. Where hand-translated, the dialogue retains the charm of modern DQ localizations, without changing too much like how DQIV hits you on the head with thick Scottish accents as soon as you finish the prologue, or uneccesarily changing character names. I know people who vary between their preferred DQ localization styles, and all of them liked what they saw here.

In light of this newly available comprehension, and after a 10 year wait, it gives me great joy to say that Dragon Quest X is just as magical, charming, and emotional as Dragon Quest always has been. I feel that Dragon Quest's overall focus on family, whether it be found or blood related, is one of its greatest thematic strengths, and X might be the one to really hone in on this the most in its vignettes. The scrimblo bimblo tiny pukulipo race's story quests didn't need to hit as hard as they did, but the conclusion had me in tears. Hell, some of the vocation quests are really good too, namely Paladin's. They're definitely quest lines to look out for.

Regarding the game itself, it seems very few concessions were made to make the MMO leap, and, unlike a certain other long-running Squeenix IP's MMO adaptions, DQ10 feels like a Dragon Quest game first, and an MMO second. There aren't 50 million different action buttons and their rotation you need to memorise - just traditional JRPG menuing. This, among many other aspects, makes DQX a game that, while being a time sink like many other MMOs, actually respects your time, and doesn't come with a "it gets good after [x amount of hours]" caveat. Dragon Quest X isn't an MMO with a Dragon Quest coat of paint, it's a straight up, no nonsense, Dragon Quest game. Much of what IX established is built upon and accomodated to an always-online setting, like having multiple vocations you can swap between at any time; each coming with their own skill trees that offer permanent, flat stat increases that apply to your character, and not just the current class you're in - something other MMOs frankly seem allergic to. It's a much better system and far more respectful of my time than, for example, if I wanted to start playing a Tank in FF14 after having only played a DPS for most of my playtime. I'd probably have to spend a day or two doing dailies in the form of those insufferable roulettes (because forcing players to go through hour long raids with unskippable cutscenes they've seen before is fuuuun) or mindless fetch quests. In DQX, I just need to spend half an hour or so hunting for metal slimes, doing a metal maze, or doing metal slime time to level a character from 1 to 30, or potentially as high as 40, and unlock their vocation quests. There were times where I'd get up to four classes appropriately levelled in a day, and even if they were classes I had no plans on using, still gave me stat boosts. A game shouldn't make the reward for grinding the luxury of getting to actually play the class, and I'm so glad DQX isn't like that. If I had to come up with any criticisms though, walk speed in towns should be waaaay faster, and limiting the zoom spell to zoomstones is dumb. It's thankfully rectified by the bazoom girl in Megistris, so if you want my advice, head there and make it a zoom spot ASAP.

Overall, Dragon Quest X has just...totally enthralled me, and it mirrors exactly how I felt playing DQ9 as a kid. To say something makes me feel like a kid again is one of the highest praises I think I can ever give something, and finally getting my hands on this after so long has been incredibly significant and important to me. I've loved almost every second of it so far, having invested a hundred hours in a mere week, finishing the base game with a friend, making plans to commission art of our characters with said friend..God though, huge shoutout to her, since she's the one who told me about the DQX Worldwide community and the translation tools. I've said it to you already before but I'm so glad to have been able to play together, even if you're actually way ahead of me in the story at this point, lol, I'll catch up though, I promise.

Equally importantly, I want to thank everyone at DQX Worldwide for being part of such a wonderful, welcoming community, and the DQXClarity and Akhmon's teams, for all of your hard work in finally making this playable and accessible.

Thank you, to everyone involved, for letting me feel like a kid again.

Mega Man 2 is like, the best tasting margherita pizza you'll ever have in your life, but it's a teeny bit undercooked. It's classic, iconic even; down to the intro cutscene, the stage themes, the setpieces and the robot masters - and even if it's missing some of the additions that would later become synonymous with the series like the slide and charge shot, the core run and gun gameplay still serves as something well worth going back to. But man it is not perfect. Especially when looking at stuff like the Wily Stage 4 boss. You really need to go into that fight with a full supply of crash bomber ammo and can't afford to waste any of it or take any route other than the most optimal one. It's this super weird blemish on an otherwise challenging yet very thoughtfully and fairly designed 8-bit platformer. Huge props to the localization team for actually making it more accessible for its overseas release at least: a rarity for the time. I personally prefer playing on difficult but it's no wonder that 2 is often regarded as the most accessible classic series entry.

Also John Backloggd please change the boxart to the Japanese one please and thank you

Either this game gave me stockholm syndrome or actually knowing some of the things the levels throw at you in advance makes that much of a difference. Either way this might be the first time I've fallen in love with a game that I can wholeheartedly say is full of bullshit and bad game design but will still come up with things to defend it with, like how impressive it is that they were able to backport sprites from a game a generation ahead and it being one of the best looking Super Famicom games as a result. The soundtrack is probably the best in the series, hands down, there's a whole 100+ optional collectables that act as a database on just about everything established in the classic series just because, and god it just plays so good. I praised the Mega Man World games for backporting the NES gameplay to the Gameboy smoothly, but this is something else, man. Hell I'd even argue it feels better than Megaman 8, on top of a new playable character with a unique default moveset. This game had absolutely no reason to exist but Capcom said "yeah some poor motherfuckers haven't gotten ps1's yet let's drop this on them" and tbh for a 1998 sfc release they dropped something pretty damn good. I was able to run through this as megaman, no savestates, no rewind, and only really struggle on the last two stages because the flying tank boss really just sucks. Boss weaknesses are arguably the most intuitive in the series and I found myself using every boss weapon at some point or another.

This sure does...exist. In terms of porting the NES gameplay to the gameboy, the first Rockman World world game does an incredible job. It's kind of a miracle that slowdowns are as infrequent as they are, and while there's no slide or charge shot, the buster and special weapons are all you really need.

What it doesn't do a great job at porting over is uh, decent level design. I mean, Mega Man 1 is uh...also a game, but there's plenty of influence from 2 in here too, like some of the robot masters make an appearance, and a few music tracks. What I do not remember from Mega Man 2 are numerous instances where you're just thrown straight into spikes or an enemy on the next screen, or incredibly long stages with minimal checkpoints. This was also released the same year as NES Mega Man 4, so, you'd think a game in the same franchise releasing the same year, not held back by hardware would be of a similar quality, but nope. Things start to make a lot more sense when you realise that development was outsourced.

The music's totally forgettable (all three or so new tracks, anyway) to boot. I do hesitate to call this a straight up bad video game, because it isn't, but I think I can pretty confidently say it's most mediocre entry in the whole franchise that I've played thus far. If there was a Mediocre Man robot master, this would be his favourite game. Yeah, really showed Inafune with that one.

Probably no surprise that I'm playing the Gargoyle's Quest series of games with the intent of getting around to Demon's Crest, but what is surprising is how competent this was. It's neat for what it is; a gameboy platformer with light RPG elements and an unconventional moveset, and a pretty hilariously bad translation. Gliding and clinging to walls are pretty novel concepts especially given the hardware and time, but the level and boss design kinda doesn't back them up. Really liked the last level that had you swapping between your different shots and their abilities, though, and I'm excited to see how they improve in the sequel and how it culminates in the third game.

A couple things.

Firstly, John Backloggd please change the game game icon to either the title screen or the Japanese artwork because I think the Western promo poster sucks!!!!

Secondly, it's actually okay. I 1cc'ed this bitch (technically? kinda sorta not really?? I mean I used up continues to refill my health because that's how healing works in this game but I never saw the "continue" or "game over" screens) in about 3 attempts because the stopwatch totally destroys this game and kinda makes it one of the easiest games in the franchise??? Like sure, without it you're going to have a bad time and I don't blame people for thinking this is the worst Castlevania related thing ever, but I'm talking easier than Castlevania 1 holy water spam. The hardest part is probably keeping the stopwatch, since there's only one in the whole game, but that just comes down to learning when and where item drops occur since they're fixed. Regardless, it works on bosses, and all bosses take 6-7 sword swings to the face before going down, which you should have by around the middle of stage 3 assuming you don't run out of health. Just make sure to use up your continues to refill your health instead of actually running out of it, and if you really hate the bottomless pits (there's like, 3 sections in the whole game with them and they're incredibly easy to avoid) you can play the Japanese version. Still some moments and enemy patterns that require trial and error to figure out but this might be one of the least offensive arcade quarter munchers of the time if you know what you're doing.

This isn't too dissimilar from traditional classicvania titles. Learn, get better, and conquer. Obviously getting sent back to the very beginning of the game sucks but considering this game is shorter than just about all the others, I think it's not as bad off for it as it otherwise would be.

Thirdly, I also like Castlevania II just as much as CV1 and a little less than CV3. I'm weird and have weird opinions. I can see why this game is particularly despised but I personally had a decent time with it.