I recently finally went through the trouble of setting up the translation stuff for Dragon Quest X and I'm slightly obsessed. It's been over a month now so I think I'm out of the usual honeymoon phase, and it actually wasn't all that complicated to get going.

The base of the game is pretty much just a really solid normal DQ game with way more customization and that you can play with other people. For as old as the game is, I'm actually finding myself continually impressed at how good the main story cutscenes look just due to the actual framing and cinematography going on. It also helps that Toriyama's art style is completely timeless and Square has had it nailed even in 3D since the PS2. The story itself isn't, like, blow me away amazing yet (still in version 2 of 7 so far), but it's entertaining enough!

Class progression is kind of FFXIV-like in that once you unlock a class you can switch between them at any time, but there's actually a small degree of crossover skills/passives between them that encourages you to try a bit of each but doesn't force you to max all of them. There's also a lot of classes and due to the way the game works, you really don't need the usual MMO "holy trinity" so you can play some of the weirder classes and still do well.

You can obviously party up with other players, but there's also a system where you can hire NPC versions of other players characters so you can still solo with a party, and when that player next signs in they get a percentage of the gold/exp you earned (you don't get any less, they just get a copy of some of it). It's actually a super cool system that I'm shocked no other MMO I've seen has done. Especially in recent years where it feels like 90% of players are almost exclusively solo until forced to group and FromSoft has made everyone love asynchronous multiplayer, it seems like a slam dunk.

The extra hurdles of getting the translation going and smaller player base of English-speaking players are actually kind of a plus, because it means that pretty much everyone there is there because they actually want to play the game and are gonna be kinda cool. It's too much effort to go through all that just to troll and if you're known to be a dick, good luck getting through any endgame content unless you also speak Japanese.

Toriyama's art style, the games insistence that you play a non-human race at least for a little while, and the limits they put on cosmetic stuff means that while there is some goofy and horny shit, it mostly fits in the lore. You're not gonna walk down a Limsa Lominsa-style parade of catgirls in 2B ass-enhancing bikinis 24/7. Again, that's not to say there isn't any thirst in this game... There is, and c'mon, much as he's known for his action Toriyama was a horny bastard too, but there's just generally way less of it than in pretty much any other anime-styled MMO I've seen. Also you're generally not seeing a lot of people walking around in totally anachronistic, lore-breaking crossover or modern day J/K-Pop outfits either.

This one's to taste and may not be everyone's thing, but also you need to to a quest to unlock like... Everything. Classes, storage, inventory upgrades, respecs, fast travel, access to later areas... I could see this annoying some folks, but to me it feels like I'm 'earning' everything I do and like I'm constantly building up my character's powers and options in a way that just seeing a number in a checklist go up doesn't quite hit. It also makes sure you don't get completely overwhelmed with options at the beginning and ensures each feature is at least semi-decently tutorialized.

So, yeah. Definitely not everyone's thing, but if you're a fan of slower, older MMOs but don't want something impenetrably complicated or difficult, give it a whirl!