Yesterday, we reported that you can play Dark Souls 3 right now, even if you have a PS4, thanks to the console’s lack of region locking. And you can! And by and large, you will enjoy it too- since the game’s voice acting is all in English. There is just one problem, though- the text, including all menu text, seems to stick to being in Japanese for the PS4 version.
The good news is, the ever effervescent Souls community seems to be coming up with loads of solutions to this problem- for instance, multiple NeoGAF users are reporting that Google Translate app works great to figure out what the Japanese text says. In addition, this guide includes directions for, and translations of, most of the menus in the game, and it can easily be used to navigate the menus. Then there is also this incredibly thorough and extensive translation of each item description, and this rundown of each class, that players can use to find their way through the Japanese text- suffice it to say, the Souls community seems to have risen to the occasion magnificently!
If you do decide to play the Japanese version, just do remember one thing- the functions of the X and O buttons are reversed in Japanese games (X is cancel, O is confirm). This could trip you up in terms of muscle memory, so keep that in mind. Of course, you can reassign the functions for the X and O buttons in the Accessibility settings menu for your PS4 system- just remember that this doesn’t change the on screen prompts in the game (i.e. you will need to remember to press X when the game tells you to press O, for example), and that this will also reverse the button functions for the rest of the system too.
Or you could just wait for Dark Souls 3‘s western launch next month, on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.