With almost every moderately popular streamer getting very early access to Dark Souls III, many Souls fans are quite annoyed as to why Dark Souls III has a staggered worldwide release date. This irritation has only grown, with the discovery that if Xbox One owners buy a Japanese download copy of Dark Souls III (which is now live) and then open the game via an English speaking account, they will access a subtitled version of the game, complete with English voicetrack and all of the in-game text in English. This includes item descriptions, menu text and cutscene dialogue so it is as good as playing the English version, with the added bonus of an early release and not having to know Japanese to read all the weapon descriptions and menus in game.
According to NeoGAF user bidguy, all users need to do is create a dummy Japanese account to buy the game by using either Japanese Xbox Live gift cards or by setting your billing address to an address in Japan, complete the transaction and then switch your account to an English speaking location before starting the download. Upon completion and booting up the game, your Japanese Dark Souls III should have full English text so you can enjoy the game with no knowledge of Japanese needed.
Be wary with this technique, as Microsoft may try to close this loophole very soon and stop users from accessing the English subtitles for Dark Souls III using this method. Also, for some reason, you cannot do the same trick on PS4 as the English subtitles are not bundled into that version of the game. Still, the very fact that you can access a full translated version of the game early raises suspicion as to why the release dates were staggered in the first place and only adds fuel to an already raging fire of impatient Dark Souls fans who want to play the game right now and can’t due to arbitrary limitations.
As such, a certain group of Dark Souls obsessives have taken to Twitter with various hashtags to badger Bandai Namco into releasing Dark Souls III early, as the game seems to be ready for worldwide release. Theories range from Bandai Namco being incarnations of the Darkwraiths who are just trolling fans to the April release date being so the sales figures register in the new financial year, rather than in 2015. As someone who falls into the category of incredibly jealous but patiently waiting, I can see why the hardcore fans are raging at this discovery when combined with Bandai Namco’s host of incredibly odd marketing decisions for Dark Souls III. Tie-ins like Slashy Souls and even a deal with the MeatLiquor line of restaurants to run a Dark Souls III chicken wing challenge, this discovery has been the straw that broke the camel’s back for some.
Who knows if there will a shifting up of the release date? All that is certain is that Dark Souls III is now out in Japan so expect spoilers galore on every website and Youtube comment section up and down the land. Today’s Japanese launch trailer is filled with potential boss spoilers so definitely avoid that if you want to still remain in the dark about From’s final installment in the Souls series. Unless things change, Dark Souls III is scheduled for launch in the West on April 12th for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
