DQX Translation Tools

= Foreword =

Dragon Quest X is written entirely in Japanese. For those who are unable to understand the language, this can prove daunting, at first. A couple of third-party tools have been developed to assist players that cannot read Japanese to still get a general idea of what's going on. These tools are only relevant for the PC version of the game. The names of these programs are Ahkmon and Clarity. Each tool has evolved for different purposes and this guide hopes to inform you of what each program does, how to launch them properly, and what to expect.

This guide assumes you are already able to play Dragon Quest X. Please remember that we are visitors here and to always be respectful. Please refrain from being disruptive in chats and comments. You do not need to hide being foreign, and it’s encouraged to try to make friends, though always put politeness first when you are interacting with other people.

Checklist
Here are a list of things you’ll need during your setup and a brief description. Click on the Tool names to jump to their page for setup. Read along further for the API Key.

A Valid Credit Card – Preferably one that belongs to you. Debit works, too, but not a prepaid one. It’s used by the Translation Service you’re about to sign up for to verify and validate that you are a real human. There’s a free option. You will not incur costs or fees unless you make the conscious choice to. If a credit card is impossible, you have but one option: Skip directly to “Ahkmon Desktop”.

DQXClarity – “Clarity” directly translates UI elements of the game such as menus by itself, with the ability to translate text directly into the dialogue box when talking with NPC characters and Quest details.

Ahkmon – Ahkmon takes dialogue prompts from the game, sends it to the translation service, and then displays the translation into the overlay field. The overlay’s style is customizable and can be repositioned.

Send To Chat - A neat tool that can send Japanese to the chat log. Useful for completing quests that require phrases said in the "Nearby" chat.

An API Key – Clarity and Ahkmon rely on machine translation to show you letters you can understand. An API key is registered within the program to allow the translation to happen.

A Discord Account – You’ll want to join our Discord so that you can keep up with the latest releases.

API Key
API Keys are passwords for one program to talk to another. In our case, this key lets DQXClarity and Ahkmon talk to the translation service. We can use either Google Translate or a company called DeepL. Pick only one. DeepL is recommended because of their superior quality compared to Google Translate. DeepL is available only in the following countries: EU, UK, US, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. If you live elsewhere, you cannot use DeepL. You must use Google Translate.

Step 1
Click on this hyperlink to visit DeepL’s website. It should land you on a page that reads “DeepL Pro – fast, accurate, and secure translations” at the top. If it does not, go to deepl.com and press the “Start free trial button”. Scroll down on this page to the header “Find your perfect plan”. Directly beneath these words are buttons labeled “For Individuals and teams” and “For Developers”. Click “For Developers” to change the view. Click the button labeled “Sign Up For Free”

Step 2
Sign up for your account by keying in your email address and desired password. You’ll need to key in your address and submit your bank card for validation. Review the details, confirm, and you’re done with this step.

Step 3
Log into your DeepL account and click the tab labeled “Account” Scroll to the bottom. The “Authentication Key for DeepL API” is your API key. Keep this page open until you get to the place where you can throw it in your translation tools.

Getting a Google Translate API Key
Click this hyperlink to arrive at the How To Create a Google Translate API Key page. Shoutouts to the author for keeping the page up. If this link is broken, please let the discord know in the wiki dev channel.