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Can You Play Dragon Quest 11 with Japanese Voices?

Find out if you can select a Japanese language track in Dragon Quest XI or if you have to play with English voices.
This article is over 6 years old and may contain outdated information

Most modern games with voice work for characters allow you change the spoken language to at least English or Japanese. This has caused many players to wonder if you can play Dragon Quest 11 with Japanese voices. While it’s common to be able to switch languages, and most would assume you can play with Japanese language in Dragon Quest 11, that’s actually not the case. Read on to find out what happened with Japanese voices in Dragon Quest 11.

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Dragon Quest 11 Japanese Voices

Unfortunately, you cannot change the spoken language in Dragon Quest 11. It’s set to English by default and that’s the only language track in the game. This was a decision made by the development team, but it wasn’t an easy choice to make. There was quite an internal debate about whether or not to include a Japanese language track in the game, but the final decision was made not to include one.

No including a Japanese audio track not only allowed the Japanese version to release more than a year before the American version, it also meant that the scenario writer could make changes at any point in time without the need to record more audio. Square Enix stated that the reason for no Japanese audio track is because the Japanese players are traditionally accustomed to playing Dragon Quest with only text. While this could be said for many American players as well, it was ultimately decided that only English audio would be included.

It is still possible that Square Enix decides to add a Japanese language track at some point in the future (via a patch), but given that the Japanese version has been available since July 2017, it seems unlikely that decision would be made at this point. If something does change we’ll be sure to update this article with any new information.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for more strategies and advice, such as saving your progress or basic controls, be sure to head over to our Dragon Quest 11 game hub!


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Author
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Bryan Dawson
Bryan Dawson has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having worked as a journalist for various publications for nearly 20 years and participating in a multitude of competitive fighting game events. He has authored over a dozen strategy guides for Prima Games, worked as a consultant on numerous gaming-related TV and web shows and was the Operations Manager for the fighting game division of the IGN Pro League.