I used to have a Japanese copy of Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG and tried using a combo of Let's Play footage of the US version and also a full script of what the characters say during cutscenes. It essentially took me forever to progress this way and I didn't find it enjoyable at all since it really cuts up the pacing of the game when you have to research what a single line in the menu options means for 10-minutes.
Haha!
Welcome to my world. 
You just described exactly how was the experience of playing EVERY SINGLE GAME released in the 1990's and 2000's in our """modded""" PS1s and PS2s down in South America...
Imagine how it was to play Final Fantasy VIII or Silent Hill without understanding a word of English!
I think the first game I played while having some reasonable degree of knowledge on the English language was probably Metal Gear Solid 3 back in 2004...
And even so, at that time, I used to think the lyrics for the game's main theme was saying:
"I'm still in a treeeeeee... Snake Eater!"
Hahahaha!
LMAO!!!
I tip my hat to you for doing that. I already struggle with RPGs, mostly because of how much of a time commitment they are, so having to spend 4 or 5 times that normal amount just to translate battle options, character dialogue, and pretty much everything else in the game just sounds impossible for me. It is tempting to try again instead of paying several hundred dollars for for a US copy, but at the same time the collector in me wants to get it just to have an awesome, rare game in the collection. At least that way I can also play it without the interruption of translating and whatnot.
