Windows 10 VN Compatibility Community Project

A community project to document visual novel compatibility with Windows 10 in one place in a unified, easily-searchable format.

Windows 10 Visual Novel Compatibility List

The problem

With Windows 10 now available, and Microsoft pushing for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to upgrade within 1 year, visual novel players are anxious to know if moving to Windows 10 will cause their VNs to stop working.  I've seen scattered and disorganized efforts to document VN compatibility issues on a case-by-case basis, but no one wants to scour the Internet to figure out what VNs work and what VNs don't.  What we need is a single resource that VN fans can glance at and decide if upgrading will create too many problems, as well as figure out how to troubleshoot issues once they've upgraded.  In addition, a single resource would help English publishers to identify and fix compatibility issues.

My solution

I decided to organize a crowdsourced project that would document VN compatibility with Windows 10 all in one place with a unified format.  The initial plan is to use a single Google spreadsheet that anyone can edit.  I've put thought into the formatting so you don't have to: just fill in the sheet using the guidelines and follow the model entries I've provided.  As the goal is to document positive as well as negative data, fully compatible VNs will also be listed.  There's 61 titles in the list as I write this, so it's already a useful resource that will continue to grow as more people contribute.

If a better resource emerges, I'll consider revising this post and linking to that resource instead.  Happy testing!

Troubleshooting tips

Based on data collected to date, here's some tips to try if a game doesn't work.  Most common / easier solutions are listed first.

1. Update your graphics card drivers (NVIDIA, AMD).
2. Try installing and running the game in compatibility mode (either WinXP or Win7, depending on which OS the game was designed for).
3. Install and run the game as an administrator.
4. Give up on the noDVD fix you've been using and run the game from the disk (you have the original disk, right?).

Additional tips for Japanese or fan-translated titles:

1. Install Japanese supplemental fonts.  Binaryfail wrote a guide on how to do this.
2. Update your game.  Check the developer's site and update the game to latest version.  Also check if they released a separate Windows 8 or Windows 10 compatibility patch.  Be warned that patches could break fan translations.
3. Try running the game with Locale Emulator.
4. Set your region format (date/time) to Japanese (Japan).
5. If game text still doesn't display correctly in a fan-translated title, try identifying the font the fan translation uses and make sure it's installed.

If all else fails, a virtual machine with either Windows 7 or Windows XP installed will generally solve all OS compatibility issues.  I recommend VMWare Workstation (commercial) or Virtual Box (free).

Using the spreadsheet

1. The first tab is for contributors.  Some rows and columns are protected to preserve data integrity.  Sorting is disabled.  This tab will contain the most updated version of the compatiblity list.
2. The second tab is for viewers.  Sorting is enabled.  Changes to this tab will be periodically overwritten.

Guidelines for contributors

1. Existing data is usually protected and cannot be changed.  Use the comment feature to suggest edits to protected cells, or fill in the unprotected duplicate fields on the right side of the spreadsheet.  I had to do this because one incompetent editor shifted a column upwards and corrupted the entire table, forcing me to revert to a previous revision to ensure data integrity.
2. List compatible as well as incompatible VNs.
3. The release field is important.  Some releases of a VN may be compatible with Windows 10, while others won't be.  Don't forget to fill it in!  Also, a VNDB release is not the same as the VNDB main page for a given title!
4. If there's an incompatibility, provide a source URL where the issue was described, or describe the issue in sufficient detail that it could be reproduced--especially if this was a JAST USA, Mangagamer, or Sekai Project release.  They can't fix the problem unless it's properly documented!
5. No links to pirated content or sites which focus on linking to pirated content.

Text hooker compatibility

A text hooker is a tool that extracts the text from visual novels as you play, usually for the sake of real-time lookup of Japanese words and machine translation.    Windows 10 compatible text hookers include Textractor, Visual Novel Reader (VNR), and ITHVNR.  Old versions of Interactive text hooker (ITH) are not compatible with Windows 10, but binaryfail from Fuwanovel has provided a fixed executable (mirror) that works with Windows 10.

Other considerations: Text hookers should be run with administrative rights to function correctly with User Account Control enabled.  Otherwise, the game process may not appear in the list of processes to hook.  Rarely, 64-bit programs (including some titles using the Unity engine) require a 64-bit version of the text hooker to be hooked.

To my valued readers

If you liked this article, check out some of the adult visual novels on J-List, browse my other articles in the Popular Posts section, and feel free to follow me on Twitter.

[Feature image courtesy of LewdGamer's ZeniththeOne]