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Your translated game opens and closes, or hangs on a loading screen forever. One of the lines you translated was never text: an id, a path, a flag the game compares against. Prove it is the translation first, then find the line by halving — about thirteen exports takes five thousand lines down to one.

XUnity.AutoTranslator is the best runtime translator Unity has, and when it goes quiet the reason is almost always one of five specific things: the game is an IL2CPP build, the text is set through a path the hook does not intercept, the UI framework drawing it is not enabled, the line is longer than the character cap, or the endpoint has shut itself down. Here is how to tell which one you have.

You translated the game, the export ran clean, and the dialogue box is full of □□□. That is almost never a translation problem — it is a font problem, and it has a different fix from the two failures people confuse it with. Here is how to tell a missing glyph from a stripped character from mojibake, and how each one gets fixed in Unity, TextMeshPro, Ren'Py and the runtime tools.

A translation patch is the one thing a fan translator actually produces: the lines, matched to the places in the game they belong. This is the whole job end to end — choosing between a runtime overlay and a patched build, extracting the text, translating it, fixing what a machine gets wrong, exporting, testing in game, and sharing the patch file rather than the game.

RPG Maker is the most translatable engine there is — the text sits in plain data files. Here is how to identify your version, export a playable translated build, and keep control codes intact.

Unreal games ship their text in compiled .locres tables inside .pak or IoStore containers. Here is how to read them, and why the output is a tiny override pak rather than a rebuilt game.

The complete getting-started guide: install RuneTranslate, point it at any Japanese game, let it auto-detect the engine, translate with your chosen provider, then export a playable build. Works on 18 engines.

Debug strings, asset paths and leftover dev text can slip past auto-exclusion. RuneTranslate’s per-project regex filters exclude any line whose source matches a pattern — with a live preview of exactly what they catch — so you never spend a translation on junk. Free, on every tier.

RuneTranslate Pro routes the free translators (Google, DeepL) through your own proxies, so a per-IP rate limit no longer caps a whole-game run. Paste your proxies, test them, and requests spread across them automatically — a rate-limited IP steps aside on its own. Bring your own proxies, stored encrypted on your PC; off by default.

RuneTranslate’s Developer tier imports your own CSV, JSON, PO (gettext) or XLIFF files, translates them into as many languages as you want at once with any provider, and exports each back in the same format with ids intact.

DeepSeek is a first-class provider in RuneTranslate: context-aware translation of Japanese RPGs and visual novels for a few cents per game. Bring your own key, pick deepseek-v4-flash (default) or deepseek-v4-pro.

Connect RuneTranslate to Claude Desktop over the open MCP standard. Talk to Claude to find untranslated lines, research names, and translate in place. Browsing is free; translating and exporting are Supporter+. Off by default, loopback-only.

RuneTranslate translates AliceSoft System 3.x and System 4 games — Rance, Evenicle, Daiakuji — into English and 30+ languages. Pure-TypeScript reader for the .ald / .afa archives and .ain message data. Best-effort; verify the exported build.

RuneTranslate translates YU-RIS (raiL-soft) visual novels into English and 30+ languages — reading .ypf packages and compiled YSTB scripts in pure TypeScript, recovering each script’s XOR key, and exporting translated scripts loose. Best-effort.

RuneTranslate translates Artemis Engine (iMel/Mikage) visual novels into English and 30+ languages — reading .pfs archives (incl. PF8 encryption), extracting dialogue and choices, and exporting a root.pfs override patch the game loads. Best-effort.

The .po is the editable source; the .mo is the compiled catalog the game actually loads — which is why editing the .po alone changes nothing. RuneTranslate reads both, protects %s and {count} placeholders, refits plural forms to your language, and writes a working .mo back.

RuneTranslate translates Godot 3.x / 4.x games — opening the .pck (even when embedded in the .exe), decompiling GDScript and scenes with GDRE Tools, and listing the UI + dialogue. Export re-packs into the .exe. Best-effort; verify the build runs.

RuneTranslate translates NScripter and ONScripter visual novels into English and 30+ languages — decoding the XOR-obfuscated nscript.dat, handling Shift-JIS / CP932, and exporting a ready-to-run copy. New; report anything that doesn’t load.

Title screens, menu buttons and HUD labels are pixels, not strings, so no extractor reaches them. The Studio detects that text, rebuilds the artwork behind it and typesets your translation back in — RPG Maker, Ren’Py (including .rpa), Kirikiri, NScripter and more.

RuneTranslate’s collaborative projects put your whole team in one live shared project — real-time presence, last-write-wins editing, and a 20-character invite code. Supporter+ hosts; free teammates can join and edit.

Translate Ren’Py visual novels into English with RuneTranslate — handling loose .rpy, compiled .rpyc, and archived .rpa games, masking markup, bundling a CJK/non-Latin font, and exporting a translation the game loads on launch.

Translate Kirikiri / KAG visual novels into English with RuneTranslate — reading encrypted .xp3 archives with ported GARbro schemes, translating KAG .ks scenarios and PSB scenes, and exporting a patch.xp3 the game auto-loads.

Translate Unity games with RuneTranslate — reading TextAssets, MonoBehaviour fields (Mono and IL2CPP), and StreamingAssets, why it’s externalized-text-only, and how the identifier guard keeps you from breaking the game.

Translate TyranoBuilder / TyranoScript visual novels with RuneTranslate — extracting data/scenario/*.ks scripts, masking KAG tags, translating character display names, and exporting a playable HTML5 or Electron build.

The AI refiner is an optional second pass that re-reads every translated line next to the original Japanese and its surrounding lines, then rewrites it — fixing mistranslations, stiff phrasing, and tone. Free on your own API key or local model.

Translate SRPG Studio tactical RPGs into English with RuneTranslate — unpacking the encrypted data.dts with a bundled sidecar, extracting the game’s text, and repacking a playable build. Best-effort; verify the exported game.

A translation glossary force-substitutes source→target term pairs across every batch and every provider, so your heroine’s name reads the same in chapter 1 and chapter 47. How the placeholder mask works, plus the CSV workflow. Supporter+.

Translate Wolf RPG (ウディタ) games into English with RuneTranslate — handling .wolf archives (V2 and V3), extracting .dat / .mps text, and self-healing control-coded lines so the exported build stays stable.

Honest comparison of DeepL, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google, and local models for translating Japanese RPGs and visual novels — quality, cost per million characters, and when to use which of RuneTranslate’s 9 providers.

Both engines share most translation surface, but plugin parameters, control codes, and the data-folder layout shift in MZ. Practical notes for translators moving between RPG Maker MV and MZ projects.

Translate gettext .po and .mo catalogs — the format Python, pygame, SDL and Poedit-localized games ship.

Translate RPG Maker MV, MZ and the older Ruby-based XP / VX / Ace end-to-end — dialogue, database, item names, plugin strings.

Translate the Ruby generation of RPG Maker — XP, VX and VX Ace — by reading the .rgssad / .rgss2a / .rgss3a archive and the Ruby Marshal data inside, then exporting a playable translated build.

Translate source, compiled (.rpyc) and archived (.rpa) Ren'Py visual novels.

Translate Kirikiri / KAG visual novels with 26+ ported XP3 encryption schemes.

Translate Wolf RPG games via the bundled UberWolfCli sidecar (V2.x stable, V3.x best-effort).

Translate TyranoBuilder and TyranoScript visual novels including character display names.

Catch-all adapter for custom Electron-based visual novel shells.

Translate Unity games — TextAsset & MonoBehaviour strings plus StreamingAssets scripts.

Translate RPG Developer Bakin games — database + event text via Bakin's own localization.

Translate SRPG Studio tactical RPGs — unpack the encrypted data.dts, translate all in-game text, repack.

Translate classic NScripter and open-source ONScripter visual novels — decode the XOR-0x84 nscript.dat / 0.txt scripts, handle Shift-JIS, and translate the baked-in image text.

Translate Godot 3.x / 4.x games — unpack the .pck (even when embedded in the .exe), decompile GDScript, convert scenes, translate dialogue + UI, and export a runnable build for embedded-pck (.exe) games.

Translate Artemis (iMel / Mikage) Lua-based visual novels — read the PF8 / PF6 / PF2 .pfs archives in pure TS (incl. PF8 SHA-1 XOR encryption), extract .ast / .txt dialogue, names and choices, and export a root.pfs.NNN override patch the engine mounts last.

Translate YU-RIS (raiL-soft) visual novels — read the .ypf packages in pure TS and the compiled YSTB scripts inside ysbin.ypf, recover the script XOR key automatically, extract the Japanese dialogue, and export translated scripts loose with no repack.

Translate AliceSoft System 3.x and System 4 games — the Rance series, Evenicle and the wider catalog. Read the .ald / .afa archives in pure TS, pull the message text out of System39.ain (System 3.x) or the per-game .ain (System 4, incl. the AI2/zlib and encrypted containers), and export the translated game by loose-file override.

Translate Unreal Engine 4 / 5 games — read the .locres UI / menu / system / subtitle text out of the .pak archives (auto-recovering the AES key for encrypted games) and UE5 IoStore .utoc/.ucas containers, then ship a small override pak you drop into Content/Paks. No multi-gigabyte repack.

Translate LiveMaker / LiveNovel visual novels — read the VFF archive embedded in the .exe, pull the dialogue and menu choices out of the compiled .lsb scenarios, and repack a runnable translated copy. Verified on a real 411 MB game (7,715 lines).

17 engines in one app — Unity, Unreal and Godot at file level, image text, save editor — and a free tier that unlocks every engine and every provider.

17 engines, 9 providers, the whole editor free — and the export is a playable game folder you keep. MTool hooks the game while it runs; this writes files.

17 engines, 9 providers and a playable translated build you keep, next to Sugoi Toolkit's live on-screen overlay. Free unlocks the whole editor.

Unity, RPG Maker, Ren’Py, Wolf RPG and 13 more engines in one app, exported as a playable build. Compared with XUnity.AutoTranslator’s runtime hook.

17 engines, 9 providers and a full editor free — RuneTranslate exports a playable translated build. Compare it with Textractor's live hook overlay.

Parse the game files, edit the whole script and export a playable translated build you keep — 17 engines, 9 providers. Compared with Translumo's overlay.

A Windows desktop app that translates Japanese games into 30+ languages — RPG Maker, Ren’Py, Kirikiri, Unity — and exports a build you can play.

Download the latest stable RuneTranslate installer for Windows 10 / 11. Sixteen engines plus Gettext, nine translation providers, auto-updating. ~150 MB.

Every published RuneTranslate release and what changed in it: engine support, translation providers, image text and bug fixes, newest first.

17 engines and formats in one translator: RPG Maker, Ren’Py, Kirikiri, Wolf RPG, Unity, Unreal, Godot, TyranoBuilder, NScripter, YU-RIS and more.

Translate the Japanese text baked into a game’s artwork. The Image Studio detects it, rebuilds the background behind it and typesets your translation.

Free save editor for .rpgsave, .rmmzsave, .rxdata, .rvdata2, .lsd and Ren’Py saves — edit gold, stats, switches, variables and items. Every edit backed up.

Add gold, godmode, one-hit kills, no random encounters and walk-through-walls to RPG Maker MV / MZ and Ren’Py games. Hotkey cheat menu, free, removable.

File patchers, runtime hooks and screen OCR — the three ways to translate a Japanese game, which tools fit each, and how to choose. Updated Aug 2026.

How RuneTranslate translates Japanese games: 17 engines and formats, 9 providers (3 need no API key), free tier, save editor, cheat menu, pricing.

Walkthroughs, comparisons and engine guides for translating Japanese games — RPG Maker, Ren’Py, Kirikiri, Unity, Godot, and which provider to pick.

What RuneTranslate collects, why, and what we don’t. Plain English, honest about the system as built.

The terms you accept when using RuneTranslate (desktop app + website). Plain English.