In all my experience with Japanese gaming, if you are having a problem with a game, then it is most likely going to be one of these five things.
1. Your system is not set into native Japanese language support (a.k.a. Japanese as the default for non-unicode programs).
Hands down the #1 most common problem. Japanese games require Japanese language support to play them. If you have Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, Japanese language support is built-in; you just have to change some settings in your Regional Settings to enable it. You can visit the Installing Japanese Language Support section of this tutorial for instructions on how to enable Japanese language support.
If you are on Windows 98 or Millenium, these operating systems do not have built-in OS Japanese support. You can use third-party Japanese language support software such as NJStar Communicator, but this is not giving you the native OS Japanese language support that the majority of games need; in fact, I'd say probably 85% or higher of all Japanese games require native Japanese language support. If you use either of these operating systems, you are going to need either a Japanese version of Windows 98 or Millenium or to upgrade your system to a newer version of Windows, which have native support.
Not having your computer properly set to native Japanese language support will likely cause the game to either not install or not be able to load/run. If it is able to run, the text may just display as question marks or jumbled random characters, and crash at some point.
2. You did not apply patches to the game from the official website.
Second most common problem. Software has bugs. Companies, of course, always discover this after the software has been released. So what do they do? They make a patch that you have to download and apply to the program to fix the problem. Japanese games are no different.
If you have a problem, especially with problems loading or crashing (often when trying to go on certain scenerios or picking certain options), error messages, or problems with CGs unlocking, these are very common things that game companies discover and release patches for.
For bishoujo games, the best place to check to see if a game requires a patch is the Japanese site Repair ~Patch Library~, where you can search for the title of a game to see if any patches are available. They also have patches available for many legacy games where the company websites no longer exist. For boys' love and otome games, I have created the Boys' Love Games Headquarters Patch Database, where you can simply search for the title of your game and download the patch if one is available. This makes it quick and easy to see if your game has a patch and download it.
Always check the archives listed above or the game's company website, and if there is a patch available, download it and apply it. Always do this right after you install a new game. You wouldn't want to play twenty times and not be able to unlock three CGs only to find out it was because you didn't apply a patch, and now you have to apply it and start over, right? So do it first thing.
3. The game has copy protection.
If you are trying to install or run a game and get errors, typically saying "Insert CD into the CDROM" even though you have the CD in the drive, this is a big clue that the game has copy protection.
Copy protection is just that -- programming that activates when a game is copied to keep them from being distributed illegally. You can scan you game for protections using A-Ray Scanner or ProtectionID. Note that these programs don't always detect protection that may be present, but for the most part they do a very good job of identifying different copy protection schemes.
If your game has copy protection but you want to play your game from an image file, the only thing you can do is to attempt to make an image file of the CD with a program like Alcohol 120%, which can work-around or emulate certain protection schemes.
For protections like SafeDisk, Alcohol 120% should be able to make a working image file as long as your CDROM drive supports it. Protection like AlphaROM, on the other hand, can't be imaged by Alcohol 120%. For newer versions of AlphaROM, one of the generic noDisk patches found on my No Disk Patch Archive may work.
4. The game files are corrupt.
Something on your game CD or image is corrupt. Corrupt files can cause just about anything: problems installing, crashing, sound or voice not to work, and miscellaneous other things.
If you are experiencing these kind of problems, the first thing to do is to make sure you've already done the above three things (make absolute sure your system is properly set to Japanese, including trying changing your local region and time zone to Japan, that you've applied any available patches, and that you aren't dealing with copy protection). Once you've ruled that out, corruption is the likely cause of the problem.
It is hard to tell if a game has corruption. One of the best things to first do is scan the disk sectors using CD Speed to see if there are any red sectors. These indicate damaged sectors, which is a good indication of file corruption (if you scan a game and there is a large band of red sectors at the beginning of the disk, this means the game has SafeDisk copy protection, so these "bad sectors" are normal in that case). Another CD scanner you can try to look for errors on your disk is CDCheck.
However, just because a game sector scans as all green doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't have corruption. If you are having problems, try it on another system (again, make sure that system has proper Japanese language support and patches are applied). If it doesn't work on that machine either, then there is likely some kind of corruption in the game files. There is little you can do in this situation, other than getting a new copy of the game, so it's a good idea to always store your game disks in cases or holders to help protect against scratches or other damage.
5. There is a conflict with your system.
If you have gone through all of the above: set system properly to Japanese, applied patches, made sure you aren't dealing with copy protection, and have a known-good game disk or image file, then it is likely a problem with your individual system. This could be a problem with your video or sound card, codecs, Direct X, or just about anything else. Make sure that your system specs match or are better (preferred) than the requirements of the game. If they are, that still doesn't mean it can't be a conflict with something on your machine!
For some possible things you can try on your system to fix game conflicts with your system, please check out the next section, System Conflict Issues.
Boys' Love Games Headquarters Complete Idiot's Guide to Japanese Gaming © March 2009
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