How To Translate Kirikiri/KRKRZ Based VN Games

Before you ask, I’m using Windows 10 64Bit with Japanese Locale
Game used in this tutorial: Sugarfull Tempering (Shugaten)
also, excuse my bad english…

Step 1: Archive Extraction

There are many tools already, that support Kirikiri/KRKRZ,
but in this tutorial, we’ll use Garbro*

Now, look at this, this is how the Shugaten installation directory looks like…

Explanations:
the *.exe is the main executable which you need to execute when you want to play
the *.xp3 is a compressed archive where the game data stored
the *.sig file is a “signature” which contain random code for security purpose (maybe?)
the “plugin” folder contain game library (don’t mess with this)

and, the “savedata” folder is a place where your game progress saved

Now, let’s extract the game data…

not all of them, we just need the “data.xp3” only (on older games, locations may vary)
Launch Garbro, and open the “data.xp3”
this is what inside the game archive looks like

Explanations:

bgimage: background image files

bgm: background music files
font: font files
scn: script files
sound: sound effect files
thum: CG thumbnail
uipsd: user interface files (menu)
other folder: system / configuration files

We don’t need to extract all of them, just extract the script under “scn” folder
to do that, right click the “scn” and click “Extract”
a new window will appear, ask you where to save the extracted files,
and then click “Extract”

Please note that Garbro has limited support for encrypted Kirikiri/KRKRZ games,
refer yourself to this list
 Step 2: Script Editing (Translation)
For this tutorial, we’ll use Multiline Editor (Ineditor)
(crappy english interface, get it here)

Please note that Kirikiri/KRKRZ is an open source engine, so company can make any changes to the engine to meet their needs,
(and most likely they won’t release the code because they don’t care…)
because of that, Kirikiri/KRKRZ has different script format,
Kirikiri 2 / KAG usually store their script in KS / TXT, while KRKRZ store them in PSB / SCN / MDF
even if it has different script style, KS / TXT are not encrypted, so you can open them in any text editor (except for Akabeisoft3)
in other hand, PSB / SCN / MDF is always have the same format, doesn’t matter what company is.
tutorial below valid for PSB / SCN / MDF only.

Click “File” > “Open Original Script” or simply press CTRL+O Search for the script file, and click “Open”

Choose “M2Psb Plugin”, and then click “Save”

The script will be loaded, and ready for editing

there are 4 panels in total, 2 panels on the left and right, and the 2 others at the bottom,
click the text on the panel 1, then it should be appear on the panel 2 and 3,
translate the text on the panel 3, panel 2 only used for references
and when you hit “Enter” your translation will appear on the panel 4
During translation, you may notice “¥n”, that’s a code for force-linebreaks since Kirikiri/KRKRZ is not support word-wrap by default,
you don’t have to insert the linebreaks code during translation, that would be pointless,

insert it on QC instead, or at the point you sure you don’t make any translation mistake.

Once the translation done, it looks like this

Now, save the translation by click “File” > “Save As…” or simply press SHIFT+CTRL+S

Browse where you want to save the translated script, type the script name (must be same as the original)
and then, click “Save”

That’s how we edit/do the translation, do the same process to translate all script.
 Last Step: Repacking
Now, let’s repack the script and make it readable to the game

Launch Garbo, and go to where you save your translated script,

once you found the script, right-click on it and click “Create archive…”

A new window will appear, and then just follow this parameter,
as I said earlier, Garbro has limited support for many games only,
if your game is not listed but readable with Garbro,

choose “no encryption” instead…

Once you’re done, click “OK”,

the “Patch.xp3” should be created under the same directory as the input script.

Then just copy to the game directory.

And run the game!

At this point, you already get what you need to do the basic translation,
however, most of translation group also translate another aspect from the game, like menu and UI,
that’s optional though…
to translate menu, we need to messing around with the system files, change some parameter, etc…
that’s not user friendly for newbies…

However, no one will stop you from trying, just keep scrolling

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
 Translating Menu

Go back to Step 1
instead of “scn” go to “sysscn” folder, and search for “Override.tjs”
right-click, and then extract it

Once it extracted,
load in any text editor, search the parameter, and then translate it

too bad that the menu on Shugaten is encrypted,

but worry not, because we can use KrkrzSceneManager

Launch the KrkrzSceneManager

right click on the empty area > TJS2 > Open

Choose “Override.tjs”

Once it loaded, you can edit them.

click on the line you want to translate,
it will appear on the bottom panel,
type your translation, and hit “Enter”
do the same to the all Japanese lines,
when it done, it will looks like this picture.

Now, save it with right click on the empty area > TJS2 > Save
Translating UI

Go back to step 1, and then go to “uipsd” folder,

if you’re lucky, you’ll found a bunch of PNG files
which you can edit with any image editor.

But sometimes, the UI is packed with PSB / PIMG format,

so we need an additional step for this…

We need tools called FreeMote,

this tools is made for Kirikiri/KRKRZ with eMote engine
but compatible with common Kirikiri/KRKRZ

This is a CLI program so at least you need to know how to use CMD
for now we’ll use “conf_key.pimg” as an example, which contain shortcut UI,
after you download FreeMote put it in the working directory,
or add path to windows environment variables, and run this command:
“psbdecompile /ep conf_key.pimg”
decompiler will start to decompiling the “conf_key.pimg”
once it done, you’ll notice new folder which name is same as input,
and a json file (we’ll need this file later) which name also same as input,
in this case “conf_key.pimg.json”
Kirikiri usually save the image in TLG, but since we use “/ep” parameter
FreeMote will automatically convert the TLG to PNG,
which later you can edit with any image editor of your choices.

FreeMote will keep the original TLG though, so we need to manually

delete it.

Once you’re done with editing,

we need to convert back the PNG to TLG
for that need, we’ll use Krkrdevui

download and launch Krkrdevui,

and just drag & drop your edited image files

I recommend to use this setting to keep

the game compatibility…

Now, after the *.TLG is ready, we’ll compile them back to PIMG
run CMD, go to the working directory, and run this command…
“psbuild /v3 /pkrkr conf_key.pimg.json”
a new PSB file will be created with “json-pure.psb” on its name
rename and delete it so it just leave “conf_key.pimg”
that’s it, do the same process to all PIMG

⇦ This is how the translated UI looks like.

during PIMG creation, make sure you use the correct PSB / PIMG version,
or the patch simply doesn’t work, to know what version your game using,

simply open the json file with any text editor, if the PSB version is different,
just change the parameter, example: “PSBVersion”: 4
then, instead of “/v3” use “/v4”
for now, FreeMote support PSB v2 – 4
 Create Custom Splash Screen / Credits

Go back to step 1, enter the “main” folder

now search for “custom.ks”, right-click and extract it…

Normally, the screen will stop, fade the bgm,

play farewell, and then the game is closed
but here, we add the custom command to view the splash screen
just before the game closed
quick explanation:
ev file: name of your splash screen, example: “attention7.png”
clickskip enabled: make your splash screen skip-able or not
“true” for skip-able, and “false” for unskip-able
wait time: splash screen duration, written in milliseconds
other game may differ, but not much, just search for the “exit” command

How it looks like

Special Thanks!

I would like to say thanks for the following awesome people that makes our lives much easier!

morkt, for his amazing Garbro

AmaF / regomne, for his Ineditor
Marcussacana, for his KrkrzSceneManager
Ulysses Wu, for grant my selfish request to add PIMG support for his FreeMote

if you have any questions, suggestions, fix my English, or just wanna say hi, feel free to contact me by email or fuwanovel
if you start a translation project, and use their tools, make sure to give them proper credits!

Good luck!