Visual-Novels-On-Linux

How to play Visual Novels on Linux

Linux Gaming has come a long way, but there are still issues regarding Visual Novels (especially ones released pre-2016). These issues include videos (like intros) not playing correctly or not playing at all, black screens, crashing, missing characters, saves not working, etc.

Now here I am with a (somewhat) easy and (hopefully) future-proof guide to solve most of these issues once and for all.

Prerequisites

• Literally any Linux distribution that is actively maintained and supports flatpak (most distros support flatpak and some have it installed by default).
• Flatpak: You need to install flatpak and enable flathub (SteamOS has this by default, bazzite and some other do too).

1. Install Flatpak

Find your distro below and run the respective command in the terminal:

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS (Debian based distros)

Bash

sudo apt update
sudo apt install flatpak

Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, Rocky (Fedora based distros)

Bash

sudo dnf install flatpak

ArchLinux, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, CachyOS (Arch based distros)

Bash

sudo pacman -S flatpak

OpenSUSE

Bash

sudo zypper install flatpak

2. Enable Flathub

Run this command:

Bash

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Enable Japanese Locale on Flatpak

Some guides tell you to update the locale of your distro; this may be messy and vary wildly between distros. But don't fret—since we're using flatpak, you only have to enable the Japanese locale on flatpak. Run these commands:

Bash

flatpak config --user --set languages "en;ja"

and

Bash

flatpak config --set languages "en;ja"

Now all we have to do is update so the configs stick:

Bash

flatpak update

4. Install Heroic, ProtonPlus, and Flatseal

Bash

flatpak install flathub com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl
flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal
flatpak install flathub com.vysp3r.ProtonPlus

Setting Up Heroic

Open Flatseal, select Heroic Games Launcher, scroll down and tick (turn on) the option for filesystem permissions.

Close Flatseal and open Proton Plus. Select Heroic, then click on ProtonGE.

Now you may be asking yourself, "What do I install?" Well, allegedly the best version for visual novels is GE Proton 9-12 (as newer versions screwed support for older visual novels, but you can try older or newer versions if you have issues with a specific title).

(you may need to click on "load more" to see it).

• Now we can finally open Heroic.

Setting Up Games

Open Heroic and click on ADD GAME. I'm going to add Majikoi S with the fan translation as an example.

1. Click on Show Wine Settings and select the Wine version you got (as I said, I'm using GE Proton9-22). The prefix will be created automatically.
2. Search for your game executable and add it.
   • If you need to install the game first: Use the RUN INSTALLER FIRST option. Select your executable and install it preferably somewhere in your home folder, for example Z:/home/<your username>/Games.
   • After installing, add the game executable, NOT the installer.
3. Click on Finish.
4. Now open the game's options.

If your VN requires a patch:

• For patches where installation consists of copying files: You can do that in desktop mode as usual by copying them to the game directory.
• For patches which ship as an exe: Check if it can be opened as an archive (e.g., in 7-Zip). A lot of these exes are just self-extracting archives, so once you've gotten the payload data out, you can just proceed as above.
• For patches that actually require running the exe: You will want to use the option in the settings to run an EXE inside the prefix; select your patch executable and install it.

Troubleshooting

Disabling DXVK

ONLY do this if you are playing an older or legacy Visual Novel (typically from the Win95/NT/XP/Win7 era, roughly pre-2016) and you encounter specific graphical glitches.

Common symptoms that mean you should disable DXVK:

• Video playback failure: Opening movies (OPs/EDs) show a black/green/glitchy screen.
• "Tofu" or glitchy text boxes: Even with fonts installed, the text box layer flickers or disappears.
• Crash on startup: The game opens a window and immediately closes without an error log.

In this case, Majikoi S works with and without it, but I disable it anyway.

Note: If it works, keep it disabled for that specific game. If it doesn't fix the issue, re-enable it—the problem is likely missing fonts or video codecs (installing wmp9, quartz, or lavfilters via Winetricks usually fixes video issues better than disabling DXVK).

In this case, Majikoi S Works best with all 3 (wmp9, quartz, or lavfilters) so install those

Winetricks: This is at the bottom of the settings. Search for the stuff you want to install. Don't install random stuff, it will screw everything up. Look up what your specific VN needs (most only need wmp9, quartz, or lavfilters).

Japanese Locale

Some VNs don't need the JP locale added to run, so try launching the game normally first. If it crashes or doesn't load well, then try with locale.

To enable Japanese locale, go to the Advanced tab on the settings menu, and scroll down to "Environment Variables". Add these two:

• LC_ALL=ja_JP.UTF-8
• LANG="ja_JP.UTF-8"

It should look like this in the settings.

Now you're ready to play

Open the game and enjoy.

(Here would be screenshots of Majikoi S running, showing that the videos work too).

This is it, feel free to ask me anything.