RuneTranslate

Play Japanese games in a language you actually read.

RuneTranslate is a free Windows app that pulls the text straight out of a Japanese game, translates it, and writes a fully playable translated copy back out. No emulator overlays, no clipboard hooking, no screenshots — it edits the game's own files, so the translation shows up in‑game exactly where it should.

It started as a tool to play untranslated RPG Maker games and grew to cover most of the engines doujin and indie JP games actually ship on.

✅ Free. Every engine, every feature.

There's no feature paywall. The free version unlocks every engine, every translation provider, and the full editor. A $5/mo Patreon just removes a speed throttle if you're translating whole games and want it faster — but you never need it.

And you don't need an API key to start: RuneTranslate includes free, no‑key translation built in, so you can try it on a game in two minutes.

🎮 Supported engines

  - RPG Maker MV / MZ — including games packed inside the .exe (Enigma Virtual Box)

  - Wolf RPG — .wolf archives, including V3, with crash‑safe text writeback

  - Kirikiri / KAG — XP3 archives, encrypted schemes, and compiled PSB scenarios

  - Ren'Py — .rpy, compiled .rpyc, and .rpa archives → clean native tl/ output

  - TyranoBuilder / TyranoScript

  - Unity (externalized text)

  - RPG Developer Bakin

  - SRPG Studio

  - Electron‑based visual novels

🌐 Translate with whatever you want

DeepL · Google · OpenAI · Anthropic (Claude) · plus free built‑in translators that need no API key. Mix and match — route short UI strings to a cheap engine and dialogue to a better one.

🛠️ A real editor, not just one‑click MTL

  - Side‑by‑side editing with find & replace and bulk actions

  - Translation memory — translate the same line once, ever, across all your projects

  - Tag/code preservation so control codes, names, and styling survive translation

  - Resume half‑finished projects; re‑translate only what you want

  - Progress, ETA, and cost estimates before you spend anything

  - UI available in 10 languages

How it works

  1. Point it at a game — RuneTranslate detects the engine and pulls out the text.

  2. Translate — pick a provider (or the free one) and let it run, or edit by hand.

  3. Export — it writes a playable translated copy. Launch and play.

Get it

Download below, run the installer, done. It keeps itself up to date automatically. Windows 10/11, 64‑bit.

🔗 Site: RuneTranslate — Translate Japanese games (RPG Maker, Ren'Py, Kirikiri, Wolf RPG)

💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/ZtsfZu7YsW

❤️ Support development (optional): RuneTranslate | Translation engine for Japanese RPG Games | Patreon

Machine translation isn't perfect — RuneTranslate gives you an editable result and the tools to fix it, not a flawless localization. Found a game that won't open? Tell me in the comments and I'll look at the engine.