How to actually run JAPANESE visual novels on Linux (with Proton)

vn-on-linux.md

How to run visual novels on Linux (WIP)

You don't need to use Lutris or Bottles

You don't need a fancy GUI program for this, despite some guides like TMW's using them.

All you need is UMU-Launcher, which is a launcher for Valve's Proton. You could use stock Wine to run visual novels just fine (with some tweaks, like copying over Windows fonts to the wineprefix and executing the VN with the env LANG set to ja_JP.UTF-8, essentially as if you were using Locale Emulator on Windows), but some stuff like videos are hit or miss, and that's because Wine relies on the system's GStreamer, which can be messy.
Sticking to Proton (specifically Proton-GE) will ensure that most VNs play videos, since it uses a bundled GStreamer version that just works.

LANG=ja_JP.UTF=8 PROTONPATH=GE-Proton WINEPREFIX=/home/[USERNAME]/.winevn umu-run [EXECUTABLE NAME]

Using Textractor

Run this instead of the VN's executable. Kanged from TMW's guide.

@echo off

:: Without this, Japanese file paths don't work correctly.
echo "Setting UTF-8..."
chcp 65001 > nul

echo "Launching VN..."
:: Edit the following lines to match your file paths. The Z:\ drive is mounted as your Linux filesystem.
cd /d "Z:\home\[USERNAME]\Documents\VNs\JP\Triptych\"
start triptych.exe

echo Launching Textractor...
:: This will work as is without editing if you installed Textractor to the prefix. 
:: Use x86 for 32-bit executables and x64 for 64-bit executables.
cd /d "Z:\home\[USERNAME]\Desktop\Textractor\x86"
start Textractor.exe

exit

Change the paths accordingly.
YOU CAN'T JUST RUN THE EXES SEPARATELY BECAUSE OF SOME PROTON PROCESS CONTEXT FUCKERY AND THE ONLY RELIABLE WORKAROUND IS USING A BATCH SCRIPT.

The VN's window is too small and I can't use gamescope because Textractor yada yada yada

I got you covered. Install i3, gamescope and Xephyr and then use this shell script:

#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -eu

export LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=ja_JP.UTF-8

gamescope -F fsr -W 800 -H 600 -- \
    Xephyr -resizeable -screen 800x600 :3 &
while [ ! -S /tmp/.X11-unix/X3 ]; do sleep 0.1; done   # wait for :3

DISPLAY=:3 i3 &
while ! SOCKET=$(DISPLAY=:3 i3 --get-socketpath 2>/dev/null); do sleep 0.1; done

i3-msg -s "$SOCKET" \
  'workspace 1;
   exec env DISPLAY=:3 LANG=ja_JP.UTF=8 PROTONPATH=GE-Proton WINEPREFIX=/home/[USERNAME]/.winevn umu-run helper.bat'

Note that you need to use the batch script from the previous section if you want to use Textractor. If you don't want to use Textractor, this script is useless. Just use gamescope directly.

IF YOU NEVER INITALIZED I3 PROBABLY IT'LL YOU ASK TO CHOOSE THE MOD KEY, CHOOSE THE ALT KEY SO IT DOESN'T CONFLICT WITH YOUR UNDERLYING DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT.
YOU NEED TO MOVE ONE OF THE WINDOWS, DO IT WITH MOD+SHIFT+[NUM]
IF YOU WANT TO SWITCH BETWEEN TEXTRACTOR AND THE VN, JUST USE MOD+[NUM]. (BE SURE TO USE THE SAME NUMBER YOU USED TO MOVE ONE OF THE WINDOWS)