About
RealLive is VisualArt's KK's proprietary visual novel scripting engine and interpreter, used to run games published under the Key label such as Kanon, Air, and CLANNAD. rlvm is a free, GPLv3-licensed reimplementation of the RealLive interpreter for Linux and macOS, letting players run VisualArt's/Key-label visual novels. It plays games including Kanon, Air, CLANNAD, Planetarian, Tomoyo After, Little Busters, and Kud Wafter to completion, and supports rlBabel-based English fan translation patches.
How it differs from the original
Two minigames that rely on Windows DLLs in the original games — Little Busters' baseball minigame and Tomoyo After's dungeon-crawling minigame — don't work under rlvm, since it doesn't implement those Windows DLL calls.
Getting started
You need the original game data (a folder containing SEEN.TXT) for the visual novel you want to play — rlvm doesn't include or provide any games itself, just the interpreter — then point rlvm's GUI, or the command line on Linux, at that folder to launch it.
Known limitations
- gameplay: Little Busters' baseball minigame does not work because it is implemented as a Windows DLL.
- gameplay: Tomoyo After's dungeon crawling minigame does not work due to DLL implementation.
Media
Additional notes
- Credits
- The interpreter builds on Jagarl's original reverse-engineering work on the RealLive format and Haeleth's rldev/rlBabel tools for English fan translations.