This info could potentially be used to run games in locales other than Japanese as well.
First things first, this should fix two problems: wrong encoding (unintelligible seemingly random characters), and/or the game just plain not starting:
- Go to Control Panel > Region and Language. Switch to the Administrative tab. Click on "Change system locale..." and switch the locale to "Japanese (Japan)". Restart your computer, and try running the game.
There is another way to do this, using a program called AppLocale, where you pick an .exe and a locale and it will open it in that locale, but this doesn't always work.
This second step is for if you get the Japan Only / Japanese ver. Windows required message. This is increasingly common in newer Visual Art's games:
- Acquire a "No Region Loader", and open the .exe that starts the game with it (in Key's case, "SiglusEngine.exe").
I've heard you can bypass this with a Japanese virtual machine, but I have not confirmed this myself.
If your game still doesn't work, feel free to share your issues.