KS to TXT Converter

KS to TXT Conversion Explained

Converting .KS (KiriKiri Script) files to .TXT (Plain Text) changes a functional visual novel script into a static text document. .KS files contain both human-readable dialogue and engine-specific code tags that control images, sounds, and branching paths in the KiriKiri game engine.

People convert .KS to .TXT to extract the dialogue for translation, proofreading, or word counting. By doing this, you gain a clean, universally readable file that works in any text editor or translation software. However, you lose all game logic, timing commands, and multimedia triggers. The main trade-off is functionality versus readability. This conversion is a bad idea if you need to run the file in the game engine, as the KiriKiri engine requires the original tags to function.

Typical Tasks and Users

• Localization Teams and Fan Translators: Extracting Japanese text from visual novels to import into Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools.
• Proofreaders and Editors: Running standard spell-checkers and grammar tools on game dialogue without code tags triggering false errors.
• Voice Actors: Reading clean dialogue scripts without navigating around complex programming syntax.
• Data Engineers: Scraping visual novel dialogue to build text datasets for machine learning and natural language processing.

Software & Tool Support

Because .KS files are already text-based, you can open them directly by changing the file extension or using standard code editors. However, true conversion requires stripping the code tags.

• Code Editors: Notepad++ and Visual Studio Code can open .KS files. Users often rely on Regular Expressions (Regex) within these editors to manually find and delete KiriKiri tags.
• Translation Software: Specialized tools like Translator++ are built to parse .KS files, separate the text from the code, and export clean text for translation.
• Command-Line Tools: Python scripts using libraries like re (Regex) are commonly written by modders to batch-convert entire folders of .KS files into .TXT.

Pros and Cons of the Conversion

Pros:

• Universal Compatibility: .TXT files open on any operating system without specialized software.
• Clean Workspaces: Translators and editors can focus entirely on the narrative without accidentally breaking game code.
• Accurate Metrics: Word counts and character counts are exact when engine tags are removed.

Cons:

• Total Logic Loss: Stripping tags removes background changes, character sprites, audio cues, and menu choices.
• Re-insertion Complexity: If the goal is translation, the translated .TXT must eventually be merged back into the .KS format with all original tags intact.
• Context Loss: Translators lose visual context (e.g., knowing which character sprite is currently on screen) when the code is removed.

Conversion Difficulties & Why Convert.Guru

The primary technical problem when you convert .KS to .TXT is character encoding. Many legacy Japanese visual novels encode .KS files in Shift-JIS. If a modern text editor opens a Shift-JIS file using UTF-8, the text turns into unreadable mojibake (garbled characters).

The secondary problem is tag syntax. KiriKiri uses both bracket tags (e.g., [wait time=200]) and line-start tags (e.g., @jump target=*start). Poorly written extraction scripts often delete legitimate dialogue that happens to contain brackets, or leave behind stray code fragments.

Convert.Guru is a strong choice for this process because it automatically detects legacy encodings like Shift-JIS and safely transcodes the output to standard UTF-8. It also uses precise parsing rules to identify and strip KiriKiri Adventure Game (KAG) syntax without deleting your actual narrative text, ensuring a clean and accurate .TXT file.

KS vs. TXT: What is the better choice?

Which format should you choose?

Choose .KS if you are actively developing, modding, or playing a visual novel. The KiriKiri engine cannot run a plain text file; it requires the specific scripting syntax of a .KS file to render the game.

Choose .TXT if you need to share the script with a proofreader, import the dialogue into a CAT tool, or calculate translation costs based on character counts. Avoid converting to .TXT if you do not have a reliable method to re-insert the translated text back into the original .KS structure later.

Conclusion

Converting .KS to .TXT makes sense when you need to separate visual novel dialogue from game code for translation or editing. The biggest limitation to watch for is the loss of game logic; a .TXT file cannot be dropped back into a game folder to run the visual novel. Convert.Guru provides a reliable solution for this exact conversion by automatically handling the notorious Shift-JIS encoding issues and cleanly stripping KAG syntax, delivering a perfectly readable text file ready for your workflow.