Extract text from Ren'Py save files (PERSISTENT)
To convert PERSISTENT Save files to another format, you need Ren'Py or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Game Save File" file type, you need software like Ren'Py or a similar tool.
A .persistent file is a global save data file created by the Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine. Unlike standard save slots that record your exact position in a specific game session, the persistent file tracks global profile data. This includes unlocked CG galleries, global achievements, and dialogue paths you have already seen across all playthroughs.
The main disadvantage of the .persistent format is its strict, proprietary structure. Under the hood, the file uses Python's pickle data serialization and is compressed into a binary format using zlib. This means you cannot read or open it with standard desktop software. If you try to open it in Notepad or TextEdit, you will only see garbled characters. Manually saving the file in a text editor will permanently corrupt the zlib compression and destroy your gallery unlocks. This makes transferring specific achievements or troubleshooting broken save data incredibly frustrating for players and modders.
To make this data readable or editable, you must decompress the binary wrapper and parse the underlying Python structures. For active editing and modding, convert the file to JSON. For simple archiving and reading, convert it to TXT.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PERSISTENT file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SAVE, ZLIB, RPY, SAV, ZL and PBF files.
If you want to convert PERSISTENT file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Ren'Py or similar software from the "Visual Novel Global Save Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to PERSISTENT, try Ren'Py or another comparable tool in the "Visual Novel Global Save Data" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PERSISTENT converter.