Help! an Eroge keeps crashing

[Hking123]

I could use some help people!
I tried launching SLEEPLESS -A Midsummer Night's Dream, the MangaGamer version
https://www.anime-sharing.com/threads/new-30-oct-2025-mangagamer-sleepless-a-midsummer-nights-dream.1805044/
but the game keeps crashing to desktop at the start menu without an error message, I tried all sorts of things, like run as admin and stuff, didn't work
I have the original censored one and it runs fine, but this new uncensored version keeps crashing, any help?
Edit: I tried uninstalling the original game and delete save data still no luck
I ran the game on a different PC and it works fine, but this PC even tho it's not a gaming PC it should run these types of software, I mean it could run the original game.

 

[Jelly-filled Donut]

Maybe the program is just too heavy to run on a potato PC. Try clearing some of your disk space and try again. If not, maybe it's compatibility issues. Try running in it on a VM.

 

[Hking123]

Maybe the program is just too heavy to run on a potato PC. Try clearing some of your disk space and try again. If not, maybe it's compatibility issues. Try running in it on a VM.

well it's not a gaming PC but it should run these types of games.
i5-1235U
Intel Iris XE graphics
and 16GB of Ram it should be more than enough
plus like I said the japanese ver. runs fine, it's just this Eng ver. that is the problem
I even tried changing Locale from japanese to english nothing worked
I don't think VM would matter, I run all these types of games without VM
plus I tried running it on a different laptop, one that I use for work, and it ran fine without VM
tried restarting the PC, tried deleting any data from the original jp ver. I thought it could interfering with the eng ver. also tried running it from different folders and disks, tried running it with compatibility with win 8 option, still nothing. tried reinstalling the original JP ver. to see if it'll have the same issue, but it ran normally.
one thing I noticed is that when the game crashes on the start menu, the BGM doesn't even play the screen freeze even before the music starts, so I thought maybe it's a sound card issue but I have no way to prove it.

 

[Jelly-filled Donut]

(Been there, done that. No dice)

Those two PCs run on Windows, right? Are you sure the available space isn't the issue? It's 3GB worth of data, it'll need some free space to run smoothly.

Have you tried downloading other uploader's copy? Maybe that one got corrupted.

 

[Hking123]

Those two PCs run on Windows, right? Are you sure the available space isn't the issue? It's 3GB worth of data, it'll need some free space to run smoothly.

Have you tried downloading other uploader's copy? Maybe that one got corrupted.

yes, both windows 11, and there is plenty of space around 30gb
I can't seem to find another upload for this ver. there are plenty uploads for the jp ver. tho.
but I thought about that too, if the zip files were corrupted, but if that so, it shouldn't have run on the other PC.
my guess would be that there is some program or file that is causing the crash, the other PC is clean not much is on it however, this one has too much files programs and other visual novels data and so on but why would the JP ver. work and not this Eng ver. from what I can tell there isn't much difference between the 2 games except one has JP text and the other has Eng text and one is censored and the other is uncensored, the game application the one you launch the game with has different ver. to it that is all, I also tried to copy the app from the jp to eng ver and run it but I got error code and game didn't launch.

 

[Jelly-filled Donut]

(tried everything. Still crashed)

I'll download it myself to see if I can run it on my PC and try to identify the issue. Alas, my download speed is shit these days, so it might take a while. Don't get your hopes up, though.

Btw, Shine has a copy of the game too.

 

[Hking123]

I'll download it myself to see if I can run it on my PC and try to identify the issue. Alas, my download speed is shit these days, so it might take a while. Don't get your hopes up, though.

Btw, Shine has a copy of the game

thanks a lot bro! I can't thank you enough even for trying
Ryzen111 has uploaded it smaller size
https://www.anime-sharing.com/threa...epless-a-midsummer-night’s-dream-eng.1804960/

 

[Jelly-filled Donut]

thanks a lot bro! I can't thank you enough even for trying

Sorry, I fell asleep. Bad news, man. The game's running without issues on my end. I even filled my PC with some junk so there's only little to no available space left, and the game's program is still running perfectly.

Whatever the source of the problem is, it's in that one PC of yours. I hope it's not the graphics card problem.

 

[Checkmate]

have you installed directx and vcdist? it's the first step to prepare any new Windows PC to play games.

 

[Hking123]

Sorry, I fell asleep. Bad news, man. The game's running without issues on my end. I even filled my PC with some junk so there's only little to no available space left, and the game's program is still running perfectly.

Whatever the source of the problem is, it's in that one PC of yours. I hope it's not the graphics card problem.

no worries thanks for the effort, much love.
I'm 70% sure that the problem is, I had the original jp ver. installed and some of the game's files get stored somewhere on disk C not in the game folder, these files aren't compatible with the new ver. because it's using different text and CG, even tho I did a full uninstall, some of the data is still there, and I simply can't find it and got tired of searching. MangaGamer are planning to release the 2nd Empress game Sleepless: Nocturne also in Eng and uncensored if my theory is correct then the other game will crash too because I also had the original jp ver. installed, I'm 100% sure if I did a full format to my laptop, the game will run fine but tbh it's not worth it atm, maybe sometime in the future tho, I can still run it on my other laptop I just need to be careful no one see it, cuz it's for work lol
you know at some point, I stopped caring for the game and I just want to know what's the problem and how to solve it, from a tech point of view.

 

[Hking123]

have you installed directx and vcdist? it's the first step to prepare any new Windows PC to play games.

yes all installed, I have played a lot of VN and Eroge, this isn't the first one.
if I'm not mistaken windows 11 comes with dx12 installed

 

[Checkmate]

if I'm not mistaken windows 11 comes with dx12 installed

Most games still need dx9-11 package. So you still have to install the dxwebsetup.exe


Even Steam does this by default.

 

[Hking123]

Most games still need dx9-11 package. So you still have to install the dxwebsetup.exe


Even Steam does this by default.

well yeah, however I got the pop up message ''we determined the version you have installed doesn't need an update'' or something along these lines when I tried updating Directx
however I did a troubleshoot on directx and I got a message saying direct3D didn't launch properly or something, after a crash it displayed this message
in ''Search'' type ''dxdiag'' and enter

 

[Checkmate]

Unfortunately I'm out of ideas. But I can see that the game doesn't have any DRM, it doesn't have Steam elements either, so it should have worked out of the box.

I also notice it save to C:\Users\Checkmate\Saved Games\WillPlus\SLEEPLESS - A Midsummer Night's Dream -\Save000, not the local game folder.

Perhaps you should check your own user folder in C:\ and if that folder exist "SLEEPLESS - A Midsummer Night's Dream-" back it up somewhere, then delete it.

 

[Hking123]

Unfortunately I'm out of ideas. But I can see that the game doesn't have any DRM, it doesn't have Steam elements either, so it should have worked out of the box.

I also notice it save to C:\Users\Checkmate\Saved Games\WillPlus\SLEEPLESS - A Midsummer Night's Dream -\Save000, not the local game folder.

Perhaps you should check your own user folder in C:\ and if that folder exist "SLEEPLESS - A Midsummer Night's Dream-" back it up somewhere, then delete it.

I already tried that, I deleted all save data but the moment you launch the game, it automatically creates a save folder. I also uninstalled the jp ver. still nothing, I reinstalled it to see if it'll have the same issue as the en ver, but nope it ran normally.
the jp ver had to be mounted and installed and above that it was protected, it needed a crack, luckily someone posted the crack long ago and I still had it , however this en ver. you just unzip and run the game, nothing else is needed, I get the warning 18+ screen and it tells to press any key then once I'm at main menu the game freezes for a couple of seconds and it crashes, not even the main menu music is played.
I tried applying the crack to it but the game wouldn't launch at all.
and like I said I tried it on a different laptop and it worked, so it's something on my PC that is the problem, I just can't figure it out, at this point I don't care about the game as much as I care to know what is the problem lol.

 

[Jelly-filled Donut]

(deadend)

Does that other computer ran on AMD? Or also Intel like this problematic PC?