validrong

Hoshizora is one of the games that worked fine with AppLocale, so you may try launching it through it. Just launch AppLocale (if you don't have it, download it from Microsoft for free), choose Hoshizora .exe and pick Japanese from list (last one, with rectangle as first letter).

I'd really like Sharin no Kuni to be animated. It has linear plot, all-ages harem ending (so Eleven censors won't piss themselves) and nice story. It has no fanservice though, and MC is very competent (hard to self-insert when you're Japanese worthless shut-in), so there's little to no chance of it being animated.

I think what got me into WtK was the protagonist. Finally someone competent, self-confident and not reduced to blubbering mess when faced with women. Babby's first proactive protagonist, I know, but it got me to play G-senjou, Sharin no Kuni and Sekien no Inganock, so I can't really complain.

Canvas 2 had that one loli heroine - "Kana" I think - whose voice gave me cancer. I think I dropped that vn for the sole reason she was in game (I finished Elis route, but that's all). Kanon was a disappointment in the visuals department. I was really hyped after 2006 anime, but when it came to playing it I just tried to not notice that characters' proportions were wrong on many levels. It's not Higurashi-level bad, but pretty close.

If you tried re-downloading ntdll.dll and it did not work, I may have a solution. This may sound stupid, but launch WtK, wait for white screen, launch ANY .avi video with Windows Media Player (not Media Player Classic - important), shift focus to WtK, and if it runs smoothly, you can close WMP. I have the same problem, and it works every time.