Hello! Can I ask what's the difference between the compressed and the normal versions? I'm sorry, I'm new to visual novels and what happens when you compress them. I know with videos and images there could be a quality dip but it depends if it's significant or not. Is there a big difference in the image fidelity or the files are just compressed in a sense that the assets of the game are utilized or organized better?
By compressing them, do they lose quality?
Actually no, especially for indie games.
Compress simply means reduce file size by optimising with a compression algorithm, there may or may not be a loss. (That's why sometimes it's "lossless")
Many indie games don't optimise their file size at all, in this case compress is more like "cutting fat".
Others, the actually media quality might be "reduced", but you can't tell the difference.
On top of that, someone who's good at compress can reduce the file size, but retain the "Perceived" quality. This is the case for many of compression on this site. A lot of people prefer a compressed version.
BUT, a compressed program might not be readable until it's uncompressed. So for an Compressed VN you might be able to play on PC (where it's compressed), but not on other platform.