Vladz0r

Hi people, I was wondering if anyone knew how to text hook the Steam version of Umineko. If anyone has a hook code for ITH/ITHVNR, that would be sweet. I tried alternative methods with CheatEngine, but the method of finding hook codes this way never works for me. (I spent several hours on it, following videos and tutorials, but it never works out) Thanks if anyone can help.

I tried the Game.exe and the Hook Code (/HQN-4@304003D:Game.exe) but I get an error: vnrcli:UnsafeInsertHookCode: FAILED: module not present vnrcli:NewHook:WARNING: failed to insert hook

You probably just have to change the text speed to full/immediate. It's a common thing with VN engines and text hooking.

Found it somewhere and reuploaded to Mega and Google Drive, then realized we're apparently not supposed to share links around here. Welp.

I considered a file corruption. I wonder how that could've happened, though, so I'll try another version. Ah, I'll try changing the format first. I only adjusted the time *edit* http://i.imgur.com/qX6d6QJ.png Woo! Changing the time format worked. Thanks guys

The game just stops working after this point - http://i.imgur.com/NOVymuB.png I'm in Japanese Locale, I tried changing my time to Japan's time. I tried installing the update from the official site, and also tried using the English Prologue partial patch, but it breaks at the same spot regardless. I haven't seen this specific error posted, so I don't know what to do.

This was fun to listen to my babe, Ken (shcboomer) and all the other guys. The Kyousuke hate was suffering ;x Lots of good convos, though.

I think it has some pretty well developed romance, although it's more plot-intense and interesting than intimate. There isn't too much heartrending drama until the end, and was kind of a lot of mundane slice of life to get through, but the ending made me love it and reflect on the story in its entirety. The characters aren't anything special, but it has some similarities with Little Busters' Refrain route. It can be very rollercoaster-like emotionally once you get through each route. Each route was satisfying in its own way and brought some different feelings for me, and the OST was sweet, though I sucked at the rhythm games and skipped them. I didn't expect to cry from it, but I did, hard ;_;

What is bad shounen?

Best overall: Refrain, then After Story. Moon route might also be up there... definitely not Terra. Best character route: Obviously Masato's Muscle Sensation from Little Busters Seriously though, probably Lucia from Rewrite or Haruka/Kud from Little Busters. Favorite heroine: Kurugaya

Pros about Rewrite: Varied routes- different sides of a coin, so to speak, but with some overlying purposes Deeper than average, coherent plot Ryukishi07's Lucia route- this guy wrote Higurashi, and of course, Lucia's route. I wish he would write more stuff. His writing is pretty engaging and eloquent. Not much Key PTSD, although Romeo Tanaka's true route is definitely not something Jun Maeda would come up with nowadays. Jun Maeda writes more fulfilling endings, usually, but the Tera route was extremely hit or miss for some people, and was generally less than well received. Amazing soundtrack- this VN packs nearly 70 OST songs that are varied and of high quality. There are some unique songs for each of the route, and they feel natural and great to listen to. It's probably one of Key's best OSTs. Cons: If you're looking for a nakige, you might not get exactly what. The drama is good, but dubious in the feels department. It's a relatively long read. The routes are longer than normal Key routes, but compared to Grisaia... they're actually not that long actually. There's some fairly good development. It was a bit hard to follow back when I read it, though. Varied writers = varied quality. I personally thought Lucia's route far exceeded some of the other routes overall, and was better than the true route. Most multi-route VNs suffer from this problem, though. Chihaya's was a shouneny route that some people didn't like, for example, in Rewrite, although others (myself included) found it enjoyable. Lack of romance: I didn't see much romance in this VN aside from Lucia's route and some scenes in other routes. It was more about the story and drama. There's some somewhat similar story buildup in each route, and restarting and being re-told about information can become pretty tedious, moreso than something (for example) Fate/Stay Night's routes that leave out some of the basic info about the Holy Grail War in the later routes. I wanted more of an impactful and climactic story. Terra fight fairly anticlimactic. Yoshimune Kouki's Muv-Luv Alternative did a much better job of doing what Romeo Tanaka was against doing with his true route: combining elements of the previous routes without breaking the character attachment bonds with the reader, but rather, strengthening them. Romeo Tanaka I think emphasizes subtlety in his writing, but at the cost of servicing his fans as much. He's a great and eloquent writer, but he's kind of a hard guy to figure out. His tendency to stray away from the norm in his execution and endings makes him stand out, but at the same time, I think he gets a lot of hate from more casual readers.

Finishing Grisaia no Kaijutsu (1 route left), might read AIR but I heard there are some save bugs, then I'm going to read my manga backlog. I'm hesitant to start Umineko because of how long as hell it is, waiting for Steins;Gate JAST release for maybe some better quality. I watched the anime (wish I didn't) so I'm not quite looking forward to playing it atm. Also waiting for Tsukihime remake...

If you can't handle the verbose writing in Grisiaia, you won't last more than a few minutes in Cross Channel. CC was practically personal preparation for Grisaia, for me. From what I played of Konosora, it seemed to have a similar premise to Grisaia and Sharin no Kuni, but with a more beta protagonist. You're probably just thrown off by the good writing. Try the LB VN, because the anime sucked, or maybe some of the other stuff I mentioned. Hoshimemo was pretty good anyway. Never heard of Hourglass of Summer.

10/10, I agree for the most part. I think F/SN pulls it off well, and in Steins;Gate, Okabe's chuunibyou delusions would be crap without him being voiced. They'd have to write the story some other way if they planned to keep him unvoiced. I think for the most part, the ones that are voiced and unvoiced have good planning and the type of writing to support that decision. VNs with perspective shifts like Little Busters and Symphonic Rain that voice the MC only later on during the perspective shift can be kind of awkward for a bit, but they're well executed in those situations, mainly because the voices fit the mood of the story implied when you were playing as the MC unvoiced.

Haru from G-senjou no Maou, some h-scenes in Grisaia no Kaijutsu are pretty well written, and of course, Fate/Stay Night Tohsaka and Shirou: http://0-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/a/image/1337/21/1337214641096.png Nasu's h-scenes are too hilarious and might be at least worth a skim through as a funny boner killer. Writing the beta-est of beta MCs, especially in regards to sexual prowess, makes F/SN all the more enjoyable.

>dropping Key VNs after liking another Key VN. Well, putting this guy's attention span aside, I'd recommend Little Busters first and foremost. I feel like it's fun, relatable, and not too long or difficult to read. Jun Maeda's writing in After Story combined with some potential machine translation in the VN might've been too much for Rooke =p This chart is pretty useful: http://i3.minus.com/ibyiFZk1vkwSQI.png Top VNs from VNDB: http://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;o=d;s=rating Fuwanovel and something are probably the quickest sites to get some of these VNs. I'd also recommend Ever17, Symphonic Rain, Clannad, G-senjou no Maou, Steins;Gate, Grisaia no Kaijutsu, Fate/Stay Night, Hoshizora no Memoria, Planetarian, Saya no Uta, Sharin no Kuni. The Muv-Luv trilogy is long but worth it if you can get past the first VN. Whatever visual novel you pick, OP, try to stick to it and finish it before starting another one. Most visual novels are structured to have the better written routes, story arcs, and climactic impact at the end. In my experience, most start out kind of boring. I'm bored pretty easily, but the reward in the parts of VNs that I find enjoyable is well worth the sometimes tedious adventure. I don't think there's a VN I've played that I felt was worse towards the end than in the beginning, besides Rewrite.

There are several personal reasons why I think I find them to be unique. Self-insertion and idealistic scenarios are at the top of the reasons why I like VNs. I feel like I can identify with these characters more easily. I don't read books often. I was more into video games and MMOs growing up, so I've probably spent more time reading VNs than I have reading books ;x I think the dramatic execution and up-close and personal relationships between you (the protagonist of a VN) and the characters can make a huge difference. What I'm saying might be mediocre, since I'm writing off the top of my head and don't have a ton of literary experience or anything, but I'll give an example from Muv-Luv (no spoilers) I think if I was watching the Muv-Luv Trilogy (mainly Alternative) animated, or in third person, I wouldn't be able to company sympathize or understand his idealistic progression. I was able to really get into Takeru's head and see the extent of his ideals. I always thought "What's going to happen next?" in regards to his plan of action, and they kind of grew on me. I have a solid ground for my own ideals, but I think following his, and seeing them develop throughout the story was pretty cool. Seeing the generals and other cadets and their own motivations personalized the war against the BETA for me. Without the first-person relationship I got from playing from Takeru's perspective, I think it would've felt overly idealistic to watch everything take place in an anime. I guess I just was really able to get into the VN at the time. I've been reading Rurouni Kenshin, and I find each of the characters to be very idealistic, but ironically, the familiar shonen fighting characters don't seem to hit as close to home as the Americans and Japanese cadets from Muv-Luv in terms of voicing their ideals. I love the series, but for the action moreso than any personal relationships I've gained with the characters. Anyway, the first-person perspective seems to do a lot in VNs. I think there should be some more manga or anime done in this fashion, instead of having the MC always shown in third-person. It may change things up significantly and add some level of self-reflection and creativity in how the reader connects to the character. I figure plenty of books would be like a VN, but I'm comparing a VN to mostly anime and manga. I guess the storytelling and basic features of a VN work well for me. Reading, hearing, and seeing the characters at your own pace does help. The scripts in VNs are less abridged than in anime, which can add a sense of dynamic realism and personality to otherwise cliche characters. I think Japan's heroine archetypal characters benefit from longer storytelling a VN than in an anime, especially. Tsundere, kuudere, etc. characters don't feel quite as restricted to their archetype in this medium. I also kind of enjoy the type of things Jun Maeda does/pioneers. Starting out a story a comedy before progressing to deeper and more tragic events works well to create character attachment, and can be found in a lot of VNs. His Key magic is alright, save for the asspull endings, but Key magic fixing everything is never what people love or remember about Key's stories anyway. Hmm, not sure what else x.x

Some Grisaia lewdness:

After looking at all these chibis, I just have to say...

Well, we all have different opinions I guess. Either way, the VN shits on the anime. I'm not really a critical reader, so I liked what all the routes had to offer x.x Anyway, Kud's route wasn't just about her self identity, but about her regret to (Refrain spoiler**) I guess in hindsight, it was pretty tritely written with a simple conflict compared to the other routes, but the cultural and fantasy aspect I thought was pretty delicious, I mean interesting. I think the kind of "fitting in/self identity" story still hits people pretty hard though, especially when represented by a loli x.x

, as the outlying plot to make the anime a bit more faithful the the VN.. Komari crying with Rin>> Ahhh... I just want to destroy my PC, this isn't supposed to be resolved with the others.. That destroys the drama of the supposed to be Rin and Komari resolution.. Same thing with Haruka... Damn.. Whole LB Team, Leave Haruka, her sister and Riki Alone... Hahaha.> This is my Reaction to the anime... For the VN, Just play it and find out... True, but Refrain heavily emphasized Rin's growth as well, and Clannad did well by involving Nagisa in some of the routes a bit. Also, it was mentioned that Komari was Rin's closest friend outside the original 4 other Little Busters members... not sure if you even played Refrain? Anyway, some of the anime's decisions were good, like emphasizing friendship more, but I know a lot of hardcore eroge/romance lovers preferred the romance intact. Like I said, a lot of the drama being badly done is with the execution. They kept romance in Komari's route, most of it in Mio's route, removed it with Haruka and Kud's routes. >Kuds arc I feel got improved. Nonsense, I thought it was the worst executed route in the anime*. I said before that they cut out a lot of tension between Kud and Riki by having her in the cave for only 5 minutes. Also, Kud's route serves as a pretty interesting metaphor in the visual novel, and has hints about her past and the Secret of the World, so hate it if you want, but it was far from relevant. It was probably just misunderstood for a lot of people. http://pastebin.com/3wHCEi4s Anyway, the opinions are pretty split, and a lot of it goes to show that there were so many issues with JC Staff and an overall lack of consistency and proper execution, that any number of problems can be traced to try to see what went wrong. LB tried to do what the Clannad anime, but failed miserably to most people. It literally had two routes in the style of the Clannad OVAs, where it was almost full-on romance, and it had two routes done in the Clannad main anime style, where Nagisa (Rin in Little Busters) helped out, and it was more friendship oriented. Kotomi's route had little romance but was the best route in Clannad, at least according to most of my friends and I, and it retained the story of backstory-driven tragedy that LB had. tldr: shit execution = weak anime. It could've been with or without romance, but it was done improperly however they tried.

Anyway, my post was a long rant about how the anime is absolutely inferior and poorly executed shit by JC Staff, when Key did a much better job on the visual novel. Here's why it failed, basically. It's a combination of execution issues, and why the anime was poorly received. I read the VN and liked the anime after, but it has a lot of shortcomings in terms of grabbing the audience's attention, establishing something meaningful (romance), giving people a worthwhile ending to the first season (the ending was neither a cliffhanger, nor a conclusion), and the animation was subpar, and lacked the type of style found in any of Kyoto Animation's adaptation of Key's visual novels. To go further into the criticism of each arc, Haruka and Kud's arcs were altered significantly, removing pretty much all of the romance, which was a driving force in Haruka's route. Also, Kud's scene in the cave lasted 5 minutes in the anime in real-time, compared to the days and weeks emphasized in the VN. Futaki's antagonistic buildup in Haruka's route was weaker, and her change of heart as a character was foreshadowed too early on, compared to the VN, also. Komari's route was finely adapted, but was pretty much the weakest route in the VN. Mio's was done nicely also, but people didn't really catch the theme of it due to its execution. Honestly, a lot of the animation was seen as pretty dull and boring. There's limited character interaction, and the baseball scenes aren't even as well animated as those in Clannad, where baseball isn't even as much of a focus. The route endings were nicely done, for the most part, but the story buildup bored people with the constant closeups scenes with lacking animation. Compare this to the style of KyoAni's Clannad adaptation, and there's no contest in terms of which will grab the audience's attention more easily. Little Busters' core story may be on the same level as Clannad's, but the anime execution wasn't nearly as strong. Also, people don't enjoy Riki as a protagonist, not having seen how he improves come Rin 2 and Refrain next season. They'd much rather have someone like Kyousuke be the protagonist, as he's most similar to the protagonists of Key's previous works (Clannad, Kanon, Air). The pacing and comedy execution is also weird and all of the place. They put a random Rin route episode inbetween Kud's arc, and Komari's arc happened too early on, before anyone cared for the character. The common route precedes the heroine routes in the VN, to build relationships with all the characters before any of the drama happens, but it happens 4-5 episodes into the anime series, before some people even remember Komari's name. Refrain might redeem it through its story, but J.C. Staff has offered little in terms of adding anything unique to the anime that wasn't part of the visual novel. Clannad had references to the Illusionary World each episode, for example, and has great storyboard directing to intensify specific scenes. Little busters is my favorite VN alongside Muv-Luv Alternative, but the anime had a lot of shortcomings that affected people who only watched the anime. Oh and the awful music directing in some of the episodes didn't help either. Anyway, absolutely read the visual novel. JC Staff will probably screw up Refrain if they don't drastically improve their shit.