Saiph

I've patched old Kirikiri games that had no data.xp3 before, so it is possible. (Technically, there is a data.xp3, but it's part of the executable, as you saw. If you hex edit the exe, you can see it sitting there at the end of the file with all the proper xp3 headers and everything.)
Not enough to go on from your description so far, so here are some possible troubleshooting steps:
Try altering just one of the PNGs instead to narrow down if the issue is with the whole xp3 or just your ks script. Check the text encoding of your ks script. With a game of that era, it likely needs to be saved out as Shift-JIS. What program are you using to generate your patch.xp3? Sometimes, a different tool just seems to work better on certain games. In addition to GARbro, you might want to explore KrkrExtract and kiririki. Is the game expecting an encrypted patch.xp3? If so, you may want to see if GARbro has that game's encryption as an option or use KrkrExtract to create a Universal Patch.

Thank you so much!! Your suggestion was a lifesaver!!
I used kirikiri to repackage instead of GARbro, and it worked like a charm! (Note: I tried also with KrkrDEV_232r2EN but the .xp3 didn't read - I think the program may be a bit too modern for this game, mayhaps.)
For anyone else having this issue with old games:
I downloaded kirikiri2-archive-3 and extracted the rar kr2_218. Then, in the kirikiri2 folder, I opened krkrrel.exe and chose the file to turn into a .xp3. (note: for multiple files to be turned into one .xp3, I made a folder with the .ks and images and whatnot and sealed it into a .rar, and converted that. It worked for me.)
Also, in the same kr2_218, I went into the graphconv folder and opened the .exe. Any images I needed modified (usually TLGs), I'd extract as .JPEGs from GARbro and then turn them back to .TLGs using this program once I edited them, so the game could read them again.
I don't know how I never thought to do this, but you pointing it out saved SO much time. Thank you!!!!!!!

@Saiph @MrPalloncini why don't you guy repack to update1.ypf, update2.ypf, etc. It should work if you remain like this update1>[folder name(E.g:ysbin, cgsys)]>all the files. And this to find Yu-ris's key(you need something to inject into the game's exe like cheat engine)
 

After spending yet ANOTHER 10 hours on it, I finally made it to work! So that no one else has to suffer from it, I explain it here :
 
Take ALL THE FILES from the .xp3 archive.
Put them in a folder.
Take one of the .scn files.
Put them in FreeMote Toolkit.
TICK EVERY "UNBLOCK" FROM FreeMote Toolkit FILES'S PROPERTIES. 
Drag-Drop your scn on PsbDecompile.
Modify one line in your .json. 
Drag-Drop your .json in PsBuild.exe.
Pick the .pure.json, put it in the original expanded .xp3 folder.
Replace .pure.json's title with simply .json .
Select all the files in the folder with Garbro, NOT THE MAIN FOLDER.
Select "Archive", with all boxes ticked. For the file, SELECT THE ORIGINAL .xp3 FILE. (It wasn't working for me if I simply made a new .xp3 file)

Sorry for the late response, i checked the script and i think the problem is the space character, which the engine this is a termination line. Writing the phrase with a comma or other symbols displays the text correctly. I'll do more research to find out how to bypass this issue but i don't know if i'll be able to. The problem is that without any script in the engine itself, this might not be an easy fix. And since i'm not a programmer i can't debug the engine to know exactly how to patch this issue. If you find a workaround, let me know.
 
EDIT: With the help of my friend i've been able to find out that the engine support space and some special characters in the name field. The script however doesn't support characters that are not expected, like spaces and special chars. The workaround for now is to use the space that you can find in the script itself, which is a NULL character (00 in hex). For the special chars however you should still use the chars provided with the font the engine wants. I don't know if the engine use special fonts or defined scripts to prevent special chars. Yu-ris however support a gaiji mode (that was used in euphoria), which can replace special defined chars with a custom font, but I don't know how to insert that however.

I managed to repack it but just the first word appears xDD, the whole sentence is "It was a summer day when the cicadas were chirping annoyingly."
 

Ok, the errors you are getting, are related to the version of the YPF file, the engine detects that the compression is different or the key is invalid and therefore refuse to load saying that the assets are duplicated or tampered.
Now, i've been able to mod the YPF file. First i suggest you to extract the file using YPF Manager Tool, then you should get a folder with the name of the file, and a subfolder that will contain all the files (example, to should get: cgsys -> cgsys -> all the files), you then need to take note of the engine version (in this case looks like ver 500) an then repack the first folder with the engine version (example: YPFManager.exe -c cgsys -v 500). Keep in mind that this solution might be not perfect since the tool compress the data inside the file even when it shouldn't, so the engine might refuse to load assets.

Oh! thank you so much for your quick response and for your help! 
The version of the engine is indeed 555, now the problem is idk how to find out the key ;-; as I told you, I'm so noob for this stuff xD
The thing is I'm trying to add MTL translations made with DeepL (they're pretty decent), so I successfully managed to unpack the scenario.ypf file with GARbro to edit the files, but the tough thing is repacking it 
Well, I actually managed to repack the file with YuRIS Tools by fengberd but:
I can't open it on GARbro like the original one (this is a bad signal lmao) When trying to open the game it doesn't open and sometimes these windows appears  
Anyways, thank you so much for your help ^^ I'll try it with the YPF Manager Tool~

You might get this error message because you are trying to repack the file in a folder that use SHIFT-JIS standard name, i suggest you to repack the folder in the desktop and without using a locale emulator (if you are using one). I've been able to repack the file, but the game refuse to work because the key of the compression is different. The game you are trying to repack uses a custom version of the engine (i think), which should be 500 (even if the exe says it's 555, idk). Because i'm not a programmer, i can't say that well how the repacking works for those versions and the official SDK for this version is not available. I recommend you to check YPF Manager Tool to try it for yourself, but i couldn't repack it even with that tool. The reason why i use the official SDK is because it's the only decent repacker out there, since ypf repackers aren't common. If you are able to find the exact version and the key, GARbro might be able to repack it too, but i already tried it. I'll try to work on this, but i can't guarantee you that i'll be able to repack it. However by using YPF Manager tool the game doesn't give any error, it just doesn't display the images. If you have more details, let me know.
 
YPF Manager Tool precompiled: https://mega.nz/file/AN51FIbB#RBpPUPT4haxhTYAplxNPtt7SN7SKrDFGkdCZHcQaLBU

Thank you so much for doing this guide!
I managed to unpack a YPF file but now I'm having trouble to repack it 😭
The thing is I'm a newbie in all this stuff, what means I don't know how to identify the game version or its repacking algorithm...
Because when I follow the steps this happens:
Btw the game is this.

Introduction
I wanted to make this guide since i couldn't find some complete guide to mod any VN on yuris engine. The main reason is that i played euphoria and i wanted to mod it.
All the examples you are going to find are my years of reverse engineering and online documentation on euphoria (Mangagamer) version of yuris (v474).
How Yu-Ris engine works
Yuris is an interpreter that uses code C-like, is often used with ERIS, which is the VN interactive engine part of the interpreter.
The engine use its own file format called "YPF" for archives and "YBN" for scripts. The contents of the YPF file are usually assets since the archive can contain all kind of media, except videos.
The engine can be configured to use debug mode, as well as a log mode if activated.
Usually is used with some assets protection, using the ypf format, the algorithm should change with major version of the SDK. It also offer a XOR encryption protection for the scripts files.
The engine uses SHIFT-JIS text encoding, to be compatible with Windows versions since 98 to today. This of course causes some issues with the text since the OS will use ASCII standard to read it.
Unpacking YPF files
Unpacking YPF files is quite simple since is a standard Zlib compression, however tools may be incompatible depending on the engine version.
You can easily unpack those files by using yu-ris text replacer, arc_conv or GARbro.
GARbro has a really simple UI to use and can extract each archive by guessing the key or using a list of known keys for each game you want to unpack.
arc_conv is quite simple to use too, just double click the exe and pick the file, it should extract the ypf file into a folder in the same directory.
Yuris text replacer will extract the files automatically without any input from the user, this however might be incompatible with some later games, since the app is not developed anymore and the project is not opensource.
Unpacking Video files in YPF format
Video files aren't really compressed or encoded, so renaming the YPF file with an MPG extension will works. (Example: OP.ypf -> OP.mpg)
The encoding of the video itself is very specific and while it can be opened with a standard player, creating a new one for the game can be a pain, so i suggest to use sdk tools for repacking.
Unpacking YBN files
This is the part where all gets tricky, the game tries to protect all of the scripts assets with an XOR encryption. To find the text you must before unpack it from the YPF, usually is bn.ypf.
Then, you have to find the encryption key, which is only an XOR key, meaning that all the 0 in the file is a letter of the key. For This reason, you should pick up a file with most NULL chars in it, so you can find the key more easily.

As you can see, the file patter use so often x.0s chars, when the dot is an escape character so you must save the key in HEX format, in this case the key for euphoria is: 0x30731b78.
You can also use this site: https://wiremask.eu/tools/xor-cracker/ to crack the file with some analysis by uploading it.
Now that we have the key, we must find a good file to start our unpacking. I suggest to use an hex editor with a bitwise xor functionality with in, the only tool i found is Hex Editor Neo, but is a pay program, however there is a trial version, so if you can find a free one, let me know!
We can now import some files to start our cracking, i suggest to import some files in the middle that should contain text, in my case i used the file yst00140.ybn.

As you can see, we have some text that is used in the game itself, be aware that some file just use the text to instruct the engine and those files will be not exportable (yet).
Now that we just know the key and the file to unpack, we can use ExtYbn to extract the plain text on the file.
extybn is a ybn extractor, that can guess op-codes and extract the text with the given key, the app however must be compiled from Golang in a standard executable: https://github.com/regomne/chinesize/tree/master/yuris/extYbn
I will give you the precompiled application.
Now we should start the executable with the command line and use this argument: extYbn -e -ybn yst00140.ybn -output-opcode -key 0x30731b78

This will give us the op-codes, which are useful to extract the text without issues that we may have.
We now can unpack those files correctly using the following command: extYbn.exe -e -ybn yst00140.ybn -json unpacked.json -txt unpacked.txt -key 0x30731b78 -op-msg 95 op-call 29
the following commands are explained in the help file, but i will give you a summary.
-e: puts the program in extract mode -ybn: choose the input ybn file -json: will create a json file with all the offsets (required for repacking) -txt: will create a txt file with all the text inside -key: will specify the key in hex format -op-msg/call: will specify the op codes to extract the text We now should have the txt file, remember to use a compatible encoding (default one should be good) and use the syntax the engine will expect.
To repack the file, the command is almost identical with some key difference: extYbn.exe -p -ybn yst00140.ybn  -txt unpacked.txt -new-ybn modded.ybn -key 0x30731b78 -op-msg 95 op-call 29
in this case we removed the json file, which will be imported automatically, the -p mode to pack the file and the -new-bin command with the new filename.
You can also verify the file by manually decrypting in the hex editor like before. However yu-ris is quite sensitive with the text, so your new text may crash the game. Be sure to have repacked well with the right encoding and byte space.
Repack YPF files
To repack the archives, i suggest you to use the official sdk, you might need to get used to it, but i'ts quite simple and you can find the manuals in the official site, they are in japanese but you can use translate with that url.
The sdk should match the game version, however the only important thing is that the sdk must use the same repacking algorithm of the game. I'll leave the sdk for euphoria, but is possible to get it from the official site with an http request.
Inside the engine folder, you should find a subfolder called system, then the YsPac folder. Inside that folder, there is the YPF packer that we are going to use.
First we must drop the extracted folder inside the application and select it. Then we must click the top left menu bar, then click the second parameter. This will export the file.

That's it, the file should now be exported as a YPF file.
 
Feel free to contribute and improve this guide, if you have any issues let me know.
 
Yu-Ris SDK link: https://mega.nz/file/FQBgxJib#Yirgo01FPfDQu8Mte2b3dGMSxZx2UPyjIDDMhZZ2mU0
extYbn link: https://mega.nz/file/FQBgxJib#Yirgo01FPfDQu8Mte2b3dGMSxZx2UPyjIDDMhZZ2mU0

After parsing through so many confusing threads and websites, I finally figured it out. I couldn't find a thorough guide that actually helped my situation, so I'm going to record all of my steps here in case other frustrated newbies in search of answers happen to stumble upon this thread. Hopefully they won't have to dig through multiple threads with vague answers and/or random websites in Mandarin.
*Note: This guide assumes that the game you are working with is not encrypted, the scenario files are .ks and not .scn, the language you are translating the game into has characters that are supported by Shift-JIS, your locale is set to Japanese, etc.
 
Translating Kirikiri Games: A Step-by-step Guide
Tools needed: A game, KrkrExtract, Notepad++
Install KrkrExtract.exe and KrkrExtract.dll to the game directory. Other files in the folder should include data.xp3 and the game's executable file (game_name.exe), as well as savedata and plugin folders. Drag the game's executable file to KrkrExtract.exe to launch it. It should launch both the game and KrkrExtract. Drag the data.xp3 file to KrkrExtract window. You do not need to mess with any of the settings or press any of the buttons. It should automatically create a new folder in the game directory called KrkrExtract_Output. Within this folder should be a folder called data. Remove the data.xp3 file from the game directory. You can move it to another folder elsewhere on your PC, or just delete it. Remove the data folder from the KrkrExtract_Output folder and place it directly into the game directory. The KrkrExtract_Output folder should be empty now, so you can delete it. Open the data folder. Somewhere within the folder, likely in another folder named scenario, there should be several files with the .ks extension. Depending on the game, you may only have a few files, or you may have more than thirty. You may have to sift through the files, but eventually you should find the script for the game (or the beginning of the game, if the script is divided into multiple .ks files.) Open this file in Notepad++. In Notepad++, on the top ribbon, there is a tab labelled Encoding. Make sure that it is set to Character sets > Japanese > Shift-JIS. You should be able to view the text of the game in Japanese. Nothing should look garbled. Replace the Japanese text with the translation in your target language. Once you're finished, simply save the file. You should be able to launch the game and see your translated text. Do not try to repackage the data folder. If you attempt to repackage the data folder, it will give you a script error. Just leave it alone. According to the KrkrExtract readme file, you should (keyword: should) be able repackage the script files and save it as patch.xp3 for easier distribution, but that absolutely did not work in my case. It repeatedly gave me a script error. It was easier to just directly modify the data files.
If this can save even one soul from the pain and frustration I felt, then making this guide was not a waste of time. Good luck to anyone that's crazy brave enough to try doing this without any prior experience or basic understanding of how computers work (like I did lol)

After several months of research, testing and trying, I decided to collect all my information and post it here.
I guess there are many people who are interested in playing VN´s on different platforms, since some games are only on them, but their only problem is the lack of japanese. In this Guide I will help to this topic.
I don´t know why I nearly nowhere people talk about this topic, but correct me if I am wrong. I decided to write the "Ultimate Guide" for this topic "Hook text from emulators".
 
Some important notes before I begin:
Currently I only tested PSP and PS2 for myself and they work. GameCube and Wii are tested by VNR Wiki. PSX is tested by Don Dullian. And DS by MX-Futhark. I still try to gather information. But be aware that currently the methods I found only work to a certain extent. Until now there isn´t any method that will work nearly everywhere like on PC. Now the hooking of other platforms is still under work and not every game will work. A list with tested games will be here, so you can see results of others. You need to start everything as admin! Everytime you start all programms as admin because there are sometimes rights used by programms that extend the frame of normal users. To go sure that some errors won´t be because of that, start everything always as admin! You will find all links for the programms that are used here in the provided demonstration videos, and some useful links in this Google Docs list. If you want to use the hex method, you need to configure Cheat Engine before you start, sometimes it is required to do it, sometimes not, depends on the emulator after all. But do it to go sure, so the method won´t fail because of that: Go to Cheat Engine Go to Settings Go to Scan Settings Enable "MEM_MAPPED" Here is a list with all the information I know until now: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17oyxmyedaMGc7c2_-48XXdsJCR7FjftakH3MIysMILk/edit?pli=1#gid=0
 
~Example with the methods that work with several emulators on PSP Games~
Until now, after all my research on this topic, I found out that there are currently 3 methods:
VNR ITHVNR Hex PPSSPP/VNR
This is currently the most common way, because I think that many use VNR. Be aware that this method does have an avarage success rate.
Important: You can´t use "PPSSPPWindows64.exe". Use "PPSSPPWindows.exe", this is supported on every Windows.
For more information: http://sakuradite.com/wiki/en/VNR/PSP
 
Video Tutorial:
 
Written:
Programms you need:
PPSSPP v.0.9.8 or v.0.9.9 (Be aware that v.0.9.9.1 won´t hook text. And you should test always both revisions because the results can differ) VNR 1. Start PPSSPP and load the game. Continue until you can see the ingame text.
2. Start VNR and wait until it is fully loaded.
(Note: Sometimes you need to experiment. Start VNR first and then PPSSPP, but like I said earlier is recommended.)
3. Go to the magnifying glass in VNR.
4. "Select the process of running game." (Be aware that you must take this option.)
5. After finishing, go to "Text settings".
6. Play a bit and wait until some text will pop up. (Sometimes you must wait for a longer time or give up after you find only garbage or no text)
7. Save the current box as dialog and play like you do in VNR.
 
Ok, in this method it is like you would do in the normal VNR usage, it shouldn´t be something new for you guys.
 
Very important notes:
Never start PPSSPP from the VNR HUD! Never close VNR before you close PPSSPP. It will result in a crash! Do not use fast foreward! It will make the chance smaller that you find the text, because VNR will have trouble finding it. You need to redo all these steps for every game! And if you change the game, then restart all programms too!  
PPSSPP/ITHVNR
This is something for people who prefer the ITH interface instead of the VNR interface. ITHVNR is simply ITH with VNR Engine. Be aware that ITH won´t work!
Important: You can´t use "PPSSPPWindows64.exe". Use "PPSSPPWindows.exe", this is supported on every Windows.
For more information: http://sakuradite.com/wiki/en/VNR/PSP
 
Video Tutorial:
 
Written:
Programms you need:
PPSSPP v.0.9.8 or v.0.9.9 (Be aware that v.0.9.9.1 won´t hook text. And you should test always both revisions because the results can differ) ITHVNR 1. Start PPSSPP and load the game. Continue until you can see the ingame text.
2. Start ITHVNR.
3. "Process"->Attach "PPSSPPWindows.exe"
4. Play the game a bit and wait until ITHVNR will find threads.
5. After some time he should find the text.
(Note: Idolm@ster seems to be bugged and is not so easy to hook. Select "Pause when not focus" in PPSSPP. Here a video with a tutorial for the ITHVNR Method:)
 
Note: Because ITHVNR and VNR are based on the same hooking engine, the results of hooking text in Visual Novel will be the same! The exact same results will be displayed in both of them!
Even if it is bugged like Idolm@ster, it will work with VNR too. Just enable "Ignore infinite cyclic repetition in the text".
 
JPCSP/Hex
This is something diffent that you will know until now. But this is the best method until now to hook text. I had with this method the best success rate with emulators.
 
Video Tutorial:
 
Note: You can use anywhere, for example for PC Visual Novel that don´t work with current tools. Example: HapyMaher don´t work with any tools I tried. The game doen´t create a process and you can´t find the windows in taskmaneger. You will get a bunch of errors if you try the common way, so this can be more useful than you thought.
 
Written:
VNR (You don´t need VNR actually, you need "MODI OCR" that is a feature of VNR) JPCSP (I only tested v0.7 until now) Cheat Engine TA (It can be used, but it don´t feature UTF-8 itself. See the note for a better way.)  
1. Start VNR, JPCSP and Cheat Engine.
2. Play in JPCSP until you can see the ingame text.
3. Use "MODI OCR" that you can find in VNR. Default usage: "Shift"+"left mouse".
4. Select the text and wait until a box will appear.
5. If you are lucky, there will be the text you need, copy it. (Note: If it failed, try again. If you can´t japanese at all, this part is based on luck.)
6. Go to Cheat Engine and select "java.exe"
7. Select "Pause the game while scanning", select Value Type on "Array of byte" and finally check "Hex" near the Value Box.
8. Now you have 3 options, there will be 3 possibilities. Either it is SHIFT-JIS/SJIS or UTF-8 or UTF-16. You need to test yourself if you don´t know for sure.
(More information about that: http://sakuradite.com/wiki/en/VNR/Game_Engine )
9. Paste your encode in the value box and search, if it found something, you are lucky. If not, try the other decode or it simply won´t work with this method.
10. After you find around 5 threads I would assume, you need to find the right thread. Play a bit in the Emulator.
11. If something in the Emulator changed, to select that and "Browse this memory region".
12. Don´t dare to scroll, this is the text you can see now. Sometimes the text is 4 bytes earlier or simply is not at the start, don´t worry about it. If you got until here you can get the full dialog.
13. Select from the first line and until some zeros. (Like I said, sometimes you need to find the exact start.)
14. Now copy the text, convert it back with the encode you used and now you can translate it.
 
Note: MX-Futhark started to create HAT (Hook any Text), a plugin for Cheat Engine. It will copy and encode the selected region in Cheat Engine for you. You simply can open TA in the background and play it, the text will appear there. The good thing, it will do the copy and paste on his own. And the best thing, it does support UTF-8!
The thread: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/11298-i-made-a-prototype-of-text-hooker-for-emulated-games/
[Warning: It took me several weeks to find a solution to a problem I had in the past with HAT. http://imgur.com/7vEXDtn The solution, HAT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH CHEAT ENGINE 6.5! Use 6.4.]
 
And here the same method with a step by step guide and pictures: http://mx-futhark.github.io/hook-any-text/demos/demo01/presentation.html
Here another manual guide with more text: https://github.com/MX-Futhark/hook-any-text/wiki/User-Manual
(both by FX-Futermark)
 
Now to the other platfroms, but I don´t really know what I should really say. This 3 methods are currently always the same for every platform. It means, do these steps in the emulator you need and try to hook the text. I thought about to do videos soon, but it will be every time the same thing, the only thing that changes is, that you use a different emulator. More information in the Google Docs list.
 
Emulators tested:
JPCSP (Only v.0.7 tested) PPSSPP (Only v.0.9.8 and v0.9.9 will work with VNR/ITHVNR) PCSX (Only PCSX 1.2.1 tested) DeSmuMe PSXFIN ePSXe (Only v.1.9 tested) Dolphin (VNR Wiki said that only "≥ 4.0" will work.) Emulators that I want to test in the future (Yes, they are getting real, but nothing is running currently fine. Everything and everywhere is filled with bugs and gliches. But some Visual Novel are even currently playable.):
WIIU (Cemu) [Games are working good, need to test hooking] XBOX (Xenia/XQEMU) [Currently testing, 2 out of 2 tested games haven´t beem able to hook] 3DS (Cirtra) [Currently testing] http://imgur.com/NNwQmkL After the newest fix I was able to test ingame too, took a while to fix that blackscreen error for that game, it works with Pokemon. PS3 (RPCS3) [Currently testing] It is actually possible to get the hex method working with the emulator. Till now I wasn´t able to test much but the fact that it is actually working says that it should work for a bunch of games. If I will be able to test more with some Visual Novel games, I will show some more information. http://imgur.com/VkKKRAC Here 3 example videos for emulated PS3 Visual Novel, see yourself, the future is near for emulated games, I hope the hex method could work on them.
Rpcs3 WIP DX12 - GamePlay 60 fps - Shin Hayarigami Rpcs3 WIP DX12 - GamePlay 60 fps - Harem Tengoku Rpcs3 WIP DX12 - Ore No Imoto - GamePlay ~12 fps Now, my final note about this topic. I personally recommend to try the VNR or the ITHVNR method first, because I like that interface. If they will fail, try the Hex method. And if that fail too, your only hope is MODI OCR, but that will be painful, since it isn´t working that good sometimes.
 
If someone does know more about this topic, any help is appreciated. And if anybody planned to help me with the list, write me. I will add your hooking results and your name in that list. Do not copy this list and do not post it anywhere else! I worked hard to get all this information.
 
And a note to the people who will be so nice to help me. I will trust you, that means, that I won´t check your results in hooking if I will add them. I recommend to do the provided method with a game that I already tested and is in that list so you can get the feeling how anything will work. I personally tested my games like 10 times, so i can go sure. I won´t tell you what to do, but the best thing would be a small video or a picture, like Don Dullian did it for me. In that way I can go sure that the method failed, and not you, and write the notes on my own.
The only thing I want is: "Emulator (+Version)" "Name of the VN" "Hooking method" "Result (Working/Incompatible/Having Problems)" "Notes".
 
Note: I will try to keep this topic up to date.