Cross†channel

[unconfirmed]

Full English patch (thank you Amaterasu Translations) came out around a week ago and I'm just wondering if anybody's reading it or have already finished reading.

here's the link to the translation site
http://amaterasu.is.moelicious.be/

I managed to finish 2 routes and have no idea what's going on, but maybe that's a good thing since this is what the game's trying to shoot for... for now. Oh, and if you're interested, try to avoid wikipedia's summary since it'll spoil the inital shock of the "prologue".

From what I've read so far, the actual "routes" for the heroines may seem a little dry, but I think relationships really play a background role to the whole "what-the-hell-is-going-on factor". The main character is completely awesome though. Top-class pervert. Although it's still too early to make a fair judgment of the game I'll say that I have high expectations for something that so many people praised as an eroge classic.

[izmosmolnar]

Yeah, I finished it as soon as it was out. Probably many people have already heard about Cross Channel, thanks to the notoriously famous, addictive flashgame called "Nanaka Crash".
That was based on a great Visual Novel, touted to be on par with "Ever 17" (albeit I liked the latter a tiny bit more for various reasons, but they are certainly close in epicness).
Here's the summary taken from VNDB:

Spoiler for spoilerish:

Originally Posted by VNDB

Gunjo Gakuen (Deep Blue School) is a facility designed to gather and isolate those students who got a high score on an adaptation exam (Scoring high on this exam indicates that the student is less likely to be able to be adapted to the society) mandated by the government.

After a failed summer vacation with other members of the school's broadcasting club, Taichi Kurosu and some of the other club members return to the city, only to find that all living creatures within it except for the club members have completely vanished. In order to confirm the status of the outside world, Taichi decides to gather other club members to help Misato Miyasumi, the president of the broadcasting club, who is trying to set up a broadcasting antenna to contact any possible survivors. However, Taichi soon discovers that the world is actually repeating the week after they found the others vanished…

And it is just as one can imagine, the story has lots of unforeseeable twists, which made the game really enjoyable in the end. It is a great story, and I would recommend for everyone to play it. The characters are all great (Youko, Sakuraba and Miki are awesome, they were my favorite), and the ending is exceptionally well done.
So yeah, if you've found Ever 17 awesome, and/or you like great plottwists, and/or you want to play something really unique and famous among VNs you really should play Cross Channel, because it indeed meets all the hype. On Erogamescape, Cross Channel is ranked as the 9th highest rated VN of all time (ignoring the different platform releases now).
The first two weeks you may think that VN is not serious, however believe me, starting from week 3, the game gets wicked and full of twists.
By the way, the translation is top-quality. You can choose at the beginning how many TL notes you want to see -for your information, the game has countless wordplays, unique japanese expressions, jokes etc- (if you choose the minimum TL notes, you will only see the crucial ones), and the translation genuinely represents Tanaka Romeo's (The writer of Yume Miru Kusuri; Kana: Little Sister; Family Project) unique writing style as far as that possible in english.

Spoiler for Here's one of the openings, to further persuade you:

[DragoonKain3]

Since I'm supposed to avoid the wikipedia summary (as mentioned by the OP), anyone care to share the heroine's bios and how what's their relationship with the main character? Would help a lot in me deciding whether to import the game or not.

[Natsuki Hyuga]

Uhm currently reading this too, and still stalled on Week 2 u_u'' For obvious reasons of finishing off something else :'D I'm going to admit that I have no idea of whatever insanity that is going to happen, but from whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I'm having my box of Kleenex ready with me for crying purpose-God Knows the foreshadowing angst is really making people cough blood.

I'm pretty sure the heroines at this moment is having the usual glorious facade, so here is hoping for the best revelations to come :3 And I'm pretty sure I'm liking the main so far, the gags were gold That silver hair is not helping, oh no...

[SageGaiGar]

This looks to be interesting. Especially translated. ^^ Guess I'll do the unusual for me and look up nothing on it. (I'm a spoiler-phile)

[unconfirmed]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Since I'm supposed to avoid the wikipedia summary (as mentioned by the OP), anyone care to share the heroine's bios and how what's their relationship with the main character? Would help a lot in me deciding whether to import the game or not.

I think the character bios and their relationships with one another is part of the actual mystery, but you have the average tsundere, meganeko, the silent type, and even a kunoichi. Obviously the characters are deeper than that, but they still follow some of the general character layouts so you know what to expect.

To convince you further, zepy translated Nasu's "review"
http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/08/31/...tion-released/

You know it has to be good if another well-known writer gives it that much praise. I'd say it's worth the import.

[izmosmolnar]

Oh damn, how stupid of me. I forgot to mention that the fantranslation patch also contains an all ages version, and that doesn't contains anything adulty in nature (well... except some pantyshots for joke purposes, but these aren't any different than any other anime one can see everywhere). If the ero-content bothers you, just set it on the all ages option.
_______________

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Since I'm supposed to avoid the wikipedia summary (as mentioned by the OP), anyone care to share the heroine's bios and how what's their relationship with the main character? Would help a lot in me deciding whether to import the game or not.

The thing is that the characters themselves are full of spoilers (and yet the Wikipedia article spoils it to a certain degree IMO).
In any case, if you want to find out more about the game without getting spoiled, I recommend reading TakaJun's spoilerfree review.
I guess I could write some stuff myself too with the official character portraits... However I'm not going to write about all the characters though because I'm lazy. If you are wondering what is the relation between them and the main character, then let me just say, they all belonged to the same club (the Broadcasting club), and everyone of them has/had a really "unique" connection with the protagonist in the past.

Spoiler for character info, with images etc:

Spoiler for Taichi Kurosu:

The Protagonist guy. You either love him, or hate him. His humor is kinda weird, pervertish, but he's an adorable guy nevertheless, who can be surprisingly kind, and intelligent when the situation requires it. He is a really interesting protagonist.

Spoiler for Miki Yamanobe:

Miki is an awesome character. She's one half of the "Flowers" as Taichi calls the Kiri-Miki Duo, and she's on par with Taichi regarding oddness. She teases Kiri (and others too) all the time, and she was one of my favorite characters.

Spoiler for Kiri Sakura:

Kiri is the other half of the "Flowers", but really different from Miki. She's usually kinda cool towards everyone, with the exception of Miki. She has kinda kuudere-ish characteristics.

Spoiler for Misato Miyasumi:

Misato Sempai, is the president of the club the characters are, and therefore she's one of the most gentle, and most dependable person of the cast. She takes the club activities really seriously. Well.... since she's quite "well developed", she's often a target for Taichi's pervertedness.

Spoiler for Touko Kirihara:

Touko is an adorable, rich Ojousama Tsundere <3 . She normally doesn't wear the school uniform, and she's also seemingly kinda hostile towards Taichi. Her "week" was one of the sweetest.

Spoiler for Youko Hasekura:

Youko-chan is the most awesome yandere heroine. She is basically a mysterious kunoichi, a female ninja, and not much is known about her. She seems really loyal towards Taichi, as she watches over him all the time. She is kinda emotionless usually.

Spoiler for Hiroshi Sakuraba:

Sakuraba is a hilarious character. I wish he could be the main character :/ . He's usually quite ironic, and cynical, and he loves Curry bread, despite that he hates normal curry.

Spoiler for Tomoki Shima:

Tomoki is one of the most average guy among the bunch. Taichi teases him for being a "siscon" all the time though, but he's quite responsible and intelligent.

[DragoonKain3]

...and everyone of them has/had a really "unique" connection with the protagonist in the past.

You mean to say that they some had met the protagonist when they were younger, or have known him since they were young? This would probably be the tipping point for me, considering my abosute moe property lol.


Now the question is... where the heck do I import it if I wanted to? Playasia only has the PS2 version (which obviously I can't use for the translation), while amazon in general does not ship software overseas. Ebay has no hits either lol.

[izmosmolnar]

Yeah they knew each other for a longer time by the game starts (few even knows Taichi since childhood, but don't think of the typical "childhood character cliche" here), and that's what makes the game really interesting. A few of those relations are downright shocking when they are revealed, and some others also explain other related mysteries. The game is exceptionally good at feeding these informations bit by bit at the most appropriate times, and I guarantee that several of the character relations are really unexpected.

And albeit a bit pricey, but Erogeshop has copies on stock. Alternatively you could request Paletweb to stock it up (they usually do that, especially if there's a sudden outburst in a game), or get it through amazon and a courier service.

[Eater of All]

So I'm 30 minutes into Cross Channel and I can safely say that Miki is - and always will be - my favorite character, even if she hasn't even officially shown up yet. That cute smile of her's is completely mesmerizing.

Also, I think Taichi should be awarded with the Pervert of the Century award.

Originally Posted by izmosmolnar

Here's the summary taken from VNDB:

Spoiler for Spoiler:

I just came back from the "Endless Eight" of Ever17, and now I get the "Endless Eight" of Cross Channel?

[izmosmolnar]

No, don't think of it that way really.

[unconfirmed]

I like Youko the best lol. I want to buy a Youko and take her home. EDIT: oh and Nanaka too, she's so moe :3 Miki is the third best for me, she's also moe.

[DragoonKain3]

Wow, 100 bucks + shipping + custom fees via erogeshop? My wallet is still hurting from Fan Expo, and my bro's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm trying to get that stupid Femme Fatale Fightstick for him (valued at least for 160 bucks) and the only store I can find where to order it from online doesn't ship to Canada. >_<

That said, I'm sold for the game. I know the writer can do my absolute moe property justice, even if its highly atypical for the archetype (kana comes to mind). It's not a matter of if but when I'm gonna get the game.

Now if only I'll remember a month from now and not spend any money before I realize I should buy this game... I've said the same thing to buying some of stuff over at mangagamer, but so far only got Da Capo lol.

[SageGaiGar]

lol, I seem to have found myself falling into the Misato route apparently.. and I'm just barely past the prologue. (at 5 hrs) And a review said this'd take 20 hrs total ? 0_o

*edit* I had certain issues and had to reinstall.

Now the words are messed up. >_< basically split apart at the syllables. Might still be playable.

[izmosmolnar]

Check out the translation forum error thread, because there's a solution there (or leave a post describing the problem if you couldn't solve it).

[SageGaiGar]

Originally Posted by izmosmolnar

Check out the translation forum error thread, because there's a solution there (or leave a post describing the problem if you couldn't solve it).

Deleted and reinstalled the font so it's working now. I had an issue before where I disconnected the external I was using and it switched to a completely different directionary. Switched it back to where it was, (damn you Daemon tools)

Lost my saves @_@

[unconfirmed]

Around 70% done now and...

Spoiler for plot spoilers, sorta:

it reminds me a lot of higurashi, but I heard from somewhere that Ryukishi07 was greatly influenced by C+C. I'm seeing some similarities between this and Ever17 too, not to mentioned Endless Eight...

[SageGaiGar]

Originally Posted by unconfirmed

Around 70% done now and...

Spoiler for plot spoilers, sorta:

it reminds me a lot of higurashi, but I heard from somewhere that Ryukishi07 was greatly influenced by C+C. I'm seeing some similarities between this and Ever17 too, not to mentioned Endless Eight...

Yeah I'm at this point as well..

Spoiler for plot spoiler:

Reminds me of an H groundhog day. Though it's kinda funny how I seem to be getting whacked constantly no matter what I do. Repeating Kiri route apparently

[SageGaiGar]

Finished at 97%. Think I'm missing one scene and CG. Interesting storyline, though with some holes. I'll elaborate later.

[izmosmolnar]

Don't uninstall the game yet, because the TL group is going to release that extra scenario called "Tower of Friends" (トモダチの塔) shortly, which will be using the installed game.
It supposed to answer a few loose ends, and give a better understanding to the ending itself as far as I know.