A quick guide to fix the invalid character Æ

All is said, learn to end the Æ curse

The guide

Hi,

you bought the game, installed it and ... you can't play it because every time you try to launch it the only thing you get is this annoying error message about the invalid character Æ.

Well the first good news is that it's not related to your computer, it's only a Steam problem (had the R-18 version running just fine and no way to run the game with steam). The second good news is ... it's easily fixed !

First of all you need to supress ALL Nekopara's files from your common folder, for those who don't know how to do it : right clic on the game in your Library and you will see "Delete Local Content..." give it a go and when it's done, go to your steamapps/common (if you don't know where to find it, right clic on an installed game then go to Properties, Local Files then Browse Local Files, press alt + up arrow and you will be there).

The second stage of this little tuto can be hard if you don't know Steam and it's menu very well and if you're not good with foreign languages. You have to change Steam's language (to be on the safe side I made it with Japaneese but feel free to post comment with the language you selected if it worked) again for the rookies : Up left clic Steam, Settings, Interface and just select the language in the first list.

A little reminder Steam has to reboot, if it doesn't, you missed something. And if you changed the language to one you cannot read, just remember "Settings" is the last but one from the first menu on the left and "Interface" is the sixth in the Settings menu.

To be sure I also changed my keyboard localisation, once again I took Japaneese but feel free to try anything or just keeping your native one, if you don't know how to change it ... google is your friend for once.

Now comes a fresh installation of Nekopara, when it's downloaded and installed, try to launch it once before playing with settings again.

If the game runs fine, you can now exit it, restore your native or prefered settings for Steam and keyboard and leave a comment and maybe an evaluation of this guide so that others won't feel the frustration of this Æ curse.

That's all for now, if you find an easier way to fix it, explain it in the comments and I will update the guide.

Once again, step by step

1-Supress Nekopara's local files with Steam
2-Go into your steamapps/common folder and delete the Nekopara folder
3-Change the language of Steam in settings (it worked for me with japaneese but I don't know which language is good and which isn't). Steam will reboot.
4- Change your keyboard localisation (again I did it in japaneese and I don't know if it's mandatory)
5-Launch a new installation of Nekopara
6-Once it's installed, play it once just to be sure that it works
7-You can turn back your Steam and keyboard back to your native language

Screenshot guide

Coming soon

[eric15342335]

Æ

[sonic171000]

I've been frustrated with this crap for so long but somehow I managed to solve this problem in my own way. It was by getting rid of two particular files within the game folder, after that the game was able to open successfully. And surprisingly, all of my in-game save files are still there. So now I have the censored Steam version of Nekopara Vol. 1 and a [NSFW] R18 uncensored version. So I can play Nekopara safe or unsafe at the right given times. How convenient. lol

I'm still scared to get involved with Vol. 2 and 3 of Nekopara. i'll probably have even more of a hard time. I do want the uncensored versions but even more I would like to have censored and uncensored for convenience.

[◢⁴⁶池田瑛纱]

good

[Deceraphan]

For those who asked for the R18 patch, I can't help you, I thought that I had it but after a long research I remembered that I bought the non-steam version and used it to scrap together a patch for the steam version by dropping the R18 files in the steam directory.

[The_Real_Nomis]

I know this is an old guide but I think the problem has something to do with these files: patch.xp3, patch.xp3.sig, patch2.xp3 and patch2.xp3.sig because when I place these in the non-steam version I get the same error. Your solution didn't work for me. Could you maybe send these files from your folder to me so that I can check if their is a difference?

[Deceraphan]

Never tried with a backup, in theory it should but since I don't know where this error come from in the end, I canno't say for sure.

[beef noodles]

Is it ok to use a backup?

[Alicization]

thank

[HoloTheWiseWolf]

Thanks man worked for me.

[Deceraphan]

I will try to find where I left my 18+ patch and do some test with it.