Homeward One Story

[PyTom]

Try holding down shift as the game starts.

[IchigoChi]

This game is the best thing ever.

[Story_in_the_Mists]

Holding down shift while the game starts didn't work either. Can't wait to figure out what the heck is wrong. lol

But from what I did see that one time, I agree with IchigoChi's statement.

[Samu-kun]

Try going to where you unzipped Homeward, then delete the "tmp" folder. Then go into the "game" folder and delete the "cache" folder. Try reloading the game then.

If it still doesn't work, try pressing shift+d in the game and seeing what happens.

[Story_in_the_Mists]

Nope. Neither of those suggestions worked either. Still just the black screen with only the music playing.

[Samu-kun]

Is this happening when you play other games? Try downloading another renpy game and seeing what happens.

[Lone_Wolf]

Nope. Neither of those suggestions worked either. Still just the black screen with only the music playing.

I discovered this issue when I re-downloaded Homeward on my Mac running Mountain Lion and found a solution. It's not the most streamlined but you WILL be able to run the VN. Note that this works on both the adult and One Story versions.

- On your Mac, go to your Applications menu (be sure to have your Applications show up as a Finder menu, do NOT try to launch Homeward from the Dock.
- In the Finder window, right-click the Homeward.app file (if it's a folder, hit the arrow at the left to collapse it and you'll see the Ren'py icon of Homeward) and left-click Show Package Contents.
- Double-click the Contents folder
- Double-click the MacOS folder
- Double-click the Homeward (or HomewardOneStroy) Unix Executable File (should be a grey box icon).
- A Terminal window will open but in a couple of seconds Homeward (or Homeward One Story) will launch and run normally.

*NOTE that I (embarrassingly) signed up for the forum so I could post this advice. Let me know if this doesn't work. I'm running Mac OS X 10.8.4 on a 2009 Mac mini (just for reference).

[megatuga]

I'm leaving here my opinion of the game after completing one route, mostly to get the different impression when I later fully complete the game. You know, to spot what I missed in my first playtrough after I played the whole thing.

FYI it was Haruka's ending. But I will get to that later.

First, I would like to note the quality of the menu layout and how the background changes. That really creates a smoothing feeling to get into the story. The opening is also really cool, the effects with the motion and the words made it feel absolutely epic.

The music was also great. When I started I never felt that the music looped. It seemed like a continuous stream of notes to be honest. It got me for a second, thinking that there was one huge music file playing when in fact I barely noticed whenever it looped. All of this just added more to the experience.

As for the visual value, the sprites were well polished and the backgrounds were stunning. That very first CG really got me with such a wonderful view. Sure I have a similar view in the front of my house but my life doesn't have a lovely BGM to listen XD

Also, I would like to point out that making a choice was insanely hard. Some were obvious, other did not change the flow of the story much, and a couple were pretty much delivering the same consequence with only a slight difference. Little did I knew that that small difference makes ... uh... a difference.

I especially loved one where I were constantly presented with the same choices, only for then to Riku to be interrupted by something random. BEWARE THE MECHA DRAGON.

Now. For spoilerz!

Despite never actually leaving my own region, I could see where Riku was going for in the opening. And the Author's notes further explained the feeling of being foreign even in your own country. When I began playing I was not really expecting much but after reading this type of set-up, I suppose it was unavoidable to fall in love for the story.

Nonami is definitively the typical "genki girl" yet I can't stop liking her. She just feels like everything in the world is happy, until she reveals her true intentions and starts being brash and forcing herself onto Riku. This was only one of the very many twists that were in the story and I'm really a sucker for these kind of twists. Especially the very last one where It is shown that Haruka was not avoiding Riku, but working to be with him. Once again, I was able to understand Riku's feelings here, but that time it was very much his fault that he felt that way. Had things gone differently, it would not cause as much disgust for himself.

Which is another point that I would like to talk about. Despite negating the fact that he is not a galge-type hero, he ends up being exactly like them. I swear that once I saw he cheating on haruka, my mind went on picturing "School Days" and... well if you know that one, I suppose I don't need to say much. Needless to say, I believed to be locked on the bad ending. (If there is one)

It was unexpected. Haruka proved to be nice. Perhaps too nice for her own good, but maybe that's where her charm is. She's optimistic, but also realistic, and despite the difficulties she manages to make a difference. Truly Amazing.

A true 10/10 in my book.

[Samu-kun]

Thanks for your comments.

Well, honestly, I think the art's pretty dated now. Homeward's more than a year old now, and I drew those sprites maybe four years ago. English visual novels weren't so developed four years ago, but today, people's standards have increased. But I think it's nice to at least look at Homeward from a historical perspective, I guess. Kinda like watching a older movie from the late 1990's and seeing what the industry was like back then.

There's still a lot of ways the characters of Homeward could grow, and I don't think the story's finished yet. But alas, that's something to save for another time.

[megatuga]

I never really looked much at the art that way. But to be honest, I don't think of it to be that much dated really. And if it is then it has aged well.

In fact, I think that this kind of visuals are quite fitting for a light story such as Homeward. It would be kind of difficult to see the characters represented in a more realistic or recent way to be honest. Maybe it's because I got used to them that way.

P.S. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

ITS TIME TO DU-DU-DU-DU-DU-DUEL!

[Fluttershy]

So I've recently played through Homeward. And I loved the music so much that I had to do a piano arrangement of the main (Nonami's) theme so I can have a go at playing it...

I've tried to follow as closely as possible to the way it's performed in the game. And since it's now done, I wanted to post it for anyone else of a musical inclination to enjoy. There's a PDF of the piano score, a zip of the MuseScore source file, and a zip of a MIDI version for anyone who just wants to listen (or make a ringtone for a really old phone?).


How I did it: I used "AmazingMIDI" to transcribe the original music track to a MIDI. It didn't sound good but it gave me the rough notes, and from there I manually created the arrangement with MuseScore by listening to the original track and viewing the transcribed MIDI.

PS- the game is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA, but I can't find a clear attribution for the music tracks -- I've just titled it as "from Homeward by samu-kun" and put a URL, hopefully that is sufficient.

Thanks for a lovely and touching game, Samu-kun. Now I'm looking forward to Sunrider!

[Dragonstar89]

I just played this game. It's the first piece of fictional story that's ever made me cry ;_; the whole damn ending on Nonami's path was an entire feels fest, I'm kinda afraid to try and play the other two girl's paths. It was a beautiful game, bravo for you, amazing person!

[Fare]

I downloaded the full version with all three routes. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to get on Sora's route. I ended up on Haruka's route. orz

[LVUER]

I downloaded the full version with all three routes. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to get on Sora's route. I ended up on Haruka's route. orz

That means you're lacking in "imouto power"!

[voidrider]

Homeward is one of the best Visual Novels I've gone through in a long time and I want to thank you for creating such a beautiful story.

In my opinion, the best part of it is how it all comes together like pieces of a puzzle. The great story, good writing, lovely music, believable characters and even the artistic style. Each taken separately are awesome but the hard part is putting them together and still getting something good and that's what Homeward does: it feels like a whole. It's definitely "a piece of warmth you can return to" as I've done dozens of times to check out all the routes, replay it, stare at the CG or just listen to the music.

My first and favorite route was Sora's, even though it was highly emotional.
My favorite part would be:

The entire ending really. But especially the part before the end, when Riku leaves the country and Sora chases after him at the airport. Then he finally lets go for her sake, boards the airplane and that memory of her when they were younger pops up and shows her crying when he left her the first time. He gives her the teddy bear and she confesses her love for him and says some day they will get married. All that over some of the best CGs I've seen in a while and that beautiful "Take My Heart" track that's stuck in my head now.

That whole scene there towards the end made me appreciate Sora's ending much more.

I highly recommend this Visual Novel to everyone and I'm eagerly waiting for Sunrider's release, which also looks good.

I got a question: who composed/played the tracks in Homeward? Is there some place to get the sheets? I'd love to learn and play a couple of songs on the piano. I'd also like to express my thanks to Fluttershy for transcribing "My Love", great track!

Thank you. ^^