What I can tell you is the main quest directed me to go there and talk to them and it was necessary to do it to continue because it was part of the opening tutorials. I don't see how you can do the main story without at least that one visit. Disabling the mod long enough to get through that tutorial sequence may be enough to finish the main story and it's pretty much holding your hand the whole way anyway, so you don't really need to read to finish it.
As for whether the game can be completed without doing upgrades? I don't know. I think it would be significantly less fun at the very least. More likely you'd just have to make do with the mod disabled temporarily every time with the Japanese text because it's basically your upgrade path to staying relevant as areas progress. A lot of it is somewhat self-explanatory, but some is a bit unclear such as exact effects of certain components. One thing I did try doing was going back and forth, reading the components, then switching it off and actually applying them. A bit confusing, but it got me through doing at least one simple upgrade.
Actually, I think some functions may have worked without a crash. I did not test extensively (and you can't do much at the start due to lack of materials anyway.)
I feel like there may be other crashes later on if this one is failing.
Last edited by Nazosan,
Or others 
. Saves on time, soap, water and money having to wash them. 
