The title says it all.
The 2009 visual novel game of the year, adapted into the absolutely excellent Majikoi anime, has finally been translated and released over at Erogedownload.
http://erogedownload.com/
It took six years, but better late than never, right?
http://forums.mangagamer.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=497
This is an excellent resource for tracking the best visual novel games, at least according to experts, your and my subjective opinion may vary.
Now we're just waiting on Little Busters Ecstasy, the 2008 visual novel game of the year, which only happened seven years ago. Any day now, Doki fansubs. After seven years, you'd think it wouldn't take much longer.
Just last year, the 2005 game of the year, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, got an english translation. That was an amazing 9 year gap, so there is a level of suffering even beyond Little Busters Ecstasy. Which is nothing to say about all the games which, even though they were in the top 3 of the year, will never be translated at all.
Even so, the people who pulled off this translation did a really good job, and I'm very grateful to them. Six years, nine years, whatever, just so long as the job gets done. Right now there's a glut of good translated visual novels recently made available -- Majikoi, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Really? Really!, Grisaia no Kajitsu, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, etc, etc, all came out within the last year or so. Visual novels are getting released plentifully enough that it could even compete with anime as a time-devouring hobby. There's always more work to be done, but so far so good.
Meanwhile, March Madness is finally getting underway, with the 68 team field all chosen and ready to clash starting tomorrow. The NIT, the 32 best teams after that, also start playing each other on the 17th, followed by the 32 team CIT and the 16 team CBI, for a grand total of 148 out of 351 division one competitors enjoying post-season play, or 42% of division one teams.
There are 120 division 1 football teams in the country, and 76 of them get to participate in post-season bowl play starting this 2014-2015 season, for a total of 63% of teams that go on to the post-season. So actually, the basketball post-season is more selective and competitive than football is these days.
Watching basketball all March, and then watching the new spring season anime starting in April, does not sound like a bad fate at all.
Even though it's just a remaster, FF X/X-2 may be the best game on the PS3. It might also be the best game on the PS4, since it's being upgraded and remastered yet again for that machine. Even though it was released on the PS2, its longevity is so prominent precisely because it is the only turn-based Final Fantasy game with Nobuo Uematsu music available in HD. If they would release similar HD remakes of 5-9, they would be selling like hotcakes too. The PSP FF4 remake with all the sequel content is a perfect rendition of that game, so there's no point dipping into that well again. 1-3 were such simplistic games with so little characterization that it would be pointless remaking them. But the rest could all use a remake with new FMV's and PS4 quality graphics, voice acting, the works.
What's sad is that the PS3 really came up blank after so many tries. Disgaea 2 on the PS2 was better than 3 or 4. FFX on the PS2 was better than 11-14. Tales of Graces originally came out on the Wii. In the end, while the eroge industry was making tons of award winning new games, the console gaming industry was basically spinning its wheels, searching for relevance. The PS4 is already years old and we're seeing the same problem. There aren't any bold new good games like Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy 7, Ogre Battle. . . there's just nothing to point towards. Why get a PS4? It's just more of the same we already saw on the PS3, the PS2, and even the original Playstation.
However, in eroge land, the games are still standout, distinct stories with unique appeal. Grisaia no Kajitsu and Little Busters are both blockbuster successes, and they couldn't be more different from each other. The same for Majikoi and Fate/Hollow Ataraxia. Console games struggle to make any appealing works of art anymore, but eroge make dozens of them a year. To top it all off, eroge are cheaper to make too. Maybe console games should just pack it in and give up already. . . The mobile game, Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls, has a better plot and story and characters than any PS4 game that's come out so far. Anything can beat console gaming at this point. Where is Master of Orion? Starcon 2? Where did all the innovative designers go? Such a shame.
At least WoW is still fun. Relying on the same tried and true formula, with the twist of the fun garrison mini-game this time around, is just as addictive as ever. Now that 6.1 is out and blood elf models have been updated to the new and crisper look, now's as good a time to dive back into the game as ever. PS4 may suck, but there are plenty of attractive gaming alternatives still at hand -- FFX/X-2 remasters, Majikoi english translations, Warlords of Draenor -- every other type of game is still rich and varied like a full course french dinner.
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