Majikoi S Complete!:

I finally finished Majikoi S.  It took a year (or more?), but that's how all great accomplishments go.  My Tales listening project has also taken over a year, but once I beat Tales of Berseria the game, I can go ahead and listen to the soundtrack next, and then that will be done too.

Majikoi S is such a ridiculously huge game.  20+ routes.  It felt like it would never end.  In such a huge product, just like One Piece or Naruto, there are ups and downs.  Some routes are much better than others, but in order to see the true ending you have to do them all.  The game is devilish like that.  Obviously the programmers who put all their hard work into making the game didn't want the players to half-ass their way through it and not even bother to read all the effort they put into writing, voice acting, drawing and composing.

My favorite routes were Tsubame's (isn't this everyone's favorite?), Monshiro's, Koyuki's, Tatsuko's, Kokoro's, and Iyo's.

With Majikoi S done, I can finally dive into Majikoi A, the third game of the surely now completed trilogy.  With luck, I could even catch up with the translators before all five parts are available.  That would mean all my dilly-dallying wasn't in vain, and couldn't be helped, because the finale wasn't ready anyway.

Majikoi A-3 is already being worked on by the translators, so for now I just have to finish parts 1 and 2.

Between the original, S and A, I had to uprank Majikoi to my 3rd favorite visual novel of all time, behind only Clannad and Da Capo.

Da Capo III is also a top priority for the above reason.  I want to finish both Da Capo and Majikoi because they've both been fantastic so far, both the visual novel versions and the animated versions.

Grisaia, another enormous franchise, comes in 4th.  I still need to read those two short stories that came out recently, afterglow and melody.

Rewrite is 5th for now, but if they ever finish translating Rewrite+ its size will be competitive with the people above it, so it might move back up again.

Kono Oozora is 6th, for the same reason.  Its sequels were never translated, unlike ranks 1-4.

Planetarian is 7th because, in the end, it's just a short story competing with giants.

Shuffle (and Tick! Tack!) is 8th.  I still need to read Really? Really!  If it's good maybe it will go up.

Umineko Chiru is 9th.  They really should have animated this game.  *sigh*

Osananajimi wa Daitouryou is 10th, whose fandisk I'm also nearly done with and need to get back to now that I've finally finished Majikoi S.  This is such an eccentric and silly game to be on a top ten list, but what can I say, it's A) translated, and b) really good!

Just these ten franchises are enough to keep me occupied year-round, so I dearly hope the visual novel translators out there take it easy and give me a break for a while.  I have no idea how Japanese, who get every game translated to start with, can possibly keep up with their tidal wave of great releases.  In a way I'm glad I don't have to deal with that level of difficulty.

Even as I say this, though, To Heart 2 and Dracu Riot's fan patches look to be nearing completion.  Dal Segno and Tenshin Ranman don't look to be that far behind, either.  And then there's Tsui Yuri and Imouto Paradise 2 coming up after that. . .

And this fall, Utawarerumono 3, the grandoise finale of this breathtaking masterpiece that's luckily been animated so far but not for this game so you absolutely have to play it, comes out translated for the PS4.

It's certainly looking to be the year of the visual novel.  I hope I can keep up, but at the very least I completed my New Year's Resolution.  One more promise fulfilled.