takayuki

It really is pretty amazing (although yes, the second part is relatively meh). I wouldn't compare it to something like F/SN because F/SN is a huge narrative masterwork that you need to slowly digest and appreciate, whereas I consider PW to be more of what I call a "popcorn" game: entertaining without being too deep or thought-provoking (a category some of my guilty-pleasure nukige fit into as well). PW has some of the best production values I've seen so far, to the point where I was kind of spoiled for moving on to other games, particularly older ones. The art is way above par, especially the paperdolls (which have way more detail and variety than a lot of other games), the music is excellent, and it manages to convey a surprising sense of movement and action during the battle scenes for a game with only static images. Plus the card battle system is quite good for a minigame; gives a good break from the reading and makes you feel a little more invested in the action (unlike a certain recent mangagamer title I could name...). Probably the biggest weak point is the plot, which is passable but not excellent. The characters are likeable enough, but with a few exceptions they aren't really all that interesting, and none of them is terribly well-developed. tl;dr: it's a good game and you should really play it if you haven't, especially because it's not particularly long. (edited to remove poorly formatted quote)

I for one certainly don't come to the translation status thread for spoilers, since obviously I'm looking for news about games I have not yet played. Common courtesy to at least toss up a spoiler tag. (I do tend to check VNDB for tags to see if a game revolves around rape or netorare so I can know what I'm getting into/skip it, but that's my choice.) I recently played through a short game as a proof-of-concept for my ability to play games with machine-translation assistance (I have reasonable Japanese comprehension, but most kanji and a lot of slang/dialect stuff is beyond me) and it went pretty well. I think that new Pulltop game may tempt me into tackling a more ambitious project, since Princess Waltz was my first eroge and it still holds a special nostalgic place in my heart. If it's as good as it looks maybe I'll crusade for a proper translation.

Damn you for that signature, iLoveTsundere! Now every time you post I spend a couple minutes hypnotized by Kuroneko...

I think I'll just wait for the updated LB then. I have plenty of other VNs in my backlog anyway so no reason to hurry.

I've been eying Little Busters for a while now and was strongly considering starting it, but now it seems like the ME/EX/whatever version(s) are getting pretty close to done. For those who've played it, should I just wait for the shinier version or would it be beneficial to play the original while waiting?

A little late but Men at Work 2! revolves around a decent old-school JRPG system. It's a pretty old-school feeling game but decently amusing. I believe Castle Fantasia Renewal 2 has a similar system but I have not personally tried that one yet.

Aw, I kinda liked the stupid 2D fighter part... Although come to think of it I played it a couple times right after the patch dropped and haven't been motivated to go back yet, so...

In that case I suppose it's fine, and honestly I'm happy to know what the mystery project is instead of guessing/hoping for half a year only to find out it's Duel Savior (which is a fine game and all don't get me wrong, just not one of the ones I particularly wanted). (And yes, I'm a long-time lurker who finally decided to show his face. Be gentle.)

The one concern I have with the Dungeon Meister revelation (which otherwise is awesome news) is that it sort of ruins the whole purpose of the project being secret. As I understood it, it wasn't secret just to troll everyone, but because Eushully is notorious for sending C&D notices, correct? Doesn't this leak therefore put the project in danger of being shut down?