Nosebleed

Uh... these ARE the original 2009 sprites from the first game, you can see them here: http://www.gris2.com/cps_limited.htm
The redrawn ones are the PSP ones.
What XSEED did is publish THE ORIGINAL version of the game in English, which is different from the PSP version in both the story and the artstyle.

It's standard idol music. I.e friendship and love are the theme 99% of the time.
Comparing it to the Western market, it's basically like your mainstream girl/boy band, the music is generic and formulatic, but it works and gets the fans squealing.
Bo Burnham put it best:
Whether it's good or not depends on each individual's taste.
As for me, I have every single Love Live album and single and it's fun to listen to their music so I would say get a few singles or maybe their first full length album and judge for yourself if it's something you'd like to have more of.

Love the ominous looking background. I'm starting to get excited for this.

You're still completely ignoring what I already mentioned twice: it's very weird to think a CG gallery by itself could cause such a price difference that would justify a deluxe version existing to begin with.
Yes, I pulled that figure out of my ass, but what else are you going to suggest is plausible? A 5 dollar difference? That's miniscule and hardly a reason to make 2 different versions.
Unless the price difference is 10 dollars or more, there is no decent excuse to have 2 versions. Assuming the stripped version is priced at 20 bucks like you said (againm, assuming, I'm not stating these prices will happen), the deluxe version will at least be 30 dollars or higher, otherwise there's really no point.
Then, as a costumer, I look at those and think "what's the difference?" And then I noticed what causes that decently sized price gap is a miniscule feature to view CGs.
You can call me a cheapskate, but of course I'm going to think they're overpricing the damn thing, it's just the conclusion most people come to.
The concept of a cheaper version itself is great, I love that companies are exploring ways to get more costumers, but this specific case just doesn't feel like it will be that right now, and that's why people are worried!
Do I have ANY proof? Absolutely 100% not. But do I have a reason to be pessimistic? Knowing just how much dlc of this nature can be abused, I'll be damned if this looks anything but negative thus far. I'm sorry, but people have the right to be concerned about this thing.
The difference between you and me here is that we place completely different values on a CG gallery, so ultimately I'm never going to agree with you that this is completely and 100% reasonable looking.
Could I be proven wrong? Of course, when the price comes out we'll know jusr exactly what they're trying to pull, but that doesn't invalidate all the uncertainty people are feeling over this decision.

What I don't get is the idea that something that's already coded is now getting an arbitrary price tag put on it. Unlike voices that come with licensing fees, a CG gallery is game code, and while you can always put a price tag on things, this particular case just feels so arbitrary and makes me afraid they will pull some stunt to sell the VN at a higher price than it's necessary.
It's like if someone said they're selling a pause setting as dlc. Like, yeah, it's not integral, but it's still pretty stupid to remove it.

Also I hope to god this "selling key game features as dlc" doesn't become a thing in VNs...
I understand the thought of wanting a cheaper version, but we're talking about actual game features here, not something cosmetic like voices (yes, voices are usually nice to have, but they are not integral in order to get everything out of the game). Why would you sell something that already comes with the original game 's code as dlc? It's not extra cost to develop it, they're literally just taking it from the game and selling it separately. At least voices have an excuse because of the licensing fees, but CG galleries, really? How do you even attribute a price to that?

This won't "kill" fan translations so long as Japan keeps releasing games exclusively in Japanese, that's just a fact. Even anime still has fansub groups despite being much more widely available nowadays.
You have to understand most fan translators translate a game because they like it and want to share it with other people. If a company comes along that has the proper channels to make that game legally available in the Western market, there's very little reason not to accept such an offer. 
Complaints are usually from people that have only pirated games before and are salty about having to pay money now.
Of course there are valid criticisms to be made in the actual localization processes for each game, namely the fact a lot of erotic content is being left behind in favor of all ages releases, but the concept of a company buying a fan translation isn't really destroying the world as we know it.
Also fan groups asking for donations are 10 times shadier than ChuSinGura's Kickstarter project.

Dracu-Riot! Completion Project
Project Info:
As i said in a previous post, if the Dracu-Riot scripts were released, I will translate Miu's route, and that's exactly what I'm announcing in this thread.
But I'm not alone in this crusade, I've partnered with the wonderful people at The Oxford Comma is Superior Subs so we can deliver the best possible final product and lay the Dracu-Riot memes to rest. We also got several people from the Fuwanovel community to help speed up things even more.
How is the project going to go down, you ask. Well you can read this post if you want detailed info, but the tl;dr version is that we are aiming to release multiple patches.
The first patch aims to translate the remainder of Miu's route as well as any remaining untranslated content (images, menus, etc.) with complete editing to polish the current patch.
We are going to try and release this in about 2 months, if everything goes according to plan.
The second patch is meant to be more heavily translation checked as that's when Fiddle has enough free time to go over the whole game.
There is no ETA for this second patch.
This doesn't mean the first patch will be terrible, we will of course strive for a good product, but we would still like to inform you of our schedule. If we waited for Fiddle to be completely free, it would take much more time to release Miu's route, and so we've decided to do it this way.
I hope you look forward to future updates.
FAQ:
Why not just make a Miu partial patch, why do you want to go over the whole game?
There are actually 3 main reasons for this:
The first and biggest one is that Insem's patch only works with the physical version of Dracu-Riot! which is very hard to get in the West and we want to make a new patch that works on both the physical and digital versions of the game, this way people can purchase the digital version and patch it, thus supporting Yuzusoft. The second one is that we want to americanize the writing style as well as make sure everything is edited properly, because Insem didn't have time to finish the whole thing. The last one is translation checking. Although we don't doubt Insem's abilities, we really want to try and make sure the translation is accurate. We also want to include translation notes in the game. Only 2 months? That seems way too fast.
2 months is indeed fast, if we were translating the entire game, but we're actually only translating about 4,000 lines and we're splitting those lines between two main translators, this will hopefully make that 2 month deadline possible.
Please do note we will not jeopardize translation quality for the sake of reaching the deadline. If we can not make it in time, we will delay the release until we're satisfied with the end result.
Will the translation have memes?
Yes, but only the dankest ones.
Why aren't The Oxford Comma people making the announcement here?
So I can get those sweet, sweet internet points.
I want to help!
Contact @Fiddle and beat him in a pipe bag showdown (plaid skirt is mandatory).

Your thread asks what are people's thoughts on companies buying fan translations, and those are my thoughts, not really sure if you wanted something else? The first paragraph of your reply is just corroborating what I said: people just want free stuff.
Regarding donating to fan groups: sure anyone can do what they want with their money, but it's pretty shady to ask for money for something that's technically illegal to begin with.
In the end all you're paying for is the fan groups' work, nothing goes towards the creator of the product, and that's what I have some problem with on an ethical level.
Fan translations, as the name implies, shouldn't be about earning money.
Regarding fangroups not being upfront, I'm not really sure what you mean. There might be a case where they're unable to disclose information due to NDA agreements, for example.
If you're donating to a fan group, ultimately the responsibility falls on you.

This won't "kill" fan translations so long as Japan keeps releasing games exclusively in Japanese, that's just a fact. Even anime still has fansub groups despite being much more widely available nowadays.
You have to understand most fan translators translate a game because they like it and want to share it with other people. If a company comes along that has the proper channels to make that game legally available in the Western market, there's very little reason not to accept such an offer. 
Complaints are usually from people that have only pirated games before and are salty about having to pay money now.
Of course there are valid criticisms to be made in the actual localization processes for each game, namely the fact a lot of erotic content is being left behind in favor of all ages releases, but the concept of a company buying a fan translation isn't really destroying the world as we know it.
Also fan groups asking for donations are 10 times shadier than ChuSinGura's Kickstarter project.

This won't "kill" fan translations so long as Japan keeps releasing games exclusively in Japanese, that's just a fact. Even anime still has fansub groups despite being much more widely available nowadays.
You have to understand most fan translators translate a game because they like it and want to share it with other people. If a company comes along that has the proper channels to make that game legally available in the Western market, there's very little reason not to accept such an offer. 
Complaints are usually from people that have only pirated games before and are salty about having to pay money now.
Of course there are valid criticisms to be made in the actual localization processes for each game, namely the fact a lot of erotic content is being left behind in favor of all ages releases, but the concept of a company buying a fan translation isn't really destroying the world as we know it.
Also fan groups asking for donations are 10 times shadier than ChuSinGura's Kickstarter project.

Take it from someone who loves hentai, you don't want an 18+ version of Little Busters, anyone who's read Key's h-scenes knows how awful they are. Neither erotic nor romantic, just pure cringe and awkwardness.
And the Perfect edition has more content than the EX edition, you will still get Saya, Kanata and Sasami's route in it, with additional scenes that aren't in the regular EX version. The only thing it won't have are the h-scenes, and good riddance that is.
Someone might make a patch for it, but I doubt any translator really wants to put in the effort of translating those atrocities.
If you really want to see the 18+ content, you can just read the h-scenes in Japanese, they're just as fulfilling (i.e not fulfilling at all).

Looking back on the page, they're still missing ONE OF THE FREAKING MAIN CHARACTERS.
But don't worry, they plastered her face all over the rewards, so I guess it kinda counts.
How do you fail this hard?

There is no full English patch for the EX or ME version of the game.
The game was licensed and the Perfect Edition will be released officially in English sometime in the future. And yes, the Perfect edition includes the ME content (it doesn't have the 18+ content though, but it's not like it matters because the h-scenes are atrocious).

It's always when we're sleeping. Granted I‘m usually awake at this time but it's Saturday so.
Also usually before we could just mark someone as a spammer and it would automatically delete all their content and ban them permanently. Now that doesn't happen anymore which is a pain when a bot makes tons of threads.
And yeah the bot protection is kinda wonky lately it seems.
But how can you pass up those sweet free viagra deals?

It's always when we're sleeping. Granted I‘m usually awake at this time but it's Saturday so.
Also usually before we could just mark someone as a spammer and it would automatically delete all their content and ban them permanently. Now that doesn't happen anymore which is a pain when a bot makes tons of threads.
And yeah the bot protection is kinda wonky lately it seems.
But how can you pass up those sweet free viagra deals?

Stay strong my friend, you will need all the will power you can muster.
Charlotte's premise wasn't too bad, I thought it'd be more slice of life oriented, but then shit happens...
Things only go bad after episode 6 so you still have 2 episodes to quit.
I watched the show twice, one by myself and one with a friend, and both times it just couldn't redeem itself.

Tbh I agree with Kaguya, I've mostly only seen people who are into animu/mango also be into VNs. Sure there's probably a small crowd out there who don't enjoy those things and like VNs, but overall the VN world is hugely influenced by the otaku media and VN fans are typically fans of other types of said media.
I agree VNs will likely never be immensely popular, but that's unfortunately the cost of being a medium so heavily niche targeted. It doesn't mean they're doing something terrible, it's just that there isn't a massive crowd for VNs yet.

Tbh I agree with Kaguya, I've mostly only seen people who are into animu/mango also be into VNs. Sure there's probably a small crowd out there who don't enjoy those things and like VNs, but overall the VN world is hugely influenced by the otaku media and VN fans are typically fans of other types of said media.
I agree VNs will likely never be immensely popular, but that's unfortunately the cost of being a medium so heavily niche targeted. It doesn't mean they're doing something terrible, it's just that there isn't a massive crowd for VNs yet.

Tbh I agree with Kaguya, I've mostly only seen people who are into animu/mango also be into VNs. Sure there's probably a small crowd out there who don't enjoy those things and like VNs, but overall the VN world is hugely influenced by the otaku media and VN fans are typically fans of other types of said media.
I agree VNs will likely never be immensely popular, but that's unfortunately the cost of being a medium so heavily niche targeted. It doesn't mean they're doing something terrible, it's just that there isn't a massive crowd for VNs yet.

*Charlotte flashbacks*
This is going to be terrible isn't it?
I want to have hope, but then I remember the VN is shorter than half of a typical full anime season, which begs the question: how are they going to drag it and essentially butcher what was a wonderfully paced short story?
The only way this can realistically work is in movie form, but if you want my honest opinion i don't think Planetarian is very fit for the anime medium.

来た！
I was starting to get worried and was about to send an e-mail to book depository, but luckily my grandma knocked on my window and told me I got mail today and SURPRISE my book was in there!
Now I know 4-8 business days to Portugal means literally 8 business days
I didn't know light novels were this tall (never saw/ordered one IRL), I expected an A5 sized book. The illustrations are really nice.
I'm going to be reading it in between classes.
Definitely using book despository to order the rest of the collection as well now that I know everything works.

lol

Kadokawa is mostly a publisher. They have worked with countless famous anime, including kill la Kill, Haruhi Suzumiya, Boku Dake ga Inai Machi, Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, and countless others. They also work on manga, video games, light novels, and other otaku related businesses.
My best guess is that this will just mean Crunchyroll gets more exclusives, which isn't a bad thing.
In other news, Kadokawa also purchased 51% equity stake in Yen Press, now this is the one I'm more hyped about, because it could mean we get a ton more Light Novels and Manga translated.

lol