I've got a new shrine, new games, and lots of emulator updates!

• The shrine for Magic Knight Rayearth (SNES) has been revamped with the “Shrines 2.0” format. It's mobile-friendly, organized better, and overall more pretty. It has a walkthrough, maps, and video page, which I didn't have before. The soundtrack is available in multiple formats. New downloads include a hard version of the game (the original is very easy) plus other Magic Knight Rayearth games such as the one for Saturn, the two for Game Gear, and the two for Game Boy. The Game Gear and Game Boy releases are all Japanese, except for the first Game Gear game which was recently fan translated.
• To the recently revamped Phantasy Star II shrine I added a download for the Phantasy Star II (Genesis/Mega Drive) retranslation and Phantasy Star I (Master System) retranslation.
• To the emulators page I've added uoYabause (Saturn), DEmul (Dreamcast), and Dolphin (GameCube, Wii). uoYabause is an incredible Sega Saturn emulator that recently brought Saturn emulation to a whole new level! Saturn emulation is now close to a similar quality that we're use to with, say, PS1 and N64 emulation. DEmul is the #1 emulator for the Sega Dreamcast. Dolphin is the #1 emulator for GameCube & Wii.
• With the addition of uoYabause, I've updated Video Game Emulation for Newbies with a uoYabause tutorial. Experience Sega Saturn emulation the way it was meant to be!

“Shrines 2.0” are here! I've slowly started remodeling & improving my RPG shrines. I know you guys find my old shrines nostalgic, but they need to go. I designed most of my RPG shrines in the early and mid-2000s. The Internet has changed drastically since then.

For some time now, Google has been 'punishing' me for being too old and not compliant with modern standards. Hence, they've been reducing my site's visibility in the Google search. Nearly 80% of my site's visitors come from Google, so I need to take this seriously. I won't bore you with all the technical things that must be implemented. I'll tell you, though, the most important thing I need to do is make my RPG shrines mobile-friendly.

So far I've remodeled two shrines: Phantasy Star II and Alcahest. Naturally, I'm not going to remodel my shrines without improving them and adding more juicy goodies for you. Here's what's new for both shrines:

• New mobile friendliness! Check out my RPG shrines on your smartphone. They've been carefully coded to transform nicely for small displays.
• New effects! My old RPG shrines had some pretty cool animation effects with Flash. Flash can't be used anymore :( The new 'compliant' method of making cool effects is with CSS3 animation. Check out the Alcahest shrine to see the moving lava and bouncing boss!
• Improved game reviews! Previously called the 'about the game' page, my game reviews are now more detailed and more visual.
• New walkthroughs! I'm not going to link to GameFAQs anymore for walkthroughs. For now on, I'm going to provide a walkthrough right here.
• New print-friendly maps! In addition to providing maps, I'm providing print-friendly PDFs containing all the maps. I'm offering a color version for color printers and a grayscale version for black & white printers.
• New soundtracks! I've re-ripped every soundtrack and I'm providing them in a variety of formats: good quality MP3, high quality MP3, and WAV. Every song has their tags filled in, and album art is included, so you can just drag-and-drop these soundtracks into your smartphone's music folder with easy integration into your preferred music player.
• New desktop wallpapers! And they're available in the current assortment of standard desktop resolutions.
• New movie clips! I've selected the best and most interesting videos from YouTube and slapped them all together in the movie clips page.
• New game downloads! Since Phantasy Star II is part of a series, in the Downloads page I offer every other game in the series for download.

Oh, lastly, I added nearly 50 new screen shots for SaGa Frontier.

This will be my last update for 2017 - 2018's around the corner.

• For Final Fantasy 5, I've added the GBA script port for the SNES version. Many people regard the North American GBA release of Final Fantasy 5 as the best quality English translation of the game. But many people also are not very fond of GBA's hardware. Now we get the best of both worlds - we can experience the best translation of Final Fantasy 5 on the SNES version!
• The best hack for Final Fantasy 6 (SNES), Return of the Dark Sorcerer, has been updated.
• To RPG Lunch Break's Game Boy category, added the Metroid II Color Hack. Now you can enjoy this classic in color!
• Video Game Emulation for Newbies has a big update!
  • I've added my first tutorials for Android! I added two of them: Video Game Emulation on Android (a general tutorial) and a tutorial for RetroArch. RetroArch is Android's top emulator that supports pretty much every video game system.
  • To the ePSXe tutorial, I added the official cheats pack and directions on how to use it. This handy little zip file contains every single cheat code for every single PlayStation 1 game!
• To the video game emulators page, I added Dolphin. This is the #1 Gamecube and Wii emulator!

• I've added two PSP games for download! Final Fantasy 4 and Tales of Phantasia.
• Three Final Fantasy 6 ROM hacks have been updated: Brave New World, Return of the Dark Sorcerer, and Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition.
• The English translation for Game Gear's Last Bible Special has been released! You can find it for download in the Revelations: The Demon Slayer Downloads section.
• The Video Game Emulators page is no longer a single page. It's grown pretty big over the years. To make browsing easier, I've moved the Android video game emulators and the miscellaneous emulators into their own dedicated pages.
• Lastly, also added 7 new desktop wallpapers. Five for Earthbound and two for Secret of Mana. Previews below:
  

To the Anime Video Archive I've added 6 awesome anime movie classics:

• Slayers: The Motion Picture - Based on the popular comedic fantasy series, “Slayers”; Lina Inverse and Naga travel to a mysterious island trapped in time.
• Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland - The inspiration for the popular NES game; Nemo must save Slumberland from the Nightmare King!
• Time Stranger - A classic movie from 1986; high school students go on an unsuspecting adventure through time.
• The Dagger of Kamui - A classic movie from 1985; this is a ninja soap opera that takes you on a bloody roller-coaster of lies, betrayal, and revenge!
• Dragon Slayer - In a world of fantasy, a swordsman seeks to avenge the murder of his father, the king.

Video Game Emulation for Newbies v2.0 is here! It took me almost two years to make this!! I've completely remodeled the site and created it from scratch from the ground up.

• All tutorials have been completely re-typed with love and great care. Directions are worded better, information is updated for modern times, and as a whole everything is organized better.
• All screen shots have been re-captured on Windows 10 to stay up-to-date with the mainstream OS. (I don't want to confuse people with old Windows XP screens.)
  • Also, I am including more screen shots in the page itself to make skim-reading easier. In the old version I had nearly all screen shots hidden until you clicked a link.
• Every tutorial includes a version on Google Docs. This version has been specially re-worked to be 100% print friendly. In addition to printing, Google Docs lets you convert my tutorials to any text file format.
• These remodeled pages are fully responsive. Meaning you can browse them with ease whether you're on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
• Lastly, along with the update I've added 5 new emulator tutorials. They are for Project 64 (Nintendo 64), DeSmuME (Nintendo DS), mGBA (GBA), PPSSPP (PSP), and FinalBurn Alpha (Arcade).

The video game emulators page has been updated as well. Updates include:

• Snes9X was updated! Snes9X hasn't been updated in YEARS. There are two notable updates to mention. First, Snes9X now uses Higan's source as the base to emulate games. Higan is respected as the #1 SNES emulator in terms of cycle accuracy. Now Snes9X is just as awesome! Second, Snes9X now has a rewind button.
• Added DeSmuME X432R! It's a special build of DeSmuME that enhances 3D graphics. See for yourself the difference!
• Also updated Higan, mGBA, and FinalBurn Alpha. The changes are just regular bug fixes.

MASSIVE UPDATE to the Anime Video Archive! I've been working on this update for a long time. I've added these 8 movies:

• EYES of Mars
• Ghost Sweeper Mikami
• Legend of Lemnear
• Midnight Eye Gokuu 1 & 2
• They Were Eleven
• Twilight of the Dark Master
• Windaria

And these 7 anime series:

• Bastard!!
• Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals
• Golden Boy
• Kishin Corps
• Legend of Crystania: The Chaos Ring
• Night Warriors
• Ninja Resurrection

Additionally, I included new categories to Categories. And I made a snazzy mega trailer with short clips from every anime featured in the site!

• Added lots of new Final Fantasy game downloads! I've added Chaos Rush's new high quality English translations for Final Fantasy 2 & 3 (NES). I've added Final Fantasy 1 & 2 (PSP), and Final Fantasy 3 (NDS). Also, my download for Final Fantasy Origins (PS1) is now a direct download instead of a torrent.
• I added the famous Final Fantasy 6 ROM hack: Return of the Dark Sorcerer. It's a really cool hack that offers an entirely new game!
• For Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I added the Saturn version for download. I also added a download for Dracula X (PSP), which Symphony of the Night can be unlocked in. I also made Symphony of the Night a direction download, so it is no longer a torrent.
• Did you know Phantasy Star 2 had an HD remake for the PlayStation 2? Yep. It was not released outside of Japan, but a fan based English translation is available. I have added this English translated version of Phantasy Star 2 (PS2) to the downloads.
• I updated the entire Shining Force 2 Symphonic soundtrack with a new high quality version! Previously, I had up a moderate quality 128 kb/s (fixed rate) MP3 track. I also zipped up all the Shining Force 1 and 2 soundtracks so that you don't have to manually download each song. Check them out: Shining Force 1 Music, Shining Force 2 Music.
• I went through the painful effort of removing lots of Flash from the RPG shrines. I did this for a couple reasons. Chrome will be blocking Flash by default soon. And this was something I should've done a long time ago, since Flash is not supported on mobile devices. I posted on Tumblr more details about my Flash removal effort.
• Lastly, also added 8 new desktop wallpapers. Two for Final Fantasy IX, two for Chrono Trigger, two for Secret of Mana, and two for Shining Force 2. And I'm using a new set of standard resolutions for these wallpapers, because my older set of resolutions isn't as common anymore. Previews below:
  

I've got a massive update here! Let's start with the updated patches:

• The Final Fantasy 4 (SNES) Namingway Edition patch has been updated with bug fixes. This patch promises a perfect English translation.
• The Final Fantasy 6 (GBA) Color Restoration and Sound Restoration patches have both been updated. The Color Restoration is just a small update that corrects minor things. The Sound Restoration, however, is a massive update. It's been completely redone from scratch, so that the music and sound effects are all directly taken from the SNES version. The sound almost identical! A better sound mixer program is used, resulting with sound that is less noisy. The reverb sounds more like the original SNES reverb. The program also runs faster. Frame-rate drops that were introduced in many places in the original GBA version are greatly reduced.
• The Tales of Phantasia (PSX) English translation updated with bug fixes.
• The Tales of Phantasia (SNES) English Dubbing patch was updated with a re-code to be compatible with any ROM. Previously, it was rather difficult to apply to this patch. Additionally, I've added a pre-patched version of this English dubbed Tales of Phantasia.
• The Dual Orb 2 English translation was updated with bug fixes.
• The Alcahest English translation was updated with a minor fix that corrects the stage titles.

Here are the new ROM hacks:

• To Earthbound added 6 new ROM hacks! They are:
  • Earthbound (SNES) New Controls - Say goodbye to navigating several menus only to find that guy in front of you just farted. This patch brings more modern controls to an SNES classic!
  • Earthbound (SNES) MaternalBound - This hack's goal was to make Earthbound as close to Mother 2 as possible. It takes care of most of the uncensoring that North America made during the localization of Mother 2.
  • Earthbound (SNES) Halloween Edition - This hack alters Earthbound to be an entirely new game. It's a dark, horrifying story.
  • Earthbound (SNES) The Rat Race - This game, which you might think of as Earthbound for girls, is a project that took several years and a lot of work. Most of what has been changed is character names and the text.
  • Mother (NES) 25th Anniversary - Aims to make Mother much more enjoyable for both Earthbound fans and those playing it for the first time.
  • Mother (GBA) Color Correction - Restores the colors back to what they were on NES.
• To Terranigma added the NTSC and VWF hacks:
  • The NTSC hack lets you play the game in its 60 FPS North American glory. Remember, Terranigna was only released in Europe. In Europe, games run at a slower framerate for PAL televisions.
  • Terranigma has very  w i d e   t e x t. The VWF hack corrects that and makes the dialogue readable.
• To Final Fantasy 6 added the SNES Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition. The goal of this project was to make the SNES version uncut and to clean up the script but keep the nuance used in the original script. This is the highest quality uncensored re-translation that the fan community offers!
• To Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen added the SNES Army Balancing mod hack. This mod makes the previously undervalued units useful and adds new classes. Read the included documentation to learn more about all the changes this mod made.

Lastly, here are the 4 new game downloads:

• The other day I added the PlayStation 1 and WonderSwan Color ports of Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. I was thinking “You know what? I should just put up the rest of the games.” So to the Ogre Battle Downloads I've added the game's sequels: Tactics Ogre (SNES), Tactics Ogre (PS1), and Ogre Battle 64 (N64).
• I now offer Final Fantasy Tactics for direct download (no more torrents!). I also put up the PSP port: War of the Lions.

I've added three Shining Force hacks:

• Added the cheater's edition hacks for Shining Force 1 and Shining Force 2. These hacks let you walk through walls, buy anything, sell anything, always promote, level up quickly, and more!
• Tired of re-playing Shining Force 2 to death? Here's Shining Force 2: Cireza Edition, a remixed version of the game. There's a new join order for the characters, new unexpected promotions, and more!

I've made a big update to the video game emulators page! Five new emulators have been added:

• Higan, a cycle accurate emulator that supports NES, SNES, and Game Boy Classic/Color/Advance.
• mGBA, a new cycle accurate GBA emulator.
• Gambatte, a cycle accurate Game Boy Classic/Color emulator.
• PCSX-R, a better emulator than pSX (ePSXe is still #1 tho).
• FinalBurn Alpha, a great arcade emulator for Capcom, NeoGeo, Konami, and Cave games.

In addition, the following existing emulators have been updated: PCSX2, PPSSPP, Nestopia, and FCEUX.

My last update for 2015. This update is my little holiday present for you! :)

• For seemingly forever, if you ever wanted to play a re-translated uncut version of Final Fantasy 4, your only option was J2e's Re-translation (which is the version I've always had in my site). Their re-translation had received much criticism and proven to be a half-assed job with poor accuracy. No more! I've added two recently released Final Fantasy 4 re-translations:
  • Project II - This offers the highest quality fan re-translation. It also offers restored missing content, every spell has an in-battle use, buffed-up battle commands, reverted censored map graphics, various bugs fixes, and more!
  • Namingway Edition - This is an extension of Project II offering deeper translations to items, spells, commands, jobs, and monsters. Also adds a B button Dash.
• As you know, all of my PlayStation 1 downloads (except SaGa Frontier) are via torrents. It saves me a lot of bandwidth! Plus it lets you download the game faster. However, when a game becomes unpopular it can't be downloaded anymore. The game that has become unpopular with a now dead torrent is Parasite Eve (just like SaGa Frontier years ago). To resolve this, I am now hosting a direct download of Parasite Eve so that people can continue downloading it.
• I should've done this ages ago. To Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen I have added the PlayStation 1 port and the NeoGeo Pocket Color version.
• To my emulators page I've added a new category: Chromebook (Chrome OS)! Yep, Chromebooks have emulators now. By the way, I still keep all the emulators on my emulators page up-to-date.

• The Mother 3 English translation has been updated to v1.2 with the following:
  • A number of minor, rare bugs have been fixed.
  • A few rare typos and other text issues have been fixed.
  • Some bugs present in the original Japanese game have been fixed.
  • Script text encoding has been undone.
  • Duster's sound battle sounds play properly the original game had some problems with this.
  • And probably some lesser stuff that's been forgotten over time.
• The Final Fantasy 5 (GBA) sound restoration patch has been updated with major improvements! The author of the patch noted: “Completely redone the hack from scratch again. I must be masochist. This time, all 69 musics and 186 sound effects were converted directly from the SNES version with the tools I made (some manual editing was also involved). The music driver of the GBA game has been partially rewritten, based on the Golden Sun's sound mixer. High quality reverb, to simulate the SNES sound, is now implemented. The game doesn't lag anymore, even during the final battle where the original GBA port lagged like crazy.”
• Emulator updates: I added a Sony PSP emulator, PPSSPP. DeSmuME and VisualBoyAdvance-M are updated to latest. For Android; Snes9X EX+, FinalBurn Alpha, and Mupen64+ are updated to latest.
• Wow, so it's been exactly a year since my last update. Please don't think I abandoned FantasyAnime! In the last update I mentioned working on side projects to help with a job search. Turned out my blog was enough and I was scouted by an advertising agency. The new job is great! Now I can focus on FantasyAnime again. I have big updates coming down the pipe! Stay tuned.

• I've finally added the download for Final Fantasy 3 on the Nintendo DS. I also added a blurb about it in the shrine's about page.
• To Earthbound downloads I've added a recently released improvement hack for Earthbound Zero on the NES that corrects spelling/grammar mistakes, restores censored graphics, makes the game easier (the original is very hard), replaces the font with a more legible one, and other changes to improve the overall experience.
• I've added 6 new desktop wallpapers: two for Chrono Trigger, two for Final Fantasy 6, one for Shining Force, and one for Final Fantasy 9. Previews below.
  
• Lastly, you might be wondering why it's been 8 months since my last update. I'm taking a break from FantasyAnime for a while. I've been focusing on building my portfolio for a job search. I'm really tired of my current job. These past 8 months I learned two programming languages and created a blog: ImpatientDesigner.com. Next I need to make a new portfolio site. Once I get that out of the way I can come back to updating FantasyAnime on a regular basis. So please don't think I abandoned FantasyAnime. I still have big ideas for it! And I still update the FantasyAnime social media channels everyday.