I can't remember the dates, but as a fan of the anime art style, I've been viewing images on 4chan's /a/ and /c/ boards for years now. Very infrequently I used to come across Touhou threads and noted the exceptionally high fanart quality. I think one of the first pieces I ever saw and was stricken by was of Sakuya serving tea in the library to Patchouli, who was writing something in quill. I didn't know their names back then or at least I hadn't committed them to my memory yet. Despite this, Patchouli's image of that as an intellectual had stuck in my head and made her an instant favorite for me, although not knowing much at the time, I made the mistake of thinking Sakuya was Patchy's servant.
Looking into the matter further did me not much good however, as I've been a Macintosh user all my life and may as well be illiterate when it comes to japanese. I've mostly ignored it, with the exception of enjoying those once rare times when a Touhou thread would surface and I would get to see the pretty art. Well, about a month before /jp/ lost any resemblance as to what you might uncertainly call actual japanese culture, I found a thread on the 4chan archive once more exhibiting the wonderful quality of fanstuffs. I ended up making the mistake of spamming all the images into a friend's chat window and telling him what little I knew about the series. After the introduction had been made, I could no longer remain in my quaint general ignorance of the series, as pretty much nonstop I'd keep on hearing about how wonderful the gameplay was and all the character interactions, be linked to various Touhou related videos ect. We've fueled each others addictions since then, though I think at the moment mine is currently stronger. Now even with Boot Camp, I still don't actually play the games, Perfect Cherry Blossom demo aside, as for personal reasons I've had no means of electronic payment.
Funnily enough, shortly after I introduced my friend to it, the Touhou fandom on 4chan seems to have exploded. This is probably due to the nature change of /jp/.
As for the off topic conversation, Golbeze did indeed become a good guy at the end of FF IV. The true orchestrater of events, Zemus, was actually somewhat of a disappointment as he got the least development and screen time of any of the game's villains.
I personally feel that graphics don't have to meet high technological standards or even appear realistic in order to look beautiful. I feel the SNES not only had the best selection of games but perhaps even the best overall aesthetic of any video game system to date. Sometimes, rarely, the look of a game will detract from the experience for me. However, games like Space Invaders and Pong are proof enough that a game can be great without any bells and whistles at all, if the core gameplay fun enough. Too many people get caught up about one aspect or another about video games to see what really matters: Is it enjoyable? A pleasing appearance is only one aspect of the palatability of a video game and I too feel that it is the most overrated one.
P.S: Hi everybody. I'm new, obviously.
