And yes, Ao's existing translation gets the job done just fine, it's way better than Zero's old translation. There's really no excuse to not play these incredible games.
Let's say an average fan has just finished playing Zero today, and want to jump to Ao no Kiseki straight away. What would they need to do?
I. Obtaining a legal copy of the
PC version of Ao no Kiseki is
not a trivial matter. Even if you have a credit card and Google Translate at the ready. Not to mention patching out the DRM, applying the translation patch, etc. It may be just half an hour work for us because we're PC-literate, but it won't be so easy for others.
Let's say this fan had enough stuffing around since it's becoming way too hard.
"Fuck it, imma download it from the cat site instead". What happens then?
II. The game runs, but it will be missing all the QoL from the Geofront we've all accustomed too. They can forget about arbitrary resolution support, 144fps, redone Notebook, controller/KB&M remapping, etc. Maybe we can force SGSSAA and 16x AF with NVInspector, but without native resolution support, it probably won't look as good for people who have high-resolution screens.
Then maybe a console player comes in.
"Fuck it, imma play it with my PSP (lol)". Xdelta-patch it to an ISO and off we go. What awaits them?
III. The state of the Ao translation is maybe better than the Zero leak, but 30% of it was translated by flame who mostly MTL'd his share of the script, and as a result, still requires heavy editing. Additionally, since it's not being handled by Geofront, the editing style will be a far cry from the XSEED-style localisation as demonstrated in Zero.
Frankly, I won't disparage people from playing the Ao patch as it is, maybe it's perfectly serviceable. Maybe wait for the Kai versions. It's also another good option. By all means, they should go for it. But speaking for myself, I'm too used to having standards set by XSEED and Geofront, even if I have to wait years and years for it.