My introduction

[seki108]

1 hour ago, Gheist said:

Thanks. She has a pretty cool bomb which gives you a shield like in PCB so I can just focus on dodging. It still does literally no damage (it just erases the bullets) and some bosses burn through those shields like paper. And it looks like something weird is going on where if I time out the midboss' first spell card, it just leaves and doesn't use the 2 harder ones. Even the regular stage enemies seem to be on a timer so a bunch don't show up if I spend a lot of time on the boss. I don't get what the idea was but if I abuse this, I can probably save like 2-3 lives on each run.

 

I'm glad she's good in canon (as a partner).........she really got subjected to Power Creep in FMW after the first game, even for her pure support role. Still not quite the worst unit in the series, but I would put her at #2, just barely above Komachi

[Gheist]

Ok thanks for the answer. I've had this account since 2014 for the community releases but I was never very active on the forums so I don't know how any of these features work. So I guess there's no real purpose to the upvotes now other than just letting people know you liked the post.

 

As for Nitori, she was pretty difficult for a stage 3 boss but at least in TH10 bombing once was enough to clear most spell cards. As a partner, her shot is absolutely horrid (low spread, weak and slow) but the shield is very useful since I don't have to worry about death bombing. Overall I like her as a character.

 

@seki108

[Gheist]

@seki108

I just beat TH12 (Undefined Fantastic Object) with Illusion Laser Marisa. It only took like 2 and a half days so it looks like Zun sobered up between making SA and this. I got my bombs back, I got illusion laser back and the stages aren't intolerable. I like this one so I'm probably gonna clear it with the other shot types next. After that is TH13 (YOUMU!!!!!!)

[seki108]

1 hour ago, Gheist said:

@seki108

I just beat TH12 (Undefined Fantastic Object) with Illusion Laser Marisa. It only took like 2 and a half days so it looks like Zun sobered up between making SA and this. I got my bombs back, I got illusion laser back and the stages aren't intolerable. I like this one so I'm probably gonna clear it with the other shot types next. After that is TH13 (YOUMU!!!!!!)

Didn't really know where UFO fit on the difficulty scale, but this is a good indication.  Time for the religion battle.

 

  Pretty soon you're going to have to go for the side games that are still Danmaku focused, like Great Fairy Wars, Shoot the Bullet / Double Spoiler, and Impossible Spell Card.

[Gheist]

5 hours ago, seki108 said:

Didn't really know where UFO fit on the difficulty scale, but this is a good indication.

They give you a TON of lives but only if you collect all the red UFOs and do some really annoying things which makes the stages way more difficult. If I didn't bother with those, I wouldn't die on any stage pre boss but if you don't get the lives, it's basically the same as dying so you pretty much have to. The boss fights aren't too bad other than some really annoying lasers which just appear and then rapidly go for you. There's like 3-4 of these on stages 5 and 6 so I just bomb them at this point (assuming I have any) because death bombing them is practically impossible and it's just not worth it trying to dodge. Super high risk, low reward.

 

5 hours ago, seki108 said:

  Pretty soon you're going to have to go for the side games that are still Danmaku focused, like Great Fairy Wars, Shoot the Bullet / Double Spoiler, and Impossible Spell Card.

 

Oh I played shoot the bullet already. Way too fucking hard for me. I captured 40 spell cards, got all of Youmu's and now I don't even care anymore. The mechanics of that game are terrible. But don't worry, I've still got hard/lunatic modes and Extra stages :DDDD

I'm definitely gonna boss rush the Extra stages for practice. It's a fucking Godsend.

[Gheist]

I've been away for a while but I'm back and just finished UFO with 2 more shot types (1 for each character) and cleared Ten Desires (TH13) with all shot types. Also got Youmu's parallel ending (1CC with 3 bombs in inventory). It's probably the easiest of the Windows games so far. Looks like Zun decided to go for less resources, less difficulty with this one unlike in UFO where it's hard but you've got lives all over the place. Also looks like the final boss doesn't turn invincible when you bomb her final spell card like in the previous games which makes it pretty easy. I've been playing it for 2 days and can pretty much reach the final boss without dying then beat her with 2-3 lives. Can't say the game wasn't still fun though.

 

Anyway, now that Youmu isn't in any future games I don't have any special desire to play them right now so I can go back and do some of the side games, Extra stages, hard modes or trying to beat SA with a different shot type. Or maybe even FMW. I'll think about it tomorrow. . .

@seki108

[seki108]

14 minutes ago, Gheist said:

I've been away for a while but I'm back and just finished UFO with 2 more shot types (1 for each character) and cleared Ten Desires (TH13) with all shot types. Also got Youmu's parallel ending (1CC with 3 bombs in inventory). It's probably the easiest of the Windows games so far. Looks like Zun decided to go for less resources, less difficulty with this one unlike in UFO where it's hard but you've got lives all over the place. Also looks like the final boss doesn't turn invincible when you bomb her final spell card like in the previous games which makes it pretty easy. I've been playing it for 2 days and can pretty much reach the final boss without dying then beat her with 2-3 lives. Can't say the game wasn't still fun though.

 

It does seem like Zun fluctuates the difficulty quite a bit, though he only sometimes acknowledges he intentionally made a game easier or harder.

 

15 minutes ago, Gheist said:

Anyway, now that Youmu isn't in any future games I don't have any special desire to play them right now so I can go back and do some of the side games, Extra stages, hard modes or trying to beat SA with a different shot type. Or maybe even FMW. I'll think about it tomorrow. . .

 

Well, good luck deciding.  I'm at stage 73 (out of 77) in FMW, so I'm getting close to the end......then there are three new bonus stages that the final patch of game 4 added a week ago.

 

If you decide on a FMW game and want to ask something, feel free.  Akurasu is also useful in this regard, though it's info is more relevant to games 3 and 4 (since mechanics/skills were tweaked between games 1 and 2, then between 2 and 3).

[Gheist]

17 hours ago, seki108 said:

It does seem like Zun fluctuates the difficulty quite a bit, though he only sometimes acknowledges he intentionally made a game easier or harder.

I just went back to SA and beat it with Reimu/Yukari. Fuck yea! Got to the final boss with 5 lives. I guess I finally figured this out. It doesn't matter how bad the mechanics are or how weak my shot is if I just keep dodging and dodging everything like a pro. Eziest game of my life.

Ok, finally time for FMW. Downloading it now. I kinda miss Flan now. Interested to see what her role is in the game.

[seki108]

3 minutes ago, Gheist said:

Ok, finally time for FMW. Downloading it now. I kinda miss Flan now. Interested to see what her role is in the game.

Depends on if you are starting with the first game in the series, I suppose.

 

4 minutes ago, Gheist said:

I just went back to SA and beat it with Reimu/Yukari. Fuck yea! Got to the final boss with 5 lives. I guess I finally figured this out. It doesn't matter how bad the mechanics are or how weak my shot is if I just keep dodging and dodging everything like a pro. Eziest game of my life.

 

So you timed out the spell cards or still captured them?  either way, congrats on Orin not causing you too much trouble this time.   Reimu really is the dodge queen, from what I've heard.......smaller hitbox and all

[Gheist]

7 hours ago, seki108 said:

Depends on if you are starting with the first game in the series, I suppose.

That's the plan. I'm gonna start playing tomorrow probably.

 

7 hours ago, seki108 said:

So you timed out the spell cards or still captured them?  either way, congrats on Orin not causing you too much trouble this time.   Reimu really is the dodge queen, from what I've heard.......smaller hitbox and all

It turns out you can capture most of them right before they time out at zero power if you're just constantly hitting them. Even if you can't capture them, it's usually better to bomb than let them time out since they still drop a life piece that way. I do always time out the cats (stage 5 midboss) second spell card because then it doesn't use the 3rd one which consistently kills me at least once or twice. The card itself isn't that difficult to dodge but it would time out unless I kept chasing the cat around so I just don't even bother with it anymore.

 

I don't think Reimu actually has a smaller hitbox in this game but on that note, I also cleared it with 2 more shot types afterwards those being Reimu/Suika and Marisa/Alice (I've probably failed over 100 times with this one by now). That's 4/6 right there. Orin isn't really a problem anymore. I usually get to her with around 7 lives and die maybe 2-3 times while fighting her. Apart from the stupidly hard first 3 levels (for being the first 3 levels) and annoying final boss (all her spells cards last SO long), it's starting to feel like a regular Touhou game to me. Either because I've gotten more familiar with it or have just gotten better overall.

Anyway, I'll check out FMW tomorrow and then probably try to do the remaining 2 shot types since why not at this point. I've done it with all the others except UFO (I'll do that too eventually). Next I want to do hard mode on Touhou 6-8 (pretty sure I can do it if I just try a few times and use all my bombs) and the SA Extra stage (Koishi<3).

I can do the last 3 games whenever I get bored of this stuff.

[Gheist]

I just finished SA with the remaining 2 shot types so that's all clear! Easiest game of my life. I'm thinking Koishi next.

Rejuvenation Version 10 took up most of yesterday but I did start FMW although I didn't get very far. Not too sure about all these characters showing up when they shouldn't be here for another 4 games but it's still to early to judge.

That's about it. Mostly reporting on the SA clear.

@seki108

[seki108]

4 hours ago, Gheist said:

but I did start FMW although I didn't get very far. Not too sure about all these characters showing up when they shouldn't be here for another 4 games but it's still to early to judge.

 

Why wouldn't Keine get involved when clearly the human village was in danger (and she exists)?  It makes little sense in some of the other TH games past 8, aside from the danger not being apparent danger (like the 13's "Holy War").   I would mention probably the biggest change in order, though I'm not sure if the 'another 4 games' is in relation to them or others.

 

Honestly, this is the staple of the series, so it's not going away, though not everyone will always be around.   It's kind of like series getting involved with each other in Super Robot Wars (which the mechanics of FMW are mostly based on)

 

So did you pick Reimu's route or Marisa's route?  

 

4 hours ago, Gheist said:

Rejuvenation Version 10 took up most of yesterday

Still have yet to start this.  Am looking forward to it, when I get there.

[Gheist]

36 minutes ago, seki108 said:

Why wouldn't Keine get involved when clearly the human village was in danger (and she exists)? 

 

I'm not talking about her. There's some short white haired girl with animal ears together with Aya trying to thwart Marisa and Nitori from going to a shop. That's literally the first stage.

Both Nitori and Aya didn't appear until TH10 (unless we count STB) and I don't even know who this other girl is.

Anyway I'm not saying I dislike these random characters showing up but I was kinda expecting to you know, fight Rumia and Cirno since the red mist is here and all. Like I said, it's too early to judge. I'm just saying this was unexpected and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I will be able to properly formulate my opinion on this after I have played more of the game.

Marisa's route if it's not clear enough yet. I always pick her first unless Youmu is available. I like the speed and the Illusion laser.

46 minutes ago, seki108 said:

Still have yet to start this.  Am looking forward to it, when I get there.

This one is heavily story focused so I enjoyed it quite a lot. Both Melia and Aelita get a ton of screen time. Expect more time travel and a flying type gym at the end so prepare for that.

If you have something with cloud nine you can break the field but otherwise they lead off with a Skarmory which has some seed that automatically uses an 8 turn long tail wind so yea. Bringing something to tank it for 8 turns might be a good idea. Last mon is a a Mega-Pigeot with hurricane, razor wind and heat wave.

There aren't many new side quests from what I've seen so there's not much to do after finishing the main story. I'll probably play through the whole game again before the next Version though. We also seem to be getting a side story in a few days so that should be fun. Enjoy.

 

[seki108]

1 hour ago, Gheist said:

I'm not talking about her. There's some short white haired girl with animal ears together with Aya trying to thwart Marisa and Nitori from going to a shop. That's literally the first stage.

Both Nitori and Aya didn't appear until TH10 (unless we count STB) and I don't even know who this other girl is.

Wasn't sure whether to talk about MOF yet, since I didn't know which route you picked.  The reason Nitori gives fits her character well enough (her wanting to to check out the outside world good from Rinnosuke's shop) and runs into Marisa beforehad, with Momoji (the wolf Tengu--- midstage boss from Aya's stage in MOF) pursuing because something stirred up Youkai mountain.  While parts might seem a tad contrived when not in the canon order, most of the reasons make sense in context. 

 

I will say only one thing falls into the 'something happening sooner than it should wit no justifiable reason', though it works out a lot better for justifying  part of the second game;   plus that character is the lead developer's favorite, so possibly a bit of creator bias.

 

1 hour ago, Gheist said:

Marisa's route if it's not clear enough yet. I always pick her first unless Youmu is available. I like the speed and the Illusion laser.

I will say that I definitely think Marisa's exclusive stage are better in the second and third games (in terms of story/handling characters).  In terms of gameplay, early Marisa has some difficulty comparing to Reimu, though she can hit hard enough to make the difference at times.    The only thing I don't like is Marisa's first theme in the game, mostly because of the song it's mixed with.   I usually only listened to Marisa's Master Spark theme when available.

 

Also, it only happens in a few stages (mostly on Marisa-exclusive stages), but there is a  Convince/'Talk' command in some cases.  Like Super Robot Wars, there is usually some clue in the dialoge.....just get next to the enemy and the command should pop up.

 

1 hour ago, Gheist said:

This one is heavily story focused so I enjoyed it quite a lot. Both Melia and Aelita get a ton of screen time. Expect more time travel and a flying type gym at the end so prepare for that.

 

That sounds very good to me, since I was hoping for more story focus......even if there might be some backtracking involved.    

 

I'll probably speed through the story once I finish Stage 73 and be ready for the side-story by Friday.

[Gheist]

I just casually 1CCed EoSD on Hard with ReimuB and then beat the PCB Extra stage also with ReimuB. Her small hitbox and shot type make it ridiculously easy. The reason why I could beat Ran after semi-seriously fighting her only around 7 times is because she keeps dropping me lives, bombs and border shields so I just kept dying and bombing stupidly and by the time I realized it, I'm at the last spell card with 2 bombs and that was enough to beat it. So it doesn't feel very much like a win but I technically cleared it so yay! I guess.

I don't think I even captured a single spell card except the first one but I'll take it for now. Zun probably made it easier too because there's also a Phantasm stage in this game. The boss there is Yukari but I'm way less interested in that tbh.

 

Oh and the Rejuvenation side story is out and I played through the regular ending. It was longer than I expected (like 8-9 hours gameplay) but the story was very good and I enjoyed it a lot. I don't know how to get the true ending though and nobody has posted about it yet. Wish I could take those Pokemon with me back into the main game since they're way better than anything I've bothered to catch/train there.

 

@seki108