This here is an analysis written by somebody called Pilpsie some time ago. It was posted on the old forums and I think Pooshlmer, but was all but lost. Thankfully a good friend sent a recovered copy to me, and I think it is simply amazing. So I decided to repost it for everyone else. Enjoy.
There are two ways to look at how look a character performs: against humans and against (Lunatic) AI. So here goes:
Reimu against humans: There is almost nothing bad about her, except for her slow speed. Excellent in both offense and defense.
Reimu against AI: Ditto.
Marisa against humans: Offensively, she's completely reliant on her Level 2 spells and EX attacks. When both are on the screen during her boss attack, the opponent has bullets/lasers coming from all four sides. And because her special is a quick-filling gauge, the Level 2 spells fly wild late in the game. Playing against her requires mastering of diagonal movement. Defensively, her Level 1 is the second most powerful after Youmu, as the laser destroys all fairies and spirits in its path.
Marisa against AI: A gigantic dropoff here. The AI dodges all of her attacks with no sweat, since they're all dot bullet-sized. You'll be able to last some time against one, because of her defense, but you better be prepared for the AI simply not folding under your barrage of Level 2's.
Sakuya against humans: Since her EX attacks target your position, playing against her requires you to move about a lot, something that gets rather difficult during a boss attack. Plus, the EX attacks tend to force you to one side of the screen, unless you have fast reflexes. Her gauge is indeed very awkward to use, and its large radius means that you'll be activating unwanted spirits late in the game.
Sakuya against AI: The AI has rather late detection for the EX attacks, and in conjunction with her other attacks it can be had. Quite decent.
Youmu against humans: Personally I don't use Level 1 attacks that often, but Youmu's unique ability to clear bullets without using charge gives her the strongest defense in the game. This makes up for her lower offensive capabilities, and well as her annoying scope, which doesn't expand quickly enough (so that spirits can crash into you) and has too large a radius when fully deployed (meaning that you'll activate spirits which are out of your range and can detonate on you). If played correctly, she's almost impossible to kill.
Youmu against AI: Only one attack of hers poses a threat: her targeted blue knife stream during her boss attack. This makes defeating the AI a rather random proposal.
Reisen against humans: Her EX attacks are probably the most threatening of her arsenal. Early on they're easy to spot, but when the bullet density cranks up there's a higher chance you'll dodge right into one. Unfortunately for Reisen, her attacks are meant to be micrododged, which means less chance of running into an explosion. The best strategy is to spam her Level 1's into the top of the screen and ratchet up the intensity to a frenzy. Then it's simply a Level 2 free-for-all and the first person to blink loses.
Reisen against AI: AI makes short dodging work of her Level 3 and does not break a sweat against bullet swarms. Not a threat at all.
Cirno against humans: For me, she's the easiest character to play against. Her icicles are the only thing that is a threat, and good screen vision will negate that. The only character whose Level 2 and 3 attacks actually helps you, she has pretty much no offense to speak of. Very easy to play with due to her simple scope and freeze ability, she's essentially an extreme version of Reisen.
Cirno against AI: Interestingly, she actually is somewhat dangerous here. The AI has bad vision for fast projectiles, and Cirno has these in the form of her icicles. One icicle obviously poses no threat, but two icicles next to each other can trap the AI between them as they descend. This seems to happen more often than expected.
Mystia against humans: At the start, her attacks are indeed a joke, but as the game progresses, the random nature and direction of her bullets starts to become a burden, and her EX and boss attacks all have the ability to trap you behind a bullet arc. Her scope is quite good given its range, and all the activated spirits are right there in front of you to blow up. Certainly not a good character, but definitely not the worst.
Mystia against AI: The AI is not troubled with diagonal bullets, so here she is one of the worst.
Lyrica against humans: Her triple-stream boss attack together with her Level 2/3 spell can be quite tricky to escape; their duration means that you'll be trapped in a narrow corridor and very vulnerable. Her EX attacks can be quite imposing, but remember that their hitboxes are much smaller than their sprites and they become less so. Her backshot/scope is pretty useless, considering that most people stay at the bottom of the screen.
Lyrica against AI: Those corridors look like swiss cheese to the AI, which weaves through them effortlessly. Take away the only threat she's got renders her useless.
Merlin against humans: Her defense is the worst in the game due to her unorthodox scope and shot and her snail-like movement and charge speeds. To counter that, she has a fearsome EX which, when they pile up, simply smothers the opponent late-game, if you can make it there. Directing her Level 2 and 3's away from the middle is vital when playing against her, as you don't want half of your screen cutoff to you. Pretty much for experts only, and that's cutting it.
Merlin against AI: Her shot and scope make it extremely difficult to get far against the AI, and her Level 2 and 3's suffer the same fate as Lyrica's streams. Definitely a no-go.
Lunasa against humans: Death by suffocation. Death. by. suffocation. A must for all ages.
Lunasa against AI: AI's aren't alive, but they suffocate just the same.
Tewi against humans: Eientei sure is poorly represented in PoFV. I've been told that her EX attacks are tricky, but they've never been so for me. Swinging from side to side is enough to counter pretty much her entire arsenal. Her scope is only somewhat less painful than Merlin's. A luck charm...to her opponent.
Tewi against AI: The AI suffers the Cirno effect here as well. Two amulets can smother it, either at the bottom of the screen or on a side. Somewhere at the upper end of mediocre.
Aya against humans: Targeted bullets are worse than random bullets, because you know where they're going, and Aya is all targeted bullets; proper streaming simply destroys her bread and butter. On the defensive side, her speed becomes a liability, and micrododging becomes difficult. Her slow scope deployment renders her vulnerable to incoming spirits. She certainly can kill you if you don't pay attention, but a skilled player can turn the fearsome crow into a harmless pigeon.
Aya against the AI: Ultrafast, targeting bullets + AI = splat. Simply the best.
Medicine against humans: I haven't had much of a chance to play with her or against her vs. humans. Her best strategy is probably the same as Reisen's: crank up the score gauge and poison the opponent with her EX's. She ceertainly has great offensive potential, but she needs a lucky bullet wave.
Medicine against AI: Speed is the food of the AI, and if you take that away from it, it's like shifting from fifth gear to first on the freeway.
Yuka against humans: Flower spam all the way here. Her three-way fire together with her Level 1 spread means that enemies and spirits just melt before your eyes. Fast charge speed counters her sluggish movement speed, and those EX's complement her boss attack nicely, especially her QED-like one. Requires good planning, though.
Yuka against AI: Pretty much the same, really.
Komachi against humans: Pretty much the only silver lining to her EX's is that the bullets are smaller then they look. It takes a brave individual to actually weave through them later in the game, though. If you're adept at handling her scope, you'll leave your opponent a dead (albeit rich) opponent.
Komachi against AI: The AI is such an individual. Only slightly more threatening than Mystia.
Shikieiki against humans: Many people claim that Reimu is the best character, but it's hard to imagine anyone more deadly than Shikieiki. You simply do not have enough gauge to cope with her. Still, the best PoFV players in the world pretty much all play Reimu, which is probably due to the fact that Reimu's Level 2 attacks cannot be completely countered by your own Level 2, whereas Shikieiki's can.
Shikieiki against AI: As is often the case, her fiercest attack becomes child play to the AI, and one of her weakest against-human attacks becomes like kryptonite---her boss attack laser. The random nature of this makes defeating the AI quite frustrating when the stars don't align and a piece of cake when they do.
