Touhou 13.5 東方心綺楼 Hopeless Masquerade. Yay!

[Iced Fairy]

On popularity: Rushing forward builds slight approval (Think Guilty Gear Tension), while continuously retreating builds a negative penalty.  Landing hits seems to build high approval, while getting hit grants slight disapproval . High-power hits grant more approval. First hit sways the approval by  a fair amount. Counter hits incur a great negative penalty for the receiver, while they grant high approval for the attacker, and you get more negative if you get countered when doing higher-powered moves. Getting countered when doing a Last Word resets your approval to +/- 0% as per usual, but grants your opponent something like +50%.

Some of my notes for popularity to add on:

• The percent is determined by blue (hai) minus red (iie).  So popularity increases faster as you convert red to blue.
• Counters are +5%, -5%.  I couldn't seem to get the bonus with light melee attacks, but all the other buttons worked.
• Wall/Ceiling/Floor slams all give +1/-1.
• Moving forward gives bonuses over time.
• Pressuring your opponent gives a bonus.  If you keep your opponent in the upper or lower parts of the screen you get 1% over time.  This may also work if you keep your opponent at the side.  Being pressured incurs a penalty.
• Damaging your opponent gives a slight boost.
• Being damaged has no penalty.  However if you're taking damage you're usually being wall slammed, countered or pressured.
• Spell Card declaration gets you 5%  No strings attached.
• Whiffing with a spellcard gets you a penalty.  Don't miss.
• Using your last word sets you to 50% hai/50% iie hit or miss (unless you win).  So you're at 0% for victory, but can recover fast.

They always explode if you win with a KO in the final round.

2nd round KO with Marisa's last word didn't lead to an explosion.  The others might not either.

[iK]

Thanks for the elaboration and clarification, Iced. No training mode makes it hard to get lab stuff in, so the information is greatly appreciated, I assure you.

Eh, I haven't noticed Kyouko anywhere (or even mentioned, for that matter...)
Perhaps she'll be playable?

There's also only two stages in the demo.



That being said,

[Iced Fairy]

Just tested it.  Apparently only Marisa's Last word keeps the target from exploding.

[PapillonReel]

Eh, I haven't noticed Kyouko anywhere (or even mentioned, for that matter...)
Perhaps she'll be playable?

I'm betting on Kyouko and Mystia showing up as background characters in that punk band of theirs. I doubt they'll be playable, however.

Kogasa, however, I can easily see making it in. She's pretty much Cirno 2.0 at this point, considering how often she's shown up in games since her debut.

[Error]

Well, yeah, I don't expect to see Yuuka or Parsee as a playable character.
I just suggested Kyouko since she's part of the Buddhist faction, and wasn't present on Ichirin's stage.

[Amraphenson]

Thanks for the elaboration and clarification, Iced. No training mode makes it hard to get lab stuff in, so the information is greatly appreciated, I assure you.

as mentioned earlier, pressing F4 while in vs Player turns on training mode.

[fondue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoCKD2AGIU4
Video of me playing the trial. Go Raymoo!

[KrackoCloud]

What do each of the characters' items do?

[ceiling hat]

So the Config menu is:

1. BGM

2. SE

3. Windowed/Fullscreen

4. Full framerate/half framerate

5.

6. Show FPS

7. Autosave replay settings

What is 5 ?

[Sungho]

The fifth option in the Config is Vertical Sync.

And the items, http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Hopeless_Masquerade/Spell_Cards/Items

th075 had [Reimu Marisa Alice] [Patchouli Sakuya Remilia] [Youmu Yuyuko Yukari] + Suika,
so th135 should have [Reimu Marisa Keine] [Ichirin Shou Byakuren] [Kasen Seiga Futo Miko] + Final Boss.

[Limian]

The fifth option in the Config is Vertical Sync.

And the items, http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Hopeless_Masquerade/Spell_Cards/Items

th075 had [Reimu Marisa Alice] [Patchouli Sakuya Remilia] [Youmu Yuyuko Yukari] + Suika,
so th135 should have [Reimu Marisa Keine] [Ichirin Shou Byakuren] [Kasen Seiga Futo Miko] + Final Boss.

Reimu does not represent the human faction, she's part of the Shinto faction along with probably Sanae and either (or both) of Kanako and Suwako. 3 or 4 characters per religious faction sounds good, with possibly Tojiko for the Taos and Kyouko or whoever for the Buddhists (I don't think Mamizou or Kogasa have much interest in Buddhism).
The human faction sounds like a way to shoehorn Marisa in, but it would be awesome (albeit unlikely) if characters like Keine or Mokou or, hell, Akyuu (although I doubt her interest in fighting) made it in.
What faction would Kasen actually belong to?

[KrackoCloud]

In the items page, only three factions are listed - naturally, Shinto, Tao, and Buddhist. I don't think there's going to be a human faction. My guess is Marisa's there just because Marisa.
Also consider that the character selection page doesn't have a character grid, but works like IaMP. If it stays this way, we can probably assume there's a smaller roster for the game, so extra non-faction characters could be very limited.

[Sungho]

Looking through the introduction again, I realized that not having a Moriya Shrine character is very unlikely. My mistake.
Kasen is a hermit, so she should be in the Taoism faction.

[Hinacle]

I'm betting on Kyouko and Mystia showing up as background characters in that punk band of theirs. I doubt they'll be playable, however.

Kogasa, however, I can easily see making it in. She's pretty much Cirno 2.0 at this point, considering how often she's shown up in games since her debut.

Oh god, I'm hoping they appear with a stage below them and Kyouko is head-banging and Mystia is just plain jumping around. :3

[Kaze_Senshi]

Here you go.  :V

Reimu: Marisa DO A BARREL ROLL!
Marisa: *Spins*
Reimu: ouch!

[Limian]

In the items page, only three factions are listed - naturally, Shinto, Tao, and Buddhist. I don't think there's going to be a human faction. My guess is Marisa's there just because Marisa.
Also consider that the character selection page doesn't have a character grid, but works like IaMP. If it stays this way, we can probably assume there's a smaller roster for the game, so extra non-faction characters could be very limited.

According to the wiki, she is "The Human Representative Magician" (compare to Reimu, "The Advocate of the Eight Million", and Ichirin, "The Overwhelming Youkai Ascetic"), although it essentially boils down to the same thing: because Marisa.

[Sagus]

Kogasa, however, I can easily see making it in. She's pretty much Cirno 2.0 at this point, considering how often she's shown up in games since her debut.

...err. She appeared in three games; UFO, Double Spoiler (which everyone from after MoF appears anyway), and Ten Desires. That's hardly Cirno 2.0; Nue has appeared in the same three games, for one.

That said, she appearing because of "SURPRISE" wouldn't be too farfetched.

[Tiamat]

The funny thing about Kogasa is that the fact that her being in the game would make no sense considering the game's storyline possibly increases her chances of being in the game.

On a random aside, I also find it cute that Ichirin was the very next character revealed/programmed in after the obligatory Reimu and Marisa, as if the developers just couldn't wait to create her (or perhaps, couldn't wait to create Unzan). Gonna be hard to top her with any other character from here on, I'd think.

[iK]

Cirno appeared in 2 games before becoming playable, and in 3 before she got her own game.

[Gpop]

Cirno appeared in 2 games before becoming playable, and in 3 before she got her own game.

Actually 5 before she got her own game

EoSD, PCB, PoFV, StB, and Soku.

[iK]

Thought GFW came before soku, and forgot about STB entirely but thanks for the clarification.

[Kilgamayan]

I don't have a link handy (phoneposting), but I recall an intro video for HM where Tenshi guided the viewer through the game. Given that, I think it's entirely possible she'll show up too.

[Critz]

You mean this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4whbNL6Ng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cqJ_YdMMN8

Is that even official?

[_cf]

Regarding the character line-up, aren't we forgetting Mamizou? She was brought in to be a reinforcement against Miko, but never had a chance to do her thing. From a storytelling perspective, Mamizou still didn't fulfill her objective.

Of course, she's also very laid back and can decide to Take It Easy? and let the religious brawldebates to people who care. Still, it'd be cool to see Mamizou again, specially if her theme is also remixed like Ichirin's.

[Gpop]

You mean this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4whbNL6Ng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cqJ_YdMMN8

Is that even official?

Koishi confirmed for HM woo!

[KrackoCloud]

Hardly looks official to me!

Though somehow this made me wonder what the game would be like if it had commentators like P4A. You know, what with the popularity battle and all. It won't happen, but it would've been amusing. Make it like SMNC where once in a while the commentators just talk about random stuff without paying attention to the battle.

[beatstayflow]

Hi Everyone!

Please join us on #shinkirou on irc.rizon.net for general touhou 13.5 discussion, combos, and general banter as we await a full version with netplay.

[monhan]

So what do you guys think about the balance so far? A lot of people seems to be complaining about Ichirin being kind of overwhelmed by the other two.

[beatstayflow]

How to join? I don't understand.

Oh whoops, I guess you guys haven't used IRC before.
http://rizon.net/chat

In the channels part, just enter the channel name #shinkirou.  No password necessary.  Just enter a username.  It's a live chatbox instead of a message forum.

[Aya Reiko]

Hi Everyone!

Please join us on #shinkirou on irc.rizon.net for general touhou 13.5 discussion, combos, and general banter as we await a full version with netplay.

...

...and you are? 

I'm debating if this qualifies as self-promotion, seeing as this is probably one of your first posts here.  And also scanning the rules regarding that.