Touhou 14.5: 東方深秘録 ~ Urban Legend in Limbo. is HM sequel, demo at Comiket 87

[Clarste]

So what do Reimu's and Kasen's Occult abilities do precisely?

The early reports were a misrepresentation: they don't have specific abilities. It's more like the weather in SWR, stuff just happens on its own. While that stuff is happening, you fight for control over the orb, and whoever gets more control absorbs it when it expires. Four orbs lets you do your Last Word.

[ToyoRai]

The early reports were a misrepresentation: they don't have specific abilities. It's more like the weather in SWR, stuff just happens on its own. While that stuff is happening, you fight for control over the orb, and whoever gets more control absorbs it when it expires. Four orbs lets you do your Last Word.

I didn't mean it quite like that. Like if Marisa summons bunch of school myths, then what kind of stuff can Reimu and Kasen do in regards to what they have? Like I really doubt that Reimu can only summon gravemarkers with her boundaries.

[monhan]

I didn't mean it quite like that. Like if Marisa summons bunch of school myths, then what kind of stuff can Reimu and Kasen do in regards to what they have? Like I really doubt that Reimu can only summon gravemarkers with her boundaries.

Reimu can only summon gravemarkers out of the gap.
Kasen uses the monkey hand to grab you.

[Clarste]

I didn't mean it quite like that. Like if Marisa summons bunch of school myths, then what kind of stuff can Reimu and Kasen do in regards to what they have? Like I really doubt that Reimu can only summon gravemarkers with her boundaries.

Marisa doesn't summon a bunch of school myths, she just does the bathroom thing.

The only urban legend related skills the characters get is their Last Word, which you earn by collecting Occult Orbs. In fact, it's not even a real Last Word, they call it a Kai Last Word and instead of having a spellcard name it gets an excited sounding description, like a poster tagline. Marisa does the bathroom thing, Kasen uses the monkey's paw, etc.

[Formless God]

I played 10 rounds of Kasen. It might just be the character but physical combos are hard to pull off. You have to be very close and the pushback seems more obnoxious than before.

You can only touch the ball during an advantage.

Ball sounds cool on paper, but it's not even worth chasing after because of how floaty movement is in this game. You can just stay right where you are pressuring the shit out of your opponent so the ball ticks your color whenever it does decide to pass by your vicinity.

Effects are random. Yes, it is the weather system everybody longed for, how exciting. I got the black hole FOUR times in a row. Basically the "press A twice to win" mode.

[Phasm]

Are Reimu, Marisa and Kasen the only characters in the demo?

[monhan]

Are Reimu, Marisa and Kasen the only characters in the demo?

Ah yes. It was confirmed from the stream and spoiler thread. Sorry that I forgot to add that.

[FearNagae]

I was hoping they'd ditch the floaty euroshmup gameplay, but eh.

The game can be considered to have a  "ground" now, with middle air being it. You can do some sort of highjump, landcancelling, etc.
I feel like the game is way closer to IaMP than any other touhou fighter ever.

[Omegahugger]

I tried out the demo. It's... passable, at best, but I don't know if I'll still feel that way once the novelty wears off. Still, they did make an effort to improve on HM. (Much of which wouldn't have been necessary if it hadn't been a floaty-fighter to begin with, but let's not beat a dead horse any further....)

- Dashing is a lot more fluid. In HM, it was easy to move forward instead of dashing without realizing it because of the startup. Now dashing is pretty much instantaneous.
- Characters stick to their lanes a lot more than in HM. There's still that floaty feel to switching lanes though. The horse may be mush at this point but this still makes me wish it were ground-based like, you know, every single memorable fighter in existence. =P
- The character selection screen felt a little.... meh. On one hand, you're shown all color options for your character in a "wheel" style instead of having to actually cycle through them to see what they look like but on the other hand you only see the currently-selected character. It's not like the other games, where you pick from a list. Seems like they could have just gone with the same thing for characters than for color options, I don't know why they didn't.... Oh well. It's a small thing.
- The game seems heavier on resources than HM. I had to set the "1/2 frame" option to get it to run fluidly but HM didn't give me that problem. Well -- it's just a demo so performance will probably be improved in the final release.
- Two buttons only to attack? It feels like they've over-simplified the fighting. I found myself mashing the same button over and over for the most part.... Maybe I'm missing something. I wasn't too sure how to do special moves either though. It seems to have less customization than HM but I haven't played with profiles yet.
- The AI uses spellcards now. Boy did it take them a while to get this right. SWR doesn't count because the AI never bothered to manage its cards or to use most of the ones available. =)
- The timer is generous enough to be able to enjoy a round instead of feeling pressured to win as fast as possible. And no more crap popularity mechanics! Though I doubt this is news to anyone....
- The new gimmick is..... meh. People hated SWR and Soku's weather effects so I'm not sure how well this will be received. I didn't see too much of it but it's basically the same thing only with more noticeable effects (eg, walls that actively push the characters together instead of river mist's counteractable pull effect).

I doubt I'll bother with the full game. I gave this one a shot and it was slightly better than what I thought it would be like. But just slightly. =) I think I'll stick to IaMP/Soku for now but after seeing Kasen included in the lineup I'm definitely keeping an eye on who'll be in the final game.

[Failure McFailFace]

Away from my computer right now, and reading this thread is painful on the iPad.

None of these pictures aren't showing up, only 404 errors.

[cuc]

Full text of Mystery Spots:

1. The Pyramids: Both side's Occult Specials are at maximum power.
2. Stonehenge: The playfield becomes gradually narrower.
3. Babel Tower: When touching the Occult Ball, the Ball can be used to attack the opponent
4. Yomotsu Hirasaka: Reduces stamina the closer one is to the stage center; all damage caused by this effect disappears when it ends
5. Nazca Ground Painting: Each time one touches the Occult Ball, one's stamina and Spell Gauge will be restored.
6. Hell Valley [a volcanic scenic spot in Hokkaido]: Turns the bottom of the screen into a damage zone; characters are harder to see.
7. Lunar Capital: Reduces bullet speed (some are not affected)


Each character has an Occult Special, released when possessing at least one Occult Balls by keep pressing the Special button.

There is a new "Fast-talk Declaration" system, which costs one Spell Gauge to interrupt the current action and declare your spell card, by pressing Spell button rapidly twice.

Kai Last Word: The "kai" here can be translated as "strange", "weird", "bizarre", "abnormal", etc.


Reimu:
Name of Occult Phenomenon: "Gap Woman"
Gap woman is an urban legend already in existence in Edo era, which Yukari is partially based on, about a woman in red watching people through a gap.

Occult Special: "Gap of the Great Hakurei Boundary"

Kai Last Word: *There's a shrine maiden in the gap!*


Marisa:
Name of Occult Phenomenon: "Seven Mysteries of the School"

Occult Special: True Horrors of the School (rotates through different objects)

Kai Last Word: *So great! Ms. Hanako of the Toilet!*


Kasen:
Name of Occult Phenomenon: "Monkey's Paw"

4 or 6 + Special: 彭祖 Houso
Houso is Kasen's tiger, seen in WaHH, named after Peng Zu, a famous figure known for having lived 800 years in Chinese traditions.

8 + Special: 竿打 Kanda
Kanda is one of Kasen's eagles seen in WaHH. The name means "beaten by a bamboo stick", as he is named after a hermit in Japanese legend who flew too low and got beaten by children with a bamboo stick.

2 + Special: 務光 Mukou
Mukou is Kasen's Raijuu (thunder beast), adopted in WaHH. Named after Wuguang, an ancient sage mentioned in Zhuang Zi, who would rather drown himself than accept the throne of China.

As you can see, Kasen's pets are all named after figures in Taoist hermit lore.

Occult Special: "Inescapable Monkey's Paw" (keep pressing the button to extend the arm, can be controlled with up and down buttons)

Spell Card: Dragon Sign "Dragon's Growl"

Kai Last Word: *Monkey's Paw! Crush the enemy!*

[Leon゠Helsing]

There is a new "Fast-talk Declaration" system, which costs one Spell Gauge to interrupt the current action and declare your spell card, by pressing Spell button rapidly twice.

Can anyone check if it's as good as GG's Roman Cancel combo potential-wise?

[FearNagae]

Can anyone check if it's as good as GG's Roman Cancel combo potential-wise?

It is. It's a very strong move.

[homing curvy laser]

Decided to pop up late to spread rumors.
That silhouette in stage 3 is none other than Sekibanki. Whether a normal fighter or final boss I have no idea (having a translation of Reimu's lines there would help, but well the game only came out a few hours ago so I will be patient), I refuse to see her being anyone else no matter what people say - round hair, huge ribbon, cool pose looking back, long fluttering cape. It's the Banki.

As for the weaher-like system with smash balls, uh, my opinion about them isn't complete yet, I'd have to see how they affect fights between two real people to be able to say anything... I'm not too favorable of random effects thanks to some typhoon-related traumas, but eh. And hopefully, the HM cast will be recycled as per Tasofro standards so we get Futo, Koishi and Kokoro drawn by Moe. (And one hermit means two hermits so we'll get the blue one too!)

[Tiamat]

Sekibanki with long neck Dhalsim action would be freaky.  Which is exactly what she should be so that'd be cool, I think.

[game2011]

Does it look like most or all of the themes this time will be brand new?  None of the two stage themes are remixed versions of old ones.  Also, in case some people haven't realized it yet, the title theme is a remix of 13.5's title theme.

Also, judging from the silhouette of the main villain, she sort of looks like she's wearing a cowboy hat.

EDIT: Just saw the post about her possibly being Sekibanki, and I think it may actually be possible.  She is accompanied by ghostly flames in 14 after all.  Hope it's true, because she's my favorite character in the series!  Now for a five month wait for new characters...

EDIT 2: Anyone remember the demo for 13.5 being data mined to discover all the non-boss characters in the game, but seemingly nobody believed the person who did this until the game was near release or released?  Wonder if this demo can be data mined too...

[LunaWillow]

And hopefully, the HM cast will be recycled as per Tasofro standards so we get Futo, Koishi and Kokoro drawn by Moe. (And one hermit means two hermits so we'll get the blue one too!)

I hope so too!
I played demo. It was pretty fun. I don't think that character at the end is someone we've seen before - her hat look like diffrent  than any existing character with cape.
I tried out Kasen in versus mode. Reimu kicked my ass.

[game2011]

I don't think that character at the end is someone we've seen before - her hat look like diffrent  than any existing character with cape.

Yeah, it's most likely a new character, though if you try to envision the supposed hat as a bow tie, then it does look like Sekibanki to some extent.

[aUsernameIsFineToo]

EDIT 2: Anyone remember the demo for 13.5 being data mined to discover all the non-boss characters in the game, but seemingly nobody believed the person who did this until the game was released?  Wonder if this demo can be data mined too...

If Tasofro really wanted to keep the roster a secret, I bet they'd do things differently this time around. If this demo turns out to be mine-able like HM's, then it's safe to say that they want us to find out.

[nyttyn]

If Tasofro really wanted to keep the roster a secret, I bet they'd do things differently this time around. If this demo turns out to be mine-able like HM's, then it's safe to say that they want us to find out.

Well, if I'm right, since the included icon folder (as images of such have been floating around the internet, since ichirin_face) is the same as HM's trial (all the way down to having ichirin's face icon in (ichirin confirmed), with the only change being kasen's face and the toilet being added), this demo should be mineable just like HM's was. Only time will tell if they fixed the oversight of leaving in references to the entire cast.

[Maiden Synnae ミ☆]

So... I just played the trial and I must say I'm pleased. ^^

Kasen is totally Nakoruru on this game, by the way. Those who have played Samurai Showdown before will get the reference. :V

[DTM]

I'm pleased too, even if it took 7 matches until I finally realized that the A,S,D, and C buttons actually do something (necesito English translation).

Also, while we are on the topic of data mining, did anyone manage to find a way to extract the BGMs of HM

[Phasm]

Speaking of english translation... who will translate the full version?

[game2011]

- Two buttons only to attack? It feels like they've over-simplified the fighting. I found myself mashing the same button over and over for the most part....

Four buttons, actually.

[nyttyn]

Speaking of english translation... who will translate the full version?

CRAP refuses to touch HM because of technical reasons, so we'll probably have a situation where something gets posted to Nitori's garage, and then some people come together and patch it out.  =

Of course patching by tasfro needs to finish first so I wouldn't expect an english patch anytime soon after release. Maybe a few months after?

[Aya Reiko]

Anyone else notice Kasen's stance is the crane stance?  And it fits with her animal-themed motif.

Ugh,  they're still doing the one round then fight "boss"-type spell cards system for storymode...  Can't they ever do anything new here?

[Tiamat]

Anyone else notice Kasen's stance is the crane stance?  And it fits with her animal-themed motif.

Ugh,  they're still doing the one round then fight "boss"-type spell cards system for storymode...  Can't they ever do anything new here?

ZUN's always done the "one round then spell card" system for the main-line shooters and hasn't changed from that system in over a decade.  Maybe they want to do the same, I guess.

[Leon゠Helsing]

CRAP refuses to touch HM because of technical reasons, so we'll probably have a situation where something gets posted to Nitori's garage, and then some people come together and patch it out.  =

Seeing as brliron did the patch for HM I assume he'll be able to do one for this with relative ease if the base engine is still the same.

[Helepolis]

Anyone else notice Kasen's stance is the crane stance?  And it fits with her animal-themed motif.

On twitter someone compared it with Jam from Guilty Gear series.
https://twitter.com/akuryo24/status/549416227815174144/photo/1

[Stuffman]

Four buttons, actually.

It could've been done with two, seeing how one button is for specials and one is exclusively for the spellcard. This game has the shortest movelists of any touhou fighter yet (counting multiple directions of the same bullet, Reimu has exactly 20 moves). It doesn't even have any customization anymore.

At this rate they'll be removing more content from HM than they added.