Ok, I'm kind of sad reading some posts in this thread. Saying that this is the worst announcement ever is incredible stupid. Just because you can't beat the 5-x wall doesn't mean that StB is bad, actually it is probably one of the best in the whole series.
Seriously if you only want a Touhou game mainly because of the character and "story" and not because of the danmaku patterns, then you have a problem, since Touhou is all about this. You have 10 days, get a clean StB dat and complete it, you will realize how fun it is. And probably you will appreciate a little how much effort and love ZUN puts into each game.
Good grief. Implying that the primary reason people dislike StB is because they're terrible at the game is ignorant almost beyond belief, and similarly for your (and others') inference that any expressed dissatisfaction with 12.5's announcement is motivated mainly by the absence of new characters and "story".
For my part, I've already summarised some of the reasons for my relative dislike of StB
here (and yes, I've beaten all 85 scenes), but to reiterate: speaking as both a dedicated Reimu player and someone who has, since childhood, been used to continually holding down the fire button while playing shmups, I find Aya's movement incredibly counterintuitive. As a consequence, the difficulty of the game's danmaku is artificially increased from my perspective, to the extent that even something reasonably straightforward like Scene 10-8 becomes disproportionately frustrating to beat. In essence, the controls actively discourage me from playing the game, particularly when attempting to return to it after a prolonged break.
On top of this, I dislike the substitution of traditional stages and lives with short bursts of gameplay and no real consequences to mistakes, as it removes any notable sense of excitement or achievement from the game. StB's soundtrack is also recognisably limited compared to other games in the series, and I don't anticipate the sequel being much different in that respect. Lastly, yes, the absence of new characters is a factor, but a minor one compared to the fact that I just don't enjoy the gameplay as much as the regular shooters.
Now, I don't consider StB a bad game per se, it's just bad relative to other Touhou games
. Hence my disappointment to find that something I was looking forward at Reitaisai (Touhou 13 demo) has been replaced by something that I'm less interested in (Touhou 12.5). Also, while I do appreciate the effort that ZUN puts into his games, I'm not about to feign enthusiasm in one of them because of this.
That said, I'll still play and doubtlessly get some enjoyment from 12.5, and it's possible the controls etc will have been improved this time around. We'll see.
tl;dr - StB is bad for a Touhou game. Don't take internet "WORST _____ EVER" hyperbole seriously.
