Touhou 12 - 東方星蓮船 ~ Undefined Fantastic Object. An undefined article.

[Reprosa]

UFO Lunatic 1CC

There's a real gap here between the silly shit that he died to and the difficulty of things he managed to cap (like Byakuren's endless drifting nonspell).

also 70 fps what

[Alice Fact]

probably turned on vsync or something

[homing curvy laser]

UFO Lunatic 1CC

70 FPS
OH GOD
By the way, according to this, Byakuren seems harder than Utsuho - although I couldn't really check it due to desync olololo

It's nice to see that ZUN somehow fixed that issue on UFO.

By the way, do you think there's any chance she might come back in another fighter, with her awesome smile and awesome theme and awesome sunset?

[Tengukami]

UFO Lunatic 1CC

[Slaves]

By the way, do you think there's any chance she might come back in another fighter, with her awesome smile and awesome theme and awesome sunset?

if she does that's fine.

but is swear to god if she steals CAPTAIN MURASA's spot i will kill hard

[DgBarca]

funny how I found easy and normal to be almost identical (by that I mean easy is almost as hard as normal), which is pretty different compared to SA.

Anyway, I can't decide on which one is easier when it comes to stockpiling lives, the spirit item system or this one. One time, I was practically racking up lives ever other minute out of sheer luck and I would've probably filled the 8 star limit before stage 4 if only I wasn't constantly making stupid mistakes.

WTF Easy modo is just the easier of all the touhou series ! In normal mode the Final stage is all multiply by 4, and there is 1 card that isn't in easy modo...

[Kilgamayan]

*Besides. Bringing Mima and Shinki back would ruin them. They would need last names. And they wouldn't be Mima and Shinki with last names. :V

Yeah, like Nazrin and Chen.

Yeah, because a Stage 1 Boss and Stage 2 boss mean just as much as two final bosses, one of which has been playable before.

[Suikama]

UFO Lunatic 1CC

There's a real gap here between the silly shit that he died to and the difficulty of things he managed to cap (like Byakuren's endless drifting nonspell).

also 70 fps what

derp

I'll try to find a more legit looking 1cc then :V


Here we go: http://replay.royalflare.net/replay/th12_uda714.rpy


Also

Well, do whatever you want.
I won't seal you away for now, but ...

At least, just for now, okay?

After all, I'm no friend of yours.

Reimu is tsundere towards youkai.

[Letty Whiterock]

*Besides. Bringing Mima and Shinki back would ruin them. They would need last names. And they wouldn't be Mima and Shinki with last names. :V

Yeah, like Nazrin and Chen.

Yeah, because a Stage 1 Boss and Stage 2 boss mean just as much as two final bosses, one of which has been playable before.

Chen was an Extra Stage mini-boss too, ya know.

[Psieye]

Fuwah........ I've beaten Nue... finally I can read the forums again after RL kept me busy for several hours after UFO came out... And just after I beat Nue, I managed to do this, though I'm not sure where the 5% slow came from - must have been a virus scanner or something, I did notice the music wasn't quite in sync with my numerous previous attempts.

Well, that's the 4th Normal 1cc I pulled off even if this particular one was Slow-assisted. I took 2 days off work just for UFO and my "must beat EX" quest is now complete. Ah... back when I was first meeting these spellcards...

I managed to dodge Murasa's anchor and the wake afterwards and thought this would be an easy spellcard. I died because I didn't realise those debris left behind by the anchor actually does move (extremely slowly). Was waiting right next to one bullet when it crept up on me and killed me. Murasa's drowning ghost survival card was a good surprise too, as was meeting Nazrin again. Shou's non-spell curvy lasers had me dying a lot as I got my reflexes attuned to them and that "double dual-lightsabre" spellcard (her 3rd, the ultimate Buddhist art) wrecked me often for when the lights were going backwards. Byakuren then brought the curvy laser hell on full force, then followed up with Shinki and finally the traditional "FAT HP spellcard you'll die frustrated on" finisher.

As for the Lore, I liked Nazrin so I was happy to see her have a bigger part in the story (and backstory) than what most Stage 1 bosses get. Ichirin, Murasa, Shou, Nazrin and Byakuren form the UFO family... I'll be interested in what the Doujin Engine produces for them. Speaking of which, Shou's oxymoron nature is really intriguing. A youkai who is a representative of Vaisravana, who is kinda like one of the highest figures in the 'Buddhist pantheon'. That's like encountering a Vampire who also happens to be a High Priest - how the heck a being so vulnerable to Faith has reached such a high rank in Religion is... well it's the chief appeal to Shou as a character for me. The tiger hair is a bonus.

People have commented on Serial Exterminator Reimu et al. being 'in the wrong' this time, and the subsequent defence of the protagonists. A friend of mine summed up our heroines' motivations quite nicely thus: "B-path = Academia, A-path = CARNAL LUST" (be it Greed or THE JOY OF EXTERMINATING). Of interest is that for most youkai characters in Gensokyo we know, Reimu has Exterminated them before, yet they're still alive and are hardly sealed up or anything. Even Awakened Exterminator Sanae comments to Kogasa that unless she does something truly suicidal (e.g. rampage at the Moriya shrine), she won't exterminate her for real. Heck, way back in EoSD Reimu and Remilia were talking as if Reimu had murdered Sakuya. Point is: what they say before exchanging danmaku, with adrenaline rushing to their heads, probably shouldn't be taken too seriously.

With Byakuren, even Serial Exterminator Reimu who cheerfully said she'd seal her up again, doesn't actually do so as the endings and the EX epilogue dialogues make clear. Reimu's routine for new Youkai Characters (i.e. those intelligent enough for conversation and danmaku, as opposed to mindless ones unworthy to be mentioned in the story) is:
1) Auto-racist discrimination
2) Get to know them through Danmaku play
3) Get to know them when they show up (uninvited) for tea

I'd need to sit down with a Kanji dictionary to understand both Reimu endings I've archived, but I suspect they'll tell me Byakuren realises Reimu's tsundere ways as she gets to know how Gensokyo operates. So yeah, our protagonists were 'in the wrong' for this story but they don't actually do any real damage while being in the wrong.


Now as for Nue... goodness a lot of half-tangible story ideas are coming up for her in my head. Given her source of power is Being Anon and Human Fear... and that she joins the Byakuren family... plus Marisa again being the one to make the most out of that meeting (she really does hit it off with EX children {mental age, ignore chronological age})... Time to wait 4 months, 8 months and 12 months to see what the Doujin Engine does with her.

Over at Pixiv in these early days after UFO release, the rankings for "most number of pictures dedicated to them" (of those we haven't seen from the demo) goes:
1st: Byakuren
2nd: Nue
3rd: Captain Murasa
4th: Shou

That covers images of all quality, from nooblah scribbles to works of art. I'm interested in seeing which character each of my best-regarded Pixiv artists decides to work on first. Two of them picked Captain Murasa and Shou already. I see I've also got this group shot favourite'd.

[Nine West]

Heck, way back in EoSD Reimu and Remilia were talking as if Reimu had murdered Sakuya. Point is: what they say before exchanging danmaku, with adrenaline rushing to their heads, probably shouldn't be taken too seriously.

You human who's forgotten the fear of night!
Die from the terror of this unidentified flying object!!

^ lol

Spoiler:

Danmaku is harmless

lol

[Cadmas]

Little girls like to talk big game.

[Slaves]

Spoiler:

Danmaku is harmless

then how do they get their clothes ripped

[Nine West]

then how do they get their clothes ripped

That's just ZUN's way of providing crappy fanservice, you know.

[Slaves]

ZUN

fanservice

lol

anyway i like to think of their fights as deadly, but nobody ever dies because the fight ends when someone gets hit just enough.

plus, Mokou dies every time you clear her spellcards, so yeah

[Nine West]

anyway i like to think of their fights as deadly, but nobody ever dies because the fight ends when someone gets hit just enough.

plus, Mokou dies every time you clear her spellcards, so yeah

Yeah, the only characters who can die are the ones who could get better by themselves.

Besides, is there ever a Touhou loli who got permanently disabled physically or emotionally due to Danmaku use in canon? Case in point, Danmaku is perfectly OK for little kids.

[Cadmas]

They probably end up ripping their own clothes through swift dodging.
I think Zun said in one of his interviews that danmaku deal spiritual damage w/e that means.

Mokou probably kills herself because she thinks it looks cool.

[Slaves]

well with abilities like "able to kill a human any time she wants","power to cause shipwrecks", and "power to spread diseases", i think the Touhou girls are pretty powerful.

that and i just like the idea of little girls being able to break mountains in half(SUWAKO FUCK YEAHHHH)and stuff.

[shinyjam]

Besides, is there ever a Touhou loli who got permanently disabled physically or emotionally due to Danmaku use in canon? Case in point, Danmaku is perfectly OK for little kids.

The theoretical reason of why Yukari need to sleep so much.

Also, almost every Youkai before the introduction of spell card rule.

[Nine West]

Besides, is there ever a Touhou loli who got permanently disabled physically or emotionally due to Danmaku use in canon? Case in point, Danmaku is perfectly OK for little kids.

The theoretical reason of why Yukari need to sleep so much.

Also, almost every Youkai before the introduction of spell card rule.

Except that they've never been confirmed by ZUN.

Also, the canonical pre-spell card era is Touhou 1-5. Does that mean that the PC-98 characters are currently recovering from serious injuries?

Spoiler:

Wait... that actually makes more sense than it should.

[Dan-Heron]

Also

Well, do whatever you want.
I won't seal you away for now, but ...

At least, just for now, okay?

After all, I'm no friend of yours.

Reimu is tsundere towards youkai.

well, look at that, character development! Does Sanae drops the zealot act or she remains the same? And what about Marisa?

[Psieye]

Come to think of it, UFO sure made me restart runs a lot because I failed to pull off an acceptably excellent UFO chain in the early sections (i.e. Stage 1~2 on Story, before mid-boss on EX). Had to train myself not to be reckless in the latter sections with UFOs, though with EX it was only the all-directional shooting-fest where I had to hold back.

anyway i like to think of their fights as deadly, but nobody ever dies because the fight ends when someone gets hit just enough.

plus, Mokou dies every time you clear her spellcards, so yeah

Oh, I like to compare spellcard duels with medieval sword fights (both Eastern and Western). Swinging swords at each other is deadly yes, but the objective isn't to kill and it was a great shock if the duelists actually did die as a result - see e.g. Shakesphere, Romeo & Juliet, the moment when Tibalt kills Mercutio. A fight occurred due to emotions getting to the head, but the kill itself was accidental.

That is, while they fling around deadly projectiles all over the place, the victory condition is "first blood" - an ounce of blood in sword duels, a single hit in danmaku duels. Combatants trust each other to not get killed by only letting themselves get hit (through protective barriers and such) in non-fatal areas and that "post-death bullet clearing" shockwave. I think that's like a defensive ability to wipe away bullets, and its use signals acknowledgement of defeat in the duel. It's not something a newbie human can do - only high level human combatants can even begin to participate in spellcard duels (Youkai can handle damage better thanks to superior stamina, but still signal loss instead of risking death).

Good case would be Youmu's EX dialogue in IN: she mentions she doens't have to hold back at all against an immortal opponent. Everyone is normally holding back to not land an accidental killing blow, only a wounding blow. Having said that, I guess some characters fully meant to kill (e.g. Orin, Okuu, Nue) during the danmaku but still abided by the spellcard rules for appearance and honour's sake.

This all breaks down for IaMP and SWR of course... but different genres have differnet mechanics.




As for PC-98 characters returning... if you think from ZUN's perspective it's very difficult. ZUN has the entire Japanese Mythology as his source of inspiration. Coding, composing and drawing for the stages takes up most of his 1 year time to make games and he has a daytime job too. That means he's not short on story ideas and he wants to fill up Gensokyo with them. He doesn't have time to go back and explain what everyone from PC-98 has been up to all these years when big incidents were occurring.

Only place I have hope for a PC-98 return would be in canon manga and/or novels or even Music CDs. Not all Touhou characters have appeared in games yet we still accept them - the Watatsuki sisters on the Moon and Renko & Maribel in some outside world university. In a sense, ZUN has been handling the "so what did these new characters do during Big Gensokyo-wide Incidents (e.g. EoSD, PCB)?" by bringing them in from areas where they wouldn't have been affected. The Netherworld wouldn't have cared about a scarlet mist in the land of the living; Eientei was locked down in total isolation until IN; the Moriya shrine wasn't even in Gensokyo until MoF; the Celestial World certainly wouldn't be affected by anything down in Gensokyo but Tenshi could observe it prior to SWR; nothing that happened before would be noticed by the underground residents until SA opened up the tunnel; and Byakuren's family were similarly underground until SA kicked them out of the ground (I think that was Orin rather than the geysers).

Makes me wonder where TH13 will bring in new characters from. More formerly-underground Youkai? Maybe from Makai, stowed away on Captain Murasa's ship or such? Some new sector we haven't been introduced to yet? Or will ZUN explain in their profiles what they'd been up to during the previous Big Incidents? Maybe they wouldn't have been affected by those Incidents and thus won't need any explaining for how they reacted. Come to think of it, ZUN can leave it up to the Doujin Engine to explain what new characters were doing if they could have been exposed to previous Incidents.

Speaking of Makai, remember that MS was about getting Shinki to agree to not let anyone through to Gensokyo anymore. There is no reason for her (or the rest of the MS cast beyond Alice) to show up again unless our heroines specifically enter Makai themselves to go search for her. Mima is a mystery, and many doujins have given their interpretation of what she's been up to - staying in Makai over these years is one of the more popular solutions. Staying at the Hakurei shrine and not giving a damn what's going on outside (or even in a several-year long sleep) is the other popular interpretation.

[Kojiremi]

Hmmm. I think somewhere along the same lines. But some characters will "duel" you as an excuse to kill you still. Flandre's profile says

When vampires attack humans, they generally try to take their prey alive so that they can suck its blood afterward, but Flandre has always been fed with cooked dishes, so she doesn't know how to properly attack a human. Whenever she tries to attack a human, she fusses too much and blows them away without leaving a spot of blood.

. 

Yuka is also known to use overwhelming attacks that blow away anything that stands in her way regardless of what it be, human or youkai when she's disturbed. of course supposedly they are insane/crazy but i think for the most part from the battles we see in the games, they go for the "first blood" victory. I think that unless the spellcard battle is requested they can kill you on the spot. In the reality of Gensokyo i can imagine that some humans and youkai battle without using the "proper" methods. "Rules meant to be broken" and all that jazz. But to be fair on both sides the spell card system helps equal out chances of survival. Of course the youkai we see in the games are ones that use these rules. Imagine an adventure touhou game where you explore your way to the games end while fighting hordes of youkai that attack surprisingly and with spellcard battles....that would be sweet actually hahah.

back on topic I FINALLY beat both Reimu options *normal* 1CC ^_^ that makes me happy did them both in a day 4 attempts altogether.  I got to Byakuren's final attack and she had 1/10 of her HP left and i DIED ;_; was using Marisa B *also normal*. Shoulda deathbombed but dammit. too slow...

[stassy]

According to his tweeter (and google crappy translation), ZUN met an USA pep during his autograph session at C76...who was that warrior strong enough to brave the 1k otaku line? 

[Suikama]

Also

Well, do whatever you want.
I won't seal you away for now, but ...

At least, just for now, okay?

After all, I'm no friend of yours.

Reimu is tsundere towards youkai.

well, look at that, character development! Does Sanae drops the zealot act or she remains the same? And what about Marisa?

Uh sorta. Basically even though she's all like "yay let's kill youkai" she clearly doesn't exterminate anyone.

Also

Well, it's not like I fought you because I wanted
to do something horrible to you.

[Slaves]

According to his tweeter (and google crappy translation), ZUN met an USA pep during his autograph session at C76...who was that warrior strong enough to brave the 1k otaku line? 

funny thing is, the google translation was probably pretty close to the kind of english skills ZUN has.

also wow at the Americans getting there. maybe it made ZUNs day to see that not all americans sit at home and pirate his stuff all day.

[Psieye]

Hmm, on the topic of "does Sanae have any personality of her own given she's channelling Kanako or Suwako's personality in UFO?" (see SSiB for how channelling gods is about channelling their personality), UNL shows a glimpse of what Sanae is really like when she's working alone. From that, Sanae B's EX dialogue feels close to her actual personality - the sort of wide-eyed romantic who sincerely believes in Santa late into her teen years (just to give a metaphor, not saying she'd actually believe Santa). Sanae was all excited over finding a Giant Robot in UNL and she's all excited over meeting an 'Alien' (Nue).

............ Thinking more on this, perhaps a faster description of Sanae's true personality would be "the desires of Suzumiya Haruhi but without the unstoppable, self-centred drive" - with adjustments given she already knew of the existence of gods and now has 2 plot-years' of experience with other weirdness. So yeah, "Vol 4 Haruhi" (if people can understand that) as opposed to the S1 Haruhi.

Hmm, though I do wonder... Sanae B in story mode had insecurities over her dignity (i.e. nobody taking her seriously). I wonder if that too is a piece of Suwako or if it's entirely her own.



In other news, UNL victory quotes tell us Nue is living at Byakuren's temple after being converted into Buddhism (thus ever expanding the collection of oxymorons that the UFO family is). Said temple was built with the aid of the Moriya shrine group, which I found surprising as it means Kanako helped a rival in Faith Gathering to setup shop. Then again, business politics sometimes means helping a rival and Kanako is a shrewd entrepreneur for sure...


Ohhh and Byakuren is the next subject of this artist's work. Hmm, not as wonderful as that Shou one.

[GreenJR]

*Sigh*

Well I attempted a No Bomb, Pacifist run of easy mode. Got my rear end handed to me at the 5th stage, but I will try again later. (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=4410) Here  is the replay for those who are curious.
It turned a lot harder than I expected, mainly for some of Kogasa's spellcards.

[Slaves]

finally, the mystery is solved!

[CAPTAIN MURASA'S] stage theme has a distinctive Windows XP balloon hint "pop" around 2:08, which probably got in the recording, as stated in ZUN's Twitter.

[GreenJR]

finally, the mystery is solved!

[CAPTAIN MURASA'S] stage theme has a distinctive Windows XP balloon hint "pop" around 2:08, which probably got in the recording, as stated in ZUN's Twitter.

I always thought that was my computer.
Well that's good to know. I didn't know ZUN had a twitter either.