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.