~Hakurei Shrine~ > Help Me, Eirin!

My first lunatic 1cc

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Dreamleaf: --- Quote from: Lunatic_Reimu on July 05, 2019, 12:22:37 PM ---Yes it’s quite a tough Extra, and Marisa is merciless if going no bombs, it purely is down to luck sometimes whether you’ll lose a life or not as her attacks weaken (i.e. shoot less bullets) the less orbs she has around her, so the same attack could be easy to dodge sometimes, but a complete wall another time (this attack with lots of orange bullets and blue lasers is mostly the one I’m referring to, you’ll know which one it is when you play it believe me haha). Yep I never heard of the duplication in the main series either, still is a nifty trick she picked up along the way, quite fun dodging 2 Marisa’s shooting fast pink bullets at you xD Yep, angel wings, check it out on a Seihou Extra video, no broom as far as I can tell, doesn’t look visible on the sprite :) Yeah I understand that, so many Touhou games and so many achievements to hit, but I think Seihou will be worth your while, makes for a huge change of pace too with everything being faster. Yep that’s it mainly for the No Bomb runs, I just want to experience/try dodging every attack at it’s hardest possible moment rather than bombing at the point where it gets too tough. As we’ve been saying, it’s fun learning and discovering patters in Touhou, so a No Bomb run is basically taking that element of learning to a deeper level :) Yeah, as you’re saying, you need to give it your all to master ‘every spell card in the game’, well, almost every spell card, that’s what you have lives for :P The complete mastery is for those gods that hit Perfect Lunatics *bows head in respect*. I see from our PMs that you’re giving quite a good shot at the Normal No Bomb runs for PCB! Your last message said you made it to Yuyuko’s final card which is *REALLY* damn close, I hope you’re enjoying the thrill a No Bomb run gives as much as I do! xD Yes Stage Practice will definitely help, avoids lots of time wasted from having to run through stages 1 – 3 all the time, which by that point, you’ll be doing perfect almost all the time (or losing a life during stage 3 sometimes). The Lunatic Perfect Stage Practices really help me out for when I go for the actual No Bomb runs. I remember in Seihou 1, the stage 4 boss used to r*pe me so bad (ironically enough although she’s stage 4, she’s way tougher than the stage 5 boss), after I managed to do her as a Lunatic Perfect Stage Practice, I even managed to hit her Perfect twice more while attempting a No Bomb run!! So Stage Practice really is your friend! She literally was my 1cc killer, while I don’t die at her hands, she used to take so many lives for me that it makes it ridiculously tough to finish off Vivit (the stage 6 boss), which has 3 forms to boot! Hahaha yeah, seeing a bomb pop up on screen in a No Bomb run is just a useless item I guess, don’t worry, that excitement will fade in time if you keep up with the No Bomb runs ;) Yeah I liked the alternate MIDI soundtrack, make sure to try it out in Extra too! It’s not just for the main game! Sorry to hear about the busy weekend, more time for Touhou is always nice :’( Damn I’m completely blank about the endings mate, I only remember this stuff (the scent, not gaining weight from sweets, turn into a cat) just cause you’re mentioning it to me, it’s been about 4 years since I played Touhou 2 so I forgot this stuff, especially since I’ve only seen it a very few times when I cleared the game :( That’s why recording software is awesome, could have all of this archived to revisit when necessary or just feel like a nostalgia trip! Yeah I agree, it could be why I hold Touhou 2 in such high regard since it’s the first actual danmaku shmup I played (Touhou 1 isn’t exactly a shmup). Haha yeah I believe you, first time I faced Lunatic I was terrified of the damn game, literally feeling claustrophobic ALL THE TIME, not comfy in the playing field. We’ve come a long way since then :) Now it’s as you’re saying, blissfully dancing in an ocean of bullets where nothing is more fun xD You’ve made *A LOT* of progress since then, give yourself some more credit ;) Yeah I had heard that Super is the direct continuation of Z and that GT doesn’t fit in between them, which is why I was going to first watch GT, then Z Kai and Super after, so it’s like I got a refresher for Z with Kai before going into Super. Yes I also saw Resurrection F, I loved the ending, Vegeta f*cked up big time with Frieza, if it wasn’t for the gay guy that’s with Beerus (forgot his name) to rewind time, Frieza would have actually been victorious there! Ahh that’s awesome about the movies being a condensed version, so I get to see the Beerus fight again but in more length this time! xD No no, spoil away, I really don’t mind, if anything it gives me something to look forward to and keep my eyes peeled for when I start up that game :) I really don’t mind. Lol @ Marisa wanting to make you put your fist through the monitor hahaha, I completely get you, she’s so cheap sometimes. In Touhou 4 she has a random order of using her attacks, and sometimes it really works in her damn favour, like she’ll have left over bullets from her previous spell still lingering on screen, and she does this whip of stars which is quite tough to dodge when you’ve already got bullets around you from the previous attack still there :/ But it’s part of her charm I guess lol. Yes 8 really does look fantastic, both final bosses are cool, Eirin with her Hourai Elixir is extremely claustrophobic, and Kauya’s spell rush is just awesome and so colourful! Pair that with Spell Card Practice and Mokou’s really cool Extra, and 8 definitely deserves a spot as one of the tops! Damn, Tree Ocean of Hourai looks amazing! I only saw the wiki shot of it in the Touhou 8 wiki, but it does look awesome and sooooo colourful! So much amazing stuff still left in store for me to experience! xD Ahhh yes, the zen state, few and far between as you’re saying, but when that happens, you’re like a bullet dodging machine, it’s like I’m subconsciously dodging bullets without even thinking about it, I don’t know how to properly explain it, it’s like it just comes to me, and I’m one with the game, like a damn replay instead of an actual person doing that stuff in real time. Shame it doesn’t happen as often as I’d want it to lol. Yeah, you’ve got no chance of explaining that to someone that doesn’t play Touhou, hell, I play the game and can’t even explain it properly, let alone someone that doesn’t :/ Yes I believe so too, I think anyone is capable of doing what we do in Touhou, it just takes *patience* (lots of it), and determination, and basically a will to never give up :) Definitely agreed about it becoming an obsession to challenge yourself, I was at a friend’s place last weekend, and he’s always been a PC gamer, and he just bought a PS4 Pro, and he told me he’s finding it tough to adapt to analog sticks, so I went over and showed him the ropes a bit (from my previous PS gaming years). We booted up Horizon, and goddamn, while it’s an aesthetically pleasing game, it’s just too damn easy!!! I’m used to keeping my eyes on hundreds of bullets all at the same time lol, it’s a joke being ‘surrounded’ by a couple of enemies jumping around me all taking their damn time to attack. So yeah, it definitely becomes an obsession and an addictive feeling, felt no self-worth AT ALL on Horizon, like I’m playing a damn kid’s game. Glad you liked the Koishi cover :) I absolutely *LOVE* it, gets me so bouncy and hyper! I don’t think there’s ever been a time that I pressed skip when it pops up on my iPod’s shuffle. Which Bad Apple remix/arrange are you referring to? Bad Apple is an official theme in Touhou 4. Ahh Little Devil’s Apple is by Yuuhei Satellite, they’re brilliant, if I’m not mistaken they also do some of the OPs for the fanmade anime Fantasy Kaleidoscope. I checked out the Sakuya remix by ShibayanRecords you linked, and while I’m not really a fan of the first half of the song, *HOT DAMN* I just FELL IN LOVE with the 5 minute mark till the end, as you stated, it gets ESPECIALLY good there! This one is definitely going into my iPod as soon as I could use my gaming pc again (my iTunes library is on that pc and I can’t navigate without a TV :/). I’m making it a point to go listen to it at least once a day from my laptop, and I also LOVE the Sakuya pic they used in the video! Those menacing red eyes with those daggers drawn ready to be thrown. . . nice find xD Here’s an arrange of Touhou 7 Stage 2 for you, this one is by A-One. They have lots of techno/trancy/Eurobeat kind of arranges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-yAo2BDrkU I just love her voice paired with the Stage 2 theme done techno-ized, she really could go soft during the normal verses and shift to high for the chorus which I really enjoy. Yeah TOTALLY AGREED on Koishi, she is just cool in every damn way, there’s something so appealing about her :D Hahaha she definitely is a little monster, despite the cutesy tone xD You must have scared your friends off good with her xD Awww I’m happy to hear you finally got your Ques Q Reimu! xD She really is adorable, and the detail on her is astounding. Sh*t that’s damn good getting the figure for free with the points you racked up! I’ll definitely have to check out Tokyo Otaku Mode! I use AmiAmi and Ninoma mostly, and their point system sucks, I just get a few cents off x_X OMG those Forbidden Scrollery books are amazing, I’ve never seen them from the side, always the front cover, I just love the character illustrations on the side of them! Well done! That’s quite a nice collection you’re building up! :) I assume the other books to the left are the art books you have by Miyuki Ruria? Nice PMMM figures too btw, I was gonna start collecting anime figures also (most notably Dragon Ball and the Precures), but figured if I do that I’ll open a rabbit hole, and there’s more than enough Touhou content and merch to last me a lifetime, so, better not give more stuff for my brain to go OCD about haha :P Ahhhh yes that Ques Q Alice is wonderful, she’s definitely on my list as well, she always retails for around 250 USD wherever I see her. Make sure you get the DX version (the one you linked), there’s another version which is the same Alice but without the dolls. Granted you can buy these separately thankfully, but extra hassle to come across and find available for a good price (considering they’re just add-ons to the actual figure). Yes definitely about that Yuyuko and other merch that got released a while ago, very tough to find at a suitable price, or find at all! Some of this stuff got released in like 2011 so that’s 8 years ago so availability isn’t always guaranteed, or you’d have to pay an arm and a leg for them :’( I knoooow, that 1/4 Reimu is simply amazing, she’s gonna be the pride of my collection! September is getting closer and I’m gonna be so hyped for that one while she’s making her way from Japan to here!!!!! xD Yes she’s definitely got a face worth killing someone for! (Harsh expression I know, but I’d do anything for my Reimu lol, think yandere in anime :P). Hahaha from the sound of it we both drive our poor sisters nuts on Touhou lol xD  Ahhh she was in Japan??????? <3_<3 I’m jealous. She must have seen some very wonderful things there! Haha happy to hear you’re still carrying your Yukari achievement with pride! Yes it definitely is a milestone, apart from being one of your starting goals, it’s also the only official Phantasm stage iirc :D Yeah getting through all the Last Words to unlock Yukari’s will take a while and lots of work, but you’ll get there eventually and savor the moment, I mean after all, it wouldn’t be Touhou if it didn’t make us suffer and work for our accomplishments would it? :P Yeah from what I’ve seen on Youtube it seems like some Last Words vary in difficulty from others. I expect most of them to be quite tough though seeing as they’re Last Words. Yep, as I told you in the PM, I use OBS Studio, I’ll post screenshots of all my settings tomorrow morning, you could use them as a starting point, then adjust where you see fit. I end up with a recording of around 18GB for an hour. File size could be *drastically* reduced if you use the Veryfast preset instead of Superfast like I do (talking maybe 8GB an hour instead of 13 - 15GB), but this will have a huge impact on your CPU, so make sure you could play the game well (i.e. check that the game isn’t stuttering and check the slowdown % at the results screen) and also that the recording doesn’t stutter. In my case, I could run Veryfast, but noticed that the recording is *very slightly* more jittery than it’s Superfast counterpart, so I went Superfast and live with the huge file sizes, stutter drives me crazy! I had tried FRAPS, didn’t really like the quality, I think you should see a definite improvement in quality with OBS. I’m not exactly sure on the requirements and how powerful a pc needs to be to record, but I’m sure that you won’t pull off 720/1080p 60fps with an i3 as I tried on a friend’s laptop and it was a complete disaster. I’ve got an i7-4790, GTX 980Ti, and 32GB RAM (I went a bit overkill on the RAM I reckon, I never see more than 20% of this being used so I think 16GB would be suitable, probably even 8GB). An i7 (or rarely some i5s) would help due to Hyperthreading, which greatly helps running two things (called threads) at once. On my GTX 980Ti, usage is only 30% while playing and recording at the same time, so you don’t need something as beefy as that I reckon to pull it off, but I’ve never tried one of the Touhou fighters, so these might push that 30% up a bit more. *Very important note*: Don’t record on the same HDD that you’re playing the game off of. Playing is a read operation, recording is a heavy write operation, you more likely than not will get stutters in either the game, or the recording if you use the same HDD. Oh, and never record onto an SSD, you’ll burn through it’s life with those constant big writes. SSDs like being read from, not written to frequently. For my set up, I’ve got 3 drives: an SSD for the OS, programs, and where the games are installed, a 7200rpm drive solely for recording, and a 7200rpm drive for storage. More info on this in tomorrow’s post! I’m alone at work on Saturdays, so I should have ample time to set up a neat post for you :) No worries about the questions btw, I’m glad to help if it could help you out :) Yes I could definitely see the relation to Goku as you’re saying, he’s one of the best fighters in the universe, so he always strives to become more and more powerful! Who knows what crazy forms he could reach now in Super! Yeah no control over the overdetermination I’m afraid, it’s just how our brain works when we’re trying to hit something that’s so important to us, I mean, it literally means the world to me, nothing is more important seriously, so of course my brain (and body) will react that way, especially at the later stages when you’re getting close to pulling it off! :) Yeah I agree, while the zen state is nice and calm and centered, I like the adrenaline rush more although it makes us play more sloppy as you stated. My legs start shaking, and my arms go numb sometimes, my breathing goes slow and heavy, and my heart feels like I’m going to have a heart attack at any moment, notably when I’m at the final boss and know I could do it!! It's things like these that make Touhou so wonderful, the immersion is totally unmatched by anything I have ever done in life before. Yes definitely agree on that, it feels so satisfying finally figuring it out xD Indeed about the clusterf*ck being a concealed stream, one thing I learned throughout this series is if something is really giving me trouble or looking impossible, try streaming first, or even NOT MOVING as you’ll see in a part in the Touhou 2 Extra. Sometimes something is MUCH more simple than it seems, and the clusterf*ck is just there to misdirect your attention. Ahh that’s cool about the Extra bosses being immune to bombs, I never knew that seeing as I never use them. Learn something new every day! xD Hhaahha that’s awesome about Yukari even halting the timer! She really takes it a step further! Yeah I thought that the power draining while using bombs might have something to do with Kanako’s last spell, damage out put must be miniscule if you drop the power level down to 1 :/ Yes definitely about Jaimers, when I saw that he was capable of No Bombing the games, I realized that these games are actually doable that way, so he did have quite an influence on me too. Hmm, about the Ran death, I think you were under a lot of pressure knowing that you’ve got a high chance of beating the Extra with the resources you had available, and yeah, that adrenaline takes over and makes us play sloppy sometimes or doing silly mistakes. As I said previously, don’t beat yourself too much about it, happens to the best of us ;) “It’s never over till it’s over’, definitely so true, worst thing you could do is take it for granted and get overconfident. This also works in reverse though, getting to a final boss with just 1 life left, while it seems impossible, miracles do happen, so even there don’t give up and keep giving it your all! Hahaha yeah, painful and sooooo frustrating, Yumeko is quite a beast, you’re in for one hell of a hard time when you do Touhou 5. . . I’d love to see her and Sakuya face off. . . both are final boss bodyguards, one uses broadswords, the other with daggers. Would be a really cool fight, but it’s just wishful thinking I reckon seeing as PC98 doesn’t get so much attention anymore :/ Yeah the snowball effect of mistakes, it’s horrible, and the rage doesn’t help at all, which is why it’s important to try staying focused and centering yourself as quick as possible so you snap back into the game, easier said than done though. Ahh, so you’re saying that Reisen is an easy stage 5 boss? That’s new, usually stage 5 bosses provide quite a challenge, but yeah it happens sometimes, as I stated in the first paragraph, the stage 5 boss in Seihou 1 is way easier than the stage 4 boss. Aaaaannnddd finally I got my TV back late last night!!! :D Whooo this torture without Touhou finally came to an end. Been almost 3 weeks, and finally in 3 more hours I’ll get out of this prison (work) and happily be back in the Scarlet Devil Mansion :) Gonna get my a*s handed to me a couple of times after not playing for a while, but it’s still gonna be mega fun xD Didn’t get to play yesterday since the guy came really late with it (almost 9pm), but REALLY looking forward to it today! xD Hahaha I get you about your coworkers knowing how much you played by your mood. As we stated, we get a bit antsy without it xD To be expected though, its such a wonderful thing, and so much fun, and really releases those feel good chemicals inside me dodging through a hell of bullets! Haha I knew which you’d prefer about the clerk vs magical girl, just wanted to put it into perspective to really show the contrast of how dull real life is compared to the wondrous Gensokyo xD Oooh yes, I *completely* get what you mean about having to push yourself at work, it’s so mundane, easy, and repetitive, it’s literally mind-numbing, I’ll literally be operating on auto-pilot and most of the time don’t even remember that I did my work, cause I’ll just be off in my own little world while doing it without even thinking/paying attention. In 9 months, definitely haven’t hit your skill cap yet, you’ve got way more to improve without even realizing! Another year will pass, and you’ll look back at today, and realize just how much better you got! The way you snap in and out of focus quickly, your control, the understanding of how certain attacks work, the way you read and tackle certain cards, etc. Bullet dodging is like a journey, as we said above, lots of growth for the player, and the more you go at it, the better you’ll get, but it by far isn’t a short and easy journey. Now you’re attempting some No Bomb runs too, so that will greatly push the limit that you’re used to :) Yes definitely about Touhou 15 Point Device Mode and anything you find that challenges you, once you initially get over that hump, it’s like that skill level sticks inside you then, and you become an even better player than you were a few weeks ago! Yeah with all the Extras you’ve hit, Hard should be right up your alley now, if anything, I believe Extra is harder than Hard but easier than Lunatic, so maybe Hard won’t be as troubling as it might seem with your experience now :) Damn, that seems like Touhou 15 Extra is really tough! Noooo, don’t abandon poor Reimu now that you’re so close with her! She is what Touhou is all about after all :D Haha it truly is a shame, we talk in length over PMs and posts, let alone what we’d do actually conversing! Yep, same here about having to hold back, I start noticing that my friends are losing interest, or just not understanding what I’m saying anymore after a while, so yeah, I try keeping a lid on it, or brief at least, cause you could tell that someone just isn’t getting it anymore. Indeed, I see the same level of devotion I have inside of you, which just made us click so easily xD You look like the type that could go on about Touhou for hours non-stop, and I’m really glad we met, over something so simple like a congrats as well xD Ahhh definite meet up if we’re ever on each others side of the world! Would be my pleasure :) Sorry for the delay in my reply btw, it’s been a really bad week, antsy starts turning into depressed after a while, paired with OCD, it’s quite easy to start getting frustrating and depressive symptoms. Thankfully with the TV back in hand, suddenly my life got full of colour again! xD As soon as I get home, I’ll jump onto Touhou 6, it’s been wayyyy too long, and I’ll prepare all the screenshots for OBS Studio :) Tomorrow morning I’ll layer it all out for you in a neat step by step post :) Take care, and happy Touhouing!! xD Ok previewing this post, it turned out quite huge, I talk too much sometimes lol, feel free to cut corners where you deem necessary :/ --- End quote --- Hey so sorry again for the long response time! Got my first weekend all month where I had a chance to relax and recharge a little. I definitely trust you when you say the Seihou games are worth my time. At some point on one of my weekends here I'll sit down and give it a shot. If you don't mind me asking how do you go about getting these games? Oh yes, I definitely am loving the thrill from the no bomb runs! Even if it's just in Normal things still start to get quite tense as you get to the later stages. There's just so little room for error which means no matter how well I'm doing at any point during the run I just can't afford to make mistakes. Ahhh it doesn't seem entirely rare in Touhou for the stage 4 boss to be arguably harder than the stage 5 boss, so no surprise that's sometimes true for Seihou as well. The stage practice really does help but it's a lot more tricky trying to get those 1CCs when you need to run it alongside everything else. Spell Card Practice in 8 and some of the other games is also incredibly useful and you really notice the difference it makes in learning more efficiently since you can focus solely on what you're struggling on most without having to waste the time on the easier things. My experience with 8s Extra Stage really made it evident just what a massive difference this can make. Speaking of which I just got my Touhou 8 Extra stage 1CC :) Only took a day from start to finish to learn too so I'd say it was relatively speaking one of the easier ones I've done so far, but I really do feel the Spell Card practice was a huge factor in this. Still it was a lot of fun and even going into the final Spell Card with 2 remaining lives and a bomb I still just barely managed to beat it. I hadn't done the later bit of the final Spell Card yet though so I was essentially flying blind. My adrenaline was through the roof in the last few seconds of the attack after using my final remaining bomb XD I think this would be a good Extra Stage to attempt to no bomb since the stage portion/mid boss are pretty easy and most of Mokou's Spell Cards can be consistently beaten once you've had a bit of practice. It's really only the last 3/4 Cards that gave me any real hassle. Quite pleased though since this will make for the 3rd game I've completed the Extra Stage for.  Unfortunately I didn't capture enough Spell Cards to get her bonus attack which I still need for two of the Last Word unlocks but I'll get that eventually. I don't blame you for not entirely remembering the 2nd games ending with the orbs. Frankly with all the different characters/games it's hard for me to remember some things that I played even a few months ago let alone years ago. I like reading through things like the wiki and TVtropes page so you'll often find out little tidbits of random information like the orbs powers there. There's just so many little tidbits of lore in the story it can be hard to remember it all (heck, I sometimes struggle remembering all the character names still). I still need to get back to 2's Extra Stage. Main reason I got sidetracked was I wanted to record it when I did it but I noticed the recording software was struggling a slight bit more with the PC-98 games a bit more so I need to iron out the kinks with that first. I definitely got to agree it's awesome having your stuff recorded. Sometimes when I just want to unwind a bit I'll watch old replays and it can be exciting reliving some of those moments you experienced during a run. I'll definitely give myself credit for having improved a lot. I feel 1000x more comfortable surrounded by bullets then when I first started and I can pull off moves that seemed unreal back when I started, even though at times I wish I wasn't as prone to some of the dumb mistakes I still tend to make. Those moments where I can really sit down and get a proper session going where I'm able to fully focus is where I really notice the difference in my skill level. I try not to let it go to my head too much since there's always more to learn but it is damned satisfying being able to step back and witness just how much you've grown :) Ahhh I can see Marisa using her attacks in a random order in 4 potentially really messing me up. It makes it much tougher trying to deal with attacks when there's that RNG element since you can't ever be fully prepared for what's going to come next. Attacks that leave leftover bullets can be a bit awkward to deal with since it's sometimes easy to forget about them and become to focused on the new pattern coming out. And if by part of her charm you mean her being extremely frustrating to fight then yes I completely agree XD I could gush on quite a bit about 8, it just does everything right and so much more. I don't think any of the other games have anywhere near as much extra content as 8 does either which is a big plus in its book. I definitely think you'll enjoy it once you get to it yourself :) I'd say that's pretty accurate about that zen state feeling almost like you're watching a replay rather than playing it in real time. It's almost as if there's a part of you that just knows you're not going to make a mistake. It's certainly something that a person needs to personally have experienced in order to really understand, but even among us hardcore players it does seem very rare and inconsistent to really enter this state. There's times where I can be playing amazingly well and crushing everything easily but even then it's not always the same as being in that zen state you know? One of the key defining things I've noticed about that state is just how ridiculously calm I feel. Ah yeah that's why I struggle to play games like the one you mentioned your friend showing you because they're more about the spectacle and at that point I'd almost rather be watching a movie. When it comes to a game I want to feel really engaged in what's going on and that just can't happen when the difficulty is putting me to sleep. It's even worse when I feel like I have to actively be handicapping myself in order to receive a challenge. Most games that do seem to require a degree of real patience are usually labeled as niche too so I don't think most games out would really be able to satisfy you. I think we're partially byproducts of the arcade style era though in which games were meant to eat up credits and thus were made to be hard and require lots of practice. I'm thankful there's still a market for those arcade style games even in our day and age :) Ah yes Koishi has so many good covers for her theme. I'm not surprised since she's such a popular character. That one you linked is one of my favorites I've heard so far and I can tell you I added onto my phone right away and have already racked up quite a play count already ;) Opps sorry I meant the Bad Apple cover done for the stop motion music video that was popular all those years back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lNZ_Rnr7Jc). Even back when I knew next to nothing about Touhou I still had seen the Bad Apple stop motion video and thought it was awesome. I think you're right about Yuuhei Satellite doing the opening to the fanmade anime! I was recently listening to another arrange by them done for the stage 4 theme in SA I think is pretty entrancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kND-UIXv1sc. I'm so glad you liked the Sakuya remix :D Agreed with how much better it gets after the 5 minute mark and I admit I often skip right away to the halfway portion of the song whenever I listen to it but from that point on it becomes pure heaven to listen to. It's one of those songs I can listen to repeatedly in a row and never seem to get sick of it. That A-One arrange is another good find! I didn't use to listen to tons of the techno/trancy/Eurobeat stuff in the past but there's just something about that with Touhou music that is so good for some reason :D These figures do get pricey but damn they really are nice quality. The unfortunate bit about sites like TOM is that once a figure runs out of stock it's hard to say whether they'll get more in eventually, so sometimes you're forced to look on ebay or Amazon which can get a bit pricey :( The Forbidden Scrollery manga is super nice! There's something about holding them too that just feels satisfying as well XD And yes! Well, some of the books on the left are Miyuki Ruria, there's also the Touhou Art Tribute books I picked up at the anime con this year which is just a collection of various artists and whatnot. I absolutely love the Miyuki Ruria ones the most though and they even have a bunch of beautiful art I've never even seen posted online before :) Yes, I know what you mean where it's hard to divert funds away from Touhou stuff, I've been learning this over the last year or so. There's times where I think "gee, I'd love to buy that Hollow Knight physical Collectors Edition" but then I have to weigh that against just buying more Touhou merch and the Touhou merch usually wins out lol :D This is why I've been able to get such a decent collection over just the course of year because its become like 90% of my entertainment fund as well. Ah yes the Alice Ques Q isn't going to be cheap but I'll still eventually get it. It's the one I wanted most originally but I'm thinking I'll probably wait until the end of the year and buy it as a Christmas gift to myself once I get my bonus at work :) I definitely want to make sure to get the dolls with it since it just wouldn't feel right without them. Just over a month now until you get your Reimu figure in!!! You must be incredibly excited for that! The postal office better make damned sure to handle that package with care. And yes I don't doubt your dedication to Reimu seeing as how she's directly connected to your love for Touhou and this series has made it clear just how deep our levels of obsession can run ;) Plus there's just something special about Reimu that is hard to place my finger on. Something that makes her a unique character in fiction imo. And yep, my sister actually went to Japan twice in a years time and I'm right there with you being jealous. I'm actually thinking of planning a trip to Japan next year if I'm able to save up the money. It's something I've wanted to do for ages now but I know it will require quite a bit of time and saving to get there. I use to think since Yukari was the only Phantasm boss that she was probably the hardest in the series, I know that isn't exactly the case now (she seems to be ranked about mid tier difficulty as for as Extra Stage Bosses go and most people generally agree Koishi, Hecatia and Marisa are definitely tougher) but it's still definitely a milestone for me. I'm glad I can now add Mokou to the list of completed Extra Stage bosses too :) Working on unlocking on Yukari's Last word is the primary reason I decided to work on 8s extra stage this weekend since that's a requirement for unlocking some of the Last Words. Right now I have 12/17 of the cards unlocked so I'm getting closer though some of the remaining ones will be a little tougher to unlock. Out of the 12 I have unlocked so far I've managed to beat 10 of them (Just beat Remilia last night. She's always got really cool Spell Cards as well) though which I'm quite pleased about. You're definitely right, it wouldn't be Touhou if we didn't have to work and suffer for our achievements a bit XD The more we suffer the more satisfying those achievements are when you finally hit them though. Thank you again sooooooo much for all the info on OBS studio btw!!! A lot of the fine tuning with the settings I would have never figured out on my own so having your instructions was invaluable. I'm loving being able to record my content as I go and I've already gotten to archiving many of my older replays of 1CCs I have saved. In games like 8 it's way too easy to fill up all your replay slots and you don't want to get rid of stuff so not having to worry about slot space is incredibly nice, and plus now I can show some of my friends some of the stuff I've personally done :) I started throwing a few of my videos up on youtube. They're certainly not as impressive as many of the other people out there but there's something about knowing they're mine that's immensely satisfying. Yeah that adrenaline feeling is exactly what happened to me during the final Spell Card in my Mokou fight. It became a race against time during an attack I didn't know how to deal with so I knew it was going to come down to the wire. At that point you're just pouring your entire existence into the moment to get by. You're right, the sense of immersion is completely and totally unmatched for things like that. Nothing I've experienced in gaming outside this series has come anywhere close to that feeling. During those moments nothing in the world exists outside of the pattern and your brain is just 100% immersed. Yes, that's absolutely good advice on testing out things like streaming and standing still in those absolute clusterfuck attacks. There's little tricks like that which you sort of pick up the more you play the series that help learn what is actually happening behind each Spell Card. I noticed sometimes you need to do something that is extremely counter intuitive in order to deal with a pattern so it helps to get a bit creative and try different techniques when struggling with a card because sometimes you stumble on a secret to dealing with it that trivializes the pattern. On top of what you mentioned I'll also experiment with starting positions and whereabouts I hang out on the screen since sometimes there's those sweet spots which you don't initially see. That's one thing I find kind of neat about Touhou, sometimes you don't even need to be paying attention to 99% of what's on the screen. Over time you stop trying to dodge everything and instead train your eyes in order to catch what the real threat is on the screen. Sometimes there's hundreds of bullets on the screen but realistically only several are actually a danger too you. Another trick I've picked up that helps a lot in the attacks that have multiple patterns you need to dodge at once is to find ways to break it up so you're only dodging one thing at a time. I commonly do this when you got like 3 different bullet types coming at you where you really only need to be paying attention to 1 bullet type at any given time as long as you're smart about it. The non-Spellcards from the bosses will still take normal damage from the bombs but the main Spell Cards they'll become immune to damage when you use one, and it's not rare for them to only clear off a small portion of what's on the screen. I like it because it makes them still feel useful without making it feel like you can rely on them to cheese entire cards. You still really need to be smart and tactical about how you use them in the Extra Stage. Games like 10 and 11 you're power doubles as your bombs, and yes, it becomes brutal if you rely on them too much and drop your power low in the later stages. Even if you still technically have lots of lives you can sort of dig yourself into a hole if you drop your power down and can't effectively get caught up later. You know how long the final Spell Cards in a game can last so you can imagine trying to do that with 1 power. I think you're right where the dumb mistakes work in reverse too sometimes and you see yourself pulling off feats that seem far above when you should be capable of doing. It makes sense too with law of averages, when you run content thousands of times you're bound to see some things with stupidly low odds happen like that. That's part of what makes this so fun is you never know what will happen next. It's a shame ZUN couldn't have brought back some of the PC-98 characters for the fighting games at least or else we could have gotten some of these face offs :( Usually my capability to snap back after a dumb mistake isn't too bad but the consecutive mistakes can really add up quickly if you don't have time to recover properly (and to be fair some Spell Cards are intentionally designed to be brutal to recover if you die in the middle of it). Consecutive early stage mistakes make me rage hard after a certain point when you feel you should have all of that on lockdown by that point. I personally find Reisen the easiest stage 5 boss in the series, I know opinions on difficulty can generally vary but I have also seen a few other people who share the opinion as well. She's more "tricky" then she is dangerous and as long as you're able to keep a cool head a lot of her attacks are pretty easy to deal with. She's the only stage 5 Touhou boss I can think of that has actually saved more 1CCs by allowing me to catch up on resources than she has ended :P I'm so glad you managed to get your TV back! I do hope you've been enjoying your time in the Scarlet Devil Mansion these last few weeks ;) Even if the first few attempts back probably didn't last too long I'm sure they still felt magical after being gone for so long ^_^ This weekend was the first real proper sessions I've had in several weeks now myself and I can't even begin to describe what a relief it was. Compared to a couple days ago I feel as if all the stress from the last few weeks has just melted away and I just feel completely recharged and renewed. At least I can say work kept me pretty engaged the last few weeks. My supervisor was on vacation so I was left watching over several sections at once and there wasn't a single minute in a day where I wasn't doing multiple things at once. Thankfully Touhou has trained my brain to (somewhat) be able to handle keeping track of so much in a high stress situation so I was able to get through it :P From the sounds of it I might even possibly be getting a raise with how happy the boss is (Meaning I might be able to afford more Touhou merch hopefully). I'm glad work managed to keep me engaged but it still can't compare to losing yourself in Touhou and I'll take the magical girl over the work any day of the week XD I feel as long as there's so much challenging content and as long as I'm being smart about how I practice and learn I probably won't even come close to hitting my skillcap for a number of years. Especially because I still have hardly done much in Lunatic Mode in this series outside 9 (which works differently from the other games anyways). I think as I push the Lunatic and No Bomb run stuff as well as maybe some of the more difficult Extra Stages I'll definitely still see an increase. I agree Hard Mode should be right up my current skill levels alley. I'm debating if I want to be working on the Extra Stages a bit more or try to keep some more Hard 1CCs under my belt currently. I got to admit I am having a blast working on the Extra Stages so much lately so I might try and get 1 or 2 more but I also sort of like to see what I'm in the mood for when I sit down to play for a session. I still need to get back to 15s Extra Stage X( I can be too easily sidetracked when I get working on too many things at once, especially when time is limited, which could make things difficult when I start working on some of the things that will require significant amounts of time and practice. You've no doubt noticed I can jump around between games a fair bit which can have its advantages and disadvantages. I do find certain games fit my mood way better at times compared others. I absolutely won't stop attempting the stage with Reimu just because she's harder, in fact I kind of like it this way because I feel like I'm getting more out of the stage then some people might. In general I attempt to do most content these days with Reimu first because it just feels right, like that's the way the game is built around playing in a way (not literally but just how it feels like to me). I'd like to eventually get a Lunatic as well as an Extra Stage 1CC on every game with Reimu at least once. I could go on about Touhou for hours, days, weeks and probably months no problem XD Its literally consumed my life so you never need to worry about holding back or worry I'll lose interest I can promise you that. I'm sorry again it took so long to respond. This weekend was the first time since the start of the month I've had a chance to get in a proper session with how busy it was and I didn't want to sit down and try to write a response that was half ass or while I was struggling to stay awake. Let me know how things have been going in 6 for you since you've gotten back when you get a chance! Oh and for OBS regarding what you said in the PM I'll grab a screenshot of the stats next time I try recording Touhou 2. I highly suspect I just need to tinker with the settings a bit to get that sweet spot but it might also have been something else my in my PC that was eating up memory at the time too. I ended up going with the Superfast option. The space isn't too bad since I can just throw the videos on an external easily and I only keep certain videos onhand.  This is one of the Last Word (Wriggle's to be specific) videos I threw up on youtube if you want to see for yourself quickly :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAuE7tPgHmc&feature=youtu.be I'll still tinker a bit with the settings to get it just right but in general I'm happy to set up recording now. I've been wanting to do so for a while so I can't thank you enough for your help :) No worries about the posts turning out so large. It's unavoidable when discussing this series. There's just too much to discuss ;) Happy Touhouing!

Lunatic_Reimu: --- Quote from: Dreamleaf on July 29, 2019, 01:32:59 AM ---Hey so sorry again for the long response time! Got my first weekend all month where I had a chance to relax and recharge a little. I definitely trust you when you say the Seihou games are worth my time. At some point on one of my weekends here I'll sit down and give it a shot. If you don't mind me asking how do you go about getting these games? Oh yes, I definitely am loving the thrill from the no bomb runs! Even if it's just in Normal things still start to get quite tense as you get to the later stages. There's just so little room for error which means no matter how well I'm doing at any point during the run I just can't afford to make mistakes. Ahhh it doesn't seem entirely rare in Touhou for the stage 4 boss to be arguably harder than the stage 5 boss, so no surprise that's sometimes true for Seihou as well. The stage practice really does help but it's a lot more tricky trying to get those 1CCs when you need to run it alongside everything else. Spell Card Practice in 8 and some of the other games is also incredibly useful and you really notice the difference it makes in learning more efficiently since you can focus solely on what you're struggling on most without having to waste the time on the easier things. My experience with 8s Extra Stage really made it evident just what a massive difference this can make. Speaking of which I just got my Touhou 8 Extra stage 1CC :) Only took a day from start to finish to learn too so I'd say it was relatively speaking one of the easier ones I've done so far, but I really do feel the Spell Card practice was a huge factor in this. Still it was a lot of fun and even going into the final Spell Card with 2 remaining lives and a bomb I still just barely managed to beat it. I hadn't done the later bit of the final Spell Card yet though so I was essentially flying blind. My adrenaline was through the roof in the last few seconds of the attack after using my final remaining bomb XD I think this would be a good Extra Stage to attempt to no bomb since the stage portion/mid boss are pretty easy and most of Mokou's Spell Cards can be consistently beaten once you've had a bit of practice. It's really only the last 3/4 Cards that gave me any real hassle. Quite pleased though since this will make for the 3rd game I've completed the Extra Stage for.  Unfortunately I didn't capture enough Spell Cards to get her bonus attack which I still need for two of the Last Word unlocks but I'll get that eventually. I don't blame you for not entirely remembering the 2nd games ending with the orbs. Frankly with all the different characters/games it's hard for me to remember some things that I played even a few months ago let alone years ago. I like reading through things like the wiki and TVtropes page so you'll often find out little tidbits of random information like the orbs powers there. There's just so many little tidbits of lore in the story it can be hard to remember it all (heck, I sometimes struggle remembering all the character names still). I still need to get back to 2's Extra Stage. Main reason I got sidetracked was I wanted to record it when I did it but I noticed the recording software was struggling a slight bit more with the PC-98 games a bit more so I need to iron out the kinks with that first. I definitely got to agree it's awesome having your stuff recorded. Sometimes when I just want to unwind a bit I'll watch old replays and it can be exciting reliving some of those moments you experienced during a run. I'll definitely give myself credit for having improved a lot. I feel 1000x more comfortable surrounded by bullets then when I first started and I can pull off moves that seemed unreal back when I started, even though at times I wish I wasn't as prone to some of the dumb mistakes I still tend to make. Those moments where I can really sit down and get a proper session going where I'm able to fully focus is where I really notice the difference in my skill level. I try not to let it go to my head too much since there's always more to learn but it is damned satisfying being able to step back and witness just how much you've grown :) Ahhh I can see Marisa using her attacks in a random order in 4 potentially really messing me up. It makes it much tougher trying to deal with attacks when there's that RNG element since you can't ever be fully prepared for what's going to come next. Attacks that leave leftover bullets can be a bit awkward to deal with since it's sometimes easy to forget about them and become to focused on the new pattern coming out. And if by part of her charm you mean her being extremely frustrating to fight then yes I completely agree XD I could gush on quite a bit about 8, it just does everything right and so much more. I don't think any of the other games have anywhere near as much extra content as 8 does either which is a big plus in its book. I definitely think you'll enjoy it once you get to it yourself :) I'd say that's pretty accurate about that zen state feeling almost like you're watching a replay rather than playing it in real time. It's almost as if there's a part of you that just knows you're not going to make a mistake. It's certainly something that a person needs to personally have experienced in order to really understand, but even among us hardcore players it does seem very rare and inconsistent to really enter this state. There's times where I can be playing amazingly well and crushing everything easily but even then it's not always the same as being in that zen state you know? One of the key defining things I've noticed about that state is just how ridiculously calm I feel. Ah yeah that's why I struggle to play games like the one you mentioned your friend showing you because they're more about the spectacle and at that point I'd almost rather be watching a movie. When it comes to a game I want to feel really engaged in what's going on and that just can't happen when the difficulty is putting me to sleep. It's even worse when I feel like I have to actively be handicapping myself in order to receive a challenge. Most games that do seem to require a degree of real patience are usually labeled as niche too so I don't think most games out would really be able to satisfy you. I think we're partially byproducts of the arcade style era though in which games were meant to eat up credits and thus were made to be hard and require lots of practice. I'm thankful there's still a market for those arcade style games even in our day and age :) Ah yes Koishi has so many good covers for her theme. I'm not surprised since she's such a popular character. That one you linked is one of my favorites I've heard so far and I can tell you I added onto my phone right away and have already racked up quite a play count already ;) Opps sorry I meant the Bad Apple cover done for the stop motion music video that was popular all those years back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lNZ_Rnr7Jc). Even back when I knew next to nothing about Touhou I still had seen the Bad Apple stop motion video and thought it was awesome. I think you're right about Yuuhei Satellite doing the opening to the fanmade anime! I was recently listening to another arrange by them done for the stage 4 theme in SA I think is pretty entrancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kND-UIXv1sc. I'm so glad you liked the Sakuya remix :D Agreed with how much better it gets after the 5 minute mark and I admit I often skip right away to the halfway portion of the song whenever I listen to it but from that point on it becomes pure heaven to listen to. It's one of those songs I can listen to repeatedly in a row and never seem to get sick of it. That A-One arrange is another good find! I didn't use to listen to tons of the techno/trancy/Eurobeat stuff in the past but there's just something about that with Touhou music that is so good for some reason :D These figures do get pricey but damn they really are nice quality. The unfortunate bit about sites like TOM is that once a figure runs out of stock it's hard to say whether they'll get more in eventually, so sometimes you're forced to look on ebay or Amazon which can get a bit pricey :( The Forbidden Scrollery manga is super nice! There's something about holding them too that just feels satisfying as well XD And yes! Well, some of the books on the left are Miyuki Ruria, there's also the Touhou Art Tribute books I picked up at the anime con this year which is just a collection of various artists and whatnot. I absolutely love the Miyuki Ruria ones the most though and they even have a bunch of beautiful art I've never even seen posted online before :) Yes, I know what you mean where it's hard to divert funds away from Touhou stuff, I've been learning this over the last year or so. There's times where I think "gee, I'd love to buy that Hollow Knight physical Collectors Edition" but then I have to weigh that against just buying more Touhou merch and the Touhou merch usually wins out lol :D This is why I've been able to get such a decent collection over just the course of year because its become like 90% of my entertainment fund as well. Ah yes the Alice Ques Q isn't going to be cheap but I'll still eventually get it. It's the one I wanted most originally but I'm thinking I'll probably wait until the end of the year and buy it as a Christmas gift to myself once I get my bonus at work :) I definitely want to make sure to get the dolls with it since it just wouldn't feel right without them. Just over a month now until you get your Reimu figure in!!! You must be incredibly excited for that! The postal office better make damned sure to handle that package with care. And yes I don't doubt your dedication to Reimu seeing as how she's directly connected to your love for Touhou and this series has made it clear just how deep our levels of obsession can run ;) Plus there's just something special about Reimu that is hard to place my finger on. Something that makes her a unique character in fiction imo. And yep, my sister actually went to Japan twice in a years time and I'm right there with you being jealous. I'm actually thinking of planning a trip to Japan next year if I'm able to save up the money. It's something I've wanted to do for ages now but I know it will require quite a bit of time and saving to get there. I use to think since Yukari was the only Phantasm boss that she was probably the hardest in the series, I know that isn't exactly the case now (she seems to be ranked about mid tier difficulty as for as Extra Stage Bosses go and most people generally agree Koishi, Hecatia and Marisa are definitely tougher) but it's still definitely a milestone for me. I'm glad I can now add Mokou to the list of completed Extra Stage bosses too :) Working on unlocking on Yukari's Last word is the primary reason I decided to work on 8s extra stage this weekend since that's a requirement for unlocking some of the Last Words. Right now I have 12/17 of the cards unlocked so I'm getting closer though some of the remaining ones will be a little tougher to unlock. Out of the 12 I have unlocked so far I've managed to beat 10 of them (Just beat Remilia last night. She's always got really cool Spell Cards as well) though which I'm quite pleased about. You're definitely right, it wouldn't be Touhou if we didn't have to work and suffer for our achievements a bit XD The more we suffer the more satisfying those achievements are when you finally hit them though. Thank you again sooooooo much for all the info on OBS studio btw!!! A lot of the fine tuning with the settings I would have never figured out on my own so having your instructions was invaluable. I'm loving being able to record my content as I go and I've already gotten to archiving many of my older replays of 1CCs I have saved. In games like 8 it's way too easy to fill up all your replay slots and you don't want to get rid of stuff so not having to worry about slot space is incredibly nice, and plus now I can show some of my friends some of the stuff I've personally done :) I started throwing a few of my videos up on youtube. They're certainly not as impressive as many of the other people out there but there's something about knowing they're mine that's immensely satisfying. Yeah that adrenaline feeling is exactly what happened to me during the final Spell Card in my Mokou fight. It became a race against time during an attack I didn't know how to deal with so I knew it was going to come down to the wire. At that point you're just pouring your entire existence into the moment to get by. You're right, the sense of immersion is completely and totally unmatched for things like that. Nothing I've experienced in gaming outside this series has come anywhere close to that feeling. During those moments nothing in the world exists outside of the pattern and your brain is just 100% immersed. Yes, that's absolutely good advice on testing out things like streaming and standing still in those absolute clusterfuck attacks. There's little tricks like that which you sort of pick up the more you play the series that help learn what is actually happening behind each Spell Card. I noticed sometimes you need to do something that is extremely counter intuitive in order to deal with a pattern so it helps to get a bit creative and try different techniques when struggling with a card because sometimes you stumble on a secret to dealing with it that trivializes the pattern. On top of what you mentioned I'll also experiment with starting positions and whereabouts I hang out on the screen since sometimes there's those sweet spots which you don't initially see. That's one thing I find kind of neat about Touhou, sometimes you don't even need to be paying attention to 99% of what's on the screen. Over time you stop trying to dodge everything and instead train your eyes in order to catch what the real threat is on the screen. Sometimes there's hundreds of bullets on the screen but realistically only several are actually a danger too you. Another trick I've picked up that helps a lot in the attacks that have multiple patterns you need to dodge at once is to find ways to break it up so you're only dodging one thing at a time. I commonly do this when you got like 3 different bullet types coming at you where you really only need to be paying attention to 1 bullet type at any given time as long as you're smart about it. The non-Spellcards from the bosses will still take normal damage from the bombs but the main Spell Cards they'll become immune to damage when you use one, and it's not rare for them to only clear off a small portion of what's on the screen. I like it because it makes them still feel useful without making it feel like you can rely on them to cheese entire cards. You still really need to be smart and tactical about how you use them in the Extra Stage. Games like 10 and 11 you're power doubles as your bombs, and yes, it becomes brutal if you rely on them too much and drop your power low in the later stages. Even if you still technically have lots of lives you can sort of dig yourself into a hole if you drop your power down and can't effectively get caught up later. You know how long the final Spell Cards in a game can last so you can imagine trying to do that with 1 power. I think you're right where the dumb mistakes work in reverse too sometimes and you see yourself pulling off feats that seem far above when you should be capable of doing. It makes sense too with law of averages, when you run content thousands of times you're bound to see some things with stupidly low odds happen like that. That's part of what makes this so fun is you never know what will happen next. It's a shame ZUN couldn't have brought back some of the PC-98 characters for the fighting games at least or else we could have gotten some of these face offs :( Usually my capability to snap back after a dumb mistake isn't too bad but the consecutive mistakes can really add up quickly if you don't have time to recover properly (and to be fair some Spell Cards are intentionally designed to be brutal to recover if you die in the middle of it). Consecutive early stage mistakes make me rage hard after a certain point when you feel you should have all of that on lockdown by that point. I personally find Reisen the easiest stage 5 boss in the series, I know opinions on difficulty can generally vary but I have also seen a few other people who share the opinion as well. She's more "tricky" then she is dangerous and as long as you're able to keep a cool head a lot of her attacks are pretty easy to deal with. She's the only stage 5 Touhou boss I can think of that has actually saved more 1CCs by allowing me to catch up on resources than she has ended :P I'm so glad you managed to get your TV back! I do hope you've been enjoying your time in the Scarlet Devil Mansion these last few weeks ;) Even if the first few attempts back probably didn't last too long I'm sure they still felt magical after being gone for so long ^_^ This weekend was the first real proper sessions I've had in several weeks now myself and I can't even begin to describe what a relief it was. Compared to a couple days ago I feel as if all the stress from the last few weeks has just melted away and I just feel completely recharged and renewed. At least I can say work kept me pretty engaged the last few weeks. My supervisor was on vacation so I was left watching over several sections at once and there wasn't a single minute in a day where I wasn't doing multiple things at once. Thankfully Touhou has trained my brain to (somewhat) be able to handle keeping track of so much in a high stress situation so I was able to get through it :P From the sounds of it I might even possibly be getting a raise with how happy the boss is (Meaning I might be able to afford more Touhou merch hopefully). I'm glad work managed to keep me engaged but it still can't compare to losing yourself in Touhou and I'll take the magical girl over the work any day of the week XD I feel as long as there's so much challenging content and as long as I'm being smart about how I practice and learn I probably won't even come close to hitting my skillcap for a number of years. Especially because I still have hardly done much in Lunatic Mode in this series outside 9 (which works differently from the other games anyways). I think as I push the Lunatic and No Bomb run stuff as well as maybe some of the more difficult Extra Stages I'll definitely still see an increase. I agree Hard Mode should be right up my current skill levels alley. I'm debating if I want to be working on the Extra Stages a bit more or try to keep some more Hard 1CCs under my belt currently. I got to admit I am having a blast working on the Extra Stages so much lately so I might try and get 1 or 2 more but I also sort of like to see what I'm in the mood for when I sit down to play for a session. I still need to get back to 15s Extra Stage X( I can be too easily sidetracked when I get working on too many things at once, especially when time is limited, which could make things difficult when I start working on some of the things that will require significant amounts of time and practice. You've no doubt noticed I can jump around between games a fair bit which can have its advantages and disadvantages. I do find certain games fit my mood way better at times compared others. I absolutely won't stop attempting the stage with Reimu just because she's harder, in fact I kind of like it this way because I feel like I'm getting more out of the stage then some people might. In general I attempt to do most content these days with Reimu first because it just feels right, like that's the way the game is built around playing in a way (not literally but just how it feels like to me). I'd like to eventually get a Lunatic as well as an Extra Stage 1CC on every game with Reimu at least once. I could go on about Touhou for hours, days, weeks and probably months no problem XD Its literally consumed my life so you never need to worry about holding back or worry I'll lose interest I can promise you that. I'm sorry again it took so long to respond. This weekend was the first time since the start of the month I've had a chance to get in a proper session with how busy it was and I didn't want to sit down and try to write a response that was half ass or while I was struggling to stay awake. Let me know how things have been going in 6 for you since you've gotten back when you get a chance! Oh and for OBS regarding what you said in the PM I'll grab a screenshot of the stats next time I try recording Touhou 2. I highly suspect I just need to tinker with the settings a bit to get that sweet spot but it might also have been something else my in my PC that was eating up memory at the time too. I ended up going with the Superfast option. The space isn't too bad since I can just throw the videos on an external easily and I only keep certain videos onhand.  This is one of the Last Word (Wriggle's to be specific) videos I threw up on youtube if you want to see for yourself quickly :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAuE7tPgHmc&feature=youtu.be I'll still tinker a bit with the settings to get it just right but in general I'm happy to set up recording now. I've been wanting to do so for a while so I can't thank you enough for your help :) No worries about the posts turning out so large. It's unavoidable when discussing this series. There's just too much to discuss ;) Happy Touhouing! --- End quote --- As we said in the PMs, never worry about response time. I know how busy everyone is, and real life stuff just comes up, so it?s completely understandable :) Well, for Seihou 1 and 2, you?re going to have to download them from Moriya Shrine or some other site that hosts Touhou games just like for the PC98 games. Unfortunately the first 2 games are out of print :( Seihou 3 though could be purchased digitally (from here: http://www.dlsite.com/home/work/=/product_id/RJ101418.html) to support the developers, I think only C74 which could be patched to version 3 though, so you?ll need to get C67 with some scrounging on the net. (If anyone else is reading this and I?m mistaken please let me know, I would love to own physical copies of these games). Note that there are 3 versions of Seihou 3 which is called Banshiryuu: the C67 version, C74 version, and the most recent version called Ver. 3. While not so clear, here?s some more information about the 3 different Seihou 3 versions: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Arcorann#About_Banshiryuu_versions As a note, only Seihou 1 and 2 have Touhou characters in them (Reimu and Marisa as Extra bosses in Seihou 1, and Yuuka as a playable character and opponent in Seihou 2), Seihou 3 doesn?t, but still worth a playthrough. Also don?t forget about Samidare (which has a cameo from Yuki and Mai from Touhou 5, and Gates and Vivit from Seihou as Extra bosses), and also Uwabami Breakers which is one of ZUN?s works. Torte Le Magic is another game you might want to check out, the music was made by ZUN for that one. It?s short and quite easy too so should be a quick playthrough. Ahh definitely about the No Bomb runs, as you?re saying, little room for error so can never let yourself get overconfident cause it could end up being your downfall! Really glad you?re enjoying these, and once you push yourself onto Hard, and especially Lunatic, that?s when it?ll start feeling heart-attack inducing haha xD Keep at it, you?ll get there! ;) Definitely agreed about certain cases (although rare) when the Stage 4 boss is tougher than the Stage 5 one. Honestly Patchouli is giving me a harder time than Sakuya in most of my runs in Touhou 6, although sometimes Sakuya could get nasty too, especially when she goes the opposite way of where she trapped me with her knives so I?m barely dealing any damage. Agreed also on the Stage Practice, it is very helpful, but yes, to run all the stages alongside each other is MUCH more tricky than doing them individually in Stage Practice, especially when the pressure starts building up when you see that you?ve got a good number of lives left and know that you might be able to pull off that 1cc! Yes Spell Card Practice is also a godsend from what I?ve seen, plus it?s mega fun too capturing each card (since you can?t bomb or lose a life in that mode!). I imagine you went in already half prepared for 8?s Extra from Spell Card Practice :) That?s very good progress in just one day! Well done and keep it up! Really? It?s one of the easier ones? Mokou has a couple of attacks that look quite intimidating from what I saw of her. Really looking forward to a face off with her in the future! :) Ouch that final spell card sounds tough, must be one of the intimidating ones I mentioned :P Hahaha yeah I know what that feels like when you?re at the end and got no more resources left! It?s a wonderful feeling and soooo immersive. Definitely give that Extra a shot as a No Bombs if you?re confident about it, remember, you?ve got your lives to help you power through the final 3 ? 4 cards, so master the earlier cards to not waste resources on those, and use your lives on the remaining cards. This is how I tackled Flandre in 6, leaving my lives for her final 2 cards (QED is terrifying, starts off all slow and easy, but by the end it?s manic!). I imagine you managed to get Mokou?s bonus attack now since you unlocked Yukari?s Last Word as you said in the PM :) Yeah, which is a real shame, cause I?d love to remember all this stuff :( Well thankfully since I?m recording now, I could revisit previous achievements and stories :D (I also record the endings, not just the gameplay) Oh yes definitely, while I never visited the TVTropes page, I use the wiki A LOT, and there is a plethora of information there that just breathes life into the whole series more! (both with more info on the characters, and also locations and simple things like objects). Hahaha once you face the bosses in Lunatic believe me you won?t be forgetting their names any time soon, especially the ones that make you curse like crazy xD Did you manage to get your recordings sorted for the PC-98 games? You said you were getting some sort of memory error if I recall correctly. Feel free to post a screenshot of it, while I never encountered it myself, maybe I?ll (or some other members) will know how to fix that. Really weird though that the Windows games record fine and you?re getting trouble on the PC98 ones :/ Yes indeed and agreed with watching your own replays. Its nice just chilling back and reliving your most prized achievements. We all know how much work goes into making them a reality :) Agreed and definitely understandable about feeling more comfortable with several bullets around you now. You?re close to a year into bullet dodging now, so yes your confidence will definitely have shot up from way back when you would have started (and now you?re experimenting with No Bombs too, that will definitely help in growth), if anything we crave more bullets around us now xD (like Easy and Normal are too easy for me although Normal is still fun, Hard is my comfort zone, Lunatic I just adore then, it feels soooooo cool with all those bullets everywhere, but it?s very difficult to No Bomb then, and I love a challenge). Haha well we?re only human, so we tend to make mistakes, even after 5 years I still make a couple of mistakes I want to kick myself afterwards for, so I guess that never goes away lol. Yes never let it go to your head, you?ve still got Hard and Lunatic to discover properly, and believe me it?s quite a huge step. Although I hit Lunatics, I feel growth with every subsequent game I complete, so the growth just keeps on coming, and it shows that there never really is a limit to how much we could learn (unless we do Perfect Lunatics, there yes, you could let it go to your head and basically describe yourself as a walking god and not a human haha xD). I believe she also uses her attacks in a random order in Touhou 2, so she?s quite fond of not being able to be read easily. Yep, left over bullets are annoying cause you?ll be in a mindset prepared for the next attack that?s coming, so you expect those bullets to have vanished off screen by that point. Let?s just consider it part of Marisa?s assholish charm haha ;) Hahaaha yeah agreed on her being frustrating, she?s a nightmare to face in every game I came across her except in Touhou 3, she?s one of the easiest characters to deal with there (her and Kana I feel are the easiest). While I didn?t face her in 8 yet, I saw the fight on Youtube, and it looks absolutely wonderful!! xD Ahhh another rematch with Marisa, with an arrange from her theme from Touhou 2 as well to boot! Ooooh btw, talking about Marisa, remember when I told you she uses duplication in Seihou 1, and we said she probably stole that from Flandre? Thinking more about this, I actually think she stole it from Yuuka in Touhou 4 actually. Yuuka duplicates herself too (not quadruples like Flan), and Marisa also stole Master Spark from Yuuka, so I wouldn?t be surprised that she actually picked up that ability from her. That, and the fact that Seihou 1 came out in 2000, when Touhou 6 came out in 2002 (so the devs + ZUN couldn?t have modelled her off of Flan since she had another 2 years till she came into existence). Oh yes definitely, 8 seems really well made and well thought out. The inclusion of Spell Card Practice, the Last Words, the bonus Last Spells, 2 final bosses, and the introduction of teams as well. . . sounds perfect just listing all that! Really looking forward to it too, that will keep me busy for quite a while with all it?s content! Yes the zen state really is wonderful, VERY rare though, just too rare actually. Yes agreed, someone has to experience it to know what it feels like, someone won?t fully understand it till they actually experienced it themselves. I never got it in any other games I played, it?s like you?re in a trance or playing on auto-pilot so to speak. ?There?s times where I could be playing amazingly well and crushing everything easily but even then it?s not always the same as being in that zen state you know??, definitely understand and agree with this, the zen state is just too rare, what you?re describing now I consider a very good session when I?m purely in focus. Yes same here, ridiculously calm! In the zen state, it?s not the usual panic, claustrophobia, pressure, heart racing etc, it really is just like I?m a calm, tranquil, bullet dodging machine basically, till. . . I take that first hit, then that?s it, I?m f*cked. Just can?t get into the zen state again, and I know it?ll be a good couple of weeks till it happens again. Yeah agreed about modern games looking more like cinematic movies rather than games, I like my games looking like games, which is why I?m such a fan of retro, indie, and especially Touhou. Saying that though, there are some of these cinematic games which are nice. I just saw my sis playing through parts of Uncharted 4 recently, and it?s quite beautiful. Still no want to play it myself though :P Yeah same here about not getting engaged in a game if ?the difficulty is putting me to sleep? as you referred to it. I need to feel like my life (i.e. in the game) is at threat for me to actually get that satisfying level of immersion, which yes unfortunately, most games these days really hold your hand, which is why I appreciate the retro era like certain NES games, there was literally no hand holding whatsoever back then, and it required your utmost effort to clear most of them! Yes I?m thankful that there?s still a market for these type of arcade style games too (although niche), especially with the way gaming has mostly become with lots of multiplayer and whatnot. Haha really glad you liked the Koishi theme I linked, I know not everyone is a fan of Eurobeat/trance/whatever genre it fits under. Ahhh ok, that Bad Apple arrange, yeah it?s quite brilliant, especially the visuals are done in quite a unique style the way they warp into each other. Yeah can?t really go wrong with Yuuhei Satellite, most of their arranges are awesome! Thanks for the Stage 4 one from Touhou 11! It?s quite cool and captures the original nicely. Here?s one for you by Yuuhei Satellite called Fingertip Chocolate, sounds very Japanesey and reflects Stage 3 in Touhou 11 quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_jXf6nzIo It has some slight hints of dubstep in the 2nd chorus also which surprisingly enough, really fits well :) Ooooh yes, I love that Sakuya theme you linked from the 5 minute mark onwards, as you said, I mostly skip to that part instantly, it really is brilliant!! Same here about listening to it in a row! xD Yeah I love that A-One arrange, it?s perfect in every sense of the word in my opinion. Haha I listen to all genres, so it was quite easy for me to make the transition to Touhou music with Eurobeat/techno/trance/whatever mixed in. Yeah definitely especially these figures like Ques Q, while they are pricey, the quality really is astounding. Prize figures like Sega and Furyu are nice too and easily affordable, but yeah, when compared to Ques Q?s stuff, you could easily see the difference in attention to detail. Certain Griffon figures are hit and miss, so really got to be weary of which Griffon figures you go for, although I have a couple. Yeah completely agreed, when you miss the pre-order period, it?s very rare for these online sites to restock them, which in turn, you?ll have to go for the second hand market like Ninoma and Mandarake, and the prices tend to shoot up quite a fair bit since the figure went rare then :( There were countless times when I ended up paying more than double the figure?s original cost. You might get lucky and the company makes a re-release (I got lucky on my Ques Q Koishi). Be VERY weary of eBay and Amazon. I got slammed with a fake Yukari from eBay, and the figure definitely came from Japan, thankfully I managed to get a refund for that. MyFigureCollection will greatly help in finding discrepancies in fakes. Haha yeah I understand what you mean about that nice feeling of holding the mangas and stuff, it?s kind of like a pirate when he gets his hands on his loot lol xD Oh yes definitely, you?re going to have images in artbooks which the artist will not post online, his online page will be a sample, there will be exclusive art in the artbooks! Haha glad Touhou mostly became your entertainment fund xD Always nice having more Touhou merch, there?s just sooo much xD Yeah you?re quite an Alice fan by the look of it, so treat yourself to that beautiful figure this Christmas :) I do that sometimes too where I buy a gift for myself, mostly when I would have completed the Touhou game I would be playing too as a reward for myself. Ooooh yes, I really can?t wait for that beautiful Reimu figure! Getting dead close now!! And yes, I REALLY hope the post office handles it with care. I never purchased from GoodSmile?s Online Store directly, so I?m hoping their service is good and they package it well. I use Amiami and Ninoma mostly (Ninoma to hunt down the rare, old, already released figures that I missed pre-ordering). Hahaha yeah, obsession is an understatement when it comes to Touhou lol, best description I?d say is literally life-controlling lol. Yeah totally agreed about Reimu, she really is one of a kind, and such a wonderful character, I?m glad she stands for what Touhou mostly represents :) Ahhh twice in one year to Japan? Your sis has good taste xD Haha the problem with going to Japan wouldn?t be the funds to get there, it?s the money I?d need to buy all that merch in front of me xD I?d end up having to ship the stuff to my home, cause it sure as hell won?t fit in my luggage! xD I bet I?d spend more on merch than the whole holiday lol. Yeah that?s a common misconception I imagine, I used to think that too about the Phantasm stage. Oh yes it?s definitely a milestone, after all, it?s the only Phantasm Stage so it?s something unique! :) Well this post is about 14 days old and your PM was more recent, so glad you?ve got 15/17 Last Words done now :) And definitely agreed, Remilia is uber-cool, such a dangerous boss! I could imagine how cool her Last Word would be! True that about the suffering, while it is stressful, the sense of accomplishment is one of the best feelings I?ve ever felt in life, so it?s worth enduring with the suffering and powering through something, cause the reward after that is super-satisfying! xD No worries about the OBS recordings, that took me months of research, tinkering and experimentation to figure out properly, so I?m happy I could avoid that hassle for you :) Yeah, way too few replay slots, so that?s when recording comes in handy :) Also useful/convenient just having everything as an mp4 to show your friends rather than having to install the game and put the replay files in it to show them, so recording definitely has it?s pluses. Plus, as far as I know the replays don?t store the endings, I want those recorded also just to chill back and watch through the whole story sometimes rather than just the gameplay. Well, do what you do in life, you?ll always find someone out there that?s better than you are, but don?t let that diminish your accomplishments you?re putting up on Youtube. They?re all the results of your hard work and determination, so be proud of them :) Ahhhh that experience you had with Mokou?s final card sounds awesome, I love it when I get so immersed like that, and as you?re saying, you know it?s gonna come down to the wire! Yeah definitely, at that point, especially on the final card with no lives remaining, it?s literally a ?Goku vs Beerus in space moment?, and it truly does feel amazing and unmatched by anything else :) Yeah you?d be amazed how some attacks/stage portions have such a simple gimmick which wouldn?t have occurred to you that it?s so simple to figure out. Yeah true that about having to do something counter intuitive to deal with certain attacks. Patchouli thought me that with her non-spells with lasers in Touhou 6 recently on Lunatic, you actually have to run INTO the laser exactly as it?s vanishing for best results, rather than away from it, especially due to the aimed red bullets at you. Annnd yes, definitely agree on starting positions, this will GREATLY help in trivializing certain cards and stage portions. Something that would become a clusterfuck becomes much easier if you?re at the correct position to start tackling it. Being higher up on the screen helps a lot too due to your damage output, some stuff you won?t manage to kill the enemies fast enough if you?re quite low (an example of this is the blue chain-bullet spewing fairies in Touhou 6 Stage 5 exactly before the Sakuya midboss, something so tough usually but gets easily trivialized if you?re around halfway up the screen to take out that first fairy in the middle), so it?s crucial to experiment and get creative as you stated :) Well done, yes, that?s exactly it, most of the bullets on screen are just there to intimidate you, in truth, only a couple are there which are REALLY a threat to you. Learning how to determine which ones is part of the fun, especially with the other point you stated where on attacks with multiple bullet types you could tackle each individually at that moment till the next bullet type comes :) Yeah I?ve seen other people?s runs where the bombs deal quite a good amount of damage to the non-spells (especially with Sanae, it just eats through a health bar), but never took notice for the Spell Cards. That?s a very cool feature, shows that the bosses really are at their best when using their Spell Cards :) Yeah I actually prefer the bombs like in Touhou 10 or 11 where just a ring of power comes out from Reimu and it just clears off those bullets that touch with it, rather than the whole screen, makes those bombs feel more tactical and more thought has to go into where you use them. Ahh yeah, I?ve seen that where the bombs double as your power, so yes, you really need to be weary of when you use your bombs, cause if you can?t get back to full power, you?re going to have quite a hard time against the final Spell Card which already takes a while to wither down at full power, let alone at 1 power x_X. Yeah you should never give up on a run, you?d be amazed how much something could go in your favour sometimes, even if you?re just with 1 life at the final boss. That adrenaline and determination might see you through till the end of it! :D Definitely agreed about ?part of the fun is you never know what will happen next?, it really could go both ways. Yes it really is a damn shame that the PC98 characters got cut off, there were quite a few really cool characters which would have been amazing to see a comeback from in the Windows era :( Chiyuri, Yumeko and Shinki are just a few which come to mind which are ridiculously cool. That?s quite a good mentality you?ve got that you could snap back into it quite easily even after getting hit, it really throws me off usually and could take around 30 seconds till I?m back into focus, especially yes, when you?re in the middle of a Spell Card, it could become quite a clusterfuck when you just respawned and are trying to pick up the Power items cause it could really throw off how you?re meant to play the pattern (i.e. for example if you had to stream it and you?re busy trying to collect the Power items, it?ll throw off the stream and the bullets that are aimed at you). Yeah same here, when I do half an hour of just cycling through Stage 1 ? 4 cause of dumb mistakes I really start getting pissed, but it?s part of Touhou I guess lol, and tomorrow will be a better day. I find that my overall state (i.e. how tired I am/if I slept well, busy day at work, my OCD f*cking me up constantly thinking of something I need to do while I?m trying to dodge bullets) really plays a factor in how well I play. You really need to have a focused mind to play at your best, so you could get that 100% immersion we talked about before where it?s literally just you and the game, and nothing else matters at that point. Haha good to know about Reisen, its not so common for Stage 5 bosses to be easy, especially since they?re meant to be the final boss? bodyguard so to speak. Although saying this, yes in Seihou 1, the Stage 5 boss is WAY WAYYY easier than the Stage 4 one. Same surely can?t be said about Yumeko in Touhou 5, she?s literally a relentless beast, you?ll find out when you come to play Touhou 5, it?s quite a wondrous addition to the series being one that I hold in very high regard :) Some small touches make it really cool, like Makai (the place you?re in from Stage 3 onwards in Touhou 5) catching fire in the background while you?re fighting Shinki (the final boss). Makes sense lol, all those bullets that we dodge have to go somewhere haha, and guess they?re crashing into the buildings/city lol. Ahh yes, almost a month without the TV REALLY wasn?t nice, apart from the constant worrying that it?s unfixable and I?ll have to dish out around 1,800 Euros to buy a new one. Thankfully that?s sorted and life is falling back into the usual routine. Unfortunately haven?t gotten nowhere near as much gaming time as I would like to since I?ve gotten the TV back, just that odd session here and there, but much better than a span of weeks not playing at all. Ahh yes, I understand that relief you feel once you?re back to dodging bullets, and you can easily relate seeing as you had quite a busy month yourself with work! Ouch, sounds like it really was quite a busy month, and also loaded with responsibility too with your supervisor being away :/ Look at the bright side though, you showed you could handle the pressure and that you?re reliable when sh*t hits the fan, so yeah, that should make your bosses happier with you, especially if they are considering giving you a raise!! As you said, more Touhou merch!! Woohoo!! xD Haha yeah glad it wasn?t boring at work, but yes, magical girl over work, ANY DAY, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!! ;) Yeah we?ve still got quite a lot to learn mate. I?m currently trying to Perfect Stage Practice Stage 4 in Touhou 6 with all 4 characters, and I?m not gonna lie, it?s giving me quite a damn hard time, especially those books that shoot a sh*tload of green bullets early on in the stage warranting an instant restart. Then I see maulerfranco666 on Youtube do Stage 4 Perfect No Focus! Sweet Jesus, I?ve got a long way to go! Not only Perfect, but also the lack of precision in controls due to No Focus???? Yes you definitely will keep seeing your skills improve the more you focus on Lunatic, and the No Bombs also help you gain a greater mastery of most of the game since you have such little room for error :) I?ve been playing for 5 years now (although I think I don?t get close to the hours you put in per week) and keep seeing an increase in skills with every game I complete, my sis even pointed that out to me too. Touhou 3 really helped me with my skills since it?s mostly reflex based, so you can?t memorize too much stuff, and Seihou since it?s the inverse of Touhou (i.e. Touhou is mostly slow and dense, Seihou is less dense but faster). Extras are really fun with their gimmicks to figure out most Spell Cards as well :) Yeah with the Extras you?re completing, Hard should be right up your alley now, so just see what you feel like working on, I agree that it?s quite a tough choice picking between Extra and Hard, cause both are equally fun xD Yeah you seem to like jumping around a lot from one thing to another depending on mood. It has it?s advantages of keeping things fresh at least, but then yeah, things that require lots of practice will take longer that way. The more you practice the same thing, the quicker you?ll learn it and finally hit it. Well, the bright side with beating the Extra Stage with Reimu in Touhou 15 is that since it?s harder to do it with her, once you do beat it, you?ll just breeze through it with Sanae and Reisen then :D I agree that the games do feel like they?re built around Reimu as you said. Glad we share the same goal and dedication to our beloved red and white shrine maiden :) Haha yeah I noticed, I?ve been typing this out for around 4 hours now over the span of 2 days lol (glad I get the time to do most of it at work haha xD). Same here mate, will never lose interest in this series, there?s just sooooo much left for me to see and experience! xD As I said in the PM, never worry about the delay in response time, I understand that it takes a while to type a reply like this, and that you also need to get in good gaming sessions, so, just reply when you feel like some Touhou chat :) Well in Touhou 6 so far I hit Extra No Bombs with all 4 characters (1 Reimu and 1 Marisa doing the Maze of Love at the bottom instead of running around in circles, and getting Perfect till that point since I wanted to face it at Max Rank (what?s the point of playing a Spell Card in a more challenging way if you?re not going to experience it at it?s full difficulty?)), and recently beat Lunatic No Bombs with continues to unlock Stage 6 in Stage Practice. Now I?m toiling away at Perfect Stage Practice with Reimu B (and Stage 4 with all 4 characters since Patchouli uses different Spell Cards depending on which character you?re using, so I want all those Perfect). Yes definitely, while I never experienced the memory error myself, a screenshot might help me / other members determine what it is, always good having recording set up properly for PC98, especially since those games don?t store replays :( As I told you in the PM, that?s quite a nice capture on Wriggle?s Last Word! Keep it up! Your dedication will carry you to your goals! ;) Recording quality looks nice too from your Youtube video, and Youtube usually introduces compression, so I imagine your actual recordings on your hard drive are slightly sharper. No worries about the help with recording, it really was my pleasure to help :) Definitely true haha, so much to gush on on Touhou xD Happy Touhouing to yourself too my good friend. Take care and best wishes :)

Dreamleaf: --- Quote from: Lunatic_Reimu on August 14, 2019, 11:24:14 AM ---As we said in the PMs, never worry about response time. I know how busy everyone is, and real life stuff just comes up, so it?s completely understandable :) Well, for Seihou 1 and 2, you?re going to have to download them from Moriya Shrine or some other site that hosts Touhou games just like for the PC98 games. Unfortunately the first 2 games are out of print :( Seihou 3 though could be purchased digitally (from here: http://www.dlsite.com/home/work/=/product_id/RJ101418.html) to support the developers, I think only C74 which could be patched to version 3 though, so you?ll need to get C67 with some scrounging on the net. (If anyone else is reading this and I?m mistaken please let me know, I would love to own physical copies of these games). Note that there are 3 versions of Seihou 3 which is called Banshiryuu: the C67 version, C74 version, and the most recent version called Ver. 3. While not so clear, here?s some more information about the 3 different Seihou 3 versions: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Arcorann#About_Banshiryuu_versions As a note, only Seihou 1 and 2 have Touhou characters in them (Reimu and Marisa as Extra bosses in Seihou 1, and Yuuka as a playable character and opponent in Seihou 2), Seihou 3 doesn?t, but still worth a playthrough. Also don?t forget about Samidare (which has a cameo from Yuki and Mai from Touhou 5, and Gates and Vivit from Seihou as Extra bosses), and also Uwabami Breakers which is one of ZUN?s works. Torte Le Magic is another game you might want to check out, the music was made by ZUN for that one. It?s short and quite easy too so should be a quick playthrough. Ahh definitely about the No Bomb runs, as you?re saying, little room for error so can never let yourself get overconfident cause it could end up being your downfall! Really glad you?re enjoying these, and once you push yourself onto Hard, and especially Lunatic, that?s when it?ll start feeling heart-attack inducing haha xD Keep at it, you?ll get there! ;) Definitely agreed about certain cases (although rare) when the Stage 4 boss is tougher than the Stage 5 one. Honestly Patchouli is giving me a harder time than Sakuya in most of my runs in Touhou 6, although sometimes Sakuya could get nasty too, especially when she goes the opposite way of where she trapped me with her knives so I?m barely dealing any damage. Agreed also on the Stage Practice, it is very helpful, but yes, to run all the stages alongside each other is MUCH more tricky than doing them individually in Stage Practice, especially when the pressure starts building up when you see that you?ve got a good number of lives left and know that you might be able to pull off that 1cc! Yes Spell Card Practice is also a godsend from what I?ve seen, plus it?s mega fun too capturing each card (since you can?t bomb or lose a life in that mode!). I imagine you went in already half prepared for 8?s Extra from Spell Card Practice :) That?s very good progress in just one day! Well done and keep it up! Really? It?s one of the easier ones? Mokou has a couple of attacks that look quite intimidating from what I saw of her. Really looking forward to a face off with her in the future! :) Ouch that final spell card sounds tough, must be one of the intimidating ones I mentioned :P Hahaha yeah I know what that feels like when you?re at the end and got no more resources left! It?s a wonderful feeling and soooo immersive. Definitely give that Extra a shot as a No Bombs if you?re confident about it, remember, you?ve got your lives to help you power through the final 3 ? 4 cards, so master the earlier cards to not waste resources on those, and use your lives on the remaining cards. This is how I tackled Flandre in 6, leaving my lives for her final 2 cards (QED is terrifying, starts off all slow and easy, but by the end it?s manic!). I imagine you managed to get Mokou?s bonus attack now since you unlocked Yukari?s Last Word as you said in the PM :) Yeah, which is a real shame, cause I?d love to remember all this stuff :( Well thankfully since I?m recording now, I could revisit previous achievements and stories :D (I also record the endings, not just the gameplay) Oh yes definitely, while I never visited the TVTropes page, I use the wiki A LOT, and there is a plethora of information there that just breathes life into the whole series more! (both with more info on the characters, and also locations and simple things like objects). Hahaha once you face the bosses in Lunatic believe me you won?t be forgetting their names any time soon, especially the ones that make you curse like crazy xD Did you manage to get your recordings sorted for the PC-98 games? You said you were getting some sort of memory error if I recall correctly. Feel free to post a screenshot of it, while I never encountered it myself, maybe I?ll (or some other members) will know how to fix that. Really weird though that the Windows games record fine and you?re getting trouble on the PC98 ones :/ Yes indeed and agreed with watching your own replays. Its nice just chilling back and reliving your most prized achievements. We all know how much work goes into making them a reality :) Agreed and definitely understandable about feeling more comfortable with several bullets around you now. You?re close to a year into bullet dodging now, so yes your confidence will definitely have shot up from way back when you would have started (and now you?re experimenting with No Bombs too, that will definitely help in growth), if anything we crave more bullets around us now xD (like Easy and Normal are too easy for me although Normal is still fun, Hard is my comfort zone, Lunatic I just adore then, it feels soooooo cool with all those bullets everywhere, but it?s very difficult to No Bomb then, and I love a challenge). Haha well we?re only human, so we tend to make mistakes, even after 5 years I still make a couple of mistakes I want to kick myself afterwards for, so I guess that never goes away lol. Yes never let it go to your head, you?ve still got Hard and Lunatic to discover properly, and believe me it?s quite a huge step. Although I hit Lunatics, I feel growth with every subsequent game I complete, so the growth just keeps on coming, and it shows that there never really is a limit to how much we could learn (unless we do Perfect Lunatics, there yes, you could let it go to your head and basically describe yourself as a walking god and not a human haha xD). I believe she also uses her attacks in a random order in Touhou 2, so she?s quite fond of not being able to be read easily. Yep, left over bullets are annoying cause you?ll be in a mindset prepared for the next attack that?s coming, so you expect those bullets to have vanished off screen by that point. Let?s just consider it part of Marisa?s assholish charm haha ;) Hahaaha yeah agreed on her being frustrating, she?s a nightmare to face in every game I came across her except in Touhou 3, she?s one of the easiest characters to deal with there (her and Kana I feel are the easiest). While I didn?t face her in 8 yet, I saw the fight on Youtube, and it looks absolutely wonderful!! xD Ahhh another rematch with Marisa, with an arrange from her theme from Touhou 2 as well to boot! Ooooh btw, talking about Marisa, remember when I told you she uses duplication in Seihou 1, and we said she probably stole that from Flandre? Thinking more about this, I actually think she stole it from Yuuka in Touhou 4 actually. Yuuka duplicates herself too (not quadruples like Flan), and Marisa also stole Master Spark from Yuuka, so I wouldn?t be surprised that she actually picked up that ability from her. That, and the fact that Seihou 1 came out in 2000, when Touhou 6 came out in 2002 (so the devs + ZUN couldn?t have modelled her off of Flan since she had another 2 years till she came into existence). Oh yes definitely, 8 seems really well made and well thought out. The inclusion of Spell Card Practice, the Last Words, the bonus Last Spells, 2 final bosses, and the introduction of teams as well. . . sounds perfect just listing all that! Really looking forward to it too, that will keep me busy for quite a while with all it?s content! Yes the zen state really is wonderful, VERY rare though, just too rare actually. Yes agreed, someone has to experience it to know what it feels like, someone won?t fully understand it till they actually experienced it themselves. I never got it in any other games I played, it?s like you?re in a trance or playing on auto-pilot so to speak. ?There?s times where I could be playing amazingly well and crushing everything easily but even then it?s not always the same as being in that zen state you know??, definitely understand and agree with this, the zen state is just too rare, what you?re describing now I consider a very good session when I?m purely in focus. Yes same here, ridiculously calm! In the zen state, it?s not the usual panic, claustrophobia, pressure, heart racing etc, it really is just like I?m a calm, tranquil, bullet dodging machine basically, till. . . I take that first hit, then that?s it, I?m f*cked. Just can?t get into the zen state again, and I know it?ll be a good couple of weeks till it happens again. Yeah agreed about modern games looking more like cinematic movies rather than games, I like my games looking like games, which is why I?m such a fan of retro, indie, and especially Touhou. Saying that though, there are some of these cinematic games which are nice. I just saw my sis playing through parts of Uncharted 4 recently, and it?s quite beautiful. Still no want to play it myself though :P Yeah same here about not getting engaged in a game if ?the difficulty is putting me to sleep? as you referred to it. I need to feel like my life (i.e. in the game) is at threat for me to actually get that satisfying level of immersion, which yes unfortunately, most games these days really hold your hand, which is why I appreciate the retro era like certain NES games, there was literally no hand holding whatsoever back then, and it required your utmost effort to clear most of them! Yes I?m thankful that there?s still a market for these type of arcade style games too (although niche), especially with the way gaming has mostly become with lots of multiplayer and whatnot. Haha really glad you liked the Koishi theme I linked, I know not everyone is a fan of Eurobeat/trance/whatever genre it fits under. Ahhh ok, that Bad Apple arrange, yeah it?s quite brilliant, especially the visuals are done in quite a unique style the way they warp into each other. Yeah can?t really go wrong with Yuuhei Satellite, most of their arranges are awesome! Thanks for the Stage 4 one from Touhou 11! It?s quite cool and captures the original nicely. Here?s one for you by Yuuhei Satellite called Fingertip Chocolate, sounds very Japanesey and reflects Stage 3 in Touhou 11 quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_jXf6nzIo It has some slight hints of dubstep in the 2nd chorus also which surprisingly enough, really fits well :) Ooooh yes, I love that Sakuya theme you linked from the 5 minute mark onwards, as you said, I mostly skip to that part instantly, it really is brilliant!! Same here about listening to it in a row! xD Yeah I love that A-One arrange, it?s perfect in every sense of the word in my opinion. Haha I listen to all genres, so it was quite easy for me to make the transition to Touhou music with Eurobeat/techno/trance/whatever mixed in. Yeah definitely especially these figures like Ques Q, while they are pricey, the quality really is astounding. Prize figures like Sega and Furyu are nice too and easily affordable, but yeah, when compared to Ques Q?s stuff, you could easily see the difference in attention to detail. Certain Griffon figures are hit and miss, so really got to be weary of which Griffon figures you go for, although I have a couple. Yeah completely agreed, when you miss the pre-order period, it?s very rare for these online sites to restock them, which in turn, you?ll have to go for the second hand market like Ninoma and Mandarake, and the prices tend to shoot up quite a fair bit since the figure went rare then :( There were countless times when I ended up paying more than double the figure?s original cost. You might get lucky and the company makes a re-release (I got lucky on my Ques Q Koishi). Be VERY weary of eBay and Amazon. I got slammed with a fake Yukari from eBay, and the figure definitely came from Japan, thankfully I managed to get a refund for that. MyFigureCollection will greatly help in finding discrepancies in fakes. Haha yeah I understand what you mean about that nice feeling of holding the mangas and stuff, it?s kind of like a pirate when he gets his hands on his loot lol xD Oh yes definitely, you?re going to have images in artbooks which the artist will not post online, his online page will be a sample, there will be exclusive art in the artbooks! Haha glad Touhou mostly became your entertainment fund xD Always nice having more Touhou merch, there?s just sooo much xD Yeah you?re quite an Alice fan by the look of it, so treat yourself to that beautiful figure this Christmas :) I do that sometimes too where I buy a gift for myself, mostly when I would have completed the Touhou game I would be playing too as a reward for myself. Ooooh yes, I really can?t wait for that beautiful Reimu figure! Getting dead close now!! And yes, I REALLY hope the post office handles it with care. I never purchased from GoodSmile?s Online Store directly, so I?m hoping their service is good and they package it well. I use Amiami and Ninoma mostly (Ninoma to hunt down the rare, old, already released figures that I missed pre-ordering). Hahaha yeah, obsession is an understatement when it comes to Touhou lol, best description I?d say is literally life-controlling lol. Yeah totally agreed about Reimu, she really is one of a kind, and such a wonderful character, I?m glad she stands for what Touhou mostly represents :) Ahhh twice in one year to Japan? Your sis has good taste xD Haha the problem with going to Japan wouldn?t be the funds to get there, it?s the money I?d need to buy all that merch in front of me xD I?d end up having to ship the stuff to my home, cause it sure as hell won?t fit in my luggage! xD I bet I?d spend more on merch than the whole holiday lol. Yeah that?s a common misconception I imagine, I used to think that too about the Phantasm stage. Oh yes it?s definitely a milestone, after all, it?s the only Phantasm Stage so it?s something unique! :) Well this post is about 14 days old and your PM was more recent, so glad you?ve got 15/17 Last Words done now :) And definitely agreed, Remilia is uber-cool, such a dangerous boss! I could imagine how cool her Last Word would be! True that about the suffering, while it is stressful, the sense of accomplishment is one of the best feelings I?ve ever felt in life, so it?s worth enduring with the suffering and powering through something, cause the reward after that is super-satisfying! xD No worries about the OBS recordings, that took me months of research, tinkering and experimentation to figure out properly, so I?m happy I could avoid that hassle for you :) Yeah, way too few replay slots, so that?s when recording comes in handy :) Also useful/convenient just having everything as an mp4 to show your friends rather than having to install the game and put the replay files in it to show them, so recording definitely has it?s pluses. Plus, as far as I know the replays don?t store the endings, I want those recorded also just to chill back and watch through the whole story sometimes rather than just the gameplay. Well, do what you do in life, you?ll always find someone out there that?s better than you are, but don?t let that diminish your accomplishments you?re putting up on Youtube. They?re all the results of your hard work and determination, so be proud of them :) Ahhhh that experience you had with Mokou?s final card sounds awesome, I love it when I get so immersed like that, and as you?re saying, you know it?s gonna come down to the wire! Yeah definitely, at that point, especially on the final card with no lives remaining, it?s literally a ?Goku vs Beerus in space moment?, and it truly does feel amazing and unmatched by anything else :) Yeah you?d be amazed how some attacks/stage portions have such a simple gimmick which wouldn?t have occurred to you that it?s so simple to figure out. Yeah true that about having to do something counter intuitive to deal with certain attacks. Patchouli thought me that with her non-spells with lasers in Touhou 6 recently on Lunatic, you actually have to run INTO the laser exactly as it?s vanishing for best results, rather than away from it, especially due to the aimed red bullets at you. Annnd yes, definitely agree on starting positions, this will GREATLY help in trivializing certain cards and stage portions. Something that would become a clusterfuck becomes much easier if you?re at the correct position to start tackling it. Being higher up on the screen helps a lot too due to your damage output, some stuff you won?t manage to kill the enemies fast enough if you?re quite low (an example of this is the blue chain-bullet spewing fairies in Touhou 6 Stage 5 exactly before the Sakuya midboss, something so tough usually but gets easily trivialized if you?re around halfway up the screen to take out that first fairy in the middle), so it?s crucial to experiment and get creative as you stated :) Well done, yes, that?s exactly it, most of the bullets on screen are just there to intimidate you, in truth, only a couple are there which are REALLY a threat to you. Learning how to determine which ones is part of the fun, especially with the other point you stated where on attacks with multiple bullet types you could tackle each individually at that moment till the next bullet type comes :) Yeah I?ve seen other people?s runs where the bombs deal quite a good amount of damage to the non-spells (especially with Sanae, it just eats through a health bar), but never took notice for the Spell Cards. That?s a very cool feature, shows that the bosses really are at their best when using their Spell Cards :) Yeah I actually prefer the bombs like in Touhou 10 or 11 where just a ring of power comes out from Reimu and it just clears off those bullets that touch with it, rather than the whole screen, makes those bombs feel more tactical and more thought has to go into where you use them. Ahh yeah, I?ve seen that where the bombs double as your power, so yes, you really need to be weary of when you use your bombs, cause if you can?t get back to full power, you?re going to have quite a hard time against the final Spell Card which already takes a while to wither down at full power, let alone at 1 power x_X. Yeah you should never give up on a run, you?d be amazed how much something could go in your favour sometimes, even if you?re just with 1 life at the final boss. That adrenaline and determination might see you through till the end of it! :D Definitely agreed about ?part of the fun is you never know what will happen next?, it really could go both ways. Yes it really is a damn shame that the PC98 characters got cut off, there were quite a few really cool characters which would have been amazing to see a comeback from in the Windows era :( Chiyuri, Yumeko and Shinki are just a few which come to mind which are ridiculously cool. That?s quite a good mentality you?ve got that you could snap back into it quite easily even after getting hit, it really throws me off usually and could take around 30 seconds till I?m back into focus, especially yes, when you?re in the middle of a Spell Card, it could become quite a clusterfuck when you just respawned and are trying to pick up the Power items cause it could really throw off how you?re meant to play the pattern (i.e. for example if you had to stream it and you?re busy trying to collect the Power items, it?ll throw off the stream and the bullets that are aimed at you). Yeah same here, when I do half an hour of just cycling through Stage 1 ? 4 cause of dumb mistakes I really start getting pissed, but it?s part of Touhou I guess lol, and tomorrow will be a better day. I find that my overall state (i.e. how tired I am/if I slept well, busy day at work, my OCD f*cking me up constantly thinking of something I need to do while I?m trying to dodge bullets) really plays a factor in how well I play. You really need to have a focused mind to play at your best, so you could get that 100% immersion we talked about before where it?s literally just you and the game, and nothing else matters at that point. Haha good to know about Reisen, its not so common for Stage 5 bosses to be easy, especially since they?re meant to be the final boss? bodyguard so to speak. Although saying this, yes in Seihou 1, the Stage 5 boss is WAY WAYYY easier than the Stage 4 one. Same surely can?t be said about Yumeko in Touhou 5, she?s literally a relentless beast, you?ll find out when you come to play Touhou 5, it?s quite a wondrous addition to the series being one that I hold in very high regard :) Some small touches make it really cool, like Makai (the place you?re in from Stage 3 onwards in Touhou 5) catching fire in the background while you?re fighting Shinki (the final boss). Makes sense lol, all those bullets that we dodge have to go somewhere haha, and guess they?re crashing into the buildings/city lol. Ahh yes, almost a month without the TV REALLY wasn?t nice, apart from the constant worrying that it?s unfixable and I?ll have to dish out around 1,800 Euros to buy a new one. Thankfully that?s sorted and life is falling back into the usual routine. Unfortunately haven?t gotten nowhere near as much gaming time as I would like to since I?ve gotten the TV back, just that odd session here and there, but much better than a span of weeks not playing at all. Ahh yes, I understand that relief you feel once you?re back to dodging bullets, and you can easily relate seeing as you had quite a busy month yourself with work! Ouch, sounds like it really was quite a busy month, and also loaded with responsibility too with your supervisor being away :/ Look at the bright side though, you showed you could handle the pressure and that you?re reliable when sh*t hits the fan, so yeah, that should make your bosses happier with you, especially if they are considering giving you a raise!! As you said, more Touhou merch!! Woohoo!! xD Haha yeah glad it wasn?t boring at work, but yes, magical girl over work, ANY DAY, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!! ;) Yeah we?ve still got quite a lot to learn mate. I?m currently trying to Perfect Stage Practice Stage 4 in Touhou 6 with all 4 characters, and I?m not gonna lie, it?s giving me quite a damn hard time, especially those books that shoot a sh*tload of green bullets early on in the stage warranting an instant restart. Then I see maulerfranco666 on Youtube do Stage 4 Perfect No Focus! Sweet Jesus, I?ve got a long way to go! Not only Perfect, but also the lack of precision in controls due to No Focus???? Yes you definitely will keep seeing your skills improve the more you focus on Lunatic, and the No Bombs also help you gain a greater mastery of most of the game since you have such little room for error :) I?ve been playing for 5 years now (although I think I don?t get close to the hours you put in per week) and keep seeing an increase in skills with every game I complete, my sis even pointed that out to me too. Touhou 3 really helped me with my skills since it?s mostly reflex based, so you can?t memorize too much stuff, and Seihou since it?s the inverse of Touhou (i.e. Touhou is mostly slow and dense, Seihou is less dense but faster). Extras are really fun with their gimmicks to figure out most Spell Cards as well :) Yeah with the Extras you?re completing, Hard should be right up your alley now, so just see what you feel like working on, I agree that it?s quite a tough choice picking between Extra and Hard, cause both are equally fun xD Yeah you seem to like jumping around a lot from one thing to another depending on mood. It has it?s advantages of keeping things fresh at least, but then yeah, things that require lots of practice will take longer that way. The more you practice the same thing, the quicker you?ll learn it and finally hit it. Well, the bright side with beating the Extra Stage with Reimu in Touhou 15 is that since it?s harder to do it with her, once you do beat it, you?ll just breeze through it with Sanae and Reisen then :D I agree that the games do feel like they?re built around Reimu as you said. Glad we share the same goal and dedication to our beloved red and white shrine maiden :) Haha yeah I noticed, I?ve been typing this out for around 4 hours now over the span of 2 days lol (glad I get the time to do most of it at work haha xD). Same here mate, will never lose interest in this series, there?s just sooooo much left for me to see and experience! xD As I said in the PM, never worry about the delay in response time, I understand that it takes a while to type a reply like this, and that you also need to get in good gaming sessions, so, just reply when you feel like some Touhou chat :) Well in Touhou 6 so far I hit Extra No Bombs with all 4 characters (1 Reimu and 1 Marisa doing the Maze of Love at the bottom instead of running around in circles, and getting Perfect till that point since I wanted to face it at Max Rank (what?s the point of playing a Spell Card in a more challenging way if you?re not going to experience it at it?s full difficulty?)), and recently beat Lunatic No Bombs with continues to unlock Stage 6 in Stage Practice. Now I?m toiling away at Perfect Stage Practice with Reimu B (and Stage 4 with all 4 characters since Patchouli uses different Spell Cards depending on which character you?re using, so I want all those Perfect). Yes definitely, while I never experienced the memory error myself, a screenshot might help me / other members determine what it is, always good having recording set up properly for PC98, especially since those games don?t store replays :( As I told you in the PM, that?s quite a nice capture on Wriggle?s Last Word! Keep it up! Your dedication will carry you to your goals! ;) Recording quality looks nice too from your Youtube video, and Youtube usually introduces compression, so I imagine your actual recordings on your hard drive are slightly sharper. No worries about the help with recording, it really was my pleasure to help :) Definitely true haha, so much to gush on on Touhou xD Happy Touhouing to yourself too my good friend. Take care and best wishes :) --- End quote --- Hey I know I should stop apologizing but I'm sorry its been so long since I responded here! Thank you again for being so understanding. I have grabbed the first Seihou game and I intend to check it out eventually here once I get some of my current Touhou projects off the list. It's a shame the first two are out of print as it'd be nice to add them to the collection eventually but I suppose it can't be helped. That's good to know about the C74! I'll try to remember that for when I do get around to trying out the 3rd game! It's a shame it doesn't have Touhou characters after 2 but if the first two are still good I'm sure the 3rd is still good in its own way too. I'll make sure to add Sumidare, Uwabami Breakers and Torte le Magic to the list to try out at some point as well :) I know for 7 and 8 I definitely found the Stage 4 bosses to be more difficult than the Stage 5 bosses and for Touhou 6 I'd say based on my limited experience I found them close to equal (I've only faced them in Normal Mode though). Ahhh Sakuya is definitely good at trapping you if you're not careful, sometimes it can be really hard to avoid too. I hate that when you get pushed to the side and just go really long periods where you can't deal any real damage. I know what you mean when you say running the stages alongside each other is a lot more tricky than spell practice. Even in doing Spell Card practice in 8 for the Extra Stage I got to a point where I could consistently do most of the Spell Cards in the practice successfully again and again, but fitting it together in the actual run was a bit more tricky. You're correct! I spent a good deal of time in the Spell Card practice in preparation which I found made a huge difference. For all but the final 3 Spell Cards I practiced until I had successfully captured each one 25 times, and for the final 3 I practiced just enough so I wouldn't be dying every few seconds. From start to finish it only took about 1 days worth of practice to beat 8s Extra Stage and only 2 more days after that to have done it with all 4 teams. If I were to do an Extra Stage no bomb run I'd imagine this would probably be the easiest one to achieve, especially if I took more time to practice the Spell Cards. Most of Mokou's aren't too bad at all. A few that look nastier than they are (The Hanging Man is one that lucks extremely ugly but isn't *that* bad, although it does still sometimes trip me up in game). She has a couple I consistently struggle with but in general I really didn't find hers as bad as others, again though that could be largely in part be solely thanks to the Spell Card practice. She's still a really fun fight though! I still struggle with her final Spell Card but I admit I haven't practiced it tons compared to the others. Just enough that I felt I could beat the stage. I have heard some people say they feel hers is one of the easier ones but I still haven't successfully captured it myself so I can't fully comment there. I would really like to do a No Bomb run for this Extra Stage at some point, which I was tempted to do after completing the 4 teams but at the time I also wanted to finishing capturing all the Last Words. Ahh yeah I think I'm going to want all if not most of my lives for the final few Spell Cards, particularly the last 3 which still can grief me even with bombs. I do have Mokou's bonus attack unlocked! Seeing it at least once was one of the requirements to unlock one of the Last Words (I think the one for Mokou) but I still have yet to beat it. Yes recording the gameplay as we play is good for that since we can get the whole story ended included like you mentioned. It's a shame it's not recorded with the in game replays as well and I never liked the way it usually seems to speed through the dialogue either. I'd recommend the TVTropes page if you're ever bored. It's not a bad way to find out a bunch of neat little tidbits about various characters although it will probably also spoil some stuff that happens in later titles too. Between that site and the Wiki there's certainly no shortage of lore and series info to absorb out there and I definitely agree with how it breathes so much life into the series! I doubt you do ever really forget a character once you've faced them in Lunatic Mode, especially doing No Bomb runs! XD I admit I still haven't checked to see how OBS is with Touhou 2 atm, mainly just because I've been working on various other things in the series although don't worry as I very much intend to return to this one soon! If it is still having memory issues than I'll be sure to screenshot it for you, although I'm hoping it was just a one time issue kind of thing. Funny enough I've found another game OBS seems to struggle on a fair bit for me: Touhou 15. For some reason recording in game mode won't grab the audio, recording in window mode doesn't work at all and recording the entire screen will work but only if I have everything else other than the game and OBS closed down at the time. Not sure why but I just make sure to switch to display mode for that one and thankfully works fine for the most part, although it's still quite odd. I've definitely watched quite a few of my replays quite thoroughly. It's especially nice when you have them all sorted and organized in folders and can easily access them :) I know I've put on the Last Words on a playlist and watched them all through several times now :) I just hit my 1 year mark of playing Touhou!  :D I'm extremely pleased with the progress I've made in the last year and I'm hoping this next one is just as productive. I definitely understand the craving for more bullets that's for sure, it just doesn't feel the same when you become use to denser and more complex patterns and then go back to lower difficulties. That said this really only applies to the games I've played a significant amount of such as PCB and IN. Games like SA and UFO can still certainly provide a challenge for me! In general I'd say Hard Mode is still my comfort level, but I am starting to look more at trying to achieve some Lunatic 1ccs in the near future too as I feel that is still within my reach too (albeit it with lots of practice still). I do have a decent chunk (6 total I believe, 2 in Touhou 8, 3 in Touhou 9 and 1 in Touhou 15) of Hard 1ccs under my belt now, but still only the 1 Lunatic 1cc in 9 which is quite a bit different than the other games anyways so I still feel I have yet to truly step into Lunatic Mode properly. I find even if I'm running in Normal Mode, as long as I'm still somewhat challenged I'll grow, but not as significantly or quickly as I would in the higher difficulties like Hard and Lunatic. I really do feel like every individual 1cc has to some degree added a bit to my overall skill. I'm sure even with Perfect Lunatics you could still find new ways to push the limits if you really wanted to. The sky really is the limit depending on how far you want to push yourself :) Yes, it does seem like Marisa's attacks in 2 come in a random order which certainly makes her difficult to read. She'd be much easier if I could predict and prepare for the attacks more but alas that would be too easy X( That's true with it just being part of her assholish charm XD She's certainly not the worst to face against in 9 either but even there she can be really nasty to face off against especially with how she can trap you and just completely flood your screen with dense patterns so quickly. I do like her fight in 8 a fair bit as well, but she has also been the end of a significant amount of 1ccs too so I still can't help but be bitter haha. I can't remember if I mentioned but her Last Word in 8 kind of messed me up too because I didn't realize starting on the right side instead of the left made such a big deal in the fight and I was getting absolutely destroyed until I decided to experiment a bit and try it from the left side. Oh that's probably true about her stealing the duplication from Yuuka instead! It's so hard to keep track of what Marisa's stolen from who :P I really hope you enjoy 8 when you get to it! I can't imagine why you wouldn't since it's easily one of the best entries in the entire series. I kind of wish all the future games had this amount of extra content but they're all great in their own ways. I have to agree. I've only managed to get in the zen state or flow through Touhou, and even then it's *extremely* rare. I have had other really hard and engaging games have me enter states of extreme hyper focus, but not to the same way where my ego just seems to vanish and it feels like my brain is processing information on a completely different level. It really is like playing auto-pilot almost since you don't even really have to think about what you're doing. And yeah once you get hit even once you know it's over and it will likely be a long, long time before I'm back in it again. Ah yes I think I mentioned I played an indie retro style game recently called Katana Zero? Well I recently just went through it in Hard Mode with the slowmo turned off (pretty much your characters special ability to slow time down so it's kind of like doing a no bomb run) and it was ridiculously hard! I'd say probably pretty close to doing a Hard Mode 1cc in Touhou believe it or not. Your timing had to be pretty much perfect and 1 mistake and you were pretty much dead. Thankfully the combat is a bit like Touhou 15 Point Device mode so while it's extremely unforgiving you at least never lose too much progress, although some levels could literally take hundreds of attempts to get past too. Thankfully the combat had an incredibly nice flow to it and felt extremely rewarding to play so it was a lot of fun :) I don't play tons of games outside Touhou these games but it's games like this one that remind me there's still some gems out there worth trying. I'll show you a quick video just so you can get an idea of what combat looks like (this is one I recorded myself too) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnxr2eT1jow&feature=youtu.be while it's only 25 seconds long I can promise you this took a tremendous amount of attempts to finally get perfectly, especially the part near the end when the final 4 guys spawn and 2 of them have gatling guns. Some of the fights in the game even start to incorporate more bullet hell elements similar to Touhou as well which are segments I tended to pick of quickly unsurprisingly ;) The story and soundtrack were all fantastic too! I'm certainly very picky when it comes to Eurobeat/trance and whatnot. It really depends on the individual song, but I try to be open minded to every genre since you can always find something out there that you kind of like even for styles of music you're not typically into. I think there's a lot of generic electronic music out there but the stuff that's good can sometimes be absolutely amazing. Ah I really like that track you linked for Stage 3 in Touhou 11 a lot! Yuugi was such a fun character and has a pretty cool stage theme :) I definitely need to check out more of Yuuhei Satellites stuff. I've only head a few of their tracks but I really like most of them so it would be worth it to check out more I think. Ques Q definitely has most of my favorites that I'd consider eventually getting but it certainly will be a hassle eventually getting some of the ones that are no longer being sold directly. Ah that sucks you got a gake from Ebay, on Yukari no less :( I'm glad you managed to get a refund at least! I need to check what the signs of telling counterfits are more just to make sure I'm being careful as well, especially if I do ever end up buying from any 3rd party sellers on Ebay or Amazon. Ah yes the analogy of getting the stuff being like a pirate getting his hands on loot is quite accurate XD You're absolutely right about Alice being one of my favorites! I'd say if I absolutely had to choose a favorite character in the series (which is incredibly hard!) it'd Yukari or Alice even if it does suck we don't see much of either in the later games :( For Alice there's just something about her Stage 3 I absolutely adore and it's one of the stages that made me fall in love with the series and really started giving me an idea of what bullet hell mechanics were all about. Mm rewarding yourself for having completed another game is a good system I'd say since it provides even more incentive to succeed (not that you need it I'm sure but it's still a nice bonus). Have you gotten your Reimu figure yet? If not that must be coming up pretty soon if I remember correctly! I'd love to see a picture once you finally have her and she's all set up nicely at home :) And yes my sister really loves Japan obviously as she's now planning a 3rd trip before the end of the year! It certainly is expensive but she's lucky in that she has close friends who are willing to let her and her husband stay with them whenever they go which really cuts down on the cost. I know for myself I would walk into one of the dedicated Touhou stores and walk out completely broke >.> Certainly agreed with how rewarding and satisfying it is. Funny enough I had a friend who started getting similar adrenaline rushes when playing Katana Zero herself and I've managed to talk her into looking into trying more Touhou because of how amazing she felt during those highs. Katana Zero was great at bringing that out but Touhou is still unmatched when it comes to that, particularly when you're doing the higher difficulty stuff you've worked on for longer periods of time. I'm really hoping she does give it a serious try because I think she'd absolutely love it if she gave it a serious chance, especially after experiencing that rush of achieving your first 1cc. Oh also I linked my friend who was interested in recording your guide to setting OBS up and they seem incredibly happy happy with it so thank you again! :) The replays not recording the endings and also skipping through dialogue usually is really the only main drawback to recording using the ingame replays. The main thing I like about recording with OBS myself is how easily I can organize all my replays. Like I have a folder for each Touhou game and then I'll set up folders for stuff like the Extra Stage or Last Words for example. It's quite satisfying to see the collection grow to I must say. Agreed on not letting others being better diminish what I've achieved, this series is more of a personal journey than anything else and I don't think I could have made it even this far if I was playing to prove myself to others, I play for myself of course and I'm still proud when I do something that takes effort even if there's someone out there who's probably done it perfectly without bombs while they're upside down underwater. I often end up choking when things come down to the wire like that, but those rare moments when you actually somehow manage to pull a rabbit out of your ass feels amazing. It really is like 'Goku versus Beerus in space' speaking of which I've been thinking about it a lot more and there's really a lot of philosophical similaries between Touhou and Dragon Ball oddly enough, I think partially due to how large of an influence the eastern philosophy is to the core of both series. Ahh speaking of attack gimmicks I recently found one in LoLK Lunatic Mode which was absolutely hilarious to me. There's a certain way I was doing the attack which while it did work there was another *completely* different way of handling it which kind of blew me a bit when I realized it XD It makes the attack significantly easier and really simplified how to handle it to the point where it almost felt like a joke. Stuff like that in this series always make me smile and you really feel clever when you figure out a trick to an attack, although sometimes you wish you had discovered it like 50 attempts earlier lol. It sounds like Patchouli's laser card is a lot like Mokou's Hanged Man Spell Card. It's really tough to figure that out unless you get lucky because stuff like running into a laser is just so counter intuitive that it can take a while to figure out when you don't look up attacks beforehand (which I usually try and avoid). LoLK is one game where I really notice how much planning out your ending/starting positions in a pattern makes a massive difference due to how attacks blend into each other. It's really easy to think you beat one bit just for the next bit to immediately pop up and kill you. I usually do try and stay closer to the top of the screen as much as the game will allow once I've become a little more familiar with the game and I have noticed it can often make a lot of parts significantly quicker and easier than it would be if you just sat on the bottom all the time. It's quite common for me to just park myself immediately under enemy hit boxes especially when I know I can kill them before they become a threat. What you said about most of the bullets on the screen being there to intimidate you (also visual flair too I'm sure) is what I tell most people if they're ever considering trying this series. I also tell them it takes time to learn how to filter it out and start to recognize what the true threats are but like you said that's part of the fun. It's really like trying to figure out a puzzle where every attack has its own thing going on which you need to figure out, and sometimes even when you think you think you've figured it out you can still learn new secrets to dealing with it. The effectiveness of bombs really does vary from game/character/boss to game/character/boss and yeah it's not uncommon to find stuff in the series that actively punishes you for relying on them during certain points or just makes their effectiveness massively reduced, which is good because even using bombs I wouldn't want it to feel like too much of an easy win button where you don't have to think tactically at all. Usually if I make it to at least Stage 5 I'll keep going on a 1cc even if it's going downhill, because even if you don't complete it the practice still doesn't hurt, but if I mess up too badly in Stage 3 or 4 I'll often restart (I do allow for some mistakes on them though) and if I mess up at all during Stage 1 or 2 that pretty much is an instant restart in most cases unless I'm simply practicing. It's very rare for me to turn a 1cc around if things are going poorly early on but it does happen, as I've mentioned Touhou 8 is one game where I've recovered a lot of times from being down more resources then I'd typically like early on. In games like PCB I'll still continue unless things start going extremely bad. Sometimes it's really tough for me to recover, it really depends where it happens and how as well as my general state of mind at the time. Like if I know it's a Spell Card which gives me trouble and I can see myself getting cornered then usually I'm already preparing for the high possibility I'll soon have to recover quickly which can help. Those times which you suddenly die and you don't even really see what killed you can completely throw me off my game though and can cause me to be a bit frantic for a bit afterwords before I'm comfy again. That's one thing that can really suck I find is when you have extended periods of time where you just feel like you can't play at your best due to other factors in life and whatnot, but I guess that's part of the challenge of the series since so much of it is overcoming yourself I find. I'm really looking forward to getting to Touhou 5, if I do the PC98 games then I think it will end up being the last of the main series games I'll end up playing minus any future titles. Speaking of which I have had a chance to try out Touhou 17! I tried playing through Normal Mode once on the weekend and I came somewhat close to one shotting a 1cc but unfortunately a couple mistakes mid game made it so I was only able to make it to the final boss fight. I enjoyed it a fair bit (there's a very unique twist in Stage 5 too) although I was a bit frustrated with how light everything was. In general I don't think I've ever struggled so much in a game to be making out where the bullets actually are in the earlier/mid stages X( I'm going to have to give it a few more tries though to see how well my eyes adjust to it though. I'm also unsure how to feel about this games gimmick yet either, it certainly seems interesting but it also reminds me of UFO a bit which had a gimmick that was kind of a pain in the ass to be honest :P  I'm hoping you've managed to get some decent sessions in the last month! In your PM you mentioned you got your perfect Stage 5 run so massive congrats on that btw! :') That's absolutely incredible man! I imagine that feels absolutely incredible to have. I think going for some of the perfect Stage runs could actually be a really fun thing to work towards and that's something I might need to consider working on in the near future. Work and social activities have still kept me quite busy lately but I've managed to sneak in the odd session here and there, although I haven't completed much of significance since I hit 17/17 on the Last Words. The only thing is I did start doing Touhou 15 in Point Device Mode on Lunatic. It's something I've been thinking about for a long time and I think this would go a long way in helping to sharpen my skills, especially with how little resources you have in it. I went through Stage 1 this weekend without too much hassle, and I intend to beat Stage 2 this upcoming weekend if all goes well. It's Stage 3 and above where I'm worried about though :P I suspect I could end up slamming my head against a brick wall a fair bit here, but then again stuff that pushes me like that is where I really see the move improvement and considering how much beating this in Normal and Hard Point Device Mode effected my skills I'm thinking this should have a significant effect too. Plus considering Touhou 15 is possibly my favorite game of all time I kind of feel like I'm finally experiencing it the way it was meant to be experienced. I like that pretty much the very first Stage 1 attacks (which I've nicknamed "sink or swim bitches") makes it absolutely clear that if you don't know exactly what you're doing you're not going anywhere XD And of course I'm playing with our lovely shrine maiden :) I admit I was a bit tempted to go with Reisen due to how well she fits into this games particular story but it just felt right to go through it the first time with Reimu, especially because I was already experienced with using her in Hard Point Device Mode. I don't see Perfect Stage 1 or Stage 2 being too ridiculous for most the games but the later ones especially Stage 4 and higher definitely seem like they will require a ton of work! That's incredible that Maulerfranco666 got Stage 4 Perfect No Focus! Like we talked about before I don't like to compare myself to others but stuff like that definitely motivates me to want to become better myself and provides potential goals for the future once I've improved even more. I really don't get as much time as I'd like in a week often due to work and social stuff like you, especially some of the weeks this summer where it wasn't unusual for me just to get a solid hour or two in a week, although I will usually aim for more if I'm able. I haven't played tons in the last week but that's partially due to being a bit busy with Katana Zero this weekend like I mentioned earlier too. There's certain goals that I really do stick to, especially if its something that has some particular significance to me like working towards unlocking and completing all of the Last Words which definitely took more time and focus then most of the other stuff I've done in this series to date. I still have some normal 1ccs I'd like to complete but for my 2nd year with this series I'd really like to be tackling some more of the tougher challenges that will require more work. While I do jump around a lot I do try and constantly try to find things that will push my limits just a little bit more and more just so I'm always just a little bit outside my comfort zone. Right now Hard Mode is kind of like what Normal was to me around 9 months ago and Lunatic is what Hard was to me back then which makes me feel like I should hesitate to be stepping into Lunatic Mode a little bit more. Thanks again for being so understanding. It's a lot of fun just getting to sit down when the timing is right, throw on some Touhou music and just gush Touhou for an afternoon :) I'm truly lucky to have found someone who loves the series as much as I do! I truly admire your will to experience Touhou to its fullest and it just motivates me to want to push myself even more. Just from chatting with you I feel like I can learn to appreciate other aspects of this series I never knew or thought about which I greatly appreciate. Originally I'd think about just trying to beat the game with challenges being mainly for those who have already essentially mastered it, but the more I've fallen in love with the series the more I get how you feel about just wanting to enjoy it to its fullest and I think there's something to that mentality and willingness to throw yourself into that chaos that can take you incredibly far. Grats on the Lunatic with continues too! With the Stage practice you're that much closer to the Lunatic No Bomb 1cc :) Definitely keep me updated if you hit any other milestones! For now I'm going to keep working on Touhou 15 Lunatic Point Device Mode for the weekends when I can really focus and maybe pick back up the Extra Stage in Touhou 2 as something a bit more lighter on the weekdays. I'll definitely keep you updated on what I do :) Hope you're well and you've managed to make even more progress on 6 in the mean time!

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