Touhou Project 16.5 「Secret Sealing Nightmare Diary ～ Violet Detector」

[Suspicious person]

What went wrong ?!

Not one to suscribe to conspiracy theories, but the timing seems awfully suspicious if you consider this happening as well. _{Kinda off topic but eh ...}

[Validon98]

If Reiteisai is being targeted too, then... hmm. I dunno, maybe someone's trying to pull some funny business. It's probably not going to work in the end, but it's still kind of a thing.

[Critz]

I'm still rooting for a Sanae cameo, if only for her and Sumireko to finally interact.

[Suspicious person]

Ladies and gentlemen, in conformity with our close-to-release-day fandom traditions, behold !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVV3GoOrP5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oznIbNT01fg

Ignore previous history pertaining to leaks when it comes to ZUNmade 2hu games btw, empirism is for bores and nobody like smartasses

[Popcioslav]

Ladies and gentlemen, in conformity with our close-to-release-day fandom traditions, behold !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVV3GoOrP5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oznIbNT01fg

Ignore previous history pertaining to leaks when it comes to ZUNmade 2hu games btw, empirism is for bores and nobody like smartasses

You (or the person using this account) literally stole the content from this and this. The latter is also an arrange for unreleased JynX song "Debug World" and I suggested that idea to arranger. If you are the person who reuploaded these or you know them, please don't reupload someone else's work without credit.

[Suspicious person]

You (or the person using this account) literally stole the content from this and this. The latter is also an arrange for unreleased JynX song "Debug World" and I suggested that idea to arranger. If you are the person who reuploaded these or you know them, please don't reupload someone else's work without credit, even as a joke.

Nope, wrong guy. Dunno where your assumption of that person being me comes from, but it is a wrong one, and I certainly do not appreciate getting accused of theft based of nothing solid.

Besides  I figured out that that was the case for these soundtracks, as one of the guy's upload sounds suspiciously similar to one of Sapphire Panlogism boss 1 OST.

[R. P. Genocraft]

Nope, wrong guy. Dunno where your assumption of that person being me comes from, but it is a wrong one, and I certainly do not appreciate getting accused of theft based of nothing solid.

Besides  I figured out that that was the case for these soundtracks, as one of the guy's upload sounds suspiciously similar to one of Sapphire Panlogism boss 1 OST.

That would be this one.

[Popcioslav]

K good to know. After looking back this account just seems to mostly repost Zun music in meh quality, maybe they got confused that this was the actual OST somehow? Still, for someone to mistake it for actual ZUN music, geez.

[raysonwilliams]

Ladies and gentlemen, in conformity with our close-to-release-day fandom traditions, behold !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVV3GoOrP5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oznIbNT01fg

Ignore previous history pertaining to leaks when it comes to ZUNmade 2hu games btw, empirism is for bores and nobody like smartasses

HEY! That's my stuff! And yeah, one of them was purposefully made to sound like it's from Sapphire Panlogism.
Heck, the title gives it away.

"Sapphire Fae ~ Shining Sea Foam"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiAbAKeffaY
Was effectively the original one. I based the intro off these old chinese knock off toys that would have a very bit-crushed sounding square.
I even wanted to include a bitcrushed "Moshi-moshi" but I couldn't find anything of the sort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT7cCBuCpZQ
This one is (yet another) sort of love letter thing to Sapphire Panlogism.
I've arranged Fae Rising from Seafoam in about 3 ways now.

One just being mixed with a Nelly song.
The other properly mashed up with "Dilemma"
and then this one which is a hybrid of that and Illusionary White Traveler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfmzdluryMk
As pop said, he was requesting a transcription of Debug World by JynX.
So I got clever and knocked two birds with one stone.

[Lebon14]

New blog update by Zun about the game
https://kourindou.exblog.jp/27472862/

[Fluury]

New blog update by Zun about the game
https://kourindou.exblog.jp/27472862/

Mentioned steam but the google translate only says "there will be a steam version" - not if in 3 months, or at the same day.

[Suspicious person]

About one day(?) remaining till the game gets released. Guess I'll try to catch some lucky 16.5 streams while awaiting the game's arrival on Steam. After bed.

Looking forward to seeing some Clownpiece and Junko funtime  :X

[Drake]

There isn't much of importance in there; it's his pretty usual "I'll see you at the event" post. It's 1000JPY as all side games are. It's apparently really difficult but the kind of difficult where if you just keep at it you'll clear. I can't tell if his use of 結構 referring to the game's length suggests "decently substantial" or "not too much" in context, but I'm thinking it might be the latter because the point seems to be to say that you should keep at it even if you're getting crushed because it isn't that long, kind of thing. Steam release is planned so if you aren't a stickler about getting the disc/case you can do that too.

Also in the blog post he mentions there were troubles sending in the cover art so he couldn't get a sample copy from the print, but he just tweeted that he got a sample copy and it works so it's all good.

[Tsalop]

So far the game has felt easier than the actual photography spin-offs as you can shoot the enemies and teleport... Also there seems to be less levels than the previous.

[ZoomyTsugumi]

This game is awfully balanced. Quite honestly my least favourite game so far in the series.
There are some scenes which almost feel outright impossible to do. Controls are very finicky for a key element of the game. Lazy design choices lategame.
Super disappointed, as much as I hate to say it.

[Drake]

So far the game has felt easier than the actual photography spin-offs as you can shoot the enemies and teleport... Also there seems to be less levels than the previous.

lol

[ZoomyTsugumi]

Full cleared the game. Here's the congratulations image (spoilers obvs).
Note that there is a different one for clearing the final day.

Translations for these?

[PK]

Nice to see

Spoiler:

old characters used again. Never expected them being back, especially the likes of Ran or Flandre.

[Helepolis]

As Comiket day 1 is over and touhou 16.5 is released, I am invoking NO SPOILER mode for this thread for the upcoming few days.

Please mark potential spoilers with the spoiler tag and don't post endings.

[Jimmy]

My first impressions of the game (very heavy spoilers for those who don't want their experience impacted):

While I think

Spoiler:

that the spell combinations starting on Nightmare Sunday are an interesting concept per se, but the way they're executed is just... I really hate to say it, kind of lazy to be honest. The individual patterns in the combinations could've used more balancing and slight differences in each spell, but like this it's just mashing two patterns together. Then again, I'm only speaking according to my first impression. It would've been also more interesting to see more unique interaction between the patterns, like Eiki does with the rods she fires.

Overall,

Spoiler:

I'm sort of bothered by how many patterns are reused with little to no changes compared to their originals. In particular, I'm speaking about patterns like Bullet Golem, Doremy's first two "non"-spells a.k.a. Ultramarine Lunatic Dream and Azure Dream Catcher, Sagume's orb spam, Okina's Biohazard Dupion, and all of Mai and Satono's attacks. While some of them are decently fun to do with the new mechanics (I especially find the Teleport mechanic to be very interesting and fun, although frustrating at times), it overall gives a pretty dull impression in terms of pattern creativity. Glares at Junko's Trembling Shivering Star - Infinite Ver.

Spoiler:

This is the first Touhou release that actually manages to leave me mildly disappointed.

[Fluury]

With achievements already being built in basically, I wonder if we might get steam ones.

[CrestedPeak9]

My first impressions of the game (very heavy spoilers for those who don't want their experience impacted):

While I think

Spoiler:

that the spell combinations starting on Nightmare Sunday are an interesting concept per se, but the way they're executed is just... I really hate to say it, kind of lazy to be honest. The individual patterns in the combinations could've used more balancing and slight differences in each spell, but like this it's just mashing two patterns together. Then again, I'm only speaking according to my first impression. It would've been also more interesting to see more unique interaction between the patterns, like Eiki does with the rods she fires.

Overall,

Spoiler:

I'm sort of bothered by how many patterns are reused with little to no changes compared to their originals. In particular, I'm speaking about patterns like Bullet Golem, Doremy's first two "non"-spells a.k.a. Ultramarine Lunatic Dream and Azure Dream Catcher, Sagume's orb spam, Okina's Biohazard Dupion, and all of Mai and Satono's attacks. While some of them are decently fun to do with the new mechanics (I especially find the Teleport mechanic to be very interesting and fun, although frustrating at times), it overall gives a pretty dull impression in terms of pattern creativity. Glares at Junko's Trembling Shivering Star - Infinite Ver.

Spoiler:

This is the first Touhou release that actually manages to leave me mildly disappointed.

Spoiler:

I have to agree with you. The duo spell scenes could have been so much more if there were different patterns, but the way he actually did it was really bad; Suika comes off as the worst offender of this, having all three scenes she appears in be completely incompatible with the other. In fact, the whole of Nightmare Friday has some really bad combinations. It's not just that; the berserk mode attacks are either trivial or complete bullshit, which seriously makes me question the amount of time he spent balancing the game. The Teleport activation key sequence is incredibly wonky and gave even high level players headaches, and the amount of recycled content is just... ugh.

Spoiler:

Don't get me wrong, the game is still somewhat enjoyable for a first playthrough. But it could have been so much more. There was so much wasted potential. At this point, I'm confident that someone modding the game and changing the attacks would produce a net better experience than what we have.

[Jimmy]

Spoiler:

I have to agree with you. The duo spell scenes could have been so much more if there were different patterns, but the way he actually did it was really bad; Suika comes off as the worst offender of this, having all three scenes she appears in be completely incompatible with the other. In fact, the whole of Nightmare Friday has some really bad combinations. It's not just that; the berserk mode attacks are either trivial or complete bullshit, which seriously makes me question the amount of time he spent balancing the game. The Teleport activation key sequence is incredibly wonky and gave even high level players headaches, and the amount of recycled content is just... ugh.

Spoiler:

Don't get me wrong, the game is still somewhat enjoyable for a first playthrough. But it could have been so much more. There was so much wasted potential. At this point, I'm confident that someone modding the game and changing the attacks would produce a net better experience than what we have.

Spoiler:

Exactly that. Considering the solo patterns only occupy a relatively small part of the game compared to the duo spells, the reuse of those patterns can be sort of neglected to an extend, but it's still sad to see the same patterns from the previous games only with more bullets, more speed or different bullet graphics, especially if you compare this to ISC, where patterns have been largely original and unique since Day 1. The combination idea could've been immensely fun and actually has a lot of space for different pattern designs, but right here it's basically just the same pattern for each character thrown in. The only highlights here are where the bullets interact with each other, say Eiki with her rods and Shinmyoumaru's bullet size shenanigans. I don't even want to talk about how many times Tenshi's signature pattern has been reused already. It's already been getting old in ISC.

Spoiler:

All that aside, I do also like this game in terms of gameplay mechanics, the teleportation mechanic turns the patterns into a bit of a puzzle, which makes it akin to ISC, which I really liked, giving the game a bit of originality besides the reused patterns. On top of that, the new soundtracks are pretty enjoyable - I particularly like the title theme and the nightmare week theme so far.

[CrestedPeak9]

Spoiler:

Exactly that. Considering the solo patterns only occupy a relatively small part of the game compared to the duo spells, the reuse of those patterns can be sort of neglected to an extend, but it's still sad to see the same patterns from the previous games only with more bullets, more speed or different bullet graphics, especially if you compare this to ISC, where patterns have been largely original and unique since Day 1. The combination idea could've been immensely fun and actually has a lot of space for different pattern designs, but right here it's basically just the same pattern for each character thrown in. The only highlights here are where the bullets interact with each other, say Eiki with her rods and Shinmyoumaru's bullet size shenanigans. I don't even want to talk about how many times Tenshi's signature pattern has been reused already. It's already been getting old in ISC.

Spoiler:

All that aside, I do also like this game in terms of gameplay mechanics, the teleportation mechanic turns the patterns into a bit of a puzzle, which makes it akin to ISC, which I really liked, giving the game a bit of originality besides the reused patterns. On top of that, the new soundtracks are pretty enjoyable - I particularly like the title theme and the nightmare week theme so far.

Spoiler:

I liked the teleportation mechanic too, but it's given so many people trouble when it could just have been mapped to C. And there's only a few scenes that force teleportation well; some force teleportation into bullshit (Nightmare Friday), others force teleportation to trivialize. I can think of, like, two natural uses of teleportation that work well. All the other scenes where teleportation isn't forced aren't much better. Most of them can be cheesed by taking literally one photo at the start, then abusing autobombing to get through the rest with next to no risk. The others, particularly very bad Nightmare combinations, are absolute bullshit. That's... not really much of a puzzle. Nor is it a photogame.

Spoiler:

It was nice to see new bullets for Eiki and the return of so many characters in a game that was expected to be really short and last maybe 7/8 days, but... perhaps it'd have been better off if ZUN actually made 2 synergistic Nightmare spells with 2 actually sensible character pairings per day instead of mixing and matching them to drag them out to 6. Yes there's 22 days, but when you have days with just 1 scene and the entirety of the Nightmare week being just barely working bullet combinations, it cannot compare to a day in previous scenegames. Not even close.

[Fluury]

Spoiler:

Played a bit and I am honestly liking it. Making the teleportation just a little bit less wonky with the double shift and simply mapping it to C would make the game so much enjoyable though.

[CyberAngel]

Wow. The first official Touhou bullet hell game that I don't care about one bit. Not gonna get it even to rip the music out for personal listening like I usually do. It's just THAT bland.

Spoiler:

And pattern reusing is so bad the game's icon might as well be the Recycling Bin.

Oh well, godspeed to translators, the story might be its only saving grace.

[Jimmy]

Spoiler:

And pattern reusing is so bad the game's icon might as well be the Recycling Bin.

Oh well, godspeed to translators, the story might be its only saving grace.

Spoiler:

Oof, that's a tad too harsh.

Looking forward to understand the plot as well. This game quite has an eerie dark atmosphere.

[Tengukami]

I was kinda shruggo about this until I got to Wednesday morning. Now I'm quite enjoying it!

Also looking forward to translations. The story is a really important part of the game for me.

[Fluury]

Wow. The first official Touhou bullet hell game that I don't care about one bit. Not gonna get it even to rip the music out for personal listening like I usually do. It's just THAT bland.

Spoiler:

And pattern reusing is so bad the game's icon might as well be the Recycling Bin.

Oh well, godspeed to translators, the story might be its only saving grace.

out of all the discussions I oversaw over the game, the music is the one thing people generally agreed was good as always

geez thats rough

[Drake]

I love the music. Extremely appropriate when you hit the plot beats and really set the mood.