東方封魔録 ～ the Story of Eastern Wonderland

[Sapz]

Update checkpoint. Somehow missed this one for a while, sorry guys.

Regarding autofire buttons; as is the standard for STGs as a whole, these are totally okay and not cheating or a seperate mode or whatever. Mark them if you like, but they're just as valid as any other scores and so I'm not planning to distinguish between with/without auto.

[Karisa]

Easy - ReimuB
Karisa - 17,848,210 - C - Replay

So this was my first try with the turbo fire. I tested afterward and found that yes, not bombing those stage 3 enemies does seem better for collecting their point items, at least with the homing shot. But then I died 3 times to stage 4 and finished with only 17.2m.

AutoHotkey was incredibly easy to set up by the way. I used a modified version of the last part of Goldom's script so Z would autofire itself (wasn't sure if that would work, but it did). It does make it tricky to navigate the name entry screen, though, and breaks PoDD (can't charge) if you try to run that while AutoHotkey is still on. Perhaps I should figure out how to add a shortcut to turn it on and off.

[Sapz]

Update checkpoint.

[KirbyComment]

Normal - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 16,814,540 - All


Extra - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 21,688,150 - All


Wait, I just realized I posted the wrong type, I thought this was ReimuB (I guess that's what happens when I'm used to ReimuBs being attack types), but it's actually ReimuC. Apparently everyone else overlooked my mistake, so could someone correct it?

[t_prinny]

Extra - ReimuA
Prinny - 12,658,430 - 6 - Screenshot - Video

Sort of trying to learn the extra stage. I currently have it labelled as stage 6 as that is what SoEW labels the extra stage (I didn't clear it yet). That video is over 50 minutes, but the score shows up at the very end of it (wasn't aware of how long I was recording). Probably could have gotten a better score in that last run had I not been fooling around. In the recording session, I was kind of debating about just surviving or actually try to play for score as I go through the extra stage trying to figure out how I should use my bombs.

[Shimatora]

Easy - ReimuB
S-TORA - 14,922,620 - C - Screenshot

First proper run back playing SoEW. Now using my fight stick so I'm messing up here and there, here's to getting used to it. I have a few ideas of how to reach 18m and above, so that'll be my main goal.

Easy - ReimuB
S-TORA - 15,894,040 - C - Screenshot

[Karisa]

Wait, SoEW is getting activity for once? I guess I'll submit a run of my own too.

Easy - ReimuB
Karisa - 19,321,840 - C - AutofireOn - Video

Well, the top Easy score is higher than the top Hard score now. (I suppose someone will fix that eventually?)

Still some room for improvement-- I think 20m will be possible.

Notable losses include 3 deaths to stage 4 (which reset the power item chaining-- this is why it's better to wait until Mima's final phase after the last non-death power item). It's also possible there's a better stage portion strategy for stage 4, e.g. waiting for the enemies that start lower on the left/right to circle higher for a chance at 51200s there.

Also I need to figure out how to manage Marisa's health enough to defeat her between the 7th set of orbs and the self-destruct (which as far as I can tell happens when the 8th set would spawn), since it's worth 200,000 extra points. If I keep shooting that normally happens between the 3rd and 4th sets of orbs. I think she might be invincible whenever she has orbs, actually-- I tried out constant shooting when the orbs are out, even during the go-inside-the-orbs attacks, and she never died mid- orb phase.

The orbs are worth 50,000 each (so 200,000 per set), though, so it's definitely worth "timing out" over not destroying all 7 sets.

Edit:
By the way, if I calculated correctly, a death costs about 400,000 from lost power minus any lucky high-value point items spawned (assuming you collect enough power items to reach 12800 again after the death), plus another 1000*[# of point items collected in the stage] from the clear bonus (in practice, about 40k in stage 3, 60k in stage 4). This does not include losses from any point items that drop during the death, or from having fewer lives to suicide away at the end.

In other words, not dying is pretty relevant, at least on lower difficulties. It's possible a bomb-for-items strategy might be more profitable with all of Lunatic's revenge bullets flying around though.

This means 20m might be doable with my current strategies simply by not dying.

---

On a different note, adding autofire labeling to SoEW too. Please indicate whether or not you use it from now on (as well as for past runs if possible).

[KirbyComment]

Easy - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 16,017,710 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot1 - Screenshot2

In the previous posts where I posted my Normal and Extra scores, I accidentaly picked ReimuB while I actually used ReimuC for that score, so that needs to be corrected. I guess I was
so used to ReimuB being the attack type that I wasn't paying attention to it

[Karisa]

In the previous posts where I posted my Normal and Extra scores, I accidentaly picked ReimuB while I actually used ReimuC for that score, so that needs to be corrected. I guess I was
so used to ReimuB being the attack type that I wasn't paying attention to it

Fixed.
(Also, no need to report the post if you're posting about mistakes in the scoreboard-- one of us will see it anyway when updating.)

I assume your previous submissions were also without autofire?

Interesting to see submissions with ReimuC score that high, anyway-- I always thought the low speed was a more significant item-collection disadvantage than that. But then again, SoEW is a very unexplored game.

[KirbyComment]

Fixed.
(Also, no need to report the post if you're posting about mistakes in the scoreboard-- one of us will see it anyway when updating.)

I assume your previous submissions were also without autofire?

Interesting to see submissions with ReimuC score that high, anyway-- I always thought the low speed was a more significant item-collection disadvantage than that. But then again, SoEW is a very unexplored game.

I'll just report them next time. I posted about it first because I didn't notice the "report to moderator" option, so I ended up doing both, so yeah. All other runs were indeed without Autofire. I don't think I really need it (plus I don't think it works with the emulator I use), so everything from me will be AutoFireOff.

[KirbyComment]

Extra - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 23,864,100 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot

Now if there was just an easier way to get the high pointage from those birds...

[Karisa]

Easy - ReimuB
Karisa - 20,045,860 - C - AutofireOn - Video

I'll just copy-paste what I said on #pc-99; not much more to say than that.

<Karisa> 20m SoEW Easy
<Karisa> Somehow cleared stage 3 with over 11m (unusually high) despite a death), reached Marisa with 16.3m, and defeated her in time before the self-destruct...
<Karisa> But I also died 3 times to Marisa
<Karisa> 21m possible?

[KirbyComment]

Yesterday on Normal I think I got 10 million by the end of Stage 3 and ended up with 14.5 million at Marisa, but  I lost all my lives to her. Stage 4 is too hard!

[Karisa]

Marisa took practice for me even on Easy (those bullets can be surprisingly fast even though they're not very dense), and I still die too often. Especially with Marisa being extra-long from stalling out 7 sets of orbs for extra points.

I haven't played Normal in a long time, but I can understand why that'd be annoying.

[KirbyComment]

I wonder if it's even worth stalling her out on Normal until the 7th set of orbs are destroyed.  I assume they give you the same amount of points regardless of the difficulty...

I also should just bomb-spam alot more, I think. I end up wasting so many bombs by dying before I use them.  Also, is on Normal dying twice at the very beginning also the optimal strat, just like on Easy? (to me it seems so at least)

[Karisa]

I wonder if it's even worth stalling her out on Normal until the 7th set of orbs are destroyed.  I assume they give you the same amount of points regardless of the difficulty...

Well, there's no time-based bonus in this game (outside of Extra), so I don't see why it wouldn't be optimal to stall Marisa on any difficulty. If it's done without dying so the stage 5 items give max value, of course, which I'm still inconsistent at even on Easy.

And yes, the points from defeating bosses, including Marisa's orbs, are the same, even on Hard/Lunatic where items have a multiplier.

Also, is on Normal dying twice at the very beginning also the optimal strat, just like on Easy? (to me it seems so at least)

I've calculated before-- dying twice at the start gives 8 more power than dying once (after the second death, if you collected the first large S item, you drop to 8 power instead of 0) meaning you reach max power item value 8 items earlier, and you get 65530 instead of 10000 from the two stage 3 bomb items. The death costs ~2400 (10*point items collected) from stage 1's clear bonus, but nothing resource-wise since you reach 5 lives 5 bombs during stage 3 anyway if you don't die again. So it should be a gain of ~200k (12800*8+55530*2-2400).

Also Normal and Easy seem to be identical in this game's score mechanics, aside from slightly higher clear bonuses (an extra 2000 per point item) for the first 4 stages.

---

Edit:
Easy - ReimuB
Karisa - 20,057,300 - C - AutofireOn - Video

Incredibly minor improvement, but still an improvement.

[KirbyComment]

Well, there's no time-based bonus in this game (outside of Extra), so I don't see why it wouldn't be optimal to stall Marisa on any difficulty. If it's done without dying so the stage 5 items give max value, of course, which I'm still inconsistent at even on Easy.

And yes, the points from defeating bosses, including Marisa's orbs, are the same, even on Hard/Lunatic where items have a multiplier.
I've calculated before-- dying twice at the start gives 8 more power than dying once (after the second death, if you collected the first large S item, you drop to 8 power instead of 0) meaning you reach max power item value 8 items earlier, and you get 65530 instead of 10000 from the two stage 3 bomb items. The death costs ~2400 (10*point items collected) from stage 1's clear bonus, but nothing resource-wise since you reach 5 lives 5 bombs during stage 3 anyway if you don't die again. So it should be a gain of ~200k (12800*8+55530*2-2400).

Also Normal and Easy seem to be identical in this game's score mechanics, aside from slightly higher clear bonuses (an extra 2000 per point item) for the first 4 stages.

Yes, I do know  destroying all 7 sets of orb is worth the points. I mean more that to me it comes down to whether I take the risk of dying more just for more points. I suppose I could go for it, but I'd need at least 2 extra lives left to feel comfortable. And for Stage 4 I have no actual strategies to get lots of points and live through it (with ReimuC anyway).

Hmm.. I guess not using bombs is a little more important than I thought. Then again, if I don't bomb in later stages (mainly Stage 4), I end up dying and losing even more points...

EDIT:
Normal - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 18,077,420 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot

Two 65,530 bombs and Marisa death-fest! Still, for slow movement and naturally more risk that's involved with ReimuC, this is about the best I can do...

[KirbyComment]

Easy - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 17,931,520 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot

I accidentaly killed Marisa to early. I killed her after 3 orb-sets, so I lost at least 800,000 points just for that. I should've gotten 19 million if not for that. It's too bad, because that was a pretty solid run. Marisa suprised me by shooting more projectiles when she did her fast star-spinning attack, which scared me a couple of times (dang you high rank).
Also, very appropiate skill description  :3

[Karisa]

Hard - ReimuB
Karisa - 29,790,260 - C - AutofireOn - Video

I decided to fill in the gap in the Hard scores. Not that polished; this was just the first run that cleared at all. I'd have to learn how to survive the Hard/Lunatic (they're identical in SoEW) stage 3 boss and Mima if I decide to improve this.

I could definitely see bombing for items being more viable on Hard (probably even more so on Lunatic) with the larger number of bullets flying around. I think suiciding twice at the start is still the best option though-- by the time bombing for items is potentially useful (stage 3) the score should already be over 8m anyway, so you'd have 5 lives either way.

Also this game's Hard feels like an ultra patch. It's mostly just Normal with the bullets changed to pairs of bullets at two different speeds.

---

Normal - ReimuB
Karisa - 20,227,690 - C - AutofireOn - Screenshot

Might as well also do a Normal run. I didn't upload a video because it was basically like my Easy runs but with a few more mistakes (the reason it scores higher is because of Normal's slightly higher clear bonuses).

[t_prinny]

Extra - ReimuA
Prinny - 13,134,690 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot

Extra - ReimuB
Prinny - 13,551,080 - C - AutofireOff - Video

Just posting my extra clears. My ReimuA run felt a bit similar to how my ReimuB run so I didn't bother uploading it. Probably the only difference with that run was that I was tapping the shot button more after learning that tapping is better as opposed to just holding down the shot button. I'm assuming indicating whether autofire was used is if you used autohotkey (or something similar) for the faster firing rate that you get from tapping.

I'm not sure if SoEW scoring is something I'll focus on, but I will probably go for a hard clear later on.

[Karisa]

I'm assuming indicating whether autofire was used is if you used autohotkey (or something similar) for the faster firing rate that you get from tapping.

Yes, autofire is if you use some kind of external way to rapid-fire the shot button without actually tapping repeatedly.

[KirbyComment]

Easy - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 18,783,800 - C - AutofireOff - Screenshot

Bunch of mysterious deaths at Stage 4, but at least I got a good score along with 7 orb-sets for 1,400,000 points + 200,000 for Marisa.
If I didn't die in Stage 4 this score could've been like 19.5 million (maybe even 20 million), but I think I'm satisfied with Easy (ReimuC) for now...

[t_prinny]

I don't think I posted my normal clears yet. I can probably improve them, but I'm not sure if I'll touch SoEW for a while. ReimuB score was back when I didn't know how to record. Haven't been able to score past it yet. Also including my hard clear.

Normal - ReimuA
Prinny - 12,075,650 - C - AutofireOFF - Video

Normal - ReimuB
Prinny - 12,416,280 - C - AutofireOFF - Screenshot

Normal - ReimuC
Prinny - 11,058,560 - C - AutofireOFF - Video

Hard - ReimuA
Prinny - 15,538,380 - C - AutofireOFF - Video

First time I managed to reach stage 5 on hard. Didn't bother dodging Mima's patterns unless I ran out of bombs to use (or learning how to dodge her attacks on hard for that matter). All I had was my knowledge of the attack on normal to save me when I did run out of bombs (and a few ideas from a lunatic run I watched). I had resources so I was seeing if they were enough for me to get the hard clear.

[KirbyComment]

Extra - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 29,194,290 - C - AutofireOn - Replay

So yeah. Apparently my old recording program HyperCam 2 of which I thought I'd never use it again because of how meh it is, ends up working with PC-98 Touhous while playing on full-screen. The quality isn't as good as what I'm used to, but it works. So I guess I'll be including replays into my posts now and from now on I'll also be using Autofire for SoEW.

I tried something out that doesn't take too long to do and I ended up getting a really good Extra score. I only didn't one-cycle the first phase (suprisingly) and had 2 unintentional deaths because Evil Eye Sigma is great to fight. I'm actually unsure if killing yourself right before the fight ends (until your last life) is more optimal. If I try to calculate it in my head, it seems only worth it if the item drops are mostly point items...

After a little while I'll try improving some more stuff and see if Autofire actually makes a difference in my scoring...

[Zil]

Given that, prior to the first death, you'd collected 50 items, the cost of dying was 200,000 points. The two items you got from the first death alone gave you about 300,000 as well as ~50,000 more from their effect on the clear bonus, so it was profitable as long as you got at least two items. Also note that, if you throw away all five of your spare lives, the last two don't cost anything, since the lives bonus can't get lower than 0, meaning that even if you only got one item each time, you'd still be pretty much breaking even.

[KirbyComment]

I know about the lives bonus being 0 if you have 2 extra lives or less and Karisa also mentioned death-abuse is well worth it, so next time I'll be trying to do that (even if that means just kind of dying in random points during the fight)

[t_prinny]

So I ended up going back to SoEW for a little bit. I decided to see how well I would perform if I set autofire for the Z key (autohotkey). Was sort of curious what difference it would make compared to tapping. I also set it up so I can use another key to input Z (just so I don't have too much trouble navigating through stuff).

Extra - ReimuA
Prinny - 19,428.810 - C - AutofireOn - Video

Extra - ReimuB
Prinny - 22,490,830 - C - AutofireOn - Screenshot

Item collection with ReimuB does feel easier in comparison to using ReimuA (and easier when tapping isn't something I have to keep in mind). I'm pretty sure what I'm doing could have been better. My item collecting isn't optimal and I'm not completely sure how to time my shots so I can collect the power items. I'm also pretty bad at fighting Evil Eye Sigma. 20 million should be easy to get, but I don't really feel like doing that. I should technically be able to get similar scores if I rely on tapping now that I think about it. These aren't exactly very high and I know I made some mistakes in my ReimuA attempt.

[KirbyComment]

Normal - ReimuC
KirbyComment - 19,042,440 - C - AutofireOn - Screenshot

Everything up to the end of Stage 3 was good. But then I died to the Stage 3 boss and died once during Stage 4.
When I got to Marisa, I knew I had to adjust my damaging strategies because of the faster firing. So when I destroyed the last orb of Marisa's fifth orb set, she literally died right after, which is just awesome. I think next time, instead of damaging Marisa until after the third orb set, I will constantly damage Marisa until the second orb set is gone (because ReimuC is too strong with AutoFire). Also, Stage 5 was completely abysmal. I lost all my focus and got wrecked, which is why I'm not keeping the footage of it. Next time I'll get a better score without completely ruining it at the end (hopefully).

[Karisa]

Extra - ReimuB
Karisa - 31,395,100 - C - AutofireOn - Video - Screenshot

Testing...? And then a surprise 30m. I think this is a very RNG-based stage.

Edit: Actually, it seems that this was the first run where I didn't die during the stage portion after the initial suicides (at least not until after the power items). The power items make that much difference.

Extra - ReimuB
Karisa - 33,098,780 - C - AutofireOn - Video - Screenshot

And the improvement cycle begins?

Extra - ReimuB
Karisa - 33,170,490 - C - AutofireOn - Video

Hmm, not quite sure why I've been taking screenshots, actually.

[Karisa]

Extra - ReimuB
Karisa - 37,058,770 - C - AutofireOn - Video - Screenshot

OK then. From test run to new record in the same day. Not sure how much of this is that I used a different bombing route from Zil and how much is luck, seriously.

A lot of the failed runs were due to that bat phase that gives most of this stage's points-- sometimes they shoot rather fast aimed bullets that there's almost no time to react to when at the top of the screen concentrating on enemy-death animations, and sometimes the homing shots aren't enough to shoot all of them so they ram into you.

The rest is simple enough, considering how play quality on the boss doesn't really matter when entering with 5 lives (though it'd be slightly more efficient for all deaths to be near the top corner, like I did at the start of the stage, since that gives a chance at a 51200 point item). Thanks to Marisa Aki (edit: on YouTube, Cream Soda on MotK) for pointing out a way to trivialize the final phase of the stage portion.