Author Topic: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?  (Read 33136 times)

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Hello fellow maidens! As much as I enjoyed the screenshot format, I was dead-set from the start that I wouldn't be abandoning Video Let's Plays. So here's my newest project: A Touhou fangame that I was fairly certain I would be covering after just my first session of playing it. It is one of the more influential ones to be released in the last few years:

 

 

The Chinese developer MyACG Studio seems to have been very indecisive about whether it's to be called "Disappearance" or "Disappearing" of Gensokyo . Early physical versions from 2016 use "Disappearance", but on the Steam version of this year, "Disappearing" is used exclusively. It's a top-down action game where you have one side of your controls (by default: WASD) moving your character and the other your aim (by default: The mouse). In short: A twin-stick shooter. There are also minor RPG-elements to the gameplay.

I'll often be abbreviating the long title of the game as its initials, "DoG". I find that much more hilarious than I should admit...

The story starts off basic enough: Strange beings carrying the name "sinsacks" have found their way into Gensokyo and are becoming a nuisance to everybody. It is up to Eldest Daughter Tenshi Hinanawi to find out why they are appearing, where they are coming from, and, most importantly, to put a stop to all this nonsense!

Now there was something that made me almost not make this thread: We already had someone from our community cover this game in a Let's Play format, Your Everyday Neet. Apart from enjoying what I saw myself, I think it is necessary to point there, otherwise I would seem ignorant.
I pondered hard whether this was a reason I wouldn't host my own Let's Play of it here. How many Let's Plays of the same game can fit on a single forum? I think Neet's and my techniques and opinions are different enough that the projects can be distinguished from each other. After all, Neet narrated by subtitle, mine is done by voice. If my squawking takes you out of the experience, you have an alternative. If you like what you hear on the other hand, you're at the right place.
I hope multiple people making Let's Plays of the same game on our forum is alright? I'm open for concerns. I agree that if there were a third dude coming along with the same idea, it would get comical! :D

Additional info on this playthrough:

- None of the purchasable DLC characters/weapons will be used. I do own them, but I currently have them all deactivated. If we were to use any, the value of the Let's Play as a strategy guide would be severely hampered, as it would spell out "pay for a certain DLC to have an easier time with a boss".
- Lorebooks we find in the levels will be screenshotted within this thread and ignored in the video. That's so that the action will have a better flow.
- Even though some non-DLC characters are underpowered compared to the meta, I'll try to give each at least some amount of screentime.
- If I miss one of the 48 (more or less) hidden magic pieces, I'll mention in the thread where it can be found.
- Upgrade configuration and new unlocks will also be part of the thread, not necessarily of the video.
- Chosen difficulty is Normal. It may seem deceptively easy-going at first...
- As always for me, commentary was done after recording the video footage (post-commentary).

List of videos for quick navigation:

Full Playlist

Part 01 - She's Your Anti-hero
Part 02 - Frozen Like English Beef
Part 03 - Rascally Orbital Rabbit
Part 04 - I'm Not Officer, Drunk!
Part 05 - Everyone Gets Their Just Deserts
Part 06 - Your Fairy Mafia Godmother
Part 07 - Duchess Nukem
Part 08 - Po-po-po-po-poke Her Face!
Part 09 - The Catgirl that is also Elon Musk
Part 10 - When Calamari Orders You
Part 11 - Sorry, I wasn't listening there for an hour
Part 12 - She prefers her stake rare, ideally never
Part 13 - Fly me to the Moon
Part 14 - Amurica! F*kc Yeah!
Part 15 - 78.000 Leagues Above the Sea
Part 16 - Are you Watching, Rating and Sharing This, Chang'E!?
Part 17 - The Economic Niche that is the Phantom Zone
Part 18 - Being Ugly Makes you a Villain, Right?
Part 19 (Final) - No Legal Division Required

Bonus: The Azure Fortress after the incident (SSLP)
Bonus: A Surprise to be Sure, But a Welcome One
« Last Edit: June 01, 2019, 04:16:01 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2018, 07:18:41 PM »


This is the "lorepost" for episode 1! Let's view the four messages of stage 1 we couldn't be bothered to stop for during the video. They're actually quite extensive:



In the very first chamber of the level, we get an introduction to who Tenshi is. A very terrible person. Mostly, at least. The second half is white-knighting to her rescue a little.



Second chamber and we have to learn about Iku. Now here they're really mixing up fandom and canon. Tenshi and Iku have only met by chance and are, at best, indifferent to each other. Before we get too annoyed at what we're seeing here, know this: I think making their stance to each other fanonical for this game was done very deliberately and with an idea in mind. We'll get more into that as the Let's Play goes on.



This lies in Mystia's room and can't be read before meeting her. As sweet and huggable as Mystia comes across in this game, MyACG stays earnest for her description. All canonical, as far as I can tell.



Some general information how the world of Gensokyo came into existence, as well as a mention of Yukari and Reimu, the two people that allow the barrier to stay up. This lorebook can be found just in front of hostile Clone-Tenshi.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2018, 06:52:43 PM by Gesh86 »

Your Everyday NEET

  • Part time Researcher & Let's Player, full time NEET, also an eel
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2018, 02:48:41 PM »
Anyone can LP a game whenever they wish. Even if that game already LPed before. It's not like I'll go: "Hey! You LPed a game that I LPed before! Take it down or I'll report you and delete your account to oblivion! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!". There's no restrictions on Lets Play. It's just you have to offer something unique to your LP or else your LP is drowned by the competition.

Also, the toggle camera. I didn't know about it at all. I fail to see the point in that. It's really bad for fighting and the character model themselves is...

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2018, 07:47:14 PM »
There's no restrictions on Lets Play. It's just you have to offer something unique to your LP or else your LP is drowned by the competition.

Very true. Little point in putting more of the same of an overplayed game out there. I think DoG isn't there yet. I hope. I want it to be like that   :V


Also, the toggle camera. I didn't know about it at all. I fail to see the point in that. It's really bad for fighting and the character model themselves is...

It's recommended for model viewing and absolutely nothing else. Don't look at them too close to bedtime!  :D

I've got something done today:



Coming up are another four lorebooks that we completely ignored during episode 2:



This one is next to the second magic piece, slightly obscured but visible if you try hard enough. So now we have a name: White Tenshi. That does not answer how she found Gensokyo and how she could enter it.



We find this just before we cross the bridge to Cirno's arena. As avatars of natural powers, fairies are eternal. We can beat them up all we want, they won't stop existing. For the sake of the game though, they do stay dead long enough that you can advance through the levels.



Some more lore can be found in the niche of the third magic piece. I argue that among the Three Fairies of Light, at least Luna Child is smarter than Cirno, as she likes to read. But yes, with many ifs and buts and comparatively to her peers, you could make a claim that Cirno isn't too stupid.



Southwest of the crash-site, and it's about Byabya. The last sentence is in reference to her urban legend of Touhou 14.5, Turbo Granny. Her motorbike, believe it or not, is also in this game. We'll talk about that some other time.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2018, 03:05:48 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2018, 08:05:39 PM »
We're slashing and singing and freezing our way through the early parts of the game. Episode 3 gives you some more of that, and a few new faces to look at. One of them you don't want to stare at too long for the sake of your sanity.



It's almost not worth making a screenshot for this early in the game, but our perk loadout is:



"Dowsing Rod 1 - You have a chance to gain blue points when hit." The mentioned icons will drop out of your character and will then have to be picked up from the floor. Getting hit is never good, but this is a nice consolation at least.

Reading time has come once again:



Visible as soon as you enter the level. Don't forget your umbrellas, or else they become Kogasa!
...On second thought, leave them behind on purpose, so that we'll have more Kogasas.



This one's in the niche of the first magic piece. I do find the fact interesting that Reisen can make herself irresistably beautiful through her powers. It reminds me of a certain scene in Forbidden Scrollery.
Spoiler:
The merchant Reisen was disguised as seemed really cute before the unmasking. Afterwards it was like she lost her make-up...



When you've survived the ricocheting gauntlet of magic piece nr. 2, you can inform yourself about the armpit miko. Very thoroughly. I think this is the largest block of text thus far. With how much her power is emphasized here, you'll have to wonder if she will be our friend during this adventure. Would be great to have her on our side.



At the third magic piece, only a small entry is dedicated to the overpowered Lunarian overlords. If they disrespect us, we'll disrespect them right back!
« Last Edit: September 12, 2018, 07:05:54 PM by Gesh86 »

Your Everyday NEET

  • Part time Researcher & Let's Player, full time NEET, also an eel
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2018, 07:29:43 AM »
Tenshi's dumb. She kicked out Cirno and Mystia and replaced them with Reisen. She's easily the weakest character in the game and Cirno and Mystia are much better character compared to Reisen.

The other comically overpowered DLC character is Youmu Konpaku. Both her and Kogasa turns the game into cheese walk.

That's strange. Why can't I see the pictures for the documents?

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2018, 07:02:57 PM »
Tenshi's dumb. She kicked out Cirno and Mystia and replaced them with Reisen. She's easily the weakest character in the game and Cirno and Mystia are much better character compared to Reisen.

I do remember your stance on DoG's Reisen. Apart from her effectiveness, her personality will be a talking point, don't worry  ;).

The other comically overpowered DLC character is Youmu Konpaku. Both her and Kogasa turns the game into cheese walk.

I've played as Youmu too little to speak for myself here. The running theme is that almost all paid characters are at least a little too strong.

That's strange. Why can't I see the pictures for the documents?

All screenshots look normal to me. Could it be that a specific browser is having issues with imgur? (Mine's Chrome)

Your Everyday NEET

  • Part time Researcher & Let's Player, full time NEET, also an eel
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2018, 06:41:15 AM »
Youmu's bomb has her going into melee mode for 8 seconds or so, greatly increasing her attack and defense. This allows her to slice the enemies and wipe a whole group of them in no time flat. You can also use this to trade blows with the boss, tanking their bullets and wins.

I use Google Chrome (Android ver) as well. And now I can see the pictures. That's... Really weird... Probably it's because of my crappy Internet Provider.

Oh yeah, did you know you can view the character tutorial (Like the one in my thread) in the stage by pressing F1? I don't. Because the game didn't tell me that.


Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2018, 07:08:28 PM »
Oh yeah, did you know you can view the character tutorial (Like the one in my thread) in the stage by pressing F1? I don't. Because the game didn't tell me that.

Never heard of that. I'll try it out sometime!

Today's update comes only a week after the last. That's because the scheduled Episode 4 is pretty short. It's probably going to stay the shortest throughout the whole Let's Play. It's almost as short as the new girl that appears in it:



Loadout for what we're up against:

   

"Melee Defense - You resist 25% of melee damages." It should be easy enough to tell what attacks are physical and what's a bullet. If the former is a bigger factor in a fight, pick this.
"Quick Recharge Beta - Shield recharge starts 0.5 seconds earlier." Shield charging takes a good few seconds to boot up. If you get hit, say, every 3 seconds by something small, the timer restarts anew. This can keep repeating over and over until you're dead. This perk will protect you from exactly that.

Since the playing field is so compact today, you probably won't be surprised that there is only one lorebook to find:



Nor should it be any wonder who it's about. The sheet of paper is all the way at the donating box, at the back end of the arena. Getting to it before aggroing the boss is impossible from what it seems. Do not try to read while the encounter is in order, you'll get pummeled. Save it for the 10-second grace period after you have won. Or just be content seeing it right here.
I've never heard of Suika's ability's secondary effect . Drawing or dispersing crowds? Does she manipulate the folks' minds? What I did hear though is that if Suika offers a person a drink, they cannot decline, even if they wanted to a moment before. Perhaps it's not so wild after all?
« Last Edit: September 18, 2018, 07:14:11 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2018, 07:13:10 PM »
I've got something to add to the previous episode: If you play on Hard or Lunatic, you'll hear another vocal track sung by Senya during Suika's bossfight. Just like the instrumental festival music it replaces, it's a rearrange of Broken Moon and known as "Psychic Satellite - Empty Dramatic"



I hope you can spare a few minutes away from the new Luna Nights content and watch Episode 5! I had to vow to myself not to start playing before getting this done today.

Edit after noticing my mistake: Our loadout is a combination of what we had in parts 3 and 4:

   

Dowsing Rod 1 and Quick Recharge Beta

In the new and bizarre environment we're travelling in are four lorebooks with sometimes more and sometimes less informative content:



Our first page is located between Marisa's recruitment and encountering the wimpy Celestial. Most of this is right, Marisa does have a hoarder problem for example. Reimu being her rival could be misunderstood though: They're a little competitive from time to time, but also very close as friends. Canonical Marisa is closer with Reimu than Alice I'd argue.



This one is where you get the first magic piece, or, where you would get it if the game didn't hate you. Alice is somewhat of an introvert, but still one of the kinder Magicians within Gensokyo. Number one rule in getting along with her is not being Sakuya.



Do you really want to know where you can read up on this one? It's on the hill of the second magic piece. Even if this late sinsack had met Iku (the Azure Fortress has not yet been stormed by his kind), I think he grossly overinterpreted the social contact they had with each other. They didn't have with each other, sorry!



The last lorebook lies within the dangerous alcove of the third magic piece. It's what I've been saying early on in the video: There are no deserts in Gensokyo, nor buses that will take you there!
« Last Edit: October 21, 2018, 02:07:40 PM by Gesh86 »

Your Everyday NEET

  • Part time Researcher & Let's Player, full time NEET, also an eel
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #10 on: October 03, 2018, 02:56:40 AM »
Luna Night, eh? Heard it's really freaking good.

I didn't know that one of the Magic Pieces is influenced with which route the celestial took. That's pretty bad.

Marisa is surprisingly effectively in boss fights as well when fully upgraded. Her really fast move speed means she can dodge without spending her previous stamina, her 999 bullets means she won't need reloading even against later bosses, and her bombs has real nasty DPS .

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #11 on: October 03, 2018, 09:38:08 PM »
Luna Night, eh? Heard it's really freaking good.

I've played through all the content we have so far and think it's prime contender for Touhou fangame of the year 2018 (if it fully releases before 2019, that is).

Marisa is surprisingly effectively in boss fights as well when fully upgraded. Her really fast move speed means she can dodge without spending her previous stamina, her 999 bullets means she won't need reloading even against later bosses, and her bombs has real nasty DPS .

Buying her blacksmith stuff has high priority. She'll become that bosskiller yet.

This just in: Part 6 will take longer to make than usual, as I'll be spending a week or so for an unrelated side video project I've been meaning to take on for a while now. Once that's done, this LP will resume.

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2018, 02:03:23 PM »
And we're back with a new release, a session of fairy hunting that has shaped up to be episode 6:



The configured lineup to help us oppose these menacing mutant fairies is:

   

Dowsing Rod 1 and...
"Quick Recharge Alpha - Shield recharging rate is increased by 250%" That's a tall number and it basically translates into that once the shield starts charging, it's back to full almost instantly. The disadvantage is that you need to drop Quick Recharge Beta for this and the charging process itself begins with a higher delay. It's hard to say whether Alpha or Beta is better. We swapped this out just to be different, mostly.

The logbooks of today have undoubtedly all been written by the same person:



Found in the phantom team's territory. A White Tenshi had her peach eaten. The grammar may be extremely poor, but these are nonetheless readable sentences. That's progress!



This one is in the northeast where you can find the second magic piece (the boring one). There are still grave typos, but the language itself has further improved to an almost normal level. It seems White Tenshi's departure to Gensokyo was not intentional.



The last note lies in the northwestern corner, where the final black fairy was encamped. White Tenshi and Black Alice seem to have known each other even before getting to Gensokyo.
What is this orphanage that is written about here? Is it the one managed by Grelod the Kind? If so, she needs to watch her back.

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2018, 11:58:29 AM »
We're widening our roster today. Cirno will melt if we store this one too close to her:



Episode 7 has come today with new friends, but also new foes. Perhaps even a frenemy? The perk configuration consists of three items this time:

      

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Charge Beta and...
"Fast as Rabbit - Increase maximum of dash energy by 50%" The need to dash often comes in bunches. This perk neglects stamina regeneration for more dashes in total. Usually, the downtime between groups is still enough to get back all of it, so Fast as Rabbit is a good choice in my eyes.

Time to read a few logs. There were a total of four to be found:



A fairly brief introducting of Touhou. She indeed has the soul of Yatagarasu in her and a nuclear arm cannon (third leg). Also, she has a foot of cooled reactor material and a cape with a galaxy motif on its inside. You can somewhat understand ZUN when he mentioned she was overdesigned...
The existence of boogiewoman Satori is also aluded to here. The text snippet can be found a little ways behind the black fairy of magic piece number 1.



This one is behind magic piece number 2, past the bridge over the river. The interview between Aya and Satori puts a lot of emphasis on Koishi. The reason for this I think I can already reveal: Koishi does appear in DoG, Satori does not.
The information about Koishi being good and always nice isn't something you should take Satori's word on. Koishi is indeed one of the more emotionally unbalanced and generally unpredictable girls within Gensokyo.



Interestingly, you never saw this logbook in the video. Just when you're about to take the stairs onto the festival stage, you can also pick an alley that leads you westward. In it, there's the information as well as a full ammo restoration.
The mentioned incident is of course Hopeless Masquerade. Unless she is unhinged by losing some of these masks, Kokoro is very predictable and has even been allowed to perform for the villagers.



There was a moment where this logbook could be seen early in the video, but we could not have gone for it due to level barriers. Once again, when you're at the festival stage, go northward instead and you'll find it in an alley that serves no other purpose.
Forbidden Scrollery paints a completely different picture of the humans' attitude towards Youkai. They don't want them to be out in the open, the previously mentioned Kokoro being a special exception. Mamizou for example takes great care to stay disguised when on the streets. No one except the readers of the manga recognize her and it would cause an outrage if the peasants did.
In short, fandom wackiness at its finest! That Heaven Hotel does not exist.

The decision to replay the stage off-camera has increased our point icon count by roughly 300. It'll help a little with affording more in the future, but as I said early on: You don't need to redo stages unnecessarily often to get what you want. We should have enough for the most crucial upgrades before the game ends.
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 12:05:13 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2018, 08:53:10 PM »
All 66 emotions are condensed into today's video:



And all that in a fairly short Episode 8. It has something in common with another number dividable by 4, in that we only need to defeat one single enemy. No more. Can't be that hard, right?
Our perk configuration makes a big difference today. The first one has never been equipped before:

      

"Ranged Defense - You resist 10% of ranged damage" - A tenth can make the difference between life and death. Except if you run into the spider web. Just don't get caught in it! The only other attack this takes no effect on today would be the tackling wolf mask that we saw for but a few seconds and that really isn't especially relevant.
Quick Charge Beta and Fast as Rabbit are also there.

We've got a novelty case today: No logbooks! You may still want to read up on snippet 3 of the previous post, as it has more relevance today than it did back then.

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2018, 03:11:01 PM »
New phantoms are rapidly introduced today. Among the newcomers of Episode 9 is a fuzzy, unshaven lady who works as a stunt-double for Cousin It and became the inventor of Hair Metal in her free time:



I'm thankful for Kagerou getting some more screentime. There was an appearance of her in Double Focus, but it was rather brief. I consider her a fresh, non-overused Touhou, compared to many from the older games.

What kind of loadout are we packing against such a savage beast?

      

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Recharge Alpha and...
"Quick as Panther - Dash energy regenerates 25% faster" - The other dash enhancemener (Fast as Rabbit) enables you to dash more in quick succession. This one is very different in that it's more helpful in the long term, when you're only occasionally evading. It's hard to say which is definitively better.

Near each magic piece will be another lorebook, ignored in the video but given extra attention right here:



By coincidence, this textlog can be seen in the first screenshot of this forum post. It's located at Super Kagerou's niche and is about our respected wolfgirl. The way I understand it, a Loup-Garou like Kagerou is actually a wolf-like-youkai and not a human that turns into a werebeast. The full moon doesn't fundamentally transform her, it only makes her hairier than usual. Her vain demeanor is made even funnier to me because of this.
I also agree that Kagerou has a great dresscode. It's so mean how Touhou 14's heroines make fun of it only due to the low combat practicality.



Found on the swamp peninsula where the second magic piece is and it's about the mutant, edgelordly black fairies. From the mentioning of Patchouli and "the mistress", this must have been left by either Meiling or Sakuya. The "otherworldly guest" is definitely one of the phantoms and my guess is that it's who we meet at the 10-minute-mark.



This can be found right next to the stage's final Sinsack, the one that must have been placed more as a joke. Are the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion really that isolationist and hostile? I would have expected them to only be so during the Scarlet Mist Incident when they had dirt to hide. I'm having the suspicion that whoever left this one grossly exaggerates and dramatizes, like they want the place to fit into a campfire horror-story.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2018, 03:46:37 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2018, 06:23:06 PM »
Welcome to Neet's most despised level (the other Let's Play I mentioned near the end is indeed his). If I was ever afraid there were too many similarities between our two series, Episode 10 of mine could not be more of a deviation:



In the early times of this playthrough, we've had so few components to our configuration, it sometimes barely felt worth posting it. With four rows now, it's finally starting to become sensible:

         

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Charge Beta, Fast as Rabbit and...
"Amplify Damage - Damage increased by 10%" - A great tool for when you want to defeat enemies just a little quicker and save time on getting through those levels. There are no other perks that so directly increase your dealt damage and it's therefore much appreciated. Nonetheless, it may not always be the best choice for slot nr. 4.

On to text-reading: There are four logbooks scattered on and around Misty Lake, and not a single one of them is specifically about Wakasagihime. Shall we still take a look at them? Alright, let's do it:



The very first is on its very own island that you get to by picking the northern/eastern frog instead of the southern/western one when given the choice. It presents us some general information on Misty Lake. It's indeed true that it's not a very big lake, smaller than the Gensokyans are led to believe. Is perhaps some of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's space distorting magic affecting it as well?



This piece of trivia is found on the island you need the tentacle's whipping to reach. Sakuya is a blessing for the Scarlet Devil household, as she is tolerated around human communities. No remark on her newly discovered impostor, though.



Right next to the second magic piece will you find this diary snippet. I do like the idea that the SDM's personell is lazy and inefficient and that Remilia only keeps them so that she can feel like a noble with a court of servants and underlings.



This text is but a few steps away from the three black fairies' guardpost. Unless you've taken them out, any attempt to read this will end in your dismembering. If it wasn't obvious enough, stage 10's gimmick is spelled out to you here: These enemies are meant to be too much to handle (for the average player). This "Creator" is of course the head programer of MyACG Studio. How meta! Man, what a loser this dude must be, having nothing better to do than making a digital entertainment product that is worth our time and money...

I've got one more addendum to make: In another run through this level born out of curiosity, I've found out that the three black fairies do not spawn if you're coming from the level's checkpoint after dying once. I was very surprised and I'm pretty sure this wasn't the case in the early days of the game and instead something that might have been patched in to streamline obtaining the third magic piece. So if you don't have the patience to defeat them directly or you don't want to utilize Koishi, there may be another way for you. The video was almost finished when I learned of this, so that's why there's no other mention of it.

One last thing I have to add: The next episode will come out in January. There's an idea for a one-video side project that came to me and I'm really eager to squeeze it in between.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2018, 09:05:38 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #17 on: January 11, 2019, 02:47:54 PM »
Told you I'll be back, and so is this series. Episode 11 covers a very tough stage, the bane of me, if you want. At least it gives us a blonde Tsundere in return:



Today calls for a somewhat more defensive configuration:

         

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Recharge Beta, Fast as Rabbit and...
"Unbreakable - Increases maximum shield to 100" - Bruce Willis finds a way into this Let's Play yet again. I think the base value of your shield is 75, so the increase to 100 makes a substantial difference in your durability. The shield bar fills up by a margin as soon as you switch it from off to on at Byakuren. This perk is particularly valuable against sudden damage spikes, which are by no means a rarity.

Four logbooks can be found in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and Black Sakuya is the author of the first three. Here we go:



Found in the room of the first magic piece. Against all what you would expect, the phony maid is welcome at Remilia's court and has had contact with the real Sakuya and Meiling. Speaking of Meiling, this is the confirmation that we will not find a Black/White/Grey Meiling anytime soon, as Black Sakuya does not recognize the Chinese gatekeeper.



Next to the second magic piece in the southeastern corridor, we get more thoughts and impressions of the phantoms. In a sane state, White Tenshi seems to have quite a difficult, temperamental personality. Right now, she is but lost and affectionate. We can only imagine.



Everything up until now sounded so nice and pleasant, but in the room of the third magic piece (the incredibly tiny Vo?le Library) is where things turn sour for Black Sakuya. She apparently went berserk and had to be put down by Remilia. It was a heartbreaking act to commit to for the young mistress. The Remilia that Black Sakuya knows seems to be emotionally tougher than that.



Only a few steps away from the level's exit is a piece written by Aya, most likely. Remilia's duality of vampire and demon is often expressed by her supposedly being a subspecies of Oni. The power to control fate is often joked to be a "pseudo-power", as its intricacies are so difficult to understand that you wonder whether it's a hoax. Making up such lies would fit the spoiled brat that is Remilia.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2019, 02:49:52 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2019, 08:41:48 PM »
I've been playing Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood on my own time these last few days. In Episode 12, we have our own, arguably more lovable bloodsucker to deal with:



She can show us the reason why you shouldn't be listening to the developer's recommendation of playing the game on hard for your first time. This title is bearing its (vampire) fangs! What perk configuration are we using to keep them away from our veins?

         

Ranged Defense, Quick Charge Beta, Fast as Rabbit and Unbreakable. Remilia may have razor-sharp nails, but I've always felt it was her ranged attacks that I couldn't dodge consistently. If you continuously get caught in melee, it's your fundamental approach that must be somewhat off. Ranged Defense is therefore better than Melee Defense here in my opinion.

Surprise, surprise, no lorebooks today. Apart from the one about Black Sakuya's demise, another fitting entry to the situation would be "Interview with Reimu Hakurei" from last episode. That one was placed at the exit of the previous level instead of directly into the boss chamber today.

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2019, 07:37:37 PM »
I don't give you weak Shinto puns here, only terrible Buddhist puns. So in today's Episode 13, you find out what the inNUEmerable complications were:



While not a particularly hard stage, a smart setup can still make a difference:

         

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Recharge Beta, Quick as Panther and Amplify Damage. Dashing is important for quick traversal rather than as a dodge this time, making Quick as Panther pretty ideal. Offense also overrules defense, dying yourself is pretty unlikely during a defense mission. That's why Amplify Damage is the obvious choice.

Three logbooks can  be found in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's back yard, one in each "arm". We start with the northern opening:



As the midboss of Mamizou's Extra Stage, it is no surprise that she and Nue have a good connection. This was affirmed in Forbidden Scrollery. If you're wondering how anyone could stand the dastardly chimera, well...Mamizou isn't exactly a saint either. Don't be fooled by big, fluffy tails of tricksy Tanuki!



The southwestern passage has Sanae as a talking head for some of the more distasteful Touhou jokes and memes. I generally have a high tolerance for these, I hope you do as well. Reading the examples, I'm surprised the green shrine maiden only went halfway. What about stinky, unpleasant Wriggle? The heavily-breathing Alice peeking through Marisa's window? I can understand that she wouldn't mention the methods that she, as such a "good girl", uses for "convincing" patrons to donate to the Moriya Shrine...

Mamizou and Sanae by the way appear at no point in this game. The recent two logbooks are their only mention in DoG to my knowledge.



At this point, only the southeastern passage is left. The mentioned first rocket refers to Silent Sinner in Blue. In fact, the whole procedure of us going to the moon in a crappy-looking makeshift rocket with the help of the Scarlet Devil Mansion crew is an obvious nod to this quite beloved Touhou manga.

Production of the next episode will delay a litte more than usual. With a little, I really just mean a few days, an additional weekend perhaps. There is a small project I need to push in between, as it needs to be done before a certain time of the year if it is to be done at all. See you then!
« Last Edit: February 02, 2019, 07:41:46 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #20 on: February 22, 2019, 01:12:10 PM »
My absence wasn't nearly as long as I calculated it to be. I'll take it! Episode 14 takes us to a place that should be outside of Gensokyo's barrier. Lunarians, your game is through, cause now you'll have to answer to...



We can put a checkmark on using every perk on the fourth position. Here's how it looks in total:

         

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Recharge Beta, Quick as Panther and...
"Unrelenting - Shield always regenerates 5/second" - The recovery rate isn't especially high, but it adds up and makes a difference over time. However, you have to know that "always" isn't truly always. If your shield breaks, you must wait out your natural recovery before the effect returns. Because of this, I like "Unbreakable" a little better.

We've got another set of three logbooks that a certain moon tourist has left for us:



This one can be found at the destructible moon lander in the southeast corner of the map. A lot of fanworks do characterize the moon rabbits as an expendable and anonymous caste within the Lunar society. It's very disheartening to think of countless Reisens getting thrown into a meat-grinder, so let's not.
"Are you reading this, Chang'e!?"



There is another lore entry at the t-section between the bossfight and the moon rover. It can be found directly next to a large hourglass, another piece of scenery on the moon's surface. This entry is dedicated to Clownpiece, once again from Junko's perspective. The Hell Fairy's design was chosen to be star-spangled because the Lunarians were meant to be a symbol for China during the Cold War. Just like they had demonized and denounced the United States, Clownpiece is viewed as the greatest menace to the Lunarians. That's the analogy ZUN intended with this.
Chang'e probably will not read this despite the feverish and repeated mentioning of her name...



Next to the Jade Rabbit moon rover and the third magic piece is the last note I was able to find. It mostly deals with the relevance of Shinto "impurity" for the Lunarians. This is a pretty complicated subject, especially because Junko's ability to purify anything has nothing to do with purity in this sense. It's terminological confusion at its finest! In the end, bringing fairies to the moon is an ingenious plan.
If you interviewed Chang'e about Junko's obsession with her she would probably ask you "Doesn't ring a bell. Who is this Junko again?"

One more thing: I was concerned with us getting to the end of the game without being able to purchase another upgrade for Marisa, so I got the screenshots for today by doing another run through the level with our Let's Play's file instead of my file for testing purposes. We'll have roughly 300 additional point icons when Episode 15 comes along. No other farming should be neccessary. I did this mostly because I really didn't want this project to conclude with a large amount of unused points. I also didn't want to invest everything into Cirno simply out of neccessity.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 02:08:40 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #21 on: March 08, 2019, 02:08:11 PM »
The moon arc is in full swing! In today's episode 15, we'll be swimming in low gravity and not feeling any of those effects. This is also around the point of our adventure where the attention span of our rag-tag band is so exhausted, they stop taking anything seriously and laugh at very forced vampire-jokes:



Today's the last time we'll have only 4 symbols to describe how we're set up. It's only slightly different from the previous one:

         

Dowsing Rod 1, Quick Recharge Beta, Quick as Panther and Unbreakable. Pretty typical for me. There's some perks that we never have and likely will never use, specifically those in rows 2 and 3 that affect ammo and bomb collection.

I'm glad to inform you that although lorebooks were once grossly affected by the early version of the english patch (as mentioned in the post-combat section of today's video), they've improved into very proper, readable language. Here they are:



You come across this one already a few steps into the level and it's just at the side of the road. Vulgar Yukari has been a faint plotpoint throughout the game but is just not appearing in any way apart from barriers she has set down here and there. Will she turn out to be a red hering? Or does she make a last-minute appearance after all? We'll see.



You find this one right before the second magic piece and I've got to warn if you're reading for yourself: Enemy groups may already flood in while you're still inspecting it. It happened to me when taking this screenshot. We once again have several theories about phantoms thrown in front of us here. The second to last sentence is very intriguing though: Gensokyans are indeed becoming more fanonical as the game goes on. If anything, this would explain the butt-drilling joke between Tenshi and Iku of last episode...



This is the text right next to the destructible rock and it explains everything we need to know about Junko, for example her very unique species of "Divine Spirit". The placement of this lore makes it obvious that Junko is going to be the next boss fight, even if there weren't a million other hints towards that. We've long woken up to how unstealthy DoG is about these things.
Her supposed identity of Ch?n H?, a (non-historical) vengeful empress-mother of China, is not mentioned here. Junko is a reference to a mythical figure, but definitely not the Buddha. Unlike him, you would only need to punch her in the face once instead of thrice to get her raging.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 02:11:58 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #22 on: March 23, 2019, 09:50:40 PM »
Sorry for the long delay for making this post! We've had a lot of issues with making the image tag for screenshots work again on our forum these last days and only today did someone find a workaround. Episode 16 has been out for a few days and it looks something like this:

   

If you're not on top of your game against today's opponent, no perks can help you. Nonetheless, we're using these:

            

Ranged Defense, Quick Recharge Beta, Fast as Rabbit, Unbreakable and...
"Comet - Fire tracking Danmaku on Enemies" - The bullets this option fires reach far and will be automatically aimed, but are extremely weak. This is actually not one that I would recommend using for this slot, I like others better. Why we chose it anyway is out of temperance: Since it's not actually likely for a new player to have gotten enough magic pieces until Junko, I wanted to take a level 5 perk that wasn't too impactful. The fight in the video should still be somewhat representative of how it will feel for a first timer. After today's stage, it's realistic to bring them. We won't be holding back like this in the future!

This being a boss stage, we have no lorebooks to read once again. For information on Junko, the last one from episode 15's post is the one to refer to.

It may be some time until the next video comes out. Not because of unexpected delays, but because I'm thinking of pre-producing the next two or three episodes and then releasing them in quick succession (possibly one per day). My decision is not yet final on this, but know that this would be sensible with how the next stage is structured.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2019, 06:05:22 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2019, 11:24:41 AM »
Time for our endgame! While it won't hold a candle to Avengers: Endgame in the eyes of the general public, at least you'll be able to watch it in less than 3 hours. The start makes Episode 17. Expect its continuation on Friday or Saturday, that one's already mostly produced.

   

No matter where she flees to, Reimu will never escape from the jokes about her poverty. We choose a setup that isn't too different from the last one, with the exception that I'll get to pick a satellite that I find awesome:

            

Ranged Defense, Quick Recharge Beta, Fast as Rabbit, Unbreakable and...
"Yin-Yang Orb - Fire straight Danmaku on enemies" - The bullets of this option are a little less accurate than those of the Comet, but at least they don't come at a snail's pace. We talk more about this perk at around the 3-minute-mark. In summary: This one is great because it actually amounts to something.

Either my mind blurred them out, or there were again no lorebooks in today's episode. I think the game is actually done with presenting its information in this kind of way and puts more emphasis on us having dialogue with our adversaries now. Stage 17 by the way is the only instance in this title where stage portions and bosses are not strictly divided from one another. That's one way to raise the stakes. Hopefully not over Remilia's heart...
« Last Edit: April 10, 2019, 11:27:30 AM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #24 on: April 12, 2019, 02:21:06 PM »
The conclusion to the previous part's cliffhanger has arrived. What was our choice? Good or evil? Purification or Shura? Well, the thumbnail of Episode 18 already reveals our course of action:

   

Victory can be so close, yet so far in this encounter. There are once again no lorebooks, nor does it even make sense to post our perk lineup again, as it's the same as it was for part 17. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't have switched anything. The video still comes from the same playsession as the previous.

Those screenshots sure make Dark Reimu seem like a final boss, don't they? She technically is. Technically...

Edit: It'll be a while until the next video. Not because there's anything keeping me from it, but because there's 36 minutes worth of footage. So many NPCs to talk to in that ending...
« Last Edit: April 13, 2019, 12:52:30 PM by Gesh86 »

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #25 on: May 10, 2019, 11:03:23 AM »
28 days later, we do not have a zombie outbreak but the concluding Episode 19 for our adventure.
Will we create a future that we are happy with? Or are we just picking between two types of poison?

   

The playsession isn't the same as last time (obviously), but we do carry the same perks and settings as we did before. You could pretend this to be the continuation of episode 17, at least for a little while.

It's time for a few words to end this playthrough on: Anyone who gave this series a watch, either thoroughly or in a sense of zapping through the episodes: Thank you very much for your time and I hope you enjoyed what you saw! The 36 minutes of this part can be a little daunting, I'm sure, so if you're low on time, the most crucial segments would be minutes 0 to 7 and 31 to 36. I think the message and moral of DoG is quite special and I'd really love to reach folks with my analysis of it, taking place in the last 5 minutes of the video.
On the production of this series: I thought I would have a lot more trouble gathering footage I'd be content with. DoG does become a lot easier to handle when you're at least somewhat experienced with it. Could I have made the playthrough on Hard Mode? Difficult to say. Even if this doesn't get me the greatest bragging rights, I hope this was an intriguing venture for everyone. Can't stress enough that if you haven't played DoG yet, you should try it out as soon as you can.

I'll take a small break no matter what (at least one week), but you can still expect some bonus content appearing in this thread soon. Please wait warmly.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2019, 11:07:20 AM by Gesh86 »

commandercool

  • alter cool
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #26 on: May 10, 2019, 03:07:16 PM »
I kind of missed the bus with this series due to some personal circumstances around when it started, but now that it's just about done I'm gonna have to catch up. It looks like a neat game and I really enjoy your content, so I'm looking forward to watching it straight through.
I made a PADHerder. It's probably out of date though.

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #27 on: May 20, 2019, 08:16:03 PM »
I kind of missed the bus with this series due to some personal circumstances around when it started, but now that it's just about done I'm gonna have to catch up. It looks like a neat game and I really enjoy your content, so I'm looking forward to watching it straight through.

5 hour binge-watch, go! That reminds me, I should also link the playlist in the first post for good measure...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've recently read some very interesting news regarding to a comment I've made within the last few minutes of episode 19: I've namedropped Nintendo as a company that handles brands and copyright very differently and much more possessive than ZUN. That isn't factually wrong at all, but there are some unusual and unforeseen changes underway with that dinosaur of a company. Nintendo has allowed an indie studio to work on a Zelda title (Cadence of Hyrule). While the developer's pedigree of having made Crypt of the Necrodancer has undoubtedly helped in getting the o.k. for the project, this isn't really too different from how Touhou Doujin games get made. I gave the example of Nintendo in regards to the removal of AM2R and Pok?mon Uranium, obviously, but it looks like those years of notoriously rigid and protective Nintendo are coming to an end. Never thought that would happen...

That intial tangent out of the way, I wanted to make some bonus content in the form of post-game conversations within our hub. Since I don't like making videos that feature not even an ounce of action, I've had the idea to just switch to Screenshot Let's Play format for that purpose. Let's go:

After getting the bad ending (Sealing Gensokyo) and loading up your game:

We spawn next to Iku where we usually do:



Tenshi: Ah, thanks...
Iku: You don't look well.
Tenshi: Heaven...seems so desolate, as if nothing happened.
Iku: Isn't it exactly what you wanted? Gensokyo is still a paradise, no one's been hurt, and nobody has to change their way of life.
Tenshi: Maybe you're right. I should feel strange to have a crowded heaven. So where's White Tenshi and others?
Iku: They went to other planes with their phantoms.
Tenshi: Well, nothing changed in Gensokyo! But everything changed for me! I'm not the arrogant Tenshi any more.
Iku: Oh, you're not changed that much, my lady! We virtually had nothing done after our struggles.
Tenshi: Nothing done? Emm, well, maybe doing nothing generates a good result. Ignorance is kind of happiness sometimes.


If some of the dialogue sounds very Engrish-y to the point where it would be hard to understand, I won't auto-correct it, but perhaps interpret it afterwards. Who knows, maybe I would be wrong and someone else gets the intended meaning?
Speaking to Iku once more after this forced, initial conversation leads to the exact same exchange. We do some exploring around our base after that. Who do we meet first?
Nobody. Absolutely nobody.
Apart from the throwaway Celestials as well as Kogasa and Byakuren to access their services, there's not a soul around that would have anything unique and meaningful to say to us. I think the emptiness of our sanctuary is another instance of DoG communicating to the player. It's screaming "Hey dummy! Go back, beat White Reimu and get the good ending! This isn't how you want this story to end!"
And so we do exactly that.

After getting the good ending (lifting the barrier to the human world) and loading up your game:



Iku: Well, some people went back, while some still like to live here.
Tenshi: Seems as if my heaven will be crowded all the time. Other celestials, may have issues with that.
Iku: We have been complained about those things, such as hosting parties and building an orphanage in heaven...
Tenshi: You mean...Already? Will that put us in trouble?
Iku: Not at all. White Tenshi has beaten those celestials and officials up, so there's nothing left for us.
Tenshi: Sounds good.
Iku: If they really want to make trouble, we can just say we were forced to do so. Then we will not be the target.
Tenshi: But you are betraying your allies!
Iku: Oh, don't get me wrong! You need to believe in her. She will settle down all the affairs.
Tenshi: I'm afraid trust in friends shouldn't be wasted here...


So if Heaven's bigwigs are not happy with our decision of letting the real world into Gensokyo, they get smacked up and at the end of the day, we blame that on someone else as well. Lovely. Nothing is ever our fault. Talking to Iku manually repeats the exchange and gets us into the character menu. Scrolling all the way down reveals...



...Reimu. We do have her should we decide to keep playing. The price of 6480 point icons (80 more than I remembered) is a completely meaningless programing relic.
In both screenshots we can see Reisen lying face-forward on a house porch. Let's check if she's dead or not:

Tenshi: Hi bunny, why are you lying here on the ground?



Tenshi: Oh, OK. I'm feeling tired too, after this tiring incident.
Reisen: ...
Tenshi: Are you OK? (Takes out a vital sign monitor)


Does she have one of those just stuffed in her dress 24/7, hoping for a situation it'll be useful in? Our theory that everyone is a Looney Toon is sounding more and more sane...

Tenshi: That's a miracle that she's still alive!

We leave her with no additional medical attention and turn left on the northernmost point of the map. Tucked in a corner, we find Marisa:



Marisa: Hi Tenshi! What a nice day, isn't it? ^_^

The bossfights couldn't defeat me, but if those smilies in dialogue keep coming, I'm not sure I'm going to make it...

Tenshi: Don't pretend to be a good guy! What's in your pocket?
Marisa: Emm, Tenshi, you see, you promised to lend me some materials...
Tenshi
(her artwork draws her sword at this point): I will never give stealing a green light!
Marisa is being hit...
Tenshi: Heaven is not your home, you're doing robbery! I will not let you go with this kind of behaviour! Just as Iku said, punishment become justice when someone's against law
Marisa: Damnit! I shall never be caught stealing again. Run!
Tenshi: You want to steal again? Wow, she's fleeing fast! That white guy, please kill that mouse for me!




Tenshi: Oh my god, she's getting away! I hate you, White Tenshi. You totally ignored me!
Tenshi the Angel
(that's the displayed name now): If you called me by a wrong name again, I will make your sword into fly-knives for my maid.
Tenshi: Eh, please don't do that. I don't have a backup!


Same old story with thieving Marisa. Plus, a White Tenshi cameo who I can already tell you is also hanging around the Azure Fortress somewhere. Near Kogasa's smithy, we run into Hata no Kokorokorokoro:



Tenshi: Please let me take a break, OK!
Kokoro: No, you need to start, now!
Tenshi: Never, I'm tired now! Unless you beat me up!
Girls are Fighting...
Kokoro: Hmm...you lazy celestial!
Tenshi: Haha...I'm stronger than you thought! But I really feel tired now ~ Don't worry about the progress, I will memorize them much better after a good rest! So, bye ~


I assume the "Hmm" and "Haha" is meant to be both of them panting. So to avoid dance practice, Tenshi did something that was probably equally exhausting. Her worst enemy has to be her own stubborn head.
We get to Kogasa after that, who has a little bit more to say than usual:

Kogasa: Hello, need to upgrade your weapons again? You can just pay the service with your points~
Tenshi: Oh, come on! The incident is over, so I don't need to upgrade weapons...But why are you still here?




Tenshi: So you may still stay here in heaven...Several days longer won't matter for me.
Kogasa: But there's a tough guy in heaven now, the maid in black. She looks so frightening!
Tenshi: That's out of my duty. You're on your own now.


Would Black Sakuya truly have such a heart of stone that she would bully our favourite blacksmith? Maybe we'll ask her when we inevitably run into her. Our next conversation waits in the east and should scare the cowardly umbrella even more:



This continuity seems to believe that you have made only one choice and that it was the right one. Also, "Reimu the Harbinger?" This game just loves handing out new and edgy titles to its phantoms.

Tenshi: Stop! Why shall we fight on first sight? I want to live.
Dark Reimu: What? Do someone fighting around like you need a reason to fight?
Tenshi: Maybe that's true for me before, but now I'm different!
Dark Reimu: You mean you've grown up and won't hit someone without reason?
Tenshi: No, I want to say, I just feel tired today after the incident was settled. We can fight tomorrow.
Dark Reimu: So what you want is still a good smack, ha?
Tenshi: This is my place, the heaven. Would you mind to be a little polite?


Silly Tenshi, you can't tell the Touhou fandom to behave in the way how you prefer it. That was the whole message of this game. Weren't you paying attention? We continue the route we always take throughout our hub. Too bad, the "secret zone" where we once found Reisen hiding is deserted, as so often before. Once in the southern part of the map, we see someone standing under the bridge spanning the teleporting lake:



It seems a nerdy programer has found his way into Gensokyo. I've got to wonder if they had someone from MyACG specifically in mind for this guy.

Sinsack: There's still an Easter Egg (funny bug) in my program remain unsolved. What should I do?
Tenshi: Wow, this shall be the first normal GuiltyBag. Why are you here?
Sinsack: I have been coding and debuging for 3 days...Wait, are you Tenshi?
Tenshi: I can't believe I'm so famous!
Sinsack: Yeah, I'm in Gensokyo, finally! But I need some rest before looking around. I'm working on fan-made Touhou games everyday without high salaries...maybe I suffered a sudden death already! Ah yeah! (Fainted)
Tenshi: He's sleeping with happiness. I felt his love for us...And we need to thank him for my standing here. Well, give him a chance to play with the maids.


The sinsack must be mixing up the wonderlands of Touhou and Konosuba. You're still live and kicking, buddy. West of the teleporting lake, we run into two loveable wimps:



What's very surprising here is that you can't interact with them at all. Mystia and Cirno are on a two-person-hangout and don't have time to include us in their activities. So much for "Tenshi sister is best friend forever"...I've tried repositioning myself, thinking that I might not be in the right spot to talk with them. Not a chance. Guess they're just part of the scenery. Moving on, Byakuren is next:

Tenshi: Why are you still around after the incident resolved?



Tenshi: Oh, you are welcome. But why is your ship still parked here?
Byakuren: Because my temple is not ready yet, and I've got some phantoms to clean up where I'm living. So could you...
Tenshi: Sorry, but I feel too tired now. You can turn to Alice and her phantom for temple repairment, and Reimu with her phantom for phantom clearance. Yeah, I like it when there're many friends to share my responsibilities!
Byakuren: And they are definitely more reliable than you chav celestial. So please remember to lend your place to park my ship.
Tenshi: As your wish. But would it be so hard for you to show better attitude towards me, since I have found so many magic fragments for you...
Byakuren: Tenshi, you are welcome to our temple for better education, on manners.
Tenshi: Haha you said manners? You are not behaving that well when racing motorbikes on roads.
Byakuren: That's so impolite of you! I'm playing noble sports, OK?
Tenshi: Then what would you like to say about the guns?
Byakuren: Flying Bowl ~ Flying 9mm pebbles.
Tenshi: Let alone the diameter and fire rate...What's in you hand right now?
Byakuren: Are you kidding? You should know that spellcards are something physical, and of different shapes.
Tenshi: OK, I see. So the motorcycle is also one of them?
Byakuren: Not at all. It's only a common vehicle. It's a nice bike that worth $4000! Whenever facing a target, I will get down myself, hit the enemy away, and then get back on.
Tenshi: I was just wondering why this bike is always shining brand-new. That's really, unbelievable.
Byakuren: So riding bike is still a good way to keep healthy.


Quite a lengthy exchange. I'm asking myself why the temple needs repairs, when Myouren Temple and the Palanquin should be the same construct, just magically altered. When she finally plants the temple somewhere, I hope it's not on top of some Taoists' mausoleum again. Where Byakuren is, Yoshika can't be far. Just a couple of steps north, she is staring onto the world below:

Tenshi: Why are you guy still here?
Yoshika: Ouch!
Tenshi: What's wrong with you?




Sounds to me like you're living in rigid hell rather than rigid paradise.

Tenshi: Will zombie have a neck sprain? By the way, you know human languages, right?
Yoshika: My master taught me that it's really cool to mock somebody in his/her own words...
Tenshi: So you learn our language just for teasing others. That's...ridiculous!
Yoshika: Mind your own business, my dear chav celestial bastard! I made it possible for you to make friends with me!
Tenshi: No, I don't eager to become your friend. Plus that friends deserve better names, OK?
Yoshika: Tenshi, your weakness doesn't deserve ignorance. And that's when a friend will help!
Tenshi: No, I don't feel like improving myself now, thanks.


Always quarreling those two. I don't think that will ever change (it hardly can, there's nothing left after this segment). The festival from last time has introduced a certain Satori to the story, but the talks with her didn't lead anywhere. Let's wind that subject up again. A few stepts north from Yoshika, we spot a peculiar trio:



Tenshi: Hey, why did I stop here for no reason.
White Tenshi: Take that! (White Tenshi thumps Tenshi suddenly from the back.)
Tenshi: Ouch! You are hitting my soul out! What on earth are you doing?
White Tenshi: Don't be afraid. I have good control of the strength, so you should be just half unconscious now.
Tenshi: Ah! I see the long river, and this time with a girl with green hair, not red like before!
Koishi: Wow! So you can see me now, Tenshi?
Tenshi: Ah, so you are the new boatman here! Please do take that guy in white together to the underworld this time!
White Tenshi: Tenshi, this is actually Koishi, the girl who is always unconscious!
Koishi: I met you on the dinner party last time! So I'm here according to our promise.
Tenshi: Wow! You look like this! Why can I notice you now?
White Tenshi: You know, you have to be unconscious first, to see someone always unconscious. Good idea, ha?
Tenshi: That's not good at all, what if you killed me?
White Tenshi: Then I'll ask Yoyoko to send you back. That's not a major problem.


"Yoyoko" is probably Yuyuko. Hard to say how a typo of that magnitude came to pass. The ghostly princess is the highest official when it comes to life and death, alright.

Tenshi: Though terrifying, it turned out to be effective. So nice to meet you, Koishi!
Koishi: I met you on the dinner party last time! So I'm here according to our promise.
Tenshi: Welcome to heaven! I guess I can put up with this unconscious state.
Koishi: So what's the difference between celestial and human? Can I slice you up and have a look ^_^




Yandere Koishi. If you recall the murderous things she says in the official games, it's not a completely unfounded joke...

Tenshi: No, never!

It's not possible to initiate a conversation with White Tenshi separately, she was meant to be part of the one with Koishi. And partially Marisa's, too. Therefore, it's Black Sakuya's turn...

Tenshi: Have you ever noticed that your maid uniform is of dark color? Will that have some bad effects on small children?

Frigthened crybaby Kogasa would be one such small child. I think the main idea is the orphanage, though.



Tenshi: Well, that's great. But White Tenshi seems to be faced with trouble ever since she's here?
Black Sakuya: Ah, that's true. The building we managed to move here were labeled as unauthorized, so she was so angry...that she argued with them fiercely, and I need to work out for the solutions.
Tenshi: But I thought it was she that settled this affair...from her words.
Black Sakuya: Well, this is not a Gensokyo incident, and you cannot settle that just be beaten everyone. So I made some compromises with the celestials.
Tenshi: I don't care about the details...But will White Tenshi obey that?
Black Sakuya: I will save us by running away, well, as long as I can stop the time. To be serious, White Tenshi's being much more experienced than me, so she shall know what to do.
Tenshi: White Tenshi believes you can beat them all.
Black Sakuya: But why shall we fight if we can avoid it?
Tenshi: White Tenshi's thinking why shall we flee if we can win the game :) Quite amazing that you can put up with each other and run the orphanage well...


Knowing DoG's version of Gensokyo, any situation that could lead to a fight will lead to a fight. So good luck to White Tenshi and Black Sakuya. At this point, it seemed like we had combed our hub for every single NPC. I was doing another round to make sure I wasn't being a fool and wouldn't you know it, it paid off! There was one more character around that had camouflaged herself a little. In the southwestern corner of the map, a monocoloured maiden is staring into the distance...

Tenshi: I thought you would like the idea to stay in your shrine. So how's your staying here?



Reimu the Savior, huh? Based on her actions, did she deserve any such honorary titles? She wasn't bad to the core, but still the main antagonist if you argue there even was one.

White Reimu: Emm...don't want to move now ~ If you had chosen to close this area, I wouldn't have struggled so much.
Tenshi: So you want to live on me? No way, as we're having a limited budget.
White Reimu: Oh, come on! I will clean out the annoying phantoms for you, which should be your responsibilities!
Tenshi: OK, I don't feel like working either!
White Reimu: ?
Tenshi: So, welcome to heaven, accommondation available!


And that should do it. Those are all of Heaven's residents you can discover if you decide to load up your game instead of jumping head-first into New Game+. I hope you found this little addendum to our playthrough enjoyable. There's still a chance that I'll make a supercut of unused characters, including those you can get through DLC. That one will of course be in Video Let's Play format again, as we need to see their abilities in full motion on the field of battle. Until then!

Gesh86

  • Buddha may forgive you...
  • but Byakuren won't!
Re: [VLP] The Disappearing of Gensokyo - For Touhou, fandom is canon?
« Reply #28 on: June 01, 2019, 04:15:10 PM »
One last time (unless questions or input from you come up that I want to comment on) I get to add something to this thread. We have another Bonus Episode and it's about...

Quote
There's still a chance that I'll make a supercut of unused characters



No, Emperor Palpatine is not a DLC character in The Disappearing of Gensoukyo. The video will inform you who is and who you will get the most use out of.

See you next Let's Play! I do not know what game it could be or when I will start it. Inspiration always knocks at one's door at some point.