So any advice on stuff to do in order to get better is welcome, I don't mind grinding or memorizing stuff but my real goal is to increase my basic skills like dodging and death bombing.
Do you play stage select mode at all? I found when I 1cc'd lunatic EoSD, it helped alot to just stage select mode stages 4,5 and 6 alot (3 occasionally, though not as much). This made me better, and it was more fun. Trying to 1cc a game ove rand over again when you can't do it is just frusterating. I mean you'll inevitably die countless times on stuff that you say to yourself "!#%#!% Now I can't 1cc this cuz I died to THAT, I shouldn't die to that! wtf!).
But in stage select mode, you die once or twice, or 3 times, to the dumbest things, and it doesn't matter. Just finish the stage, try again, and try to do better. Try to make it so you can beat all the stages using stage select mode without dying more than 8 times total or whatever (or however many lives you get in that particular Touhou), you'll be playing as much, and you wont have the frusteration.
Playing other STG games is good practice too. I found that after I stopped playing Touhou for awhile, I had fun with eXceed 3rd (2nd is more popular but it's not as similar to Touhou at all), you may wanna give it a try. It's the closest STG to Touhou I can find. Alot of the vets don't like it for various reasons, one being (in my opinion) that it is too easy for them. I mean, it's not an easy game per say, it's just not Touhou, so, it lacks the weird charm Touhou has. You know, the kind that somehow makes any game or movie cooler just by sticking Marisa's head on the lead character or whatever >=P.
So anyway, move to stage select modes, play on a difficulty that's too hard for you on them, or at least pushes you towards a new goal.
I know how you feel, you're scared you wont get any better, because you aren't improving as fast as you were when you were newer. But you really do, and it's hard to notice. I mean I felt like I haven't improved my shooting game skills for half a year myself, and then I tried to 1cc normal SA again just yesterday. Last time I did so, it was really damn hard, and it was just when my "I'm not getting any better anymore" phase STARTED. I played like an idiot, I was dying to so many things that I know I could have avoided. I also died to stuff that was caused by me totally forgetting stuff (I haven't played the game for like half a year after all), but yet, I managed to 1cc it on my first try with 3 lives left over. It felt nice.
Anyway good luck, biggest thing I can suggest is just don't force yourself to play if you aren't enjoying it anymore. Try something else.
Then give me a score.dat or something.
I've reached st5(finished everything before that) and everything from that on was pure cheese - I seriously don't want to spend an hour figuring out how to move so I don't get walled.
I feel that there is a fair amount of dodging. But honestly, pattern-solving is really a key in shooter games too IMO. I think it's how they gauge the skill level of the very best players even. Their playskill for us is way over our heads. They can do stuff that even if we know what they did, cannot replicate. But people who have spent over 10 years+ playing shooter games and only shooting games can somewhat comfortably accomplish any shooting game feat without really much difficulty once they know how. The rank of "best" I THINK is given to the people who "figure out" the attack patterns first.
I saw a video of Mushi Futari, one guy is fighting valiantly below getting shot to pieces every once in awhile, playing like you'd expect anybody to. Then another guy did much better, not simply because he was a better dodger, but because he knew the attack patterns, and would fly around Larsa's side at the top of the screen at key moments to lead the majority of her attacks away, that's one example I think.
