Miscellaneous Questions Thread 3 - Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Zil]

One of StB's hints says something like "Let's utilize the fastest speed in Gensokyo!"

However, along with what Drake said, speed isn't such a black and white thing anyway. You've got things like travel speed, how quickly you can dodge a bullet, how quickly you can tie your shoes, etc. Those are all different.

And by the way, Youmu having a spellcard called "200 Yojana in 1 Slash" doesn't necessarily mean she can actually do that, assuming that's the only source for the idea.

[Starxsword]

Not sure if there's even an official source for her being "the fastest in Gensokyo". She is certainly considered fast among other tengu though (PMiSS article).

Something like that shouldn't be taken at face value, though. If such a moniker existed, Aya might only be the de facto "fastest in Gensokyo" just because she's fast in general.

Aya is most likely the fastest in Gensokyo. She, herself, claims such and other characters have used her as reference when it comes to speed. Youmu may travel fast, but Aya is able to take a picture of herself in a photo, which is mentioned in one of the articles.

[Goldom]

How much motivation % can you lose from lasers and still get a silver medal? It seems to be some, but not much.

[Polaris]

How much motivation % can you lose from lasers and still get a silver medal? It seems to be some, but not much.

If you mean the Fairy Wars flashlights, getting your motivation drained by the flashlights doesn't affect what medal you get at all. Here's an example of being drained to 0% and still getting a gold medal, since the only requirements are not using ice and not getting hit.

[Kaze_Senshi]

Someone knows how the Game Progress Percentage count system works in the game? Today I beat Reisen in IN but the game over because of the time, when I went to the Game Stats screen I only got 56% of the game cleared.

[Goldom]

Huh, I could have sworn I was failing cards where I was being drained but never hit. Guess I somehow didn't notice...

[Zil]

Someone knows how the Game Progress Percentage count system works in the game? Today I beat Reisen in IN but the game over because of the time, when I went to the Game Stats screen I only got 56% of the game cleared.

Seeing as it's only possible to game over by running out time if you already used a continue, I would guess that it just gave you the percentage for how far you got before the -first- game over.

I'm just guessing though.

[Goldom]

I'm curious how it gets that number too though, because it seems really off sometimes - I believe dying to Flandre at QED says something like 85%, which seems way too low by any measurement.

[fondue]

Since Sunny can control refraction of light, Luna controls the propagation of sounds and Star can sense moving objects does that mean together they can make themselves completely invisible, silent and be able to not get detected by sensors or something?

[Alfred F. Jones]

Since Sunny can control refraction of light, Luna controls the propagation of sounds and Star can sense moving objects does that mean together they can make themselves completely invisible, silent and be able to not get detected by sensors or something?

Sunny and Luna need the sun and the moon for their powers to work, respectively, so they probably wouldn't be able to use their powers at the same time. That aside, they're also not very smart and would probably get caught anyway even if they were somehow able to use all their powers at the same time. They can win at hide-and-seek, but not much else.

[Ikari]

Sunny and Luna need the sun and the moon for their powers to work, respectively, so they probably wouldn't be able to use their powers at the same time. That aside, they're also not very smart and would probably get caught anyway even if they were somehow able to use all their powers at the same time. They can win at hide-and-seek, but not much else.

They don't need the moon and the sun for their powers to work, but it does strengthen them, since technically, the sun and the moon still exist, but just aren't completely in view. In fact, they both almost never use their powers alone; always together. They do become 100 % invisible and mute, but they're fairies, don't expect any mastermind plans to come out of that anyway. As you said, it's either lame pranks or hide-and-seek.

Since Sunny can control refraction of light, Luna controls the propagation of sounds and Star can sense moving objects does that mean together they can make themselves completely invisible, silent and be able to not get detected by sensors or something?

Not detected by sensors depends, but not really. They become invisible because the light is refracted and they become mute because sound is erased; That doesn't stop things like heat sensors, for example.

[SeasideCharizard]

I apologize if this has already been asked, but it just popped into my head.

Is Sanae fully a goddess? She seems to be referred to as the inhuman type of god the more games she appears in.

In UFO and Mountain of Faith, she calls herself a god/living god but isn't really specific.
In Hisoutensoku, her win quote against herself is "I wonder how everyone trains~", which after seeing Suwako's quote in the same game ("Gods can split themselves infinitely~") gave me the indication that Sanae could split herself and trained this way.
Also in the same game, Suwako says she's a living god and also says she's not human in the same sentence ("But Sanaeee, you're not a human, you're a living god, a miracle-worker...") albeit after Sanae calls herself "only human".
In Ten Desires she calls herself "a god in Gensokyo, working as a shrine maiden on the side".

Kind of confusing to me. As far as I know, she's a half-god, but  :wat:

[Goldom]

She's biologically human as far as I know - at least I get the impression she's aged as a human, (given that she didn't know she was a goddess for most of her life, right?) unlike Suwako who looks about 10 after 2+ millennia. But as a descendent of a goddess, she has super-human powers.

It's also worth noting that "living god" (現人神) is the term used to refer to the emperors of Japan, similar to how many kings are traditionally viewed as descending from divinity, despite still being human.

[Sagus]

Touhou wiki says she's a Arahitogami; a human that gained enough faith to become divine while still being alive. So she was human and became a god later at life. Maybe she  feels more like a human than a god, hence her "I'm just a human" comments.

[Prime32]

She is simultaneously human and god. If she died she would continue to exist as a god, and if she lost worshippers she would continue to exist as a human.

If Kanako lost worshippers she'd be reduced to a divine spirit, while Suwako would cease to exist.

[OkashiiKisei]

Random question that's been buzzing in my head for a long time:

Would/could a youkai eat another youkai? And would that count as cannibalism or only if they're the same type of youkai?

[Delfigamer]

Uh.
One official case I know is vengeful spirit's ability to possess others, what in youkai's case would be complete absorbtion of victim.
Another one is Yuyuko's dinner with Mystia, if I've got IN's story right.

If Kanako lost worshippers she'd be reduced to a divine spirit, while Suwako would cease to exist.

Right.
Sanae has plain human body, equipped with human soul and worshippers' faith.
Kanako doesn't have human body (only youkai one), she is a divine spirit (which isn't exactly human, SoPM states it can belong to, e. g., a group of people too) powered with faith. As she herself states, if she lost her worshippers, she'd become just another youkai.
Suwako belongs to the Eight Million Gods, Shinto's pantheon, and consists of pure faith.

[Sungho]

Why is Kurodani Yamame sometimes described as an underground idol?

[fondue]

Since spell duels are not allowed to guarantee a win, does that mean even Rumia has a chance against Yukari?

[cuc]

Why is Kurodani Yamame sometimes described as an underground idol?

According to her profile, she's popular underground due to her cheerful personality.

Since spell duels are not allowed to guarantee a win, does that mean even Rumia has a chance against Yukari?

In pure theory, yes.

You can certainly beat several of the strongest characters into crying with Cirno in PoFV and Hisoutensoku's non-story modes, although I don't think these are supposed to be events that actually took place, just "what-if" scenarios that may theoretically happen (unlike Cirno's story modes, or the Fairy Wars extra stage, where "victory" against a strong opponent means barely surviving).

As an aside, Cirno says in her Hisoutensoku win quote vs. Yukari:

That's it, isn't it? You're just pretending to understand
those hard-to-understand things you say, aren't you?

She might have a point.

[Prime32]

It would explain why Ran can't understand her equations; they're just gibberish. :V

[Drake]

Why is Kurodani Yamame sometimes described as an underground idol?

According to her profile, she's popular underground due to her cheerful personality.

Of course, you have to note that the quote is pretty well-corrupted; Yamame being an idol isn't even hinted at. Also, it's interesting that it's said she's hated by the people she meets due to her powers, even though she'd never inflict disease without a reason, but anyone who talks with her knows this. It's more of a don't-judge-the-book-by-its-ability situation.


As for the spell card rules: as cuc says, the answer is yes, but it's much more than that, because saying it like that equates it to, say, winning in Go Fish rather than Poker, or Snakes and Ladders rather than Go. Danmaku clearly doesn't require much effort or magic power to produce, but it's largely about dodging ability and thought. You might not be able to go all-out, or use an ability to cheat, but abilities are almost always seen implemented in spell cards, and without some degree of magical and physical ability you can't really do much. Intelligence in putting your danmaku together, using an ability, and dodging is the other primary part, because that's where the big guns lie once each combatant can output more danmaku than they need. So although Rumia may be able to win against Yukari, all that's done is evening the playing field so that raw power and ability hax is taken out of the fight. Yukari is still leagues over Rumia.

Using Yukari as an example is funny though because she often dumbs herself down to the opponent's level to have an amusing fight. Yukari might as well lose just by virtue of playing around.

[Starxsword]

@Spellcard rules: In theory, yes, Rumia can beat Yukari. Kind of like how Marisa can beat Reimu, even if Reimu is much better than Marisa. But, for this latter example, the odds are more fairly balanced so that the win rate isn't abysmal.
There are also some in game events that could have possibly happen showing that in theory, these things can happen. Like Cirno against Marisa in Great Fairy Wars or Cirno's story mode in Hisoutensoku, where she beat some people who should be stronger than her.

This victory condition would likely depend on the opponent too. As mentioned in the Grimoire of Marisa. Patchouli is what Marisa believes to be the one that understands spell card rules well, as she makes allowances in her spell cards for her opponent to beat. Yukari and Suika, not so much. Yukari's spell cards are generally more like real combat. This could be because she came from back in the day where spell card rules do not exist. Suika, Marisa complains that her spell cards don't look much like spell cards and instead, it is just her beating you up.

[Drake]

Cirno actually lost against Marisa in GFW. Marisa was also drunk and possibly using literal flashlights.

[Starxsword]

Did she? I thought Cirno officially had the win, even if Cirno was more beat up than Marisa at the end.

[Delfigamer]

Marisa complains that her spell cards don't look much like spell cards...

As we remember, Marisa have a danmaku that is not exactly... danmaku.
One of fanfics states that Yukari's spellcards are harmless by itselves, but they mark the target on hit, and later Yukari can apply some border manipulation to the marked victim. Funny thing is that, formally, it doesn't violate spellcard rules, since a spell itself isn't lethal.
And the answer is (suddenly) no, just because Rumiya is dumb, her spellcards are dumb, and her dodging is dumb. :V

[Drake]

Hatate watched the whole fight. Both her and Marisa had just come back from a flower-viewing party, and Cirno showed up going "I'm the strongest! Give me a new challenger!". Hatate led Cirno to Marisa, Marisa gladly accepted and basically made a game out of it, what with using harmless lights instead of lasers and actually saying "let's see how much fun I can have". Hatate thought to herself "it's alright if the human loses, it's all fun anyways" but she stresses that Marisa basically trounced her. The main point of the article is that humans aren't nearly as powerless as youkai think they are.

[Starxsword]

From that article, I was under the impression that Cirno won, if only by luck. Or it could be that Cirno won, but Marisa let her win. It did not sound like Cirno lost that fight though.

[Drake]

You're probably confused by what Hatate's thoughts were before they fought. Here's a slightly more verbatim translation than what's on the wiki, even though I'm pretty sure the wiki translation gets it across pretty well:
私は今回の決闘であわよくば人間がやられてもいいや、と思っていたがそんな危険性はまるで無く、人間の成長の目覚ましさが見て取れたわけである。
I was thinking that in this match, even if by chance the human lost, it would be fine, but that sort of risk was completely nonexistent; I got to witness the splendid growth (in strength) of a human.

And of course the last two paragraphs are entirely about how much stronger humans have become and how youkai shouldn't be underestimating them. Personally, I also take Hatate's wording of 今回の決闘で (in this/today's match) to imply something about her overall thoughts. "In this match in particular, because Marisa isn't being serious at all and treating it like a game with a kid, there's the possibility that she'll lose, and even if she loses it's fine with me because that's funny". In other words, she wasn't expecting Cirno to put up much of a fight to begin with, but given the handicaps Hatate thought Marisa could lose by some stroke of luck. However, even with those handicaps Cirno got nowhere close to beating Marisa.

The Tengu are a youkai race that have been alive to witness many generations of humans, and she notes that many youkai still think that humans are as weak as they used to be several hundreds of years ago. Hatate however witnessed first-hand that humans have grown such that some are able to play around with fairies without any fear of death, and by saying that youkai shouldn't underestimate them, ponders that the humans may at some point become strong enough to actually rival youkai.

[game2011]

A friend of mine says that ZUN changed Yuuka's design in Touhou 9 because the latter found her original design too intimidating.  Is this true?

Though I like short-hair girls more, I think Yuuka looks better with long hair.  Pants also make her look better, and her wings in Kioh Gyoku are pure win.