Touhou Blogging Thread

[Ozzter]

The feeling when you fail a 1cc run halfway through the final boss's final spellcard. I've had this happen twice to me, in MoF and TD, haha, so I've yet to 1cc those two. It's like I know the patterns and such, but I guess I'm not aware half the time and make stupid mistakes, or I over extend at times ( I blame UFO and DDC for putting me into this habit! ). Oh well, I'm going to try and keep practicing those so I can focus soley on SA afterwards, since that's the one that gives me the most trouble out of all the games. I'm aiming to have those two done this weekend if all goes well!

[ILikeBulletZ]

The feeling when you fail a 1cc run halfway through the final boss's final spellcard. I've had this happen twice to me, in MoF and TD, haha, so I've yet to 1cc those two. It's like I know the patterns and such, but I guess I'm not aware half the time and make stupid mistakes, or I over extend at times ( I blame UFO and DDC for putting me into this habit! ). Oh well, I'm going to try and keep practicing those so I can focus soley on SA afterwards, since that's the one that gives me the most trouble out of all the games. I'm aiming to have those two done this weekend if all goes well!

I know that feeling from TD with Youmu...

Failed aganist the Final Boss Spellcard... 3 times so far... in Normal...


Its the main reason of why I dont buy the "TD is teh eazist game LEL" at all. Pattern wise, you have a point. Resource wise... hell no!

[LunaWillow]

Its the main reason of why I dont buy the "TD is teh eazist game LEL" at all. Pattern wise, you have a point. Resource wise... hell no!

Exactly! If the game would give you more resources, it would be the easiest game in the series, but it just don't give you too much. And some of the life parts can't be got without bombing/trans.

Because of that, IN isthe easiest in series for me.

[Ozzter]

Exactly! If the game would give you more resources, it would be the easiest game in the series, but it just don't give you too much. And some of the life parts can't be got without bombing/trans.

Because of that, IN is the easiest in series for me.

Oh yeah, I loved the life system in IN/PCB. Since I'm usually not too focused on collecting point items because of my lack of skill, making an incentive to collect them and with the introduction of a visual counter towards the next life was great. Added on to that with the fact that the better you did, the harder it was to gain lives because the counter increased as you gained lives, and reset when you died. ( Or was it continued? I'll have to check ) The only reason I was able to get through UFO and DDC was because I focused on getting as many life fragments as possible from the gimmicks, haha!

On a side note, what's up with the continue amount increasing in PCB? I remember it being only 3 when I started playing it and now I get 5. Granted, those 5 let me normally beat PCB hard non-1cc, but it felt cheaty( I just needed to beat Yuyuko to unlock practice for stage 6, but even then ). Was very weirded out when I saw a 5 instead of a 3.

[ILikeBulletZ]

Oh yeah, I loved the life system in IN/PCB. Since I'm usually not too focused on collecting point items because of my lack of skill, making an incentive to collect them and with the introduction of a visual counter towards the next life was great. Added on to that with the fact that the better you did, the harder it was to gain lives because the counter increased as you gained lives, and reset when you died. ( Or was it continued? I'll have to check ) The only reason I was able to get through UFO and DDC was because I focused on getting as many life fragments as possible from the gimmicks, haha!

On a side note, what's up with the continue amount increasing in PCB? I remember it being only 3 when I started playing it and now I get 5. Granted, those 5 let me normally beat PCB hard non-1cc, but it felt cheaty( I just needed to beat Yuyuko to unlock practice for stage 6, but even then ). Was very weirded out when I saw a 5 instead of a 3.

100% Agreed on the Life system of PCB/IN FTW. It really worked just fine with that system!

Also not too sure but I believe the Continue amount is different according to the difficulty you are playing. The harder the difficulty, the more continues you get... (even thought you would think the higher the difficulty the LESS continues you would get, but ehh...)

At least I believe this was the case with at least 1 game, but not sure if it applies to every game.

[Karisa]

The only reason I was able to get through UFO and DDC was because I focused on getting as many life fragments as possible from the gimmicks, haha!

Try this in TD too if you're having trouble. You don't get many lives, but with planned bombs and trances you can skip plenty of patterns (especially on Hard/Lunatic where you get twice(?) the blue spirits as Easy/Normal). It is a lot more punishing for accidental deaths, though.

Also not too sure but I believe the Continue amount is different according to the difficulty you are playing. The harder the difficulty, the more continues you get... (even thought you would think the higher the difficulty the LESS continues you would get, but ehh...)

At least I believe this was the case with at least 1 game, but not sure if it applies to every game.

The continue count increases by difficulty in TD (3/3/6/9) and DDC (3/3/4/6). (Isn't it always 5 in PCB? I never paid much attention there though, since a single PCB continue resets the extend requirements to their low starting values. Simple enough to test though by temporarily renaming your score.dat file.)

Personally I don't see why they aren't just unlimited. Aren't continues mostly used for unlocking stage practice, or for playing out failed runs for practice, with the main goal being clearing without continues? That's the impression I get, at least.

[ILikeBulletZ]

Try this in TD too if you're having trouble. You don't get many lives, but with planned bombs and trances you can skip plenty of patterns (especially on Hard/Lunatic where you get twice(?) the blue spirits as Easy/Normal). It is a lot more punishing for accidental deaths, though.
The continue count increases by difficulty in TD (3/3/6/9) and DDC (3/3/4/6). (Isn't it always 5 in PCB? I never paid much attention there though, since a single PCB continue resets the extend requirements to their low starting values. Simple enough to test though by temporarily renaming your score.dat file.)

Personally I don't see why they aren't just unlimited. Aren't continues mostly used for unlocking stage practice, or for playing out failed runs for practice, with the main goal being clearing without continues? That's the impression I get, at least.

Holy crap...


9, NINE continues?...

Wow...

I am pretty sure it has always been 5 PCB continues. I still remember from my very first Easy difficulty run (which doubles as the very first time I played Touhou), I used all 5 continues (And still died at Yuyukos survival because that's how much I sucked back then LOL).

[MrL1193]

So, speaking of DDC, I recently got the game myself. Normally, I would do my blind playthrough on Easy in order to get it out of the way with less boredom, but this time, I decided to jump right into Normal Mode. My first three runs of the game went thusly:

1st: I started out with Reimu A, as I usually do. I didn't read up on the lives system for the game, so I didn't realize that POC was the way to get them. I managed to get past the first two stages without dying or bombing, but started blowing through resources shortly thereafter. In the end, I had to continue twice on Stage 6 to finish.

2nd: I switched to Reimu B this time so I could unlock Stage 4B for practice. This time, I knew about the POC mechanic, so I tried to use it as much as possible. Unfortunately, since I didn't have the stages memorized at all, this lead to numerous clumsy deaths on later stages, and I again had to continue twice on Stage 6 to finish.

3rd: I finally decided to try out Sakuya A to see if all the claims that she was OP were true. They were. Thanks to the power of homing knives and double bombs, my life count maxed out at the end of Stage 5, and it stayed at or close to the max all through Stage 6.



On a side note, I haven't set aside time to figure out whatever new method we have to use to apply translations now, so I've resorted to looking up the translated scripts online after playing the game (including the scripts for the endings I've seen). I really do wish there were just a simple translation patch for this game like the ones for the previous games...

[LunaWillow]

In PCB you always get 5 continues, at least on normal.

I'm not sure who to play as in DDC. I like ReimuA, and I like SakuyaA and B, but I don't like Sakuya's bomb. Also I'm not sure, which Tsukumo sister is easier (they're both hard :/).

[Emerald Mint]

ReimuA/B are good for starter shots, although ReimuA is capable of more damage on all fronts. Personally I've had less trouble with the A-type sister.

[Karisa]

I'm not sure who to play as in DDC. I like ReimuA, and I like SakuyaA and B, but I don't like Sakuya's bomb. Also I'm not sure, which Tsukumo sister is easier (they're both hard :/).

SakuyaB's shot is among the weakest in the game (and the no-damage bomb doesn't help; SakuyaA's bomb at least gets 2 screen clears). I would not recommend her unless you're doing an any shot type challenge ranked by score (since she gains extra PIV from both shooting and bombing).

ReimuA and SakuyaA are both quite powerful for some reason (strangely for homing shots). SakuyaA even slows down enemy patterns. Meanwhile ReimuB is surprisingly weak, but some people like the familiarity with needle Reimu.

Basically, DDC's shot types are really unbalanced. The best one basically comes down to ReimuA or SakuyaA anyway, assuming you wouldn't count a MarisaB resource-farming-bomb clear.

[LunaWillow]

Oh, really? I always thought homing=weak forward focus=strong. I'm surprised it's opposite in DDC. I guess I'll stay with ReimuA, maybe SakuyaB.

[Ozzter]

Never noticed that about the continues, I guess I must've been playing some lower difficulty when it came to the continues.

With DDC, I actually prefer MarisaB and SakuyaB for their shot types for some odd reason, and might even try MarisaA due to starting to really enjoy MarisaC's power in MoF ( though it won't have the locking mechanic, I'll miss that ). I'm always weird about shot types, I just play what feels enjoyable to me, and homing shots always seem to be a deterrence to me. They're just not too enjoyable to use, personally. This is for all the Touhou games too, and why I almost never end up using Reimu except for her persuasion needle shot type.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there aren't actually many similarities about MarisaC in MoF and MarisaA in DDC besides the fact that they both are flame type shots with alot of power.

[LunaWillow]

Never noticed that about the continues, I guess I must've been playing some lower difficulty when it came to the continues.

With DDC, I actually prefer MarisaB and SakuyaB for their shot types for some odd reason, and might even try MarisaA due to starting to really enjoy MarisaC's power in MoF ( though it won't have the locking mechanic, I'll miss that ). I'm always weird about shot types, I just play what feels enjoyable to me, and homing shots always seem to be a deterrence to me. They're just not too enjoyable to use, personally. This is for all the Touhou games too, and why I almost never end up using Reimu except for her persuasion needle shot type.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, there aren't actually many similarities about MarisaC in MoF and MarisaA in DDC besides the fact that they both are flame type shots with alot of power.

I like only certain homing shots, like MoF one or DDC while I don't like the ones from first game (like PCB or EoSD one)
DDC ReimuA is really enjoyable. Who doesn't like to swing huge mop as your bomb? :V

[Ozzter]

So yay, just did a 1cc of MoF as ReimuB today. Felt so good to finally get that one done, it being my least favorite one and all ( However, through playing it a couple times, I've warmed up a bit towards it ). Time for TD now, and dreading doing SA due to how difficult it is for me. I don't think I've actually beaten SA even with continues, even though it does give unlimited continues, restarting from the beginning just gets tiring after the first ten times, so it just wore me out before actually beating Utsuho. Also, just found out that the trance button in TD was a thing. I always thought it was only an on-death effect, whoops! Must've glanced over that when checking button configs, that'll help immensely during the Miko fight.  :derp:

[LunaWillow]

YAHOO~! I DID IT! I CLEARED DDC!

I've beaten every Touhou shooter on normal!
Yay~ Thank you, SakuyaA!

[Mr Jovial]

Ugh, giving up on another stage perfect, this time SA stage 5. Midboss Orin is just too RNG based difficult for me and on the off chance that I get past her, I find most of her other boss attacks either boring or annoying. At this point, the only stages I'm considering perfecting are PCB 4, UFO 5 and (possibly) SA extra. I was going to go for a stage perfect then just stick to scoring practice but with Mino's 2 LNNs, I'm considering going for another LNN, namely TD. Not sure if I'll follow it through or not though.

[Sakurei]

I posted an entry to my blog about my extra run. I could copy and paste it all in here, but what doesn't one do for some extra clicks. well and it's pretty lengthy so I don't know if I should put a wall of text here (Actually, if I'm not allowed to link the blog, please delete the link, PM me and tell me that you did, I'll do the copy&paste then)

http://howissyarosoperfect.blogspot.co.at/2015/03/imperishable-night-extra-3-billion.html

[SleepyYoukai]

I finally got my first lunatic 1cc in any Touhou game ever. Granted, it was TD but i was overjoyed. The day after that I managed to beat Flandre which was the only unbeaten EX-boss (Windows era only). Good times.

[Uruwi]

I captured Newborn Divine Spirit on Hard.

As well as ExKeine's last spell plus Mokou's 3rd, 5th, and 7th.

[?q]

I thought I would pick up Resurrection of Heaven's Liquor for funsies.  It's a bad game that was barely playtested, so I can't take it seriously, right?

Well... one result of it not being playtested is that the later parts of Lunatic are pretty close to impossible, if not outright unplayable.  That was a lot of continue-spam.

[SleepyYoukai]

After about 520 failed attempts with Remilia and another 230ish failed attempts as the Border team, I captured Fantasy Heaven as Rm & Yk. When I first started trying to cap it with Remilia it was rare for me to even get past the fourth "fan" of amulets, surviving after that was even more uncommon. Towards the grand finale, I got a path going, even though it sometimes didn't work because Reimu was too low on the screen, but a path nevertheless.

[Electric Tengu]

Hi I've viewed these forums as a guest for a while and I've posted once before to ask a minor question, but now I finally decided to introduce myself (sorry if this is the wrong place, though I think I've seen introductions here before).

I've been playing Touhou since early 2013, though I'd played a bullet hell game before (Bullet Heaven) that helped me ease into the series.

My favorite Touhou games are UFO, then TD, then MoF. UFO because I really like the patterns, challenge, and the working for your resources (though I mostly play stage practice); TD because it was my first Touhou game after EoSD and it was the first I seriously played (sometimes I forget EoSD was my first, lol); and MoF as the game I play the third-most, mostly because I love its Stage 4.

My favorite characters are Marisa, Yuyuko, Youmu, Sanae, and to a lesser extent Orin, Aya, and Shou.

My favorite songs (in order of chronology) are Heartfelt Fancy, Lullaby of a Deserted Hell, At the End of Spring, Sky Ruin, Emotional Mind, Night Sakura of Dead Spirits, The Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum, Legend of the Great Gods, Magical Storm, and The Shining Needle Castle Sinking in the Air.

Currently I have Hard 1ccs in all Windows games except PoFV (never played it) and Lunatic 1ccs in TD, DDC, and MoF. My best achievement is a TD L4MNBNT, and I'm looking to get a UFO Lunatic 1cc (I've made it to Byakuren a few times now).


Thanks for reading!

[Mino ☆]

So, today marked the first time I got to Kanako in a MoF LNN attempt. It didn't last long, as I failed her first spell due to mistiming my restream (lol nerves).

Buuuuut... before this I was unsure of whether I should be going for the MoF LNN given how rusty I was. But after a few weeks of grinding it I'm seeing consistency (starting to cap stuff like Hydro Camo and Momiji more often) and I think I can do this! If I can get to Kanako without mistake, it's only a matter of time before I get my third LNN! (So excited! I can't believe I already have two! This journey is so thrilling! :3)

Of course, this is taking into account that I actually grind. I'm not gonna get the MoF LNN unless I put my mind to it. LUCKILY spring break is here so I have some time to grind it.

My goal this year is to get as many LNN(N) runs as I can before the year is up. I have 2 games down, a third one underway.

What will I do after MoF? Not sure. Maaaybe SA? I reaaaaally don't like playing IN too much so I dread the thought of actually doing that game.

[Karisa]

Hi I've viewed these forums as a guest for a while and I've posted once before to ask a minor question, but now I finally decided to introduce myself (sorry if this is the wrong place, though I think I've seen introductions here before).

Hello, welcome to MotK!

There is actually an introduction thread, but if you're looking to introduce yourself specifically to the gameplay-discussion part of the site (since many players in HME wouldn't necessarily see your introduction elsewhere), this works well enough I suppose.

[Mero]

So next up in my list for LNBs is IN, and I'm going to do it with Youmu solo, for two reasons. One is because Youmu is a pretty fun shot to use, and she's quite strong;  the other is because it's almost painful for me to let Border Team's deathbomb timer wear off

So far I'm just de-rusting on the patterns, some stage portions I have trouble with are the early fairies on stage 2 (the ones that constantly shoot familiars), the fairies just before midboss Keine, and the large ones after midboss Marisa, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly me messing up my aiming.

As for bosses, I can't capture Last Spells for shit, but I don't exactly care for them. Other than that, I don't have much trouble outside of Marisa and Kaguya, even Tewi.
With Marisa, her second midboss nonspell is a clusterfuck I can't read, and I keep running into her familiars on Event Horizon, everything else she has should be doable after some practice.
I know Kaguya is basically RNG: the final boss, but I decided to go for her anyway since I'm more familiar with her than with Eirin (and I really don't like Eirin's fight). I may have found a way to do Brilliant Dragon Bullet reliably, since I'm consistently capturing it lately; Buddhist Diamond is kind of a thing, but since I can't hit Kaguya directly anyway, I can move around more comfortably; Salamander Shield is a joke now with the up/down method and Youmu killing it in just two waves; Life Spring Infinity is just horrible, I'm gonna keep practicing, but I don't count on capturing it, and Hourai Jewel should be doable with the Yellow Balls strat. For her Last Spell Rush I just want to have Rising World show up, I don't really mind if I don't capture some spells.

I'm not particularly impatient about getting this LNB, I'd like to do it for Shimatora's challenge, but if I miss the deadline I'll just do it with normal starting stock.

[ふねん1]

Every time I devote some measure of time to IN, I seem to get closer and closer to completing a new personal challenge. I haven't been as interested in doing Stage 6B or Extra lately, so I switched back to Stage 6A, one of the stages I was trying to perfect before my bout with burnout a couple of years ago. I've been sitting down and grinding each of Eirin's Spell Cards on the side, and I'm really seeing the fruit of my labor now. I forget where I saw this, I think it might've been from Jovial, but moving to the right on Apollo 13 really does seem to make the attack easier to read and dodge. I'm capturing that and Omoikane's Brain more often in general, and I've refined my familiar-killing strategy for Astronomical Entombing. I've yet to get a full perfect run, but nailing two NMNB runs tonight is certainly a step in the right direction. As long as I don't die during the first phase of Hourai Elixir again lol, that was too heartbreaking.

So next up in my list for LNBs is IN, and I'm going to do it with Youmu solo, for two reasons. One is because Youmu is a pretty fun shot to use, and she's quite strong;  the other is because it's almost painful for me to let Border Team's deathbomb timer wear off

So far I'm just de-rusting on the patterns, some stage portions I have trouble with are the early fairies on stage 2 (the ones that constantly shoot familiars), the fairies just before midboss Keine, and the large ones after midboss Marisa, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly me messing up my aiming.

As for bosses, I can't capture Last Spells for shit, but I don't exactly care for them. Other than that, I don't have much trouble outside of Marisa and Kaguya, even Tewi.
With Marisa, her second midboss nonspell is a clusterfuck I can't read, and I keep running into her familiars on Event Horizon, everything else she has should be doable after some practice.
I know Kaguya is basically RNG: the final boss, but I decided to go for her anyway since I'm more familiar with her than with Eirin (and I really don't like Eirin's fight). I may have found a way to do Brilliant Dragon Bullet reliably, since I'm consistently capturing it lately; Buddhist Diamond is kind of a thing, but since I can't hit Kaguya directly anyway, I can move around more comfortably; Salamander Shield is a joke now with the up/down method and Youmu killing it in just two waves; Life Spring Infinity is just horrible, I'm gonna keep practicing, but I don't count on capturing it, and Hourai Jewel should be doable with the Yellow Balls strat. For her Last Spell Rush I just want to have Rising World show up, I don't really mind if I don't capture some spells.

Yeah, from my experience the Stage 2 fairies that shoot familiars are harder to do with Youmu than with the Border Team. If anything, you can not kill them right away so fewer of them show up. Don't know about how Stage 3 or 4 work for her though, haven't tried it in years.

Having played Kaguya quite a bit over the past half year, I think calling her excessively RNG-based is a little harsh. I don't know what your strategy is for Brilliant Dragon Bullet, but I've had a lot more success moving up above each wave of bullets as the laser grid approaches - a lot less to dodge that high up. I'll give you Buddhist Diamond, but the extra freedom as Youmu sounds like it'll help. Lifespring Infinity seemingly frustrates a lot of people, myself included at one point. While I need to test this out more, I'm now under the impression that staying directly below Kaguya really is the way to go. You'll have more room to move vertically after she fires each wave, and no worries about either those red rings or Kaguya herself slamming into you.

[Mero]

Having played Kaguya quite a bit over the past half year, I think calling her excessively RNG-based is a little harsh. I don't know what your strategy is for Brilliant Dragon Bullet, but I've had a lot more success moving up above each wave of bullets as the laser grid approaches - a lot less to dodge that high up. I'll give you Buddhist Diamond, but the extra freedom as Youmu sounds like it'll help. Lifespring Infinity seemingly frustrates a lot of people, myself included at one point. While I need to test this out more, I'm now under the impression that staying directly below Kaguya really is the way to go. You'll have more room to move vertically after she fires each wave, and no worries about either those red rings or Kaguya herself slamming into you.

Heh, maybe you're right on Kaguya, I just feel like she throws some nigh-impossible stuff without warning, but I've just started grinding her fight, so that opinion is likely to change. It sounds like we do the same thing for Brilliant Dragon Bullet, nice to know from someone else it works. I'll have to work a lot on Lifespring, I'm just not comfortable with the red stars, but I found that the laser wheel has a delay on their hitbox, like Buddhist Diamond's lasers, so I have more of a window than I previously thought

[Nameschonvergeben]

For the fairys in stage 2 I think with youmu the best way to do them is to circle around them, so that myon can hit them without getting blocked by the familiars. Also Marisas 2nd non is completely static, so once you find a way to do it it's very consistent (you can use yorgjes nonspellpractice to find a way)

[Failure McFailFace]

Hi I've viewed these forums as a guest for a while and I've posted once before to ask a minor question, but now I finally decided to introduce myself (sorry if this is the wrong place, though I think I've seen introductions here before).

Welcome to the forums!

There is actually an introduction thread

and here's the link 4 teh lazy