Touhou Blogging Thread

[Uruwi]

Managed to 1LC the first four stages of MoF (with Marisa B of course), with 1.xx power to spare. Unfortunately the rest of the run went badly, and I scored only 356 million (instead of my previous 402 million). I realized that I need to start with 4.xx power on Aya's last spell, not 3.xx.

[Koog]

So, I've got a little question here.
So far, I've unlocked 3 extras. Raiko, Flandre and Suwako in that order.

Flandre gives me lots of trouble with Laevatinn...
Suwako and her spells are quite hard... (Except her first one... which I'm quite used to).
And Raiko is the one I have more progress on. (Fifth spellcard). I'm practising her as much as possible...

Raiko is for me bombing on non-spells to get resources... but I fail so many times in her spells...
Flandre, I could barely reach Laevatinn...
And on Suwako, every time I play I reach a bit longer in the stage or Suwako herself.

So, the question is. Should I concentrate on beating Raiko? Suwako? or Flandre?

[Hope ♦ Metal]

So, I've got a little question here.
So far, I've unlocked 3 extras. Raiko, Flandre and Suwako in that order.

Flandre gives me lots of trouble with Laevatinn...
Suwako and her spells are quite hard... (Except her first one... which I'm quite used to).
And Raiko is the one I have more progress on. (Fifth spellcard). I'm practising her as much as possible...

Raiko is for me bombing on non-spells to get resources... but I fail so many times in her spells...
Flandre, I could barely reach Laevatinn...
And on Suwako, every time I play I reach a bit longer in the stage or Suwako herself.

So, the question is. Should I concentrate on beating Raiko? Suwako? or Flandre?

I think it makes sense to focus on the one you can get further on.

[Mikuru]

I'd agree with that. I'm in a similar position -- finally got my 1cc of PCB, so I have two extra stages unlocked. They are very hard. But each time I play, I get a little bit further, and eventually I'll beat the stage and boss. I'm more or less alternating between attempts at the extra and playing the main game at the moment, as right now it would feel too frustrating to play only Extra when I've got so far to go. I'm sure that at some point it will just "click" and I'll want to play only Extra until I finally beat the thing (just like when I started playing PCB, at some point it just got so frustrating that I hadn't 1cced yet and I had to get it).

[?q]

So, I've got a little question here.
So far, I've unlocked 3 extras. Raiko, Flandre and Suwako in that order.

Flandre gives me lots of trouble with Laevatinn...
Suwako and her spells are quite hard... (Except her first one... which I'm quite used to).
And Raiko is the one I have more progress on. (Fifth spellcard). I'm practising her as much as possible...

Raiko is for me bombing on non-spells to get resources... but I fail so many times in her spells...
Flandre, I could barely reach Laevatinn...
And on Suwako, every time I play I reach a bit longer in the stage or Suwako herself.

So, the question is. Should I concentrate on beating Raiko? Suwako? or Flandre?

Double Dealing Character has Spell Practice.  That makes Raiko a lot easier to pick up than Flandre (who has unforgiving game mechanics on her side) and Suwako (where every spell is a wall if you aren't comfortable with it because they take so frigging long).

Then again, it sounds like you're having trouble with the stages more than the bosses.  The advice doesn't really change, though - DDC Extra is probably easier than MoF Extra which is probably easier than EoSD Extra.

---

PCB Extra, stage and boss, is 90% memorization.  It takes a while to learn it, but each time you make progress you can get back to where you were by doing the same things you did last time.

[ILikeBulletZ]

Is there a way to fix LoLK?s replays so they don't desync?

I already tried not speeding it up but it still desyncs... I suppose a Demo can only do so much...

[Karisa]

Did some Cheat Engine testing on the LoLK demo.

- PIV caps still exist (unfortunately). They're the same as in TD/DDC-- Easy 100k, Normal 250k, Hard/Lunatic/Extra 500k.
- Like in DDC, Overdrive mode still exists in the code as difficulty 5 (complete with its starting PIV of 100,000). I didn't try playing through it.
- There seem to be only 6 score-based extends: 30m, 70m, 150m, 300m, 400m, 500m. If no more are added in the full version, looks like LoLK might have EoSD/MoF-tier 8 lives max.

I wonder what weird effects might happen if the game's swapped from Pointdevice to Legacy or vice-versa during a run. Something to try out later I suppose.

[Mero]

Interesting you only get score-based extends (I guess 1-ups are not suited for Pointdevice), I wonder what will this game's score potential be if you're getting extends at 500M. MoF/EoSD's last score extend is not even 1/10th of WR on Lunatic.
Then again it might just be one extend every 100M past 300, sort of like how PCB has an extend every 200 items past 800.

[Karisa]

Then again it might just be one extend every 100M past 300, sort of like how PCB has an extend every 200 items past 800.

It's not. I tried setting the score to over a billion (after setting it to 500m and suiciding away some of the 8 lives to make room), and no more lives were gained.

The limited lives could be just for the demo though. Extend requirements have been changed for full releases before, e.g. TD (which required 10/15/20/etc life parts) and PCB (which had EoSD's life requirements in one of those older versions, not the demo currently on ZUN's site).  I wonder if it changed at all in other demos, particularly MoF?

And judging by the way Normal is already reaching 400m in 3 stages with unoptimized first-few-days scoring, and the way chapter-finish bonuses from grazing can be quite high (50m's been reached already), I think LoLK is already on track for having higher scores than MoF. I doubt it'd match IN though.

[Mikuru]

The limited lives could be just for the demo though. Extend requirements have been changed for full releases before, e.g. TD (which required 10/15/20/etc life parts) and PCB (which had EoSD's life requirements in one of those older versions, not the demo currently on ZUN's site).  I wonder if it changed at all in other demos, particularly MoF?

The MoF 3-level trial version definitely has different extend requirements from the full version -- I think it's 10 and 25 instead of 20, 40 and 80. I don't know whether this is the same as the demo released prior to the full version's release, as I wasn't into Touhou back then

[Mero]

It's not. I tried setting the score to over a billion (after setting it to 500m and suiciding away some of the 8 lives to make room), and no more lives were gained.

The limited lives could be just for the demo though. Extend requirements have been changed for full releases before, e.g. TD (which required 10/15/20/etc life parts) and PCB (which had EoSD's life requirements in one of those older versions, not the demo currently on ZUN's site).  I wonder if it changed at all in other demos, particularly MoF?

And judging by the way Normal is already reaching 400m in 3 stages with unoptimized first-few-days scoring, and the way chapter-finish bonuses from grazing can be quite high (50m's been reached already), I think LoLK is already on track for having higher scores than MoF. I doubt it'd match IN though.

Oh ok, maybe it will be a fixed amount of extends. I do remember playing that PCB trial (for one of your challenges, I think?), and it had EoSD's life system, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I think MoF has a rather low score ceiling compared to the rest of the games, considering it doesn't have graze and the PIV cap is kind of low (and EoSD's case being that PIV wasn't a thing back then), maybe we can expect SA-tier scores from the good characters, at least for Lunatic.

[Mr Jovial]

I'm on Reisen in an IN scorerun and my shot key has stopped working. Send help.

[ふねん1]

ISC has proven to be much more of a mixed bag than what I expected going into this thing.

I first started playing this game about a week ago (though May 8-10 don't count because I was out of town), and in the several days I've been working on it I've narrowed down the scenes I haven't cleared with no items to 5-2, 8-6, 10-4, and 10-7. Now the last two (possibly 8-6 too) are supposed to be the hardest attacks in the game from what I've heard, but 5-2 is just numbing my brain, and borderline killing my interest in completing ISC. This afternoon I broke 2000 attempts at 5-2 (for comparison, StB's Pandemonium took me ~1500 photos to clear) without clearing it. At this point I'm getting seriously worried that this is what I should expect from the other attacks as well, and it just doesn't feel worth it in the long run. The only reason I feel like I can continue with 5-2 at all is because I'm still so used to replaying it, but if something else were to earn my attention for long enough, I'd skip the rest of this game at a drop of the hat. Figuring out how to get this far has already been an interesting challenge, and it's even putting really difficult patterns from other games into perspective (can those be called anything close to impossible compared to the stuff in ISC?), but what's left isn't nearly as fun to subject myself to for literally hours (hell, approaching days) on end.

[ILikeBulletZ]

ISC has proven to be much more of a mixed bag than what I expected going into this thing.

I first started playing this game about a week ago (though May 8-10 don't count because I was out of town), and in the several days I've been working on it I've narrowed down the scenes I haven't cleared with no items to 5-2, 8-6, 10-4, and 10-7. Now the last two (possibly 8-6 too) are supposed to be the hardest attacks in the game from what I've heard, but 5-2 is just numbing my brain, and borderline killing my interest in completing ISC. This afternoon I broke 2000 attempts at 5-2 (for comparison, StB's Pandemonium took me ~1500 photos to clear) without clearing it. At this point I'm getting seriously worried that this is what I should expect from the other attacks as well, and it just doesn't feel worth it in the long run. The only reason I feel like I can continue with 5-2 at all is because I'm still so used to replaying it, but if something else were to earn my attention for long enough, I'd skip the rest of this game at a drop of the hat. Figuring out how to get this far has already been an interesting challenge, and it's even putting really difficult patterns from other games into perspective (can those be called anything close to impossible compared to the stuff in ISC?), but what's left isn't nearly as fun to subject myself to for literally hours (hell, approaching days) on end.

Dont think too much about that.

If you ask me, 5-2 is WAY harder than 10-4 or any other attack in the entire game.... Its too much of a RNG fest IMO, and even when it is not, its hard as hell to no item... I realize that what I just said applies to more scenes than just 5-2, but it applies times 2 for it, IMO.

If it helps on anything, it took me 5K+ attempts to do it.... But it honestly could be perfectly be done way earlier than that because the stupid scene is 80% RNG.

[Aeteas]

Apparently, in the LoLK demo, when Reisen's bomb wears off in between stages, the game does not reset her hitbox size, so she's stuck with a larger hitbox until you bomb again. I think dying doesn't do it either, you have to bomb. It even desyncs replays if start from a later stage. It's probably also part of the reason why I died 200+ times on a Reisen Pointdevice hard run, and then cleared it with Sanae in 10 retries immediately afterwards.  Though I think most of the reason is that Sanae is awesome and I just fail.  :V

Also, if you use Reisen's bomb right before a spellcard starts, the boss becomes invincible until you get hit once. For other characters, the boss is invincible for the bomb duration, but ZUN forgot that Reisen's bomb has infinite duration.

Example of both

[ふねん1]

Dont think too much about that.

If you ask me, 5-2 is WAY harder than 10-4 or any other attack in the entire game.... Its too much of a RNG fest IMO, and even when it is not, its hard as hell to no item... I realize that what I just said applies to more scenes than just 5-2, but it applies times 2 for it, IMO.

If it helps on anything, it took me 5K+ attempts to do it.... But it honestly could be perfectly be done way earlier than that because the stupid scene is 80% RNG.

I guess knowing that it's not just me gives me a little piece of mind. At a glance, I would disagree that it's any more luck-based than 10-7, especially considering that with 5-2 you can still get a rough idea going in about how you're supposed to beat it no-items, but I haven't put that kind of time into 10-7 yet (if I do at all) to know for sure.

Kinda ironic though, shortly after my above post I ended up cracking how you're actually supposed to stream 5-2 and got the no-item clear. Surprisingly, this opened my eyes some in terms of recognizing deficiencies in my usual streaming habits. I definitely want to take that knowledge with me into other attacks, especially if I get back into some full-fledged arcade shooters. Masochist I am, I went back to 8-6 a bit before switching to 10-4. I think I should take back what I said above when it comes to 10-4 - it may be ridiculously hard, but there's a lot more skill involved with this attack, which gives me hope that I can learn how to navigate the lanes in fewer than 2000 attempts lol. My best run so far almost made it out of the first set of lanes, so that's something.

[GMOFucker: Makin' GMOs To Fuck 'Em]

I have no idea where to post this so: why does the ten desires translation patch I have turn all tojiko's battle cries into dr. robotnik dialogue

serious question

[Pakken11]

I have no idea where to post this so: why does the ten desires translation patch I have turn all tojiko's battle cries into dr. robotnik dialogue

serious question

If you're using the new auto-update patcher, either A) you picked the wrong language set, or B) they messed it up and put something else in English. You might want to post it on the translation team's help page or something.

[GMOFucker: Makin' GMOs To Fuck 'Em]

yea I use the autopatcher and used the english patch

the quotes all "work" in context but they're not actual translations so IDK if it was a mistake or somebody fuckin around or what. where's the translation team's help page?

[Arcorann]

Did some Cheat Engine testing on the LoLK demo.

- PIV caps still exist (unfortunately). They're the same as in TD/DDC-- Easy 100k, Normal 250k, Hard/Lunatic/Extra 500k.
- Like in DDC, Overdrive mode still exists in the code as difficulty 5 (complete with its starting PIV of 100,000). I didn't try playing through it.
- There seem to be only 6 score-based extends: 30m, 70m, 150m, 300m, 400m, 500m. If no more are added in the full version, looks like LoLK might have EoSD/MoF-tier 8 lives max.

I wonder what weird effects might happen if the game's swapped from Pointdevice to Legacy or vice-versa during a run. Something to try out later I suppose.

That's actually a good question - I'll have to hunt down the address later.

Also, your post reminded me that I needed to double-check the PIV decrease rate - I've added it to the wiki's Gameplay page now (it's the same as in DDC - 2/3 of the initial value from 5 seconds after the start to when time runs out, but the rate is calculated per frame and rounded to the nearest 10).

[SomeGuy712x]

Also, your post reminded me that I needed to double-check the PIV decrease rate - I've added it to the wiki's Gameplay page now (it's the same as in DDC - 2/3 of the initial value from 5 seconds after the start to when time runs out, but the rate is calculated per frame and rounded to the nearest 10).

You meant spell card bonus decrease rate, right?

[Nolegs the Cat]

So. PCB Wonatic 1cc!

Next up, my aim is MoF Lunatic. My personal shottype in MoF is ReimuA, personally.
I've also considered doing some normal no bomb runs.

Did some Cheat Engine testing on the LoLK demo.

- PIV caps still exist (unfortunately). They're the same as in TD/DDC-- Easy 100k, Normal 250k, Hard/Lunatic/Extra 500k.
- Like in DDC, Overdrive mode still exists in the code as difficulty 5 (complete with its starting PIV of 100,000). I didn't try playing through it.
- There seem to be only 6 score-based extends: 30m, 70m, 150m, 300m, 400m, 500m. If no more are added in the full version, looks like LoLK might have EoSD/MoF-tier 8 lives max.

I wonder what weird effects might happen if the game's swapped from Pointdevice to Legacy or vice-versa during a run. Something to try out later I suppose.

I'd imagine doing Overdrive would have a similar effect to playing through the main game of UFO on "extra" difficulty, for instance - some attacks such as Ichirin's nonspells change entirely, some become much harder, some easier, and some don't change at all.
And maybe a few that crash the game for good measure.

As for switching between Pointdevice and Legacy...
Someone do that. Now. Please?

[Karisa]

I'd imagine doing Overdrive would have a similar effect to playing through the main game of UFO on "extra" difficulty, for instance - some attacks such as Ichirin's nonspells change entirely, some become much harder, some easier, and some don't change at all.
And maybe a few that crash the game for good measure.

Not necessarily. TD and UFO are more interesting than the rest in my opinion; that's why I uploaded videos of them.

MoF on "Extra" barely changes from Lunatic; only a few patterns do (like Kanako's final spell is the Easy pattern with Lunatic speed and much wider gaps, and the second-to-last is the one with bomb immunity).

DDC on "Overdrive" mostly contains glitched nonspells where spells should be (same pattern but with the health decreasing at nonspell rate making it trivially short), while DDC on "Extra" crashes in stage 1 (I didn't test later stages).

EoSD on "Extra" has mostly no bullets for 5 stages, with one Patchouli spell shooting crazily fast instead. Then Remilia never spawns, but invisibly uses her attacks twice each, and the game simply doesn't end after timing out Red Magic twice.

PCB and IN on "Extra" or difficulty 5 (Phantasm/Last Word) crash often, and I wasn't able to figure out a way to force PC-98 emulation to switch difficulties.

[Nolegs the Cat]

Not necessarily. TD and UFO are more interesting than the rest in my opinion; that's why I uploaded videos of them.

Do you know where the UFO extra video went?
I can't find it.

Er, never mind. Thought it'd have a more normal name, not 'Koishi, what have you done?'
Oops

[ILikeBulletZ]

Crap, I am so bad at this xDDD



I cant even do a run with less than 30 deaths, even with all bombs planned for what would be my "100% DO bomb" on an hypothetical 1cc Lunatic Legacy.


In case you are wondering, those are:

1st Boss 2snd Spell (Just clippy and pretty hard for a 1st boss)

2nd Boss Final Spell (Yeah, this is an absolute NO in a 1cc. Bomb right away!) Also I somehow managed to clear the entire stage, all boss up until the final spell, with no bombs and only 2 deaths (Retries), it actually seems easier than Stage 1 as a whole to me :/

Laser + Aimbed bullets section on Stage 3- and ONLY when the aimed bullets join the pattern. I can deal with the previous laser only part quite consistently by now.

3rd boss MidBoss spell (I HAVE done the safespot before but its very inconsistent. I rather spend a bomb for safety).

1st boss Spell... I just simply have no idea what to do here. I ALWAYS bomb it even in Pointdevice mode, I just don't know what I am missing there.

3rd boss Last spell, because yeah.


So all together would be 6 "Bomb or die" spots for me... That's... a noticeable number... and of course, I probably need more than that.

On PointDevice I can do all the entire game with no bombs, SAVE for that damned 3rd boss first spell which I REALLY have no clue how to do it.

[Choco Beam]

1st boss Spell... I just simply have no idea what to do here. I ALWAYS bomb it even in Pointdevice mode, I just don't know what I am missing there.

On PointDevice I can do all the entire game with no bombs, SAVE for that damned 3rd boss first spell which I REALLY have no clue how to do it.

You have to do a spinning/circle motion. I don't know how to explain it so just watch Jaimers' perfect boss fight video here. It's quite easy once you know how to do it.

[ふねん1]

I finally, finally feel like I'm making progress when it comes to scoring LoLK Stage 1 Lunatic. I don't have a whole lot to go off - there's a distinct lack of Reimu replays out there, much less on Lunatic - but I'm taking a few ideas from Sanae scoreruns and applying some of my own strats. Stages 2 and 3 I'm not nearly as well versed on though. I've been trying to supergraze stuff in Pointdevice Mode but I'm still dying way too much.

You have to do a spinning/circle motion. I don't know how to explain it so just watch Jaimers' perfect boss fight video here. It's quite easy once you know how to do it.

Well, it's not exactly easy like how a (roughly) static attack normally becomes once you learn it. The window to move between the safe zones is smaller than it looks. I know I still have trouble when I try to milk it for the entire time limit. But yes, this is the way you're supposed to do this attack.

[Uruwi]

Just passed SA Stage 5 with ReimuA. But I had no lives by the beginning of Stage 6. Apparently I can't clear Stage 6 even with two lives.

[Pakken11]

(I don't know where else to put this)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

Saw this on my News Feed, and I am suddenly reminded and enlightened(?) about Seija lolololol

[ILikeBulletZ]

Best survival wise run was 45 deaths. Getting somewhat close. I almost always end up with at least 1 bomb to spare because I want to practice, yet at the same time I want to see with how many deaths I can get away with and do the fun patterns... had I used that bomb on my 45 death run, I probably could have gotten to less than 30 deaths easily....

Meh. I am having fun and I am apparently getting better and better. Plus I know what spots to bomb...

EDIT: Also what the hell is up with that "58"? I did not do 58 runs lmao. It must of have been around 10 or so only.