Okay so now that I've taken my time with the game get ready for a wall y'all
K, for starters
The Plot:The idea of flow of
time disappearing is kind of a cool one. Not sure how Reimu and Marisa were able to realize it since they also should be affected by
time, but alright! Again I'm really curious to see what we will get this
time since we've only had like space/star/religion/nature themed Touhou games lately and I'm curious to see how they will make one involving
time, social media and technology work. I'm mainly intrigued to see Sakuya's side of story since she seems to have changed a bit since TLC?/DDC?
The System and the Playables:As gilde said before the game does take a big spin on Touhou formula. Much like in all previous Kaisendo works, all characters have max. power from the get go. There is also no point of collection this time, however if you focus you will create a large circle that works like point of collection instead. Anyways onto characters...
Yay, Sakuya's back! Been a while girl and she's actually pretty decent. And since it's not official game - hey Marisa is also loads of fun! Though if I might be honest I kind of feel like the main characters might be too similar to each other? It's not really an issue since A) most differences will come from gems and B)
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That makes a lot of sense and I hope this will turn out true! Now that I think about HSoB's plot does sound a bit like IN's from the concept so if she might become a surprise playable character my opinion on the game might jump even higher.
Balance wise all of the characters seem roughly on equal ground, Reimu might be a bit too good for the trial since she makes stage 2 (the hardest one) much more trivial.
We are the Crystal Gems, we're gonna' save the balance:I don't know what's with these devs and trying to outdo ZUN, but HSoB trial kind of just feels like a more varied HSiFS and yet in reverse. Much like HSiFS you have sub-options this time in form of gems. What makes them special however is that the role of bombs and "releases" is kind of reversed. Binded to X key you have a "gem bomb" - every character has the same circular bomb, but they do change a lot depending on the gem you're using. Not just that these bombs have levels, the higher the level, the bigger the bomb and I think it does more damage? The level of bomb increases with the amount of bomb you have so the game does encourage grinding for them. Secondly binded to your C-key is your "Z bomb". It's you super powerful bomb that not only will probably clear every single attack it also doesn't ruin the capture bonus! However you can only use them when you fill out the gauge next to the bird on the right with enough crystals. Using "gem bombs" also turns projectiles and enemies into crystals so on certain patterns and with certain gems you can just keep farming both bomb types at the same time. Oh and one last thing, bombing into grey normal crystals flying through the ground gives them color and more value so sometimes it's actually a good idea to "bomb your reward".
sorry for the obvious talk and pretty much repeating gilde froms days ago, just saying it since I still see people asking what even are Z spells. Now onto listing gems and my quick opinion on them, however the game does encourage experimentation so if you find something you like even if I don't, just go for it.
Red/RWBY is pretty alright. As many of you know it inflicts burn on options and bombs. It's pretty fun, does a lot of damage and the visual indicator is good. It's probably above avarage although if it's your cup of tea, go for it! Saw Mino run with it using Reimu and it was pretty good. Especially good on stage 2.
Orange aka the broken one. It shoots homing lasers by grazing and appearently makes regular shot slightly weaker, but most of the time you won't notice a difference. The regular bomb is small, but high damage and turns enemies and bullets into even more crystals than usual I think? meaning you can just get in grazing position and spam your Z spell like madman. If it's your first time playing on hard or lunatic, just take orange, even if you don't plan on using bombs or z bombs. If the devs will balance any gem they should either tone down the projectile spam or instead make it so it you almost can't shot normally. As it is Orange gem already does inspire a lot of people to make Graze-only runs and it could become the most fun thing in this game yet!
Yellow/Topaz Gives you 2 more options (aka increases your dmg output by 50%) and increases your bomb gauge super quickly. The bomb is alright as gilde said. This one is overall great, it's not the orange gem since in the long run the orange gem and the red gem will do more damage, but this one doesn't have extra rules you need to follow. If in the final game you'll be having issues with later bosses on normal this could be great.
Green/Jade kind of reminds me of Autumn sub from HSiFS. Bomb follows you around and you get super speed increase with unfocus and increased item pick up radius. Edit: it actually does turn you INTO AYA mechanic wise, which is cool and makes me wish she was actually in the game. After playing with it, it seems to be the best one for scoring, especially coupled with Marisa. Also good for meme runs.
Teal/Torquise is a pretty cool gem. It's basically "I have no problem with bosses, but I need help with stages"
makes me wish such thing was avaible in Len'en it does splash damage (get it?
Splash damage? because it's blueish?) on enemies making all enemies disappear much faster and it also has a huge, but low power bomb.
Blue/Sapphire is my favorite one. Shottype and bomb gradually chills and then freezes enemies making them stop and not fire at all for a second + it deals bonus after damage from defrosting. The game is balanced around that with all bosses using familiars, but still it's such a fun gem. It also gives A LOT of weird results such as creating impossible gaps on Chii's last spell, but this is why I like it, there's a lot of potential with this one. Also just like Orange it does allow you to speed kill certain phases. I've done my first Lunatic run since a very long while with this one so I'm kind of happy?
Violet/Amethyst (oh my it really is SU) is another pretty creative one. As said before, it's border swap and the bomb grants a barrier/border. I've also had a lot of fun with this one and it's good for better survivability, although it doesn't have as many uses in the trial (a lot of spells cover the borders of the screen), but its worth it for the extra barrier imo.
And ye, just as KK said, by pressing up and down on gem selection screen you get:
Black/Onyx - as Kana mentioned, basically a Legacy mode. You have no access to Z spell, your gem bomb sucks, get ready to see either none or a lot 1cc run videos using this one. It's kind of boring really.
White - I've originally thought it was supposed to be the super ultra broken one... but it's basically just the Yellow gem without again access to the z spell, but the bomb is a freaking blast. Basically it's not a handicap, but it's for people not interested in Z spells or the game's mechanic, which is alright I suppose? I've thought it was supposed to have SA Suika autocollect, but appearently it doesn't? Kind of wish they changed this one, like you would start normally, but with each bomb you gain 1 option for a limited amount of time. That would be really interesting.
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Cool, thanks although this sounds both like a good thing and kind of meh. Good, because we might once again get an extra stage like in HSiFS where we need to utilize and play around our sub-shot. Meh, because with so many cool options in the main game it will suck if we can't use them again. Maybe if they made it so you need to beat extra stage once with rainbow gem you can play it with everything else?
The Game itselfI'll try to make it quick (i promise) - also play the game/trial first before reading this since it might be considered a spoiler
The stage 1 is really beautiful and chill. Probably my favorite one on all of the difficulties. What also makes it good is that is also works like a practice ground? Every single gem has its use there and you will probably know what each of them does by just playing the first stage (which makes my above explanation even more pointless). "Silent Spring Scenery" is also a very welcoming chill song so props to wanwan on that, it's also pretty nicely timed with the midboss appearence of Ranran.
On Hard and above Ranran also gets a midboss spell. It's trivial on every difficulty, but it's nice to see the return of those (did Eternity and BoSM stage 1 bosses had those? I don't remember). Oh and yeah,
Ranran - still my favorite boss and OC in this game. I'm not sure if people have noticed this, but she has ヒ (hi) symbol on her headphones... and even in her eyes. Hihihi.
Gotta' mention the changes in her fight between difficulties. her non spells are roughly the same with open gaps, although her first boss spell does indeed change a lot. She no longer hides on left or right side of the screen, but instead on the bottom side of the corner (Stage 1 boss Okina?) and starts following you around from there. In her second spell she seems to fire two of singular brush splashes (Easy-Normal) that are aimed at you. However on Hard and above she instead changes her patterns to firing duo of Quadlines you have to micro graze with red crystals spawning from her. It's actually a bit easier on Lunatic than on Hard imo and also on Hard the lines are blue for some reason instead? I don't get it. (Edit: pro tip, try getting close enough and redirecting the shots so you can actually DESPAWN most of the barrages coming your way)
Stage 2 is considered the hardest stage in the demo but there is a safespot you can use to ignore like the half of the stage portion on top of the screen when the ying yang orbs spawn in (props to Mino again). Without it it's easy to get it cluttered. Also nice to see Myouren Temple come back. The stage part when Chii summons mini versions of herself is probably the easiest one, but it works more as a tutorial for how her fight will go I guess.
Chii's nonspells are mostly the same across difficulties, it's just more reaction involved. In her first spell Hard and on she also first spawns an avalanche of red toothpicks you need to stream though and then she later stabs the player with 2 tootspears instead. Again, for some reason it seems easier on Lunatic than on Hard. On her second spell you always need to kill 7 of her clones, but on Lunatic they start firing super fast toothpicks that generally just act like lasers. Her last spell changes a lot from Normal to higher difficulties. The "gears" now slightly rotate to the left, giving the impression of the whole thing spinning. Also the clones now fire toothpicks instead every 10 seconds or so. Probably the hardest thing in the whole game currently, fun, but if you don't know on what to use your early Z Spell on and you don't do NBNS run, go for it.
Stage 3 is also beautiful, but it's pretty much just streaming from left to right for the most part. Also bubbles. Also
Hikariko gains a midboss spell on Hard and above with sparrows turning blue globes into fireballs. Overall her boss battle seems to have most fun updates in between difficulties, mainly lunatic one. Her first spell on hard is a reference to "Shooting stars" of all things, on lunatic it seems to resemble that of Eirin's now, Her heart spell turns into one giant meme with "www"s flying around everywhere (I know it symbolizes laughter in japanese culture, but the niconico vibes are strong with this one) and somehow her prefinal spell is again... easier on Lunatic than hard (seems to be an ongoing thing with this game) because while the screen rotates just like Chii's last spell, there's generally much less stuff to dodge.
The Subterran Feed is alright I guess? It is her easiest spell, it has little to no updates between difficulties (outside of just more barrages) and it doesn't do anything special compared to the original. Someone suggested that it should change depending on the player character to different spells from birdlike characters in Touhou (Aya, Mystia, Hatate, Mokou?) and I think it's a great idea. Still just removing the part that made the spell hard doesn't already make it a good one for stage 3 boss I think.
So far, I've had fun with the trial, I was really afraid it would lag on my current PC, but nope it run really smoothly, I like the warning mechanic, I like the gem mechanic. Is it perfect? No. I feel like bosses and midbosses seem to have a very short and precise spellcard timers meaning you will hear the sound of time running out through most of the game - at least you can turn volume down a bit for it. Secondly I'm not the biggest fan of sprites so far, they all seem to have weird sizes and all, but that's just a nitpick (I feel like Ranran being a huge monkey is a meme at this point). Also the game is
full of cheese, but than again, what Touhou game isn't?That's all from me... for now. Also is it just me or shouldn't we get a separate thread for this or at least change the title now? Oh well.
EDIT: Okay so this is interesting. ANMITA the graphic designer behind boss sprites has
drawn Sakuya from HoSB in their style, meanwhile the one who made artwork for playable characters made
Ranran artwork. Are we possibly getting a first game where we can choose between two artstyles or something? That would be freaking amazing. If not, this is still a pretty neat art exchange.
