Author Topic: Daily/Weekly Touhou Best revival (Read 9988 times)

Karisa · « **on:** October 29, 2018, 05:29:27 AM »

Anyone remember this thread series? Probably not. I noticed there don't seem to be many general-purpose threads here anymore-- for example, the Gameplay Help, Rage, Lucky Dodges, and Blogging threads have all died out. I thought it could be nice to spark a regular discussion.

Everyone's free to post a new question once the current question's had some time to be discussed. If you can't think of a question, there are plenty to find in the older threads!

To start things off:
What is your favorite stage 1?

With the restart-heavy nature of Touhou games, stage 1 is the most played by far, and may even determine your tolerance for full-game runs. Which stage 1 do you find the most enjoyable?

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #1 on:** October 29, 2018, 05:36:07 AM »

I would have to say UFO, it's got a decent level of consistency so restarts are not super heavy unless I go for the strict UFO route, and the stage song is one of the best first stage songs in the series. Nazrin as a boss is also really enjoyable, and not entirely trivial either, so she's still decently engaging for being so early on in the game. Ultimately, it still remains a customisable experience due to the nature of UFO's and how to route them, so you can play around with it quite a lot to different results.

Honourable mentions: LoLK (Stage requires heavy planning and is tricky but I love fighting Seiran a lot), TD (quite a beautiful stage, not too difficult either), and HSiFS (another neat song, and routing it can be super fun with the release gimmick, Eternity's theme is also my top stage 1 boss theme)

(I'm excited to see this brought back, hope it can manage to continue

)

nav' · « **Reply #2 on:** October 29, 2018, 07:52:24 AM »

Nice, these threads were always fun to read and participate in. Good idea to resurrect them.

In my case, I suppose IN Stage 1 wins by default. I've played enough IN Easy scoreruns for Stage 1 to ingrain itself in my mind as a calm introduction to a generally pleasant experience. The music definitely helps set the stage. Shame I never achieved the skill level required to get even >6000 time consistently.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #3 on:** October 29, 2018, 09:07:08 AM »

Joining the choir. Let's keep these weekly as a rule of thumb unless there are a few days without responses.

I'll go with 10D. Mostly because of aesthetics, but also because you have to do some ballsy moves and move inside bullet circles if you want those spirits.

Also a special shoutout to SA, for being quite quick and brutal and setting the tone for the whole game perfectly.

Mikuru · « **Reply #4 on:** October 29, 2018, 10:08:53 AM »

I'm probably going to end up being boring and saying Mountain of Faith for a lot of these questions, as it is my favourite Touhou by a wide margin. In terms of Stage 1, the stage portion is nice and predictable when you have a good route, and I'm very consistent at it, so I don't have too many S1 restarts getting in the way of progress.

When I first started with Normal, and again when I moved up to Hard, Minoriko's first spellcard was a huge stumbling-block, but it's one of those spells that becomes very easy when your skill level crosses a certain threshold. On Lunatic, of course, it's her second spell that's infamous for tripping you up with bad RNG. Still, I think every Stage 1 has a bad patch somewhere, and this one isn't too bad

Honourable mention: HSIFS, because tossing three bombs at the very start of the game is a great way to kick off.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2018, 09:28:11 AM »

Tough crowd. I'm interested enough to keep this going for some time though.

What is your favorite stage 2?

I'll go with DDC. I just really like lasers, okay?

Also a special shoutout to MoF for its very rhythmical nature.

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2018, 01:15:54 PM »

LoLK is probably my pick for this, decently fun stage portion, and Ringo tops it all off with a very fun fight (except that last card which can go die).

Honourable mentions go to IN (simple and easy but still is engaging to do each time), and UFO (has a neat stage portion that's fun to UFO route, as well as Kogasa who is a very interesting boss to fight).

nav' · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2018, 01:31:26 PM »

I have a soft spot for PCB Stage 2, though honestly the reason's aren't related to gameplay. They are: Chen, the stage music, and Reimu's ridiculous dialogue that makes me think her lines were accidentally switched around with Marisa's.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #8 on:** November 16, 2018, 05:12:26 PM »

What is your favorite stage 3?

Mine is IN for sure. It's extremely route-dependent (mess up a bullet cancel and you'll be suffering), but the route itself is easy enough to figure out and feels great when pulled off. I'm also surprisingly fond of Keine's nonspells.

Also an honourable mention to EoSD, another highly structured but very fun stage and boss fight.

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #9 on:** November 16, 2018, 10:52:56 PM »

HSiFS for me probably, love the release potential, love the atmosphere and the music, it's not toooo hard, but it's rewarding to do really well. Aunn is a fun fight too with a great theme.

Honourable mention to SA (really well structured stage imo, with a great song too).

TresserT · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2018, 05:00:55 AM »

For me I think it's gonna be PCB. Stage 3 has a wide variety of complex patterns all overlapping to the point that it seems really chaotic, but there isn't much intense randomness involved. It makes for a very interesting stage. I don't think that style has been replicated in many other games.

LoLK comes in a close second. I love how the vast majority of it's streaming but it still winds up being very interesting and difficult. Doremy is also a pretty cool boss, with patterns that look incredibly complex but are actually super simple and fun to dodge in practice.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #11 on:** November 22, 2018, 09:37:30 AM »

What is your favorite stage 4?

Gotta admit there are a lot of good stages in this slot, but one I like the most start-to-finish is SA. I just love swimming in those amulet spreads. However, I'm not a fan of reused spellcards so I'll name something else for a favourite BOSS FIGHT, and that's definitely Seiga with her homing balls and curvy lasers.

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #12 on:** November 22, 2018, 11:27:48 AM »

SA Stage 4 probably takes the cake for me too. The music beautifully matches the stage and the aesthetic, and the stage itself manages to be fairly simple concepts executed in a way that still feels nice to play even after learning it all. Satori is a great fight to cap it off, I actually really enjoy the refights and in some cases reimagining of attacks previously exclusive to fighters.

I am also very partial to HSiFS stage 4 (gorgeous mood going on, and the danmaku is really fun to dodge as well) and UFO stage 4, which has my favourite stage 4 theme out of them all, and is a joy to play.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #13 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:04:17 PM »

What is your favorite stage 5?

Definitely a tough choice, since this is usually where the games shine the most. However, if general aesthetics and music are taken into account, then I'd pick PCB, with MoF being a very close second.

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #14 on:** November 28, 2018, 11:46:34 PM »

I'd tie it between IN and SA stage 5. They both have really great stage songs, the danmaku is nicely designed, and they both cap off with decent boss fights too. UFO would be a close runner up

ZM · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2018, 07:10:23 AM »

UFO?s easily. Amazing music, great stage design for the UFOs, and a wonderful build-up. Only stupid section is the very end of the stage, but with good timing one should be okay.

CyberAngel · « **Reply #16 on:** December 03, 2018, 08:17:13 PM »

What is your favorite stage 6?

Well, there's usually not much of a stage to speak of, so this is probably more about final bosses.

Anyway, I'll go with PCB. Patterns, background, music - everything still feels like the most epic fight in the series. Though I do have a soft spot for IN FinalA as well.

ZoomyTsugumi · « **Reply #17 on:** December 03, 2018, 11:32:30 PM »

MoF probably, Kanako is quite possibly my favourite final boss fight, and the stage isn't a huge slouch either, being very packed w/ action and still requiring some decent skill to execute. VoWG is a perfect spell to cap off the fight, and that combined with Suwa Foughten Field sets the tone of the game in the single most epic way ever seen in the series.

UFO has one of the better stage portions for a stage 6, IN too has a short, simple and sweet stage portion on either route. Eirin is also a really nice boss fight, along with Byakuren having a really awesome atmosphere (but gosh if it isn't super difficult).

Mikuru · « **Reply #18 on:** December 05, 2018, 06:45:28 PM »

Stage 2: This is tricky as they rarely stand out, and it's also the least-played stage in any game, since it's too early to need much practice but it's past the restart-fest of Stage 1. I'm going to go with EoSD as it's nice and relaxing, and Cirno's theme is the first really great theme in the series. (Not the best Stage 2 theme, though -- that goes to Parsee.)

Stage 3: MoF for this one. It's tricky to navigate the bullets and get a lot of items at max value, but it's a stage where you can feel the difference as your skill improves, and it's really satisfying to pull off. The Gensokyo the Gods Loved is outstanding. Nitori is a pretty decent boss, with only her midboss card and final being annoying.

Stage 4: This tends to be the most painful stage in any game. I'll go with PCB because it looks very intimidating, but a lot of it is just aimed stuff that's simple to dodge when you know what you're doing. Great themes for both the stage and boss, and some nice variety with the sisters' unique attacks.

Stage 5: Easily MoF, also my favourite stage overall. It's really fun to route this one and get a lot of items at max value, and Sanae has the best theme in the series. Her boss fight isn't the most fun, though, with most attacks either being too hard or too easy. At least her opening nonspell is extremely fun to dodge.

Stage 6: Also MoF. Another fun stage portion, most of Kanako is tricky but nothing over-the-top, and of course, the stage climaxes with Virtue of Wind God.

Karisa · « **Reply #19 on:** December 09, 2018, 12:54:23 AM »

I thought I'd have answers for my favorite stages, but when I actually thought about it, I realized it'd been so long since I'd played them, it took a while to recall.

Anyway, going by the stage portions alone, I'd say SA for stage 4. There's something I like about the laser spreads and splitting amulets, and how due to the graze mechanic, the stage didn't need to leave room to PoC and just constantly continues the barrage of patterns. Also it's one of my favorite stage themes

UFO for stage 5. I'm having difficulty describing what I enjoy about it, though. I wouldn't be surprised if the music, and how the stage is synced to it, is a large part of it, actually.

As for stage 6... well most of the stage portions seem designed around giving the player large numbers of point items, so there's not much to the patterns... I tend enjoy almost every stage 6 theme (even in fan games), so I can't go by that either... Perhaps TD for its trancing back and forth, trying to kill the following spirits before the main fairies? IN has something similar, targeting the main fairies without hitting the familiars. Also notable mention to LoLK for including something different with a survival portion of the stage; it also has among my favorite stage atmosphere (though UFO is also up there as stage 6 atmosphere goes).

Tom · « **Reply #20 on:** December 10, 2018, 12:33:07 AM »

Stage 1: EoSD, it has a nice night time atmosphere and theme

Stage 2: EoSD "I'll cryo-freeze you together with some English beef!"

Stage 3: PCB, music is good, also Alice has interesting patterns and gimmicks with the doll familiars, for some reason I always felt this should have been a last stage. (Though that could be because I had the demo for a long time before I got the full game)

Stage 4: IN vs Reimu because its one of the rare times you get to see Reimu's spellcards (from the opponent's perspective)

Stage 5: SoEW, complete darkness is a good (and underrated) theme, the rotating atomic/planet rings background is nice and its Mima after all

Stage 6: PCB, because the music and patterns are just amazing