My first lunatic 1cc

[Dreamleaf]

After picking up my first bullet hell game in September and not even being able to beat PCB on easy with continues I just got my first lunatic 1cc in Phantasmagoria for a Flower View with Medicine Melancholy :') It definitely took some work and a whole lot of attempts, but it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Got to say, I'm genuinely feeling pretty proud right about now.

[ShadowWaltz]

Nice! Personally I've Only 1cc'd PoDD with Mima.....working on Imperishable Night!

[Lunatic_Reimu]

Well done Keep it up, the more you play, the more you'll start getting accustomed to bullet hell, especially the more patterns you start facing. There is a wonderful world of Touhou to enjoy with lots to offer and experience Wishing you the best in your future endeavours

[Ranko]

Amazing work!

[Dreamleaf]

Well done Keep it up, the more you play, the more you'll start getting accustomed to bullet hell, especially the more patterns you start facing. There is a wonderful world of Touhou to enjoy with lots to offer and experience Wishing you the best in your future endeavours

Thank you! I love how the better and more confident you get with the series the more it feels like the series opens up. Kind of feel like despite how much time I've dedicated to this series that I've still only just scratched the surface you know?

[Lunatic_Reimu]

Thank you! I love how the better and more confident you get with the series the more it feels like the series opens up. Kind of feel like despite how much time I've dedicated to this series that I've still only just scratched the surface you know?

Yes I definitely agree with you. The series will open up more to you, the more confident you get, the more you'll start feeling like certain goals are achievable and within your reach, which you wouldn't have thought possible before. When I experienced my first Lunatic run, it felt claustrophobic, not even comfortable being in the playing field, now it feels just like home

Ahh I understand that about feeling like you've barely scratched the surface. A lot of time and effort goes into clearing the games and hitting certain achievements (like No Bomb runs, Perfect Stage Practice, etc, and as noted, your first Lunatic 1cc ), and with so many Touhou games, it could feel overwhelming. But keep at it, you sound like you've got quite a drive and motivation for it, so good things will come your way if you keep trying.

As a side note: Spend time reading pages in the Touhouwiki, like character profiles and locations. You will get more immersed with the games finding out more things about the characters and the stages you're traversing through Backstory about these things is interesting and breathes more life into the series

Wishing you the best of luck with your future endeavours Keep it up

[Dreamleaf]

Yes I definitely agree with you. The series will open up more to you, the more confident you get, the more you'll start feeling like certain goals are achievable and within your reach, which you wouldn't have thought possible before. When I experienced my first Lunatic run, it felt claustrophobic, not even comfortable being in the playing field, now it feels just like home

Ahh I understand that about feeling like you've barely scratched the surface. A lot of time and effort goes into clearing the games and hitting certain achievements (like No Bomb runs, Perfect Stage Practice, etc, and as noted, your first Lunatic 1cc ), and with so many Touhou games, it could feel overwhelming. But keep at it, you sound like you've got quite a drive and motivation for it, so good things will come your way if you keep trying.

As a side note: Spend time reading pages in the Touhouwiki, like character profiles and locations. You will get more immersed with the games finding out more things about the characters and the stages you're traversing through Backstory about these things is interesting and breathes more life into the series

Wishing you the best of luck with your future endeavours Keep it up

I spend a great deal of time reading up on the wiki as well as the Touhou TV tropes page. It really does add a lot more to the experience to try to take in the story, characters and lore more. I even bought the entire Forbidden Scrollery manga (minus the last volume which isn't out yet here) and am currently in the process of reading it  I'll pretty much just absorb any bit of info I can find on the series even if it's just simple interviews with ZUN or fun facts and tidbits on the music and whatnot.

Still cracks me up how quickly you can go from "this is impossible. I'll never do this" to "hey, maybe this isn't so bad" to "this is a walk in the park" with this series. It's why even when I'm being slaughtered horribly learning something new I always try to remind myself that it's never as bad as it looks.

I have like 50 different goals going with this series right now, and that certainly keeps me motivated. The real trick is trying to figure out which goals to focus on first since I have no doubt some of them will require more time and effort then anything I've currently done in the series yet.

And thanks again! I honestly don't see myself burning out with this series for a long, looong time

[Raikaria]

After picking up my first bullet hell game in September and not even being able to beat PCB on easy with continues I just got my first lunatic 1cc in Phantasmagoria for a Flower View with Medicine Melancholy :') It definitely took some work and a whole lot of attempts, but it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Got to say, I'm genuinely feeling pretty proud right about now.

Lunatic PoFV is; as far as I am aware, one of the harder 1CC's on account of the fact that the AI's difficulty scales as you win more, which leads to Komachi/Eiki being absurdly hard to defeat in a 1CC.

Although I also heard Medicine kinda breaks the AI? I dunno.

How tough was it? How much did Komachi/Eiki hammer you? I'm not a big PofV player.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

I spend a great deal of time reading up on the wiki as well as the Touhou TV tropes page. It really does add a lot more to the experience to try to take in the story, characters and lore more. I even bought the entire Forbidden Scrollery manga (minus the last volume which isn't out yet here) and am currently in the process of reading it  I'll pretty much just absorb any bit of info I can find on the series even if it's just simple interviews with ZUN or fun facts and tidbits on the music and whatnot.

Still cracks me up how quickly you can go from "this is impossible. I'll never do this" to "hey, maybe this isn't so bad" to "this is a walk in the park" with this series. It's why even when I'm being slaughtered horribly learning something new I always try to remind myself that it's never as bad as it looks.

I have like 50 different goals going with this series right now, and that certainly keeps me motivated. The real trick is trying to figure out which goals to focus on first since I have no doubt some of them will require more time and effort then anything I've currently done in the series yet.

And thanks again! I honestly don't see myself burning out with this series for a long, looong time

Glad to hear that, sounds like you?ve got it down right. It truly will get you more immersed in the Touhou universe in general, and even make the locations more meaningful knowing some backstory about the places you are traversing through It really is a wonderful universe that ZUN created, and deserves the appreciation and recognition, even on small things like music comments and fun facts as you are saying

Indeed, at first a spell card or stage portion might seem overwhelming, but keep at it, you?ll eventually start seeing your openings and how to deal with that particular attack/stage. That?s what?s wonderful about Touhou, no need for guides or help. All you gotta do is just keep trying and eventually it?ll come to you (and you?ll feel stupid for taking so long to realize how simple it was to get through that part haha).

Goals are always nice and healthy, and they will keep you determined to keep pushing with the series. Yes, start with what seems accessible to you at first, don?t go ?Perfect Lunatic? or ?Pacifist? instantly. Your skill level will increase the more you play and the more games/spell cards you face, so something which seems inaccessible now will be much more within your reach the more time you spend in the Touhou world

Thank you as well, it?s nice seeing others that share the same motivation/dedication and love for the series Keep going!

[Dreamleaf]

Glad to hear that, sounds like you?ve got it down right. It truly will get you more immersed in the Touhou universe in general, and even make the locations more meaningful knowing some backstory about the places you are traversing through It really is a wonderful universe that ZUN created, and deserves the appreciation and recognition, even on small things like music comments and fun facts as you are saying

Indeed, at first a spell card or stage portion might seem overwhelming, but keep at it, you?ll eventually start seeing your openings and how to deal with that particular attack/stage. That?s what?s wonderful about Touhou, no need for guides or help. All you gotta do is just keep trying and eventually it?ll come to you (and you?ll feel stupid for taking so long to realize how simple it was to get through that part haha).

Goals are always nice and healthy, and they will keep you determined to keep pushing with the series. Yes, start with what seems accessible to you at first, don?t go ?Perfect Lunatic? or ?Pacifist? instantly. Your skill level will increase the more you play and the more games/spell cards you face, so something which seems inaccessible now will be much more within your reach the more time you spend in the Touhou world

Thank you as well, it?s nice seeing others that share the same motivation/dedication and love for the series Keep going!

I find taking time to learn about the characters, setting and whatnot can actually help a bit too even in terms of gameplay. The more you learn about characters the more you understand their mentality and views, which in turn can help you understand the mentality behind the attacks in gameplay. This works both ways too as playing the game can also help you understand the characters and lore a little bit better. It's like fighting against Alice where you see how methodical and controlled her attacks are, and it's kind of what you'd expect from someone who enjoys a more tactical and challenging kind of battle. I really like that all aspects of the series is designed to work in unison with each other and it helps build upon some of the key underlying philosophies that appear to be present in all aspects of the series.

It's hilarious having walked into this series blind and having tried to learn it just by playing. Some of the mistakes I made back then would seem utterly ridiculous to me now. I played for 2 weeks before I even realized there was a focus mode :derp: I remember feeling like it was impossible for me to even tap on a key without flying halfway across the screen and slamming my face into a bullet. I remember spending like an hour and a half on a spellcard that seemed like just a massive clusterfuck of random bullets that needed some ridiculous level of skill to dodge just to suddenly realize that the attack was really just a really funky looking stream which I then proceeded immediately to easily beat. Those joys of learning really does make the growth fun though.

Touhou is the kind of game where sometimes you don't even know what you don't know. It's pretty god damn satisfying when you're playing around and you discover some simple elegant solution to a problem you were previously having. I knew going into this series that practice would be important but one thing I completely underestimated with this series was also how important my own perspective would be. How I approach attacks, how I learn, the goals I set and the reason I play and so on. The better I got at the game the more all those viewpoints changed. I originally walked into the series wanting to be able to say I was able to beat a touhou game in lunatic. I thought it would be the most stressful thing to achieve, and yet there are moments now when I'm playing in lunatic mode and I couldn't even care less whether I get the 1cc or not, I just want to throw myself into an ocean of bullets and the weirdest part is how blissful I feel while I dance in that ocean. There are moments playing this game in lunatic where I feel far more calm and centered then I ever do normally just in day to day life.

I still do like to set goals but I view them more like milestones and as a tool that helps keep me focused rather than being the main reason why I play. As satisfying as accomplishing some really hard challenge is, ultimately it's secondary to the joy that comes from simply playing Touhou you know? This is why I can't see myself burning out with this series. I can honestly say I've truly come to love playing it and even if I were to reach every goal I currently have set I think I'd still want to keep playing. Hell, even if I was the best player in the world and had some of the most brag worthy accomplishments possible I'm pretty sure I'd still want to keep playing and trying to find new ways to push myself even further past my limits. There might be things pretty far out of my current reach atm (pacifist and perfect lunatic runs are certainly on that list) but I'm okay with that since that just means I have no shortage of more to learn!

(Sorry that got more rambly than I intended  )

[Dreamleaf]

Lunatic PoFV is; as far as I am aware, one of the harder 1CC's on account of the fact that the AI's difficulty scales as you win more, which leads to Komachi/Eiki being absurdly hard to defeat in a 1CC.

Although I also heard Medicine kinda breaks the AI? I dunno.

How tough was it? How much did Komachi/Eiki hammer you? I'm not a big PofV player.

Eiki is definitely the main challenge I have struggled with in most of my 1ccs with 9. I don't think I had to deal with Komachi in stage 8. I think it was typically Yuuka I ended up fighting. I usually expected to lose at least 1 life against the stage 6-8 bosses and typically planned for that. Eiki on the other hand was a problem. I've managed to make it to her with 4 extra lives before and still end up getting destroyed. The main thing I struggled with in 9 is it felt very inconsistent compared to all the other games I've played in the series to me, which is admittedly probably partially due to how it has a different feel compared to the others.

I'd say I found it a bit easier then other games in the series I've played in the series in the sense that there's a good portion of the game in 9 where I can make mistakes and still recover from. It was incredibly rare for me to have to restart a 1cc attempt in stages 1-5, meaning 6-9 was really the only portion of the game I had to struggle with and those could certainly become a complete clusterfuck.

I have heard that Medicine is one of the easier characters to try it with. The only other character I've seriously attempted it with in lunatic mode is Lyrica. I've managed to make it to Eiki with her a couple times and I definitely feel like I had an easier time with Medicine. I'm guessing the AI probably struggles a bit more against the slow poison then other characters specials.

[CrestedPeak9]

Eiki is definitely the main challenge I have struggled with in most of my 1ccs with 9. I don't think I had to deal with Komachi in stage 8. I think it was typically Yuuka I ended up fighting. I usually expected to lose at least 1 life against the stage 6-8 bosses and typically planned for that. Eiki on the other hand was a problem. I've managed to make it to her with 4 extra lives before and still end up getting destroyed. The main thing I struggled with in 9 is it felt very inconsistent compared to all the other games I've played in the series to me, which is admittedly probably partially due to how it has a different feel compared to the others.

I'd say I found it a bit easier then other games in the series I've played in the series in the sense that there's a good portion of the game in 9 where I can make mistakes and still recover from. It was incredibly rare for me to have to restart a 1cc attempt in stages 1-5, meaning 6-9 was really the only portion of the game I had to struggle with and those could certainly become a complete clusterfuck.

I have heard that Medicine is one of the easier characters to try it with. The only other character I've seriously attempted it with in lunatic mode is Lyrica. I've managed to make it to Eiki with her a couple times and I definitely feel like I had an easier time with Medicine. I'm guessing the AI probably struggles a bit more against the slow poison then other characters specials.

Allow me to chip in here with some information.

Aya and Medicine are the two characters in PoFV that breaks the AI apart. This is mostly because for Medicine, the AI doesn't really care about the poison fields and can end up wandering into a big clump of them and be unable to dodge; Aya, on the other hand, has EX attacks (that you activate by killing those ghosts/spirits) with hitboxes that the AI misjudges, causing the AI to constantly be at risk of dying randomly.

I'm not too clear on the exact details of this mechanism, but there is a hidden timer in-game where the AI will be practically unhittable without getting completely walled in. When the timer expires, the AI starts intentionally taking hits. The timer is very short in early stages, but increases significantly towards the later stages. If I remember correctly, on Lunatic, Eiki has no limit to her timer on the first round - which means you can only really hit her with an extreme bout of luck or with broken AI behavior. After you lose to a boss, the timer shortens for the next round, so most people can only beat Eiki after losing once or twice to her. Maybe even thrice.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

I find taking time to learn about the characters, setting and whatnot can actually help a bit too even in terms of gameplay. The more you learn about characters the more you understand their mentality and views, which in turn can help you understand the mentality behind the attacks in gameplay. This works both ways too as playing the game can also help you understand the characters and lore a little bit better. It's like fighting against Alice where you see how methodical and controlled her attacks are, and it's kind of what you'd expect from someone who enjoys a more tactical and challenging kind of battle. I really like that all aspects of the series is designed to work in unison with each other and it helps build upon some of the key underlying philosophies that appear to be present in all aspects of the series.

It's hilarious having walked into this series blind and having tried to learn it just by playing. Some of the mistakes I made back then would seem utterly ridiculous to me now. I played for 2 weeks before I even realized there was a focus mode :derp: I remember feeling like it was impossible for me to even tap on a key without flying halfway across the screen and slamming my face into a bullet. I remember spending like an hour and a half on a spellcard that seemed like just a massive clusterfuck of random bullets that needed some ridiculous level of skill to dodge just to suddenly realize that the attack was really just a really funky looking stream which I then proceeded immediately to easily beat. Those joys of learning really does make the growth fun though.

Touhou is the kind of game where sometimes you don't even know what you don't know. It's pretty god damn satisfying when you're playing around and you discover some simple elegant solution to a problem you were previously having. I knew going into this series that practice would be important but one thing I completely underestimated with this series was also how important my own perspective would be. How I approach attacks, how I learn, the goals I set and the reason I play and so on. The better I got at the game the more all those viewpoints changed. I originally walked into the series wanting to be able to say I was able to beat a touhou game in lunatic. I thought it would be the most stressful thing to achieve, and yet there are moments now when I'm playing in lunatic mode and I couldn't even care less whether I get the 1cc or not, I just want to throw myself into an ocean of bullets and the weirdest part is how blissful I feel while I dance in that ocean. There are moments playing this game in lunatic where I feel far more calm and centered then I ever do normally just in day to day life.

I still do like to set goals but I view them more like milestones and as a tool that helps keep me focused rather than being the main reason why I play. As satisfying as accomplishing some really hard challenge is, ultimately it's secondary to the joy that comes from simply playing Touhou you know? This is why I can't see myself burning out with this series. I can honestly say I've truly come to love playing it and even if I were to reach every goal I currently have set I think I'd still want to keep playing. Hell, even if I was the best player in the world and had some of the most brag worthy accomplishments possible I'm pretty sure I'd still want to keep playing and trying to find new ways to push myself even further past my limits. There might be things pretty far out of my current reach atm (pacifist and perfect lunatic runs are certainly on that list) but I'm okay with that since that just means I have no shortage of more to learn!

(Sorry that got more rambly than I intended  )

Interesting, I never thought of it that way. Makes sense for certain characters, like Cirno?s attacks in Touhou 6 (especially her final one) is just a random bullet spam for example, which fits when you consider she is just a young immature child. Your Alice example fits perfectly too with how strategic and methodical she is with her attacks.

Haha yeah I understand that, I started off like you did as well, just blind to the series, and took it as a ?learn as you go? process. Makes it more fun that way as well cause you get to discover things your way Ouch, having just started out without knowing there is a focus mode must have been quite frustrating and caused more accidental deaths than you would hope for :/ Focus really is a blessing, I played Touhou 1 ? 3 which don?t have focus, and believe me, you?ll miss it once you get used to it and don?t have it! Hahaha true that about the spell card looking like a clusterfuck of bullets to just realize it?s a stream in the end, but it?s things like these that make it so enjoyable once you actually figure it out The learning process in Touhou really is fun, especially with something that?s been giving you so much trouble, but you just keep at it and eventually it?ll come to you

Yes definitely, practice is very important, and so is persistence to never give up. I completely understand you about having fun being thrown into that ocean of bullets as you described it, just blissfully dancing between the bullets, very nice description you used there I understand what you mean about not caring about hitting the 1cc or not, just actually wanting to have fun dodging bullets and learning new things as you?re playing around, the purpose in the end is actually to have fun! But keep your goals in sight too, they?re very important and could be considered motivation, and they?re what you work hard for throughout those multiple attempts of getting your ass kicked, as you already know the joy you felt when you hit your first Lunatic 1cc

Haha yeah same here about goals being milestones. I even have a checklist for my goals, and it?s sooooo satisfying checking another one off from that checklist after all that toil and effort Indeed, as I said above, the main goal of playing should be to have fun and enjoy the marvelous world of Touhou while you?re there It?s important finding a balance between fun and goals I guess. Nah, no reason to burn out of the series, there are so many things you could do in the series that you could keep squeezing enjoyment out of it for a lifetime (example, after beating the games normally you could go No Bomb or No Focus, if that?s done you could go Perfect, or Pacifist, which all present their own challenges and pushing you to discover and break your limits!). That?s the spirit, ?no shortage of more to learn?, keep that mindset, and good things will come your way with the series

No worries about it being rambly haha. I know how easy it is to get lost talking about Touhou xD

[Dreamleaf]

Allow me to chip in here with some information.

Aya and Medicine are the two characters in PoFV that breaks the AI apart. This is mostly because for Medicine, the AI doesn't really care about the poison fields and can end up wandering into a big clump of them and be unable to dodge; Aya, on the other hand, has EX attacks (that you activate by killing those ghosts/spirits) with hitboxes that the AI misjudges, causing the AI to constantly be at risk of dying randomly.

I'm not too clear on the exact details of this mechanism, but there is a hidden timer in-game where the AI will be practically unhittable without getting completely walled in. When the timer expires, the AI starts intentionally taking hits. The timer is very short in early stages, but increases significantly towards the later stages. If I remember correctly, on Lunatic, Eiki has no limit to her timer on the first round - which means you can only really hit her with an extreme bout of luck or with broken AI behavior. After you lose to a boss, the timer shortens for the next round, so most people can only beat Eiki after losing once or twice to her. Maybe even thrice.

That makes sense as I've seen lunatic matches that felt much shorter then even what I'm use to in normal on the rare occassion. It would also help explain a certain degree of the inconsistency I've found with 9's difficulty.

Having recently gone through the extra stage a couple times with Komachi and Eiki with the timer showing (these were the first extra stage completions I've gotten in the series too  ) I now feel I understand how the timer mechanic works a bit better. I'm guessing that the regular matches work similarly to the extra stage rounds in terms of how the timer works, just spread throughout an entire stage rather then 1 life. Like the extra stage that timer will decrease every death and also the bullets get a bit slower too I believe. One other thing about the timer I feel that's worth noting is that while bosses will often die immediately after hitting that timer I have also seen them go quite a while past it as well. I've had many restarts because I was expecting a boss to die soon after hitting 0 and then had them stick around for another 10-30 seconds.

I think you're right about Eiki too. I can't recall ever taking a life from her on my first attempt even when I've managed to make it past the 4 minute mark too which starts to get pretty ridiculous. On the extra stage you can beat her (if you're not playing as her of course) on your first attempt I'm assuming since it does still have a timer but it requires you to survive 2 full minutes on the first attempt compared to stage 8 which only requires around 50 seconds on your first attempt so I figure even if you can beat her in story mode it would probably require a ridiculous amount of time to do so compared to anything else.

Interesting, I never thought of it that way. Makes sense for certain characters, like Cirno?s attacks in Touhou 6 (especially her final one) is just a random bullet spam for example, which fits when you consider she is just a young immature child. Your Alice example fits perfectly too with how strategic and methodical she is with her attacks.

Haha yeah I understand that, I started off like you did as well, just blind to the series, and took it as a ?learn as you go? process. Makes it more fun that way as well cause you get to discover things your way Ouch, having just started out without knowing there is a focus mode must have been quite frustrating and caused more accidental deaths than you would hope for :/ Focus really is a blessing, I played Touhou 1 ? 3 which don?t have focus, and believe me, you?ll miss it once you get used to it and don?t have it! Hahaha true that about the spell card looking like a clusterfuck of bullets to just realize it?s a stream in the end, but it?s things like these that make it so enjoyable once you actually figure it out The learning process in Touhou really is fun, especially with something that?s been giving you so much trouble, but you just keep at it and eventually it?ll come to you

Yes definitely, practice is very important, and so is persistence to never give up. I completely understand you about having fun being thrown into that ocean of bullets as you described it, just blissfully dancing between the bullets, very nice description you used there I understand what you mean about not caring about hitting the 1cc or not, just actually wanting to have fun dodging bullets and learning new things as you?re playing around, the purpose in the end is actually to have fun! But keep your goals in sight too, they?re very important and could be considered motivation, and they?re what you work hard for throughout those multiple attempts of getting your ass kicked, as you already know the joy you felt when you hit your first Lunatic 1cc

Haha yeah same here about goals being milestones. I even have a checklist for my goals, and it?s sooooo satisfying checking another one off from that checklist after all that toil and effort Indeed, as I said above, the main goal of playing should be to have fun and enjoy the marvelous world of Touhou while you?re there It?s important finding a balance between fun and goals I guess. Nah, no reason to burn out of the series, there are so many things you could do in the series that you could keep squeezing enjoyment out of it for a lifetime (example, after beating the games normally you could go No Bomb or No Focus, if that?s done you could go Perfect, or Pacifist, which all present their own challenges and pushing you to discover and break your limits!). That?s the spirit, ?no shortage of more to learn?, keep that mindset, and good things will come your way with the series

No worries about it being rambly haha. I know how easy it is to get lost talking about Touhou xD

The one advantage to learning without focus is once you do finally have it you notice a sudden and immediate jump in what you're able to do which can really help a lot with the confidence. It's almost like going from Lunatic to Normal mode where everything just feels so much easier to manage, plus it makes going to games like 6 and lower without it less jarring so ultimately it wasn't too terrible, but I did feel awfully silly once I accidentally hit the shift key one day and realized I had been completely ignoring one of the games core mechanics XD I then proceeded to later do the same thing in Ten Desires when I lost to Miko on the final spellcard while going for my first normal 1cc in that game only to start again and realize I could go into the ghost realm without dying simply by hitting V which easily could have saved me a number of reattempts had I known earlier.

I think you're absolutely right about finding that balance between goals and having fun. If you don't have goals you won't push your limits which can make things start to feel stale, but if you don't have fun you'll lack the motivation required in order to achieve those goals. I'm constantly looking for that sweet spot between the two, and that sweet spot constantly changes as I improve. It's like what you said about how the series only opens up more as you improve.

Also reminds me a while back I saw a video of a guy apparently doing a "no moving" 1cc in DDC. It completely blew my mind to even think that was possible... Just goes to show you can always find new ways to push the limits and test yourself if you really want to and it's like you said they can all present their own unique challenges. That's one thing I love about this series in general, Touhou is the kind of series where there isn't really a "correct" way to go about it per se, you just kind of approach it however you want and what you take away from it is also up to you, mind you I think people will get way more out of the series if they approach it with an open mind and a willingness to push themselves. Now if you walk into this series wanting to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, I think you could end up looking for the bottom for quite a while 

[Lunatic_Reimu]

That makes sense as I've seen lunatic matches that felt much shorter then even what I'm use to in normal on the rare occassion. It would also help explain a certain degree of the inconsistency I've found with 9's difficulty.

The one advantage to learning without focus is once you do finally have it you notice a sudden and immediate jump in what you're able to do which can really help a lot with the confidence. It's almost like going from Lunatic to Normal mode where everything just feels so much easier to manage, plus it makes going to games like 6 and lower without it less jarring so ultimately it wasn't too terrible, but I did feel awfully silly once I accidentally hit the shift key one day and realized I had been completely ignoring one of the games core mechanics XD I then proceeded to later do the same thing in Ten Desires when I lost to Miko on the final spellcard while going for my first normal 1cc in that game only to start again and realize I could go into the ghost realm without dying simply by hitting V which easily could have saved me a number of reattempts had I known earlier.

I think you're absolutely right about finding that balance between goals and having fun. If you don't have goals you won't push your limits which can make things start to feel stale, but if you don't have fun you'll lack the motivation required in order to achieve those goals. I'm constantly looking for that sweet spot between the two, and that sweet spot constantly changes as I improve. It's like what you said about how the series only opens up more as you improve.

Also reminds me a while back I saw a video of a guy apparently doing a "no moving" 1cc in DDC. It completely blew my mind to even think that was possible... Just goes to show you can always find new ways to push the limits and test yourself if you really want to and it's like you said they can all present their own unique challenges. That's one thing I love about this series in general, Touhou is the kind of series where there isn't really a "correct" way to go about it per se, you just kind of approach it however you want and what you take away from it is also up to you, mind you I think people will get way more out of the series if they approach it with an open mind and a willingness to push themselves. Now if you walk into this series wanting to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, I think you could end up looking for the bottom for quite a while 

Just a small note on the inconsistency you felt in the difficulty for Touhou 9, I haven't played Touhou 9, but I did play Touhou 3 which uses a very similar system, and yes, there are huge discrepancies in the difficulty depending on which characters you use. The AI definitely has a harder time dodging certain character's attacks over others'. I also agree with CrestedPeak9's statement about the timer and the final boss very rarely dieing on her first life, I also think she has an infinite timer on her first life. For her later lives, there is a certain 'invincibility period' so to speak till a part of the timer runs out before the final boss starts taking hits/using bombs, no matter what you throw at her she'll power through it, unless you REALLY manage to get her into a corner where it's practically impossible to dodge.

Oh yes definitely, starting off playing with no focus will make it way easier once you discover a focus mode exists. Focus really is a blessing for the added control it gives. Focus was introduced in Touhou 4, which is what makes Touhou 3 so damn difficult. Haha no worries about not realizing there's a focus mode, I've read a thread before where someone else had the same issue, so you're not the first to make that mistake Shame to hear you had a similar experience with Ten Desires' Ghost Realm/Trance mode. Best advice I can give is to make sure to read the Touhou wiki page for each game before starting it. The Gameplay section shows all the available controls for the game, so this should prevent any further mistakes like this in the future

Exactly, couldn't have worded it any better myself Keep at it till you find the sweet spot you're comfy with, but not too comfy that it becomes easy/not challenging. My sweet spot is No Bombs, and Perfect Stage Practice just to give you an idea or suggestion Hopefully in the future after lots of experience with the Touhou universe, I'll be able to hit a full Perfect Lunatic run (looks insane though from what I've seen on Youtube, hats off to those that manage such an incredible feat!!!), or better yet, Pacifist!! xD So beautiful taking out a boss without even attacking Only a dream for now I reckon though (although I never tried to be honest).

Damn, that's insane, never heard of a 'no moving' 1cc. I'm assuming he just takes small steps when necessary to be able to dodge correct? Just making sure, we are talking about Lunatic yeah for the no moving 1cc? Indeed about 'no correct way to play the game,', everyone plays the game how they see fit and how they like to play. Some play for score, others for survival, others without focus, whatever floats that person's boat I guess Yes definitely good having an open mind and especially a willingness to push yourself, that's what makes you get better in the end

Haha if you really want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, start discovering the secondary Touhou fanbase (i.e. art, music arranges by various doujin circles, and most notably, the fan games). You'll be lost forever once you go down that hole, there's sooooo much to see! Believe me I've spent countless hundreds of hours viewing different Touhou art, sampling so many different arranges, and discovering new fan games (most notably the Touhoumon games in my opinion, check these out if you haven't, they're brilliant, especially if you were a Pokemon fan when you were younger)). It really is such a marvelous and huge universe with such a dedicated fan base, that you could literally go Touhou-exclusive and never look back (I know I did).

[Mikuru]

The one advantage to learning without focus is once you do finally have it you notice a sudden and immediate jump in what you're able to do which can really help a lot with the confidence. It's almost like going from Lunatic to Normal mode where everything just feels so much easier to manage, plus it makes going to games like 6 and lower without it less jarring

Touhou 6 (EoSD) does have focus; it just doesn't show your hitbox.

I agree with your main point, though. A good way to make progress is to spend some time playing above your target difficulty, whether it's literally by choosing the next difficulty up, or adding conditions like no-focus. Increasing the fps is a very good way to improve your overall skill.

Sadly I'm very busy with my course at the moment so I don't have time to practice right now, but in the summer I will absolutely be going for my first Lunatic 1cc It's been a long journey to get this far, but I know I can do it.

[Dreamleaf]

Just a small note on the inconsistency you felt in the difficulty for Touhou 9, I haven't played Touhou 9, but I did play Touhou 3 which uses a very similar system, and yes, there are huge discrepancies in the difficulty depending on which characters you use. The AI definitely has a harder time dodging certain character's attacks over others'. I also agree with CrestedPeak9's statement about the timer and the final boss very rarely dieing on her first life, I also think she has an infinite timer on her first life. For her later lives, there is a certain 'invincibility period' so to speak till a part of the timer runs out before the final boss starts taking hits/using bombs, no matter what you throw at her she'll power through it, unless you REALLY manage to get her into a corner where it's practically impossible to dodge.

Oh yes definitely, starting off playing with no focus will make it way easier once you discover a focus mode exists. Focus really is a blessing for the added control it gives. Focus was introduced in Touhou 4, which is what makes Touhou 3 so damn difficult. Haha no worries about not realizing there's a focus mode, I've read a thread before where someone else had the same issue, so you're not the first to make that mistake Shame to hear you had a similar experience with Ten Desires' Ghost Realm/Trance mode. Best advice I can give is to make sure to read the Touhou wiki page for each game before starting it. The Gameplay section shows all the available controls for the game, so this should prevent any further mistakes like this in the future

Exactly, couldn't have worded it any better myself Keep at it till you find the sweet spot you're comfy with, but not too comfy that it becomes easy/not challenging. My sweet spot is No Bombs, and Perfect Stage Practice just to give you an idea or suggestion Hopefully in the future after lots of experience with the Touhou universe, I'll be able to hit a full Perfect Lunatic run (looks insane though from what I've seen on Youtube, hats off to those that manage such an incredible feat!!!), or better yet, Pacifist!! xD So beautiful taking out a boss without even attacking Only a dream for now I reckon though (although I never tried to be honest).

Damn, that's insane, never heard of a 'no moving' 1cc. I'm assuming he just takes small steps when necessary to be able to dodge correct? Just making sure, we are talking about Lunatic yeah for the no moving 1cc? Indeed about 'no correct way to play the game,', everyone plays the game how they see fit and how they like to play. Some play for score, others for survival, others without focus, whatever floats that person's boat I guess Yes definitely good having an open mind and especially a willingness to push yourself, that's what makes you get better in the end

Haha if you really want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, start discovering the secondary Touhou fanbase (i.e. art, music arranges by various doujin circles, and most notably, the fan games). You'll be lost forever once you go down that hole, there's sooooo much to see! Believe me I've spent countless hundreds of hours viewing different Touhou art, sampling so many different arranges, and discovering new fan games (most notably the Touhoumon games in my opinion, check these out if you haven't, they're brilliant, especially if you were a Pokemon fan when you were younger)). It really is such a marvelous and huge universe with such a dedicated fan base, that you could literally go Touhou-exclusive and never look back (I know I did).

I've learned a lot since those mistakes and thankfully many of the later games included an in game manual that I got in the habit of checking out and reading just to get an idea of early mechanics. It's just funny looking back now and remember trying to learn everything on my own X3

I have gone into some of the fanbase stuff a little bit. The artwork is part of what pushed me to want to try the series out originally too because I was blown away by how amazing some of the stuff people made for this series was. People don't go that far to express their love for a series unless there's a good reason for it and I wanted to understand why. Also I should note that probably 70% of the music I've listened to in the last 6 or so months is pretty much various Touhou music. There's stupid amounts of remixes/covers/remasters and such out there and so much of it is amazing so I completely get what you mean. A lot of my free time that isn't spent playing the games is spent looking for Touhou art while listening to Touhou music  I already have a physical collection of Touhou art books (mostly from Miyuki Ruria) already so that should probably tell you something XD

The only fangame I've played so far was Luna Nights and that was an extremely solid metroidvania (I play a lot within that genre too) so I wouldn't mind checking out some of the other stuff too. I'll definitely take a look at the Pokemon one eventually too!

Touhou 6 (EoSD) does have focus; it just doesn't show your hitbox.

I agree with your main point, though. A good way to make progress is to spend some time playing above your target difficulty, whether it's literally by choosing the next difficulty up, or adding conditions like no-focus. Increasing the fps is a very good way to improve your overall skill.

Sadly I'm very busy with my course at the moment so I don't have time to practice right now, but in the summer I will absolutely be going for my first Lunatic 1cc It's been a long journey to get this far, but I know I can do it.

Sorry that's what I meant. Not having focus would be way worse then just not having the hitbox showing. Not having the hitbox can definitely still throw me off though.

And good luck with your first lunatic 1cc! You can do it Do you know yet which game you will be attempting to do it on?

[Lunatic_Reimu]

I've learned a lot since those mistakes and thankfully many of the later games included an in game manual that I got in the habit of checking out and reading just to get an idea of early mechanics. It's just funny looking back now and remember trying to learn everything on my own X3

I have gone into some of the fanbase stuff a little bit. The artwork is part of what pushed me to want to try the series out originally too because I was blown away by how amazing some of the stuff people made for this series was. People don't go that far to express their love for a series unless there's a good reason for it and I wanted to understand why. Also I should note that probably 70% of the music I've listened to in the last 6 or so months is pretty much various Touhou music. There's stupid amounts of remixes/covers/remasters and such out there and so much of it is amazing so I completely get what you mean. A lot of my free time that isn't spent playing the games is spent looking for Touhou art while listening to Touhou music  I already have a physical collection of Touhou art books (mostly from Miyuki Ruria) already so that should probably tell you something XD

The only fangame I've played so far was Luna Nights and that was an extremely solid metroidvania (I play a lot within that genre too) so I wouldn't mind checking out some of the other stuff too. I'll definitely take a look at the Pokemon one eventually too!

Glad to hear that, avoids more ?silly? mistakes in the future Hahaha yeah it is funny looking back at when you started, it's not an easy road, but you become a completely different player as more time passes and you get used to the series

Ahh that?s awesome that you?re already experiencing the wonderful world the fanbase has to offer You could tell that so much love and dedication goes into the art, arranges and fan games, so it is definitely something worth checking out, makes the Touhou universe so much more magical xD Keep it up with the music listening and the art, they?re all little things which suck you into the series so much more! I love seeing images of say Reimu relaxing at the shrine with the beautiful Gensokyo in the background, or like the Touhou 6 cast just loafing around with Sakuya serving tea to Remilia while Meiling is taking care of Flandre for example. Little things like these but they add more character to each character I guess, rather than just a sprite that?s shooting bullets at you. I actually wish to start drawing myself, I have lots of ideas/memorable moments from the Touhou games I played which I?d like to bring to life, but time is really an issue unfortunately, and I?m already extremely busy as is just keeping up with everything, let alone learning Photoshop from scratch, or whatever program these artists use to draw. Maybe sometime in the future when life isn?t so hectic? Oh yes, definitely agree with you there on ?stupid amounts? of fan content, it never ends! I?ve spent more time searching around the fanbase than actually playing just to give you an idea of how much stuff there is!!! I?ll check out Miyuki Ruria, always nice discovering a new artist

I?ve heard of Luna Nights but didn?t try it out yet, Metroidvania style gameplay is fun, I?ll definitely add it to my list to check out Oh yes you definitely should, the Touhoumon ROM hacks by Aichiya Sanae are literally amazing, with so much extra content and difficulty which wasn?t present in the actual Pokemon games. You even go to Gensokyo as a world in one of them (it?s called Touhoumon Another World), with the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Makai, Human Village, Hakurei Shrine, etc as locations apart from the Pokemon worlds (Kanto/Johto), and also have arranges of the Touhou music done with Gameboy Advance instruments Lots of love went into those games, with each game spanning close to or more than 100 hours if you want to literally do everything in the game (i.e. fight everyone, rematch the Elite 4 and the gym leaders for their stronger teams, catch and evolve all the characters, etc).

[Dreamleaf]

Glad to hear that, avoids more ?silly? mistakes in the future Hahaha yeah it is funny looking back at when you started, it's not an easy road, but you become a completely different player as more time passes and you get used to the series

Ahh that?s awesome that you?re already experiencing the wonderful world the fanbase has to offer You could tell that so much love and dedication goes into the art, arranges and fan games, so it is definitely something worth checking out, makes the Touhou universe so much more magical xD Keep it up with the music listening and the art, they?re all little things which suck you into the series so much more! I love seeing images of say Reimu relaxing at the shrine with the beautiful Gensokyo in the background, or like the Touhou 6 cast just loafing around with Sakuya serving tea to Remilia while Meiling is taking care of Flandre for example. Little things like these but they add more character to each character I guess, rather than just a sprite that?s shooting bullets at you. I actually wish to start drawing myself, I have lots of ideas/memorable moments from the Touhou games I played which I?d like to bring to life, but time is really an issue unfortunately, and I?m already extremely busy as is just keeping up with everything, let alone learning Photoshop from scratch, or whatever program these artists use to draw. Maybe sometime in the future when life isn?t so hectic? Oh yes, definitely agree with you there on ?stupid amounts? of fan content, it never ends! I?ve spent more time searching around the fanbase than actually playing just to give you an idea of how much stuff there is!!! I?ll check out Miyuki Ruria, always nice discovering a new artist

I?ve heard of Luna Nights but didn?t try it out yet, Metroidvania style gameplay is fun, I?ll definitely add it to my list to check out Oh yes you definitely should, the Touhoumon ROM hacks by Aichiya Sanae are literally amazing, with so much extra content and difficulty which wasn?t present in the actual Pokemon games. You even go to Gensokyo as a world in one of them (it?s called Touhoumon Another World), with the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Makai, Human Village, Hakurei Shrine, etc as locations apart from the Pokemon worlds (Kanto/Johto), and also have arranges of the Touhou music done with Gameboy Advance instruments Lots of love went into those games, with each game spanning close to or more than 100 hours if you want to literally do everything in the game (i.e. fight everyone, rematch the Elite 4 and the gym leaders for their stronger teams, catch and evolve all the characters, etc).

I think it says so much when you see how much passion and love goes into some of these fanworks. I'm right there with you in wanting to learn how to draw so you could bring some of your ideas to life, and also with you in simply not having enough time XD I have way too many hobbies for my own good. Still, even just putting on some Touhou music and looking at some of the art others have made can be a wonderful way to just become immersed in the characters and world. My Touhou wallpaper folder currently has over several thousand images right now and that's just the ones I felt were worth using so I definitely have a sense of what you mean when you mention just how much content is actually out there. Don't even get me started on the music as there is an absolutely insane amount of remixes and covers for this series. Maybe more then I've ever seen 1 single series have.

Oh and just to give you an idea of what Miyuki Ruria's stuff is like:
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23969348
https://66.media.tumblr.com/5ec834e41176cc2a10acdbb2033484e6/tumblr_pforr4ogbW1xh9o5po1_1280.jpg
I got like 6 of his Touhou art books and trust me when I say I had to bend over to get them but totally worth it XD His work is nothing short of stunning imo. Easily my favorite Touhou artist, although I'll admit there's several others that come pretty close too.

I'll definitely check out the Touhoumon at some point! I didn't even know that was a thing but I can't say I'm surprised either. I swear there's probably enough Touhou content out there to easily last a life time if you wanted. As it is I'm still struggling to get around to playing the fighting and camera game spinoffs as well as reading more of the printed works lol. It doesn't help that I'm such a late comer to this series. It makes me smile knowing that this series which has had such a drastic impact on me is also so loved and appreciated by others too, it absolutely deserves it and it really does make me wish I could find a way to channel and express my love for the series the same way some of these artists and game makers and musicians have.

[Mikuru]

And good luck with your first lunatic 1cc! You can do it Do you know yet which game you will be attempting to do it on?

Mountain of Faith, for several reasons. It was the first Touhou I ever played, and it's still the one I know my way around best. It's the one I'm closest to getting -- I've previously reached the final boss on a credit; my furthest progress in other games is Stage 5 (IN and HSIFS). And I love the music enough to keep me going through the 1cc grind.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

I think it says so much when you see how much passion and love goes into some of these fanworks. I'm right there with you in wanting to learn how to draw so you could bring some of your ideas to life, and also with you in simply not having enough time XD I have way too many hobbies for my own good. Still, even just putting on some Touhou music and looking at some of the art others have made can be a wonderful way to just become immersed in the characters and world. My Touhou wallpaper folder currently has over several thousand images right now and that's just the ones I felt were worth using so I definitely have a sense of what you mean when you mention just how much content is actually out there. Don't even get me started on the music as there is an absolutely insane amount of remixes and covers for this series. Maybe more then I've ever seen 1 single series have.

Oh and just to give you an idea of what Miyuki Ruria's stuff is like:
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23969348
https://66.media.tumblr.com/5ec834e41176cc2a10acdbb2033484e6/tumblr_pforr4ogbW1xh9o5po1_1280.jpg
I got like 6 of his Touhou art books and trust me when I say I had to bend over to get them but totally worth it XD His work is nothing short of stunning imo. Easily my favorite Touhou artist, although I'll admit there's several others that come pretty close too.

I'll definitely check out the Touhoumon at some point! I didn't even know that was a thing but I can't say I'm surprised either. I swear there's probably enough Touhou content out there to easily last a life time if you wanted. As it is I'm still struggling to get around to playing the fighting and camera game spinoffs as well as reading more of the printed works lol. It doesn't help that I'm such a late comer to this series. It makes me smile knowing that this series which has had such a drastic impact on me is also so loved and appreciated by others too, it absolutely deserves it and it really does make me wish I could find a way to channel and express my love for the series the same way some of these artists and game makers and musicians have.

Yes definitely agree with you there about the love and passion that goes into all the fan works. It truly shows that these people are doing it simply out of pure love for the series rather than financial gain (besides, to continue amplifying this point, some fan stuff is free like the Touhoumon patches for example, some remixed/arranged music on niconico, fan art on sites like Pixiv, so that purely is just to share and give back something to the Touhou community without expecting anything back in return). Haha glad to hear you share my passion in wishing to draw also maybe there will be another 2 artists to continue contributing to the Touhou community in the future Yes listening to some beautiful arranges while viewing Touhou art is truly a way to give the characters more 'character' I guess, see what the Touhou cast is up to when they're not busy dodging bullets Same here with the thousands of images, that art is simply to die for. Yes I agree with you about an insane amount of remixed music, and also art, I've never seen a series with such a huge fanbase before, which truly goes to show how many hearts Touhou has touched since it started

Ahhh, that's some nice art by Miyuki Ruria, thanks for pointing this artist out! I especially love the Ran and Rin pics with their bullets around them. I love representations of the games' attacks done in an anime art style. Well done, and keep it up with the collection

On a side note, you've got quite a beautiful Alice avatar, any idea who that artist is?

You definitely should about Touhoumon, I love them, as we said above, so much love went into making those games, and so many things to appreciate in them, with the GBA styled music and everything! (chibi sprites are so cute too xD) True that about so much content that it could last a lifetime, since I discovered Touhou 5 years ago I literally went Touhou exclusive, all I play are the official Touhou games and Touhou fangames, and after 5 years, I feel like I barely scratched the surface with sooooo much content available! Unfortunately, yes, I also understand what you mean about being a late comer to the series My only wish is that I discovered this wonderful world 15 years ago rather than having such a huge backlog to try catching up with. Same here, it definitely is nice knowing that others feel the same way about this magical series, it was life changing for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one on these forums that feels the same way. I too would wish to draw to be able to give something back to this wonderful community, I'm by no means a developer or a musician, so that's out of the picture, but drawing I could pull off (especially on a pc rather than paper, you make a mistake just CTRL+Z or delete that layer ).

Well these posts went a bit off topic from what you originally started it off with with your first Lunatic 1cc, so, which game are you working on to 1cc now?

[Dreamleaf]

Mountain of Faith, for several reasons. It was the first Touhou I ever played, and it's still the one I know my way around best. It's the one I'm closest to getting -- I've previously reached the final boss on a credit; my furthest progress in other games is Stage 5 (IN and HSIFS). And I love the music enough to keep me going through the 1cc grind.

Ah that seems like a good choice. It's one of my potential candidates for my next lunatic 1cc myself. Mind you I still haven't even completed a hard mode in Mountain of Faith.

Yes definitely agree with you there about the love and passion that goes into all the fan works. It truly shows that these people are doing it simply out of pure love for the series rather than financial gain (besides, to continue amplifying this point, some fan stuff is free like the Touhoumon patches for example, some remixed/arranged music on niconico, fan art on sites like Pixiv, so that purely is just to share and give back something to the Touhou community without expecting anything back in return). Haha glad to hear you share my passion in wishing to draw also maybe there will be another 2 artists to continue contributing to the Touhou community in the future Yes listening to some beautiful arranges while viewing Touhou art is truly a way to give the characters more 'character' I guess, see what the Touhou cast is up to when they're not busy dodging bullets Same here with the thousands of images, that art is simply to die for. Yes I agree with you about an insane amount of remixed music, and also art, I've never seen a series with such a huge fanbase before, which truly goes to show how many hearts Touhou has touched since it started

Ahhh, that's some nice art by Miyuki Ruria, thanks for pointing this artist out! I especially love the Ran and Rin pics with their bullets around them. I love representations of the games' attacks done in an anime art style. Well done, and keep it up with the collection

On a side note, you've got quite a beautiful Alice avatar, any idea who that artist is?

You definitely should about Touhoumon, I love them, as we said above, so much love went into making those games, and so many things to appreciate in them, with the GBA styled music and everything! (chibi sprites are so cute too xD) True that about so much content that it could last a lifetime, since I discovered Touhou 5 years ago I literally went Touhou exclusive, all I play are the official Touhou games and Touhou fangames, and after 5 years, I feel like I barely scratched the surface with sooooo much content available! Unfortunately, yes, I also understand what you mean about being a late comer to the series My only wish is that I discovered this wonderful world 15 years ago rather than having such a huge backlog to try catching up with. Same here, it definitely is nice knowing that others feel the same way about this magical series, it was life changing for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one on these forums that feels the same way. I too would wish to draw to be able to give something back to this wonderful community, I'm by no means a developer or a musician, so that's out of the picture, but drawing I could pull off (especially on a pc rather than paper, you make a mistake just CTRL+Z or delete that layer ).

Well these posts went a bit off topic from what you originally started it off with with your first Lunatic 1cc, so, which game are you working on to 1cc now?

You'll have to forgive me. I literally don't know anyone who plays these kind of games off the internet so it's easy for me to start going off on tangents with this series talking here  That's how I see myself most likely in 5 years from now, still obsessed with this series and still feeling like I've only just scratched the surface only wishing I had found it earlier >.>

I'm still working on getting around to the spinoff games as well as other fandom ones but I promise I'll bump the Touhoumon to the top of that list when I do!

There's something about Touhou and bullet hells which really just lets me imagine these fights playing out as if they were in an anime or even real life that I absolutely love. It's like something in my imagination just clicks and you can just see the patterns as if they were real attacks. 

I don't know offhand on the icon avi I'm afraid X3 I found an icon for it saved in my pictures and thought it would be nice to use though.

As for what I've been working on I mainly just have been plucking some normal 1ccs out of the way the last few days. I now have every normal character/shot type in 6-9 including the singles in Imperishable Nights as well as Eiki and Komachi in Phantasmagoria of Flower View. This weekend so far I've been working on Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom Point Device hard mode with Reimu. Progress is.... slow but progress nonetheless. I also started practicing with the extra stage in 15 as well, and I can tell unlike in 9's extra I won't be able to beat this one in a single night.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

You'll have to forgive me. I literally don't know anyone who plays these kind of games off the internet so it's easy for me to start going off on tangents with this series talking here  That's how I see myself most likely in 5 years from now, still obsessed with this series and still feeling like I've only just scratched the surface only wishing I had found it earlier >.>

I'm still working on getting around to the spinoff games as well as other fandom ones but I promise I'll bump the Touhoumon to the top of that list when I do!

There's something about Touhou and bullet hells which really just lets me imagine these fights playing out as if they were in an anime or even real life that I absolutely love. It's like something in my imagination just clicks and you can just see the patterns as if they were real attacks. 

I don't know offhand on the icon avi I'm afraid X3 I found an icon for it saved in my pictures and thought it would be nice to use though.

As for what I've been working on I mainly just have been plucking some normal 1ccs out of the way the last few days. I now have every normal character/shot type in 6-9 including the singles in Imperishable Nights as well as Eiki and Komachi in Phantasmagoria of Flower View. This weekend so far I've been working on Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom Point Device hard mode with Reimu. Progress is.... slow but progress nonetheless. I also started practicing with the extra stage in 15 as well, and I can tell unlike in 9's extra I won't be able to beat this one in a single night.

Nothing to forgive mate, I know how easy it is to sway off topic when talking about Touhou cause it?s such a vast world! Here?s to hoping you will still be obsessed with series come another 5 years! xD

Yeah time is an issue for everyone to try keeping up with everything. I think the best way would be pairing it up, but this will slow down the rate at which you?ll clear the official games. That?s how I go about it usually, I?ll have an official Touhou as my main game which I?m hitting challenges on, and a fangame to serve as a breaker. Oh yeah btw, Touhoumon goes by another name called Touhou Puppet Play, just giving you a heads up cause even the wiki page is called Touhou Puppet Play.

Dood, I completely understand what you mean, a boss battle in Touhou in my eyes is like watching an ultra-epic fight in a superpower fighting anime like Dragon Ball! Makes it soooo much more immersive feeling like the attacks are real as you?re stating Keep it up, you?ve got quite a devotion to the series from the sound of it

Noooo, such a beautiful art style too :?( Guess it's gonna end up as a sleepless night hunting around danbooru through thousands of Alice pics till I find it xD Definitely a nice picture, you?ve got a few artists which I?ve never heard of which are really good!

That?s quite some good progress you got there, well done. I noticed you just mentioned the Windows games, I would recommend that you don?t overlook the PC-98 ones, they?re awesome, especially Touhou 2 and Touhou 5. Touhou 2 is iconic for me cause it?s the first time Reimu and Marisa face off against each other The start of a beautiful friendship/rivalry. Ahh, I heard that Touhou 15 isn?t on the easy side, so, best of luck with the Extra!

[Dreamleaf]

Nothing to forgive mate, I know how easy it is to sway off topic when talking about Touhou cause it’s such a vast world! Here’s to hoping you will still be obsessed with series come another 5 years! xD

Yeah time is an issue for everyone to try keeping up with everything. I think the best way would be pairing it up, but this will slow down the rate at which you’ll clear the official games. That’s how I go about it usually, I’ll have an official Touhou as my main game which I’m hitting challenges on, and a fangame to serve as a breaker. Oh yeah btw, Touhoumon goes by another name called Touhou Puppet Play, just giving you a heads up cause even the wiki page is called Touhou Puppet Play.

Dood, I completely understand what you mean, a boss battle in Touhou in my eyes is like watching an ultra-epic fight in a superpower fighting anime like Dragon Ball! Makes it soooo much more immersive feeling like the attacks are real as you’re stating Keep it up, you’ve got quite a devotion to the series from the sound of it

Noooo, such a beautiful art style too :’( Guess it's gonna end up as a sleepless night hunting around danbooru through thousands of Alice pics till I find it xD Definitely a nice picture, you’ve got a few artists which I’ve never heard of which are really good!

That’s quite some good progress you got there, well done. I noticed you just mentioned the Windows games, I would recommend that you don’t overlook the PC-98 ones, they’re awesome, especially Touhou 2 and Touhou 5. Touhou 2 is iconic for me cause it’s the first time Reimu and Marisa face off against each other The start of a beautiful friendship/rivalry. Ahh, I heard that Touhou 15 isn’t on the easy side, so, best of luck with the Extra!

So far I've been using the hard/lunatic/extras as my main focus and then the normal 1ccs as my cooldown. I do sprinkle in the odd thing though, like I've read most of Forbidden Scrollery, I've caught up on the fanmade anime (the Fantasy Kaleidoscope one) and I have played HRtP as well as PoDD, though for some reason I've had trouble getting 2, 4 and 5 to work, but I've been meaning to eventually sit down and give them a proper try, same with the official spinoff games. I'm excited to see how they handle the bullet hell aspect in the fighting games. Seems like it could be interesting. There's so much to go through I feel I should really start keeping a list of things I need to check out XD Oh and we got another game coming out now lol. I played a good chunk of HRtP and was working on a 1cc but after a while I decided I needed a break from getting killed by my own weapon repeatedly >.>

Here I was able to find the picture on my PC (I'm afraid I don't know the artist though). I just uploaded it onto imgur for you https://imgur.com/a/TqLe66E  Threw in a few other extra really nice ones for you too in case there's any of them you haven't seen yet!

I've only made a bit of progress on the 15 extra credit, mainly because I spent such a good chunk of time working on the hard point device for Reimu in LoLK. This game can be absolutely ridiculously difficult at times. Especially with the point device mode but I also feel it's a good one to play to help sharpen your skills since I almost always feel like it's pushing me to my current limits. 15 is definitely the hardest of the ones I've played, mind you I still haven't played tons of SA and UFO beyond easy mode so I'm curious to see how those two stack up since I know they're considered some of the harder games in general. I've heard as far as extra stage bosses go Koishi from SA is suppose to be absolutely brutal too.

Edit: I managed to clear LoLK hard mode point device on Reimu

[Lunatic_Reimu]

So far I've been using the hard/lunatic/extras as my main focus and then the normal 1ccs as my cooldown. I do sprinkle in the odd thing though, like I've read most of Forbidden Scrollery, I've caught up on the fanmade anime (the Fantasy Kaleidoscope one) and I have played HRtP as well as PoDD, though for some reason I've had trouble getting 2, 4 and 5 to work, but I've been meaning to eventually sit down and give them a proper try, same with the official spinoff games. I'm excited to see how they handle the bullet hell aspect in the fighting games. Seems like it could be interesting. There's so much to go through I feel I should really start keeping a list of things I need to check out XD Oh and we got another game coming out now lol. I played a good chunk of HRtP and was working on a 1cc but after a while I decided I needed a break from getting killed by my own weapon repeatedly >.>

Here I was able to find the picture on my PC (I'm afraid I don't know the artist though). I just uploaded it onto imgur for you https://imgur.com/a/TqLe66E  Threw in a few other extra really nice ones for you too in case there's any of them you haven't seen yet!

I've only made a bit of progress on the 15 extra credit, mainly because I spent such a good chunk of time working on the hard point device for Reimu in LoLK. This game can be absolutely ridiculously difficult at times. Especially with the point device mode but I also feel it's a good one to play to help sharpen your skills since I almost always feel like it's pushing me to my current limits. 15 is definitely the hardest of the ones I've played, mind you I still haven't played tons of SA and UFO beyond easy mode so I'm curious to see how those two stack up since I know they're considered some of the harder games in general. I've heard as far as extra stage bosses go Koishi from SA is suppose to be absolutely brutal too.

Edit: I managed to clear LoLK hard mode point device on Reimu

Ahh ok, we play the games differently, I just stick to 1 official game and work my way up from Easy to Lunatic, and switch to the next game once Lunatic and Extra are complete. I find that it helps building up the difficulties like that cause by the time I get to Lunatic I would have gotten used to the stages and spell cards since I went through an easier version of them on Easy/Normal and mostly Hard. Ahh the Fantasy Kaleidoscope anime is brilliant. I saw the first 4 episodes (PCB and EoSD) and they?re done soooo well! So much love went into that project! That?s weird that Touhou 1 and 3 worked fine for you but 2, 4, and 5 gave you trouble :/ What emulator are you using? I used to use Anex on my old laptop but use T-98 Next on my new pc. I highly recommend T-98, has a wider range of instruments and gives more life to the music. Lol haha I completely know what you mean about getting killed by your own weapon in Touhou 1, brings back memories lol. You?ll get used to more control of the Yin Yan g orb though the more you play. Utilize the slide a lot, it really helps to avoid getting killed by your own orb.

WOW dood, just wow. That?s some beautiful art you?ve got there. Well done. I saw a couple of them before, but there are definitely new ones which I?ve never seen which are absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for these! I?ll definitely save them when I get home!

Ahh yeah, that happens to me too, usually I pair up the Extra with Lunatic to serve as my breaker, and I notice little progress gets done on Lunatic till I actually clear the Extra. I?ve heard of Touhou 15 being very difficult from another user. I haven?t experienced it yet myself though so I can?t judge. Yes Touhou 11 and 12 are known to be some of the hardest games in the series! And Koishi. . . well let?s just say I started playing Touhou once I stumbled upon her boss fight on Youtube over 5 years ago before I even knew what Touhou was. I was simply in awe watching it, and thought to myself ?that looks ridiculously difficult, I don?t think I could beat that game. . .? and that?s how I started searching up on Touhou and just fell in love with this marvelous wonderful world xD

Well done on the Hard Touhou 15 clear btw Keep it up! Getting some good progress in

[Dreamleaf]

Ahh ok, we play the games differently, I just stick to 1 official game and work my way up from Easy to Lunatic, and switch to the next game once Lunatic and Extra are complete. I find that it helps building up the difficulties like that cause by the time I get to Lunatic I would have gotten used to the stages and spell cards since I went through an easier version of them on Easy/Normal and mostly Hard. Ahh the Fantasy Kaleidoscope anime is brilliant. I saw the first 4 episodes (PCB and EoSD) and they’re done soooo well! So much love went into that project! That’s weird that Touhou 1 and 3 worked fine for you but 2, 4, and 5 gave you trouble :/ What emulator are you using? I used to use Anex on my old laptop but use T-98 Next on my new pc. I highly recommend T-98, has a wider range of instruments and gives more life to the music. Lol haha I completely know what you mean about getting killed by your own weapon in Touhou 1, brings back memories lol. You’ll get used to more control of the Yin Yan g orb though the more you play. Utilize the slide a lot, it really helps to avoid getting killed by your own orb.

WOW dood, just wow. That’s some beautiful art you’ve got there. Well done. I saw a couple of them before, but there are definitely new ones which I’ve never seen which are absolutely gorgeous! Thanks for these! I’ll definitely save them when I get home!

Ahh yeah, that happens to me too, usually I pair up the Extra with Lunatic to serve as my breaker, and I notice little progress gets done on Lunatic till I actually clear the Extra. I’ve heard of Touhou 15 being very difficult from another user. I haven’t experienced it yet myself though so I can’t judge. Yes Touhou 11 and 12 are known to be some of the hardest games in the series! And Koishi. . . well let’s just say I started playing Touhou once I stumbled upon her boss fight on Youtube over 5 years ago before I even knew what Touhou was. I was simply in awe watching it, and thought to myself ‘that looks ridiculously difficult, I don’t think I could beat that game. . .’ and that’s how I started searching up on Touhou and just fell in love with this marvelous wonderful world xD

Well done on the Hard Touhou 15 clear btw Keep it up! Getting some good progress in

Originally back when I was just playing PCB I was intending on trying to work my way up through the difficulties but it became clear after originally clearing normal that attempting hard was still above what I was capable of doing. I figured with enough practice I would eventually get it but I decided to start exploring normal mode in the other games just to keep things fresh while I built up my general playing skill. Tbh it wasn't until around December that I first felt confident enough to even seriously attempt a hard mode 1cc. Tbh it wasn't until I beat LoLK normal that I started feeling more comfortable stepping into the more difficulty content. I think doing it your way now would work alright for me since I have improved a fair bit since then. I did something like that with 9 where I beat it in normal, immediately went to hard and then immediately went to Lunatic mode after which did actually work rather well. I've been considering trying that a bit more with the other games lately.

For the PC-98 games I was using Anex. I didn't look extensively into the issue though since I was planning on revisiting the PC-98 games at a later date once I had explored the main series games a bit more. I'll definitely check out T-98! As of now 2, 4 and 5 are the only main title games I have yet to play so it would be nice to be able to sit down with them soon

I had a feeling you'd appreciate some of that art. I have my background image set up to cycle through Touhou images and sometimes it's just fun to put on some music and watch the background slideshow cycle through all this amazing art ^_^

I absolutely love 15. It's my favorite in the entire series and maybe my single favorite game of all time, even if it does make me suffer a lot (or maybe because of that?). Fighting Clownpiece in normal for the first time back when I was still learning the ropes was an experience I won't be forgetting let me tell you. Playing this once in normal mode resulted in the largest increase my skill and confidence levels gained in a short period of time, which is kind of ironic since the game spent long hours doing nothing but utterly destroying me and crushing my ego. I was baffled when I first played it because I had nearly a dozen normal 1ccs under my belt by that point and I couldn't believe how much harder this one was. I'm curious to see how 11 and 12 are going to stack up in terms of difficulty when I finally get around to going through them properly.

Your story with Koishi reminds me of my experience in some ways. The first time I heard about this series was when I stumbled on a video of Lunatic Yuyuko from PCB and I remember bursting out laughing and saying "yeah, there's absolutely no way in hell I could or would ever do that". Time sure has a funny way of making fools of us doesn't it?  Although it was actually that thought of "I could never do that" which motivated me to actually try the series. 

I had spent nearly a decade dealing with severe depression. I was able to go through the motions in life but I was completely dead inside, I had no motivation whatsoever and waking up every day felt like torture. Things got especially bad last year and I hit a low where I genuinely just felt like nothing I did would ever matter and that trying didn't matter at all, and then the strangest thing happened, for the first time in nearly a decade I felt motivation, I wanted to prove myself wrong, I wanted to show that if I really put my mind to something I could in fact do it, and at that point I suddenly remembered this game I had seen many years ago of the Yuyuko fight which was what I considered one of the most difficult things I had ever seen someone do and I remembered myself seeing it and immediately believing I wasn't capable of doing that and I suddenly wanted nothing more then to show then that I could do it if I tried. That one thought has completely changed my life and I doubt I could ever properly explain to others the drastic impact playing this had on who I am and just how much this series means to me because of that. I know most people would probably think it silly to be so effected by a game, but to be fair I doubt most of them understand just how much depth this series has.

One thing that makes me laugh though is showing people videos of gameplay for this series for the first time and always hearing "I couldn't ever do that" every time. It always make me smile. Little do they know....

Opps ended up going on another long somewhat offtopic spiel XD

And thank you! I think now I'm going to be focusing on LoLKs extra stage more, and maybe give SA a shot in normal too. It'd be nice to get that and the UFO normal 1cc so I could say I've done all the post PC-98 era main games at least once in normal.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

Originally back when I was just playing PCB I was intending on trying to work my way up through the difficulties but it became clear after originally clearing normal that attempting hard was still above what I was capable of doing. I figured with enough practice I would eventually get it but I decided to start exploring normal mode in the other games just to keep things fresh while I built up my general playing skill. Tbh it wasn't until around December that I first felt confident enough to even seriously attempt a hard mode 1cc. Tbh it wasn't until I beat LoLK normal that I started feeling more comfortable stepping into the more difficulty content. I think doing it your way now would work alright for me since I have improved a fair bit since then. I did something like that with 9 where I beat it in normal, immediately went to hard and then immediately went to Lunatic mode after which did actually work rather well. I've been considering trying that a bit more with the other games lately.

For the PC-98 games I was using Anex. I didn't look extensively into the issue though since I was planning on revisiting the PC-98 games at a later date once I had explored the main series games a bit more. I'll definitely check out T-98! As of now 2, 4 and 5 are the only main title games I have yet to play so it would be nice to be able to sit down with them soon

I had a feeling you'd appreciate some of that art. I have my background image set up to cycle through Touhou images and sometimes it's just fun to put on some music and watch the background slideshow cycle through all this amazing art ^_^

I absolutely love 15. It's my favorite in the entire series and maybe my single favorite game of all time, even if it does make me suffer a lot (or maybe because of that?). Fighting Clownpiece in normal for the first time back when I was still learning the ropes was an experience I won't be forgetting let me tell you. Playing this once in normal mode resulted in the largest increase my skill and confidence levels gained in a short period of time, which is kind of ironic since the game spent long hours doing nothing but utterly destroying me and crushing my ego. I was baffled when I first played it because I had nearly a dozen normal 1ccs under my belt by that point and I couldn't believe how much harder this one was. I'm curious to see how 11 and 12 are going to stack up in terms of difficulty when I finally get around to going through them properly.

Your story with Koishi reminds me of my experience in some ways. The first time I heard about this series was when I stumbled on a video of Lunatic Yuyuko from PCB and I remember bursting out laughing and saying "yeah, there's absolutely no way in hell I could or would ever do that". Time sure has a funny way of making fools of us doesn't it?  Although it was actually that thought of "I could never do that" which motivated me to actually try the series. 

I had spent nearly a decade dealing with severe depression. I was able to go through the motions in life but I was completely dead inside, I had no motivation whatsoever and waking up every day felt like torture. Things got especially bad last year and I hit a low where I genuinely just felt like nothing I did would ever matter and that trying didn't matter at all, and then the strangest thing happened, for the first time in nearly a decade I felt motivation, I wanted to prove myself wrong, I wanted to show that if I really put my mind to something I could in fact do it, and at that point I suddenly remembered this game I had seen many years ago of the Yuyuko fight which was what I considered one of the most difficult things I had ever seen someone do and I remembered myself seeing it and immediately believing I wasn't capable of doing that and I suddenly wanted nothing more then to show then that I could do it if I tried. That one thought has completely changed my life and I doubt I could ever properly explain to others the drastic impact playing this had on who I am and just how much this series means to me because of that. I know most people would probably think it silly to be so effected by a game, but to be fair I doubt most of them understand just how much depth this series has.

One thing that makes me laugh though is showing people videos of gameplay for this series for the first time and always hearing "I couldn't ever do that" every time. It always make me smile. Little do they know....

Opps ended up going on another long somewhat offtopic spiel XD

And thank you! I think now I'm going to be focusing on LoLKs extra stage more, and maybe give SA a shot in normal too. It'd be nice to get that and the UFO normal 1cc so I could say I've done all the post PC-98 era main games at least once in normal.

I think both methods have their own unique advantages. The way I do it will help in learning enemy placement, and how to deal with most of the attacks by the time you get to Lunatic cause you would have experienced them quite a few times by working your way through Easy, Normal and Hard. When I had just started Touhou 6 I was playing mostly on reflex, especially in stages 4 and 5. Now that I've gone through Easy, Normal, and 3 Hards (only 1 left and I go to Lunatic!!!! xD) I know the stages by heart and where to position myself to tackle the next part properly (mostly talking about stage 4 about those spinny things that aim at you and need to get into a stream for them). The way you do it has the advantage of yes, 1. keeping everything fresh, 2. you're facing a multitude of different attacks throughout the course of the whole series, so you're building up your confidence by having faced a huge variety of attacks. Yeah I get what you mean about feeling more comfortable now after facing a hard enemy like Clownpiece. You start feeling like you're capable of achieving more after attempting a more difficult feat than you're used to It's like the doors open up to you for more challenges.

Check out T98 maybe it will solve your problems, but it's weird cause Anex should be the emulator that is the least resource heavy. Saying that though, my new PC had trouble with Anex, but it's what I used to use on my old laptop, so maybe compatibility varies between systems? You should notice more percussion in the PC98 games if you're using T98 over Anex which is always a bonus, and could play Touhou 2's alternate MIDI soundtrack.

Damn right dood, that's quite a beautiful collection you got there, keep it up! I completely understand what you mean, just relaxing with some Touhou arranges while appreciating that marvelous art! While I love the art with attacks in it, I also really appreciate those that make you see what the girls are up to when they're not bullet dodging, like that image you linked with Reimu sitting near Marisa while holding her Hakkero with a beautiful Gensokyo path in the background.

Wow, that's saying something dood, 15 must have really hooked you good! Hahaaha I understand that about not forgetting an enemy when you're still learning. Brings back memories of the first time I decided to try a Touhou game, I went for 7, looked really pretty with all the purple and cherry blossoms. Remember, never touched a Touhou game before, but was used to playing on the hardest difficulties on PlayStation games, so I said, screw Easy, let's go for Normal straight away (I wasn't going for Lunatic instantly, I had seen that Koishi fight so I know how difficult this series could get). I got to Stage 4 where you fight the Prismriver sisters, and Jeeeessssuuusss that was exhilarating trying to keep up with the 3 of them. My finger was welded onto the focus button haha I was so scared to move around lol. Ahh nostalgia. Anyway cause I'll sway off topic xD That's really interesting to know about 15, quite a step up in difficulty it seems. Best of luck with 11 and 12!

Ahhh Yuyuko's fight certainly is beautiful, you had quite a nice introduction to the series with that beautiful theme of hers. Oh yes, the impossible is now possible for us haha! xD Yeah same here, I was always a challenge seeker, and when I saw this series I thought I couldn't beat it, so I wanted to try it. It wasn't just the difficulty that dragged me here though, I just love the concept of magical anime girls flying around shooting bullets at each other (I'm a massive anime fan, especially these superpowered ones like Dragon Ball, and magical girl like Nanoha, Precure and Sailor Moon), Pair that with the soul-saving music this series has, and well, let's just say that ZUN's a damn genius xD

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your depression, I know someone that's going through something like that and it's clearly not a pretty sight On the plus side, I'm glad to hear that Touhou was your saving grace! Try to always keep motivated so you don't fall back into that horrible dark place. There's a wonderful world to explore (in Touhou I mean, real life sucks xD), with all the official games and fan games, that you could easily stay motivated with the series as long as you keep striving for more and always keep the series close to your heart. Oh no believe me dood, it's not silly at all, I fully understand what you mean about how this series could change your life, cause it did the same thing to me. It literally is my purpose to live, it's just so wonderful, the characters are amazing, and I feel like there's still so much to see and experience, and finally, achieve! As you said, it may sound silly to others to make your life revolve around a game, but I'm dead serious here, and wouldn't want it any other way either. I'm glad you feel the same way, cause I know what a wonderful feeling it is

Hahaha yeah, remember we were like these people once

Haha no worries about going off topic, was an interesting read

Keep at it as always my friend, good things will come to you with the devotion you've got to this series! Ahh close to having all Normals cleared! Best of luck with the hardest 2, I believe in you Utsuho is a beautiful fight also, and Byakuren's music is to die for.

[Dreamleaf]

I think both methods have their own unique advantages. The way I do it will help in learning enemy placement, and how to deal with most of the attacks by the time you get to Lunatic cause you would have experienced them quite a few times by working your way through Easy, Normal and Hard. When I had just started Touhou 6 I was playing mostly on reflex, especially in stages 4 and 5. Now that I've gone through Easy, Normal, and 3 Hards (only 1 left and I go to Lunatic!!!! xD) I know the stages by heart and where to position myself to tackle the next part properly (mostly talking about stage 4 about those spinny things that aim at you and need to get into a stream for them). The way you do it has the advantage of yes, 1. keeping everything fresh, 2. you're facing a multitude of different attacks throughout the course of the whole series, so you're building up your confidence by having faced a huge variety of attacks. Yeah I get what you mean about feeling more comfortable now after facing a hard enemy like Clownpiece. You start feeling like you're capable of achieving more after attempting a more difficult feat than you're used to It's like the doors open up to you for more challenges.

Check out T98 maybe it will solve your problems, but it's weird cause Anex should be the emulator that is the least resource heavy. Saying that though, my new PC had trouble with Anex, but it's what I used to use on my old laptop, so maybe compatibility varies between systems? You should notice more percussion in the PC98 games if you're using T98 over Anex which is always a bonus, and could play Touhou 2's alternate MIDI soundtrack.

Damn right dood, that's quite a beautiful collection you got there, keep it up! I completely understand what you mean, just relaxing with some Touhou arranges while appreciating that marvelous art! While I love the art with attacks in it, I also really appreciate those that make you see what the girls are up to when they're not bullet dodging, like that image you linked with Reimu sitting near Marisa while holding her Hakkero with a beautiful Gensokyo path in the background.

Wow, that's saying something dood, 15 must have really hooked you good! Hahaaha I understand that about not forgetting an enemy when you're still learning. Brings back memories of the first time I decided to try a Touhou game, I went for 7, looked really pretty with all the purple and cherry blossoms. Remember, never touched a Touhou game before, but was used to playing on the hardest difficulties on PlayStation games, so I said, screw Easy, let's go for Normal straight away (I wasn't going for Lunatic instantly, I had seen that Koishi fight so I know how difficult this series could get). I got to Stage 4 where you fight the Prismriver sisters, and Jeeeessssuuusss that was exhilarating trying to keep up with the 3 of them. My finger was welded onto the focus button haha I was so scared to move around lol. Ahh nostalgia. Anyway cause I'll sway off topic xD That's really interesting to know about 15, quite a step up in difficulty it seems. Best of luck with 11 and 12!

Ahhh Yuyuko's fight certainly is beautiful, you had quite a nice introduction to the series with that beautiful theme of hers. Oh yes, the impossible is now possible for us haha! xD Yeah same here, I was always a challenge seeker, and when I saw this series I thought I couldn't beat it, so I wanted to try it. It wasn't just the difficulty that dragged me here though, I just love the concept of magical anime girls flying around shooting bullets at each other (I'm a massive anime fan, especially these superpowered ones like Dragon Ball, and magical girl like Nanoha, Precure and Sailor Moon), Pair that with the soul-saving music this series has, and well, let's just say that ZUN's a damn genius xD

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your depression, I know someone that's going through something like that and it's clearly not a pretty sight On the plus side, I'm glad to hear that Touhou was your saving grace! Try to always keep motivated so you don't fall back into that horrible dark place. There's a wonderful world to explore (in Touhou I mean, real life sucks xD), with all the official games and fan games, that you could easily stay motivated with the series as long as you keep striving for more and always keep the series close to your heart. Oh no believe me dood, it's not silly at all, I fully understand what you mean about how this series could change your life, cause it did the same thing to me. It literally is my purpose to live, it's just so wonderful, the characters are amazing, and I feel like there's still so much to see and experience, and finally, achieve! As you said, it may sound silly to others to make your life revolve around a game, but I'm dead serious here, and wouldn't want it any other way either. I'm glad you feel the same way, cause I know what a wonderful feeling it is

Hahaha yeah, remember we were like these people once

Haha no worries about going off topic, was an interesting read

Keep at it as always my friend, good things will come to you with the devotion you've got to this series! Ahh close to having all Normals cleared! Best of luck with the hardest 2, I believe in you Utsuho is a beautiful fight also, and Byakuren's music is to die for.

The nice thing about having tried all the post PC-98 main games is I can kind of pick and choose which sort of ones I want to work on as I go now based on what I'm looking for at the time, although I do want to experience them all fully eventually regardless. The other thing was this way I could explore the characters/story a bit more as well. it definitely does feel like more doors keep opening as I play! Even just working on LoLK so much lately has left me feeling like I can accomplish even more then a few weeks ago. I think focusing on some of the extra stages more was a good idea for my current skill level to help sharpen my skills which will really come into play in some of the various games' lunatic modes.

Oh that definitely sounds like it could be a plus to get more of the percussion! It might be a compatibility issue. I know when trying to run really old games in the past it sometimes requires a bit of tinkering to get working. It might be a case where it's a super easy fix but I just haven't checked into it. I'll try the T98 first though and see if that works

I love the variety of the art! I wanted to include some different kind of ones which is why I made sure to throw in the one you mentioned as well as ones like the psychedelic one and the black and white one in the store. Thanks for indulging me and letting me share! ^_^

PCB was the first game I started with as well! I still remember the first time I stepped into stage 4 in that game which was a rude awakening XD I mean it was already tough enough for me before that but stage 4 really scared me and could really make or break my attempts when I first started going for my normal 1cc credit. Even when attempting it in hard mode a while back there was a couple moments that really felt like a brick wall to me back then. I'm curious to see how it is once I step back to it and give it a try now that I've improved so much. The Prismriver sisters were pretty brutal but I got to say normal Clownpiece in point device mode for the first time was something else entirely. 15 is one of the first games I skipped easy mode and went straight to normal and it was quite the shock. I'm glad I did it but I admit I still get slight PTSD from my original time fighting that monster Funny enough some of her attacks legitimately felt easier in hard mode then it did normal. Doremy in hard mode was a bit scary for a stage 3 boss though.

I've always enjoyed a good challenge but I didn't use to go out of my way to look for them. I will a bit more nowadays. I like a lot of the old style arcade games like Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Battletoads or even newer ones like Cuphead, Hollow Knight or Undertale (all fantastic games btw) which are challenging and can be punishing but rewarding if you know what you're doing. Although these days it's hard to break away from anything that isn't Touhou Big anime fan here too! Have you by chance ever seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Easily my favorite anime and arguably my favorite series in general before I found Touhou. I can't help but feel it would be right up the alley of a lot of Touhou fans. It's a bit darker than most mohou shoujo animes but it has an extremely good story, animation and music! I also recently watched one called Flip Flappers which was quite wonderful. Definitely agreed on ZUN being a genius too! It's actually kind of scary how intelligent he can be.

Thank you for letting me share all that! I don't normally get too personal online but I don't really get to talk to others about this series who can understand why I love it so much so it's nice to get to open up a bit about it. Looking back now I don't really regret any of it because tbh I doubt I would have discovered this series otherwise. I could have easily gone my whole life without even knowing what I was missing out on which is a scary thought indeed! :ohdear:

Byakuren has such a wonderful theme. Her theme, Shinmyoumaru's, Kanako's and Junko's are my favorites out of the final stage bosses. The Utsuho fight just stressed me out a ton even in easy mode XD It's definitely a cool fight though and I think the final spellcard she uses is a pretty neat one. I'm scared of Shou from 12, curvy lasers are not particularly my forte but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it >.>

Small update on 15, so I've been working a bit more on the extra stage the last couple days and I'm having a blast with it. I've gone from being able to barely get to the mid stage boss to being able to get to even being able to make it around 13 minutes or so in before I lose my first life if I'm doing well and don't make a dumb mistake (this can admittedly still happen a fair bit). This extra stage seems significantly longer then the others I've done/attempted so I'm finding I really can't rely on my limited resources all that much. It's almost like a whole other game within the game. It's kind of cool how I've done the earlier parts so many times that I can actually beat them relatively consistently now even though just a few days ago some of these still felt ridiculously hard. It's still a slow crawl but it's nice seeing your progress over time, like the first time you get past the mid boss with all your lives and bombs still, or the first time you get to the extra stage boss with all your resources and whatnot. I still got like 6 of the bosses spellcards I haven't even seen yet but I'm getting there. Doing this really has me wanting to check out some of the other games extra stages afterwords too.

[Lunatic_Reimu]

The nice thing about having tried all the post PC-98 main games is I can kind of pick and choose which sort of ones I want to work on as I go now based on what I'm looking for at the time, although I do want to experience them all fully eventually regardless. The other thing was this way I could explore the characters/story a bit more as well. it definitely does feel like more doors keep opening as I play! Even just working on LoLK so much lately has left me feeling like I can accomplish even more then a few weeks ago. I think focusing on some of the extra stages more was a good idea for my current skill level to help sharpen my skills which will really come into play in some of the various games' lunatic modes.

Oh that definitely sounds like it could be a plus to get more of the percussion! It might be a compatibility issue. I know when trying to run really old games in the past it sometimes requires a bit of tinkering to get working. It might be a case where it's a super easy fix but I just haven't checked into it. I'll try the T98 first though and see if that works

I love the variety of the art! I wanted to include some different kind of ones which is why I made sure to throw in the one you mentioned as well as ones like the psychedelic one and the black and white one in the store. Thanks for indulging me and letting me share! ^_^

PCB was the first game I started with as well! I still remember the first time I stepped into stage 4 in that game which was a rude awakening XD I mean it was already tough enough for me before that but stage 4 really scared me and could really make or break my attempts when I first started going for my normal 1cc credit. Even when attempting it in hard mode a while back there was a couple moments that really felt like a brick wall to me back then. I'm curious to see how it is once I step back to it and give it a try now that I've improved so much. The Prismriver sisters were pretty brutal but I got to say normal Clownpiece in point device mode for the first time was something else entirely. 15 is one of the first games I skipped easy mode and went straight to normal and it was quite the shock. I'm glad I did it but I admit I still get slight PTSD from my original time fighting that monster Funny enough some of her attacks legitimately felt easier in hard mode then it did normal. Doremy in hard mode was a bit scary for a stage 3 boss though.

I've always enjoyed a good challenge but I didn't use to go out of my way to look for them. I will a bit more nowadays. I like a lot of the old style arcade games like Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Battletoads or even newer ones like Cuphead, Hollow Knight or Undertale (all fantastic games btw) which are challenging and can be punishing but rewarding if you know what you're doing. Although these days it's hard to break away from anything that isn't Touhou Big anime fan here too! Have you by chance ever seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Easily my favorite anime and arguably my favorite series in general before I found Touhou. I can't help but feel it would be right up the alley of a lot of Touhou fans. It's a bit darker than most mohou shoujo animes but it has an extremely good story, animation and music! I also recently watched one called Flip Flappers which was quite wonderful. Definitely agreed on ZUN being a genius too! It's actually kind of scary how intelligent he can be.

Thank you for letting me share all that! I don't normally get too personal online but I don't really get to talk to others about this series who can understand why I love it so much so it's nice to get to open up a bit about it. Looking back now I don't really regret any of it because tbh I doubt I would have discovered this series otherwise. I could have easily gone my whole life without even knowing what I was missing out on which is a scary thought indeed! :ohdear:

Byakuren has such a wonderful theme. Her theme, Shinmyoumaru's, Kanako's and Junko's are my favorites out of the final stage bosses. The Utsuho fight just stressed me out a ton even in easy mode XD It's definitely a cool fight though and I think the final spellcard she uses is a pretty neat one. I'm scared of Shou from 12, curvy lasers are not particularly my forte but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it >.>

Small update on 15, so I've been working a bit more on the extra stage the last couple days and I'm having a blast with it. I've gone from being able to barely get to the mid stage boss to being able to get to even being able to make it around 13 minutes or so in before I lose my first life if I'm doing well and don't make a dumb mistake (this can admittedly still happen a fair bit). This extra stage seems significantly longer then the others I've done/attempted so I'm finding I really can't rely on my limited resources all that much. It's almost like a whole other game within the game. It's kind of cool how I've done the earlier parts so many times that I can actually beat them relatively consistently now even though just a few days ago some of these still felt ridiculously hard. It's still a slow crawl but it's nice seeing your progress over time, like the first time you get past the mid boss with all your lives and bombs still, or the first time you get to the extra stage boss with all your resources and whatnot. I still got like 6 of the bosses spellcards I haven't even seen yet but I'm getting there. Doing this really has me wanting to check out some of the other games extra stages afterwords too.

Yes it definitely has it?s advantages playing the games the way you did it, it opened up the Touhou world more to you, and you met a huge variety of characters. This also makes it easier to relate when reading ZUN?s print works, there are some characters in those which I haven?t faced yet in the games, so you?ll bond / feel more immersed with them than I would. Looking forward to meeting them all though Yep, I also agree with you being able to pick and choose which to go for since you experienced them all. Similar thought I have in my mind for the future, I currently keep a checklist of each No Bomb run I hit, my main goal is No Bombing Easy, Normal, Hard and Extra with all characters, then No Bombing Lunatic with Reimu, and I?ll pick and choose other characters to Lunatic No Bomb with while I?m on that game (depends how long it will take me, Touhou 6 only has 4 characters so I?ll do it with all 4, but then Touhou 3 has 9 characters, Touhou 8 has 12 characters, and Touhou 9 has more than that!! That will take me too long on one game and I want to experience the other games also). When I would have beaten all the games, I could look back at that checklist and see which ones are empty, and then decide which I feel like working on at that moment, to check something else off that list Yes I agree with you on experiencing LoLK will open up your skill level since it?s tough, my skill level took a massive boost when I played Seihou 1 (No Bombing that was insane, you only get 5 lives for the whole game, and the Stage 4 boss is terrifying, and final boss Vivit has 3 forms), and also Touhou 3 really helped since it?s all randomly generated and requires more reflexes than memorization. Extras will definitely help your skill level if you?re playing on Normal / Hard mostly, IIRC Extra difficulty is rated somewhere between Hard and Lunatic.

Definitely, I used to use Anex before cause my old laptop couldn?t run T98, and the difference in percussion is clearly visible, makes the music feel more alive! Good luck on getting T98 working, I imagine you found the set up guide for it on the forums? Here it is incase: https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=6549.0 The English patch pack for the PC-98 games also has the same information but done as screenshots instead. Really hope you could get this working mate, Touhou 2 and 5 were wondrous, especially meeting Marisa for the first time! (She had short red hair back then!)

Oh definitely, the art is magical, and so immersive, I feel like it really breathes life into the characters. Thank you for sharing haha, not me for indulging you

Ahhh great minds think alike then Haha, yeah Touhou 7 really has something that drew me in, everything about it is awesome, the music is to die for, the story with Yuyuko trying to revive herself, lots of colourful attacks, it?s just brilliant. Well I reckon after the experiences you had with Touhou 15 and the Extra, I think you?ll break through that brick wall now Lol @ the PTSD from fighting Clownpiece before, and also referring to her as ?fighting that monster? haha. Hahaha I wonder if I?ll get the same symptoms with the Prismriver sisters. . . Ahh, regarding Doremy being a tough Stage 3 boss, that isn?t the first time it happened, I?ve read people saying that Keine in Touhou 8 feels more like a Stage 4 boss than a Stage 3 one.

Those are quite some good games you mentioned. I didn?t play them, cause as you said ?it?s hard to break away from anything that isn?t Touhou?, but I did play one of the Ghosts and Goblins in the past, and a friend of mine owns Hollow Knight, looks like a really good game, so I know what it?s like, and everyone knows what Undertale is at this point. Yes I?ve definitely heard of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, my sister?s boyfriend says it?s one of the best anime he?s seen, and also stated as you said, that it?s a dark version of magical girl. I definitely have to check it out at some point (got a HUGE anime list to watch). Thanks for also mentioning Flip Flappers, never heard of that one, just googled it and it?s magical girl so that?s always good I just finished Little Witch Academia yesterday, was brilliant, really enjoyed it, main character is such a klutz, so loud and so lovable! xD Highly recommended if you haven? watched it, and got quite a plot twist/surprise at the final episodes. Haha definitely agree with you about it being scary about how much of a genius ZUN actually is, he really is a marvelous person to have created such a wonderful world mostly on his own, with the programming of the games, that soul-saving music, and even his art took quite a step up now too! (Reimu in the character select screen for Touhou 17 is just tooooo cute xD)

Sure mate, talk all you want about it, I don?t mind at all. It?s actually nice for me to read and share as well, all of my friends don?t play Touhou, while they watch me play it sometimes, and listen to me talk about it, it?s not the same as talking to someone that knows the heartache and toil that goes into hitting that 1cc, and the adrenaline rush you feel being surrounded by all those bullets xD Oh yes, definitely a scary thought indeed not discovering Touhou, my life literally changed when I discovered it, I can?t ever imagine going back to a time when I didn?t know what it was. My only regret is that I didn?t discover it sooner, I had to be 25 years old to find it :?( That really would be a sad and scary thought ?going your whole life without it and not knowing what you?re missing?, and I feel sorry for those that don?t find it This series is so wonderful, it really feels like it brought back that magic and spark in my life. I?ve never felt so immersed in something before, even after 5 years of basically being Touhou-exclusive, if anything, I got even more addicted / obsessed as time went by, rather than losing interest in it.

Oh yes definitely about Byakuren?s theme, check out dBu?s arrange of it called White Lotus if you haven?t already, simply wow. My eyes misted up and tears almost rolled off my cheeks the first time I heard it, it?s just so beautiful and heavenly, it really is the definition of soul-saving music in my opinion. Quite a good line up of final boss theme?s you got there I also love Yuyuko?s theme as a final boss theme, both the theme for her main fight, and also when she?s doing her final spell card are just simply beautiful. Hahaha yes, Utsuho is very scary, and her final card really is cool with the way it draws you in. Ahh curvy lasers, I don?t think anyone enjoys those xD And lasers are more annoying than a bullet cause they?re usually longer, so it?s not just that initial tap and it passed you, need to be careful that you don?t need to tap back cause you?ll crash into it xD You?ll get it more with practice don?t worry

13 mins and the Extra isn?t complete yet? Must be a longer Extra then as you?re saying, the ones I?ve faced are around 11 ? 14 mins in total. Well done though getting so far in without losing a life! Uhhh I hate those ?dumb mistakes? as you called them, you just take it for granted sometimes and *boom*, clip-death. Happens to the best of us mate, don?t worry about it too much, especially when you?re having an off day. Yeah that?s what makes the learning process fun in Touhou, you just keep attempting something, eventually you?ll find your way of doing it, and something which was taking a life for you more times than not suddenly becomes easy/trivial/manageable Keep pushing, you?ll get to experience the other 6 spell cards don?t worry I?m currently working on Touhou 6 Hard No Bombs Marisa B, and Extra No Bombs with Reimu A, and yeah so far I?m getting to Flandre?s 7th spell, so there are another 3 cards which I haven?t experienced yet, looking forward to them!! Getting there for the first time, facing a spell card and not knowing what to fully expect / how to deal with it!! Ahhh such a wonderful feeling Oh yes definitely play the other games? Extras, they?re usually a brutal but fun fight with their quirks and gimmicks First time facing midboss Patchouli?s 2nd spell in the Touhou 6 Extra with bullets circling around me and closing in like a noose was awesome: 'Aaaaaa panic!! Where do I go?? Wtf is going on?!?!!?! Bullets usually go down and off-screen!!' xD

[Dreamleaf]

Yes it definitely has it’s advantages playing the games the way you did it, it opened up the Touhou world more to you, and you met a huge variety of characters. This also makes it easier to relate when reading ZUN’s print works, there are some characters in those which I haven’t faced yet in the games, so you’ll bond / feel more immersed with them than I would. Looking forward to meeting them all though Yep, I also agree with you being able to pick and choose which to go for since you experienced them all. Similar thought I have in my mind for the future, I currently keep a checklist of each No Bomb run I hit, my main goal is No Bombing Easy, Normal, Hard and Extra with all characters, then No Bombing Lunatic with Reimu, and I’ll pick and choose other characters to Lunatic No Bomb with while I’m on that game (depends how long it will take me, Touhou 6 only has 4 characters so I’ll do it with all 4, but then Touhou 3 has 9 characters, Touhou 8 has 12 characters, and Touhou 9 has more than that!! That will take me too long on one game and I want to experience the other games also). When I would have beaten all the games, I could look back at that checklist and see which ones are empty, and then decide which I feel like working on at that moment, to check something else off that list Yes I agree with you on experiencing LoLK will open up your skill level since it’s tough, my skill level took a massive boost when I played Seihou 1 (No Bombing that was insane, you only get 5 lives for the whole game, and the Stage 4 boss is terrifying, and final boss Vivit has 3 forms), and also Touhou 3 really helped since it’s all randomly generated and requires more reflexes than memorization. Extras will definitely help your skill level if you’re playing on Normal / Hard mostly, IIRC Extra difficulty is rated somewhere between Hard and Lunatic.

Definitely, I used to use Anex before cause my old laptop couldn’t run T98, and the difference in percussion is clearly visible, makes the music feel more alive! Good luck on getting T98 working, I imagine you found the set up guide for it on the forums? Here it is incase: https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=6549.0 The English patch pack for the PC-98 games also has the same information but done as screenshots instead. Really hope you could get this working mate, Touhou 2 and 5 were wondrous, especially meeting Marisa for the first time! (She had short red hair back then!)

Oh definitely, the art is magical, and so immersive, I feel like it really breathes life into the characters. Thank you for sharing haha, not me for indulging you

Ahhh great minds think alike then Haha, yeah Touhou 7 really has something that drew me in, everything about it is awesome, the music is to die for, the story with Yuyuko trying to revive herself, lots of colourful attacks, it’s just brilliant. Well I reckon after the experiences you had with Touhou 15 and the Extra, I think you’ll break through that brick wall now Lol @ the PTSD from fighting Clownpiece before, and also referring to her as ‘fighting that monster’ haha. Hahaha I wonder if I’ll get the same symptoms with the Prismriver sisters. . . Ahh, regarding Doremy being a tough Stage 3 boss, that isn’t the first time it happened, I’ve read people saying that Keine in Touhou 8 feels more like a Stage 4 boss than a Stage 3 one.

Those are quite some good games you mentioned. I didn’t play them, cause as you said ‘it’s hard to break away from anything that isn’t Touhou’, but I did play one of the Ghosts and Goblins in the past, and a friend of mine owns Hollow Knight, looks like a really good game, so I know what it’s like, and everyone knows what Undertale is at this point. Yes I’ve definitely heard of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, my sister’s boyfriend says it’s one of the best anime he’s seen, and also stated as you said, that it’s a dark version of magical girl. I definitely have to check it out at some point (got a HUGE anime list to watch). Thanks for also mentioning Flip Flappers, never heard of that one, just googled it and it’s magical girl so that’s always good I just finished Little Witch Academia yesterday, was brilliant, really enjoyed it, main character is such a klutz, so loud and so lovable! xD Highly recommended if you haven’ watched it, and got quite a plot twist/surprise at the final episodes. Haha definitely agree with you about it being scary about how much of a genius ZUN actually is, he really is a marvelous person to have created such a wonderful world mostly on his own, with the programming of the games, that soul-saving music, and even his art took quite a step up now too! (Reimu in the character select screen for Touhou 17 is just tooooo cute xD)

Sure mate, talk all you want about it, I don’t mind at all. It’s actually nice for me to read and share as well, all of my friends don’t play Touhou, while they watch me play it sometimes, and listen to me talk about it, it’s not the same as talking to someone that knows the heartache and toil that goes into hitting that 1cc, and the adrenaline rush you feel being surrounded by all those bullets xD Oh yes, definitely a scary thought indeed not discovering Touhou, my life literally changed when I discovered it, I can’t ever imagine going back to a time when I didn’t know what it was. My only regret is that I didn’t discover it sooner, I had to be 25 years old to find it :’( That really would be a sad and scary thought ‘going your whole life without it and not knowing what you’re missing’, and I feel sorry for those that don’t find it This series is so wonderful, it really feels like it brought back that magic and spark in my life. I’ve never felt so immersed in something before, even after 5 years of basically being Touhou-exclusive, if anything, I got even more addicted / obsessed as time went by, rather than losing interest in it.

Oh yes definitely about Byakuren’s theme, check out dBu’s arrange of it called White Lotus if you haven’t already, simply wow. My eyes misted up and tears almost rolled off my cheeks the first time I heard it, it’s just so beautiful and heavenly, it really is the definition of soul-saving music in my opinion. Quite a good line up of final boss theme’s you got there I also love Yuyuko’s theme as a final boss theme, both the theme for her main fight, and also when she’s doing her final spell card are just simply beautiful. Hahaha yes, Utsuho is very scary, and her final card really is cool with the way it draws you in. Ahh curvy lasers, I don’t think anyone enjoys those xD And lasers are more annoying than a bullet cause they’re usually longer, so it’s not just that initial tap and it passed you, need to be careful that you don’t need to tap back cause you’ll crash into it xD You’ll get it more with practice don’t worry

13 mins and the Extra isn’t complete yet? Must be a longer Extra then as you’re saying, the ones I’ve faced are around 11 – 14 mins in total. Well done though getting so far in without losing a life! Uhhh I hate those ‘dumb mistakes’ as you called them, you just take it for granted sometimes and *boom*, clip-death. Happens to the best of us mate, don’t worry about it too much, especially when you’re having an off day. Yeah that’s what makes the learning process fun in Touhou, you just keep attempting something, eventually you’ll find your way of doing it, and something which was taking a life for you more times than not suddenly becomes easy/trivial/manageable Keep pushing, you’ll get to experience the other 6 spell cards don’t worry I’m currently working on Touhou 6 Hard No Bombs Marisa B, and Extra No Bombs with Reimu A, and yeah so far I’m getting to Flandre’s 7th spell, so there are another 3 cards which I haven’t experienced yet, looking forward to them!! Getting there for the first time, facing a spell card and not knowing what to fully expect / how to deal with it!! Ahhh such a wonderful feeling Oh yes definitely play the other games’ Extras, they’re usually a brutal but fun fight with their quirks and gimmicks First time facing midboss Patchouli’s 2nd spell in the Touhou 6 Extra with bullets circling around me and closing in like a noose was awesome: 'Aaaaaa panic!! Where do I go?? Wtf is going on?!?!!?! Bullets usually go down and off-screen!!' xD

Even if you look at the story content we have I think 27 games with a 28th coming out, multiple printed works and whatnot so I did kind of just want to jump into some of the story content a bit, at least when it came to the main games. When it comes to the printed works and spinoff games I'm willing to take things a bit slower and meet the characters as they show up (like I haven't met Kokoro properly ingame but I have seen her in Forbidden Scrollery and fanart and whatnot). I can see why you go about the no bomb runs like you do with going through the lower difficulties/characters/shot types and just kind of building up to and finishing with that Lunatic Reimu no bomb run and then just whatever other characters you might find interesting. I'd definitely want to pick and choose a bit with games like 8 or 9 too with how many different ones there is XD I wouldn't want to do all the singles in 8 with a no bomb run, although it could be interesting too try a few of them since the singles gameplay really does change up how you need to deal with a lot of the attacks in 8. And jeeze, I can imagine the games with more limited lives must be scary on a no bomb run! I believe 3 and 9 are similar in that sense where there's far more emphasis on reflexes over memorization. It's one reason I focused on 9 for my first lunatic/extra 1cc since I felt like only needing to rely on my reflexes and intuition made things a bit simpler for me. It still requires me to constantly doing quick plans but it's a lot less worrying about certain spellcards and more trying to control the flow of the fight.

I did check out the T98 and I was having the same issue with 2, 4 and 5 so I figured it might be a case where the game files themselves were corrupted. I tried finding another package for the games and tried that and it seems to work, only thing is these ones aren't translated, but at least now I know it was the games themselves and not the anex or T98. Now I just need to sit down and figure out how to patch the games to English. I found a guide for it but I haven't sat down and tried it yet, but at least I know the issue was with the games and not the emulator.

And yes! I think 7 is a fantastic intro the series and I really need to give it credit for being able to initially hook me onto a genre I never thought I'd be able to get into. The gimmick is very noobie friendly and in general it's just an all around really solid Touhou game and it also has some of the more iconic characters within the series. Plus it lets me play as Sakuya so big plus there  

If you ever do decide to check out Madoka Magica just prepare to strap yourself in because it's a little bit more of a ride than most shows within the genre. Completely worth it though! It's one of those stories that just has so much love and care put into it at every angle from the animation to the music and the story. And yes! I have seen Little Witch Academia I enjoyed it a lot! I watched another anime by the same studio called Kill la Kill many years ago and really liked it so when LWA first was announced I was excited and watched it as it aired. Just like in Touhou that's one of those series where all the characters are so likeable. Even the side characters are great and ditto on the huge anime list to watch... More then I could ever possibly finish in fact. It's why usually I prefer the shorter but sweet kind of animes rather than the ones that span hundreds of episodes and take forever to watch. Also as a side note I've always liked ZUNs art, even when it was admittedly kind of bad it still had a lot of charm to it He has gotten a lot better over the years though. I still need to try 17 myself! I noticed when the demo was released but I figured I'd wait until I could play it translated.

If it makes you feel any better I was 29 when I first found it so I feel your pain! On the one hand it's kind of exciting because there's just soooo much I haven't experienced yet which means there's equal amounts of stuff to look forward to but I still can't help but wonder how much further I'd be along if I had started this series 5 or 10 years ago. When you're pushing yourself to your limits and trying to see how far you can go it sucks to think of all the potential time and practice you could have had to refine your skills if you discovered it earlier. I totally get what you mean about this series bringing back that magic and spark, I've had series that have really meant a lot to me in the past, but this series is truly something special that I don't think can be replaced or even surpassed for me at least.

I checked out the dBU white lotuc track you mentioned and it was absolutely fantastic. There's such a range to this piece that makes it special. Yuyuko's theme is really beautiful which I feel fits her fight perfectly, in general I think it's one of the most pretty fights in the series. Oh and the other piece I feel has so much range to it similarly to Emotional Skyscraper is Necrofantasia, absolutely love that piece. I also recently listened to a haunting remix for Kagome Kagome ~ Cinderella Cage I thought was great too that I'd recommend if you're interested! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkML_4j586Q

If I had to guess I'd say this Extra stage is going to go on for about 20 minutes from the looks of it It's almost like a whole game within a game! Ah yes, many clip deaths, also sometimes you misjudge when an enemy is going to die and starting moving away too quickly, or sometimes you get trapped and squished ect. I just try and always look at it as practice regardless. Over time my general odds of capturing a spellcard seems to rise so I try not to get too caught up in stressing over individual attempts although I'm sure everyone knows what it's like to have those deaths that make you yell "what?! That's complete bullshit!" at their screen from time to time lol and those off days where you just can't seem to get a good attempt can certainly be frustrating. I think the worst is when you start off amazingly, conserve most your resources quite far into the stage and then have things go horribly wrong later on. It's painful to make it really far into the stage without using a bomb only to suddenly get 2 misses back to back in a single attack. I am at the point where I think this is probably the most I've ever attempted a single thing in a game before. I can really see the effects of refining the muscle memory over the countless times I've slammed Reimu face first into a bullet :V I can't say I'm feeling burnt out though, I'm actually enjoying this a lot and I'm not necessarily in a rush to finish it and I feel like this is really effecting my overall skill with the series.

Doremy has a few spellcards like the one you mentioned with Patchouli. I really like her extra stage fight one like that even if you have to be pretty careful not to get trapped in it which can happen very quickly. It wasn't that long ago that I usually would just sit myself on the bottom of the screen and try to play it safe. I've long since come to realize that mentality simply just won't fly at all in the higher difficulties. The series really pushes you to be willing to use the entire screen. I've become much more comfortable doing that over time but initially it was really tough. Hell, even using the top of the screen to collect items use to terrify me. You really need to be able to adapt in this series, as there's a lot of parts that will punish you for trying to approach everything with the same mentality. 

I'm excited to get eventually try out 6's extra stage, it seems like it's one of the most iconic in the series. I know Flandre's theme is probably the single most well known Touhou track and probably the first from the series I ever heard myself. I'm also kind of curious about the no bomb runs. What made you decide to focus on those over normal 1ccs? I'm guessing being able to experience each game a bit deeper probably has something to do with it? Also how much practice does that usually involve to complete a game like that? Also good luck on getting through Flandre's last 3 spells, you can do it!