Since no one seems to care about spoilers, I'll just be direct. Unlocked Hatate. Comparisons I can think of:
Aya's camera defaults to horizontal orientation (standard camera). Hatate's camera defaults to vertical orientation (cell phone camera). Small detail, but it's there.
During unfocused movement, Aya's crosshair will point in the direction of her movement. Hatate's will remain pointed at the boss.
(Thanks, wouldn't have noticed it otherwise.)For both characters, timing out your camera will result in a drop to 50% charge.
After firing, Aya's camera will fall to 0% charge (before bullet bonuses). Hatate's will retain 50% charge (again, before bullet bonuses). (Hm... after playing a bit more, I had Hatate's camera losing all charge upon firing. Switching to Aya and back seems to have changed it back to the way I described it... but I'm not sure which of the two behaviors is the glitch...)Okay, I've got it now. After firing,
Aya's camera will fall to 0% charge (before bullet bonuses). When firing Hatate's camera, note the charge percentage as it ticks down to 0 while you hold out the camera. Hatate's camera will retain [that percentage] - 50%. In other words, it'll retain an amount of charge depending on how long you hold the camera button down, with a maximum of 50% for a quick tap of the camera button. Charge will not drop below 0% as a result of this formula.On a successful picture,
Aya's camera will recharge to a max of 35% depending on bullets captured. Hatate's will recharge to a max of 60%.On a failed picture,
Aya's camera will recharge to a max of 55% depending on bullets captured. Hatate's will recharge to a max of 75%. (Whether Hatate's superior bullet bonuses require more bullets, or if she'll cap out on recharge with the same amount of bullets as required for Aya, is undetermined.)
Aya's crosshair box will shrink as time elapses. Hatate's will (mostly) maintain its size (details, details... it shrinks a negligible amount).Aya's crosshair will move much more quickly and further away from her sprite. Hatate's will move very slowly, with little distance covered.Aya's crosshair box is larger than Hatate's crosshair box. (Comparative Image)Officially, I'll leave details as to the characters' movement speeds, recharge speeds, and hitboxes unresearched, as I have no method to track those in proper detail. Unofficially, they all seem identical to my eye.
Basically, Hatate is superior if you can afford to keep within close range (and her superior recharge will help her keep an aggressive stance where Aya would be forced to back down more often), and she'll suffer in scenes that require long range (haven't played DS enough to come up with a good example for it, but I imagine StB's 9-1 would be borderline impossible for Hatate).
Aside from that, I have a question: does anyone know what pressing L does on the stage select screen? I notice a little key appearing to the right when I do so, but it doesn't seem to actually change anything. (This is where I wish I could read the Japanese at the bottom of the screen.)Thanks to a Touhou wiki editor:
"L (Scene select only) - locks the best picture for the selected scene. Indicated by an L in the upper-right hand corner. While the lock is active, any pictures in that scene that may have a higher score will not replace the locked best picture. All other statistics still apply."