The Touhou Project Community Thread | Immaterial and Missing Posts

Evilisk · Aug 16, 2019

Some fan art of the new characters

Stage 4 Boss

Link: https://www.zerochan.net/2661623

Stage 5 Boss

Link: https://yatsunote.tumblr.com/post/186977146375/haniwa

Stage 6 Boss

Link: https://k0nfette.tumblr.com/post/186966942251/keiki

Stage EX Boss

(Apparently, the EX Boss is *another* character that's connected to Miko)

Link: https://wakasagayhime.tumblr.com/post/186975143965/horse

And some character sets that I'll just link to:
Memefo (Demo Characters) (Remaining Characters)
Waka (Eika) (Urumi and Kutaka) (Stage 4 to 6 Characters) (Stage EX Character)

I also randomly stumbled on this

And it's pretty cool. The oni attack is my favourite section. It also happens to be from the creator of these MMD classics:

(... I just got reminded that TouhouSubs is no longer active :/)

shockdude · Aug 17, 2019

Tried out the extra stage today, it's really fun even though it's on the easier side. I really like this game's danmaku patterns in general.

Evilisk said:
I also randomly stumbled on this

And it's pretty cool. The oni attack is my favourite section. It also happens to be from the creator of these MMD classics:

The same guy also made this fantastic series of Taoist clan videos.

Evilisk · Aug 21, 2019

Here's another round up of fan-related stuff to Touhou 17:

This blog has some extra context on the new characters.

(Other Links: Info on Mayumi, Saki and Stage 5's background / Keiki's potential age)

Some random covers / arranges of WBaWC's music;

And more art. I thought there was an oddly small amount of fan art, but they've really picked up the slack since I last posted.

Source: https://ciryes.tumblr.com/post/184717082445/the-spirits-in-touhou-17

This is quite old but I couldn't find it again until now. It visualizes the personality changes caused by the Beast Spirit you choose.

Link: https://k0nfette.tumblr.com/post/187121316101/reimu-hakurei-transparent-animal-spirit

(This artist's also done art of Yachie and Mayumi. I also posted their rendition of Keiki last time.)

Link: https://mywool.tumblr.com/post/187051599769/mayumi-joutouguu

(The artist of this piece also has a hilarious take on TH17's cover silhouette)

Link: https://meepmoot.tumblr.com/post/187080765418/keikis-cake-quest

(There seems to be way more art of Keiki than the other characters. I assume it's because of the 'artist' theme she has)

And some links to other pictures.
Sketches of the entire cast. Paper cutout of Urumi. Cutesy art of Yachie and Keiki. Another "Miko rides Saki" picture. A more badass / serious take on Saki. The demo characters in a cutesy style.

shockdude · Aug 23, 2019

There's a new abridged-like parody of Forbidden Scrollery. It's an impressive effort, with fun voice acting and overall solid production.

Evilisk · Aug 24, 2019

I think I've had my fill of WBaWC for now. I've been playing for the past few days and while I've made progress on Stage 3 / Kutaka (by practicing the hell out of her spellcards, and also switching to Eagle Spirit), I've made no progress on anything past Stage 3. Yachie, Mayumi and Keiki are all way too damn hard for me. I heard that Yachie and Mayumi are just gimmicky puzzle bosses, but honestly even their non-spells feel like a bit much. Even as someone that admittedly sucks at shmups, I don't usually find non-spells hard (...unless I'm actually playing on Hard difficulty) but yeah... I need a break from this game.

Still, I'm shocked at how much I like this game. I didn't think having UFO's system "but now you need to collect MORE resources" was gonna be appealing, but Beast Spirits is a surprisingly good system. I think changing the system so that you actually get a tangible benefit from collecting UFO's/spirits (i.e. an extra hit + a powered up shot OR shield) makes going after them feel like a more worthwhile risk (at least, to bad players like me).

Also achievements. I didn't think I'd care about these at all, but they're low key my favourite addition to this game. Part of it is because I don't feel as bad when I clear the game with continues, but also because it got me to experiment with other shots (which I wouldn't do in other games).

And with the story and the characters being pretty cool (can't decide whether I like Yachie or Mayumi more), I think this game's close to being a neat little package. The only weak spots are the soundtrack (which has high highs, but low lows) and the game being way harder than I'd personally like.

shockdude said:
There's a new abridged-like parody of Forbidden Scrollery. It's an impressive effort, with fun voice acting and overall solid production.

Weird coincidence, I was just reading "Q's Copyist" today. It's a doujin featuring Akyuu, Kosuzu and one of the plot points in Forbidden Scrollery. Aside from the meta commentary on doujin culture in it, it was just bizarre bc I haven't read any Touhou manga-specific fanfics before. Their portrayal of Akyuu and Kosuzu was 100% on point too, which was surreal.

Man, all this talk this is just making me want a follow up to FS.

ibyea · Aug 24, 2019

Evilisk said:
I think I've had my fill of WBaWC for now. I've been playing for the past few days and while I've made progress on Stage 3 / Kutaka (by practicing the hell out of her spellcards, and also switching to Eagle Spirit), I've made no progress on anything past Stage 3. Yachie, Mayumi and Keiki are all way too damn hard for me. I heard that Yachie and Mayumi are just gimmicky puzzle bosses, but honestly even their non-spells feel like a bit much. Even as someone that admittedly sucks at shmups, I don't usually find non-spells hard (...unless I'm actually playing on Hard difficulty) but yeah... I need a break from this game.

The good thing about these puzzle bosses is that they are very static and with enough repetition, one can nail them very consistently. That said, some of their attacks ask for really precise movements, and that is the part I am having trouble with.

Evilisk · Aug 25, 2019

I just bought Azure Reflections on PS4 (since it was on sale in my region's PS Store).

The game is fun so far. I think I'm most impressed by the production values, because everything looks soooo good.

It's too early to really comment on the gameplay, but being able to shoot in two directions, and also having to dodge familiar patterns but vertical, is weeeeird. I have had to tweak some options, as the default settings aren't great i.e. audio mixing has voices too loud with music too low. It's also awkward to try and bomb while shooting with the default control layout.

ibyea said:
The good thing about these puzzle bosses is that they are very static and with enough repetition, one can nail them very consistently. That said, some of their attacks ask for really precise movements, and that is the part I am having trouble with.

See I haven't even gotten that far. I've just been like "I'm gonna practice their nonspells first in practice mode" and I'm getting creamed on those (because I have awful reflexes).

I plan to get back to WBaWC eventually (because the game is actually really fun, and I feel I could probably eke out an unconvincing clear with Marisa-Otter) but I do feel that WBaWC's Normal mode is definitely on the higher end of Normal clears. It's definitely much harder than any of the games I've personally cleared/attempted (like SA's Normal mode, except I can at least manage the first 3 stages of WBaWC).

Narroo · Aug 25, 2019

Downloaded it last night and managed a 1CC clear today! Took about 10 play-through attempts or so, including half playthroughs where I couldn't be bothered to continue due to shot types. All in all, moderate difficulty; a massive step up from the BS that is Touhou 15.

I'm a bit annoyed at having another collectable system, since I prefer to focus on pure dodging, but this system, I like on the whole. But really, I'd like for the next game to be straightforward like Touhou 8.

The extra boss, six cards in, seems to be abnormally straightforward. Difficult, but in the sense that the parameters of the patterns are tuned way up; massive shot speed, et cetera. The patterns themselves are straight-forward eitherwise. Kinda the complete opposite of bosses like Flandre.

Anyways, on the whole I like this game. But I do wish that we'd get another ambitious entry like Imperishable night.

Also:

No Curving lasers so far. Thank god.

Narroo · Aug 25, 2019

Huh. I just cleared the Extra Stage! Honestly, I've only cleared like 2 or 3 of those in the past.

Flandre, Pheonix lady...and maybe Ran? Does the Touhou 9 EX-Boss count?

This EX-Boss is definitely the easiest of the bunch, so long as you have your fundamentals in order, and know how to exploit the Beast Spirit system.

Dlent · Aug 25, 2019

I wonder if this is the first EX stage I'll clear. Closest I ever got was a few phases left on Ran, and she's not even the last of the secret bosses in PCB.

Evilisk · Aug 29, 2019

Now that I've actually played Azure Reflections a bunch, here are my impressions on the game:

The game is pretty slow compared to normal Touhou games. Stages aren't that long and there's no real sub-bosses, but bosses have fewer, but potentially longer, spellcards. Gameplay has a bit of a learning curve to it. If you're just shooting and dodging, then the game is pretty hard. If you're actually using rushes and releases (and even make strategic use of the stun mechanic), the game is fairly manageable.
The dress up system is weird. I'd like to say that it's ZUN's impeccable design sense that makes all the accessories feel unnecessary... but that's not true; all the accessories are just low effort crap like cat ears or headphones. It would have been way cooler if the accessories were a way to let you use all the different costumes from the main games (etc. an apron for Marisa's EoSD costume, a capelet for Marisa's SA costume etc.).
...With all that said, the accessories do give you bonuses for actually using them. There's bonuses like autofire, less time spent in stun etc. and I actually think these bonuses aren't bad additions. I still have no interest in using them but I'm generally for fangames being more accessible.
The game has a few balancing issues imo. Patchouli (Stage 2/3) is easy compared to the bosses before her. Sanae and Sakuya have spellcards that feel a bit cheap (they both have side switching attacks that you wouldn't know is happening the first time you play). Satori has twice as many spellcards as every other boss, which is absurd. Also, Cirno seems far and away the best playable character between her good release, stronger rush and faster movement speed. (Though tbf on the game, Cirno seems to be a new addition to Azure Reflections)
Speaking of which, I checked out the original release of this game (aka Uniting Barrage Action) and yeah, this port is more like a re-release. Playable Cirno, and boss Meiling and Flandre don't seem to be in the original game. Dress up and some of the themes seem to be new. UI, backgrounds and in-game lighting were improved (though the voice acting actually seems to have been in the original game, surprisingly). There's also some resource mechanic in UBA that I haven't seen in AR. (You can just compare this to the other video:

Overall, I actually really like the game. While EoSD is soooo overrated in fangames, I think this game is fun enough for me to not really care. It helps that I don't think we're seeing EoSD on PS4 any time soon. Of all the Play Doujin titles, this is my favourite so far. I'm really hoping this dev does more games tbh.

They really gotta make Marisa better next time, though. She feels so bad to play in this game, because Master Spark doesn't feel powerful, and Marisa moves as fast as REIMU which is crazy).

Evilisk · Aug 31, 2019

I've been doing some research on Steam, and aside from depressing myself (with how much work Part 3 of the OT is gonna need), it seems like there's a decent amount of unique Touhou fan games now.

The most common types of games I've seen are shooters (unsurprising), RPG's (probably because of RPG Maker) and Visual Novels (I assume that being quick to put together is why these are commonplace). Some more unique looking titles include

Touhou Dark Echoes. Gensokyo Night Festival was mentioned earlier, but this game is also in-development from the same developers (or is it publishers? I'm not really sure)

There's also Fantastic Danmaku Festival... Part II!? Yeah, the game totally has a sequel now.

And some other unique looking games:

Other Links: Touhou Shoujo, Touhou Nil Soul, GensoYonbaiKen 2. There's also what looks like a Donkey Kong clone with Touhou characters, which, doesn't seem particularly good, but still has my interest (because it's Touhou and DONKEY KONG). And there's a shmup with playable Seiga (which I am absolutely going to check out as soon as I can)

I haven't curated any of these games at all but it's still crazy how many games there already are.

Kilic95 · Aug 31, 2019

Shame Gensou Maroku and Genius of Sappheiros aren't on Steam. More people should experience those amazing RPGs :X

Btw Evilisk , I have some leftover steam funds. So if you're interested, I can gift you that Seiga fangame!

Just accept my friend request!

Evilisk · Sep 1, 2019

So I quickly ended up checking out this free quiz game on Steam.

It was a fun enough diversion. I was surprised that it had questions as recent as Touhou 16.

My overall score ended up being:

Which wasn't too bad, seeing as only 1/4 of the questions had to do with stuff I'm familiar with (SoPM and WaHH)

My Wall of Shame (aka totally obvious answers I failed to get) are:

The Hakurei Shrine does have a mini Moriya Shrine in it (I totally forgot about this plot point)
Ghosts are not youkai (tbf IN totally mislead me with this, because the Ghost Team still has a Human/Youkai meter)
Miko made Kokoro's masks (I thought she only made the Mask of Hope, since it's the only ugly looking one)
Unzan has helped trick people in Gensokyo (tbf, I read the question as "has he been killing humans" and as not referencing that time that "Unzan totally scammed people by pretending to be Buddha" in WaHH)
A meteorite got close to the SDM (I triple guessed myself on this, and thought they were gonna pull a trick question of "no, it did NOT get close because Flandre destroyed it" but it turned out to not be a trick question)
Rin Satsuki's design has never been shown by ZUN (I vaguely remember this)
Kappa machines ARE waterproof (doh!)

I wouldn't mind a sequel, though I do think they'd need to improve on a lot. Some things that bugged me about the game were:

Too many questions about esoteric facts from the print works. I went in wanting it to be all obscure stuff but around question 80 (out of 150!) I just wanted the quiz to be over. The quiz could have used more easier (filler) questions.
Too many trick questions. Most "obvious" questions ended up being trick questions and there were so many of them that I started second guessing every question 3/4 of the way in. The awkward wording of some questions didn't help things. The worst offender here has to be "Bunbunmaru News is the name of Aya's paper. True or False?" and the answer is False because "WELL ACTUALLY it's spelled Bunbunmaru PERIOD News, so yer wrong"
Also, there were some questions with faulty information or premises. One question was about Raiko being able to leave and enter Gensokyo when she wants and, to my knowledge, this is implied knowledge at best. Like, she did find a new power source in the Outside World, but whether she physically crossed the barrier to do it isn't clear (and whether she can still do it anymore, now that she's a full-fledged youkai, is also very debatable).

Another question had the answer of "the Dream version of a character said it so it's true" which is also misleading. The Dream doppelgangers aren't the exact same characters as their original counterparts, they have more extreme personalities. I definitely wouldn't take what a Dream version of a character says as 100% true of the original.

Like I said though, I still had some fun. I think the problem is the creators wanting to outsmart the players with obscure facts, rather than the quiz being a fun way to test your Touhou knowledge. I think a sequel could be great with the right improvements. Stuff like:

different quiz levels (like Easy Mode could have the easiest questions, maybe 10 questions total while Lunatic Mode could be 150 questions again, with questions of all levels etc.)
allowing you to toggle questions for the specific works (so choosing between game-specific questions or book-specific questions, or both if you want. And then letting you choose from a specific Era or not). Even enthusiasts (like me) don't know everything from every book. Like I could answer WaHH and SoPM questions pretty well but I can't remember thing from BAiJR or PMiSS.

If they did all of this, had better written questions, had more easier questions and also added some extra art (maybe each question could have special art), I think they'd have a decent game on their hands.

Kilic95 said:
Shame Gensou Maroku and Genius of Sappheiros aren't on Steam. More people should experience those amazing RPGs :X

Btw Evilisk , I have some leftover steam funds. So if you're interested, I can gift you that Seiga fangame!

Just accept my friend request!

Oh dang, thanks for your generosity

I'm gonna dive into these as soon as I have the time

Kilic95 · Sep 2, 2019

Evilisk said:
Oh dang, thanks for your generosity

I'm gonna dive into these as soon as I have the time

Of course! It made me sad to see you barely had any games on your 6 year old Steam account, so I thought you deserved it!

Anyway, I browsed Pixiv today and found an artist that posted a link to a Youtube video they made, and it was crossover between Hunter x Hunter and Touhou!

Those are like, my two favorite things in the world! So it made me pretty happy...

ibyea · Sep 3, 2019

Evilisk said:
So I quickly ended up checking out this free quiz game on Steam.

It was a fun enough diversion. I was surprised that it had questions as recent as Touhou 16.

My overall score ended up being:

Which wasn't too bad, seeing as only 1/4 of the questions had to do with stuff I'm familiar with (SoPM and WaHH)

My Wall of Shame (aka totally obvious answers I failed to get) are:

The Hakurei Shrine does have a mini Moriya Shrine in it (I totally forgot about this plot point)

Ghosts are not youkai (tbf IN totally mislead me with this, because the Ghost Team still has a Human/Youkai meter)

Miko made Kokoro's masks (I thought she only made the Mask of Hope, since it's the only ugly looking one)

Unzan has helped trick people in Gensokyo (tbf, I read the question as "has he been killing humans" and as not referencing that time that "Unzan totally scammed people by pretending to be Buddha" in WaHH)

A meteorite got close to the SDM (I triple guessed myself on this, and thought they were gonna pull a trick question of "no, it did NOT get close because Flandre destroyed it" but it turned out to not be a trick question)

Rin Satsuki's design has never been shown by ZUN (I vaguely remember this)

Kappa machines ARE waterproof (doh!)

I wouldn't mind a sequel, though I do think they'd need to improve on a lot. Some things that bugged me about the game were:

Too many questions about esoteric facts from the print works. I went in wanting it to be all obscure stuff but around question 80 (out of 150!) I just wanted the quiz to be over. The quiz could have used more easier (filler) questions.

Too many trick questions. Most "obvious" questions ended up being trick questions and there were so many of them that I started second guessing every question 3/4 of the way in. The awkward wording of some questions didn't help things. The worst offender here has to be "Bunbunmaru News is the name of Aya's paper. True or False?" and the answer is False because "WELL ACTUALLY it's spelled Bunbunmaru PERIOD News, so yer wrong"

Also, there were some questions with faulty information or premises. One question was about Raiko being able to leave and enter Gensokyo when she wants and, to my knowledge, this is implied knowledge at best. Like, she did find a new power source in the Outside World, but whether she physically crossed the barrier to do it isn't clear (and whether she can still do it anymore, now that she's a full-fledged youkai, is also very debatable).

Another question had the answer of "the Dream version of a character said it so it's true" which is also misleading. The Dream doppelgangers aren't the exact same characters as their original counterparts, they have more extreme personalities. I definitely wouldn't take what a Dream version of a character says as 100% true of the original.

Like I said though, I still had some fun. I think the problem is the creators wanting to outsmart the players with obscure facts, rather than the quiz being a fun way to test your Touhou knowledge. I think a sequel could be great with the right improvements. Stuff like:

different quiz levels (like Easy Mode could have the easiest questions, maybe 10 questions total while Lunatic Mode could be 150 questions again, with questions of all levels etc.)

allowing you to toggle questions for the specific works (so choosing between game-specific questions or book-specific questions, or both if you want. And then letting you choose from a specific Era or not). Even enthusiasts (like me) don't know everything from every book. Like I could answer WaHH and SoPM questions pretty well but I can't remember thing from BAiJR or PMiSS.

If they did all of this, had better written questions, had more easier questions and also added some extra art (maybe each question could have special art), I think they'd have a decent game on their hands.

Oh dang, thanks for your generosity

I'm gonna dive into these as soon as I have the time

One more thing it needs is more questions so that they can get shuffled in and out. Firstly, each session doesn't have to be 150 questions long, which is too long. Maybe 50 is good. And then if they have a lot more questions than that, that can add to the replayability. As it stands, it is a one time thing I don't want to touch ever again.

Evilisk · Sep 3, 2019

I've already had a go at the Seiga shooter. It's fun enough. I like that the game doesn't do the usual "complete 6 stages in one go" (...because I'm a scrub at shmups). As for actually playing as Seiga... I'm torn.

Actually playing as her isn't *great*. For reference, she's on an IN style team with Kyouko, and she's your basic "slow but larger spread" type character (except her large spread isn't very large at all so she's just ok). Her main gimmick is that she has no bomb, she instead summons Yoshika who creates a frontal shield that absorbs bullets. The good news is that Yoshika doesn't have a timer; she disappears when her shield is destroyed or she is dismissed. She even protects Kyouko too, and you can totally bomb with Kyouko while Yoshika is active.

The bad news is that Yoshika's not as great as she sounds. The most obvious weakness is yes, you're vulnerable from behind (and the game is aware of this too), but another problem is that you're not 100% safe from the front either. There's a decent amount of space between you and your shield, and you can totally die if a bullet spawns in that blind spot. Also the shield doesn't block lasers (WHY) + the shield just gets shredded by dense patterns. She's becoming less and less useful with every new level.

Despite this... I kinda dig Seiga and Yoshika not being great? Some of it is pure novelty ("I finally get to play my favourite characters in a shooter!") but most of it is me going "yeah this totally lines up with canon". Seiga's kind of a cheat, and Yoshika is a dumb meatshield. Except for Seiga being a "slow w/ large spread" character* this is exactly how I pictured them being in a shooter, and I really can't hate on that.

*Seiga's always been a homing type in my mind. She uses homing shots in her spellcards, and her homing shots have 100% unique bullet sprites.

Also, here's a Fun Touhou Fact: apparently those bullets involve the use of dead fetuses (yes, seriously)

(Seiga's association with dead fetuses is also why she's sometimes paired with Ebisu)

Kilic95 said:
Of course! It made me sad to see you barely had any games on your 6 year old Steam account, so I thought you deserved it!

Tbf I don't really game on my PC a lot

Up until a year ago, I was still using a PC running Windows XP

And while I have a laptop now, it's still not great for gaming (like that quiz game I just talked about was slooooow as hell)

ibyea said:
One more thing it needs is more questions so that they can get shuffled in and out. Firstly, each session doesn't have to be 150 questions long, which is too long. Maybe 50 is good. And then if they have a lot more questions than that, that can add to the replayability. As it stands, it is a one time thing I don't want to touch ever again.

Oh yeah, that too.

I will say, the game letting you review the questions you got wrong is a really smart idea

Atom Heart Mother · Sep 3, 2019

We now have the OP animation for the new Touhou Mobile game, "Touhou Cannonball". This, I think is the first time Touhou has gotten animated by a professional studio. And it's amazing.

Evilisk · Sep 3, 2019

Man, that artstyle looks soo boring. And *yawn* at the Scarlet Sisters getting second billing.

At least they get points for including:
Kokoro
Mamizou
Raiko and the Tsukumogami's
The Yorigami's
The Aki's
And Narumi and Aunn (they're right at the top of that final collage).

Atom Heart Mother said:
We now have the OP animation for the new Touhou Mobile game, "Touhou Cannonball". This, I think is the first time Touhou has gotten animated by a professional studio. And it's amazing.

I vaguely remember Ufotable making an anime (...and I remember ZUN forbidding them from showing it to anybody else lol)

fake edit: I found what I was talking about.

Atom Heart Mother · Sep 3, 2019

Evilisk said:
Man, that artstyle looks soo boring. And *yawn* at the Scarlet Sisters getting second billing.

At least they get points for including:
Kokoro
Mamizou
Raiko and the Tsukumogami's
The Yorigami's
The Aki's
And Narumi and Aunn (they're right at the top of that final collage).

I vaguely remember Ufotable making an anime (...and I remember ZUN forbidding them from showing it to anybody else lol)

fake edit: I found what I was talking about.

Yeah, that was never released. But now we have an actual released video! I think the OP animation was awesome, the art style while could've been better (more ZUN like please!) i still loved it. Loved seeing second-rate characters like the Aki sisters get some nice footage. And of course, the SDM peeps are going to get top billing. They're super popular.

Kilic95 · Sep 4, 2019

Evilisk said:
Man, that artstyle looks soo boring.

Aye, it looks almost as bad as Moe Harukawa's art... Alphes' Hisoutensoku portraits are still my favorite official Touhou art.

I'm more interested in Touhou LostWord anyways!

Evilisk · Sep 4, 2019

Kilic95 said:
Aye, it looks almost as bad as Moe Harukawa's art... Alphes forever

Eh, I get not liking Moe's art (she kinda has same-face syndrome)

Personally, I thought Alphes' art was just okay. Their Hisoutensoku portraits weren't half bad at all

But their artstyle for Hopeless Masquerade was a real miss

Koishi's portrait has all the worst parts of this artstyle (mostly: overuse of gradients, ugly coloured eyelashes, unappealing colour palettes, and also characters looking too young and not matching up with their in-game sprites. Kindergarten Futo is like the worst offender with the last point). I think going from Alphes to Moe Harukawa was way too much of an improvement tbh.

...Anyway, this Alphes talk is making me curious. Tasofro have shown interest in making a new fighter (mostly because they want a game that's Evo worthy). While Moe provided art for ULiL and AoCF, she also was still working on FS at the time. Now that she's done with FS, and possibly Touhou, I wonder if we might see a return to Alphes art. Alphes still seems to be around as he provided the art for DynaMarisa 3D (the art in that game was also closer to his classical style).

Kilic95 · Sep 4, 2019

Since you're always willing to go on a tirade against EoSD, I felt It was the perfect time for me to confess that I didn't like Moe Harukawa's art.

We all have controversial opinions. And yes, Alphes' deserves a redemption arc.

Evilisk · Sep 4, 2019

Kilic95 said:
Since you're always willing to go on a tirade against EoSD, I felt It was the perfect time for me to confess that I didn't like Moe Harukawa's art.

We all have controversial opinions. And yes, Alphes' deserves a redemption arc.

I didn't even realize I complain about EoSD so much, sorry about that.

I don't even hate EoSD's cast, I'm just kinda fatigued with them at this point. Though I'll fully admit that complaining about them in something like Touhou Canonball is dumb. Since they're aiming for mass appeal, it makes sense to put focus on the most popular group of characters. (It doesn't mean I have to like it though)

Also, I agree that Alphes deserves another shot. Even I think it'd be disappointing if Alphes' work on the fighters ended with HM. It's pretty clear that they're capable of so much better than what's in HM.

Kilic95 · Sep 4, 2019

No no, it doesn't bother me at all! I imagine a lot of people share the same sentiments as you.

Anyway, Harukawa's Tenshi is an insult to life itself. It's a nisemono loli, not the real Eldest Daughter from Hisoutensoku.

Evilisk · Sep 5, 2019

It looks like Azure Reflections is going to be released on Steam.

This is pretty good to hear. PC players only had the original release (Uniting Barrage Action) before, and that didn't have any of the improved graphics or extra features of Azure Reflections. Gematsu is also reporting that there will be free update for consoles when the Steam version hits. And there will apparently be two new bosses (though there's no info on who).

The obvious guess would be any 2 of the 3 remaining EoSD characters (Rumia, Daiyousei and Koakuma), though it wouldn't be impossible for other characters to appear. Sanae, Nitori and Satori are in the game, even though they didn't appear in EoSD originally.

(Also, this release is making me wonder whether I should just revamp Part 3 to "Steam / Play Doujin" and "Japan Only / Import" sections. Like, Play Doujin's selection is too slow to update, while Steam already has way more games. It doesn't seem practical to keep them separate.)

Kilic95 said:
No no, it doesn't bother me at all! I imagine a lot of people share the same sentiments as you.

Anyway, Harukawa's Tenshi is an insult to life itself. It's a nisemono loli, not the real Eldest Daughter from Hisoutensoku.

Oh I'll readily admit to not being a fan of young Tenshi tbh

I mean, it's funny pretending that SWR's events were caused by a literal child. But personally, I don't like any of the characters looking like kids (unless they're explicitly described as such by ZUN, like with Remilia in PMiSS).

Evilisk · Sep 6, 2019

I've played a bit more of Avant-Garde Discerning Paralleler and I'm really getting into the gameplay

I got stuck on Seiga and Kyouko's second to last stage. The actual stage portion is hard, harder than even the actual boss fight because it's got stuff you'd never see in Touhou (like stage hazards, walls, unkillable enemies that follow you everywhere etc.) and it's so long too.

After a few attempts, I decided to go to Chen and Ran. Surprisingly, both teams have mostly unique campaigns and bosses. For example, Team Seiga has a fight with Shou, while Team Yakumo has a fight with Mokou. Both teams also fight the opposing team in one of their stages, which is cool. The Chen/Ran fight is whatever, the Seiga/Yoshika fight is great though. Seiga's always had fairly bland spellcards in TD, but her spellcards here are pretty creative.

One spellcard has Seiga creating walls that close you in, and the gimmick is to follow her since parts of the wall disappear around her. Another spellcard has Yoshika perfectly guarding Seiga from the bottom, and the only way to damage Seiga is too shot at an angle. It's all great. The game in general has some pretty creative spellcards. Some bosses even get mechanics unique to their fight (like Nitori flooding the screen and imposing oxygen on you, or Yamame having toxic-to-graze bullets)

I still have to see the game to completion, but it's very solid in the gameplay department. It's kind of a shame that the graphics and music are *just* okay, and that there's no way understand the story without knowing Japanese.

Evilisk · Sep 12, 2019

Quick bump: some Touhou fangames are currently on sale on the EU/AUS PlayStation Store. The games include:

Genso Wanderer
Genso Wanderer Reloaded
Double Focus
Burst Battle
Genso Rondo

I picked up Reloaded (since it's digital only, and $15 is a steal for a game normally priced at $75). I was gonna get Burst Battle and Rondo but decided on getting physical versions instead.

On Avant-Garde Discrening Paralleler, I'm (unsurprisingly) stuck on the final bosses. The final bosses are pretty cool though.

Kilic95 · Sep 12, 2019

Reloaded is fantastic, some of the DLC characters like Sakuya and Tojiko are worth getting.

Tojiko especially, since she has perma float status, which means you'll never trigger traps with her.

And one of Sakuya's spell cards grants her Triple Speed, which goes well with Drunk status.

But base game characters like Sanae are just as good, her Danmaku types grants certain defensive and healing buffs I believe.

Evilisk · Sep 14, 2019

I've cleared Seiga's route on Avant-Garde Discerning Paralleler (I'm using ADP from now, that title is too long lol). I'm still stuck on the Yakumo route. Their final boss is pretty tricky but not overly difficult. Honestly I'm more annoyed by the Stage 8 midboss. Nitori's gimmicky spellcards are just annoying to have to redo.

Also just wanted to say. I went back to Azure Reflections to practice for the upcoming free update and boy did I get rusty already. It's only been two weeks and I can't even do the first stage on Hard without dying.

Kilic95 said:
Reloaded is fantastic, some of the DLC characters like Sakuya and Tojiko are worth getting.

Tojiko especially, since she has perma float status, which means you'll never trigger traps with her.

And one of Sakuya's spell cards grants her Triple Speed, which goes well with Drunk status.

But base game characters like Sanae are just as good, her Danmaku types grants certain defensive and healing buffs I believe.

You can play as Tojiko? Nice. I'm so close to having played a game with each of the TH13 Taoists. So far it's like:

Miko: aerial fighters
Futo: aerial fighters, Riverbed Soul Saver
Seiga: ADP
Tojiko: Gensou Wanderer Reloaded (once I get the DLC)

I only really need to find a game with proper playable Yoshika. I've only seen her as an assist character (in ADP and Double Focus).

Evilisk · Sep 18, 2019

I just got started on the Flan's Dream game.

It's really not what I expected. I was expecting a puzzle game, but this is more like an auto-battling RPG with mobile game elements (like limited resources and timers). There's no MTX's and I haven't gotten to a point where I've run out of resources, yet, but the timed stuff is already crazy long, like "wait 1.5 hours to unlock the next character" long (though you don't need to keep the game running to do this stuff).

I do like the chill as hell atmosphere though. Aside from the gameplay, you also unlock story vignettes about how Koakuma recruited each character and that's nice. Though the translation is kinda iffy at points. The only thing I really hate is that your party is 100% randomized. If you get a bad party set up, your only option is to "reload"/refresh the menu and I can tell this problem is gonna get worse with more party members.

Also, I need to give a mention to a recent series called Horned Owl and Bat. While the series probably won't be for everyone (it's basically shipping fiction), I think this fictional blooper reel is worth a watch (if only for the hilarious Marisa and Patchouli segments)

The full series is Miko and Remilia becoming charisma buddies. A weird pairing, though it's weirder that it's not that uncommon:

Evilisk · Sep 20, 2019

Looks like we're getting a horror-themed fangame starring Koishi very, very soon.

ss_b283a239b7463cc6a8bb93c63dc0d736954c1bd1.600x338.jpg

(If the artstyle looks at all familiar, it's because, yes, Koto Inari is working on this game.)

From Gematsu:

3rd Eye, a horror adventure set in the Touhou Project universe, will launch for PC via Steam on September 30 for $14.99, followed by PlayStation 4 and Switch in Q4 2019, publisher Unties and developer 3rd Eye Project announced. It will support English and Japanese language options. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1131900/3rd_eye/

In related news: Azure Reflections, which has the same publisher as 3rd Eye, has now released on Steam. The free update also seems to be live (for PS4 at least, I can't confirm if it's up on the Switch yet). From what I can gather, the two extra bosses are actually just boss versions of Reimu and Marisa.

Evilisk · Sep 25, 2019

Some news: the Fairies manga (VFiS) is now finished... but a new manga series has been leaked / teased. There's some info going around on Twitter about the magazine and release date, but I can't really verify for myself. Though Clarste is saying that the artist is Mizutaki, and that it's a new series / isn't a continuation (same post also has a rough translation of the title).

EDIT: Also, per Gematsu, Marisa and Alice's Trap Tower is coming to Switch. (Still no release outside of Japan though)

Tanuki-Go · Sep 26, 2019

Evilisk said:
Some news: the Fairies manga (VFiS) is now finished... but a new manga series has been leaked / teased. There's some info going around on Twitter about the magazine and release date, but I can't really verify for myself. Though Clarste is saying that the artist is Mizutaki, and that it's a new series / isn't a continuation (same post also has a rough translation of the title).

There's a pic out and it looks like it might center around a certain oni... :D

ibyea · Sep 28, 2019

The last chapter of Visionary Fairies, like the ending of Forbidden Scrollery and Wild and Horned Hermit, is a bit of an anti climax. These last chapters incident are usually played pretty straight and are used to give their respective main characters a reason to keep the status quo they have established for themselves, but they hardly highlight the character growth and they are not structured in an exciting way. ZUN is way better when he is writing sitcoms. Which is why at least the journey itself was pretty good. Introducing Clownpiece to the three fairies dynamics was a great idea.

Evilisk · Sep 28, 2019

I watched these cool TAS / Tool-Assisted Speedruns of Touhou games on YouTube the other day. I'm not sure why YT's algorithms have been so good for me recently. Must be all the Japanese MMD's I've been randomly browsing.

Also I've been juggling a bunch of Touhou fangames. I'm currently playing Azure Reflections (for Ascetic Mode and also the new Boss Rush Mode), Avant-Garde Discerning Paralleler (I finished Lap/Loop 1, but I need to clear Lap 2 to unlock an extra mode), Flandre's Dream (I'm 90% done, just at the final dungeon) and Labyrinth of Touhou 1 (went back, tried the Rinnosuke fight, got beat, had to start grinding again).

Tanuki-Go said:
There's a pic out and it looks like it might center around a certain oni... :D

Lol

But yeah there's been a lot of wild speculation about the new manga

Personally, I'm just glad we're getting another manga. Before the new series was announced, I was worried ZUN was gonna stop writing manga altogether.

ibyea said:
The last chapter of Visionary Fairies, like the ending of Forbidden Scrollery and Wild and Horned Hermit, is a bit of an anti climax. These last chapters incident are usually played pretty straight and are used to give their respective main characters a reason to keep the status quo they have established for themselves, but they hardly highlight the character growth and they are not structured in an exciting way. ZUN is way better when he is writing sitcoms. Which is why at least the journey itself was pretty good. Introducing Clownpiece to the three fairies dynamics was a great idea.

I still haven't read VFiS (or any of the Fairy comics, now that I think about it), but I heard it was another not-great ending

Personally, I get the impression (from WaHH and FS) that he probably writes the endings early on.

ibyea · Sep 28, 2019

Evilisk said:
Personally, I get the impression (from WaHH and FS) that he probably writes the endings early on.

This was my thinking too.

Evilisk · Sep 29, 2019

It's 3AM but I finaaaally beat Rinnosuke

This took forever to beat. Like besides grinding for hours, the actual battle was legit 30 minutes long (with the strategy I picked).

Since I really don't want to forget my successful strategy when I wake up, here's what happened:

The winning party:

For the first phase of the fight, I used Meiling / Eirin / Reimu with the fourth slot going to a buffing character (like Sakuya or Ran). Meiling, Reimu and Ran all had speed boosting items. Everyone was also buffed to have over 7k health. The formation worked really well. Those three healers can heal whatever Rinnosuke throws at them (and more) so Ran is free to buff the hell out of your back row characters. Literally the only danger here is that his attacks drain TP but that's it. Heal with whoever, buff with Reimu, Sakuya or Ran and then nuke Rinnosuke when you're ready to move on.

The second phase is where things get a bit hazy. Basically the gimmick of the fight is Rinnosuke has 6 forms (1 for each element) with all sorts of abilities (like silence, poison, paralysis, debuffs etc.) but the fight really seems to be "know your elemental nukes". You can't be prepared for every status effect (not enough item slots), so being able to nuke the troublesome phases (while milking the easiest one) makes this fight much fairer and simpler.

I had Suwako (Nature), Marisa (Mystic), Suika (Wind), Suika (Fire) and also Nitori (non-elemental) all set up in Phase 1 already and that made such a difference (no need to risk your nuke getting sniped; just get them out and fire). I can't remember any specific shells / formations but I had to split my healers up at this section. Overall, Sakuya, Yukari and Remilia ended up being super useful. Yukari has her cheat move, Sakuya has her speed buff and Remilia is just really flexible since she's fast AND tanky.

Then I just nuked the other phases while milking the Fire Phase. Basically, that phase has no dangerous gimmicks (no debuffs, status effects or nukes) so if you get to it, you can park Yukari and Reimu there, activate their defense buffs and get some breathing room to do whatever (focus, heal, buff etc.). Once i was sure it was the last phase, I nuked Fire Phase.

I dropped the remaining nukes on his final final phase before he got a chance to do anything. Just like the Yukari fight lol

Kinda not surprising that the fight took so long to beat. On the plus side, I actually managed to clear the fight without losing a single member (no seriously. The only "casualty" was Yukari, but that was only her getting drained to 0TP). This is legit the first time this has happened to me in LoT, even with the early game bosses.

Anyway, this fight was a challenge to learn. I couldn't use any of the characters I liked (e.g. Komachi, Chen), I also had to look stuff up (like with Suwako and the Fire Phase exploit). Despite all that, I actually really admire the design of this boss fight. Despite how misleading it is, it feels pretty fair once you know what the deal is. I also appreciate the attempt at a more "honest" boss fight with no debuffs, status effects etc. even though I was so mad when I first realized he was immune lol

Evilisk · Oct 2, 2019

Okay, I finally finished up Flandre's Dream. It was an okay distraction. Reading up on the game's solitary Steam review, the game seems to have been a browser game originally, which makes sense. There... really isn't much to say, honestly. It's just not really a 'proper' game, and it's almost entirely because of the randomized party system. Seriously, it'd actually be a real game if they just let you pick the characters you want. Instead the game is really "shuffling your party until you get a good lineup" while sometimes upgrading your units, with some mobile game timers.

It's such a shame,. While I really like the cozy atmosphere and the little vignettes, it's hard to say "you should definitely spend money on this game"... even though I totally didn't spend any money at all on this (Kilic95 : again, thank you for your generosity orz )

====================================================

In other Touhou related stuff, I recently discovered this YT channel, ninoseyasunori. They do amateur fan animations without any talking (so they can be enjoyed even without knowing Japanese). Aside from their liberal use of characters (which include PC-98 characters, manga characters and even fan characters like Rin Satsuki and Mitori), they upload videos at a very consistent pace. Some of my favourites are:

Also, just wanted to note that their YT channel links to a somewhat comprehensive list of other, active hand-drawn animators.

====================================================

Also while I'm here, here's a bunch of other videos I've wanted to post for a while, but couldn't find a good excuse for.

Animation:
Kutaka Powers Up Like a Mecha by Reyamily
Design Analysis of Toyosatomimi no Miko by Kitsune Hawk
Reimu's Bad Day by Manana
Sakuya vs Wing Chun Dummy by AsaToshi (IIRC, it's the creator of the Burning Meiling series)
Renko In A Bar Fight (this one seems to be a WIP animation for a longer animation called Phantom Report)

Music:
Wanwan's Tutorial On ZUN-Style Fast Piano Sections with English subs
An 'Interesting' Remix of Koishi's Theme
Piano Cover of a Fan Made Theme Made for Chang'E

Dlent · Oct 4, 2019

Tasogare Frontier announces Touhou 17.5. It's a sidescroller this time, not a fighting game.
http://www.tasofro.net/touhou175/index.html

Kilic95 · Oct 4, 2019

I was getting sick of air fighters anyway...

But those are some seriously awful sprites. What the hell... There are like hundreds of fanartists that can do pixel art better than that

shockdude · Oct 5, 2019

To me, the sprites look better when resized to fullscreen vs. native resolution. The bilinear blur helps a lot.

shockdude · Oct 7, 2019

The Touhou 17.5 demo is fun. Runs really smoothly, looks great in motion, sounds great as well.
It took a while to get a hang of the controls. I miss not having a dedicated jump button, having to dash just to clear a short ledge feels kinda clunky. But once you figure it out the game plays really well; attacks and cancelling is really satisfying.

Dlent · Oct 8, 2019

It reminded me of Muramasa in the way it controlled. I hope that the full game is more than just a boss rush, or if it is a boss rush, that there are a lot of bosses and or new phases in harder difficulties. I'm a little worried it could end up being extremely short.

Evilisk · Oct 8, 2019

ngl, this spinoff doesn't sound really interesting. I really prefer the fighters. And I like it when the spinoffs feature other characters, Reimu being playable in a spinoff honestly does nothing for me. I'll still try out the demo later, though I'm not sure it'll run good on my laptop (I'm already hearing it doesn't run well on older PC's)

Also, with this spinoff, it seems like Tasofro really doesn't like using Yuugi's default outfit.

Dlent · Oct 8, 2019

Kimono Yuugi is definitely better than plain white T-shirt Yuugi.

Evilisk · Oct 9, 2019

Welp I finally finished Labyrinth of Touhou's main campaign. I'm honestly surprised I won. The final boss just refused to die near the end (seriously how many fully buffed Master Sparks can you take to the face). The only reason I won is because they also refused to use their self-buff (they could have easily wiped my party at any point. Lucky me, I guess?)

(Komachi ended up being my most used character. She's a beast, between her insane health and her Avici debuffs. After her were Chen, Nitori, Ran and Yuugi/Suika. Shoutouts to Marisa, who I used in almost every boss... but only to unload Master Spark for like 1 or 2 turns total per boss fight)

I went back and checked the old thread and... apparently I've been trying to clear this game for almost *five* years. It wasn't five years straight of course, and there's still all the postgame stuff, but I can't believe I've actually been saying "this game is really cool, I should finish it some time" for almost half a decade now. Speaking of which, this game apparently first released in June 2009, so it's also LoT's 10th (belated) birthday.

Anyway, I'm finished with LoT for now. I do really want to continue / play the game again, but I've decided from here until the end of the year to stop buying games and start finishing what I have started. Though there is one other fangame I started that I plan on finishing (it's Wandering Souls. I got very, very far into the game, but then just stopped like a couple of years ago).

Kilic95 · Oct 9, 2019

You're not gonna play the sequel? :/

Interestingly enough, it's still being updated. Game was released on Comiket 84, so... Back in 2013? But it is the Plus Disk version I guess.

Evilisk · Oct 9, 2019

Kilic95 said:
You're not gonna play the sequel? :/

Interestingly enough, it's still being updated. Game was released on Comiket 84, so... Back in 2013? But it is the Plus Disk version I guess.

They're still updating it? That's crazy. I wonder if they ever fixed that glitch that broke the EVA and ACC stats

Also I *absolutely* plan to play the sequel

LOT1 might now be one of my favourite RPG's ever, despite all the flaws. And I am so on board for an improved sequel...

...I just want to clear out my backlog a little bit more is all lol. (For real, I'm actually drowning in games atm. I basically *just* discovered that "yeah, you can buy digital" about four months ago... and I've now bought more games in this four month period than I did in the last five years before that :O)

ibyea · Oct 9, 2019

I would like to promote the Touhou podcast Outside World Occultism. They are very knowledgeable about Touhou lore and draw topics from all corners of the official Touhou media. They go pretty in depth and are not beset by the meme interpretations that is pervasive in Western fandom.

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