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[HGH]

Don't be too worried about getting blocked by stage 5. A lot of people consider Orin to be way tougher than Utsuho, and it's definitely a significant difficult jump.

Anyway, here's a visual guide on how to navigate her attacks. I found it very useful my first time around.

 

[shockdude]

If you're not using ReimuA in SA, you're gonna have a hard time. Also, you are playing on Normal, right?
The spirits all shoot aimed bullets and the spinny yinyang thingies all shoot random-ish but dodgeable bullets. Start at a corner, stream the aimed bullets, and slip through the random bullets.
IIRC there's that one part kind of like the latter half of MoF stage 3, except full of random pellet spam. Good luck lol.

Also for Zombie Fairy, don't do that weird strat shown in HGH's visual guide; just start at the top of the screen and lure the fairies, then dash to the bottom of the screen and shoot Orin until you capture the spellcard.

Man I still haven't 1CCed MoF Hard. I'm at that point where I know I can do it but the conditions need to be right; you know what I'm saying?

 

[demidar]

If you're not using ReimuA in SA, you're gonna have a hard time. Also, you are playing on Normal, right?
The spirits all shoot aimed bullets and the spinny yinyang thingies all shoot random-ish but dodgeable bullets. Start at a corner, stream the aimed bullets, and slip through the random bullets.
IIRC there's that one part kind of like the latter half of MoF stage 3, except full of random pellet spam. Good luck lol.

Also for Zombie Fairy, don't do that weird strat shown in HGH's visual guide; just start at the top of the screen and lure the fairies, then dash to the bottom of the screen and shoot Orin until you capture the spellcard.

Man I still haven't 1CCed MoF Hard. I'm at that point where I know I can do it but the conditions need to be right; you know what I'm saying?

Nah, I'm playing on Hard, which sort of makes Reimu A way more difficult then the other shot types against Komeiji (at least that's what it feels like).

I don't remember anything of the sort in MoF stage 3, mainly because I never had too much trouble until stage 4 and its literal curtain fire. I suppose I'll just have to rely on not screwing up and dodging everything. There's also the part just before the boss where a line of yin-yangs comes in from the top and curves to exit to the side and they all fire small walls of bullets while all these other small slow-moving bullets populate the screen. I might just be able to circle around the screen to avoid it but I'll have to test that.

 

[upandaway]

Speaking of MoF, slowbeef just uploaded an LP of it where he apparently has to give Touhou a fair honest shot after making fun of it (haha). Pretty fun, got me in the mood for MoF so I'll play it later today.

 

[demidar]

Speaking of MoF, slowbeef just uploaded an LP of it where he apparently has to give Touhou a fair honest shot after making fun of it (haha). Pretty fun, got me in the mood for MoF so I'll play it later today.

He did very well for playing, talking and listening all at once.

 

[Evilisk]

I gave DDC some more time a bit back, and I'm starting to think stage 4 is the hardest stage for me. Am I being weird? I can't even pinpoint what the problem is, it's always something different.

No, it's not just you. I can't ever get through that level consistently, I either have a few problems going through it or I just completely wrecked by the stage, the only consistent thing is that I can't get through that stage unscathed. It really turns me off from playing DDC tbqh

 

[microfolk]

Flandre is hard :S

I didn't play Extra that much since I last posted but the fact that her non-spellcards are ridicolously easy makes me so much more comfortable with fighting against her, especially since the last Extra Boss I tackled was Mokou which went nuts whith her three last non-spell. Even now when I think about them I tremble ahaha.

But then Flan has Maze of Love which is just ??? I know what to do but doing it is haaaaard and if I bomb I just make the rest of the spellcard harder since I lose my rhythm.

I gave DDC some more time a bit back, and I'm starting to think stage 4 is the hardest stage for me. Am I being weird? I can't even pinpoint what the problem is, it's always something different.

Memorize the entry point of every single enemy. If I remember correctly you can trivialize most of the stage knowing when and where the spinning enemies\big fairies enter the screen and stream from one side to the other, and this is 80% of the stage. The big fairies spam after the Stage's Title can be bypassed in its entirety if you stay on the upper part of the screen, you've got to dodge a little bit when the spinning thingies shoot some big bullets at you but it's really easy.
And the wall of spinning thingies (what's their name aaaaaagh) it's pretty easy if you move from one side of the screen to the other, and it's even easier if you don't try to POC as much as possible, though you'll lose 4 or 5 bomb \ life pieces.

Now regarding the bosses... To this day I still don't know how to tackle Yatsuhashi's Echo Sign "Heian's Reverberation, and her last spellcard and some of Benben's too are really hard even on normal. You'll just have to grind them on spell practice mode I guess.

Those SRW games just get more and more elaborate. I wish they were translated.

I've put a lot of hours into Subterranean Animism and holy wow there are a lot of mechanics. This kind of reminds me of the jump from PCB to IN. Even graze came back. The only thing I wish the game had was portraits for your youkai partners as well.

I've pretty much hit a wall with stage 5. I can't really discern a safe path from all the bullets, they look like they're just fired randomly so streaming could end in a death if I'm not careful. Each of Orin's interludes each kick the shit out of me if I don't have enough shot power, and Orin's boss battle's zombie fairies is tricky to handle (tricky because I rarely reach her so I have no experience handling her Spell Cards).

Much like MoF, I really like the dark music in Stage 2, but the one in MoF is more upbeat and cheery than this one. Don't really know how to explain it.

Yuugi, why do you have to use so many lasers :'(

Orin is hard, arguably one of the hardest boss in the entire series (and she was surely the hardest for me on normal) and it's far, far harder than Utsuho. I can't help you since I haven't played SA on Hard yet but I think that the stage portion can still be managed streaming most of the bullets and avoiding to shoot when the suicide-bullets-spewing-spirits are on screen.
I think your best bet is watching some good replay and taking notes, it's really really really hard.
Also you can spam Reimu A bomb like there is no tomorrow, but it's not really fun is it.

 

[upandaway]

I got replays working again and watched the stuff you guys posted a while back, it's fine, I don't know what you want. It looked really good.

The best I can really do on MoF Hard is kappa, I can just barely beat her and then get destroyed afterwards. Her swirly blue shots pattern is completely impossible. First time I tried it but yeah. The only hard modes I can stand in are still the PC98 games.

He did very well for playing, talking and listening all at once.

Yeah I think MoF is the one Touhou game that is the most applicable to standard shmup skills, mainly because of the bomb reflex. He bombed really well.

 

[demidar]

Orin is hard, arguably one of the hardest boss in the entire series (and she was surely the hardest for me on normal) and it's far, far harder than Utsuho. I can't help you since I haven't played SA on Hard yet but I think that the stage portion can still be managed streaming most of the bullets and avoiding to shoot when the suicide-bullets-spewing-spirits are on screen.
I think your best bet is watching some good replay and taking notes, it's really really really hard.
Also you can spam Reimu A bomb like there is no tomorrow, but it's not really fun is it.

Orin the hardest in the entire series? Fuck, what did I get myself into?

I'll beat you one day Orin.

I've figured out that not shooting those spirits can make parts of stage 4 a lot easier, like when those yin-yangs stay at the top center shooting swaying streams I let out a pulsed burst so I can create gaps in the shootback streams of the destroyed spirits blocking the yin-yang.

I got replays working again and watched the stuff you guys posted a while back, it's fine, I don't know what you want. It looked really good.

The best I can really do on MoF Hard is kappa, I can just barely beat her and then get destroyed afterwards. Her swirly blue shots pattern is completely impossible. First time I tried it but yeah. The only hard modes I can stand in are still the PC98 games.


Yeah I think MoF is the one Touhou game that is the most applicable to standard shmup skills, mainly because of the bomb reflex. He bombed really well.

The trick to Diluvial Mere is to position yourself either above or below the highest/lowest point of a wave, that way you can safely move sideways to dodge the aimed shots from Nitori afterwards. Diluvial Mere is exactly the same every time (besides those aimed shots) so when you find a position your comfortable with (like I did moving to the bottom left quarter of the screen) you can use it forever.

Now that I think about it, MoF doesn't really have any gimmick spell cards. Sanae has a few, but Kanako has a bunch of them, those lasers that trap you in a center column requires some thinking to beat, the nova + pseudo-aimed daggers and the downward streams turning into aimed bullets or rotating bullets are the same. Almost all other spell cards outside of her and Sanae are fairly straightforward and susceptible to reflexive dodging.

 

[shockdude]

Been exploring some other bullet hells the past few weeks. They've been sitting in my Steam library for a while and I figured it's about time to give them a try.

The eXceed series is interesting. eXceed 1 is kind of rough, but eXceed 2 is pretty cool and eXceed 3 is a very legit Touhou clone. Almost 1CCed it the first time around, but the final boss was crazy and ate up two continues.

Crimzon Clover is phenomenal. Its speed, flashiness, and power is a good contrast to Touhou's strategic and precise style.

Danmaku Unlimited 2 is good, but imo not as good as Crimzon Clover. Will have to play it more, though.

Also tried Bullet Heaven for the heck of it. It doesn't make a good first impression due to how slow and weak you start out, but the upgrades really help. Completed all 20 levels with at least an A rank, and beat 3/4 bonus levels, all without upgrading health or bombs. Bonus 4 is obnoxious.

Edit: Jamestown is extremely promising. Played through the first 3 stages on Normal (the easiest difficulty in the game) until the game told me to play on a higher difficulty to progress - which imo is ok. It's enough to give me a handle of the gameplay and mechanics, and I look forward to the higher difficulties.

 

[microfolk]

This took far longer than expected but:

The stage itself is hard. Flandre herself is quite tame untill Starbow Break, then goes back to easy peasy with Clock that Ticks Away the Past and And Then Will There Be None? (which I completely bombed because fuck it it may be an easy survival spell card but I hate survival spell cards anyway) and then there is Q.E.D. which is balls hard, I managed to finish it only because I still had two lives left.

All in all this is my least favourite extra stage until now, but maybe I just need to cool myself a little and then take a more objective look at it, not being able to being consistent at the stage portion really puts me in a bad mood ahahaha.

 

[demidar]

This took far longer than expected but:



The stage itself is hard. Flandre herself is quite tame untill Starbow Break, then goes back to easy peasy with Clock that Ticks Away the Past and And Then Will There Be None? (which I completely bombed because fuck it it may be an easy survival spell card but I hate survival spell cards anyway) and then there is Q.E.D. which is balls hard, I managed to finish it only because I still had two lives left.

All in all this is my least favourite extra stage until now, but maybe I just need to cool myself a little and then take a more objective look at it, not being able to being consistent at the stage portion really puts me in a bad mood ahahaha.

I guess you're on an Extra stage rampage now huh. I won't get up to that point though, still gotta finish all the games first (this is probably a bad way to do it since then I would have to get used to each game again).

So I think the time when I beat Orin is close at hand. I've downloaded Yamame, Parsee and Yuugi so I can get past them with ease (I die somewhere at a 20% chance). I usually end up with 5-7 lives by the time I reach Yuugi, and her lasers don't cause me too many problems anymore (both the level lasers and the boss herself). I also don't have much trouble with Satori as well, and I can get through Yukari's spell cards with relative ease (that last one "Border Between Wave and Particle" is a doozy though). I can also get through stage 5 with a few deaths, and Orin's not too hard either. It's just that in this particular run I had a lot of stupid, preventible deaths. I got to Orin with 3 lives I think that I pretty much pissed away :/

http://replays.gensokyo.org/download.php?id=35030 if anyone wants to watch.

edit: oh god okuu is impossible send help i got bodied fuuuuuuuuu

 

[shockdude]

This took far longer than expected but:

170 million what. My score was only 120 million.
Granted I cleared that extra over a year ago. I should try again sometime.

You all seem to be getting better at a much faster rate than me, lol. I should play more.

Decided to explore EoSD Lunatic again. It's certainly doable with practice, but I really need to find a route through Stage 4 so that I don't spend two continues on that stage.

Also somehow captured Lunatic Eternal Meek

Spoiler

at low rank

. It's amazing what you can do with zero bombs.

 

[microfolk]

170 million what. My score was only 120 million.
Granted I cleared that extra over a year ago. I should try again sometime.

You all seem to be getting better at a much faster rate than me, lol. I should play more.

Decided to explore EoSD Lunatic again. It's certainly doable with practice, but I really need to find a route through Stage 4 so that I don't spend two continues on that stage.

Also somehow captured Lunatic Eternal Meek

Spoiler

at low rank

. It's amazing what you can do with zero bombs.

I don't know it's even higher than my second Extra clear with Reimu B which I felt was much more consistent ahahaha. I guess it helped that I captured every Flandre's spellcard up to Starbow Break and finishing it with 3 bombs in stock since I've lost two whole lives to Q.E.D. granted an additional 30m to the score... Even if probably spare lives are worth a lot more.
And I've been playing exclusively Touhou for the last six months, I guess I'll reach my skill ceiling soon and then my progresses will start to slow down quite a bit! I don't think I could even think to tackle EoSD Lunatic, let alone capturing Eternal Meek. Nice job.

edit: oh god okuu is impossible send help i got bodied fuuuuuuuuu

Okuu was a nightmare to beat for me even in normal, though once I learned how to dodge her suns consistently and understood some tricks for her spellcards (like the safe spot for Blazing Star "Fixed Star", even though I don't know if it's still there on the Hard Version, "Planetary Revolution) she went quickly for "oh my god this is insane" to "Orin was 10 times harder".
Granted I'm always talking about Normal difficulty so I don't know how much this could be useful to you. :\ Do your best!

 

[shockdude]

Planning a route for EoSD Lunatic Stage 4 route seems to be working. Still need to practice it more, but hey 2 deaths is better than 2 continues. Now I need a route for Stage 3 so I don't have to bomb so much.
Once again having no bombs lead to some awesome spellcard captures, this time with Lunatic Patchouli's Agni Radiance and Forest Blaze.
Lunatic Remilia is really mean. The initial wave of Scarlet Gensokyo went from being a nuisance to being a wall with bullets happy to spawn on top of you if you try to get around the wall.

 

[ibyea]

Holy crap, I 1cc'd a Touhou game for the first time ever! Yeah, it was Ten Desires, which from what I hear is the easiest one, but it still feels like a great achievement for someone like me who started playing this summer. It really felt impossible starting out, with Seiga Kaku presenting an unexpectedly horrifying difficulty spike (curse you curvy laser and meat shield!), and I barely struggled to even get past her. But now I can consistently get to the final boss in 1 continue. On to the extra stage!

 

[demidar]

Welcome to the Touhou 1-cc club!

Err, sorry it's a little empty here at the moment *awkward cough*

 

[ibyea]

Welcome to the Touhou 1-cc club!

Err, sorry it's a little empty here at the moment *awkward cough*

Yeah, I can imagine.

 

[upandaway]

Congrats! 1cc-ing something for the first time is some of the best feelings in games for me. For a couple of seconds, until you start thinking about the next game or the harder difficulty level.

 

[ibyea]

Extra stage is kicking my butt. The furthest I got was Mamizou's 4th spell card. Then I checked how much I had left. 6 more spell cards, with one being a time out. ;_;

 

[microfolk]

Congratulations! You're one of the cool kid now. 8D
And for the extra stage for me it's just a continuos grind, it goes something like "oh my god what should I do to reach the boss" to "ok I can pass the stage portion 80% of the time what the fuck are these spellcards I can't get to the third one ugh" to "the stage is a-ok the first half of the boss fight is solid NOW I JUST HAVE TO REACH THE LAST SPELLCARD WITH AT LEAST TWO LIVES SO I CAN TANK IT" and finally there is that run which goes really well until the last two spellcards where I lose every single bomb and live but I still manage to beat it.
... yeah it's not a really great routine, let's say that you've got to practice practice practice until you've memorised the hell out of the whole stage, I've yet to tackle TD's Extra but I imagine it's like the rest of the series.

 

[upandaway]

Congratulations! You're one of the cool kid now. 8D
And for the extra stage for me it's just a continuos grind, it goes something like "oh my god what should I do to reach the boss" to "ok I can pass the stage portion 80% of the time what the fuck are these spellcards I can't get to the third one ugh" to "the stage is a-ok the first half of the boss fight is solid NOW I JUST HAVE TO REACH THE LAST SPELLCARD WITH AT LEAST TWO LIVES SO I CAN TANK IT" and finally there is that run which goes really well until the last two spellcards where I lose every single bomb and live but I still manage to beat it.
... yeah it's not a really great routine, let's say that you've got to practice practice practice until you've memorised the hell out of the whole stage, I've yet to tackle TD's Extra but I imagine it's like the rest of the series.

That's how it works for me in the normal game but not for the Extra. I can't make that jump from "this is impossible what do I even DO" to "okay I know what to do, just gotta pull it off" without outside help like routes and videos. I can't focus on finding ways to deal with the hard parts when they're that hard. Youtube helps.

 

[demidar]

That's how it works for me in the normal game but not for the Extra. I can't make that jump from "this is impossible what do I even DO" to "okay I know what to do, just gotta pull it off" without outside help like routes and videos. I can't focus on finding ways to deal with the hard parts when they're that hard. Youtube helps.

I try to not rely on outside help. I prefer to study my replays to find routes through spell cards.

 

[microfolk]

That's how it works for me in the normal game but not for the Extra. I can't make that jump from "this is impossible what do I even DO" to "okay I know what to do, just gotta pull it off" without outside help like routes and videos. I can't focus on finding ways to deal with the hard parts when they're that hard. Youtube helps.

I usually try to at least reach the 4th or 5th spellcards of the Extra boss before using some external help but after that I just watch some perfect replay or go search on Maidens of the Kaleidoscope for some wise advice. I should try to become more independent since I believe finding my own way to deal with difficult spellcard would be far more satisfying but on the other hand I don't want to keep dying again and again against some tricky spellcard which requires either to play insanely well or find some silly safespot. I should try to be more patient I guess.
Even though I don't think I could ever find a way around some things like Fujiyama Volcano, Royal Flare or Wizard Fox Thoughts.

 

[shockdude]

Some people prefer to play by relying solely on personal replays and prior experience, in order to get a greater sense of surprise and accomplishment. That's fine.

Some people prefer to play by studying other people's replays, in order to learn potentially unintuitive tricks and strategies. That's fine too.

I lean towards the former; one of my favorite parts about Touhou is facing bullet patterns that I've never seen before. They're like little puzzles, and you have to find the solution.
Occasionally I watch videos of other players of varying skill levels, playing the games & difficulties that I've already 1CC'd, in order to compare my skill level and to see how they tackled a difficult spellcard or stage portion.

There are of course exceptions for crazy things like Fujiyama Volcano.

 

[ibyea]

I did personally study a little before going into it. That is the only reason I got as far as I did into it. I don't want to spend too much time in it since I want to see what other games are like. And yeah, it is a continuous grind. I can't even consistently capture the mid boss spell cards at this point.

 

[shockdude]

I did personally study a little before going into it. That is the only reason I got as far as I did into it. I don't want to spend too much time in it since I want to see what other games are like. And yeah, it is a continuous grind. I can't even consistently capture the mid boss spell cards at this point.

If you want to see what other games are like...then try the other games. You don't have to beat the Extra stage now, especially if it feels like a grind; you can always come back to it later.

 

[shockdude]

1CC'd MoF Hard. About time. Everything stage 5 onward was bomb.
Somehow I managed to survive VoWG while using only one bomb. I should try capturing it sometime.

Have any of you experienced an issue with MoF saving a corrupt replay, in which the FPS counter jumps wildly from 0-255FPS and the game crashes when trying to start the replay at stage 6?

 

[demidar]

1CC'd MoF Hard. About time. Everything stage 5 onward was bomb.
Somehow I managed to survive VoWG while using only one bomb. I should try capturing it sometime.

Have any of you experienced an issue with MoF saving a corrupt replay, in which the FPS counter jumps wildly from 0-255FPS and the game crashes when trying to start the replay at stage 6?

Nope, worst I got was the FPS getting stuck at 54 during gameplay (the game actually slowed down 20%). I think it was caused by alt-tabbing during dialogue switching, I'm not sure.

 

[shockdude]

Beat SA Extra.
Koishi's final spellcard is mean. Almost failed the run as the bullets were fading away, but saved it with a slow-motion deathbomb.

 

[ibyea]

Played Perfect Cherry Blossom. Holy crap Youmu Konpaku is incredibly hard.

 

[microfolk]

Hey hey hey how is it possible that nobody here has posted about this:

Touhou 14.5 - Urban Legend in Limbo was announced at Digital Game Expo 2014!

At the moment this flyer is the only thing we know about the game, on MoTK there is a topic with more infos and speculations but since it was made by cuc (which I guess is the same person both here and on MoTK) I don't want to copy-paste what they have already wrote.

 

[poipoipoi9]

I really really hope Kosuzu will be in this in some way or form. Harukawa Moe doing the art hopefully implies this.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I saw some Touhou figurines at Animate Miami. They were gorgeous, but my god. $100+ for each and every one.

 

[demidar]

That setting in the flyer looks quite modern. How interesting.

 

[cj_iwakura]

That setting in the flyer looks quite modern. How interesting.

I do see some urban mythological creatures depicted, like Hanako(the toilet ghost).

 

[demidar]

I do see some urban mythological creatures depicted, like Hanako(the toilet ghost).

Yeah there was a short list of common urban legends in the MotK thread. Weird direction, and I want to know more.

 

[shockdude]

I'm just trying to wrap my head around the type of game this is gonna be.
I can't imagine it being a regular danmaku shooter like the mainline games, but there's no way it's a fighting or ISC game. Maybe photography, or another gimmick shooter like GFW? Is it even going to be a danmaku shooter?

 

[ibyea]

Well, that is an interesting poster!

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Say, would it be okay if I post a link to a Touhou related Youtube channel here? I'm personally not involved with it at all but it posts a quite awesome selection of Touhou arranges with detailed info and nice artwork showcasing so I thought everyone here might like it And I really think it deserves more views too

 

[demidar]

Say, would it be okay if I post a link to a Touhou related Youtube channel here? I'm personally not involved with it at all but it posts a quite awesome selection of Touhou arranges with detailed info and nice artwork showcasing so I thought everyone here might like it And I really think it deserves more views too

You might as well, it's not like anyone's gonna stop you :lol

 

[upandaway]

We've all posted tons of Youtube videos here so all that stuff's super welcome. But if you wanna post a channel you need to post your favorites too!

Hey hey hey how is it possible that nobody here has posted about this:

Touhou 14.5 - Urban Legend in Limbo was announced at Digital Game Expo 2014!

At the moment this flyer is the only thing we know about the game, on MoTK there is a topic with more infos and speculations but since it was made by cuc (which I guess is the same person both here and on MoTK) I don't want to copy-paste what they have already wrote.

Pretty exciting, at first glance it sounds like it'll be super unique.

 

[Evilisk]

Hey hey hey how is it possible that nobody here has posted about this:

It figures that the weekend I'm away from a computer is the weekend that something actually gets announced :/ Cool poster though

Spoiler

Was really hoping 14.5 would be a HM expansion with playable Seiga

 

[Skyfireblaze]

You might as well, it's not like anyone's gonna stop you :lol

I just didn't want to break any rules so I asked first Here it is then https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6fCiq_TPvLi56lizm8HAA

Sparking Energy is such a good song and I'm not even into Trance

 

[shockdude]

I just didn't want to break any rules so I asked first Here it is then https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM6fCiq_TPvLi56lizm8HAA

Sparking Energy is such a good song and I'm not even into Trance

lol I posted Sparking Energy earlier in this thread.
All of CC* Style's stuff is really good trance. It's a shame a lot of their songs aren't on Youtube; CCC Disaster is amazing.
Sparking Energy
Memory of Sight
Urban Country of the Spirit World

 

[demidar]

Wind God Girl is god tier (pun unintended), and this remix ain't too bad either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8C8aKFv5gg&index=11&list=PLgZ4ut_-ZXUu483oXIgC6EfRQQMbMoRt-

 

[ibyea]

Oh wow, I didn't even know that many remix of Song of the Night Sparrow existed.

 

[shockdude]

Oh wow, I didn't even know that many remix of (insert Touhou song here) existed.

.

 

[upandaway]

Wind God Girl is god tier (pun unintended), and this remix ain't too bad either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8C8aKFv5gg&index=11&list=PLgZ4ut_-ZXUu483oXIgC6EfRQQMbMoRt-

The entire album where it came from is amazing

 

[demidar]

The entire album where it came from is amazing

Do you mean PoFV or the k-waves LAB album?