Touhou Project

May 6, 2015 at 1:51 PM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
I wonder why there are some threads about Touhou fangames here but no general thread about Touhou itself.

Well actually, I'm aware this Thread exists but given that it is old as heck, not all Touhou games are bullet hell shoot 'em ups anymore and the thread itself is quite ambiguous (more centered about danmaku in general), I figured opening a new one would be a better idea than doing an epic necro bump.
But maybe someone can fix this mess by using his/her time machine and tell my old self to use a better title and start post... Anyone?

I'm mostly a fan of the older windows games (Touhou 6 through 9 were pretty much perfect in my opinion). I think I started playing somewhen after the relase of Phantasmagoria of Flower View (9) and the first game I played was Immaterial and Missing Power (7.5), which was running barely on 45 FPS on my crappy PC back in the days. For some reason I always had a strong feel of nostalgia for those games, even though it wasn't such a long time ago when I first played them. Especially Imperishable Night (8) makes me want to come back to it from time to time. Am I the only one who thinks it got a pretty melancholic atmosphere if compared to the other Touhou games?

From Mountain of Faith (10) onwards I noticed a shift/change in style and when I first played it, I didn't like it at all. Today I think it is okay, the music is pretty catchy but a lot of the characters are bleh. What I especially like about the direction the newest touhou games are taking is that the music has some electronic elements now. However I think that the characters in the old games were much more memorable, than the ones in the newer games. Regarding the newer games I think Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and it's addon are pretty outstanding, Subterranean Animism is very well made and Ten Desires is good, however the rest of the games are okay at best.

What's funny is that (and it's the same for most other people I think) it weren't the games that I first made "contact with" but rather flash animations with remixed versions of ingame songs. I remember IOSYS being extremly famous in the english community back then and it helped to advertise the games a lot. I don't really think Touhou would have such a large fanbase today if it wasn't for the fanworks based on the characters and the music. There are a lot people who are into Touhou but never played a single game though (not that I approve of that :p).

So I just decided to play Imperishable Night today on easy mode (I haven't slept for 20+ hours, so I thought it couldn't hurt) but it turns out it was a pretty bad decision, as one does not easily fail in easy mode. I started with 2 lives and beat the game with more lives and bombs the hud could display, that doesn't feel very satisfactory at all. I guess they weren't joking, when they said, their old granny could beat the game in easy mode.

After all I'm a huge fan of the extra stages though (atleast most of them). The extra stage boss is usually the most interesting character and got the best music theme as well. :p
Sadly I got pretty bad at extra stages for some reason, I believe this is due to missing training. Just some years ago I could easily beat the extra stage in Imperishable Night and even manage to play through the large majority of the extra stage in Subterranean Animism. Now I even struggle with the one in Touhou 8, which I think is one of the easiest. For some reason I got better at the regular game though.

I'm thinking of maybe streaming some Touhou playthroughs in the future, once I've got a new PC.
 
May 6, 2015 at 2:45 PM
Junior Member
"It's dangerous to go alone!"
Join Date: Mar 27, 2015
Location: The Land of the Livid Dead
Posts: 42
Age: 26
Unfortunately, without a good PC, I can't really try any Touhou games.

All I really know so far about it is that Satori is THE best (in my opinion)
 
May 6, 2015 at 2:55 PM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
Huh? Your PC has to be 15 to 20 years old then because otherwise every older Touhou game for windows will just run fine. o:
If you can't run Touhou 6 or 7, then Cave Story shouldn't work on your PC as well.
 
May 6, 2015 at 5:25 PM
Um... Chosen One? Yeah that'll work. : P
"Big Joe Tire and Battery Restaurant! Opening Soon! Eat at Big Joes!"
Join Date: Oct 7, 2013
Location: India
Posts: 498
I'm still trying to clear Easy without using continues on EoSD after a few months.
Yeah, I should probably do the sensible thing and give up.
 
May 6, 2015 at 7:46 PM
lol
Modding Community Discord Moderator
"All your forum are belong to us!"
Join Date: Oct 20, 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 604
The bosses in these games are almost impossible for me, but the backgrounds are well done and nice to look at when I'm waiting for a slow bullet to rush at my character.
 
May 6, 2015 at 7:55 PM
Professional Whatever
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Jan 13, 2011
Location: Lasagna
Posts: 4481
Imperishable night will always be my favourite, I got to the extra stage with Marisa once but never managed to even get to the boss :V
 
May 7, 2015 at 12:03 AM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
If some of you guys are playing Imperishable Night, then you can upload a replay if you like and I can analyze it. I might be able to tell you how to improve (plus, watching other people playing is nice), as I've been playing that game for years. It's one of the easiest Touhou games to start with too in my opinion.

@IdioticBaka1824: Try playing the game on normal, you will get used to it after a while and then easy will be ridiculous to you. Try Stage Practice if you have a problem with a specific stage. EoSD is one of the games that plays a bit differently in my opinion because the bullets are pretty fast, this also means it is harder. You could try starting to practice a different game. Did I mention that practice helps? Also, practice, practice, practice. Oh and make sure you fully understand the game mechanics, some touhou games often have subtle mechanics (like auto collecting items when doing specific actions), try the wiki for more info.

@Doors: Imperishable Night is my favorite game as well, it's also the first bullet hell game from the series I played and I really loved playing it when I first starting playing Touhou.

Here are a few tips (you might already know some of them) for you, regarding the game and the extra stage:

- Try to use the auto-collect mechanic as often as possible. To do so you have to go to the upper 1/4 of the screen and press shift (or release shift and press it again). You will automaticly collect all items.
- Avoid any other form of bombing than death bombing. To do a death bomb, you need to press the bomb key immediately after a bullet hit you. Practice it, it's essential and the only defense mechanism that you got. Death bombing will do tons of damage, except to extra stage final bosses who are immune to it and it will save your ass, also it consumes two bombs of course unless you're extremly quick (if I remember right). As far as I know this mechanic exists in most Touhou games but it's very hard to time in some.
- You will get two extra lifes in the extra stage, one after the mid-boss and one from the last fairy in the stage (the one right before Mokou). The fairy will only drop the life if you don't kill while bombing or the little time window you're invincible after bombing. If you kill it using a bomb, then it will only drop a bomb.
- You will get another two extra lifes for collecting 200 and 666 of the blue things.
- If you can't collect a life for whatever reason (or a bomb), then just use a bomb, you will automaticly collect it.
- Try to memorize how the enemies will spawn in the extra stage, so you can a have movement strategy, otherwise it will be impossible for you to clear it.
- Try using Youmo and Yuyuko (the ghosts) or Yuyuko alone should you have unlocked the feature. The spreading of Yuyukos bullets makes the extra stage extremly easy to clean plus she moves slow in focused mode.
- It's possible of course with Alice and Marisa as well but as the bullets are extremly focused and Alice is really fast in focused mode, it will be a lot harder. Here is a replay of me doing it, so you can memorize the movement patterns: http://files.tile44.org/etc/th8_15.zip
But note that I got extremly bad at the later spellcards of the extra stage, so I wasn't able to clear it. Like I said before, if you want you can upload a replay as well, so I can tell you how to improve.
 
May 7, 2015 at 4:34 AM
Junior Member
"It's dangerous to go alone!"
Join Date: Mar 27, 2015
Location: The Land of the Livid Dead
Posts: 42
Age: 26
С. П. Гардэбитэр said:
Huh? Your PC has to be 15 to 20 years old then because otherwise every older Touhou game for windows will just run fine. o:
If you can't run Touhou 6 or 7, then Cave Story shouldn't work on your PC as well.
Well the problem is, we currently can't afford anti-virus software. So all I have right now is an iPad.

Plus, it's a...really bad computer.
 
May 7, 2015 at 4:45 AM
Stoned Member
"All your forum are belong to us!"
Join Date: Sep 22, 2012
Location: Hell
Posts: 553
Never played Touhou...

Where can I download some? It smells good.
 
May 7, 2015 at 5:14 AM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
Well, the games themselves are not free and it's not to easy to find a place where one could buy them I guess.
There are sites for downloading the games though and they can be found with Google as well but downloading them is not legal I think and links to such sites are forbidden to post according to the forum rules as far as I know.
 
May 7, 2015 at 2:54 PM
Bonds that separate us
Forum Administrator
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Aug 20, 2006
Location:
Posts: 2846
Age: 33
Being very into the genre I'm quite familiar with the series now, partly because I often watch a guy who mostly streams Great Fairy Wars. I'm far from the biggest fan or anything but I have actually grown a solid appreciation for them. They're very item-based compared to a lot of their contemporaries and each one usually has a few interesting mechanics, in addition to delivering about as well in the 'pattern' department as anything could be expected to. Plus the character artwork is wonderful :chin:

My favourite used to be Mountain of Faith, mostly because I don't enjoy bullet grazing. It's the only one I've bothered to put enough time into to clear (on Normal, which wasn't really very much). I'll play them once in a while, but excessive bullet games still aren't really my thing, even if I can appreciate what some of them have to offer. If I had to pick one now I'd probably switch to Mystic Square, which is definitely the most developed of the PC-98 games while still having some great classic elements.

It'll be interesting to see how the latest one turns out. The series hasn't really gone anywhere gameplay-wise since GFW and if this is more of the same ZUN could very well finally be running out of steam, or at least ways to remake the same piano and trumpet progressions :koron:
 
May 7, 2015 at 5:40 PM
Senior Member
"This is the greatest handgun ever made! You have to ask yourself, do I feel lucky?"
Join Date: Oct 22, 2014
Location: Xyrinfe multiverse
Posts: 100
Age: 28
Isn't the latest one going to be released on 10 May? =o
 
May 7, 2015 at 6:05 PM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
Oh yes, I will probably go crazy and lock myself in my room for a week or so, once I have a chance to actually get it.
 
May 8, 2015 at 11:35 AM
Hoxtilicious
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
Join Date: Dec 30, 2005
Location: Germany
Posts: 3218
Age: 32
No, it's the full game, the demo is already released. :p
 
May 8, 2015 at 7:29 PM
Perpetually out of it
"Big Joe Tire and Battery Restaurant! Opening Soon! Eat at Big Joes!"
Join Date: Oct 6, 2013
Location: Absent
Posts: 490
Age: 24
Goerge Bobicles said:
ever heard of microsoft security essentials?
If MSE actually did a decent job at defending windows anti-virus software wouldn't have a reason to exist
 
May 9, 2015 at 1:25 AM
Perpetually out of it
"Big Joe Tire and Battery Restaurant! Opening Soon! Eat at Big Joes!"
Join Date: Oct 6, 2013
Location: Absent
Posts: 490
Age: 24
In my experience MSE's done a poor job with detecting viruses and an even worse job at removing them
Most system scans would show no detection of anything, even if it was apparent that some adware or something of the like had snuck in at some point
I'm not the only one who doesn't think MSE's good enough as protection either, but for chances are if you're debating this then I've done something stupidly wrong with it
 
May 9, 2015 at 1:26 AM
THE suus
"Keep on rollin'!"
Join Date: May 14, 2012
Location: yeah
Posts: 400
Age: 24
While I really enjoy Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, I am awful at touhou and pretty much any shmup. Haven't gotten around to play any of the others, though.
 
Top