Touhou

[blazeVA]

I've downloaded and begun playing The Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil....


I suck hard. Seriously. I knew I was going to be bad, but I can't beat the game on Easy mode. >.< I get to Stage 4 and I don't even meet Patchouli. It makes me sadface.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by blazeVA

I suck hard. Seriously. I knew I was going to be bad, but I can't beat the game on Easy mode. >.< I get to Stage 4 and I don't even meet Patchouli. It makes me sadface.

I would not recommend playing on Easy simply because (1) I never downgrade to Easy but also (2) from what I understand Easy is a great way to form bad habits if you ever want to get better at the games. But my advice to you to not play on Easy is particularly relevant for Game 6 because (3) you can't get to Stage 6 on Easy. Seriously. It's the one game where this is true. Games 7 on up, you're simply blocked from progressing to the Extra Stage should you manage to 1cc Easy. But Game 6, you don't even get a shot at Remilia, the Stage 6 boss. The game just ends with Sakuya at the end of Stage 5. You don't want this to happen to you, do you? Of course not. So go ahead and start learning how to play on Normal. That or switch to another game in the franchise where you may continue to play on Easy in the hopes of seeing the ordinary end of the game. ^^;

(Not a spoiler. Rambling.)

Spoiler: show

The other thing I'll note is that (apparently; still haven't played them so I don't know) 7 builds on 6, and then 8 builds on 7, but 10 resets back to the way 6 was (and maybe takes us in a new direction, I don't recall), with 11 building on 10, and 12 building on 11, and 13 building on 12. So in a sense you could say 6 and 10 are the "beginner" titles. In a more accurate sense you could say "Don't learn with 8 expecting to then be great at 10." (I think that might have explained a lot of the early contempt for 10 back when it first released. A whole lot of fans bummed out by the mechanics reset.) But as a footnote to this note, I'll point out that of 10, 11, 12, and 13, I feel like each game kind of does its own thing with mechanics. Well, maybe not 11. 11 is very similar to 10, I couldn't even tell you the difference off the top of my head other than that I think it's where ZUN scrapped the 1UP and introduced the 1UP star fragment system (five fragments makes one complete 1UP). 12 then does a crazy thing with flying saucers (collect three of the same color to gain something relevant to that color). And 13, which I've barely even touched, does a new thing with spirit baubles that you're meant to collect in addition to past things. *shrug* But like, 13 doesn't have the flying saucers of 12. So it's not like you could say "13 builds on 12" in an absolute sense. It's more like 12 and 13 are alternate offshoots from 11, with 11 being nigh-on identical to 10.

[Talon87]

Doh. I forgot the most obvious piece of advice I have for you, which is ... make use of the Practice area for stages you've managed to clear! That'd be my #1 bit of advice for players at my skill level (beginner to low-middle). Get as far as you like in Story Mode on your first try if you want, but then after you run out of continues/lives and get a Game Over, go to the practice area and load up Level 1. Why?

1. Gobs of lives. The #1 reason I can think of for why players like myself don't get better at Touhou is that they're too afraid to risk dying, and because they're too afraid to risk dying they will use bombs either 1) where they don't need to at their current skill level or 2) where they wouldn't need to if only they practiced a bit and got better. You need to save your bombs for when you really need them, so learning how to kick the bomb habit for particular areas is important. And while you might have trouble with that when you've only got 2-3 lives, the practice area makes it really comfortable to do because you get like 9 lives to start off with. So, since your lives are like water, you can allow yourself to take more risks. And by taking risks, you'll discover that you can get away with things you didn't think were possible before. And bit by bit, you'll learn where you don't have to use bombs.

2. Can repeat the same stage over and over quickly. If you play Story Mode, there's a temptation there to just keep pressing on. But the downside of this is that you spend so much time away from Stages 1, 2, and 3 each time you penetrate into 4 and 5 that you soon forget the patterns of 1, 2, and 3 and have to relearn them all over again when you start a new game. But if instead you practice Stage 1 again, and again, and again until you can beat it without losing a single life (and, even better, without using a single bomb! ), then you'll have made some real significant progress for when you challenge Story Mode again. Now it'll be like Stage 1 is a freebie. "Six-stage game? " you'll ask. "I'm not playing a six-stage game. I'm playing a five-stage game and one freebie! " And this logic continues if you practice Stage 2, and Stage 3, and so on. If you practice those three stages so much that they become second nature to you, then you'll have all of your bombs, all of your lives, and all of your continues ready for Stages 4, 5, and 6. In other words, you'll be effectively challenging only half of a game (the second half) but with an entire game's worth of ammunition.

So yeah. Don't be afraid to make use of the practice area. If the idea bores you, just take my advice for Stage 1 alone and then, once you master that stage, feel free to dive right back in to the game. If my advice didn't work for you, then forget I said anything. But if it works for you like it works for me and (I think) so many other people, then give it a shot with Stage 2 too. And then Stage 3. And so on and so forth. Before you know it, you'll be coasting through Stages 1-4 and really only having to worry about 5 and 6.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by blazeVA

Yeah. I am whimming for one of the to be Remilia and one of them to be Flandre.

Chibi Rumia is cute but a pain to train. ;;

While they are vampires, if you check out Attack Forme Flandre's stats ... and then consider that she has Hustle ... you just give her a Choice Scarf assuming it's been reverse-programmed into this Gen 3 mod; otherwise, meh or a Wide Lens, you have her use Thrash (retyped to Dark in this game and still 100% accurate ), and you let Hustle do the rest. 170 Base Attack ... banded by Hustle. I suppose you could always put a second band on (at the risk of losing the speed race -and- missing) for extra brutality during Story Mode. 2.25x damage off of a base attack of 170 ... ouch.

Personally, since I love dual types and Dark/Fire has always been awesome, I'd probably be partial to the Speed Forme myself. 125 base speed and your choice of either 115 base attack or 120 base special attack. Still has Hustle, so I would probably just go for a pure physical build again (sorry, Flamethrower ) and this time I would Choice Band it. Thrash(Dark), Superpower, Fire Punch, and then something else, anything else, just to fill that fourth gap. Two Choice Bands on 115 base Attack are still going to be plenty nice and at least now you don't have to worry about losing the speed war.

---------------------------------------

Changing gears, I still haven't played anymore of TPPE myself. But that's because I've been working on other things. However, tonight I think I'll play for the first time in a while. I may even play a lot, things depending. (C'mo~on, good luck with Byakurens and Reimus!)

---------------------------------------

Changing gears again, some additional comments about the actual Touhou games. Blaze's comments led me to load up 6 again last night, as well as 7 and 9 just half an hour ago. Some things I noticed.

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil: I'd forgotten about this game's continue system. It's quite different from the newer games'. In the newer games, you're free to continue as much as you like. (I think. Don't quote me on that. ) But in EoSD, you're limited to ~3-4 lives per continues (5 if you're lucky) and you only get three of them to start with. If you run through all of your continues, that's it, show's over, go back to Stage 1 and try again. So you really only have ~9 to 15 lives' worth of chances to beat the game, making EoSD one of the hardest ones to do it for. I'd totally forgotten about this. Whoops.

Perfect Cherry Blossom: Had never played this before. Stage 1 was pretty easy (I had one bullshit death but no bomb uses and no other losses of life) but I guess Chen handed my ass to me or I wasn't paying attention or something 'cause I wound up on my last life, was forced to use bombs just to hang on, and ended up dying early on in the next stage. [excuses, excuses] If I'd used bombs, I probably would've made it much farther [/excuses, excuses] but that's just an excuse and, in the end, my first romp through PCB ended with me dying on Stage 3. I've already forgotten whether the continue system seemed to mirror 6's or not. I don't recall if I continued ever, but I'm pretty sure I did not.

Both EoSD and PCB: In future games, you can collect all of the power-up pellets on the screen by flying up to the top of the screen. But in both EoSD and PCB, this only happens once you reach max power. Think of it, I guess, like how Link's Master Sword could throw projectile swords in the original Zelda game but only if you were at max health. And then imagine if in future Zeldas they said "Oh fuck it, we'll let them fire energy swords no matter their health." That was the change ZUN made, I guess, somewhere along the way. Not sure if it was in 8, 9, or 10, but definitely by the time of 10 you could just fly to the top of the screen to scoop everything up. Since 10 is where I learned how to play and since 11 and 12 are my next two most played Touhou games, I have to re-learn not to play that way when playing these older ones.

Phantasmagoria of Flower View: So I loaded this one back up and ... sure enough, there was only one record of me having ever played this game, and it was back in January 2010. Not sure who to play as, I decide to go for the good ol' standard and opt to play as Reimu. The game begins and ... wow, yeah, this is weird. The bosses I saw were:

1. Cirno
2. Mystia
3. Lyrica Prismriver
4. Tewi Inaba
5. Izayoi Sakuya
6. Kirisame Marisa
7. Shameimaru Aya

I didn't even know what the hell I was doing but I managed to defeat Cirno without losing a life (though I did lose several in-round lives, those five lives you have at the top of the screen that refresh every round, and thought "Oh shit! @_@ I'm losing lives!"). I lost a life to Mystia but it was horseshit -- I was charging my combo to Stage 4 to destroy her ... and she was down to 0.5/5 health herself! Totally should've been my game. @_@ I then managed to clear Lyrica, Tewi, and Sakuya without losing a single life, and along the way I gained back the one I lost. But I lost my second life (setting me back by one again) against Marisa before beating her. And then ... I reached Aya. And Aya kicked my ass, but always by pretty close hairs. (1.5/5, 0.5/5, and 1/5 I think were her health each time I died.) I still have no idea what I am doing when playing. Obviously charging your laser is good but higher charges are better than lower ones? But I have no idea how you get your charge to get bigger. (The only pattern I noticed was that it tended to auto-reset to a power level of 3 or 4 whenever I died, similar I guess to how the other games will give you a chance at having max shooting power when you die if you collect the appropriate on-screen pellets.) Because I had a hard time juggling focusing (Shift) and charging up (holding down Z), I spent most of the game grazing bullets at normal speed. Believe me, there were a lot of insanely close calls. Anyway, after I lost to Aya, I decided to look at Old Talon's info. He scored a bit better than I did *shakes fist* ... but he also only got to Aya. So like, Old Talon got bored playing with no end in sight and quit on Aya ... but it seems like he quit right where things get hard. I wonder if he could've beaten Aya. *shrug* As for whether I'll try to get better at this one and beat her, I kind of doubt. Only reason I might is if I find out that she's the second-to-last boss. 'Cause it would be nice to be able to finally say I've beaten a proper Touhou game, even if it is the black sheep of the family.

EDIT-UPDATE: Just played PoFV for my third time ever. Decided to go with Reisen this time. Made it all the way to Komachi. Was kinda close to beating her too but, as with my previous attempt, I opted not to use any continues and just quit once I ran out of lives. The bosses I encountered were:

1. Cirno
2. Mystia
3. Lyrica Prismriver
4. Kirisame Marisa
5. Konpaku Youmu
6. Izayoi Sakuya
7. Medicine Melancholy
8. Onozuka Komachi

I managed to get to Medicine without losing any real lives (plenty of in-stage lives though), but then Medicine royally kicked my ass and brought me all the way down to just one life remaining. It took me three tries to beat her and both times I died it was close. The first time she was down to 1/5, the second time she was down to 0.5/5 and history repeated itself from the Mystia stage: I died while charging my Level 4 laser to erase her. Third fight was actually insanely hard, fucking bitch , but I managed to survive ... barely. I might play this more later but man this is such a weird game. ^^; It's like playing Puyo Puyo 2. I love Puyo Puyo 2, but Puyo Puyo is not Touhou. ^^;

[Doppleganger]

Talon mentioned he's struggled with EotSD (my best game) and that inflamed my ego enough to re-download EotSD. Last time I tried, I hurt my hands. So who knows how long this'll last. I hope the .rar doesn't have a fudging virus.

Some advice, Talon - go with 3 or less lives in EotSD. You get a point bonus (or penalty?) in EotSD depending on how many lives you go in with, and since you get extra lives every million or so points, I always march into the final battle with Remilia with 8+ lives despite only starting out with three.

I've 1 CC'd Hard on EotSD, and almost 1 CC'd Lunatic (I got to Remilia before having to use a Continue).

Note that I promised myself I'd never play another Touhou game aside from EotSD or PCB until I'd 1CC'd either on Lunatic, or beat PCB Extra Stage.

[Talon87]

I didn't know you could tweak how many lives you start with, and so I always and already start with 3 lives. ^^;

Can't believe (as the figure of speech) that you 1cc'd Embodiment of Scarlet Devil on Hard. Even more so can't believe you managed to reach Remilia on Lunatic. You must be very good. Obviously not as good as the insanely good players who can 1cc the entire game on Lunatic no sweat including the Extra Stage, but still wtf damn good.

I don't intend to get too distracted by the real Touhou games right now. Even if they're the original thing, I definitely enjoy the Gensokyo universe, the fighters, and even this Pokemon mod more in general than I do the shmups. Shmups are okay but they were never my favorite video game genre as a child, and while I admire the players who can ace them, I don't envy them per se. I mean, sure, I wouldn't say "No" to being that good at shmups, but it's not something I feel I want to work at to improve on. Woudl rather do other things with my time. But yeah, they're fun enough as games, and they're tantalizing (for me, for where I am in my "Touhou career" as it were) in that I've managed to get to the final stage for some of them but still can't quite get to that extra stage.

In other news, it dawned on me today that since 13.5 (the fourth fighter) is going to have such a heavy emphasis on religion (or, more correctly, on the various religious factions currently in Gensokyo), this probably means that Byakuren will be a playable character. But ... does this also mean that Utsuho won't be? D: *crestfallen* Utsuho is probably my favorite character to play with in Hisoutensoku even if the pros rag on her a lot, so I'll be pretty disappointed if she's missing from 13.5 or if they repurpose her build into another, more religious faction-oriented character. There is some obvious hope since Marisa (duh ^^; ) has been confirmed to be in the game courtesy of the sneak peek of the demo coming out this winter, and of course Marisa isn't a member of any of the religious factions. (I guess they'll lump her in with Reimu's Shinto faction since she's best friends with Reimu. That or they might have a secular faction? )

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Can't believe (as the figure of speech) that you 1cc'd Embodiment of Scarlet Devil on Hard. Even more so can't believe you managed to reach Remilia on Lunatic. You must be very good. Obviously not as good as the insanely good players who can 1cc the entire game on Lunatic no sweat including the Extra Stage, but still wtf damn good.

I used to be.

I'm an old man with arthritic hands now; I just got through my first Normal game since 2007 and got to Remilia's last card before running out of continues. Touhou used to be my anti-drug like Yu-Gi-Oh! is now.

But, I might be cheating a bit. I use Marisa in EotSD, and while she's really jerky, she's allegedly easier to use in EotSD than PCB. I also use Marisa in PCB and that's why I have so much trouble with it - the game is easy on any difficulty with Reimu, but I've been trying to beat PCB with Marisa and I rarely got past that dumb swastika bomb of Ran's.

Originally Posted by Talon87

I don't intend to get too distracted by the real Touhou games right now. Even if they're the original thing, I definitely enjoy the Gensokyo universe, the fighters, and even this Pokemon mod more in general than I do the shmups. Shmups are okay but they were never my favorite video game genre as a child, and while I admire the players who can ace them, I don't envy them per se. I mean, sure, I wouldn't say "No" to being that good at shmups, but it's not something I feel I want to work at to improve on. Woudl rather do other things with my time. But yeah, they're fun enough as games, and they're tantalizing (for me, for where I am in my "Touhou career" as it were) in that I've managed to get to the final stage for some of them but still can't quite get to that extra stage.

I was raised by the old school vanguard to loathe fans like that. People who liked the universe without earning the right to it by mastering the games. In 2008, I would have stopped speaking to you if you admitted this but I forgive you now. I can certainly understand an aversion to the BHS. I feel that understanding every-time I type "I feel that understanding".

This is also why I haven't touched anything beyond EotSD or PCB - I haven't "earned" the right to the easy Imperishable Night, Phantasmagoria, etc. By that logic, I haven't really read any spoilers on Touhou, either. I know PCB Phantasm's Boss is Yukari Yakumo, her theme is Necrofantasia, and Ran is her Shikigami, but that's the absolutely limit of what I know about Touhou except that IN exists. A lot of what you've been talking about in here refuses to sink in.

[Talon87]

The thing is, people that insist you can't enjoy Touhou without having played the original games first are being a bit dumb about it. Touhou is one of those franchises where the vast, vast majority of the understanding of various characters' beliefs, attitudes, or histories comes either from supplemental sources (interviews with ZUN, ZUN-authored manga, other official games like the fighters, ...) or else from the fans' fanon-turned-canon. What does Reisen do in the actual game? Not bloody much: she's in Stage 5 of one game and is a playable character in the black sheep of the family game and that's it. Her total lines are probably less than this post in word count. But we know about her past on the Mooooon and her relationship with Teeeeeewi and this and that and this and that all thanks to supplemental sources. It gets even worse for a mid-boss character or a Stage 1 boss. Seriously, what did we learn about Shizuha and her sister Minoriko in Mountain of Faith other than that Shizuha is a kami associated with the season of autumn and she has a perfume that smells like roasted potatoes? I don't even recall if MoF establishes that the two are related, much less sisters! Most of what we know about them comes from ZUN, either from the manual to the game (which I'm assuming most of your purist friends don't have copies along with their copies of the game ) or else from interviews or else from manga and ZUN-canonized fanart.

I could see your friends' point with most any other franchise, but Touhou is the one franchise where they picked the wrong side to be on. It would be dumb to be a BTTF fan having only seen the shitty '90s cartoon and yet none of the original three films. (Or to have seen the 3rd film but not the 1st or the 2nd.) It would be dumb to be a Star Wars fan having only read the Extended Universe novels but never having seen the original films. But with Touhou? They're just shmups, man. I can find about as much plot in Dead or Alive 3 as I can in Imperishable Night. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if I could find more plot in DOA3. And for the plot that is in the shmup? That's what the Touhou Wiki is for.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Talon87

The thing is, people that insist you can't enjoy Touhou without having played the original games first are being a bit dumb about it. Touhou is one of those franchises where the vast, vast majority of the understanding of various characters' beliefs, attitudes, or histories comes either from supplemental sources (interviews with ZUN, ZUN-authored manga, other official games like the fighters, ...) or else from the fans' fanon-turned-canon. What does Reisen do in the actual game? Not bloody much: she's in Stage 5 of one game and is a playable character in the black sheep of the family game and that's it. Her total lines are probably less than this post in word count. But we know about her past on the Mooooon and her relationship with Teeeeeewi and this and that and this and that all thanks to supplemental sources. It gets even worse for a mid-boss character or a Stage 1 boss. Seriously, what did we learn about Shizuha and her sister Minoriko in Mountain of Faith other than that Shizuha is a kami associated with the season of autumn and she has a perfume that smells like roasted potatoes? I don't even recall if MoF establishes that the two are related, much less sisters! Most of what we know about them comes from ZUN, either from the manual to the game (which I'm assuming most of your purist friends don't have copies along with their copies of the game ) or else from interviews or else from manga and ZUN-canonized fanart.

I know almost zero about the Touhou canon. All I know is Marisa was originally an enemy of Reimu, then the two became friends. Sakuya is also a certain vampire's daughter and was originally believed to be a Lunarian (?), but that looks like it's been errata'd out of existence.

The big distinction between the old Poolshmer crowd (and the corresponding Japanese vanguard) and the "bad fans" who hijacked the community is what I already mentioned - the sense of earning the right to learn all of that history/interactions and such. You fight in World War II, you get a free unlimited license to watch cute girls doing cute things. It's the Medal of Honour and you've got to win it, soldier.

The original logic behind this was, what little was known about Touhou couldn't be parodied or digested by fans unless the fans had access to the basal information to base their works on. To get to that information, they had to beat the games. So to appreciate the fan works, one had to be inside the club to 'get' everything.

Obviously, stuff happened, and the games have been overshadowed. But for that reason, I think, those who were successful at the games still carry themselves with distinction in Touhou communities, since others are too engrossed with everything Touhou to dismiss the games completely.

If I were to make an analogy, it would be like a major league baseball player joining a group of local baseball fans. Even if the fans could never be baseball players, they'd still treat that player like a minor idol, because he went somewhere other fans couldn't.

That's why, I guess, I've been pretty satisfied with Touhou and what tidbits I get from beating the games. The franchise is, fundamentally, bullet shooters with themed personality. ZUN himself didn't want people to move away from that, and I've kept to that philosophy.

[blazeVA]

Aside from all the Touhou take of shmup games...


I. FOUND. A. SHINY. CHIBI. CHEN!!!!




SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Also, I am still raising Pokemon(we need an Audino >.<), and Chibi Rumia is actually not doing to bad.

And the Gods punish me by giving me a Mild nature. >>>.<<<

And what do I find while i am training my Chibi Momiji?



A SHINY CMystia!!!! With a Sassy Nature. >.<

[Talon87]

I might write up one of my usual thorough updates with pictures later -- Lord knows I took hundreds! -- but for now a quick, brief status update. Played the past few days for the first time in two or so weeks and ...

- rolled with a Bold CByakuren (will make into regular Byakuren)
- rolled with a Careful CReimu (b/c she had better stats than every Adamant or Jolly I got) (planned to make into a regular Reimu but may evolve after Level 64 into DReimu)
- effort trained the CByakuren
- effort trained the CReimu
- explored Cinnabar Mansion
- took on Saffron Gym (all seven trainers)
- took on Cinnabar Gym (all trainers)
- beat Blaine
- got roped into FrLg shenanigans with Bill
- beat Sabrina
- netted EXP for CReimu on Cycling Road, half of southeast coastal route
- took on Viridian Gym
- beat Giovanni
- challenged Renko; got raped
- ground a few levels each for Suwako and Yorihime
- beat Renko
- reached Victory Road's cave entrance

For those who don't mind small surprises spoiled, my team w/ levels ...

Spoiler: show

Lvl 46 Sanae (Shinto/Wind)
Lvl 48 Suwako (Shinto/Water)
Lvl 47 Yorihime (Shinto/Steel)
Lvl 40 Reimu (Shinto/Flying)
Lvl 30 CByakuren (Reason/Shinto)
Lvl -- AKeine (HM whore)

I anticipate major Ouch Time with the Elite Four. 50% of Renko's team was part-Reason, which (let me remind you) is like if Gary had three Psychic-types on his team and you were doing a mono-Fighting run. Yeah, not cool. ^^; I muscled past with three Swords Dances, a cheap use of Hyper Potion, and an even cheaper use of Fury Cutter , but even that strategy was no good without a few extra levels' worth of oomph on Yorihime. ^^; So I imagine the Elite Four, in their 50s and possible 60s by the end, will present quite the challenge, especially if I do a no items run. (No revives, no potions, ... yeaaaaaaaah, might have to scrap that plan. ^^; We'll see though.)

[Talon87]

Story Mode Part 1 GET!

With my team looking like this:

Spoiler: show

Lvl 51 Yorihime (Shinto/Steel)
Lvl 49 Suwako (Shinto/Water)
Lvl 46 Sanae (Shinto/Wind)
Lvl 40 Reimu (Shinto/Flying)
Lvl 40 Byakuren (Reason/Shinto)
Lvl 48 Suika (just there because Suika's awesome)

I challenged the Elite Four. Let me just say this ... You can beat the Elite 4 at this point, but not without massive save state abuse! And I mean massive.

Well, I didn't want to beat the game this way. So I reset and decided to go do some old-fashioned grinding. I can't even tell you the last time I had to grind for a proper Pokémon game. (Granted, I planned to not use any revives, potions, or other heal items, but still: even with permission to use these, the E4 kicked my heinie.)

*** Friendly tip: go back to One Island, make your way to where the Ember Spa's entrance is, go a little south of that, and with the two karate guys above you and the brother and sister to your left, use your VS Seeker. Good EXP here, the best I was able to find. ***

Anyway, after I figured "I might've swung the curve too far to the right now ^^;", taking us from impossibly hard to loltardedly easy, this was what my team looked like:

Spoiler: show

Lvl 56 Yorihime (Shinto/Steel)
Lvl 49 Suwako (Shinto/Water)
Lvl 47 Sanae (Shinto/Wind)
Lvl 40 Reimu (Shinto/Flying)
Lvl 43 Byakuren (Reason/Shinto)
Lvl 48 Suika (just there because Suika's awesome)

You may notice that there really isn't much EXP gain other than on Yorihime. And that's because my strategy, even when playing legitimately, was a take-no-prisoners, make-no-apologies Swords Dance + Fury Cutter approach. But if it's any consolation, here were my self-imposed rules:

1) No Revives mid-battle. I allowed myself to use revives between battles.

2) No potions mid-battle. Ditto.

3) No status heal items mid-battle. Ditto, though it never came up.

4) You may NOT SAVE until you beat Lance. This broke my heart a number of times.

5) You may never save during a battle! You can't do it in the real games so I wasn't going to allow myself to do it here.

I figured that these rules were severe enough that, in consideration of them and in consideration of the fact that I was pretty much running a one-man team of Yorihime , it was okay to resort to the "cheap" strategy of Swords Dance x 3 followed up with either Drawn Line (base 80 damage, good chance for criticals) or Fury Cutter (the same move from the real games only it's Steel now, not Bug).

Not gonna lie: after losing to Renko's first Pokémon 20 to 30 times in a row, when I finally did break past it and it looked like I was going to win it all, I *did* violate Rule #5. Because I ran out of gas on Renko's final two Touhoumon, and there was no effing way I was going to subject myself to that hell again. ;_; (It ended up being the "right" decision as I lost my entire team to Renko's final Touhou owing to bad luck with the calls I made vs. the calls the enemy A.I. made.) Judge me if you want for that, but know this: I never violated Rules 1 thru 4. Considering my team's levels, I think that makes the feat I pulled off friggin' impressive. Also, Renko's lead is hell for me because 1) it has massive attack, 2) it goes straight for my jugular, 3) I have the defenses of a porcelain doll, 4) it resists my STAB, and 5) I am weak to its STAB. So like, don't judge me. Just because she might be easy for you doesn't mean she's easy for everyone. I "coasted" (well, not exactly "coasted", I lost a good four or five times and had to start all over again along the way) through the first four, but Renko's lead ... just ... URG. orz For my team, a major hurdle. For yours, perhaps not.

God bless Fury Cutter though. :'D Without that, I'd have been a goner. (WTF @ the sheer volume of Reason-types she has. And me without a single Shinto/Heart team member because there haven't been any! >_<)

Might go back and try it again later without any saves period (and otherwise the same rules as before), but for now, I'd rather have fun. I've never been one for Poké-masochism and this was starting to feel very much like that. I'm happy to be through to the other side now, especially since it means trained Level 50s everywhere for me to gain good experience from.

Still no decision on pictures, but once again, I took quite a lot. There's a mishmash of pictures from this challenge though since I took a lot of pictures during failed runs and forgot to take pictures during my final, successful run.

EDIT: Oh! And I forgot to mention! Because I am OCD and have to have my starter be the team leader (for Hall of Fame purposes), I led the final fight with my underleveled Sanae, not my properly-leveled Yorihime. Totally forgot to mention that. Which is actually very important since ...

Spoiler: show

Goliath Doll spams Swords Dance herself right from the get-go. -.-;

[Talon87]

Um ... don't click this until you've beaten the Elite Four and at least challenged the champion (whether you manage to beat her or not).

Spoiler: show

So, I've listened to "Yumegatari", the song which plays during your final showdown with Renko, ...

YouTube link 1
YouTube link 2
YouTube link 3

... at least a good ten, fifteen times tonight. ^^; It's infectious! Fun J-pop blended with rock and roll. The last thing in the world I was expecting when I challenged Renko was a song like this, let alone one with vocals! That blew my mind, hearing a WAV come out of a Game Boy Advance game.

Anyway, I decided to look for the lyrics. And when I found them, I then decided, "Should share these with the board." So, here you guys go. They're in Japanese though:

Spoiler: show

http://ameblo.jp/kyosonozetu/entry-10717719536.html

ユメガタリ

サークル：TUMENECO

Vocal：yukina

原曲：少女秘封倶楽部


遥か見上げた空は眩しく霞んで見えた
両手のばしてみる
何かが掴める気がした

誰にも内緒よ 秘密で待ち合わせして
悪戯に微笑んでる 紅い月が

幻想と魔法が曖昧に誤魔化されてる
そこは不思議なビジョン
想像の異世界が怪しげに誘ってくるの
ほら、危険な香り


夜の深い闇に落ちて行く 夢を見ていた
呟いていたコトバが やけに耳に残った

どうでもいいのよ あてもない うわさ話
それより、もっと楽しいモノが見たい

夢か現実か曖昧な場所を探して
ここは無限のループ
想像と異世界のまやかしに誘われてみる？
そう、危険な扉

扉…


涙堪えた その瞳に映る世界
何が真実で 何が偽りか
その向こうには何が…？

幻想と魔法が曖昧に誤魔化されてる
そこは不思議なビジョン
想像の異世界が妖しげに誘ってくるの
光が射した先に
夢か現実か曖昧な場所を探して
ここは無限のループ
想像と異世界のまやかしに誘われてみる？
その危険な扉

開いてみて…。

It'd take too long to translate them but I can at least romanize them for those of you who want to be able to sing along at the very least:

Spoiler: show

haruka miageta sora wa mabushiku kasunde mieta
ryoute nobashite miru
nanika ga tsukameru ki ga shita

dare nimo naisho yo himitsu de machiawaseshite
itazura ni hohoenderu akai tsuki ga.

gensou to mahou ga aimai ni gomakasareteru
soko wa fushigina VISION
souzou no isekai ga ayashige ni sasouttekuru no
hora, kikenna kaori

yoru no fukai yami ni ochiteyuku yume wo mite'ita
tsubuyaite'ita kotoba ga yake ni mimi ni nokotta

dou demo ii no yo atemonai uwasabanashi
sore yori, motto tanoshii mono ga mitai

yume ka genjitsu ka aimai na basho wo sagashite
koko wa mugen no LOOP
souzou to isekai no mayakashi ni sasouwarete miru?
sou, kikenna tobira

tobira ...

namida koraeta sono hitomi ni utsuru sekai
nani ga shinjitsu de nani ga itsuwari ka
sono mukou niwa nani ga...?

gensou to mahou ga aimai ni gomakasareteru
soko wa fushigina VISION
souzou no isekai ga ayashige ni sasouttekuru no
hikari ga sashita saki ni
yume ga genjitsu ga aimaina basho wo sagashite
koko wa mugen no LOOP
souzou to isekai no mayakashi ni sasouwarete miru?
sono kikenna tobira

hiraite mite...

Without giving you the full translation, the gist of the lyrics very much fits Maribel and Renko.

Spoiler: show

The song opens with Maribel (or whomever, but let's say Maribel) looking up at the sky and then reaching out with both hands, thinking she caught a glimpse of something ... the lyrics then talk about how this is a secret, let's meet up, making it sound like Maribel and Renko are meeting to investigate this strange phenomenon ... and then in the chorus, the main lines you hear again and again are the:

gensou to mahou ga aimai ni gomakasareteru "[We're] being hazily fooled by illusions and magic"
soko wa fushigina VISION "[That which we're seeing is] a mysterious vision."
souzou no isekai ga ayashige ni sasouttekuru no "The parallel universe from my imagination is suspiciously calling to me."

The other variant you hear on the chorus is:
yume ga genjitsu ga aimaina basho wo sagashite "Whether it's dream or reality, [we] search for that hazy place"
koko wa mugen no LOOP "[We're in] an infinite loop"
souzou to isekai no mayakashi ni sasouwarete miru? "Shall we try being lured by the deceitful call of imagination and parallel worlds?"

It doesn't really translate cleanly into English, hence why I didn't want to translate any of it tonight. For example, that last sentence I just wrote ... is technically right, but it completely scuttles the proper interpretation of the meaning behind Maribel's words. A better (but lengthier) way to convey what she's trying to say would be ... she believes that her visions are the product of her imagination, i.e. they are not real, but they are so tempting that she's asking either herself or Renko about allowing herself/themselves to be tempted by them anyway. I mean, she's basically suggesting that Gensokyo is such a wonderful place that if it's not real then she doesn't ever want to wake up from the dream. But then the interesting bit comes at the end of each chorus, where she notes things that suggest the gateway between our world and the world of Gensokyo has opened, if only just a tiny crack:

ほら、危険な香り "Look, that dangerous aroma ..." where I worry that "dangerous" is too literal of a translation on my part. A more contextually apt translation might be "That bewitching aroma" or some such, but that could also be me inserting my own interpretation of the lyrics into the word.

そう、危険な扉 "Yes, that dangerous door"

その危険な扉 ... 開いてみて…。 "That dangerous door ... I want to try / Let's try and open it ..."

Probably my favorite bit in the song though is the climax here:

涙堪えた その瞳に映る世界 "The world projected in those eyes which held back tears"
何が真実で 何が偽りか "What is reality and what is a lie?"
その向こうには何が…？"And what lies beyond over there ...?"

The lyrics really, really do suit Maribel Hearn. Great choice by Aichiya Sanae to include this song, especially where he did.

In other news, I can confirm that the Move Relearner list of moves on the Touhou Wiki's Touhoudex 2 is incomplete / not accurate for Aichiya Sanae's mod. So rejoice, fellow Touhou Puppet Play Enhanced v.1.11 players! For, from what I can tell, you can pretty much count on being able to relearn any and all moves you learn at your stage of evolution. (To give an example of what I mean, the Touhou Wiki claims that no Reimu can learn Drain Punch via the Move Relearner even though it is a level-up move of DReimu's. In fact, DReimu can relearn this move at the Move Relearner's, despite its absence from her list of moves she's eligible to relearn.) It is possible that these are changes made by AichiyaSanae though, so I wouldn't hastily edit the Wiki to "correct" these discrepancies. (For example, the Wiki says Drain Punch's base power is 60 but in our game its base power is 75.) If there is a way to return A/D/T/etc. forme Touhoumon to their regular forms, I will be good to go on evolving quite a few people. If not though, then I might anxiously belay evolution for Suwako and Reimu. Suwako in particular, as I'm curious to see whether the eventual acquisition of Calm Mind makes my build better off in her regular form or if I still should go with the Defense forme as originally planned.

[Talon87]

Copying and pasting from AichiyaSanae's weblog, where I posted these two posts today. The second post does contain gameplay and legendary creature identity+location spoilers.

Post 1:

Spoiler: show

After beating the Elite Four, I followed Renko to One Island but didn’t see anything new to do there. I went to Two Island and Three Island as well but, likewise, didn’t see any new events, pathways, NPC changes, etc. So I left the Sevii Islands and headed for Johto since I recalled the guard near Victory Road saying I could gain access to Johto once I had the World Artbook.

Today, I read in some past articles on this blog that there is a Lorelei bug involving the completion of the Sevii Islands and getting access to Cerulean Cave, as well as possibly whether you can challenge the Elite Four again or not (?). And apparently this bug results from going to Johto before dealing with the Sevii Islands. Here are my questions:

1. Has this bug been addressed in the v.1.11 patch? I don’t see it mentioned in the change log and I saw people complaining about it in the v.1.10 update post, so I’m guessing that’s a “No.”

2. I am currently in Azalea Town. If I make a beeline for Goldenrod, will I be able to use the train to return to Saffron immediately? And if so, will I avoid the glitch? (That is to say, is the glitch triggered only by completing Johto and not merely visiting Johto?)

3. Assuming I should load up my latest save file from before I ventured into Johto, what exactly am I supposed to do on One, Two, or Three Island to advance the Sevii Islands subplot?

Thanks for your help.

Post 2:

Spoiler: show

Here's a status update:

I hastily beat Bugsy and the Rockets in the Slowpoke Well. Then I made a beeline for Goldenrod and hastily beat Whitney. I went into the Underground after this, and there I found the rail pass. Used it to get back to Saffron City, no problem, and then flew to Vermilion and caught the boat to the Sevii Islands.

On the Sevii Islands, I talked with Celio, got the first password from the Rocket Grunts on Mt. Ember, procured the Ruby from deep inside Mt. Ember, made my way to Four Island, and assisted Lorelei in dispensing with the Rockets. So far so good. After talking with her, she just stayed put, so I worried. Left the room, came back. She was gone. *phew* Went back to check on her at her home. She talked to me about how she was worried about her home, etc. Promising!

Went to Five Island. Rescued Selphy. Made my way to the Rockets' base. Input Password #1.

Went to Six Island. Made my way to the Dotted Hole or whatever it's called. Procured the Sapphire. Scientist stole it from me.

Returned to Five Island. Beat the Rockets. Took the Sapphire back.

*AT THIS POINT*, I went back to talk with Lorelei to see if she was feeling better. She was, and she said some new words, but she didn't leave her house. I left the Sevii Islands, flew to the Indigo Plateau, and went to challenge the league. Could not. Woman barred the way, said Lorelei was still absent.

Flew to Cerulean. Went to check on the Cerulean Cave. Guy was still barring the way. Said I needed to beat the league and do something else of merit.

Returned to the Sevii Islands, completed the fetch quest of Celio's (handing him the Sapphire). *THEN* went back to Four Island to talk to Lorelei. She was not in her house. \o/

Left the islands. Flew to the League. Went up to challenge them and ... no problems. The woman was no longer blocking the way, and I was able to challenge the league just fine. (Though I got decimated by Lorelei's new Level 80 lead, holy cow. @_@ )

Flew to Cerulean. Went to the Cerulean Cave entrance. The guy was no longer there blocking the way. \o/ Was able to enter perfectly fine. Was able to trigger the fights with Kikuri, Sariel, and Konngara perfectly fine. (Did not attempt to catch any of them, so if *that's* glitched up, I didn't test for that. I did throw my Master Ball at Kikuri though and she went inside of it, no problems.)

So! It seems like the Lorelei glitch people were talking about is either:
a) no longer present, or else
b) is still present but can be avoided if you follow the same steps as me. (Didn't fight Faulkner. Fought Bugsy. Did Slowpoke Well. Fought Whitney. Got rail pass. Returned home to Kanto.)

Figured I should pass this along. And I'll keep you guys posted in case I do notice some game-breaking glitches later as a result of my early foray into Johto.

Better safe than sorry for you guys, I would encourage you all, after you beat the Elite Four, to complete the Sevii Islands campaign first and to then worry about other adventures second. As for me, I'll take the risk *gulp* IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE! ^^;;;;;; and keep playing with my potentially-glitched save. We'll see. It doesn't appear to be glitched though *knocks on wood*, so that's good.

[Talon87]

Whoever decided to give Pain Split to a legendary during its Story Mode capture battle is an asshole.

That stated, I've successfully captured five legendaries now. Brief summary below.

Spoiler: show

Kikuri (Level 50): (location: Cerulean Cave, L/R mirrored from where Mewtwo was in the real games iirc)
This one was pretty typical for a legendary fight. Tough to get her HP down while staying alive yourself, but not retardedly tough. My actual trouble was with getting her to accept a PokéBall. Even in Touhoumon, I stick to my Gen 3 ways of catching every single legendary in a PokéBall or (if I have them) Premier Ball. So that means dealing with pretty shitty catch rates. Kikuri struggled herself to death, as a result, once or twice. But I think on my fourth or fifth attempt, I actually got her to accept a PokéBall on the first throw. :o HP was in mid-red I think, status was paralyzed.

Attacks: Recover, Mana Burst, Iron Defense, Mirror Coat

Sariel (Level 70): (Location: Navel Rock, left)
If I were playing on a GBA, this would have been the toughest of the five legendaries I caught today. She Calm Minds up pretty quickly and does colossal damage. She's also so physically frail that even my weakest physical attacks were knocking her out. (For example, Reimu had weak attacks but 2x super effectiveness coming off of STAB, making them do far too much damage.) However, with the benefit of playing on a computer with an emulator, this fight wasn't too enraging. I think I reset 19 or 20 times, either from KOing Sariel or else from getting my entire team wiped out. (I never bother to potion or revive anybody. Too paranoid that I'd use the items the very turn a ball would've clicked. ) But after 20+ tries, I finally got her to accept a PokéBall on the seventh or so throw. HP was in low yellow, status was paralyzed.

Attacks: Recover, Mana Burst, Calm Mind, Silver Wind

Kongala (Level 70): (Location: Navel Rock, right)
Konngara was another which I think would've been tougher or more infuriating had I been playing on a GBA or DS instead of a PC. Like Sariel, she does colossal damage, only hers comes from the physical side of things. Her main attack you'll want to watch out for is Braver. It pretty much OHKOd everything on my team, maybe with the occasional exception due to mathematics. Like her friends, she too has Recover, which can make it tough to get her. But Drawn Line, so long as it doesn't crit, will run out of PP pretty quickly and leave you safe, and Scary Face isn't very scary at all. Caught this one on my third or fourth try.

Attacks: Recover, Braver, Drawn Line, Scary Face

Elis (Level 50): (location: Power Plant)
This one was a bitch. -_-; Unlike the other legendaries who spam Recover, this one spams Pain Split. >_< Pretty much discourages you from ever using a heal item (not that I was anyway!) and renders your encounters with her short-lived either because she'll KO your entire squad or else you'll accidentally KO her. She's quite fragile -- Reimu's base 40 power Seal Needle would 2HKO her, though admittedly she's weak to Shinto/Faith-type attacks -- and yet she's also quite the offensive beast, able to 2HKO everyone on my team except Byakuren ... who she was able to OHKO. Admittedly, two of her attacks suck ass (Snatch and Flail), but all she needs is that one good attack to be a rape machine, and she has it in Dark Pulse.

But what makes her really hard is her catch rate. GOOD LORD. @_@ I think I must have thrown, across several trials, over 100 PokéBalls at this girl before I caught her for the first time. That's right -- for the first time. Because then I left, thought I saved, got caught in something I didn't want to do, hit the F3 key to load up what should have been my newest save ... and was greeted by an older save instead. -_-; Checked them all. Nothing. Had to go back and try again (from my save file registered to F2). And this time? Somewhere between 200 and 300 PokéBalls thrown. Good fucking Christ, I hate how hard it is to catch legendaries! (Yes, yes, admittedly I'm making it harder on myself by using a PokéBall ... BUT STILL! AS MANY AS 300!?)

Attacks: Pain Split, Snatch, Flail, Dark Pulse

Yuugenma (Level 50): (location: Seafoam Islands B4)
This one wasn't too bad. I had actually caught him once before, during my actual Story Mode playthru, but I reset because at the time I wasn't sure if the legendaries could breed or not and I was paranoid thus about getting the right nature. Well, those fears are long gone, so I circled back around to catch this guy. Was happy to see that the game left my boulders in place from last time. Made it very easy to reach the guy and get him.

I would recommend bringing a Steel-type for this fight. It makes him laughably easy. Three of his four moves are Miasma-type (Poison's replacement), and Steel retains its former Poison immunity. So Gunk Shot, Toxic, and Poison Bomb won't be able to touch you. The only move which will is Pain Split. But if you can manage to lower his health to the low yellow or high red once you yourself (via earlier Pain Splits) have been dragged down, this will be a simple matter of chucking PokéBalls at him and waiting for one to take.

Attacks: Pain Split, Toxic, Gunk Shot, Poison Bomb

As for other legendaries I've encountered but not yet captured, there's only one:

Spoiler: show

Mima (Lvl 50), who I ran into atop Mt. Ember (at the north of One Island) but wasn't in the mood to try and capture at the time.

[Doppleganger]

It took a few tries, but-



There's my 1CC of Normal. I needed the confidence of five lives to go through it, so my score is 80% below what it should be, even though I ended the game with three lives left.

I remember back in 2007, I cleared every card on Normal, including the notoriously difficult Scarlet Shoot, and I'm about five cards short here. Oh, mine hands.

[Kindrindra]

So, has anyone tried Maihana Ao Makyou ~ Uniting Barrage Action? It's a fangame based off Scarlet Devil, and it's amazing. First thing you should know is that it's sidescrolling rather than top-to-bottom-scrolling. Second thing is that it introduces this rather fun little mechanic which is a little difficult to explain- Just use the tutorial, it's the one which uses the 'D' key ('V' on my computer) Other than that it's pretty much standard Touhou (except with much better art). I highly suggest you give it a try.

Oh, it also has Bonus stages. I'm not sure how you unlock them, but I manage to run into them every time. Just finally managed to beat Patchouli (Her final spell card is brutal until you figure out how it works- if you survive the first wave the very first time she uses it on you, you either got lucky or you're really good under pressure), but I got taken out by the boss of the extra stage after her. I'll post the Bonus bosses, but in a Spoiler in case you want to be surprised by their inclusion.

Spoiler: show

The first one is Sanae. Her attacks aren't too bad if you keep a steady hand and eye- it's all about knowing when to push through a wave and when to hold back. She does have this nasty habit of waltzing off one side of the screen and coming back through the other, though. Actually, waltzing is a bad word. Sneaking is far more appropriate. Of course, you should be relatively prepared for it, as her entire stage is full of enemies popping up behind you and reminding you that you can fire in both directions. Really tests your peripheral vision. I use Homing Reimu, though, which helps a tad (when your blue shots start randomly veering in weird paths, it's not hard to pick up on what's going down). Her final spell card is a little tricky though, especially compared to Cirno's unbelievably easy "Ice Machine Gun". She basically intermittently traps you in a isometric grid of sorts formed from bullets, while firing large yellow shots at you. The name has something to do with Miracles (きせき), and pulling this off without one isn't going to be easy. However, like many high-bullet-density cards, this turns against her when it's time to go RAMu. >

The second one is Nitori. Can't provide the final spell card because I didn't get that far. Lost a life to her very first one, and it's not hard to see why- this is a high-shock-value attack, designed to make you panic and crash. Stay calm, however, and it's surprisingly easy. Just don't let your guard down at the beginning when she fires off a few measly slow blue bullets- she wants you to do that. It's immediately followed with twin bursts of arrow-types which both fill the screen and appear to have paths that cover eachother perfectly. The truth is that once the second one gets to you, the paths will be almost perfectly aligned and slipping through is a breeze. Will report back once I find more.

Disclaimer: Released info is relevant to Normal Mode. Your experience may vary with your selection of difficulty.

[Talon87]

Have you ever wanted to meet ZUN but couldn't because you live in the Atlanta area and ZUN, well, doesn't? Now's your chance. ZUN is apparently visiting Atlanta's big anime convention this fall (September 27-29).

[Kindrindra]

Immediately googled to find out where Atlanta is.

Why is the entire USA in my way?

[blazeVA]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

Immediately googled to find out where Atlanta is.

Why is the entire USA in my way?

Same here.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

Immediately googled to find out where Atlanta is.

Why is the entire USA in my way?

Honestly, I'm not really sure why he's visiting Atlanta first either. ^^; It may be to try and thin future crowds when he shows up at larger venues in cities like NYC and LA? The logic may be something along the lines of,

"Since this is my first-ever appearance in the United States, many of my most diehard fans will make the long trip to come and see me here at Atlanta. It's one of the largest cities in the American Southeast, but it's still smaller than the largest city in the American West" (Los Angeles), "the American North-Central" (Chicago), "and the American Northeast" (New York, not to mention other large cities in New England). "So I will go there, and it will hopefully take some of the pressure off for when I do decide to visit America's biggest cities."

But honestly, I have no idea. A, Atlanta is still plenty huge. (As a city, it ranks only 40th -- even Indianapolis and Louisville are larger -- but as a metro area it ranks 9th place for population.) And B, it's so deep in the American Southeast that I really don't think most Touhou fans from the rest of the country will make the pilgrimage just for a chance to see ZUN. They are probably going to save their cash instead for what they'll hope will be his eventual visit to their own necks of the woods. So ... I dunno.

Is Atlanta known for its great beer? Not as far as I know. (It's known for Coca-Cola, but that ain't beer. ) It's not exactly #1 on my list of American cities I'd love to visit as a tourist. So I dunno why he'd pick them over other cities when, afaik, other cities' anime conventions have wanted ZUN to come and visit for years and years. (Morg and I were even just discussing the prospects of Anime Boston getting ZUN to visit. They had only just managed to get a Touhou fan comic artist to come last spring, and that was a pretty big deal for AB as I recall!) Maybe ZUN has family in the Atlanta area. *shrug* Or maybe somebody told him Atlanta is America's beer capitol. (Except it's not? ) I dunno. Noooooooooooo clue.

[Talon87]

Touhou Puppet Play Enhanced:
Haven't played TPPE in several months. As a result, I've forgotten where I was in my EV training for certain characters. I'll have to check my notes.

Hopeless Masquerade:
Very stoked for this. Haven't given the web trial a run and may just wait for the full release at Reitaisai this week. Disappointed that the character roster seems to (understandably :\) omit personal favorites like Yukari and Utsuho, but am very eager to finally get a chance to use Byakuren in a fighter. Sadly, the description of her fighting style (Buddhism) suggests she's been programmed as a heavy? ^^; Slow and short-ranged but very powerful if she hits? Well, Utsuho in Hisoutensoku was a heavy (sort of), but she also had the benefit of nuclear hadoukens that easily traveled the entire screen. I'm not sure from the description if Buddhist characters will enjoy that same benefit.

Really, really hoping that if this game is akin to IaMP then a fifth fighter which will be akin to SWR will be forthcoming, and that in said sequel they will unveil a fourth faith -OR- unveil that characters precluded from the first game will actually fit in with one of the three pre-existing faiths. Specifically:

• areligious youkai (who I can easily see fitting in under Shinto as either kami or lesser kami)
• Scarlet Devil Mansion denizens
• Lunarians
• the Four Oni Generals

[big bad birtha]

I probably won't be spending much time on Hopeless Masquerade, but I did download it and give it a little taste. For the most part, the unbearable lag is keeping me from really playing any more than 10 minutes. I mean, the lag isn't terrible, but it's enough to slow down the fighting and menus.

Well when first starting, I looked at the roster....almost all characters I don't care about. What a weak cast. I mean I guess it's nice they tried something different and used someone different than the usual characters from 6-10.

I tried out Koishi, since she's probably the most interesting to me besides Marisa. She seems to be a trap character? I dunno, I can't really tell. She's cute atleast? I might try a little more if I can find a way to make the game stop lagging.