/jp/ - Otaku Culture

The fundamental problem is with Touhou and its ilk is that it relies purely on artificial difficulty for its gameplay. Players can only move in four directions (eight if you're lucky), across a 2D plane. You can only see a limited area directly around or in front of you. Enemies come screaming off the side of the playing field, smashing into you if you haven't memorized the exact timing and sequence of the whole endevour. This isn't gameplay, it's tunnel vision.

Do you know why the U.S. Air Force did away with fixed-sights of the kind used by WWI fighters and the Japanese? That's right, they were too obsessed with what was directy in front of them and ignored all else, to their peril. Modern fighter craft are equipped with radar (active or passive), and at the very least a heads-up display displaying relevant information and targeting data. They don't hold out on key instrumentation for the sake of being more "hard-core".

There is NO excuse, in modern Danmaku Wars, for the complete lack of vectoring and trajectory data as displayed in the Touhou series. This shit might have flown in the '80s but we're nearly a full decade into the 21st century and there has been almost thirty years to perfect this. Especially in fire-heavy environments, shooting the bullet can be more a liability than an asset, especially if the players mixes up his bullets with the enemy's and runs straight into them as a result (or worse, mistakes a piece of ground for background scenery). This lack of depth perception and clear delianation between borders is another symptom of the utter contempt STGs hold for the player.