Trying to Suck Less at Touhou

[Anonymous No.]

Allo /jp/
Been playing PCB and I'm getting close to 1CCing normal. Only other Touhou games I've 1cc'd are MoF on easy, and PoFV which doesn't count.

Replay of my best run so far:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rzmtm42zak0

How can I improve my game /jp/?

[Anonymous No.]

Hold shift for focused movement.

[Anonymous No.]

Shoot the enemy until it dies.

[Anonymous No.]

Don't get hit.

[Anonymous No.]

Been using SakuyaA, so holding shift for focused movement goes without saying. Its hard to wean myself from conserving bombs and getting killed because of it, biggest thing I've been working on is trying to get myself to bomb more often, as usually I have about a 1:1 bomb to death ratio. Run in replay is about a 3:1 ratio, but I still screw up and die with a full load way more than I'd like.

[Anonymous No.]

Stage1 is stage1, I'd fail pretty hard if I had any trouble here. I do have trouble collecting all the weapon powerups though.

[Anonymous No.]

I didn't think it was possible to lose as SakuyaA

[Anonymous No.]

1. Use keyboard
2. Practice

Really, being able to 1cc a game just comes down to playing through the stages repeatedly to memorize where the fairies come from, where the bullets go, etc.

[Anonymous No.]

Stage2 is pretty easy, save for CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN's Immortal Sage's Rumbling spellcard, when it drops all those smaller bullets in kind of a snow pattern, I generally don't have too much problem with it, but it comes down to luck more than anything else if I don't die/bomb

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371921
It is when you fall into the category of mediocre at best.

Stage3 I've found I'm having more trouble with the actual stage than I used to, theres so many point items I often get pressured when moving to autocollect. Should I focus on clearing the screen of enemies first?

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371940
Prioritize not getting hit over collecting items, especially when you are new to the games

Realistically don't even bother with going for score until you can 1cc the game

[Anonymous No.]

Stage4 is always a straight up clusterfuck. How the hell do people do this reliably?

Also, Merlin's initial attack, the one with the fast bullets firing center, and the wisps that curve all over the place, that invariably pushes me into the corner, how you guys handle it?

[Anonymous No.]

Stage5 always has a general air of clusterfuck to it, but not so much as stage4. Then theres Youmu. I know theres a way to redirect her initial non-spellcard attack, but I don't know how, and I'm not sure if I should bother attempting it anyway. First and second spellcards Its pretty much bomb or die, getting better at streaming her third, and fourth is somewhere in between for diffuculty.

[Anonymous No.]

Stage 6... Pretty much straight endurance, lives and bombs remaining. Youmu's a pushover here, and Yuyuko really isn't that bad, I just have a bad habit of dodging out of the way of one thing and into another. Must suck less.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371940
You can't collect them all so don't even try. If you notice a lull in the bullets, that is when you run to the PoC. Try making a lull in the bullets by destroying enemies before they get to fire; for SakuyaA that's easy against the fodder enemies but you might need to focus against the tougher ones that swoop in from the left or right and unleash bullets after they stop.
A border will also autocollect everything. Pity you're using SakuyaA. Also, no matter what anyone might say as beginner advice, do not completely ignore point items. You need them for lives. You don't need to get them at the PoC, but don't let them drop if you can help it.

>>3371957
If you mean stage only, try watching some replays. Many of the bullet patterns are unleashed when the enemy is destroyed (although they'll do something different if you don't destroy them at all), so the trick there is to destroy them all at once so the bullets come at the same time. Move as slow as you can and they'll stick together.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371940
Another proof that anything is better if it's drawn as safeguard.

[Anonymous No.]

Bomb more.

Died with bombs? You weren't bombing enough.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371980
During her dialogue, stand directly behind her. When the attack begins, move in front of her. The first wave will miss you completely. Works in both midboss and stage boss, but do NOT do it in stage 6 midboss.

For the spellcards, just learn to find the holes in the patterns and charge through them. I recommend releasing shift once you can see a good hole; otherwise you probably won't be moving fast enough. Learn to anticipate the end of the time-slowdown, because it's easy to get fucked by bullets suddenly moving faster.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3371989
>>3371957
aaand... forgot my sage.
Been using keyboard, and I will ease off the top of the screen on stage3. Any useful tips, the more specific the better, much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372007

From what you're saying it sounds like you have yet to master streaming and learning how to direct aimed bullets. That's all that ST4 is about really.

I would just do practice runs of ST4 and others a whole bunch until you can get a feel for it. With shooters there aren't really any amazing tips you can give someone to create a giant improvement in your success with the games, it's just a lot of practice, practice, practice until you can beat it. Watching replays helps a lot too if you're really struggling to figure out how to do something.

[Anonymous No.]

Stop worrying about score.
You didn't break a single border on purpose. They're like free bombs and they give you cherry points so you can get another border quicker. And why would you graze as much as you did? You're pretty much asking to get hit. Stop moving around so much, you're just going to spread the bullets around instead of concentrating them in a single area. When there're a bunch of bullets aimed right at you just move slowly from left to right. Stop using Sakuya. You'll always be raped by Merlin. Use Reimu instead, her cherry points fill up faster giving you more borders and she does more damage.
Oh, and don't use extra starting lives, it's worse than playing on easy mode.

[Anonymous No.]

Honestly OP I don't know what the fuck happened to you. You did the first few stages flawlessly and unless you were just getting lucky you seemed to know the hitboxes of the bullets well since you were so so very close to dying a few times. And then it all just went downhill. It was in fast-forward since I was only watching the bosses but I noticed you pretty much bombed your way through the levels. As for bosses you seem to lose focus since you seem to often miss out on bullets that are right in front of you.

All I can say is practice more and/or watch replays of others so you know what the fuck to do since for most of those cards it seems you were going in not knowing what was going on. It couldn't hurt to move away from the bottom of the screen either since you seem to trap yourself down there quite a bit. As for collecting only move to the PoC when you feel comfortable, there's no need to get yourself killed or waste a bomb just to pick up a few points when you're just trying to 1cc the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372006
>>3372027
>>3371994

Just had a horrid run, but those 3 posts helped out quite a bit. Thanks, I'll try to stop sucking from my end.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372180

Also what this guy said >>3372176. When you're in a risky situation with a border up you can press the bomb button and it breaks the border and clears the screen of bullets. You don't get a border bonus but as I mentioned, you're just trying to 1cc the game, not going for high score.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372027
I have very much yet to master streaming, working on it though.
>>3372176
I had been holding borders as long as possible for the invulerability period, but manually breaking them at the end is actually a great idea. I'll start doing that, thanks. As for using Reimu... I started out originally as SakuyaA, suck in general with Marisa, and switched to ReimuA and B for a while, then came back to SakuyaA to try and force myself to bomb more often, also because its nice when pressured out of the center of the screen.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372180
Thanks, I've played this game for longer than it should have taken me to 1cc on normal, and stage 1-3 went pretty well on that run. Stage4+ I always have issues with, I'll break down and do practice runs on them individually. Stage4 as I said earlier is always a clusterfuck for me, moreso than any other level, stage5 Is hard but not so taxing somehow, stage6 I almost never play simply because I rarely get there.

And I definately do have a problem with getting killed in retarded fashions, such as a slow moving bullet to the face.

[Anonymous No.]

>>3372348
>Stage4 as I said earlier is always a clusterfuck for me, moreso than any other level
Probably because it's a real long level. Do practice runs until you get the hang of it.

Try this; do a practice run and don't use any bombs. Don't deliberately cancel a border either. Play it a few times and you should get a feel for where you tend to die. Even if you can't find a way out of such a situation no matter how much you practice, you'll at least know it's coming so you can bomb more effectively and save your bombs for parts you need.