Touhou Gameplay

[Anonymous No.]

I need some help from everyone with testing the new v2.00 version of the Touhou98 Experience pack.

The current version (v1.01) runs some of the sections (like the MS Final Boss and MS Extra) way too slowly with the default settings, so I've tweaked them a bit, but it's not as simple as just cranking up the emulated cpu speed to the maximum. If it's too high the emulator won't run at full speed on weaker computers, so there's a sweet spot to find.
Please grab it from here and run MS Extra from th05 jp (which, on this particular "release candidate" version, has been unlocked from the start), and focus on the section shortly before the midboss. It features lots of enemies shooting lots of graphically-intensive bullets, so it's the perfect stress test.
https://mega.nz/file/6g9Q3LgA#4W0QXsQr84XHFdit8sTSsaFgtpbSGnNCHQo-YH8GOxU
(If you want a challenge, try to survive as long as possible without killing the enemies, to fill the screen with as many bullets as possible.)

You can check the huge list of changes in this version on the changelog included, but here are the most important ones:
- Replaced NP21/W with NP21fmgen, which fixes the issue of the menu bar being invisible in fullscreen mode and the crashes when going fullscreen on some computers.
- Removed the per-game config files.
- Modified the config swapping script, to make it edit the emulator's settings file directly instead. (This means that the emulator's settings can now be modified without them getting overwritten the next time you start a game.)
- Updated the th01 (jp) HDI image with the Anniversary Edition update made by nmlgc. (This fixes all the glitches and makes the game run more smoothly.)
- Moved the exe files to a new individual folder for each game, similarly to the windows games included in the "all-in-one" pack.

I've been collaborating with the maintainer of the all-in-one pack to create this revamped version, which will be included in the all-in-one pack once a few people have tested it and if no issues have been found by then.

[Anonymous No.]

<span class="sjis">Don't die!!</span>

[Anonymous No.]

why does ZUN still insist on releasing games yearly? looking at 19 and 18.5, it's very apparent that he needs more time to make the games. i imagine that can't be easy while trying to take care of a family. i didn't like tasofro's games but at least that meant somebody else could develope a game and give ZUN a break year. maybe he should hire somebody else to make decimal games again

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120424
Is the sentiment towards 19 negative overall? I haven't gotten it working on my system and so haven't paid attention

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
it doesn't even have a score or replay system like past games did

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120424
Possibly because coding danmaku patterns is boring as hell and it seems ZUN has unlocked his autismo energy to power through it.

To be honest a bunch of this could be avoided if the guy sat back and did something else for a year or two. Even the manga are less interesting than they used to be, & I think it's fair to say that after 20 years without doing anything much else with his life he can afford to take a break from touhou, even if he did something else for a while.

I'd still enjoy a generic official anthology with no serious plot to keep track of, given that a lot of the characters he's made have never appeared again outside of a background cameo, Eg. Rumia, wriggle, Prismrivers, Aki's etc.
I get that he purposely hasn't developed them too much for time constraints and to allow free interpretation of them all, but it'd still be nice to lightly touch up on them here and there.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
Scorefags and tryhards are mad, everyone else is pretty neutral from what I've seen.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45121978
>everyone else is pretty neutral from what I've seen.
So basically the people who played these games for less one hour - dropped it - and then they gone back to their real interest like Jarpigs or other secondary stuff...?
There's a good reason (several in fact) why people hate the newer games that isn't just "new bad old good"

[Anonymous No.]

>>45122114
Those and the people who played through all the scenarios, regardless of difficulty and using "continues".

[Anonymous No.]

>>45114072
I've only tried MS Extra in win10, and everything seems to be smooth, let the cards survive for a bit and still smooth, I don't have enough skill to stay for long without bombing though.
I think that the sfx have a higher pitch than when I play with the T98 next but that might be due to some sound configurations I've changed.
When I tried fullscreen the window just got back to it's original size but borderless.

Also tried to run it in wine out of curiosity and there it always runs th01... as a funny useless addition.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
the story and gameplay are very boring and repetitive. Besides the main 4 characters in blue section the rest of scenarios is the same bosses in the same order besides one boss that gets replaced because you play as the said boss this time and you fight the character you played as earlier. Story itself gets pretty much concluded in Reimu's scenario which is an even weirder decision than it was in Th9

[Anonymous No.]

Is there a guide to setting up Concealed the Conclusion? I'm trying to get it to run at a stable framerate, because it keeps jumping to 600 fps, and crashes when I press anything.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45130221
>keeps jumping to 600 fps
Add vpatch: https://maribelhearn.com/mirror/VsyncPatch.zip
Move vpatch.ini, vpatch_th_dnh.dll, and vpatch.exe to the same directory as th_dnh.exe, then run vpatch.exe.
>crashes when I press anything
Not sure what this could be, but make sure you've extracted it with Shift-JIS encoding to avoid garbled filenames. And of course run it in Japanese locale.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45126890
Thanks for the feedback, sounds like the new settings work fine enough.
>When I tried fullscreen the window just got back to it's original size but borderless.
Yeah, I've been testing it some more yesterday and it looks like there's a bug with the full screen mode not working properly, precisely on the SDL1 release of the latest version of dosbox-x. It's fixed now, the final pack will use the SDL2 release instead.
>Also tried to run it in wine out of curiosity and there it always runs th01... as a funny useless addition.
The exe files simply call the config_edit bat file inside the emulator folder, which in turn calls a JREPL bat file in the same folder. This is a string replacement library which replaces the string th___.hdi with the name of the game corresponding to the exe file you're ran, but this library runs partially on JScript, which wine probably can't handle.
This means that the config file ends up with the default th01.hdi setting, but you can change the number manually if you want to run the other games on linux.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45129762
Phantasmagoria games always felt weird to me

[Anonymous No.]

>>45130426
Thanks anon. The vpatch worked.
>And of course run it in Japanese locale
This also fixed the crashes. I thought I had done that, but I'm working on a new computer and hadn't done it yet.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
It's like poor man's PoFV. I think the timeout system is a good addition, but there's no excuse for >>45120457 and the netcode is dogshit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
Personally I prefer how 3 and 9 handled story mode better, where it's similar to an arcade mode. Beating 9 with one character feels satisfying. 19 feels lackluster. 19 forces you put with a bunch of weird playstyles to unlock more content. Like, I have to play through the game with Sanae to unlock stuff? Fuck that. After beating it with Reimu and Marisa, it just became a game of figuring out which playstyle I can tolerate for the run.
The gameplay itself is fine. It's strange how the game is really short, yet each stage starting with three feels drawn out. The gameplay just doesn't click with me like 9 did.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
It's the best Phantasmagoria game for me, which wasn't really a high bar since I didn't like any of the other two. It is kind of barebones as a full game though. I enjoyed the story but once you clear it fully there really isn't much reason to go back to the game other than playing on higher difficulties. The OST is really good though.

[Anonymous No.]

does anybody know if it's possible to edit scores/name in touhou 4? i managed to extract the GENSOU.SCR file but it's clearly encrypted or something, and the only editor i could find covers touhou 6+

[Anonymous No.]

I'm going to do Normal 1cc DDC

[Anonymous No.]

>>45150077
Good luck. I've also been working on DDC as a way to get back into the swing of things after a 2 month break from the games. Now I'm trying to get a hard 1cc with MarisaA. Routing is proving a lot more troublesome without Reimu's homing shots, but it's still fun.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45150985
Thank you, anon. Good luck for you too!

[Anonymous No.]

>>45114072
thanks for answering my prayers i made 2 mins ago anonn. I will play your gamepak

[Anonymous No.]

>>45153708
You're welcome. I'm planning on releasing the final version in a couple days but you'll be able to copy the hdi files with the saves over to that pack, so feel free to use that pre-release in the meanwhile. And let me know if you run into any trouble.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45153843
No trouble yet have been playing for the last three hours nearly nonstop ty anon

[Anonymous No.]

any protips for this th4 extra? i "cheesed"th2 extra by spamming z and bombs, but now i'm getting filtered hard

[Anonymous No.]

>>45160996
For Gengetsu specifically?
For the first phase stay directly below her. There should always be a gap between the larger circles very close by and for the smaller bullets, dodge the first wave and carefully work your way through the slow bullets.
For the second phase just slowly move towards the side then quickly make your way to the nearest corner to dodge all the diagonal bullets. Afterwards, slowly move to the side to dodge all the white bullets and make your way through the yellow ones.
For the third phase don't follow her because that'll make dodging much harder. Stay put until she fires off the blue stream and very slowly make your way to the side, dodging though the pink bullets on your way out. Afterwards, just move slightly in either direction to dodge the entire bullet wave.
For the fourth phase get directly under her and quickly sidestep the one bullet aimed straight down. Immediately afterwards, move to the opposite side, get between the lines, and slowly make your way up as she fires off the laser.
For the fifth phase I just stay low and improvise. I'm not sure how to deal with this one consistently, just focus on going through the gaps as much as possible.
For the last phase work your way through the streams of small bullets while lining yourself up for the gaps between the big ones. Stay near the middle of the screen, just keep firing, and you'll get her.
Personally I think she and her sister are an easier fight than the Sigma Evil Eye so you should be able to handle them. Remember to use your bombs whenever you feel is appropriate.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45161151
yeah, that's more or less my strat for her.

i didn't expect a reply so fast, so sorry for not elaborating further. my problem is the actual stage part. i can beat both bosses one after another when loading a quicksave right before the fight with full lives, but when doing "serious" runs i rarely reach the boss and when i do i have 1 life left...

as the actual boss, evil eye sigma was definitely harder (mostly because no shift button), but i actually managed to beat it with each weapon type because in th2 extra there was a specific wave of enemies where you could easily farm up to 6 lives with some luck by staying on the top of the screen (pic related), and afaik there's no such place in this extra. is there? or is it normal to reach the boss with 1 life and then going onwards by EXTENDs?

as for the actual patterns that always kill me:
>the shooting circle's 2nd/3rd/last (before powerups) wave of bullets. i can't for the love of god do the 3rd one (big blue circles), and i'm not consistent enough on the other 2
>the bullet spam afterward, very inconsistent with specific weapons that don't kill enemies on my sides
>the final clusterfuck before the boss (the second part). i know i have to bomb it once but i still die afterwards, and i have no idea how to avoid the initial pattern

[Anonymous No.]

>>45161296
I see. Yeah, there's no place during the stage where you can quickly farm lives. You're given a couple to start, one from the shooting circle, and you should gain one from score just by playing the stage normally. Ideally you should have three going into the fight if you know exactly when to use bombs, but two should be fine if you've practiced the fight a lot. Unlike in SoEW however you can gain points just by grazing and you should max that out of you get far into Gengetsu, so you can gain another two or so lives here.
>The shooting circle's 2nd/3rd/last wave of bullets
I just work my way through the slower blue circle waves and bomb as late as possible so it carries over into the diamond attack. For the diamonds, I go up on the screen and actively sneak through gaps that show up, from my experience this works roughly 90% of the time. For the next attack just stick to the left side and stick to the bottom, making your way through the bullets. If you're confident in your skill you can dodge everything like this but feel free to use a bomb here.
>The bullet spam afterward
Stick to the bottom left corner (either side is fine but I prefer the left) and hold the focus button down the whole time, slipping between gaps. This is another good time to use a bomb, but try to only use it as late as possible. One bomb should be enough for this part if necessary; do your best to not use two.
>The final clusterfuck before the boss (the second part)
I stay slightly above the bottom, moving back and forth across the screen and just pay attention to where the next bullet explosions are going to happen, moving across when it's open. I usually don't use a bomb for this attack, actually, but feel free to do so if necessary. I can dodge this about 70% of the time or so.
Best of luck anon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45161535
thanks anon, i guess i just need more practice since i'm not really confident in my dodging skills yet

[Anonymous No.]

>>45131821
>but you can change the number manually if you want to run the other games on linux.
Works but not as smooth, though.
I also found one bug while playing LLS(japanese ver.) where menu and dialogs slow the music. I didn't manage to replicate it though, so not sure if it's worth looking into it unless someone else has the same problem.

[Anonymous No.]

I managed to do a full 1cc normal run of IN for the first time in my life with all Last Spells and I forgot to save the replay

[Anonymous No.]

>>45114072
Lunatic Shinki seems to go smooth, what I didn't expect was stage 5 to get so hard with the aimed bullets getting triplicated, not sure if I'm supposed to dodge the whole bullet group or just the bullet stream that's directly aiming at me.
Also Genge rape time seems to go smooth, I say seems because shit's so fast I can barely process it, so probably not a good test.
>>45170302
my sincere congratulations and condolences to you.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45178727
Thanks for the feedback. I've never tried MS Lunatic, but in most cases when you get tripled aimed bullets it's better to only dodge the ones in the middle, by streaming by very tiny steps. A good example of this are the fairies near the end of EoSD Extra.

[Anonymous No.]

Finally got my EoSD 1cc.
I ate shit at Patchy and the 4/5 stages (as usual) but was somehow just drunk enough to zen out for a flawless Sakuya fight and pretty decent Remy fight.

Now I can't decide if I should go for an Extra clear or acquire skill with more 1ccs. Which of the 6/7/8/9 Extras are generally considered the least brutal?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45183738
nice job anon!

[Anonymous No.]

>>45183738
7 has Ran, which is kind of an easy mode extra you need to beat to unlock the real extra stage. It's a good way to ease yourself into the extra stage format.

[Anonymous No.]

How do I make routing less of a chore?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45178727
>>45180350
For Mystic Square stage 5 specifically I like dodging the whole group but either way is fine. It's easy enough to do with the blue fairy section at the start because they're the only enemy that shows up but I find that attempting to stream them near the end is harder than simply dodging because of the other fairy types present (unless you're using Yuuka). With Yumeko herself you absolutely need to dodge the whole group because you give yourself no room to dodge her swords/lasers otherwise.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45186049
If you're aiming for a 1cc, you don't need to route. Just practice the parts you like until you're good enough at them that you have a reasonable chance of capturing them in a real run, and then just bomb and sightread the rest of the game.
If you're aiming for anything beyond a 1cc and you don't like routing, then honestly just go do something else. Shmups become more and more routing the higher level you are.

[Anonymous No.]

I beat my first EX boss today. First played Touhou back in 2015 but didn't start playing for real until 2021. It was just the stupid horse but my hands are shaking and I'm very proud.

[Anonymous No.]

The feedback in the last week has been good, so here's the final release of the new Touhou98 Experience v2.00

Here's a recap of its main features:
- Custom Touhou-styled icons for diving straight into the games, no need to set up any emulator settings.
- Both Japanese and English versions of the games are included.
- The game disks are free of any custom settings and score files, for a brand-new game experience.
- Two different emulators (DOSBox-X and Neko Project 21fmgen), which can be easily swapped to suit your preferences.
- Lots of useful extra stuff.

Here are the most important changes from version 1.01 to 2.00:
- Improved the default emulator settings to make the games run much more smoothly, especially on intensive sections like MS Extra.
- Replaced NP21/W with NP21fmgen, which fixes the issue of the menu bar being invisible in fullscreen mode and the crashes when going fullscreen on some computers.
- Removed the per-game config files and modified the config swapping script, to make it edit the emulator's settings file directly instead.
(This means that the emulator's settings can now be modified without them getting overwritten the next time you start a game.)
- Updated the th01 (jp) HDI disk with the Anniversary Edition update made by nmlgc.
(This fixes all the glitches and makes the game run more smoothly.)
- Moved the exe files to a new individual folder for each game, similarly to the windows games included in the "all-in-one" pack.
You can find the rest on the changelog file.

The only change from the 2.00RC version linked on on the OP is a fix for dosbox-x not entering fullscreen mode properly. That makes this update very recommended for anyone who has downloaded that version.

Regardless of whether you're using v1.00, v1.01 or v2.00RC, you can update to the new version by simply copying your hdi files from the "disks" folder over to the folder of the new version.
I recommend keeping the new HDI file for th01 if you want to play the new Anniversary Version update. If you have played th01 already you can copy your savefiles by using the DiskEditor tool included (instructions are included in the pack).

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
Forgot link of course.
https://mega.nz/file/f1sxwJJY#apmouyQawH-pTO1eKtim82jE_vS2_oPGexa4jjNUURs

By the way, is the guy who uploaded a bunch of games to nyaa under the name "john_money_anon" around?
I would like to upload this pack, but it would the better for him to take care of it, his name would make it a more trusted upload than something uploaded by a guest (assuming guests can still upload stuff at all).

[Anonymous No.]

>>45187011
I thought that routing was necessary to 1cc the games.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189560
routing isn't necessary unless you're doing scoring or high tier touhoomer stuff
just spam credits until you get the 1cc with a few stage practice if you really need it

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189634
But it's recommended in every "How to 1cc" guide I've read next to streaming.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189560
Some stages (like stage 4 on EoSD and PCB) are best routed if you want them to be much less of a pain in the ass, but you can use bombs as an alternative.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
Much appreciated.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189049
congrats anon!

[Anonymous No.]

>>45190688
Thank you!

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189657
1cc routing is basically just knowing the general layout of each stage and what you should bomb

[Anonymous No.]

How would have Rin's shot type been if she had been playable on EoSD?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45161535
ok, i managed to get good on the stage part, except for the flinal clusterfuck. either i use 2 bombs there or i die at least once.

is there a safespot or some video showing a safe route?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45209507
https://youtube.com/watch?v=h8333p1zKVw
With a bit of practice, you should be able to make it through the last bit with one bomb consistently. Start from the center bottom, slowly move to the top, dodge a bit, and bomb once it speeds up.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45209576
that's the one i was following already, but something is off. like the first bullet wave (where he goes from center bottom to top) , he ends up safe on top while bullets always kill me there. and he bombs the second part so it's not really helping much

[Anonymous No.]

>>45209668
Hm, maybe you're doing it too fast? Even so, as long as you remain in focus and aren't making a beeline for the top the wave should be close enough to over to just sidestep everything else. It's hard to really give feedback without seeing gameplay.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45209084
>Flower
Very wide spread shot like MS Yuuka
>Wind
Shot that spreads out with when moving like Ship B in Dodonpachi or Ageha in Espgaluda

[Anonymous No.]

>>45210837
>Ship B in Dodonpachi
Oh, that's an interesting shot. Reminds me of Sakuya B on PCB.

[Anonymous No.]

Why does a game with hardly any immediate direct impact on the other player have such irredeemably garbage netcode.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45221488
Coding in shit that's not necessary and omitting common fail safes?

[Anonymous No.]

Have you reached all the endings?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
Nice, tried playing in fullscreen and all goes nice, but the Getsu glich got triggered somehow, but that's a problem of LLS itself, I think.
>>45186822
I sometimes get caught with Yuuka when changing directions against Yumeko and have indeed checked that you're screwed most of the times.
But thanks for the advice, now I kinda manage the stage without dying too hard.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45231009
nice anon

[Anonymous No.]

holy shit bros... KATTA!

using the OP marisa's laser, but still. gonna retry with the other 3 types next

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236434
i can finally update this shit

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236434
>>45236480
Good shit anon, well done. I'm grinding out Mystic Square's EX stage myself. How difficult would you say this was compare to EX Rika?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236756
>EX Rika?
not really comparable, different skillsets. th2 was more about spamming the fire button very fast, learning safe spots, farming tons of free lives during the stage, and then time the bombs properly during the bossfight (since you can still do damage). and since you get shitton of bombs, if you don't waste them, you spend like half the fight (literally) with the bomb being active, and the other half is stuff that's easy to dodge

on this one i had to actually memorize the patterns and practice them until i got consistent enough. plus you have to actually dodges random shit (reacting fast and learn how to move/evade properly), and that's a skill in itself

i think i'm also finally getting "confident in my dodging abilities". gonna do mystic square soon, i heard it's way harder...

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
That's great thanks anon. Appreciate the work.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
do you know if there's any way to transfer/edit leaderboards? i would like to have a "definitive" pack but with my own scores

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120450
The music is good, the newhus have neat designs (hisami in particular is my favorite), but overall the game is kinda barebones. How the CPU handles the phantasmagoria mechanics is just tiresome. Recharging your shield with L3/L4 attacks makes for an interesting design choice and influences how one can handle spell cards once they get the hang of it. No score. No replays. Netcode makes multiplayer unusable. Difficulty ranges from laughably easy on normal to extreme bullshit on lunatic vs. zanmu. Some of the shot types are woefully imbalanced. It needed a bit more time and effort to come together, but I got the impression that ZUN didn't really care much for what he created since he released it in the state that it is. I liked playing it, but past clearing each character on normal I don't find myself wanting to come back for more.

[Anonymous No.]

I just finished my first 1CC of EoSD on Normal and feel very happy. The only game I played so far where I think Marisa is easier than Reimu (maybe because she packs so much more firepower at full power) and so I did it with MarisaA. Touhou is fun sometimes.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237559
Nicely done anon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237559
now do the extra

[Anonymous No.]

I HATE THIS FUCKING NONSPELL
IT IS NOT EVEN HARD BUT I FUCKING HATE IT

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237619
Rin always tears me a new asshole when I get to her. I should practice her stage more so that I have a chance of finally clearing satori

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237047
Yes, you can transfer the savedata from your hdi files by using the DiskEditor tool you can find in the "extras" folder. In the same folder there's a txt which tells you which files you need to copy over. Make sure to keep backups of your original hdi files just in case.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236480
>LS
You'll need to update that title too.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45238838
lmao i just noticed. i used this
https://doopu.github.io/1ccTracker/

>>45238822
but is there a way to edit score entries? i misstyped some names

[Anonymous No.]

>>45238865
>a way to edit score entries?
Not that I know of. I've taken a look at a couple savefiles on a hex editor and they seem to be encrypted. Maybe you can try asking nmlgc, the guy working on the ReC98 decompilation project.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237107
>ZUN didn't really care much for what he created
I feel like he did care but the scope of the game grew too large and he didn't want to go back on his word by delaying it (which he should have).

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237619
FUCK catwalk

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237595
thanks anon

>>45237602
OK, see you in a few months time

[Anonymous No.]

>>45237559
I remember that I first did 1CC with a mod that replaced reimu with rin satsuki, so I can say that my first 1CC was with rin, kek

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236809
That's good to hear, good job. The skills from this EX stage will carry over to Mystic Square, it's a harder game but it's not a huge jump, those skills will carry over. Don't play as Yuuka.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45236756 here, EX Alice done. However, the emulator I'm using doesn't like the credits sequence afterwards, so it just fills the screen with text and softlocks so I never reach the score screen. I can't find any information on this bug online, is anyone here familiar with this issue?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45243948
Pic related, this happens after the ending and I'm forced to restart the emulator.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45243948
I can't remember where I've read it (and from there I've written it on the readme of the PC98 pack), but the english version seems prone to crashing after completing that stage, so you should try on the original japanese one.

[Anonymous No.]

I think I have brain damage because I've been working on DDC and Seija's screen-flip attacks cause me to completely shut down and burn life after life. Is the only trick to remember the order they happen and mentally prepare in advance?

Also, is there any reason to ditch the cursed weapon aside from the alternate stage 4 fight (which doesn't seem any more or less annoying than Benben)?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45246077
Yeah, there's no real secret to the screen flipping spells, you just have to grind them out and get used to it. I don't even bother with vertical movement on the second spell and came up with a cope strat: line yourself up horizontally with the shine in 東, then focus ALL your reading on the bullets coming from below, and be willing to make wide dodges. I can sometimes capture it like that, which is good enough for me.
>Also, is there any reason to ditch the cursed weapon aside from the alternate stage 4 fight (which doesn't seem any more or less annoying than Benben)?
For Reimu and Sakuya, no, the A shots are strictly better. For Marisa, yes, the B shot is strictly better. The fights are pretty even and not too much of a concern when picking a shot. Benben has higher difficulty averaged across all her attacks, but Yatsuhashi has some extremely hard attacks mixed in with easier ones. You'll probably use the same amount of resources no matter who you fight.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45189200
I've finally found someone with a nyaa account and had him create a page for the new version:
https://nyaa.si/view/1743332
Please help me seed it for a few days, until it has caught on like the previous version.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45253721
Very nice

[Anonymous No.]

How long should it take to get a normal 1cc? I want to know if I should keep trying or not.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45258697
It took me like a month of playing 3-4 hours per week to get my first one on SoEW. You don't need to worry about that though, it's not a competition and people have got different levels of skill. The only thing that matters is whether you're having fun when playing. That's the only factor that will keep you pushing and eventually turn you into a better player.
Also, if you feel like you're not improving, remember to take a break for at least a couple days, to let your brain assimilate what it's learnt so far. Just take it easy.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45258733
I'm having fun sometimes when I'm playing the games. I'm just curious about the benchmark it takes to get to that point.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45258697
My first (dishonest due to using extra lives) 1cc in EoSD took me 2 weeks of maybe 1-2 hours of daily playing.

>>45258733
Can confirm, I hit a slump on my DDC MarisaA attempts, likely due to me stressing out over not making any progress combined with how volatile my stage 3 and 4 performance was. After taking a break and doing some more casual practice over a few days, I managed to get the clear with resources to spare when previously I hadn't made it past Shimmy's 2nd spell.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45258697
It took me I think about 4 months of on average a single playthrough with continues every day for a normal 1CC in PCB

[Anonymous No.]

>>45114072
>>45189200
Very neat, thank you much OP

[Anonymous No.]

>>45120457
Nobody gives a shit about phantasmagoria scoring.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45253721
Big thanks to everyone who's helped get the new pack off the ground. It took less than a day to reach more than a third of the downloads the previous version got in a year and a half.

Also, it looks like the maintainer of the all-in-one pack has also posted the new version of his pack, which now includes 17.5, 18.5, 19 and a lighter version of the Touhou98 pack (with dosbox-x as the only emulator included).
https://nyaa.si/view/1743411

[Anonymous No.]

>>45253721
>>45262229
based

[Anonymous No.]

>>45262229
This actually fixed an issue my HDI file for HRtP had where it would always run out of sprites in the Yuugen Magan fight.
Not that I can clear it without continues anyway, but at least now it's possible without just guessing where the pellets are.

[Anonymous No.]

[Anonymous No.]

is Divine Treasure "Buddhist Diamond" the hardest spell during Kaguya fight?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45272956
is this a correct translation or is it the bitch get out of the way all over again?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45278575
>missing punctuation
It's an edit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45278366
rising world is

[Anonymous No.]

>>45283592
I agree with Rising World, but you can get accidentally trapped in a small gap between lasers in Buddhist Diamond

[Anonymous No.]

what does draw interval mean?

[Anonymous No.]

How do I stop stressing out when I play these games? Whenever I die stupidly (with bombs left or before stage 5) I have to quit the run.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289246
How many times things are drawn on the screen per frame I guess, shouldn't make difference

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289399
stop quitting runs, duh

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289399
>Whenever I die stupidly (with bombs left or before stage 5) I have to quit the run.
I also had this autism when I started playing kek

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289568
There's no reason to keep going on if you already failed to get a 1cc.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289618
yes there is, it's called "practicing"

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289626
So once I get all the stages unlocked in practice mood then it's pointless to continue on.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289399
Quitting is the very reason you keep dying stupidly.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289651
How?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289645
no? practice isn't pointless by definition

also you have loser's mentality sister. irl protip: always assume you can do it. if you die it's ok. this is true in both touhou and real life. also most of my 1ccs in touhou are from "practice" runs

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289660
No, you use practice mood to get good at the stage so you can pull it off flawlessly on your real run and save resources for the hard parts.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289671
>you use practice mood to get good at the stage so you can pull it off flawlessly on your real run
kek

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289671
"man shall not live by practice mode alone"

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289687
That's the reason there's a practice mode. So you get good at the parts you struggle in and can pull it off in an actual run.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289657
Because the best way not to die to stupid things is to just keep playing and improve your skills, without caring about stuff like "oh no the run is gonna be 10% harder now, it's not worth continuing". The very fact it's gonna be harder should motivate you to pay more attention from that point on.

[Anonymous No.]

practice mode detracts from the arcade experience
you should always aim for getting your first 1cc without using practice mode

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289618
Dying with bombs left or before stage 5 doesn't mean the run is automatically failed. Most of the games give you a decent margin for error. I've had multiple 1ccs from runs where I died on stage 1 like a tard but kept going.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289696
you could also practice in a non-practice mode, i don't understand why you think it's a bad thing

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289704
Yeah, for me practice is useless because if I ever get stuck it's on a very specific spellcard or two, and for those it's much more efficient to use thcrap instead so you can experiment as much as you need without having to do the whole stage again.
Once I've figured them out, it's all regular runs from then on.
(so far I've only had to do this with sakuya's spells, scarlet netherworld, merlin's opening non, and kanako's miracle of otensui)

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289733
I meant thprac of course.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289711
From my experience it always is. Getting lives back isn't easy.

>>45289717
I do, but practice mode is better for going over the parts you struggle with. Like if you have issue with stage 4 and can get through stages 1 to 3 easily, then why go through them each time you want to get better at stage 4?

[Anonymous No.]

Anyone feel like the bullets in the PC-98 games, or at the very least SoEW, are much harder to see than in the Windows games? Lower resolution and increased contrast due to smaller pallette should, at least according to common sense, make them easier to see, and yet it seems so much easier to get a cheap death to a stray bullet my eyes did not even register.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289741
>I do, but practice mode is better for going over the parts you struggle with.
the point isn't practice spells, it's the development of your ability to not choke under pressure (which is clearly your problem). if you never train it, you'll never get good at it

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289756
But how do I stop choking under pressure?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289774
with practice

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289743
The background is often a similar color of the bullets, they also don't have that "shining" effect like in windows

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289774
By getting used to the pressure.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289828
How? Touhou is a game that demands perfection to get a 1cc.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289836
Do you really believe that with all the lives the games throw at you?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289836
>Touhou is a game that demands perfection to get a 1cc.
kek. maybe on lunatic. even extras are very forgiving in general

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289836
You only need perfection to get a Lunatic full spell NMNB. I hope you're not just baiting at this point.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289865
I'm being serious. Dying with bombs in stock or losing lives on the early stages sets you back immensely

>>45289848
Only a few games are generous with extra lives.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289888
>sets you back immensely
We're going in circles at this point. It only sets you back because you're not used to the increased pressure it brings, and you end up losing the rest of your resources quickly. If you tried to persevere, after a while you would get used to that increase in pressure and would manage to beat the game anyway.
Today I got to mountain of faith with zero lives in stock and only 3.5 power, for a 1cc normal. The pressure was immense, but in the end I managed to capture the card because I'm used to that pressure. And even if I had died, it would still have been some good practice.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289888
It's a setback, yes. But it's nothing you can't recover from if you are proficient at the later stages. And this of course will depend on your skill and confidence in handling those later stages.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289399
just relax and remember that every stupid and non-stupid death, every pattern you slowly etch into your mind brings you one step closer to the 1cc. If you're so inclined, try watching other people's gameplay if you can't find reliable routes through complicated busy stage patterns or particularly nasty spell cards. Don't be too hard on yourself, and whenever you feel you start to get overwhelmed with anger, just take a breather, maybe give up playing for the day. Return to the game with a clear, calm mind and it will be like night and day.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289906
But you have thousands of hours of practice so you can pull it off easily. I don't.

>>45289910
The later stages are only doable when you have plenty of resources, which is why you can't waste them on the stages before that.

>>45289936
If I'm just going to watch a Let's Play, I might as well just look up the ending as well.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289995
>The later stages are only doable when you have plenty of resources
You've been corrected on this point multiple times already. Stay bad forever, retard.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290087
But that's how the games are designed. You practice again and again so you can clear most of the game easily and you can save resources for the parts that give you trouble. You can't beat the game by losing lives each stage.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289995
>The later stages are only doable when you have plenty of resources
That's a very defeatist mindset. See? You've basically convinced yourself that you're not good enough to beat the later stages without a huge number of resources to serve as a buffer, and instead of actually trying to improve on your performance you'll waste your time grinding the early stages for the one perfect run that will give you a shot at bomb spamming your way to victory through the later stages.

Until you remove these mental shackles you're placing on yourself, you won't stop stressing yourself out in real runs.

[Anonymous No.]

Okay, I've done some testing. I tried continuing on when I lost a life early like in stage 1 or 2. It definitely impacts your performance. Losing a life early on means you're locked out of a 1cc and the lose of resources makes it much harder. . If I resist myself to only losing lives on Stage 4 and later, I do much better. This was done on the some of the easiest games in the series (PCB and MOF), so it means something.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290376
>so it means something.
yeah, it means you need to get good

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290420
If losing a life on the early stages on some of the easiest games in the series means you're locked out of a 1cc, it proves me right.,

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290376
It means you've retarded and we've wasted our time trying to explain why you're wrong.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290443
ok, have fun replaying stages 1-2 forever

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290464
I've tried it your way and it doesn't work. Dying early and continuing just puts me in a hole I can't get out of. My performance is much better when I tell myself that I can only lose a life on Stage X and later.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290488
You're going to have to repeat the early stages hundreds of times anyways, that's how the game is designed.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290533
yeah, but at least you will also repeat all the other stages hundreds of times too

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290166
Isn't that how the games are meant to be beaten? Memorize and perfect as much as the game as you can so you can have a buffer for the parts you can issue with?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290548
Yeah, but you're be forced into the bad ending if you use continues so there's little point unless you need to unlock more stages for practice.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290566
it's about the journey, not the destination

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290497
>it doesn't work
That's the point, it's not supposed to work immediately. We keep telling you you need to practice until it works, and you'll need to trust us when we tell you it will work.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290569
true

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290569
I don't see the point of playing the game just to get the bad ending. The endings are why I want to play these games.

>>45290588
I've never seen a successful 1cc where they chocked early.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290609
>I don't see the point of playing the game
stop playing the game?
>The endings are why I want to play these games.
watch them on youtube? quicksave? cheat?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45289865
>You only need perfection to get a Lunatic full spell NMNB.
You don't even need perfection do that lmao
Just spam credits like a Touhoom shitter and get lucky on the harder parts of the game
Now for WR-tier scoring, you absolute need perfect execution :^)

[Anonymous No.]

I'm new to touhou but it's not like that, I died several times wasting all the bombs (one time even for meiling) and I still got normal 1cc

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290647
But that would be giving up and admitting that I'm a secondary.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290790
You will always be a secondary for faking interest until you get a good score or clear in this genre

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290813
I do like touhou, just I find the games to be pretty enjoyable sometimes. But getting a 1cc is not.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290861
Then don't play for 1CCs if it's not enjoyable for you. Nobody will give a fuck if you're a "secondary" or not. The people that do are either shitters or scrubs with nothing noteworthy in this genre

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290932
But you have to get a 1cc to beat the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290720
The guy is either utterly retarded or just trolling, he keeps saying stuff that's blatantly wrong.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290963
Everyone is saying I'm wrong without explaining why.I have plenty of experience with these games so I have a good idea how they work.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290962
You can be a scorefag without ever having gotten a 1cc in your life. Just pick up photo game scoring.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291066
No, you need to get a 1cc to get the real endings and to unlock Extra. You don't get the real experience unless you 1cc.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291079
>doesn't understand humor and continues to reiterate its point
This is a bot.

[Anonymous No.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9B9sc2dxng&t=660s
You see? They don't waste lives on the first three stages and focus on gaining lives so they have a buffer zone for the latter ones. Even then they end it with one life left.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291214
>lookup name
>it's a fucking troon
kek
every time man

That aside, I can't tell if you're joking or not. What really matters for a 1CC is just you using your resources correctly (IE bombing everything).
You can probably even 1CC the game on Lunatic blind folded due to how many resources it gives you, given that you quite literally route everything of course.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291329
>What really matters for a 1CC is just you using your resources correctly
Yes, that is why you save your resources for the difficult portions and focus on perfecting the rest of the game so you have plenty.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291351
Has it been working well for you though? lmao
The game gives you so many resources it doesn't even matter. If you actually used all your bombs (even to the "easy" stuff), you would had gotten the 1CC a very, very long time ago.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291369
The only way to get resources is to route everything, as you admit. But by the time you've done that do you really need to bomb everything?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45290127
>But that's how the games are designed.
False.

>You practice again and again so you can clear most of the game easily and you can save resources for the parts that give you trouble.
Apparently the whole game is giving you trouble.

>You can't beat the game by losing lives each stage.
False.

>>45291351
The point is to practice until the amount of resources you get exceeds the amount you need. Nothing about that implies exclusively perfecting the first several stages and completely bombing the rest. That might work for some people, but it's also an incredibly shortsighted path. Not only is it a terrible mindset for the long term, but apparently it's not even working for you short term. Again, stay bad forever, retard.

>>45291433
>The only way to get resources is to route everything, as you admit.
False, and was also never stated or even implied, unless you're saying your learning disability is so profound that your skills are comparable to that of a blind person.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291456
>The point is to practice until the amount of resources you get exceeds the amount you need
That's what I'm saying. Lost resources are lost resources, so it's better to be able to get through the early stages without losing a single life then wasting most of them on stage 1 like you want people to do. Routing is the best way to get extra lives i.e in TD it is the only way.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291522
> it's better to be able to get through the early stages without losing a single life then wasting most of them on stage 1
More accurately, it's better to not lose lives, no matter where they are. Obsessing over the first few stages and quitting robs you of practicing later portions, practicing under pressure, and practicing not getting discouraged easily, all of which you seem to have a problem with.

>Routing is the best way to get extra lives i.e in TD it is the only way.
For most games, the resources are thrown into your lap, or at most you can wing it as you go. Even in TD's case, I would argue that using trance defensively as an extra bomb when available is more likely to succeed than planning each one for some people.

You're free to stay on your path, and maybe you'll get lucky and reach your goals, but avoid bringing other gullible idiots down with you and your horrendous mindset.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291665
I'm not sure we're playing the same games. Even when I try, I can only get two or three extra lives at the most.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291681
>I can only get two or three extra lives at the most
major skill issue

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291688
So how do I get all these resources that I'm missing for some reason?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291681
You're only supporting what I said about TD. The game gives you low resources in general when you're not aggressive, because trance is kinda like a free bomb, and the patterns overall are incredibly easy compared to most games. Using your example, if you're maybe getting 3 extra lives when routing, but would probably still get 2 extra lives without doing anything special, is the routing and losing a potential defensive option worth it for you.

>>45291703
Post a replay.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291710
Promise you won't laugh. It's PCB because I've been playing that recently.
https://files.catbox.moe/4751zj.rpy

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292026
You died 8 times and used 5 bombs. There were 28 bombs you didn't use. I don't know how you can be obsessed with preserving resources for later stages when you don't even use them correctly in the first place. You don't need to worry about playing "perfectly". You still have several basic critical skills you need to acquire before even considering that, like recognizing the differences between attacks that are static, aimed, and random and approaching them accordingly.

Your item collection needs work in various ways. You let so many easy items drop off the bottom of the screen in the first 2 stages, meaning you reach full power later and can't PoC. Then, when you do have full power, you alternate between clumsily reaching for individual items when you should have PoC'd, and attempting to PoC at the wrong times and getting slapped in the face for it. You should always PoC after every boss attack that drops items, because it's basically always safe to in PCB. Attacks always have a short period of defense as they start anyway, so it's not like you're missing out on damage by staying below the boss instead.

Stage 4 starts having fairies with high HP, meaning you have to make decisions about where you want to allocate your damage output. Unfocused SakuyaA is fine for popcorn, but you often made the wrong focus vs unfocused decisions in several places, leading you to be overwhelmed when enemies don't die. There are also some sections where not shooting at all actually make them easier.

You can manually pop your cherry defensively by pressing X right before a supernatural border expires, giving you a free screen clear while also charging your next border. You should avoid doing it during spell cards, since spell card captures increase the value of cherry items which charge your next border too. Later in the game, after the bullet density basically guarantees frequent borders, you can probably start throwing away your borders more often if you want. But when you're struggling to dodge bullets at all, you probably can't handle any more active decision making yet.

Each mistake is an opportunity for learning something, not discouragement. If you die with bombs, learn to pay attention to If you get pushed into an inescapable situation, watch your own replay and reassess the situation to see what you could have done differently. When you are lower on resources than you think you should be in the middle of the run, your goal should be to push forward and see how far you can get anyway. This helps you practice being under pressure, and it increases the variety of things you expose yourself to in the limited playtime you have. You can save getting discouraged for when you don't learn from your mistakes. Unless you have literal brain damage, the only way this can happen is if your mindset stays shitty like this.

>Promise you won't laugh.
I'm not going to laugh because you're a novice and are learning. Everyone has to start somewhere. But I am absolutely going to laugh at you for having the confidence to write a dozen posts and act like you already know what's best for yourself in terms of good practice techniques for aiming for a basic 1CC when this is how you play. Jesus.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292510
>If you die with bombs, learn to pay attention to
your stock and adjust the risk threshold at which you start pressing X. Bombing well is a skill in itself.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292510
>like recognizing the differences between attacks that are static, aimed, and random and approaching them accordingly.
How do I do that?

>There are also some sections where not shooting at all actually make them easier.
Which ones are those?



>But I am absolutely going to laugh at you for having the confidence to write a dozen posts and act like you already know what's best for yourself in terms of good practice techniques for aiming for a basic 1CC when this is how you play. Jesus.

I'm sorry, I only have thirty hours of playtime and was upset at my lack of progress

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292633
>How do I do that?
I'll repost this general ideas checklist from 2 years ago, since I think it's still equally useful to beginners as well as intermediate or even some advanced players and will guide you to a solution in 99% of situations:

>Don't move unless you have to. Are there any aimed elements that appear to be influenced by your position?
>If there are aimed elements, does slow streaming work? Does fast streaming work? Is misdirection a valid strategy?
>Are any cutbacks required so you don't get cornered? Would a different starting position help?
>Which elements are static? Which elements are random?
>What audio and visual cues are being provided? Can they be used to your advantage?
>Are enemies shooting once after entering the screen, or are they shooting continuously until they're killed?
>Given the information above, which order should enemies be handled? Are there sequences that are easier than others? Is it worth the risk chasing each enemy down?
>Do enemies have revenge bullets? Is it ever advantageous shoot them at a different time or even not shoot at all?
Even if you can't figure out some of this stuff on the fly while playing, a lot of it may become obvious from experimenting in practice mode or even watching your own replays. Watching one's own replays and actively trying to understand how things work and why things went wrong is something people should do more often. Eventually, these rules can be so internalized that you can apply them quickly to effortlessly handle patterns you've never seen before in blind runs.

>Which ones are those?
I invite you to experiment and find out.

>I only have thirty hours of playtime
Buddy, some people have hundreds of hours before their first 1CC, and the time taken isn't a huge problem as long as you're having fun, discovering new things for yourself, and slowly elevating your base skills. You mentioned only wanting to play for the endings, which makes it sound like you don't actually want to play these games, but if you keep trying and adjust your mindset as suggested by multiple anons, you might develop the right amount of stockholm syndrome in the end. Or you'll end up just reading wiki pages about shit like 99% of 2hu faggots. Whatever.

[Anonymous No.]

While you guys are talking about not needing to play the early stages perfectly to get a 1cc, you have to remember that these games are generally attention intensive and it may still be worth the effort to restart over a stupid death. It isn't impossible to get a 1cc if you die in stage 1, but the mental effect of dying early can make your run significantly harder. If you're on a later stage and focusing on your previous death, mad that you could have extra bombs or extra lives up to the point, you're more likely to make mistakes that you would not make if you restarted or quit and took a break, since playing mad will make you worse at almost any video game. Additionally, if you want to enjoy these games, do not try to NMNB every extra stage, believe me, it is not worth your time.

Quick tip: If you really enjoy a specific character theme but find yourself dying to that character a lot, turn off music when you play. The amount of times I have failed the LOLK LNMNB due to paying more attention to the music than the gameplay cannot be overstated.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292798
Thanks for the advice. I'm sorry for bitching, I was just upset at sucking so bad at these games. I was looking at all the other replays and reading guides, and grinding away at the game and came to the conclusion that choking early means the whole thing is failed. Part of it was due to my own experience where if I make a mistake early I just flounder for the rest of the run. The rest is from watching replays (Most of them don't have them dying early on which reinforced my view) and having others say they got a 1cc in a couple of days from zero experience.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292881
>that these games are generally attention intensive and it may still be worth the effort to restart over a stupid death
Sure, but that's more applicable when you're actually close to the goal, and if reaching that goal is when you plan to quit. Pushing forward with all of your plays, even when you make mistakes, is a good way to increase your mental fortitude and still serves as useful practice for not just the 1CC stepping stone but beyond. I've seen this happen in multiple genres, where the focus shifts a little bit too much to the specific goals instead of the self-improvement that makes achieving the goals inevitable. Trying for 1CCs or whatever is good for the dopamine release and helps people stay motivated, so it makes sense to go for those kinds of things often as a treat, but it's bad when people get tunnel vision on those milestones and fail to recognize the smaller and less obvious wins along the way or that their time would be better spent chasing less "satisfying" goals.

>do not try to NMNB every extra stage, believe me, it is not worth your time
Which ones in particular are bad. I used to enjoy Extra as something short and low commitment, and NMNB wasn't really tough for any of the games I've played, but I also haven't played seriously for the past decade.

>>45292884
Take it easy. Avoiding hurt feelings and being buttranged is an important skill itself that needs practice too. Remaining flexible with your goals and expectations is key to maintaining focus and motivation through your sessions.

>others say they got a 1cc in a couple of days from zero experience
You have to remember the selection bias when encountering claims like this. The tiny minority of people who were talented enough to do something like this will be more likely to brag about it. That doesn't make it more normal than 7" is an average penis length. A vast majority of people who try these games literally never get a 1CC.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45291329
wtf i thought everybody who played touhou unironically was a troon

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292881
>but the mental effect of dying early can make your run significantly harder.
YOU HAVE TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO NOT HAVE THIS EFFECT

and the only way to do it is to keep continuing your runs even if you die early

[Anonymous No.]

>>45293149
>Sure, but that's more applicable when you're actually close to the goal,
Personally, I have to disagree, but that may be due to my bias playing other games that require you to do a large amount of restarts in the first 1-2 hours of a singular 75 hour run if you make a minor mistake. While it might just be due to the sunk cost fallacy, I feel that pushing through matters a lot more towards the end of a run, where you are close to the goal, than in the beginning of a run, where you will have to spend maybe 2-3 minutes back to reach your previous position, but this time without the mistake being made. I feel that this could likely just be personal preference, however.

>Which ones in particular are bad
Personally, Flan as Reimu, Mokou, Nue and Hecatia feel the hardest, as they just have random spells that I have a hard time learning. In EOSD in particular, Patchouli before Flan gives me a hard time, not because her first spell is difficult, but because her first spell feels like it has a ton of flashing lights and I end up having a hard time staying underneath her. No other mid stage boss bothers me as much as this except maybe Doremy's Bullet Crawl or whatever that spell is called.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45293638
>other games that require you to do a large amount of restarts in the first 1-2 hours of a singular 75 hour run if you make a minor mistake
What fucking game is that? Nethack?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45293149
>Which ones in particular are bad
hecatia is overall more difficult than the rest and mokou's last non is one of the hardest attacks in the whole game

[Anonymous No.]

>>45293638
My thought is that mistakes that get in the way of goals shouldn't result in restarts that get in the way of useful practice, but you're right that there is a threshold where mistakes even get in the way of practice. That point where you might as well push forward after a mistake gets later and later in the run as you become more skilled. But for someone who can't even 1CC Normal, restarting anywhere after the first stage is probably detrimental to their progress.

>>45293687
>mokou's last non
At least everything else about IN Ex is super consistent, so you just have to get lucky on those last few nons. Still annoying that it can fuck your face so late in the run.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45293676
>Nethack
Worse

[Anonymous No.]

>>45292881
>do not try to NMNB every extra stage, believe me, it is not worth your time
Do you mean this in the sense that it's just annoying to do. I can't imagine you're talking about the difficulty if you're at the level of attempting to LNN LoLK.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45302246
>Do you mean this in the sense that it's just annoying to do.
Pretty much. With NMNB, since you can't push through after a mistake, it becomes incredibly frustrating, especially if you are playing tired or angry, since you'll end up restarting a lot. Worst case is when you bomb, forgetting you're not supposed to, in a scenario where you wouldn't have gotten hit anyways. Incredibly annoying.

[Anonymous No.]

I know you're meant to just keep your eyes focused on the area around your character, but all that means is I get blindsided all the time.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45302964
You're probably just not comfortable with dodging yet. Most bullets move at a constant speed and angle, so a given bullet is easy to predict once you've watched it for even a split second. Try to get used to dodging without actually looking at the bullets you're dodging when you dodge them, instead solely going off what you saw a second ago. Then once you've gotten better at that, start glancing at other parts of the screen while you dodge bullets you're not even looking at (this is the part that will stop getting you blindsided)
Mamizou's "Fifth Duel" spell is really good for practicing this. It goes from very difficult to very easy depending on how good you are at deciding where to look.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45303550
So I have to look away from what I need to dodge and look at stuff I might not to? I don't get it.
>Mamizou's "Fifth Duel" spell is really good for practicing this. It goes from very difficult to very easy depending on how good you are at deciding where to look.
I'm not at the point where I can unlock the extra stages yet.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45303854
>I don't get it.
It's better if you don't think too hard about it or you'll double think everything you do and play worse. Just play more and it'll come to you naturally after a while.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45303854
>So I have to look away from what I need to dodge and look at stuff I might not to?
Yeah, the point is to soak in as much information as you can. As you get better, you'll be able to immediately identify "That area is safe" and "That area is a threat" for the whole screen.
>>45305914 is right, though, just keep playing. Read >>45292798 if you get stuck and make sure you're using all your bombs.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45307282
Who are you supposed to read the whole screen? I thought you were supposed to figure out only the bullets that heading towards you and not get distracted by the rest.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45307357
>spend 0.01 seconds noticing bullets in your peripheral vision not heading for you
>know that they won't hit you if you stay still, but will become a threat if you need to move away from your current location
>focus on threat bullets the rest of the time
That's what I mean. But seriously, don't worry about it if you're just starting out.

[Anonymous No.]

test

[Anonymous No.]

>>45307949
did it work?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45308492
nta so no idea

[Anonymous No.]

>>45307595
Do I need to perfect this to get a 1cc?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45303854
thprac gives you access to everything from the beginning. nobody worth your time cares about how you use tools to practice

[Anonymous No.]

>>45310010
It does seem bizarre that people are recommending an Extra Stage to train for a 1cc when you need to get one to unlock it at all. Those things are much harder then the rest of the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45312383
At no point it was mentioned it was for a 1cc.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45312742
If I'm not good enough to even get to Mamizou then I don't see how I'll get anything from her stage.

[Anonymous No.]

Tried new cave touhou gacha game and it's actually almost just generic gacha game, i guess that's why there are almost zero discussion about it

[Anonymous No.]

>>45312891
The original post asked for tips to avoid getting blindsided, the reply suggested to practice that spell card. That person had no way to know whether the guy asking is good enough to get to mamizou or not, so his suggestion wasn't unreasonable at the time.

>>45313001
I'm planning on giving it a try in a few hours, but I doubt anyone will discuss it besides /mbgg/ and perhaps a thread on /vmg/.

[Anonymous No.]

Anons my PC fucked up.. My point device save in LoLK got deleted for no reason. The only thing left to capture was Junko's final so I could finally get a Normal No Bomb clear ;-;

[Anonymous No.]

>>45313819
It just seems like cheating to me. It's not how you're intended to play the game.

[Anonymous No.]

two yearsago i downloaded touhou 8 from moriya shrine on my laptop and it worked fine
now i try and play it and it doesnt work
and i cant get any of the games to work when i download them now
why

[Anonymous No.]

>>45316384
Just try the ones from the all-in-one pack on nyaa.

[Anonymous No.]

How do I get better at bombing? Either a bullet appears out of nowhere or I bomb a second too late.

[Anonymous No.]

Also, how are you supposed to keep track of every bullet on the screen? When I look ahead to judge incoming danger, I always run into a bullet that I should have safely passed, or I lose track of what's coming in to hit me.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45319705
>>45319775
>How do I get better at bombing?
The only thing you can consciously improve on, is trying to recognize when the situation is getting way too dangerous for you to be able to dodge everything reliably, and bomb every time you get to that point. This is only recommendable when you're playing to get a 1cc instead of just playing for fun, since trying to dodge the impossible makes for some good training, but it is an important skill to have.
There isn't much you can do when a bullet appears out of nowhere, for example when two bullets travelling at different speeds overlap and the one below catches you by surprise. You can only dodge it if you had noticed it before it went below the other bullet, and that brings up the last question, how to keep track of every bullet on the screen. The answer is practice, practice and more practice. There isn't a trick to it, your general awareness needs to improve.
Don't focus on the improvement part though, just play for fun and the improvement will come as a consequence.
Something I can recommend is playing Shoot the Bullet and clearing as many stages as you can. It makes for some extremely helpful practice in all aspects of dodging bullets. Make sure to move to another stage whenever you feel like you're not making progress at clearing a stage, come back later with a clear mind and you'll find it easier.

[Anonymous No.]

I just managed to first try 1cc Lotus Land Story on normal with ReimuA. Had no idea what to expect difficulty-wise, but I guess it's one of the easier ones, because you can stock up on extra lives in the first 3 levels and then just "resource manage" (aka bomb the shit out of everything last second) your way through the latter half of the game. But even then, most of the patterns are clear enough to more or less sightread and there are very few fuck you moments. Still, a very nice game and LIGHT YEARS ahead of SoEW when it comes to enjoyability I think.

Shame there's no MIDI version of the soundtrack

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324063
>he lacks critical information

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324117
I meant inside the game, a choice to listen to a MIDI arrangement instead of the FM like SoEW had

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324132
yeah i know, i just wanted to meme :(

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324040
Ah thanks, back to the grindstone then.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324063
>I guess it's one of the easier ones
Yeah, it's possibly the easiest game in the entire series, and the one I usually recommend for starting out. (Unless you're a purist and can deal with playing the games in strict order.)

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324218
>it's possibly the easiest game in the entire series
How's it compare to Ten Desires? It's been ages since I played either of these and I don't remember.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45333315
I've only played up to 10 so far, which is why I've said "possibly". It is a good candidate so far because of it being much easier than any of the others I've played, though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45333315
LLS is infinitely easier than TD. I disagree with most people who say TD is one of the easiest: yeah, the patterns are some of the simplest and least dense, but the power loss on death is insane, the gimmick makes it really annoying to get more resources, and you're given so few of anything regardless. Compared to the rest of the series, I'd personally rank its difficulty as somewhere in the middle.
Worth noting that the last time I played TD was six years ago, the last time I played LLS was a few months ago, and I'm judging based on normal difficulty.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45333315
>>45333771
I also forgot to mention: even if we just compare the two games' bullet patterns and nothing else, LLS's are so much easier that it's already no contest. TD's resource problems are a compounding of that fundamental difference in difficulty rather than the deciding factor.

[Anonymous No.]

Any tips for a new player? I tried out 6 on Normal and got around to the middle of stage 5 before my last continue was spent. I didn't use bombs because I forgot about them and I didn't realize I could slow down until stage 4 so maybe that'll help next time, I really have no idea what the fuck is even going on when I play though, I'll be dodging shit and suddenly all the bullets will disappear. I understand that getting more of the power things makes your shots stronger, and score probably does something related to score, but what does graze do?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
Grazing can increase your score. Getting higher score = more chance to gain live (only apply to games where you can gain live from score tho).

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
>I didn't use bombs because I forgot about them
this is the most common beginner's mistake. touhou is hard, but gives you a shitton of resources, so use them

>what does graze do?
not much for survival, it's primarily a scoring mechanic. in eosd i recommend learning when to use the point of collection near the top of the screen to autocollect items, as that will be the easiest source of score. the cap for extra lives is 60m, which isn't very high, so learning graze tricks isn't necessary

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335984
>point of collection near the top of the screen
I didn't realize this was a thing.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
Agreed with the other fellow on bombs, use them whenever you even think you might be in danger. Your bomb count gets reset on death, so it's best to waste all your bombs than waste a life. Touhou games have this mechanic where for the first few frames after getting hit, you can use a bomb to cancel your death (called deathbombing). The exact duration differs depending on game (think in EoSD it's 8 frames), but in general it's a good idea to hit X when you're anticipating you're about to get hit.

Also, understanding hitbox and hurtbox sizes helps immensely in getting down the feel for the game. They are always smaller than the sprites that represent them. Like deathbomb windows, the actual sizes depend on the game, but the general rule of thumb is that the brighter glowy parts tend to be what's actually dangerous, and your hurtbox is located around your torso.

For 6 specifically, here's an image I quickly found comparing the sprites to what their hotboxes should be like. I couldn't find anything with exact measurements, and I've never used the mod mentioned in this image, but it should give you a decent feel for how big the actual hitboxes are.
I'll post another reply with images showing player hurtboxes in a bit.

And don't forget to hold Shift for focused movement.

>>45336039
In 6-8 it only works at full power, and in 10 onwards it works at all times. I also didn't get how this worked when I was starting out.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45336260
And here's the player hurtbox sizes. They're only character dependent from 7 onwards, but since focusing doesn't show your hitbox in earlier games, it helps to know where on your character it is located.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
>Any tips
Use your bomb don't worry about "bad at bombing" because even good players suck at using their bomb, also try to route where you should use bomb

[Anonymous No.]

What's the best way to make it easy to memorize the spawn of each enemy? It's too risky to use the PoC without knowing when it's safe.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45324117
where i find this

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339121
https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,18989.0.html

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339121
Even if you get the MIDI files, they'll sound off on anything that's not a Roland SC-88Pro synth.
You can find them in converted format here.
https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,18989.0.html

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
It's better to waste a bomb than waste a life. Dying with too many bombs in stock can quickly cripple a run.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339087
watching replays

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339974
You can lose all your lives but one early on and still beat the game.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45340513
How is that different from just playing? My main problem is there's no frame of reference. Instead of "There are six enemies waiting to ambush you in the courtyard" it's "Five seconds after the big wave of spread-shot fairies spawn in, there are two lines of spinners that spawn in from the left and right, at two fifths and three-fifths height and travel clockwise and counterclockwise respectively"

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339801
>they'll sound off on anything that's not a Roland SC-88Pro synth
They supposedly sound almost identical when played through the Sound Canvas VA, which is basically a VST version of the SC-88. I haven't personally tried it myself, but I've seen some Touhou playthroughs using it on YouTube and it checks out.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45339087
It's pure memo (well sometimes you can use audio like from music or game sounds), by playing the stage a lot you will probably gonna build muscle for memory where the enemy gonna spawn also >>45340513 is also help a lot, since you can analyse the stage more clearer instead of by playing where you probably too focused on playing instead of analyzing the stage and use something like thprac

[Anonymous No.]

>>45340668
>How is that different from just playing?
You can look at patterns without getting distracted with having to dodge and notice things you wouldn't have otherwise.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45340668
>How is that different from just playing?
You don't have to spend brain energy on controlling the character and having to dodge shit. Just watch hands free.
>Five seconds after the big wave of spread-shot fairies spawn in, there are two...etc.
You're the anon facing difficulty early in the thread?
If anything you're overanalyzing everything and getting too tense. Take it easy and just go with the flow of bullets headed at you. It's hypocritical of me to give such advice since I used to tense up and get anxious when I was new, but this one secret trick I learned (many years later) made the series too easy:
Focus on what is aimed at you, ignore what isn't aimed at you.
Otherwise, musical cues is what I use to memorize. MoF is the most obvious example of this. Literally everything is timed with the music leading up to the midboss encounter, and assuming you eliminate the midboss at a respectable rate (either bombing or constant fire from Power 2 to full), everything will be in sync with the music. For example, after Nitori midboss, there will be 2 big fairies that rapidly come down the screen when the music "flourishes" the same way it did when Nitori first appears and gets startled. Also in Stage 4, the final crow wave will usually coincide with the same part of the music (the "song in blue" part) as when Momiji appears.
You eventually make such memorization cues if you can loosen up a bit.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45344890
Good call on the music cues, I think another entry with clear and easy to remember music cues is PCB (stages 2, 4 - this one the cues come in really handy - and 5 come to mind)

[Anonymous No.]

>>45342276
Well yeah, that makes sense since it's simulating the same synth which is the only one the MIDIs play fine on.
Isn't it a pretty expensive program, though?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45345129
The only problem with music cues is that if you defeat the midboss too quickly or too slowly then there would be a "desync" in the sense that the enemies won't appear on cue with the music.
However this isn't an issue with SA going forward if you beat a boss too quickly, because preset enemy waves will spawn as a stand-in for the boss until you reach the set amount of time for the normal waves to appear (for example, the yin-yang mobs that spawn if you beat Rin quickly on stage 4 and 5). On the other hand if you take too long to defeat a boss then I think it will still give you the regular waves which will be out of sync with the music.
To be honest, listening to some stage music just doesn't sound the same without the in-game sfx. UFO stage 5 and TD stage 6 come to mind, but especially SA stage 4 and 5 with Rin's meowing. Hell even bossfights sound boring without sfx as well. Especially the 2nd generation Windows bosses like Utsuho around the Mega Flare part, Murasa at the 2nd loop of the song (that ghost spellcard), and Kagerou's Awooo, since around that time ZUN started experimenting with adding new sfx as well as boss gimmicks.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45346681
I'm pretty sure EoSD and PCB at least have "buffer" sections, where if you defeat a midboss too quickly you have a bit of a breather or a section that is "skippable" or able to be shortened is being played (after Daiyousei you can have a bit of a downtime, after Chen and Lily White there are also some fairy patterns that can be longer or shorter depending on how well you did) and then there are some cues later on that are as far as I can tell universal (exploding fairies at the small piano burst in The Fantastic Tales from Tono and the fairies that shoot horizontally down during the same section of The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky), so I'm 90% sure there's some catchup synchronization mechanism. Don't know how well it would work in a n extreme case if you were to time out the mid bosses though.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45344890
Alright, I'll get back to it. Thank you.

>Focus on what is aimed at you, ignore what isn't aimed at you.
But there's my problem. I focus on what's aimed at me then I lose track of everything else so I often dodge right into fire that's heading away from me. I know you said I should take my eyes off the threat bullets to judge the rest of the screen, but then I lose track of everything else

[Anonymous No.]

>>45345167
It seems to be available as part of Roland Cloud under the Ultimate price tier ($20/mo lmao) or, more reasonably, $70 for a lifetime license. I see what you mean, but compared to the alternative of buying a physical synth for 2-3x the price (and from what I've seen, most other sound libraries/VSTs also cost around that much), it doesn't sound too awful.
For what it's worth, I found an upload of it on archive.org.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45350133
>$70 for a lifetime license
Huh, that's actually a pretty reasonable price indeed.
Thanks for the heads up about there being some uploads of it on archive.org, but it looks like even the latest version there is too old to run on windows 10, so I guess I'll buy the modern one eventually.
I can grab the converted midis from >>45339801 and easily mod them into the windows games with thcrap, but a few other games like seihou or SoEW don't have such luxury.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45349539
Look at it this way: There's a bullet headed towards you. It is a threat to you, and you should dodge it. As soon as you get out of its path, it is no longer a threat... So forget about it. Now that you have moved, you should focus on (A) the bullet whose path you have just moved into or (B) the next aimed bullet that should be coming your way, if it's aimed danmaku.
>But there's my problem. I focus on what's aimed at me then I lose track of everything else so I often dodge right into fire that's heading away from me.
What kind of dodging are you doing? All hitboxes are tiny, you're going to have to tap the movement keys a little bit and you're out of the way.
>I know you said I should take my eyes off the threat bullets to judge the rest of the screen, but then I lose track of everything else
It seems like you just have attention deficiency and awful situational awareness. idk how to fix the former, but the latter can be trained.
When the barrage is fired, just take note of the bullet's speed and direction and keep it in mind.
See pic related, whatever is in red is a threat and you should move. As you move away, the yellow ones "turn red" as you get closer to their path and they become more of a threat. Your focus zone is the light blue box, and the larger one is your awareness box. The focus box is usually fixed in size, while the awareness box grows bigger or smaller depending on the danmaku pattern and density of bullets.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45278575
>"Now bitch, get out of the way!"
>"Shit, is it the brats' night out?"
>"Genocide is just another game"
SOVL
>"Now, get outta my way!"
>"Hmph. Is it the brats' night out?"
>"Massacres are a kind of game, too."
soulless
Why do they do this?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45355090
>All hitboxes are tiny, you're going to have to tap the movement keys a little bit and you're out of the way.
I know this, but there are times where heading around volleys seems to work better then squeezing through gaps. Letty's second spellcard comes to mind, unless I'm doing it wrong.
>awful situational awareness
This definitely seems to be my issue. I focus on dodging what's an immediate threat that I either slam right into a bullet or move or don't become aware of a bullet until I'm already dead.

For example it happened twice during Chen's midboss:
https://files.catbox.moe/l9oqbn.rpy

[Anonymous No.]

>>45272956

[Anonymous No.]

god this game is kicking my ass. it's fucked up because i know i could've at least won if it wasn't for the fact that i keep losing lives because i overestimate my ability to dodge shit without using a bomb. by the way, what determines when you get extra lives? is it points or is it solely the life pickups i see sometimes

[Anonymous No.]

>>45360047
You get a extra live for when you reach at 10, 20, 40 and 60 million points.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45360047
Use your bombs man. Its better to lose a bomb than lose a life.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45360083
I'm trying to get into the habit of just using the fucking bombs, it's just hard to shake the feeling that i'm wasting them

[Anonymous No.]

lmao played Mystic Square on Normal with Yuuka to record generic footage for a video, and somehow made it up to Shinki with no deaths. Unfortunately I messed up and died on a burst attack I was too close to avoid. I could've unintentionally gotten my first no miss clear on a random playthrough with a recording to prove it lol

>>45355311
There are few basic concepts that, once you learn them, make every STG game formulaic and easy to read. The concept I mentioned is called "streaming" and it is the solution to almost 70% of all shots in all the games. If I get the time in the coming weeks then I might write something up for you. You're the same anon with awful WBaWC gameplay in that one /v/hu thread a few days ago, right?
>times where heading around volleys seems to work better then squeezing through gaps
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. You HAVE to squeeze between bullets ("weaving") if that means getting to safety rather than moving with the bullet and getting side-smacked by another.
>https://files.catbox.moe/l9oqbn.rpy
Goddamn. You play pretty fidgety when there's nothing on screen, then you get very tense in movements when there's any semblance of a wave headed your way. I was something like this starting out, but this is extreme. Also you're very reckless with moving and wanting to collect items. Fucking ignore them, you don't need them any faster, and you will get your power to full anyway. Don't risk your life for them.
Some may disagree with this advice, but I suggest increasing starting bombs and lives and playing with that instead of using continues.

>>45360047
>>45360215
>because i overestimate my ability to dodge shit without using a bomb
>it's just hard to shake the feeling that i'm wasting them
If you're new and playing for a 1cc then there's no shame in bombing wantonly.
>it's just hard to shake the feeling that i'm wasting them
You're wasting them if you die without using them.
97.60% is a good rate, you'll get your 1cc very soon.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45360598
I'm 100% not going for a 1cc yet, I have to actually finish the game first.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45360598
>The concept I mentioned is called "streaming" and it is the solution to almost 70% of all shots in all the games.
Yeah I know it, about actually pulling it off all the time is another matter.
>You're the same anon with awful WBaWC gameplay in that one /v/hu thread a few days ago, right?
No, I'm not.
>Also you're very reckless with moving and wanting to collect items
Aren't you supposed to use the PoC as often as possible?
>t I suggest increasing starting bombs and lives and playing with that instead of using continues.
The issue is that only two or three games allow you to do this so it won't help you in the long run.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45355311
>Chen 1
You followed the bullet instead of dodging it, so you got smacked by another. Not writing anything on this because it was pretty bad, but I understand the apprehension with dodging that pattern as the bullets do come out pretty fast for a beginner, and I think I used to die a lot to it or simply bombed it.
>Chen 2
This is a bit more complex and can be explained:
- You were focused on dodging bullets 1, 2, and 3. This is correct as they are the only ones headed towards you and in your focus zone. I don't know if you were aware of all 3 of them or just one of them, but so far this is okay. Bullets A and X are not in your focus zone yet, but you should be aware of them (not specifically, but aware that "there's a next wave coming").
- You move to dodge bullet 3. Bullet 1 and 2 are no longer a threat. By now, you noticed bullets A (and should've been also X). Bullet A is coming towards you what seems to be fast (hint: it isn't, it's the same speed as bullets 1,2,3). You put all your focus on it and move by a large margin to dodge it safely. However, you did not properly determine it's trajectory, and since you focused on it too much you missed out on bullet X.
- You dodge bullet A, which if you had stood still would've missed you by miles, but you've put yourself in the path of bullet X. Which you react too late to and in the wrong direction as well.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45361037
>Yeah I know it, about actually pulling it off all the time is another matter.
But you have to do it every time there are aimed shots. Your movements dictate how the bullet walls are going to be.
Move around too much? Good luck dodging all the shit that's now a solid wall coming towards you.

[Anonymous No.]

(forgot to continue)
>>45361037
>Aren't you supposed to use the PoC as often as possible?
When it's safe and you're able to. But seeing how you're having difficulty dodging basic patterns, a big NO. Focus on improving your skills rather than going for the items. If you survive, then you'll eventually reach full power. If you die to random bullets after a haphazard rush to pick up items, then you'll lose a life AND all the power points you rushed for.
>The issue is that only two or three games allow you to do this so it won't help you in the long run.
True, but since you have the handicap in this game, might as well use it. You can't even get a 1cc let alone playing the later ones. And I assure you, MoF and SA WILL be a spike in difficulty, so better get good here at least before moving on.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45361062
Thanks for taking the time to do the breakdown, I really appreciate it. This game is way more complicated then I expected.

>>45361100
>>45361210
>Good luck dodging all the shit that's now a solid wall coming towards you.
I know, but it can be hard to identity when it's an aimed shot or not, plus aimed shots almost always come with other attacks cluttering up the screen.

>If you survive, then you'll eventually reach full power.
Am I supposed to play it safe but limit myself by denying myself power and pickups for lives/bombs or try to be more aggressive and have a buffer for mistakes? I was told earlier in the thread to be more aggressive.

>You can't even get a 1cc let alone playing the later one
]Do Easy 1ccs count? I know MoF is a huge leap in difficulty compared to the easier games, Hina is as bad as a stage 3 or 4 boss in the other games.. I'm not even going to bother touching SA until I can actually play the games.

[Anonymous No.]

Finally beat this shit one time.
Everything falls apart once I hit Sakuya's stage, but a 1cc definitely feels possible if i use my bombs more proactively, though that also depends on if there's something else after Remilia on 1cc, because if there is i'm most likely fucked

[Anonymous No.]

>>45361603
>Am I supposed to play it safe but limit myself by denying myself power and pickups for lives/bombs or try to be more aggressive and have a buffer for mistakes?
As you get better, you will transition more from the former and more to the latter. You will need to do your own risk assessment that's personal to you.

>I was told earlier in the thread to be more aggressive.
No, you were told:
>You let so many easy items drop off the bottom of the screen in the first 2 stages
>You should always PoC after every boss attack that drops items, because it's basically always safe to in PCB.
It specifically said "easy items" because there are also hard items that you should probably not worry about. If you want to PoC during stages, you'll need to get better at dodging and/or planning.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45362462
I guess all I can do is just keep playing then. This run I at least reached Yuyuko although Youmu made sure to waste most of my continues.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45361062
man, how are you so good at giving advice
i downloaded that guy's replay and tried to come up with something to say, but came up totally empty-handed

[Anonymous No.]

>>45363198
when i "watch replays" i usually record them so i can move back and forth in the footage easily. replay desyncs are ass and imagine waiting for pcb s4 to play to watch the prismriver fight multiple times

[Anonymous No.]

>>45335469
Bombing is good. If you're dying with bombs in stock, lower your standards for what you think you should be dodging legit and bomb more.
It's better to "waste" bombs by using them on things you could have survived than to actually waste them by dying before you used them. In my case, I find that my dodging skills actually improve when my bomb stock is empty cause I'm no longer stressing over when I should use them, and can just dodge 'n shoot as I please.
tl;dr MASH BOOM BUTTON MAKE BAD SHIT DIE

[Anonymous No.]

>>45362212
>Everything falls apart once I hit Sakuya's stage
Here a few hints for the stage that I followed when I was gunning for my first 1cc:
- Position yourself above the "T" in the "STAGE 5" display message at the start. This should eliminate one of the first two fairies, and the second one can be dodged with ease.
- After that, go back down and stick to the left wall. There will be two more pairs of such fairies. The first pair will come close to the wall, which should die quickly if you stuck to the wall, while the second pair will be close together which don't need to be killed. Just sidestep their aimed shot.
- Stick to the left wall as enemies will come from both sides. This will allow you to clear one side from spawning and firing, leaving you to deal with bullets from only the right. This same trick also applies to Stage 6's first wave of enemies during the drum and piano part of the song, before the piano solo.
- Bomb through Sakuya's spellcard "Misdirection"
- Stick to the same side again
- The aimed burst fairies will show up again, but their bullets are not as dense. You should be able to stream these easily. Otherwise, just bomb.
Note that these are beginner-friendly tricks that I ingrained into memory. I have to consciously avoid doing these when playing nowadays because of how strongly I relied on them back in the day lol

>>45363198
12 years with 1cc Normal in all games including the fighters, Seihou 1 + 2 and Uwabami Breakers (but not the camera games and similar gimmick side games, never cared for them).
However the real reasons would be because I recorded all my 1ccs to upload onto YT so I got to see how my skills improved and where I fucked up. Honestly cringe to rewitness but very useful. The other reason would be because only recently I bothered to finish up 1ccs for all other characters in PoDD and PoFV (I was the one crying about losing my Extra virginity for this game) on the occasion of UDoALG's release. I've never had such a long period of playing 2hu as I played them only when starting out, on rare occasions, or whenever a new game is released. Might as well share what I learned while I'm still in the Touhou drive before I go on a long hiatus again until the next new title. Although I'm thinking of finally doing the Extra stages since I'm holding them off for a "comfy period" that will never happen.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45362212
>Everything falls apart once I hit Sakuya's stage
Here a few hints for the stage that I followed when I was gunning for my first 1cc:
- Position yourself above the "T" in the "STAGE 5" display message at the start. This should eliminate one of the first two fairies, and the second one can be dodged with ease.
- After that, go back down and stick to the left wall. There will be two more pairs of such fairies. The first pair will come close to the wall, which should die quickly if you stuck to the wall, while the second pair will be close together which don't need to be killed. Just sidestep their aimed shot.
- Stick to the left wall as enemies will come from both sides. This will allow you to clear one side from spawning and firing, leaving you to deal with bullets from only the right. This same trick also applies to Stage 6's first wave of enemies during the drum and piano part of the song, before the piano solo.
- Bomb through Sakuya's spellcard "Misdirection"
- Stick to the same side again
- The aimed burst fairies will show up again, but their bullets are not as dense. You should be able to stream these easily. Otherwise, just bomb.
Note that these are beginner-friendly tricks that I ingrained into memory. I have to consciously avoid doing these when playing nowadays because of how strongly I relied on them back in the day lol

>>45363198
12 years with Normal 1ccs in all games (and some Hard 1ccs) including the fighters, Seihou 1 + 2 and Uwabami Breakers, but not the camera games and similar gimmick side games, never cared for them.
However the real reasons would be because I recorded all my 1ccs to upload onto YT so I got to see how my skills improved and where I fucked up. Honestly cringe to rewitness but very useful. The other reason would be because only recently I bothered to finish up 1ccs for all other characters in PoDD and PoFV (I was the one crying about losing my Extra virginity for this game) on the occasion of UDoALG's release. I've never had such a long period of playing 2hu as I played them only when starting out, on rare occasions, or whenever a new game is released. Might as well share what I learned while I'm still in the Touhou drive before I go on a long hiatus again until the next new title. Although I'm thinking of finally doing the Extra stages since I'm holding them off for a "comfy period" that will never happen.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45364470
Man, twelve years. Are the Extra stages really that difficult?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45365361
No I intentionally avoid finishing the deed. Several times I've reached the final spellcard, then deliberately crash into a bullet to end it.
Hell a few weeks ago I played the Extra stages of HSiFS, WBaWC, and UM on a whim and reached midway after a few tries each. I've only played them casually ever since I unlocked them, because I want to reserve the 1cc for a "special comfy date". Now that I've gotten older ans responsibilities piling up, I realize that the "comfy" will never come, so I'll try to 1cc them for real this coming year.
tldr: Autism

[Anonymous No.]

>>45350904
Sure thing. The version on archive.org should work with Windows 10 though (going based on screenshots I've seen online, haven't tried it myself). We might be looking at different pages, the one I found was this:
https://archive.org/details/roland-sound-canvas-va
I have also since discovered that there is a trial version that only allows playback for 10 minutes at a time. Might help to test something from an official source on your system.
https://in.roland.com/support/by_product/sound_canvas_va/updates_drivers/351454

[Anonymous No.]

>>45370432
Oh thanks, for some reason that one doesn't show up when searching for "roland canvas" or "roland sound canvas". I'll give it a try later.

[Anonymous No.]

holy fuck i'm gonna do it

[Anonymous No.]

>>45372527
You can do it anon!

[Anonymous No.]

i jobbed 2 lives with full bombs near the start

[Anonymous No.]

>>45372553
Damz, hate when that shit happens.
Hope you do better next time, I would tell you to keep continue to practice the final boss but it's sometimes hard to keep motivated when you thought you would get a 1cc.
But reaching final stage with those lives means getting your 1cc soon.

[Anonymous No.]

When am I supposed to use Practice mode? I know I made a big stink about it earlier but I was stinking about practicing stage 5 for a while to get it down because Youmu destroyed me last time. Should I not do this?

[Anonymous No.]

When am I supposed to use Practice mode? I know I made a big stink about it earlier but I was stinking about practicing stage 5 for a while to get it down because Youmu destroyed me last time. Should I not do this?

[Anonymous No.]

Did you delete your post and then make the exact same mistake?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373305
Yes.....

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373316
Anon...anyway, I don't know why you ask whether you should use practice mode as if it's a bad thing. It's there for you to practice, if you're having trouble with a stage, use it.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373330
I was told not to use it when I brought it up before.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373357
I can't imagine why.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373371
So should I just practice for a bit until jumping back into the game?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373270
if it helps you then use it

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373357
It has been cute watching you switch from completely dismissing advice to misinterpreting it but following it adamantly.

When you asked how to stop caving under pressure, you were told to stop restarting your full game runs to practice being under pressure. When you talked about using practice mode to perfect the early stages because you were convinced 1CCs can never make early mistakes, you were told that only practicing the easy stuff so that you'd have resources to tank the hard stuff was worse than practicing everything. The problem at the time was how you were practicing and why, not practice mode itself.

Practice Youmu. She's gimmicky.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373679
Okay thank you. I was just asking because I thought I was doing it wrong.

[Anonymous No.]

Forgot to reply
>>45361603
>Am I supposed to play it safe but limit myself by denying myself power and pickups for lives/bombs or try to be more aggressive and have a buffer for mistakes?
That anon surmised it well: You're supposed to play more aggressively against the bullets, but that's only possible as you gain more confidence and skill in dodging. When you become pro, you will soon see the gaps in the bullets and actively move into them like it's fucking Amigara fault instead of waiting for them to reach you.
Don't worry about it for now. Focus on survival first and foremost.

>]Do Easy 1ccs count?
No. Nothing is stopping you from doing one, but always remember pic related

>I know MoF is a huge leap in difficulty compared to the easier games, Hina is as bad as a stage 3 or 4 boss in the other games..
That's a bit of hyperbole.

>I'm not even going to bother touching SA until I can actually play the games.
That's why you're starting from the earlier games and playing upwards. Keep it up, you'll get your 1cc soon.
Just curious though, why are you starting with PCB instead of EoSD?

>>45373357
Seems you got trolled

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373900
>That's a bit of hyperbole.
Maybe, but compare her to Mystia or Chen and she's on a whole other level.

>Just curious though, why are you starting with PCB instead of EoSD?
I bounced off EoSD, played PCB and got a bit into it, before I did some IN and got a Easy Clear off of that, then played a lot of TD and got a Normal clear and a Easy 1cc in that. I'm going back to PCB becuase I heard it's one of the easiest games to Normal 1CC and to be honest, I'm kinda sick of TD.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373912
>Hina
Okay you're right, but Stage 3 at most. She is an actual difficulty spike indeed and Nitori after her is only barely harder. I now remember I faced more trouble with her as I came fresh off EoSD, PCB, and IN 1ccs with extra lives+bombs.

>PCB
Oh okay, I'm just reevalutating the usual suggested entry games:
PCB seems harder than EoSD overall in terms of bullet density, but you have a visible hitbox and the border system to make up for it.
EoSD is more raw, has less bullets than PCB but slightly faster. On the other hand, IN seems like PCB but without the handicap, dunno why it gets suggested sometimes. MoF is rough as a beginner suggestion and I would never suggest it after getting surprisingly raped myself a few months back. Either that or Marisa A is just awful. Finally I don't see why TD gets suggested because despite the moderately easy patterns, the resources are just too scarce and without knowledge of when to use the trance, novices will have a hard time.
Would never suggest PC-98 games as entry games unless one is specifically interested in starting from the start. Did this once to somebody not interested in the retro bit and they dropped all interest in the series.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45374050
>Would never suggest PC-98 games as entry games unless one is specifically interested in starting from the start.
Agreed for the first three games, disagree for 4-5. LLS and MS are foundationally very similar to EoSD, but easier and honestly more polished in some ways. I think they're a fantastic starting point, and LLS might just be the singular most beginner friendly shmup in existence.

>Did this once to somebody not interested in the retro bit and they dropped all interest in the series.
I don't think starting someone that superficial on EoSD or PCB is gonna give a better first impression. If I spoke to anyone with such sentiments, I would suggest trying out one or two other games (ideally more modern) before deciding the series is not to that person's tastes.

>Either that or Marisa A is just awful.
It's been a while since I played MoF, but based off some cursory research, yeah Marisa A is bad. I'd suggest Reimu B since she has actually good damage output and a much smaller hitbox. If you like Marisa, Marisa C's damage output is even better, but her gimmick and big hitbox makes her more suited for experienced players. Worth noting Marisa B has uncapped damage output in the 3.x power range due to a bug, but that's gimmicky to the point of being cheap to some people.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45373912
>I'm kinda sick of TD
I totally get that, fuck trance. It makes me sad because I love everything about this game except actually playing it, and if it wasn't designed around such a stupid gimmick it probably would have been my favorite.

I'll also share some of my own thoughts on "recommended first 1cc games" like the other fellow did. I play on Normal, and I'm rusty from not having played much in the last five years.

If you get frustrated with PCB, I highly encourage you to try LLS or MS, especially LLS.
MS is basically a slightly easier EoSD: you get a fair amount more lives/bombs, and the patterns aren't quite as fast or prone to walling you out. Still very similar in feel, though. I personally find it more fun.
LLS is by FAR the easiest game in the series: you get quite a few lives/bombs, and each difficulty tier is closer to the step below it compared to other games. It is the only game I have done a normal no-bomb and a hard 1cc on, and I managed to 3cc it on lunatic.

EoSD has simple patterns without too many bullets, but bullets are a little fast compared to later games, and it has some RNG issues resulting in walling more than other games. You get a moderate amount of extra lives/bombs, but not too many. It's not one of the easiest, but I'd still call it one of the easier ones. It was my second 1cc after LLS.

PCB has denser patterns than EoSD, but I remember them being easier to memorize, and you do get a lot of extra lives and bombs in that game. Border gimmick is a good "get out of jail free" card when it comes up, but I don't know how to meter manage. I agree with the common sentiment that it's easier than EoSD. Probably my second choice for "best first 1cc" after LLS. Keep in mind you get extra lives based on number of point ITEMS collected, not points themselves.

IN's patterns are slightly harder than PCB's, but you get about as many lives and even more bombs from what I remember. You also get a very big deathbomb window, especially if you're playing border team. I actually find it easier than PCB, and you seem familiar enough with the games that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it despite its numerous gimmicks. Like PCB, lives are tied to point items and not points themselves.

MoF has harder patterns compared to everything else here, but still moderately easy overall. I find it very manageable until the last stage, where Kanako has a few spell cards that really piss me off. The power-bomb gimmick of this one makes for what's the most powerful bombs in the series, enough to bombspam through most everything (except Kanako). I personally like this one a lot, but it's probably the hardest on this list.

I've occasionally seen people recommend DDC and HSiFS, but I disagree and haven't even 1cc'd them myself. DDC's PoC-lifepiece gimmick makes it very routing heavy. HSiFS can supposedly be trivialized with some shot types, but I don't know how, and the patterns aren't all that easy; Okina is a steeper difficulty spike than Kanako.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45374247
>I don't think starting someone that superficial on EoSD or PCB is gonna give a better first impression.
Still miles better than an Arkanoid clone for sure. I totally messed it up, but they weren't that so interested as well as being a teenage-minded femoid.

>MoF
I already finished all Reimu option types ages ago, wanted to play Marisa. I'm aware of the laser bug and didn't want to play around it by bombing to stay below 3.0, thus accidentally picked the worst shot type. Reached Kanako but a few cocky deaths ruined the run for me, so had to clear it on an embarrassing retry. Must be the reason why my new perception of MoF being harder than I remember.

>>45374247
>MS is basically a slightly easier EoSD: you get a fair amount more lives/bombs
Default starting bombs is 3 while it's 2 in LLS. However I found that you get the resources in LLS (7 lives total in an average run) much sooner than MS. I got the 7 when I reached the middle of Stage 5.

>I've occasionally seen people recommend DDC and HSiFS
DDC is actually pretty vanilla and doesn't seem like a bad suggestion, but the life pieces thing will skew new players' expectations of the series. HSiFS doesn't seem bad either, but again, it's best to keep it as vanilla as possible imo. I would've suggested WBaWC for the same reasons as that game is trivially easy too.
Alas I'm a hardcore traditionalist and if it's not EoSD then it's not valid imho

[Anonymous No.]

>>45376176
>Still miles better than an Arkanoid clone for sure.
You started her on HRTP? Never mind, she is immediately absolved of all guilt.
In all seriousness, it doesn't sound like the outcome would have been different no matter which game you picked.

>I found that you get the resources in LLS (7 lives total in an average run) much sooner than MS
Yeah I likely overstated it, that sounds fairly similar to the average EoSD run. I do remember getting more bombs though, so I'd revise my thoughts as "more generous than EoSD, but not enough to be significantly easier"

>I would've suggested WBaWC for the same reasons as that game is trivially easy too.
I'd like to know, how so? I played it once, and I barely got to Keiki on 5 credits. I'd call it harder than average, though I'm not sure how much of that is due to UFO gimmick v3

>if it's not EoSD then it's not valid
Nah, you're right. I always disliked the series's reliance on unfun gimmicks. I think LLS and MS did it better though.
And to be honest, I still enjoy 7-10 (sans PoFV fuck that game) more since they have more interesting patterns and their gimmicks aren't overly obtrusive. I'd give similar praise to LoLK, though I like it less than EoSD.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45374490
I'm starting to think focusing on Ten Desires as my first serious attempt to beat a game on Normal was a mistake. The lack of lives drilled it into my head that I had to be really anal with them or else my run was ruined. Even if I saved my trances and hd off on bombing to maximize prices, I was only getting three or four lives. Getting them is much easier in PCB. It doesn't seem too much more difficult than PCB anyways. The bosses in the latter half do seem a lot easier than PCB but that might be because I've played that game a lot more.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45378146
Yeah, TD is weird in that it has some of the easiest patterns, but it hardly gives you any resources and punishes you greatly for dying. That design philosophy reminds me a lot of SA actually, but that game has pretty hard patterns.

Since you seem to have the mindset that it's important to conserve bombs, do remember that it's better to waste a bomb than never use it since your bomb count resets on death.

>The bosses in the latter half do seem a lot easier than PCB
They definitely are. Stage 4 of PCB is a difficulty spike, although actually not that steep compared to other stage 4s. I do think Yuyuko is one of the easier final bosses, but Youmu and Prismrivers are definitely hard to get a hang of when starting out.
Some of Youmu's attacks, like her nonspells, can be misdirected by being on one side when she shoots, then quickly darting over to the other side before the bullets all spread out. Aside from that, I don't remember enough to give specific advice besides to use streaming and to keep in mind more spellcards are static (ie. they spawn bullets with fixed positions and trajectories) than you think.

[Anonymous No.]

>>45378146
Did you know that you can gain double the amount of resources when in trance mode?

[Anonymous No.]

>>45379845
I do know. It reinforced bad habits for me where I thought I had to pull things off flawlessly to have a chance "I can't die on these stages, then I need to trance exactly here to get more life prices then I need to avoid bombing these spells to gain more resources" It really was the wrong mindset to have, but I'll just push some on the game for it.

>>45378679
I've been trying to be more proactive with my bombs although I still feel like I'm doing something wrong if I have to bomb a spell more then once. I'll just keep practicing Youmu until I have a better feel to beating her.

[Anonymous No.]

This is the first time I've seen the gameplay thread hit bump limit in a while. Good job!

[Anonymous No.]

>>45381322
That's kinda sad. But hey, if we managed to hit the bump limit this time, that means we're coming back!