a new ichigo-bose game: 東方幻想魔録 ～ The Devil of Decline

[Luca Trancelywaath]

sup dudes, remember the guys who made Genius of Sappheiros? Well they released a new game this comiket, Touhou Gensoumaroku ~ The Devil of Decline. It was their PROJECT SHIKIGAMI, and, well, just as it states, one of the main striking points of the game is what I gathered to be some kind of wacky Shikigami system. In actuality, the Shikigami system is basically wherein you may attach certain Touhou characters and some OCs to assist your main party. Every main party member and every Shikigami member has level and can gain the EXP. As far as I know, people you assign as Shikigami can also be part of fighting force. As you may have 5 members out on the field at once, each member having 3 Shikigami attach to them, you may have as many as 20 people in battle at once! That's kind of nice.

I think it's an incredible departure from their first foray with Genius of Sappheiros and I really look forward to actually sitting down and playing this monstrous (in a very awesome way) game.

Support strawberry-bose!
http://www.gensoukyou.org/

[blabla1994]

As you may have 5 members out on the field at once, each member having 3 Shikigami attach to them, you may have as many as 20 people in battle at once! That's kind of nice.

Isn't 5 times 3 15?

[Darth_Sirov]

Sounds interesting, I haven't played GoS yet (still on my to-do list), and this might be another great game. So the gameplay is still similar to GoS, just have more units via Shikigami? Have some sample screenies?

[Luca Trancelywaath]

Isn't 5 times 3 15?

Did you forget the five members you have out on the battlefield?

[blabla1994]

Did you forget the five members you have out on the battlefield?

Ya okay, how did I miss that. -_-

So yea apparently we had some massive bugs that have necessitated patches already. Something about Yuyuko duplicating herself by eating the other characters.

[Serela]

So yea apparently we had some massive bugs that have necessitated patches already. Something about Yuyuko duplicating herself by eating the other characters.

lolwut

Also, to people who might be scared off due to GoS's (Their first game) difficulty, the translated notes about this game state that it's meant to be much easier then GoS was.

[Luca Trancelywaath]

So yea apparently we had some massive bugs that have necessitated patches already. Something about Yuyuko duplicating herself by eating the other characters.

Well... considering who is on their coding staff...

[Syanas]

Sounds hilarious. I hope this game isn't too based on drop farming

[blabla1994]

So, anyone figure the effects of the various last words yet? I mean some are really obvious.

Reimu: Heals

Youmu: Slashing

Marisa: Reduce everything to dust and ashes.

Utsuho: Reduce everything to radioactive dust and ashes.

Patchouli: Reduce everything to dust, ashes, icepops, and whatever else Patchy can think up.

But some like Mokou's are halfway obvious, I mean it rezes characters, but it also appears to apply some sort of buff as well. And I have absolutely no idea what Yukari's does.

[Starxsword]

I dunno, in the last game Marisa's last word was to make all spells cost 1 mana.

[Serela]

From what I've read, you can choose your initial protagonist between four people (Reimu, Yukari, Meiling, Byakuren) and they start with different allies (It seems like you get at least some of the other allies later in though). Iunno about other differences between them. Surprisingly, Sunny Milk is one of the playable characters. As in, not a shikigami.

[8lue Wizard]

Meiling

Shut up and take m(ry

[juon2nd]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask this, but...
I was interested in uploading this game's BGM. I don't know moon, but I wanted to extract (or acquire some other way) DoD's songs. Has anyone ideas how to accomplish that? Help would be very appreciated

[Syanas]

I find it odd that this game actually crashes when run under Applocale, yet works fine without it. I also find it odd that the only way to get out of the settings from the main title is to reset the game.

Anyway, I finally have it running, but I'm not sure how to patch it. Rather, the website gives 2 links and they seem slightly different from each other. Any reason for that?

Edit: Is it also normal that you are only able to choose Reimu's path in the beginning of the game?

[rizul98]

Well, to be honest...

Turns out it's a bug with the controls that "sets" the B button to the Escape button. Yes, for some reason, that one is somehow the B key despite the config setting saying otherwise.

You see, there's a temporary fix to fix it so that the X key (Which should be the B button) actually counts as the B button and NOT Escape. "How do you do this "temporary fix", rizul98?", you guys ask.

Press F1. Yes, seriously, pressing F1 once anywhere even on the title screen 'temporarily fixes' this issue so that the X key now functions as the B button properly. Go have an easier time canceling out of everything. Although I said temporary fix because if you quit/reset, it reverses the function BACK TO THE ESCAPE KEY. Still a tad annoying but much better than having no way to revert the Escape button at all.

Yes, I spent some time last night figuring why the Escape key was functioning like the B button in certain menus such as the formations menu despite the X key being clearly LABELED the B button.

Also, Syanas, there should have been a 1.00 -> 1.02 patch that is 200 MB big on the website and is clearly labeled as such. Run that one because you do not want bugs like "Yuyuko somehow dupes herself via eating characters". 

[Pesco]

Game crashes for me right after character selection. I had the same issue with GoS :/

[Syanas]

Have you tried all the usual methods? Applocale, Japanese local settings, setting compatibility to WIndows 95, etc.

After character selection should just be more dialogue with the same lens flashing stuff from the beginning of GoS. Maybe it has to do with your video drivers?

[Serela]

In addition to the usual things, which Syana brought up (Most notably having Jap locales and trying various compatibilities) I remember in GoS the initial solution for that crash was "Set the settings to 16bit color instead of 32bit"

[Pesco]

Most likely video drivers. I'll just have to secure a better machine to play it.

[Syanas]

I'm currently doing a blind playthrough, so I'm translating stuff along the way. If you want to discuss translations sooner or later, I'm up for it.

Last Words

Reimu - [Hakurei Healing Barrier] Same as GoS, heals the entire party.
Marisa - [Master Spark] A piercing type attack, Master Spark. More powerful than normal spells. Damage is boosted as its user levels up.
Youmu - [Eternal Slash] A 6 hit slash attack, dealing around 3x her normal damage overall. Damage is boosted as its user levels up.
Mokou - [Phoenix Resurrection] Revives any dead characters, and casts Reraise on currently living ones.
Okuu - [Mega Flare] Hits all enemies for about the same damage as Master Spark. Damage is boosted as its user levels up.
Nitori - [Perfect Camouflage] Buffs the party with a one time barrier that nulls damage.
Yuuka - [Flowering Defense] Nulls all physical damage for your party for a single turn.
Patchouli - [Philosopher's Stone] Inflicts non elemental damage to the entire enemy party. Damage is boosted as its user levels up.
Sanae - [Yasaka's Divine Wind] Same as GoS, boosts all stats for your entire party.
Sunny Milk - [Fatal Flash] Inflicts Stun at 100% chance to the entire enemy party.
Eiki - [Last Judgement] Inflicts non elemental damage to the entire enemy party. Will not work on certain enemies. Fixed 666 damage.
Yuyuko - [Resurrection Butterfly] Inflicts Instant Death to the entire enemy party. Will not work against resistant enemies.

About Formations

This time, there's a bar discerning each character in a formation. This bar represents the chance that they will be targeted in battle.

Free Fight - Same as in GoS, no special bonuses.
Solitude - The person in the front gets Patk, Pdef, and Speed bonuses, but has a very high chance of being targeted.
All for One - The rear character gains bonuses to Patk and Matk and is less likely to be targeted.
Twin Shield - The characters in the front act as a shield for the rear, with bonuses to Pdef.
Triple Wall - The characters in the front act as a shield for the rear, with bonuses to Pdef.
Crane's Wing Formation - The characters in the front get a bonus to their Patk, while the character in the rear gets a Pdef bonus and is rarely targeted.
Fish's Scale Formation - The characters in the front get a bonus to their Patk and Speed.
Hakurei Type - Slightly different from GoS, the characters in the front get a bonus to Patk, the character in the middle gets a Pdef bonus and acts as bait, but the rear gets a bonus in Speed instead of Matk.
Double Attacker - The characters in front get a bonus to Patk, and the characters in rear get a bonus to Speed.
Crescent - The characters in the front and middle get a bonus to Patk and Speed.
Suprise - The characters in the middle get a bonus to Speed, while the characters in the rear get a bonus to Matk.

[Serela]

Thanks Syanas! It's curious that matk bonuses seem quite uncommon.

[Syanas]

Despite the rarity, it seems the bonuses are actually quite influential, at least in the beginning of the game. I'm noticing a pretty large difference in numbers with attack and defense formations. Currently using the Hakurei Type and the damage for the characters in the front seem to have been boosted a good 8-12 damage over their usual 15-20 damage.

Edit: I've also noticed that the target rates for each character in a formation isn't very different. Even in extreme formations where some characters are very likely to be hit versus characters that are very unlikely to get hit, the chances are still about the same.

[Starxsword]

Wow that is a huge boost.

[Syanas]

So uh, I used the 1.02x patch but after opening the game it says I'm on version 1.01. Is that normal?

[Koru]

So uh, I used the 1.02x patch but after opening the game it says I'm on version 1.01. Is that normal?

 Yeah same here. Although I can't get the game to stop freezing at start up now (freezes immediately upon starting up now).

[blabla1994]

So uh, I used the 1.02x patch but after opening the game it says I'm on version 1.01. Is that normal?

Might be, I have the same thing.

[Syanas]

I'm starting to run into some crashing problems in this game now too. Not sure if it's just me but I'll try to run through the scene again.

Edit: Yeah, it's crashing at a particular point in the game, after a boss scene. Guess I'll have to skip the event.

[rizul98]

Yes, the whole 1.02 patch giving 1.01 in the game version even though it should be 1.02 is the same for me as well.

And for anyone who had to go through the hell of getting every skill for Satori in GoS, they changed how that works. Now you hunt monster shikigamis once you have Satori equipped and have much, much higher chances to get monster shikigamis than a lot of the 1% skill learn chance crazy events that went on in GoS. Yes, you can have the HDD monster shikigami and be able to use its HDD crash attack.

Also, I haven't run into any crash problems yet. Which is weird, since this is by the same people who made GoS, which certain people had some real bad problems with.

[Syanas]

I hit a wall after fighting Yuuka. Skipping the event fixed it, but since it's one of the main boss battles, I feel like I missed some important information.

Edit: Also, is there supposed to be nothing in the Bamboo forest? I reached a room near the end that seemed to be devoid of anything except for some sunlight and some flowers.

[blabla1994]

Edit: Also, is there supposed to be nothing in the Bamboo forest? I reached a room near the end that seemed to be devoid of anything except for some sunlight and some flowers.

That's were you get Mokou if you don't start with her.