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

[Battler]

Yeah, I got through it alright til I hit Xa Zuri (guessing from the katakana that that's how you'd romanize it). Lowering the water levels in every room is optional, but there is some treasure hiding on the ground floor that you might otherwise miss. I have no idea how worth it is since all the materials kind of blend together and I'm not really paying attention to them, buuuut...

Alright, I've found Ran and Parsee got the Hook, and used it on the first spot to get Star and Luna.

Now I know I saw other Hook points elsewhere, but I have no idea where... uggggh I hate looking for this stuff.


e: Oh, it wound up just hiding a recipe for some kind deal, where I think you trade 10 of some material to get 5 of the four basic weapon crafting materials. Nifty, but I don't have any of the required material so whatevs.
e2: Oh hey, if you come in to Hakugyokuro from the Sunflower Fields, you can find Hatate past a Hookshot point.

[Syanas]

Which area was the Hook in?

[Battler]

It's in the western end of what I assume to be Higanbana. IIRC, when you first enter the blue wasteland area from the stairs Yuuka guards, you head north two screens, and then west a few.

e: Oh, found Reisen too. I apparently can't progress very far past that area though, there's a big glowing red stop sign preventing me from moving on. I assume it's like the Hookshot and I'll get something then come back for it.

[Syanas]

Do you also happen to have a list of all the hook areas in the first strata? Backtracking is starting to piss me off. There really needs to be some sort of thing that makes monsters ignore you when you're way above their level.

[rizul98]

I'm going to make it quick:

1.03 patch is out now. Get it here: http://komatsuna-ya.kululu.net/patch_maroku_103.exe

Anyways, I did some testing - like slash, bludgeon, and piercing, magic attacks using their respective elements gain 1 magic attack each level. In theory this sounds nice, but if you're thinking of grinding it up big time, well, I'm going to be honest.

Buffing, equipment, strategy, hitting weaknesses, being higher leveled, formations, and having higher tier magic spells are going to make far more of a difference than grinding up 10 magic elemental levels to get 10 very little magic attack. I'll admit it does make a difference early on but when magic skills are very largely determined by what shikigamis you have equipped, and physical attackers have to learn their shit via attacking, it sort of falls behind unless they have another bonus for hitting a high enough level in the said magic element, but there doesn't seem to be much of a point to spending a ridiculous amount of time grinding to whatever is the max level for elemental levels in this game unless it's physical skills that you need to learn. Not to mention I can't figure out how skill gains are determined, as in if it's truly random or there's a trick to leveling it.

[Pesco]

What determines the chance for learning attacks?

[rizul98]

What determines the chance for learning attacks?

Only physical elementals (slash, bludgeon, piercing) can give you weapon skills for said elemental via randomly sparking during battles with physicals.

Everything else? Shikigamis gain these, including magic spells, upon leveling on their own.

[Syanas]

The chance is random, but high enough that you wouldn't be spending weeks trying to get them. Just normally meleeing in combat for a while is good enough to get you at least the first 4-5 skills. After that it starts getting a little rare though.

I'm also starting to find it a little hard to keep my party up to date as I can't remove Reimu from the party. She's level 16 currently while everyone else is 11-15, and after acquiring a new party member, I have no space for her right now.

Edit: Well, I only remember 3 hooks in the first strata, and I got Momiji, Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire for my troubles, as well as the aforementioned recipe.

By the way, do the broken recipe numbers get fixed in 1.03, along with the missing last character of a lot of sentences? And if I used 1.02x to patch my client but it's only up to 1.01, do I have to do 1.02 and 1.03 separately?

Just read the logs and tried the patch. Patch works, and all that was fixed were some minor Shikigami issues.

[Battler]

Oh, I completely missed Momiji, where was she?

On the other side of things, I wound up infront of the stairs to the third level so I was like "sure why not". It took me like 12 tries getting things right/getting lucky, but I finally managed to beat/recruit Eiki.

[Syanas]

Momiji's at the lake area, before the mountains.

I updated my post in the first page with a more accurate description of Last Words. If you want me to translate some other stuff, just ask and I'll splice it into that post.

[Pesco]

Does anyone else get Tewi's starter AoE attack (Ancient Duper) missing all the time?

[Battler]

Momiji's at the lake area, before the mountains.

I must confess, I'm still not sure where you're talking about. Is it in the same area as where you can recruit Nitori?

[rizul98]

Hm, just had Ancient Duper miss on first attack in the first random battle with Meiling. I suspect it only has a status effect to inflict, and its rate to inflict that status effect is terrible despite it saying it is + next to the effect.

[Syanas]

I must confess, I'm still not sure where you're talking about. Is it in the same area as where you can recruit Nitori?

Yes. It should be in a place just before the mountains. You need to use the hook to reach the other half of the cave.

[rizul98]

Annnnddd I just realized the in-game bestiary is gone completely. This... is kind of stupid, and I'm not even sure how you could get it back.

E: So remember I posted about Ancient Duper having crappy accuracy? Well, it was actually the exact same as in GoS. So forget about Ancient Duper, Pesco. It's not going to hit very well EVER.

[Syanas]

I just found the big red stop sign as well, and the hint says that you need some sort of pass to get through. So in essence, yeah you'll be needing something like the Hook Shot item.

[homing curvy laser]

The UNDENIER, as I like to call it, can be found deep into Sea of Blazing Fires, or however that place was called. It's on the other end of Youkai Mountain, in the second strata.
Also, yeah, Ancient Duper has a really horrible chance to hit, even with DEX + accuracy buffs and AGI debuffs on chinese zombie boss I only got it to hit around 50% of the time.

[Syanas]

Whoa. Heaven is a small load of buttrape. There's only like 5 maps but the monsters in there are crazy. A sylph just solo'd my party.

Also, is there any sort of passage I'm missing in Muenzueka? The left path is fine, but I can't do anything about the top part of the first map and any of the right side maps. I'm assuming I'll have to get in from Makai 4?

Few things to note...

- Heaven has a place where you need a "longer" hook shot to cross.
- Random Daiyousei encounter in Makai 4.

Edit: Well, I dunno about you, but Eiki went down with 5 characters with hammers and swords and spears hacking away at her. Buffs helped too.

[homing curvy laser]

Yeah, the west side of of Muenzuka is only accessible through the other side of that level.
Also, what's up with all those deserts in Gensokyo?

[rizul98]

Another random mechanic to note:

Apparently as it turns out, you can't activate Last Words while being silenced. I don't know how that feels expect that it seems like a dick move.

Also yes, why does Gensokyo have so many deserts? That doesn't seem healthy for the area.

[Syanas]

All of those desert/wasteland areas are simply labeled "Makai #". Not sure if it's any relation to that Makai, but that's what it's called.

Edit: Hey, a metal Yukkuri. Seems they have 3 HP and give 775 exp per kill.

[blabla1994]

All of those desert/wasteland areas are simply labeled "Makai #". Not sure if it's any relation to that Makai, but that's what it's called.

Edit: Hey, a metal Yukkuri. Seems they have 3 HP and give 775 exp per kill.

How did you kill it?

[Syanas]

Same way you kill them in GoS. Use high power, high accuracy physical moves. It doesn't have perfect dodge or even that much flee this time, but its defense is much, much higher. It's more about luck than stats in early levels, I think. It's also not that fast, so you can usually get everyone's attacks off with a high speed party before it moves.

[blabla1994]

So ya there I was just wondering around Hakugyokurou when suddenly Kisume.

Edit: Amazingly I beat her, after wasting the all of my party's MP and then she only gives 200 xp. On the other hand I happened upon a metal yukkuri right after and managed to kill it, mainly because I got lucky and she didn't run after 4 turns >_>.

[rizul98]

So I was exploring that cave between the first desert area and what seems to be Marisa's house when I discovered Yamame. Of note is that this shikigami is apparently Earth-focused. However, you have to explore the cave completely to get new items, and its gimmick is a bit annoying. So if you explored everything, especially the cave, you actually would have 12 shikigamis at that point before going down to the second landmass.

[blabla1994]

HA Second Tower Guardian, down!

Edit:There... Are... Mind Flayers in the Second Tower... *cry*
Edit2: Annnnnd Lyrica is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters simply for that awesome RES buff.

[Syanas]

So I was exploring that cave between the first desert area and what seems to be Marisa's house when I discovered Yamame. Of note is that this shikigami is apparently Earth-focused. However, you have to explore the cave completely to get new items, and its gimmick is a bit annoying. So if you explored everything, especially the cave, you actually would have 12 shikigamis at that point before going down to the second landmass.

By my count, it should be 16 before you enter the second land mass. At least for me, I had Komachi, Letty, Minoriko, Rumia, Wriggle, Hime, Mystia, Aya, Yamame, Orin, Lyrica, Lunasa, Merlin, and Hina with Reimu's team.

By the way, I just played Youyou Kengeki Musou. Judging distance in that game is so fidgety.

[Luca Trancelywaath]

so there's this thing where kisume is a shikigami zomgggg!!!

[Syanas]

Unfortunately I haven't gotten Satori yet so I can't even get her. Maybe I should've tried beating Daiyousei when I encountered her.

[blabla1994]

so there's this thing where kisume is a shikigami zomgggg!!!

Yes, of course getting her requires a minor arcane ritual and a few sacrifices to various gods of moderate renown. >_>