Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ～ Double Dealing Character (Demo)

[Aeteas]

The demo was pretty fun. Overall the patterns seem quite fun, but I feel like they're a bit lacking in variety. For survival, none of the shot types are terrible, though I think the giant gohei shot might be the easiest. The stage 2 background seems to cause a lot of lag on my computer while stage 1 and stage 3 don't. I'm pretty sure its the background since I get lag during the nonspells, but not during the spellcards.

Also, Kagerou is hard.

[Tengukami]

Well, ZUN did the boss sprites differently before. It wasn't just the ZUNart pasted into the game but instead looked more like the player sprites. Look at Cirno's PoFV or StB appearances for example. (Looks much better imo.)

Ah, but Cirno's DDC sprite is consistent with the other sprites in the game, which are all basically much, much smaller versions of their cut-in portraits.

Although I did used to giggle at the way Cirno's little legs wiggled in StB.

[SirChaotick]

Ooh, a demo~ Not for me though, not going to get access to any conventions anytime soon. I'll be content with Youtube for now...

This new game seems rather nice though. The visuals are a huge notch up, at any rate. Absolutely love those.
The music... it's rather different from the usual fare, but it sure is refreshing. I'm a bit divided about the electric guitar emphasis, but I feel I could get used to it.

The actual gameplay I'll have to wait for I guess.

[Suikama]

it seems like ReimuA can have a pseudo MariAli beam by mashing Shift to get both unfocused homing amulets and the homing gohei at the same time, although I'm not sure if the dps is any actually higher

[The Noodles Guy]

By the way, is the demo something you can download for free, or will it eventually become one? If so, how long does it take?

You can download the demo, it worked for me~

How long does it take to download the demo? It took about 10 minutes for me. I think it takes about 10 or 20 minutes to download the demo.

[Limian]

ReimuA looks more like the new Border Team to me since the gohei behaves pretty much like Ran did. Not sure if she is as strong, though.

[LadyScarlet]

Great. The game crashes every time I try to boot it up.

[Tengukami]

Great. The game crashes every time I try to boot it up.

Rename the Japanese-named folder to something else.

[AJS]

I usually prefer boss themes significantly more than stage themes, but this time I love them both equally.  ZUN's new music style is quite different, and I welcome the change.

Not saying his previous style was bad, of course.  It's just nice to hear some variety.  I was also pleasantly surprised by the two songs he did for Hopeless Masquerade, which I almost didn't think were done by ZUN until I checked the music room.

As for gameplay, I'm pretty satisfied.  1cc'd on Hard, and it was a sufficient challenge for me, and the gimmicks for each boss were quite interesting.  Sekibanki's my favorite so far in terms of design and danmaku.  And those heads are just adorable. :3

I couldn't be more excited for the full game to come out.  So far it looks very promising to me!

[LadyScarlet]

I couldn't even 1cc Normal. I hope this absence of deathbombing doesn't become a trend.

[Hinacle]

There's something about the music that has this space feel to it. I love it!

[KrackoCloud]

The music isn't sticking to me yet, but I probably just need a little more time and some more sleep to pay attention to it :U
All the new characters are pretty cool, but man, the danmaku in this game is hard!

According to Wikipedia, amanojaku can "able to provoke a person's darkest desires and thus instigate him into perpetrating wicked deeds." Which is a relatively plausible reason behind the stirring of normally quiet youkai.
Someone suggested the black smoke around the bosses is a sign of some sort of possession or something. I wouldn't be too surprised.

Now, based on those two points, here's my theory - the culprit is responsible for the weapon possession and inciting the revolution because, for some reason, they will benefit from war between humans and youkai. This is the meaning behind the title - Double Dealing Character, because the villain is goading on both sides at the same time. Why I'm not sure, but given the kanji title my suspicion is that it's something demonic.

I think this is a pretty cool theory too.

[AJS]

I couldn't even 1cc Normal. I hope this absence of deathbombing doesn't become a trend.

It still exists.  I should know because the first time I 1cc'd the game, I did so by deathbombing while on my last life while the stage 3 boss was exploding. :V

Maybe the window of opportunity's been shrunken a bit?  I'm not sure, though.  I didn't notice a difference.

[Limian]

I couldn't even 1cc Normal. I hope this absence of deathbombing doesn't become a trend.

I've deathbombed at least twice, once with Reimu and once with Marisa.

I'm a little disappointed by the music (none of the songs are really catchy or outstanding), but stage 4+ will probably have a lot of great themes, so I'll just be patient for the full release.

[Tengukami]

The wolfgirl's song I loved immediately, the other ones slowly grew on me. It seems like they're the kind of songs that slowly endear themselves to you.

I was much the same way about "Let's Live In A Lovely Cemetery". I used to think it was a pointless, forgettable song; now it's one of my favorites.

[BT]

I just figured out what SakuyaA's focused shot does. Holy shit that's innovative.

Spoiler:

Stopping enemies in place.

It's probably been mentioned already but, y'know, in case it wasn't.

[Validon98]

It actually does that too? Huh, I didn't notice that before. Interesting. It seems for whatever reason that using the possessed weapons is for the most part better than going without them. Of course, I expect there to be a Stage 4 or 5 thing happening depending on whether you went for the possessed or not possessed version of each character.

[Critz]

http://thpatch.net/w/images/8/8e/Thcrap.zip
English patch is here. Just open thcrap_configure.exe, pick option 5 (english), confirm till it asks for the game path, paste the path to DDC so it won't bother with other games. It'll create a english game shortcut in game folder.
So far, only dialogues are there, but it's something :3.

[LadyScarlet]

I think this and HM end the religion arc and start a new arc: the tsukumogami arc! After all, this, FS and HM all have tsukumogami as a focus, to varying majorities.

[Hinacle]

I just noticed something. When you shoot at the boss you absorb these faint little pellets. Shoot at the boss for like 2 seconds, stop, and then look at your character. What are they?

[Validon98]

I noticed the pellets, but I don't know what they are. I'll have to look at that at some point.

[The Greatest Dog]

Pretty sure those are PIV items, only on a small scale.

[Maiden Synnae ミ☆]

The wolfgirl's song I loved immediately, the other ones slowly grew on me.

That's interesting. I remember loving all of the themes immediately, and this doesn't happen to me so often... even while regarding about Zun's music. I'm slow overall to let a song "grow" on me... but if it's really good, then it will eventually happen for sure, even if it takes a while for that. (The wolfgirl's theme makes me think of halloween, btw) xD

Anyway, I know it's unrelated to the Music topic... but I also found the danmaku on this game to be quite hard. Not sure if it's as hard as SA or UFO, but it's definitively harder than TD (which is a good thing, because some challenge is always fun!)

I enjoyed the level of difficulty overall... it's challenging enough but at the same time it doesn't feel cheap for the most part. (And I just got a hard 1cc as well, hooray!)

[Desu_Cake]

I absolutely love Corrupted Sakuya's bomb. it's perfect for practising without worrying about dying.
Imaizumi's theme is wonderful, and Sekibanki is adorable, I love her.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

Sakuya B is the new Reimu A. I sense graze abuse.

[Zil]

You can download the demo, it worked for me~

How long does it take to download the demo? It took about 10 minutes for me. I think it takes about 10 or 20 minutes to download the demo.

Legally? From what I've heard, Tasofro made the HM demo downloadable on their site. I know ZUN is selling the DDC demo at Reitaisai, but I want to know if he'll make it available to download later (assuming that's not the case already).

[Tengukami]

I absolutely love Corrupted Sakuya's bomb. it's perfect for practising without worrying about dying.

It's also an awesome nostalgia from PCB; specifically, the Cherry Blossom Border. Notice how the bubble around Sakuya slowly shrinks - if you hit something during this time, everything on the screen clears, and the bomb is over. Loved that about PCB, love it about DDC.

I enjoyed the level of difficulty overall... it's challenging enough but at the same time it doesn't feel cheap for the most part. (And I just got a hard 1cc as well, hooray!)

That was my feeling, too. Like, "wow, this is fun!" during the challenging bits, instead of "wow this is %#$@&!!!!!", as was the case in UFO.

[SpoonyGundam]

That is strange. Maybe it's ZUN's way of referencing Hearn because according to the wiki on Nukekubi, " Lafcadio Hearn relates that the Nukekubi can be misidentified as Rokurokubi."

I looked into this a little earlier too, and it's not just that he relates that the nukekubi can be misidentified, it's literally what he himself does.

So I figure you're probably right. ZUN probably knows the difference, but Lafcadio Hearn/Koizumi Yakumo is so important that even his mistakes are canon.

[Tiamat]

I looked into this a little earlier too, and it's not just that he relates that the nukekubi can be misidentified, it's literally what he himself does.

So I figure you're probably right. ZUN probably knows the difference, but Lafcadio Hearn/Koizumi Yakumo is so important that even his mistakes are canon.

Yukari: I am the representative of Gensokyo's reality. If I say rokurokubi can detach their heads, then rokurokubi can detach their heads!


Although ZUN says in the music comments that he's actually unsure if they can or not, I believe.  Too bad, cause personally I find the Hearn thing much funnier.

[Hinacle]

Sakuya B's bomb is really good for collecting point items. I got like 5 2.0 bonuses in the 3rd stage when I bombed liberally. It auto collects every point item on the screen.