Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ～ Double Dealing Character released!

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

I try to wait until I have time to unfocus and that can be risky on dense patterns. But still...

[Aya Reiko]

BTW, shouldn't this thread be over at Eirin's by now?

[ultimatekd]

Does anyone know how to handle Yatsuhashi's second spell card on Normal? I have absolutely no idea how to approach it and all the Normal runs I've seen just Bomb it.

[Flan27]

You should see it on higher difficulties. ^^;;  It's pretty brutal.  It's a lot like Kouryuu's final attack in Daioujou, but it seems a lot harder for some reason.  It seems like the speed of the bullets make the streams overlap in inconvenient ways.

The trick to these kinds of spells is to move through the streams really aggressively.  It's the same in Blue Lady Show.

[Zengeku]

Does anyone know how to handle Yatsuhashi's second spell card on Normal? I have absolutely no idea how to approach it and all the Normal runs I've seen just Bomb it.

It's second nature to handle a pattern like this if you've played a lot of shmups like I have but I can at least give you some hints on how to approach it and save you the work of having to develop that instinct yourself You kinda wanna keep your focus on one row of bullets at a time and then time your movements so that it matches the location and speed of the bullets you are trying to fit through properly. It's really just a question of timing and understanding just how fast your character moves etc.

I'd suggest you entering the spell practice menu and practing it for a bit. If you still can't get the hang of it in, shall we say 50 attempts or something, post here again and I'll see if I can help you more thoroughly (unless someone else beats me to it)

[Flan27]

On a side note, does anyone know how Benben's second card works?  It seems like some of the spirits are aimed towards you and others are aimed towards her, but it's just really bizarre.

[Mero]

Benben shoots a few notes at you that lure the spirits towards them, on higher difficulties she shoots more notes and spread out so they lure even more spirits

[ultimatekd]

It's second nature to handle a pattern like this if you've played a lot of shmups like I have but I can at least give you some hints on how to approach it and save you the work of having to develop that instinct yourself You kinda wanna keep your focus on one row of bullets at a time and then time your movements so that it matches the location and speed of the bullets you are trying to fit through properly. It's really just a question of timing and understanding just how fast your character moves etc.

I'd suggest you entering the spell practice menu and practing it for a bit. If you still can't get the hang of it in, shall we say 50 attempts or something, post here again and I'll see if I can help you more thoroughly (unless someone else beats me to it)

Thank you! I will! It's definitely not going to be easy, as another issue I've always had is that I have trouble dodging through streams diagonally or backwards and no amount of practice seems to fix it. I just panic or move too much straight into the bullet.

*sigh* that certainly doesn't help.

[SirChaotick]

HOLY SHEET IT'S OUT

I am so thankful for this! Now I can postpone all plans of that UFO Lunatic 1cc indefinitely. I'll do this first, can't get any worse...

On the other hand, I still didn't manage to reach stage 6 after my second go on Normal. That may or may not indicate I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[The Noodles Guy]

Yeah, ZUN trolled us with the difficulty rising. TD was so easy he decided to troll us and make DDC nearly impossible. Now fans will demand an easier game, and then a harder one.

Of course, Jaimers (ands lots of Japanese players) have perfected Stage 6. Now I'm looking for a Perfect Stage 5 Lunatic.

[Clarste]

Spoiler:

And wow, I knew Sukuna was small, but I didn't imagine her being as small as the game shows her

Well she's based on that same little bug guy that's in Okami, so of course she's tiny.

[Flan27]

Benben shoots a few notes at you that lure the spirits towards them, on higher difficulties she shoots more notes and spread out so they lure even more spirits

The notes are what make the spirits move (only spirits in the general vicinity of the notes get activated) but they don't actually move towards the notes.  If you pay attention, a lot of the spirits will move directly towards you, but not all of them.

[Gamer251]

> Screaming at Seija for screen-inverting :v
Anyway, the game is great. Benben and Yatsuhashi hardest Stage 4, while Seija hardest Stage 5.
Oh, and there's an English Patch already, btw.

[Limian]

> Screaming at Seija for screen-inverting :v
Anyway, the game is great. Benben and Yatsuhashi hardest Stage 4, while Seija hardest Stage 5.
Oh, and there's an English Patch already, btw.

I have trouble believing that Seija is as hard as Shou. Actually, after 1MNBing her (Seija) on Normal yesterday, I did runs of some of the previous stage 5 bosses (Sakuya through Sanae) and Seija didn't seem notably more difficult than Sakuya and Youmu, at least.

[BT]

I urge you to try on Lunatic.

Granted, she might be easier than Shou assuming you've got the gimmicks down, but that happens to be really hard to do.

[Formless God]

Why does everyone seem to be taking a dump on ReimuB? She's stronk.

I think I'm about right on schedule. 
Perfect Stage 6 Lunatic.

Congrats man! Now no-bomb Lunatic!

[BT]

Hell no, ReimuB takes really really long to kill patterns because her homing is insignificant and her shot is bad as a forward focus. Stronger shots have it infinitely easier because plenty of patterns just get harder overtime. Results in a jump in difficulty.

[Formless God]

Ehhh, the forward focus is a straight stable beam that simply requires you to align yourself with the boss. ReimuB takes out everything in 2~2.5 waves, which is the standard fare in most other games, AND there are shot types that kill stuff really fast in the other games too, so I assumed it's nothing out of the ordinary.
And the only pattern that really requires homing to kill is the Stage 3 midboss spell ...

[Tengukami]

Yeah, ZUN trolled us with the difficulty rising. TD was so easy he decided to troll us and make DDC nearly impossible. Now fans will demand an easier game, and then a harder one.

Ah, "ZUN trolled/is trolling/will troll us". I never get tired of hearing that sad refrain from entitled fans.

EDIT: You have spellcard practice and stage practice. I highly recommend taking advantage of them. This game has ZUN playing around with perspective on all three axes. Practice will get you very far if you're willing to put the time into it. Pretty much echoing what Zengeku correctly pointed out, in other words: use the TWO practice modes ZUN gave you. You'll get better faster that way.

Oh, and there's an English Patch already, btw.

It's OK to link to patches. Which one are you referring to?

[MaStErSpArK94]

It's OK to link to patches. Which one are you referring to?

It's probably the one from the Touhou Patch Center, not sure though.

[Zengeku]

This game has ZUN playing around with perspective on all three axes. Practice will get you very far if you're willing to put the time into it.

Right now I'm kinda sceptical about things since certain parts on the game on Lunatic seems to be almost impossible if you play with the wrong shot. It's not a problem if it's just us who haven't found the right strats yet but it's a major issue if certain characters just can't do certain parts consistently. For as hard as UFO was, it is possible for every single character to bypass every single part of the game without bombs, dying or summoning/exploding UFO's consistently. In this game there are a few things were I'm really curious as to what people find out over time.

And whether certain spellcards I have in mind that even Jaimers have no idea about how to approach as it seems to be just luckshit (as of yesterday when i talked to him anyway) become more manageable as we figure things out. This is an exciting time for Touhou indeed. Definitely more exciting than something like TD where everyone can just conclude that everything is a joke and feel like there's no Lunatic mode at all.

[BT]

Formless: ReimuB just doesn't have enough range, and unlike Marisa, doesn't have enough power as well. Examples off the top are the stage five midboss and attack on midget.

And yep the problem with this game is that it seems outright unreasonable to play without bombing. As in, the game was designed with Bomb Every as the one and only playstyle. Even if you forget about the gimmicks.

[Tengukami]

And yep the problem with this game is that it seems outright unreasonable to play without bombing. As in, the game was designed with Bomb Every as the one and only playstyle. Even if you forget about the gimmicks.

This seems like premature hyperbole for comic effect.

And whether certain spellcards I have in mind that even Jaimers have no idea about how to approach as it seems to be just luckshit (as of yesterday when i talked to him anyway) become more manageable as we figure things out. This is an exciting time for Touhou indeed. Definitely more exciting than something like TD where everyone can just conclude that everything is a joke and feel like there's no Lunatic mode at all.

Couldn't agree more.

Also, if anyone has tried that sketchy auto-updated English patch, feel free to share your experience. I'm personally a bit wary about installing a patch that can be updated with the input of random users.

[BT]

Key word is 'seems' but yeah. It's not like people are saying this wihout good reason. We'll see?

[Tengukami]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong. I've been in Spell Practice all morning. I feel your pain. I'm also really curious to see how better players than I think their way through some of these.

[Zengeku]

LNB is certainly still an option. The question is whether or not it is possible to NMNB the game with the weakest characters.
One thing that that will definitely be a requirement is get some sort of hold of all the bullshit in the game.

Say for example you'll want to LNB this game with SakuyaB. That means you have to get used enough to the Stage 5 bosses weird controls to be able to survive them for long enough with the weakest character in the game. For now, it will involve a handful of forced deaths because certain things are just luckbased crap meant to be bombed and then you have to practice enough so that the final boss' survival spell won't bullshittily kill you with it's horrendous hitboxes.

I think maybe that's what BT meant.

[Validon98]

I've used the auto-updating patch, and even though I haven't done a full run of the game with it on, I've seen enough to say that it looks pretty good so far. It's not complete (they're saying they're going to be working on doing spell card stuff today), but they have dialogue, most menu options, and the endings done for it.

[Lavalake]

Does anyone feel a rebellious arc coming up in the next few games?

Spoiler:

Also, I still don't have the game, why am I spoiling myself so much.

An English patch already? And what is the Touhou Patch Center exactly? Link would be nice for when I do get the game.

[Tengukami]

This is the autoupdating English patch link page. I haven't been able to get it to install properly yet, but to be honest, seeing all that .js makes me nervous as hell. Not because of any vulnerabilities, but because it seems like needless bloat.

Maybe I'll just wait for the tried-and-true, use once and you're done English patch.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

That english patch isn't the full one. It's the one from the demo and it crashes on any boss but the stages 1-3 bosses.