Touhou Blogging Thread

[chum]

Two 1 miss 0 bomb runs on Lunatic A2, both died on the three fairies third nonspell.

Three fairies third nonspell is apparently super hard!

[Oh]

Made several changes to Lunatic route, mainly stages 3, 4.
There are so much specifics in scoring. I like how you can move up as you shoot with ReimuB to deal more damage, effectively killing the right most fairy at the end of stage 3 without it firing its second wave of bullets. I have also improved the speedkill of nitori's last spell and some item collecting optimizations in the stage.
Stage 4 is still a struggle. I bomb pre-momiji section now, and do not bomb the last 3 big fairies. This leads to 10 million more score, but very dangerous PoCing and killing ball fairies with 1 less power is pretty different. Hopefully I'll get nice and consistent with my route when I start to seriously score again.
And then there's LNN. I'll give myself two weeks after finals. I can probably get it if I play it exclusively.

[Mino ☆]

After the recent victories of Cactu and Chum, my motivation for LNNN has again skyrocketed. Of course, this time backed by a seemingly need to get it as fast as possible. While I dislike rushing achievements, I feel like I'd much rather finish PCB and move onto Ten Desires. While I could just practice TD and take a break from PCB, I feel like I've taken way too many breaks from PCB, which is why I still don't have the LNNN.

LNNN is weird. You don't know when you will get it. I could get it tomorrow, or in a week. I want to try and get it before the end of the year. I grinded four hours today and only got to Youmu one time, which worries me...

Of course, I've also had sessions where I've made it to stage 6 multiple times. I need to keep going. I've learned how to enjoy grinding. It's not that bad, actually. Especially if you have someone to talk to whilst doing so or music to listen to once you've gotten tired of hearing the same OST.

I hope to get this. Given that I'm probably the person most obsessed with LNN(N) here, it seems silly that I'm someone who still doesn't have it. But I'll try to end up getting LNN/LNNN runs in all games if possible.

My order of games I want to LNN/LNNN are as follows: PCB, TD, MoF, DDC, IN, SA, UFO, EoSD. Great Fairy Wars too of course but I haven't decided when I want to do that.

This will be a long and hopefully fulfilling Touhou career if I keep at this. I can imagine one day having a collection of LNN and LNNN runs of all the games under my name in my stock.

And I've not given up on scoring. I'll do that from time to time, in PCB of course. I still need to get that 2.5bil ReimuB Lunatic.

My future may vary. I'm not sure where I'll go after I get the PCB LNNN. All I know right now is what is important. PCB LNNN. I will get it. I will achieve it. It is my current life goal. It is that important to me.

[not ZUNs wife]

 I finally got 1ccs in all Windows main series Touhous. :3 It was a long journey; when I first started playing Touhous, I even struggled to reach stage 3 in PCB. Subterranean Animism was brutal, but after quite a lot of tries, it became inevitable.

[Mino ☆]

So while doing some grinding tonight, I got this:

1-Miss No Bomb No Border Breaks Run

I'm getting more consistent. After dying to the spam, I managed to breeze through Yuyuko without any problems. Hopefully, I'll get a run which captures everything.

I've noticed that many of my problem spots are disappearing. I can NMNB stages 1-3 quite easily, and make it to the Prismrivers. I've gotten really consistent at Lunasa's second nonspell (Which is one of the nightmares of playing Reimu). And I'm even improving at Youmu.

After pulling off the NMNB Yuyuko at the end, I've realized that I can still handle Yuyuko fairly well. I managed to capture her penultimate spell correctly, which relieves me.

If I keep at this, I will get it. Positivity, folks! 

[Oh]

Scoring vs LNN. I can't balance the two. One needs to come first and I have trouble picking.
So now I'm just practicing stages. The long awaited time when I can use my good keyboard is coming.

[Senozza]

Hello,

Today I 1cc'd EoSD, UFO and TD on normal mode. I now have all windows beaten on at least normal.
TD is stupid imo, since big parts of some stages actually don't feature any bullets, at least on normal mode.

Feels like I mainly played those games just to procrastinate playing more IN.

I hope I get more motivated to play more IN soon.

[ViciousYukkuri]

Coming off of my hiatus. THE RUST.

No-missed IN on Easy. First time No-missing any game on any difficulty. Route B as Reimu/Yukari.
After that, managed to capture Hourai Elixir for the first time too. It was a pretty good day. Even got farther on Mokou then usual. Normally her "Fire Bird -Flying Phoenix-" is as far as I can get, but I managed to get to "Deathless -Xu Fu's Dimension-". Progress.
Almost beat UFO. Got hit and died as Byakuren was exploding. I haven't made another attempt since.
Except now I can't seem to even beat the games I was able to 1cc before. I've gotten better and worse all at the same time.

[ARF]

So I just finished strming for like 3 hours, and all I got was a 0.01 second improvement on 1-3 (?；ω；`)

Looks like it's time to quit 2hu4ever5real now. My only 2 remaining long-time goals in touhou are depending on other people and can thus be fulfilled after quitting forever! I think they are, in fact, even more likely to be fulfilled after quitting because of some kind of strange group psychology.

Seriously, I feel like I've been plateauing in skill level since 2011 anyways, I doubt I could do much better in MoF ultra right now than I could back then, of course, I have more experience and can probably think of better strats etc. but if anything I've gotten worse at dodging stuff lately, with increased obligations and generally declining interest. So it is time to move on, I guess. I'll still watch WR and other interesting things and such, but I'll retire from participating in the community, (though feel free to send me questions regarding stuff like DS IL's or other things I've participated in for strategy explanation or other advice, idk) and playing with any particular goal in mind.

The dodging like a boss series will be left to whoever wants to take over, I suppose, but you might want to consult the community for an *official agreement* first.

The stuff which I've achieved in touhou can be found on the replay archive, and also on my youtube, most notably the secret technique stuff (originally inspired from JPS) which contains a few unorthodox strategies, which may or may not be good for anything, and the Double Spoiler Individual Level stuff which also contains many of my strategies and ideas. Yeah, and I did some assorted spellcard timeouts, high FPS playing, movement restriction playing etc. Also been called a superplayer on more than one occasion, and otherwise had some awesome, silly fun with this videogame series.

Yukari, grant me a lifetime of taking it easy as I retire from touhou!

 
It's been great watching you guys improve and do crazy things as well, of course! Thank you for such niceness, if there is just one piece of advice that I would leave for any aspiring touhou players it is that you should always aim to be the best that you can be, with the least amount of effort possible! By following this epic advice you can play a lot without getting tired, and 1cc a lot of lunatics easily by spamming bombs!

~ARF

[ElDestructoe]

~ARF

arf arf
;____________________;

[LepLep]

./me nibbles GiantCatfish
;____;

[Zil]

;_;7

[cactu]

Goodbye ARF, you will be deeply missed! Thank you for taking a part in this community. I hope whatever you choose to do next will be great. ;_;7

[ARF]

I'm feeling way too emotional about this, I'm actually crying IRL. Thanks guys! You are the best!

[chirpy13]

I miss catfish ;_;

[Sakurei]

you will still come to irc, right? please tell me you didn't quit kusoplay too ;_;

[fsvgm777]

Thanks for your contributions to the Dodging like a boss series, ARF, be it for providing replays or making volumes 7-10.

You will be missed.

Oh, I almost forgot. Thanks for your speedrunning efforts (DSDQ, StBDQ).

[chirpy13]

Didn't move down enough, got hit on Reimu trying to graze her first phase and then subsequently got hit by a yin yang because I closed my eyes for a second.  I'm feeling pretty tired right now.  My last 5 days have been nothing but LLS, work, and more LLS.  More LLS now, more work tomorrow, more LLS after work and then if I don't finish LLS then more LLS on Sunday.  Then work on Monday.  I don't know how I'm going to clear at this rate when I'm having a hard time just keeping my eyes open.  It's tough not being a NEET.  I even had to give up IRC to get in more LLS time because social interaction was too distracting.  So why am I blogging?  Good question, popping in another credit.

[Sahgren]

Finally getting back to trying to 1CC SA on Hard. Looks like I'm going to have to spend some time grinding out stage 5 and spam continues until I get a lucky enough run to unlock stage 6 for practice.

[chirpy13]

I don't want to have to cap this ;_;

[CyberAngel]

Okay, I'm FINALLY done with IN for the time being, so time to sum up some results. I've been playing purely with teams, and got quite some advancement.

Easy NB runs go along nicely, I barely have any trouble aside from a few random misses in later stages. Here is my best run with just one miss. I hoped I could pull off a NMNB, but no such luck yet. Well, as a bonus, I managed to NMNB Stage 6A. Things look good so far, but I imagine a pacifist run would be hell thanks to familiars.

I'm way more consistent at getting Normal 1cc, getting one with all teams no problem. Also, I'm getting close to Hard 1cc too - I can get into stage 6B consistently, even if it takes quite a lot of effort and I barely have any lives entering it, so there's still quite a lot of work needed.

I'm tired with IN already, but I will play through solo characters in the future. I actually wonder whether my advancement trend will stay with the weaker ones.

[redlakitu]

Here's something I've been wondering about during the last few days. Ever since I started playing Touhou back in January 2012 (a long time with not much to show for it...), I had a lingering feeling that there's something wrong with the controls. Initially, the feeling was spot on -- it took me a month to discover the Vsync patches (I actually managed to clear EoSD on Normal without the patch). Besides, my laptop's keyboard is abominable: the arrow keys are completely useless and the numpad exhibits severe ghosting issues, so I was forced to install a virtual joystick emulator, VJoy, and assign directional controls to some letter keys. This solved the ghosting problems, although the whole setup was far from comfortable for my hands... and, worst of all, the lingering feeling was still there. I couldn't shake it off.

Recently, while fooling around with the custom.exe settings (my main goal was getting DDC to work properly) I decided to check the "Don't use DirectInput for joypad input" setting just to see what happens. And, all of a sudden, my feeling has been replaced with a new one -- a feeling that everything is a bit smoother, more responsive, and when I lose a life, it's actually my own fault and not some devil keyboard's plot. Heck, I was actually able to enjoy EoSD Lunatic and dodge some patterns instead of dying right away!

But... is this actually true? Or am I experiencing some kind of placebo effect and blaming my lack of achievements on some vague technical problems? I'm not technical enough to ascertain the probability that switching the DirectInput option on even *could* affect anything. And it if did, perhaps there's still another possible obscure improvement eluding me? I'll never know.

Sigh. I really should stop dwelling on this and start playing.

[Oh]

Died to stage 4 ball streaming on an okay tier run.
Well, getting to stage 4 once in 3 hours is pretty average for me.
I just hope I don't screw up Kanako (I can NMNB her maybe 70% of the time). Already lost a good run to her the other day.

[Mino ☆]

So lately I've been training myself in the art of Zen Touhou playing. The ability to enjoy and remain calm even in failure. I wish to be able to play Touhou with a positive mindset when I lose, rather than getting angry every single time I make a mistake. So far the road has been bumpy, but I think I can achieve true Zen. I feel that once I correct my mindset, I could do anything in Touhou. I've mostly been playing EoSD lately.

I've been drilling EoSD and trying to perform well under the conditions of LNB and MarisaA. MarisaA's patchy fight is silly, having 4 hard spells and only 1 easy one. But it's a challenge I'm willing to accept. For some reason, I enjoy playing EoSD with MarisaA. I feel right at home with her. It's satisfying. I'm also better at Sakuya and Remilia in general with MarisaA. I guess it's due to increased power.

I find beauty in the older Touhou games. EoSD, PCB, etc. For some reason, I feel more comfortable trying to excel in those game. (Though DDC is an exception. I want to main ReimuB in that game and be able to be good at survival with her).

As for scoring, I still haven't forgotten about that. But for some reason I haven't really been in the mood to score. I wonder if I dislike the effort it takes to score. Well, I know it can't be that. Learning new things and devising routes and strategies is fun. I don't even think I'll stop at Lunatic mode. PCB Normal mode also seems interesting. I've just been in the mood to take it light.

I severely dislike being rushed to get achievements. I feel that if I can't take it slow and enjoy the ride, then there's no point in playing. I've been trying to rush "LNNN" for such a long time, especially now that a lot of other people have gotten it. I feel it's best to score in PCB rather than go for LNNN. Since LNNN really is just getting that one miracle run, there's not much point in grinding for it nonstop when I can easily get it in a random, casual attempt. I KNOW I can do it. I've gotten to Yuyuko four times and lost out of pure nervousness. All it takes is for me to get lucky. I won't give up. There's no reason to.

So far, my best PCB Lunatic score is a mere 1.7bil. I still have many things to work on and master. My stage 4 is still really bad. And I need to get my early game routes worked out and polished. I also really, really need to learn the Yuyuko spell milking grazes, since they are one of the most important parts of the game for scoring. They call her Yuyucow for a reason. But watching people like Yu-suke, HS, Naya, and SoC really inspire me. I think that I should go for SakuyaB as well once I reach my ReimuB goal, which is 2.6bil. Then I might do normal as well.

PCB is going to be my main game. Sure, I may not be an expert now. But if I keep at it... one day.... just one day...

[Zil]

idk what to make of this. Yumemi pls

[Mesarthim]

Finally achieved a record of over 1 billion on Subterranean Animism Reimu C Lunatic. Didn't even practice hardly.

Choked badly in the past but yet now I had this miraculous run of having ended with 7 lives by the end of satori and managed to maintain the 7 life count at least by the end. Caught Tengu Macroburst at 0 power and caught Great Whirlwind with 1.?? power with whatever macroburst gives.

End score: 1,110,496,170. Last score wasn't even 1 billion.

[CyberAngel]

Just had an unusual occurrence. Captured Reimu's spellcard in Spell Practice, but instead of the usual "move to the side and/or stand still" thing, she was playing her "sweeping attack" animation between explosions. I saved a replay, and what do you know, it stayed there! I must've got lucky and finished her at the right moment, since I've never seen this before. It looks so hilarious in that situation that I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it. Considering Ran was still spinning near her, maybe she was vigorously trying to chase her away or something? Anyway, this just made my day.

[Stifled Voices]

It's hopeless, I took every advice to heart, and I can't get past stage 3. I thought fighting games would be a nice change of pace, but they retain the difficulty (I came in through fandom at first). Maybe I am doomed to stay in the fandom like everyone else who came for the fandom? TvTropes says getting the good ending's a real accomplishment, but I'm not buying into any of that. Getting better at it without even realizing? Give me a break! All I've learned is that there's no hope to be found in this world...

[Drake]

How long have you been playing, really? On what difficulty?

And of course getting the good ending is an accomplishment. What is there to "buy into"?

[Mesarthim]

How long have you been playing, really? On what difficulty?

And of course getting the good ending is an accomplishment. What is there to "buy into"?

Expanding on this from my end.

I was pretty terrible when I first started playing these games, on Easy difficulty even. My first extra unlock was Imperishable Night on easy mode. I actually went through and practiced and beat mokou despite having only played on easy. I then went on to 1cc every game on normal (because some don't reward you for easy mode).

Took a bit of effort and learning but now I'm tackling hard mode (for all games) and lunatic (for some). Effort pays off if you've the time and patience for it. I still have quite a few patterns I'm abysmal at even in my best games.

I'd recommend asking questions, reading advice, etc.