Ho. Ly. Crap.
MoF LNB.
It...it finally happened. I finally managed to string together a run that was good enough, even though I should have been able to do it much sooner. This has been my primary Touhou goal for the best part of the past 2 years, though admittedly that's with a lot of time not spent playing. In fact, this run was just another time where I found myself with a half hour and nothing to do, so I gave it another shot. My spellcard history (accurate for LNB attempts) on Falling Leaves of Madness are 89/96. It was 17/20 when I began attempts. That's 76 tries over the course of nearly 2 years, averaging one every week and a half. It's just how I've been playing Touhou lately, very infrequently. My skill hasn't deteriorated, but I haven't really improved either. This run was never about being good enough to perform well on the stages, but a test of consistency, a test of not choking. Could I hold myself to the standard I thought I could reach? For a while, I believed not. I even made a post basically saying I had given up nearly a year ago, looking at my standard runs of each stage. But then when I looked at 2 particular practice sessions where I tackled stages 3-6 in a row with 8 deaths between them...I knew it was attainable. I knew that focused grinding would get it done quickly, but I didn't have the mindset for it. So I settled for the one attempt every so often approach that was able to get me some lesser accomplishments, never really expecting to pull this one off without a grind session.
I'm glad I was wrong.
Anyway, back when I originally decided to go for it LNBs were incredibly rare, with Jaimers, Kefit and Naut being among the few in the community who had done it. LNN wasn't even really a thing that was considered...how the superplayer standards have grown, I feel like I've been one step behind the whole time. But it's alright, I don't play for ranking, for approval, or even really for the end goal. I play because it's fun, and the feeling of accomplishment that comes at the end. I could be happier with this run, it does have 8 deaths after all. But still, the sense of satisfaction from finally executing well enough...it's all I wanted from this endeavor.
This specific run started like any other-perfect Stage 1, perfect Stage 2. Fairly standard, I'd really gotten quite consistent at Pain Flow, going from around 50% to 100% capture rate on it. Then I captured Hydro Camouflage for the first time in months, and went on to perfect the stage for the 2nd time ever. And as such I found myself in the unique (so far, for me) position of having 7 lives going into Stage 4-which I promptly screwed up by dying to Momiji and then killing her too soon, dying to the waterfalls after. Whatever, 2-3+ deaths was the norm by then, this run was in good shape still. Then I died to Aya's first spell, despite a 75% capture rate! Then I was slightly out of position on her 2nd non catapulting the run into mediocrity. 4 deaths by this point was far from ideal, but I kept going. Token PWG death, though I nearly survived it, leaving 3 lives from Stages 5 and 6. The best I'd ever had going into Stage 5 before? 3 lives, from a 1 death Stage 4 and a 1 death to all of Nitori's spells Stage 3. I immediately squandered them that run, but perfected Sanae to reach Stage 6. I was not about to repeat that performance.
And I didn't, screwing up my strategy for the first wave of fairies with the blue walls, but thankfully I realized and was able to pull through. The first managed to fire its kunai rings, so moving left was death-I had to go right to survive, and fast, despite a blue wall being in the way. I spotted the gap I wanted to go for...and successful dodge through it! The rest of the stage went according to plan, despite nearly failing to speedkill Sanae's first. Perfect Stage 5 in an LNB run, finally managing to not choke every life I'd painstakingly saved to that point in the stage. Finally managing to carry even 1 life into Stage 6. My average run of Stage 6 had 4 deaths. With the pressure of an actual attempt on, I had 3. Bring it on Kanako, I can do this.
Perfect stage portion, with a nice dodge on the final death fairy. Capture Kanako's opener without even feeling threatened-I was in the zone. This was going to be the run, I could feel it. Mad Dance on Medoketo, 2nd non, Rice Porridge in Tube fell effortlessly. 3 lives, 5 patterns. The last time I faced one of them I timed it out, I never fail 3 of them. Well, I failed Kanako's 3rd non (I blame the nerves, personally), captured Yamato Torus despite very jittery movement. My heart was beating out of my chest as Kanako's 4th non fell after 45 seconds. This was it. 2 lives. 2 patterns that I would expect to lose 1 life on in real runs. Source of Rains fell with a single death just past the halfway point-I'm really awful at that spell, so I'm pleased with that performance. Just like Kefit's ancient run, 1 life. VoWG. I played incredibly conservatively, knocking out most of the lifebar without having to make a single micrododge. I got hit the one time I didn't see a macro way out, but I had done well enough. With no lives left, I dodged one final wave, and VoWG fell.
8 deaths. No bombs. Mountain of Faith lunatic. Finally.
