New to Touhou, I need help!

[Raoh]

Hi there.

I'm new to Touhou games, although I have played similar games such as rRootage and other western shmups.
Now, after discovering these Touhou games, I already in love with them!
Now, I have been playing Touhou 2 for a pair of days , but I cannot figure out what the next things are:



I tried searching aroung google but I couldn't find anything.
I know that the blueish pick-able thingies increase the first value of the counter to the right, framed with the square. But I don't know what that is.
Also, what the the other values, 9 and 1 in my image, below the 176?

What is that small red bar?

Anyone can tell me what are the things marked with the coloured arrows?


Finally, is there any way to play Touhou games, the ones for PC98, on a PSP, WITHOUT using Neko project 2? Framerate for that emulator is terrible.
I tried with Quasi88, but I couldn't manage to make it work.
I know there is a homemade version of a "modern" touhou, but I want to playe the old ones.


Thanks in advance.

[Karisa]

First of all, your screenshot is of Touhou 5 (Mystic Square), not Touhou 2 (Story of Eastern Wonderland).

The purple items (labeled "点") are point items; these are colored blue in later games. Collecting them gives you points based on how high they are on the screen, maximum 51200 (unless the dream bonus is maxed-- see below).

The blue number on the right (176 in your image) is the total number of point items you've collected. In Mystic Square, you gain an extra life every 100 point items. It's possible to reach 400 point items before the end of the game (500 is possible but unlikely in a survival run).

The white number below it (9 in your image) is the number of point items collected in the current stage only-- this affects the value of the stage clear bonus.

Below that is the graze counter (1 in your image)-- passing close to a bullet (or laser in Windows games, but only bullets in PC-98 games) gives you graze. The effect of graze varies by game. In MS it simply gives you points; you can graze up to 999 bullets per stage for a few more million points.

The bar below the graze is the dream bonus. This is the MS scoring gimmick. Collecting point items at 51200 value (or power items at 12800) increases the dream bonus; it also slowly fills whenever non-boss enemies are on-screen, and fills to max from large white dream items (there are a few of these in the game, which always drop from the same enemies). The more full the gauge is, the lower on-screen you can collect point items for 51200 value. When the gauge is maxed, you can collect items for a higher value depending on difficulty (60k Easy, 100k Normal, 150k Hard, 200k Lunatic, 400k Extra). If you'd like to see it in action, here's an old scoring run of mine (where it's maxed partway through stage 1).

Bombing or dying reduces the dream bonus, though, so scoring is mostly about collecting point items while not dying or bombing. You can safely ignore the dream bonus when playing for survival, since extra lives are based only on number of point items.

More details can be found on the wiki gameplay page for Mystic Square.

[Nolegs the Cat]

Finally, is there any way to play Touhou games, the ones for PC98, on a PSP, WITHOUT using Neko project 2? Framerate for that emulator is terrible.

There's a PC-98 emulator for the PSP? 

[Raoh]

First of all, your screenshot is of Touhou 5 (Mystic Square), not Touhou 2 (Story of Eastern Wonderland).

The purple items (labeled "点") are point items; these are colored blue in later games. Collecting them gives you points based on how high they are on the screen, maximum 51200 (unless the dream bonus is maxed-- see below).

The blue number on the right (176 in your image) is the total number of point items you've collected. In Mystic Square, you gain an extra life every 100 point items. It's possible to reach 400 point items before the end of the game (500 is possible but unlikely in a survival run).

The white number below it (9 in your image) is the number of point items collected in the current stage only-- this affects the value of the stage clear bonus.

Below that is the graze counter (1 in your image)-- passing close to a bullet (or laser in Windows games, but only bullets in PC-98 games) gives you graze. The effect of graze varies by game. In MS it simply gives you points; you can graze up to 999 bullets per stage for a few more million points.

The bar below the graze is the dream bonus. This is the MS scoring gimmick. Collecting point items at 51200 value (or power items at 12800) increases the dream bonus; it also slowly fills whenever non-boss enemies are on-screen, and fills to max from large white dream items (there are a few of these in the game, which always drop from the same enemies). The more full the gauge is, the lower on-screen you can collect point items for 51200 value. When the gauge is maxed, you can collect items for a higher value depending on difficulty (60k Easy, 100k Normal, 150k Hard, 200k Lunatic, 400k Extra). If you'd like to see it in action, here's an old scoring run of mine (where it's maxed partway through stage 1).

Bombing or dying reduces the dream bonus, though, so scoring is mostly about collecting point items while not dying or bombing. You can safely ignore the dream bonus when playing for survival, since extra lives are based only on number of point items.

More details can be found on the wiki gameplay page for Mystic Square.

Thanks for your detailed explanation.
It seems that Touhou  game mechanics are not just mindless shooting.
Now it makes sense why people in some youtube videos play on the top part of the screen.

There's a PC-98 emulator for the PSP? 

Check out this:

http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/nekoproject2.shtml

and

http://dl.qj.net/psp/emulators/quasi88-v063-release-3-080819.html


You can run the PC98 Touhou games on the first one, but framerate will be 0.5 fps
As for the second one, I couldn't manage to make it run, but I didn't changed the default configuration, so it may be possible it was something wrong with the config, anyway.

[Nolegs the Cat]

You can run the PC98 Touhou games on the first one, but framerate will be 0.5 fps
As for the second one, I couldn't manage to make it run, but I didn't changed the default configuration, so it may be possible it was something wrong with the config, anyway.

Someone needs to make a video of stage 1 lunatic at 0.5 FPS.

And seems weird. PSP can run stuff like Birth By Sleep, but not Mystic Square

[Raoh]

Hey. Another question. I'm playing right now Touhou 2, and when I pick up 点 (points), they vary on the amount, which is what you said is supposed to do. So far, everything is correct, but the numbering is a bit strange.
It is not that my Japanese is that bad, but I got a "一一〇一〇" what the hell is that number? Shouldn't be 十一千十?  I understand they probably want to mean 11010, but what the hell is that thing?

As an example:

Someone needs to make a video of stage 1 lunatic at 0.5 FPS.

And seems weird. PSP can run stuff like Birth By Sleep, but not Mystic Square

Rofl.

The problem could be that the emulator is not well optimized, resulting in being so slow.
Also, I would try with Quasi88. As for Neko Project, it even runs slow in my computer, which can run even high system-requirement games.

[Emerald Mint]

It is common in Touhou for numbers to show up like 一一〇一〇, rather than 十一千十. It's quicker for the player to process each digit on its' own rather than in amalgamated form and only needs 10 different symbols overall.

[FamilyTeam]

Although it is odd the numbers are written like that in the first place, with kanji instead of numerals, you do get used to it pretty quickly. And yeah, every number is written individually instead of how they should be written (so ten thousand, for example, is written 一〇〇〇〇, itizerozerozerozero, instead of 万 man) but like it was stated before, it's faster to read it like that.
It's easy to remember:
〇 zero, which is... a zero,
一  Iti, one, a single line,
二  ni, two, two lines,
三 san, three,  three lines,
四  yon, a box,
五  go, five, five sticks,
六  roku, six, a little man ripped in half am I screwed up if I see it like that?
七  nana, seven, it's like a really stylish t,
八  hati, eight, it's the letter ha in katakana, pretty much,
九 kyuu, nine, which is a chain letter R.

[Cream Soda]

I don't think anyone reads the wiki anymore.

In every Touhou game, with exceptions only under special circumstances, point items are worth more points the higher they are collected, and are at max value if the number is yellow instead of white. Max value is something you should go for, because anything less will be 2/3 the value at most.