東方蒼神縁起 ～ THE GENIUS OF SAPPHEIROS (v1.07 is out!)

[Garlyle]

That's why I shouldn't be surprised~

I'm still a bit peeved on Garlyle's explanation of the walkthrough that everyone should get Mokou, Byakuren, and the vendor passcode items to beat the game. Personally, I'd like to see one that plays through the game normally with picking up Mokou and Byakuren along the story. The game does rely more on gimmick bosses past Stage 2, but the battle dialogue is Japanese, so of course everyone grinds up and brute forces it. That's my opinion though.

Hey, never did I say you have to, but writing as though players won't get them isn't good either.

Right now, all the dialogue, etc, is in Japanese, and that's precisely why I'm detailing these things.  I could just say "Hey, Yuyuko's going to instant-death your party when she hits 0 HP", but that tells people nothing.  However, if I go, "You can counter this with Alice by doing X, or Sakuya by doing Y, or Mokou by doing Z", then that gives options to the player.  And hey, if one of those options happens to involve Mokou or Byakuren, I'm going to give it.

This is why I'm trying to write it with options.  If you don't like that I'm suggesting their use?  Add in a use or strategy recommendation for another character.  But leaving out notes about Byakuren and Mokou just because you don't have to have them is stupid.

Again, look at Labyrinth of Touhou.  You don't have to recruit every optional character until you beat the final boss; hell you don't need a single one!  But if you don't, you're looking at a reduced party size for over half of the game, and until the last quarter you won't even have any options to change up that party composition.  Not a single person would suggest skipping over these just because you don't have to, because it would make LoT a hell of a lot harder.  It's still understood though that you don't need every single character to beat a specific boss, and you don't need them in this either... but in this game, there's a lot of situations where you ARE going to need to give a player answers, especially while it's untranslated, and I am not going to refuse those answers just because it's an optional answer.

[Nat Tea]

Hey, never did I say you have to, but writing as though players won't get them isn't good either.

Right now, all the dialogue, etc, is in Japanese, and that's precisely why I'm detailing these things.  I could just say "Hey, Yuyuko's going to instant-death your party when she hits 0 HP", but that tells people nothing.  However, if I go, "You can counter this with Alice by doing X, or Sakuya by doing Y, or Mokou by doing Z", then that gives options to the player.  And hey, if one of those options happens to involve Mokou or Byakuren, I'm going to give it.

This is why I'm trying to write it with options.  If you don't like that I'm suggesting their use?  Add in a use or strategy recommendation for another character.

I guess you are right about that; I seem to be questioning the definition of a walkthrough in the first place!

You can also infer a part of the boss's repertoire from their mobs: Stage 4's battles have an affinity to fire, Stage 5's battles are focused on ailments, etc. Or so I think, I don't know.

Giving more choices to the player does work in a way, but there should be a "least aggreviating" way somewhere in the walkthrough. Ahaha.

[Garlyle]

Yeah, probably, although it's hard to say what that is in any given case.

For instance I kept hearing that the easiest way to beat Alice is either
A. Poison her, to neuter her regeneration (I could never get poison to land), or
B. Leave one of the elemental dolls alive.  I didn't find this good at all - it starts getting really dangerous once the land's pushing in its direction completely, plus the magic boost, plus the fact that her healing rate will become ridiculous from the healing spell getting buffed up too.

So yeah, it's kinda hard to ever say specifically what the 'easiest way' is, with a couple exceptions (Hitting

Spoiler:

Kaguya

with Charm, or one of the later bosses who can be instant-death'd), etc etc.

I just wanted to get more info on the walkthrough because the current excuses for a walkthrough are... ugh.  uuuuuuugh.

...But it's tricky, because I have to find the time for this game in between work and a tonne of other games and building my own touhou RPG and stuff @_@

[trancehime]

So why do all the bosses past stage 15 take for-fucking-ever to defeat. 

[Garlyle]

So why do all the bosses past stage 15 take for-fucking-ever to defeat. 

Because their HP counts are ridiculous.

[trancehime]

Because their HP counts are ridiculous.

Re: Stage 19 Boss

Spoiler:

Anastasis. 65000 HP, weak to Slash, Elec and very resistant to Fire, Water and Crush. Very high stats, and to top it all off, that thing has 999 HP regen per turn. Basically you have to slug more than 1000 points of damage every turn to get a net gain. If you were running Patch as a physical spec like I was, change it to a different weapon other than Axe or re-spec her into Magic if you plan to use her. Wars of attrition become a running theme in this game very early and you're best off trying to increase your evasion and defenses to mitigate the damage from this thing. Commander should be Mokou for this fight, for obvious reasons.

[Serela]

Trance:That sounds like F U N !

Can't wait to play this game. Well, er, I can, but I won't hold back once that translation patch is out :V I'm one of those people who loves to know what everyone is saying, all the time, EVERYTHING, etc.

And also, since getting all the spells (ALL OF THEM, etc) with Satori would be a pain without a translation. Although since apparently I can only equip up to six at a time (minus any of her natural/eye spells I wanna use ;P) means I might just skip to the useful ones. Which also means need translation.

[Garlyle]

[quote author=NeoSerela link=topic=6874.msg425200#msg425200 date=1283087264Although siallynce apparently I can only equip up to six at a time (minus any of her natural/eye spells I wanna use ;P) means I might just skip to the useful ones.[/quote]
Actually, every character can only take six spells/abilities/etc with them into battle (with their attack being automatically available assuming they have a weapon equipped, and their Last Word available when the game decides to give you it).

It's not bad at first when every character only has maybe seven attacks, but by the end game, non-Satori characters seem to have about 30 different spells to pick between (Satori only gets like 5 or 6 spells naturally, plus her Eye weapon skills, but she's got all that blue magic).

Also you definitely want a list of Satori's blue magic as several of them are only learnable from a very limited number of one-time-encounter foes.

[Anima Zero]

Cleared the 7th stage today.  Pretty huge area with a couple lovely monsters (Including one that usually escapes right away, but is worth lots of xps if it can be killed).

Boss of the stage...only lost to her once.  That first time was because I forgot to reassign skill points, switch skills for my main team, and switch my commander back to Mokou.  I still did some pretty heavy damage before losing though since she was weak to Sakuya's claymore related attacks.  Did need to have Alice provide cover for Sakuya though due to said weakness attacking provoking a counterstrike.

On my winning attempt, I still managed to somehow forget to arm Patchy with an axe (Reassigned her to be a physical nuker)...but I won thankfully.

Boss apparently had an attack which basically screwballed anyone not named Sakuya or Alice due to the extreme damage it dished out.

Sakuya basically did all the damage for this fight.  Between her spellcard that does 2-4 hits and her claymore skill that did 2 hits whenever the spellcard was on cooldown + a PATK buff from Byakuren, every hit from either of those attacks were doing around 500-600 dmg.

Everybody else provided support whenever they weren't offed by that crazy extreme physical damage attack that comes out of freaking nowhere.  Mokou's first commander support spell got a rigorous workout here, that's for sure.

Alice did get KO'd once, but that was right at the end as Sakuya dealt the final killing blow.  Boss sure had a lot of HP too (Like 8-10k or so.  Rough estimate of course).

8th stage...got a pretty good idea of whom I'm going to run into here.  It ain't gonna be pretty I bet if that's the case.

[theshirn]

Reimu has the best victory expression ever.

[Esoterica]

Reimu has the best victory expression ever.

Agreed.

[theshirn]

Gah, stop crashing!  Crashed once after I pressed L on move selection (what do X, Y and L do there, by the way?) and once after I beat Patchy (but Sakuya was still alive).

[Esoterica]

Only things that ever make me crash are Tsuki no Iwakasa's Curse (only happened the first time I used it; now it just lags a bit whenever I use it for the first time) and Royal Flare (had it freeze at the end before damage would have displayed two different times).

Also, I saw some mentions of fleeing earlier.  Why was I not informed of this, and how does one do it?

[theshirn]

Also, I saw some mentions of fleeing earlier.  Why was I not informed of this, and how does one do it?

I believe it's L before going into attack selection.

[scherzo]

Everybody else provided support whenever they weren't offed by that crazy extreme physical damage attack that comes out of freaking nowhere.

I believe this is a field effect (you're talking about the one that hits you at the end of the turn?). For future reference, you can lay down one of your own and keep it active to avoid it.

[theshirn]

Remilia and Nitori down.  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF stop crashing on me.

Now I have three new party members!  Before I was using Byakuren as commander; now I'm thinking of using Mokou, Reimu, Marisa, Nitori, and Sakuya, with Sanae as commander.

[Esoterica]

Remilia and Nitori down.  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF stop crashing on me.

Now I have three new party members!  Before I was using Byakuren as commander; now I'm thinking of using Mokou, Reimu, Marisa, Nitori, and Sakuya, with Sanae as commander.

Let me know how that goes.  I've never taken Sanae out of the active party once yet.

[theshirn]

Let me know how that goes.  I've never taken Sanae out of the active party once yet.

Yeah, I'm worried about it myself.  Is Sanae the only party-healer?  Reimu has a single-target one, I think, but...

Who makes the best commander overall?  A lot of people seem to be pushing Nitori.

[Esoterica]

Yeah, I'm worried about it myself.  Is Sanae the only party-healer?  Reimu has a single-target one, I think, but...

Who makes the best commander overall?  A lot of people seem to be pushing Nitori.

Nitori was my commander exclusively until the beginning of stage 6, since that's when I was told those characters I had been ignoring are going to be necessary at some point.  You'll definitely notice the extra damage, and both of her commander skills are great (especially Hyper Camouflage, no damage for a turn is awesome when you know a Last Word's coming from a boss).  Alice was rather promising too.  Currently using Youmu, though I lack a phys-based team so I'm not getting much use out of her.

Sanae can still actually heal when commanding, so I don't think it'd be too much of a problem, really.  I haven't looked at Reimu's healing options; I know she can throw some powerful heals around, but I don't remember if she has any multitarget ones.

While I'm spamming edits, Mokou should prove to be an amazing commander as well.  I've personally been using her as tank/phys DPS though.

[theshirn]

ohdeargod Sakuya is ridiculous

like

ridiculous

"What's that?  Two phys-resistant enemies?  No worries, I'll one-shot one, and then get a consecutive attack and one-shot the other!  And then there will be tea."

[Esoterica]

I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I'm on stage 7 and I still haven't used Sakuya.

[theshirn]

I'm going to be perfectly honest here: I'm on stage 7 and I still haven't used Sakuya.

This is only a short-term impression I'm getting here, but OHGOD USE HER

Her attack is stupidly, stupidly high (you can start her with +70 attack).  The only people who might be able to outdo her on attack are, I'm guessing, Patchy (not sure about that), who is incredibly frail, and Youmu, who requires a stance to pull out her real damage.  Sakuya thrashes random encounters and you don't even know how much I'm looking forward to employing the Private Square abuse.

[Think Komachi with a Rifle]

I haven't looked at Reimu's healing options; I know she can throw some powerful heals around, but I don't remember if she has any multitarget ones.

Reimu gets slight AoE on her heals at Bariers 25, so you need a suitable formation for them to multitarget, and by then they'll also get rid of permanent effects as well, and no cooldown.

[Esoterica]

Reimu gets slight AoE on her heals at Bariers 25, so you need a suitable formation for them to multitarget, and by then they'll also get rid of permanent effects as well, and no cooldown.

Nifty.

This is only a short-term impression I'm getting here, but OHGOD USE HER

Her attack is stupidly, stupidly high (you can start her with +70 attack).  The only people who might be able to outdo her on attack are, I'm guessing, Patchy (not sure about that), who is incredibly frail, and Youmu, who requires a stance to pull out her real damage.  Sakuya thrashes random encounters and you don't even know how much I'm looking forward to employing the Private Square abuse.

Yeah, I've heard good things about her.  I just need to get her caught up in levels and make her a new zweihander.  I'll be amazed if she can keep up with Satori and Patchy in damage output (in the Yuyuko vs Youmu fight, lv 16 Satori would do about 200 to Youmu with the single-target fire spell, and 570 to both at the end of each turn with poison; 1340 per turn for next to no MP).

[trancehime]

Sakuya having a weapon for literally almost any occasion means she is god tier.

[Nat Tea]

Snoozing around a lot.

It feels like a long amount of time has passed. It's been long to me, at least. I should blame college.

Anyways, three things:

1) Scripts won't be dumped until patch version 1.05 is public and that's final. Things might change or be added after that happens, so we're waiting to see if it does get changed.

2) mauve has extracted the ability table, item table, and monster table for me. Obviously, they come with incoherent gibberish headers and a bunch of stuff. Not exciting, but I should figure this out... either that or the hacking fairy gets to it first.

3) Speaking of the hacking fairy, he gave me an archive that contains all the images from the game. I should be using the Last Word cut in pictures to revamp the wiki's character pages, but according to my avatar, I am having a bit of... fun with it. As with any time you get a book of everything about a game, this has made me feel slightly disdained towards the game. I'll feel better soon enough though!

It's very exciting!

[trancehime]

For all the epic that Stage 21 is, the

Spoiler:

last boss(es) can go die in a fire.

It is also proof that Mokou and Byakuren are compulsory at some point.

[KomeijiKoishi]

OK, I have patched the game up to 1.04, and all the keys the game recognizes are Esc and the arrow buttons.

WHAT

[Garlyle]

Sounds like you should run Config and change your keys again, PDot.

Also: Sanae is my favourite character to use as a commander.  Healing at the start of a turn, enhanced Last Word chance, and on top of all that her 3-star buff-for-a-turn is awesome.  It let me damage rush Utsuho right through the latter 2/3 of her HP so I could beat her without getting Megaflare'd.

Also I hate stage 5.  Not because of the hidden paths (Though where the HELL are the silver chests!?) and the mind flayers, but because of those god damn Garuda things that get a free cast-cancelling spell at the start of each turn.  Jesus christ I hate those things.

[theshirn]

Should I be aggressive about switching weapon types?  I'm currently in chapter 3 and so far I've just kept everyone with their unique weapons.  Most of them have several points in them too; some of them get ridiculous stat boosts (cough Sakuya +70 attack cough) from them, and regular weapons just don't seem to match up...