PoFV lunatic

[nintendonut888]

Hello, I'm local humble gamer Donut. Recently I've 1cc'd PoDD lunatic, and fighting games aside am now one lunatic away from having beaten the entire series on lunatic. This game happens to be PoFV. Now, I understand many people know how to make lunatic their bitch, but as for me I can't make heads or tails of it. It plays very differently from PoDD, and I cannot even approach victory. I would prefer to use someone other than Aya, Medicine, or Shikieiki (her because for personal reasons I want to defeat Shikieiki as the final boss), but other than that, I will try anything.

So, please tell me how to make lunatic my bitch. :O Which characters are best? Is there a secret method to filling your gauge fast? Any ways to manipulate the AI? How do I prevent myself from getting walled later in the match? Please help. :<

[LHCling]

First off, I should say that most bullet hitboxes are smaller than they appear. And I mean really small. Others are larger than you would expect them to be.

Not too sure which characters are the best for Story Mode.

You can increase the gauge rather quickly by increasing your Spell Point value as high as you can. When it's at max, you'll also receive a bonus every time you destroy some enemy on the screen.

AI manipulation doesn't exist as far as I know, save for a few Spell Gauge related things, which you probably shouldn't bother noting.

Prevention of walling? Either by using Spell Attack (usually, it will be a Level 2), or destroying Fairies / Spirits which are close to snowballs. You'll rely on the former much more for trying to survive against Shikieiki though.

Upload a replay and maybe I could find out what you're doing wrong. It's true that PoFV plays differently from PoDD.
Speaking of which, I believe I require assistance for Shikieiki and Komachi using Yuka. The scope is far too much of a liability at times...

[nintendonut888]

The problem: Last I checked, PoFV crashes upon trying to save replays as long as I use the English patch.

[LHCling]

Don't use English Patch for a few matches. Chances are, you probably won't 1cc to see the ending anyway.

[Garlyle]

I suggest Reimu, or one of the characters who fights Yuka [she seems far easier to me than Komachi, probably due to the way her attacks work - they're only dangerous if the 'wall' hits you when you're out of spell power to clear em].  Avoid Medicine at all costs.

Other than that, good luck, you're gonna need it, holy crap.

[shadowbringer]

Personally, I thought PoFV Lunatic would be a lot harder than Normal, but it isn't (for some reason that I don't understand well). The main difference (imho) is that you and your opponent's Normal/Boss Attacks will start at 10 already (to a maximum of 16), besides the slightly improved AI.

The tactic I use (with Cirno, because I do like to play for score, even if I don't play that game as much as I'd like to) is to play aggressively (because.. I like to play for score ), meaning that you'll not allow your chain (the decreasing white gauge below the combo counter) to be broken (you may instant-bomb in order to not get hit and thus keep the chain going if the bomb does kill fairies/ghosts, but I wouldn't recommend it if the chain isn't high enough -- one that you can restart without losing too much points -- or if the opponent is more likely to kill you if you do waste your meter through an instant bomb; remember, the longer the round goes on, the more damage you and the opponent take upon collision), you'll time your fairy/ghost kills to maintain the chain (remember, when a combo is going on, if you shoot something, the chain will continue normally but your combo counter will be restarted, so you're required to not be shooting the whole time) and foresee opportunities to eat lots of bullets through chains. And keep chaining even when the boss/Lily is on your screen. And handle the snow bullets and the Normal/EX attacks.

What would be the benefits for doing this?
- your charge meter fills quick enough for you to spend lvl 2 bombs constantly (and the bullets caught on its range add to your charge meter. Cirno is especially favored in that, after spending a bomb, she slows down the remaining shots on the screen and they travel at random directions, helping you erase more bullets due to a following lvl 2 bomb or chain)
- you gain extends at 10m points, and then at every 20m points (30m, 50m..) up to 90m (it's common to reach 50m before the end of the game)
- you summon bosses at 100k, 300k and 500k BPoints, so you may counter the opponent's boss summons, sometimes even before they start attacking you. (though I'm a bit too greedy to intentionally stop chaining just to be able to reuse the point-based boss summons)

As for getting walled, it would be better (perhaps) for you to mention which character are you having trouble with.. (for example, against Sakuya, avoid the center of the monitor due to the EX attacks; against Aya, lure her EX attacks and Normal ones in order to give yourself room, bomb against both characters' boss patterns when there are lots of projectiles to be converted into charge meter, etc.)

[nintendonut888]

I suggest Reimu, or one of the characters who fights Yuka [she seems far easier to me than Komachi, probably due to the way her attacks work - they're only dangerous if the 'wall' hits you when you're out of spell power to clear em].  Avoid Medicine at all costs.

Other than that, good luck, you're gonna need it, holy crap.

Which characters fight Yuka instead of Komachi again? The only ones I remember who do that are Cirno, Mystia, and Komachi, and none of those are characters I'd want taking me through lunatic.

- you gain extends at 10m points, and then at every 20m points (30m, 50m..) up to 90m (it's common to reach 50m before the end of the game)

O_O Really? See, I'm about as far as you can get from a score runner. My scores on lunatic in games compares to a bad scoring run someone does in normal mode. My first lunatic attempt last night got me to Komachi, and I had about 26 million points. ;^_^

As for getting walled, it would be better (perhaps) for you to mention which character are you having trouble with.. (for example, against Sakuya, avoid the center of the monitor due to the EX attacks; against Aya, lure her EX attacks and Normal ones in order to give yourself room, bomb against both characters' boss patterns when there are lots of projectiles to be converted into charge meter, etc.)

Well, pretty much any character from stage 6s on, but I guess in particular Reimu, Marisa, Komachi, and Shikieiki all like to wall me.

[shadowbringer]

- Reimu: the main concern against her is the orbs; they will take lots of space in the screen, you must anticipate their paths and charge up if you feel the situation is getting out of control; against her normal attacks, you will have to micrododge the first wave of spreading bullets, then lure the homing amulets and dodge them. You might want to charge up bombs to take away orbs (or groups of projectiles, if you feel that you can manage the remaining orbs). Just try to outlast her. (haven't tested playing defensively -- meaning, you let the snow bullets leave the screen, without sending them to the opponent's screen; if you don't send them, the opponent can't reflect them back at you. Though then you don't build up the charge meter as fast)

- Marisa: I usually bomb against her normal attacks (at the center of my playing field), in order to not let them limit my space. It's not hard to avoid her EX attacks, but they will sometimes mess up your chain. You may bomb during her boss attack, not the one where she fires out some aimed bullets (you more likely don't need bombs against this one)

- Komachi: The lvl 2 normal attacks aren't hard to avoid, but watch out for groups of EX attacks; if you see them coming, micrododge the fast bullets, or use charged bomb if you feel that there will be more difficult attacks coming after them (or use the ghosts/fairies to clear bullets instead, if they can do the job); you may bomb if you anticipate EX attacks or boss attacks, in order to build up your normal attack level and convert bullets into charge meter (at least this is how I like to play ), but try to do this if you have a spare bomb level, or are close to reaching one.

- Sikieiki: you'll have to avoid the masses of projectiles (Yama staves, hot dogs, whatever), or if you're forced to dodge them, dodge if you're sure you've found a way past it, or charge up and bomb in order to clear space. Haven't tested, as usual, the pacifist way (which would be useful, in theory, against her bullet-spawning clouds). I usually bomb on her normal attacks and her boss pattern (not the laser, the bullet spread) and try to outlast her. Found myself having to deal less with her boss summons after learning to chain properly (but still, sometimes she will still have the advantage, perhaps due to her killing your boss/Lily and gaining Point or Gauge items, or her being lucky enough to summon bosses due to BPoints at the right time). Against Sikieiki and Komachi, you may encounter Lily White; I try to bomb against her (haven't thought about maintaining my chain at this rate).

Perhaps it's a matter of trying until you reach the final levels with enough lives (which in my view is, scoring well enough so that even dying at the middle of the game won't make me reset the game in disgust), that way you'll give yourself more attempts to allow the AI to kill itself