TH13.5: Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade web demo released

[iK]

I'd find it hilarious personally if Meiling came in ranting about Confucianism.

[Tiamat]

Well, like I said, if there was ever an official plot that wanted to do a whole "Meiling is a/the dragon" or "Mima is the Hakurei Shrine goddess" thing, this would be one of the more likely ones (not that I think either of those will happen, but the potential set up is there, even down to the identity of the voice in the prologue)

Maybe Alice is still possible [Representing Shinkiism], and possibly Komachi again.

Of course, I'm curious if any new characters will be added. IamP had Suika, and SWR had Iku and Tenshi. [Hell, Hiso had the Catfish

Alice could represent the youkai as a magician just like how Marisa is representing the humans as a magician, maybe, I guess.

There will probably be a new character. It's practically foreshadowed in the prologue, where a mysterious voice is what caused this incident in the first place (assuming I and others are interpreting the prologue right).

[Quwanti]

Interesting new stuff. Few animations changed and a few portraits, judging by the in-game images (Marisa now makes a cute wink!). And for some reason, this (from here) appears in the game files. Hopefully someone extracts all the images as I can't all of them.

[LadyScarlet]

Can you please share the images you extracted? I need as many as I can get for future projects, and other people would like them, too.

[Suikama]

Interesting new stuff. Few animations changed and a few portraits, judging by the in-game images (Marisa now makes a cute wink!). And for some reason, this (from here) appears in the game files. Hopefully someone extracts all the images as I can't all of them.

even ZUN likes umehara :V

[Gpop]

inb4 Daigo starts playing 13.5 and wins EVO with it :V

[Suikama]

inb4 Daigo starts playing 13.5 and wins EVO with it :V

yeah i highly doubt that :V

[Quwanti]

Can you please share the images you extracted? I need as many as I can get for future projects, and other people would like them, too.

Well, extracting them all (and conversing) would take a lot of time. Though, you could look for yourself using TexMod. It's what I use.

And ooh, the music has changed. Mainly Ichirin's theme sounds way different now.

[UTW]

This apparently says that Ichirin's theme hasn't actually changed and the version in the web demo is a much older version that was mistakenly left in.

[Aya Reiko]

I'd find it hilarious personally if Meiling came in ranting about Confucianism.

Meiling's past is a bit of a mystery.  For all we know, she may be a Shaolin Nun.

And she'd most likely be a Taoist too.  A non-Miko affiliated Taoist...  :wat:

[Gpop]

So I made video detailing what I found in terms of changes from the disc demo and the web demo with Reimu and some general gameplay changes from day 1 experimenting

[Quwanti]

Someone knows what's up with the blue circle surrounding you if you hold whatever button?

[iK]

Someone knows what's up with the blue circle surrounding you if you hold whatever button?

It seems to be a rough auto-block, but it won't block everything by any means.

[cuc]

Someone knows what's up with the blue circle surrounding you if you hold whatever button?

That's the "Chicken Guard" mode. Using it 3 times in succession results in a great loss of popularity. It also has higher priority than Brave Guard (parrying). Using Brave Guard 10 times in succession results in an increase of popularity.

[fondue]

The new demo is <3 Also I wish there was a detailed manual on parrying, the faith system etc. I really hope Sanae gets into this too.

[Clarste]

- Aya: Would havd expected her to be a Human Village spectator. Could be a Spirit Mausoleum or Moriya Shrine one instead, but she may get more directly involved.

Aya's probably going to be a part of the "Youkai Mountain" cast that spectates at the Moriya Shrine. Along with Momiji an Nitori and probably some generic tengu/kappa. The tengu and the kappa are both very close to the shrine. Well, that's just the feeling I get now.

I'm really confused by the lack of Akyuu though.

[shadowbringer]

speaking of Akyu, I wonder what will happen to her, with another console generation approaching fast.

I still hope (no pun intended) that the final version of the game turns out to be good, haven't heard good things about the game it's based on (Astra Fighter), don't know if the bullet dodging will make up for that.

[iK]

The new demo is <3 Also I wish there was a detailed manual on parrying, the faith system etc. I really hope Sanae gets into this too

I believe I have a fairly good understanding of how the faith system works-

On Faith: In order to be aligned to a faith, that faith must have at least 3 points allocated to it and can not be tied with another faith for alignment. Having 4 points in Daosim, 3 in Shinto, and 1 in Buddhism, for example would align your character with Daosim, while having 4 points in Daoism and 4 in Shinto would result in no alignment.

Reimu
Spell Guage: 1200

Normal:
-X shot fires 3 slow aimed amulets that become homing if they pass through Reimu's  Forward Y
-Neutral/back Y fires 2 amulets that have a delay before aiming at the opponent  with slight homing for 3 hits each
-Forward Y sends out a semi-permanent barrier in front of Reimuthat both hits the opponent and interacts with several of Reimu's moves. Reimu also gets a burst of speed when moving through the barrier.
-Up and Down Y fire respectively angled quick amulets with slight homing for 3 hits

Shinto:
-X shot fires 3 slow homing amulets; no difference seems to come from passing through Forward Y
-Neutral/back Y fires 2 amulets that have a delay before homing in on the opponent for 3 hits each
-Forward Y is identical to normal
-Up and Down Y fire respectively angled quick homing amulets for 3 hits

Buddhism
-X shots fire 3 loosely aimed amulets that detonate a small distance away from Reimu. If they come into contact with the enemy, they hit then explode, dealing 2 hits for each amulet. If the amulets pass through Reimu's Forward Y, They speed up, re-aim at the enemy, and get a larger explosion radius
-Neutral/back Y fires 2 slow moving, meaty amulet, one above and one below Reimu, that move slugishly toward the opponent and deal 3 hits each if they connect
-Forward Y

[snip]

More importantly, does anyone have info on the netplay?

[Tsalop]

I'm really confused by the lack of Akyuu though.

Maybe we have epic book fight between Patchouli and Akyuu...
Then again Akyuu could be a spectator in Myoren shrine.

[Lightmaster]

Traditional old man sounds like it got a few more sounds added to the background. It looks like ZUN went to town with the techno in this one. Needless to say it sounds amazing!

A fairly late reply, but I think this arrange was made by the usual composer of Tasofro: U2 Akiyama, and maybe I can say the same thing for the other songs, including the new songs for the intro and title theme. Besides, ZUN usually only makes two or three themes for the collaborations with Tasofro (for IaMP, ZUN did Demystify Feast, Evening Star and Missing Power. For SWR, he did Iku's theme, Tenshi's theme, and the reprise of Tenshi's theme for her last spell, and for Soku, he only did Unknown X and the reprise for Suwako's last spell), and it's usually songs for, either new characters, or songs used in a certain situation.

Here's my only two cents for now.

[BL2W]

I'm a little late to the game here, I guess, but I just tried out the new demo yesterday (heck, it was my first time trying out the game period!). I actually really like it, and so, I made a commentary here concerning my experience:

"TH 13.5 Hopeless Masquerade - Demo: Marisa Kirisame"

[iK]

BL2W, try turning off the 3d backgrounds. That should fix the lag tremendously.

[BL2W]

I'll try that next time I record. Thanks for the tip~

[ceiling hat]

That's the "Chicken Guard" mode. Using it 3 times in succession results in a great loss of popularity. It also has higher priority than Brave Guard (parrying). Using Brave Guard 10 times in succession results in an increase of popularity.

To clarify further, it's basically the old pushblock. You have to block normally while it is active for it to work.

[Malyszeq]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanojaku

I will just leave this here for everyone to ponder.  Please take into account that literal translation of Touhou 13.5 means "Eastern Tower of Heart Fabric".

[cuc]

That's a rather famous demon symbolizng humans' desires. Didn't know its association with Bishamoten, or the theory about its origin as a Shinto goddess involved in the conquest of Japan story (i.e. Amaterasu taking Japan from Ookuninushi), though. Did she appear in SSiB? ...no, she didn't. Thanks for the information. That's an interesting theory.

[Malyszeq]

Oh, and additionally, the Polish wiki article about Amanojaku connects it also with the Klesha's concept
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleshas_%28Buddhism%29

As far as I read ZUN might have used the concept as the base for the idea of the Ten Desires.

EDIT: Sorry, the concept of Ten Desires stems from the list of Ten Fetters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetter_%28Buddhism%29

Here we find Youmu's lacking lust for life and lust for death, which Miko says about in Youmu's scenario.

[cuc]

Kleshas are what I meant by "desires" in my last post. I was previously not familiar with Ten Fetters, but through reading Chinese articles, they turn out indeed to be important concepts, so thanks again.

It's possible the "ten desires" are inspired by them, though the context has been changed in an important way. The context of ten fetters is that they are the obstacles one must overcome on the way to nirvana, and they are strongly related to the Buddhist cosmology where there are 3 layers of existence, from low to high: Desire Realm, Form Realm, Formless Realm. The first 5 "lower fetters" only exist in Desire Realm (where most humans are), while the 6th and 7th fetters are translated in Chinese as "lust for Form Realm" and "lust for Formless Realm" - the desire to enter or stay in those higher realms.

The divide of the three Realms is so far not mentioned in Touhou. And compared to real Buddhist concepts which are often unintuitive to the modern mind, "attachment to life" and "longing for death" are much more like something a modern writer will come up with.