Which Touhou Game is the Hardest/Easiest?

[commandercool]

Also, SA AIN'T THE HARDEST NORMAL!! ARGHHH  :getdown:

I've found it to be slightly harder just because once you start to get a UFO route down it is possibly to go nuts with bomb stacking in UFO. Messing up even slightly can still waste all of those resources very quickly, but if things are going okay it can give you the extra push that it takes to finish the game. Then again I find Utsuho to be way, waaaay more difficult than it seems most people do, so yeah, subjective.

[FamilyTeam]

If I were to say, Ten Desires is the easiest on Normal BY FAR. The first time I played it, I litterally lost my first life on Futo, and only because I was almost sleeping at that point. and then I lost all of my continues on Toyosatomimi no Miko because I COULDN'T FREAKIN' LOOK AT THE BLOODY SCREEN. And also, PoFV is pretty easy as well, that is, if the computer feels like taking it easy on you  :V
And the hardest, I really can't tell for sure, because I haven't really played 10-12 properly, (because I have the same problems with these games as I have with Toyota, WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAS TO BE SO SMALL, COLORFUL AND MOVE SO FAST!!! ARGH) but through the little that I played of every single one of the aforementioned, I'd say they are the hardest  :V

[Karisa]

If I recall correctly from my first Normal clears, LLS was by far the easiest; as Chirpy said, play Hard for Normal-like gameplay. MS was also relatively easy (but it has a difficult Easy mode in comparison to later games). MoF was pretty difficult because I couldn't dodge Kanako's final and had to spend like 4 lives on it. EoSD is hard to bomb through but I don't recall having too much trouble with Normal (it's Hard/Lunatic where I'd rank it higher). No idea about TD because the game wasn't released until I'd already been getting Hard 1ccs.

Going from the perspective of attempting to perfect Normal (which I haven't succeeded at in any game but did 3DNB or better most of the series), SA has the hardest patterns, and UFO is somewhere up there as expected (especially if you aren't using SanaeB for easy stage portions), but IN (4B/6B route) was surprisingly hard. As was MoF, but that might just have been lack of familiarity with no-bombing the stage portions.

So, how's HRtP in terms of difficulty?
I actually like the game.

It's hard to describe. If you're going for a clear (as opposed to LNB or something), it's mostly about learning how to make use of sliding to aim the orb, and how to properly use bombs to trivialize the stage portions, which I think is sort of level with developing routes to bomb through the other games' Hard, but perhaps not.

There's also very little difference between difficulties. Stage turrets don't shoot on Easy, and cards fire bullets on Lunatic (a major difference if you're no-bombing the game, nearly irrelevant otherwise), but bosses barely change at all. It's easier to bomb through Lunatic than Hard though, because you get more points and therefore more lives.

[Blue]

Speaking from the number of tries it took me to 1cc each game, SA is the hardest. It's the only one that actually took me a full 10 tries to clear.

The easiest is IN, just because of the insanely high number of starting lives you can have. It took me 2 tries, after game overing to unlock the 7 lives option. For whatever reason, UFO also took the same number of tries.


UFO took two tries. I'm still wondering how exactly that happened.

[K.B.]

Toho 11.5 is the hardest 1cc.

I bet you can't even do it.

[chirpy13]

I take back what I said about UFO.  Mystical Power Plant is hardest normal mode.

[Mordon]

For me IN was the easiest, and SA the hardest. If you tend to die with bombs, then TD probably isn't easier than IN. It's just, IN gives so many lives and bombs that even if you fail hard you can still finish it. And SA is just cruel.

[Lavalake]

My list might be really different than others. I'm not counting the side games.
I know I listed something different on the Touhou 14 topic, but I wasn't thinking then.
IN is the easiest because of the resources and that you can 1cc even if you had to continue.
TD is supposedly easy, except I can't get that normal 1cc.
MoF is easy because of the bombing, and because the danmaku was pretty spread out. Can almost 1cc this.
PCB is actually hard, considering it is counted as the easiest. I can't beat Youmu. Youmu is pretty hard, the rest of the game is easy.
EoSD is just hard because of the hitboxes.
UFO is supposedly hard, except I, the one who can't normal 1cc TD, just almost got my normal 1cc.
SA is just plain dense. It's fun though.

[yorgje]

Hmm, let's see,  I think the 2hu game that makes me the hardest is probably IN. There's really a lot of lewd text in it! For instance, if you choose route 6A at the end of stage 5 as Border team, Reimu mentions that she and Yukari had been shooting off Reisen's clothes throughout their fight, and then she threatens to shoot the rest of them off. Ahh~ Also, Youmu criticizes Yuyuko for spreading her "shots" so wide. Youmu! Please! My goodness! And this is really only the tip of the ice berg. I don't want to spoil any more of the game for those of you who haven't played it yet, but, yeah, very lewd.

I think the 2hu that's easiest is probably HRtP, because most young boys probably pray to have sex at some point, so, well, okay I think you know where this goes.

[RegretDesi]

Well, I don't do much Normal, but for Easy, I think it's a tie between IN and SA for easiest, and EoSD for hardest.

[Failure McFailFace]

Contradicting to my OP, the photography games are now my least favorite.

Seriously, ZUN? Make me retry 91 photos for 1-3??

*rages in the background*

[CF7]

Easiest is probably IN even with normal stock of lives. I have no idea how people think that PCB is the easiest. Prismrivers, Youmu and Yuyuko. *shudders*
Hardest in my opinion is UFO. Murasa with her anchors and timeout spell, then curvy lasers madness and Byakuren is not much better.

[dingdongpo]

MoF is definitely the easiest for me so far. It only took me two tries to beat on normal. Hardest is probably UFO, but I guess that's because I haven't had much practice.

[Space Flower]

Easiest is probably IN even with normal stock of lives. I have no idea how people think that PCB is the easiest. Prismrivers, Youmu and Yuyuko. *shudders*
Hardest in my opinion is UFO. Murasa with her anchors and timeout spell, then curvy lasers madness and Byakuren is not much better.

I think PCB can fluctuate depending on who you use. I mean, SakuyaA is absolutely ridiculous. bombs are basically expendable to her, and she has everything. Focusshot removes the need to ever plan a route for a stage. Just stream occasionally, and use Indiscriminate when there's a high payoff of point items. Killer Doll absolutely destroys 90% of spellcards. I say this as a noob who has 1cc'd PCB Hard and nothing else on Normal.
But then, from what I've played with Marisa, her speed and collection prowess put her in a near-constant state of cherry border.

[Hainiryuun]

IN is the easiest, for me. The amount of extra lives/bombs you get is pretty ridiculous, and being able to clear bullets with OK timing makes makes normal a cakewalk. Plus, even though death-bombing uses 2 bombs, it's still always better than letting bombs go to waste, which happens much more often than in other games.

UFO is certainly the hardest though. To me, the difficulty of even stage one feels comparable to stage 3 of other games (and it obviously only gets more difficult from there).

[Mesarthim]

I don't play the PC-98 games much so for me the hardest is UFO which I cannot beat all the time on hard mode. SA for me isn't the hardest since I can beat the game on Lunatic although only with Reimu shot types.

The easiest is...

...

Maybe imperishable night? It's either that or Ten Desires.

[Gray21oh]

I'd say LLS, PCB and TD are the easiest due to their different mechanics with the score. LLS using bombs, PCB's border mechanic and TD's trance gauge being those.
Personally, I don't think IN is as easy as everyone says. Sure you get lots of resources but I don't find that helps of your not use to the shot types or you dunno how to dodge any patterns. Although I find it weird I can remember every other games patterns but not IN's for some reason.
I'm going to say both SA and UFO are pretty hard for how dense they can get on harder difficulties and with UFO the UFO's can get pretty annoying to get like hiding in a barrage. I guess if you want to count it SoEW could rank up to really hard also only because there's no way to slow down in that game.

[Failure McFailFace]

IN is somewhere in the middle for me, as it always turns into an almost-no-focus run without meaning to...

Dang time!

[iK]

Easiest is probably IN even with normal stock of lives. I have no idea how people think that PCB is the easiest. Prismrivers, Youmu and Yuyuko. *shudders*
Hardest in my opinion is UFO. Murasa with her anchors and timeout spell, then curvy lasers madness and Byakuren is not much better.

Personally, Reisen gives me  a lot more trouble than Youmu ever could. Prismrivers fight is gimmicky but not as hard with practice; Reisen's gimmick is just particularly hard to get down for me. It's a matter of what kind of attacks give individual players the most trouble tbh.

[Bigyingyi]

The hardest game on normal that I have played was UFO (NEVER got past the 3rd stage) the easiest was DDC (easier to get lives in Stage 3)

Two different games with two different perspectives.  :]

[Szayelaporro Granz]

Touhou main games from easiest to hardest according to my opinion.

IN =< TD < MoF (it's more like bombing than shooting game, really) < DDC (thanks to plenty of resource) < EoSD (all u need to do is getting used with the hitbox) < PCB < SA < UFO

[Bigyingyi]

Contradicting to my OP, the photography games are now my least favorite.

I thought it was only the main Touhou games!

Y U NO TELL ME?!?!?!?!?!?!??!   :V :wat: :derp:
                                                         

[ViciousYukkuri]

Hardest I would have to go with UFO or SA. UFO overall is harder, but SA has Orin. Orin's harder than Utsuho. Hell, Orin's harder than a number of final bosses.
Easiest is a harder question. It'd be between TD, IN or DDC. TD, while on the easy end, has a lack of lives that makes even a tiny mistake a huge deal, and Miko has some pretty nasty spellcards, not to mention more of them. IN also is a lower difficulty, but Reimu, Marisa and Reisen are stupid hard. And DDC...Seija. And Shinmyoumaru's spellcard that makes you large is just a huge ball of WTF.

[Tengukami]

Yo don't be saying the photog games aren't part of the main games. Unless by 'main' you mean 'shooters'.

[Nindella]

When I see talk of the 'main' games I think of the integer games (with an emphasis on the windows ones).

So if someone were to post something like, "Finally just 1cc'd all the main Touhou games on Normal!!  " I automatically assume they've managed to 1cc Touhou 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 (+ 14 now) on normal, unless elaborated further~  :derp:

Even then, it's still a bit iffy, as some people also skip Touhou 9.  Hmph >:

[Tengukami]

Oh, don't mind me, just my bias at work.

[Darkness1]

Easiest: I would say maybe EoSD, IN, LLS.  Overall difficulty, but I'm not skilled enough to go lunatic on all games so I'm not sure (TD is harder for me since I suck at the spirit system).

Hardest: Probably PoDD. Even on normal.

[Hainiryuun]

Hardest is prob SA because you cant just bomb your way through cards you suck at.

Easiest is prob IN because the border team trivilizes entire stages to the point where the only remotely difficult stage is both stage 6s.

[Quukii]

After seriously playing all of the main games (minus PoFV) for normal 1ccs, I now feel like UFO is the most difficult game as opposed to SA because SA is more easily learnable. At least, that is how I felt while playing it.

[Hainiryuun]

Meh, I think it's too easy to gain extra lives in UFO to consider it to be the hardest.