Touhou Rage Thread XVI: Last-Second Clipdeaths Edition

[Alicirno]

Eiki hates me.

[Zengeku]

Seriously, what in the name of the moon is wrong with Reisen's bullets? One time it covers half of my hitbox and I survive, and another I just barely brush it and pichuu~n! IN is too dependent on luck/some other obscure factor for its own good.

Don't touch the bullets and they won't kill you.

[CyberAngel]

Every other irregular bullet in Touhou does that. It's because the hitbox is a different shape than the bullet's general shape, such as Koishi's heart bullets having a circular hitbox.

I know. But in both cases I touched the side of the bullet, where it's narrow and supposed to be 100% hitbox in that dimension.

Don't touch the bullets and they won't kill you.

Too bad the space between bullets is often less than bullets themselves.

Alright, I have another beef with IN. Player's hitbox is drawn below bullets. PLAYER'S HITBOX IS DRAWN BELOW BULLETS which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of having a visible hitbox. I actually don't have a problem with not seeing hitbox by itself, but when it's something like Resurrection "Game of Rising" and there's so much stuff you lose sight of your sprite and have to rely on either luck or ability to gauge your position blindly which you might not have, there's clearly something wrong there.

[chirpy13]

Oh look it happened again

[Zil]

Dunno.  I went ahead and uploaded it, though, because it is a 1cc.

Youtube.  Words in description.

Yumemi is an ass with this, yes.

I got curious and checked several PoDD runs, and it seems Yumemi rarely lasts the full length of what her timer (theoretically) should be. This isn't too surprising though. PoDD's AI is pretty weak. Enemies and fireballs can easily trap it. Even against a weak character, it fucks up eventually, and Chiyuri is by no means weak. I've found that, going full tilt, she almost always wins at least slightly early.

Not that that excuses the AI for losing the first round like that. But I don't think you should be too disappointed. The big thing about using Chiyuri is surviving the midgame with enough lives to have a good chance at beating Yumemi. Both Kotohime and Chiyuri are (at least imo) more dangerous than her, and the condition you're in after getting through them is what makes or breaks a 1cc. You kicked ass and only died once. It really sucks for the game to throw in the towel like that after you've done so well, but seeing how well you were playing, you've more than earned the 1cc as far as I'm concerned. Your game winning round lasted longer than mine from my own first 1cc, if that means anything.

(And I have to wonder what song you were looping during the run.)

[ふねん1]

Too bad the space between bullets is often less than bullets themselves.

Then find a bigger space. Don't take a chance with judging hitboxes if you're not absolutely familiar with them.

[K.B.]

Zil: thanks.

Yeah, I had noticed other 1ccs where Yumemi bit it soon after getting to her last half-orb, shaving off about a minute.  Although her taking a powder in the first round is an extreme variation on that, I knew that sort of thing could happen.

I think Chiyuri died a bit early too, but I also think that's about when her timer should be up, so eh.

Agreed that Chiyuri's laser-trap + level-three combination can be effective (as I started noticing this after seeing you mention it a while back), so I'll have to rework that part of the video description, but it's like you said in that it happens when you go full-tilt.  It would have been a fluke with my hyper-conservative playing.  I took chain-breaking and spell-point minimization to the next level, using charge shots to terminate chains before they reached 51k and moving away from chains to direct fireballs away from the explosions.  So those fireballs that Yumemi glomped were in no way created by anything I did.

Also agreed that Chiyuri is definitely harder than Yumemi (not sure where I'd stack Kotohime and Yumemi, though).  Yumemi has more screw-you attacks, but Chiyuri fights are constantly crazier.  And it seems like their timers are about the same.  After watching a bad replay of mine a few hours ago and seeing Yumemi die of natural causes at 2:35 in the fifth round, I edited the video description (although some of the edits didn't take, for whatever reason).  My 2:40 becomes 2:50 after hypering, which is close to what should be needed for a fourth round victory.  It's still unsatisfying and anticlimactic, but yeah, I think I'm ok with calling a 1cc and moving on.  Gotta reach the acceptance stage sometime.

Music was track four from the Tower of Heaven soundtrack.  Learned about it Friday night from SGDQ and immediately fell in love.

edit: just checked the video.  Thanks for the comments, guys.  Sorry for being so negative about this whole thing.

[CyberAngel]

Then find a bigger space. Don't take a chance with judging hitboxes if you're not absolutely familiar with them.

I try when I can, but that's not always an option.

[ふねん1]

I try when I can, but that's not always an option.

Well, that's what this kind of training is for, learning how to continuously keep yourself out of those situations. The only sort of advice I can give there is "always stay in as open a space as possible". General dodging skill, basically. It's the sort of thing that only comes with a lot of practice on a wide variety of patterns, but trust me, it comes.

[Blue]

Well, just did a random LLS Normal run with MarisaA, and I got Stage 6 Yuuka down to red health. RED. I would have cleared, too, if I hadn't gotten surprise-sparked in the Double Yuuka phase as I was coming out of a bomb...

[Makedounia]

I tried to perfect Miko on normal: I died on Honour the Avoidance of Defiance.
I tried to perfect Miko on hard : I died on her last spellcard.

[chirpy13]

Oh look it happened again

I stopped taking screenshots but I'm up to 5 of these now.  The game is getting me back for all the times I said it was shit.  Also what the hell, 31 hours and not cleared yet.

[Hainiryuun]

Keep trying the IN no bomb challenge. Keep making it to stage 6 with at least 5 lives, a couple times 6 and once 7. Then epically choke. Twice Ive lost my last life on Rainbow Damanku. Of course, can make it through practice runs only losing 3 lives....

[Zengeku]

Failed to NBNV UFO Hard. Ugh.

For completely unacceptably annoying reasons:

-Stage 3. Crashes into a laser just as the final attack dies. Not moving would have meant survival. No reason to move. But for some reason ended up doing that anyway.
-Stage 4. Dies to Murasa's 3rd card. Ugh
-Stage 5. Keyboard glitches and decides to move up at a critical moment. Bullshit.
- Stage 6. Gets hit by a fairy on Nueball. Troll. Then game over on Byakuren because I suck. Just one death on Hard mode Byakuren means you suck. Two is just no...

[Zil]

Welp. D-pad's fucked. It lasted quite a while at least. Good thing I didn't saw off the left stick like I was planning too, or the controller would be even more useless now.

I have a spare anyway so no big deal. But now the question of sawing off the stick returns...

[chirpy13]

I have a spare anyway so no big deal. But now the question of sawing off the stick returns...

Unless it's in the way or you find it troublesome to have on or something I wouldn't do it.  Some games are nice to have sticks for, even if you'd never use it for Touhou.

[redlakitu]

Keep trying the IN no bomb challenge. Keep making it to stage 6 with at least 5 lives, a couple times 6 and once 7. Then epically choke. Twice Ive lost my last life on Rainbow Damanku. Of course, can make it through practice runs only losing 3 lives....

Hey, I can relate. One attempt: lost five lives to Marisa before ragequitting. Second attempt: perfected Stage 4, then lost two lives to Tewi, THREE to Apollo 13 and further two to Astronomical Entombing (the same spell card that I managed to No Focus capture earlier in the day). I'm more and more inclined to pick FinalB next time.

[Space Flower]

Please tell me I'm not the only shitty player who knows the exact perfect route through PCB Extra and yet dies over and over, only becoming more frustrated and dying earlier every time. I've seriously drained ~24 hours into this crapshoot and have only faced Ran like eight times because I make stupid mistakes 99% of the time and no matter how good I am at anything I always fuck up somewhere

[Elysia]

Please tell me I'm not the only shitty player who knows the exact perfect route through PCB Extra and yet dies over and over, only becoming more frustrated and dying earlier every time. I've seriously drained ~24 hours into this crapshoot and have only faced Ran like eight times because I make stupid mistakes 99% of the time and no matter how good I am at anything I always fuck up somewhere

Just keep going. PCB Extra gives you a ridiculous amount of resources even before you take borders into account. Theoretically, it's possible to clear it with six derp deaths; realistically for a first-time player, two or three is pretty reasonable. If nothing else, not resetting will give you more practice on the later sections.

EDIT: Here is a (deliberately) terrible replay where I take MarisaB through PCB Extra while capturing almost nothing and still clearing the stage. Two of the deaths were even genuine derps on my part since I'm really unfamiliar with Marisa's controls, and I still cleared through what was mostly bomb and border break spam, including on some of the really easy sections. In other words: PCB Extra is really, really forgiving.

[Zil]

the exact perfect route through PCB Extra

Teach me.

[Space Flower]

Teach me.

Well, as perfect as it gets for me. Also it's Sakuya A, so homing homing
I have a bomb for collecting all the points from the last two quadruplets of thingies that appear before Chen, one bomb each for Chen's spellcards and a deathbomb for if I screw up spell circles before Ran.
Here's an average run for me. I sail through difficult parts only to flounder and flop on the dumbest stuff, keke

Thanks Malky. I also know for a fact that I am awful at bombing and I think there might be some hardware delay involved (minimally because I'm awful at it even without blaming hardware). Like in that replay up there I saw my death coming both times in charming siege and the deathbomb didn't work either time when I hit x as dying. That was about when I gave up hope on that run.

[Blue]

Well, tried 1ccing IN Hard again.

wait what Life Spring Infinity's familiar goes to the bottom of the screen OH CRAP

Maybe I shouldn't have bomb-spammed Brilliant Dragon Bullet...

[Elysia]

Sakuya A

Okay. Here is a replay I made with SakuyaA that shows the right way to do PCB Extra; I made a couple of minor mistakes but they're pretty obvious, most of it is the right way to go about doing the stage (this includes the bombs; I intentionally bombed in spots that *might* have been dangerous rather than take the risk. If you think a spot is dangerous, a wasted bomb is always better than a wasted life. Also, always bomb Chen's first spell, it's easily the hardest part of the stage portion.)

Note especially my strategy on Princess Tenko. There was a very good reason for moving the way I did; it ends the card much faster, and this is very important as SakuyaA has a ton of trouble with this card. Stay unfocused, stay high, stay close. Misdirect to the bottom, move horizontally. Bomb if you have to, but keep your pattern going.

Also, from watching your replay, it looked to me like you didn't know how to break a border. If you have a border and press the bomb button, it'll clear all the bullets off the screen at the cost of your border, which is fantastic for when it's just about to run out on you (check the lower left corner, when the number counts down to under 10k, look for a spot to break the border ASAP). If you're going for pure survival play and not score play, a Border Bonus is generally a sign you're doing it wrong.

[Space Flower]

Ah, thanks. I do notice I'm making progress, and watching your Tenko certainly helps.
Really? I thought Border Bonuses would be better because they'd net me the score extends. I suppose they must stop giving you those after a short while though, huh...

On another note, my bomb key got stuck for the first time. It was on Kanako's last spell, which I hadn't actually faced before but I had two lives going into it so I was like "what could go wrong"
I guess that could happen...

[I have no name]

Ah, thanks. I do notice I'm making progress, and watching your Tenko certainly helps.
Really? I thought Border Bonuses would be better because they'd net me the score extends. I suppose they must stop giving you those after a short while though, huh...

PCB doesn't give you extra lives off of score, just point items (200, 500 and 800 in Extra).

[Space Flower]

o
I'm gonna go break some borders

[Zengeku]

EDIT: too much negativity.

- Briefly put. I get keyboard glitches and they fuck up my MoF runs so I cannot improve that high score that I have that I'm not satisfied with. Currently quite frustrated with having a low score with my name on it and being unable to do anything about it.

Who cares. Scoring is one side of shmups. There are plenty of venues to explore where a single death to keyboard bullshit isn't the end of the world so i'll just go there and try to get happy over there. Cheers.

[cactu]

I was about to enter Stage 6 of EoSD with 350M score and with an extra life and a bomb, but then I got too greedy and died on killing doll because I wanted a bigger cancel, then died on the stage fairies because I wanted a PoC. Way to ruin a good run, me.  :V

[Choco Beam]

nooooooo

It was meant to be a submission on one of the challenges but accidentally bombed once on kaguya D:

Oh, my first run in 3 months. Though I don't care for touhou anymore, its nice to play these games once in a while~

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

I just didn't know what I was up against when I got to her last spell, I went full 9 when I didn't twice at the same spot.

I did pretty good seeing how I haven't attempted her in over a month and this was my first try.
FUCK