Submit your questions for ZUN at AWA 2013!

[Jam-Kiske]

I'm not sure if this is close enough to things that have been asked before, but hey let's ask anyway since this is what I wonder about really anyone that creates things I enjoy.

- What does your day to day life look like when you're not working on a game compared to when you are? What kind of activities do you enjoy when you're not working? (in before drinking)

[Helepolis]

People, it is ok to point out certain questions with existing canon material, but don't start debating it here.

Discussion please go here http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,15213.0.html

[Tengukami]

I know that they were introduced in the Windows games, but their lack of appearances, other than the oldest Windows works, makes them more like PC-98 characters rather than Windows characters.

Wow. Never heard that one before. EoSD a PC-98 game. He'll be delighted to hear that.

[BL2W]

I know that they were introduced in the Windows games, but their lack of appearances, other than the oldest Windows works, makes them more like PC-98 characters rather than Windows characters.

Double "wow." I guess you haven't heard of the cameos and mentions that they've made in the manga and other literature then (such as Rumia's cameos in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red and Oriental Sacred Place, or Flandre's importance in a certain article in BAiJR and heavily-implied cameo in Inaba of the Earth and Inaba of the Moon)...? And you haven't seen them appear in Shoot the Bullet as bosses? Or, you haven't seen them grouped with the other first several Windows games' characters in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense?

I'm not trying to slam you because, clearly, if you're making a truly baffling statement like that, then I'm justifiably inclined to believe that you haven't done a lot of research on these characters to begin with; I'm being sincere here.

[highzealot]

Not sure if this has been asked yet but, have you ever played, read or listened to any fanworks of Touhou and if so, are there any that especially caught your attention?

[qazmlpok]

I feel this is an important question to ask, just to end all future debates about her name.

• What is the proper romanization for "マエリベリー・ハーン" / "Maeriberī Hān"?

Alternatively, "How would マエリベリー・ハーン be written in Mary's native language?"

[Scarlet Commander]

Per what Helepolis said, I put my responses in the Misc Questions thread, BL2W and Tengukami.

[Kilgamayan]

I feel this is an important question to ask, just to end all future debates about her name.

• What is the proper romanization for "マエリベリー・ハーン" / "Maeriberī Hān"?

Alternatively, "How would マエリベリー・ハーン be written in Mary's native language?"

- Can we have an official romanization of Miss Hearn's given name? (You don't need to select this one because I know Solamarle will ask it regardless)

[qazmlpok]

@Kilgamayan

Whoops. I skimmed the thread and didn't catch that.

[Kilgamayan]

It was in the first post. NO ONE EVER LISTENS TO ME ;_;

[Tengukami]

Yeah, would be a good idea to read through the thread to avoid repeating/rephrasing questions already made.

[Silentsword]

One I'd like to see asked:

"Where, or whom, would you say are your musical influences, and what sort of creative process do you go through in writing new pieces (either in Touhou or outside of it)?"

Two questions, I know, but either or both would make me quite happy

[Limian]

- Who are your favourite Touhou characters? (I know he voted on a popularity poll once and chose Reimu, Youmu, Mokou and someone else, but this sounds like it was a long time ago, and I'm just curious if he got any new favourites in the meantime) What about your favourite pieces?
- Wriggle, Kaguya and Mokou got scrapped from Hisoutensoku due to time constraints. Is there a chance we will see them in a future fighting game, maybe along with other characters we haven't seen in a fighting game yet?
- Have you considered arranging some of U2's themes for the fighting games, like Broken Moon and The Ground's Colour is Yellow, and putting them on a music CD?

[AnonymousPondScum]

-What was the first video game you ever played?
-Why weren't the Moriyas involved in the events of Hopeless Masquerade?
-Who are your favorite musicians not primarily known for video game-related music?

[Necrotek]

-What was the first video game you ever played?

I wonder how much people actually remember what was their first video they have ever played...

[Sky_Paladin]

I'll add some more!

- Cirno doesn't appear to be a normal fairy.  Can you tell us why she's special? 
- Does fan made material ever influence your direction on characters, e.g., Patchouli's familiar in EoSD is commonly known as Koukuma, Alice is depicted as having a crush on Marisa, and countless other examples. 
- Is there any fan made material that you would like to see that hasn't appeared yet?

[Imosa]

• How faithful do you try to be to the myths that are your source material? Is there something that you would like to preserve when translating myths into your stories? For example, why did you reference Prince Shotoku in Ten Desires, but change his character almost entirely?
• Your characters and stories tend to be very sparsely developed. Why is that? Are you not able to write deeper characters and stories? Do you want to create them as a spring board for your fandom's creativity?

• Can you describe your education, i.e. highest level, anything in particular that you studied? (I'd like to know how much education he has in the hard sciences)
• In a few points through out the series, you reference the sciences, such as in Kanako's Cold Fusion plan in Wild and Horned Hermit. How do you feel about the sciences? Can we expect to see more references to science in the future? (I'm trying to figure out how much of a science geek he is and if that will show up in the future)

[Drake]

Can you describe your education, i.e. highest level, anything in particular that you studied? (I'd like to know how much education he has in the hard sciences)

He took mathematics in university. He calls himself a "sciences" (理系) guy which is basically the umbrella for studying science/engineering/math/etc, rather than the humanities (文系).

[Scarlet Commander]

I have another question that ZUN could answer...

Would he ever make another Touhou game where Reimu/Marisa appear as a stage boss during an incident as in IN? Or a situation similar to where if there are three people to choose (Reimu/Marisa/Sakuya) as the heroine, and then during stage 4 they meet one of the other heroines you didn't choose (like this: Reimu fights Marisa, Marisa fights Sakuya, and Sakuya fights Reimu)?

[Neal Kawashiro]

Do you consider fan-made characters as real touhou characters?

What's your favorite type of touhou game? the single screen, the split screen type(phantasmagoria) or the fighting type?

[Imosa]

He took mathematics in university. He calls himself a "sciences" (理系) guy which is basically the umbrella for studying science/engineering/math/etc, rather than the humanities (文系).

*shrug* That's still pretty vague. I wouldn't mind learning more specifics.

[Firestorm29]

Another question that's alittle silly, I remmeber hearing that Great Fairy Wars was planned to have 6 stages instead of three, I was wondering what they other stages would have been like.

[Limian]

That reminds me of a question I asked long ago in the MiscQ thread:
- What's the deal with the eighth track of Ghostly Field Club (Flower of Past Days ~ Fairy of Flower, unused PCB theme)? Was Lily White originally supposed to be a full boss in PCB and later replaced by the Prismriver Sisters? If yes, why did you change your mind?

[Yuyu]

I have a bit of a strange one-

Did working at Taito influence how you make and look at games? Did it help you develop as a game designer? And if it's not too nosy what are some of the titles there you had a hand in making?

[Hyn]

Oh, my . Well, I've collected some questions from a certain small forum in Spanish. Someone's got to send ZUN some love from Latin America (please!). Sadly, the questions are canon-related only.
Here we go:

-Wll the [other] remaining Devas appear in the future?
-Will Youmu/Sakuya/Sanae/Orin be playable characters again?
-Is there something you dislike about the fandom?
-Would you make a game about [the story of/explaining] the rivalry between kitsunes and tanukis? (If someone can re-word this better, I'd appreciate it very much).

And my personal question:
Why did you choose English names for some of your characters? Are they foreigners? If so, what's their origin?

(I have a feeling this is a very stupid and vague question but  I'm really curious lol)

[The Krve]

Got this one popped up in my mind recently.
-In Gensokyo, just how hard it is for a normal human to learn danmaku and/or create his/her own spellcard ?

[日巫子]

I have two questions:

> Will there ever be an official map of Gensokyo?
> Do any of the girls have birthdays?  Not necessarily years, but months and days?  Or is that up to fandom interpretation?

[Captain Vulcan]

 - Welcome to Atlanta! Hope you're enjoying your visit. How was your trip here?
- Can we expect the appearance of another shrine maiden?
- Why is Kasen so elusive? Was she a human once?
- Who is the most difficult/deepest character that you've created?
- Will there be any additional religions featured in future works (Christianity, Hinduism, etc)?
- Bud Light or Budweiser? Just kidding!
- Are you a fan of any Western comics? If yes, which ones?

[Scarlet Commander]

Got another dozy of a question...

Since Gensokyo is a place where youkai go so that they aren't forgotten and disappear... can Touhou be quite easily seen as a religion in itself, and in turn, Gensokyo be a form of "Heaven/Hell"? I mean, you have everything there to start a religion. You have the spirits of the world and people who believe in them and worship them (as with the case of Kanako and Suwako).

[danyun]

• What's the funniest/stupidest bug you ever encountered during development?