So how is UFO's reception?

[Milkyway64]

I remember reading on here that a lot of people felt UFO would be the worst in the series. Most of these people based their feelings off the demo. Now that it's out, and all 6 stages are open for our enjoyment, how do you feel about it? Still think it's bad? Feel that older games are much better than it?

Personally, I love it. The UFO mechanic is only annoying in actually picking up the UFOs on time when a minefield of bullets is pinning you to the bottom of the stage. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't your main method of getting bombs and lives. (I miss when point items gave us lives like in PCB and IN.)

[RainfallYoshi]

I think it's awesometastic fun times. I really love the cast of this one too, we got some rather neat people this go-around.

The only thing is that the story *really* makes me feel bad for beating the game.

Hello Nazi-Sanae!

[Kanako Yasaka]

I LOVE it. The only thing I don't like so much is the UFO system, but the danmaku/music/characters are <3

[?q]

I'm pretty sure I posted this elsewhere but I lost it.

Most people hate any new game that comes out, starting a few weeks before the demo and continuing about a month after the game comes out until they realize that it's not cool to hate it any more.  In UFO's case, that month-long wait for people to start liking it has gone way down because it's actually pretty impressive.

The only people I've seen who hate it are the Lunatic players.

[Slaves]

UFO is easily my favorite one in the series now.

every stage has had new danmaku, and the portraits are really well drawn. UFOs are probably my favorite part of the game. as long as you don't go crazy with them, they're not too annoying. the patterns and characters(CAPTAIN MURASA MINAMITSU FUCK YEAH ANCHORS) are awesome, as is the new music.

i've only gotten past stage 4, but the stages are really fun, despite being bulletfests.

[Zengar Zombolt]

The only thing I can say that I dislike is when the screen's so cluttered I can't say if something is a point item or a blue bullet.

[theshirn]

Overall, it's a lot of fun; ZUN fixed the things that NYERGHed it up in the demo (at least for me), though I haven't tried the higher difficulties yet.

There is a rather absurd bullet density, though, even for Normal.  I'm glad my sightreading ability has improved so much, because otherwise stages 4 and 5 would rape my face over and over and over again.

[nintendonut888]

I'm pretty sure I posted this elsewhere but I lost it.

Most people hate any new game that comes out, starting a few weeks before the demo and continuing about a month after the game comes out until they realize that it's not cool to hate it any more.  In UFO's case, that month-long wait for people to start liking it has gone way down because it's actually pretty impressive.

The only people I've seen who hate it are the Lunatic players.

Even then I'm starting to think lunatic isn't as impossible as I first judged. I can't play it thanks to my computer, but other than stage 3's second half being hatred incarnate it seems pretty fine to me. What I don't like is the game's emphasis on claustrophobic dodging though.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Eh.

I'm not terribly stoked for Touhou 13 after seeing this.

Byakuren is pretty, at least.

[Drake]

Second half of Stage 5 is the only part of the game I dislike. As in the part where red glowy stuff just flies out of nowhere and you can barely see any of it.

But other than that, great.

[Nine West]

Second half of Stage 5 is the only part of the game I dislike. As in the part where red glowy stuff just flies out of nowhere and you can barely see any of it.

But other than that, great.

This, more or less.

[Slowpoke]

Coherent story, well-drawn, fair gameplay, creative characters, pretty good music. Aside from shitty trolling I see no reason not to like it.

[Tengukami]

Love it. Loved the demo, too, but the full version went above and beyond. The art is easily my favorite part of the game. I could do without the points vomit in Stage 5 when I'm trying to graze, but other than that, yeah - music, gameplay, story, art and cast are all just peachy with me.

[Benny1]

I love this game and its music and its staff roll so much.

To the point I wrote this: http://benny0.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/ufo/

[Azinth]

As far as the non-gameplay parts go (characters/plot/music and all that junk), I quite like it.  For the music all of my favorites seem to be the stage themes rather than the bosses, which seems opposite to the general opinion.  The boss themes are decent enough and convey their needed moods well, they just didn't seem to stand out as much. 

The characters are all nice. My absolute favorites are definitely the stage 1-3 bosses for varied reasons, but the later ones are interesting enough and I'm sure they'll grow on me.

The plot is okay for a Touhou game I guess but who the hell cares about that.  :V

Gameplay-wise... It's hard to tell at this point of course, since it's been out all of three days.  I haven't really spent much time with the scoring system yet(survival play is more than enough for me atm) but it seems pretty interesting.  As far as the stages/danmaku goes, there are some parts that I really really love and some that I really hate.  Once again though, it hasn't been long enough, so maybe the good parts will loose their magic and/or the bad parts will grow on me.  I'm still quite sure that I really hate the extra stage though. =/

[♛ Apher-Forte]

I personally felt saddest exactly why is Sanae utterly batshit insane and a nazi. I mean, living God or not, she has an absurd role this go, if anything, it destroyed all the sweet sweet doujin images I had of her in my mind as the sweet girl who gets pushed about.

I mean... she is crazy! She is like Reimu back in Touhou 4 or something, genocide Sanae wants to kill all youkai!

[Pesco]

The story has me dreading to play Sanae or Reimu. Marisa is the only nice one.

I'll be looking forward to UD's rewrite of this one when he gets there.

[Tengukami]

The story has me dreading to play Sanae or Reimu. Marisa is the only nice one.

Heh. That's exactly why I stopped using Sanae. I use Marisa B now. Reading the game story definitely influences which player I use.

[FinnKaenbyou]

I don't think the stories are really that different from usual. Reimu's always been a bitch, so I use ReimuB without any qualms. Sanae is just basically following orders, so her plot doesn't really reflect on her character as much as it does on Kanako and Suwako.

In general, the music starting growing on me immensely by about the third playthrough. Everything in Stages 5 and 6 is utter gold, and about the only song I don't like in the whole game is the Extra Stage theme. I dunno, it just never interested me.

Gameplay is fun, and UFOs make it complex enough to have a little edge without being too much micromanagement. Pretty sure it's a homage of sorts to PC-98, what with Makai and Shinki-Byakuren.

All in all, I did expect this to be a little meh, but that's what I get for underestimating ZUN.

[Mima]

All the characters suck except Reimu and Marisa, all the music is bland and boring minus four tracks, gameplay is fun. UFO system is hilarious.

[wailofthebanshee]

Out of touhous 1-12.3, I had the most fun playing this one.

[?q]

Reimu's always been a bitch, so I use ReimuB without any qualms.

ReimuA is over and above her usual irritated self.

I think the characters were forced into acting according to motivations assigned to their shot types.  I mean... it seems forced to an extent.  Please get what I'm saying here.

I personally felt saddest exactly why is Sanae utterly batshit insane and a nazi. I mean, living God or not, she has an absurd role this go, if anything, it destroyed all the sweet sweet doujin images I had of her in my mind as the sweet girl who gets pushed about.

The clear underlying theme with SanAe is that she doesn't really understand what she's doing.  Too innocent.
The mental images are not mutually exclusive.

Benny1's blog entry "gets" what the point of Gensokyo, and ultimately this game, is.

[lmagus]

I like it a lot.

The UFO system is kinda hard, but the patterns, bosses and music are really good

It's one of my fav games ever.

[Gpop]

Gameplay-wise I thought it was really fun.

Artwork has definitely improved.

Characters...I didn't like so much. The only ones I liked were Captain Murasa and Nue, as well as Nazrin, Kogasa, and Unzan (and Ichirin, I guess). The other two...I really didn't like.

Music was great. I like all of the music except The Tiger-Patterned Vaisravana and Provincial Makai City Esoteria.

Yeah in the end I didn't like stage 5 at all.

[shinyjam]

I would love to watch how Zun's drawing skill slowly improve in the next 10 games.  :V

[SAS]

It's very good in my opinion.
It has cool scoring. But I think ZUN never predicted how much people could score.

Also, quote from shmups.system11.org:
Quote from shmups.system11.org:

Okay, it crashed at 999M this time.  Maybe I should have saved the replay early but I wanted to make sure the error still happened after collecting the treasure.



Not the greatest run so far but I'll consider the goal met with this screenshot at hand.  A little grazing out on midboss Ichirin's lasers (but not the supergraze method) and supergrazing on her opener.  That's all I'm willing to do until I'm more secure with my consistency.

Heartbeam, sorry if you didn't want this to be posted here.
I just thought it would be nice to mention it.

[Sen]

UFO's my favorite in the series, by far. The artwork has definitely improved, and the backgrounds are great (Stages 5 and 6 are gorgeous).

The UFO system is definitely my favorite scoring system, mostly because it gives you so much diversity in your playthroughs. In the previous games, how you performed was dependent on where ZUN put the bomb/1UP items; in UFO, it's entirely up to you.
One of the best parts of the game IMO is how little memorization is involved. Almost all the danmaku is aimed at you, or moves depending on your position. In the previous games (especially SA), you just memorize where to move and hope you don't get hit. UFO challenges you to really think about where you're moving and to quickly adapt to whatever's thrown at you.

The music tends to range from forgettable to FUCKING AWESOME. Byakuren's theme is my favorite song in the entire series, closely followed by Stage 4 theme. I love that ZUN's trying different things with the music, not just giving us the same-sounding, oriental sounds.
The only song I blatantly dislike is Nue's theme. It's basically a demented U.N. Owen Was Her?. It just...really annoys me for some reason :\


Most of the negative reception I see on the game comes from Lunatic players. Frankly, I don't think I can really blame them, UFO on Lunatic is just insane.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I'm amused that the Lunatic players are complaining that the game is difficult, too.

Sanae ... well, at least she's showing signs of improvement in 12.3, and she's getting out more ...

[Lumbajak]

People always hate the characters, music and fights in the demo, and suddenly love everything when the full game comes out.

I'm looking at you, every single person who likes Green Eyed Jealousy.

[Gpop]

I'm looking at you, every single person who likes Green Eyed Jealousy.

Why you looking at me for? I loved "A Tiny, Tiny Clever Commander" when it first came out in the UFO demo. As well as Nazrin herself.