which touhou games do you think required the most memorization and the least?

[pokemon123]

I feel as if IN and subterranean animism have alot of memorization involved especially after i've tried playing the higher modes of SA. As for generally needing good reflexes UFO and EOSD are definitely up there I feel and maybe DDC? MOF could be a contender too I guess?

Generally interested in the opinion of you guys.

[Jirachi]

Most:  MoF, SA, IN.
Least: EoSD, PCB.

[SirSlarty]

Speaking as a player that's still stuck on Normal but played some Hard mode...

SA for sure.
I get slaughtered if I forget where to position myself. It's a lot of "oh yeah, I have to move over he-*pichuun*-AUGH!" moments.

[Karisa]

PoDD and PoFV are the most reliant on dodging as opposed to memorization, for sure, seeing as they don't have patterns in a fixed order and such. On the opposite end, the stage-based games (StB/DS/ISC) are clearly the most memorization-based since they're designed around restarting all the time. But I'm guessing you were asking about the main series?

Among the main games, any with an in-stage life part mechanic (i.e. UFO onward) involve more memorization than the rest since you need to learn the stages to gain resources, while EoSD and MS, which have a rank system (i.e. inconsistent patterns) and lower resources, are more reliant on dodging ability than planning. (Though I say this as someone who found routing to be the easier way to get 1ccs. Maybe that's why I like scoring.)

IN's patterns tend to be rather memorization-based as well, probably since it was the first game to introduce spell practice, though it has enough resources you can potentially get away with just bombing all the static patterns (though that's memorization in its own way).

Oh, and all the Extras are rather memorization-based in comparison to the main game.

[Mero]

SA and PCB are the most memorization-heavy games for me. Part of what makes SA's "hard parts" (DBDB, Cat walk) so is how random they are compared to the rest of the game, and PCB, while nowhere near as hard as SA to learn, stays consistent as you play it, and rank is not as apparent as in EoSD. MoF is memorization too, but to a lesser extent since most of the game that isn't static is streaming.

EoSD and UFO are the most random pattern-wise, that's why they're (sometimes) considered good games to develop general dodging skills with.

As Karisa mentioned, UFO, TD and DDC owe a lot of their memorization to routing for resources.
DDC in particular varies quite a lot, since every character gathers resources differently (ReimuA can easily chain sections ReimuB would have to bomb for, for example).

[Karisa]

DDC is also rather random pattern-wise-- DDC's randomly-moving bosses aren't even biased toward the side you're on like in PCB to UFO (or is it PCB to SA?). However, you can get such an absurd amount of lives by routing that you can just bomb all those patterns.

[?q]

MOST
Imperishable Night (almost formulaic in a lot of places)
Undefined Fantastic Object (UFO routes, spawn points in most stages)
Perfect Cherry Blossom (Stages 2, 4, and 5 are rote memorization)
Ten Desires (trance routes require foreknowledge of the enemy spawns, some Yoshika and Miko cards)
Mountain of Faith (Stages 1, 3, 5, and 6 but you have bombs - also goes down by a lot if not playing on Lunatic)
Subterranean Animism (Parsee, Orin, Stage 6)
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Stage 4 and Stage 5 mostly)
Double Dealing Character (Stage 5 and Seija mostly - resources aren't so hard to get that you -need- to memorize IMO)
PC-98 games (SoEW requires more than the others because some boss patterns etc.)
LEAST

If you're trying to score then everything becomes memorization everywhere so there's really not much point in going into it.

If you're talking Extra stages then you're probably looking at PCB > SA > IN > MoF > UFO = EoSD > DDC.  I'm not sure where TD Extra goes.

[LunarWingCloud]

EoSD and DDC for least memorization and moreso just really good reflexes. UFO is challenging but not so because of needing to memorize much either. I find SA, MoF, and PCB very important pattern-wise.

But EoSD is far below the rest of the Windows games if I had to rank them all.

[Nolegs the Cat]

Let's see...

MOST: SA/PCB/UFO for routes
LEAST: EOSD/DDC

Disregarding Scoring, of course. If you score, ALL the games are memorization.