The main art motif of HM was "newspaper"; for ULiL, they are going full in with a Showa-era pop poster style. Showa-style fonts everywhere.
The character titles are in Showa tagline style:
Kasen
脅威！願いを訊く仙人
Menance! The Hermit Who Listens to Wishes
Kasen seems to utilize her own powers.
Reimu
神秘！結界の巫女
Mystery! The Shrine Maiden of Kekkai (Boundaries)
Reimu's power focuses on invoking secret domains of the world:
1. The Pyramids: Both side's Occult Special Attacks are enhanced to maximum power.
2. Stonehenge: The playfield becomes gradually narrower.
3. Babel Tower: Touching the Occult Ball causes it to attack the opponent (?)
4. Yomotsu Hirasaka: Reduces stamina the closer one is to the stage center [the penalty is much greater than Soku's Scorching Sun]
5. Nazca Ground Painting: When touching the Occult Ball, one's stamina will [cut off]
6. Hell Valley [a volcanic scenic spot in Hokkaido]: Turns the bottom of the screen into a damage zone.
7. Lunar Capital: Reduces bullet speed (affecting [cut off]
Marisa
恐怖！学校の魔法使い
Horror! The School Magician
Marisa's power comes from the schoolyard legends.
Oh, then it seems my guess is wrong about the anomalies. So it's just exclusive to Reimu? Then I wonder how you can gather it with other characters?
Where did you get the text file?
Anyway, I'll just copy some of the updates from my previous post. Remember that it's merely an observation.
Hoooh, an alternate Last Word with the Occult Ball? Seems story mode exclusiveNah, cut that out.
Anyway, enough with the characters, let's talk about the game and its elements, additions, changes, and stuff. Remember that this is only out of obersvation from the livestream. I probably misunderstood something or even missed it. And it's still only the trial version.
General stuffsGameplay is mostly unchanged, though it's quite noticeable that it's harder to combo now and for some reason guards became harder to break(Unless it's a string of really tight attacks or combos, it just won't break). And barrier guard(blue sphere) is still strong.
It seems that there are no longer red stun, only blue. However, it seems that unless you don't tech out of it(uncertain, since he's against AI) you will automatically get to blue stun state.
Color palette still there.
The fires in the lower middle of the screen is you spirit gauge, akin to Soku. It reduces as you shoot projectiles and use skills. Blocking doesn't seem to affect it though.
Each character only have one SC, out of 3 selection that you choose in the character select screen.
You still declare your spellcard, but I can't seem to notice any timer or the sort(probably just missed it), or it's the meter depleting. Also, SC no longer connects after the enemy is stunned, so keep an eye on the stun rates.
Special GimmicksNow is the ULiL exclusive Occult Ball System.
Every time someone makes a significant combo, wallslams, or stunned the opponent, some purple balls will come out and flies to the timer on top. It's not clear how much is needed, but at a certain time (60, 30, etc.) the Occult Ball will "activate" and starts a 5 seconds countdown before it triggers some kind of weather effect, kinda like in Soku.
During it, the occult ball will spawn into the battlefield and interact with the "anomalies". Not all of them affect the characters, but they all definitely affect the ball.
What I've seen:
- Sand walls closing in to the center, limiting the stage space.
- Black hole gap opening in the middle of the stage, sucking in the occult ball
- Yellow mist covering the whole lower part of the stage
- Holographic scene of the Lunar Capital appears, and the ball floats as if in zero gravity.
- A gigantic triangle made out of lasers spins around the stage, and the ball will bounce inside it.
They seem random, but I can't say for sure. Maybe character reliant or stage reliant.
(As of cuc's post it seems that it's Reimu-exclusive) NopeAnyway, while it's active, your job is to get to the ball and touch it, giving you 1 point, which is showed around the ball. It also carries on between matches. The maximum is 7 and you're competing with the opponent on who has more points. The winner will acquire the ball and the number of the ball can be seen under the timer. 1P is red and 2P is blue.
The one who has 4 of them, will be able to use the "怪ラストワード" (Strange Last Word?), and the more balls you have, the stronger it becomes. At 7 it's almost twice as strong.
However, that only applies in normal matches. In Story Mode it functions differently.
After the opponent enters their spellcard mode like usual, an Occult Ball will appear among the opponent's attacks. What you do is the same, get close and grab it. Earn 7 and you can use the LW to end the fight.
Another thing, the Occult Balls seems to function like an item card when used. It'll summon one of the 7 Mysteries of school at random. Piano crashing, Painting shooting laser from the eyes, Statue running frantically...
(Seems to be Marisa-exclusive)
And like cuc said, it seems like a HM-based engine with IaMP like SC use and SWR/Soku Weather system. Whether it'll be great or not can only be said once you played it.
Overall, this seems interesting, but there are some things that I'll have to be picky with.
Guards too strong, that you wish there's a throwing attack.
The auto-stun seems annoying.
But at least the AI is somewhat better(?). They use spellcard for real this time.
