Official Rate the Shot Types Thread (Week: HSiFS)

[TresserT]

Yaaaay. This is my favorite windows game, and a lot of it has to do with the shot types.

Reimu: 8.5/10 (9/10 for PD, 8/10 for Legacy)
In a game based around streaming, killing as many enemies on screen as possible, and full of suicide bullets, homing is a necessity. Sadly Reimu's homing is unfocused making it difficult to stream effectively. Still really useful for stages.
Her focused shot is really meh. Sanae deals just as much damage at full power (since Reimu can only get 3 options to hit the boss). Marisa is waaaay stronger. And Reisen is Reisen. Still does it's job well enough, I guess.
The bomb is by far the worst in the game- it clears bullets so you can't super graze, and it doesn't even last as long/do as much damage/clear as many bullets as Master Spark. On PD where you need to conserve your bomb or in No Bomb runs this isn't a big deal, but in Legacy the awful bomb is really noticeable.
However, the thing that really helps Reimu keep up with the others is her smaller hitbox. I can actually capture Ringo/Doremy/Junko's nons...!! Really, if you're used to playing with the bigger shrine maiden or the fat rabbit, you will notice the difference immediately.

Marisa: 6.5/10 (7/10 for PD, 6.5/10 for Legacy)
Marisa is a sad case of being a good shot in a game full of over powered shots. Marisa deals way more damage than any other shot. And I don't mean the usual "more damage", I mean she deals as much damage from the bottom of the screen as the frogs do when Sanae is shot gunning. In almost any other game, she would be top tier.
But sadly, like I said, this is a game where homing is a necessity, and Marisa does not have it. She doesn't even have a wide spread- her lasers still have the issue of being super narrow. Even though she can crush bosses, she fails on stages. And stages are you main source of resources in this game, so you'll be working with less lives than any other character.
Unless you really want to PoC, Master Spark can do everything Fantasy Seal can and it can do it better. It's stronger, it lasts longer, and it can clear most bullets thanks to the tilt. Unfortunately, it still clears bullets immediately, so you can't get that graze. Which is a big problem.

Sanae: 10/10 (9.5/10 for PD, 10/10 for Legacy)
This is my favorite shot in the series. It has something for every situation.
The focus shot is homing snakes which double as a forward focus type. They're as powerful as Reimu's needles. They utterly obliterate most stage portions, and since it's focused homing it means you can super stream easily.
The unfocus shot is high power,spread, splash damage frogs. It covers any stage portions that the homing can't and it destroys Sagume.
Even in PD where you want to conserve your bombs, this shot is just so versatile and easy to use that it makes up for the larger hitbox.
But once you include bombs, this shot becomes perfect. The game gives you 3 bombs per extend. You need 3 life pieces for an extend. Sanae's bomb is very long and it doesn't clear bullets immediately, so you can bomb then sit on top of the enemy gathering a ton of graze. Not to mention that it's the strongest bomb in the game.
And it's still well balanced. Using this shot, you still feel like you're playing the game as it was meant to be played, unlike with DDC Marisa B.
The only weakness is Sanae's large hitbox.

Reisen: 10/10 (10/10 for PD, 10/10 for Legacy)
The bomb. That's basically it.
The focused shot is weak and piercing is not incredibly useful outside of killing Sagume's familiars and Junko slaying.
The unfocus shot complements her focus shot well, a strong spread type on a forward focus type, but this is not the game for it. It isn't wide enough to let you cover the screen like with Sanae's frogs, and it isn't homing, so you still have to work to kill all the enemies.
All around she's decent in theory, but like Marisa this game was not made for this kind of shot.
But none of that matters, because of that bomb. It gives you 3 extra lives until the end of the stage. Yes, dying won't clear all the bullets or give you a ton of invincibility frames, and yes, your hitbox is bigger. But with 3 bombs, you can get hit 10 times per extend. That's just ridiculous. PD doesn't play much differently since you don't have to worry much about bomb conservation. On top of that, the bigger hitbox also means a bigger graze box, so she can get her resources back faster than Reimu or Marisa (or even Sanae, if you're good).
Loses most of its potential if you'r trying to no bomb, though.


I will say, though, excluding Reisen, Extra is the great equalizer. Since the stage portion is already so easy Sanae's stage killer shot goes to waste, and her bomb is useless too because Extra. Reimu's smaller hitbox and Marisa's higher power are both quite a bit more useful when the focus is on beating the bosses like in most games, rather than super resource gathering. Reisen's bomb is still totally nuts though.

[Jimmy]

The time has finally come... time to analyze the heroines in my favorite Touhou game!  :derp:

Reimu: 8.5/10
Classical as ever with homing amulets and persuasion needles. The unfocused shot is very convenient since they can cover up most of the screen, and take down enemies easily in most stage portions, their damage is not half bad either. Persuasion needles seem to have been tweaked a bit in power, but are still very effective at quickly defeating bosses. Fantasy Seal here is pretty solid itself, but it does present an obstacle to the importance of the graze mechanics in this game, since the collection of life and bomb fragments heavily depend on that and all enemy bullets around the player are immediately erased upon the moment the bomb is being used. The biggest advantage of Reimu, overall gameplay-wise, is still her hitbox, like proven in Shinmyoumaru's survival card DDC. Even small variations make a big difference overall. However, as a result, her graze-box is also smaller, which makes it harder to meet the 200-graze requirement of each chapter to gain resources, even more so in Pointdevice Mode, where misses don't restore bombs like usually in Legacy Mode, and that can be painful in some cases.
Overall: Solid gameplay-wise, good in range and power and hitbox size, but somewhat inconvenient for resource gain. Her advantages do balance that out though.

Marisa: 5/10
Actually a shottype boasting with firepower and damage potential. She does deal the greatest damage to bosses among all player characters with the magic missiles, draining their health so fast so it is even necessary to sometimes stop shooting for a moment in order to gain enough graze before the nonspell/spell breaks, which is easier than with Reimu since her hitbox and thus the grazing area is larger. The rather huge disadvantage here is the overall inconvenience of purely straightforward shots in the stage portions of this game. Outside of the boss battles, many stage enemies shoot patterns that are aimed at the player, forcing the player to be constantly on the move, making it pretty painful for her to hit the enemies, which also proves inconvenient for the resource gain since the percentage of enemies shot down also influence the chapter bonuses, where life/bomb pieces are only awarded if a certain amount of score is reached. Master Spark as her trademark bomb does overall a good job at clearing the screen off of enemies and bullets, but slows down her movement and makes it hard to graze as well.
Overall: A lot of power, but unfortunately too straightforward facing the stages of this game, while bosses do go down pretty quickly with her focused shot.

Sanae: 10/10
All around the most convenient shottype for this game, both Pointdevice and Legacy Modes. She essentially just trivializes the stage portions, especially at full power. Her unfocused Cobalt Spread is outright the best thing for wiping out an entire swarm of enemies in no time, and her focused Sky Serpent even have a greater range than they had back in UFO, reaching enemies and bosses even all the way across the screen, thus making her especially effective in quickly draining spellcards where the boss moves around a lot, such as in Junko's "Lilies of Murderous Intent" and overall convenient for focusing on dodging enemy bullets as the snakes do their job. Moreover, she's also very good for gaining a lot of resources, firstly due to her larger hitbox -> larger grazing area, secondly because her bomb has a good delay before unleashing itself and also makes her invulnerable upon casting it, making it really easy to literally milk graze out of enemy attacks before the entire screen is wiped clean. The disadvantage of her slightly larger hitbox is outnumbered by the aforementioned conveniences, although it's harder with her to dodge certain patterns. glare at Junko's nonspells
Overall: Excellent range, good power, good resource gain, what do we want more?

Reisen: 9.5/10
Convenient and broken altogether. Her unfocused shot is not too special, covers a fairly large portion of the screen above her, and deals solid damage as well. Her focused shot, however, does present an advantage over all other shottypes: it can penetrate through all obstacles, be it stage enemies, bosses or the bosses' familiars (such as Clownpiece's and Hecatia's moons and Sagume's orbs), essentially trivializing the boss battle against Sagume since this shot literally goes through all the orbs like thin air. The highlight here is the bomb: getting three free hits is certainly a thing, but it makes the hitbox larger, which is inconvenient because it's easier to get hit, but also convenient because it also enlarges the grazing area immensely and making resource gain a walk in the park, if used properly (a.k.a. not using up all three hits instantly just for the sake of them nullifying deaths).
Overall: Bomb grants three free lives, and despite being a fairly straightforward shottype it does have a decent range since the shots from her options are angled.

[TableCloth]

This game would be much more amazing if it keeps the 'scoring for extend' mechanism and Junko got cooler pattern other than Lilies of Murderous Intent and Pristine Lunacy... oh well.

Reimu: 8/10
Still your TD!Reimu. It got, again, weak homing and strong needle. Fantasy Seal is pretty good in this game, but the 'graze (and kill) for life piece' system make it very risky to bomb at early stages as the bomb instantly erase bullets. She has the smallest hitbox among other character, but that eerily affects her graze hitbox. Heck, she even need to move a little bit just to graze a small portion of Doremy's 3rd spell lasers! And since survival in this game is closely related to scoring more than ever, Reimu no longer become the 'beginner-friendly' character (then again, this game never was beginner-friendly to begin with).

She plays more superior on PD than Legacy, it's kinda funny.

Marisa: 7/10
Poor Marisa, the only time she ever become this good is when every other shottypes are OP as fuck. Not only that, this game is also heavily homing-reliant most of the time. She is, in fact, having the worst time in stage 4 compared to everyone else while only doing better against non-Lunatic Sagume compared to Sanae

Anyway, her missiles have some really good damage, but they're still as inconsistent as TD!Marisa. Her laser didn't do much damage, and her entire stage 4 screams "I NEED MY PIERCING! WHERE IS DA PIERCING!?". She graze better than Reimu... because her hitbox is larger. Master Spark is still as good as ever for stages, except that it has the same problem as Reimu's Fantasy Seal in which she erased the bullets too early.

If only she has 8 powers like SA!MarisaA...

Sanae: 9/10
Sanae has arisen from her grave that is TD.

Her homing is strong for a homing shot, and hell yeah Cobalt Spread! That unfocused shot is just too amazing to exist. She play greatly in the first stages, but  get kinda bad in the last 3 stages. Because of her rather low speed for a character with large hitbox, she is doing pretty badly against Clownpiece on Normal. However, her bomb helps a lot in both survival and scoring. It has a delay that allow the player to graze before the bomb explode, and Sanae also gain immunity during the delay.

This has nothing to do with the rating, but "Onyoi~".

Reisen: 10/10
So... her shot is rather weak. Even both her unfocused & focused shot do less damage than Marisa. But what makes her worthy of the rating 10/10?

Simple.

Her shots are much more solid, literally, compared to Marisa. Her piercing trivialize scoring on stage 2, and really help the scoring in earlier and later part of stage 6. She also kill those orbs in stage 4 easier than Marisa and even Sanae. What makes her really OP is none other than her bomb. Giving you not only one, but THREE layers of shield that lasts throughout the entire stage is definitely an advantage so great, that the side effect of larger hitbox doesn't matter anymore. In fact, the larger hitbox also increase the size of her graze hitbox, allow her to gain life pieces and Extends easier than any other character (with the exception of Sanae in later part of stage 3).

Not sure if it's because she is my main or she is simply just too good, but she did better at Clownpiece compared to anyone else.

Not much of an useless bunny only good for her sex appeal after all. Ha! Take that fandom!

[Failure McFailFace]

Reimu: 6/10
After TD, Needle Reimu hasn't been that good because of the really narrow range. the Homing Amulets are alright, but they're only there when you unfocus, which you won't be doing much in this game.

Marisa: 4/10
No infinite penetration, super low range, large hitbox, huge speed, bomb makes grazing hard. Super poor.

SanBAE: 10/10
Another game where Sanae is amazing. Exploding frogs are great for covering the whole screen, and focused homing is really useful.

Reisen: 8/10
Infinite penetration and bomb that gives you 3 extra hits is nice, but it fails a little in range, super important for killing all enemies and getting resources.

[Uruwi]

Reimu: 7. Small hitbox against Junko, nothing else outstanding.

Marisa: 4. The usual Marisa, can't even get all of her lasers locked on, and she's shit at grazing like Reimu too.

Sanae: 9. OMGGRAZEBOMB and HOMING SNAKES ON FOCUS. Doesn't do too well against Sagume but Sagume is a weakling anyway, and even with Sanae you can get a net gain on resources on Stage 4.

Reisen: 9. That multi-layer bomb was a godsend, despite hitbox enlargement and short invincibility frames, when I did my first Legacy Normal 1cc. Being able to kind of trust your dodging skills comes in handy almost everywhere, especially against Clownpiece.

[ZM]

LoLK shots are tallied and put in the OP (even less people than TD, lol). And that concludes the Rate the Shot Types thread for now. Feel free to discuss the ratings here. I know I have some things to say myself, but that will come soon.

As for PC-98 shots and PoFV, those are soon to come. I probably won't host them, though. I'll have someone borrow this thread, or something.

[Sen]

LoLK shots are tallied and put in the OP (even less people than TD, lol).

I imagine LoLK scares away a lot of players with the huge difficulty spike (it did for me, at least), so that's unfortunately not surprising. As for TD, I dunno why less people would comment...I've always found it to be a really boring game, but I don't know the general opinion on it.

It's interesting that the further in the series you go, the greater the discrepancy between shot types. EoSD is really well-balanced, with no particular shot type having an absolute advantage (scores from 8.00-7.11), but then you get games like UFO that have scores from 9.13-3.75.

[TresserT]

I'd say it's more based on how many shots are available. EoSD had a difference of, like, 1, but PCB had ranged from, like, 4.6-8.4. TD had the next smallest difference after EoSD (it's the next game in the series with 4 playables) and IN had the biggest difference between the border team and Alice solo (with 12 different playables).

Also we should do some of the more popular fan games. And by "more popular fan games" I mean Len'en.

[Failure McFailFace]

Hello everyone! To whoever who saw ZM's post, they won't be doing PC-98 shots or PoFV.

If you haven't seen it:

As for PC-98 shots and PoFV, those are soon to come. I probably won't host them, though. I'll have someone borrow this thread, or something.

So here I am. I'll try to post every Tuesday.

RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuA:
ReimuB:
ReimuC:

[Failure McFailFace]

Story of Eastern Wonderland! The first actual danmaku Touhou game, and the only one with only Reimu as playable.

Your Choices:
ReimuA: Movement Type. It functions like a helicopter-style shot, but it pierces.
ReimuB: Defensive Type. Homing.
ReimuC: Attack Type. Forward focused.
My personal thoughts:
A: 4/10
I've never had a good time with SoEW in general. Way to used to modern day Touhou. It's a strange shot, but low power, if memory serves. Way too fast for a game without focusing.

B: 6/10
The first incarnation of Homing Reimu. The damage could be better, especially in the base shot. You don't really move fast enough to collect all of the items that fall.

C: 5/10
Focused Reimu, but super slow and super focused. The low range can be a little hard to deal with, but the damage is good.

[ZM]

Ah, so you're doing the PC-98 shots. Thanks for that!

[Das]

ReimuA : 7/10 - Wide range, and piercing frontal shot. Sure, the speed is a tad high, but I found it useful as it helps me restream and avoid the stupid suicide bullets. A solid shot with the only true downside being the speed of the player.

ReimuB : 6/10 - Very good speed, wide range AND a homing shot. However, the only thing this shot does excellent I find, is the medium speed. It does stuff like range and damage well, but not perfect. Still a good shot for beginners I find since the homing shot does help a ton with stray enemies.

ReimuC : 8/10 - Be prepared to slow down, this shot feels like focused Marisa, but where it lacks in speed, it sure makes up in power. 2 (COUNT EM T W O) piercing lasers, missiles and a strong main shot thing (the red triangle whatever) This shot is exceptionally strong but with low range, melting bosses in a short amount of time if you have a fast trigger finger. However it's only downside is on the Marisa fight where she wont stay still damn it. IMO, ReimuC is the best shot in the game.

[☆ Hinalyte]

I decided not to give ratings for LoLK's shot types because I don't have enough experience on the other shots to give proper rating. I also didn't give ratings for earlier games until MoF's time came because I don't really play them that much.

Fun thread. MarisaB didn't win in DDC though smh!

[Nolegs the Cat]

ZM what have you spawned?

No shame

[ZM]

I don't even know what I spawned, Chippy.

I'll keep the first post updated, just be sure to give me the ratings and lemme know when each new week begins.

[Failure McFailFace]

Now that the chaos of the Shot-Type Hydra is over, reposting the former OP of my thread:

Story of Eastern Wonderland! The first actual danmaku Touhou game, and the only one with only Reimu as playable.

Your Choices:
ReimuA: Movement Type. It functions like a helicopter-style shot, but it pierces.
ReimuB: Defensive Type. Homing.
ReimuC: Attack Type. Forward focused.
My personal thoughts:
A: 4/10
I've never had a good time with SoEW in general. Way to used to modern day Touhou. It's a strange shot, but low power, if memory serves. Way too fast for a game without focusing.

B: 6/10
The first incarnation of Homing Reimu. The damage could be better, especially in the base shot. You don't really move fast enough to collect all of the items that fall.

C: 5/10
Focused Reimu, but super slow and super focused. The low range can be a little hard to deal with, but the damage is good.

Currently there's only 2 ratings (me and Das).

[Maple]

After playing SoEW this day. Except for the Mima fight, bosses don't drop items (except for 5 Stones, during the easy part, and Marisa's familiars, which are unreliable for items), meaning that you enter a battle and your power can only go down (when dying). Often you won't be playing at full power.

A (Movement type) 5/10
The speed is nice, but the attack leaves much to be desired. Attack is widespread, but has low bullet density, a level before full power you shoot 5 bullets at a time, but it's likely that only one will hit the boss. Type B has good range at higher levels, Type C has acceptable range at full power, both have higher density. But speed may be better for scoring (item recollection)

B (Defense type) 8/10
Good range, good density, nice movement speed, at full power you get homing shots (which give you more range than Type A), good damage.

C (Attack type) 7/10
High damage, even when not at full power, as much damage as Type B at full power. But has small range, and except for full power, there isn't much of a difference in how it behaves at higher levels (mostly differences at bullet directions, but that isn't very noticeable), as if you keep collecting power items but it's still the same.

I think Marisa "stole" her Magic Missiles from types B and C, like she did with Yuuka's Master Spark.

[DeityDiz93]

Here are my personal ratings on Touhou 2 Story of Eastern Wonderland's shot types. My highest difficulty is hard mode cleared with all shots and I have beat the Extra Stage.

ReimuA: 8/10
The reason the rating is so high is because the playing the regular main stage games with this shot type is a godsend, especially on high difficulties. The game has attacks that you do not want to be close to because of the huge hitbox Reimu has, and a lot of bullets in this game can be really fast. Another reason I really think this is one of the best to go with for the main game is because item collection is a really a less difficult thing to due because you can only collect items if your hitbox touches them (this makes full power and score 1ups easy to get), and thus, the fast movement makes it so much easier than any other shot to accomplish, which missing and positioning is really tough otherwise, and while I agree it's power is relatively subpart (it's good if you button mash), it doesn't go out of it's way to be that useful for downing bosses on low power, but it'll get the job done in terms of range on stages and does well when you get close range and shotgun the boss, especially when you are safe behind a bomb. Speaking of which, the bomb is also pretty nice to in terms of length. I personally don't consider this shot be the best for the Extra Stage; however, because speed isn't as important on it, thus why it isn't 10 out of 10.

ReimuB: 5/10
This is what I consider to be the least helpful shot in the game. My reason is the homing at full power is not great and the main shot is decent at best, and the shot does not do the best under full power. The speed is average, but as mentioned before, good speed is helpful in the main game, but as I will mention later, slower speed is nice in the Extra Stage. This shot takes a hit for me because it's average, and the fact that it's power and the speed makes it less advantageous in both the main game and extra would never make me use it regularly, but if I wanted a challenge. I give it the score I do because of the aforementioned challenge factor, and at least like the bomb being the more lengthy one, which can be great for the invincibility it provides, does help somewhat (the other two bombs are seemingly a little less long to me). I will also agree that the homing can be useful on stage enemies, when you need to take out a ton of them, but I'd argue the others are better because you'll have an easier time knowing where a large quantity of items will drop because you're aligned more properly for that. Overall, this shot isn't the greatest, and I wish it had more advantages in some areas of the game, but I'll personally stick to the other two.

ReimuC: 7/10
Now this shot has a very useful shot from the very start of the game. The fabled exploding arrow deals a ton of damage to midbosses and bosses alike in this game, so it's one of the best for speed killing most bosses in this game (especially if you bomb a lot), and some bosses you indeed want to down faster than other shots can; however, the draw back in the main stages of this game is speed. The speed is really slow, and to get to full power isn't the most easy task to complete as you'll find yourself missing the quite a few precious power items, and this also make getting lives from score a heck of a chore. The few stages below full power are as good as Reimu A when its at full power, but full power Reimu C is nuts. If you can maintain this full power you will freaking wreak most ever main game boss, and don't even get me started on the button mashing exploit combined with full power. This shot doesn't shine in the main game, but it absolutely does in the extra stage, especially with the boss. Evil Eye Sigma has attacks that you must weave through, and Reimu A and B has the tendency for more frequent clip-death due to their speed, that of course makes this shot's speed quite helpful against Evil Eye Sigma, and it's made dodging the boss much more possible for me to do, that, and the high to full power is arguably more necessary on that boss than any other shot can provide, so that's mainly why my score for this shot is so high.

Those are my thoughts as someone whose played this game for about 8 years off and on. I'd say the highlights they all have for me is Reimu C is the most rewarding one for prowess in the extra stage, Reimu B for being challenging in the main game and especially Extra, and Reimu A for being the most useful for clearing the main game. I personally don't like to use the button mash exploit except on Marisa because she shoots random attacks and takes a long time to kill and Evil Eye Sigma because that boss lives up to the supposed tank quality Rika claims it to be.

Thanks for the chance to rate these shot types!

[Failure McFailFace]

RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10

LLS
ReimuA:
ReimuB:
MarisaA:
MarisaB:

Surprisingly few people voted for that. Now for Lotus Land Story!

ReimuA: 7/10
Homing Reimu again. Once again, power could be better.

ReimuB: 1/10
This shot is just way too wide to be able to do any damage to bosses.

MarisaA: 6/10
The first time we see Marisa's piercing laser as a shot. It has good power, but the range and the fact that the lasers pulse makes it hard to do continuous damage.

MarisaB: 6/10
First instance of Marisa's magical missiles. Same issues with MarisaA, but the missiles start off slow, and the range is really narrow for my tastes.

[DeityDiz93]

Eh, too bad not many people see the benefits of SoEW's Reimu A shot looks like, oh well.

Anyway, here is my thoughts on Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story's shot type:

ReimuA: 7/10
Search Shot is by far the best of Reimu's two shot types, though that's not to say it's powerful as it's really not. One of the biggest appeals Reimu really has is her movement speed; it's very good for this game I feel, and since this shot does well with coverage in stages with it's spread and homing, and the fact that the shot's at least okay on bosses; it's the go to if you feel like playing Reimu in this game.

ReimuB: 2/10
Wide Shot is by far one of the worse shot types in any Touhou game. I hate to make it sound so harsh, but I cannot even remotely understand why this shot was left in the final game like this; it's way to weak and languish. I wouldn't use this shot at all because about the only thing the shot is good for is stages (even then it's not great for them), and shotgunning foes (and most of the option's shots miss even up close). The fact that I give it a two is for the semi-benefits and the fact that it's at least functional makes me  feel that's too generous in regards to this choice of shot. I will never use this shot type and will cringe for anytime I see anyone play with it.

MarisaA: 9/10
Marisa's the MVP of this game, and both her shots I find beneficial as do I find her speeds in-game to also be beneficial. The Illusion Laser shot type's beams of doom are the key damage dealers of this game, and dang good ones at that. They are known for piercing foes, and since there are loads of enemies in this game that can take a few hits, it's extremely great for lines of enemies where this shot will severely tarnish the enemies hiding behind their friends in the stage and these lasers do your bosses in right quick (especially if they are hit dead-on with both lasers). The pulsing property really starts to make you pay attention in the beginning stages just when your lasers kick back in and watch as things die off quick as they kick back up. The laser pulse's delay shortens at full power too, making it even more effective. This is my personal favorite shot, and I love using it.

MarisaB: 8/10
Rapid Shot is a nice and fresh shot-type that does well for itself. Since for all characters of this game, the base shot from the character doesn't change, but only on the options beside them, I'm glad this one turned out to be like it was. Basically the rapid shots provided are just additional firepower that function like the basic stars Marisa shoots. There is a lot of variety in what the options do as your power goes up, and they focus mainly on the general region in front of Marisa rather than Illusion Shot's consistency, these shots are mostly all over the place. The full power can really be strong, and while all the bullets from Marisa lack the piercing property, they do great in terms of power and focusing down an area, which makes MarisaB great for stages where you need to take out a group of fodder fast. I don't consider this shot better than MarisaA, but it right up there with it.

Overall, ReimuB is garbage, but everything else is a fairly solid shot in this game which can be great for new players to the series. Touhou 4 is by far one of the most easy Touhou titles with its generosity with resources, such as lives from grazing and a bomb at the end of each stage, but its Extra Stage is quite nightmarish . (・﹏・)

[Das]

ReimuA : 7/10 - Good power, homing shots, it's all there for an all around good shot. No real downsides I can find as it fits everything adequately.

ReimuB 4/10 - Meh, wide shot which does make stages a little easier to deal with, but shotgunning isnt useful too much in LLS.

MarisaA : 9/10 MarisaA is in my opinion, the best shot in the game, hands down. Good range for a marisa shot AND exceptional power with piercing , her shot at max power literally melts bosses quicker than any other shot that even with the laser pulses, it still makes mince meat out of most foes (even gengetsu I find)

MarisaB : 7/10 Very good range, good power, just an all around good shot type. I dont think every option can hit bosses however (I think 4 can hit?) But still Marisa IMO has the best shot types in the game.

(fyi i dont see why people think LLS Ex is so difficult? Yes, it's hard once you start it but as you play it a little bit everything falls into place <: )

[TresserT]

Reimu A: 7/10
Her homing makes stages easier than with Marisa, but she really lacks power so bosses take longer. The usual homing Reimu stuff. If you're a well rounded player, but need some help with stages, this is your shot.

Reimu B: 5.5/10
A traditional spread type, not the shotgunning type. She's actually better at stages than Reimu A because 1) she can hit more enemies at a time and 2) her shots are stronger, so she can kill enemies more quickly. However, even though the individual bullets are strong they're really spread out making her awful against bosses. You can't shot gun effectively with this type, as half the bullets will always be missing the boss no matter how close you get. If you're fine with bosses but suck at stages, this is your shot.

Marisa A: 9/10
High power, low spread, piercing. Because of the piercing it makes some stages quite a bit easier too, most notably stage 4. The flip of Reimu A- if you're well rounded but need a little extra help with bosses, this is the shot for you.

Marisa B: 6.5/10
High power, low spread.... If... you're well rounded but need a little extra help with bosses... this is the shot for you? Yeah, I can't think of any situation where this shot is better than Marisa A. Maybe it's a little stronger? I can't really tell. It lacks piercing and doesn't really get much in exchange. It's a decent enough shot, but why use this when you could use Marisa A?

[Maple]

Reimu A 7/10
As usual, the homing provides constant damage to bosses, and her main (non-homing) shots are spread more tightly, so overall it feels stronger on bosses.

Reimu B 5/10
When playing, i think this type shined the most in the stage portions of stages 3 and 4 thanks to the amount of enemies coming quickly from multiple points, but that's it, the damage to bosses is laughable and wasn't very impressing on other stages, mostly there's a low amount of enemies (often all congregated in a part of the screen at a time), and are mostly weak anyway.

Marisa A 9/10
OP, so very OP, the damage to bosses is astonishing, Yuuka (both encounters) went down noticeably fast compared to other types.

Marisa B 7/10
The balance just right, at types it feels like a bit lacking in power, maybe just because it lacks Reimu A's range or Marisa A's overkilling damage output, but again, nice balance, simply outshinned by Marisa A.

[Failure McFailFace]

I'M BACK! I had to work for my mom's boss over the last few days, and on top of that no internet access. So yeah.
RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10

LLS
MarisaA: 8.4/10
ReimuA: 7/10
MarisaB: 6.9/10
ReimuB: 3.5/10

MS
Reimu:
Marisa:
Mima:
Yuuka:

Now for Mystic Square's shots!

Reimu: 8/10
It's a homing type right off the bat. The main shot could be more focused to allow for easier boss killing, but it's fine.

Marisa: 8/10
Marisa's Magic Missiles again. This time, though, it's much more powerful I feel.

Mima: 10/10
I love this shot. Powerful, focused, and high movement speed. It lets me collect a huge number of items on the screen, which is really nice considering the how fast the items fall.

Yuuka: 2/10
Sure, it's super wide, but Yuuka can't move fast enough to actually get to where the items are.

[TresserT]

Reimu: 8.5/10
Her homing shots melt through stages enemies. However, she's slow, and homing can kill enemies on the other side of the screen. In other words, you won't be collecting many items. She's also not great against bosses. Still, one of the easiest shots to use if you aren't focused on keeping your rank up.

Marisa: 8/10
Her shots are about as strong as Mima's, if not stronger. She has a fairly wide spread. However, the delay in her magic missiles is more noticeable here than any other game except maybe SA. Since her shots have a wide spread, Mima actually does more damage consistantly from the bottom of the screen. She's also slower than Mima, making item collection a bit harder. Still, she's a good shot and a decent alternative to Mima if you need a little extra range.

Mima: 9/10
A really good shot, if a bit overrated. She's strong and fast, with the most narrow spread of the four players. This means she has to work harder to beat stages, but has the easiest time collecting items since only enemies directly in front of her will drop them. And more items = more extends. Her strong shot also means she kills bosses the quickest.

Yuuka: 3.5/10
Reimu can pretty much do anything Yuuka can, and more. Yuuka destroys stages almost as easily as Reimu, but has an even harder time collecting items because she's slower. Because of the positioning of her shots, shot gunning isn't much help either. Bosses take forever. The only reason to use this shot is if you prefer slow characters and don't mind missing a ton of items.

[Failure McFailFace]

Whoops, forgot again.
RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10

LLS
MarisaA: 8.4/10
ReimuA: 7/10
MarisaB: 6.9/10
ReimuB: 3.5/10

MS
Mima: 9.5
Reimu: 8.25
Marisa: 8
Yuuka: 2.75
Only 2 people in the previous round. Huh,

I've decided to not do the Phantasmagorias out of time constraints and an unfamiliarity with them, so if someone could do that, or some fan games, then go ahead.

[Maple]

I made the assumption of an extended vote because we started on Friday instead of Wednesday, but here it goes.

Reimu 7/10
The true wide shot of the game, more consistent in damage.

Marisa 8/10
The missiles are nice-looking, but are weak, the real appeal is the main shot (stars), with generous range.

Mima 9/10
Because of the fixed shots (no delay with missiles), it feels more potent than Marisa's, while still having a generous range, it just makes bosses a breeze.

Yuuka 5/10
Wide shot, but also weak, takes a time killing enemies so they end up shooting bullets, and bosses require time.

I've decided to not do the Phantasmagorias out of time constraints and an unfamiliarity with them, so if someone could do that, or some fan games, then go ahead.

Well, a factor is how the RNG is feeling that day, and which character you are fighting against, and how you can just do a pacifist approach, so maybe we could skip it?
Motion to return to the fangame thread?

[Failure McFailFace]

Motion to return to the fangame thread?

I vote "aye".

[ZM]

It's been nearly a month since HSiFS released, so I think it'll be nice to update this thread and add the HSiFS shots in. Sub-shots too, for that matter, since they obviously have a different niche. Obviously we're not going to rate the sixteen possible combinations, just the standard four shots separately. The sub-shots will be rated under them.

Reimu: 9.5/10
Best survival shot by a long-shot. Homing works wonders throughout the game, and it complements especially well with the Autumn and Winter sub-shots. Definitely a nice redemption for Reimu after considering how somewhat lackluster her LoLK shot was.

Marisa: 8.5/10
Marisa is...good again? She's pretty great here, actually. It's nice to see her lasers return, and they're very strong. Autumn and Winter are the best options for her regarding sub-shots, the former giving her some much needed range and the latter giving her even more power. Her only flaw is she doesn't have as comfy of stages as Reimu does.

Aya: 8/10
Ayayayayaya. Absurdly speedy is the first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to describing Aya. Her shot is even narrower than Marisa's, though, which can give her some problems down the road (it can also pierce, though, which is pretty nice). Her best season by far is Autumn, which she makes the best use out of (and it's also why she's the scoring queen of this game). It helps that her bomb is VERY long-lasting and also the most powerful in the game (even moreso than Master Spark!) if used on bosses.

Cirno: 5/10
TAN CIRNO. Sadly she's definitely the worst shot of the bunch. Her spread is pretty lackluster and barely does any damage to anything, so you're going to want her to be supported by Autumn or Winter (see the trend?). Her bomb is at least very good, so it's nice to farm season using it. But the fact that she's very reliant on her bomb and a sub-shot just goes to show that she isn't very good.

Spring: 2/10
Worst sub-shot in the game. Only benefit it gets is a screenclear which can be helpful, but not as helpful as what the other three can give. The homing is basically non-existent, too. It was theorized that this sub-shot would be a pretty good option for scoring, but so much for that. Doesn't help that Spring leads you to Okina's spring final, which is by far the hardest pattern in the game (for all the wrong reasons, though). Overall, this sub-shot is abysmal and no one should use it.

Summer: 5/10
Mediocre sub-shot. The release is pretty good, at least, because since it doesn't use all your release gauge and only uses one level, you can use each release to basically save your life if you're in danger. The options are pretty bad, though, since they're basically a barrage of weak pellets. Summer final is pretty tough, too. However, it's your best option when it comes to scoring Easy mode, if you're into that.

Autumn: 9.5/10
Gotta go fast! Using this season gives you the ability to dash through bullets, and it's for this ability that makes the season the best when it comes to scoring due to constant releasing and canceling bullets by dashing though them. Very practical for survival usage, too. The options are both decently strong and provide pretty nice range. Autumn final is both fun and fair, too. Definitely an amazing season (just like the actual season, too!).

Winter: 9.5/10
When it comes to raw survival (No Release play in mind), Winter is your go-to shot. The laser is strong and reliable, which works very well with Reimu's homing (ReimuWinter is the best shot for NBNR play). Its release is to be parked on top of bosses to cancel their bullets, netting players tons of PiV this way (you'll want to release often if you use them so you can refill your gauge constantly to abuse the increase in power that you can get if you have more options lit). Winter final is also the easiest of the four, which is a blessing for survivalists. The most simple season, but definitely amazing and practical.

[Lollipop]

i love this game too much

Shots:

Reimu: 9/10
Homing is great for stages and doesn't suck on bosses, which is something I haven't heard of since DDC :hahaa:

Cirno: 6.5/10
The spread is somewhat powerful if you shotgun but those opportunities are rare, it can kill stage enemies but Reimu's homing is probably a better alternative. Bomb is cool for scoring, though.

Aya: 7.5/10
wtf I literally tapped the key once and Aya is already halfway across the screen, what is this DansGame
Piercing shot is cool (I find the dps kinda disappointing, I thought it would do more damage), and the bomb is also cool.

Marisa: 9/10
Very nice forward focus shot, strong and not utter crap. Stages aren't as easy anymore, but you can tear through bosses, so who cares?? Pair with winter sub for maximum dps (and maximum orgasm)

Sub-shots:

Spring: 5/10
Not only does it last for a short while, it can't really replenish itself (for spamming fun). The homing is pretty weak, too. But you get to face HBCB, which is in my opinion the most fun card in the game (also the hardest card in the game) and clear the whole screen, so make of that what you will.

Summer: 7/10
Free hits if you can press C properly. The options help out with stages a little bit, which is nice i guess but like
Also summer final is a toughie :(

Autumn: 9/10
kReYgAsM
This season is pretty damn good. Proper bullet canceling can enable you to spam releases with no end (provided there's enough bullets) and skip attacks. Just don't accidentally run into the boss. Options are a nice range boost for shots like Aya and Marisa, and the autumn final isn't total garbage.

Winter: 9.5/10
The options provide a nice dps boost to all shots. Releases can be spammed on top of bosses to net large amounts of PiV, and in some instances can replenish enough to allow release spam. The winter final isn't bad, either.