Tell me something about your first Touhou playthrough! (+my small introduction)

[Shikigami101]

Hey!
Draceina here, it's my first time posting anything on this forum!  :3 I hope you'll understand my English.
I didn't want to share my personal details in the Introduction thread, so I'll tell you some small things at the beginning of this post.

I'm not new around Touhou; it's almost a year now. I absolutely love this game! So far I've cleared all games (except for Touhou 1 and 3) on normal, a couple on hard and PCB on Lunatic... somehow. Also a few extra stages.
My interests vary. I love playing games (especially ones from the bullet hell genre), reading books and learning new things. It's hard to specify what I like to eat, but I know I wouldn't be able to survive without red meat. My favourite characters are: Utsuho, Remilia, Mamizou and... Hina.
And Rumia, of course.

But enough about myself; let's get into my beginnings!
My first Touhou game was Perfect Cherry Blossom. I haven't touched easy, I began on normal instead. I played as Sakuya Izayoi; her great focused shot made it easier for me to adapt to game's controls and her wide unfocused shot defeated enemies on my way. I watched some lunatic runs before I decided to play Touhou. It all seemed easy, but when I tried it myself it became black magic.
The first stage was alright. I defeated Letty and moved onto the next stage. I don't remember if I used any bombs.
Next up it was Chen; I rather bombed on her; who knows, there's a chance I lost a life too.
And Alice.
To put it lighlty...
Scary.
Some time later I decided to defeat her and in the next stage I realized what was about to go down. Merlin and her sisters gave me a punch to the face. That's where I had to continue.
With time I got better and better -- I cleared MoF on normal and among a few other games Perfect Cherry Blossom. When I came back to the main menu I noticed a new option -- "Extra start"
I think there's no need to describe it.

Either way, tell me something about your first Touhou playthrough! Sorry if I won't respond quickly.
-- Draceina, AKA Shikigami 101

[Sophilia]

My first game was actually IaMP, and my first main series game was PCB.  In both cases, the story of my first play was pretty much the same.
In IaMP, I chose Yuyuko's story on Normal and got through Sakuya, maybe having lost one life.  Then Remilia destroyed me horribly, and I think I got to her second card?
In PCB, I chose ReimuB on Normal and got through Alice, maybe having lost one life.  I didn't even make it to the Prismrivers.  The stage and Lily destroyed me horribly.

Needless to say, I kept coming back for more.  Though I haven't done so recently nearly as often as I should.  I should go fight Suwako a few times, see how bad I've gotten.

[Mеа]

I don't remember ever seeing a general topic of specifically this question before, so good job!
(as opposed to the annual who's your favorite character or game or music threads that pop up again and again)
My first game was IN on normal because I was too cool to play on easy. Had to use a continue on the first stage, and used up all of them by the third. When I first fought mystia I was all wtfhellpanickinghowcouldyoudothistome into bullets. Fond memories.

[ShrineEsper]

The first Touhou game (and indeed the first bullet-hell-shooter) I played was PCB. A friend introduced it to me a few years ago and I remember only a couple of things from my first attempt to play the game.

1) I played as Sakuya on easy.
2) I felt like I was trying to get through a storm in the Atlantic and not get wet.
3) I had used all of my continues by the time I got to Alice.
4) I regarded bullet-hell-shooters as black magic for about two years afterwards.

[Shikigami101]

Thanks for the positive feedback!
Reading what you're saying, I can't play the old fighters even now and it made me wonder how bad would I be if I played them when I was new to the topic. When it comes to Imperishable Night...
Oh boy, I compare it to SA!
While I cleared it on normal some time earlier than Subterranean Animism it's a challenge for me to 1CC it on hard (with a second thought it's easier than the game I mentioned, but compared to other installments of the main series I find it difficult). The first three stages are possible, but Marisa (I play as the Illusionary Border Team) always hits me with that Master Spark of hers. I'm bad at the tricky spells that Reisen uses.
... And now, time to mention the main problem that I have with this game.
The Time orb mechanic
I'm so greedy that I will do everything I can to push the limits and get all the Time orbs (and point items). In fact, my "Item Collection Borderline rush" is a problem I have with many games, but it's mostly visible in this one.
Besides, in order to get as many Time orbs I also go unfocused way too often (which leads to stupid deaths). Reimu's shot makes it simplier, but still.
Can't wait to hear more of your stories!

[Shizzo]

First time I played EoSD I had zero knowledge whatsoever on Bullet hell games, so my thoughts were:

1) Where is the HP bar
2) What are 'bombs'?  Is this a counter of sorts?
3) Why is this making a really weird tak-tak-tak noise whenever I'm close to bullets?  am I losing health? Am I getting hit?  But the bullet was super far away from me!


Needless to say it has been a *long* way since then...

[TableCloth]

My first touhou game was EoSD. Safe to say, it wasn't end well (especially since I don't know about focus mode the first time I tried it). I end up seeing bullet patterns while closing my eyes just after the first playthrough. Patchouli was the worst offender, having lost 2 continues just to pass through her.

SA came second shortly after I 1cc EoSD for the first time in Normal mode. Compared to EoSD, SA was a nightmare on Normal because of the huge difficulty leap from Easy. And unlike EoSD, performing poorly in SA means you will get a really bad time as the game is just so punishing. It ends up being my favourite Touhou game somewhat.

It's been 2 years since then. Defeating Mokou and Suwako makes me realize how time quickly passed by. I mean, it felt only yesterday I played Touhou in my high school with my friends and laughing at each other's failure to 1cc any of the game.

(I hope I don't double post here. Internet connection was horrible)

[WindyKitsune]

The first game I played was EoSD. I don't remember exactly what happened, maybe I could arrive at level 2 or livel 3. 
I remember I watched some videos on YT about games before playing them, because I wanted to figure out which game to start was good, this made me like the games before playing and gave me the boost while I was progressing over time, effectively was I saying myself "There are people that can play this game; you can't say you can't do it." and it worked; trying again and again was extremely funny and satisfying.

[Shikigami101]

I remember I watched some videos on YT about games before playing them, because I wanted to figure out which game to start was good, this made me like the games before playing and gave me the boost while I was progressing over time, effectively was I saying myself "There are people that can play this game; you can't say you can't do it." and it worked; trying again and again was extremely funny and satisfying.

Yeah, it was similar in my case!
It may seem that I did the first three stages without facing something horrible to the point I'd give up, but I think it's pretty obvious that I still missed and bombed a lot.
My ambitions wouldn't let me stop.

[AstralFox]

A friend had EoSD and TD on his computer, so I played the games when I came over. I veered toward TD because its graphics were beautiful and I liked the music. It took several runs before I could beat Kyouko. When I played EoSD later, I got to Patchouli once and felt I had come really far (but I couldn't figure out her nonspells!).

[ふねん1]

Hey another Utsuho fan, yes. 

While it wasn't the first time I had heard about Touhou, I first got into the games after someone on Smashboards linked me this video in early November 2009. Needless to say, I was impressed by everything in it, from the cool bullet patterns and characters to the kickass final boss theme, and challenge seeker that I am, I wanted to try it all for myself, so I went and got SA. I started on Easy since this was my first bullet hell game, and iirc I got up to the middle of Stage 4 before running out of lives on my first run. However, after sitting down and unlocking the remaining stages, I found I took to the gameplay fairly quickly, and I got an Easy 1cc the next day. I moved to Normal soon after, and while it was a fair jump up in difficulty, I kept at it and managed a 1cc less than two weeks later, which some people told me was a big deal since SA had the hardest Normal mode at the time. I felt pretty proud at having done something that was apparently so difficult as a newbie, and at that point I was hooked. More than seven years later, and while I haven't played Touhou regularly over the past few years, I still keep coming back to push myself even more on Lunatic, and it's still as fun as ever.

[Tashi]

Once upon a time... a player under the name of Tashi was traveling internet, when he suddenly found the infamous video of Ronald McDonald dancing with Flandre's theme: U.N. Owen was her?

After that, he started searching videos about this strange "Touhou Project" thing.
He was amazed at the gameplays. "How those things are even possible? This is some kind of cheating! That's impossible!" He said in ignorance.
After serious thought to kill himself at the incredible abilities of other players, he made the decision. "I will play it!" He exclaimed
He got EoSD afterwards.

He was amazed at the first minutes of gaming which, incredibly enough, started with Normal mode. He didn't wanted to start in Easy.
Needless to say, albeit liking the music a lot, the girls in the game wiped the floor with him brutally. He was able to reach Stage 4, but there his continues were burned.

After several time trying and trying to overcome the challenge to defeat the game, he was able to do it, but with continues used. He felt so proud. "I DID IT, DAMMIT!" He exclaimed in happiness.
Later, he heard about the "1cc Runs". Basically means to beat the game without using any continues.
He felt like a noob after seeing this. "Fine then. I will do it." He proposed to himself.
The journey was... really hard... He was furious. So many tries and no results. He just wanted to crush her computer.
This reached a peak point in the final battle. He had a long journey back there, but he was there, fighting the vampire Remilia Scarlet.
... Sadly... Remilia was really lucky... because she defeated him in her last spell card, with only a bit of health.
This made Tashi call it a day and, after feeling inferior and angry, he went to sleep.
The next morning, as a personal feeling, he gave the game another try.
He was doing great. He did it incredible good, compared to his other runs. Nothing could go wrong...

...
...
...

And you know what?

GAME CLEARED!

Yes. Yes, it felt incredible.

The story of someone second 1cc in his Touhou life.

[Spacechurro]

I was Eleven years old (Like 6 years ago, holy crap) But of course, as any new member, I loved Flandre Scarlet to death even before playing the game, I just liked her a lot cause she looked like me and her song was cool. So, I got Eosd, and oh my jesus, I was sooooo bad. I had never watched anyone play before, and I didn't understand what was going on. I just kept spamming the "x" button, and then got confused when it stopped working. I literally don't know why I didn't just look up how to play it, or what anything was, I just assumed there would be a tutorial. It's been 6 years, and I'm still bad at playing touhou. But I still love it....

[jhun]

I first discovered Touhou on some GrandChase video having Nue Houjuu's Theme, you know, Heian Alien. Sure I tried to find the whereabouts of this game but no such luck. Next is another vid where there is a track named G Zero - Sound Holic. Needless to say, I had no idea what Touhou was. I was thinking it was a music production group or, of course, an anime. But then I googled it and you could have imagined what happened next.

About me, I first played Touhou on about May 2015. My first game, that is to say Touhou 13 - Ten Desires, is the one I picked maybe because I was 13 years old. So yeah, I played it.

During the gameplay, it was *some boring shooting game* at first (maybe because I played easy. Yep, sucks to be me). But after finding about Lunatic and Overdrive, goodness this game is crazy. I tried to master it until I became an average player. I couldn't believe I reached Lunatic Stage 6 (with many retries). But my first overdrive clear was that "Sun Goddess Sacrifice" spellcard. Of course I cleared Easy not too long. And yeah, that leads me up to here.

[Aldnox]

My first run eh? EoSD Normal, ReimuA. Gameovered to Meiling, after using 3 continues. Yeah... I just kept dying over and over to her first spell card. Oh, I obviously didn't know how to focus, and I didn't know how to bomb either. The perfect run.