Author Topic: Touhou 16 「東方天空璋(とうほうてんくうしょう) ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons」 announced  (Read 294815 times)

Suwako Moriya

  • Hey you with the pretty face
  • *
  • Welcome to the human race!
I wonder what these things will mean for the soundtrack. Will it be more reminiscent of the older games, perhaps?

One can only hope. I love TD's soundtrack to death, but the musical quality of the chosen sound fonts has been declining since SA.
The only thing this dimension does well is show its ass. We might as well applaud it! - Albert Burneko

Well, this game happened.

Zelinko

  • The Wandering Mind
As for some pure speculation, one guess is that the player has main options and a sub options, with the sub options changing what they do depending on your current season (which changes based on some gauge mechanic). Of course, that would definitely not be a "return to basics" or a simple mechanic of any sort.
This is what I was really worried about... 

Unless we're getting a Raiden style pick up powerups to choose shot type.  But I kinda don't know how to feel about it as Touhou and Raiden's core styles just are so different that doesn't make sense for the Genre as it'd bring back the UFO problem but even worse as with Raiden style games you pick up the other color and you're back to basic power IIRC.  Been ages since I've played one.
This Space For Rent

One can only hope. I love TD's soundtrack to death, but the musical quality of the chosen sound fonts has been declining since SA.

you gotta be joking

Suwako Moriya

  • Hey you with the pretty face
  • *
  • Welcome to the human race!
I'm one of those anomalies that loved everything about TD and didn't like anything about DDC or LoLK (a few select songs aside). ?_(ツ)_/?
The only thing this dimension does well is show its ass. We might as well applaud it! - Albert Burneko

Well, this game happened.

ふねん1

  • Scientific editor
  • If you're alive, you can always keep moving.
Wow a tease this early? I like what I'm seeing so far, especially the character choices. Yes we've had playable youkai plenty of times before, but it looks like any reasons for Aya and Alolan Cirno might be quite different from in the past. Why does Reitaisai feel so far away now aaaahhhhh...

And please give it a rest Zelinko, it's just a tease, let's rejoice that there's a Touhou 16 at all. :P
"Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking." - Carl Sagan

NEW AND IMPROVED YOUTUBE, now with 60 fps Touhou videos! Latest video update: WBaWC Lunatic/Extra no-miss no-bomb no-Roars no-Spirit-Strikes compilation.

The theme of this game also ties together a slight seasonal arc that's been going on throughout the main series games:

TH10 took place in autumn. (and this was a central theme)
TH11 took place in winter. (most visibly on the extra stage)
TH12 took place in spring.
TH13 took place in summer.
TH14 took place in autumn again, starting a new generation like TH10.
...Well, TH15 kind of broke the cycle though, since it doesn't have a coherent winter theme. But it does feel like the idea of seasons in gameplay has been brewing in ZUN's mind for a while.
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latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Zelinko

  • The Wandering Mind
Wow a tease this early? I like what I'm seeing so far, especially the character choices. Yes we've had playable youkai plenty of times before, but it looks like any reasons for Aya and Alolan Cirno might be quite different from in the past. Why does Reitaisai feel so far away now aaaahhhhh...

And please give it a rest Zelinko, it's just a tease, let's rejoice that there's a Touhou 16 at all. :P

I'm just trying to get this out early so I can keep my aims low so if it's good it'll be even better.  If it's not... It won't be crushing to me.

I'm hoping this good but I don't want more heartbreak.  Last few games have just been heartbreak for me... 

Maybe going anti-hype for this will result in good things as I kinda had some for the last games and it backfired.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 04:12:49 PM by Zelinko »
This Space For Rent

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
And please give it a rest Zelinko, it's just a tease, let's rejoice that there's a Touhou 16 at all. :P

Yeah seconded. I think we get it at this point.

I'm one of those anomalies that loved everything about TD and didn't like anything about DDC or LoLK (a few select songs aside). ?\_(ツ)_/?

TD arguably had a great soundtrack. But I also loved DDC's. Especially Sukuna's theme. LoLK wasn't bad, it's just not very memorable.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

CyberAngel

  • Retired
To be fair, that wasn't what CyberAngel's post mentioned. You're now just bending words to fit. The fact remains that there were Youkais, Vampires, Ghosts, Half humans/phantoms and ex lunar rabbits in the main games.

No, TresserT's post illustrated just the thing I was referring to. The lengths some people go to in order to justify such silly ideas always baffled me.

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Fans gonna fan theory I suppose. Though certainly, plenty of them could stand to have more consistency.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Spotty Len

  • The Spottiest Len Around
  • *
  • Yuuka Master Race
I already screamed enough internally at work, so I can

I like ZUN's claim to go back to simpler mechanics, I'm not very fond of lots of gimmicks usually. That being said, I'm more excited about Aya and Alolan Cirno being playable in a main game, that should be fun.
It doesn't seem to have much of a link with Forbidden Scrollery, so I guess that will stay with AoCF.

Also pls, four seasons, flowers, stop taunting my heart with Yuuka.

Oh, yeah, Cirno being more powerful than the Sun.

Hello Purvis

  • *
  • Hello Jerry
So it turns out the mythical summer youkai wasn't Yuuka after all.

Rappaya gonna have to redo Four Seasons House.


EDIT:

Hecatia: Clownpiece is a super strong faerie!
Cirno: ::Tans:: But can you master this technique?
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 04:42:59 PM by Purji Costavis »

Plubio

  • 宇宙少年
    • Suzunaan
Wow a tease this early?

Just for reference, ZUN has always showed his next game two weeks before demo lunch.
This wasn't the case only on Impossible Spell Card, tho.

cuc

  • *
  • Probably won't respond 'til this mess is sorted o?
Quote
I will also be participating in Reitaisai.

The work I'll be presenting this time is below.
Biggest nitpick, I'd translate the pronouns in the opening paragraphs as "we", since he's speaking formally on behalf of his circle, not his own person :D. He's also using the full name of Reitaisai here, which I tend to translate more properly as "Hakurei Shrine Regular Grand Festival" when possible.

The further translations I'm sure you all want!

Tanned Cirno's description:
Quote
灼熱の太陽が降り注ぐ、情熱的で熱気溢れる季節。
うだるような暑さと、全てを洗い流す夕立など
最も表情豊かな季節である。

The season of being poured upon by a scorching sun,
brimming with a zesty haze.
Bathed sometimes in seething heat, sometimes in evening showers,
this is the season with a most expressive face.

The normal difficulty is 夏の夕立級 "Summer Evening Shower Class".


The difficult word this time is 璋. Pronounced zhāng in mandarin Chinese, it is one of several types of ritual objects made with jade in ancient China - I'm talking about 4500BC to 200BC ancient.

You can see six of the most common such objects on this page. Zhang is the second-to-last one, resembling a bladed weapon in shape. Among the six objects, zhang stands for the south and summer. Here's an English version of the same info.

Both zhang and gui were probably used somewhat like scepters carried by courtiers in those ancient courts. While the associated rituals had long faded from the lives of the Chinese people, the words zhang and gui remained as symbols of moral uptightness, and are often used in people's names.


So if both zhang and Miko's shaku are ancient Chinese artifacts translated as "scepters", and their shapes are also similar, what is the difference? Well, the shaku was originally a less august object made with not-so-precious materials, used by courtiers to write down their memos on, but eventually turned into scepters of the Japanese court (you can still see the emperors and high priests of modern Japan holding them in ceremonies), while zhang has not seen use in more than two thousand years.

I hope this somewhat clears up things!

Trivia:
Probably not relevant to Touhou, zhang is also a symbol of giving birth to boys in old China:
Quote
Sons shall be born to him:
They will be put to sleep on couches;
They will be clothed in robes;
They will have zhang to play with;
Their cry will be loud.
They will be [hereafter] resplendent with red knee-covers,
The [future] king, the princes of the land.

Daughters shall be born to him:
They will be put to sleep on the ground;
They will be clothed with wrappers;
They will have ceramic [spinning wheels] to play with.
It will be theirs neither to do wrong nor to do good.
Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think,
And to cause no sorrow to their parents.

(Based on this translation)

Addenum:
Zhang can also be another ancient Chinese artifact: the handle of a jade ladle, used to pour a sacrificial wine on the ground. However these things are all too old for us to know how exactly they were used. For all we know, the handle and the scepter may be one and the same.

Itsuari further suggests this can potentially connect the story to a currently ongoing plot thread in Touhou: the Gensokyoan mythology of the Big Dipper as the ultimate youkai - a heavenly dragon, threatening to swallow the light of Polaris.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2017, 02:47:03 PM by cuc »
Touhou Fantasy News: twitter

Since when did tanned cirno had a desc?

Flandre5carlet

  • Sister of the Devil
  • "So all I have to do is 'kyuu', and..."
    • flan.moe
Sweet, Cirno playable in a main. Wasn't expecting that.

Hoping the new characters' designs will be nice, I found the TH14 ones generally bland (especially the non-demo characters) and I'm not fond at all of most TH15 designs except Sagume and to a lesser extent Junko.
Same thing with the music actually, found the TH14 soundtrack overall fairly boring aside from Sukuna's theme growing on me, although TH15's was overall better.

Most importantly though, I hope the gameplay will be fun! Cirno having a GFW-like gimmick would be nice.

Chill Observer

  • Aimless fanatic
  • haHAA
Tanned Cirno is delicious.

Seems like we have spell practice back again, nice. New engine game for th16?

Also, the "simpler mechanics" bit. I'm not so sure about that. The game already seems to use a life and bomb piece system which adds some complexity on its own. Now we'll just need to see its scoring.
Retired Touhou player. Not involved with anything Touhou anymore.

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Also, the "simpler mechanics" bit. I'm not so sure about that. The game already seems to use a life and bomb piece system which adds some complexity on its own. Now we'll just need to see its scoring.

On closer inspection, and I admit my eyesight isn't what it used to be, but I don't see fractions of hearts or stars. So maybe you get entire bombs or lives at a time.

There is graze though it seems. So I'd guess a score-based item collection.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Helepolis

  • Charisma!
  • *
  • O-ojousama!?
By the way, ZUN's backgrounds seem to become more and more photo like. That Marisa screenshot, the sky looks quite nice.

PapilLionesskort

  • "Perfectly Immoral Moral Person"
  • Pretty much just lurking innocently
Speaking of stage backgrounds, does anyone know where he gets all of it from?
Write or fight, same thing. You might as well come out swinging either way.<3 Just not too hard, as that's no fun.

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Yeah that stage looks glorious.

The normal difficulty is 夏の夕立級 "Summer Evening Shower Class".

Ah, so the seasons are difficulty levels then? This is getting more interesting.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

PK

  • Border of Whatever
What is Marisa saying in that screenshot?

Neovereign

  • Greatest Fairy
  • Everything will be daijoubu... hopefully
Tanned/EX Cirno looks pretty good. Good as in I can't stop thinking about it. Laughing, wondering why, praising, etc. And she's playable in a main game, as people have said before. Wonder if it's just uphill from there...

PapilLionesskort

  • "Perfectly Immoral Moral Person"
  • Pretty much just lurking innocently
Marisa is complaining about the heat. So some erratic climate changes seems to be the case.
"なんだよ暑いじゃねーかこのヤロ !"
Write or fight, same thing. You might as well come out swinging either way.<3 Just not too hard, as that's no fun.

Maple

  • Mukyuu!
Marisa in winter-like gear, four seasons, those blue options and 3 blue triangles...

Maybe Marisa gets to use Cold Inferno again like in MoF? Probably a modified version, though.

What is Marisa saying in that screenshot?

なんだよ[kanji]いじゃねーか このヤロー!

I guess ヤロー (Yaroo) is yellow or Yarrow.

"What's up with this [kanji]? This Yaroo [whatever it is]!"

Yeah, the kanji may be 暑 heat.

Edit: Notice that she's probably complaining about the heat while using winter clothing on a sunny day.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 06:37:46 PM by Maple »

By the way, what does the japanese title translate to?
My name is Tres. It sounds like "Tray". Tressert is "Tray-zurt"; like Tres dessert.
I've cleared every touhou game on Lunatic, and beaten every extra except SoEW.
NMNB: MoF Hard, SA Extra, UFO Extra

Helepolis

  • Charisma!
  • *
  • O-ojousama!?
Oh boy, all this art work about tanned Cirno. I can't think of any thing else but completely be amused. ZUN being unpredictable as usual in an awesome way.

Sedrife

  • Amateur Touhou Piano Player
  • *
  • イケメンFlan is the new hype
    • Touhou Piano Project
By the way, what does the japanese title translate to?

東方 (Eastern) 天空 (Sky) 璋 (Scepter / orb)
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 08:08:14 PM by Sedrife »

PapilLionesskort

  • "Perfectly Immoral Moral Person"
  • Pretty much just lurking innocently
Yaroo means "bastard". She's essentially cursing the climate out.
Write or fight, same thing. You might as well come out swinging either way.<3 Just not too hard, as that's no fun.

Mino ☆

  • PCB player.
  • Touhou Hobbyist
Not sure if this was brought up, but is it possible that every character will have two shot types?

Here's a google doc me and a friend put together of our evidence for this theory