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 294824 times)

Lt Colonel Summers

  • Lieutenant Colonel
  • Do not mess with a soldier

That all said... wtf flashbombs? In my Touhou? It's all Yabusame's fault, I'm sure about that XD

LOL Len'En reference  :V

That said, I wonder if ZUN is aware of JynX and the Len'En series?
There's nothing inscribed on the dog tag...

game2011

  • mineiptXD
    • Supreme ??asual Dating Verified Women
LOL Len'En reference  :V

That said, I wonder if ZUN is aware of JynX and the Len'En series?
I'm sure he doesn't live under a rock.

Spectral Nexus

  • Idealistic Aspirer and Unacheiver
  • Hella trippy.
Wow, what a demo this was!
  • The art is amazing, and the anatomy's great this time round! Everyone has 10 fingers and toes that are the right side round~ :P
  • Even better, the spritework is *fantastic*; it's so fluid and really captures character -- I mean, isn't Aunn's little paw-paw dance the cutest thing ever?
  • The music was definitely a surprise at first take, as it was much more intense and heavy than I thought it'd be, though I feel the techno instrumentation lends itself to that, but regardless, the OST is filled with great, catchy tunes that I know will be stuck in my head for the next 3 weeks~ (looking at YOU, Nemuno and Stg 3 theme... Especially the Stg 3 theme; the breakdown before the midboss is absolutely gorgeous~)
  • The characters are so cute too~~~!!!!

Great job ZUN, I'm super excited to see what comes next!
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 10:39:32 AM by Spectral Nexus »
COMPOSING FOR: Magical Moon Story / Mystic Memory Drive (Full Game)
- Old Chateau Story (Stage 3 and Title Themes)
- Ephemeral Unnatural Balance (Stage 2 & Stage 5 Themes)
- Illusionary Visual Twilight (Full Game)
- Hopefully a few of my own future fangames! :-D

Suspicious person

  • Just a humble wanderer
  • How suspicious~
Had a go at the game, and it's pretty enjoyable indeed. Difficulty feels pretty tame and the patterns doesn't feel especially difficult nor stressful (Doremy's nons still haunt me). Heck, most of the deaths I had were either me screwing around in stage 1 or accidentally walking into random bullets. The customizable shot thingy seems pretty neat as well, you can experiment various combinations and see which one you're most comfortable with. Gotta say though, playing spring Reimu with spring options on stage 3 reeeeeeaaaaaaaaally fills everything with pink color (background and cherry petals(?)) and can make dodging the pink bullets a wee bit confusing. Not a big deal really, but just a tiny nitpick.

Dunno what to say about the characters for now, but it'd be cool to see... """Etanity Larva""" in VFiS one of these days...but srsly, what kind of name is thaaaat she could be named Cuterpie and it'd work better tbh

I really like the music in this game as well, especially stage 1 : it has so much stuff in it : that piano, bass, good olde ZUNpets and a wee bit of theme of eastern story, but it's those chiptune soundbits that does it for me : pretty chill and relaxing theme, not too energic, not too catchy : not tiring to listen. When it comes to lighthearted sounding themes, ZUN has, for better or for worse, the habit of making things sound too high pitched (ie : misty lake, Seiran theme, childlike duo off the top of my head), which isn't the case for this one. The various instruments don't clash badly with each other either : simply magnificent. And from what I can hear from some tracks, there seems to be a comeback of TD's percussions ? Anyway, I like the sound of it and I'm looking forward to see what kind of magic ZUN's gonna work up for the final version. Looking forward to the arranges !
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 10:50:27 AM by Suspicious person »

The game is overall good, the music, for me, take a time to get used to but when you do, it's great. Character design is ZUN's level like usual, but it's expressive (also i like Aunn the best!), since I play Normal i don't know much, but the game is pretty easy (then again, I have to used a continue...)

CrestedPeak9

  • Fangame Advocate
Oh yeah, a subtle change is that bombing makes you PoC at max value now. ZUN really wants to push this game's scoring potential.
Lunatic 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, DDC, LoLK, HSiFS, WBaWC

Piranha

  • Hungry Ghost
After I listened to it a few more times, that stage 3 theme just feels so relaxing, especially the middle part. 
Normal 1cc: EoSD (All), PCB (All), IN (All teams), PoFV (Reimu), MoF (All), SA (ReimuA/ReimuB)
Extra stages cleared: EoSD (ReimuB), PCB (ReimuB)
StB: Level 6-X left
My Replays

Played for about an hour and got a Normal 1CC and a Lunatic 1CC. Game is certainly a lot easier than the previous couple of games. I'd say it's probably around MoF's difficulty. Music was great, as always and the gameplay was fun. The only real issue I had was when playing as Spring, the leafs falling for the release were kind of hard to differentiate between the green bullets on stage one. Overall, a very great demo, though!
Normal 1CC's - EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, SA, UFO, TD, DDC, LoLK
Hard 1CC's - EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, DDC
Lunatic 1CC's - PCB, IN, PoFV
Extra Clears - EoSD (+Ultra), PCB (+Phantasm), IN (+Ultra), PoFV, MoF, DDC
Youtube

I love this game already. After I needed some time to get used to LoLK, this game found itself already a place in my heart. The music, the characters, the mechanics, everythings great. Only thing I noticed is, that the screen gets cluttered with stuff. Now with the flashbomb points it can get really straining on the eyes. Though, I might just no be used to it.

I am really looking forward to see the rest of the game and will play this demo a lot more after my exams.

Touhou 16 feels like a part in the PCB arc, which has been lately revisited story-wise in TD and DDC without much of the feel of the source material. I'm glad to see this style make a comeback with modern tools.
But most importantly, it feels really original. It's fresh but made from familiar elements.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Backgrounds are awesome. Music is awesome. Characters are awesome.

Also, first three stages are summer-autumn-spring. Next one is likely to be winter. Letty for final boss confirmed?..

Kilgamayan

  • True
  • *
  • The Real Treasure Is You
    • Let's Play Super Marisa World
What is the sound font like? Is it more DDC/LoLK style? Or has he changed it once again?
[22:40:12] <Drake> "guys i donwloaded esod but its not workan"
[22:40:21] <Drake> REPORTED
[22:40:25] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> PROBATED
[22:40:30] <Drake> ORGASM
[22:40:32] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> FUCK YEAH

[22:28:39] <Edible> Mafia would be a much easier game if we were playing "spot the asshole"

Spectral Nexus

  • Idealistic Aspirer and Unacheiver
  • Hella trippy.
What is the sound font like? Is it more DDC/LoLK style? Or has he changed it once again?
From what I can hear, I believe he's using:

The SD-90 (obviously),
Groove Agent ONE and Retrologue, which he used for LoLK and the new CDs.
I also think I can hear some Trilian synth bases, like Atlas Sphere and Flitter(?) for Nemuno's theme, in addition to RealLPC for that DDC rock guitar.
Furthermore, the piano he uses seems to be Steinberg the Grand III -- the same as Membrane Wall of Taboo.
Therefore, his predominant soundfont choice seems to be similar to that of LoLK (or the newest CDs to be more precise), with Nemuno's theme being a DDC-LoLK hybrid of sorts.

However, there're some instruments I can't put my finger on just yet, like the instruments playing the main melodies for the title theme, Etarnity's theme and the Stg 2 theme, as well as the underlying bass synths for Stg 3's theme. Something tells me some of them are just Trilian presets I haven't heard yet, but some of them definitely seem quite new, especially the title theme's instruments.

EDIT: The title theme instruments are actually mostly SD-90 presets. I didn't know because I don't own one so I couldn't check. :P
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 02:00:15 PM by Spectral Nexus »
COMPOSING FOR: Magical Moon Story / Mystic Memory Drive (Full Game)
- Old Chateau Story (Stage 3 and Title Themes)
- Ephemeral Unnatural Balance (Stage 2 & Stage 5 Themes)
- Illusionary Visual Twilight (Full Game)
- Hopefully a few of my own future fangames! :-D

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
The music is definitely growing on me the more I play, especially Stage 1.

In terms of subweapons, Spring and Summer really seem to be the way to go here. Though I get a feeling I may change my tune in later stages.

"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."

Kilgamayan

  • True
  • *
  • The Real Treasure Is You
    • Let's Play Super Marisa World
So more DDC/LoLK some music? Ergh. Well, I'm optimistic for the gameplay, at least, based on what's been said so far.
[22:40:12] <Drake> "guys i donwloaded esod but its not workan"
[22:40:21] <Drake> REPORTED
[22:40:25] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> PROBATED
[22:40:30] <Drake> ORGASM
[22:40:32] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> FUCK YEAH

[22:28:39] <Edible> Mafia would be a much easier game if we were playing "spot the asshole"

Karisa

  • Extend!
  • *
  • High scores are meant to be broken.
Oh yeah, a subtle change is that bombing makes you PoC at max value now. ZUN really wants to push this game's scoring potential.
That's not new-- it's existed since DDC (and since UFO, items have been worth full value when auto-collected in any way; it's just that bombs didn't auto-collect in UFO and TD).

Trial version scoreboard is up, by the way. I've been doing some experimental Normal Aya Winter attempts. Alternating Aya bomb-grazing with Winter spawn-point cancels gives a nice PIV rate on bosses, though I'm not sure that's the best combination.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 01:39:05 PM by Karisa »

From what I can hear, I believe he's using:
(...)

I love you for this.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Well, I waited until the demo was released to draw any conclusions and I must say, this was much more than I expected. I really enjoyed the music, especially the third boss stage theme. The game mechanics aren't too complicated and the difficulty is simple, which is pretty nice. The character designs are strange yet cute and original. I really love this demo and I can't wait for the full version.

By the way, that third stage boss seems rather familiar to me. Is she something from Buddhist mythology?

Jimmy

  • Shameless spender
  • gaining big pounds
I've been messing around a bit with the different shottype combinations and came to notice that the release effect (flashbomb) is different with each subweapon, not main player:

Spring: appears only very briefly fixed on its initial location (doesn't move with the player). The higher the gauge level, the larger the radius. Release at level 6 to wipe the screen clean, but then completely empties the gauge after use.
Summer: also only very briefly and stationary, but has only a very small radius. However, using it once only empties one level the gauge (e.g. releasing on level 6 will decrease the gauge to level 5), so cheesing ahoy!
Autumn: SANIC SPEED The higher the gauge level, the longer it lasts. Its radius is slightly larger than the Summer one, and slightly shrinks as it is active. When unfocused, the player will be able to move at a very high speed (like ReimuC in SA). It also moves along with the player. Empties the gauge to level 1 or completely (if used on level 1).
Winter: Same as autumn, but stays fixed on its initial location, thus acting like a bullet-eating shield.

All release bombs will autocollect all onscreen items, and don't cancel spell bonuses as long as their effect radius don't reach the boss.

Time to experiment more  :derp:
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 02:09:17 PM by Jimmy »
Normal 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, UFO, TD, DDC, LoLK Legacy, HSiFS, WBaWC
Hard 1cc: IN, DDC, HSiFS
Extra clears: MoF, DDC, HSiFS, WBaWC

Goals: Going Extra Hard!

CyberAngel

  • Retired
By the way, that third stage boss seems rather familiar to me. Is she something from Buddhist mythology?

She's a komainu - those lion-dog statues you can see near shrines.

Drake

  • *
I've been messing around a bit with the different shottype combinations and came to notice that the release effect (flashbomb) is different with each subweapon, not main player:
https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,20728.msg1340370.html#msg1340370
System:
- Graze and speedkilling enemies creates Season items
- Season items fill up gauge
- When it fills up one level you gain a bonus option
- Up to 6 bonus options
- Can press the Release button to get rid of bonus options and a circle spawns around where you press it
- Release circle cancels bullets and you gain point value based on how much you cancel, and also canceled bullets give you Season items back
- Effectiveness of Release depends on what your level is; the behaviour depends on subweapon
- Release can deal a ton of damage holy cow

Spring Release uses all levels, size of circle depends on level, and disappears quickly. You also become invincible. Spell Cards fail instantly.
Summer Release uses only one level, creates a small circle, and disappears quickly. Spell Cards do not fail.
Autumn Release uses all levels, creates a small circle that follows you, and lasts longer depending on level. You can also go fast. Spell Cards fail if you run into the boss.
Winter Release uses all levels, creates a small circle that shields you, and lasts longer depending on level. Your shot power also increases a ton. Spell Cards do not fail.

Having canceled bullets give you back Season items means that if done properly you can milk for point value. Summer seems especially good for this.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 02:11:34 PM by Drake »

A Colorful Calculating Creative and Cuddly Crafty Callipygous Clever Commander
- original art by Aiけん | ウサホリ -

Jimmy

  • Shameless spender
  • gaining big pounds
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 02:14:12 PM by Jimmy »
Normal 1cc: EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, UFO, TD, DDC, LoLK Legacy, HSiFS, WBaWC
Hard 1cc: IN, DDC, HSiFS
Extra clears: MoF, DDC, HSiFS, WBaWC

Goals: Going Extra Hard!

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Some kind soul also translated the manual and put it on the wiki, for future reference.

I've been doing some experimental Normal Aya Winter attempts. Alternating Aya bomb-grazing with Winter spawn-point cancels gives a nice PIV rate on bosses, though I'm not sure that's the best combination.

Whoah, that's a neat idea.

Also, I'm curious about the power of the subweapons themselves, i.e., the homing, spreadshot and so forth. Activating them is one thing, but they don't seem powerful as additional shots until you get to like 5 or something.

"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."

I bet that in stage 4 the Player Character will battle one of the heroes. Reimu's dialogue with Aunn hints this.

Maybe you battle the character from the option shot you choose. That's will be so cool~~
I really miss the Imperishable Night stage 4 battles...

I presume "flashbomb" is a reference to some other shmup? (Len'en?)

The season collectibles are sometimes hard to distinguish against the background and the bullets. So much translucent stuff on the screen.
Getting extends is nearly impossible without flashbombing due to the perpetually low PIV, so that's something to get used to. nvm, just saw a gameplay video of someone getting 3 score extends on Easy without flashbombing.

I'm really looking forward to actually being able to do a Normal 1CC this time, lol.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2017, 02:58:13 PM by shockdude »
Playing Touhou since 18 March 2012. Playing video games since 19XX.
Normal 1CC: EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, SA, UFO, TD, DDC, HSiFS, CtC.
Extra 1CC: EoSD, PCB+Phantasm, IN, PoFV (K&S), MoF, SA, TD, HSiFS, CtC+Phantasm.
Hard 1CC: EoSD, PCB, IN, MoF, TD, CtC.
Lunatic 1CC: EoSD

check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Score extends (in millions:): 5, 10, 20, 40, 70, 100, 150, 250.

We don't know what else beyond that yet. Highest known score is 175m on lunatic.

I changed the scores in Cheat Engine, and the extends are 5, 10, 20, 40, 70, 100, 150, 250, 500, 1000.
1CCs: EoSD (Normal, MarisaB)
Aiming for PCB Normal MarisaB next!

The summer minibomb is really good against bosses.
I wonder if the exboss will be immune to releases.

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Got my hands on this game this morning, and it is quite something.
I'm glad the difficulty was toned down a bit.  Still a fair challenge by the time Stage 3 comes along but not hair-pulling.
Now it's time to see how many videos are made of the game
For reference, I used Reimu + Summer shot type.  For survivability it sounds like a decent combo but the extra shots are...not stellar.
Looking forward to trying Reimu + Winter combo.
Return of Eastern Wonderland! Made by a PC-98 fan FOR fans!
1ccs: SoEW (N), LLS (N), MS (N), EoSD (N, H), PCB (N), IN (N, H), PoFV (N, 5 char), MoF (N), SA (N), UFO (N), TD (N), DDC (N), LoLK (N), HSiFS (E, N, L), WBaWC (N)
Extra: EoSD, PCB, IN, PoFV, MoF, HSiFS, WBaWC
Scoring: HSiFS Easy (PB: 1.1b), Barrage Musical Hard (PB: 28.?b)

I presume "flashbomb" is a reference to some other shmup? (Len'en?)

Len'en, yes. I mean, a short mini-bomb that doesn't deal damage, doesn't prevent you from getting spell card bonus and has a gauge filled by graze? While a bit different mechamically from Len'en, it's a flashbomb for all intents and purposes.