Author Topic: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - v0.01b update  (Read 22558 times)

東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - v0.01b update
« on: March 13, 2018, 10:45:16 PM »

Gensokyo has been dealing with an unusual drizzle as of late. Somehow, saltwater is raining down from the sky in large quantities.
Just what kind of person could be causing this, and for what reason...?


(Despite this having been decided less than a day ago without my approval,) It's finally time to announce this thing!

Sapphire Panlogism is a new danmakufu fangame planned to be your usual full-featured six stages + Extra Mode adventure, featuring four shottypes and a cast of original characters.
The trial version is out! The 0.01b update adds the Japanese language option and fixes a bunch of issues that were present on release.

This set of screenshots was once representative, but they're a bit outdated now. I recommend checking out the BulletForge link above instead.
*Please, don't ask me about the dialogue. I don't even know what that says.

Brought to you by Urban Mimzie's cast:
Stormplush: Team leader, artist, main character designer.
Frogmask: Main composer, scenario writer.
Badz: Level designer, misc. programmer.
Naudiz: Main sprite and GUI artist, ???.
Natashi: System & visual effects programmer.
Spectral Nexus: Composer (work sadly not featured in the demo), mixing assistant.
Airi: Character designer, sprite artist.
Popfan & Gilde: Japanese translators.
Lollipop & "T" (anonymity preserved upon request): Programming assistants.
Minogame1: Main playtester, difficulty balancer.
Gray Person: Playtester.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2018, 11:01:04 PM by Badz »

Lollipop

  • stay woke
  • literally and figuratively dying
Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2018, 10:56:30 PM »
vajra bomb
Touhou 1CCS:
Hard: LLS, EoSD(NB), PCB(NB), IN, MoF, TD, DDC(NB), LoLK
Lunatic: EoSD, PCB, DDC, LoLK
Extra: LLS, EoSD, PCB(Extra&Phantasm), IN, MoF, SA, DDC, LoLK
Current Focus: 1cc SA Hard, or an Extra

Drake

  • *
Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2018, 11:09:35 PM »
Sick. I'm a fan of that menu layout, good font, good emphasis. If you have the underlying pattern and outline for the wheel I could make it spin as you go through the menu and it might look really cool.

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

WishMakers

  • Myouren's IT Guy
  • printf("h*ck");
Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2018, 11:53:58 PM »
This looks rad, looking forward to seeing that demo!
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)

Lollipop

  • stay woke
  • literally and figuratively dying
Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2018, 04:55:28 PM »
We have a demo announcement video if anyone's interested

Update: the video is also out in Japanese, feel free to watch to your heart's content.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2018, 06:12:44 AM by Lollipop »
Touhou 1CCS:
Hard: LLS, EoSD(NB), PCB(NB), IN, MoF, TD, DDC(NB), LoLK
Lunatic: EoSD, PCB, DDC, LoLK
Extra: LLS, EoSD, PCB(Extra&Phantasm), IN, MoF, SA, DDC, LoLK
Current Focus: 1cc SA Hard, or an Extra

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2018, 10:55:43 PM »
Amazing. Feels like we went a while without any full-length fan games being announced, and now I have both this and Hollow Song of Birds to join the ranks of Servants of Harvest Wish on my looking-forward-to list for 2018.

I absolutely love how the soundtrack is infused with a melancholy air while still preserving the upbeatness you'd expect from a shooting game. Judging by the snippets in the announcement video, the title theme and stage 1 boss theme are my favorites so far.

If I could offer a tiny suggestion, the "Score", "Lives" and other labels on the HUD feel squeezed a little too close to the margin of the playing field for me. Maybe push them just a tad to the right and see how it looks?

Also, Azure Swirl is a great name. She's pretty cute, too. :3

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2018, 04:20:43 PM »
Wow, game's looking amazing so far!  I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw the imgur album, I thought it was so-good-looking-it-was-fake.  Being wrong never felt this good <3

Will the game be featured fully in english?  The dialogue was in japanese in that one SS, so I'm not sure about the game's language.

Either way though, I'm looking forward to the demo release!  Here's to hoping it happens soon!! ♥


Lollipop

  • stay woke
  • literally and figuratively dying
Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2018, 08:26:09 PM »
Will the game be featured fully in english?  The dialogue was in japanese in that one SS, so I'm not sure about the game's language.

We plan to release the full game in both English and Japanese, but no promises
Touhou 1CCS:
Hard: LLS, EoSD(NB), PCB(NB), IN, MoF, TD, DDC(NB), LoLK
Lunatic: EoSD, PCB, DDC, LoLK
Extra: LLS, EoSD, PCB(Extra&Phantasm), IN, MoF, SA, DDC, LoLK
Current Focus: 1cc SA Hard, or an Extra

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2018, 11:21:19 PM »
Ah, I see!  Can't wait for it, no matter the language!

Bro

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2018, 04:54:15 AM »
Ah, I just realized that this is the same game that was seeking programmers and musicians about nine months ago. I'm glad to see that it's turning out so well.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2018, 12:20:01 PM »
CAN'T WAIT FOR THE DEMO!...

Oupse I've certainly took a while with replying to this. Hope noone's mad? Eh anyways, from both checking the english and the japanese trailer (they both feature different characters and parts of the song) I must say at least from character design and music this definitely right up my alley (especially Jiriri Kim's theme, it seems so different compared to everything else).  I'm already happy I'll be able to play Hecatia and Shou - two characters I've wanted to be playable since their debut. Since I realize it will be your first attempt of making such a game I don't expect ido's level, but I'd be nice to be surprised.

That being said since I'm the type that hates being surprised I've done some digging and
Spoiler:
I've found main artist's tumblr blog where you can find previous design of characters, including what I think will be  stage 3 boss ? Although since most of the cast got remade in some way I imagine she did as well - her sillhoutte seems to have a new hat! Secondly based of description on some of the prior designs, youtube trailers and limited screenshots, stage 1 will take in either a shore or garden in the rain, stage 2 will take place high up in the clouds and the third one will either be in a cave or in the shore again.

And that's all from me, sorry for the necro and all
No.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Team Urban Mimzie's first game
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2018, 06:31:43 AM »
I remember checking on twitter that they've released some more info on the game! I'm not sure if it's 100% legit information, but apparently Hecatia (default earth form?) is playable!  Her shottype includes something like toggling between 3 types with the C key.  I'm excite!

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2018, 09:05:45 PM »
Hey! It took a bunch longer than expected and we were almost thwarted by a pause menu, but it's here!

Enjoy the demo! All feedback is welcome, and stuff.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2018, 09:29:57 PM »
I was trying to go back to sleep, seeing as I hear ear operation tommorow BUT IDC

I need to play and listen to this goodness before I go deaf  :V

EDIT:
Spoiler:
Crap I was expecting Jiriri to be stage 2 boss... THAT BAIT AND SWITCH. I'm kind of fine and not fine with that, but that was surely a nice surprise.

From so far I've played there are some issues here are there, either a visual bug, controls being wonky or some songs loop really weirdly, but demo the game was really worth the wait

EDIT: Hah! I've tried to unlock the last song - presumably game over screen... but the game gives you like 5 continues. So when I finally did it... the game crashed. Something tells me this is the reason why it took so long
« Last Edit: June 13, 2018, 10:33:47 PM by Popcioslav »
No.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2018, 12:25:18 AM »
Alrighty!  I finally played through the demo with every character, and I've got a few thoughts, both praise and criticism!

Spoiler:
First and foremost, before everything, I think the game is AMAZING, and it is the first English touhou fangame I can say I'm really looking forward to the release!

Now that being said, I think the gameplay is pretty good.  A few things are rough on the edges in my humble opinion, but  nothing too critical.  I'll list them in here:

-Reimu and Marisa feel really strong and good to play with.  Shou is pretty cool too, but Hecatia feels really bad in my opinion.  She's one of my favorite characters, but in this game her shottypes are all really weak.  Blue feels the least bad, but I still felt like the damage was kind of meh compared to even Reimu's homing, which is always perceived as a weaker-but-efficient shottype.  Yellow feels gimmicky-but-fun, and yet the damage still feels bad and it can't reach most bosses.  I don't even know how red can function, either; it's like MoF's MarisaC but without the lock-on-focus mechanic.  I really think she needs a fine tuning.
-Speaking of Hecatia, her bombs also feel _really_ weird.  It's a bit unreliable since it seems that the projectiles from the bomb that clear the bullets, so there were times I couldn't fully clear a pattern right in front of me.  Their damage is also really bad, especially compared to the other characters' bombs. 
-As a side note, I think there's something weird with the invincibility frames in Hecatia's bombs, because there were a few times that I died while the bombs were still being executed. 


-The stage 1 feels super fun and I loved the whole dodging-rain effect.  The bullets blended a little with the background, even if they were all different shades of blue, but after a few runs it was easier to read them.
-Azure Swirl is adorable and I love the way she talks ♥ Also her defeated boss art is heartbreaking!!
-I LOVE the fact that the boss sprites are animated, it's such a small detail but I think it makes fights a lot prettier.
-Jiriri insulting Hecatia's clothes = 10/10
-Sakkagumi looks SO different, and I love her design, fight and theme.  Even the way she shows up is super unique, and she's definitely my favorite boss of the demo!  Her danmaku felt very Doremy-like because it swaps between really intense patterns, and spellcards that try trapping you.  Kudos for her!!
-The only weird thing (and it could be my impression) about Sakkagumi's fight is that the volume seems to drop midway through the song/fight?  Again it could be just me.
-I don't know who that Mermaid midboss is but her danmaku looks sooooo cool. 
-Saga looks a bit strange for me compared to the other characters whenever I think of her (maybe it's because she's frowning in her spellcard-declare cut-in?  Hmm..) but she's really interesting nonetheless.  I love the special effects that she has after her midboss fight and whenever she starts a nonspell!  My only complaint is that the bubble bullets she uses are kinda transparent and almost feel like they're not bullets but background elements.  It doesn't help that the actual background has bubbles on the bottom of the screen, too. 
EDIT: Another suggestion I forgot to make is that it'd be infinitely helpful if the game had a boss-low-health sound like how the official games have. 
EDIT2: OH and also the boss-defeat-explosion sound.  I mean, a touhou fight's not a touhou fight without that sound after it... especially after Saga's fight, the music would sync perfectly with it!

I also forgot to mention, but it seems that the game bugs out if you game over and continue right before Jiriri's dialogue; your character sprite will be gone and the danmaku will keep going.  I'll try replicating it again sometime later.

Overall I loved the fact that the game's difficulty leans on the hard scale.  It feels like a lot of fangames which throw a lot of resources on you have a ton of patterns which don't feel like they belong to the difficulty you've chosen (Hard spellcards which belong on normal, etc).  Mechanics wise it's nice because it's simple-but-helpful.  The only thing I think that's a bit strange is that you can't use the PoC to collect the special droplet bullets.


But nonetheless, I really can't wait for more, you guys are making a really amazing game and I hope it becomes just as popular as the Eastern Fangames! 
« Last Edit: June 14, 2018, 01:07:21 AM by Linnah »

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2018, 01:04:12 AM »
Congratulations on the trial release.

Basic gameplay doesn't seem to make sense. Trying to grab droplets while also trying to race to the IGBL seems overly difficult and sometimes "impossible" on a basic level, especially for the slower characters.

I'm not sure if there's an easy fix for this. The only thing I can really think of is to change item behavior to something like Lenen or an ido game, where you have a larger/better item vacuum and the items are always worth the same no matter where you are on the screen. The way ido's games do it is better than the way Lenen does it, for the record. Lenen somehow still has the same problem of basic gameplay being overly difficult and sometimes "impossible", especially for slower characters like Yabusame.

Alternatively, you could have the droplets spawn from the top of the screen, instead of dropping from enemies directly.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2018, 12:26:42 PM by Despatche »

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2018, 07:04:11 PM »
I am interested, seems like a lot of effort has gone into this fangame.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2018, 12:07:26 AM »
Me: Hey it?s time for my horrible review wall-o-text again!
Crowd: P l e a s e  r e f r a i n

I must say all the wait was truly worth it. For your first release this looks really promising already and all I can do is to congratulate everyone involved in this project so far? but you know where this going surely, time for some honest ?feedback?. Tried categorizing each complaint and observation so respective person from the team can look up for what is most important for them

-STORY AND DIALOGUES-

This actually just seems like a pretty good ol? Touhou story. Also another incident involving sea/rain? (Some patterns made me think of Marine Benefit, but that?s fine. Also poor Promised Mystery of Moisture? again). So far it?s only 3 stages, but there?s some really nice setup. Also, I?m just saying it right now? I feel like I?ve already got most of the plot figured out, but I might be wrong the same way I was wrong
Spoiler:
about stage 2 boss being Jiriri
, but it feels like this game is going to have mixture of Buddhist and Greek mythology? which sounds really cool.

I base it it mainly on the fact that every odd number stage has greek inspired boss (Azure,
Spoiler:
the unnamed mermaid called Iroha in the game?s files, Saga)
, we have playable Hecatia + playable Shou, entirety of stage 2 and the dharma wheel/dharmachakra in the main menu. Sadly while I know greek myths pretty well and my bets are on stuff like Poseidon, Hestia or Demeter? I feel like stage 4 and final boss are going to be buddhist inspired and Iroha will already take the place of Stage 5 boss? At least that?s what I think. Also I?m really happy you guys actually created and established new place in Gensokyo and hopefully you?re not stopping there.

I?m not going to cover spell titles here since I?m pretty sure frogmask made them so I?m saving them for the later section, BUT I?m really positively surprised with the quality of the dialogue. I didn?t think you  could make an originally English Touhou dialogue feel authentic? but so far so good. Shou?s stage 2 dialogue is quite funny and I do like the little hints, some useless ones and some might not
Spoiler:
(Like Hecatia talking about Saga?s father - again, I presume that to be Poseidon- erm Posseydone) also the fourth wall break at the end. That takes me back?


-CHARACTER DESIGN, GRAPHIC FORMALITIES -

Out of main characters, Shou is definitely my favorite. Idk, just the reason she was drawn makes her look kind of weird, but cute in a way? I mean, just look at her being tired. We?ve all been there, trying to get a LNN 1cc? we?ve all made that face full of pain.

Hecatia using her Gensokyo body also makes sense and is a nice touch (I miss her Hellish t-shirt already tho).

Now onto bosses! Azure is pretty good example of stage 1 boss? and that?s mostly it. I really do like the (appearently fake) massive bluebell she?s holding though. There?s just not much to say about her. I think her stage is pretty basic, but alright theme wise. I was really surprised to realize these nice flower patterns and river were just very simple textures in game?s files.

Spoiler:
You know my thoughts about Jiriri already. I think her design?s amazing, she could?ve easily been stage 2 boss, but now we got 2 in price of one I guess? The colour pallete is strong with this one and I still love how she?s based of aka-kuchi? she?s only missing a huge red tongue? nvm maybe that?s one part she doesn't need.

I still can?t believe I got tricked into believing Jiriri was the real stage 2 boss. I thought the silhouette behind her in the japanese VP was just a teaser for her final spell or something, but nope. I really like Sakkagumi despite that tho. She feels kinda? out of place as a stage 2 boss, but that?s what I like about her actually. I thought at first ama-nyūdō was just something you guys made up, but nope - She is pretty darn interesting, simple and quirky enough. Her colour pallete is amazing, but that?s also to be expected from the nyūdō. Probably my second favorite design, after Jiriri.

Stage 2 overall is beautiful and probably best looking from the demo. It is kind of hard on the eyes at first, but you really don?t have to change it. It?s just that some enemies? projectiles mesh really well with the backgrounding making it hard to distinguish and thus you die without realizing what hit you.

Oh no, you?ve moefied Ursula? Actually Saga (Sega?) is pretty epic and I wasn?t expecting to like her all that much based on her previous design, but do I love the update. People did mention she looks like Marisa from the future (presumably holding the book stolen from Patchy), but I actually don?t mind that. And yeah, her being kind of an attorney and contract broker is kind of clever. Also really big thank you for showcasing both nereid and an oceanid, there's a difference folks!

From the little we?ve seen from Iroha, she?s also nice, but? kinda? reminds me a of Barbie doll? She does look much better with wings, but I?m just interested to see what you will do with her, but so far judging from the sprites she seems like mixture between Ariel and Wakasagihime colour swap.

Also I can?t stress enough how cool it is you?ve made custom auras for each character so far. Really that?s one aspect of the game that?s pretty polished.

-SHOTTYPES AND SYSTEM-

Ok elephant in the room first something I?m sure you guys either know about or are working on. I?ve tried playing and defending Hecatia? but yeah she?s weak. Red?s shotgun is good? against like stage 1 boss and that?s it so far. Yellow?s stars are good for some stage parts and Blue one is the only one with enough range to hit on normal distance? but they lack enough power, resulting in you having to time out a lot of later spells and nons.

I do understand the point of this shottype, not being good at everything, but having enough utility to deal with most things if you know what to switch to? thing is in most situations red and yellow give same results and she lacks both power and homing/range somehow. Easiest way would to make red slightly more range/power when up close, blue have increased attacked and yellow? have homing? But I know that already does sound similar to a certain other shottype.

Idk I?d be happy with any buff because despite her being rough I really want to main her. It would really funny if everyone just assumed she was bad in final version because of the trial, but she would be bonkers. Every other shottype is alright, I actually like Marisa?s missiles but, she also needs some way to deal with spells since you need to time out like half of them. Shou?s rough? until power 2.0. So basically never. She and Reimu feel like most balanced characters so far. All of the bombs however seem pretty weak, which makes them pretty useless, probably only exception being Shou's bomb?

On matter of bombs, is it just me or the deathbombing is either really wonky or nonexistent? As Linnah mentioned, the i-frames are also a bit nuts, kind of reminds me of the issues HSiFS had with releases. I had so many times I died and tried to deathbomb at the exact same, but I?ve lost my life anyways, just to lose another one while I thought I still had i-frame from the bomb, It?s just better to forget bomb button exists at this point.

I?ve seen also people discuss the droplet system, either that there has to be more red drops/decrease the requirement for extend and yes, also about how collecting some is impossible. I?ll tackle the latter point first, I think it?s actually completely fine. You are NOT FORCED to collect everything. Yes, your touhou player heart will suffer when you don?t collect every single drop, but the game already gives you a dozen of them per stage/boss spell. Not just that you autocollect every point and power item with collecting drops so, the drops always should have priority, unless you?re Shou or Marisa in early game. I just feel making more ways to autocollect all kinds of items would make players too spoiled and game too easy - maybe? That being said, I?d love seeing bosses drop more drops after nonspells, I don?t think they do during boss fights, unless it?s after a spell.

The red droplets issue is also kinda? not an issue if you prefer a harder game with less resources and if you don?t like spoiling players, you should be already getting 3-4 extends in the demo and in final game we should get more spells, meaning more hard to miss drops. Thing is I personally like getting spoiled with lifes and I wouldn?t mind getting more of them or getting lower requirements, maybe I just hope we will get reasonable and balanced extra as well? Yeah after some thought I'd rather have a harder game with more extends. That?s up to devs though.


-STAGES AND PATTERNS-

Not much to say from me for now since I?m not expert in that part, however from what I?ve played this trial so far, this game has some truly awesome patterns you don?t see everyday, although I do feel stages 2-3 overall are more interesting and stage 1 just kind of feels too blad in some places.

Stage 2 also feels like a huge difficulty spike and as it is with Touhou fangames/games lately, the second stage has some much nastier things to show than Stage 3 boss, at least for me. That?s not to say they need a nerf or something, that?s just my observation.

-MUSIC AND TITLES -

I see people say this game doesn?t have ZUN like music at all and I highly disagree so far. Right, it?s not exactly like ZUN?s older or newer music, replicating that is practically impossible, but I do feel like we?ve got a pretty great mix between chill electronic music and some good ol? japanese instruments, like the flute. Actually this kind of reminds me of Ten Desires with LoLK mixed a bit more than anything. Also read this with grain of salt, cuz I know little to nothing about real music terminology, I just listen to it to stuff too much. Also surprised you didn?t just upload the OST on YT or Soundcloud.

Saline Petrichor is a decent title screen/main menu theme. It gets the job done. The first part with echoes really reminds me of either PMoM or other OSTs, but it does get much more interesting before the loop. Not my favorite, but one of the better ones.

The Sky Wanders Closer is also a pretty good stage 1 even though I feel it?s kind of all over the place. I feel like the intro is honestly the best part of it with the guitar and all, but it does get better and better with a pretty nice part before the loop.

Fae Rising from Seafoam is honestly the only theme where I feel like I?ve got less than I expected? But I suppose that?s just fitting for the stage 1 boss~
Idk, Azure?s theme kind of feels like combination of ?Warning Glory!? and ?Midsummer?s Fairy Dream? being mystic and all. It?s alright, it just felt like everything was already showed from it in the trailers. Also it one loops in a very meh way?

Seeping Through the Blue Canopy - on the other hand this one surprised me a lot. Wasn?t expecting much from the trailer, just the typical stage 2 theme, but it feels pretty melancholic and journey like and it?s really fitting for the stage. I also loved this one?s final parts. It might honestly be one of my favorite themes in the demo if not for the-

Vow of
Spoiler:
Pink
Silence [/i]- man? please refrain from doing this again? ok no.
I knew i was going to love this theme since the trailers but you somehow made it even better frogmask, with violin, traditional instruments in the background and somehow guitar combined? This song will never leave my head now, thanks.

A Mermaid Chasing a Shrine Maiden's Tail - another big surprise, I wasn?t expecting to enjoy this theme that much, but man it really is something else. I also love how the parts are synced to the midboss appearances and all. Easily one of my favorite stage 3 themes, it?s just so varied.

Circe Sitting in the Clouds - this theme rocks. I was expecting it just to be your typical tense boss theme, but it turned out to be so in-depth, befittingly of the character it plays for. I especially love how so much tense the melody gets, the further you get into the song.

Score's Resting Place - this one?s impossible to unlock in the game, presumably because the title for it in music room data is missing? (lol) However it?s a solid Kanakover theme. Again, gives a feeling of drowning, I like it, but it seems to not loop right?

Music titles are simple, but meaningful, much like most of ZUN?s nowadays work and spell titles are just chuckful of cool trivia and stuff. From Mino?s stream I?ve learned about how one of Sakkagumi?s spells might reference Th?ch Quảng Đức which is really cool and morbid. On the other hand? Trade Sign ?Osculum Infame? ?  As someone who also tried on creating convincing and quality titles in the past, I know it?s actually harder job than it looks, but you did great.

-TECHNICALITIES AND DATA MINING-

Well I haven?t experienced that many obvious bugs myself I think, the only one being this graphical one where always the clouds on the left would glitch out and all, it?s often, but I haven?t seen it on anyone else so I just assume it?s only my issue.

Also ye so ive found some stuff in game?s files!
...I?m sorry? I was just really curious.

For starters the game seems to have titles for all the game?s difficulties? including Extra, Phantasm, Last Word and ULTRA.

I am a bit sceptic on Phantasm and LW, but ultra? LET?S GO BABY

Secondly ye,
Spoiler:
as I?ve mentioned before stage 3 midboss? name is there - Iroha. Old news Ayayay

Thirdly I?ve found this cute easter egg under stage title banters:

Showing what looks to be a sprite of early stage 1 boss. Is she coming back or is she?s just there to handcuff all those nasty dataminers like me? I wouldn?t mind the later, I think it?s hilarious~


So there you go, I?ll probably edit this like 600 more times, but for no I?m just too exhausted and mah illness is killing me.

tl;dr
Just wanted to say, thank you for doing this.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2018, 09:51:42 AM by Popcioslav »
No.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #18 on: June 15, 2018, 01:51:17 AM »
Played through the trial half a dozen times trying out all characters and it seems great so far! The stage two boss is my personal favorite; her theme is stellar and the nonspells especially are really pretty to look at!

Now, as for what to fix/polish...

As others have pointed out, being Hecatia is suffering. The blue shot is too weak, the yellow shot feels too much like the blue shot (in my opinion, at least) and the red shot is pretty much redundant outside stage one because it doesn't have range. Buffing red and blue shot and making yellow shot weaker but have more range for example would make her more playable and incentivize actually changing between her shots, since that gimmick doesn't really work with how the shot types play right now since you only use blue and yellow shots and even those are kinda interchangeable. Also, her bomb is REALLY weak which definitely doesn't help.

I noticed that my hitbox indicator disappeared randomly during my play. One thing that causes this is quickly switching between focused and unfocused movement multiple times. Refocusing once afterwards brings the indicator back.

Reimu can die while deathbombing (as in, you hear the pichuun and the bomb goes off, but you still die and lose a life). I tried to do this briefly with Marisa and Shou but could only reproduce it with Reimu.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2018, 02:05:29 AM by Honkamo »

ZoomyTsugumi

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Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #19 on: June 15, 2018, 07:55:39 AM »
Hecatia's blue shot is really just the only hugely usable shot outside of some yellow usage during stages. I think being able to balance them all to have both incentive for use during stages and incentive for use during bosses would include buffing red's range when focused and damage massively, yellow unfocused is great for stages but the focused just kind of is meh for everything, I think it could work nicely for bosses instead if you maybe lowered the range but upped the damage a fair bit more, incentivising a bit riskier play (but not as risky as shotgunning with red) for extra damage. Blue needs a tiny damage buff but should otherwise go unchanged as it serves perfectly fine as a forward focus. It moreso needs to be just alright for a multipurpose shot and the other two need to eclipse it situationally.

So tl;dr
Boost red damage overall significantly, and increase vertical focus range slightly and compact the shots a bit more so more of them hit. Unfocused range can probably remain unchanged.
Yellow unfocused should stay unchanged, Yellow focused could do with a damage boost but not as much as red and a slightly smaller AoE to compensate.
Blue could use a slight damage boost but otherwise should remain unchanged. Not as strong as Yellow Focused though.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #20 on: June 15, 2018, 09:06:28 AM »
Some thoughts from a first dive:

  • Oh wow, that spinning menu is so cool and colourful! (Also love the font choice!) It would stand out as an attraction in Touhou arcade halls~
  • In Jiriri's last midboss card, the thin lasers melted into the background, causing unknown deaths. I figured out what was killing me after two tries, but the visual effect is still a bit straining to eyes, something you might consider for accessibility.
  • Stage 2 boss has an ambience I've never seen before. Such delightfully surreal music. The patterns are clever and express the character's eccentricity, with an unmistakably bold colour theme. It's all very fresh.
  • More difficult than the recent ido trial, Hollow Song of Birds. More sluggish, too, as said Despatche above.
  • The fifth continue indeed crashes the game, as someone mentioned. I took a screenshot of the error report, which seems helpful in fixing this:

    Indie developer intuition: Fifth try does some kind of hard reset in danmakufu, referring to an illogical stage index, which you need to prevent here?
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #21 on: June 15, 2018, 06:45:29 PM »
(everything was done on Normal)
Wow, this is such a fantastic, polished, and fun to play game. The music is amazing, especially the stage 2 theme which I just absolutely adore, and even small things like the remade pause jingle. The character designs are all adorable, and their boss sprite animations are charmingly ZUN-like, just like the character portraits themselves. I also love how every boss's cut-in appears slightly differently; it's a nice little touch that really shows how much care went into this game. Also, the stage 1 background is really pretty, and I love how you
Spoiler:
dodge rain danmaku
.

Though the droplets not being autocollected felt weird at first, after playing through the game several times, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, especially since the caps for each are relatively low, though I do agree that maybe their absorption radius could be increased.

SHOT TYPES
Reimu: At first glance, just like with Hollow Song of Birds, I felt like Reimu barely shot out anything (I guess I'm used to HSiFS's more-spammy-but-slightly-weaker cherry petals) and therefore expected her to be pretty weak compared to the others. However, after 7 playthroughs with various characters, her shot feels appropriately strong for a homing shot, and she really makes stages easier, which means more droplets and resources.

Marisa: Marisa plays exactly like Marisa should; although she suffers from awful range, her missiles are much stronger and do splash damage to compensate. The delay in her firing makes for some interesting playing in some places like
Spoiler:
Azure
's final spell, where following her from under like with every other character makes Marisa's shots completely miss her instead, but it's missile Marisa, so what do you expect?

Shou: Shou is one of my favourite shot types, simply because of the combination of piercing and range, especially at 4.00 Power. Are her outer lasers weaker, however? Because it felt that way sometimes, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, since upping the damage she does would just completely overpower her. Also, using Most Valuable Vajra as a bomb after it killed me so many times in UFO feels good lol.

Hecatia: Hecatia has a lot of potential as the gimmicky shot type, but like everyone else said, her shots feel way too weak. Red barely does more damage up close, so it's more advantageous to just stick with blue and stay back, blue is simply weak compared to everyone else (which I understand from a balance perspective since it's three shot types in one, but in this case it's just too weak, especially since the other two types aren't that strong either), and yellow is... weird; the stars are already pretty weak (which makes sense), but making them disappear quickly and thereby removing their range really makes the shot type suffer, since there's no trade-off between range and strength, it's just weak with barely any range. However, yellow still does handle certain stage portions really well. Also, while I understand that her bomb would be weaker compared to other characters' since it covers the screen, it actually just feels like the bomb does no damage.

Moving on, I find the game occasionally suffers from visibility problems, especially during stage 3. In general, I find the pellet bullets incredibly hard to see, potentially because of the way they're shaded, which makes them appear smaller than they are. Maybe that could be remedied by changing the shading to be more like ZUN's pellet bullets, which are mostly white with a few pixels of colour on the edges, instead of it being a gradient?
Spoiler:
Saga
's bubble bullets are also hard to see since they really do look like a particle effect, and not actual bullets. They're manageable on her first nonspell when they're big and cyan, but they really become difficult to see when they're darker blue or smaller.

Moreover, stage 3 in general seems to suffer from cheapness problems because of enemies randomly coming from the back, notably the
Spoiler:
blue Yin-Yangs after midboss Saga, and the yellow spirits that circle the player near the end of the stage
. Because
Spoiler:
Saga's post-midboss whirlpool in the middle of the screen
already pushes the player to the edges of the screen, the player can't move towards the center either to deal with
Spoiler:
enemies coming from all sides
. Maybe that could be remedied by disabling their hitboxes so the player has time to react and move out of the way before any bullets are fired? Also, the amount of times I've died trying to autocollect items/get droplets right before
Spoiler:
Saga's survival spell because she's rammed into me... Maybe that can also be remedied by disabling her hitbox since it's a survival spell anyway?

Don't let the issues fool you, however; all things considered, they're pretty minor. I LOVE this game, and can't wait for the full version to come out. Each member of the team is very talented in what they do, and it shows. And I've got to say, I like that the difficulty feels on par with official Touhou games, especially in terms of resources.

Spoiler:
Also, screw Trade Sign "Redevance Contract"
Spoiler:
Oh, and my brain just decided to overlay Never Gonna Give You Up onto Fae Rising From Seafoam... potential high-quality rip incoming?

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2018, 11:56:45 PM »
Yellow gets really good when at max power, covering half the screen AND dealing solid damage. It's just that this game has a UFO-esque power drops (read: bosses don't drop ANY POWER ITEMS AAAAA). At 3 power it falls off considerably. Admittedly, though, Shou does everything Hecatia does (aside from shotgunning), hits harder (aside from shotgunning), and isn't super wonky.

Also TINY BULLETS
« Last Edit: June 16, 2018, 04:07:43 AM by TresserT »
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

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #23 on: June 16, 2018, 02:59:50 AM »
Hecatia's Yellow shot is definitely usable (even if it still feels weak on damage) at full power, but I've felt that if you're NOT on full power, you'll never reach the bosses unless you put  yourself in danger. 

(It's so cool to see a lot of people uploading their playthroughs on youtube.  I wish you guys all success, and I hope the game gets as popular as other big touhou fangames like Ido's!)

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #24 on: June 16, 2018, 08:01:47 AM »
Currently, my main gripe is the lack of shot power throughout. The attacks are clearly tested with 4.0 power, but I face them at 1.8 more often than not.
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #25 on: June 18, 2018, 03:02:53 AM »
 :V
Here is something from a Japanese/Chinese translator. About some characters' name.

Do your have a discord server or twitter or something else for others to communicate faster?



First of all you wrote "眩さが". Did you mean the very "story" of ancient Germany, or story, whatever, or just nothing else but a "sa" and a "ga"? You see, that the profiles of hers didn't talk anything about it. AND, as a certain Japanese name, "saga" seems to be quite strange and boyish, or frankly, a western boy's name.
Or you may call for the rarely seen usage of "性"(saga, literally personality), but, hey, it nowadays means "sex" bro!
Secondly what did you mean by "目実森"? It couldn't by anyway read as Sakkagumi!
And moreover, 八百 in a Japanese name should be read as yao or yawo, and not happyaku. Happyaku is the 音読み, or as you know, the Chinese reading of it, and a Japanese traditional youkai should not take a Chinese name!
(Well, you may still explain that sakkagumi believe in the mainlaind form of Buddhism and change the surename of hers. It's ok.)



Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #26 on: June 18, 2018, 06:52:28 PM »
https://youtu.be/XwXxDBhRuOM?t=1m24s

I have recorded a Lunatic clear. 13:31 is my favourite spell card, it's an elegant design and a 2nd midboss is a bit of twist to the Touhou formula.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2018, 06:54:45 PM by not ZUNs wife »
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #27 on: June 18, 2018, 10:36:53 PM »
Yeah after a bit of a thought, Hecatia Yellow is not so bad, I just imagine since I've tried finding more usage for red instead, I completely forgot to test out if yellow just doesn't do a better job.

Also a bump because... I've decided to draw stage 2 boss.
And frankly I wasn't the only one.



No.

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - Trial version released
« Reply #28 on: June 19, 2018, 09:51:37 AM »


Manual has a typo :3 :V



Also, in this game, you get 10,400 points for doing absolutely nothing the entire time.

..I've recorded a replay of it. https://youtu.be/4-trzILpwik
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 10:09:36 AM by not ZUNs wife »
check http://vsoft.life/ for runs & creations
latest stream: Hollow Song of Birds Hard 1cc (OrangeReimu) @ https://youtu.be/eDFd4FHEjXg

Re: 東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - v0.01b update
« Reply #29 on: July 11, 2018, 10:53:09 PM »
Version 0.01b is out!
The big changes are the addition of the Japanese language option, fixes to shottype balance and all those missing sounds in the first release now being present.

For those that don't want to download the entire game again, a trimmed-down patch version with the music and biggest images removed is available. Simply drop the extracted content into the folder that the game is in.