Author Topic: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01b demo released  (Read 7876 times)

Mino ☆

  • PCB player.
  • Touhou Hobbyist

Touhou 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish

Greetings, everyone! My name is Mino, and I am here representing Team Dreamcatcher. This is our second Touhou Fanwork Project and the sequel to The Shattered Sky.

 Our previous game has a thread on this site as well.

Download Link


Story

For an unknown reason, all of the crops in Gensokyo began to wither away. At this rate, the humans will starve very soon. Four girls set out to discover the cause of this incident, and put an end to it.

Trailer


Screenshots





Features

  • Servants of Harvest Wish will have 6 stages and an Extra stage. The demo will only feature the first three stages.
  • The game will have four playable characters; each with 2 shot-types.
  • The game will feature a "Harvest Mode" system where grazing rewards you with harvest items. These harvest items will put you into Harvest Mode after filling up your Harvest Gauge.
  • You can also receive harvest items by shooting down enemies and bosses.
  • Clearing a nonspell or spellcard will also grant you harvest items. You'll get awarded bonus harvest items if you do not fail the attack (with the exception of one character's ability, where you receive all harvest items regardless)
  • In Harvest Mode, all point items and faith items on screen will be auto-collected. You will gain point item value for all harvest items obtained during Harvest Mode.
  • In addition, there is a Harvest Quota during Harvest Mode. It is represented by a small circle surrounding your character. You fill it up by collecting harvest items, and if it's full, you will be rewarded with a bomb piece as well as an extra 1k PiV if you finish your border (you automatically get rewarded 1k PiV for finishing the border regardless of the quote, so in this case you'd be awarded 2k PiV total)
  • This game will feature both English and Japanese language options
  • Stage Practice, Boss Practice, and Spell Practice are all available (Spell Practice is unlocked by 1cc'ing the demo)
  • Unfortunately, at this time, the game does not support spell practice replays. However, you can save replays of regular play, normal practice play, and boss practice play (Please be warned that there is a known bug regarding replays. There may be desync errors if you play a replay with a background setting that the run was not originally played at. We're very sorry for this, and hope to resolve it in future releases.)
  • Akin to Mystic Square, Perfect Cherry Blossom, and Imperishable Night, your extends will be obtained through point item collection.


Staff

Founder/Project Lead/Leveldesign/Programming: Eredom
Leveldesign/Balancing: Mino Gaming
Graphic Design/Programming: Naudiz
Music: Abner
Character Artist: Visunoriva
Debugger/Assistant Programmer: Badz
Storywriter: Frogmask
Sprite & Environmental Artist: Stormplush
3D Meshes: Virtlux
Japanese Translation: Gilde, Popfan



And lastly, thank you for continued support. I look forward to the future, full release of the game!

And in case you're wondering, yes, there is a dupe thread already but I've contacted both its owner as well as a mod of this board and they said it was okay for me to make this thread. The other one will be closed soon so please use this thread for discussion on SoHW
« Last Edit: August 16, 2018, 02:26:22 PM by Mino ☆ »

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2018, 10:45:03 AM »
Spoiler:
Ryouko
is a cinnamon bun in this and I'm going to protect her with my life.

^ My thoughts summarized about SoHW, thank you, good night.
Still sorry about the dupe thread  :V
« Last Edit: July 28, 2018, 10:55:14 AM by Popcioslav »
No.

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2018, 01:51:55 PM »
Whooooooa.  I'm legit awed by how great the game is shaping out to be.  Graphics, music, characters, it's all looking pretty great!   I'll probably write a more in-depth review later, but my only peeve (small as it is!) is that it kind of sucks that you don't get Harvest items from grazing when you're bombing.

But overall the game is really amazing!  Can't wait for the full version!!

Jimmy

  • Shameless spender
  • gaining big pounds
Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2018, 02:46:00 PM »
Spoiler:
Ryouko
is a cinnamon bun in this and I'm going to protect her with my life.
Seconded. I'm not sure what it is exactly but I'm really liking her in this.

I absolutely love how well the music goes together with the flow of the game, such as when the midbosses appear, making it distinctive from the stage portion yet the transition is very smooth. I love all the soundtracks here so far, particularly digging stage 3's themes. Gameplay is very smooth, I like how the system mechanics of PCB, IN and BoSM are combined here.

I don't really have much else to say other than that I'm really digging this game so far. Definitely looking forward to the full release.
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!

R. P. Genocraft

  • Craftsman of absolute unpredictability
  • Boundary of productive and lazy
Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2018, 02:54:06 PM »
Spoiler:
Ryouko
is a cinnamon bun in this and I'm going to protect her with my life.

^ My thoughts summarized about SoHW, thank you, good night.
Still sorry about the dupe thread  :V
Spoiler:
Bless the dragon maid cook

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2018, 12:18:55 PM »
The year of Touhou fangames does NOT play around and this is another example why!

Aesthetically, this game is absolutely stunning. The stages look fantastic and the patterns are phenomenal. Stage 2 boss has some of the prettiest patterns I've ever seen in any Touhou fangame (and that sheet music pattern in the stage itself? Genius!) The art is great, too - the new characters don't look that Touhou-y, but then again, this is a fangame so this honestly doesn't bother me that much. The Stage 3 music was great... ahh, whatever I say about this game presentation-wise, it is absolutely stunning.

And the gameplay is fun too - I've only done one run on Lunatic so far but made it through pretty well, though I figure with the Harvest bomb stuff and eight different shot types people are bound to find a way to break through the game somehow survival-wise. That being said, the resource system in this game honestly doesn't feel too bad. I was at first worried lives would be few and far inbetween, but the harvest borders make that a lot easier on your mind - and not only that, because of the graze mechanic they reward skillful play which is definitely the way to go with a mechanic such as this. I really like it.

Overall, this demo has me floored and I'm definitely hopping right back in (I tried the new character at first, they're great) to see what else can be done. But my first impression is very positive and this is another game on the list that I absolutely can't wait to see finished. If I do see something to highlight that might be more worthy to criticisize I'll make sure to hop back in here and mention it.

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2018, 04:50:17 PM »
Okay, now I've had proper time to play and replay the demo some tons of times, this is legit shaping up to be one of the most amazing fangames there is.  Stage 1 is already amazing but stages 2 and 3 REALLY awed me in terms of how incredible they were.

To first talk about the characters, I like that everyone's shottypes seem slightly changed.  Like how for example, Missile Marisa's Star bomb is FAR better and more useful to use than in touhou. 
Spoiler:
Ryouko is adorable, and I love her design.  I thought I wasn't going to enjoy her at first, but once I saw the way she talked I instantly became a fan.  She sounds so prolix and haughty!  Love it!

About stages 2/3, stage 2
Spoiler:
already kicks off with a really cool tune that ONLY gets better as the stage progresses.  I also loved how creative the whole stage has music notes just about everywhere, as if the fairies were celebrating too.  The way the song changes when the midboss appears (and how her nonspell's bullets sync to the beat) is super fun and probably my favorite moment of the whole stage.  Speaking of Kagemo, her fight is so good!  I really have to give the composer my kudos, because the way the music never stays in the same-ish note is really cool!  Danmaku wise, it's all so colorful and pretty!  It's really nice how she has very colorful patterns without looking - using ZUN's GoM terminology - bug-type.  Character-wise, she's super adorable.  Makes me wonder if we'll see her again later in the game, 'cause I sure hope we do!  Also, her defeated portrait is still smiling... it's a bit unnerving.  Was that done on purpose? D: 

And stage 3 is EASILY my favorite.
Spoiler:
Not only it already starts beautifully with a really refreshing set of colors (especially compared to the yellow stage 1 and the orange stage 2), and with fast danmaku.  I love it the whole Running-Through-The-Forest-Like-DDC-Stage3 vibe you guys've given it.  Also, I think it's really fitting how quick Yukiko first shows as a midboss.  Sort of like in a 'WHOA, MORE VISITORS? ♥' kind of way.  Speaking of Yukiko, I'm not even exaggerating when saying she's become one of my favorite fan-characters of all time.  I love how at first glance she looks like a very pretty, elegant lady, but eventually (read: when she does that big, uncanny smile) you start noticing her true colors.  Her fight is absolutely gorgeous, with just the right difficulty and yet super fun, creative danmaku!  Also it syncs pretty perfectly with the music, which is another great selling point of it.  Her theme is really, really cool.  It starts scary, and then becomes far more elegant/powerful.  The way the piano kicks in once it amps up again is sooo cool.  I could fanboy for several more paras about stage 3, so I'll just say GREAT WORK YOU GUYS DID AMAZING yay!


Just like how Monothemeerp said, the year of fangames really doesn't play around, and this gem of a game sure shows!  I legit can't wait for the full version! 

Edit:  I forgot to mention, but THANK YOU for adding "Start at Boss" as an option for Practice.  Maybe in the future you could make that already have you start full on Harvest points?  It's a bit hard to catch on a last word when you start at the boss, but that's just minor. 
« Last Edit: July 30, 2018, 12:46:03 AM by Shizzo »

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2018, 10:09:09 PM »
This is something I missed saying earlier but I just realized that
Spoiler:
Ryouko
is not only the best character for scoring but potentially also survival - both of her abilities not only enable you more harvest borders and thus screen clears but also the most amount of point items possible at any given point, which in this game means more lives by sheer point item volume. Both her shots are also pretty good (and fun to use), B especially is pretty good. Guess I know who I'm going with overall.

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2018, 06:05:24 PM »
Played several times on Normal and Hard covering most shot types. As you've been told already, congratulations on contributing more quality content to the Summer of Fangames! Here's my assorted thoughts.

I can definitely tell this is a sequel to TSS - aside from the obvious returning characters and stuff, there's something about the danmaku design that feels similar to that game. I can't quite put it into words, but it's neat to see specific styles evolving among fangame developers. Something else SoHW shares with its predecessor is a fairly high difficulty. I'm completely fine with that this time around, since it's not cranked up as high as TSS, where Normal almost felt more like Hard.

It's really fun to try and gather as many harvest items as I can during the Harvest Event, and the orange indicator that turns green once I've filled the harvest quota is a great touch. I felt the vortexes from TSS could've used clearer indicators; the only way to tell how close you are to spawning life/bomb pieces is to look way over to the HUD on the right, which isn't optimal when you're trying to stay on the vortex and simultaneously dodge stuff coming at you. And while this is fairly minor, I thought there should've been some little visual effect to represent your character sucking in the vortex. Both of these complaints have been fixed with the Harvest system, so excellent job on that.

One fairly significant gripe I have with SoHW's system, however, is that the PoC seems to work the way it did in earlier Touhou games - going above the PoC and then heading back down while the items are still flying toward you will make them worth less than their full value. They're worth the correct full value if auto-collected during a Harvest Event, so if you guys want to fix this I imagine it wouldn't be hard.

Aside from the fact that Ryouko is a cinnamon bun and fun to play as, it's just really cool to see an original character being promoted to playable. I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen more fangames do that; I think Tobiko in Tri Focuser is the only other example I can think of? (While I'm here, combining the character and shot type selections into a single menu is a neat idea.) Yukiko being a retired incident-causer is also an awesome concept I don't think I've seen before. The first three stages didn't reveal too much about the story, so I don't have a lot to say other than I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. The dialogue felt sort of weird to me, but I know that's the case in plenty of Touhou games so I guess it isn't a big deal. I enjoyed a few lines like Marisa's "I've seen fairies last longer than this" and Kagemo's "Die."

In terms of music tracks, all of them are good. Yukiko's theme and the theme of her stage are some of my favorite songs so far. I presume the title "Beware the Forest's Flowers" is an intentional nod to Super Mario RPG? Nice. The first stage theme, while I'm not sure if I'd say it's one of the best, is really fitting for the seriousness of the incident. The title screen music is another favorite. I adore the melody that kicks in at 0:13. It sounds melancholy but at the same time optimistic, like "This is a serious incident and people could starve, so let's get out there and put a stop to this!"

While SoHW is nowhere near as lag-inducing for me as TSS, it seems I still get moderate FPS drops (down to around 50) when bosses first declare spell cards and on a few patterns, particularly Yukiko's on higher difficulties, even with all effects on their lowest settings. It might just be me and my 7-years-old laptop, but I figured I'd report it. I also get lots of lag on the pause menu, but I know that's been pointed out already.

One more little touch I love is how the game tells you when you've gotten a no-miss or no-bomb clear. Just a nice little acknowledgement of the challenges fans set for themselves.

Here's a few minor bug reports and fixes I'd suggest for improvement. Some might feel nitpicky, but if I nitpick something it's because I like it and don't want even small flaws holding it back!
?Holding Z to skip through dialogue should go faster.
?Confirming a selection in the stage practice menu plays the "cancel" sound effect rather than the "confirm" one, which is pretty weird.
?The view replay and player data menus feel rather empty. The replay menu is missing the time, character/type, stage, and slowdown percentage. Player data is missing the player's name, date/time, stage, and slowdown percentage (I'm not sure if Danmakufu makes it possible to display slowdown percentage on player data, but I know it's possible on replays).
?Relatedly, high scores for game mode and stage/spell practice mode aren't stored seperately. Getting a score in either practice mode will make it show up in Player Data, and the high score will be shown as such when you play the game regardless of what mode. The menu for selecting a stage to practice should also display the high score for that stage.
?The game doesn't save the player's name, so you have to type it in every time you save a replay (you also can't attach a name to high scores).
?Practicing a stage and then selecting Return to Title sends you all the way back to the title screen; it should just take you back to the stage selection.
?Dialogue (especially after defeating a boss) should cause all items to be auto-collected.

Wishing everyone the best for development of the full game, and I'm looking forward to it!

Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01a demo released
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2018, 04:34:53 AM »
So I played through this a few times - and it's definitely a vast improvement from Shattered Sky, of which I refused to play through the entire thing from frustration. The danmaku is fantastic and gorgeous, and I can really feel the growth in it. Also, are the stage 3 boss' butterflies based off of the final boss of Barrage Musical's?

However, my one gripe is bullet deletion. Bullets used for effects, such as the butterfly trails in stage 3 or the music staffs in stage 2, just pop out of existence. It'd be better if they faded out slowly (try reducing the alpha value, and then deleting once it's invisible to get full control of that), or implementing a custom bullet delete effect. It makes it look a lot smoother and less jarring.

Mino ☆

  • PCB player.
  • Touhou Hobbyist
Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01b demo released
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2018, 02:27:06 PM »
v0.01b has been released.

Changelog:
Harvest mode reworked and improved.
Frame skipping with S enabled.
Game over theme added to music room.
High scores separated between main and practice modes.
Spell history separated between main and spell practice modes.
Last Word automatically unlocked during boss practice.
Player shots and bombs rebalanced. (Marisa A's bomb redesigned.  MarisaB is buffed in power)
Replay desynchronisation fixed.
Stage backgrounds optimised.
Dialogue scenes optimised.
Pause menu shader optimised.
Difficulty rebalanced in various areas.
Various bugs fixed.
Various visuals improved.

Mino ☆

  • PCB player.
  • Touhou Hobbyist
Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01b demo released
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2018, 07:01:23 PM »
Okay! We've formulated a survey for SoHW v0.01b.

Feedback is greatly appreciated. Please fill this out if you get a chance  :)

Survey Link Here


There are giveaways involved as well. For the TSS hardcover CD as well as the SoHW hardcover CD (when the game is finished, of course). You can apply for both giveaways!

Naudiz

  • The Somnambulist
  • The watchdog who never stops watching.
Re: 東方催狐譚 ~ Servants of Harvest Wish - v0.01b demo released
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2018, 10:36:09 PM »
I'm very late to the forum party, but I just wanna say:

It's been such a pleasure working on this game. I'll be doing my best to appeal to as many as I can with my work on it, and I'm sure the rest of the team would say the same. Feel free to hunt me down if you have concerns about the graphics and/or system. :derp:
Co-developer of Servants of Harvest Wish, Sapphire Panlogism, Comatose Chaos, Treasure Castle Labyrinth, and more.
I'm the dog that makes your game and calls you a bitch.