Which game is considered the hardest?

[The Greatest Dog]

SA Normal and UFO Normal are fine to me now. Then again, I only 1cc'd SA with Reimu C (But my last attempt had 6 leftover lives at the end. Too bad the replay got screwed over somehow during Utsuho. Help?). But I 1cc'd UFO with everybody except Marisa A, so it's all good.

Anyway, I'd reckon that SA and UFO are on equal terms for hardest Normal. But UFO still gives more lives.

[TheMasterSpark]

If the PoFV Match Mode would fall into the acceptable criterias, ask of that someone to beat lunatic Reimu/Marisa/Shikeiki while using Mystia or Komachi.

"Happy hunting" is all I'll say. 

[Esoterica]

If the PoFV Match Mode would fall into the acceptable criterias, ask of that someone to beat lunatic Reimu/Marisa/Shikeiki while using Mystia or Komachi.

"Happy hunting" is all I'll say. 

Reisen, Lyrica, or Merlin vs lunatic Shikieiki/Aya would be even harder. :V

[Tsym]

Uhh...  It'd have to be a tie between SA and UFO.  My reasoning is that I always try to capture spell cards.  In UFO, that condemns me to multiple clip deaths on some spell cards.

As for SA, it's just plain hard.  I got farther the first time playing through it than on any other Touhou (Stage 5 first time trying on Normal), but Orin is like a brick wall, and it's hard to keep each run consistent.

[LoveSign]

People have GOT to actually play SoEW more before they come to conclusions like this...
[posted stuff]

I'm gonna have to weigh in on this one, just to emphasize how true what Donut has said is. While I haven't done any Lunatic runs (and only 3 or 4 1cc hards), I have 1cc'd Normal and done the Extras on all of 'em including the PC'98 games (haven't had a chance to get UFO yet aside from the demo ;_:) and SoEW is actually pretty easy, especially if you use ReimuC's super strong shot type (ReimuA and ReimuB are quite iffy by comparison IMHO). The game gives you more than enough lives and bombs to do a good run through it, even if the gameplay is less polished than LLS or MS. The bosses' attacks are usually super easy to avoid, with only a few that are really quite bad or nigh impossible to dodge (one of the 4 magic stone's spread attacks I bomb, Marisa's orbs flying out, Mima) Remember that it's the only of the 1p shmups in the series that you need to actively tap the attack button to get the most damage done and if you're not doing that... well, things go very badly.

On the other hand, the extra was by far the hardest/most annoying to do, simply because of how ridiculously difficult the extra boss is (bouncy ball attack is stupidly annoying to dodge, lots of health) and you only get one life per bomb one bomb per life in the extra mode(!), meaning you can't bombspam it for damage or even to avoid hits (although you do hurt it with bombs unlike most extra bosses).

The UFO demo I played was quite difficult, but I think that's mostly because I paid way too much attention to the UFOs and not the danmaku. Then again, it could require a different playstyle with more planning needed for the UFO drops. I'd say in terms of difficulty for the windows games, it's probably SA for most people in Normal difficulty, especially if you foolishly use one of the many crappy shottypes (compared to ReimuA or much more difficult to learn MarisaB).

Edit: Oops, one life per bomb? Lolz.

[AlexX Unlimited]

I've yet to play the PC-98 games, but I would agree that UFO's difficulty is relatively overrated since it has a lot of patterns that just take some getting used-to.

A personal example would be stage 3. The lasers from Ichirin's noncards would kill me a lot because I kept flying around trying to avoid where they'd go. However, I later figured out that I only really have to pay attention to the ones moving veritically, because the diagonal lasers criss-cross with them near the bottom, making it easy for me to predict where I need to be to avoid them. Not sure if this still works on harder difficulties, but at least it no longer gives me trouble on normal mode. Now, if I could just learn to predict the laser eyes better...

Personally, I'd say Subterranean Animism is harder. If someone has never played touhou before stage 1 will tear them to ribbons even on easy mode, and will likely have a lot of problems against Parsee's gimmicky cards (not to mention Satori makes a nice newbie killer depending on shot type, and on the off-chance THAT doesn't work Orin and her stage will be the brick wall to stop them cold...).

[Kanako Yasaka]

What's the deal with everyone and Orin (on normal) again? I can consistently one death normal mode Orin and yet I always lose about 5 lives to Utsuho.

[AlexX Unlimited]

What's the deal with everyone and Orin (on normal) again? I can consistently one death normal mode Orin and yet I always lose about 5 lives to Utsuho.

I was trying to think about it from the perspective of someone who hasn't played touhou before since the OP seems to imply the person they're making a bet with hasn't played them before, but I guess I'm probably not the best to take advice from since they both tear me apart...

Even if through some miracle I were to get past Orin, I'd need at least 3 lives in stock (and 1 or 2 more I can get from life shards) in order to survive Utsuho and 1CC the game, and since I use Marisa A this means I'll be low on power for the majority of the bout (something that won't be fun since Utsuho has such notoriously high HP...).

[Bananamatic]

UFO>SA :V

For SA, I've found out that spending less time 1ccing and more time grinding the problematic stages helps a whole lot.

I was able to go from 7 deaths on Orin to no deaths Orin in 1 day, on hard.

[Tsym]

Ok I change my mind.  SA is definitely harder than UFO.  UFO is fairly consistent in how everything plays out, and it's fairly easy to maneuver through the spell cards because they're all relatively standard dodging.  SA though has some devilish patterns and quirks that make it extremely difficult to keep a consistent pace throughout the game.  The problem is compounded by the fact that bombing doesn't really solve anything.  The only boss in UFO that might throw a wrench into runs is Shou, but anything that she throws at the player can be solved by bombs.  In SA, that strategy doesn't really work unless you want to compromise the rest of the boss fight.

[AlexX Unlimited]

For SA, I've found out that spending less time 1ccing and more time grinding the problematic stages helps a whole lot.

Doesn't this apply to all the games?

I know I had to practice against Youmu in PCB a while before I could reliably fight her without having to rely on just bombing all her cards...

[DKnight]

I'm not very good, so I only play normal. SA and EosD are the hardest. Specially SA, I'm positive I won't be able to beat Utsuho, ever. I don't find UFO that hard, I can consistently 1cc up till Byakuren last spellcards; I usually die because I lost a lot of lives earlier because I'm greedy with the ufos.

[AlexX Unlimited]

Specially SA, I'm positive I won't be able to beat Utsuho, ever.

Hey, I used to think this exact same way about quite a number of things, yet just recently I started to be able to 1CC the games.

It'll happen eventually if you keep it at, you just have to keep at it.

[Bananamatic]

UFO Hard is several difficulty levels above SA Hard.
SA gave you a stage 1 and 2 freebie with Yuugi being manageable, UFO starts killing you in stage 2 and makes you ragequit in 3.

[AlexX Unlimited]

UFO Hard is several difficulty levels above SA Hard.
SA gave you a stage 1 and 2 freebie with Yuugi being manageable, UFO starts killing you in stage 2 and makes you ragequit in 3.

Eh, I don't think so.

I admit my experience on both is limited (I still can't yet 1CC either on normal, so I don't venture into Hard much), but from what little I can tell Yamame is more difficult than Nazrin (even if they're both relatively easy), Kogasa only really has her final card as a major problem (and honestly, Chen always gave me more trouble than Kogasa, and I've had a lot more experience playing PCB hard) while Parsee... well, Parsee is pretty gimmicky, so she'll only be a problem until you learn how to properly deal with her attacks (something I have trouble with... then again, I use Marisa A and B for SA, so take that as you will). As far as stage 3 goes Yuugi's attacks can wall you, spawn on you, and do other nasty things to you. I've yet to pass either, but Yuugi tends to kill me harder.

[Kanako Yasaka]

Kogasa is the hardest stage 2 boss in the series on hard and up. Her first card is an absolute monster.

[Alice Fact]

For SA, I've found out that spending less time 1ccing and more time grinding the problematic stages helps a whole lot.

yeah it's called "scoring"

[Bananamatic]

I can 1cc SA Hard, but I can't reach stage 3 in UFO.

Many spellcards get stupid difficulty from Normal -> Hard.

Kogasa's first is almost ridiculous, especially with non shotgun types.
The second one can spawn on you unless you hug the bottom.
The third one- OH GOD IS THAT REALLY STAGE 2

Ichirin is almost as hard as Shou. Maybe just as hard. Maybe harder.

yeah it's called "scoring"

What? o.o

I mean, I've barely spent any time in practice for the earlier touhous yet I was still able to 1cc them through simple dodging.
In MoF and higher, I've had to grind the stages for hours to get a decent tactic before even having a chance to 1cc it, but still it didn't screw me over with stupid walls once I've got the stages down.
Except for MoF stage 4, that is.

[AlexX Unlimited]

Kogasa is the hardest stage 2 boss in the series on hard and up. Her first card is an absolute monster.

Oh, so dying to her as badly as I do to hard mode Chen ISN'T just because I suck at touhou?

Hm, well now I see more reason why I shouldn't bother trying anything outside Normal mode...

[Solais]

For me, definitely SA. After months of trying, I still can't 1cc Normal, but at least I've managed to beat Orin last time! For comparison, MoF Normal took me two tries after a MarisaBugged 1cc, and UFO Normal took me 8 tries. PCB Extra was one and a half week, Phantasm was two days. IN Extra was five days just before UFO came out.
This is why I call SA a "constant Extra Stage".

[AlexX Unlimited]

I have to ask: Did Rikter ever end up making this bet with the person he mentions in the OP?

And on that subject, assuming the person in question had never played touhou before, I'm pretty confident NONE of the games could be beaten on hard mode or higher in a timespan of just 3 days... Heck, even if Rikter set the bar at 1CCing easy mode, if someone hasn't had any curtain shooter experience even any and all the normal modes will tear them apart.

[SukiSynth]

SA's real hard. Didn't 1CC it on Easy.  Tried many times.

MS comes second, with Mai and Yuki.  HrTP is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but it's pretty difficult when you first try.

[Tsym]

I've ventured into UFO Hard a couple of times, and I'll say that it is pretty damn hard, but just the sheer amount of resources that UFO gives you makes it doable.  You just need to start abusing UFOs a lot more.  I can get to Stage 4 like 0/0 usually on UFO Hard.  And I can't even 1cc UFO Normal.