Touhou 12.8 - 妖精大戦争 ～ 東方三月精 ~ The Great Fairy Wars. F-ff-freezing a-a-article

[Tengukami]

This game may be the hardest game so far.
The game doesn't give many bombs, and the bomb doesn't do much damage.

Except for wiping out every bullet on the screen and awarding you power for freezing, yes.

Did I mention how much fun it is chain-freezing? I've been able to boost up pretty fast when the random fairies stream at me.

Ring finger on Shift and index finger on C, while using the middle finger to operate Z or X, though - that takes some getting used to.

[GMOFucker: Makin' GMOs To Fuck 'Em]

I somehow did not realize this game had bombs at first and attempted to play through it several times without them and failed (this was on easy. :3c )

Also, Luna Child's cut-ins are adorable.

[Slaves]

Also, Luna Child's cut-ins are adorable.

the mouth on her >:O one is kind of ehh though.

also, beat Normal! i think i only used 5 continues!

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

I only had to use THREE continues in my last playthrough!

Also my meager haxcheat-skills are so far no match for whatever the hell ZUN did to store the lives.

[WanderingKnight]

The alpha blending in this game is killing me. Ex. Fire Fairy's 2nd (?) spellcard.

Other than that, it's pretty fun.

[Drake]

alpha

Fire Fairy

okay i'm kind of raging right now

[Stuffman]

How exactly do you gain extra % for lives?

I'm playing it on normal and having fun with it. The biggest problem I'm having is that I get so used to using the Ice Attack that I forget I have bombs, so when I'm backed into a corner I try to charge up my Ice Attack to get out of it when I don't have enough time and die. (I do this in the Phantasmagoria games too...)

[yoshicookiezeus]

This has to be the game I'm the most inconsistent at yet. Seems like I either 1CC with tons of lives to spare (my record is finishing with ~700% left) or mess up completely and game over halfway through stage 2. In any case, all six paths done on Easy (though choosing the second option in scenario A seems to give me path B1 for whatever reason). Tried path C2 on Normal, and cleared with two continues used, both on the final battle.

Also how in the world are you supposed to be able to get gold medals on some of those spellcards? In particular, that one with the solid expanding circles seems physically impossible to do without freezing any bullets.

[BeyPok?Dig]

Cirno:

Spoiler:

I'm Cirno, the freezer of crying babies!

OK, Cirno is now officially the best character.

[日巫子]

Cirno:

Spoiler:

This atmosphere...
It smells of WAR!

Cirno's got the best quotes in this game.

Can't argue with the one BeyPokeDig posted, though.

[Slaves]

what's with all the caps? did she turn into Dlanor or something?

[日巫子]

Oh wait, I found another one.

Cirno:

Spoiler:

Who the hell do you think I am?!

[Nine West]

Commentaries on music:

An Ice Fairy in Spring - Ooh, relaxing. It does what Menu Screen Themes are intended to do - keep you entertained while selecting menus.
The Refrain of the Lovely Great War - Not too different from the original. Both are pretty decent, at the very least.
Staking Your Life on a Prank - Intimidating in a playful way. I mean, just look at its title.
Year-Round Absorbed Curiosity - Probably my favorite Stage 2 Theme that I can remember. Sounds fun to play.
A Midnight Fairy Dance - FOR ADULTS YOUKAIS ONLY. Or so ZUN says. Wait, there's a segment from Eastern Night. Nice.
Great Fairy Wars ~ Fairy Wars - The most lighthearted Touhou endboss theme I've ever heard. Maybe you'd expect that from a war fought by scatterbrained fairies.
Loose Rain - A bit romantic on the beginning, there. Then it tries to be dramatic. Not bad at all.
Magus Night - HELL YES A MARISA THEME. The intro is practically badass. Sounds like something you'd hear from SSH. And yes, ZUN, this song is cool.
An Ice Fairy in Spring -Still- - Somewhat unimpressive. Then again, I've been spoiled by The Eternal Steam Engine.
Player's Score - It's the Name Entry Theme. They all remind me of Suwa Foughten Field, still.

That makes 10 tracks in total; more than the StB games have. Bottom line, the music is satisfying.

The gameplay itself feels like a combination of the standard Touhou shooter and the StB games. In the basic Touhou games, you dodge, shoot, and bomb. In the StB games, you dodge, charge, and clear [bullets on screen]. In this game, you dodge, shoot, charge, clear, and bomb. Story Mode is really short, but balanced with 6 different routes. Danmaku is intentionally made harder, since you're meant to take full advantage of the Ice Barrier, which requires good timing, if nothing else. I've only played for an hour, and I'm still not completely comfortable with the controls yet, but I'll manage with more time. It's pretty satisfying seeing your Ice Barrier spread through bullets and cover the entire screen before breaking. Just have to watch out for fireballs or lasers.

what's with all the caps? did she turn into Dlanor or something?

I declared WAR on you guys!
SO DIEEE!

[BeyPok?Dig]

Well, pretty much everything Cirno says is awesome.

Spoiler:

I'm so serious, it'll freeze the LIFE outta ya!
It's ME! And now you better DIE!
I declared WAR on you guys! SO DIEEE!
I'll have to strangle the remaining two, too. Just to be fair, you know.
Now freeze to death!

[Drake]

Oh wait, I found another one.

>あたいを誰だと思っているんだ！

Holy shit it is

[Cadmas]

the mouth on her >:O one is kind of ehh though.

also, beat Normal! i think i only used 5 continues!

I said it once and I'll say it again; Lunachild has a peach for a  mouth.

[orinrin]

This game is waaaay to generous with extends.  It's like UFO where I can die 4 times early on and still end up going into stage 6 with 8 lives.

[Helix ⑨]

Except for wiping out every bullet on the screen and awarding you power for freezing, yes.

Did I mention how much fun it is chain-freezing? I've been able to boost up pretty fast when the random fairies stream at me.

Ring finger on Shift and index finger on C, while using the middle finger to operate Z or X, though - that takes some getting used to.

Just play like you do the other touhous and put your ring finger on Ctrl?


How do you unlock extra stage (locked stage, whatever it is)? I 1cc'd route A B and C on normal but it didn't unlock, do I need to 1cc A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 and C2 to unlock it? And yeah, I know you can do it on easy but I'm never playing easy again in my life.

[Shizzo]

Starting a new life with no bombs makes me sad :<

Tell me, guys, when you say I need to play all the routes to unlock extra..

You mean I need to clear the game 6 times, one on each choice you make, or 3 times, one for each scenario?

[Serela]

Just play like you do the other touhous and put your ring finger on Ctrl?

You mean, put your pinky finger on Ctrl? Otherwise you'd have no Shift finger.

You mean I need to clear the game 6 times, one on each choice you make, or 3 times, one for each scenario?

Six times.

Made it to

Spoiler:

MASTER SPAAARK

on Extra. Dish bosh ish no pushover

[RainfallYoshi]

Dear god the final boss is insanity. So many spellcards. So much rape. *dies* I used a freak ton of continues just to beat the game on EASY.

[BeyPok?Dig]

I use: PinkyShift, RingZ, MiddleX and IndexC. Controls are more intuitive for me than in normal games, Touhou is first game in which i shoot with middle and not index. I now wonder if the deathbomb time is really so long in this game or if i just can bomb properly with middle finger and can't with index.

[KomeijiKoishi]

Luna Child is trying to pull off a new Icicle Fall. Definitely.

[Nobu]

>あたいを誰だと思っているんだ！

[Helix ⑨]

You mean, put your pinky finger on Ctrl? Otherwise you'd have no Shift finger.

Ofcourse, index on X, middle on Z and ring on shift.

[Drake]

[img/]

I had to go through the scenario again just to make sure that's what she said.

[Shizzo]

Also, does extra has four difficulty modes?

It is weird, selecting first the dificulty and then extra...

[Doomsday]

Heh. This game is so much more fun than I was expecting. Looks like ZUN does it again.

[BeyPok?Dig]

LoI @ Extra "lasers"

Spoiler:

Flashlight Spark

not passing through transparent ice. Quality  :]

Also, do you people think ZUN might use 100%s instead of lifes from now on? It enables him to do some really interesting things, like damage you without killing you -> more interesting spellcards, dangerous in new ways. I hope he will, because this is really interesting concept - mixing onehitkillers with flashlight areas that damage you - if Utsuho returns, her bullets could leave radioactivity field after exploding etc.

[Myschi]

Whoever drew this, I love them.

Also, holy crap does this game have a learning curve or what? I barely beat it on Easy! (So far, haven't played a huge lot of it yet.)