Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Hakurei Shrine~ => Help Me, Eirin! => Topic started by: ZM on January 20, 2016, 12:36:51 AM
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Because it's a fun idea. I've hosted something like this on Eientei Forums, another Touhou forum, and I want to see if results here would be similar. Plus, it's a nice sort of thing. I hope to see many participants.
Here are the rules and general guidelines:
1. Shot types spanning from EoSD to LoLK (not including PoFV or PC-98 games for now until further notice) will be rated per week.
2. IN will be split into two weeks: The first covering the teams and the second covering the solo shots.
3. Shot types must be rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Intervals of 5 are accepted, anything not by 5 will not be accepted (For example: Good: 5.50/10, Bad: 7.12/10). Once the week is over, all the votes will be tallied up and averaged for each shot.
4. Keep things civil, everyone. This is a thing that's meant to be fun, so let's keep it as such!
5. Make sure your reasoning for the ratings are serious. Each rating should have some detail along with them. I will not accept just number ratings.
6. You are eligible to quote others' ratings if you agree with them.
7. Be sure to not miss out on a shot. So please include MoF!MarisaB, for example.
Scores:
SoEW (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1244299.html#msg1244299)
ReimuB: 6.33
ReimuC: 6.33
ReimuA: 5.67
LLS (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1245630.html#msg1245630)
MarisaA: 8.40
ReimuA: 7.00
MarisaB: 6.90
ReimuB: 3.50
MS (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1248012.html#msg1248012)
Mima: 9.33
Marisa: 8.00
Reimu: 7.83
Yuuka: 3.50
EoSD (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1232097.html#msg1232097)
ReimuB: 8.00
MarisaA: 7.28
ReimuA: 7.17
MarisaB: 7.11
PCB (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1233536.html#msg1233536)
ReimuB: 8.40
SakuyaA: 6.90
SakuyaB: 6.90
MarisaA: 6.75
ReimuA: 5.50
MarisaB: 4.60
IN Teams (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1234766.html#msg1234766)
Border: 8.83
Netherworld: 7.40
Scarlet: 6.50
Magic: 5.50
IN Solos (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1236077.html#msg1236077)
Yukari: 7.69
Youmu: 6.94
Reimu: 6.69
Remilia: 6.50
Yuyuko: 5.69
Marisa: 5.31
Sakuya: 4.13
Alice: 2.63
MoF (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1236887.html#msg1236887)
ReimuB: 8.77
ReimuA: 7.69
MarisaC: 7.38
MarisaB: 6.04
MarisaA: 4.58
ReimuC: 4.42
SA (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1237946.html#msg1237946)
ReimuA: 9.00
MarisaA: 7.54
MarisaB: 7.54
ReimuB: 6.73
ReimuC: 6.42
MarisaC: 4.85
UFO (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1239250.html#msg1239250)
SanaeB: 9.13
ReimuA: 8.13
ReimuB: 7.46
MarisaA: 7.33
SanaeA: 7.29
MarisaB: 3.75
TD (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1240279.html#msg1240279)
Reimu: 8.19
Marisa: 7.69
Sanae: 6.94
Youmu: 6.94
DDC (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1241531.html#msg1241531)
SakuyaA: 9.09
ReimuA: 8.95
MarisaB: 8.45
ReimuB: 7.09
SakuyaB: 5.68
MarisaA: 5.45
LoLK (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1242956.html#msg1242956)
Sanae: 9.58
Reisen: 9.25
Reimu: 7.75
Marisa: 5.17
HSiFS (https://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,19213.msg1361225.html#msg1361225)
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Week #1 begins with EoSD.
I feel EoSD has pretty good shot balance, with only the Patchy fights being a factor in deciding who's better or who's not.
ReimuA: 7.5/10
I think this shot doesn't get as much credit as it deserves. Sure, she's pretty weak against bosses (they tend to drag out), but she's definitely good for stages. Has one of the easiest Patchy fight, as well. Her bomb is decent.
ReimuB: 9/10
I'm not too fond of this shot (I vastly prefer MarisaA and ReimuA), but she's definitely an amazing one. Her Patchy fight may be tough, but she does wonders throughout the rest of the game. Her shotgun is very strong, which enables her to kill things fast. Her bomb is weak, but it's a pure scoring one that nets her tons of points if used correctly.
MarisaA: 8/10
My favorite shot in this game. Takes things out insanely fast due to the sheer raw power of the missiles. Patchy fight is hellish, sadly, and this shot has no range. Bomb is weak, but combined with her very strong forward focus she can still use it for survival feasibly. Still fun to use.
MarisaB: 8/10
I really hate the illusion laser, but when it's not being dumb, it does nice work with its piercing. Master Spark is excellent for both auto-collecting and bombskipping. Patchy fight is probably the easiest.
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I'd say
Reimu A: 8/10
Her stage superiority really makes a difference for higher difficulties, even if her homing isn't that strong it makes most stages a breeze, even if the bosses lasts longer, she has the advantage to be able to focus on dodging instead of dishing out pain. Her bomb is pretty useful and lasts quite a bit, which is also good for surviving.
Reimu B: 6/10
I know a lot of people like her, a lot, but Reimu B just clashes with my playstyle, she may be awesome for bosses, but for stages not so much. Her bomb while good for score, isn't much use for survival, lasting shorter than the rest and dealing less damage than the rest. My main problem with it is the narrowness of the main shot, which requires me to be on the thick of it all, which might be maneagable in the easy and normal, but in hard and lunatic it becomes quite a hassle to do so.
Marisa A: 7/10
A strong shot, with its main damage dealer a series of missiles that go slower than most of her bullets, but can be used in a tactical way because of that same reason, melts bosses with almost as much efficiency as Reimu B, while not doing bad at stages. Has a bomb that although may not hit everything in screen, hits with enough strength and duration that it's not really a problem.
Marisa B: 7/10
The laser might not be as useful as it is in other games, but still Marisa B doesn't do to bad with damage output, her speed is enough to get you out of trouble same as the other Marisa shot, but just as likely to put you in harm's way as it is to get you out of it. Her bomb is the strongest in the game, and lasts pretty long too, making it very useful for not wanting to deal with stuff like Scarlet Meister.
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Hmm.
ReimuA: 7/10
Easy Patchy fight, decent vs Stages but bad vs Bosses, has a decent bomb, and all the standard Reimu benefits sans the Reimubox.
Gets the job done and is definitely NOT a bad shot. But if you're good at the stages you're almost certaintly better using another shot-type.
ReimuB: 9/10
Has good range, has quite good power, score-bomb even if I don't play for score, does decent damage with point-blank bombs and insane shotgun damage. Her bomb is pretty weak otherwise but it doesn't matter that much. Also low speed.
Unfortunately she has the second hardest Patchouli fight.
MarisaA: 7/10
Highest low-screen firepower, but not that much better than ReimuB. Bomb is similar with ReimuB in that it does a lot of damage point-blank but little otherwise. Also has the hardest Patchy fight (Sylphae Horn High Level RIP) and the lowest range. A poor man's ReimuB basically.
MarisaB: 8/10
Master Spark is incredible for survival. The lasers turning off/on is annoying but outside of scoring don't make THAT much of an impact. Easiest Patchy fight too. Also best vs Books.
I'd say the high speed and lasers turning off/on is the only thing that stops this from matching ReimuB in overall power.
And I agree, IMO EoSD has the most balanced shots in the entire series.
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I pretty much agree with everyone else. I only play for survival. This is also one of my least played games though so... I'm ignoring Patchy because I don't remember who fights what patterns.
Reimu A: 7.5/10
The shot for stages. Her speed makes it a pain to collect falling items, but it doesn't really matter when you have full power. Her shots kill most enemies before they can fire too many bullets, so you can just sit on the PoC at some points. Her biggest weakness is that bosses take a LOT longer, and it becomes pretty noticeable on Sakuya and Remilia. Her bomb is average in both terms of damage and duration, and is neither a selling point nor should it turn you away.
Reimu B: 7/10
Functionally a hybrid between Reimu A and Marisa A. Her spread type makes her good against stages and great for shotgunning if you can do it, while her needles still do good damage if you can't get near the boss. Her biggest weakness is her speed. In terms of item gathering she has all the problems of Reimu A, but since she lacks homing PoCing is a much bigger risk. Her bomb is a shotgun bomb, which is weak in general but deals okay damage if you're close to the boss when you use it. Still, it's probably the worst bomb in the game. My least favorite shot type.
Marisa A: 8/10
Danmaku is all about power! Marisa A is the strongest type. Reimu B might be stronger when shotgunning, I'm not sure, but Marisa A can consistently deal a ton of damage. Stages are much harder for her than either of the Reimus, but her high speed makes it easier to collect items and bunny hop on the PoC. Combine that with her slow missiles and a little routing, and stages aren't too bad. Of course, her high speed also makes it harder to micrododge, making the later bosses much harder. Her bomb is similar to Reimu B's but slightly longer and slightly stronger. I think she's the most fun to play as, though not really the "best" for survival.
Marisa B: 8.5/10
This is the only shot I can consistently reach Remilia with. In terms of speed she shares most of the same pros and cons as Marisa A. Her lack of slow shots makes her worse in the early stages, and she still doesn't hold a candle to Reimu for stages. But her piercing makes certain parts much easier, especially in stage 4. She deals decent damage. Her best point, however, is her bomb. Master Spark is long and it's powerful, so if you don't mind bombing this alone makes her worth it.
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Ooh, I like this idea. I would agree that EoSD has the most balanced spread of shot types in the game-- shots like ReimuC in SA or MarisaB in UFO puts you at an enormous disadvantage, but no shot type in EoSD is noticeably harder or easier to 1cc with overall.
ReimuA: 7/10
I'm not a huge fan of homing shot types-- I appreciate that they take out enemies all over the screen, but they're pretty weak against bosses. ReimuA is no exception. Exceedingly useful during stages, but the bosses are the main attraction of the game for me.
ReimuB: 9/10
Really, the only bad thing I can say about ReimuB is that her bomb isn't super powerful and I wish she was a little bit faster. She has amazingly consistent strength and a ridiculous shotgun, a bomb that lets you take a breather during an intense moment, and good movement speed. Her Patchy fight isn't too bad either. I had no idea she had replaced MarisaB as the new go-to score shot until just recently!
MarisaA: 8/10
My personal favorite shot type in the game. I love MarisaA's sheer strength and speed, although the range does present a challenge. She does have the hardest Patchy fight by far-- I've accepted that I will never capture Sylphae Horn on Lunatic :V Her bomb is fine. If you're in a position where you can get the full power of the bomb, you probably don't need to bomb in the first place, but eh. And given that Extra is my favorite part of the game, the increased damage definitely helps.
MarisaB: 5/10
Honestly, I despise MarisaB. The inconsistency of the illusion lasers irritates me, and although I appreciate the slightly wider range than MarisaA, the overall lower damage output kills it for me. Master Spark is amazing, though.
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ReimuA: 7.5 / 10. Despite her relative lack of power, she can hit from anywhere on the screen. You can literally sit at the center during Sakuya's midboss spell and still shoot it down. She also has the easiest Patchy fight. First shot type that I used to 1CC Normal.
ReimuB: 8 / 10. I think of this shot type as more of a scoring type (being able to collect relatively many bullet cancel items at full value). Nonetheless, a good balance between balance and range.
MarisaA: 7.5 / 10. I tend to like range more than power (helps if you're playing blind), but holy shit. Either of the Marisa shot types are more pleasant to use against bosses (take Meiling's midboss card, for instance).
MarisaB: 6 / 10. The vanishing lasers mess with stalling attacks (if you're here for score), and the bomb, while powerful, restricts movement.
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ReimuA: 7/10
Great range and spread for stages, but it's so weak. And it goes wonky on Flandre's card where she shoots out minions. The homing shots hit the minions....
Bomb is alright, but it takes a while to start up.
ReimuB: 6/10
Also great range, but a little more focused. Because of my playstyle (homing all the time while I dodge), it's hard for me to get underneath the boss for maximum damage.
Bomb is weak. Too weak.
MarisaA: 6/10
Both Marisa shots just don't go with my playstyle. This one is so powerful, but the bomb is slow to disappear, and it's so narrow.
MarisaB: 6.5/10
I would have rated higher if the lasers didn't pulse. The fact that Master Spark autocollects and lasts forever is worth that extra 0.5 point.
Yeah, EoSD has the most balanced shots out of all of the games.
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Heh, I'm glad you all like this idea. It's a fun little thing and it's interesting seeing how others view the shots.
Hope to see more peeps!
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ReimuA: 7/10
Great range and spread for stages, but it's so weak. And it goes wonky on Flandre's card where she shoots out minions. The homing shots hit the minions....
Bomb is alright, but it takes a while to start up.
Does it do that on Sakuya's nonspells where she shoots out the familiars? Hmm, must test.
And yes, I do too. I'm curious as to what the others think.
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Reimu A: 8/10
The homing shots allows it her to cover the whole screen, but it's kinda weak.
Reimu B: 8.5/10
Good range and good damage. Only downside is the bomb, which is just small and weak.
Marisa A: 8.5/10
Extremely powerful both shot and bomb wise. However the range is quite narrow.
Marisa B: 8/10
The lasers will turn on and off, and I'd rather have them on at all times. But her bomb is insanely powerful.
EDIT: should have included something about patchy being different but meh
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Does it do that on Sakuya's nonspells where she shoots out the familiars? Hmm, must test.
And yes, I do too. I'm curious as to what the others think.
Just tested, Sakuya's familiars don't affect ReimuA's homing attacks.
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Just noticed EoSD is the only game where I've played all the shot types. Hopefully I make it in time for the other games.
ReimuA: 5/10
This shot's homing makes most stage portions easy but its low damage causes boss fights drag on. Spells such as Scarlet Meister and Cranberry trap take forever to end.
Books and those three fairies at the end of stage 4 are a pain to deal with when using this shot type.
Easiest Patchy fight (no Megalith!) and also the least fun Patchy fight (no Megalith...).
Her bomb deals a fair amount of damage but its pretty much luck based for scoring. Meiling's third non is a good example of this.
Plus points for her bomb being able to score on Scarlet Gensokyo.
ReimuB: 9.5/10
Her shotgun deals a huge amount of damage right under bosses so spellcards end faster than with other shots.
Range is wide enough to make it easy to hit bosses when you're dodging at the bottom. Her unfocused speed is not too fast which is perfect for spells like Water Elf.
ReimuB pretty much destroys everything Patchy has except Megalith. All her attacks end in around 8-10 seconds.
Her bomb is short and barely does damage but that makes it great for scoring.
MarisaA: 5.5/10
Would have given this shot type a higher score but ReimuB pretty much does everything better with a few exceptions.
Deals lots of damage at the bottom of the screen which is nice for spells such as Royal Flare and QED. But spells generally take longer to clear when compared with Reimu B.
Pretty hard Patchy fight with Agni Radiance and Megalith being a big problem.
Her bomb is weird scoring wise. Killing Doll scoring is pretty hard since you have to pray that Sakuya goes in the direction of a star.
I guess she has an easy extra stage. Also the shot has a narrow range.
MarisaB: 7/10
Better range than MarisaA and piercing lasers help clear out stage enemies pretty quickly. Thanks to this she has an easier time against books than the other shot types. Too bad the lasers remain for a while since you can accidentally kill of attacks with it.
Master Spark is great for killing of stage enemies for point items especially on the extra stage. Not sure why it sometimes stops enemies from appearing.
Easy Patchy fight except for Megalith...I see a pattern here.
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Averages have been calculated and put in the OP. Surprised MarisaB was lower than her A counterpart and ReimuA...
Anywho, PCB time.
ReimuA: 5.5/10
Weak homing and inferior to SakuyaA as a homing shot, but she gains the typical Reimu advantage in this game in having a small hitbox. Also her unfocused speed is nice for grazing. She's not exactly terrible, but she isn't exactly worth using, either. She's pretty mediocre.
ReimuB: 9/10
Pretty much EoSD!ReimuB. Strong unfocused shotgun, great focused power, and the Reimu benefits. Can unfocused graze for score quite well. Not much more needs to be said.
MarisaA: 8.5/10
My favorite shot in the game for sure. She's just so strong! Gains cherry at insane amounts, too. She's pretty unhandy for survival if you rely too much on bombs, though, since she only has two per life. And she can't really score too hot on higher difficulties due to Marisa having insane unfocused speed. But in the right hands, this shot has high potential.
MarisaB: 4.5/10
Bombs are very strong, but they kill her cherry and she can't bombspam like crazy due to only having two per life. Unfocused shot is terrible and her focused shot is inferior to MarisaA's, though it does have the benefit of piercing (which actually wrecks Yuyuko due to hitting her and the fan). There are better shots to use in this game.
SakuyaA: 6/10
The perfect shot to use for first clears and getting used to the game due to unfocused spread, nice focused homing, and four bombs per life, but really, there are better shots to use as you improve that grant more potential. Her B counterpart, for example, provides a much more satisfying experience.
SakuyaB: 9/10
Strong focused shot with all the knives lined up (which isn't very hard to get used to). Unfocused shot can be awkward to adjust to, but it can do some nice work once you get used to it. Gains cherry like crazy due to her scoring bomb, which is actually not bad for survival since it also bullet clears. Underrated survival shot, amazing scoring shot.
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ReimuA: 5/10
Very high range, decent-ish power, middle ground in terms of bombs. The bomb still has the long activation time as EoSD, and Reimu is SOOOOO SLOOOOWWWW. Compared to Marisa and Sakuya, it's like she's riding a flying turtle.
ReimuB: 6/10
Same range, but a little bit less and more forward focused. If you can shotgun, great, but I'm not that kind of player. The unfocused bomb is really weak, but if you can get the focused bomb on top of the boss, it's a boss killer, but it's rather small. Same problems as ReimuA in terms of speed.
MarisaA: 5.5/10
Super narrow range and super fast with a super fat hitbox. Really powerful, but moves too fast and has no bombs what-so-ever. The bomb is slow moving and weak, too.
MarisaB: 6/10
Same super narrow range as MarisaA. Finally the laser is constant when focused, but it's a literal straight line above Marisa. Focused bomb makes you slow, while unfocused is alright.
SakuyaA: 9.5/10
The perfect shot. Is homing when focused, wide range when unfocused. Focused bomb is great against bosses, while unfocused is great during stages. The fact that the range is not as focused as ReimuA removes 0.5 points from a perfect 10/10.
SakuyaB: 2/10
The only thing this shot has going for it is its power. I don't like it for its weirdness.
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Wait, you complain about Reimu being slow? :S I always feel like increased focus speed is a huge liability. Slow unfocused is inconvenient for PoC, but... then you also complain Marisa is too fast, but focused she's actually slower than Sakuya.
ReimuA 7/10
It's not as strong, but it's a homing shot, so it's to be expected. There isn't as much range for ReimuB when focused anymore and it's not as pathetically weak (compared to EoSD) so it fares better against needle Reimu. Still, it's probably not worth it, and needle Reimu has better cherry gain for borders; but she's Reimu, and combination of speed, hitbox, and deathbomb timer that gives you can be valuable.
ReimuB 9.5/10
High range when unfocused, strong bomb when focused (albiet you can't be too far away), good cherry gain, and high damage. And it's Reimu. Everything you could ask for, really.
MariA 4.5/10
High damage and awesome cherry gain, but only two bombs is painful, as is the lack of range. I don't recall the bombs being that good either. Marisa in general is hard to use in PCB.
MariB 4/10
Even worse; lower damage and cherry gain. The unfocused bomb does brutal damage when shotgunned which almost saves it, but you only get two...
SakuyaA 6/10
Overrated. It's tempting for beginners with the 100% homing in focus, but the damage is awful and focus speed is worrisomely high. But 4 bombs is also tempting, and they're strong, so it's not entirely a bad shot. IIRC the cherry gain is abysmal too, so Reimu's lower bomb stock isn't so bad in comparison...
SakuyaB 7/10
Powerful and the gimmick is mostly fairly simple to make use of; you're moving left to hit something to the left of you, and your shot moves too to help out. The focus speed is still a problem and your bombs do almost no damage, though, holding this back from being an awesome shot type.
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ReimuA 7/10
You get all the typical Reimu advantages (controllable unfocused speed, small hitbox), but I found that PCB stage enemies tend to have a bit of health to go through and her really weak shots ends up being more disadvantaged than in other games, as she can't kill things fast enough to stop them from spraying bullets over the screen. She does decently for bosses though.
ReimuB 9/10
My favourite shottype of the game. Aside from low unfocused speed she has great points on everything, making her a nicely balanced and easy shot to use.
MarisaA 7/10
She's kind of OK in lower difficulties, and her fast unfocused speed is fairly helpful while her focus speed is still nicely controllable. Two bombs per life is bad though, and the bombs kind of suck too.
MarisaB 5/10
Outclassed by MarisaA in every way except her bombs, which despite being very awesome only comes with two per stock. Oh and her laser hits Yuyu fans for extra damage; not that it matters much.
SakuyaA 6/10
I liked her a lot when I was still a newb struggling to 1cc normal (not that I'm much better at these games now...), where gaps are wide enough that her focused speed and larger hitbox isn't as much of a conern, and the extra power on her homing focused shot (compared to ReimuA anyways) is strong enough to clear stages a lot better. That focused speed catches up for her on higher difficulties though, and her cherry gain is so pathetic that it's impossible to get a decent amount of borders. Her only use is for bombspamming on survival runs... and then even Reimu's way better dodging wlil probably outweigh that.
SakuyaB 6/10
As powerful as she is, I still can't really live with that focused speed. I'm sure ReimuB is about as powerful anyways and she dodges way better. And her bombs are not really useful on survival runs.
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Reimu A: 4/10
This shot has changed the least since EoSD. However, that's not a good thing when almost every other EoSD shot type has been buffed. Same strengths and weaknesses as EoSD Reimu A. Her new focus shot isn't strong enough to make a difference, her new focus bomb is hardly any different from the original, and she barely gets any cherry at all. She isn't even the best at stages anymore; SakuyaA is the better homing shot. She isn't bad per se, but other shot types get the job done better so there's never really any reason to use her.
Reimu B: 8.5/10
Another one that changed little from EoSD. She basically plays the same way, but this time she has a lot more going for her. She deals a ton of damage when shotgunning and has a wide shot, making stages easier. Her unfocus bomb is good for clearing stages, while her focus is great for killing bosses. Her high cherry gain means she gets a ton of borders, plus a default 3 bombs, plus a smaller hitbox and longer deathbomb window. Her biggest flaw is, once again, her speed, which makes it difficult to collect falling items and PoC. Additionally, since Evil Sealing Circle deals little damage and Duplex Barrier has such a small range, you really need to plan when and where to use her bombs.
Marisa A: 8/10
My personal favorite shot type. She's just fun to play as, though not really the best for survival. It has very few changes from the EoSD shot, but those few changes make a big difference. Magic missile is noticeably stronger than magic napalm and has a wider spread, changing Marisa A from a simple forward focus type into a shot that encourages unfocused gameplay. Her speed and abilities make her good for item collection and PoCing. While she only gets 2 bombs per life and neither bomb is amazing, she gets a TON of cherry giving her more than enough borders to make up for it. Not an easy shot to use, but definitely worth it if you learn to use her.
Marisa B: 3.5/10
Both Master Spark and Non-Directional laser are powerful, useful bombs. The best in the game. However, since Marisa B only gets 2 bombs per life and doesn't get nearly as many borders as her A counterpart, the powerful bomb sort of goes to waste. This is just a bad shot type- you should never use this unless you're looking for a challenge.
Sakuya A: 6.5/10
A decent shot type, especially for beginners. Her focus bomb deals reasonable damage, and her unfocused bomb, while short, is good for clearing stages. Her unfocus shot is wide and fairly strong as a spread type, making it good for clearing stages. Her focus shot is homing, allowing you to focus on dodging instead of staying under the boss. She gets 4 bombs per life, making her great if you're good at deathbombing (or have the autobomb patch on Ultra XD). However, she lacks cherry gain and really lacks shot power, making her a bit sub-par once you know what you're doing.
Sakuya B: 7/10
This is apparently the shot type for scoring, but I don't play for score so I have no opinion on that. As for survival, she's a tricky one. Her shot can cover a lot if the screen and deal a lot of damage. However, you're likely to die trying to get the shot positioned correctly unless you really know how to use her. She deals less damage than Reimu B or Marisa A, but in exchange has a much greater range. Neither of her bombs deal damage, but both are quite long and she gets 4 of them. All around very good but difficult to learn, and not really worth it imo. Also, you have to fight some extra Merlin patterns, and no one likes curvy lasers.
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ReimuA: 5 / 10. The power difference is much more noticeable in PCB than in other games, and spellcards often drag out.
ReimuB: 7 / 10. The needle shot you always loved, but her focused bomb has limited range, so you need to know when to bomb and when to dodge.
MarisaA and B: 5 / 10 because of 2 bombs per life and a mediocre deathbomb window.
SakuyaA: 8.5 / 10. While her range isn't near what ReimuA can do, it's good enough for practical purposes and it's more powerful as well. Also has four bombs per life. The two main disadvantages are the short deathbomb window and the fast focused speed.
SakuyaB: 6.5 / 10. Never used her extensively, so I don't know. Placeholder vote for now.
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ReimuA: 5 / 10. The power difference is much more noticeable in PCB than in other games, and spellcards often drag out.
ReimuB: 7 / 10. The needle shot you always loved, but her focused bomb has limited range, so you need to know when to bomb and when to dodge.
MarisaA and B: 5 / 10 because of 2 bombs per life and a mediocre deathbomb window.
SakuyaA: 8.5 / 10. While her range isn't near what ReimuA can do, it's good enough for practical purposes. Also has four bombs per life. The two main disadvantages are the short deathbomb window and the fast focused speed.
SakuyaB: ? / 10. Never used her extensively, so I don't know.
Please be sure to provide a valid rating for SakuyaB before the week ends. .w. Maybe put in a placeholder vote?
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PCB eh?
Let'sa go.
ReimuA: 3.5/10
The lack of damage is really noticable here, along with the terrible bombs and cherry gain rate. Overall a terrible shot-type, not even the best at stages any more.
ReimuB: 9/10
Very powerful, decent unfocused damage and high focus damage + strong unfocused shot-gun, decent range, unfocused bomb good for stages while the focused one shreds bosses. Very powerful and easy to use.
MarisaA: 6/10
High power and very high cherry+ rate but neither of her bombs are amazing and she only gets two. Moreover, high speed.
MarisaB: 5/10
High power, but very low cherry+ rate and only two bombs, even if both bombs are very powerful when used right. Also has incredibly low range and low unfocused damage.
SakuyaA: 7.5/10
High power homing, along with 4 powerful focused bombs. Unfocused spread isn't that great but gets the job done. Ultimately a good shot-type.
SakuyaB 7.5/10
High power focused shot plus you can aim it, high cherry+ rate and 4 bombs. While she's the best scoring shot-type by far, the only reason she isn't at ReimuB's level or higher is because her bombs do very low damage.
There's a bigger difference between the weakest and strongest shot-types in PCB, but with the exception of ReimuA nothing crazy. They're still decently balanced, at least compared to some of the later shot-types. I mean, compare Border Team to solo Sakuya or SA ReimuA to MarisaC and the difference is even larger.
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Unlike EoSD, it's obvious which characters have an easier time in the game. I feel like every girl has one shot type that completely outshines the other in pretty much either way.
ReimuA 5/10
She's homing Reimu, exactly what you'd expect; slow and weak, good for raw survival. As someone else stated though, PCB enemies seem to have more HP than other games, so her weakness stands out a lot more compared to other games. Good speed for survival, but very difficult to PoC, especially on higher difficulties. Her bombs are nice for survival, but again, pretty weak. Not a fan.
ReimuB 8/10
I feel like ReimuB is the most balanced shot type in the game. Small hitbox, great range, and great power. She's still slow as shit and can't PoC as much as I would like, but her unfocused bomb helps alleviate that somewhat. Her focused bomb has very littler range, but both her bombs are good for when you're panicking and need a moment to breathe. Probably the best for a straightforward 1cc.
MarisaA 6/10
One of my favorites in the game, and great for lower-level play, but Lunatic stretches her real thin. She's insanely powerful and has an amazing Cherry rate, which almost makes up for only getting two bombs per life, but not quite. Her bombs leave quite a bit to be desired, and her unfocused speed makes her difficult at higher difficulties. Overall, she's really fun to play, but her disadvantages really come out when you're going for pure survival.
MarisaB 4/10
I actually haven't used this shot type in years, so I fired up PCB and did a quick Hard 1cc to refamiliarize myself with her, and I'm just as underwhelmed as I was when I first used it. The slightly-wider range is nowhere near enough to make up for the massive drop in power, and I actually said "are you fucking kidding me" out loud when I saw her focused shot. Non-Directional Laser and Master Spark are incredible bombs, but only getting two bombs per life means you won't get to use them very much, and her lower Cherry rate doesn't give you nearly enough borders to make up for it. It's a buff from EoSD, but barely.
SakuyaA 5/10
Great for survival in that her unfocused shot has insane range, and her focused shot homes in, but it's offset by her fast focus speed and garbage Cherry rate. Getting four bombs per life is nice. I'm not very familiar with SakuyaA, so take my rating with a grain of salt :V
SakuyaB 8/10
I love, love, LOVE SakuyaB! She's got great range, she's aimable, and her focused shot is surprisingly powerful. Her fast focus speed is still a problem on higher difficulties, but I think she's immensely fun to play. Her bombs last for a very long time and clear the entire screen, which is great, but they do jack shit in terms of damage. If it wasn't for that, I'd give her a 9/10.
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I think Exy is the best in every respect, although I guess Leinyan is acceptable if you don't have a solid route. Shotia is way too slow to chain unless you play the black label version but most arcades don't have it. The green ship is balanced poorly for chaining and I think pretty much everyone uses the red ship, so it should go something like this...
1. A-E
2. A-L
3. B-E
4. B-L
5. A-S
6. B-S
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I think Exy is the best in every respect, although I guess Leinyan is acceptable if you don't have a solid route. Shotia is way too slow to chain unless you play the black label version but most arcades don't have it. The green ship is balanced poorly for chaining and I think pretty much everyone uses the red ship, so it should go something like this...
1. A-E
2. A-L
3. B-E
4. B-L
5. A-S
6. B-S
...Wrong thread?
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Reimu A: 5.5/10
Her homing shots are really weak.
Reimu B: 8.5/10
This is the shot type I use most. It's powerful, and not too narrow. The only downside is her bomb, which is still pretty weak.
Marisa A: 9/10
Marisa's speed allows her to PoC quickly, which is pretty good. Her shot s a bit narrow but it's extremely powerful. Her bomb is pretty good too, with a lot of point-blank power.
Marisa B: 6/10
The lasers are so thin, it's hard to hit the enemies with it. But master spark is still awesome as ever.
Sakuya A: 8/10
Sakuya's 4 bombs allow for a lot of bomb spamming, which is nice. Her semi-homing shots do a fair deal of damage as well. And while the bombs aren't amazing, but they're not horrible either.
Sakuya B: 7/10
This direction -type shot is weird for me, to say the least. I tend to have it lock in dumb positions, but that's just my stupidity. The bombs are fine.
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This was fun, I don't normally try out all the shot types but I really enjoyed doing it for PCB. I can't really compare it with EoSD as I haven't played that game, but in contrast to what was said, I find the imbalance between the PCB shot types to be really interesting -- each has different strengths and weaknesses, and the balance depends on how much you are playing for score. (As for myself, I always try to score as well as I can, even when I'm just doing a first 1cc.)
ReimuA: 7.5/10
Decent homing type, with the usual counterbalancing weakness of less power, and in this case also less cherry gain. Some sections, particularly in S4, end up more awkward as a result. I rarely use homing types, but she seems okay for what she is.
ReimuB: 9.5/10
Easy to use, powerful, and scores well. The spread is a nice bonus compared to MoF's ReimuB.
MarisaA: 8/10
Okay, I never played as Marisa before because I don't like her as a character, and now I feel silly. She is easily the most pure fun shot type, with her speed, trailing options, raw power, and impressive cherry gain. One feels that she only gets two bombs as a deliberate balance to stop her being overpowered. Unfortunately, this plus her speed does make her more difficult to use, so I wouldn't play as her very often.
MarisaB: 3/10
She has the Master Spark going for her... and that's it.
SakuyaA: 6/10
Beginner-friendly but much less fun to play than ReimuA. It's nice that you get to choose between spread and homing and that she gets four bombs, but her spread shot is really weak. Complete rubbish for scoring, with low cherry gain and being forced to focus to avoid time-outs.
SakuyaB: 9/10
Now this is more like it. I love Sakuya and I love being able to play as her, especially when she gets an awesome and unique shot like this. Directing the shot is a little tricky but really fun, especially in S3 where she pretty much obliterates the stage. Bombs are a bit awkward (but again, getting four of them is a bonus).
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Sorry for the delay. Week #3 was supposed to begin yesterday, but things got in the way. Regardless, votes are tallied and IN's week begins now.
Border Team: 9/10
Comfy homing shot with great damage. Reimu's homing works nicely during stages while Yukari and Ran works wonders against bosses.
Magic Team: 5.5/10
I personally find enjoyment in using this shot, but they're easily the worst team to use since Alice blows a ton. At least Marisa and Master Spark are neat.
Scarlet Team: 7.5/10
Albeit Sakuya's the weakest of the humans, she still complements well with Remilia. Option placements are fun to use.
Netherworld Team: 9.5/10
Yuyuko's spread dominates stages while Youmu's unfocused shot is powerful. Her bomb is quite useful if you ever need to use it, too. Probably the best for survival.
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Border: 9/10
I just love it. It's pretty much ReimuA in DDC, but better. The huge deathbomb time is amazing, and it's homing. I love homing.
Magic: 5/10
Eh. Usually this is my go-to for farming time, but the range tiny and the speed too high. And Master Spark is really slow as usual, along with Alice's super slow bomb.
Scarlet: 3/10
It's hard to use, and Sakuya's shot is so weak.
Death: 3/10
It's also hard to use, and Yuyuko's shot is so spread for a focus shot.
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Sweet it's my favorite games turn
Border (Reimu/Yukari) 10/10
Best shot type in the game and one of my personal favorites in the series, powerful and simply to use
Great bombs too
Magic (Marisa/Alice) 7/10
REALLY small spread on the shot, a little tricky to use, and Alice is soooooo slow
I'd have it at a lower rank but Malice cannon is too ridiculous
Scarlet (Sakuya/Remilia) 4/10
I really want to love this team but I'm not a fan of the familiar style at all
Sakuya has some awesome spread for an unfocused shot and Remilia's ability to gun down two spots at once is cool in theory but half the time my familiars just end up sitting on the other side of the screen during later bosses and her shot isn't that strong to begin with
Death (Youmu/Yuyuko) 1/10
This is actually one of my least favorites.......ever
The way Youmu's shot splits in half is just strange for me and Yuyuko's ridiculous spread is just..... strange
I wanna love this one, I really do, but I just can't use this at all
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Border Team: 7.5 I guess, they are a fine team, Reimu's homing is quite handy and Yukari's lock-on is even handier in certain cases. Tinier hitbox along with longer deathbomb time is sweet too, but they aren't the best survival shottype in my opinion; neither for scoring. The bombs are rather decent.
Magic Team: 6 the most underrated team, although not according to MoTK apparently. I agree that you'd much rather do a Marisa solo run than to use them as a team, the bug which allows you do use Malice Cannon barely makes up for how bad Alice is at pretty much almost everything. Marisa is amazing at killing familars though, her power is pretty fine and her bomb does a good job too, especially as deathbomb. I like how they have a lower PoC, it simplifies point item collection. Another thing to mention is that Alice has poor DPS and her bomb is the most awful in all of Touhou, in all honesty.
Scarlet Team: 6.5 personally a fine enough team I would say, Sakuya's kind of a bad shot, wide or not.. She can hardly kill familars even. Remilia definitely does make up for it with her pretty great focused shot, she is also the fastest of all the characters in the game. Also the team got a bigger grazebox, allowing them to graze a bit more than other teams can. Another notable thing would be that if you die with bombs in stock with them you will gain one bomb drop to make up for it, quite handy for first 1ccs and definitely can be used for scoring, just not as much as the next team. Remilia's bomb is decent because although the DPS is bad it does allow her to still move really fast, Sakuya's bomb is rather weak.
Netherworld Team: 10 I personally do not get why most people rate this team so low, Yuyuko's spread is very handy on stage sections, Youmu is a one-woman army. Their gauge being so flexible allows them to get PiV and time so easily. Youmu's shot is also amazing in how it can be directed at everything based on your movement. I would argue that solo Youmu is godly for the fact Myon then stays focused, very handy for farming time and thus PiV. Another thing to mention is that both shottypes are essentionally pretty strong, Yuyuko is the widest shot in the game and thus hits pretty much everything that isn't below her. Youmu's very flexible and you can basically move to the weirdest spots for grazing or hitting familars for farming PiV with her. Yuyuko is pretty slow, but Youmu is quite fast. Yuyuko's normal bomb is decent, but her deathbomb is really powerful. Same could be said for Youmu but less powerful and more ranged. The ultimate scoring team of IN, although it is arguably better to go Youmu solo for scoring.
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Border Team: 8/10
Not a bad team, it has decent enough power for a homing shot and Reimu's bombs are just slightly weaker than Marisa's, but without Master Spark's crippling slowdown. The extended deathbomb window makes survival more comfortable, but maybe a little too comfortable, as it may create a bad habit of relying on deathbombs too much. They're also not very good for scoring, but at least Reimu doesn't have to fight herself.
Magic Team: 6/10
Alice really drags this team down, she's got a weak shot (and lolrange), and her bombs are abysmal. Marisa, on the other hand has her great speed and really powerful bombs, and she's exceptionally good at killing familiars. MAlice cannon may be broken, but when almost everything else about your shot sucks, I say using it is fair game. Oh and this team fights Reimu so good luck with that
Scarlet Team: 7.5/10
Sort of the opposite of Magic Team, here Sakuya isn't very good, her shot is isn't that strong and her bombs are almost useless with enemies that use familiars, but Remilia makes up for that with her strong shot and decent bombs, although her focused speed may need some getting used to. Like Magic Team, they fight Reimu in stage 4, but don't have it as hard as them.
Ghost Team: 9/10
The best team, Youmu is crazy strong, and Yuyuko's spread shot almost covers the whole screen, without losing much power for bosses. Their bombs are pretty powerful and the smaller gauges makes switching sides more flexible. You could argue Youmu is better off solo, but she really doesn't lose much from letting her mistress tag along
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Border Team 10/10
Reimu's homing is incredibly good in this game, it destroys a lot of the random enemies nigh-instantly, and does a huge number on the Extra Stage. Yukari is strong... AND STILL HAS HOMING, despite being powerful. Small hitbox and great (low) speed, extra deathbomb timer... it's strong homing -and- high damage and all the typical Reimu benefits, what more could you want?
Magic Team 6/10
Malice Cannon is good. Really good. You utterly demolish familiars, and this can lead to extreme dps on boss attacks with familiars as well, plus you get to cheese the laser's pierce damage onto lots of familiars a lot of the time that way. Unfortunately, the focus/unfocus spam is awkward and the shot type is absolutely horrible without Malice Cannon; Marisa isn't even the strongest shot and Alice has insanely tiny range, is even weaker, and her bomb lasts like one second with basically no damage, so you -have- to use Spark each time or it's a waste. Isn't it sad, Alice? At least the laser double-hits on Mokou for major damage, and you can even kill Mokou's survival card with Malice Cannon el o el
Scarlet Team 6/10
I like Remilia's shot type, but she just moves too fast; on higher difficulties I find the focus speed problematic and if you can't even dodge that really messes stuff up. Sakuya is also sorta weak... but at least her knives do full damage to Mokou, and since she's just the unfocus, the damage isn't too big of an issue.
Ghost Team 7/10
It's got reverse focus syndrome; that's the problem. But the two shots composing it are -very- good to make up, and you get some extra bombs from their ability. Yuyuko's shot utterly trivializes stages, even Extra, and although it'll make bosses drag on, you can at least shotgun sometimes to mitigate and you have the benefit of her full-screen-cover to imitate homing ability. Thankfully, Mokou's wings mean you do good damage to her even as Yuyuko, so extra mostly being a boss-fight isn't a problem for them either, but in the normal game Yuyuko's shot can be annoying sometimes vs. bosses, so I didn't rate it higher; a lot of the time you just can't unfocus-attack with Youmu.
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Border Team: 7.5/10
Reimu's homing crushes stages. Yukari's main shot is decent, and she's got Ran for when you can't stay under the boss. They have a smaller hitbox, a huge death bomb window, and you don't have to worry about running into familiars due to Reimu's ability. If you're used to playing with stronger characters like Youmu or Remilia you will notice the power difference, but it isn't too bad compared to most homing shots. All their bombs are "meh"; none of them are a selling point, but none of them should turn you away. Personally I prefer high power and high speed, though, so this shot type just isn't for me.
Magic Team: 2/10
Malice cannon deals a ton of damage against bosses like Keine and Eirin, but for the most part it's overrated. Since you have to rapidly shift between focus and unfocus, you pretty much have to be sitting still to use it, which doesn't really fly in a bullet hell. However, this shot type isn't even worth looking at if you don't use Malice. Both Alice's bombs are crap, so either bomb unfocused or try to death bomb (and even then lose 2 bombs). One of the worst shot types in the series.
Scarlet Team: 6/10
Sakuya is worthless besides her "items fall more slowly" ability. Because she's a spread type she can't kill familiars as quickly as Youmu or Malice, but her spread isn't wide or strong enough to crush stages the way Yuyuko does. Really, she only brings Remilia down. Remilia deals amazing damage and can cover a lot of the screen if you place her familiars correctly. Like the border team, none of the bombs are great but none of them are terrible either. If you want to use this shot type, you might as well just play as Remilia solo.
Ghost Team 9.5/10
My favorite shot type in the game. The only reason this doesn't get a 10/10 is because there are OP shots in the later games that deserve it more. Youmu is fast, letting you quickly get where you need to go, Yuyuko is as slow as Reimu, making it easier to micrododge. Youmu is strong, letting you wipe out bosses quickly, Yuyuko has a huge spread which obliterates stages. Both bombs are mediocre, but Youmu's death bomb is good and Yuyuko's is the best in the game. Since the human side of the gauge only goes to 50%, you don't even have to worry about switching between focus and unfocus. This shot's bigest weakness is how much you have to hug the bottom of the screen. Yuyuko's spread is no good if you're high up, and Youmu's shot will spin off to the side unless you're constantly holding down (which can actually be useful in some situations). Additionally, while it makes the game more fun imo, you have to play unfocus to deal good damage to bosses.
By the way, for those who didn't know, switching to Yuyuko resets Myon's angle to striaght forward.
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Reimu / Yukari: 9 / 10. Long deathbomb window, homing + Ran thingy combo, small hitbox, nearly everything I like.
Marisa / Alice: 4 / 10. Very little range. At least they have a bit more power to compensate.
Sakuya / Remilia: 5 / 10. Haven't played with them a lot, but Remilia's shot seems a bit useful.
Youmu / Yuyuko: 7 / 10. A bit of range on focus (though power is questionable). Gets a bomb at the end of each stage if they have fewer than 3, and has a smaller H/Y gauge (for scoring, though any sane player would use solo Youmu for that).
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Border Team 10/10
Yukari's homing shot on crack, Reimu hitbox, 1 second counterbombing, fairly strong counterbombs for both characters... is there anything that this team doesn't have? Well I guess strong familiar destruction abilities, but that only matters in like two cards in 6A, and Reimu takes no damage from colliding with them anyways. Well I guess it also doesn't score as well, but the difference is marginal enough that only dedicated scoreplay people would care anyways.
Magic Team 5/10
The tiny range really bites this team, but Malice Cannon and Master/Final Spark makes this team still playable. It destroys familiars like nothing else and completely trivializes Astronomical Entombing, but sadly not much else. Overall it's easily the worst of the four teams.
Scarlet Team 7/10
Remilia's focused speed is too fast and her shot is a bit gimmicky, but it's not as bad as Youmu's. The main problem with this team is that Sakuya's shot is just not really good and can hardly kill familiars, and overall this team just really have any sort of meaningful advantage beyond Remilia's bomb on non-spells.
Netherworld Team 9/10
In a vacuum this team is really good; Youmu's shot is gimmicky but at least it's strong, and Yuyuko is nice and easy to use with good spread and enough forward fire to be of use, plus Youmu's bomb is almost Master Spark tier strong and excellent for systematically skipping cards you don't want to face. Unfortunately Border Team is just too broken, and this shottype falls into second best... but it's still strong, and almost as easy to clear the game with.
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Can any of the people that said sakuya couldn't kill familiars give me an example where she can't kill a familiar you would want to kill?
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Can any of the people that said sakuya couldn't kill familiars give me an example, where she can't kill a familiar you would want to kill?
Fun fact: Sakuya can kill Astronomical Entombing familiars faster than Reimu.
I might edit in my own biased, Scarlet Team-loving opinions later.
EDIT:
I'll be brief.
Border Team: 8.5/10
Homing and death bombs are quite good and make it beginner friendly, but it has trouble killing familiars or doing damage quickly.
Magic Team: 7/10
It suffers from a complete lack of spread and Alice being weak, but Malice cannon rips things apart as long as you can stay under them and tap shift without dying.
Scarlet Team: 9/10
Remilia is the strongest youkai shot, and Sakuya patches up Remilia’s weaknesses by providing spread and a means of killing familiars. Sakuya is kinda weak though. (Also, I’m probably biased.)
Ghost Team 8/10
It has a strong, narrow, unfocused shot that is somewhat tricky to use, and a weaker spread as a focused shot. Theoretically, they should be good, but they are quite awkward to use.
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Border Team: 9/10
Reimu's homing shot is very helpful in stages except certain parts of stage 5, Yukari has high power.... and STILL has homing in Ran, they have an obscenely long deathbomb window, low speed, a strong focused bomb with a decent unfocused bomb unless you're hugging the bottom, and the smallest hitbox. Sure their damage isn't that high, but what's there not to love?
Oh, and they fight Marisa. On lunatic that's a boon.
Magic Team: 3.5/10
Malice Cannon is powerful and Master Spark is the strongest non-double bomb in the game. Marisa also has high damage and great familiar killing ability.
That's... where the good stuff ends. Final Spark only does 200 more damage than Master Spark despite costing 2 bombs, bomb of Alice's bombs are horrible, both of Marisa's bombs slow you down, Alice's damage is low AND her range is pitiful, fast focused speed, no useful survival ability....
Not worth using without Malice cannon abuse.
Even with Malice Cannon abuse, IMO Solo Marisa is probably the easier 1cc.
Also they fight Reimu, who they struggle with.
Scarlet Team: 7/10
Sakuya gets the job done in stages even if she isn't that great and is better at killing familiars than Reimu for the most part (esp. during Entombing), but is horrible vs bosses and her bomb is only decent. Remilia is crazy powerful, though. Pretty good overall, though I'd say solo Remi is simply a better shot-type, Sakuya DOES provide a few things Remi can't do.
That being said their bombs are only decent (outside of Remi vs nonspells) and they fight Reimu, even if they have a much better time of it.
Netherworld Team: 9/10
Youmu shreds bosses and Yuyuko shreds stages. However they're awkward to use and their bombs aren't that great, outside of the double-bombs. Even so, this is a powerful shot-type. Also Youmu melts familiars. Extremely powerful if you can use it right. Also the team-scoring shot-type. Only the bombs hold it back from being 10/10.
They also fight Marisa which is nice.
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Border Team: 9/10
Reimu's homing is amazing for stages. For bosses? Yukari easily rekt them all. Sadly, they're pretty meh as solo since Reimu is very weak and Yukari's homing is just... weird. At least, they have a VERY long deathbomb window while Yukari's graze hitbox simply OP. Their bomb is quite powerful, especially Reimu's Fantasy Seal -Blink-. Solo, Yukari is much better than Reimu aside for the bomb
Their small hitbox is, strangely, didn't affect much for me :v
Magic Team: 5/10
Could've been worse, but I found Marisa to be surprisingly good even without Malice Cannon aside for her bomb. Marisa is also better as solo. Alice is meh as always. Their bombs are shit
Scarlet Team: 8/10
Remi is awesome. Sakuya is really good at wiping huge number of enemies from the screen. The problem is, destroying familiar with her is the last thing I'd do, especially during stage 2. They might as well be the best shottype if every other stages were designed like stage 6A lol. Also, Remilia can troll bosses. Bomb-wise, I'd prefer Sakuya over Remilia
Ghost Team: 7/10
Youmu is bordering OP-tier and shit-tier because of how powerful her shot is, but controlling myon is difficult. Yuyuko is amazing with her range and has a pretty decent power. Not sure about their bombs as they seemed to be pretty decent.
Literally inverse Border Team lol
Solo Reimu: 7/10
It's homing, and an exceptionally weak one. Her bomb, deathbomb window, and small hitbox saved her from being a shit-tier character
Solo Yukari: 9/10
Again, it's homing. Good thing that Ran is powerful. She is also easier to handle as solo more than as a team with Reimu. Her bomb is quite good, but the range leaves much to desire. The best part? Small hitbox, powerful shot, and oversized graze hitbox
Solo Marisa: 5/10
Again, she's better by her own. Her shot is simply powerful as hell and has a decent range. Her bomb, however, still pretty bad
Solo Alice: 2/10
Self-explanatory. For those who don't understand, this means her shot type is shit, her bomb is shit, and her control is shit. The only good thig about her is that her shot is piercing, which... didn't affect much of the game, what with the horrible damage
Solo Sakuya: 7/10
Wide range powerful shot, decent bomb (especially her deathbomb), but not so good compared to Team Scarlet
Solo Remilia: 7/10
Always loved her shot type. She can simply troll the boss to their death. Her bomb can wipe out weak fairies easily, but not so effective against bosses
Solo Youmu: 6/10
Very powerful, but also very gimmicky. Again, not sure about her bomb
Solo Yuyuko: 8/10
Desirable shot range and power. Her shot is good enough by itself, I rarely used her bombs :v
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Reimu/Yukari
7/10
I think deathbombing is kind of a plus, even though deathbombing takes two bombs :V
Yukari's Ran shot is amazing though, and can easily deal the stage-boss damage while you're grazing.
Marisa/Alice
9/10
I can only say good things about this pair.
Using that laser of death (Spamming the focus button in front of bosses every 0.5 seconds) is just too good,
and the utility of the pair's bombs is perfect, having Marisa's for damage, and Alice's for stage clutter, since I'm not too great :ohdear:
After using this team, it's hard to say anything about the others because of both this and Marisa's speed. The only team who can match that is what... Yuyuko's?
Remilia/Sakuya
7/10
Remilia's shot hitbox is pretty narrow, but she makes up for that with that amazing set-it-and-forget-it beam of death. Her bomb is eye-candy, but isn't too great for damage.
Sakuya is good-ish, but that's just her bomb. Otherwise she just plays like any other game's Sakuya. Her shot is just... average :fail:
Youmu/Yuyuko
8/10
This is another one that is pretty dang good altogether. Youmu's shot is amazing, with the ghost shooting opposite the direction she is moving, and at higher power levels this can just drain boss health. Her bomb is pretty cool looking, but it does so little that it's only a bullet clearer.
Yuyuko is really good with that bullet spread. Essentially, you would use Yuyuko for stages mostly, and then Youmu as much as possible for bosses. Yuyuko's bomb is pretty good, considering that it moves slowly enough to do good damage to bosses and clear bullets in an outwards wave, but because you can't shoot during bombs, you are losing a little bit of efficiency compared to say, Marisa's bomb.
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Can any of the people that said sakuya couldn't kill familiars give me an example where she can't kill a familiar you would want to kill?
Guys? Hello? You wouldn't rate the shots without knowing what you're talking about, would you? haha
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All of Keine's spells including her midboss one. Reimu's 1st and 4th nons. Reisen's 2nd non. Kaguya's 3rd spell. In all of which killing familiars helps a lot. Reisen's 2nd spell too, though admittedly it's not a big deal there.
Though I will say, after doing another play through with the scarlet team she isn't as god awful as I remember. Still terrible, but not as terrible as I remembered. She crushes Astronomical Entombing and has an easier time with Earth/Galaxy in a pot and against Reimu than Mari/Ali. Still, Youmu's strong shot and Malice are better at killing familiars in general. And while Reimu isn't much better, the border team has enough other benefits to make up for it.
I'll slightly change my scores though.
Also, I do know what I'm talking about, thank you. I ignored your question because I didn't think this was the place to argue over it. That'd just make it harder for ZM to sort through which posts are ratings and which are discussion. If you have more questions I'd be happy to talk to you about it over pm or skype or something. If that's not right and this thread was meant for discussion, I hope you'll forgive me for ignoring you. That's just me though, I can't speak for anyone else.
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Thanks Tres.
Yeah, I'd appreciate it if discussions like this would be taken outside of the thread and discussed in a new one or over Skype/PMs/whatever.
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Border Team: 9/10
Reimu's homing shots are way too OP. Also they have a ridiculously long death-bomb time. Fantasy Seal -Blink- is also super strong. I could just be biased, as I use Border Team most often. :V
Magic Team: 7.5/10
Alice kinda sucks (although the laser of death is helpful). But Marisa definitely makes up for that. She wrecks familiars, and Master Spark is still cool as ever.
Scarlet Team: 7/10
I never quite got the hang of Remilia's familiars. They're less easy to use than Marisa C's in MoF, IMO. But it works, and Sakuya is also pretty good. The deathbombs are okay as well.
Ghost Team: 8/10
Yuyuko's shot is probably the worst to handle bosses with, but the spread makes it great for stages. Youmu is way too OP due to the fact that her shot is a beast. The bombs are okay, but they could have been better.
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Border Team - 10/10
Homing on both focused (Ran + Yukari's powerful shot) and unfocused (Reimu's amulets, which are actually fairly strong in this game), small hitbox, longer deathbomb window...honestly, the only downside I can think of is that Reimu is a bit slow for me. The Border Team are contenders for best shot type in the series.
Magic Team - 4/10
I didn't realize just how bad the Magic Team was until I started playing IN again about a year ago. Marisa is really fun to play as, and Master Spark is amazing, but Alice is complete garbage. No range, no real power, utterly terrible bomb...the only positive thing I have to say about Alice in IN is that her focused speed is very comfortable for dodging. MAlice Cannon is great, but it requires you to sit in place, so it gets more and more impractical as you go up in difficulty. Shame, Alice is my favorite character in the series :/
Scarlet Team - 7/10
I actually really like the Scarlet Team. Sakuya has a great spread, but she's very weak. Remilia is fast as hell, but super strong and allows you to shoot from two places at once. Remi's bomb could be stronger, but they get the job done. I also really like their large graze box, because it makes me feel like a score runner when in reality I'm screaming to just 1cc Lunatic :V
Ghost Team - 6/10
I can see the Ghost Team being effective, but I'm really not feeling it. Youmu is incredibly strong and is the best for scoring, but her shot is unorthodox and takes a lot of coordination and memorization to use effectively. I'm also not comfortable micro-aiming Myon when Youmu is so blindingly fast. Yuyuko has a great wide spread, but to hit everything onscreen, you have to hug the bottom of the screen, which limits your dodging ability, and she's fairly weak from a distance. I think of the Ghost Team as Reco-Abnormal in Mushihimesama Futari-- incredible power and scoring ability, but you need to play them in an entirely different style from the other characters.
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Goooood morning everyone. Thanks for the participation so far! 15 voters was nice to see, and hopefully that keeps up. I added my own IN Team ratings in the first IN post, if anyone wishes to see.
Now's the time for IN Solos. Those who have already rated solos will be accounted for, too.
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Reimu: 7 - has all the benefits of the Border Team except for Yukari's shots and bombs.
Yukari: 8 - at least has Ran.
Marisa: 4 - same reasoning as on the Magic Team as a whole.
Alice: 3 - same, but with a pathetic bomb
Sakuya: 5.5 - only the weak spread shot.
Remilia: 6.5 - the bat familiar you love, but you can drag it with Remilia by unfocusing.
Youmu: 6 - wonky shot and bomb, but at least good for scoring
Yuyuko: 5 - spread shots as usual, but unlike Sakuya, has trouble with spells that involve destroying familiars
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Reimu: 5/10.
Same benefits as the border team, but the weakness is bigger. She doesn't deal much damage. Just use the border team.
Yukari: 6.5/10.
Can't kill familiars no matter how hard I try.
Marisa: 3.5/10.
Lacks the coverage Remi and Youmu have, and doesn't deal as much damage as either of them. If you want a damage dealer and you don't like gimmicky shot types I guess she's okay.
Alice: 1/10.
I know she deals a lot of damage to Mokou. That doesn't make up for her other faults. Awful bombs, high focus speed, weak shot, no spread. If you absolutely have to have piercing, just use Malice.
Remilia: 6.5/10.
I hate playing with this kind of shot type. But that damage output almost makes it worth it for me. If you know when and where to put the familiars, she can cover a huge area. Still, can't kill familiars and has a painfully high focus speed.
Sakuya: 3.5/10.
Same problems as before, but now she can't even do damage when focused. Just use the Scarlet team. Or better yet, use the Ghost team or Remilia solo.
Youmu: 7/10.
She can deal almost as much damage as Remi, she can hit almost anywhere on the screen, her gauge can go to human or youkai and you only have to fill it up half way. On the other hand, she's really hard to use. She has a few strengths over the Ghost team, but all things considered she's just easier to use when paired with Yuyuko.
Yuyuko: 5/10.
She's got a great spread and a good death bomb, but Youmu was the damage dealer. She's too slow to be a good shot gunning type. She still decimates stages, but she can't PoC as often and bosses take a lot longer. Just use the Ghost team.
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Reimu 5.5/10 : Her ability means you still don't ever have to dodge familiars, but she's just a much lower damage version of Border Team. At least she still wrecks stages and has that hitbox/deathbomb.
Yukari 7/10 : You can't kill familiars, which is annoying, but otherwise a pretty alright forward-focus type shot with some homing added in. Ran's homing is awkward in stages, though, and her bomb isn't bad, so she isn't higher.
Marisa 5/10 : She's a pretty fine forward focus type. Nothing special, but alright. Arguably she's better than Magic Team as Alice is awful, but the loss of malice cannon is actually really bad due to it being her only redeeming trait compared to others, even if she's a way better shot than Alice.
Alice 1/10 : Dear god why. Why. God. No. Please. This is suffering. Isn't it sad, Alice?!
Sakuya 4/10 : This is just painful to be forced to use against single targets. She's actually pretty good for Extra stage, though; her knives deal full damage to Mokou wings and she's fine for the stage portion.
Remilia 6/10 : Okay, this is a fairly good shot. She still can't kill familiars, and she still moves too fast, but she's nearly as good as Scarlet Team is in general.
Youmu 7.5/10 : If you're a higher level player this might be more like 8.5/10, for using her directional shot more efficiently or god scoring, but that doesn't apply to most people. The only solo character that's actually pretty legitimate by herself. Also the only solo who gets a cool new effect outside of her team; now she can lock myon in place which makes her great for bosses! Plus the fact that you wished you could use her focused in Nether Team already...
Yuyuko 5.5/10 : She wrecks stages, but the bosses shall drag. Strictly worse than using her as a team since you get Youmu on single targets never rather than sometimes, along with no familiar killing ever. But she's pretty alright in Extra due to Mokou wings, and her boss damage isn't nearly as bad as it some other spread shots *cough reimuC mof*
Bad ratings across the board, but let's be honest, other than maybe Youmu, soloing is -purely- just being hard on yourself. Even with the somewhat better shots or when playing Yuyu/Saku/Alice in Extra.
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Reimu: 5/10
Essentially Border Team but with less focus damage. Still wreaks stages, but just use border team.
Yukari: 7/10
Can't kill Familiars, Ran's homing is not that good for stages, and her bomb isn't that good.
Marisa: 5/10
Actually a decent forward focus type with good bombs plus familiar killing. But Remi or Youmu are better.
Alice: 2/10
Hahahahahaha no
Remilia: 7/10
Large damage output plus huge utility. Would be be better than Scarlet Team if Sakuya couldn't kill familiars.
Sakuya: 1.5/10
At least Alice does her full damage from the bottom of the screen...
It's like PCB ReimuA without the meagre guarantee of hitting something.
Youmu: 9/10
Best scoring shot-type, and Myon is just so versatile and powerful. High power, high versatility - she's just as good as the Netherworld Team if used well if not better, but very hard to use. It's a shame I can't use her.
Yuyuko: 6/10
Decimates stages, but bad for bosses. Youmu actually complements Yuyuko really well, and now you can't do high damage sometimes even. Just use Netherworld Team.
Low across the board, but what do you expect? Using solo shots is outside, of Youmu, more to challenge yourself than anything else.
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Reimu 8/10
Without Yukari Reimu has problem killing stuff in a good fashion of time, but the typical Reimu advantages are still there. You'll have to dodge for longer but if you can do that it isn't noticably harder than the team.
Yukari 9/10
Yukari's disadvantage in stages are smaller IMHO. The biggest loss is more like those spellcards where familiar kiling is a big deal; beyond those Yukari's basically as easy as having the whole team.
Marisa 7/10
Marisa Solo actually feels quite a bit easier than Magic Team, due to not being stuck with Alice's piss weak bombs and narrow range. MAlice Cannon can be pretty situational anyways, and anywhere else Marisa solo is plain superior.
Alice 2/10
Good luck getting things in your range to kill, or dealing enough damage to finish bosses in good time, or bombing past spells you can't deal with, or... a lot of things.
Sakuya 2/10
She's OK in stages but boss battles are absolute hell with basically no DPS unless you're in their face or bombing.
Remilia 6/10
She's about on par with Scarlet Team in whole except she can't kill familiars, which is a pretty big minus.
Youmu 9/10
Too hard for me to use well personally, but I can't deny that the shot is good. Good speed, good power that is omnidirectional, great bombs, and the whole scoring aspect which I don't care about. Really hard to use though.
Yuyuko 7/10
She's like Sakuya except way better, which isn't saying much. She still lacks forward power but at least it's enough to not have everything drag on for painfully long amount of time, and it covers stages pretty decently too. No familiar killing ability is a shame, and her bombs don't really do well either.
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Reimu - 8/10
Skips you from learning the stage because homing does the job. MIght take some time to kill big fairies and bosses but not really a problem unless your scoring. Pretty easy to use.
Yukari - 9/10
Good shot type but I just see her as a poor man's Remilia. I believe she still get the standard bonuses of border team which can give you good survivability.
Marisa - 9/10
Really strong and a decent spread shot. Can be a problem for scoring because it kills familiars too quickly and dip your gauge below (or above) -80%. Bomb is pretty strong and last forever, ideal for survival but not for scoring.
Alice - 7/10
Not as bad as people sound it to be. Her really small range just forces you to learn the stage and memorize stuff. Once you get it down it's actually easy. She can't speedkill the bosses so you can see more of the bullet patterns, that's also a plus. Bomb is a shitty version of Yukari's bomb.
Sakuya - 7.5/10
Better than Reimu in stages, at least for the most part. Bosses takes an eternity to finish, which means you need to do more dodging and if you like dodging then you'll enjoy using this shot type. Bomb is literally useless except for stage 6 fairies where her spread might kill a lot of familiars carrying point items.
Remilia - 10/10
Obliterates bosses. Can do some fun tricks with familiars. Fat hitbox for graze and fast focused speed makes it ideal for supergrazing. I think her bomb is weak? But I never really used it that much for it to matter.
Youmu - 10/10
Very versatile. Controlling Myon might take some practice. Can also kill stuff pretty quickly. Scoring with her is a lot of fun.
Yuyuko - 8/10
Just a stronger Sakuya.
Eh, I might have been to lenient with the score but I never had problems using solo shot types.
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Reimu: 8/10
Same homing, but doesn't have the benefit of shooting THROUGH familiars.
Yukari: 6/10
Can only hit one thing at a time, but s great on bosses.
Marisa: 4/10
Super low range coupled with super slow moving bomb makes her hard to use.
Alice: 3/10
This is no better, except with a delayed bomb instead.
Sakuya: 2/10
Too spread to be of any use.
Remilia: 3/10
Super hard to use, but at least the options follow you when solo.
Youmu: 1/10
I don't like helicopter shots. AND SHE'S SO FAST
Yuyuko: 1/10
Same problems as Sakuya. But worse.
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Here is my rating based on how hard it is to anycc easy mode with 7 starting lives, because I've never done anything else:
Reimu: 10/10
It's easy
Yukari: 10/10
It's easy
Marisa: 10/10
It's easy
Alice: 10/10
It's easy
Sakuya: 10/10
It's easy
Remilia: 10/10
It's easy (on a sidenote: she is better than Scarlet Team, because even though you lose a lot of options you can still see her wings flap without having to press a button)
Youmu: 0/10
Didn't play her
Yuyuko: 10/10
It's easy
Please don't exclude my vote for lack of knowledge, that would be elitist and seriously harming the neutrality of this vote.
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Here is my rating based on how hard it is to anycc easy mode with 7 starting lives, because I've never done anything else:
Reimu: 10/10
It's easy
Yukari: 10/10
It's easy
Marisa: 10/10
It's easy
Alice: 10/10
It's easy
Sakuya: 10/10
It's easy
Remilia: 10/10
It's easy (on a sidenote: she is better than Scarlet Team, because even though you lose a lot of options you can still see her wings flap without having to press a button)
Youmu: 0/10
Didn't play her
Yuyuko: 10/10
It's easy
Please don't exclude my vote for lack of knowledge, that would be elitist and seriously harming the neutrality of this vote.
...Having everything be 10/10 except for one 0/10 makes me feel that this should be excluded. It's not your lack of knowledge; it's the sheer disparity between the ratings that will skew the results.
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Here's my two-cents: still haven't got that Alice Solo Lunatic 1cc. At least Sakuya has an easier time with the stages.
Everything else you can give decently high points.
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Alright, IN Solos are concluded. Didn't expect any more ratings, and Tuesday just began here, anyway! Now's the time for MoF.
ReimuA: 7.5/10
Very good homing shot. Her boss performance is worse than some of the other shots, due to her weaker damage output, but she has the best stages for sure. She especially shines during the Extra stage portion.
ReimuB: 9.5/10
Easily one of the best versions of Needle Reimu in the series. Her forward focus is very strong and melts everything. She has to try during stages, unlike ReimuA and MarisaC, but she's still super good.
ReimuC: 2/10
...What's the point of using ReimuC? Yeah, she has spread, but it's very weak. She has the strongest shotgun in the game, but it's very situational and not worth it at all. As impressive as Spira's recent WR replay is with ReimuC, don't bother with this shot.
MarisaA: 3/10
I dig MarisaA's design and how the shot is supposed to function, but she's not as special as she's intended to be. Apparently this shot is supposed to house high power, and if she did have high power comparable to say...PCB!MarisaA, she'd definitely be worth using. The sad thing is...this shot doesn't have very high power (weaker than ReimuB and MarisaC by a fair amount) and the options are annoying to handle. Damn shame.
MarisaB: 6/10
Basically a poor man's ReimuB. Functions the exact same as her, along with piercing added into the mix. The downsides are that she has a bigger hitbox and substantially worse power. The piercing isn't even that helpful in this game. The 3 power glitch is hilariously good, but of course I'm not going to consider that! :t
MarisaC: 9/10
High risk, high reward. Using this shot correctly would take quite a bit of learning due to the option placement, but once you do learn her, she's super good. Wrecks stages harder than ReimuB and takes out bosses faster than her, which is why she even scores better. Despite MariC being the better scoring shot, ReimuB is better for survival and is the more popular scoring shot due to typical Reimu perks and already being quite strong. Even so, MarisaC is still very good.
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By the way, since I often see people who think Marisa is faster than Reimu; starting with MoF all shots have the same focus speed. She's slightly faster unfocused, though.
ReimuA 6.5/10
I don't think the homing is important in this game, so after I got used to MoF's stages I pretty much stopped using her. Still, it's not a bad shot, but once you've learned how the stages work I think there's little reason not to move onto either Needle Reimu's damage, or Marisa's stronger bombs and gimmick-range.
ReimuB 8.5/10
Very solid shot. Strong with standard Reimu benefits, what's there to say? I'd rate it higher, but as strong as Reimu's bombs are, Marisa's are significantly stronger.
ReimuC 2/10
Disgusting. Her shotgun is incredible, but let's face it; in MoF you get -very few- chances to use it in survival play. Why's that? Because almost all boss attacks -more or less force you to the very bottom of the screen- in this game. Which means... you get her LOWEST damage bracket a distressingly large amount of the time, which does literally 60% of ReimuB damage. Hear that? A laaarge amount of boss attacks will take -nearly twice as long-, and the game's final card alone is likely to take multiple more lives than normal to clear as, you guessed it, you're at the bottom and have to dodge that scary pattern at it's harder, late-card version about half a minute of extra time. Spread shots in other games are not nearly this painful; if you want better stage range pick one of the other non-B shots instead.
MarisaA 7.5/10
It's not quite good enough to stand up to the star shots in this game, which leaves it entirely overshadowed as almost no one wants to bother with the gimmick with that pay off of just a little more range in sages, but it's still not a bad shot in itself. The fact that you get Marisa's bomb damage helps it compare against Reimu though, it's sweet. Not hard to use against bosses since you just move down against the bottom to focus all stars onto you (and you're almost always at the bottom for MoF bosses), or just move back-forth in place for a moment to get the same effect.
MarisaB 7.5/10
It's needle Reimu except slightly weaker- just 11% lower damage, or 5 more seconds on VoWG. The tradeoff is you get Marisa's bomb damage, which isn't actually a bad trade and I could consider it, albiet Reimu probably has her smaller hitbox as usual, so... (MariA and B actually have same power, for reference) However, the shot is also bugged, which makes it awkward to try to use and not feel cheesy; are you never going to unfocus against a boss after bombing and being at 3 power? Because even just a second will do major damage. So in actuality, even with a decent rating, I'd probably never use this outside of goofy cheesing.
MarisaC 9.5/10
The gimmick shot of the game. It's awkward to use, but extremely effective if you get good with it, so it's the great kind of gimmick shot. The highest power, best stage potential, and Marisa's powerful bomb! ...if you can handle it without messing things up too much.
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ReimuA 8.5/10
It makes stages a breeze, and is not as bad against bosses as one might think. However, homing shots are not my style.
ReimuB 9/10
My personal favorite. It's very powerful, and makes bosses a cakewalk. However, its short range will cost you some lives in stages. Simple, yet effective.
ReimuC 4/10
The unfocused shot hits around the boss, instead of at it. The focused shot is a shotgun, which is completely useless in MoF, which centers around micrododging. At least it's a little bit playable.
MarisaA 1.5/10
Eww, gimmicks. This is absolutely terrible. I don't have any words. I would rather play ReimuC than this.
MarisaBugged 8/10
Thank you based ZUN, for making the most literally broken shot type in existence.
But, on a serious note, if you downloaded the patch already, this shot is actually pretty good without bugs. It's penetration can really help at Stage 4, but it does fall short to ReimuB, the ultimate focused killing machine.
MarisaC 8/10
Contrary to what some other people might think, I really like this shot. It's basically Remilia from IN, but a bit faster. People complain how it takes some time to relocate the shot when going unfocused, but, in my opinion, I love it. With Remilia, I couldn't go unfocused even for a bit, because my shot would instantly relocate. With this though, I'm able to unfocus for a short period of time when I need it. Position it right, and you can potentially faceroll all the stages.
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Reimu A: 9/10
The homing itself is surprisingly good, almost as good as EoSD Reimu A IMO. Easily the best stage wiper shottype, and is the best shottype against Normal Kanako because lol her 3rd spell
Reimu B: 9/10
What it lacked in easy staging, it made up for heavy damage. All you need to learn while using her is some good bombing
Reimu C: 3/10
Shit shot. Unfocused shot simply doesn't work well against boss. Also quite impossible to use the focused to full potential
Marisa A: 6/10
Could've been better if Marisa doesn't move too fast, but at least you can control whether you want it to spread a little for stages or focused on one vertical line for bosses. My second favourite shot from Marisa after SA!MarisaB
Marisa B: 8/10
Really good at piercing stuff, but I still personally prefer Reimu B... aside for the bug
Marisa C: 8/10
Position-dependant and not beginner-friendly, but actually good once correctly handled (*ahem*Level2andLevel4*ahem*)
I'm... kind of surprised we skipped PoFV
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ReimuA: 8.5/10
Good for a homing shot. Not my favourite for the main game, but an excellent choice for Extra.
ReimuB: 10/10
Perfect, no frills, just a good forward focus shot.
ReimuC: 5/10
The best shot type if you struggle with Easy/Normal Shizuha and have no problems with the rest of the game... any takers? That aside, I have some fondness for this shot as I like to play with the added challenge sometimes -- it's like having an extra difficulty rating in between the main ratings.
MarisaA: 4/10
Not much fun. Rearranging the options is annoying, with a high penalty for getting it wrong.
MarisaB: 2/10
There's just no point, since ReimuB has forward focus covered already. All this adds is piercing, which is barely ever helpful, and a glitch -- and I wouldn't feel I had really cleared the game if I took advantage of that.
MarisaC: 6/10
I have decidedly mixed feelings about this shot. Placing the options is even more annoying than MarisaA -- but when you get a good placement, they can make certain parts of the stages much easier. However, being forced to stay focused can be irksome. Easily the most visually attractive shot type -- but sometimes it's hard to distinguish your options from enemy fire. For bosses, leaving the options in the centre is surprisingly effective: even if the boss moves around, they spend a decent amount of time in or passing through the centre. Overall, a good shot but not the most fun to use.
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Reimu A: 8/10
She destroys stages but bosses take a little longer. Typical homing Reimu stuff. However, PoCing is a bit harder in this game than in EoSD-IN, so the homing helps a bit. It's especially noticeable in the extra stage.
Reimu B: 8.5/10
High power, low range, the usual needle Reimu. She still has to work for stages, but now that player speeds are more standardized it's not as noticeable. Not as strong as Mari C, but if you don't like dealing with gimmicky shots this is definitely a good alternative.
Reimu C: 8/10
If you shotgun the beginning of the boss pattern, this shot can kill most patterns as quickly as Reimu B. The exceptions pretty much being limited to Hina's nons, Aya's 2nd spell, and Kanako's last 2 spells (Virtue of the Wind God is admittedly bad enough to make me reconsider using this shot). Momiji's pattern too, but usually I want to stall that pattern anyway. Sure you have to be a bit risky when playing the bosses, but the shot gun damage deals the most damage of any shot type and the spread makes stages easier than with Reimu B. She's a type that requires some getting used to. Is she worth it? Maybe, maybe not, but I did and now she's my preffered shot type.
Oh, the unfocus shot is almost completely worthless.
Marisa A: 4.5/10
I appreciate that ZUN tried to experiment more with this shot. However, it's got too much going on so nothing gets to shine. The trailing options hypothetically give her a much greater range than Reimu B. However, despite what "high power type" implies, the individual shots are very weak. Most of the time I just wind up holding down so as to deal the most damage, and even then it's weaker than most of the other shots. The splash damage could be useful, but again the individual explosions deal very little damage and the radius of the explosion isn't big enough to make up for it.
Marisa B: 4/10
Piercing doesn't help much in this game- the stages just don't have many parts where it's especially useful. Her spread is about as bad as Reimu B and she's much weaker. It's not even an interesting shot like Marisa A. There's pretty much no reason to use this shot type.
On a side note, Marisa Bugged is fun to play as (even if your run won't be considered legit). You have to really plan your bombs or else your power will either go above 4 and you lose the super damage, or it'll drop below 3 and you'll have to wait for some power items to come your way. Anyone who hasn't tried this really should.
Marisa C: 6/10
I hate this kind of "focus and lock" shot type. Like IN Remilia, this shot deals insane damage. Unlike Remilia, this is a semi-shotgunning type- when focused your options have a decreased range, so you have to get your options positioned next to the boss at the start of the pattern. And if you unfocus, your options fly back at you and you lose your insane power. I can see how she'd be good, but like PCB Sakuya B and IN Youmu Solo she requires a lot of getting used to, and I do not think she's worth it.
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Ah yes, Mountain of
bombs faith time.
ReimuA: 8/10
Powerful homing. It doesn't do as much damage as ReimuB but it gets the job done. Even if the bombs aren't Marisa's ones, they're powerful. Overall a homing shot type done right.
ReimuB: 9/10
This shot-type does a pretty disgusting amount of damage and can spam bombs because it's MoF. Sure it has a harder time with stages, but the power makes up for it... Overall, an amazing shot-type.
ReimuC: 3/10
Very low damage outside of shot-gunning, the spread isn't even that helpful for the stages because the shot's too weak to do much. Overall not the worst shot-type ever but bad.
MarisaA: 4.5/10
Waaaaay to gimmicky and hard to use relative to it's power.
MarisaB: 6/10
A poor man's ReimuB. Less range, much less damage, and piercing doesn't do much in this game.
MarisaBugged: ∞/10
INFINITE POWAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
MarisaC: 9/10
Very, very powerful. Very versatile, when used well it destroys bosses and stages with ease.
But it's range is short, and it's very hard to use. If it had longer range (think Remi's bats) this shot would easily be 10/10.
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ReimuA: 8/10
Super good homing, but damage is a little low.
ReimuB: 8/10
Damage is good, but range is small-ish.
ReimuC: 1/10
Why would anyone want to use this. The range is wat to high.
MarisaA: 5/10
It's alright. The handling to the options could be better.
MarisaB: 8/10
I like the piercing, good damage. But the range is a little low.
MarisaC: 2/10
Neat, but it's the same deal with Solo Remilia. Hard to use.
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ReimuA: 6/10. Homing shots are fine but show their real lack of power during boss fights, and they're nonexistent on 0.xx power anyway.
ReimuB: 8/10. I used this for my second Normal 1CC.
ReimuC: 7.5/10. Good for shotgunning and not bad for stages, but I like ReimuB better.
MarisaA: 5/10. Never seem to have used this shot type.
MarisaB: 10/10 because of the 3.xx power glitch. Holy shit, this was the only way I could beat Extra.
(5/10 without the bug.)
MarisaC: 8/10. Never used her before but people are saying good things about her so I'll give a high rating.
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Hm, this week made me realize how little I played anything in MoF aside from ReimuB and MarisaC. Did a few quick runs with each of the shot types to refresh my memory.
ReimuA: 7/10
Standard homing Reimu, nothing much to say about her that I haven't said in every other homing Reimu rating. They seem weaker in MoF compared to other games, and it shows during boss fights or whenever any big fairies appear during stages.
ReimuB: 8/10
Standard needle Reimu, nothing much to say about her that I haven't said in every other needle Reimu rating. She's really strong in this game and is the best for a straightforward, no-gimmicks 1cc. Her unfocused range isn't even that bad! Currently working on a no-vertical Hard 1cc with this gal :V
ReimuC: 6/10
Standard shotgunning Reimu, nothing m- wait, shit, that's not right. ReimuC is a weird one-- her shotgun is ridiculously powerful, but when you're forced to the bottom of the screen, the power noticeably fades. The spread is pretty useful during stages, but becomes less and less effective as the game goes on. I have to admit though, it was really fun trying to find ways to get closer to the bosses to deal damage, rather than staying safe at a distance.
MarisaA: 3/10
I really, really like the idea of MarisaA. I had a lot of fun playing with her options on Normal, but on Hard and Lunatic, you have significantly less room to move around and manipulate her options into the positions you need. If they were insanely strong shots, it would be a different case...but they're not. The increased range is very appreciated, but there's not enough power behind it. Much like the Magic Team, I hate giving my personal favorite shot the lowest rating :/
MarisaB: 4/10
There's nothing MarisaB does that ReimuB doesn't do better, aside from piercing and MarisaBugged.
MarisaC: 8/10
Another really fun shot that's actually incredibly useful. MarisaC is what I wish Remilia solo had been in IN. She's stupidly strong, the #1 scoring shot, and an absolute blast to play. Fatbox be damned, I'm zooming all over the screen shooting shit with MarisaC.
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ReimuA: 8/10 They're great, but not against bosses.
ReimuB: 8.5/10 Good all around.
ReimuC: 6/10 Obviously this is a shotgunning type. But getting that close to the boss is risky.
MarisaA: 4.5/10 I never understood this shot type at all.
MarisaB: 6/10 It's okay. (except for the bug)
MarisaC: 7.5/10 Like IN Remilia, but better because there's a delay.
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ReimuA: 8/10
One of the few homing Reimus that don't suck, stages are much easier with her. Bosses last longer, but she's still a pretty decent shot.
ReimuB: 10/10
Really good shot in this game, and l think she's one of the best shots in the series. Stages are a bit more difficult for her than other shots, but the main shot just destroys everything, and well... MoF bombs.
ReimuC: 4/10
Literally only useful on three patterns, she sucks everywhere else. Not 0 because she's still skinnybox Reimu and, again, MoF bombs.
MarisaA: 2/10
She's an unwieldy shot that doesn't even reward getting used to.
MarisaB: 6/10
You like a simple forward focus shot? use ReimuB.
You like Marisa and want to use one of her shots? then use MarisaC.
Other than bugging your way through stuff, I don't see why you would want to use MarisaB, but I guess she's okay without that still.
MarisaC: 9/10
Like MarisaA, she's quite hard to get used to and use effectively, but once you manage that, she totally wrecks everything in this game, both stages and bosses.
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ReimuA: 7/10
- Standard Reimu with her usual homing amulets. They do great in stages, but they don't do well in bosses.
ReimuB: 8/10
- Standard Reimu with her usual needles. It's like ReimuA except reversed.
ReimuC: 6/10
- Wide shots that are good for stages, but poor performance on bosses, not unless you shoot them point-blank, which I don't think you can do most of the time.
MarisaA: 9/10
- This is my mostly used shot in MoF. It has great power and does really well on bosses and stages (depends on the formation).
MarisaB: 8/10
- Standard Marisa with her usual piercing lasers. It's alright I guess. I don't know about the "bugged" thing, mainly because I don't notice the actual changes in gameplay.
MarisaC: 6/10
- I kinda liked this one, but if you lost your focus during a boss (like in Kanako's final spell), then the options can't hit the boss anymore (not unless their range is kinda long, but I haven't noticed).
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And MoF comes to a close. SA time.
ReimuA (Yukari): 9/10
By far the most used and popular shot type in the game, and for good reason. She has powerful forward focus, a great bomb for both damage and grazing, and that neat gapping mechanic (not overly useful, but still handy in a couple parts of the game). Her Satori fight is one of the toughest, with DBDB in particular being pretty scary (although quite fun).
ReimuB (Suika): 6.5/10
I actually like this shot quite a bit. I find the slight piercing pretty helpful in some areas (such as Orin's first spell) and her bomb is a creative one that has damage based on however many bullets there are on the screen. That means it can do a great deal against Okuu, if need be. Despite that, she's just a weaker Yukari. I don't find the sucking mechanic too useful (only for the life pieces, really) since you can just graze and get the point items at full value. At least her Satori fight is a fun one (one of the easiest, but fun nonetheless).
ReimuC (Aya): 7.5/10
Once you get used to the angle-locking, you have yourself a pretty neat shot here. Essentially being at full power starting from the 3 is pretty cool, and her damage output isn't half bad at that. Her bomb is also the most powerful in the game, enabling her to even sit on top bosses and do additional damage with how her shot operates. Her Satori fight is also pretty simple, too.
MarisaA (Alice): 7.5/10
Quite the interesting shot. Having 8 Power is pretty damn cool, that's for sure. What's also pretty cool is that her unfocused shot is stronger than her focused one, and combined with her shotgun bomb, you can deal immense damage. Her focused shot also has spread, which helps quite a bit during stages (not as good as Patchy's Water Sign, but still pretty good in its own right). Satori fight is also on the easy side, though the second spell is kinda dumb. Be weary of Marisa attributes, though.
MarisaB (Patchouli): 9/10
One of the most unique and fun shot types in the series, IMO. Having five options in Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth to use is really neat design, and there are situations throughout the game where each one would come in handy. Her bomb is also powerful, but only when you use it point-blank. Otherwise it would just merely save your life. Satori fight is a bit annoying, but nothing too bad. Marisa attributes are still prominent, but this shot is certainly worth the time in using.
MarisaC (Nitori): 3.5/10
If her forward focus missiles didn't lag and did the most damage in the game, this shot would certainly be more appealing. But essentially she's just a weaker Yukari with a bigger hitbox. The shield bomb concept originated from this shot, but it was designed poorly here (though not failing spell cards when using it is nice, assuming you don't get hit). Doesn't help that her Satori fight is kind of painful, too... At least she's one of the most useful shots for fighting Koishi, but even so...this shot's pretty lame (though I find myself enjoying using it).
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Reimu A: 9/10
Usually I like high risk high reward shots, like shot gun types or types that are better unfocused. They're usually harder to use, but are better than simple forward focus types if you know how to use them. In SA, that isn't the case. This is easily the best shot, and there's no risk involved. It's got decent range when unfocused. High power without shotgunning. The bomb is long, screen clearing, and does decent damage. It's just simply that good. The sub abilities aren't incredibly useful, though. The border wrapping options have almost no purpose, and border jumping only helps in a few parts (parts that the spread types have no trouble with anyway).
Reimu B: 7/10
The homing isn't extremely helpful, in fact it's closer to a forward focus type than a true homing type. But the piercing is useful surprisingly often, especially in the 2nd half of the game. The bomb is decent, but not amazing. The auto-collect ability would be really useful in other games, but since grazing lets you auto-collect anyway it kind of goes to waste. It isn't that this is a bad shot type. It's just that Yukari can do most of what this can, and what this shot can do better than Yukari, Aya and Patchouli can do even better.
Reimu C: 8/10
It's... interesting. 3 power is pretty much the same as 4, so you basically get a free bomb. The bomb is very powerful too. The shot does pretty good damage and has great screen coverage. It's similar to IN Youmu solo, so kind of difficult to use. The speed up ability is fun to play around with and can be useful, but I'm just not good enough to use it as well as it could be used.
Marisa A: 7/10
Okay, I know I said I like unfocus types, and I know I said I like shotgun types, but this is kind of ridiculous... Alice is both an unfocus type and a shotgun type, dealing little damage under normal focus conditions but a lot of damage if you're on top of the boss when unfocused. It makes for a very difficult character to use, especially since Marisa is faster than Reimu. On top of that, her bomb is a shotgun bomb. It deals a ton of damage if you're on top of the boss, but is otherwise completely useless, even compared to other shotgun bombs like Duplex Barrier or Five Seasons. As such, the 8 power kind of goes to waste.
Marisa B: 8.5/10
My favorite shot type to play as. Switching between elements takes some getting used to, but it's easier to learn than Aya. It can pretty much hit anywhere on the screen at any given time, even with 1 power. Water and Wood are both good for shot gunning, which is a plus for me. Fire deals about as much damage as your typical homing type, though, so it isn't great against bosses unless you are shot gunning. Earth and Metal are very situational, but since you can switch to more generally useful shot types they don't detract from the shot at all. They just add more coverage for those certain situations. The bomb is another shotgun bomb, dealng great damage if you can get all five rings to hit the boss. Unlike Alice, it isn't complete trash if you're away from the boss either.
Marisa C: 5/10
This does okay damage, but the delayed shots and complete lack of spread makes it awful against certain stage portions and certain boss patterns. The shot isn't completely worthless like PCB Marisa B, but really the only reason you'd pick this over Yukari or Suika is for the bomb. It's the best shot for learning the game since the bomb keeps you safe, but once you've played it a few times it's best to switch to another shot type.
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Yukari: 6/10
Super high power, cool ability, but it has a super small range.
Suika: 8/10
Piercing homing bullets. I love the auto-collect ability, but the power is a little lacking.
Aya: 3/10
I don't like to play helicopter shots.
Alice: 5/10
Good power on a single target, but only when unfocused. But she has a good range in focused mode.
Patchy: 6.5/10
Very versatile, especially On bosses who force me to move around a lot, but the power could be better.
Nitori: 5.5/10
Why is this not splash? Why is there no earth-shattering kaboom fairy-killing splash damage? I's an explosive misleading, right? Also, the missiles move so slowly.
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ReimuA: 9/10
Overall the best shot in the game, great for survival on all difficulties thanks to her strong focus shot (knocks out bosses fast), small hitbox for dodging (shared with the other Reimu shots), and gapping mechanic (as ZM said, only really useful in a couple spots, but it's there if you want it). Her bomb has a long duration, which is great for getting past difficult attacks with proper timing, though it only does good damage when combined with her regular shot. Her bomb also lets you graze optimally without destroying bullets, but the effect only really becomes the most pronounced on Lunatic and Extra - MarisaA and B currently have higher scores everywhere else. ReimuA's only weaknesses are having the toughest Satori fight and her lack of spread, which is still only a problem in a few areas.
ReimuB: 6/10
Perhaps a bit underrated by some in the past,, this shot's homing capability, while weak, is still useful at times to widen your range a bit. Notably, her wisps also pierce, which makes them useful against a handful of Orin's attacks (i.e., second Stage 4 midboss attack, first Stage 5 boss card), though their homing ability might screw this up elsewhere. Her bomb isn't particularly useful for survival on lower difficulties outside of the invincibility it grants, but it can be placed away from bosses so you can graze right on top of bullets' spawn points, which is better than nothing in terms of scoring. Her special ability is pretty redundant when you can simply go up to the PoC on lower difficulties (few bullets to stop you, after all) or graze lots of bullets on higher ones to max out the Communication Gauge.
ReimuC: 5/10
This is the shot type for those who like to bomb their way through everything, as that is ReimuC's greatest strength. While not good for scoring because it follows Reimu and thus deletes bullets nearby, the plethora of bombs you can collect throughout the game makes maintaining a good supply feasible. Reaching what is essentially max power at a distance at 3.00 Power might be considered a strength, but her shots are even weaker than ReimuB's. However, this does make using bombs at full power more practical since her shot damage won't be decreased, not unlike MoF's shots. Her rotating option mechanic is useful during stages to pick off enemies on both sides of the screen, but it places a bit of an undue burden on unfocusing even for a brief moment, which could screw up your damage against bosses. Her increased speed when not pressing any buttons doesn't contribute a whole lot to either scoring or survival.
MarisaA: 7/10
While this shot is unusual in that her shot archetype is reversed (forward shot while unfocused, spread shot while focused), maintaining good damage from a distance is still something you can get used to with practice (think controlling Youmu solo in IN to have her option hit targets as a "human"). Her forward focus shot deals nearly as much damage as ReimuA in most circumstances, and having a spread shot alongside that gives her survival utility during stages as well. Her having twice as many bombs I find to be a mixed bag, however. This does allow you to give yourself invincibility at more individual points, but they have half the invincibility time and attack duration as other bombs. Damage from her bomb also depends on how well you place it - by itself it's very weak from a distance, but it does deal ReimuC levels of damage when shotgunned. As with ReimuB, her bombs can be placed away from where bullets spawn, which helps with supergrazing. Regaining the equivalent amount of power from bomb usage (as in, 2 of MarisaA's for 1 of everyone else's) is also slightly more difficult from a mathematical standpoint since Power items don't give her twice the power to compensate. As with the other Marisa shots, her larger hitbox becomes an unusually prominent issue for survival on Lunatic and Extra, where attacks can get really dense.
MarisaB: 8/10
Second-best shot in the game because of her sheer versatility and good scoring potential. Getting used to switching between certain shots does require a bit of practice, but not as much as with MarisaA. Her five shot variants let her deal with both stages and bosses quite effectively if you know how to use them. She has an almost excessive amount of spread for stages, which lets her utilize the PoC and CG from pretty much anywhere on the screen. However, she doesn't deal as much damage from a distance, since her dedicated forward focus shot (Fire) isn't any stronger than ReimuB. You have to shotgun enemies with Wood, Earth, and/or bombs to kill them fast, which can make bosses trickier on higher difficulties if you just spam this strategy. As with ReimuB and MarisaA, she can place her bomb away from targets to help with supergrazing - the combination of this and her many spread options makes her the best for scoring on Easy, Normal, and Hard.
MarisaC: 3/10
This shot doesn't really have much going for it. Her bomb is her most useful aspect because of how defensive it is - it functions like a Supernatural Border from PCB, though you can't pop it manually once it's out. Getting 0.50 Power back if you survive its duration is a nifty bonus, good for new/intermediate players who are still getting used to survival on any difficulty. However, her bomb has pretty much no scoring potential. Her shots deal intermediate damage from a distance, which makes her more useful against bosses than some others in terms of pure survival play, but her shots have no spread and lag noticeably, which makes it difficult to hit moving targets (while some of Marisa's shots in other games also have lagging shots, I think this honestly went out of style years ago). Whatever strengths she has tend to fall by the wayside once you get into higher levels of play and/or start getting comfortable with the other shots that are trickier to use, to say nothing of ReimuA being better in just about every way.
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(I think it's a good idea to mention the Satori fights)
(Won't count Satori's own spell when I mention "first", "second", "third")
ReimuA (Yukari): 9/10
- No surprise there; this is probably the best option in the game. She deals great damages to bosses, and the options' distance to player when unfocused is good enough for stages. I don't like the bomb because it deals less damage to bosses (maybe shooting her point-blank will make up for that?). Her special mechanic is very useful in some situations. Her fight with Satori is kinda hard during her second and third spell (but it was fun).
ReimuB (Suika): 8/10
- I heard that the shots of this option slightly homes in... anyway, I like the way it's a piercing shot, it does well in both stages and bosses. Bomb needs to rely on how many bullets are there (and I think most of them won't home in after they got converted?). Her special mechanic is great because I don't need to rush to PoC. Her fight with Satori seems easy, except for her third spell.
ReimuC (Aya): 7/10
- I've used this option rarely. I think it doesn't do well in stages because she shoots in one direction (although can be rotated, but still), and I haven't seen how well she does on bosses. I heard her bomb is very strong, and I'd like that, so bonus points for that. Her special mechanic is funny, though not useful because there's a chance you'll run into a stray bullet. Her fight with Satori is probably the hardest imo.
MarisaA (Alice): 9/10
- I like this option, it has anything that I need for: power and tons of bombs. She performs great in stages, but I think she can take a little bit of time to beat bosses. Her bomb is short and narrow, and it doesn't clear a lot of bullets since it's... narrow. Her fight with Satori is very fun... but not for that second spell.
MarisaB (Patchouli): 8/10
- Sometimes I use this shot because it was a wide range of usefulness. She can do well in stages and bosses (except for being a bit weak). I'm not a fan of her bomb because it's stationary. Her special mechanic is QP Shooting - Dangerous!! fun. Her fight with Satori seems to be fun, although a bit hard.
MarisaC (Nitori): 7/10
- This option has something that I need that MarisaA lacks: survival and a bomb that can clear bullets in a screen. Rating it low because her shots are just weak. Her bomb and its special mechanic (giving you 50% of your power back) is very helpful in a lot of situations. Her fight with Satori seems easy, if you've played MoF before this.
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ReimuA 10/10
This shot type is overpowered. SO. SO OVERPOWERED (or maybe it's that the rest sucks so hard). So overpowered in fact, it completely overshadows all other shot types. Classic needle Reimu. Always OP. But this one trumps them all. This is, the ultimate needle Reimu. Heck, you can even make basic things like streaming easy with this, because you can just gap away to your heart's content.
ReimuB 7.5/10
Basically just a more gimmicky, overall worse version of MoF ReimuA. The only thing it's good at is piercing. Homing sucks hard.
ReimuC 7.5/10
This is the shot type for pros, who just play for score. If you're playing just to beat the game, don't use this shot. It requires complete memorization of enemy's positions, and getting used to moving this thing. Hard to master, but very rewarding. Also, THIS BOMB IS WAY TOO GOOD.
MarisaA 8/10
I really like this shot. At full power, you can use a total of 8 BOMBS, and if you place those bombs right on top of your enemy, you can finish most cards almost instantly. The only flaw, really, really major flaw is that the concentrated shot is on unfocused, while the spread shot is on focused. Really dumb, but I guess without it, this shot would've been even more OP than ReimuA.
MarisaB 7.5/10
The gimmick shot of the game. Just like ReimuC, the only problem this shot has is how absurdly difficult it is to control and master it. If you do though, you can make the whole game a breeze to complete, or even to score.
Also, you can kill mid-bosses with your bomb before they attack you, which is great, I guess.
MarisaC 6.5/10
It's your basic missile Marisa, but with a few twists. The bomb seems useful on paper. It's a shield, that guards you from one hit. Sounds great, right? Then, you realize you aren't going to bomb just in case. You usually just bomb only when you are already about to die, or when you are dying. You then think "What's even the point?"
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ReimuA: 9 / 10: decent power, gap hacking, and best bomb.
ReimuB: 7.5 / 10: autocollect ability is useful, and Satori is somewhat easier, but her lack of power is noticeable in Stage 5.
ReimuC: 7 / 10: I don't know who would want to go that fast, but people say some good things about it so I'd hesitate to go lower.
MarisaA: 6.5 / 10: Shot is somewhat awkward to use, especially on Parsee's second spell. Can stock 8 bombs but they are fickle, weak, and visually misleading.
MarisaB: 6.5 / 10: Personally her shot-switching ability isn't useful since it often activates when you don't intend to. Would have been better if it was bound to the C key.
MarisaC: 7.5 / 10: Bomb is useful for people who clip a lot, I guess.
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Reimu A: 9/10
While she has good damage and amazing bomb, the ability to gap from one side to another is perhaps what makes this shot very good to use. She still have problems with staging, as much as every other straight-type Reimu, but gapping helps a lot especially within Stage 5 and 6. Her Satori fight is also fun. Her problems are with Stage 4 Orin midboss and stage 5 midboss, as well as Cat Walk and its variations, which Marisa B can solve rather easily (in case of Stage 4 midboss, Reimu B is clearly the better option than anyone else)
Reimu B: 8/10
The shot's homing quality may not shine too much in staging, but it is clearly a homing-type. The piercing also help much against Orin's stage 4 midboss. Otherwise, she is pretty much doing well in both staging and bosses. Her Satori fight is fun, but her last spell is kind of difficult because micrododging lol. Her weak power make it slightly difficult for stage 5 (ftw Cat Walk) and she also doing BAD against Parsee. Overall, it's still a good shottype for beginner
Reimu C: 7/10
This shot is horrible at 1.xx power, but then it got better at 2.xx power. If you can handle her well, this shottype shine through all stages. Her bomb is also powerful, and while the distance left much to desire, her no-shot speed compensate for that. Could've been better if her power is closer to IN!Youmu. Her Satori fight is also weird, what with the second spell harder than anything else in the battle and her third spell just absurdly easy. She did better at Parsee's fight compared to Reimu B, but still lose against Marisa B in term of effectivity
Marisa A: 7/10
This shot is surprisingly good for an awkward shottype. Her bomb requires you to be right in front of your target for maximum damage, but thankfully the bosses rarely shot immediately during each phase. The most annoying thing about this shottype, however, is that you only recover 7 out of 8 power when you got killed during full power. This thing spread like crazy, but her power reduced significantly while spreading which kinda makes this shot a risk : reward shottype
Also, her Satori fight isn't that much of fun aside for last spell
Marisa B: 9/10
Super versatile shot. Each shot are always useful for, like, every situation. Her bomb have a shit distance and only occured in short time, but otherwise she would be plain fucking OP. Her Satori fight is especially fun. Also, why is her wood shot stronger than her fire shot?
Marisa C: 6/10
Delayed shot isn't the main problem of this shot, but it's her low damage for something that lacked distance. Her bomb is very useful for beginner in stage 5 because post Cat Walk stage lol, and it give back half of the power when you survived, which should have give all your power back when used in right situation, but Marisa having huge hitbox and, again, lack of raw power gave much of a disadvantage which is very apparent during bosses. Also, fucking Extending Arm
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[Disclaimer: I'm a survival player; currently 1cc Hard is at the limit of my ability]
Reimu A: 9/10
Strong damage rate when in focused mode (very good for bosses); lesser range for unfocused, but I don't usually find that to be a problem. The bomb clears all bullets on the screen and is of good duration, so repositioning your character or dealing point-blank damage is easy. I honestly almost never remember to use the screen gap mechanic; the only time I do is at the start of Stage 6 because my grazing ability is probably sub-par amongst players at my level. For the Satori fight, I honestly find 'Border of Wave and Particle' on Hard far harder than the first two spells (and far more costly in terms of lives and bombs) - micrododging is not my forte.
Reimu B: 8/10
Not as damaging as Reimu A, but still relatively easy to use. I find her bomb mechanic useful against laser attacks such as Yuugi's, and dense fast attacks like Orin's Stage 4 and 5 midboss. I like the auto-collect mechanism mostly for collecting power items - over the course of the game, this can mean a few extra bombs to use. For the Satori fight, the bomb is a good counter against 'Throwing Mt. Togakushi'. 'Pandemonium' is not too bad, and I actually quite like 'Deep Mist Labyrinth', because I end up shouting 'I'M BEING CHASED BY A GIANT BLOB' in the Twelfth Doctor's voice while doing it.
Reimu C: 6.5/10
I honestly am not very good with the shot direction changing as you move. I've never worked out how to effectively clear screen enemies with it, much to my detriment. Locking the orientation leads to a good damaging shot, and the bomb does high damage, clears bullets, and lasts a long time. I honestly don't make much use of the super-speed mechanic - standard unfocused speed is good enough for my purposes. If it weren't for the bomb, I'd probably have this as the lowest rating. For the Satori fight, I find the three spells of around equal difficulty and none are particularly horrendous, but I am probably least comfortable facing 'Great Whirlwind'.
Marisa A: 8.5/10
I think this character is good if you can consistently get your power up to the higher end of the scale. Yes, you need more power items to get there, but I find once you're there, life is pretty good. The very high damage in unfocused mode is useful, especially on boss attacks which take a while to reach you (e.g. Parsee's midboss, Yuugi's midboss, Orin's two zombie fairy spells). The bomb is not particularly good - but I still think it's good enough to allow you to reposition a bit and deal damage if you fire it in front of the boss. For the Satori fight, again I don't find any spells particularly horrendous.
Marisa B: 7/10
This is actually my favourite character to use, because of the option to change the shot pattern. I especially enjoy circling around bosses using all five shot types (e.g. around Parsee and Orin), and the spread shots are great for clearing stage enemies. Unfortunately, I find that on Hard, I'm mostly using the Fire and Water shot types. The Fire type doesn't deal damage as quickly as I'd like, and this leads to trouble for me. The bomb is also quite short in duration. If you can position it right, you can deal a lot of damage, but I generally dislike bombing to 'skip' attacks unless I really have to, so I guess I don't use the bomb to its fullest potential. The Satori fight is usually fairly frustrating for me - too many silly deaths! The spells are challenging, but fun.
Marisa C: 6/10
I like the bomb mechanic of this character very much; I think psychological state is intrinsically linked to performance when playing Touhou, and feeling like I have a safety net tends to make me play better when I engage the bomb (which in turn leads to getting hit less, giving me more power back). The bomb also clears all bullets on screen if you get hit, which is always handy, but this is better for stage play than boss play, as bosses generally don't let up with the bullets they fire at you. Unfortunately, her shot is not too damaging, and she doesn't have very much going for her. The Satori fight is also difficult as I struggle with 'Extending Arm' and 'Trauma in the Glimmering Depths' (and 'Kappa's Pororoca to a lesser extent).
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ReimuA 9/10 : It's far stronger than all the not-A shots... far stronger. With a solid bomb and a special ability that comes in handy now and again, it's easy to see why this is -the- shot for SA, but let's face it; it's because the other shots are weak and have bad bombs. The competition is just lame.
ReimuB 4/10 : I'm not gonna sugercoat it; this is your homing shot but it's homing SUCKS. If you're just a few character widths away from the boss horizontally, you will miss even at fullscreen vertical distance for your bullets to try to home from. So... it's just a weak as hell forward focus shot with some weak piercing on it. The bomb is also awful. The concept is neat, but on most attacks it will do terrible damage, especially if you're bombing for survival and not planning damage bombs, which you probably aren't. Sure, on a few attacks it's really strong, but the rest of the time it'll suuuuuck, and on those attacks you usually have to plan the bomb rather than due it to avoid a death. It's really unfortunate, because I would like a homing shot in this game; a lot of scary attacks are difficult to hit the boss during (LIKE GENETICS, AUUUGH)
ReimuC 7/10 : The shot is also not that strong, but since it has a directional aim for both "forwards" and "backwards it's not too hard to use and can come in handy, and the bomb is the strongest in the game (arguably; MariA is weird). Most of the people using this shot probably are doing it purely for the powerful bomb.
MarisaA 8.5/10 : Actually good competition for ReimuA. Unfocused it does as much damage or even more if you're shotgunning, and when focused it still does comparable damage to all the other shots and gets high spread. 8 bombs is very solid for survival purposes and while weak from a distance, if you shotgun one it's very strong, which is notable since she gets 8 of them.
MarisaB 7/10 : The Gimmick Shot. I didn't rate it higher because if you don't use the bomb at pointblank range, you do literally no damage along with not much bullet clearing either, which is painful. Also, because in most situations her damage is bottom tier, unless you can shotgun or attack from behind. However, this shot is very effective in the stages if you learn when to use which elements for the best effect, and that makes it fun to play as well, and it's very cool to see this shot used to it's fullest potential. A polarizing kind of gimmick shot where there's high potential and can be very cool, but if you don't specifically learn the game with the gimmick in mind it's just too weak and the bomb is too small.
MarisaC 5/10 : The bomb is a neat concept, but this shot sucks. It's a forward focus... except it's damage is awful. Why ZUN, why? Ontop of your bad damage with your low range and slight missile delay (which is neither here nor there, that doesn't bother me much) the bomb does no damage; whilst it's a cool defensive bomb, once you're up against an attack you're just plain bad at, you're gonna get WRECKED. However, it's a good shot to use in Extra, where your bombs won't do damage either way; you'll have to survive longer against the attacks to kill them, but out of all the extra fights, Koishi is the one I find most notorious for unexpected deaths by a long shot, and I value this shield there.
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SA, more than any other Touhou game, makes "risk vs. reward" the basis of gameplay, and this is reflected in the shot types available.
ReimuA (Yukari) - 9/10
Really, the only bad thing I can say about ReimuA is that her range while focused is abysmal. She is by far the best shot type in the game; she's extremely powerful, her bomb lasts half the stage and clears the screen AND lets you graze the entire time, she has a smaller hitbox, and although her gap ability is only useful in a handful of situations, she doesn't lose anything by having it. Her Satori fight is probably the hardest in the game, but Border of Wave and Particle is fun enough that I'll allow that to slide. Really, very few shots in this game are worth using, and ReimuA outshines them all.
ReimuB (Suika) - 5/10
Oh, was this homing Reimu? I didn't realize :V After using ReimuA for several years, giving ReimuB another shot was difficult. The drop in power is very noticeable, and the homing isn't accurate enough to make up for it. Her bomb is really nifty though, and gives you a pretty substantial period of invincibility. In terms of damage, it's one of the rare times I can say something is more effective the higher the difficulty. Her ability isn't very useful past Easy mode, though. If you're playing well enough to 1cc the game, you're playing well enough that your Communication Gauge is maxed out. Her Satori fight is...conflicting. Pandemonium on Lunatic is one of the most fun spellcards in the entire series, but Labyrinth is utter garbage. What's the point in designing a spellcard around homing when the homing doesn't actually work?
ReimuC (Aya) - 5/10
ReimuC is the definition of "risk vs. reward." She feels like that character that can absolutely fuck up the game if you master her...but it's so difficult to get there, is it really worth it? She's not weak, but compared to ReimuA, she's not especially strong either, and you have to be distressingly close to do big damage. As someone pointed out though, it's nice having essentially full power at 3.00L, so you basically get a free bomb at 4.00. Speaking of her bomb, it's the strongest in the game, and combined with her speed ability, lets ReimuC rip stages, bosses and patterns apart. Her Satori fight is fun, I will say that-- the second Aya card is a blast.
MarisaA (Alice) - 8/10
Reverse-focus shot types have always been really fun for me, and MarisaA is no different. At 6+ power, her spread is wide enough that she can annihilate everything on screen, and her unfocused shot deals good damage from a distance and insane damage when shotgunning. She starts to wane at higher difficulties due to Marisa's speed and fatbox, though. Her bomb is only really useful when shotgunning, but if you use it + shoot the boss, it's basically a get-out-of-jail-free card. During stages and at long distance bosses, it's mostly just a way to get out of a pinch when you're cornered, but you get eight of them. Her Satori fight is pretty fun, but can drag on because her attacks require so much micrododging with a shot type that's based around being unfocused.
MarisaB (Patchouli) - 8/10
It takes some getting used to, but MarisaB has a shot for every occasion. Fire Sign is probably one of the weakest forward-focus type shots in the series, but Water Sign and Wood Sign annihilate stages and do great damage when shotgunning. Metal and Earth Signs are very situational, but she doesn't lose anything by having them, so they can only help (and nailing an Earth Sign shot is really satisfying). Her bomb has a decent invincibility time and can do some crazy damage if you drop it right on the boss' face, especially with Wood Sign, since L3 Wood Sign shotgun is the strongest shot in the game. Her Satori fight is an absolute blast and very manageable. Really, she only suffers at long-range during boss fights because Fire Sign just doesn't cut it, but I suppose she'd be completely OP if it dealt ReimuA levels of damage.
MarisaC (Nitori) - 2/10
The only reason I gave her a 2 instead of a 1 is because her bomb gives you back 0.50 if you don't get hit while using it. Most enemies (including the bosses) are very mobile in this game, so the delay on your options' shots causes them to miss most of the time, which makes her mediocre power even worse (this is really noticeable against patterns like Parsee's first card or Exteeeeeending Arm). If she was really strong, it could be an even tradeoff, but she's....well, not. Her bomb is useful if you're just starting out, but once you realize you can't do any damage with it, you're stuck with her awful shot as your sole offense. Every character in the game has something they exceed at, except Nitori. Yukari is forward-focus and her bomb clears the screen and does damage. Alice and Patchouli have both power and spreads. Even Aya and Suika can get a good amount of use out of their bombs. Nitori is good at absolutely nothing. Hands down one of the worst shot types in the series.
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ReimuA 10/10 - This shot is ultra mega powerful. Not only that. It's a BEAST on Lunatic scoring. The bomb is so beautiful. You get invincibility and you can
....GRAAAAAAAAAZE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERYTHINGGGGGGGGGG...
Also she's so good at survival too. She kills things mega fast. Her only flaw is the stupid annoying Satori fight.
Also. Gaphax is useful at times. Most notably bypassing stage 5 post midboss so you don't have to learn anything. Yaaaaaaaaaaay!
ReimuB 5/10 - She's weak. Her gimmick is useless because the items are gained at low value (and any other character can simply GRAZE to get items anyway). Her homing isn't even homing. And I can't even name that many places where her piercing even comes in handy.
Her bomb is pretty neat looking, and strong if used right I guess.
ReimuC 6/10 - Useless gimmick. Seriously. How is moving dangerously fast even remotely useful. For PoC'ing? Just graze. SA experts, if there's a practical use for this, please enlighten me.
At least she basically gets full power at 3 power. That's pretty useful. I would complain about her gimmicky shot but tbh I should learn how to use it before I make judgements. So uh, no point off for that, even if I hate it. Actually I'll still take off a point because blah.
MarisaA 8/10 - Neat shot. She's very powerful if used right. Her bomb is nice if pointblanked. And her spread is godly on stages, especially in a game full of streaming. She is good at scoring on lower difficulties as well from what I can see. She doesn't do half bad on Lunatic either.
I guess my only complaint is that her survivability decreases on Lunatic and you end up probably being better off using a Reimu shot for survival things. Well, at least she skips cat walk.
MarisaB 7/10 - I honestly don't like this shot, although everyone seems to love it. I can see why. but all I see it as is a worse version of MarisaA. Sure she has advantages in lower difficulty scoring. Sure she has a shotgun. Sure her bomb is nice and strong but... what does she have that MarisaA doesn't. The ability to shoot behind her? Who uses that? (Yes yes I'm sure it comes into play in scoring) I guess her options are cool to manipulate? Maybe morth can enlighten me because he's an expert at SA.
MarisaC 4/10 - Ahhh this shot. The one which basically doesn't excel at anything. Her bomb is cool for survival. And her shots aren't even that weak. They just take forever to fly up so the DPS is low. Still. The other shots just give you anything this shot could never give you. Sure the bomb is good for safety and all. But the other shots are better at dealing with things anyway.
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ReimuA: 10/10
Literally perfect, she's THE Needle Reimu, and she even scores! Great damage, good bomb that hits the whole screen and lets you graze, and lasts for a good while so you can shoot along with it to make up for its fairly low damage, and Yukari's ability is pretty useful if you run out of options, or feel like trivializing streaming sections.
Satori's fight is really tough, but when you get to have such a strong shot I say it's a fair price.
ReimuB: 7/10
She's okay, there just isn't anything this shot does the other Reimus don't do better, A has a better main shot, and C has a better bomb. I guess Suika's autocollect is useful for life pieces, but most of the time when you can't graze, you can just PoC with next to no risk. Her bomb can be pretty powerful on higher difficulties, and her Satori fight isn't terribly hard, so she's not a bad shot, even if she's too weak to make her piercing useful (ReimuA still kills the Stage 4's midboss faster).
ReimuC: 7/10
Cute shot. It handles similar to IN Youmu, so it takes some getting used to... or not really since you can just bomb everything with her, and without losing power in some cases. For a shot that's technically always missing half of its shots, it's got decent power and (in theory) great range, the bomb is very powerful and with Aya's ability, it's pretty much an all-range bomb like ReimuA's. She has arguably the easiest Satori fight, so she's a good shot for first 1cc's... I just don't see much use for her beyond that.
MarisaA: 8/10
I really like this one, she's very close to ReimuA in power point-blank, and she has great range for stages (Stage 5's popcorn section is nothing to her). Her bomb is deadly at close range, which along with her main shot can end spellcards really quickly. The ability to hold 8 bombs is kind of a double edge sword, because you have to keep handful of them to have at least decent power, and when you die you get less power back compared to the rest of the shots (and you don't get full power back if you died at full power). She's strong, but she's Marisa in a game with very clippy patterns, at least her Satori fight is average.
MarisaB: 6/10
She's basically Range: the shottype, she can hit pretty much anywhere on the screen, which can be very good on stages, and her bombs are incredibly strong point-blank. On bosses however, she kinda falls short, Fire formation is actually very weak (ReimuA is already as strong as it at level 2), and bombing always has to be planned for, which isn't a bad thing, but it makes it less flexible than other bombs. Her Satori fight is quite enjoyable (though Princess Undine can be a bitch sometimes) and it's a fun shot to use, but she too weak for my liking.
MarisaC: 2/10
I feel like she tries too hard to be PCB MarisaA... and fails even harder. She's kind of strong but the missiles take very long to reach anything, and the trailing effect is even worse than PCB MarisaA's. The border-like bomb is good as a safety net I guess, but you'd always be on lower power than usual, and sure it clears most of the screen, but it doesn't really deal damage. I just don't see a reason to use her, if you just want to clear but have trouble with the patterns, just pick ReimuC and bomb everything, and get an easy Satori fight to boot.
Oh, and fuck Extending Arm, I'd rather face DBDB three times in a row.
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Best game time~ UFO is a go.
ReimuA: 9.5/10
Definitely one of the best renditions of Needle Reimu in the series, and also my personal favorite. She's very powerful against bosses, even retaining pretty good DPS at lower power, being better off than most of the other shots. Reimu benefits are present, of course, and she also has one of the most powerful bombs in the game in Wild Exorcism Dance. Her only problem is that stages are rougher with her compared to some of the other shots, but that's where the learning comes in. Her scoring potential isn't as high as Marisa's or Sanae's, but she's probably the easiest to try to score with due to her being the best at survival.
ReimuB: 8/10
Underrated shot type. Her stages are among the best due to her homing working wonders (makes her more preferable to SanaeA's homing snakes, in that regard), which makes her quite good at UFO summoning. Fantasy Seal is a good bomb, as well, but be careful when using it whenever summoning UFOs since it can accidentally blow it up before it fills. Bosses tend to drag on, but at least she has Reimu benefits. Overall a solid shot.
MarisaA: 7.5/10
INFINITE PENETRATION. Enjoy the piercing while it lasts, since MariA in this game is the last game so far in which Marisa has had her piercing. Her DPS is second to ReimuA in power, along with piercing thrown into the mix, so she's pretty powerful. The piercing works wonders in stages, as well, and makes her adept at UFO summoning. Master Spark is also a solid bomb...for bosses. For UFO summoning, Master Spark can be a liability if you use it incorrectly, as Marisa's slower movement makes UFOs harder to collect. As for bosses, Marisa's bigger hitbox and focused speed can be unkind (Lunatic!Good Omen...) and even her glowing options can be frustrating in certain spells due to masking bullets. Her scoring potential is among the highest in the game, but she's probably the most challenging to use due to her being among the worst at survival.
MarisaB: 6/10
One of the most infamous shot types in the series, and for good reason. Take all the things that make Marisa less appealing to use and then add weak spread instead of the usual high power the ordinary magician usually houses (she has a decent shotgun, but it's pretty situational). The backshot to this shot isn't particularly useful aside from one or two stage portions, and the Ultimate Short-Wave isn't helpful for those who bombskip. Though she isn't a particularly bad shot, however. In lower difficulties, she has one of the highest scoring potentials, even having the Easy WR. Her bomb is amazing for UFO summoning, and of course she has a big grazebox. For survival, she's the worst in the game. As for scoring, she has her benefits.
SanaeA: 6/10
Pretty standard shot, and probably the most overlooked. Her homing snakes are helpful during stages, though worse than ReimuB's homing amulets when it comes to that. Though for bosses, her homing snakes are more superior than ReimuB's homing amulets due to higher damage output, although ReimuB still has superior bosses due to her hitbox and not being too far behind when it comes to DPS. Orochi is a good bomb for both UFO summoning and for bosses. She's not a bad shot at all, she's just outclassed by ReimuA, ReimuB, and SanaeB since they can provide what she has, but even better.
SanaeB: 9.5/10
My personal favorite shot in the series. Her spread frogs work wonders on stages and bosses alike, the range being great and the splash damage being quite helpful. Her shotgun is useful in many situations, as she can get off enough damage on bosses to end spells quickly. Wily Toad is a fantastic bomb for survival and scoring alike. For survival, it has the strongest damage output in the game, especially in conjunction with her shotgun. As for scoring, it helps that she can move around the screen at full speed during the bomb detonation to pick up stray UFOs before it goes off. She can also use it to blow up a lot of enemies and then fill up UFOs with their items feasibly. Unfortunately, she's worse than ReimuA at survival when it comes to boss performance due to Sanae having a bigger hitbox and not being as strong. It doesn't help that at low power, SanaeB's damage output suffers greatly. Even so, she's a very good shot. A tad overrated, but for the right reasons.
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Reimu A: 7.5/10
Her power is huge, but her spread is awful. Standard needle stuff. However, in this game stages are the biggest challenge so her lack of spread is really a hindrance. Her bomb is the same; extremely powerful, but it's very narrow and lowers your speed, making it bad for UFO collection. I can see her being awesome on lower difficulties or for someone better than me, but her lack of spread makes Lunatic stages too hard for me.
Reimu B: 8/10
Really, this shot is practically the same thing as Sanae A. I don't know why ZUN included both of them. Both shots totally crush stages, and deal surprisingly high damage to bosses for a homing type. The damage can't compare to Reimu A or Sanae B, but it's still not too bad. This one can cover a slightly larger area without much of a difference in damage. However, the bomb is worse. I'm not sure if Reimu's bomb deals more damage, but if it does it's hardly noticeable. Plus Fantasy Seal isn't screen clearing. But really, the differences are so minor it doesn't really matter.
Marisa A: 7/10
Another shot that really shines on lower difficulties. This is one of the few games where piercing is a big deal, as UFOs can block enemies and vice versa. Her piercing also makes her lack of spread less noticeable. However, the bomb is no good for stages. The slow down is real. It makes it not only impossible to collect UFOs, but you're very likely to accidentally run into a UFO that you didn't want. Great against bosses though.
Marisa B: 5/10
After playing with her a bit more, I have to admit she's not as bad I remembered or as people say she is. She can deal as much damage as ReimuA when shot gunning, and unlike SanaeB you don't have to in the boss's crotch to deal full shotgun damage. Her spread is quite a bit wider than ReimuA's, and while it's too weak to deal with heavy enemies unlesss you're shotgunning, most enemies in this game are of the popcorn variety anyway. Unlike SanaeB, she doesn't suffer too much at 3 power, which is a plus. However, her range doesn't even come close to ReimuB, SanaeA, or SanaeB's, and her power is still lower than SanaeB's. All that said, she still suffers from Marisa problems- a faster movement speed and a larger hitbox. Her bomb is also complete garbage. The shortest and the weakest in the game. Parts that I can bomb through with any other shot type, I have to spend 2 bombs on with this type. Honestly, even though she's advertised as a spread type, she's much closer to a wide forward focus type (like EoSD Reimu B). If this shot were given to Reimu and had a decent bomb, it could actually be worth playing with. However, ZUN didn't do that, so it doesn't get a good score.
Sanae A: 7.5/10
The same as Reimu B. Her shot might be slightly stronger, I'm not really sure. If it is, it's hardly noticeable. Destroys stages, weak against bosses but fairly strong for a homing type. The main advantage over Reimu is a screen clearing bomb, but really Reimu's clears enough bullets that it's not a big deal.
Sanae B: 7.5/10
Everyone likes this shot, but for some reason I just can't get the hang of it. The spread is definitely better against stages than Reimu A or Marisa A, but it still can't hold a candle to the homing types. The shot is awesome when shot gunned, but since her options are behind her and spread out dealing full shotgun damage is extremely difficult. My biggest complaint, though, is that it becomes much worse when not at full power. And UFO is notorious for not giving the player enough power to recover. If you get it during a boss, you have to deal with fairly low damage until the next stage. Now, the redeeming feature of this shot is the bomb. It's extremely strong, letting it take out bosses especially if you shotgun bomb it. It has a delay, so it won't kill UFOs instantly (giving you time to fill them up). It's really long. It doesn't lower your movement speed. The most OP bomb in the game, and one of the most OP in the series.
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ReimuA: 7/10
As much as she is powerful, stages are where this game get really difficult. Her lack of range become highly annoying during the latter stages of the game (EVEN HER BOMB IS STRAIGHTFORWARD!). She might be pretty good at bosses, but so does anyone else that is not MarisaB. Her lower speed also make it kind of difficult for UFO-ing and her lack of range make it troublesome to even UFO during stage 4 and stage 6
ReimuB: 9/10
The shottype that is not SanaeB that is actually good. While her amulet slightly bad at aiming, the way it worked really make up for it. Fantasy Seal is good for both staging and bosses, although it can get slightly troublesome during UFO. It doesn't really matter much if she didn't do well in bosses as ReimuA, because by the time you reached stage 4, you might as well already have overload amount of health lol (if you don't die, that is)
MarisaA: 7/10
A piercing shot that is not exactly good, but isn't THAT bad either. The piercing quality suddenly play a bigger role in annihilating stages while activating UFO, it makes other piercing-type Marisa laughable. Master Spark can annihilate bosses, but not so good for staging.
MarisaB: 4/10
Y evn liv? Other than her almost omnidirectional spread at 4.00 power, this shottype is shit in general. Her shot is also weak. Her bomb is decent in power, but it's kinda short
SanaeA: 8/10
Nothing much is going on with her compared to ReimuB, and due to the hitbox difference, it doesn't really worth trying this in exchange to ReimuB. Her homing is powerful, while not targetting what's behind her IIRC. Her bomb is good for staging (and, surprisingly, Byakuren's last spell) but is she worth the use? Well, if you love yourself some challenge, Sanae is your waifu, or just hate Reimu THAT much, then sure
SanaeB: 10/10
OP shottype because, why not? She has a nice ass-whopping damage for a shottype with splash damage, and an equally ass-whopping bomb. She easily outshone everyone else in both staging and bosses, and while she's a slight margin weaker than ReimuA, it doesn't affect much
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Best Touhou game :3
ReimuA - 9/10
Probably the single best iteration of needle Reimu in the series. She's stupidly strong, with a not-terrible range when unfocused at full power, which has been one of needle Reimu's long-running weaknesses. AMULET CHAIN GUN is one of the most ridiculous bombs in the series. It takes down stages, enemies, bosses, and UFOs, without the massive drop in speed that comes with Master Spark (it does slow her down, but not to the point where she can't grab nearby UFO tokens). Add in her small hitbox and you've got one of the best survival shots in the series.
ReimuB - 7/10
Homing Reimu is very good in this game, taking down stages with little difficulty. Her shots are strong enough to take down most enemies on screen with little difficulty, though the drop in power is very noticeable against bosses, especially on spellcards with lots of HP (Murasa's third card) or where the boss is difficult to hit (Kogasa's first card, Byakuren's fifth card). Also, if there are lots of enemies on stage, she has difficulty breaking UFOs with everything in her way. Her bomb is incredibly strong and has a great invincibility window too-- my only issue with it is that it can blow up UFOs before they're filled up. All that being said, one of ReimuB's shining moments is the UFOrgy in Stage 4-- with barely more than one bomb and a little skill, she can collect UFO after UFO and rack up resources at an insane rate.
MarisaA - 8/10
Probably the best use of piercing in the series, which might be why ZUN took it out after this :V MarisaA is only slightly weaker than Reimu, but I think she has an easier time with stages because her lasers can hit UFOs through enemies. Like most forward-focus Marisa shots though, she gets harder to succeed with the higher the difficulty. UFO has some of the densest patterns in the series, and Marisa's fatbox doesn't quite make the cut (especially in the second half of the game, where her options blend in with the glowing bullets). Master Spark is strong, but the massive slowdown really hurts, especially on stage portions when trying to collect UFOs.
MarisaB - 1/10
I appreciate that ZUN tried something new for Marisa, but this shot type is a disaster. Spread types are supposed to be really strong when shotgunning. MarisaB is not. Bombs that hit the entire screen for low damage are supposed to have long invincibility times. MarisaB does not (for reference, ReimuB's bomb has an extra 20 frames on invincibility and can deal nearly four times as much damage). There's very few situations where the backwards shot comes in handy, and she's too weak to really shoot down enemies quickly, so breaking UFOs is a big problem for her. Add that into Marisa's hitbox and speed and there's really nothing she's good at.
SanaeA - 9/10
My personal favorite shot type in the game! She's essentially an alternative to homing Reimu, in that her shots track enemies around the stage, but her forward focus shot is slightly stronger. This comes in hugely handy on spellcards where the bosses fly around screen (Byakuren's fifth card, Murasa's second, etc). Her bomb gives you a relatively long invincibility time and does decent damage to the whole screen, but not so strong that it'll automatically break any UFO on screen. She's the first shot I cleared the game with and still the only one I can consistently 1cc Hard with.
SanaeB - 10/10
I have to hand it to ZUN. There are very few characters in this series that you can play, royally fuck up from start to finish, and still get the 1cc. SanaeB has everything-- spread, shotgun power, a ridiculous bomb, scoring potential, everything. Stages are the main challenge in this game, and she destroys them beyond what any other character in this game can do. Her bomb is a free skip+supergraze opportunity, her focused shot is decently powerful at a distance and the strongest in the game when shotgunning, and her splash damage lets her break UFOs through enemies, similar to MarisaA. There's nothing she can't do.
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Not really fond of UFO...
ReimuA 9/10
Great power, okay range and a strong bomb. Second best needle Reimu, as there's still SA's ReimuA. Bomb will make getting UFOs a little bit tedious, but it certainly get things done. Overall, a very good balanced shot.
ReimuB 7.5/10
This shot would be amazing in a game like SA, but this is UFO, so it falls inferior to ReimuA. Reason? The homing shot really loves to target things you really wouldn't want it to target, and so, for example, destroying a UFO would usually require a bomb when there is too much small fry on the screen. However, it's a godsend in Stage 5, and collecting the small UFOs is pretty easy with it.
MarisaA 9/10
My personal favorite shot of the game! It's like the absolute opposite of ReimuB. It has a very short range, but it can hit pretty hard if you land it just right. The best thing about this shot is its piercing, which you wouldn't usually notice in any other Touhou game, but in UFO, it makes things like destroying UFOs a breeze. The bomb is incredibly strong, but it will slow you down to abysmal speeds, so bombing to collect small UFOs is not a good option with this. fucking blue UFOs
MarisaB 4/10
This shot is just... Pretty meh. In UFO, most enemies spawn very high above the screen, so the backwards shot is essentially useless. It's spread is... Okay, at best. And I guess the name of the bomb "Ultimate Shortwave" refers to how goddamn short it lasts, and how little damage it deals.
SanaeA 9/10
Believe me or not, but I think this shot's "homing" is actually a lot better than Reimu's. It's much more accurate, and it can kill a lot of enemies if they're positioned in a line, which is a pretty common thing in UFO. Apart from that, it's pretty much ReimuA with a better bomb.
SanaeB 7.5/10
People seem to praise this shot a lot, but I don't really see its appeal. It's like a missile Marisa, but with the missiles angled a little bit to the sides. I could see why it's useful, but for me, it's not really useful enough to completely stand out from the others. Sure, it's a powerhouse, but only when it's at full power. And remember, we're talking about UFO here, a game where getting actual full power and actually keeping it that way for more than five second is pretty hard. Its bomb is amazing though.
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Alright, UFO, a game I should play a bit more.
ReimuA - 9.5/10 Very strong shottype, makes most spellcards a piece of cake given that the strength surely does its job, along with the usual tinier Reimu hitbox she has a very good time against bosses. Lesser so in stages in which she has one of the harder times, but I think that bosses makes up for stages for the most part. Pretty strong bomb, too. However she has a lower scoring potentional than scoring as Marisa and Sanae have although it needs to be mentioned that due to her pretty good survival it is kind of easier to score with her regardless.
ReimuB - 8.5/10 Very good at stage portions, I would argue she has the best time against them, actually. Her homing shot has a fine strength and definitely packs a punch in UFO. Her bomb is also quite strong, she has a harder time against bosses than most shots but definitely makes up for it by her excellent stages and the fact that she still has the tinier hitbox. Needs to be noted the bomb can be silly and can be inconvenient during UFOs, although they're generally easier to summon with her.
MarisaA 7.5/10 (http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/953/345/580.png) Yes, infinite penetration. The last game in which she has piercing, too. Very strong shottype who's only a little less strong than ReimuA but can make good use of her piercing during both stages and bosses. Her bomb has a grandiose strength and definitely is strong, but you'd much rather have it against bosses than UFOs as that can really kill your scoring chances with MarisaA, along with her slower speed this makes collecting UFOs, or well, scoring in general, quite a bit harder. Excellent against bosses but you'd still much rather have ReimuA here as there's still the reasons for that; those being: strength is stronger for ReimuA than MarisaA, focused speed is much more troublesome for MarisaA than ReimuA; the hitbox being bigger for Marisa doesn't help either, another problem she faces is how the familars are so glowy and can make it much harder to dodge incoming danmaku than it should. Essentionally, her only plus is the infinite penetration and for the rest she's simplistically said inferior to ReimuA.
MarisaB 5/10 If you play as her, you're essentionally saying that you hate your life. MarisaB is infamous for... Well, being literally useless. The only plus point I can think of is how her shooting UNDER YOU helps during a few stage 5 portions, but that is where it remains. Other than that she's a very weak shot with a weak bomb along with it, atleast the bomb bullet clears and you can shotgun with the shot, but that shall not take away that playing as MarisaB is simply asking yourself for a good raging period.
SanaeA 6.5/10 Essentionally, ReimuB but less useful. Stronger homing but hits less, still does a fine job at stages, has a harder time at bosses due to a bigger hitbox but her shot makes up just a little for that. Has an easier time summoning ufos, her bomb is fine enough in terms of DPS. She's really just quite standard, ReimuA, ReimuB, MarisaA and SanaeB just have more to them than SanaeA, that doesn't really make her a bad shot, but it kind of does in comparison.
SanaeB 9.5/10 Her spread frogs are great for both stages and bosses; kind of give her an easier time at both due to that. She has quite a bit of splashdamage which has quite a bit of use too, notable is that she can shotgun pretty good too, that is how E-Splice managed to get the overall world record a while ago, by shotgunning Byakuren. Her bomb is amazing for both survival and scoring, as it is the strongest bomb in the game and even makes her already pretty strong shot look weak in comparison. It is very handy as you can still graze a little bit while activating the bomb, making SanaeB pretty easy to graze with. SanaeB's main problem really lies in the powerloss she has if she's not at max power, it is quite notable how much DPS she has at 4.00 power and 3.00 power, as a comparison. Bigger hitbox than ReimuA and a little less strength, but greatly makes up for that by being able to score a bit better, her bomb also allows her to move around without being slown down, which ReimuA's bomb doesn't. A strong and well-known shot, for the right reasons. Although at times overrated.
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ReimuA: 7/10. Hardly ever used this shot type.
ReimuB: 7/10. Okay but really lacks power.
MarisaA: 6/10. Not a big fan of Master Sparks.
MarisaB: 2/10. Heard horrible things about her; probably not going to try this shot for a while.
SanaeA: 7/10. Almost as good as SanaeB, but not quite.
SanaeB: 9/10. Frog shots, and a powerful frog bomb that wipes out entire attacks. Only with this type have I 1CCed Normal.
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UFO best Touhou game
ReimuA: 8/10
- The needles Reimu. Obviously strong, but she has short coverage for stages. I don't like her bomb, because narrow hitbox + slows your movement. She might not hit the UFOs because it might be hiding someone's back, but it's still strong enough to destroy it anyway.
ReimuB: 7/10
- The homing amulets Reimu. She's good at stages because obviously homing amulets. Her bomb is okay. She doesn't do well to hit UFOs.
MarisaA: 9/10
- The lasers Marisa, and the last infinite penetration lasers. Personal favorite shot. Her coverage is alright on stages, and does very good on bosses. Her bomb slows you down, but it's very wide! She has no problem hitting the UFOs (also clears Nue's UFO spells easily). This is like an improved ReimuA imo.
MarisaB: 6/10
- Fun fact: I've started playing UFO with this shot, because of a screenshot that shows her bomb, which I thought was cool, but... this shot is weak. She's good at stages, and that's it (I don't understand the omnidirectional shot, like... I haven't seen an enemy appearing from behind so ???). She doesn't do well on bosses (not unless you shotgun them which you can't do most of the time), and a short-lived bomb which has a weak power. Same goes for UFOs.
SanaeA: 7/10
- Haven't really used it enough. Homing snakes are nice for stages. Her bomb is alright. I think you might have a hard time hitting UFOs.
SanaeB: 8/10
- Exploding frogs. They're strong. She's good on stages and bosses, but it just confuses me because of the sound that it uses when it hits, lol. Her bomb is my favorite bomb out of all UFO bombs. She probably has little problems with destroying UFOs.
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ReimuA: 5/10
Good power, but VERY small range and weak-ish bomb. In a game all about bullets being shot in random directions and having to literally chase your powerups, this shot isn't that good.
ReimuB: 6/10
Your traditional homing Reimu. Low power and a decent bomb. But the homing's good.
MarisaA: 5/10
The power is nice, but the range is absolutely awful, and Master Spark forces you to slow down and not collect items. The piercing doesn't help.
MarisaB: 1/10
It's super-weak and super-spread. Neither of those are any good in the mind-numbingly difficult bosses. The bomb is absolutely useless.
SanaeA: 9/10
Sanae? More like SanBAE. Her shots in this game are amazing. This shot is really powerful for a homing shot, and also functions as a forward-focus shot. The bomb is a little lacking, though.
SanaeB: 10/10
This shot has the most damage potential I have ever seen. It's capable of having a bomb being placed on top of the boss, then go around collecting items, or just plant your face on the boss when unfocused for super easy boss killing. The spread also helps it hit tons of stage enemies and helps with hitting the boss when dodging.
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ReimuA : 8/10 - Your average, run of the mill needle Reimu. Small range, but also very good power. The small hitbox mixed with the very powerful forward focus bomb this shot has makes for a devastating combination, Even the fact that the bomb lasts for a while makes me love this shot more.
ReimuB : 6.5/10 : The homing amulets make mince meat out of stages, however she lacks in power for the shot and the bomb as well, but the bomb's lack of power will help with UFO collection since the bomb doesnt decrease her speed. The small hitbox continues to work wonders against some of the harder patterns, allowing you to dodge and deal decent damage with the homing shots.
MarisaA 6/10 : Penetration. Does very good damage against both bosses and UFO's at 4.00 power, but the bomb; Master Spark, completely ruses you by slowing you down & dealing an insane amount of damage to the UFO's, causing them to prematurely pop. However, the bomb is pretty damn good against bosses, like always.
MarisaB : 2/10 lol what the fug man zun what were you thinking. I mean, i guess the bomb is good for UFO shenanigans but.. rly fam?
SanaeA : 6/10 Think ReimuB, but worse against stages and better against bosses. The only downside to using SanaeA to ReimuB is the bigger hitbox, but I guess on lower difficulties this doesnt make too much of a difference. The bomb is alright doe
SanaeB : 8.5/10 : My favorite shot, but I choose ReimuA over this ingame, while I rate this one higher. The options at 4.00 power melt bosses, however once you drop to 3.00 the damage takes a huge hit. The bomb is also very powerful, dealing massive damage, no speed decrease, letting you graze bullets AND it lasts for a long while as well. The only detriment to this shot is once again, the bigger hitbox, this makes cards like Good Omen hell, however you can just bomb skip it <:
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ReimuA 10/10: ReimuA is amazing. Her power against bosses is unmatched and her small hitbox makes dealing with bosses a lot easier. She's a pretty good shot. Though she sucks at scoring.
ReimuB 8/10: She gets a high rating because I'm biased. I like this shot. This is the shot I used to get my first LNBNV. Her hitbox is amazing, and she's very good at handling stages in terms of her homing. However...
One thing about ReimuB is that she's pretty bad at killing UFOs and she's pretty bad at scoring.
MarisaA 8/10: This is the pure definition of risk reward. Her piercing is amazing at handling stages and filling up UFOs, her graze box is amazing and lets her get tons of graze so she's very good at scoring. Shin plays her like a badass.
MarisaB 5/10: Shit survival. But she's okay at scoring I guess.
SanaeA 6/10: She's okay I guess? she's not very strong, and SanaeB gives you anything this shot can't. I guess her bomb is useful for getting UFOs and not killing them?
SanaeB 10/10: another excellent shot. Her spread makes her very good at handling stages and filling up UFOs. I can even fill of UFOs without bombing like in stage 4. It's very convenient.
The only problem is that it's annoying to do bosses with her. But you just can't deny her awesomeness. She's a master at this game's scoring system.
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ReimuA: 8/10
She's very, very powerful, and has a good bomb. But she's bad at scoring and makes the stages harder than they need to be.
ReimuB: 7/10
Her homing is good and her bomb does decent damage. But once again she's bad at stages, and she makes the bosses harder.
MarisaB: 8/10
(http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/953/345/580.png)
High risk, high reward. Her piercing is great for stages and UFOs, and she has a large grazebox for 420grazing, so she's very good at scoring. But she's Marisa, with all the downsides. Even so, Shin plays her like a badass, like Mino said.
INFINITE PENETRATION ~
MarisaB: 4/10
All around shit. Dem backshots.
SanaeA: 6.5/10
Snakes and Ladders anyone?
Okay damage, decent bomb. But SanaeB does everything she can but better.
SanaeB: 10/10
Very good at stages, very good at scoring, good boss damage at 4.00, and one of the best bombs in the series.
Probably one of the best shot-types the series has ever seen, though she isn't the rofl stomp get 240359 lives some shots are.
But she's still awesome.
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And that concludes the week of the best game. Time for TD.
Reimu: 8.5/10
First of Reimu's pseudo-homing/needle shots, and by far the best of them. Homing works wonders on stages, boss performance is great due to good forward focus damage and the small hitbox. Her ability to have the spirits automatically collected works wonders. Her trance isn't as strong as Marisa's or Youmu's, though.
Marisa: 8/10
Her stages are the worst...which isn't saying much since TD stages aren't particularly problematic. Her boss performance is solid (despite the big hitbox), and her trance is very powerful.
Sanae: 5.5/10
As much as I favor this shot compared to the others for obvious reasons, there's nothing Sanae has that makes her more appealing to use compared to the other shots. Her shot is weak (it even misses the target) and her trance isn't very strong (tied with Reimu). Her spread works nicely on stages, but it's not like anyone else really struggles with them. Her bomb and unfocused shotgun complement each other nicely, but it's pretty difficult to master that strategy and even then her scoring potential pales in comparison to the other three, even with her enhanced trance gain.
Youmu: 8.5/10
Fun and unique shot. She tears stages apart and when you master her focused slashes, she also tears bosses apart (gg Seiga). Her bomb is very strong and her trance is even stronger. When used correctly, she pretty much wrecks the entire game. Getting to that point takes some learning, though it's worth it.
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I'll say this first. Excluding Youmu, all the shots in this game are very similar. Unfocus is a low power spread type, focus is a high power forward focus type. I'm pointing out the differences just for the sake of it, but really you could choose who to play based on who's dress you like best and it won't make a huge difference.
Reimu: 8/10
tl;dr She's an awesome shot but she sucks if you like to bomb/trance through everything.
Between the 3 "normal" shot types, Reimu has the best range. Her homing destroys stages better than Sanae's spread. Her needles are not quite as strong as Marisa's missiles but she's still able to take out bosses pretty quickly. Plus she's got a smaller hitbox. If we ignore bombs and trance, Reimu is hands down the best shot type of the three.
However, we can't ignore those. With most characters, you can trance, kill a ton of enemies, then gather the spirits to quickly refill your trance meter. While I'm sure her auto-collect ability is great for scoring, it prevents you from using this trick which means less trances. And since you get double life/bomb fragments while in trance, it means less resources all around. Combine that with the shortest, weakest bomb, and what would be a game-breaking shot type is now only as good as anyone else.
Marisa: 8/10
tl;dr Danmaku is all about power. Stages aren't that hard anyway.
Marisa's focus shot is the strongest of the three. While she functions fine as a forward focus type, she generates a ton of spirits when near the boss so she turns into something of a shotgun type. Her spread is the strongest of the three but it's also the most narrow. It's still weaker than the focus shots so it's high power is kind of pointless.
Her bomb is the longest and the most powerful, completely destroying most boss patterns. However, it slows you down. So unless you plan to bomb in advance, you'll be unable to shotgun the boss for spirits. Her trance is the best in the game, having the same ridiculous power as Youmu without having to be right next to the enemies (letting you do the method I described earlier to refill your trance meter). She has a fat hitbox, and it is quite noticeable.
Sanae 8/10 and a gold star
tl;dr She's a crappy version of Reimu who gets a crapton of trances.
Sanae has a better spread than Marisa, but still not as good as Reimu. Her focus shot is not only the weakest in the game, but the way the shots curve, sometimes you can be sitting right under the boss and they'll fly around the boss. In other words, she doesn't always deal full damage even if you are sitting under the boss. Plus she's got a fairly large hitbox. If we ignore bombs and trances, there is absolutely no reason to choose Sanae over Reimu.
However, in every area that Reimu fails, Sanae is amazing. Her bomb, while just as weak as Reimu's, is longer. It allows you to sit on top of the boss collecting spirits. Since Sanae doesn't have Reimu's auto-collect ability, it means she can do the trance refill trick I mentioned. The bomb, plus the trick, plus Sanae's ability which fills her trance meter faster, and Sanae gets far more trances than any other character. And more trances = more resources.
Plus, she's got the cutest dress.
Youmu: 8.5/10
tl;dr She's hard to use but she's better than everyone else.
The "weird and difficult to play but really good if you learn it" shot. Because of the way the slashes work, she pretty much deals full damage at 1 or 2 power, and higher power instead increases her range. Since stage 1 is balanced for Reimu/Marisa/Sanae's damage at 2 power, and Youmu is dealing more damage than they would at 4, she destroys stage 1 :V However, it also means the lower your power the higher on the screen you have to be to do any damage. This can become quite noticeable on Miko. Plus you have to get used to quickly switching between focus and unfocus, and that can be a big problem on Miko, Nue, and a few other patterns. Still, she destorys everything else with much less effort than Reimu, Marisa, or Sanae.
Her bomb is long and strong. Her trance is incredibly powerful, though you have to be near the enemy for it to be useful (thus the refill trick doesn't work). However, the way her shot works, you can't shotgun or else not as many slashes will hit the enemy. But you get more spirits the closer you are to the enemy. In other words, she can't get a ton of shotgun spirits the way Reimu, Marisa, or Sanae can. With these two flaws, she gets less trances than Marisa or Sanae. Still, her regular shot is almost bomb level in power so it doesn't really matter.
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Reimu: 8/10. Not much range when focused, but lots of power to compensate. Small hitbox and attracting spirits during trance, too.
Marisa: 6/10. Marisa as usual. Impossible to use bombs to get spirits, and having ultra-fast speed during trance is mostly pointless.
Sanae: 7/10. Quite a high range, though at the cost of power, and fills up the trance gauge more quickly.
Youmu: 2/10. Extremely awkward to use (either shoot unfocused or continually release the Z key in front of the boss), making even relatively easy cards an ordeal. Heck, it's difficult to capture Futo's last spell card.
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Reimu: 8/10
- Average shot. Good for anyone who's just starting the game. There really isn't anything I can say to a balanced and average shot type.
Marisa: 9/10
- Powerful shot. Shame that the infinite penetration no longer exists, but the lasers now spread at 3+ power, so it got kinda better at stages. Missiles are a major improvement from last time (SA, MarisaC). Powerful trance shot too.
Sanae: 6/10
- Weak shot. Only good for stages. Had a hard time clearing the game using this. I didn't like anything in this shot.. maybe the trance shot looks nice.
Youmu 8/10
- This one's unique. Her charged shot deals a good amount of damage to bosses, and clears a large amount of enemies on stages. idk if the bomb can miss at some points.
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>tfw missed UFO
Oh well
Reimu: 8/10
Homing amulets when unfocused and needles when focused, so she has both range and power when either is needed. Her bomb and trance often leave much to be desired, though; Fantasy Seal is fairly weak and you don't get much spirits out of it, and Reimu's trance is barely any stronger than her shot at full power, so it's mostly just to keep you alive longer than to actually deal heavy damage, and the autocollect spirits thing limits her ability to chain trances like the other girls can. She's the best for survival, but that's not what this game is about.
Marisa: 9/10
INFINITE PENETRATION.
InfinitePenetration.png Yes, infinite penetration.
Penetration.
InfinitePenetration_(2).png
INFINITE PENETRATION ~
This is why we can't have nice things :V
Seriously though, I did miss her piercing in some sections, and it would have made Futo much easier for her (not like she's hard, but still), but she's still a very good shot in this game. Her missiles are powerful and have splash, she can shotgun bosses for lots and lots of spirits and the ability to tilt Master Spark makes it much better for stages now, and her trance is very, very powerful.
Sanae: 6/10
She's not very good. She has spread for stages, but she's very weak in general, and her focused shot can miss the boss because of its wavy movement. Her bomb is okay, but when you can't shotgun properly you don't get as many spirits as you should, which makes her faster gauge charge ability something she needs to keep up with the rest, instead of an advantage over them.
Youmu: 8/10
She literally rips this game to shreds. Very strong trance, bomb and (focused) shot, but she really needs to get used to, her unfocused shot is not very strong and, while the MoFMarisaA options make sense for her to have, it's still as awkward to use as it was in MoF. She also loses the most power from dying, since it greatly reduces her range and has to take even more risks than before dying because of it. She's the best shot once you get past her high skill floor
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>tfw missed UFO
Oh well
I'm curious to what you would rate UFO shots, however!
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TD, along with EoSD, has the most balanced shot types in the series.
Reimu 8/10
A very versatile shot. It's one of the most balanced in the series in terms of power and range. The homing is exceptionally good in this game, so you actually WANT to stay in unfocused mode in stages. Trance mode is so-so, at best. Nothing really stands out about it.
Marisa 8.5/10
My favorite! The unfocused lasers actually spread out, so she gets a little bit of extra range this time. The focus shot is Magic Missile, and apart from being really, REALLY loud, it's one of the strongest shots in the game. However, the best thing about TD's Marisa is her Trance Mode. It's stupidly powerful! In fact, you can actually clear 2 entire spell cards if you activate it at the right moment.
Sanae 8/10
Actually not as bad as she seems. Ten Desires, unlike UFO, actually gives you a lot of chances to shotgun your enemies, and it's something Sanae is really good at. At full power, this shot spreads approx. how Yuyuko's butterflies did in IN. (Really far!) Plus, she has the ability to rapid fire Trance Modes, as she gets them so quickly, and during them, she can shotgun her enemy with no problem whatsoever. Her only con is, because of her gigantic spread, she also loses a lot of power.
Youmu 8.5/10
A Touhou game is not a Touhou game without a gimmick shot! (Seriously, why does Youmu always get the most gimmicky shot type?)
She's surprisingly easy to get used to, and she completely wrecks all the stages with no problem once you do. The slashes cover up the, like, whole half of the screen after release, so you don't even need to bother about releasing the button close to the enemy. Plus, she deals a surprisingly high amount of damage. Her Trance Mode's also pretty strong, not as strong as Marisa's though.
Also, she trivializes Seiga. Fuck you Seiga.
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Reimu 10/10 - This is a nice shot type. Her homing is nice. Her needles are great for bosses, and her hitbox helps with dodging. Her scoring potential isn't as high because her DPS is lower and she auto collects all the spirits, but it makes her routes a little interesting in scoring. Watching Keito and Mithril rock Reimu for scoring really made me appreciate her.
Marisa 8/10 - Not a bad shot at all. Her trance is very powerful and she becomes very fast during it, making it easy for her to manipulate the spirits on screen. She's not that great for survival purposes because of the Marisa fatbox and the fact that she's not really any better than Reimu in terms of power (if she's even stronger).
Sanae 6/10 - Meh. She's meh. Her power is terrible, her trance is very weak, even if it takes less spirits to fill up. She's really not that useful overall.
Youmu 10/10 - This is a great shottype for the game. Although I prefer Reimu, this shot is good at handling stages, and basically trivializes Seiga. She's also easily the best at scoring. My only complaint is that she's horrible for Miko survival.
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Reimu: 7/10
The new standard homing-needles Reimu. Needle range is very low, though.
Marisa: 5/10
>tfw no infinite penetration
Marisa's shot would be so much better if she had her penetration. Missiles are alright, though.
Sanae: 9/10
I don't get why people are hating on Sanae. The fact that there's no focused homing is aleviated by Sanae's massive spread, incredibly useful for this game. Not a full 10/10 because of the focused shot missing sometimes, though.
Youmu: 2/10
why a melee shot in a bullet hell it doesn't even make any sense and it's so hard to use
Good power, though.
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I'm curious to what you would rate UFO shots, however!
All right
Done in a pastebin (http://pastebin.com/k06UFb16) so as to not clutter the thread with overdue ratings :V
Despite being a game I don't enjoy all that much, I actually like UFO's selection of shottypes. It's probably between these and DDC's shots why I don't really like those of TD very much
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All right
Done in a pastebin (http://pastebin.com/k06UFb16) so as to not clutter the thread with overdue ratings :V
Despite being a game I don't enjoy all that much, I actually like UFO's selection of shottypes. It's probably between these and DDC's shots why I don't really like those of TD very much
Well said, my friend.
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TD round was pretty boring...
Votes tallied and put in the OP. For this round, I'd like no votes with the reasoning being 'I can't use this shot, so it must be bad'. That would make me pretty happy, so please and thank you.
Anyway, DDC is a go! I don't play this game very often, but here goes. I like how this is the game in which homing shots > forward focus shots.
ReimuA: 9.5/10
Best rendition of Reimu's homing shots by far. Mastering and using the gohei to its full potential takes a bit of time, but after that, you have yourself a very powerful tool. Wrecks stages and deals great damage on bosses. Bomb is not only entertaining to observe in action, but decently powerful, too (grazing with it looks cool, as well).
ReimuB: 6.5/10
The first time in which the needles are outclassed by the homing. ReimuB isn't a bad shot by any means (she's basically TD!Reimu), but she doesn't provide any benefits to anything, really. Her needles still do nice damage and Fantasy Seal is still a good bomb, though. Even so, if you want to use Reimu, ReimuA might be more appealing.
MarisaA: 3/10
FLAMETHROWER. Okay, this shot looks hella cool. It's a shame it's also hella terrible. If Marisa's flamethrower had powerful DPS at the bottom of the screen as well as it does when shotgunning, then she'd fare way better. But nope, the damage is pretty mediocre from the bottom and it can even mask bullets. Dark Spark looks really cool and does great damage, but that's still not worth using this shot for.
MarisaB: 9.5/10
EXTEND! EXTEND! EXTEND! Behold, the power and glory of the wondrous Magic Absorber! Gain bomb and life pieces in amazing amounts! As well as having an insanely good bomb for resource gain (not so much for bombskipping), her forward focus is quite powerful. She's worse than ReimuA and SakuyaA when it comes to bosses, but she still holds her own. Her Extra stage shenanigans are also hilarious.
SakuyaA: 9.5/10
DEMON KNIVES. Waaaaay cooler than PCB!SakuyaA, that's for sure. SakuyaA provides a lot of neat benefits: homing demon knives do quite a lot of damage (especially if you manage to figure out how to speedkill spells with them), the knives slow down bullets and make them less of a threat, and the shield bomb this shot wields is a huge improvement from SA!MarisaC's (sadly the spell counts as failed if used during one). The bomb grants you three bomb pieces when you don't get hit, which is a nice gain. Very good shot. ALSO SHE HAS THE BEST SCORES BECAUSE COUNTERSTOP FUCK YEEEEAAAH
SakuyaB: 6.5/10
Utter trash for survival goals. As for scoring, she's the best in the game when used in the right hands. Her bomb turns all bullets on the screen into PiV, which enables her to rake up a lot of points over time. A very tough shot to master, but the payoff in the end when mastered is amazing.
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ReimuA: 7/10. Reimu stuff, plus a homing purification rod on focusing. The only disadvantage is that the bomb slows you down, so collecting lots of items for 2.0 bonuses is more difficult.
ReimuB: 7.5/10. Focused shot is the usual low range / high power type. Bomb isn't too bad either.
MarisaA: 3/10. Focused shot doesn't even reach the whole screen: you can be directly below a boss and still not deal damage. (Plus the flamethrower effects tend to lag?)
MarisaB: 7.5/10. Trivializes the Extra stage, but she's a lot less helpful in the main game (at least on lower difficulties). Her bomb also lasts longer than the invincibility window that comes with it, for some reason, so I'm reluctant to rate this type higher.
SakuyaA: 9/10. Gets TWO PoCs per bomb, and if you let it last until it ends, you at least get 3/8 of a bomb back. Her homing / slowing knives also help a lot.
SakuyaB: 7/10. Great for scoring, not so great for survival.
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Reimu A: 9.5/10
Everything you like about the border team, but stronger and now the familiar can hit multiple enemies at once. The smaller hitbox is really helpful.
The focus shot's power is offset a bit against bosses because of the weird anti-homing thing, but without it this shot would just be ridiculously OP. The anti-homing thing turns what should be a homing type into a shotgunning type which is really weird. She winds up playing very similar to TD Youmu.
The unfocus shot is weak but it can go everywhere on the screen at once, so it complements the focus shot well.
The bomb is not the best. It deals a lot of damage, but it's a shotgun bomb and it moves strangely so you can rarely do the max damage unless you plan ahead. It slows you down too, so you can't PoC hop. And that's the main reason I use bombs in this game >_<
One of my favorite shot types in the series.
Reimu B: 7.5/10
Standard Reimu. Nothing special, but nothing bad. Smaller hitbox is still really helpful.
The focus shot deals good damage, but it's not as strong as Marisa B's and lacks the range of Reimu A/Sakuya A.
I don't know if homing is weaker in this game or if enemies are just more durable, but the homing takes quite a while to kill enemies. And since her focus shot has so little range, she has to rely a lot on this for stages. Not too huge a deal though.
Fantasy Seal is decent enough in this game. Nothing special, though.
Marisa A: 6.5/10
Her lowered PoC is not incredibly useful.
She deals about as much damage as Marisa B, which is quite a lot, but she has to be fairly high on the screen to do any damage with the flames and point blank to do the most damage.
The lasers deal the most damage of the 3 unfocus shots, but at the cost of range. Really not worth it.
Her bomb deals a lot of damage and is easy to use, but it slows you down. Still better than Reimu A's bomb, but combined with her other weaknesses overall not worth using.
Marisa B: 8.5/10
Her lowered PoC is still not incredibly useful. However, enemies (and bosses) will drop power items even if you're focused/at full power, which is surprisingly really useful for gathering resources in the early stages.
Her focus shot is strong. Standard.
Her unfocus shot is lasers. Still not worth it.
Her bomb is very long and reasonably powerful, but you aren't invincible for the entire duration and you can't bomb again until the magic absorber deletes itself. As a result, it can really screw you up on the extra stage or for patterns where bullets are spell resistant.
This is where things get complicated. Marisa B is a good shot, and deserves at least an 8/10. However, because her bomb turns bullets into power items, she can bomb spam her way through the game and get a crap ton of resources. If we're judging by "easiest to L1CC" she gets a 10/10. Her bomb is ridiculously overpowered. However, this is only possible through cheap bomb spamming. If you don't like to bomb span this shot loses most of it's potential.
Sakuya A: 9/10
Her lower item falling speed is a good trade off for the bigger hitbox. She gets resources easier than everyone else because of this.
The focus shot is... complicated. Because of the way the homing works ("fire some swords, wait, fire more swords", as opposed to a steady stream) it can very easily target an enemy you didn't want it to. It can deal quite a bit of damage, but to play her like that means you don't get the benefit of her time hacks. Time hacks makes everything all around a bit easier to dodge, but you have to deal with an annoying and difficult shot to use it. I'd rather take the straight power and range of Reimu A personally.
I personally prefer this unfocus shot to the others. The spread can hit most of the screen, and deals high enough damage when shotgunning. Range isn't as good as Reimu's but power is noticeably higher.
The bomb is really good, though. You can either get 2 auto-collects, or one auto-collect and 3 bomb pieces. It also acts as a safety net in case you get hit. Only problem is it deals no damage.
Sakuya B: 3.5/10
Still has lower item falling speed.
The focus shot is complete trash. Apparently it creates special point items which is good for scoring. But it deals abysmal damage and is incredibly narrow. Like, I'd rather use IN Alice than deal with this awful focus shot. At least Alice has piercing.
I still like the unfocus shot best, though. Good range and power.
Terrible, terrible bomb for survival. Short, deals no damage, just awful. On top of that, bullets with spell resistance still spawn and freeze but don't get deleted. If you don't know what that means, try bombing at the start of Seija's 3rd spell. At least this game doesn't have many bullets like that.
But even though I don't play for score, even I can tell this is great for scoring. Bullets freeze so you can graze them, which means you can get a ton of graze from lasers. Then they all turn into green point items, I'm sure this shot is really good for score.
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For this round, I'd like no votes with the reasoning being 'I can't use this shot, so it must be bad'. That would make me pretty happy, so please and thank you.
Hey look, a game where I can reasonably quickly use all of the shots!
ReimuA: 8/10
Homing-Homing Reimu. Pretty much Border Team in IN, but the damage rate is more bursty than in IN. The large range of the Axe of Death gohei does make up for it, though. Damage could be better.
ReimuB: 7.5/10
Standard Homing-Needle Reimu. Nothing special. Decent power, decent range. What bugs me though is that you miss a ton of shots from 3.xx to 4.00, leading to less damage potential. Considering I play purely survival and need the damage, it's a lower rating in my book.
MarisaA: 7/10
It's okay. I guess. The fact that the flames don't reach all the way across the screen really makes it hard to do damage when you're stuck at the bottom of the screen. Also, it's really hard to tell if you hit an enemy or not without shooting flames right in their faces. Dark Spark slowness does not help in a game all about auto-collecting items.
MarisaB: 9/10
marisab 2 op pls nerf
Seriously. This is THE shot to play as in general. Though the bomb is super weak and the shot is narrow, in Extra the bomb just keeps making free lives for a bomb. Combine that with high focused power (with splash!), it makes gathering resources easy and kills bosses quick.
SakuyaA: 9.5/10
The focused shot is super strange, but super fun to use. The slow is super nice, makes holes in the bullets that make dodging easier, and the damage is super high. The bomb is super good for survival, being able to collect items twice without going to the POC. The 0.5 missing from a 10/10 is the fact that the knives take a while to explode. BUT IT'S SO SATISFYING WHEN THEY EXPLODE AT ONCE THOUGH
SkauyaB: 4/10
Super low power, super low range. Bomb is pretty useless, except for supergrazing. If you're a scoring player, go ahead. But for a survivalist like me, it's a no sell.
In general, for me, DDC has the most shot types that are actually good.
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ReimuA: 8/10
- A different type of homing shot. It can be hard to control due it moving slowly but its hitbox is huge. Good for stages because you can focus in two directions. I heard you need to constantly focus-refocus so that the shot doesn't go off-center of the boss. Bomb makes me dizzy lol but it's strong.
ReimuB: 7/10
- It's like Reimu of TD except some of the shots at full power misses(?). She kinda plays the same like in TD.
MarisaA: 7/10
- #BURN. The first shot that I used when I started DDC because I thought the flamethrowers are cool, but they're kinda weak. Bomb is cool now that it auto-collects items when you activate it.
MarisaB: 10/10
- Oh god this shot is just the best. I think the missiles here are far more stronger compared to TD's. Even if the bomb is small and short in duration (and MoF bomb ripoff lol), it's still very good since you can gain lots of fragments using it.
SakuyaA: 9/10
- This shot is pretty strong too. It has a cool gimmick that slows the boss the more knives are stuck on them (which is very helpful on Raiko's survival spell). Her bomb reminds me of SA's MarisaC, which is good for survival.
SakuyaB: 6/10
- This is the least impressive shot. Weak in power, and somewhat of an unreliable bomb if you use it on spellcards with bullets that can't be erased (like Shinmyoumaru's 5th spellcard).
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ReimuA : 9.5/10 This shot is very very solid, high power, small hitbox, the homing shot when unfocused, it all mixes amazingly well in my opinion, the only downside IMO is the bomb, it makes getting 2.0's quite difficult and makes you move left and right, which I dislike quite a bit. However even with the issues I have with the bomb, I still think this is the best shot type in the game.
ReimuB : 8/10 Needle Reimu. Solid shot, very good forward focus but not the greatest range. However the homing when unfocused comes back and is a comfy addition. The bomb; Fantasy Seal is just how it always has been and I welcome it's existence, however sadly this shot does pale in comparison to ReimuA, it still is a very good shot to use.
MarisaA : 7.5/10 rip piercing, and the lasers are a little awkward to use when unfocused. BUT since Marisa has a fucking flamethrower strapped to her chest, the shot is very fun to use. Also master spark is still good as always so thats why the shot gets almost as high as ReimuB for me, just because it's FUN.
MarisaB : 9/10 (http://i.imgur.com/4cZRBN5.png) need I say more? So many fucking lives, easy full power and good forward focus. However the bomb isnt very good for bomb spamming :<
SakuyaA : 9/10 So good, the homing shot when focused does SO MUCH DAMAGE (and gives me 9,999,999,990 score) and when unfocused there's also some pretty good spread to help deal with stages effectively. The bomb is also very good, allowing for 2 "2.0"'s in a quick succession if used correctly in the right place. The only reason this isnt higher, is because of Reimu's hitbox being op
SakuyaB : 6/10 For survival, The shot isnt very good, however the bomb is quite similar to SakuyaB's unfocused bomb in PCB (even tho theres no borders lol rip me) so I guess it has some survival qualities, however what this shot lacks in survival, she makes up for in scoring since she can gain much more PIV than other shots.
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ReimuA: 9.5/10
A very convenient shottype for players (me included) who want to focus on dodging and not check for the bosses' movement every now and then, even more so with the smallest hitbox out of all player characters. The spinning rod in the focused mode that constantly aims for the enemies is very handy and also does solid damage even without the main shot. The homing amulets of the unfocused mode are a classic ever since EoSD, very good for stage portions. Bomb is pretty effective IMO, auto-collects all on-screen items while active, but doesn't have a very large range. Overall, aside from the bomb, I still rate this as the most convenient shottype in the game.
ReimuB: 8/10
Classical Reimu shottype with persuasion needles as the focused shot. They do a really nice amount of damage to enemies, but have a low range since they only move straightforward. The unfocused homing amulets shot do a overall good job, as mentioned above. Fantasy Seal as the bomb here is a very effective one, it can cover up most of the screen and do good damage in both stage portions and to bosses. A bit duller than ReimuA here, but overall pretty solid.
MarisaA: 7/10
Pretty straightforward shot type with unfocused laser shots. The lasers do a fair amount of damage themselves and also have a fairly good range on 3.00 and higher, but only cover the area above her. The focused flamethrower shot is visually pretty-looking and does good damage and spreads out a bit when hitting an enemy. The Master Dark Spark is a solid bomb, lasts quite long compared to others and does nice damage, but it also only covers the area above her. A 'high-risk-high-reward'-shottype because of the damage, but very straightforward and overall low range.
MarisaB: 6/10
No too different from MarisaA, lasers as the unfocused shot, however the focused shot does a somewhat more ranged damage than the flamethrower since the blasts of the missiles spread out a bit more (my impression at least) and always spawns power items when hitting an enemy. The bomb here is rather weak in regard of damage and range, as it only moves upward once activated, but does a good job on scoring as it transforms every bullet hitting it into the green point value items and also power items above the autocollection line. Very similar to MarisaA, but with a more powerful focused shot and a weaker bomb.
SakuyaA: 9/10
OP knives shottype. After ReimuA the second best focused shot in the game, the knives automatically aim for enemies and slows down their overall movement and shooting pace, including bosses, and explode after a short time (even if still focused) to deal a really good amount of damage. This focused shot drains the bosses' health really fast, even faster than ReimuA. The unfocused shot are pretty straightforward shooting knives, but do have a nice spread if on 3.00 and higher and cover most of the screen above her. The bomb is a defensive type, giving one free hit within a limited timespan, and returning 3 bomb fragments if not getting hit by a bullet. Overall very convenient and powerful, right after ReimuA.
SakuyaB: 5.5/10
Same unfocused shot, but the focused shot here has a lower range as the knives only fire straightforward, much like ReimuB's needles. Nonetheless, they still do nice damage, and are really good for scoring because they generate a huge amount of the green point items which are automatically collected, no matter where on the screen the player is. The bomb here doesn't directly do damage either, but it stops the movement of all bullets onscreen and makes the player invincible for a limited time, giving the opportunity to drain the enemies' health as much as possible without worrying for getting hit, and is also convenient for scoring since all bullets onscreen (not in all spellcards though) are turned into the green point items after the time is over. Overall pretty straightforward like ReimuB and both Marisas, but it does have its own benefits.
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ReimuA: 9/10
Homing was supposed to "very easy to use, but rather weak". This shottype, on the other hand, is strong as f*ck, but also very weird. The unfocused shot trivialize most of the stages, but the focused attack got really weird if you focus for too long. The bomb also have strange hitbox, and it makes Reimu move left and right lol (although it doesn't matter much).
Homing no longer beginner-friendly ;w;
ReimuB: 8/10
Literally TD!Reimu. The needle is pretty strong, but still lacked the range. Fantasy Seal also do some nice damage and wipe out most, if not all, bullets on the screen.
With TD and LoLK, this shot become less interesting...
MarisaA: 6/10
Dammit Marisa, flamethrower supposed to be a strong weapon! Anyway, the laser have decent damage, but the lack of piercing make it kinda shit. Dark Spark is also a good bomb since it deal big damage and you can tilt it depending on your direction. Her only downside is the flamethrower... I would've given 8/10 if it were stronger.
By the way, Dark Spark is kinda cool.
MarisaB: 8/10
EXTEND INTENSIFIES. This is THE shottype for both survival and scoring at the same time. While her laser doesn't pierce, her missile do some nasty splash damage to opponent. And while her bomb is quite weak, it is very good for scoring.
SakuyaA: 9/10
I want to say "OP KNIVES", but then I realized one thing: I can't use it well. Her unfocused is good, but the knives suddenly become weirder than PCB!SakuyaA. They're good for bosses, but the otherwise powerful knives become very weak in stages. Slowing down bullets (or at least, the opponent's shoot rate) is a pretty nice addition, if only they works against bosses (Get Bigger spellcards FTW). The bomb is simply SA!MarisaC, I wasn't sure if there's any differences between them other than this bomb is less rewarding when survived.
A much weirder shottype than ReimuA
SakuyaB: 6/10
Another shottype that I can't really use well. Her shot is simpler AND weaker. It is also straightforward, which is kinda unexpected from Sakuya. Her bomb do jack shit to opponent's HP, but it is good for scoring.
Sakuya, why?
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Skipped rating TD, since I really don't know the game very well, but I do love me some DDC.
ReimuA - 9/10
I adore this shot type! It's great for bosses and stages, since you can dodge and not worry (too much) about being under the boss, but unlike most homing Reimu types, it actually does great damage, and the homing amulets are strong enough to kill most enemies fairly quickly. It took me a while to get used to the awkward purification rod, but it's really very useful to have. Really strong, and the range increase from 3.xx to 4.00 always surprises me. Her bomb is also really strong, but you have to shotgun to make it effective, and the forced side-to-side motion can take time to get used to. Overall amazing shot for survival.
ReimuB - 8/10
You really can't go wrong with needle Reimu in any game, and homing is just an added bonus. It's not as strong as ReimuA, but it's an easy, comfortable shot to use. The increased focused range is very appreciated, and Fantasy Seal is as solid as ever. I like ReimuA a little more for the purification rod's homing, but ReimuB is a great survival shot type.
MarisaA - 5/10
I loved this shot type until I started getting further in the game and realized just how quickly it loses strength. It's really strong at shotgun range, but it loses power at a distance really quickly. Nega Dark Spark is really powerful, and the aiming is fun, but it suffers from the same problem UFO!MarisaA has-- the slowdown is so dramatic that it prevents you from collecting resources.
MarisaB - 9/10
Oh my goodness, I underestimated MarisaB at first. I didn't realize how many lives you can snap up using her bomb until you guys started talking about it, so thank you very much! Her bomb's lack of power does show in more difficult patterns (e.g. Kagerou's midboss spellcard), so it's not an automatic skip like most bombs are, but thankfully Magic Missile is plenty strong on its own.
SakuyaA - 9/10
SakuyaA tears this game apart, from her unfocused spread to her homing knives. Her knives slow enemies down and deal insane damage to bosses without having to aim, while her unfocused spread is wide enough that most stages are bypassed pretty easily. I really can't stand defensive bombs though-- I appreciate getting back 3/8ths of a bomb if it turned out to be unnecessary, but the fact that it deals no damage is annoying. Getting two auto-collects out of a single bomb is pretty sweet, though.
SakuyaB - 4/10
SakuyaB, more than any other scoring shot in the series imo, represents the divide between survival and score. She's really not very easy to use under any circumstance, but her ability to rack up green points and supergraze via her bomb makes her the best for scoring overall. Most record-holding shot types are also really strong and effective in survival as well, but...well, not her. Unless you're playing for score, there really isn't much of a reason to use SakuyaB over A, since her focused shot has significantly less range and power. Her bomb doesn't do any damage either, but it's really cool to watch in action.
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Alright. I guess it's time to post my ratings.
ReimuA 10/10 - This is my favorite shot type in all of the Touhou series. She has everything you could ever want. Her gohei is versatile and can handle stages really well. She can rack up a bunch of 2.0s effortlessly. She also does crazy damage against the bosses and can speedkill basically every attack in the game. People complain about her bomb making her slow and hard to get PoCs with, but the thing is, you're supposed to bomb when there are lots of items on screen already so that you autocollect them. Also, it really doesn't take her that long to move up to the screen to damage the boss.
ReimuB 5/10 - Dumb shot. Her needles have been completely ruined since the Pre-DDC era. While pretty much every needle shottype from EoSD - TD was very powerful and useful, these needles got nerfed in power and don't really help in finishing off a lot of the hard attacks. Her bomb is also pretty bad at racking up PiV especially because she damages bosses. Her only saving grace is her amazing unfocused homing that she shares with ReimuA, and her amazing hitbox.
MarisaA 4/10 - The worst shot in the game in my opinion. She has a shotgun, but unlike ReimuA, it's very hard to make use of it. Her fire doesn't even reach the top of the screen either. She's not very powerful at all when she's low on the screen. Plus, she has to fight Benben, who's fight is catered towards the homing shots, with its misdirection patterns and such. This is just a trainwreck shot if you ask me.
MarisaB 9/10 - Utterly broken. She can pretty much trivialize the game by allowing mass 2.0 farming essentially giving you unlimited lives if you know how to use her. Her magic missiles are VERY strong and much more useful than Reimu's awful failed attempt at a "top class needle". Her scoring is silly lol.
SakuyaA 9/10 - Another extremely broken shot. Probably more OP than ReimuA, because not only does she have an extremely powerful shotgun trick, she also SLOWS DOWN TIME, making bosses fire less bullets and less frequently, essentially making almost every pattern in the game EASIER to dodge than normal. Fun fact: Her time stopping ability is so broken that she can break the game's score by underflowing and turning into a counterstop....
SakuyaB 7/10 - This shot is completely and utterly terrible for survival purposes. And to be honest I really dislike it myself. Why does it get a 7/10 rating? Because she has the one thing that other characters just can't seem to compare to in terms of scoring. Mass PIV gain. Her bomb is legitimately broken for PIV farming. Thus, she gets so much more score than any other shot can dream of in the main game. This is the only reason she gets as high as a 7/10 in my eyes.
but truth be told, I think it's stupid that ReimuA doesn't get the most PiV gain. Why should the terrible shot be given the best scoring potential? That just means that no one is going to want to optimize her on the higher difficulties.
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ReimuA: 9.5/10
Powerful, homing, what more could you want?
The only reason it isn't 10/10 is that the bomb slows you down.
ReimuB: 5/10
Good unfocused homing but her bomb doesn't do that much damage and her needles are so weak.
Overall, a bad shot.
MarisaA: 4/10
Weak, low range. The fire doesn't even reach the top of the screen... moreover, she has by far the worst Benben fight.
MarisaB: 10/10 with Bomb Abuse, 5.5/10 without.
If you abuse her bomb she trivialises the entire game. But it's not that good otherwise. But she has very high damage, too.
SakuyaA: 9,999,999,999/10 Counterstop OP 9/10
Another extremely good shot. Slows the game down, high power from anywhere, good spread, the bomb can generate a huge amount of lives (though nowhere near MarisaB's teir) if you use it properly. Also facemelting.
SakuyaB: 7/10 - 10/10 for scoring, 4/10 for survival. Average 7/10.
I like scoring shots. Garbage for survival, but does it's actual purpose very well: mass PIV generation. You get PIV via shooting enemies focused, you get a ginormous amount of PIV from it's bomb.
It represents the divide between scoring and survival so well, honestly. It's probably personal bias on my part that made me rate this so high.
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MarisaB: 10/10 with Bomb Abuse, 5.5/10 without.
Do you want me to average these out (it'd be 7.75), or is the 5.5 your actual rating?
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Do you want me to average these out (it'd be 7.75), or is the 5.5 your actual rating?
I'd say average it out and round it down to 7.5 so it fits the 'only X/X.5' rule.
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I'd say average it out and round it down to 7.5 so it fits the 'only X/X.5' rule.
Alright, 7.5 it is. Thank you!
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And the moment we've been dreading...LoLK shots. Let's go.
Reimu: 8.5/10
Underrated. TD!Reimu comes back for the third time, though unfortunately her yin-yang orbs are spread even farther apart, which makes her a bit weaker since they hit even less (she's still pretty strong, but ffs ZUN, what prompted you to make such a stupid decision). She grazes the worst due to having the smallest hitbox, which can be pretty obnoxious due to the way this game's resource system works. Fantasy Seal also clears bullets upon use, so using it to bombgraze is quite challenging. Although her grazing is the worst, she's still quite handy. Having the smallest hitbox grants her the best overall boss performance, especially against Junko. Her unfocused homing works nicely on stages; not as significant as Sanae's homing snakes, but still practical in its own right. Reimu gets a lot of flak in this game due to not being Sanae or Reisen, but she really isn't a bad shot since she provides her own advantages to the table that make her viable for use.
Marisa: 4.5/10
All I can say is...ouch. Yeah, she grazes well. Yeah, her missiles are very powerful. But compared to the other shots, her stage portions are pretty disastrous. And by virtue of being Marisa, she also has the worst boss performance (though remember, she's very strong, so it helps). Her scoring potential isn't even that great since Sanae and Reisen have superior bombs for that. At least Master Spark is a great bomb damage-wise, but that isn't enough to save this poor witch.
Sanae: 9.5/10
Sanae~ Solid idea of combining her A/B shots from UFO, ZUN. Her unfocused frogs aren't as strong as they were in UFO, but they still come in handy in a variety of situations, such as against Sagume. On the other hand, her forward-focus/homing snakes are a fair bit stronger than they were in UFO, and they come in handy for stages and bosses alike. Due to the snakes, her stages are the absolute best since they destroy everything quickly so things don't get dangerous. What really cements the fact that Sanae's the best shot in the game is Wily Toad. It's the strongest bomb in the game once more, taking chunks of HP away from bosses every time it's used. It's also amazing for bombgrazing, and because of that, Sanae can easily reach the 200 graze requirement at the end of every chapter simply by using her bomb. Her scoring potential is the best due to that, as well, since she can graze tons because of Wily Toad. This shot's only problem is that she's a bit worse at boss performance compared to Reimu due to her hitbox. Even so, she's the best in the game due to having the most useful advantages.
Reisen: 9/10
The bunny's playable debut (shh, who cares about PoFV), and a quite solid one at that. Evil Undulation is much better than DDC!SakuyaA's shield bomb since it means Reisen can take three hits with it active. And if you don't get hit, the shield lasts for the entire stage potentially. Due to the bomb, though, her hitbox increases in size. But that's also a blessing, since her grazebox also increases in size. Due to that, she's the best at manual grazing. Her unfocused shot has decent spread while her focused shot is a piercing one that has good DPS (utterly melts Sagume and deals plenty of damage against Junko). Overall, she's a very good shot to use and her scoring potential is quite high, even being better than Sanae on some difficulties.
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Yaaaay. This is my favorite windows game, and a lot of it has to do with the shot types.
Reimu: 8.5/10 (9/10 for PD, 8/10 for Legacy)
In a game based around streaming, killing as many enemies on screen as possible, and full of suicide bullets, homing is a necessity. Sadly Reimu's homing is unfocused making it difficult to stream effectively. Still really useful for stages.
Her focused shot is really meh. Sanae deals just as much damage at full power (since Reimu can only get 3 options to hit the boss). Marisa is waaaay stronger. And Reisen is Reisen. Still does it's job well enough, I guess.
The bomb is by far the worst in the game- it clears bullets so you can't super graze, and it doesn't even last as long/do as much damage/clear as many bullets as Master Spark. On PD where you need to conserve your bomb or in No Bomb runs this isn't a big deal, but in Legacy the awful bomb is really noticeable.
However, the thing that really helps Reimu keep up with the others is her smaller hitbox. I can actually capture Ringo/Doremy/Junko's nons...!! Really, if you're used to playing with the bigger shrine maiden or the fat rabbit, you will notice the difference immediately.
Marisa: 6.5/10 (7/10 for PD, 6.5/10 for Legacy)
Marisa is a sad case of being a good shot in a game full of over powered shots. Marisa deals way more damage than any other shot. And I don't mean the usual "more damage", I mean she deals as much damage from the bottom of the screen as the frogs do when Sanae is shot gunning. In almost any other game, she would be top tier.
But sadly, like I said, this is a game where homing is a necessity, and Marisa does not have it. She doesn't even have a wide spread- her lasers still have the issue of being super narrow. Even though she can crush bosses, she fails on stages. And stages are you main source of resources in this game, so you'll be working with less lives than any other character.
Unless you really want to PoC, Master Spark can do everything Fantasy Seal can and it can do it better. It's stronger, it lasts longer, and it can clear most bullets thanks to the tilt. Unfortunately, it still clears bullets immediately, so you can't get that graze. Which is a big problem.
Sanae: 10/10 (9.5/10 for PD, 10/10 for Legacy)
This is my favorite shot in the series. It has something for every situation.
The focus shot is homing snakes which double as a forward focus type. They're as powerful as Reimu's needles. They utterly obliterate most stage portions, and since it's focused homing it means you can super stream easily.
The unfocus shot is high power,spread, splash damage frogs. It covers any stage portions that the homing can't and it destroys Sagume.
Even in PD where you want to conserve your bombs, this shot is just so versatile and easy to use that it makes up for the larger hitbox.
But once you include bombs, this shot becomes perfect. The game gives you 3 bombs per extend. You need 3 life pieces for an extend. Sanae's bomb is very long and it doesn't clear bullets immediately, so you can bomb then sit on top of the enemy gathering a ton of graze. Not to mention that it's the strongest bomb in the game.
And it's still well balanced. Using this shot, you still feel like you're playing the game as it was meant to be played, unlike with DDC Marisa B.
The only weakness is Sanae's large hitbox.
Reisen: 10/10 (10/10 for PD, 10/10 for Legacy)
The bomb. That's basically it.
The focused shot is weak and piercing is not incredibly useful outside of killing Sagume's familiars and Junko slaying.
The unfocus shot complements her focus shot well, a strong spread type on a forward focus type, but this is not the game for it. It isn't wide enough to let you cover the screen like with Sanae's frogs, and it isn't homing, so you still have to work to kill all the enemies.
All around she's decent in theory, but like Marisa this game was not made for this kind of shot.
But none of that matters, because of that bomb. It gives you 3 extra lives until the end of the stage. Yes, dying won't clear all the bullets or give you a ton of invincibility frames, and yes, your hitbox is bigger. But with 3 bombs, you can get hit 10 times per extend. That's just ridiculous. PD doesn't play much differently since you don't have to worry much about bomb conservation. On top of that, the bigger hitbox also means a bigger graze box, so she can get her resources back faster than Reimu or Marisa (or even Sanae, if you're good).
Loses most of its potential if you'r trying to no bomb, though.
I will say, though, excluding Reisen, Extra is the great equalizer. Since the stage portion is already so easy Sanae's stage killer shot goes to waste, and her bomb is useless too because Extra. Reimu's smaller hitbox and Marisa's higher power are both quite a bit more useful when the focus is on beating the bosses like in most games, rather than super resource gathering. Reisen's bomb is still totally nuts though.
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The time has finally come... time to analyze the heroines in my favorite Touhou game! :derp:
Reimu: 8.5/10
Classical as ever with homing amulets and persuasion needles. The unfocused shot is very convenient since they can cover up most of the screen, and take down enemies easily in most stage portions, their damage is not half bad either. Persuasion needles seem to have been tweaked a bit in power, but are still very effective at quickly defeating bosses. Fantasy Seal here is pretty solid itself, but it does present an obstacle to the importance of the graze mechanics in this game, since the collection of life and bomb fragments heavily depend on that and all enemy bullets around the player are immediately erased upon the moment the bomb is being used. The biggest advantage of Reimu, overall gameplay-wise, is still her hitbox, like proven in Shinmyoumaru's survival card DDC. Even small variations make a big difference overall. However, as a result, her graze-box is also smaller, which makes it harder to meet the 200-graze requirement of each chapter to gain resources, even more so in Pointdevice Mode, where misses don't restore bombs like usually in Legacy Mode, and that can be painful in some cases.
Overall: Solid gameplay-wise, good in range and power and hitbox size, but somewhat inconvenient for resource gain. Her advantages do balance that out though.
Marisa: 5/10
Actually a shottype boasting with firepower and damage potential. She does deal the greatest damage to bosses among all player characters with the magic missiles, draining their health so fast so it is even necessary to sometimes stop shooting for a moment in order to gain enough graze before the nonspell/spell breaks, which is easier than with Reimu since her hitbox and thus the grazing area is larger. The rather huge disadvantage here is the overall inconvenience of purely straightforward shots in the stage portions of this game. Outside of the boss battles, many stage enemies shoot patterns that are aimed at the player, forcing the player to be constantly on the move, making it pretty painful for her to hit the enemies, which also proves inconvenient for the resource gain since the percentage of enemies shot down also influence the chapter bonuses, where life/bomb pieces are only awarded if a certain amount of score is reached. Master Spark as her trademark bomb does overall a good job at clearing the screen off of enemies and bullets, but slows down her movement and makes it hard to graze as well.
Overall: A lot of power, but unfortunately too straightforward facing the stages of this game, while bosses do go down pretty quickly with her focused shot.
Sanae: 10/10
All around the most convenient shottype for this game, both Pointdevice and Legacy Modes. She essentially just trivializes the stage portions, especially at full power. Her unfocused Cobalt Spread is outright the best thing for wiping out an entire swarm of enemies in no time, and her focused Sky Serpent even have a greater range than they had back in UFO, reaching enemies and bosses even all the way across the screen, thus making her especially effective in quickly draining spellcards where the boss moves around a lot, such as in Junko's "Lilies of Murderous Intent" and overall convenient for focusing on dodging enemy bullets as the snakes do their job. Moreover, she's also very good for gaining a lot of resources, firstly due to her larger hitbox -> larger grazing area, secondly because her bomb has a good delay before unleashing itself and also makes her invulnerable upon casting it, making it really easy to literally milk graze out of enemy attacks before the entire screen is wiped clean. The disadvantage of her slightly larger hitbox is outnumbered by the aforementioned conveniences, although it's harder with her to dodge certain patterns. glare at Junko's nonspells
Overall: Excellent range, good power, good resource gain, what do we want more?
Reisen: 9.5/10
Convenient and broken altogether. Her unfocused shot is not too special, covers a fairly large portion of the screen above her, and deals solid damage as well. Her focused shot, however, does present an advantage over all other shottypes: it can penetrate through all obstacles, be it stage enemies, bosses or the bosses' familiars (such as Clownpiece's and Hecatia's moons and Sagume's orbs), essentially trivializing the boss battle against Sagume since this shot literally goes through all the orbs like thin air. The highlight here is the bomb: getting three free hits is certainly a thing, but it makes the hitbox larger, which is inconvenient because it's easier to get hit, but also convenient because it also enlarges the grazing area immensely and making resource gain a walk in the park, if used properly (a.k.a. not using up all three hits instantly just for the sake of them nullifying deaths).
Overall: Bomb grants three free lives, and despite being a fairly straightforward shottype it does have a decent range since the shots from her options are angled.
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This game would be much more amazing if it keeps the 'scoring for extend' mechanism and Junko got cooler pattern other than Lilies of Murderous Intent and Pristine Lunacy... oh well.
Reimu: 8/10
Still your TD!Reimu. It got, again, weak homing and strong needle. Fantasy Seal is pretty good in this game, but the 'graze (and kill) for life piece' system make it very risky to bomb at early stages as the bomb instantly erase bullets. She has the smallest hitbox among other character, but that eerily affects her graze hitbox. Heck, she even need to move a little bit just to graze a small portion of Doremy's 3rd spell lasers! And since survival in this game is closely related to scoring more than ever, Reimu no longer become the 'beginner-friendly' character (then again, this game never was beginner-friendly to begin with).
She plays more superior on PD than Legacy, it's kinda funny.
Marisa: 7/10
Poor Marisa, the only time she ever become this good is when every other shottypes are OP as fuck. Not only that, this game is also heavily homing-reliant most of the time. She is, in fact, having the worst time in stage 4 compared to everyone else while only doing better against non-Lunatic Sagume compared to Sanae
Anyway, her missiles have some really good damage, but they're still as inconsistent as TD!Marisa. Her laser didn't do much damage, and her entire stage 4 screams "I NEED MY PIERCING! WHERE IS DA PIERCING!?". She graze better than Reimu... because her hitbox is larger. Master Spark is still as good as ever for stages, except that it has the same problem as Reimu's Fantasy Seal in which she erased the bullets too early.
If only she has 8 powers like SA!MarisaA...
Sanae: 9/10
Sanae has arisen from her grave that is TD.
Her homing is strong for a homing shot, and hell yeah Cobalt Spread! That unfocused shot is just too amazing to exist. She play greatly in the first stages, but get kinda bad in the last 3 stages. Because of her rather low speed for a character with large hitbox, she is doing pretty badly against Clownpiece on Normal. However, her bomb helps a lot in both survival and scoring. It has a delay that allow the player to graze before the bomb explode, and Sanae also gain immunity during the delay.
This has nothing to do with the rating, but "Onyoi~".
Reisen: 10/10
So... her shot is rather weak. Even both her unfocused & focused shot do less damage than Marisa. But what makes her worthy of the rating 10/10?
Simple.
Her shots are much more solid, literally, compared to Marisa. Her piercing trivialize scoring on stage 2, and really help the scoring in earlier and later part of stage 6. She also kill those orbs in stage 4 easier than Marisa and even Sanae. What makes her really OP is none other than her bomb. Giving you not only one, but THREE layers of shield that lasts throughout the entire stage is definitely an advantage so great, that the side effect of larger hitbox doesn't matter anymore. In fact, the larger hitbox also increase the size of her graze hitbox, allow her to gain life pieces and Extends easier than any other character (with the exception of Sanae in later part of stage 3).
Not sure if it's because she is my main or she is simply just too good, but she did better at Clownpiece compared to anyone else.
Not much of an useless bunny only good for her sex appeal after all. Ha! Take that fandom!
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Reimu: 6/10
After TD, Needle Reimu hasn't been that good because of the really narrow range. the Homing Amulets are alright, but they're only there when you unfocus, which you won't be doing much in this game.
Marisa: 4/10
No infinite penetration, super low range, large hitbox, huge speed, bomb makes grazing hard. Super poor.
SanBAE: 10/10
Another game where Sanae is amazing. Exploding frogs are great for covering the whole screen, and focused homing is really useful.
Reisen: 8/10
Infinite penetration and bomb that gives you 3 extra hits is nice, but it fails a little in range, super important for killing all enemies and getting resources.
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Reimu: 7. Small hitbox against Junko, nothing else outstanding.
Marisa: 4. The usual Marisa, can't even get all of her lasers locked on, and she's shit at grazing like Reimu too.
Sanae: 9. OMGGRAZEBOMB and HOMING SNAKES ON FOCUS. Doesn't do too well against Sagume but Sagume is a weakling anyway, and even with Sanae you can get a net gain on resources on Stage 4.
Reisen: 9. That multi-layer bomb was a godsend, despite hitbox enlargement and short invincibility frames, when I did my first Legacy Normal 1cc. Being able to kind of trust your dodging skills comes in handy almost everywhere, especially against Clownpiece.
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LoLK shots are tallied and put in the OP (even less people than TD, lol). And that concludes the Rate the Shot Types thread for now. Feel free to discuss the ratings here. I know I have some things to say myself, but that will come soon.
As for PC-98 shots and PoFV, those are soon to come. I probably won't host them, though. I'll have someone borrow this thread, or something.
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LoLK shots are tallied and put in the OP (even less people than TD, lol).
I imagine LoLK scares away a lot of players with the huge difficulty spike (it did for me, at least), so that's unfortunately not surprising. As for TD, I dunno why less people would comment...I've always found it to be a really boring game, but I don't know the general opinion on it.
It's interesting that the further in the series you go, the greater the discrepancy between shot types. EoSD is really well-balanced, with no particular shot type having an absolute advantage (scores from 8.00-7.11), but then you get games like UFO that have scores from 9.13-3.75.
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I'd say it's more based on how many shots are available. EoSD had a difference of, like, 1, but PCB had ranged from, like, 4.6-8.4. TD had the next smallest difference after EoSD (it's the next game in the series with 4 playables) and IN had the biggest difference between the border team and Alice solo (with 12 different playables).
Also we should do some of the more popular fan games. And by "more popular fan games" I mean Len'en.
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Hello everyone! To whoever who saw ZM's post, they won't be doing PC-98 shots or PoFV.
If you haven't seen it:
As for PC-98 shots and PoFV, those are soon to come. I probably won't host them, though. I'll have someone borrow this thread, or something.
So here I am. I'll try to post every Tuesday.
RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuA:
ReimuB:
ReimuC:
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Story of Eastern Wonderland! The first actual danmaku Touhou game, and the only one with only Reimu as playable.
Your Choices:
ReimuA: Movement Type. It functions like a helicopter-style shot, but it pierces.
ReimuB: Defensive Type. Homing.
ReimuC: Attack Type. Forward focused.
My personal thoughts:
A: 4/10
I've never had a good time with SoEW in general. Way to used to modern day Touhou. It's a strange shot, but low power, if memory serves. Way too fast for a game without focusing.
B: 6/10
The first incarnation of Homing Reimu. The damage could be better, especially in the base shot. You don't really move fast enough to collect all of the items that fall.
C: 5/10
Focused Reimu, but super slow and super focused. The low range can be a little hard to deal with, but the damage is good.
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Ah, so you're doing the PC-98 shots. Thanks for that!
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ReimuA : 7/10 - Wide range, and piercing frontal shot. Sure, the speed is a tad high, but I found it useful as it helps me restream and avoid the stupid suicide bullets. A solid shot with the only true downside being the speed of the player.
ReimuB : 6/10 - Very good speed, wide range AND a homing shot. However, the only thing this shot does excellent I find, is the medium speed. It does stuff like range and damage well, but not perfect. Still a good shot for beginners I find since the homing shot does help a ton with stray enemies.
ReimuC : 8/10 - Be prepared to slow down, this shot feels like focused Marisa, but where it lacks in speed, it sure makes up in power. 2 (COUNT EM T W O) piercing lasers, missiles and a strong main shot thing (the red triangle whatever) This shot is exceptionally strong but with low range, melting bosses in a short amount of time if you have a fast trigger finger. However it's only downside is on the Marisa fight where she wont stay still damn it. IMO, ReimuC is the best shot in the game.
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I decided not to give ratings for LoLK's shot types because I don't have enough experience on the other shots to give proper rating. I also didn't give ratings for earlier games until MoF's time came because I don't really play them that much.
Fun thread. MarisaB didn't win in DDC though smh!
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ZM what have you spawned? :P
No shame
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I don't even know what I spawned, Chippy.
I'll keep the first post updated, just be sure to give me the ratings and lemme know when each new week begins.
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Now that the chaos of the Shot-Type Hydra is over, reposting the former OP of my thread:
Story of Eastern Wonderland! The first actual danmaku Touhou game, and the only one with only Reimu as playable.
Your Choices:
ReimuA: Movement Type. It functions like a helicopter-style shot, but it pierces.
ReimuB: Defensive Type. Homing.
ReimuC: Attack Type. Forward focused.
My personal thoughts:
A: 4/10
I've never had a good time with SoEW in general. Way to used to modern day Touhou. It's a strange shot, but low power, if memory serves. Way too fast for a game without focusing.
B: 6/10
The first incarnation of Homing Reimu. The damage could be better, especially in the base shot. You don't really move fast enough to collect all of the items that fall.
C: 5/10
Focused Reimu, but super slow and super focused. The low range can be a little hard to deal with, but the damage is good.
Currently there's only 2 ratings (me and Das).
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After playing SoEW this day. Except for the Mima fight, bosses don't drop items (except for 5 Stones, during the easy part, and Marisa's familiars, which are unreliable for items), meaning that you enter a battle and your power can only go down (when dying). Often you won't be playing at full power.
A (Movement type) 5/10
The speed is nice, but the attack leaves much to be desired. Attack is widespread, but has low bullet density, a level before full power you shoot 5 bullets at a time, but it's likely that only one will hit the boss. Type B has good range at higher levels, Type C has acceptable range at full power, both have higher density. But speed may be better for scoring (item recollection)
B (Defense type) 8/10
Good range, good density, nice movement speed, at full power you get homing shots (which give you more range than Type A), good damage.
C (Attack type) 7/10
High damage, even when not at full power, as much damage as Type B at full power. But has small range, and except for full power, there isn't much of a difference in how it behaves at higher levels (mostly differences at bullet directions, but that isn't very noticeable), as if you keep collecting power items but it's still the same.
I think Marisa "stole" her Magic Missiles from types B and C, like she did with Yuuka's Master Spark.
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Here are my personal ratings on Touhou 2 Story of Eastern Wonderland's shot types. My highest difficulty is hard mode cleared with all shots and I have beat the Extra Stage.
ReimuA: 8/10
The reason the rating is so high is because the playing the regular main stage games with this shot type is a godsend, especially on high difficulties. The game has attacks that you do not want to be close to because of the huge hitbox Reimu has, and a lot of bullets in this game can be really fast. Another reason I really think this is one of the best to go with for the main game is because item collection is a really a less difficult thing to due because you can only collect items if your hitbox touches them (this makes full power and score 1ups easy to get), and thus, the fast movement makes it so much easier than any other shot to accomplish, which missing and positioning is really tough otherwise, and while I agree it's power is relatively subpart (it's good if you button mash), it doesn't go out of it's way to be that useful for downing bosses on low power, but it'll get the job done in terms of range on stages and does well when you get close range and shotgun the boss, especially when you are safe behind a bomb. Speaking of which, the bomb is also pretty nice to in terms of length. I personally don't consider this shot be the best for the Extra Stage; however, because speed isn't as important on it, thus why it isn't 10 out of 10.
ReimuB: 5/10
This is what I consider to be the least helpful shot in the game. My reason is the homing at full power is not great and the main shot is decent at best, and the shot does not do the best under full power. The speed is average, but as mentioned before, good speed is helpful in the main game, but as I will mention later, slower speed is nice in the Extra Stage. This shot takes a hit for me because it's average, and the fact that it's power and the speed makes it less advantageous in both the main game and extra would never make me use it regularly, but if I wanted a challenge. I give it the score I do because of the aforementioned challenge factor, and at least like the bomb being the more lengthy one, which can be great for the invincibility it provides, does help somewhat (the other two bombs are seemingly a little less long to me). I will also agree that the homing can be useful on stage enemies, when you need to take out a ton of them, but I'd argue the others are better because you'll have an easier time knowing where a large quantity of items will drop because you're aligned more properly for that. Overall, this shot isn't the greatest, and I wish it had more advantages in some areas of the game, but I'll personally stick to the other two.
ReimuC: 7/10
Now this shot has a very useful shot from the very start of the game. The fabled exploding arrow deals a ton of damage to midbosses and bosses alike in this game, so it's one of the best for speed killing most bosses in this game (especially if you bomb a lot), and some bosses you indeed want to down faster than other shots can; however, the draw back in the main stages of this game is speed. The speed is really slow, and to get to full power isn't the most easy task to complete as you'll find yourself missing the quite a few precious power items, and this also make getting lives from score a heck of a chore. The few stages below full power are as good as Reimu A when its at full power, but full power Reimu C is nuts. If you can maintain this full power you will freaking wreak most ever main game boss, and don't even get me started on the button mashing exploit combined with full power. This shot doesn't shine in the main game, but it absolutely does in the extra stage, especially with the boss. Evil Eye Sigma has attacks that you must weave through, and Reimu A and B has the tendency for more frequent clip-death due to their speed, that of course makes this shot's speed quite helpful against Evil Eye Sigma, and it's made dodging the boss much more possible for me to do, that, and the high to full power is arguably more necessary on that boss than any other shot can provide, so that's mainly why my score for this shot is so high.
Those are my thoughts as someone whose played this game for about 8 years off and on. I'd say the highlights they all have for me is Reimu C is the most rewarding one for prowess in the extra stage, Reimu B for being challenging in the main game and especially Extra, and Reimu A for being the most useful for clearing the main game. I personally don't like to use the button mash exploit except on Marisa because she shoots random attacks and takes a long time to kill and Evil Eye Sigma because that boss lives up to the supposed tank quality Rika claims it to be.
Thanks for the chance to rate these shot types!
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RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10
LLS
ReimuA:
ReimuB:
MarisaA:
MarisaB:
Surprisingly few people voted for that. Now for Lotus Land Story!
ReimuA: 7/10
Homing Reimu again. Once again, power could be better.
ReimuB: 1/10
This shot is just way too wide to be able to do any damage to bosses.
MarisaA: 6/10
The first time we see Marisa's piercing laser as a shot. It has good power, but the range and the fact that the lasers pulse makes it hard to do continuous damage.
MarisaB: 6/10
First instance of Marisa's magical missiles. Same issues with MarisaA, but the missiles start off slow, and the range is really narrow for my tastes.
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Eh, too bad not many people see the benefits of SoEW's Reimu A shot looks like, oh well.
Anyway, here is my thoughts on Touhou 4 Lotus Land Story's shot type:
ReimuA: 7/10
Search Shot is by far the best of Reimu's two shot types, though that's not to say it's powerful as it's really not. One of the biggest appeals Reimu really has is her movement speed; it's very good for this game I feel, and since this shot does well with coverage in stages with it's spread and homing, and the fact that the shot's at least okay on bosses; it's the go to if you feel like playing Reimu in this game.
ReimuB: 2/10
Wide Shot is by far one of the worse shot types in any Touhou game. I hate to make it sound so harsh, but I cannot even remotely understand why this shot was left in the final game like this; it's way to weak and languish. I wouldn't use this shot at all because about the only thing the shot is good for is stages (even then it's not great for them), and shotgunning foes (and most of the option's shots miss even up close). The fact that I give it a two is for the semi-benefits and the fact that it's at least functional makes me feel that's too generous in regards to this choice of shot. I will never use this shot type and will cringe for anytime I see anyone play with it.
MarisaA: 9/10
Marisa's the MVP of this game, and both her shots I find beneficial as do I find her speeds in-game to also be beneficial. The Illusion Laser shot type's beams of doom are the key damage dealers of this game, and dang good ones at that. They are known for piercing foes, and since there are loads of enemies in this game that can take a few hits, it's extremely great for lines of enemies where this shot will severely tarnish the enemies hiding behind their friends in the stage and these lasers do your bosses in right quick (especially if they are hit dead-on with both lasers). The pulsing property really starts to make you pay attention in the beginning stages just when your lasers kick back in and watch as things die off quick as they kick back up. The laser pulse's delay shortens at full power too, making it even more effective. This is my personal favorite shot, and I love using it.
MarisaB: 8/10
Rapid Shot is a nice and fresh shot-type that does well for itself. Since for all characters of this game, the base shot from the character doesn't change, but only on the options beside them, I'm glad this one turned out to be like it was. Basically the rapid shots provided are just additional firepower that function like the basic stars Marisa shoots. There is a lot of variety in what the options do as your power goes up, and they focus mainly on the general region in front of Marisa rather than Illusion Shot's consistency, these shots are mostly all over the place. The full power can really be strong, and while all the bullets from Marisa lack the piercing property, they do great in terms of power and focusing down an area, which makes MarisaB great for stages where you need to take out a group of fodder fast. I don't consider this shot better than MarisaA, but it right up there with it.
Overall, ReimuB is garbage, but everything else is a fairly solid shot in this game which can be great for new players to the series. Touhou 4 is by far one of the most easy Touhou titles with its generosity with resources, such as lives from grazing and a bomb at the end of each stage, but its Extra Stage is quite nightmarish . (・﹏・)
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ReimuA : 7/10 - Good power, homing shots, it's all there for an all around good shot. No real downsides I can find as it fits everything adequately.
ReimuB 4/10 - Meh, wide shot which does make stages a little easier to deal with, but shotgunning isnt useful too much in LLS.
MarisaA : 9/10 MarisaA is in my opinion, the best shot in the game, hands down. Good range for a marisa shot AND exceptional power with piercing , her shot at max power literally melts bosses quicker than any other shot that even with the laser pulses, it still makes mince meat out of most foes (even gengetsu I find)
MarisaB : 7/10 Very good range, good power, just an all around good shot type. I dont think every option can hit bosses however (I think 4 can hit?) But still Marisa IMO has the best shot types in the game.
(fyi i dont see why people think LLS Ex is so difficult? Yes, it's hard once you start it but as you play it a little bit everything falls into place <: )
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Reimu A: 7/10
Her homing makes stages easier than with Marisa, but she really lacks power so bosses take longer. The usual homing Reimu stuff. If you're a well rounded player, but need some help with stages, this is your shot.
Reimu B: 5.5/10
A traditional spread type, not the shotgunning type. She's actually better at stages than Reimu A because 1) she can hit more enemies at a time and 2) her shots are stronger, so she can kill enemies more quickly. However, even though the individual bullets are strong they're really spread out making her awful against bosses. You can't shot gun effectively with this type, as half the bullets will always be missing the boss no matter how close you get. If you're fine with bosses but suck at stages, this is your shot.
Marisa A: 9/10
High power, low spread, piercing. Because of the piercing it makes some stages quite a bit easier too, most notably stage 4. The flip of Reimu A- if you're well rounded but need a little extra help with bosses, this is the shot for you.
Marisa B: 6.5/10
High power, low spread.... If... you're well rounded but need a little extra help with bosses... this is the shot for you? Yeah, I can't think of any situation where this shot is better than Marisa A. Maybe it's a little stronger? I can't really tell. It lacks piercing and doesn't really get much in exchange. It's a decent enough shot, but why use this when you could use Marisa A?
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Reimu A 7/10
As usual, the homing provides constant damage to bosses, and her main (non-homing) shots are spread more tightly, so overall it feels stronger on bosses.
Reimu B 5/10
When playing, i think this type shined the most in the stage portions of stages 3 and 4 thanks to the amount of enemies coming quickly from multiple points, but that's it, the damage to bosses is laughable and wasn't very impressing on other stages, mostly there's a low amount of enemies (often all congregated in a part of the screen at a time), and are mostly weak anyway.
Marisa A 9/10
OP, so very OP, the damage to bosses is astonishing, Yuuka (both encounters) went down noticeably fast compared to other types.
Marisa B 7/10
The balance just right, at types it feels like a bit lacking in power, maybe just because it lacks Reimu A's range or Marisa A's overkilling damage output, but again, nice balance, simply outshinned by Marisa A.
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I'M BACK! I had to work for my mom's boss over the last few days, and on top of that no internet access. So yeah.
RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10
LLS
MarisaA: 8.4/10
ReimuA: 7/10
MarisaB: 6.9/10
ReimuB: 3.5/10
MS
Reimu:
Marisa:
Mima:
Yuuka:
Now for Mystic Square's shots!
Reimu: 8/10
It's a homing type right off the bat. The main shot could be more focused to allow for easier boss killing, but it's fine.
Marisa: 8/10
Marisa's Magic Missiles again. This time, though, it's much more powerful I feel.
Mima: 10/10
I love this shot. Powerful, focused, and high movement speed. It lets me collect a huge number of items on the screen, which is really nice considering the how fast the items fall.
Yuuka: 2/10
Sure, it's super wide, but Yuuka can't move fast enough to actually get to where the items are.
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Reimu: 8.5/10
Her homing shots melt through stages enemies. However, she's slow, and homing can kill enemies on the other side of the screen. In other words, you won't be collecting many items. She's also not great against bosses. Still, one of the easiest shots to use if you aren't focused on keeping your rank up.
Marisa: 8/10
Her shots are about as strong as Mima's, if not stronger. She has a fairly wide spread. However, the delay in her magic missiles is more noticeable here than any other game except maybe SA. Since her shots have a wide spread, Mima actually does more damage consistantly from the bottom of the screen. She's also slower than Mima, making item collection a bit harder. Still, she's a good shot and a decent alternative to Mima if you need a little extra range.
Mima: 9/10
A really good shot, if a bit overrated. She's strong and fast, with the most narrow spread of the four players. This means she has to work harder to beat stages, but has the easiest time collecting items since only enemies directly in front of her will drop them. And more items = more extends. Her strong shot also means she kills bosses the quickest.
Yuuka: 3.5/10
Reimu can pretty much do anything Yuuka can, and more. Yuuka destroys stages almost as easily as Reimu, but has an even harder time collecting items because she's slower. Because of the positioning of her shots, shot gunning isn't much help either. Bosses take forever. The only reason to use this shot is if you prefer slow characters and don't mind missing a ton of items.
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Whoops, forgot again.
RANKINGS
SoEW:
ReimuB: 6.33/10
ReimuC: 6.33/10
ReimuA: 5.67/10
LLS
MarisaA: 8.4/10
ReimuA: 7/10
MarisaB: 6.9/10
ReimuB: 3.5/10
MS
Mima: 9.5
Reimu: 8.25
Marisa: 8
Yuuka: 2.75
Only 2 people in the previous round. Huh,
I've decided to not do the Phantasmagorias out of time constraints and an unfamiliarity with them, so if someone could do that, or some fan games, then go ahead.
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I made the assumption of an extended vote because we started on Friday instead of Wednesday, but here it goes.
Reimu 7/10
The true wide shot of the game, more consistent in damage.
Marisa 8/10
The missiles are nice-looking, but are weak, the real appeal is the main shot (stars), with generous range.
Mima 9/10
Because of the fixed shots (no delay with missiles), it feels more potent than Marisa's, while still having a generous range, it just makes bosses a breeze.
Yuuka 5/10
Wide shot, but also weak, takes a time killing enemies so they end up shooting bullets, and bosses require time.
I've decided to not do the Phantasmagorias out of time constraints and an unfamiliarity with them, so if someone could do that, or some fan games, then go ahead.
Well, a factor is how the RNG is feeling that day, and which character you are fighting against, and how you can just do a pacifist approach, so maybe we could skip it?
Motion to return to the fangame thread?
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Motion to return to the fangame thread?
I vote "aye".
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It's been nearly a month since HSiFS released, so I think it'll be nice to update this thread and add the HSiFS shots in. Sub-shots too, for that matter, since they obviously have a different niche. Obviously we're not going to rate the sixteen possible combinations, just the standard four shots separately. The sub-shots will be rated under them.
Reimu: 9.5/10
Best survival shot by a long-shot. Homing works wonders throughout the game, and it complements especially well with the Autumn and Winter sub-shots. Definitely a nice redemption for Reimu after considering how somewhat lackluster her LoLK shot was.
Marisa: 8.5/10
Marisa is...good again? She's pretty great here, actually. It's nice to see her lasers return, and they're very strong. Autumn and Winter are the best options for her regarding sub-shots, the former giving her some much needed range and the latter giving her even more power. Her only flaw is she doesn't have as comfy of stages as Reimu does.
Aya: 8/10
Ayayayayaya. Absurdly speedy is the first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to describing Aya. Her shot is even narrower than Marisa's, though, which can give her some problems down the road (it can also pierce, though, which is pretty nice). Her best season by far is Autumn, which she makes the best use out of (and it's also why she's the scoring queen of this game). It helps that her bomb is VERY long-lasting and also the most powerful in the game (even moreso than Master Spark!) if used on bosses.
Cirno: 5/10
TAN CIRNO. Sadly she's definitely the worst shot of the bunch. Her spread is pretty lackluster and barely does any damage to anything, so you're going to want her to be supported by Autumn or Winter (see the trend?). Her bomb is at least very good, so it's nice to farm season using it. But the fact that she's very reliant on her bomb and a sub-shot just goes to show that she isn't very good.
Spring: 2/10
Worst sub-shot in the game. Only benefit it gets is a screenclear which can be helpful, but not as helpful as what the other three can give. The homing is basically non-existent, too. It was theorized that this sub-shot would be a pretty good option for scoring, but so much for that. Doesn't help that Spring leads you to Okina's spring final, which is by far the hardest pattern in the game (for all the wrong reasons, though). Overall, this sub-shot is abysmal and no one should use it.
Summer: 5/10
Mediocre sub-shot. The release is pretty good, at least, because since it doesn't use all your release gauge and only uses one level, you can use each release to basically save your life if you're in danger. The options are pretty bad, though, since they're basically a barrage of weak pellets. Summer final is pretty tough, too. However, it's your best option when it comes to scoring Easy mode, if you're into that.
Autumn: 9.5/10
Gotta go fast! Using this season gives you the ability to dash through bullets, and it's for this ability that makes the season the best when it comes to scoring due to constant releasing and canceling bullets by dashing though them. Very practical for survival usage, too. The options are both decently strong and provide pretty nice range. Autumn final is both fun and fair, too. Definitely an amazing season (just like the actual season, too!).
Winter: 9.5/10
When it comes to raw survival (No Release play in mind), Winter is your go-to shot. The laser is strong and reliable, which works very well with Reimu's homing (ReimuWinter is the best shot for NBNR play). Its release is to be parked on top of bosses to cancel their bullets, netting players tons of PiV this way (you'll want to release often if you use them so you can refill your gauge constantly to abuse the increase in power that you can get if you have more options lit). Winter final is also the easiest of the four, which is a blessing for survivalists. The most simple season, but definitely amazing and practical.
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i love this game too much
Shots:
Reimu: 9/10
Homing is great for stages and doesn't suck on bosses, which is something I haven't heard of since DDC :hahaa:
Cirno: 6.5/10
The spread is somewhat powerful if you shotgun but those opportunities are rare, it can kill stage enemies but Reimu's homing is probably a better alternative. Bomb is cool for scoring, though.
Aya: 7.5/10
wtf I literally tapped the key once and Aya is already halfway across the screen, what is this DansGame
Piercing shot is cool (I find the dps kinda disappointing, I thought it would do more damage), and the bomb is also cool.
Marisa: 9/10
Very nice forward focus shot, strong and not utter crap. Stages aren't as easy anymore, but you can tear through bosses, so who cares?? Pair with winter sub for maximum dps (and maximum orgasm)
Sub-shots:
Spring: 5/10
Not only does it last for a short while, it can't really replenish itself (for spamming fun). The homing is pretty weak, too. But you get to face HBCB, which is in my opinion the most fun card in the game (also the hardest card in the game) and clear the whole screen, so make of that what you will.
Summer: 7/10
Free hits if you can press C properly. The options help out with stages a little bit, which is nice i guess but like
Also summer final is a toughie :(
Autumn: 9/10
kReYgAsM
This season is pretty damn good. Proper bullet canceling can enable you to spam releases with no end (provided there's enough bullets) and skip attacks. Just don't accidentally run into the boss. Options are a nice range boost for shots like Aya and Marisa, and the autumn final isn't total garbage.
Winter: 9.5/10
The options provide a nice dps boost to all shots. Releases can be spammed on top of bosses to net large amounts of PiV, and in some instances can replenish enough to allow release spam. The winter final isn't bad, either.
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Well, this is going to be a series of tough calls. I love this game, doesn't matter who I'm playing as. That said.....
Reimu: 10/10
Yeah, she's great. Very comfortable to use and a good homing shot with decent damage. Destroys some Extra cards that all the others struggle with.
Cirno: 8/10
Pretty fun to use when backed up with Winter, and her bomb looks gorgeous. It's just ironic that she represents Summer in this game, yet CirnoSummer absolutely sucks. Wonder if that was intentional....
Aya: 7/10
Good for scoring on higher difficulties, but that comes with a steep learning curve, and I'm really not comfortable with her yet. Mediocre damage.
Marisa: 9/10
Not quite perfect, but still a comfortable and easy-to-use forward focus shot.
Spring: 4/10
Recommended for first clears, because you don't have to get close and personal with the bosses to use it. Once you've gotten used to the patterns, though, this just falls by the wayside in comparison to all the other seasonal options.
Summer: 9/10
Turns out to be surprisingly effective for scoring, because of the multiplier from still having a high level for subsequent releases. Also decent for survival because you get multiple releases without having to run round and pick up bullets. Getting into place to use it can be awkward, but you just have to learn when it's worth going for and when it really isn't.
Autumn: 9/10
Very effective from Aunn onwards, when there's enough bullets for each release to power up the next one. You just have to learn different skills from the usual Touhou experience: precise fast movements, and stopping in the right place so as not to get hit in between releases. More taxing on the finger muscles than the other seasons :)
Winter: 8/10
Winter's particular niche is no-release play, which isn't my favourite, but it's nice to know that any time I want the extra challenge, the option is there. Apparently it's also good for Normal scoring? Haven't tried that out yet, but I'll give it a go.
Dog Days: 7/10
Well, that was a weird experience. At least the stage was designed around this option, with waves involving enemies from below, and Okina has several attacks where you can get above her for extra damage. This makes the whole stage refreshingly unusual, exasperating at times, but mostly it's a lot of fun. However, Mai and Satono's first two cards are utterly trivialised. And the backward shot synergises so well with Reimu's homing that it's painful to play the Extra with anyone else. Still, this gives me hope that ZUN will continue to experiment and give us things we couldn't have expected in future games!
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I'll start with the seasons.
Spring: 3.5/10
The way the homing shots are angled, they're only about as effective as the summer sub shots as far as area coverage goes. That's not to say summer is better in that regard, just that spring and summer are mostly interchangeable as far as their shots go. However, spring's release has very little use in this game, aside from stage 3. Since bullets are rarely going to be sitting still, a one time high area clear is less effective than a long lasting low area clear. The spring release is certainly useful, but there's nowhere in the game where it's more useful than any other release (aside from stage 3). It also has the hardest Okina last spell.
Summer: 9/10
Along with spring, the sub options are the best for clearing stages. The wide area makes things like stage 4 and 5 significantly easier. But the selling point for them is their incredible damage when shotgunning. This is noticeable in certain stage portions, such as the post midboss section of stage 4. The real reason summer is so powerful, though, is the release. The fact that it only consumes 1 option means that, where the other releases are going to stay in the level 3-4 range for most of the game, summer will be stay around level 5-6 allowing you to get more potent piv items. Furthermore, if you can drop a high level release on the boss at the beginning of a pattern and shotgun for a moment, it actually do more damage than winter. Even if you don't care about score (which you should, considering lives are linked to it), summer still has a great balance of range for stages and damage for bosses. The Okina last spell is harder than winter but easier than autumn.
Autumn: 9/10
The autumn sub shots are hand down the worst in the game, providing extremely little extra damage or range. But who uses autumn for the sub shot? The release lasts about as long as mid-level winter and follows you, providing a shield against bullets and allowing you to clear several spots at once. It's the best release for scoring and can make survival a lot easier. It's also the most versatile; any of the playable characters can use autumn effectively for a 1CC, though some are clearly better than others. Its weakness is that it doesn't make you invincible to enemies, and its low area means you have to get veeeery close to enemies. Everyone's had the experience where they're zipping towards the boss and accidentally crash into them, wasting their release. Autumn's Okina pattern is harder than summer but easier than spring.
Winter: 8/10
This subshot is the only one which provides a high damage boost from the bottom of the screen. Something 3/4 of the players desperately need. Unless you're Marisa, it's hands down the best sub option for no release runs, and even if you are Marisa it's still pretty good. Its release is very long lasting, making it good for scoring on boss nonspells. It does have a weakness in that it can't be spammed on stage portions the way summer, autumn, and even spring can. It's really the most well-rounded season, the only reason it's lower than summer and autumn is that it isn't able to cheese many patterns the way they can. Its Okina last spell is the easiest.
Reimu: 8/10
Reimu's ability to aim her homing shots outward or forward surprisingly helps a ton. She has good spread and decent damage. She's the best for no release runs, hands down. However, if you're using releases then she's kind of lack-luster. For any season except spring, there's someone who can use that season more effectively. Her bomb is also extremely ineffective. In the end Reimu is like winter: the most balanced of the players, but unable to cheese anything, putting her below the ones who can.
Cirno: 8.5/10
Cirno's spread is almost about as effective on stages as Reimu's homing, though it's noticeably worse on bosses if you're at the bottom of the screen. When you're shotgunning, though, it does incredible damage. And in a game where you can plant bullet clears in the boss's face every pattern, the opportunities for shotgunning are plenty. Combine this with summer, which further boosts your shotgunning damage and allows you to spam bullet clears while keeping your options, and you can clear several patterns as quickly as Marisa/Winter. Not to mention being able to melt through stages thanks to the double spread. Unfortunately, Cirno is really only good with summer. Her low speed makes autumn ineffective, she doesn't need the range that spring provides, and if you're going for winter you're better off with Reimu, who doesn't have to rely on releases on bosses. That's why, despite Cirno summer being amazing, Cirno as a whole can't get a higher score.
Aya: 7.5/10
Aya, like Cirno, is really good with one season but pretty awful with all the others. Her main shot does abysmal damage in general, and only ok damage when shotgunning. It doesn't even have a good spread. What she does have going for her are a long, powerful, easy to use bomb, and a ridiculous speed which ups both the risk and the reward in autumn's "high risk high reward" style. Aya/Autumn gets resources incredibly quickly, but unfortunately you get nothing for reaching an extend with max lives, so all those resources tend to go to waste. Still, I'd imagine she's the best for score.
Marisa: 8/10
Marisa's main shot is rather bad. It does good damage in the early game, but generally you'll have a hard time getting all four lasers to hit the boss in the later stages. Her damage is still higher than everyone except shotgunning Cirno, even with only 2 or 3 lasers, but it's not enough to make up for her low range on stages. Her bomb also sucks, arguably worse than Reimu's. That said, she's the player able to get the most use out of the most seasons. She has enough damage on her own that spring and summer are viable options, even if you don't like to shotgun with summer. Her speed isn't quite as high as Aya's, but still high enough to get some good use out of autumn. And you'll actually have decent dps with Marisa/Autumn. Finally, while you'd be trading your stage coverage, Marisa/Winter is able to melt through bosses at a ridiculous speed.
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Oh boy, this again xd. I'll start with the girls.
Reimu: 9/10
So Reimu is the best for survival again, whoever saw that coming. For survival play at least. Her bomb is Fantasy Seal (again), so no bomb-grazing for you, and you'll have rather meh damage out of it, but with Fall and Winter subs (especially Winter) she's a very solid shottype both for stages and bosses.
Cirno: 6/10
She's just... whatever, I didn't really like her. She's not terrible, but everyone else does something better than her. Her bomb reminds me a lot of PCB ReimuB's Duplex Barrier, except now it's slightly better since you get graze too.
Aya: 8/10
GOTTA GO FAST. She absolutely destroys everyone else at scoring, and she's not bad at all for survival either. her speed takes some getting used to and her range is pretty terrible, but she's decently strong (piercing helps a lot too) and her bomb is really good.
Marisa: 9/10
ZUN actually Made Marisa Great Again. It's refreshing seeing her being good this time around, her only real weakness (though a pretty big one) is she has a really hard time on stages. For bosses however, I'd say she's just as viable as Reimu for survival.
Now the subs.
Spring: 3/10
Well, I guess you could get some use out of the invincibility to graze things, but the sub-shot is terrible and doesn't home properly. And the release, while powerful, needs to be pretty high level to be good. Okina alone is reason enough to not pick Spring though, that final is being argued as having dethroned PDH as hardest final spell
Summer: 7/10
Power-wise, the shot leaves much to be desired, but releases spending just one option at the time makes Summer really good to just drop one on something for high burst damage. However, HPSI is quite a tough spell, which makes Summer a rather unattractive choice for survival
Fall: 10/10
No surprise best season irl is best season here too xd. Much like its character rep, Fall is good at both survival and scoring, the actual sub-shot is kind of mediocre, but the release is strong and can chain into itself to boot.
Winter: 9.5/10
Winter is best for pure survival for two reasons: 1) it's the only option to give an actually meaningful boost to your damage and 2) you get the easiest Okina Final spell for it. Its release is reminiscent of SA!MariB's bomb: very strong, but not very good for defensive use, your best option is to drop it on top of a boss at the start of a pattern. And the option stacking bug didn't get fixed, so you have access to some stupid strong firepower with it :V
EXSeason: 7/10
EX Stage was certainly designed after the shot, but it's an okay season, it almost makes you forget half your shots are missing when hitting stuff below you, and the release it crazy strong. Also, just putting this out there, Reimu goes from 9/10 to 12/10 in EX
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Spring final card is legit, I love every second of it. 20/10??!
There's already a flood of L/X Reimu stuff at the shiny new RF board. Very little Spring use for anyone anywhere, of course.
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imo you should not rate shots based on what spell cards they receive. but that's just me
Reimu: 9/10. Pretty legendary all around. Her homing isn't that weak for a homing shot and it's very versatile. It shines especially in extra. For first clearers and also for higher survival goals definitely pick Reimu.
Cirno: 6/10. For survival she's rather mediocre. The spread shot certainly gets the job done on stages, but on bosses she's pretty weak. She does shine while scoring though and that's a good plus for her.
Aya: 8/10. Most versatile bomb for score. Even for survival her shot is fairly nice and she doesn't seem to have any huge drawbacks. Only big thing is her movement speed which might throw off some people.
Marisa: 9/10. Yes, for once Marisa is fun as hell to play. Easily the strongest shot damage wise on bosses, which makes up for her tough stage sections. Bomb is great for survival play as well. Not sure how well she fares scoring though.
Spring: 4/10. The shot is pretty useless overall and the release is the weakest of the four. There are some neat tricks you can do with the i-frames the release gives you but it really only works if the boss in question releases a ton of bullets (Okina). It's a pretty weak subseason overall.
Summer: 8/10. I'd say this is by far the go-to choice for survival. Releases only using up one portion of the gauge is extremely useful and can be used as "backup bombs". Not to mention, the release itself deals tons of damage on the boss. Only weakness is the weak shot damage but at least it's nice on stages.
Autumn: 9/10. I haven't played this very much but being able to release and dash everywhere is needlessly overpowered. The shot is decently strong as well.
Winter: 6/10. The only good thing about this shot is the laser, it deals the highest amount of damage out of all the shots and is the go-to choice for no-release play. As a release though, it's pretty bad. The damage was severely nerfed from the demo, and the only redeeming factor about it is how long it lasts. I wouldn't use this for a first clear, honestly.