Well I've decided to get back into Touhou after a year-long hiatus and it seems like I picked the perfect time for it. I've been trying out the touhou 16 demo with all four of the characters on normal difficulty.
.The first thing I've noticed that it's quite a lot easier than touhou 15. Back when I played the LoLK demo I couldn't even 1cc it, whereas I have already no-missed the touhou 16 demo on normal with reimu and marisa, which is especially surprising considering the fact that I should be very rusty with bullet hells right now.
.The lower difficulty is by no means a bad thing though. I felt as though touhou 15 was outright unfair at points, and I was never really a fan of the pointdevice "quicksaving" gimmick. Touhou 16 in comparison feels a lot more relaxing to play so far, a feeling that is especially helped by the usual brilliant music, and nice visuals. In particular I love the purple appearance of stage 3.
.Speaking of the music, the stage 1 and stage 3 themes are in my opinion two of the best stage themes ZUN has made in a while. ZUN really nailed the feeling of the stage 1 theme. It feels exactly like how a stage 1 theme should, like the start of an adventure. It features a funky bass line as well, which is uncommon for a touhou theme.
.The menu music also gets me pumped.
.Lily White is back - without a portrait. I'll take what victories I can receive though.
.Playing as Cirno feels strange. I notice from my extremely limited knowledge of Japanese that she is saying "da ze~" now as well. Maybe she's been hanging around Marisa too much?
.Aya feels somewhat weak compared to the other three. I tried her with both autumn and spring. Her shot-type is narrow and she doesn't have the same advantages as Marisa. Perhaps it's just me?
.I love all three of the new character designs already. Especially Kumano Aunn. Her pose is just too pure. This is a pleasant surprise considering none of the touhou 15 characters ever really grew on me.
.Stage 1 has a summer theme, stage 2 has an autumn theme, and stage 3 has a spring theme, and seems to be set near the Hakurei shrine. I imagine that stage 4 in the full game will be a winter stage set in the forest of magic. This would especially make sense seeing that Marisa is the winter character here.
.Despite the great stage themes and visual designs, the stage designs themselves feel uninspired. It is mostly just waves of fairies and spirits, with patterns that feel too familiar. Not a dealbreaker considering everything else the demo has going for it, but I wish that ZUN would spend a bit more time on making the stages, and even add some new enemy types.
.Eternity (Etarnity?) Larva is a fun stage 1 boss with a fast, frantic nonspell. It feels like a short fight though, even for stage 1 boss standards.
.Sakata Nemuno has good spellcards but a really bland nonspell. It is the least-threatening knife pattern in the series, just basic streaming. Almost feels like an unfinished pattern. I enjoy the rhythmic feel to dodging her last spellcard with the knife clusters.
.Komano Aunn's boss fight is great. Dodging her second and third nonspell is probably the most challenging part of the demo and her last spellcard reminds me of Parsee. Also curvy lasers.
.I actually quite like the season flashbomb system. Reminds me of collecting spring pieces for cherry borders in PCB. Using a flashbomb during a boss spellcard should fail the spellcard though, seeing that they can be every bit as useful as a regular bomb.
.Speaking of bombs, that is one massive master spark, Marisa.
Overall I'm impressed. There are some problems and signs of rushed development but the positive aspects easily make up for this. So far, I think I prefer TH16 to both TH14 and TH15.
