Given LoLK changed from score-based extends back to life fragments, we shouldn't project too far ahead on how scoring might mesh with survival. For the demo at least, scoring isn't really that necessary just to get a 1cc imo since releases have survival utility on their own and are so dang plentiful anyway, and there's a decent amount of bombs to back you up if you run out of subs.
Anyway, I haven't gotten to play too much over the past couple days, but I'm finding this game fairly interesting so far. As others have mentioned, the shot types are the biggest highlight of this game, and independent of anything else regarding release mechanics, pattern difficulty, etc., the sheer amount of style combinations you can make is reason enough to try everybody out. Previously the only game I was ever motivated to try more than one or two shots for was SA, mainly because it's my favorite, but going through HSiFS with all 16 shots oughta be fun (I've only done Reimu so far lol). Also as others have mentioned, scoring is absolutely bonkers, so I won't go too much into that other than presenting my slimmest of hopes that ZUN will see what people are doing on day 3 and realizing something needs to change. But something that might be a bit overlooked is how the release mechanic might affect survival play in the full version. Three games in a row now (TD to LoLK), we've had games where people argue that even Lunatic difficulty becomes not just easy, but borderline trivial because the unique mechanics lead to extremely heavy resource abuse (sometimes dependent on character/shot as well, but then again, all it takes is one good shot for it to be a problem). And the sheer frequency of releases in HSiFS has the potential to surpass all of them by miles the way it is now. As someone who enjoys the challenge of Touhou's danmaku patterns themselves (and I recognize I may be a rare breed on this front lol), seeing other mechanics greatly overshadow this aspect of the games as routinely as they've been doing lately is a bit depressing. Though on the topic of the danmaku, Lunatic's patterns feel like they're pretty close to where they should be - not as mind-numbingly boring as TD, but not as insanely hard as LoLK. I stop short of predicting where the second half might take things - I learned my lesson from TD when the second half of that game turned out to mostly not be any harder than the first - but at least we can be sure the first half of HSiFS is all right this time.
But enough of my moping about the gameplay, on to the rest of the game! Some things in HSiFS still tended to be hit-or-miss with me, but I think that's fairly normal - it's rare for anyone to like absolutely everything in a work, after all. Eternity was already an early hit when she was revealed, and I liked her even more after seeing her dialogue. Her trying to out-ham Cirno just put a huge grin on my face lol. Nemuno... I honestly don't know what to think about her. Everything about her just seems so off-putting to me (that includes her danmaku, but I digress). Maybe that was the intent considering she's described as a "mountain hag", but I don't know how much that really adds to things. If it weren't for the fact that she's based on an established Japanese youkai and made friends with the player after defeat like everyone else, I'd swear she was Shrek reincarnated into Gensokyo, which makes her seem more out-of-place than I think she was meant to be. I suspect this mainly lies in cultural differences here, so I'm more willing to let that slide. I'll never get over her ugly outfit though. :V Aunn I've started to warm up a bit more to after seeing her dialogue. In a universe where practically everybody makes friends after a good-old-fashioned duel, Aunn somehow manages to be friendlier than everybody else, a feat unto itself, given her nature as a guardian to the Hakurei Shrine among other places. I definitely look forward to how future works will portray her and her connection to the shrine. As for music, it's probably no surprise I find the title and Stage 1 themes to be amazing. Both are catchy as hell and provide good atmosphere. However, neither Stage 2 theme is really doing it for me so far. There are parts of the Stage 2 theme I like, but others not so much. And Nemuno's theme started getting grating really fast despite the relatively low amount of times I've fought her. I haven't listened to Eternity or Aunn's themes enough to really judge them, though first impressions are sorta in the middle - good, but not great. I thought Stage 3's theme would be kinda meh at first too, but it's been growing a bit on me the past day, so it'll likely end up a good listen. The overall presentation of the game is also very good so far, with a couple exceptions. Stage 2 has a couple danmaku patterns I think end up seeming too bright against the colorful background, never mind some of the danmaku feeling too similar to LoLK Stage 2 and imo not meshing that well with the autumn theme. Stages 1 and 3 are much better though. Stage 1 is very fast-paced and brimming with energy like the intense summer heat, and I can't help but feel pumped up by it. Stage 3 is more relaxing, kinda like what you'd expect at an actual flower viewing, but the danmaku has some great color choices to go along with the background, and everything just looks so inviting. There were a couple teases for a possible winter stage coming up, but given Reimu's musings, we may end up with something we never expected, so that should be fun to look forward to.
EDIT: Oh and how could I forget? "Spring is heeeeere!" :V Thank you Lily White for coming back and brightening up our playthroughs.