And doesn't Meiras theme have a strange name? Well, there's almost no information in canon about her, so I guess there's not much to say about it.But that doesn't quite make sense, does it? Noone really seems to die in touhou 1-5. (considering Mima was in HRtP.)
What about Sariel? And Yuki / Mai in Mystic Square?
The only thing I know is that ZUN said during an interview that we should ignore the PC-98 era as much as possible. Touhou pretty much got a reset from EoSD and onwards, so we should only take the windows era into consideration.
Didn't he say that mainly to get people to stop calling for Mimas return? After all he did bring a handful of characters back, only a few but still.
I wouldn't call it dark and edgy exactly, but it certainly took the fights more seriously. Although this aspect of the setting wasn't suddenly changed in the Windows era or anything. EoSD's dialog was written as if you killed Sakuya, for example. And even though she came back in the next game, up through IN there were still numerous references to the youkai eating you if you lost or conversely being killed (ie: Yuyuko eating Mystia). And of course Mokou died every spellcard. While you can see in retrospect that they were joking, the games were still written as if the characters were fighting to the death.
It wasn't until PMiSS that the non-lethal nature of spellcard duels was really emphasized.
Yes, I remember. You're right. Maybe Touhou was never really all that dark. Just trying to wonder where I actually got that from, because someone else told me that and it made sense at that time when I thought about it.
the endings of the PC-98 games (even the bad endings) seems even sillier than those in the Windows games, so I'd disagree that it was more or less serious than the Windows games, imho.
@ Synnae: iirc someone said that TH3 had a lot of cameos (I only recognize multi and Ellen, though), which would affect the current canon.
PC-98 partially "exists", still, or else, characters such as Marisa, Alice and Yuuka would have to be reintroduced.
They're still quite different, despite their similiar appearance. Other background stories and they have quite different catch phrases and intentions which makes them more interesting. But it could be one of the reasons he doesn't want to reintroduce them. Maybe he'd feel that an old character that was already in a game would be a waste of boss for a level? His official statement was that he'd just find it awkward habing to reintroduce them, though.
Also, that PC-98 is canon is something I'd support. He never really retconned any character or place, he just has them not reappear in the windows games or he gives reasons why you don't run into the old characters. For instance in UFO the player character returns to Makai and instead of being presented with retconned new Makai the situation given just suggests that you are in a completely different "corner" of Makai and entering Makai in a non-tradional way (Murasas ship).
And didn't he state in an interview that Mima and Genji are still around, but just staying at the shrine of Reimu all of the time?
Also suspicious: Byakuren has one spell that is a direct clone of Shinkis spell. Then again ZUN seems to love giving other people nostalgia. In almost every game there is a remix or remastered piece of the "old times", so it's not like he is completely dumping the PC-98 era. He just leaves them in the past of Gensokyo and barely touches them.
That's true for Alice, but Reimu was very familiar with Yuuka in PoFV:
Reimu: "Ah, there you are! You're the culprit, aren't you? [...] Everything went back to normal when I defeated you back then!"
PC-98 is "canon" only in the sense that the general outline of events probably happened. But they are unrelated and utterely irrelevant to whatever is going on nowadays.
Another good clue that points in the direction of PC98 being canon. Enough derailing from me for now, though. This is just such an interesting topic, it always sidetracks me the instant when it pops up.
Regarding the game, I'm pretty hyped for it, since it's the first game I'll witness being released! I don't really care much about the gameplay, I like pretty much all the games equally regarding that, so I'm more curious about how the story will go. Argh, these two weeks will take forever to pass...
And it will just be the demo! The full release will take some more time.
Until then you will be told tradionally by the boss of the third level that you may not continue your journey despite beating her, hehehe.
