In every game Sanae's been in she's either been the best [UFO] or good [TD; Reimu's certainly the easiest there]. I don't think Sanae's ever been a *weak* character; like Marisa can be sometimes.
Except, TD Sanae is the worst of the four due to her lackluster damage output. She's got a very solid bomb in terms of damage and divine spirit collection and enhanced trance gain, but that's it. Reimu outclasses her as a spread-type option by virtue of dealing more damage and being all-around best character after Youmu. And Sanae's 12.3 incarnation is low-tier and very technical if that matters, lol. I still always play Sanae out of loyalty though, and she's great in UFO and LoLK. :3
You can usually count on Reimu have at least one solid shottype; Marisa usually having weaker ones unless her forward focus is that powerful [EoSD's Christmas Trees] and everyone else varies; except Sanae who is seemingly always solid at worst.
Marisa pretty much always gets the shaft in comparison to Reimu. She got limited to 2 bombs in PCB, saddled with Alice in IN, cannot compete with Reimu-Yukari in SA and finally she lost her piercing from TD onward (now
Reisen has it) and isn't even that impressive in terms of damage now, Master Spark being her sole redeeming feature (that also slows her down badly).
On the bright side, she's still got solid damage on her missile option in EoSD, great familiar set-up option in MoF, nice damage and laser piercing that's very useful in UFO and can actually compete with the brokenness of DDC's Reimu A and
Sakuya A with the power of
♡Magic Absorber♡ . And she's always strong in fighters and Phantasmagorias.
I'd say Sakuya is always solid given that I play Sakuya shottypes in every game that has Sakuya that I play; but that's probobly just me. I know a lot of people don't rate Sakuya in PCB outside of high score runs.
PCB Sakuya A is good for survival as far as homing options go and has 4 bombs per life to burn, but is complete garbage for scoring. PCB Sakuya B is, on the other hand, a borderline gamebreaker - Marisa-tier damage output, wide shot that covers most of the screen when moving unfocused and solid range when focused, four bombs per life that do wonders for scoring with their clearing effect
and high cherry gain are nothing to scoff at - unless you need Reimu's smaller hitbox/longer deathbomb/slower movement perks.
On the other hand, IN Sakuya is outright garbage due to her nonexistent damage and so is DDC Sakuya B - who is shit at survival and only good for scoring due to her item-generating focus shot and her bomb that converts bullets to point items and let's you graze stuff. Meanwhile DDC Sakuya A is, as mentioned above, a gamebreaker due to damage, homing and double-shield bomb and her PoFV incarnation is both solid against other players and AI due to her EX-daggers. And she is pretty much top tier throughout the fighters due to her great bullet game and ridiculous pressure. :derp: