Touhou 13.5 東方心綺楼 Hopeless Masquerade - I'm hopelessly in love

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

Uh... it still lags even with everything else closed. When they said a i7 core might be needed, they meant that, didn't they? Because my poor i5 core laptop probably isn't up to snuff enough. :I

A core i7 should net you 60fps, I get 60fps most of the time on my i3 laptop and it only slows down when certain spellcards and attacks happen. This game definitely doesn't require a i7.

[Validon98]

A core i7 should net you 60fps, I get 60fps most of the time on my i3 laptop and it only slows down when certain spellcards and attacks happen. This game definitely doesn't require a i7.

You see, that happens to me too. It's that damn newspaper animation, though. Gameplay without 1/2 frame, 3D backgrounds off, and "medium" background quality only lags a little bit. But even with everything turned down as low as possible, I can't get that fucking newspaper to go in normal speed. I don't get it. >_<

[Genso]

You brave, foolish man.
RIP GENSO
5/29/13
Died from Mamizou's BS spellcards.

Looks like it. It doesn't lag much aside from that, right? It's still playable?

Not so hard:

http://www.mediafire.com/?g60wfsinna936gn

I actually beat it multiple times. Though the computer froze during my perfect run one.

[Hinacle]

Not so hard:

http://www.mediafire.com/?g60wfsinna936gn

I actually beat it multiple times. Though the computer froze during my perfect run one.

Christ, that Koishi fight and those combos. And Mamizou spams birds. Surprise surprise. Kokoro was slightly less scary than I imagined. Also what's the input for that combo you kept doing in her second to last card and is to just me or does her last card have like no differences between difficulties?

Do this with Byakuren and I will accept Gensoism as my religion. :V

[Genso]

It's a simple variation combo, I use the one in the replay a lot since it has the highest damage output, but there are simple changes to it all with 100 stun and 2K damage. it's AAA>2A>X>3>X>9>AAA>6A>Witching Blast. Make not that it's a corner combo. The "anywhere" variation is different.

Now to practice Byakuren since i don't really use her much.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

You see, that happens to me too. It's that damn newspaper animation, though. Gameplay without 1/2 frame, 3D backgrounds off, and "medium" background quality only lags a little bit. But even with everything turned down as low as possible, I can't get that fucking newspaper to go in normal speed. I don't get it. >_<

The game was rushed, so to stack on the problems of having a small roster + semi unlockable character and no arcade mode the engine was probably poorly optimized. Actually the first demo didn't lag on spell cards or anything.

[MewMewHeart]

I can do Network fights perfectly on my laptop, but my problem is when I win or lose a match it sometimes freezes or it goes to a blackscreen with the HM theme playing in the background, causing me to close it via clicking X.  :derp:

As for regular fights like story mode or vs computer, my laptop handles them like a pro.  :V 

[monhan]

Also, is anybody maining Byakuren? Just cleared her story mode and couldn't really figure her out. Would like to play against somebody who's good at her to see her working correctly.

I do, I can't say I'm that good though.

Do this with Byakuren and I will accept Gensoism as my religion. :V

Kinda messy in some fight though but here's mine:
http://www.mediafire.com/?iblvrdewvr77ipm
I've done better at the last two fight but I forgot to record it. Counter for the win!

Somehow I feel that dropping some combos with Byakuren is a viable strategy because her attacks are so tight. But maybe that's just me.
Here's a somewhat better run :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ia22oaqt5f4h50k/130530_1105_hijiri_story.rep

[DSveno]

I'm a non-counter Byakuren main, since she has those flashy combo (I loved playing Meiling in Soku). Will try to record a proper replay if anyone interest.

Haven't played against any human opponents, though. I'm trying to spread this game to my friends at this weekend's gathering. 2 of them played Soku so I guess I could find some opponents for this game, although I'm kinda worry they will be put off by the "flight simulation" part of HM  :V.

The unpleasant thing in this system is actually when players lose in an unfair way, like having almost all their life, the enemy being almost dead but having like 1% more popularity and win the game.

The basic concept is interesting, but the inequitable issues that you can encounter makes it quite special.
I think it would be better if the winner is not the one who simply has "the most % in popularity" but an average between the life ratio and popularity ratio... This would be more fair and pleasant to play!

It think the system is fair. Did you try to play Byakuren against long range spamming characters? The popularity system make the game feel fair in that.

[Gpop]

Actually you know what, this Saturday I'll try a few matches and see how it works, if nothing works I'll try Hamachi last resort.

[MewMewHeart]

Actually you know what, this Saturday I'll try a few matches and see how it works, if nothing works I'll try Hamachi last resort.

Hamachi works wonders, however... the screen goes black or freezes after you win or lose a match and you have to restart the game.
My friend and I usually use Hamachi for a few sessions of matches.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

Koishi VS Kokoro's last spell = Hell Mode

[MewMewHeart]

Koishi VS Kokoro's last spell = Hell Mode

I was stuck spamming shots at Kokoro as Koishi in storymode... without trying to activate anything that would result in me getting killed.  :colonveeplusalpha:

[iK]

I wish I knew someone to import these games from me instead of having to scrounge for very likely illegal to sell single copies at cons :/

Ah well, I'll get this thing eventually so I can see what the hell all this talk is about.

[DSveno]

Koishi VS Kokoro's last spell = Hell Mode

You didn't mean easy mode? I passed her with the least effort compare to, say, Byakuren.

[Kingault]

so I heard you guys were looking for Alice and Kosuzu

Ah, so Kosuzu's using a broom.
Now if only Akyuu, Rumia, Hong Meiling, and Kasen were in the backgrounds as well...

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

You didn't mean easy mode? I passed her with the least effort compare to, say, Byakuren.

Huh? I breezed through her with Byakuren. But I guess the main set back was Koishi's dash while in a normal fight works really well but against story mode is a different story. But I got through it by dodging up and down and spaming her weakest projectile attack.

I was stuck spamming shots at Kokoro as Koishi in storymode... without trying to activate anything that would result in me getting killed.  :colonveeplusalpha:

Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought but still Kokoro fucks me over again and again with her last two spells. Especially the one where she's flying across the screen and if you get caught she rapes you into a wall, don't even bother blocking because the first two hits break your spirit meter.

Well anyway I'm glad that's over.

[MewMewHeart]

Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought but still Kokoro fucks me over again and again with her last two spells. Especially the one where she's flying across the screen and if you get caught she rapes you into a wall, don't even bother blocking because the first two hits break your spirit meter.

Well anyway I'm glad that's over.

You forgot to add that the 3rd spell if you get caught in it DROPS your popularity like a hot potato, I had it happen to me ALOT especially when I played as Byakuren and well when I played as Miko I was at 80% popularity with her and welp I got hit on the 2nd wave due to derping out and got dropped to -60% popularity, gawd that was awful beyond words.  :matsuriscowl:

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

All I gotta do now is finish Ichirin Nitori and Futo's stories and then Mamizou's. I'll hold off on Kokoro's until she get's patched. Besides I already played her story on another save file via cheat engine. pretty cool that final battle.

[commandercool]

Guh... Just cleared story mode with Miko, and damn that was rough. What exactly determines how much popularity you can lose from what? I had three or four times where my popularity dropped from 80-90 to -50 in a single hit. Is that just Miko, or just story mode, or is it ludicrously easy to lose popularity? All of Kokoro was ridiculous. I'd be at maximum popularity and doing fine, then would drop to minimum instantly and have to take five solid minutes doing shit damage as I slowly worked my way back up, then instantly lose it all again. I was right in that Miko does sort of play like Labrys in Persona, but Labrys is still fairly competent with an empty momentum gauge, whereas Miko becomes a joke character. Glad I don't have to use her anymore.

[MewMewHeart]

Guh... Just cleared story mode with Miko, and damn that was rough. What exactly determines how much popularity you can lose from what? I had three or four times where my popularity dropped from 80-90 to -50 in a single hit. Is that just Miko, or just story mode, or is it ludicrously easy to lose popularity? All of Kokoro was ridiculous. I'd be at maximum popularity and doing fine, then would drop to minimum instantly and have to take five solid minutes doing shit damage as I slowly worked my way back up, then instantly lose it all again. I was right in that Miko does sort of play like Labrys in Persona, but Labrys is still fairly competent with an empty momentum gauge, whereas Miko becomes a joke character. Glad I don't have to use her anymore.

Personally, I suggest Tasoist deck for her, and quite frankly she's easy to play as you just gotta get used her...  need for popularity to hit hard, if not there's always the "SPAM DA LAZURS" trick but, in my honest opinion I prefer dealing with that than Byakuren although, I have no hate against playing as her... IT WAS A *censor* to play her story mode.  :colonveeplusalpha:

[commandercool]

Personally, I suggest Tasoist deck for her, and quite frankly she's easy to play as you just gotta get used her...  need for popularity to hit hard, if not there's always the "SPAM DA LAZURS" trick but, in my honest opinion I prefer dealing with that than Byakuren although, I have no hate against playing as her... IT WAS A *censor* to play her story mode.  :colonveeplusalpha:

I found Byakuren's story mode comparatively very easy. Byakuren could at least end fights quickly reliably consistently. For Miko I'd be doing fine and putting out crazy damage and the game would be all "What's that? A tiny stray bullet just barely hit you? FUCK YOU MIKO NO DAMAGE FOR YOU EVER AGAIN" and from that point on it would take ten hours to clear one spell card. I probably just picked a bad deck for her, I guess.

[MewMewHeart]

I found Byakuren's story mode comparatively very easy. Byakuren could at least end fights quickly reliably consistently. For Miko I'd be doing fine and putting out crazy damage and the game would be all "What's that? A tiny stray bullet just barely hit you? FUCK YOU MIKO NO DAMAGE FOR YOU EVER AGAIN" and from that point on it would take ten hours to clear one spell card. I probably just picked a bad deck for her, I guess.

That I can agree on about Byakuren especially with her stun then strike spell card, maybe I need to practice using Byakuren some more.

[monhan]

Personally, I suggest Tasoist deck for her, and quite frankly she's easy to play as you just gotta get used her...  need for popularity to hit hard, if not there's always the "SPAM DA LAZURS" trick but, in my honest opinion I prefer dealing with that than Byakuren although, I have no hate against playing as her... IT WAS A *censor* to play her story mode.  :colonveeplusalpha:

Byakuren's not that hard. Make use of the vajra and counters, though you need to time those carefully. I'm still searching for a way to utilize them properly in some of the harder cards.

[MewMewHeart]

Byakuren's not that hard. Make use of the vajra and counters, though you need to time those carefully. I'm still searching for a way to utilize them properly in some of the harder cards.

*cough* Heance why I'm going to practice with her and see which combination suits me.  :V

[Genso]

Ah good enough. Reimu's second spell always gets me cuz Byakuren lacks any powerful long ranged shots. (Shall never use her again orz)

http://www.mediafire.com/?wggtnaggxja2p4w

She has a lot of combos, but i stuck with one for reliability and becuase it's similar to Marisa's and Kokoro's combos.

[AJS]

Maybe I'm weird, but I found her pretty cute the first time I saw her.~~~ :3

I almost thought she was creepy the first time I saw her, until I noticed the expressions she was showing on her masks.  I mean come on--a monkey mask, that really surprised golden mask, and that stupid-looking "" face that's also the game's icon?  That's just hilarious. :3

[N-Forza]

I wish I knew someone to import these games from me instead of having to scrounge for very likely illegal to sell single copies at cons :/

Ah well, I'll get this thing eventually so I can see what the hell all this talk is about.

hi

[MewMewHeart]

I forgot to mention a little bug I found while practicing with Reimu against Ichirin in VS mode, the game went haywire and froze when I was about to use Fantasy Heaven against her, so I closed the game. However, Koishi's theme was still playing and was causing my laptop a little trouble. So, I had to restart my computer to stop the music.  :derp:

[ElGreko]

I won't be surprised that there will be an expansion of 13.5. But what I'm looking forward to the most is a voice patch for the characters.

Me too, actually it's the thing I'm the most looking forward to see, The game seems kinda void without any voices.
I know some people are not used to it, but the voices are the soul of a game, it adds so much life.
The only sad thing about voice mods was that there weren't any "complete version" findable on the net for Hisoutensoku.
I personally had to lurk and search a lot of time to download different versions of the said mods, remove the wasted or bugged things, keep the good ones, and "complete myself" the thing to get a complete and nice voice mod.
Most of the time you were finding incomplete mods with repetitive things, bugged ones or some with other voices than the original ones that were crap.

But after trying a good voicemod, I personally couldn't play without afterwards.
Almost all of the character voices were totally respecting the characters, same voice intonation, same things they were saying, etc...

Voices in hopeless masquerade would really be epic (especially during the last-word sequences), if one day you find something, please tell me! 

You should have your game patched by now... but, I think it just varies on the person's style of gameplay or either that sometimes the way the match plays out you got the right game and stuff it's just you have to practice on what to do get your popularity up more also try out combinations on what suits you better.  :derp:

Well, the last patch is the Ver.1.02 right? By the way, I can't wait to see the next patch to fully play Kokoro.  :3
But even if it's possible to get the 100% popularity, I find it way to hard to get, and as a result, you never see the nice animations of the last word spells in-game, especially against other players.  :ohdear:
Even against simple bots, I never got more than 80 or 90%, does anyone have a replay of games where they manage to get 100% and use theirs last word (against bots or human players)?
I'd be quite curious to see how it's done (and would probably learn a lot).

Hamachi works wonders, however... the screen goes black or freezes after you win or lose a match and you have to restart the game.
My friend and I usually use Hamachi for a few sessions of matches.

Personnaly, I exclusively used hamachi to play with my friends, and I had 0 lag, the game was exactly as fluid as in solo mod!
Everything depends on the connection of your partner, people with bad connection are more likely to make the game lag or crash, but I played with people who live on the opposite side of the earth and had 0 lag or bug.

I'm gonna see if I can find a translation of the options menu to see if there might be anything else that might help reduce lag.

Config Menu

SE Volume
BGM Volume
Windowed/Fullscreen
Fullscreen resolution
Background : Normal/->/Simple
Drawing Cycle : Normal/Half
Vertical Sync : Yes/No
Display Framerate : Yes/No
Save Replay : Yes/No/Ask every time
Save Replay(Network) : Yes/Only when playing/Only when spectating/No