Miscellaneous Questions Thread 3 - Ask Question, Receive Answer

[Bang Jan]

Is there a patch that removes stage portions and midbosses in the games?

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

No.

[game2011]

When does ZUN usually announce a new installment in the series?  I think TD was announced during February, right?

Thanks in advance!

[Sungho]

th13 : 2011-02-28 (2011-08-13)
th128 : 2010-07-23 (2010-08-14)
th125 : 2010-03-03 (2010-03-14)
th12 : 2009-02-26 (2009-08-15)
th11 : 2008-05-01 (2008-08-16)
th10 : 2007-05-18 (2007-08-17)
th095 : 2005-11-13 (2005-12-30)
The dates are based on ZUN's blog(http://kourindou.exblog.jp)

Usually... isn't a word that can be safely used here.
Although, I think that he would make an announcement around the end of February if he is planning a new game for summer Comiket.


In the Touhou games, is it possible to move in a direction that isn't the 8 directions by using a gamepad?

[Zil]

In the Touhou games, is it possible to move in a direction that isn't the 8 directions by using a gamepad?

Nope.

[Bang Jan]

No.

Fine, is there a tool that allows you to remove stages and midbosses?

[Delfigamer]

No. That thing doesn't exist too.

[Prime32]

Where was it stated that Udonge has the same powers as any moon rabbit, and is just better at using them? How are these powers referred to - insanity powers, eye powers or what? Can all moon rabbits drive people mad with their powers, or is that just her signature technique?

[Goldom]

Can someone explain how doujin music circles work? As in, what do its members DO that makes an album "theirs"?

I mean, with some groups it's totally clear - you look up an album of theirs, and their members composed all the songs on it. Makes sense. But then you have some of these prolific groups like IOSYS where, if you check their individual albums, quite a few of them don't have a single song composed or performed by any one of their members as listed on the wiki. So... what did they do that makes it their album? Just being the ones to market it at the convention?

[Prime32]

There would be jobs like organisation, marketing, running websites, artwork, etc. I guess.

[Delfigamer]

Where was it stated that Udonge has the same powers as any moon rabbit, and is just better at using them? How are these powers referred to - insanity powers, eye powers or what? Can all moon rabbits drive people mad with their powers, or is that just her signature technique?

Her power is "manipulating waves", that includes brain waves. Don't know about rest of the Moon, though.

[Raikaria]

Where was it stated that Udonge has the same powers as any moon rabbit, and is just better at using them? How are these powers referred to - insanity powers, eye powers or what? Can all moon rabbits drive people mad with their powers, or is that just her signature technique?

Adding to the above, Reisen is also implied to be able to manipulate other types of waves in PoFV, such as sound waves. [Giving her the same power as Luna Child]

She can likely manipulate light waves as well, giving her the same power as Sunny Milk.

'Wave manipulation' probobly extends to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, to be frank.

[Kosachi]

Adding to the above, Reisen is also implied to be able to manipulate other types of waves in PoFV, such as sound waves. [Giving her the same power as Luna Child]

She can likely manipulate light waves as well, giving her the same power as Sunny Milk.

'Wave manipulation' probobly extends to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, to be frank.

Does that technically mean she can turn any electromagnetic wave radioactive by bringing it higher into the spectrum? (X Ray, Gamma ray) That would be pretty insane if she can radiate everyone.

[Prime32]

Yeah, what I'm asking is if other moon rabbits can manipulate waves, and if they can use it to drive people mad or just to communicate. (I assume their psychic link is based on wave manipulation, though maybe their brains are quantumly entangled or something I dunno)
If everyone where Reisen comes from can manipulate waves, but only she's good enough to drive people mad with it, then claiming to have madness powers would make more sense.

She can likely manipulate light waves as well, giving her the same power as Sunny Milk.

I'd say the eye lasers count as light manipulation. Though if she has radar powers, that would still explain how she saw Sunny while she was invisible.

I just want to see if it makes her better at surfing. :V

[Drake]

Wild extrapolation is never a good idea. Reisen's ability in particular is really handwavy. It's best to only assume she has the abilities she's been shown to have, like the laserbeam, radar, madness inducing, etc. I would guess she has at least similar abilities to the three fairies.

Besides the TELEPATHY between moon rabbits though, I can't recall anything implying they have similar abilities.

[cuc]

Sunny Milk and Luna Child's powers are both subsets of Udonge's power, and weaker by a huge margin (Shanghai Alice Correspondence of SaBND Chapter 3, never translated into English?). Detecting them is trivial for Udonge.

I don't think it's directly stated that all moon rabbits can manipulate waves. According to the IN backstory given in Kaguya's profile, (a more literal translation) "...Reisen received a transmission in the rabbit wave used by her fellow moon rabbits. This is moon rabbits' special ability, allowing them to communicate with their large ears, no matter the distance."

So it's only confirmed that other moon rabbits can use the "rabbit wave" communication. Udonge's power is probably an unusual development.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

telekinesis between moon rabbits

I think you mean "telepathy."

OK, I've got one: do we have any reason, other than secondhand sources which lead to "I heard ____", to think that ZUN changed stuff for the Windows games because Amusement Makers owns the copyright on the PC-98 games?

[Delfigamer]

Amusement Makers owns the copyright on the PC-98 games

[Drake]

that reply doesn't make sense

In any case Muffin, I think that sort of question will lead up to trying to prove the null, since I couldn't reliably say that he absolutely didn't change things because of copyright. It doesn't make any sense to begin with though, and seems to really just be a "something that sort of sounds like it's true and it works for my point so I'll just pretend it is true" explanation people like to use when talking about the status of PC98 being canon or not. I don't think there's any real basis, but would welcome evidence to the contrary.

One point against AM "owning" the copyright is simply that their membership changes as students graduate. Even if others were involved in making the PC98 games, AM as a group shouldn't really hold any power, since it probably isn't really an entity that can claim copyrights, although the relevant members could.

[Prime32]

Reisen firing "ESP waves" from her eyes to communicate with moon rabbits

Reisen's IN + PoFV profiles both say (with different phrasing) "A rabbit from the moon. In her red eyes dwell far greater power of insanity than the rabbits of the earth."
That vaguely implies that moon rabbits in general have insanity powers.

[UTW]

OK, I've got one: do we have any reason, other than secondhand sources which lead to "I heard ____", to think that ZUN changed stuff for the Windows games because Amusement Makers owns the copyright on the PC-98 games?

No, but others continue to believe it. Personally, I think it's hogwash, and there is no copyright conflict, bad blood, or anything of the sort. There are admittedly some reasons to think that could be the case, but otherwise, just no.

First, AM is "just" a university hobby circle. Not an actual company, like I've seen some say when repeating the PC-98 copyright argument. Even if there was copyright, would anyone actually care to enforce or make an issue of it? Second, he used Mima on one of his album covers. So, it's not that he can't use her, he just doesn't want to. Third, he participated in Seihou, which if I have my timing right, he already graduated by that time, at least during the second game. It could always just be a senpai's favor, though. Fourth, he used some of AM's resources when making EoSD, which would be after Seihou 2. Still, neither of which would seem to say he was on the outs, or in conflict, or anything.

However, like I said, it doesn't mean a copyright doesn't exist. It could, and I've seen some say that this is why ZUN is so touchy about copyright these days. Because he possibly came upon copyright problems during the making of EoSD or PCB and it was since then that his stance changed. I've also seen the number of supposed expy characters around this time mentioned as an argument in favor. This theory says he couldn't use Shinki, Yumeko, or Yuuka, so he made Remilia, Sakuya, and Yukari, or changed Alice/Yuuka enough that they couldn't be called the same character. It's clearly all speculation and no fact, and some of it a stretch, but who knows.

In the end, though, I think ZUN is just the type that doesn't like to look back. He may think of PC-98 as being particularly unrefined and most of all, doesn't want to dredge up old creations and try to awkwardly fit them into current Touhou, when he'd much rather make new ones. Especially not 10-15+ years after the fact now, when the chance or any desire to has passed, or when there are some that clearly wouldn't fit. You know, the actual reason ZUN has said as to why he hasn't included many old characters.

[Drake]

As for the last paragraph though, he's definitely acknowledged that he doesn't like to look back on things hes created and see that he hasn't tried his hardest to make it work, and that's why the current settings don't have this problem anymore. Having nearly all of the Windows characters be even a minimal part of a later story, or have cameos that actually fit the scenario, or have them turn into playable characters; this is a clear demonstration that he doesn't feel as if his earlier (Windows) characters aren't worth bringing back, since I think by the time EoSD came around, he started to put some real thought into the character dynamics because he realized the earlier (PC98) ones weren't well-thought-out. I would argue that Alice and Yuuka (and Reimu and Marisa, to an extent) were brought back precisely because he felt that those characters could belong in the "new" scenario that he created without any issues. Well, Alice not so much since she was changed a lot, but the fact that he at least brought one character back shows he wanted to keep some things. His email describing that "it would be hard to bring old characters back because it'd be awkward" seems to match my thoughts on ZUN's stance.

That being said, it's perplexing as to why Mima hasn't made a return, but if she hasn't by now it's likely she never will. Not that I've thought about it a lot, but the main reason I would see is that he wanted to give Marisa more freedom as a character, whereas if Mima was still in the picture it might be tough to work around her. You might see a similarity of that with Youmu and Yuyuko, except those two obviously share their dynamic and would be silly to separate.

[Tiamat]

Marisa inherited a lot of Mima's personality anyways, really.  Although Mima did reappear on the cover of one of ZUN's retro-music CDs at least.

Even Yuuka was changed, really.

[Zil]

I've heard that thing about Marisa taking on Mima's personality a couple times, and I can't say I see it. I think Mima was pretty aloof in Mystic Square, and she boasted a lot and lied about being stronger than she actually is. Marisa was perhaps slightly similar at the time, but if anything she's actually been getting less similar to Mima over time.

Personally I don't think Mima would have clashed so much with the newer games either, as he had already softened her character quite a but by the end of Mystic Square. I might even go so far as to say that she would "fit right in." But, you know. I of course don't know ZUN's reasons for leaving her out, but I doubt it was because he couldn't. (He kept Reimu and Marisa, after all.) And that's what everyone's been saying anyway, so yeah.

[Ikari]

New question; What does Last Remote even mean?

[Desu_Cake]

I wouldn't say that Mima's personality has been taken over, more her role. In the PC98 games, both Mima and Marisa had the role of "Person who hangs around the shrine a lot and annoys is friends with Reimu". There's a reason there are far more comedy duos than trios, it's because it's much easier to keep a decent, even dynamic going between two people than three. It would likely have been a pain to keep a trio going, so he cut one out. At the same time, only the same two would be boring, hence Sakuya, Youmu and Sanae became player characters for a time too.
Or at least, that's how I view it. It's probably completely wrong.

[Alfred F. Jones]

New question; What does Last Remote even mean?

It means that Satori really really wanted to watch Supernatural but Koishi really wanted to watch The Office and Satori was all KOISHI I AM GOING TO WATCH SUPERNATURAL AND THAT'S FINAL and Koishi was all SCREW THE POLICE I DO WHAT I WANT and Satori kicked Koishi out of the Palace but not before Koishi stole the last remote, knowing that Satori is too lazy to get up off her ass and change channels manually.

Or just this.

[Ikari]

That was hilarious enough to be valid.

Note to self; Last Remote means Satori and Koishi have great television shows tastes.

[cuc]

New question; What does Last Remote even mean?

According to Moto-Neta wiki, it means this is the last time you'll be under remote mission control and calling for Remote Spirit Strike (your bombs in SA come from your partner). The evidence it gives is Marisa/Nitori's Extra dialogue:

Koishi: Do you have multiple personalities? (Referring to your invisible partner, a common reaction throughout SA)
Marisa: From now on, the other personalities are out of business.

I find this explanation believable.

Also probably unrelated to the meaning of the title, in the music comment, ZUN says "the song title has no relation to a certain shooting game", which is referring to Last Resort.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Wait, it might have an actual more-or-less valid answer? Dang, now I can't just repost that every time someone asks. Thanks, though!

Question of my own since I can't read it: is that site the Japanese answer t' our TouhouWiki, or something else?