Previous discussion thread here: http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,10504.0.htmlAchtung! Warning! Dikkat! Atentione! Shameipairu-san and Himepaidou-san report spoilers in this thread. Users in this thread, and ONLY in this thread are no longer forced to use [/spoiler] tags when talking about the girls, story and other 10D related things. Proceed at own risk.Reporter's note: Please forgive this reporter for possibly re-reporting info which was also in the trial article. 東方 神霊廟 ～ Touhou Ten Desires (10D)
The storyA huge outbreak of divine spirits causes confusion all around Gensokyo. At the Hakurei shrine, Netherworld and Moriya shrine this is noted as an unprecedented affair. Four of our heroines grab their spell cards and gear, and head out to investigate. Soon they realise that a certain Taoist girl is on the verge of resurrection. The dark story of her resurrection hints at a possible religious conflict between Buddhism and Taoism.
Gameplay and comparisonControls are straight forward and easy to explain:| Arrow keys - movement | Z - fire |
| X - bomb | Shift - focus and alternative shot type |
| C - enter trance mode | |
Each girl has an alternative shottype when you focus. Unlike in previous versions of Touhou, where your shottype was actually determined by a different girl type. ZUN seems to return to the core of strategy and eliminated the A,B,C-ish choices. Which is in my opinion perfectly fine. Below I will briefly explain the focus mode for each girl.
| Girl _____________________ | Regular __________________________________________ | Focus fire _____________________ |
| Hakurei Reimu | Straight amulet and homing amulets | Straight amulet and straight needles |
| Kirisame Marisa | Multi lasers | Straight magic shots and exploding magical missiles |
| Kochiya Sanae | Wide spread shot and straight amulets | Fast curving forward shots and straight amulet |
| Konpaku Youmu | Straight forward shot and half-ghost fire | Charged up slash. |
For all girls, the number of familiars supporting them increase as your power rises. 1.00 means you only got 1 familiar/ghost and 4.00 logically grants your four familiars/ghosts. Youmu's charged shot is probably the most strangest shottype in this game. Think of this as the charged camera shot in StB and DS. You hold focus and Z to charge up your ghost half. Upon releasing the Z button, you will perform a powerful piercing slash. It knocks out the large fairies.
Obviously, fighting bosses as Youmu is going to be extremely tricky. But this is probably a great challenge for those lunatic players going for challenges and such. ZUN always has something fun for you people!
Trance meter and spiritsZUN once more changed the strategy for collecting lives and bombs. Well, not entirely. In UFO you had to collect small ufos and destroy the giant ufo after feeding it with power or points. Here, divine spirits are your collectibles. These spirits come in the following colours:
purple spirits for live pieces
green spirits for bomb pieces
blue spirits for increased base points
grey spirits for filling the 'Trance Meter'
Spirits appear if you exterminate fairies or bosses. The system for lives/bombs is strange, but easy to explain. For the first extra live or bomb, you need 8 spirits. After this, you need +2 (so 10 spirits) and for the next again +2 etc. Compared to previous Touhou games, you will have quite some trouble collecting them as they do not move around like in UFO, nor fall down like pieces of items. Also getting initial full lives and bombs is hard. Unless you 'abuse' your Trance Mode. The 'Trance' Meter is a small skull image located at the left bottom corner of your game. This meter will fill up if you collect grey spirits. There are two ways this meter can be used: 1) By death when you have at least 1 spirit. or 2) When full, hitting the C-button. Trance mode doubles the spirits appearing and also changes their appearance for flavour.
rather cute looking spirits?
Trance Mode is easy to notice as your screen turns flashy. Your girl's sprite becomes vague and hazy as well as the music changing it's style. The first thing you will notice is a giant timer on your screen, showing the remaining time in trance mode. If you entered this state by death, then you will go pichuun at the end of the timer and lose a life. If you entered it through the C-button, nothing will happen but be aware of your invincibility being gone.
Facts about trance mode:
> Invincible
> Maximum fire power
> Greater movement speed. (Particulary Marisa is extremely fast in this mode.)
> Does not clear bullets on your screen.
> Double the appearance of spirits when killing enemies.
> For some girls, pulls the spirits to her. (Hakurei Reimu)
> Timer cannot be extended, even if you collect grey spirits while being in this mode.
The word 'Trance' probably is placed here because your girl crosses the boundary between life and death in a state of 'trance'. Whether you are dying or manually entering, it remains the same. | 
trance meter, maximum of three spirits |
Spell practiseZUN grants everybody a spell card practise mode! While had big doubts in Touhou 8 when he designed this, it seems that he decided to do it again in 10D. Spell card practise allows you to practise all spell cards separately with the girls. However, in order to practise you need to have 'seen' the card at least once in game. As a bonus, ZUN grants also the so called 'Overdrive' spell cards. These are not to be confused with Last Word or Final Spells in Imperishable Night. Overdrive spell cards are 'insane' versions of one spell card of the enemy girls. They generally contain more and faster bullets.
I some how got disappointed when I discovered this. Last Words had their charm of being unique spell cards. Final Spells had this kind of style as well. Personally I feel that the Overdrive cards are uninspired, but it does add a challenge for those hardcore players again. Oh well.
The enemy girlsTo avoid too much boring details and stuff. I will briefly go through the girls and their description. You can read the extensive descriptions on the
wiki.
Enemy girls from Touhou 13. Below from left to right (excluding the nameless spirit) names and description is given. Click on the yin yang balls for larger portraits. | Girl names | Description |
| Nameless spirit. | This little guy or girl appears in the middle of stage one. |
 | Saigoyji Yuyuko | She asks if you would like some tea, but when the girls refuse she becomes pissed off. Well, not exactly but she is the first boss yo! |
| | Kasodani Kyoko | A Yamabiko youkai. This cheerful girl is sweeping the area of Myoren temple. She is a dangerous opponent which keeps reflecting bullets at you. |
| | Tatara Kogasa | She got into a fight with a particular girl and complains how she couldn't beat her. Well our heroines don't really care so they will defeat them both. |
| | Miyako Yoshika | A zombie youkai, guarding the cemetery because her Mistress ordered so. She isn't flexible, as expected from a zombie. But her body and skin seem to be in a good condition. Be ready to time out a lot of her spell cards as a newbie, because can heal herself! |
| | Kaku Seiga + Miyako Yoshika | Seiga, a Hermit, is the mistress of Miyako and guards the entrance to the masoleum. I found her on first glance pretty beautiful. Damn it ZUN, why you draw so smooth looking girls. Either way! They will double team you for this battle. |
| | Soga no Tojiko | A ghost which appears without saying hi. Well, she welcomes you with dangerous danmaku. |
| | Mononobe no Futo | A Taoist, who attempts you from getting to the person which is going to resurrect deep inside the mausoleum. While she is add it, she will show you some surfing tricks. |
| | Toyosatomimi no Miko | She is serious business. Another Taoist and the 'criminal' master mind behind the 'incident'. Miko has great hate for the Buddhism for particular reasons. When the music kicks in, the atmosphere will change into a serious unprecedented rhythm. You will have a difficult time trying to defeat this boss as she comes at you with all her might! |
| | Houjuu Nue | Nue makes a brief appearance in Extra, as she tries to explain the reason for Myoren's move. However our girls do not care, and want to get to the bottom of this. 'Bitch! Get out of the way!' |
| | Futatsuiwa Mamizou | A Tanuki. With glasses. ZUN surely keeps feeding you fanboys and girls every type of fanon material yo. She got called in by Myoren and travelled across the sea. A danmaku battle of shape-shifting and surprising elements. (Cats and fishes?). Also Mamizou! Do something about that skirt! Your drawers are showing!!! |
Looks and feelWhat is a game without proper sound effects, flashy things? Exactly, nothing. Argue all you want but nobody wants a boring soundless game. Of course, the sound effects have to 'fit' into the game. I just cannot stop listening to the sound effects of Yin Yang balls exploding in enemy girl's faces or Marisa fully blasting her annihilation of love. I haven't noticed a significant change compared to UFO engine wise. For the more 'technical' people among us, who also danmakufu script. It seems ZUN has found a more interesting way to handle the sprites for the dialogues.
Angled master spark, yin yang balls of faith, 5-point star of faith, supreme slashing Myon.... oh my, I think I am going to faint.TL DR, this game plays good. Feels good
man.
MusicFor a change, I am going to express my thoughts about the music in this game. As usual, music is totally subjective. But I am just going to try to approach this more like gameplay wise, and not whether the music it self is great compared to other themes or not. First of all, the music fits every part of this game. Well to me at least. I think a good stage opener song is very important to keep people interested. Like in UFO, stage 1 kicks off with great force and energetic music. 10D might not have the similar style, but the opening stage is good. Good enough to keep you interested.
When you reach stage 2 and 3, the music doesn't bore you. It keeps you curious. Making you wonder what is ahead. And then... there! A pathway to a masoleum. Your heartbeat accelerates. The music only makes this worse. ZUN states in his music comment that stage 4 should give you the sense of rushing/running. It was exact the same feeling I got. Then this boss appears, TWO of them. The music, it only makes things more exciting. And tense, because the final boss music surely gives you that feeling again. It is serious, it is dramatic, the piano just rushes through while you try to evade those damned glowing bullets. Music can add feeling to a scenario (cliche movie thriller bgms) but music can also break feelings. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. But ZUN keeps fitting it all the time.
Also, he doe--- ?!
 | Kanye West: "YO Helepolis, I'm really happy for you! Imma let you finish but, Septette is best Touhou song of all time. OF ALL TIME!" |
Uhm... Kanye, why are you here?
 | Hakurei Reimu: "Get your ass out of Gensokyo before I destroy you." |
ConclusionAhem, yes thank you Reimu. I have no idea where he came from. So, to conclude 10D. If you are a fan of Touhou, there is no excuse for letting this slip. And fur---
> Hmmm? Yes yes, I know you want tea and sweets Reimu, but I am busy trying to finish up my article.
> What do you mean it is taking long? I am trying to create a piece of art here. Are you always this impatient?
> Wait, what are you doing Reimu.
> Please put down that Gohei.
> Why are you declaring a spell card? WHAT THE--- FANTASY SEAL?!
Ah! eh!, dear Motk users. I must now run for my life. Please forgive me for --- WOAH ** grazes ** for not being able to write a conclusion but ARGH ** graze +2 ** but I need to go prepare some tea for Reimu and her friends.
Be sure to purchase this beautiful game from ZU-
PICHUUN--Helepolis
