Author Topic: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)  (Read 15061 times)

[东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« on: July 01, 2018, 08:29:26 AM »
Didn't see a thread for this yet, so making one (it is on the grand fangame list already though)

Seems to be a new Touhou fangame in development by the team producing SSS.

Translated announcement blurb:
Quote
The Gensokyo in early winter has encountered a mysterious cold breeze, and all the humans and youkai have suddenly lost the ability to use and control magic and power. At the same time, an unimaginable snowstorm has descended on Gensokyo. On the snowy ground blossoms innumerable icy crystal lotuses, as if they were from the abyss.

The inability to channel magic has caused an enormous catastrophe. The Great Barrier cannot be maintained, and will shatter soon. An incident rocking the roots of Gensokyo has begun! Faced with an incident of never-seen-before proportions, the lower class youkai are completely clueless, and the upper class youkai believe the fate of Gensokyo cannot be changed and the Barrier will shatter, so why not, before Gensokyo arrives in the outside world, take advantage of time and prepare well by staking out positions in the new environment? Such a situation is frightening indeed.

But, even in the most dangerous hour, there are some who have not given up their last ounces of determination. The sages of Gensokyo have gathered and formed a consensus. In a challenging time where no one can use their individual powers, they have to use all resources at their disposal and find the mastermind as soon as possible to save the Gensokyo bordering on doom. Every second matters. Are you ready?

Preview videos:

Thoughts:
  • Seems like the same engine in use as SSS and Barrage Musical, which is good. One of the best performing fangame engines out there (not that FDF and Danmakufu ph3 are very high bars to beat in performance, but at least I can run SSS and Barrage Musical at full framerate, like the main series Touhou games...)
  • Seems like there aren't any bombs nor power levels, only the release-ish meter on the bottom left that you fill with cancels.
  • Music style seems like a departure from SSS and Barrage Musical but still similar in some ways. Did they get a new composer?

« Last Edit: November 12, 2018, 06:21:33 AM by williewillus »

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2018, 01:45:16 PM »
The last programmer (for RSS and BM) has left for his own game , so the team use unity for ASL.

Playing at full framerate will be OK. But it may have some frameskip, depending on your graphic card's performance.


New composer? No, he just leveled up. :V

Fulisha of Light

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2018, 06:39:18 PM »
Is that first boss' name literally Shekle? lol :V

Game looks neat so far though, I'm in love with those backgrounds~

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2018, 08:05:24 PM »
Ah, so the engine did change? That's unfortunate, the SSS/BM engine felt really good to play on (also, forgiving hitboxes...). Best wishes to the departing programmer though, look forward to the sequel to BM

Edit: Also, really liking the boss theme in the third video. I guess this game is gonna be winter-based huh? Is the team going to make one for all four seasons? :P
« Last Edit: July 01, 2018, 08:10:24 PM by williewillus »

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2018, 10:23:13 PM »
The danmaku looks a lot different from the SSS style, I guess they're aiming more for a Phantasmagoria-Trues type of vibe as opposed to SSS' more touhou-style patterns.  Still, the game looks and sounds awesome, I'm looking forward to it!

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2018, 09:12:33 PM »
New video, showing full stage 3 gameplay: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av27647409

I guess this is starting to get spoilery for people who want to be going into the demo blind, so beware

yeashie

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2018, 06:07:17 AM »
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, seems a lot like SSS's stage 3 in the sense where cancels seem vital for survival. Still wondering what that timer does on the right, maybe an alternative game mode a la LoLK PD considering I believe I saw Reimu take a hit and not die and how the bombs are frozen on the UI. Overall, for stage 3 this looks a bit on the harder side but since I'm pretty sure HNY is doing balancing, I can trust there will not be any bullshit.

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2018, 06:52:45 AM »
Oh wow I didn't even notice the "frozen" bomb section. It looks like the "release" mechanic (or whatever they're gonna call it) gives invulnerabillity and also cancels both when starting and ending.

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2018, 05:41:59 PM »
New video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/av28597374
Spoiler territory for people wanting a blind demo: Contains full stage 2 + boss

Yukari shottype is interesting. It doesn't seem very different from the Reimu shottype though.

The video also says private beta testing will begin at the end of August.

Critz

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2018, 05:20:31 PM »
I can't see people behind SSS mucking this up. Excited~!

Enko

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #10 on: August 08, 2018, 04:12:11 PM »
Ah, so the engine did change? That's unfortunate.

Actually ASL uses Unity as base platform for better effects and so on. SSS and BM used self-written engine for all of things.
Besides they added an extra HP bar at bottom during boss battle for better experice.
Need help with C# DX developing.

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2018, 02:07:02 AM »
Actually ASL uses Unity as base platform for better effects and so on. SSS and BM used self-written engine for all of things.
Besides they added an extra HP bar at bottom during boss battle for better experice.

Yeah, I really liked the SSS and BM engines. Those two games never lagged for me at all and the controls felt responsive and comfortable. I'm sure the team will put out a good product for ASL!

Naudiz

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2018, 10:10:33 PM »
I heard on the grape vine that the game's demo might be coming very soon (as the replay system has been fixed). Does anyone have any more information about this?

Edit: I heard specifically that one of the developers on 6 October stated that the demo would be ready in ten days, so 16 October.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2018, 03:56:02 AM by Naudiz »
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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (in development)
« Reply #14 on: November 11, 2018, 10:22:54 PM »
Woohoo it's finally out!

Translated baidu post:

Quote
Touhou Xuelianhua
After about two and a half years, the demo has finally been finished. Many thanks to all members of 雨夜枫雪制作组 along the way, and thank you to the Touhou community for your support.
Notice: Because the demo was rushed, there are still lots of features incomplete. The game is not polished enough, and there's a lot of bugs. There's no way to change the level of special effects, and there is no controller support. Replay and overall stability still have a few bugs, please bear with us as future versions will slowly resolve these issues.

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #15 on: November 12, 2018, 06:28:47 AM »
Early thoughts:

* Music-wise, stage 1, stage 3, and stage 3 boss stuck out to me as good tracks. Stage 2 tracks didn't seem that interesting.
* Gameplay forces you to use the scoring mechanics to get lives, which is a fresh idea. If you don't use the scoring mechanics, you can only earn lives from capturing spells
* Scoring mechanic has lots of layers to it, but doesn't seem like it'll be too hard to master. (I translated the manual so you can check it out here: https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Abyss_Soul_Lotus/Translation)
* Bunny is cute af
* Art style for Reimu/Yukari's portraits are very very similar to the Barrage Musical style, while the boss portraits are a bit closer to the SSS style
« Last Edit: November 12, 2018, 06:50:07 AM by williewillus »

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #16 on: November 12, 2018, 08:43:50 AM »
Stage 1 and 3 Boss' are REALLY cool

Stage 2 boss is okay, but the OST is reeeally weak compared to the others. 

It's interesting to have a game where you don't get a bomb stock.  I personally couldn't figure out everything (even after reading the translation, mind you!) but still 1cc'd it on hard at the end.  Pretty fun so far, one more amazing fangame to look forward to!!

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #17 on: November 12, 2018, 10:40:12 PM »
Yessss I'm so excited to see this game making progress, the devs are doing great so far. Thank u v.much for the manual translation willie!!!

It's interesting to have a game where you don't get a bomb stock.  I personally couldn't figure out everything (even after reading the translation, mind you!) but still 1cc'd it on hard at the end.  Pretty fun so far, one more amazing fangame to look forward to!!
short-form summary:
Quote
The whole flow of magic throughout Gensokyo has been FROZEN!! Therefore, no bombs! Barely any flight! The Hakurei Barrier is crumbling into pieces before our eyes!! --> But our heroes can pick up spare fragments of the barrier in order to protect themselves from the harsh cold, and also the harsh danmaku. Can they solve things within 24 hours before the barrier is destroyed?!?!?!?

  • Bullet cancels from shooting down enemies give you red/purple fragments, depending on which team member you're using. These increase the Border gauge. (The bar in the lower-right shows the fragment multiplier for the team member that's not currently in use; collecting fragments with the current member increases this multiplier, and the gauge will drain shortly after switching to the member that the multiplier applies to.)
  • The Border Protection gauge has three levels (100%, 200%, 300%); when you get hit, you lose one level of shielding and get a brief bullet clear+invincibility frames. Getting hit with less than 100% gauge costs you a life, though whatever small amount of gauge you did have isn't lost. (Also, border fragments fill the gauge less with each shield layer you obtain. I guess the fragment multiplier can be used to offset that? don't quote me on that though)
  • Getting up to 100%, 200% and 300% Border will give you a life piece each time. ...But only once per level. To reset the count and receive more life pieces, you have to press X to pop a Border Release. (only possible w/ a full 3 layers)
  • --> This creates a field (large expanding circle in Reimu & Yukari's case) that converts bullets into point-value items (little snowflakes), and starts the Border Sustain timer. During the timer's 25-second span, point items will be autocollected just like fragment items. Then, either by pressing X or by letting the timer run out, you trigger a Border Reflux that turns all bullets into grey fragment items to refill your gauge. (Note that the Reflux cancel moves from the outside of the screen inward, and you're not invincible during it, so it's not very effective as a panic button.)
  • *The Sustain timer stops during conversations and Spell Cards, and capturing a card will instantly refill your barrier layers based on how much timer was left. The timer doesn't disappear when this happens, though, so between getting timer rewards and collecting more fragment items, it's easily possible to prime another Border Release within the timer's span and activate it at the same time as the Reflux. The resulting fragments bump up a score value multiplier in addition to refilling the gauge like the ones from a regular Reflux.
  • *Getting hit during Spell Cards also fails the card, regardless of whether or not you had a border shield up.
  • All fragment items (both from shooting enemies and from Border Refluxes) will slow down the Hakurei Barrier Destruction Timer (TM) on the right-hand side. If the timer ends, it's game over!! So obviously it's important to collect a bunch of fragments. (i'm guessing the timer is, like, 24 minutes irl time?)

im Not fluent in chinese so this is just general gist from google translate, but:

  • Stage 1 boss is Shekle, a snowflake fairy and one of the few surviving fairies in the frozen wasteland that is Gensokyo rn. She has no idea what's going on and is playing pretend on the frozen Misty Lake like she's Hans Christen Andersen's The Snow Queen.
  • Stage 2 boss: Miyaka Yamika, a heavenly yaksha (yaksha whomst is good at flying) from one of Hell's elite mercenary units. Her squad is here to deal with the situation and bring down the long arm of the law on "a sinner", but she underestimates the protagonists' capabilities and gets dunked on.
  • Stage 3 boss: Lepus Timidys Snowy (--> so, Snowy Lepus Timidys? Snowy's her first name? I guess), a snow rabbit youkai who uses her camouflage skills to rob people and pawn off whatever magic goods she finds at Kourindou. Being kind of an outcast, she was one of the first to wander into the lotus-filled snowfield that's sprung up. after fighting the protagonists and trying to steal their gear, she points them in the direction of The Plot (TM)

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #18 on: November 13, 2018, 10:27:44 AM »
Ahh I see now!  Thank you very much gilde for the translations as always; I get it now!

And thank you willie for translating the manual nonetheless, that was really nice too!

CrestedPeak9

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #19 on: November 14, 2018, 01:19:57 AM »
Some details of the system aren't mentioned yet, so I'll go over them.

1) The bottom right gauge is filled by collecting colored crystals, and it acts as a fill multiplier (for the bottom left Border gauge) for the crystal of the other color. This basically encourages you to press C and swap characters when you're about to collect a large amount of crystals when the gauge is at high values, up to x3. This effect doesn't last very long at all, so you'll have to time it well.

2) Switching characters with the Reimu-Yukari combo (Border shottype) will cause Ran to stay for a while when switching from Yukari to Reimu. Switching characters with the Yukari-Reimu combo (Demon Sealing/Binding shottype) will make your shots more powerful for a short while, depending on how much the bottom right gauge multiplier is, up to a max of x2.5. This is kind of useful to quickly shoot down a problematic spell, for instance.
Your multiplier won't carry through stages, so try to make use of them during the boss fight.

Additionally, there's one more tip I can share: The Spell Card Bonus won't void if you Border Release before the spell display animation is done; in other words, you can still cap a spell if you Border Release before the SCB is displayed. This allows you to carry the Border Release effect into the first second or two of a spell, and then gives you a 25 second Border Sustain timer that won't count down. If you capture the spell, the 25s timer remaining will effectively refill all 3 levels of your Border gauge, making this trick highly abusable.

One last thing: graze doesn't increase PiV; instead, each graze gives 1000 points.
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ryannthierry1

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2018, 08:30:20 PM »
Woah, a Touhou game made on Unity? This shall be an interesting adventure, for sure, lemme see...
Can someone help me decide who's better - Sese or Sukune?
Also, take a look at my Marine Benefit English patch

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #21 on: November 18, 2018, 10:48:32 AM »
is there a way to change the key config options? It doesnt work in the in-game option itself

Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #22 on: November 19, 2018, 12:45:44 AM »
all the unselectable items in the options are still unimplemented but planned for the full game

CreepyNinja_

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Re: [东方雪莲华] Touhou Abyss Soul Lotus (demo)
« Reply #23 on: May 03, 2019, 08:12:20 PM »
Somehow, no one here even noticed... that we got another demo release!
Changes:
- New character duo to play - Marisa & Okina! (Okina sprite in progress)
- Some changes to spellcards - very noticeable on Shekle
- Better spellcard declaration animations + new cutins!
- Now the game can run on 120 fps! Yay~! (huh, whether anyone asked for that, but it's a nice touch)
- Many, MANY under-the-hood changes to engine (and so, many bug fixes)


Download link (ASL v0.70): https://mega.nz/#!ZYhGzYhQ!ztMEpcWl2CqF-McTPCX7-LD0h4rCLVj2uOMaVoexovc