Maidens of the Kaleidoscope
~Hakurei Shrine~ => Help Me, Eirin! => Topic started by: Rook on April 14, 2010, 04:03:50 AM
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Alright. Been away from Touhou for a while. While I played my only accomplishments of note were to beat PCB Hard within like three months. I've stayed away from other games (played through StB and a little of SA, but that's about it). But now I'm back, and I'm going to kick that ghost's ass, eh? Let's get started!
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee112/espritellipsis/d1.png
Well this is a bad sign.
Anyway, I'll be posting my results in every try, questions about cards, comments, rage, etc. here. There's no way this is going to go well, so don't expect results quickly!
Finished By:
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
2nd noncard (Alice)
"Maiden's Bunraku" (Alice)
"Table Turning" (Letty) (don't ask)
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
Mid noncard(Alice)
"Phoenix Spread Wings" (Chen)
Stage 3 (Alice)
"Direction Sign" (Chen)
Mid noncard (Alice)
Initial noncard (Alice)
Stage 3 (Alice)
"Crusading Cherub's Rampage"
Mid noncard (Alice)
"Hanged Hourai Dolls"
2nd noncard (Chen)
"Human Sword"
Opener (Youmu)
Opener (Youmu)
Opener (Yuyuko)
"Maiden's Bunraku"
The one with all the knives (Yuyuko)
Youmu's stage 6 noncard
Alice's first noncard
"Butterfly Delusion"
"Demon World"
"Resurrection Blossom" (the coward's run (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8937))
Stage 4
"Hanged Hourai Dolls"
"Resurrection Blossom" (the slightly less cowardly run (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8971))
"Resurrection Blossom"
:D (clear (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8993))
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PCB L is very doable but you need to practice it a lot. If you haven't already, continue spam through the game in it's entirity so you can access Stage Practice, then go from there.
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I'd love it if there was a subforum for threads like these. The Accomplishments/Rage/Embarrassment threads are only really relevant for a small number of people and tend to degenerate into spam when too many people post at once. But, if everyone posted a thread on what they're doing and how they're doing/failing it instead of piling on in there, the forums would be filled with them.
Also, if you want more than very general advice or feedback, post replays!
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This thread just inspired me to do the same, a few days ago.
Taking the advice of one of the above posts, I just simply continue spammed my way through everything.
With every character and shot type. So now I've unlocked all stages on lunatic.
I guess all that's left to do is to practice those stages, eh?
Oh and by the way, I had to use my continues at almost the same times as you xD Chen's last spell and one of Alice's non-spells.
So yeah.. Continue spamming works.
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Don't bother trying to 1cc lunatic, no human has ever done it, everyone who has is secretly cheating *trollface*
Nah goodluck. May I suggest 1ccing hard or normal first though? Getting game overs on stage 2 (even three) suggests to me that you can still challenge yourself with a much easier goal, and develop your skills for this one with less chance of burnout.
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Don't bother trying to 1cc lunatic, no human has ever done it, everyone who has is secretly cheating *trollface*
Nah goodluck. May I suggest 1ccing hard or normal first though? Getting game overs on stage 2 (even three) suggests to me that you can still challenge yourself with a much easier goal, and develop your skills for this one with less chance of burnout.
I 1cced hard then didn't play for four months :)
Anyway, none of this stuff looks particularly hard--I just don't know the stages or the cards. Chen's noncard triangle things seem much worse, I have to weave through them rather than dodge them :( "That Chen Card Which Replaces Dounan-Whatever" actually seems easier than Dounan-Whatever (which I still bomb, dammit).
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I was getting game overs on Stage 2 and 3 also, then I got the VSync patch.
It's not necessarily his skill.
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I 1cc'd without Vsync. :D
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Chen's noncard triangle things seem much worse, I have to weave through them rather than dodge them :( "That Chen Card Which Replaces Dounan-Whatever" actually seems easier than Dounan-Whatever (which I still bomb, dammit).
Chen on Lunatic is 50 times worse than Hard. Unlike the usual trend of "just hard, but slightly faster and with more bullets" Chen goes batshit crazy. Also the douman seiman replacer is annoying as hell.
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...and just finished 1CC'ing PCB Lunatic. :V
:toot:
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Waaaait. Is Table Turning static?
Not that it's very hard even if it isn't, though.
It would be sweet if "Direction Sign: Not Konjin At the Demon's Gate" were static but I don't think it is :(
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Table Turning is static. I always sight read it though.
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Alright, I bit the bullet and continued my way through stage 3 to unlock it for practice. Dying once in stages 1-2 then getting wiped out by Alice's noncards got old real fast.
I'm having trouble with Benevolent Orleans Dolls. I'm considering just timing it out at this point (or bombing it) because it seems too difficult in the center, but much easier in the corners. Man, I wish I was playing SakuyaB right now.
Everything else seems doable with practice. And what's with the Foggy London Dolls cameo, anyway? That card was difficult... back when I was playing normal :V
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If you want to play SakuyaB then don't let the fact that she's the best shottype ruin it for you. She's also the one that scores highest. and gets the most lives
I suck at Benevolent Orleans Dolls either way.
Spring Kyoto Dolls isn't as bad once you realize that it's mostly circles of bullets. example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJx8x_ZghR8). I think I captured it on my 1cc, but it sometimes will throw some BS at you.
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Benevolent Orleans Dolls is one of the harder attacks in the game. If you're going for survival then just use a bomb.
Spring Kyoto Dolls aims at you right as it begins. Just make sure you're in the same starting position when it begins and it will open up the same way every time.
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I was making fun of Spring Kyoto Dolls. I think it's really easy (easier than Reincarnated Tibetan Dolls, even, from what I remember of that card).
It's good to hear that Benevolent Orleans Dolls is hard, as that makes me feel less bad about performing badly against it--I'll be sure to bomb it each time it shows up.
It turns out that bombing is a skill, and that it deteriorates very quickly--after 6 or 8 no-bomb practice runs through Stage 3 to get a feel for difficulty, I became absolutely terrible at panic-bombing in survival play. Deathbombed Table Turning after getting shot in the face by a laser, bombed right before Chen's midboss noncard because I thought I was going to run into the fairies, bombed Crusading Cherub's Rampage for absolutely no reason, bombed pretty much everything Alice through at me, even bombed Spring Kyoto Dolls... Oh well. I should be more generous with bombs, anyway (though I would prefer to have as few autobombs in Stages 1-3 as possible, just as a general rule).
And I'm good with Reimu's stupidly long deathbomb timer for now :p Maybe I'll try to run SakuyaB through Hard as a side project. Tried that once, did alright before getting absolutely slaughtered by Merlin.
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It turns out that bombing is a skill, and that it deteriorates very quickly--after 6 or 8 no-bomb practice runs through Stage 3 to get a feel for difficulty, I became absolutely terrible at panic-bombing in survival play. Deathbombed Table Turning after getting shot in the face by a laser, bombed right before Chen's midboss noncard because I thought I was going to run into the fairies, bombed Crusading Cherub's Rampage for absolutely no reason, bombed pretty much everything Alice through at me, even bombed Spring Kyoto Dolls... Oh well. I should be more generous with bombs, anyway (though I would prefer to have as few autobombs in Stages 1-3 as possible, just as a general rule).
You might already be doing this, but just in case you aren't: It's always a good idea to plan ahead which attacks you're going to bomb even before you begin your run. Generally, if you tend to fail an attack about 40-50% of the time or more you should bomb it preemptively(not panic-bombing) to ensure survival.
And please, don't be afraid to bomb past Chen and Alice for now, they're pretty tough for stage 2/3 bosses. Especially since stage 4 gives you craptons of extends.
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you seriously weren't kidding about the crapton of extends
(http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee112/espritellipsis/th_dyoumu.png) (http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee112/espritellipsis/?action=view¤t=dyoumu.png)
Replay! (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8531)
thoughts while it's still fresh in my mind
Wow, Merlin post-first card is a joke! I always stayed away from her because of bad experiences with pre-first card Merlin, but apparently I was missing out.
Stygian Riverside is still easy, whee.
I can't tell the difference between stages 4/5 hard and stages 4/5 lunatic =/ I had to bomb the death fairy (or did I die? I can't remember), but I would have had to do that playing Hard for the first time after a while, too.
Oh hey, Human Sword is back! I can't believe that's the spell that did me in, since it's the only one of Youmu's I could have feasibly captured on my first try. (I guess I need to finally get off my ass and learn Asura Sword, too.)
I still don't understand how to do the interlude on stage 3 between Alice's first and second boss fights :(
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*Cries at lack of touhou skill...* Stage 4 normal eats my lives.... And Chen Lunatic is FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.... *cries again*
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*Cries at lack of touhou skill...* Stage 4 normal eats my lives.... And Chen Lunatic is FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.... *cries again*
man
if you're learned one thing from this topic
it should be that chen lunatic is still fuckfuckfuck even when to those who can 1cc hard
Stage 4 was a pain back in normal. The reason it's "easy" on Lunatic is because its tricks haven't changed. Yes, it was painful on Normal, but eventually I learned it (and you will, too). And even though I'm playing Lunatic, it's throwing the same exact tricks at me--and I still know how to deal with them.
Got to Yuyuko for the first time today! Man, "Components of Konpaku" is just absurd. That's never happening.
Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?
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Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?
Yes. However, the bullets are fired a tiny bit differently IIRC.
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Got to Yuyuko for the first time today! Man, "Components of Konpaku" is just absurd. That's never happening.
It's not as bad as it looks. You need to be aggressive in getting through as many gaps as possible during the slowdown, then quickly parse what's left and dodge appropriately.
Is "Ageless Obsession" still static?
Yep. In fact, if you wanna be cheap, you can stand right between the 'n' and second 'e' of 'Enemy' and just safespot the whole thing. At least, I think that's where the safespot was. :derp:
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Oh sweet, thanks! I actually remembered to continue through Stage 6 this time, so I can practice it until I get Obsession down.
Now, time for an exhaustive list of those spell cards in Lunatic on which I have at least a 50% capture rate:
"Frost Columns" (20/33)
"Lingering Cold" (20/30)
Noisy Funeral "Stygian Riverside" (4/5)
Yeah.
In fairness a few of those are just because I don't take chances with borders; I'm sure I'm at least 50% on Large Pentagram Crest when I don't blow a border at the beginning to trivialize the whole card. But still... there's a mixture of ":(" and "man, you really can bombspam through PCB, can't you" in there
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what is it with cards with "Demon" in their names and being total walling bullshit
(this is unfair, Yuyuko's demon card only walls you if you had it coming)
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I'd like some advice on Stage 5.
A fairly representative practice is here (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8825).
On a 1cc run I plan to bomb once at the beginning of the stage's arrow spam, once at the end of the stage's arrow spam, and once on each of her cards except "Human God Sword." I think I'm getting the hang of Components of Konpaku, though-- thanks, Azinth, it is indeed much less impossible if I think about the situation while getting through it. I'd especially like any advice on the stage, "Gaki Sword", or "Asura Sword"-- I suspect at least one of my planned bombs on the stage is removable with some practice.
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It's a replay! (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8826)
Here's a partially edited copy/paste:
Asura Sword "Obsession with the Present World"
Be on the lookout for nice open areas at all times, make your bolder moves during the slowdown and move over as soon as it ends. The bullets are aimed at you at the end of the slowdown, but Youmu won't follow until shortly after. If you wait until the aimed bullets are about to swarm you to move out of the way then you'll be stuck shooting nothing while she remains above the aimed bullet stream. I don't know how prevalent this is, but don't lock yourself to the bottom portion of the screen just because the bullets on the higher level twirl with Youmu. It's only one column and there's a great expanse of dodging area to take advantage of.
Stage Stuff
Pretty sure the beginning stage arrow spam is static so start on the left, slowly stream the blue bullets over (shouldn't cover more than a few taps), then move over and stream back to the left so you don't have red arrowheads storming you so badly.
Memorize the fairies.
"Gaki Sword"
Locate the spot that gives you the most wiggle room among the slowly descending bullets, be ready to handle the faster ones. That's all I can say.
Endstage Second Noncard
I'm sure you're aware of the 'tap over once the knives spawn' method. Just throwing it out there.
(http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz242/AnonymousPM/PCB%20and%20Company/BK.png)
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That helps a lot, thank you! I knew of the "tap over and the knives won't hit you" method, but I never had the nerves for it--I'm practicing it now, but still can't do it reliably (sometimes don't move over far enough). More practice and looking at that picture should fix that, though.
Man, the name of "Gaki Sword" is nothing like "Gaki Sword", is it? :V
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To "Resurrection Blossom." (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8937)
Fuck this game.
I'm not saying "Fuck this game" because I died on Resurrection Blossom. Given the pattern, it was pretty obvious I was going to die here a few times. But I don't blame the game--it's a pattern beyond my skill, and I'm going to need to take much more resources in order to best it. Big deal.
I'm saying "Fuck this game" because the above is a coward's run. I captured, I believe, six spellcards:
"Lingering Cold"
"Maiden's Bunraku"
"Stygian Riverside"
"Human Sword"
"Lost Soul's Village"
"Repository of Hirokawa"
There were a few other cool things in there (one bomb on "Perfect Cherry Blossom" is definitely under par for me right now), and at least one cool noncard (beat the knives!), but on the whole, I bombed, bordered or died on everything remotely worthy of being included in Lunatic. On the stages, too, I hit that bomb button as soon as any bullet passed within an inch of me.
And this is supposed to be an accomplishment? I'm not getting better. I'm not capturing anything in the "seems doable but not quite consistent" range--you won't see Components of Konpaku, the Foggy London Dolls lookalike, or Chalk-White Russian Dolls in here. Or Table Turning, for fuck's sake! Table Turning! This is like the dark mirror of that thread I saw awhile ago about how easy PCB is.
I made it to Resurrection Blossom. I'm almost to the 1cc. I'm just afraid it won't mean anything.
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bomb more
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I made it to Resurrection Blossom. I'm almost to the 1cc. I'm just afraid it won't mean anything.
I capped 10 cards on my PCB lunatic run and one of them was Resurrection Butterfly itself, which was more of an absolute, undying determination to capture my favourite spell in the series at the end of the Lunatic 1cc. Oh, that and I was 0/1 going into it.
But if you struggle with table turning then that's a slight problem. Remember, every capture makes your cherry items worth more cherry, so more captures = more borders = more protection/free bombs. Try and capture everything up to Chen's last card (since it can be nonsense at times) so you are getting at least 50% more value from your items.
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bomb more
That's not the problem this time.
Okay, your post didn't ask for this but I'm going to pick away at three things then get back to your actual post. This isn't meant to attack your way of handling things but just an observation after going through your thread. I've also only watched your single stage five run and the latest one, the appropriately named "coward's run", so some thoughts might be off the mark with this impression.
You said you learned the stage four stage portion on Normal and recognized that Lunatic runs behind the same idea, and you still know how to deal with it. I don't know if it's because there's been a gap in practice after one month or your spirit was broken this run, but you clearly fell apart on that stage. Some parts you even set yourself up perfectly to get trapped in, like the blue shotgun fairies. Go for more items. If I picked up as many as you did I would have ended 0/0 on my first clear.
Ageless Obsession you never said you got down, but did say you now have the means to do so through stage practice. Nothing to say here.
Okay, GOAST KNIVES! I guess this one is actually attacking your method, and you said you'd try the saner method later, but I can't believe you rolled with that in a full run. I commend you and everyone else who's doing it for a display of bravery, but my breath stopped when watching you go through a certain set of those bubble waves. It's probably myself that needs to be re-acquainted with the hitboxes.
I'm not getting better.
Since when? Did you feel better about a run that was done the day before? A run you did right before this one? It won't be a steady wave of performance but you will see a general increase. What's with the first screenshot in the thread? Yes, there's that thread which pertains to the upper limit of skill but I won't get into that.
I'm not capturing anything in the "seems doable but not quite consistent" range--you won't see Components of Konpaku, the Foggy London Dolls lookalike, or Chalk-White Russian Dolls in here
Non-practice runs showcasing multiple captures are built on top of a 1CC. You say you're not capturing "seems doable but not quite consistent" spell cards. Since recently? Like only this one? It's not quite consistent so it's over a 50% rate? Not unlikely to fail all of them at once, you've been at it too long in a single session, your mindset, maybe it's your biorhythm, I don't know. Too little information.
I made it to Resurrection Blossom. I'm almost to the 1cc. I'm just afraid it won't mean anything.
To whom are you afraid it won't mean anything? To you or the public that cares about these games? If it matters to you and you want to do more than that then the current goal doesn't have to sit at a 1CC. It's only a benchmark just like any other you can create. Certain number of misses, spell captures, score, self-imposed handicaps, whatever. Some people will fulfill an achievement but know whether or not it was refined, and they might be prompted to do the same thing over. Not just for 1CCs or scores.
Here's an analogy. I used to play WoW and rolled with a raiding guild. So we spend a night plugging away at the boss, learning the ins and outs of the fight ("This is what fire looks like." "This is how the fire moves." "This is how hard the adds hit." "This is when you run away--right now."). Then we spend another night on the same boss, working on our execution. Sometimes we wipe 30 seconds in, sometimes we get it down to 3%, but we're learning all the way. Even simple mistakes that never came up before. Now you know not to do that.
The boss eventually goes down. Maybe that one dumbass finally sharpened up, maybe he was kicked out of the raid, maybe we got all our little (fatal) mistakes out of our system for that one attempt. Either way, the boss has toppled over and the raid is in high spirits. It didn't matter if we survived with only five people; we made it. Now, the magical part is next week we'll down the boss in less than a quarter of the time it initially took; the week after that, two attempts at most. The part about succeeding with only five people left is a rare case. Most of the time our first downing of the boss is with flying colors ("Now was that so hard?"), and the consistency built up from the previous attempts has been reinforced with newfound confidence.
Of course you can't be lax about it after the first victory or you'll quickly regress. A case in point is Vael the guild breaker. Luck unfortunately plays a part in the fight, but it's up to every player to pull their weight if you want to see the end of it. And it wouldn't stop there; some guilds have placed him on 'farm' status while they worked up to the final boss of the dungeon only to wipe on him one week. Again and again until the guild cracks.
So the point is if you're working towards a goal and have to go through much effort to get to it, you'll definitely be pleased when the pressure is off as you finally attain that goal. Then you can nitpick at the run after the fact and go through the same thing again, but most important is the boost in confidence you receive. It'll be worth it, and in conjunction with your previous efforts the next 1CC under the same settings will come much sooner.
After seeing the run I have little doubt you'll know you tried (all those deathbombs are commendable) when you score the 1CC. Save the run when you do and don't lose it; it'll never get old.
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That's not the problem this time.
I was being facetious :3
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I was being facetious :3
Surely you would want to offer words of wisdom (or link to an appropriate post) rather than toss out your catch-all phrase? I enjoy reading your input.
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Of course. Warning that I may be a tad harsh, dunno.
First of all, get rid of that stupid defeatist attitude. Especially in regards to Touhou, attitudes like that are a surefire way to never get any better. It doesn't matter that you're doing badly. You just keep working at it until you win. That's how these games work (or at least, somewhat).
-Learn the latter half of stage 2. In particular, nab the fairies that come from the sides instead of just sitting at the bottom, and it's really just moving back and forth across the screen. Learn to not stay near the yellow circles either, you already know it means they're about the pop up (and shoot).
-Chen's opener. Micrododge it. Following the small angled wall will, as you know, get you hit. Don't rush to the corner either, you're not hitting Chen that way.
-Definitely do not sit at the bottom in Pentagram Crest. Stay above the bottom so you can dodge downwards, because you'll need to. Other than that, it's just dodging.
-Cherub's Rampage is micromemorizable. Learn it.
-At least try to use only one bomb on Kimontokou. You need to stay a bit lower down this time.
-Stage 3 fairies. Kill them as fast as you can. They shoot the whole way down, so you're only going to screw yourself up by staying still. This goes for the entire stage.
At this point I really noticed this odd thing you do. For some reason you kind of stop focusing for a bit and jiggle around. Whether it's meant as dodging, or extra damage, or some weird plot to get more cherry, it's not working. If you want to whore cherry, unfocus on easy streaming parts. You're barely even getting any graze or whatever like that.
At this point, I also realized you are very, very afraid of the bullets. I'm almost wondering why you're seriously going for a Lunatic 1cc if you're so afraid of the bullets that you're barely moving. I might suggest to you to upload a Hard 1cc just to see what the heck you're doing.
-Dodge Russian Dolls higher up. You're pretty much going to want to dodge almost at where the fairies spawn, because the bullets are much more bunched together.
-Like Heartbeam said, the fairies that fire red and blue spreads you're supposed to wipe out point-blank. Just stay right above POC and stream it all. Everything after those and before Lily, just don't do anything. They'll fire aimed green shots that you just tap and shrug off.
-What the hell were you doing on Live Poltergeist. If you can't capture this card microtapping, you're definitely not going to get anywhere trying to survive unfocused, nevertheless actually whore cherry off it. Even when you started focusing, you didn't exactly stop the wave from going anywhere. You really don't need to move that much. In addition, stay under Lyrica instead of Lunasa. Her nonspell and spell are definitely the easiest out of all of them as the former consists of just tapping a few times and the latter consists of not walling yourself in.
-The dive into Concerto Grosso made me "wat" but if you're going to bomb it anyways then I don't really care what you do here.
-Learn Stage 5.
-Why did you not even bother with half of everything Youmu throws at you. I guess you could just bomb stuff for the 1cc, but you're still going to have to learn it eventually. If you need to learn other stuff anyways...
-During Components of Konpaku, whatever you do, don't dodge back down towards more bullets. For some reason, you did this.
-Safespot Ageless Obsession.
-During Yuyuko's second noncard you can really just move to the left and right of Yuyuko. You'll have to deal with a few bullets, but it really isn't too difficult and it takes her down much faster.
Yeah so in conclusion (??!??!)
Once again, stop talking down on yourself. Your self-esteem will only plummet and you'll never work up the confidence to actually nab the clear. Next, practice the stages and/or go through more runs. It doesn't seem like you've grasped how to handle certain things, but that can easily be fixed with some practice and replay-watching. Most of the things you need to learn I covered up above (which incidentally is a lot). Thiiiird, the "bomb more" comment was totally sarcastic and I truly do mean the opposite. Of course if you really really want that 1cc you can go ahead with a coward run, but in my opinion along with many others it would truly be more gratifying to know you completed the game by being awesome instead of relying on bombs. However, I am quite proud (or something) that you are in fact using your bombs unlike many others.
This may be a tad offensive but I really mean none; you kind of play like a Normal mode player. You're almost scared of the bullets and you're not sure enough of the bullet trajectories that you can run through patterns properly (especially noted on stage 3). I'm going to ask for a replay of a Hard mode 1cc. Not an old one, but I want you to do it fresh. It should be fairly easy if you're going for Lunatic.
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A quick reply for now: I'll put up a Hard run as soon as I can. I really appreciate the responses you've given me and will not try to respond to them in this short post (I've been busy lately).
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Hard run here (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8970). "Cleared: N" is a lie because I am not used to clearing things :p
Here's another, slightly less cowardly Lunatic run (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8971). Note that I did these the next time I played after seeing you guys' posts, so this run is not informed by them (I haven't had time to see how people actually deal with the stuff in Stage 4 that I apparently am doing wrong, for instance).
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Well, at least you don't suck. Your playing in the Hard mode run convinces me that you just aren't quite accustomed to Lunatic yet. All I can really recommend is watch some replays and take our advice to learn how to clear certain patterns, and to practice more.
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Let's 1CC PCB Lunatic!
Let's not. (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8978)
If I didn't have the ol' "Die right before something happens" thing happen to me twice I probably could have got to Stage 4. Oh well, such is the life of a Normal-mode player trying Lunatic~
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Let's not. (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8978)
If I didn't have the ol' "Die right before something happens" thing happen to me twice I probably could have got to Stage 4. Oh well, such is the life of a Normal-mode player trying Lunatic~
don't feel bad, I still die before Stage 4 like 1/4 of the time :V
Anyway, Heartbeam, you were right. Of course I'm getting better--I was just furious at the game for letting me "succeed" to that degree with a session that I saw as disastrous. This game really does throw extends at me, and, well, I was wondering--what's the point of getting better, when I can just bomb everything and get to the end of the game? But of course I'm exaggerating--in that post, I ignored everything I did in the coward's run which I considered easy. Which, of course, is a lot different from the stuff I considered easy on my first attempt.
I just watched a Lunatic playthrough of stage 4 and wow, it turns out I didn't fully understand the level! When I was playing Normal, the shot done by the giant black things if you don't kill them was fast and practically undodgeable, so I just assumed it was still like that. But of course what was impossible then is easy now, and the "penalty shots" don't seem to have changed much. So I can just skip the tough parts of that nature (the last wave before Lily White and the purple shots -> aimed shots combo after her). Also Lyrica is ridiculously simple. I could have sworn that I knew "Spirit Performance" was easy, but obviously that piece of knowledge never made it to the "maybe you shouldn't fight Merlin" part of my brain.
Honestly, I've been putting off practicing Stage 4 because IMO it's the worst (in the sense of the worst designed) stage in the game, due to being long and repetitive. I guess I've been paying for that!
Oh, yes, I have one more thing to say:
You were right. It was worth it. (http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=8993)
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Congratulations on reaching this milestone! Some nice survival time on stage three and the post-Lily White spam. Great job for keeping your cool against Components of Konpaku and Sumizome Perfect Blossom as well. Surprising development for stage six, and I can only imagine what went through your mind to the very end.
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I can only imagine what went through your mind to the very end.
guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo flfblfblflflflbf cherry everywhere guitar solo reimu dancing
gj
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Oh well. I think I should start attempting this too. I have tried Lunatic once...got to Yuyuko. Don't remember which card I continued on. So, a 1CC shouldn't be too hard...?
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I think a postmortem is in order, don't you?
First of all, I would like to thank all of you who gave me advice here. I'd like to thank Heartbeam most of all for encouraging me when I felt down about being able to bombspam through PCB; your advice made me feel much better each time I read it, and though the 1cc proved to be only a short way away, I still think I would not have made it without this. (Thanks for the Stage 5 breakdown, too!) Thanks also to Drake for your thoughtful response to my whining (eventually,) and thanks to everyone else, too!
As a Hard-level player, it is very doable to clear PCB Lunatic! Pretty much my only Touhou experience is in this game, so I wasn't a particularly impressive Hard player either when I started, but I made it through here alright. Perfect Cherry Blossom gives many extends; this, the border system, and Reimu's generous death-bombing combine to make it a gentle introduction. I am sure that Lunatic in many other games is considerably harder to clear.
Looking at my record of deaths, it appears that I got better much more quickly after I began to clear Stage 4, but that is misleading. It isn't that I improved more quickly, but just that I put less of my time into full runs.
(http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7672/practice.th.png) (http://img408.imageshack.us/i/practice.png/)
Most of my practice runs were of Stage 3 primarily because "it's just Stage 3, it's no big deal, you should be able to do this without bombing often." It took 30 runs to disabuse me of this notion. The worst part is that I didn't even improve that much---I still can't do any of her harder noncards or any non-Maiden spellcards consistently. (Ridiculing "Spring Kyoto Dolls" here seems to have jinxed it, so I can't even do that.) In contrast, I'm much better at Yuyuko's stage than I was pre-practicing, though I'm still too damn lazy to learn Ageless Obsession.
Man, that "coward's run" post was pretty whiny :> In fairness, I wouldn't have made a post like that publicly without a topic like this (in which I felt obligated to record anything I felt strongly,) but the feelings are certainly the feelings I had at the time. PCB throws so many resources at me that it's easy to feel like I'm getting better at Touhou, the Resource Management Game, but not Touhou, the Shooting Game. It's easy to forget all the Shooting Game stuff at which I have also improved!
and as for what went through my mind at the end, it was mainly fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuck come on come on if I can just-NO-still have a few other chances and .......... i think it's done ........... stare blankly at ending score screen for a minute
after that came the guitar solo