Good game for Pushing Myself To Get better?

[Catmusica]

Ok so after a few years im desperately struggling to 1cc any touhou games as ive only been able to clear easy ones like IN and POFV on normal. I want to be able to push myself to beat normal on all the games and eventually move to hard. Can anyone give  me reccomendations on a main touhou game that would be good to focus on to push and build my skills?

[snowflake247]

Subterranean Animism.

[Maple]

If i were to recommend a game for people with lower skill, i'd say fangames Riverbed Soul Saver, Frantically Forbidden Fruit, and Shining Shooting Star. The first is generous with resources and the Liberation mechanic makes the game a breeze, the second's Juice mechanic (power-ups and health) makes things all-around easier, and the third has a diminute hitbox and a rather share of resources. Len'en Reactivate Majestic Imperial, personally i find it easier that the first two games (switching shottypes, flash bombs, some characters, mostly Sukune+Yaorochi have good passive skills), Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle's upgrade system trivializes the game at higher levels.

If you want a mainline Touhou game, use Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom's pointdevise mode.

[Mikuru]

Try playing any game on Hard or even Lunatic for a while. Lunatic is really fun for a Normal-mode player because you know you're going to do badly, so you don't really care when it happens, and every spellcard capture makes you feel awesome. Then when you play Normal again, it will feel much easier than it used to.

[Nolegs the Cat]

LoLK black label of course. It's for real men :V

Jokes aside, I've found going for achievements helps. And IN is helpful for helping you get used to the pattern difficulty of a difficulty, helped me jump to lunatic.

[R.P.]

IN is generally good but you said you already beat it so maybe you want to try something else so:

LLS is easy to 1cc in Normal

Touhou 1 while is different in gameplay from the others in my opinion can help you to learn how to manage your bomb by predicting when you are going to be hit because you have to press two keys to use a bomb in that game

PoDD and PoFV are both good to learn how to stay calm under pressure and instinctive dodging

UFO, TD and DDC can help you learn how to move around in the screen when there are bullets everywhere

LoLK with the pointdevice mode can help you figure out how to clear complex pattern but can easily be too hard for a beginner

Also using the practice mode can help a lot if you find a particular stage too difficult

[Catmusica]

oh i forgot to mention i beat LOLK on normal pointdevice sanae i know people bring that up alot

[?q]

Try playing any game on Hard or even Lunatic for a while. Lunatic is really fun for a Normal-mode player because you know you're going to do badly, so you don't really care when it happens, and every spellcard capture makes you feel awesome. Then when you play Normal again, it will feel much easier than it used to.

This is extremely true.  Grinding Lunatic for a little while - even enough to get into Stage 4 before running out of lives/continues, or something - and then playing the same game on Hard, you will feel astonished at how little trouble you have with it.  Even more so going down to Normal.

Also, you said that you cleared IN Normal?  That's not really all that "easy"; give yourself some credit.  If you can do that, most of the Normal modes (of games that aren't well-known for being silly) should be within your reach.

[Catmusica]

my specific goal atm is to 1cc clear eosd if that helps to get an idea. The IN clear was awhile back but i will say i tried it the other day and multiple times before and usually mess up on marisa cause shes ridiculouslously hard

[?q]

You may want to try using Scarlet Team instead.  They require a little more skill to use (mostly in figuring out how to play as Remilia) but honestly I think it's worth it to fight Reimu instead of Marisa.

EoSD is kind of tough but a lot of the really awful attacks are random spam so some days you'll get good luck and others you won't.  All of the shot types have something to recommend them; for learning the game I'm partial to MarisaB for Sparking a certain maid out of the way and having what's probably the second-easiest Patchouli fight.

[Monarda]

So if i want to improve quicker i should play Lunatic and force myself through it even if it is painful ? (Not that it would matter in my case.)

[Catmusica]

I played through the final bosses of almost every game last night on lunatic and feel like a godess now. I feel I could beat anything

[R.P.]

I played through the final bosses of almost every game last night on lunatic and feel like a godess now. I feel I could beat anything

Go for it !

[Monarda]

Don't get cocky Milady.

*Points to the Accomplishments' thread*

There is a ton of work out there.




Also, how did it go ?

[Catmusica]

Don't get cocky Milady.

*Points to the Accomplishments' thread*

There is a ton of work out there.




Also, how did it go ?

went surpisingly well honestly! ii got to the final health bar on every game  from 10,12,13,14. i got to surprisingly far with byakuren her having a quarter left. Kanako i shouldve cleared but her leftover danmaku after i beat her killed me last second lol. other than that i cleared  yuyuko oddly enough even tho she one of the only final boss that has an extra timeout card at the end.

honestly i have yet to try Subterranian Animism but it looks fun and cool characters but i hear its insanely harder than most games like ufo. dunno about lolk tho ive cleared it on normal pointdevice took me 3 days to finish with sanae after reseting cause i wated bombs my first run

i have good news too: i tried a practice run of remillia yesterday with marisa b and cleared it! i think i can do this but might try a lunatic run first.

[Chill Observer]

Side games really push the pattern difficulty far more than the main games ever will, although to compensate they are usually far more forgiving in terms of completing a level. For StB/DS/ISC you are allowed to try a scene infinitely, and GFW also has way fewer levels than a regular Touhou game. All of them come with their own individual gimmick which not only makes things easier, but is the only way specific patterns are possible. (Aya's camera allows you to clear bullets each time you take a picture, Cirno can freeze bullets which make them harmless, Seija has cheat items which trivializes patterns when used correctly.)

With that being said, here's a checklist of what you should do:

• Shoot the Bullet: Complete all scenes.
• Double Spoiler: Complete all scenes. Preferably with Aya, as doing them over with Hatate usually makes patterns way easier.
• Great Fairy Wars: Complete all 6 routes, on normal at the very minimum (though I highly suggest moving on to hard and lunatic). Then, complete the extra stage.
• Impossible Spell Card: Complete all scenes, then re-do as many as you can without items. I STRONGLY suggest not to try to get all scenes no-items however as a few patterns in this game are basically impossible without extreme luck and/or precision.

Also, you should make an effort to capture all Last Words/Overdrives in their respective games. They are reasonably difficult and gives a fair challenge if you wish to give these a shot. Spell practice is basically the stem of these scene-based side games anyway.