[Let's Play] Touhou Gensoumaroku: The Devil of Decline~Matsuri!

[Serela]

Marlboros are also recruitable!

Meiling's Union Last Word is only single-target iirc, but I'm not sure. It uses the combined attack power of your entire party.

(Reimu's is a multitarget 500 power light attack that scales based on level, which when you consider how high the damage scaling for Magic type is, means it is indeed fierce; it's like, seven to eight hundred percent damage increase at lv99. Byakuren's is just a souped up version of her GoS LW; more EXP/drop rate. And Yukari is complete immunity to damage and status effects for three turns, on your whole party.)

[homing curvy laser]

Fun fact: you know how you get a billion recipes after that cutscene with Akyu? Before the expansion, the game showed them all one by one. Mash that A button! :V :V

[Hanzo K.]

Synthesis Done: Furagarahha (Meiling)

Little late, but I think this is supposed to be Fragarach. Y'know, that legendary irish dagger/shortsword?

[Serela]

Oh, I really should have remembered to mention it before since you like Poison; the Basilisk in tower 3 gets passives at lv40 and 52 to boost poison damage by 20% and 30%. Ninja gets a 10% poison boost at an unknown level, but who likes him?! >:V (you'd probably be better off just putting on a high-dex shikigami with any decent moves rather then the ninja anyway, tbh)

While I'm at it; poison damage formula for the cooking loli's Dumpling move is [(Level/4) + 20] x (DEX / 10) = Damage, where level is the shikigami's level. For comparison, most other poisons just have a flat 15 or 20 (Aka no level modifier) for the first half of the equation, with a few 25s.

Especially when stacking is considered, the poison damage is potent all the way into postgame.

[Validon98]

Sorry, this is quite late. For two reasons. First of all, reality. Second of all, Persona 4 Golden. And Labyrinth of Touhou.

Sinister Castle of Chaos- Part 3.5: A (Half) Day in Review...

So, I figured now we're so late into the game, I'll not only review the recipes and shikigami we got last time, but also everything so far. So without further ado...

Two days before the main events of the game, rumors spread of people and places in Gensokyo being spirited away, with Keine Kamashirasawa (I probably spelled her last name wrong, but I'm not too familiar with it) being the first victim. Reimu, Yukari, Byakuren, and Meiling all go out into Gensokyo in order to discover the source of this, four hours before a mysterious Doomsday Clock rings for the first time.
The victims of this spiriting away have been turned into spectral forms that are bound to fade from existence. By binding these forms into objects, similarly to the process of binding a being as a shikigami, the forms can survive. Meiling rescues Tewi Inaba in this manner.
Magic circles are discovered by Meiling and the group of people she has recruited to her cause. These magic circles were smashed one by one until one remained in the Forest of Magic. However, it was too late. It didn't even matter if the circles were smashed, as long as they were placed. Gensokyo falls apart, and the lands making it up are arranged into three strata. As well, three Clock Towers of the End appear, rising through all three strata and forming the Doomsday Clock over the World of Chaos. Three demons from Makai, known as the Three Demonic Pillars, announce to all of Gensokyo that they are the perpetrators of this incident.



Xia Zhuli, a jiang-shi-like demon with a mild, rather comedic personality. She has power over blood, and her Clock Tower of the End is filled with it. Makes me wonder where she got it all from...



Chloe Gripper, a former shinigami who was bored with her job and found her way into Makai, becoming a demon with mastery over death. Her Clock Tower of the End is a dangerous, dark place. I wonder if Komachi knew her in the past.



Shijuukara Otohane, or simply Otoha. A polite demon with power over wind and electricity. She wears some weird ears on her head. Okay then...

These three threatened that Gensokyo will be destroyed when the Doomsday Clock comes around to zero again. Taking this to mean 12 hours, Meiling and company set out to defeat them. The journey took the party all throughout the World of Chaos, where they found many residents of Gensokyo and joined forces with them, gathering all of Gensokyo into one combined force. With this power combined, the Three Demonic Pillars are defeated.
However, the twelve hours passed anyways. Instead of Gensokyo being destroyed, however, a mysterious fourth tower, known as the Sinister Castle of Chaos, rises into the World of Chaos. It is here that the leader of the Three Demonic Pillars and the true perpetrator of the incident shows herself.



Angra Mainyu, a powerful demon from Makai, whose goal is not to destroy Gensokyo, but convert it into a second Makai, as part of a plan to expand her territory. She and the Three Demonic Pillars escape to the Sinister Castle of Chaos.
Meiling and company pursue them, only to find Keine, who was kidnapped by Angra days earlier. Angra, using her own power to steal the abilities of others, took Keine's power, and erased Gensokyo's history, thus allowing the World of Chaos to be born. The Doomsday Clock itself counts down to the full moon, where she will be able to change Gensokyo's history to make it a new Makai.
The party encounters Chloe later on, who claims she was not fighting with her full strength earlier. The party is quickly defeated, and she threatens that she will show no mercy if they continue onwards. Later, Akyu shows up and heals the party, as well as giving them recipes for powerful equipment and the secrets of using the Union Last Word. With this newfound power, Meiling and company now stand a fighting chance against Angra and the Three Demonic Pillars.

As for Reimu, Yukari, and Byakuren, they were attacked by Chloe before Meiling and company showed up, and now they have united themselves and their unique shikigami with our own party.

Now, to go over the shikigami and recipes we have received, not only from Akyu, but from the whole second area of the Sinister Castle of Chaos.

From the Sinister Castle of Chaos: Scorching Bracelet, Bracelet of the Everlasting Nagakabe, Bracelet of the Earth, Bracelet of Roaring Thunder (so that's what that accessory I got earlier translates as!), Angel's Bracelet, Demon's Bracelet, Large Makai Bracelet, Agni Amulet+, Boreas Amulet+, Inanna Amulet+, Saul's Amulet, Yahveh's Amulet+ (damnit, YHVH!), Satan's Amulet+, Mephisto's Amulet+, Orichalcum, Adamantite, crystals of Fire, Water, Electric, Earth, Light, Dark, and Mystic, Liquid Iron, Mystery Bamboo, Keystone, Large Mirror, Damascus Steel

From Akyu: Snowstorm Sword (not the Ice Sword, that's in the expansion), Orichalcum Knife, Tenhane Kuikaeshi Zan (someone translate that, please), Doujisetsu, Durandural, Kusanagi (the Grass Cutting Sword of legend! Or the Scarlet Gold Sword, if you've played Labyrinth of Touhou), Shiukoatoru, N-kay (no idea how to translate this properly...), Hachiman's Falcon Wind, Gae Bolg (I probably did not spell that right, but I sort of know what it is...), Shura Valla (uh...), Japanese Model, Mace of the Earth, Rune Axe, Priest's Gold Binding Staff (going for broke on that translation...), Iron Duke, Executioner, Vajra of Heaven, Mistelteinn (didn't spell that right, most likely), Great Mirror Shield, Jewel Shield, Heaven's Gem Shield, Compound Plate Armor, Ogre Shield, Sun Shield, Barrier Shield, Aegis Shield (!!!), HVD-ROM, Force Shield, Demon Robe (), Stripped Heart, Harmony Garment, Mystic Mantle (), Barrier Robe, Dragon Mail, Cantrip Guardian Armor (), Shunera Pants (), Armor of Idaten, Hakurei Robe, A. Muscle Suit, Diamond Saint's Clothes, Hakurei Ribbon, Yata no Kagami, Yasakani no Magatama

Okay then, there's a lot of things in there I couldn't translate properly, but I did the best I could.

Onward to shikigami, then! Reimu comes with Komachi, who's a physical based shikigami who starts with Higan Retour (Medium power physical attack with a good chance of Instant Death) and Dark Hand, as well as a passive that has a 33% chance of raising the person back to life after being hit with Instant Death. She might go on Meiling.
Chen was on Yukari, and she starts with Flight of Idaten (a fast casting column attack that scales with level) and Sword Chase. She also has a 5% chance of turning normal attacks into column ones. Useful if you wanted a column version of Falcon Slash, but I'm not going to use her.
Byakuren comes with Ichirin (congratulations to her on being in Hopeless Masquerade!), who has Fist Smash (hits four times, but each hit is weak) and Heat Hand, as well as 5% physical reflection. Sorry, nope.
And then there's Akyu herself. She has Gensokyo Records, which protects your party's weaknesses (similar to guarding in Persona 4), Water Recovery, Resurrection, and Clearance. The character she's equipped to will always be resurrected with full HP. She'll probably going onto Byakruen at this point.

So, that's it, then. Next time I update, whenever that is, we'll revisit those Long Hookshot areas and then deal with a certain boss fight I've skipped until now. After that, we'll go after the rest of the Sinister Castle of Chaos. Thought what I've gone through so far is hell? Ahahahahaha... you have no idea.

@Serela I knew the poison's formula already (I found that blog or whatever with all of the info on it), but I didn't know about the Basilisk's poison booster. That might be useful later on, when I actually bother to go shikigami hunting again. Which will probably be before the final boss.

[homing curvy laser]

Byakuren comes with Ichirin (congratulations to her on being in Hopeless Masquerade!), who has Fist Smash (hits four times, but each hit is weak) and Heat Hand, as well as 5% physical reflection. Sorry, nope.

Worth noting is that she gives a rather nice VIT boost (STR too, if I recall correctly), and later on gives a plain DEF boost and a chance to deflect physical attacks. Almost Anyone can tank now!

[Serela]

Ichirin's Fist Smash powers up with level too, and is actually pretty good when you total the damage of the fists. IIRC Komachi's does too. Komachi/Ichirin are fairly nice shikigami with some nice moves and bonuses, Tei is as well but in a different kind of manner, and then Chen is really underwhelming for a protag shikigami :T

[Validon98]

Well, I ended up putting Ichirin on Meiling, so all is well. Except I didn't put Komachi on anyone. Yet.
The next update is screenshotted, but I don't know when I'll put it up. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow.

[Validon98]

Sinister Castle of Chaos- Part 4: Grinding Time

So, we've got some Long Hookshot areas to go to. The one in the Forest of Magic led to a recipe chest containing the recipes known as the Piles of Broken Treasures A-L. These let me convert some of the higher tier materials into Broken Treasures, which I can use in making material sets. Afterwards, I visit the one in Bhava-agra.



Iku!



She's surprised to see us. Well, I guess it's because seeing people in Bhava-agra that don't live there usually is surprising.



She says that she was aware of the calamity to come, but didn't warn people in time. She feels ashamed of herself for not doing her duty.



She wants to make up for it, though. She wants to come with us!



She also says that Tenshi has gone missing... no shit, Sherlock. She just tried to kill us a while ago.



I forget why she's angry here, but whatever. She joins our party! She has Thunder of the Palace of the Dragon King, which has a chance of reducing the entire enemy party's HP by 99%, as well as Thunder Pierce and Thunderclap. She offers 25% resistance to Electric, but I don't care enough. Sorry. Well, I just have to go to the Long Hookshot area at the Nameless Hill and we're all set.



I know you've been waiting for this one, Ikari. And here she is, Koishi! She looks a little more transparent than most shikigami, but subconscious powers and all.



Oh hey there, how's it going?



Apparently Meiling was the only one who could tell she was there, because of her intense training related to chi. She could essentially sense signs of life in the area, and even Koishi's subconscious powers can't block that. Amazing.



This surprises Koishi, but what surprises her more is the fact that we found Satori. Apparently Koishi was worried about both Satori and Okuu. No worries, we've found them.



She agrees to help us in the meantime. Hurray, you can actually be with a group instead of disappearing all the goddamn time like in Do the Right Thing! The first several threads of that fanfiction were partially your fault...




She apparently pissed them off in some way. I'm not exactly sure. Well, she's in our party now, so let's talk about her, shall we? She starts with Radiation Mist (reduces magic attack in a column), Melt Weapon, and Acid Storm. She also increases the casting speed of Variety debuffs by 3%. She also has the highest total amount of statistics combined, even surpassing Kanako. She's probably going to go on Byakuren (but I forgot to put her on this update, so... yeah...). Last but not least, let's deal with that boss fight I skipped.



Of course, I manage to run into Koakuma along the way! She can use Ectoplasm Net, but it hasn't worked. Otherwise she uses some Dark attacks.



As a shikigami, she starts with the almighty Dark Illusion, which is basically the physical equivalent to Foreign Blast, which Shizuha has. These two skills combined can be lifesavers later on in the game. She also starts with Dark Web and provides 25% resistance to Dark. She'll be used, just not yet.



I think we've got this.



Suwako! There you are! Well, it seems she's looking for Sanae and Kanako. I'd be a little more worried about yourself, because you're not looking so good right now.



Who's there?



Another assassin, eh? Well, Suwako's a god. Even in this form, she should be able to take care of you, right?



Or not. If she were in her normal form, however, she'd be able to deal with you.



Thankfully, we show up just in time.



Yeah, we're not going to let you get away with this! You think you can just beat up a god, eh?



Prepare to deal with her descendant, who is more than capable of dealing with you (if she were actually in the active party...)!



This guy is Haniyasudaisoi, and he's an Earth-elemental jerk. He can hit hard with Earth attacks and Blunt skills, and he also can buff himself. Hopefully I'm powerful enough to kill him before he does. If not, I have Dispel from Star.



Mega Stroke does that much damage. I'm so glad I have that.



And Mokou learns Shockwave, which is a Medium power all-targeting attack! Alright, then! Despite the fact I was worried, I end up killing him.



And that's what you get.



And that's the last of the Makai Assassins! And we'll never see any of them ever again.



Are you alright, Suwako?



Yup. Demons won't get her down for long.



She wants to help out (which is why she was out in the first place), so she comes on board. She has Moriya's Iron Rings, which is a 60 power 3-4 time hitting Earth attack which has a chance of inflicting Paralysis (just like in Labyrinth of Touhou!), as well as Moonlight, a 40 power column healing spell. She also has 50% resistance to Instant Death (reference to Genius of Sappheiros, wherein the boss fight with her has her being very resistant to Instant Death while Kanako... wasn't  :V). And again, I forget to put her on Byakuren. Whyyyyyyyyyyyy...



So, here's the third area of the Sinister Castle of Chaos. It has a new theme. Once again, it's Shanghai Teahouse~Chinese Tea. That's six remixes of that theme so far.



Uh... where the hell did this all come from? I'm starting to think this place is like the Tower of Geddon, where there's no true physical connections between any of the areas.



New theme is known as Fighting Fantasy Moonlight. It's not any The Devil Bares His Fangs, but it'll do for the final areas of the game.
So, a Shining (no, not that Shining!) and a Lizard Knight. The Shinings can blind you and have regeneration, which only gets stronger when the land is shifted towards Light. The Lizard Knight comes in sword, shield, and ax variants, and they know deadly skills related to each type, which pretty much required Mokou to use Shield Wall to allow the party to survive them. Thankfully I have that Riot Shield. The Shining is weak to Dark and the Lizard Knights are weak to Water.



There's the other variants. This can't end well.



I knew it!



And that there at the bottom is a Durahan (I probably spelled that wrong...). It hurts. A lot. Light skills are the way to go, if I remember correctly.



Crap, an Oarfish! It uses Intense Lightning, and it hurts. Badly.



Why can't I just kill you?!



Back in the second section, because I want to do grinding, I find a familiar enemy in the form of the Purple Worm. It's weak to Water and uses Perfect Chase. Combined with the Locomo Dragon, the breath attacks become one-two knockouts. Yeah, run.



Ah, Star Maelstrom!



Okay, it's not that strong now, but Byakuren will grow stronger.




I forgot to capture her portrait the first time it went off, so here it is.



Locomo Dragon get! It starts off with Dragon Fang (a two-hit Medium power attack), Tail Chop (can stun, but seems to be... a little more powerful than it seems), Lance Chase, and Hellfire (a 100 power Fire breath attack). It also boosts physical attack directly by 10. Suika. On. Now.
Not pictured: Using Tail Chop to one-shot a Cyclops. One shot. A Cyclops. Granted, the sword I had on her has Slayer against giants, but yeah. That ridiculous.



TANKS!!!



Push gear, open door.



Pushing some gears will stop these big ones, allowing me to walk on them. How all these gears are fitting in this tower, I have no idea.



I think that's a Gold Gargoyle. It's weak to Water, and can use Hellclaw Assassination. Okay then.



Beautiful sunset.



Why...

Anyways, I stopped playing after this, because my party was starting to run dry on MP. Next time I'll head deeper into the third section of the Sinister Castle of Chaos, and hopefully get it finished.

Summary:

Treasure: Man's Wisdom, Launch Goggles II, Magic Piercings III, Gold ,Muscle Belt III, Mercury Drop, Trapezohedron, Riot Shield, Barrier Earrings III, Rosary of Fortitude III, Beautiful Bracelet, Shoulder Strap of Matabee, Adamantite Shard, Fire Shard (drop), Earth Crystal, Mysterious Branch, Makai Lodestone, Half-Broken Bracelet, Mystery Bamboo, Liquid Iron

Skills: Thunder Hand (Ichirin), Shockwave (Mokou), Mining Village Union (increases the entire party's physical and magical defense, Mining Village), Lance Chase (Ichirin), Wolf Fang (Meiling), Vacuum Kill (Mokou), Freezing Snowstorm (Yuki-onna), Whirlwind Slash (Suika), Sonic Blade (Mokou), Stun Blow (Byakuren), Burst Shock (Byakuren)

Passives: +10 Defense (Ichirin), 25% resist to Burn, Freeze, Shock, and Stumble (Ichirin), +20 physical attack power (Yuugi)

Synthesis Done: Tenhane Kurikaeshi Zan (Suika, though I might switch it to Meiling)

TPKs: 3 this update, 20 overall
Frustration: Rising, because the grinding has begun. Damn it all...

[Serela]

Heh, this really does look like a min-maxing team, even if not on purpose. Patch/Suika are the most powerful examples, having really high stats for their particular offense and abominable stats everywhere else. Then Byakuren has the highest DEX in the game (Effective since you're a poison user), Meiling is the highest stat protag by a significant amount, and Mokou has what's arguably the best LW by a longshot (along with being a great tank/physical attacker)

Forgot to put on two new shikigamis in one update? Shame on you >:V

Freezing Snowstorm (Yuki-onna)

Oooh, almost there~ Going to be just in time, too, at this rate.

[Validon98]

It's meant to be a min-maxing team, damn it!
I'll remember to put on those shikigami! Maybe.
Also, while beginning to screenshot the next update (made it to the final warp point, hurray), I did in fact get Freezing Prison.
If only there were less enemies on the screen at once...

[homing curvy laser]

New theme is known as Fighting Fantasy Moonlight.

THIS. This here is the (second) best thing of the game oh boy I love you so much. The game is starting to get a bit too hard? No problem, have some amazing battle BGM to pump you up.
It's only second because of a certain upcoming new track, by the way.

Also, good to see the tank love once again! seriously how do you even defeat them consistently without too many deaths

[Validon98]

THIS. This here is the (second) best thing of the game oh boy I love you so much. The game is starting to get a bit too hard? No problem, have some amazing battle BGM to pump you up.

It's no The Devil Bares His Fangs, but it gets the job done, damn it!

It's only second because of a certain upcoming new track, by the way.

I know exactly what you mean, and I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Also, good to see the tank love once again! seriously how do you even defeat them consistently without too many deaths

Simple: I don't. I'm just lucky not to run into that formation too much.

[Hinacle]

Ughhhh, bad memories of the later levels of this dungeon are coming back >_<

Anywayyyys, good luck on the rest of this annnnnnd damn, I never knew that's what the story was about.

[Serela]

Now that I think about it... you don't have a single spear user in your party *Blinks*

Heheh, they do tend to be an unpopular weapon, but for hitting enemy weakness it's nice to have around- and one person to get off the Quick effects on bosses is nifty. They work on pretty much all the bosses with a good accuracy rate I think (Chef's LP used them on basically all the expansion bosses) and the effects are pretty useful, either making your attacks do a lot more damage on that turn or making the boss do a lot less, or dispel, etc.

Then again, Mokou/Meiling are already pretty much ingrained with swords, and your other party members are all slow, which is bad for getting off quick effects :T

[Validon98]

Ughhhh, bad memories of the later levels of this dungeon are coming back >_<

Yep, it's just as painful as I remembered it the first time. I'm starting to wonder why knowing that I'd have to go through this again I actually decided to LP this game, of all of the ones that I could. Then I remember Genius of Sappheiros, and that feeling goes away.
Doesn't make it any less painful.

Anywayyyys, good luck on the rest of this annnnnnd damn, I never knew that's what the story was about.

Well, I'm all about the story for a game. Give me a story, and I want to experience it. Even if this game is in Japanese, I want to enjoy the story.
Don't worry, the story's about to come to its conclusion.

Spoiler:

Don't think there won't be any more twists, though...

Now that I think about it... you don't have a single spear user in your party *Blinks*

Yeah, that kind of stopped when I got rid of Nitori. Honestly, Piercing weapons were never really appealing to me in this game. I'm more of the "kill things dead faster" kind of guy. It might be different from some people, but it's how I work. It's what playing games like Kingdom Hearts for so long gets me (where you just upgrade everything, and strategy, while still important, is not is important as pure power). Of course, I still take buffs, debuffs, and defense into consideration. Not like I have a choice in this game...

Anyways, I'm still working on the update. Sort of. Real life and procrastination are slowing me down, but not for long.

EDIT: It's mine! The Dekarabia is all mine! Finally! For the first time ever I got it!
 :getdown:

Second EDIT: Please just die, boss. Please die. PLEASE DIE IN A GODDAMN FIRE!
...That's all I have to say.

[Ikari]

Yay Koi-Koi~!

Great job for not getting lost in those weird dungeons. I get lost in the most basic areas, I think this game will completely end me.

[Serela]

Second EDIT: Please just die, boss. Please die. PLEASE DIE IN A GODDAMN FIRE!
...That's all I have to say.

Sword skills with slayer effects, colloseo (sp?) world to prevent healing/resurrection, Koishi debuffs drastically reduce their damage (along with stuff like Manuscript's mdef buff and Earth Wall for the buff inverse)

[Validon98]

So, I went back and looked at the titles of all of the Sinister Castle of Chaos updates and *gasp* they were numbered wrong! So I fixed that.

Sinister Castle of Chaos- Finale: Even in a Touhou Game, T-P-K!

It's technically not the finale of the game, but more like the finale of this section of the game. I consider the final area to be in a class all on its own.



That big hulking thing of what I assume to be light is a Luminescence. It packs hard hitting Light attacks like Holy Zapper, Holy, and Starlight Web. It's weak to Dark, but what do I care? It's an instant run-away as far as I'm concerned.



That octopus looking thing is a Gapuin. You can make one of them easily in Phantasmal Summoners right from the beginning. It's weak to Electric and can use Tentacle and Tentacle Dance, I think, but I don't exactly remember. Thunderclap can one-shot it, so I personally don't care.



That thing in the back is a... uh... Duner Master, I think? I don't exactly know what it's weak to (probably Water, but I'm not certain). From what I remember, it packs Electric attacks, so watch out.



Okay, running time. That there's a Mushufushu, and it's even more dangerous than a Locomo Dragon. That's all that needs to be said.



Or not. Damn.



Weird thing with the instrument is a Kinnara, which is some sort of Buddhist guardian that plays instruments. Why it's beating up people like Byakuren, I have no clue. It can inflict Berserk and can buff the enemy. I believe it is weak to Dark. Komachi, you can be useful now.



That there in the back is a Zerachinasumata. It's recruitable, spews Electric attacks like crazy, and is weak to Fire and Water. It is also the sole possessor of the Ostracon, a material we need in order to make the Hakurei Ribbon, which I do want.




That's three this update. And we're not even through a fourth of the pictures!



Here's the location of the final warp point in the game. So, who could be behind here? Well, we're going to grind first, damn it.



My party up until now. Oh yeah, we have six hours left. Doomsday Clock's going to ring soon.



DEKURABIA!!! It knows Remove Field to start off with which removes the current field, obviously. It will eventually learn the almighty Emerald Pentagram later on. It also adds one to the duration of field effects. Handy for when you want fields like Regeneration or Damage Net to last longer. Going somewhere on the party because I want Emerald Pentagram, damn it!




Why...



This looks impossible, right? I actually won this fight, believe it or not.



Elephants shouldn't have eyes all over them like that. It's weak to Fire, I think, though I'm not exactly sure. It can use Face Smash, so do be careful.



More TPKs. Wonderful. Like I needed more.



Oh look, a Stray Yukkuri. THAT I CAN'T KILL! *sob sob*



I think I've had enough. I'm going to try for the boss now.



Looks like Angra's liar is right up ahead. We've almost made it.



Oh hey, Eirin and Kaguya! Reisen was worried about you earlier. Why she was, I have no idea, because you guys are more than capable of handling yourselves.



Mokou isn't trying to kill Kaguya for once. I guess that's good.



So, uh, do you want to come with us? I know it's sudden and all, but we kind of do want to unite all of Gensokyo together, and you guys are the last ones who haven't joined up with us (besides Kasen, Rinnosuke, and Sakuya, but I don't have a clue where Kasen is, Rinnosuke's helping us by helping us craft stuff, and I haven't recruited Sakuya simply because I don't care enough and I couldn't find her earlier because the event flag for her confuses me). So, want to come?



Why with the testing us crap? We had enough of that in Genius of Sappheiros, damn it! And it sucked, too! I saw a guy who did a LP for it use cheats, damn it! I didn't, though. Oh no, I did that whole game the proper way. THROUGH MY BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS, DAMN IT! MOSTLY BLOOD AND TEARS!



We call your badass poses. And raise nothing.



Badass poker is a damn hard game to win at.



Here you see Unfair Bitches 1 and 2. Eirin is all for whacking you upside the head with physical attacks and status effects like Berserk and Paralysis. Kaguya is all about using magical nukes to kill you. If you kill Eirin first, I believe Kaguya heals herself, or something. If you kill Kaguya first, Eirin resurrects her with half health. They both have 5000 HP.
Time for a gallery of my failures.





Oh wait, that last one was me doing some damage with Suika. Never mind.



For some reason, any time I killed Eirin, Kaguya never healed herself. Weird. Still, killing Eirin is only about two-thirds of the battle.



Here I just started using Free Fight to get a better shot at using Last Words. It also means Shield Wall affects everyone instead of only the back row. Also, Knockout in Three Steps is the best thing ever.



So damn close...



After countless resets (which are not pictured, but I reset somewhere between 20-30 times, by my estimates) and many TPKs, I finally beat them. I do admit I was a little underleveled for this, but the main difficulty in this fight is hoping the RNG doesn't have them put you in an unfavorable situation before you can even do much. The worst part was that my debuffs were not hitting that much, and Mining Village Union didn't help too well. I don't think any other fight in the main game gave me this much trouble, except maybe Xia's. Why do Eirin and Kaguya have to be pains in the ass to fight in whatever game I play?



You're not that tired. I probably only hurt you a little. You're Lunarians, you're tougher than that.



Not enough to avoid shikigamification.



Yeah, they want to come with us now.



Sure, why not? The least I can do is prevent you from fading aw- GO DIE IN A FIRE!
Ahem. Eirin is all about healing and weird attacks. She starts with Water Recovery and reduces damage taken from... I can't tell if it's supposed to reduce Gravity-style damage or fixed amount damage. Either way I'm not using her. Kaguya comes with all of the high-powered single-target elemental nukes like Disintegrate, Absolute Zero, Supergravity, and Mega Stroke, and reduces Light and Dark damage by 25%. I will put her on, but I forgot to. I will get her on, though, because multiple elements are useful.



Looks like our progress has not gone unnoticed. Well, it took a while, but we're almost there, Angra! You better prepare yourself!




She's talking about she's waiting for the residents of Gensokyo to come. Apparently, she wants to relieve her boredom by fighting us. Well, sitting in a tower waiting for the world to end (or for it to be converted to a second Makai, whatever the case) is kind of boring...



FINAL AREA!!! It also has this music. Very final dungeonesque. Anyways, there's four ways to go. There are portals on either side of this walkway which lead to smaller versions of each of the Clock Towers of the End, where we'll be able to fight the true power of the Three Demonic Pillars. Doing that will allow you to make Angra actually beatable at a reasonable level. The fourth path leads to Angra herself, obviously, but we're nowhere near prepared enough. So let's begin the grinding, shall we?



Our first enemies here in the final area are Garubangorus. They can use 9 Million Volts, which can reduce your HP to single digits or fail to make a difference at all, and they know Energy Riot and can heal themselves. They are weak to Electric and are recruitable. Sic 'em, Patchy.



That's a Poison Giant. Weak to Light, oddly enough, though he'll poison you and use powerful Blunt attacks. Nothing I can't handle. In fact, most of the stuff in the first room on the path to Angra is easier than the stuff in the last rooms of the third section.



Lizard Knights return, but Funbabas are here. I forget what they're weak to, but they know Dimension Hole, which can inflict Removal, I think. Not too bad to deal with.



Don't go into the second room, though, or you start running into enemies that will hurt, like this Frost Giant. Again weak to Light, but he's a lot stronger than his Poison Giant cousin. Watch out, then.
At this point, I stopped the grinding. Well, that was a lot of TPKs. Next time, we keep going. And hopefully die less.

Summary:

Treasure: Purification Ceremony Tool, Electric Shard x2, Light Crystal, Mercury Drop, Gold, Electric Crystal, Fire Crystal, Fire Shard, Keystone, Damascus Steel, Water Crystal, Keen Pendant III (Patchy), Genie Stone, Dark Crystal, Orichalcum Shard, Gold (drop), Evasion Muffler III, Shoulder Strap of Musashi (drop, Meiling), Adamantite, Orichalcum

Skills: Freezing Prison (250 power single-target Water attack, Yuki-onna), Counter Magic (raises party's Resistance, Komachi), Earth Wall (Suwako), Death (Komachi), Jackpot (raises chances of getting higher amounts of hits on multi-hit attacks, Dekurabia), Subterranean Rose (a strong version of Decrease, Koishi), Wind Sword (attacks all enemies, Ichirin), Axe Chase (Yuugi), Rainbow Shield Wall (guards against all elements, which would have been useful one boss fight ago, Alice), Rune Chase (chases magic or Mystic attacks, I think, Dekurabia), Aegis Defense (reduces all damage by 75%, Kanako)

Passives: +15 Attack (Komachi), -25% MP Cost for Shield Skills (Momiji), 10% chance to have normal attacks become all-targeting (Kanako), 25% resistance to charm (Nishiki)

Recipes: Bracelet of Restoration, Trance Bracelet, Evolution Bracelet, Super Mana Stone, Super Skill Stone, Makai Lodestone, Genie Stone, Aviator Gem, Mysterious Branch, Platinum, Gold, Beautiful Bracelet, Mirror of Viganerra, Sharp Cutlery

Synthesis Done: Orichalcum, Adamantite, Kusanagi (Suika), HVD-ROM (which is now useful and will forever be useless), Aegis Shield (Mokou), Harmony Robe (Patchy)

TPKs: 11 this update, 31 overall
Frustration: I really do want to kill Angra. *badum*
But I'll let Hakurei do that job. *badum*
Do you want decapitation?
Asphyxiation?
Or danmaku to the head? *Rufus' Welcoming March plays*

[Serela]

The gapuin is recruitable too! It starts with an expensive but nifty instant kill move.

Fun fact:Angra actually has a different form for every single combination of gears on/off. I doubt there's a big enough difference for it to really matter more then "x amount of cogs on/off", though.

If you use

Spoiler:

Tongue Lick from Rumia (or Magical Hammer weapon skill, type 1 so Byakuren should be able/already have learned it)

, the final boss shouldn't be -too- hard? (With the cogs off)

Spoiler:

It's not exactly easy to land, but once you do, every hit does several times more damage for a couple turns, and stuff like Freezing Prison would destroy her. For that matter, she's pretty vulnerable to debuffs in general, in videos I've seen she usually gets hit by debilitating offense debuffs on the first try.

[Validon98]

(With the cogs off)

No. No no no no no. I've been going crazy enough already. I'll do a "gears off" Angra fight later. As in much later in the expansion, maybe after I've beaten the final boss of that. I'm going to turn all the gears on for the final fight. Besides, I'm going after the Three Demonic Pillars anyway, so...
Also, no I don't have Magical Hammer on Byakuren! I don't use her to whack things upside the head much. Speaking of which, I need to check out the skill tree and see what skills I am close to getting.

[homing curvy laser]

The best thing about the Eirin/Kaguya fight is that as mentioned, Eirin can revive Kaguya with half her HP. Not that big of a problem, right? Well, Kaguya can revive Eirin too, at full HP. GASP well I hope you have that Colosseo ready! Or maybe you could try to kill them both at the same time, it isn't impossible if you have that sword skill with slayer on humanoids (and you really should), preferably on more than one character.
A fun thing is that in early versions of the game (so early they didn't even have those adorable huge sprites), Eirin would try revive Kaguya every turn if she was dead... at 1 HP. Cue spamming area attacks to kill the NEET princess every turn while Eirin revived her over and over again and did nothing else.

And... wow, those are some really low levels in there, I don't remember having reached that last part with anyone at less than a 40 as their level (but then again, I ground for a Decarabia in both my runs because I love that guy and the amount of MP he gives). Are you planning to grind it easy with the king?

[Hinacle]

I hate how they made that patch so, Eirin would revive Kaguya for more hp. Hey! Remember when she revived Kaguya and she only got revived for 5 hp? I do ;~;

[Serela]

Ooooooh whoops that was a typo, I DEFINITELY didn't mean to suggest you fight the final boss at full power. She's a whole lot fuggin stronger and has a lot of status resistance and stuff too.

[Validon98]

And... wow, those are some really low levels in there, I don't remember having reached that last part with anyone at less than a 40 as their level (but then again, I ground for a Decarabia in both my runs because I love that guy and the amount of MP he gives). Are you planning to grind it easy with the king?

That's from my habit of not really fighting things and trying to avoid most battles. It's a terrible habit, if you ask me. And I'm not going to grind off the King Yukkuri as much as I did in my first playthrough. I thought level 60 was enough. Turns out I only need to be like level 50 if I want to beat up everything in the main game. I'm grinding to 40-ish for now, then going after the Three Demonic Pillars, then getting to level 50, then taking on Angra.

I hate how they made that patch so, Eirin would revive Kaguya for more hp. Hey! Remember when she revived Kaguya and she only got revived for 5 hp? I do ;~;

Funny enough, Kaguya never used that skill. At all. In any of my fights. I don't know why.

Ooooooh whoops that was a typo, I DEFINITELY didn't mean to suggest you fight the final boss at full power. She's a whole lot fuggin stronger and has a lot of status resistance and stuff too.

I hope you didn't. What do you think I am, suicidal, stupid, or both? I saw someone else beat her at level 50-ish, so I'm shooting for that too. The expansion shouldn't be too bad at the beginning at that level. I should still be able to get to a good point with levels there.
Also, my vacation ended today, so who knows when I'm going to update next? Also, Labyrinth of Touhou. Sanae's Foe. Hate you so much.

[Validon98]

This isn't an update per say, but more like a notification on how the update is going.
Thanks to Labyrinth of Touhou, real life, and pure and simple procrastination, I haven't really worked too much on getting this update done. I'm getting close to done with the grinding. I'll be... taking it easy, if you know what I mean, very soon. After that, I'll be going after Otoha. Then maybe Xia, then Chloe. And then, last but not least, I'll finish my grinding and go after Angra.
As to when the next update will be done, well, if I do everything else I need to do quickly, I might get it up today, but don't get your hopes up, because I might not get it done.

EDIT: Totally no way I'm getting it up tonight. Real life is going to be on my case for... a while, to say the least. That combined with my unwillingness to grind pretty much means this LP's on hiatus. Whee...

[Validon98]

Through the power of sheer willpower and playing when I can, I got the next update screenshotted. It'll be up over the weekend, hopefully.
The title of the update?
Three Demonic Pillars- Part 1: Shijuukara Otohane
Yeah...

[Serela]

Hype!

[Validon98]

I'm back with another update for Devil of Decline! It's been a while since the last post, but grinding's been going on. And Labyrinth of Touhou. Lots of Labyrinth of Touhou. Floor 14, woo!

Three Demonic Pillars- Part 1: Otohane

So, we're finally down to the wire. We've made it to the final area. Now, do we go in and charge Angra? No, we don't. Why?
She will flay us alive.
So, how do we deal with that?
We go after the Three Demonic Pillars instead. By beating them, Angra will be weakened enough so that we can take her down.
Of course, the Three Demonic Pillars will flay us alive at this point too. Remember how Chloe kicked our asses before we could even really dent her?
They're all that strong. And when we rematch them, we have to win. No fake battle bullshit like with Chloe before. It's for real this time.
So we've got to bring everything we've got. We haven't got much, but we can do our best. So let the grinding begin!



So, this is a Rufu. I have no idea what it does. Why? I simply run away. I think it has Electric attacks. Maybe.



Oh, Vaccum Slash. Okay then.



A G-3! These guys know some physical attacks, are weak to nothing, and are recruitable. They also drop the Hi-Ribbon, which we need.



And a Lesser Dragon. RUN!



This is the final save point before Angra. Of course, we could go up there, but we'd get our faces smashed in. So let's hold off a bit.



Instead, let's go to Otoha's little area. It looks more like a temple than a tower, but okay.



See? It's the Tower of Geddon all over again!



Death Riders. They looks a lot different from when they did in Genius of Sappheiros. Whatever the case, they pack attacks like Drain Touch and Death Zapper, but are undead. They can be recruited, but I really don't care.



Karukadans here are like previous unicorn-like enemies, with Electric attacks and the ability to shield the entire enemy party from harm. Lovely.



Remember the Duner Masters? This is a Duner Growth Master. They know Electric attacks that hurt. A lot. Water will mess them up, though.



Fine, you can come along. It starts with Blood Sword, which works the same way it does in Final Fantasy II (depends on the max HP of the target, I think), and absorbs the damage, as well as Shield Bash, which has power proportional to the amount of defense the shield has (which would be nice on Mokou) AND sets the shield's activation rate to 100%, ensuring it blocks any attack that turn. It also boosts the power of HP draining attacks (such as Sucking Blood or Drain Touch) by 10% and boosts the amount of HP absorbed by 25%. Sorry, I don't care enough.



Crap, Elite Mind Flayers. They still know Mind Blast. They are still assholes.



Well that happened.



Garubangoru get! It starts out with Energy (which heals the party based on the amount of HP the user has left) and Damage Net, which prevents the enemies from escaping and damages them a small amount every turn. It also has Auto-Protect on, which means it covers allies, or something like that. Byakuren. On. Now.



Nooooooooo...



And here Murasa learns Damage Net! Now it's time to show you how to grind a lot of XP in a short amount of time here.



First things first, save here. Then go out into the previous room. There are two enemies on the left side of this screen. Go into an encounter with one. If you get a normal fight, run away and fight the other one. If that one gives you a normal fight, run away from that one and then return to this save point. This will reset the chances of you encountering...



...The King Yukkuri! This whole game, I've been driven nuts by the fact that I can't kill normal Yukkuri. No longer will that be true, for I have a plan!
Turn 1: Fast Strike on Byakuren. Have her use Damage Net. Everyone else wails on the King Yukkuri.
Turn 2: Have Byakuren use another field effect that isn't Damage Net (She has Murasa, the Dekarabia, and the Garubangoru, so she has options). This negates the King Yukkuri's Regeneration field that it counters Damage Net with. Everyone else continues to wail on the Yukkuri.
Turn 3: Have Byakuren use Damage Net again (Fast Strike needs to be used on her again, of course). Everyone else continues to wail.
Turn 4: Repeat Turn 2, if you have another person with field effects.
Turn 5: The cooldown on the original shikigami with Damage Net should be over, so just repeat these steps until the Yukkuri dies. It has 8 HP, but multi-hit attacks can reduce that to nothing ppretty quickly.



Glorious experience!



Oh boy, an Azreal. Despite it's appearance, it's actually an angel-type enemy. It uses Holy Breath, Starlight Web, and Holy (the Light nuke to end all Light nukes pre-expansion). It's weak to Dark, but good luck killing him before he kills you.



Two new enemies in this one. The Machine Dragon knows Missile and the extremely dangerous Evolution Breath, which is almost enough to TPK my party on its own. It's weak to Water, but good luck figuring that out on your own. The Queen Flayer is a recruitable enemy (the Machine Dragon is too), but it comes with Mind Blast and hurts like hell.



Case in point. This is what you get if you are trying to deal with the possibilty of Evolution Breath, Energy Riot, and Mind Blast, all in one fight!




This is what Evolution Breath can do to you. Mokou's lucky because she has the Aegis Shield, but everyone else... not so lucky.



I forgot to mention King Yukkuris know Face Smash. It's pretty much a TPK if it decides to use it.
I think it's best we stop the grinding for now and head back to Otoha's place.



Hanumans here can inflict Charm and know some single-target buffs. I don't know what they're weak to, but Charm is annoying, so be careful.



Ah geez, a Great Demon. Just like the Lesser Demon and Infant Demon from before, it knows Dark attacks andis generally a pain in the ass to deal with.



This is getting old...



Let's. Do. This.



Voice from nowhere. Gee, I wonder who that could be?




Figures. Hello, Otoha.



So, pretty much, she's saying she'sat her full power. That or she's saying she's going to stop us from getting to Angra. Japanese, I still can't read you.




Yeah, enough with the polite taunts. You're going down, mouse ears.



Aha. Ahahahahaha.
This looks like it's going to suck.
Anyways, Otoha still has a high Evasion and weak to all physical attacks and Earth. Don't cast Earth spells on her, though. My strategy for this fight is to boost accuracy and use Arithmetic Circuit to boost the damage I do with physical attacks.
Do note that there is a new boss theme. And it is the best damn boss theme in the game. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to OUT~Devil of Chaos.
Fuck. Yeah. Let's kick ass!



Remember how I said Otoha didn't use her Spell Card the first time? Well here it is, Supersonic "Wings of a Nightmare." Heavy Electric damage to the party. Safe to say, it hurts.



I totally didn't expect this at all.



And this is what happens if you cast an Earth spell on her. Porcupine to everyone. A TPK quickly followed.



Wait, what are you...?




HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THAT DAMAGE!!! That is her new Spell Card, Speed of Light "Luxion Edge." It's a penetrating Electric attack that does, well, THIS.
Yeah, I reset after this.
By the way, the other two have a new Spell Card as well.
That'll be fun, huh?



Well, I finally did manage to beat her. That was Meiling saving the day with a critical hit using Falcon Slash before she used some attack. I think she had just charged up for one of her Spell Cards.



We sure blew you away. Ahahahahaha... okay, it's not that funny.



I think she politely congratulated us on beating her. Again. I'm not sure.



Though she wonders if we'll be powerful enough to stop Angra. You know, something like "Do you really think you can stop her? Ufufufufu..." Without the "ufufufufu...," of course.



We've totally got this. One down, two to go, right?



On the way down, I find frustration in the form of THINGS I CAN'T KILL!!!



Alright, this is on, which means Angra is a bit weaker now. Still not weak enough. We'll get to her. But can we defeat the other two of the Three Demonic Pillars? Will we be able to defeat them and Angra in time? Will it take me at least another week before I update again? Well, we'll find that out in the next update or two.

Summary:

Treasure: Gauntlet (drop), Orichalcum Shard x2, Large Mirror, Sacred Shrine Maiden Clothes, Adamantite Shard x2, Damascus Steel, Gold

Skills: Hard Hit (Byakuren), Vacuum Slash (Meiling), Elixir (Revives and heals to full, Akyu), Dispel (Koishi), Bone Crush (Byakuren), Mardi Gras Buster (Byakuren), Ether (Increases chances of status effects landing, Murasa), Diamond Dust (110 power all-targeting Water attack, White Shark), Firebird (120 power all-targeting Fire attack, Flandre), Damage Net (Murasa), Refresh (heals to full, Suwako), Destruction Ray (60 power Mystic attack, Garubangoru), Emerald Pentagram (increasesall of the party's stats, Dekarabia), Vacuum Wave (a Large power, high accuracy attack, Tewi), Freeze Impact (a Large- power physical Water attack that can cause freeze, White Shark), Shinigami Scythe (an attack that can cause Instant Death, Komachi), Saint's Cross Slash (a single-target Slash skill with Slayer against Youkai and Undead, Meiling), Explosion (Byakuren), Saint's Cross Slash (Suika)

Passives: 100% HP is absorbed when Instant Death is inflicted (Komachi), +1 shield wall duration (Little Legion???, Alice), 25% Slash resistance (Mining Village), +1 to duration of positive Variety effects (Suwako), 25% Mystic resistance (Dekurabia), +10 Evasion (Aya), -25% Electric skill MP cost (Hatate), +20 Defense (Ichirin), +5 Shock success rate (Prescott), Magic Defense +3 (Lyrica)

Recipes: Muscle Belt III+, Magic Piercings III+

TPKs: 7 this update, 38 overall
Frustration: Not too bad, now that we're actually getting to the end.

[Serela]

Oh wow, that new spellcard is... scary. At this point though, supreme tanking options should be becoming available. Or as soon as someone who can do so learns Benevolence Wall, at least. (the final dungeon slime thingy, Yuugi, and Mine Village all do. I think there's one more shikigami that gets it. Then again, I think that's a lv45-ish skill, at least on Yuugi/Village...)

Because lol Little Legion! But, no, that passive doesn't boost it. I think certain capacity change duration bonus shikigami DO work on it, though. In any case, at lv72, Alice learns a +1 duration bonus for it.