Touhou 14 - 東方輝針城 ～ Double Dealing Character released!

[?q]

I've heard that only works in spell practice.

It doesn't necessarily work outside Spell Practice, but I can confirm that it can work in-stage (albeit to a lesser degree).  When I did my first EX clear the eighth notes only came out at 10 seconds left.

[Jellyfish]

The themes are really good! I love Sakuya-A, but most runs on YT are all Reimu-B :c

Anyway, rankings on the DDC themes amongst the other themes from the other games (just my opinion, don't judge :3)
Descending Order:

Stage 1 Theme:
The Dark Blowhole
At the End of Spring
Night Sakura of Dead Spirits
Mist Lake
Paradise ~ Deep Mountain
A God that Loves People ~ Romantic Fall
A Soul as Red as a Ground Cherry
Illusionary Night ~ Ghostly Eyes
Pretty good theme overall, I liked that it was very upbeat and happy (but then again, aren't all Stage 1 themes?)  and then it reminded me of Bad Apple at first. I liked it pretty much, but still not as good as themes like The Dark Blowhole or At the End of Spring.

Stage 1 Boss Theme:
Ghost Lead
Crystallized Silver
Because Princess Inada is Scolding Me
A Tiny, Tiny, Clever Commander
Mermaid from the Uncharted Land
Stirring an Autumn Moon ~ Mooned Insect
The Sealed Away Youkai ~ Lost Place
Apparitions Stalk the Night
Messy introduction, but then it really gets into it when the nice melody kicks in. It got stuck in my head after listening to it for a while, so good theme, not the best, but still nice. Also, the guitars. Needs more metal arranges.

Will edit the rest in later, that's all for now!

[Suikama]

Sukuna's theme is best enjoyed while dancing along in a giant bowl

[Zakari]

I really doubt Raiko Horikawa is the most evil character in TH14 because i saw 3 spinning things that looks like 666 symbol.
Also her Tie has Upsidedown Cross, Raiko might be Satan worshiper and she is the preview of TH15.

i am expecting that TH15 might be the darkest era of touhou universe(Rise of the demons against Reimu and Marisa perhaps?).

[Tengukami]

Also her Tie has Upsidedown Cross, Raiko might be Satan worshiper and she is the preview of TH15.

I notice you bring up Christianity and Satanism in Touhou a lot. I mean a lot, a lot. Let me put your mind at ease.

There will be neither Christians nor Satanists in Touhou. Ever. Ever ever ever. It will not happen. Zero chance. "But symbols!" you say? No. The hexagram also features prominently in Touhou. Are there any Jewish Touhous? No there are not.

Give it a rest already.

[Sage Ω (Ultima)]

I really doubt Raiko Horikawa is the most evil character in TH14 because i saw 3 spinning things that looks like 666 symbol.
Also her Tie has Upsidedown Cross, Raiko might be Satan worshiper and she is the preview of TH15.

i am expecting that TH15 might be the darkest era of touhou universe(Rise of the demons against Reimu and Marisa perhaps?).

What is this? I don't even...

[Zengeku]

I notice you bring up Christianity and Satanism in Touhou a lot. I mean a lot, a lot.

Autism 

[FleetingGaze]

Christianity in my Touhou...?

Without even touching that one, it's safe to say that all extra bosses have had NO relevance to the plot of following games. (Vertical shooters, that is. And Yukari was essentially just a shottype in SA.)

...except for one ordinary magician. But her inclusion did not mean that Ten Desires was about rampant casual stealing.

[Monkeypro257]

The only thing I remember of Christianity was when Ellen said to Yumemi, if she was Christian from the crosses she used as danmaku(that doesn't really count). Though either way, it has only been Shinto,Buddhism, and Taoism that actually is spiritually significant to Gensokyo. (I guess there's also Atheism)

[Seppo Hovi]

ReimuB from PCB is my Jesus.

-

I think Raiko is a drummer in a Gensokyoan Black Metal band.

You heard it here first, guys.

[chum]

are you saying benben and recliner-san are wearing ironic outfits and that they're in fact part of said band

seija kindaa looks like she's the vocalist with corpse paint and all

kagerou specializing in th "howls" but i wonder what instrument she's proficient with

the entire cast minus little dwarf and wackysacky would make a good BM band

[BT]

Bowl-tan would make for a decent amplifier. Thankfully no one cares about Ariel so I don't have to make stuff up here.

[Shizzo]

I just realized that apart from Fishface and the Tsukumos the entire cast's got quite a significant amount of red on them.  Funny, eh?

[WBL Studios]

I didn't think anyone could dethrone Patchouli Knowledge as my favorite Touhou character.

Raiko Horikawa comes close.  VERY close.  Plus, the fact that

Spoiler:

she's friendly to whoever beats her

hints that we might see even more of her in the future.

[lonemaestro]

Maybe I'm oblivious but I still haven't heard any news about an official English patch.
The translations are all on touhouwiki but the endings are kept in the dark for good reason.
But anyhow, I screencapped the endings, edited with Paint and added my own translations (with the help of the language bar and online dictionaries) and thought I'd post them here in case anyone's curious.
I beat the game in normal for the endings, except for SakuyaB, which I had to clear in Easy.
...
SakuyaB.
Why.

With my level of playing, I was able to clear Extra with SakuyaA, but not clear Normal with SakuyaB. Must have to do with the uselessless of her bomb.

Before you actually read the endings, let me just throw out there that I'm nowhere near proficient in Japanese, and I've noticed a few grammatical errors in my translations just now - nothing serious btw - (only to realize how half-hearted I must have been.)

Needless to say, SPOILERS ALERT:

[edible]Thank you for the contribution, but I must apologize - ZUN does not like touhou endings published outside the constraints of the game itself, so I needed to truncate your post.[/edible]

[FleetingGaze]

SakuyaB.
Why.

SakuyaB is the shottype you pick when you want to show off how great you are. Easily the most handicapped shot in the game, with the compensation of gratuitous amounts of scoring. The unfocused shot is honestly fine. The only real benefit the focused shot carries aside from more point values is the fact that the weird arc can shoot behind Sekibanki's head, which is minimal at best. SakuyaB is a poor person's ReimuB, but ReimuB is an even poorer version of MarisaB. SakuyaB is...hilarious to attempt lunatic 1ccs with.

[Desu_Cake]

There will be neither Christians nor Satanists in Touhou.

Christianity in my Touhou...?

The only thing I remember of Christianity was when Ellen said to Yumemi, if she was Christian from the crosses she used as danmaku

Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

[lonemaestro]

Needless to say, SPOILERS ALERT:

[edible]Thank you for the contribution, but I must apologize - ZUN does not like touhou endings published outside the constraints of the game itself, so I needed to truncate your post.[/edible]

derpp

As expected from a noob to this forum.
In any case, I see the Fandom Community is well-run...

[Mesarthim]

SakuyaB is the shottype you pick when you want to show off how great you are. Easily the most handicapped shot in the game, with the compensation of gratuitous amounts of scoring. The unfocused shot is honestly fine. The only real benefit the focused shot carries aside from more point values is the fact that the weird arc can shoot behind Sekibanki's head, which is minimal at best. SakuyaB is a poor person's ReimuB, but ReimuB is an even poorer version of MarisaB. SakuyaB is...hilarious to attempt lunatic 1ccs with.

The only shot type I've never been able to clear on Hard. I believe my closest attempt was death by Sukuna's third spell. My latest attempt however is not a single death until High Speed Pounce (and even caught everything without bombing until the third nonspell). Unfortunately High Speed Pounce kind of went...

Death 1: Expected, I haven't exactly mastered dodging the second wave (dodging red bullets while dodging the leftover purples).
Death 2: I go wtf but still tolerable for the run.
Death 3: K screw it. Run over.

Now I can say with absolute certainty if I were playing any other shot type that wouldn't have gone so bad. I'm pretty good (albeit a bit clumsy, hence title) but I'm no Jaimers. I'm Hard Mode skill level and some games Lunatic (even if sloppy). I can at least beat DDC Lunatic!

[FleetingGaze]

I have to beat Lunatic with both SakuyaB and MarisaA, and that's all six Lunatic 1ccs. For some reason, MarisaA seems like more effort has to be put into getting her through Lunatic. (Considerably more than ReimuA and SakuyaA, of course.) Probably because taking out the stage fairies before they all just spew death at you is not done as efficiently as Reimu and Sakuya. Even with ReimuB, clearing Lunatic is pretty simple.

Hitting the POC consistently past stage 3 with MarisaA seems harder, too, even with it being lower. That's the main difficulty in it, but you do get a easier time with Seija. I only tried SakuyaB like twice, but both runs were plagued with horrible mistakes. Maybe I should try it again...

High Speed Pounce...oh, the times I've had with that. The purple bullets are almost not even worth paying attention to below Lunatic, so I prioritize dodging the red bullets first. At most, I find a quick gap in the purple and dodge the red between those. For me, it seems the second set of red bullets are harder to dodge.

[SeasideCharizard]

Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

Thank you

Though, I'm not sure how sad Sacchin is about this one.

[Kimmachinima]

Okay, so

Raiko is Layla Prismriver.

kthxbai

[Desu_Cake]

Thank you

Though, I'm not sure how sad Sacchin is about this one.

Sacchin in this case stands for Sariel of course, rather than Satsuki.

And I can't find any pictures of Sariel looking sad. That's how little people care.

[FleetingGaze]

Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

Such is the curse of being a PC-98 character - long forgotten with next to no hope of revival. It seems a reference to PC-98 characters in this game either doesn't exist, or someone hasn't dug that much into it yet. I played HRtP only once, and I didn't look into the characters. All I remember was going through like ten levels and then boom! Boss fight.

[Formless God]

Just let them rip in pieces already.

[Hatateru]

i saw 3 spinning things that looks like 666 symbol.

Err, those 666 things are actually Japanese symbols called "tomoe"

[TresserT]

Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

It is sad...

[Mesarthim]

I have to beat Lunatic with both SakuyaB and MarisaA, and that's all six Lunatic 1ccs. For some reason, MarisaA seems like more effort has to be put into getting her through Lunatic. (Considerably more than ReimuA and SakuyaA, of course.) Probably because taking out the stage fairies before they all just spew death at you is not done as efficiently as Reimu and Sakuya. Even with ReimuB, clearing Lunatic is pretty simple.

I just 1cc'ed all shot types on hard and extra. Presently I only 1cc'ed Lunatic on Reimu A and Marisa B. I BARELY beat hard with Sakuya B. Sakuya B for me is like the Marisa B of UFO, it really is for the expert experts and on hard mode it might be as many as 30~100 runs before a 1cc. I dun goofed extra with Sakuya B but after (many) restarts I actually beat Raiko on the first try once I got to her without having screwed up too badly. Third midboss spell was hell (I cannot capture it for crap, even less so with a bomb that does no damage) and I got clipped twice on the fourth nonspell. ANYWAY I am so done with Sakuya B. I barely beat hard, lunatic Sakuya B for me is a pipe dream.

I have a major preference for Reimu A, Sakuya A is my secondary. Love them homings.

[FleetingGaze]

Sakuya B for me is like the Marisa B of UFO, it really is for the expert experts and on hard mode it might be as many as 30~100 runs before a 1cc.

Exactly. Both of them almost seem to be a testament to how underpowered ZUN could make a shottype, and I'm surprised they weren't in SA. It's a gutsy choice, that's for sure. Heavy risk, but the prize...

The second spellcard with the Tsukumos on Extra is maybe 50/50 for me. I always choose to take out Benben, because...she's better than Yatsuhashi. That's why...but nah, I prefer to dodge in-between those wall-bouncing notes in close proximity, until Yatsuhashi's notes that do 360s and other nonsense end up magically hitting me. It feels like one of those spells where you'd just feel better bombing it and not risking a life on it.

I 1cc'ed Lunatic with MarisaA, and now I just have SakuyaB. Cue fun times trying to do that. At least I can make it to Sukuna, until I get clipped somehow. And homing shots all the way. Cheating stages since forever. SakuyaA makes Lunatic into Hard mode, and is probably the easiest shottype to clear it with. I've used ReimuB a bit more than the rest, due to fond memories of using Reimu with needles. However, her sealing needles in this game make me want to cry in a corner. But if I can do half-decent with her, I'll breeze through the game with competent shottypes.

[Jellyfish]

I personally love Sakuya-A and am currently using her to kill Raiko.

But curvy lasers. ;~; And the midboss makes me want to cry in the corner too. The non-spell is fine, the first spell is a bit difficult (I'm not the expert player) and the second spell :< I always kill Yatsuhashi first because idk I think she's easier but whatever~

This might be a bit off topic, but I hope Touhou 15 is a Phantasmagoria game with more characters to choose from (wishful thinking, whatever...) and the return of the ever-forgotten Medicine and Mima. 3>9>15 makes sense, too. Can't wait for some news.