Author Topic: What shot types do you enjoy? (Read 5626 times)

Ozzter · « **on:** February 16, 2015, 11:03:28 AM »

Shot types are a big thing for me when playing Touhou. When a shot type feels just right, it helps me want to play more. Throughout all the Touhou games there has been a large variety of shot types, generally you have the standard ying-yang orbs and needles for Reimu, and lasers and missiles for Marisa, but there are also alot of unique ones as well. I'm wondering what shot types people like the most, and what makes up their ideal shot. Do you like raw power? Area coverage? Homing, or focused? How about utility, or something unique? Share your opinions about the shot types of Touhou!

I'll go ahead and start.

As a general rule, I enjoy powerful shots more than others. If it can't damage the boss quick enough, late stages get stressful. However, even then, I'll prefer the shot types that are wide unfocused and narrow when focused. A good example of this would be SanaeB in UFO. However, even above that, I love the really technical shot types, bonus points if they share one if the above.

I have two specific shot types that are my absolute favorite.

First up would be SakuyaB of PCB. I like this shot alot. The versatility, the power, and the ability to hit nearly both corners at once is so fun for me. No other shot type in later games are similar to this one, and I wish one day for another shot that can manually change it's trajectory as well as this one has done.

My second favorite is MarisaB of SA. Partnered up with Patchouli, Marisa gains the ability to use the five elements to change her shot properties. And dear god, do I love this shot type so much! Have alot of weak enemies? Water shot! Straight up bossing or have a tough enemy? Fire shot! Parsee being annoying? Metal and Earth shot! Need to hit things at some weird angle that you'll probably almost never encounter? Wood shot! ( I'll be honest though, I do use wood alot more than earth or metal. ) While I generally use fire and water through most of the stages, I love the versatility each element gives you. It makes it easier in places other shot types would have difficulty in. If there was one shot type I'd like to see return, it would this this one, right here! ( Never mind the accidental switching of elements, then panicking to switch back and dying. ) I really love to expiriment with ways to implement wood, earth, and metal into levels, sine I never enjoy taking the easy route sometimes, unless I'm aiming for a 1cc, haha!

FLASH · « **Reply #1 on:** February 16, 2015, 12:11:10 PM »

i generally like best shots that have either wide area or (better yet), homing.
it's mostly to do with the fact that i'm lazy, and also loose my concentration soon and gets hit stupidly if i have to worry about too many things at the same time.
so homing or wide shots are best for me, so that i can just have fun focusing on dodging without having to worry too much about staying under the enemy. even if that means it takes a little longer to kill.

i haven't played yet all the touhou games, so i can speak only for the ones i know (DDC, EoSD, PCB, IN) ;

and so far, i always like reimu the best by a long shot, typically her unfocused shot (with the wide spread cards, plus homing cards). i like too in DDC or IN (well technically i'ts Yukari but oh well :3 ) when you have a lock-on familiar.
both these shots have good spread, but if you want to kill quick and care to stay below the enemy, you'd be surprised how much DPS you can get out of it if you position yourself just right; almost as much as Marisa's Lazors in most cases i find! :0

i've always tought too, that this isn't a coincidence if Reimu have this sort of Laid-Back, "don't worry about it too much" type attacks, when she has a carefree and lazy personnality... while on the other hand, Marisa is impulsive and over-the-top, and her attack is too shoot big overpoering Lazors of doom... or Sakuya is supposed to be an Oddball, mysterious person, and she also have those very tricky and unusual shots....

Really goes to show you how mush tought ZUN puts into his games i guess! :3

Hope ♦ Metal · « **Reply #2 on:** February 16, 2015, 01:36:39 PM »

From what I've played so far, I use ReimuA in EoSD and MarisaB in SA.

ReimuA in EoSD has a bomb that lasts longer and I can hit things on the other side of the screen. (And apparently fighting Patchy in Stage 4 is easier with this.)

MarisaB in SA is very versatile and also Patchy is her partner.

BlazervaniaX · « **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2015, 05:00:39 PM »

I have the tendency of (trying to) 1CC through Normal with all types on every (windows) game (up to and including 13, that's as far as my computer can stand :V ), but i'll always prefer homing/wide, it might take longer to defeat the boss but that gets rather mitigated by the rather free movement it gives (easier to avoid stuff etc).

However, i'd like to make a special mention to Remilia from Imperishable Night, her playing style there reminds me of Dragon Blaze a little bit...

Uruwi · « **Reply #4 on:** February 16, 2015, 05:59:02 PM »

I prefer homing shot types (as I tend not to be right in front of the boss all the time). That means mostly Reimu(A), but there are exceptions:

SakuyaA in PCB. Her degree of homing is homing enough for me, and is a bit more powerful with an extra bomb per life.

MarisaB in MoF. Because MoF is hard.

MarisaA in SA, because of being able to stock 8 bombs at a time. I don't like MarisaB as much because it's a pain to switch shot types on the fly.

SanaeB in UFO. But still, I haven't tried other shot types as much.

ILikeBulletZ · « **Reply #5 on:** February 16, 2015, 07:07:21 PM »

As powerfull as possible.

Then comes range, but it is mostly irrelevant (Still a nice bonus, I guess).

Homing is pretty much irrelevant except when starting to learn the game... sooner or later, you are going to memorize most of the spawns, and you rarely need to be killing stuff on both sides of the screen so that you would wish you have homing (You don't)... might as well ignore them entirely.

I also look at other stuff when choosing a shottype thought... my main shottype in PCB is and will always be Reimu B- Might not be as powerfull as Marisa overall (Although shotgunning with her DOES get massive damage output), but she has:

Smaller hitbox
Longer Deathbomb timer

Over Marisa?s big hitbox and somewhat useless shottypes. So having slightly less overall damage is a good trade off, IMO.

Speaking of PCB, I kinda wish the other games had more differences between chars- I Liked the fact they had different "Abilities" (Reimu Longer Deathbomb, Marisa lower POC, and Sakuya... I cant even remember what she had lol)

Sakurei · « **Reply #6 on:** February 16, 2015, 07:51:09 PM »

Youmu.

Agent of the BSoD · « **Reply #7 on:** February 16, 2015, 08:01:14 PM »

Reimu. I like playing as her for her small hitbox and slow movement speed, which makes dodging much easier for me (and probably most other people). Honestly don't really care between homing and needle shots, though. They're both fine for me.

PCB is the exception to this. I play Sakuya there. Mostly the auto aim knives, but sometimes I'll play the manual aim one instead.

Jq1790 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2015, 08:38:46 PM »

NeedleReimu all day everyday. Reimu's mini hitbox combined with decently high power on her shots makes that pretty much ideal for me.

Annoying when I need to move around a lot since I need to find times to sit there for a few seconds to get real damage in.

Maple · « **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2015, 09:13:53 PM »

Counting official games: half of SA
Reimu + Yukari (needles): the usual reasons, damage and teleport for emergencies.
Marisa + Alice (laser dolls): unfocused is concentrated shot (better damage) while focused is spread shot (less damage). Combined with the communications gauge (goes up with grazing), i take the challenge of grazing loads of bullets unfocused, which i find fun.
Marisa + Patchouli (changeable crystals): High versatility.

Counting fangames: the ones coming to my mind now, maybe there are more~
Marisa (lol marisa is the only playable) + ring in Fairies of Sorcery. Similar to Marisa's Cold Inferno in MoF, it has options that stick during focused movement. Attacks everything inside the ring. Requires set up and you can't let the shift button off or the ring will return to Marisa, but it deals excellent damage and you don't need to aim with your main shot, so more challenge.
Futo A (arrows). in RSS: spread in unfocused movement, concentrated + aimed in focused movement. The arrows stop for a moment, damaging any enemy that passes through. Encourages shotgunning.
Futo C (wind) in RSS: can go in 8 directions when focused, unfocused is an area-of-attack around Futo; enormous hitbox for collecting items. More shotgunning.
(note that i left out Futo's liberations as hers, like everyone else's, are OP as hell).

anthonyshu01 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2015, 09:16:27 PM »

ReimuA and SakuyaA in PCB, because homing shots
Netherworld team in IN, because of the widespread shots on focused mode.
ReimuA in MoF
ReimuB, MarisaA, and MarisaC in SA, because I can save more power for bombing (I bomb alot in SA)
Reimu or Sanae in TD

shockdude · « **Reply #11 on:** February 17, 2015, 12:24:04 AM »

PCB SakuyaB is the best. High power, high spread, destroys everything from fairies to bosses. It's also really fun to use.

Mеа · « **Reply #12 on:** February 17, 2015, 12:53:27 AM »

I enjoy shot types that reward getting up close for extra damage, since I like the thrill of teetering between life and death, right up close to the enemy. That and any shot type that isn't silly to use, like Marisa/Alice in SA.
Kind of makes me wish Touhou had a focus aura damage system too.

Boltyr · « **Reply #13 on:** February 17, 2015, 03:40:12 AM »

Homing and forward focus shots are my favorite in general. I find wide angle shots interesting too. :3

If I make a list of shots I like from each game...

EoSD: ReimuA and ReimuB, even though ReimuB has harder Patchouli spells (in my opinion).
PCB: ReimuA, SakuyaA
IN: Boundary Team
MoF: ReimuA and ReimuB
SA: ReimuA
UFO: ReimuA (I like it the most from this game), SanaeB
TD: Reimu
DDC: ReimuA, SakuyaA (it's not really homing but the cursed knives focusing on the boss makes it so adorable <3)

Failure McFailFace · « **Reply #14 on:** February 17, 2015, 03:41:17 AM »

Hmm, let me list most of the games:

SoEW: Moderate Ying-Yang
PoDD: Marisa
LLS: ReimuA
MS: Mima/Reimu
EoSD: All of them
PCB: ReimuA/SakuyaA (homing shots)
IN: Border Team
PoFV: Marisa
MoF: MarisaB (lol hax)/ReimuA
SA: ReimuA/ReimuB
UFO: SanaeA/B
TD: Sanae/Reimu
DDC: ReimuA/SakuyaA/MarisaA/MarisaB (lol resource mining)

...Yeah, homing shots, high-power shots, and resource-favoring shots.

Silent Harmony · « **Reply #15 on:** February 17, 2015, 03:44:05 AM »

While my default when I started was to try out spread-type shots, I really prefer anything that is strong but isn't overpowered or broken. This means that my "favorite shot" pretty much varies from game to game, though usually I'd say forward-focus Reimu wins nowadays more often than not.

EoSD: Marisa-A
PCB: Reimu-B
MoF: Needle-Reimu
SA: Reimu-A
UFO: Needle-Reimu
DDC: Reimu-A

aUsernameIsFineToo · « **Reply #16 on:** February 17, 2015, 04:33:18 AM »

PCB: ReimuA/SakuyaA (danmakuphobe-friendly homing shots)

IN: Scarlet Devil Team because their playstyle is fun.

I don't have any other games, so I can't comment on them.

Ozzter · « **Reply #17 on:** February 17, 2015, 07:48:02 AM »

Wow, it's great seeing all your opinions on this subject! Since a lot of you are putting down favorites based on game, I'm gonna go ahead and do the same since I only really touched on my overall favorites in my post.

EoSD - MarisaA, out of the four in this game, I had the most fun with this one because I love it's raw power over everything else.
PCB - SakuyaB, already explained why
IN - Scarlet Devil team, specifically Remilia's shot type. I really like the way you can lock Remilia's familiars in place to get a good amount of damage even while dodging. Though her non-familiar shot is fairly lacking in my opinion.
PoFV - ( Should I count this one? ) I liked Lyrica's the best, even though shooting behind you was only beneficial in specific situations, it was still handy.
MoF - MarisaC, pretty much for the same reasons as Remilia in IN, except Marisa's non-flame shot actually had power to it.
SA - MarisaB, explained beforehand
UFO - SanaeB, I really liked the wide range when unfocused, and the power when focused. Marisa had a similar shot type, but I didn't like it nearly as much.
TD - This one's pretty close between Marisa, Sanae, and Youmu personally. I like them all quite a bit, but I think I'll have to go with Youmu if only because her charge shot is insanely powerful.
DDC - MarisaB. This has decent enough power, and the lasers have somewhat of a wide area of affect. The click-clack noise of the rockets always sound neat to me as well.

There's a severe lack of Reimu in my list, mainly because a common thing about her shots is that she has some kind of homing to them. I don't like homing shots that much. However, I do really like her persuasion needle shot type, but they're usually overshadowed by another that I enjoy even more. They would've been my favorite for EoSD actually, but I recently finished a 1cc run with MarisaA and had an amazing time with that shot. Also, haven't played the PC-98 games enough to have a good opinion on those shot types ( My memory is a bit lacking on these; if I recall, there's no shots in the first at all, and I forget if the second one had a choice between shots also ).

haoreos2 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 17, 2015, 08:12:42 AM »

SA ReimuC, purely for pacifist no focus runs (because dodging at that speed is fun). Dunno if that counts though, so other than that, any shot that can benefit from planning and positioning (PCB SakuyaB, MoF MarisaC) or SA ReimuA for the screen switcheroo.

TresserT · « **Reply #19 on:** February 17, 2015, 01:18:15 PM »

If by "enjoy" you mean the one's I use most often, it's almost aways Reimu when I'm serious. It's Needle Reimu if she's an option.

If you mean the one's I find the most fun, that tends to be what I like to call shotgunning types. They cover a lot of area for the stage, and if you can get near the boss they can deal a lot of damage. I also tend to like experimental shot types, though surprisingly not PCB SakuyaB.

PCB: I use MarisaA or ReimuB, but I like ReimuA to change things up a bit sometimes.
IN: I just love Youmu/Yuyuko. I think Youmu took PCB SakuyaB's style and perfected it- high damage, large range, yet still a forward focus type. Then Yuyuko gets the shottgunning thing I like. The speed dissonance makes it even better.
MoF: I don't like Marisa's shottypes at all, bar her standard lasers. But I think ReimuC is the best shotgunning type yet. She's easy to use, wide range, very powerful at close range. Her unfocused shot is iffy, but you can spend enough of the game focused so it doesn't make a huge difference.
SA: Marisa/Patchouli. I generally tend to stay either in blue or green, maybe red if I can't get close to the boss and they're staying fairly still. Not as nice as MoF ReimuC IMO, but still very nice.
UFO: At the risk of being burned at the stake (or sounding repetitive) I actually like MarisaB. SanaeB's slow, exploding shots are too distracting for me. If only Marisa actually had anything at all over Sanae besides being easier on the eyes =P.
TD: Youmu. This takes everything I like about MoF ReimuC and gives it a new feel. High damage, can cover most of the screen, better when close to the boss. Again, the unfocused shot is a bit iffy, but I actually like the sword mechanic thing.
DDC: ReimuA. This is probably the only homing shot I like beyond just "to give me somethig different". I DON'T like how the rod offsets every few seconds, but otherwise it's a fun shot type.

While they're not official games, I'll also point out Riverbed Soul Saver's ReimuC and Marine Benefit's SanaeB. Reimu because she gives a whole new feel to the shotgunning thing (rather than being directly in front of the boss, you have to be positioned oddly, but otherwise it's still pretty much the same as MoF ReimuC). Sanae... for the exact same reason.

As much as I use them in every game, I'm actually surprised that I still find types like that enjoyable lol.

ふねん1 · « **Reply #20 on:** February 17, 2015, 05:31:02 PM »

I've always preferred forward-focus types in Touhou, usually straightforward ones like needles-Reimu. Generally speaking, I like having the extra power to deal more easily with all the small targets, including bosses, that are prevalent in the series (whereas I'd be a bit more inclined to use spread shots in other, more intense shooting games). However, there are a few exceptions here and there, so I'll give my game list too.

EoSD: While I don't play this game anymore, I actually started out with MarisaA. Strong shot with strong bombs and a good unfocused speed. However, her focused speed ended up being too fast for me to reliably micrododge stuff, so I switched to ReimuB near the end and managed to achieve more than I ever could with MarisaA.
PCB: This is the only game where my main shot type is not Reimu. I've been using MarisaA since the beginning, as I find her different hitbox size and faster speed to be not that detrimental at all for this game's patterns. However, I have dabbled with ReimuB on occasion as well.
IN: Border Team, the equivalent to needles-Reimu in this game. A few years ago, I used to play solo-Youmu and solo-Remilia a bit, who are much less straightforward overall, but I haven't touched them in a while.
MoF: ReimuB. Never touched any other shot type in this game either.
SA: ReimuA. This is actually the only game where I've tried every shot type, although I don't like using Marisa much in this game (her hitbox size is really not suited for how dense the patterns are in SA). However, I did manage a Lunatic 1cc with MarisaC a long time ago, along with each Reimu shot type (I actually think ReimuB is a bit underrated for survival; stronger than ReimuC if you're like me and want to save bombs lol).
UFO: ReimuA again. I remember trying out SanaeB briefly a long time ago, but she never really stuck.
TD: Reimu. Despite being weaker than others in this game, I even stuck with her for some scoring challenges in the past. She just matches my approach to stuff.
DDC: ReimuB, which seems odd in hindsight since she is much less effective than usual at killing things fast, but I don't mind the challenge that much.