New to touhou, need some advice!

[Richaad]

So after listening to touhou music for years and lately watching some awesome score runs on youtube, I finally decided to give it a whirl. So I decided to start with Perfect Cherry Blossom on easy, expecting to struggle a little bit. But man, the game really kicked my butt and made me feel like a total scrub. I panicked and bombed all over the place and used up all of my continues. My first run ended on Yuyuko's next to last spell card and I played as Reimu B.

So now I wonder, what can I do to improve? I'm liking Reimu, but she feels a bit slow. So maybe I should play Marisa because she has more speed? Man I feel totally overwhelmed here, so any advice would be greaty appreciated.

[FleetingGaze]

Keep playing them. You'll do a little better each time as you learn enemy formations, when to bomb, and how to play to the rules of the game for extends, bombs, etc. I wouldn't get discouraged because the nature of the genre is to overwhelm you, anyway. A quick tip is that you should never lose a life with bombs in stock - always use them if you think you're going to get hit. Wasted bombs are hurtful to your mentality and actual progress.

I got into Touhou like 5 years ago...I was motivated back then by the music and the gradual progress I was making while playing. For a time, I was content just playing through the games - with no goal in mind or trying to 1cc anything. After a while, that's when I started seeing results. Find what motivates you to keep going and you'll see improvement in no time.

As far as character selection, play all of the characters and get a feel for them. Reimu's generally a good pick due to a smaller hitbox, but don't let that stop you from exploring the rest. For PCB, Sakuya has 4 starting bombs, so it'll help you survive.

[Drake]

Keep playing, basically. You're going to keep sucking, but with practice you'll suck less. Shmups require a lot of practice from the get-go, so don't be discouraged by getting your butt kicked over and over.

[Chill Observer]

Know how to get all of the possible extends in each game and never die with bombs in stock.

[Mikuru]

Slow is generally an advantage because it's easier to dodge bullets. I would recommend sticking with ReimuB for your first clear.

PCB has one of the harder Easy difficulties in the series -- there's not all that much difference between Easy and Normal, which is unusual for Touhou. If you want to start with an easier game, usual recommendations are IN or MoF. However, if you keep going and use stage practice to help yourself learn the game, you'll definitely get there in whatever game you choose.

[Hello Purvis]

Do a full game when you're feeling like a full half hour to full hour experience. Do stage practice when you're more interested dropping maybe ten minutes on it.

Also, the name Richaad is familiar...would I happen to know you from somewhere?

[Karisa]

I'd also recommend that you keep in mind many Touhou attacks are aimed at your position (sometimes not in an obvious manner). When bullets are aimed, it's effective to start at one side of the screen and move gradually toward the other side. This is called streaming; it's a basic technique that you might not realize if you move back and forth too much.

Also, it can be helpful to watch replays to see how other players handle patterns-- you might learn strategies you'd never have thought of on your own.

Do a full game when you're feeling like a full half hour to full hour experience. Do stage practice when you're more interested dropping maybe ten minutes on it.

Do you mind elaborating what you mean? That advice sounds pretty counterproductive to me-- seems like it encourages not practicing.

[Hello Purvis]

Not everyone is down for dropping awhile into it, or get frustrated after a loss and need a break. So breaking it up is a good idea.

[Ghaleon]

Dont stare at your hitbox. Try and train yourself to know where you are without looking at yourself specifically. Many bullets are aimed at you so when you see them fire, you can simply know without looking that they wont hit you with a simple movement to the side.

[SukaNekoto]

Don't stay on the bottom.  Try moving your character around the stage to dodge the bullets instead.  Don't focus too hard on yourself, the score on sidebar, or the powerups, but look at what's ahead of you and figure out what's the best way to dodge.  Remember that you have bombs you can use too.  A lot of people like to save those until emergencies, but for me personally, I forget to use them in an emergency, haha.

Even though some people may complain about it being only for elementary students, try playing the game on easy a few times.  It'll definitely help you get used to patterns for when they get a bit more difficult in normal.  Also for some games, the bad endings are pretty charming, so it's worth failing and using continues to see all there is to offer in a Touhou game.

[Yukaris Glove]

I started playing 7 years ago! But even so, I've played so discontinuously -I'm interested in a lot of other games too-, that my improvement has been slow. And then, three years ago, after beating Suwako (extra stage) and finding it was really easy, I wanted to try a better run at her. I ended up trying to get a perfect run (no deaths, no bombs), and just after achieving it, I did the same with Koishi (extra stage too). Without realizing it, I'd improved so much that normal mode was not for me anymore, and I've been playing lunatic since then. You could say it was a "shock therapy", but it's also true that, during the months it took me to achieve this and then DDC lunatic 1cc, I played everyday at least one hour and a half. Patiently.

You don't have to be as mad as me. Take it slowly, But never drop it, even if you're also playing other games. Play even if it's only half an hour a day, and try to enjoy it. When you start seeing the improvements of your continued hard work, you'll also begin to like playing more 

[Nova234]

As others have said, practice is crucial, but a big thing to remember is that you won't improve unless you're challenging yourself. Once I got to the point where I could reliably clear the games on easy, I made the mistake of continuing to play on easy, because "normal is too hard and I always lose; this is more fun." As a result, my skills ended up being completely stagnant for the better part of a year.

It wasn't until less than a month and a half ago that I actually started forcing myself to jack up the difficulty, and suddenly I started improving again. Improving quite fast, actually; I've made FAR more progress in five or six weeks of challenging myself than I did in six months of goofing around on easy. As a rule of thumb, if you can consistently clear a game on your current difficulty, it's probably not hard enough to make good practice, so try bumping it up a notch.

[Aldnox]

Keep practicing. The more you practice, the better you'll do. You'll have to accept that you're going to fail  lot, and see it as an opportunity to learn, and not as something bad.

Watch videos by more skilled people. Learning and using strategies to dodge the patterns the safest way is key to 1cc. If you have trouble with a specific spell card or stage, just watch some videos and try to do the same thing. Download SpoilerAL (very useful tool for practicing), skip to the spell card and just practice it until you are confident about your consistency.

Try to play difficulties that are higher than your current skill level. As some people have said, if you play something that isn't really a challenge to you, you're not going to improve at all. I would recommend playing arcade shmups too. For getting better at Touhou, I think CAVE is great, because their games have really difficult survival, and you'll improve faster. Every time I've hit a wall in Touhou, I go play some DaiOuJou for some days, and when I come back the wall is no longer there. You can also change the framerate to a higher value (like 90 FPS) to train your reflexes and quick reading.

You don't need to play daily, or consistently. Of course, playing daily means playing more, which means faster results. But you don't need to do that. Just keep playing and don't give up. If you do this, getting a 1cc, a challenge,  a score, will be just a matter of time.

[LazorPagoda]

Play games with spell practice. An play LoLK. I'm DEAD serious. That game is literally practise mode incarnate, and it helped me try to hobe my skills. (Still bad lol) That game is great because you can retry infinitely, and it allows you to get a fell for danmaku, bosses and player characters. Also, don't be dumb and tackle SA as your second game, that made me rage. Another tip. Get a game you enjoy, for me it's Hisoutensoku, and play it should you get frustrated.