~Hakurei Shrine~ > Rika and Nitori's Garage Experiments
東方潮聖書 ~ Sapphire Panlogism - v0.01b update
Popcioslav:
CAN'T WAIT FOR THE DEMO!...
Oupse I've certainly took a while with replying to this. Hope noone's mad? Eh anyways, from both checking the english and the japanese trailer (they both feature different characters and parts of the song) I must say at least from character design and music this definitely right up my alley (especially Jiriri Kim's theme, it seems so different compared to everything else). I'm already happy I'll be able to play Hecatia and Shou - two characters I've wanted to be playable since their debut. Since I realize it will be your first attempt of making such a game I don't expect ido's level, but I'd be nice to be surprised.
That being said since I'm the type that hates being surprised I've done some digging and Spoiler: I've found main artist's tumblr blog where you can find previous design of characters, including what I think will be stage 3 boss ? Although since most of the cast got remade in some way I imagine she did as well - her sillhoutte seems to have a new hat! Secondly based of description on some of the prior designs, youtube trailers and limited screenshots, stage 1 will take in either a shore or garden in the rain, stage 2 will take place high up in the clouds and the third one will either be in a cave or in the shore again.
And that's all from me, sorry for the necro and all
Shizzo:
I remember checking on twitter that they've released some more info on the game! I'm not sure if it's 100% legit information, but apparently Hecatia (default earth form?) is playable! Her shottype includes something like toggling between 3 types with the C key. I'm excite!
Badz:
Hey! It took a bunch longer than expected and we were almost thwarted by a pause menu, but it's here!
Enjoy the demo! All feedback is welcome, and stuff.
Popcioslav:
I was trying to go back to sleep, seeing as I hear ear operation tommorow BUT IDC
I need to play and listen to this goodness before I go deaf :V
EDIT: Spoiler: Crap I was expecting Jiriri to be stage 2 boss... THAT BAIT AND SWITCH. I'm kind of fine and not fine with that, but that was surely a nice surprise.
From so far I've played there are some issues here are there, either a visual bug, controls being wonky or some songs loop really weirdly, but demo the game was really worth the wait
EDIT: Hah! I've tried to unlock the last song - presumably game over screen... but the game gives you like 5 continues. So when I finally did it... the game crashed. Something tells me this is the reason why it took so long
Shizzo:
Alrighty! I finally played through the demo with every character, and I've got a few thoughts, both praise and criticism!
Spoiler: First and foremost, before everything, I think the game is AMAZING, and it is the first English touhou fangame I can say I'm really looking forward to the release!
Now that being said, I think the gameplay is pretty good. A few things are rough on the edges in my humble opinion, but nothing too critical. I'll list them in here:
-Reimu and Marisa feel really strong and good to play with. Shou is pretty cool too, but Hecatia feels really bad in my opinion. She's one of my favorite characters, but in this game her shottypes are all really weak. Blue feels the least bad, but I still felt like the damage was kind of meh compared to even Reimu's homing, which is always perceived as a weaker-but-efficient shottype. Yellow feels gimmicky-but-fun, and yet the damage still feels bad and it can't reach most bosses. I don't even know how red can function, either; it's like MoF's MarisaC but without the lock-on-focus mechanic. I really think she needs a fine tuning.
-Speaking of Hecatia, her bombs also feel _really_ weird. It's a bit unreliable since it seems that the projectiles from the bomb that clear the bullets, so there were times I couldn't fully clear a pattern right in front of me. Their damage is also really bad, especially compared to the other characters' bombs.
-As a side note, I think there's something weird with the invincibility frames in Hecatia's bombs, because there were a few times that I died while the bombs were still being executed.
-The stage 1 feels super fun and I loved the whole dodging-rain effect. The bullets blended a little with the background, even if they were all different shades of blue, but after a few runs it was easier to read them.
-Azure Swirl is adorable and I love the way she talks ♥ Also her defeated boss art is heartbreaking!!
-I LOVE the fact that the boss sprites are animated, it's such a small detail but I think it makes fights a lot prettier.
-Jiriri insulting Hecatia's clothes = 10/10
-Sakkagumi looks SO different, and I love her design, fight and theme. Even the way she shows up is super unique, and she's definitely my favorite boss of the demo! Her danmaku felt very Doremy-like because it swaps between really intense patterns, and spellcards that try trapping you. Kudos for her!!
-The only weird thing (and it could be my impression) about Sakkagumi's fight is that the volume seems to drop midway through the song/fight? Again it could be just me.
-I don't know who that Mermaid midboss is but her danmaku looks sooooo cool.
-Saga looks a bit strange for me compared to the other characters whenever I think of her (maybe it's because she's frowning in her spellcard-declare cut-in? Hmm..) but she's really interesting nonetheless. I love the special effects that she has after her midboss fight and whenever she starts a nonspell! My only complaint is that the bubble bullets she uses are kinda transparent and almost feel like they're not bullets but background elements. It doesn't help that the actual background has bubbles on the bottom of the screen, too.
EDIT: Another suggestion I forgot to make is that it'd be infinitely helpful if the game had a boss-low-health sound like how the official games have.
EDIT2: OH and also the boss-defeat-explosion sound. I mean, a touhou fight's not a touhou fight without that sound after it... especially after Saga's fight, the music would sync perfectly with it!
I also forgot to mention, but it seems that the game bugs out if you game over and continue right before Jiriri's dialogue; your character sprite will be gone and the danmaku will keep going. I'll try replicating it again sometime later.
Overall I loved the fact that the game's difficulty leans on the hard scale. It feels like a lot of fangames which throw a lot of resources on you have a ton of patterns which don't feel like they belong to the difficulty you've chosen (Hard spellcards which belong on normal, etc). Mechanics wise it's nice because it's simple-but-helpful. The only thing I think that's a bit strange is that you can't use the PoC to collect the special droplet bullets.
But nonetheless, I really can't wait for more, you guys are making a really amazing game and I hope it becomes just as popular as the Eastern Fangames!