So I got to watch someone doing a full (wow) playthrough of the game and, I must say, there is a lot of stuff to unpack.
The game's got some of the bits and bobs that made the older photo games and ISC distinctive, although I wouldn't say it exceeds them in what they do best : regarding the "scenes"'s in general, the difficulty seems quite wonky : there seems to be hard attacks mixed with not-quite-as-hard ones on the
weekdays ; and the difficulty doesn't seem to scale like in the photo games :
most attacks essentially seem to stay the same regardless the remaining lifebar to go through ; and you get to see
The gimmicks this game's got are nowhere near numerous and usefull as ISC's cheat items, but are instead something that is best described as more ... situational ?
Excluding the ability to take pictures and the fact that taking a picture deals a fair deal of damage, the gimmicks doesn't seem to be on the abusable side. However, considering that
personally, when I first played a photo game, I had a LOT of trouble adjusting to the way to play them, namely the way you charge up and take pictures. Having to get used to stuff that involves holding a button that you'd ever press only in emergencies or RELEASING that one comfortable button you'd be pressing the longest time while playing Touhou games can be confusing, and add to that having to think about
ZUN should really consider relying a bit more on the C button or something, that'd make things more convenient.
Regarding the
Plenty of stuff that ZUN reused, which I honestly I'm okay with, considering the fact that the way you approach these are obviously gonna be fairly different than how you would if they were in a normal Touhou game,
. Heck, some spells seems to have been remastered a bit even,
. A bit bummed that
That would have been cool. I also find kinda funny the fact that you get some of the
Music is cool as always, these ain't the kind of super loud, energy filled themes that might tire you out after a while. I'm not expecting something like the Gensokyo gods loved or Last remote in a decimal game, and these seems to set the mood. It's obviously gonna take some time to get used to these new themes, but I really like, and this is unusual, the title screen theme. Weekdays themes might sound good too if I properly take a listen without the constant charging up, bullet spawning and death noises.
I also like the fact that you'll need to finish pretty much EVERYTHING in order to have proper access to the stuff at the very, VERY end, instead of having to fill up a quota of scenes. Seems to make thing sort of rewarding or something ? Like when you unlock extra stage in normal games maybe.
Difficulty wise, from a cursory look, I'd say it's probably between normal and hard. There are some hard stuff, but the difficulty doesn't seem to be consistant nor slowly ramping up as you progress. At least that's my impression of it. I think the wonky difficulty, the reuse of stuff you might have already seen,
,and the controls of questionable convenience will probably be what will get this game some criticism.
I'll still be looking forward to the Steam release anyway, and hope to see whatever bugs may be get dealt with before the release. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, it's got content, it's got challenge. I can see why people would have some reservations, but as a filthy casual who is fine with the not-super-hardcore stuff and came with no particular expectation, I think I'm cool with this.
Also ... speaking of Steam release ... this is certainly NOT the kind of game where you intuitively figure out the controls, so, if it stays purely in japanese then, uhhh ...