PoFV Hard/Lunatic AI?

[JoonK]

I want to destroy my keyboard.

I've looked at tons of yt videos, the thread describing PoFV character tiers, and played for hours on end.

But I still can't beat Cirno/Sakuya/Youmu on Hard with anyone who's not Aya or Medicine. I ALWAYS get them to half a yin-yang, and I ALWAYS somehow fall under the pressure that they bring for the good one/two minutes after, when the AI chooses to disregard human limits.

I usually use Reimu, her high level fairy spells consistently trap the opponent, the only problem is that they always x-bomb out of it. I also use Yuka a lot too, just cause  :V

Should I just give up? Is there something I'm missing here? If you want a replay video, I'll up it.

[LHCling]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheComputerIsACheatingBastard

IIRC, the "God-Tier" timer for Story Mode is different from Match Mode.

Story Mode's timer is about 2 minutes after dying on Stages 6, 7, 8 and 9 at least once for Hard, and about 2 minutes 30 seconds (give or take 30 seconds) for Lunatic. If you don't die, then they should be anywhere from 3-5 minutes with the exception of Stage 9, which has been infamous for lasting anywhere between 50 seconds (with a non-Aya/Medicine character) and going well over 10 minutes.

Match Mode's depends greatly by the character. I believe the average time was about 4 minutes for Hard and about 10 minutes for Lunatic. So good luck with that  :V

[Esoterica]

Match play AI relies almost completely on speed.  Take that away, and victory becomes feasible.

When playing the lunatic AI, it helps tremendously to fight a slow character.  Yuka, Reimu, Komachi, and any of the Prismrivers are my usual opponents, and occasionally Sakuya or Reisen (and I discovered this morning that I'm capable of beating Mystia as well.  Go figure.)  Try fighting one of those characters, I'm sure you'll see a significant difference.

[ebarrett]

I've seen lunatic Yuka get a spirit to the face with less than fifteen seconds of play in match mode, and then down to half an orb before two minutes in the same round. Of course she proceeded to beat me in four minutes and a half which is about as much as I can endure in lunatic match mode, but hey. What Freudia said is correct: the AI lives and dies by its speed.

Still, 1cc'ing lunatic is much, much, much easier than winning a single lunatic match mode round. I have 1cc'ed lunatic with Reimu, Mystia (three times - out of four!), Marisa and Cirno, and I think I've never won a single lunatic match mode round. As Baity said - last 2 minutes and a half on the second try from stage 6 onwards, don't panic against Shikieiki, hopefully you'll have enough lives to get a good run against her. The hotdog spams takes some getting used to but after you get the hang of it it's very fun, you need to micro- and macro-dodge on the fly which is great training at the very least.

[JoonK]

LOL beat Hard Reimu with Marisa on Match Mode. Replay and video coming soon.

The trick is to know when to x-bomb, for me at least. Especially because Marisa gains meter quickly. 

[Esoterica]

Personally, I don't X-bomb at all.  Going to zero gauge will usually get you killed more than just taking the hit will.

The only time I'd recommend X-bombing is if the next hit will put you at half an orb, or if there's a full gauge item on the screen, in which case I usually do lv 2 - X - grab the item - lv 2.

[JoonK]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eLFJmKhLZo

Yeah it's not very effective when you have 2 or 3 charge. but the 4 charge x-bomb usually saves time, and you can gain meter to 2 charge in a all right amount of time, IMO.

but different players play different, of course.

[TheMasterSpark]

I've played against the Match Mode's lunatic AI extensively over the last months (by far the most amusing Touhou challenge, in my own opinion) and so far I've bested two of them, Yuka and Cirno. Yuka is really not much of a deal since she's vulnerable thanks to her slow speed but aside from her, it's all up to the boss laser attack. Oh right, I play as Shikieiki exclusively by the way.

Here's two videos of my PoFV lunatic escapades,
Versus Yuka
Versus Cirno

Among my greatest ambitions is to have a long and gruelling yet epic duel with lunatic Shikeiki, lasting about 6-7 minutes and full of impulsive dodging. One day, some day... 

[Esoterica]

I've been trying to beat lunatic Shiki for awhile now, but she seems resistant to everything.  Medicine's poison doesn't help at all 90% of the time, she's fast enough to dodge Aya's lightspeedmaku (usually)...honestly, I've been unable to do much without playing as Marisa or Reimu with 999990 spell points.