Anyone else have trouble with Sakuya? -.-;

[Tinari]

So I got the VSync patch working with TH06 and it's wonderful.  The game even FEELS like it's moving faster which I blame on the 60FPS thing but whatever.  Anyway I am able to consistantly get past Stage three with at least 5 lives and 4 bombs as either Marisa A or Reimu B (the only two I play).  I can get past stage FOUR with usually at least 4 lives and a good stock of bombs.

But for some reason, I am not sure why, Sakuya and her stage seem to just obliterate me.  I cannot get past stage five.  If I use a continue to beat stage five I don't even have as much trouble on stage six as I do five.  Is there anything going on here?  The knives seem to kill me way more than I expect.  Someone noted they're circles for their hitbox which I am trying to account for but I still get hit by knives.  And something about that level causes me to have more "stupid" deaths where I die and I am left awestruck with a "What hit me?" look on my face.

People say "bomb more."  Well I would if I knew to.  How can one be expected to bomb if they literally had NO idea they were going to be hit by anything? :|  Otherwise I'd just be bombing to be bombing half the time because I have no idea what I was hit by half the time, and no clue how X hit me the other half.  I typically lose 10-15 bombs per attempt at 1CCing EoSD each time. :|

[Drake]

Watch replay. Study replay. Do not study too well because it was casual and I died a lot.

The things that shouldn't be done should be obvious.

[Matsuri]

Practice deathbombing. It will save your ass. A lot.

[ebarrett]

Most of the bullets during the stage are aimed at you. Move as little as possible, ESPECIALLY when there are fairies spamming round bullets from the top of the screen. That should take care of 90% of stage threats.

As for Sakuya, most of her cards are trick-based - watch some replays and facepalm at not seeing it before. (I know I did)

And sorry but if you "don't know what hit you" this is just another reason for you to bomb more. Everytime that you're not sure what you're doing, bomb. Doesn't matter if it doesn't look like you're going to get hit. Know the parts where you're dying often and bomb preemptively. Losing 10-15 bombs in a single run is simply not excusable, even less if Sakuya is your current brickwall - her spell lifebars are so pitiful that bombspamming there is cheap and reliable, and some of her nonspells are also made a lot easier by bombing since they rely on reflecting bullets that linger around for a long time to be threatening - one bomb and it'll take some time for the screen to fill again.

[nintendonut888]

After a point death bombing becomes natural. It's harder to death bomb in EoSD than any other game, but I can still pull one off every 7 or 8 times out of 10. Then again I'm sickeningly good at it so don't expect to be able to do the same at your current level of skill.. As you are, bomb when things seem way beyond your control, but at the same time don't just blow a bomb whenever a bullet looks at you funny.

[Tsym]

Well I'll assume normal...  The only hard that will probably warrant a consistent bomb is Marionette, just because it just throws a ridiculous number of knives at you.  Her first two non-spell cards are dodgefests and nothing more than that.  You should stay in the middle.  Her last non-spell card is much easier if you stay at the bottom because the knives spread out a lot more there.
Her spell cards are relatively simple save for Marionette.  Her first one is just stay at the bottom and dodge.  Her second one is simple dodging.  Marionette will probably require a bomb.  It's Hard mode equivalent is just as bad if not worse.

I would provide a replay, but I can't seem to play right now, so whatever.

And I would caution against bombing.  Sometimes you bomb out of a situation that might look impossible, but actually isn't.  The entire Sakuya fight is basically a test of wise bombing.

[Tinari]

Well, I watched the replay and am going to give it another go.  If nothing else you've shown me how to get at least one or two more lives by there simply by scoring better.  So we'll see!  I'll upload the replay regardless of how bad it goes, so woo!

*edit*

I'm a liar.  I died at Patchouli.  I died at her first non-spellcard.  I will partially blame my friend who came in and started talking to me and watching me and making faces, jokes and stuff to make me play worse.  But I died twice to her non-directional laser attack simply because I didn't realize it went just a LITTLE further than straight down.

... wow. That was so pitiful.

*edit part two: it's back and it's mad as hell!*

Huh.  I am giving up for the night but after watching that replay my ability to play this game has bombed terribly.  I was out of bombs after stage 3 which was new for me.  I lost two lives on Patchouli's stage and two to her which is horrible.  And then I ran out of lives by Strange Art: Misdirection.  I am going to assume my abilities have tanked based on something such as being hungry, late night, confidence drop, whatever it may be.   But I seem to have lost my ability to play.  And don't EVEN get me started on Marisa who, after the vSync patch, I can't seem to control at all, heh...

*edit three: The Final Edit!*

Yeah.  So, maybe I have fallen out of my groove or something but after watching that replay my ability to play this game has seriously took a nose-dive.  I dunno if I am playing more aggressive for some reason or trying to do things beyond my ability or just flat out got a case of The Dumb(R) but after losing to Patchouli with Marisa B and Marisa A, I figured I'd go back to Reimu.  Reimu A and I died three times on Stage 3 and Reimu B I died at Rumia and gave up.

I have NO clue what happened to being able to get past Patchouli with only two bombs used... screw fighting Sakuya anymore.  Before I would get to Sakuya with most of my resources and lose them all there.  Now I can't even GET TO HER ANYMORE.   Bleh.

[Tinari]

Does anyone else ever go through slumps in this game?  My playing is honest-to-god WORSE right now than when I first played this game and didn't even know what the term "SHMUP" meant.  I went ahead and dinked in Extra and died at 10% which is an all time low for me.  This has been the most depressing bout of Touhou I've ever had that I can't even get as far, with the vsync patch and all my new knowledge of lives and farming score etc than I could back when I was clueless...

[Esoterica]

Everyone goes through slumps.

For example, yesterday I got to EX-Alice's eighth phase.  A few hours ago I ended up repeatedly game overing on the first two phases, and even once to the stage, which I didn't even do the first time I tried it.

[nintendonut888]

I remember back when clearing normal was still a major accomplishment for me. I would try again and again to 1cc with Reimu B (my goal at the time was to see all the endings), gave up, came back 2 weeks later out of practice and beat it my first try. Slumps are quite common and a sign you should try something else for a while.