Replay Critique / Analysis Thread

[Zetzumarshen]

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6001

A few tips here

Stage 4 :

For fairies that shot green and yellow bullets, shoot the 1st left fairy but don't PoC, then shoot the 1st right fairy then PoC. Do the same with 2nd and 3rd fairy wave. 4th wave is basically the same but with much time restriction to PoC. after the 4th PoC wait until there are 2 fairy on the left side, shoot them (don't PoC), then swing to right side and destroy bunched fairies there. If done correctly, there will be one fairy left at the left side. PoC while ignoring that fairy, then shoot her.

To continue opening border at post Lily, break the border when kedamas from right side have filled the border with purple bullets. This plus cherry tokens will allow opening border at kedamas that shoot crucial-to-graze red bullets.

Stage 5 :

Before starting stage 5, pause for a while and check your current cherry value. If it below 45000, try to destroy the ghost and pick a one or two cherry tokens there so the value will be around 48000 before the chaotic fairy wave. Ghost that shoot red triangle bullets won't drop item token so don't PoC them to plan your border.

... and if isn't against your principle, continual border breaking at Resurrection -30% allows you to pick item at maximal value.For more score, don't break the border when the timer starts to sound indicating 10 seconds left. Or you could do the hardway, doing Resurrection at the top of the screen >_>

[Zengeku]

Replay evaluation? Well i guess i want to try this out then. How about this 1cc of PCB Hard? Is it any good? (Yeah, i know Yuyuko was meh...)

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6005

[ghost333]

score run
some mistakes at stage 4
and epic fail on stage 6

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6007
should i stop suicides?
should i bomb less?
what's the bonus if i complete the game with max lives btw?

[Sapz]

I'd like some general advice on how to approach a run of UFO Lunatic. I'm confident that a 1cc is within my skill level, but I keep slipping up, messing up my UFO chains, dying with bombs in stock, failing to capture most cards, taking risks and paying for them, even zoning out and running into a bullet every so often... you get the idea.

I'd be more specific, but the thing is I'm not entirely sure what it is that I'm doing/not doing to make me slip up so much. The attached replay is my best run so far (although that's not saying much), and ends with a game over at Shou. If there's any advice you have for individual spellcards, I'd definitely appreciate it, but I'm looking for more universal advice for the most part. :V

[Zetzumarshen]

Hello again:)

@ghost333 :

should i stop suicides?
should i bomb less?

Depends on your plan. I have very little knowledge about PCB planning besides few general rule of thumb, Phantasm stage, and Reimu B Lunatic. There is unsettling difference between Hard and Lunatic that made me haven't switched difficulty (or it's just my comfort zone). Watch WRs/high level player to measure the benefit from bombing certain pattern. Try to invent a route that suites for your playstyle.

what's the bonus if i complete the game with max lives btw?

22 million for each extra life, and a few variable million because of temporary item value reduce. So it makes about 180 millions. Note that according to the wiki/someone, each border is valued about 10 million. Say if you can open 4 border for a life, then you will be making an extra ~18m. Plus bombing will autocollect items.


@sapz :
Universal tips
Unwanted UFO token should be considered as bullet, because it can ruin many plans. Pick whenever you can. Pause and assess whenever unfamiliar/forgotten situation arose, then plan your move, it helps. Bullet clearing from destroying an UFO is an integral aspect for any route.

Stage 2 :
Try to create a solid plan on approaching post midboss Kogasa wave. Using bomb invulnerability to create a safe route and summon 2 resource UFO there.

From my experience, Parasol Star Memoirs is doable at 4.00 power, pretty dangerous at 3.xx, and an autobomb at 2.xx below. Try to shoot unfocused at this card.

Stage 3 :
Waves that consists 2 big fairies after Ichirin can be taken out before one of them shoots. Just continually shoot one of their summoning point. Untested route here will be welcomed mostly by an undodgeable wall, so prioritize planning this phase!

Stage 4 :
Summoning an UFO too early at the stage is not beneficial, it hardly fills and its bullet clearing is not that important. Try to summon the first one at big fairy encounter.

Unsinkable Vortex is easier on the very bottom of the screen in my opinion.

EDIT : forget to watch Zengeku's replay.
I'm sorry, I was pressing the ctrl button when watching your replay. Well I speed up WRs replays too >_>
so... I can't judge your skill level. I leave that to more experienced person. But from skimming the replay, well done on stage 1-4 and capturing the Hell's God Sword.

[ghost333]

Zetsumarshen i actually plan on scoring lunatic too.
but i just thought to score on hard first and then move on lunatic..
should i go straight to lunatic?

[LHCling]

It's so early in the morning I want to sleep. Donut analysis in a separate post. Provided I don't fall asleep while writing it up.

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6005

Method for doing "Chalk-White Russian Dolls" is somewhat inefficient in my opinion. I prefer sticking to about halfway up the screen. Makes things a lot easier.

Other than that, Stages 1-4 were very good. Save for a few mistakes that could be avoided with practice. Knowledge-wise, I think there were some points where you could have PoC'd with minimal risk, most notably during Stage 2.

Stage 5; not much to comment on. "Approaching Disillusion"; when watching, I thought you would end up clipping on something considering the way you switch directions. I'll ignore the hurr moment close to the end.

Stage 6; I noticed you became quite tense after the first two mistakes and started "twitching" during certain SCs. Example: "Deep-Rooted Butterfly". Minus clip mistakes, it sums up to be something quite nice.
Overall, I reckon with a bit more memorization, you could end up with something like a No Death PCB Hard 1cc (assuming that all Bombs and / or Borders are used "appropriately"). So many mistakes present that could be fixed through just knowing when to PoC for instance.

[Lopsidation]

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6015
Finally, IN Hard down!
This is a fairly solid run. Two questions:

1. What, other than the horrible stage 2, could have gone better?

2. My skill level is probably a small bit worse than the linked replay. Considering this, what should I do next? (I have all the normals, EoSD and IN hard, and EoSD, MoF, and IN extra down at the moment.)

[Zengeku]

It's so early in the morning I want to sleep. Donut analysis in a separate post. Provided I don't fall asleep while writing it up.
Method for doing "Chalk-White Russian Dolls" is somewhat inefficient in my opinion. I prefer sticking to about halfway up the screen. Makes things a lot easier.

Other than that, Stages 1-4 were very good. Save for a few mistakes that could be avoided with practice. Knowledge-wise, I think there were some points where you could have PoC'd with minimal risk, most notably during Stage 2.

Stage 5; not much to comment on. "Approaching Disillusion"; when watching, I thought you would end up clipping on something considering the way you switch directions. I'll ignore the hurr moment close to the end.

Stage 6; I noticed you became quite tense after the first two mistakes and started "twitching" during certain SCs. Example: "Deep-Rooted Butterfly". Minus clip mistakes, it sums up to be something quite nice.
Overall, I reckon with a bit more memorization, you could end up with something like a No Death PCB Hard 1cc (assuming that all Bombs and / or Borders are used "appropriately"). So many mistakes present that could be fixed through just knowing when to PoC for instance.

Thanks for taking your time. I'm assuming that by the "hurr" moment in S5 you mean me failing at her final card right? Yeah, that annoys me a lot. I had to go downstairs and eat and when i got to playing again i just started screwing up. I also did today figure out a way to do Chalk White Russian Dolls by timing it out without mistakes. A little more practice just to get it under my skin would be neat.

I also have no idea as of right now, how to do Youmu's midboss card in S5 but i'm working on it.

[Sapz]

Advice

Alrighty, thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to try those out.

[Tinari]

Since people are offering to pick apart my lack of abilities here, I'll gladly prostrate myself.

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6016

That is my first 1CC of normal EoSD.  Since I finally beat EoSD I have moved on to PCB.  I am currently trying to 1CC it and keep getting to Yuyuko only to die off early.  We'll see. :3


I'll also add my latest attempt to 1CC normal on PCB.  I had one death due to my game minimizing out from a steam pop-up. Very aggrivating.  But oh well!  About an average-to-better run for me.

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6018

Still makes me feel like an idiot with some of the stupid, stupid deaths there.  And when I die at Yuyuko with 3 bombs and no lives, trust me, I -was- hitting the bomb key before that butterfly hit me.  I wasn't using key remapper though so the bomb didn't go off.



I guess what I am asking for is... how well am I playing?

[LHCling]

Donut player ability analysis. He requested scoring be put into it as well, so... yeah.

Foreword: 3/10 for skill is your "average" player due to my exemplar standard being a godly scorerunner  :V

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=5076

"Skill": obvtas/10 5-9/10

I will admit, your ability to twitch through certain bullet waves impresses me. However, since you had to choose a replay where you bombspammed the living crap out of everything, it's hard to gauge your skill. Hence the large range of values possible. You also have some trouble dodging bullets coming from below you / from the top of the screen.
Knowledge: 4-5/10

You know how to do certain Spell Cards. Yet at the same time, you do just about every other thing wrong. Horrendous stage portions, poorly timed UFOs, etc. . I can see that you did a lot of "on the fly" dodging / streaming / other whatnot. This is contradictory considering that you did a lot of practicing beforehand. You also seem to be pretty damn persistent in pursuing your own methods of doing Spell Cards instead of taking the much more efficient alternatives (I believe we had this discussion some other time).

On the positive side, you do know how to manage a large number of Boss Attacks (SCs and non-spells).
Scoring: non-existent/10 1-2/10

You heard me. I saw you do scoring techniques subconsciously. Albeit being worth almost nothing, it's still a fundamental scoring technique that applies to (almost) any other Shmup. That scoring technique is... Bullet Clear Bonus!

There was a lack of using the PoC between Spell Cards. There's no risk involved, and I noticed that you fell short of reaching a Power Up (that is, bypassing 2.00, 3.00 or reaching 4.00 Power) quite a number of times. Numbers off the top of my head include 2.95 and 3.92 .

I also see no effort to graze attacks unless they had a benefit (e.g. streaming).
Overall: No idea/10

Use a more recent replay please. It's way, way, waaaay too difficult to even come up with an "overall" score (which is not just averaging the 3 other scores).
Cut: working on it after taking a break, unless somebody beats me to it.

[ghost333]

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6015
Finally, IN Hard down!
This is a fairly solid run. Two questions:

1. What, other than the horrible stage 2, could have gone better?

2. My skill level is probably a small bit worse than the linked replay. Considering this, what should I do next? (I have all the normals, EoSD and IN hard, and EoSD, MoF, and IN extra down at the moment.)

i am not so good to point out theories like baity but i will try to give some basic advice.
Try to PoC a bit more (especially stage1).
And dont focus too much, some attacks and stage parts  are easier unfocus.
Or you can try to destroy some familiars at the begin and focus later.
The bottom is not always the best place to be.

something else i notice
stage 4 and 5 : you get cornered by the spam fairys ,try to remember where they actually spawn.
your marisa fight was nice.
i think you can improve stage5 , u actually have the potential you just need to learn some of the tricks on the attacks.(example: invisible moon and the attack before it) 

u should go for stage 6b now
try to study some simple runs.


 

[nintendonut888]

What's a bullet clear bonus? :V That when you get points from bullets on screen when you end a spell card?

[LHCling]

Number of "bullets" present on screen before finishing off a Spell Card / non-spell.

EDIT: And UFOs, but you didn't do it with that in this case.

[nintendonut888]

Out of curiosity, name one instance where this actually happened.

[LHCling]

Murasa's last non-spell. It was the only time you stopped shooting. Don't even disregard it as stalling "Anti-Bomb" Spell Card Armor because there's a lot of evidence in that replay that shows you didn't even know it existed.
Just so you know, you do it a lot more often in the other games.

[nintendonut888]

Ooh, that? I remember that now. I vaguely seem to remember having a reason for that, but I don't remember (probably a petty thing). If it was for scoring as you said...so what? If I know I'm at no risk I'll humor it.

And dude, of course I know about anti-bomb spell card armor. :| It's in every single game.

[LHCling]

If I know I'm at no risk I'll humor it.

* Baity wonders about the lack of PoC usage between attacks

And dude, of course I know about anti-bomb spell card armor. :| It's in every single game.

UFO's Anti-Bomb Spell Card Armor works differently. Quite differently.

[nintendonut888]

* Baity wonders about the lack of PoC usage between attacks

In the mean time, I'd rather get some extra damage on a boss than worry about intangible things such as points.

UFO's Anti-Bomb Spell Card Armor works differently. Quite differently.

Oh? Do tell.

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

I've already 1cc'd Normal with SakuyaA and B. I've cleared Extra with both. Phantasm only with SakuyaA.

I wanted to unlock Extra for Marisa and well, I failed like usual.

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6019

I really need to know how to deal with the game with just 2 bombs per life. As for the slowdown, I do not know why it happens. It invalidates my scores both on this, sometimes IN, and always in IN extra. My computer can more than handle the games(except UFO and stage 6 SA), and in the case of IN the frameskip option just doubles displayed FPS and does nothing in reality. Maybe I could try setting the frameskip for that in a future run, I forgot PCB had the option.

Don't think the slowdown helped me too much on this anyway. I think it was mostly stuff I would have dodged anyway, maybe it helped some.

[LHCling]

In the mean time, I'd rather get some extra damage on a boss than worry about intangible things such as points.

You do realize that there's non-card armor as well? For 2-3 seconds as soon as a Spell Card ends. So there's absolutely no repercussions in PoC'ing between attacks.
UFO's Anti-Bomb Spell Card Armor will "activate" as soon as you use a bomb before a Spell Card is activated. This prevents you from dealing any damage to the boss, no matter how long the bomb is *cough* (this also meant that your normal shots were negated until the end of the bomb).

Now, let's compare this type of Armor to something such as MoF, where the Spell Card Armor has a pre-fixed time before damage could be dealt. You could (cleverly) use a bomb before a Spell Card activates, and manage to get the bomb to actually deal damage to a boss (as well as having some of the bullets conveniently cleared for you).

It was also possible to "chip" some HP away from the bosses this way in other games.

[nintendonut888]

You mean it had a limit in other games? :V I didn't know that. Actually now that I think about it I believe my first EoSD extra clear ever had me doing this to Philosopher's Stone (accidentally of course).

[Tinari]

I feel a certain lack of soul-crushing critique here.  Please, I need to be ground into a fine powder.  Tell me how much I should stop playing Touhou...

>.>  I am not a certain celestial, hold on.

Ahem, would anyone be so kind as to give me some pointers or advice based on my two latest plays, my EoSD 1CC normal and my PCB attempt?  I would be much appreciative.



Edit for yon Baity:

Sorry, I didn't realize you were watching it that in depth or just got to it.  I wasn't sure how well my post was noticed between the back and forth between yourself and Nintendonut.  So I was feeling a little bummed out.

Thank you all the same.

[LHCling]

Critique != 100% bashing. It's a look at what's is good and what is bad.

Working on it. (2 different responses in fact)

EDIT: Now working on Tinari's.

[LHCling]

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6019

The biggest problem: Stage 4 stage portion. I did just about everything as simply as I could. Note that I break borders intentionally in some areas. I'm also going to suggest stalling Lily for a bit so you don't have to deal with the "hellish" Post-Mid-Boss waves. See: Attachment (don't forget to rename if it will overwrite a precious other replay; yes precious not previous). Also, I'm not too sure which sister you're most comfortable fighting, so I defaulted to Lyrica (for the "second half").

Moving on, you're taking huge and unnecessary risks during "Karmic Punishment". And finally, during "Five Signs of the Dying Deva", don't linger around the bottom of the screen during slow motion.

Stage 6. Although you somehow survived it, don't misdirect Mid-Boss!Youmu's attack like that. Nothing else sticks out too much for me... except maybe learning how to do "Law of Mortality" (that is, learn a path).

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

I tried using the safespot on Karmic Punishment but then paniced when I realized I forgot exactly where it was.

So don't misdirect stage 6 Youmu at all, or did I just mess it up? Does it work on Stage 5 Youmu as well as it did on the boss one?

I've never captured the five devas one, same for 200 Yojana.

About the Prismrivers, I never really paid attention to the fight to know how to pick which one to fight. I did mess up more than I usually do.

I'll watch the replay tomorrow as it's late here.

[Tsym]

Hiyo.

http://replays.gensokyou.org/download.php?id=6021

An almost clear of Extra that I just did, and this represents my typical extra run (at least on a good day).  So I'm wondering first if I have any bad habits that I should kick.  Then I'd like some help on whatever else you see horrible in my replay.  And I figured out that the brown bullets in Maze of Love have a greater angle between the spaces than the blue bullets today, so yeah.

[LHCling]

I tried using the safespot on Karmic Punishment but then paniced when I realized I forgot exactly where it was.

:V
There's a safespot?

So don't misdirect stage 6 Youmu at all, or did I just mess it up? Does it work on Stage 5 Youmu as well as it did on the boss one?

You didn't mess it up, but it looked like you almost had a solid wall to the face. Misdirecting Mid-Boss!Youmu on Stage 5 works just as well as during Boss!Youmu.
@Mystlord will check after Tinari's. Just a note, habits take a while to kick away.

[Tsym]

:V
There's a safespot?
You didn't mess it up, but it looked like you almost had a solid wall to the face. Misdirecting Mid-Boss!Youmu on Stage 5 works just as well as during Boss!Youmu.
@Mystlord will check after Tinari's. Just a note, habits take a while to kick away.

Then if I have any bad habits better to get started now :V

And I was under the impression that midboss Stage 6 Youmu was impossible to misdirect O_o