Spellcard Help Topic

[Danielu Yoshikoto]

Kogasa's second spell, this rain card.

I have NEVER played a spell card on second (!) stage being so frustating...

You are right... sometimes a Bullet can just pop up behind you while you go down to the bottom of the scre- ZUN!

also, i think her last spellcard is even more frustating...

[Zengeku]

What difficulty are you talking about? The Easy and Normal version aren't difficult at all. I have never had a bullet spawning on top of me. Just make sure to focus your attention on your hit-box and forget about reading the bullets above you.

If you are talking about the Hard version you are in for some serious bullshit.

The Lunatic version is pretty much hit or miss. It can be done but one shouldn't expect consistent captures unless they are Kefit or something.

Kogasa's second spell, this rain card.

I have NEVER played a spell card on second (!) stage being so frustating...

How about her first spellcard? That's pretty much impossible to capture.

[KomeijiKoishi]

I'm usually playing on Normal. Either a thick bullet wall appears or the bullets appear in front of your face.

And what first spell are you talking about? If you mean her midboss card, I captured it on first try ON LUNATIC. It was basically micrododging.

[Zengeku]

Oh her mid-boss one? Well i haven't capped that one. Its probably because my keyboard have a tendency to either not register a tap or over-exaggerating it, thus making it useless. I can't play the game on my laptop either due to it being too slow but i can imagine the spell isn't too tough.

No, i was referring to Kogasa's first spellcard in the actual boss fight. Veronica labeled it to be harder than VoWG Lunatic and i agree. Its complete bullshit and even if there was some technique to it, it wouldn't be something that belonged in Stage 2.

About the blue-bullet spam thing. Try dodging at the bottom of the screen. Pay close attention to your girl and just concentrate so you are ready to move if a bullet spawns right above you. If the bullets get too dense you can go the left or right side of the screen until things calm down again. Also if you are playing as ReimuB or SanaeA you could probably just posistion yourself in one of these sides of the screen and have a lot less bullets to dodge. I don't know if i have been of help or not. Try it out at least.

[stargroup]

UFO is completely retarded and no one should play it. Unless ZUN gives the game a complete overhaul it's gonna end up being shit.

And this is coming from a guy who's fanatic about danmaku patterns.


Anyways....

Kogasa's spells are like this.
The midboss spell is hit or miss. Either you get lucky enough to capture it or it walls you off yes WALLS YOU OFF which is why it's the dumbest card ever.

Her first main boss card is also completely stupid. The lines of bullets are way too fast and too close together, making it very difficult to squeeze through. And on top of that you have to deal with large balls flying everywhere. And like we said before, this doesn't belong in stage 2. Also a really bad spell.

Her second card with the rain is actually moderately fun if you don't count how close the spawning points get to you. The rain is incredibly dense when it spawns near you, but otherwise, it's an okay card. It's also Kogasa's only card that isn't horrible.

Her last card though, is one of the worst cards I've ever seen in Touhou, if not the worst. The train idea was stupid to begin with, and when ZUN ran out of ideas he just started adding random layers of bullets to the mix just to increase difficulty. This is not in his character at all. I like Touhou because of how well the spell cards are constructed, and this is the exact opposite. I don't care if you enjoy playing this card, it's still one of the worst patterns in history.

[Zengeku]

UFO is good on Normal but on anything else its completely worthless. As Stargroup said, Kogasa's cards are bullshit. Ichirin ain't much better.

Her mid-boss card is well capturable but her boss cards are retarded except for the final one which just isn't very spectacular. 1st card.

The one with the big fists and a lot of bullets coming down the screen. The fists and the shaking obscures your view of the bullets so it becomes extremely difficult to spot the gaps which are already disappearingly small to begin with. The spellcard is horrible, its almost impossible to do on anything above Normal mainly because of the handicaps the fists produce.

Second spell. I actually managed to pull it off on Hard mode but i have yet to see anyone actually cap it at Lunatic.

Third spell. Basic laser reading. Nothing too difficult on Normal. I haven't capped it yet on Hard but i don't really play that all too much in UFO.

Of course, now i'm talking about Stage 3. I'm forgetting a very important thing about it. Stage 3 is a complete mess design wise. Its worse than the worst stage in any shmup i have ever seen. No matter how unfair DDP, on easy, was at points it was something you could get around by memorizing things. That's not the case here. The end of stage 3 are especially terrible with those fairies rushing in an unloading thousands of bullets all aimed at you. You can't get through there without heavy bombing.

I'll have to agree with Stargroup. UFO as it is now is horrible. Its good on Normal but on anything else it sucks. Its girls and music is still awesome though.

Still we must remember that its just a Demo. Granted, its the worst demo of Touhou ever but there will without a doubt be changed things so the game becomes as awesome as all the other Touhou games.

[Helepolis]

Question regarding IN:

Beaten all last words except Yukari (final boss for me =X). I have noticed Yukari's last word is quite static, though do I simply have to memorize all the waves she uses? So far I only managed to figure out the first two waves (easiest =.=).

Can someone give me hint or direction how to handle this card (please don't spoil all waves, I prefer to keep it challanging for myself). I just wish to receive a hint how to act against these waves of bullets. Do I always start from the center? Or stay at the outer borders and just try to find the savespots for doding.

[Drake]

First two you need to find a path/safespot.
Next you need to make your way to the outside and pathfind.
There's a safespot on the next one, but you can pretty much just dodge, I guess.
Next is pathfinding. Really easy.
For the next two, stay in the middle until it closes in, then circle around and get back to the center.
Stay in the center for the next.
This one you have to make your way out, then dodge the rest.
And finally get the hell out of there.

[stargroup]

There are a number of things which will lead me to believe UFO's full version will still be pretty bad.

First of all, even though there will be changes made, UFO is so bad I highly doubt ZUN can make it good without completely redoing many parts of the game. In addition, the UFO system makes the game ridiculously tedious for beginners, and for lunatic it will either end up making parts of stages trivial that shouldn't be, or ZUN might add something that forces you to use the UFO's in some way just to get through. In that case it might even be a little unfair, considering what you have to do just to get to the UFO as well as timing it correctly when you grab it.

I'm not looking forward to UFO because I really believe it will fall way below my expectations.

[Zengeku]

One must keep faith in the lord!!!

[Arcengal]

Native Myth v. Central Myth.

Just...what the heck are you supposed to do once the card decides to stop messing around (14 seconds left)? The screen just fills with Danmaku and there doesn't seem to be any spot that doesn't get you walled in.

[stargroup]

already posted but here it is again


"Suwa War - Native Myth vs Central Myth" - Yeeeeaah, this card is a bit annoying. It'd be a lot more fun if it was more dodging than planning. On the second to last wave, as you're sweeping across the field sideways to avoid the homing suns, get to the top center of the screen as fast as possible. Stay up there as long as you can, and keep moving downward as slowly as possible, dodging any debris in your way. This way, you can minimize the amount of bullets you dodge, and since you're moving downward, the homing suns won't even pose a threat. Just cross your fingers and hope you hang on in the last seconds.

I highly recommend watching kefit's replay. It's pretty much the only way to consistently capture the card, and even then it's still quite tricky.

[Kanako Yasaka]

So I'm going back and Re1ccing normals and I really want to NOT lose 5 lives on Youmu this time.

I can get fasting of the young gaki well enough.
200 Yojana in one slash- I assume it's just working your way through the walls before it speeds back up. :\
Second nonspell- Yes, the 'loleasy' one. I know that the gaps are aimed at you, but on the one with the swords I always dodge them but STILL get hit by either the swords or the bullets. I actually lose most of my resources here. >_>
Karmic Punishment- I assume it's the same basic strategy as 200 Yojana.
Delusion of Enlightenment- I can get this one easily.
5 signs of the deva- This one too.

Don't ask why I didn't capitalize everything. I'm really fuckin' tired. :>

[stargroup]

Hell Realm Sword "200 Yojana in 1 Slash" - This card is really freaking annoying. So yes, you want to take advantage of the slowdown to get through as much of the debris as possible. But the hardest part about this spell card is simply the sheer density of these bullets. Towards the end of the spell this card is atrocious. Really work on reading large gaps as well as small ones, or you might find yourself walled off by all the bullets. Practice, practice, practice. And luck.

Brute Sword "Karmic Punishment of the Idle and Unfocused" - Yes, same basic strategy. You want to get past the bullets before they speed up again and become super hard to dodge. The trick is to know exactly when Youmu speeds up and slows down. During slow down, don't even bother using focus at all. You won't be able to see your hitbox, but it's the only way to get though fast enough. Besides that, just get out of the way when in normal speed.

As for the second nonspell, there's some time after the red/blue bullets shoot at you to move to the side a little bit to redirect the swords. And then the rest is easy. Also, you want to be careful not to be directly under her before she shoots the swords, as that will make your life harder. Aside from that, just be confident in your streaming.

[Nuclear Fusion]

With Regards to 200 Yojana - almost all the bullets in this card have smaller hitboxes then they look like. Only the dots are the actual size, I find. Be aware of this.

[stargroup]

oh yeah, but most people should be aware of this by now haha. especially the biggest bullets. make sure you get very comfortable with their hitboxes, as it is crucial for certain stages, not only in this game

[Darkblizer]

Symbol "Anscestors standing beside my bed" or whatever Koishi's first spellcard is called

The streaming isn't really difficult, but I need help on figuring out where to go on the laser patterns.

[stargroup]

oh that's simple. first opening is at the bottom of the screen right in the middle, super easy. the second set of lasers you have two choices. either go about halfway up the screen to shoot her down, and then retreating before the bullets hit you, or just go to either side of the "enemy" marker at the bottom

the laser patterns are always static, so this works every time

[Drake]

I don't know why people stay at the bottom. You won't ever, ever die going up to Koishi.

[Sodium]

I don't know why people stay at the bottom. You won't ever, ever die going up to Koishi.

You won't ever ever die going to the side of the lasers either. At least you shouldn't. Also, it's harder to get into position for the streaming part if you go up.

But anyways, the card is easy anyways once you micro memorize it. Either method works.

[matthewism]

How do I tell whether to stay or run in Jade of the Horrid River?

[Nuclear Fusion]

Is there any consistent ant way to do Patchy's non-directional lasers? I find myself screwing them up repeatedly.

[Azinth]

Is there any consistent ant way to do Patchy's non-directional lasers? I find myself screwing them up repeatedly.

The attack comes in four waves; aimed bullet streams, aimed bullet streams with lasers, denser aimed bullet streams, and aimed bullet clusters with lasers.  First wave, start at the left and stream your way to the center.  Second, stream to the right.  The lasers won't be a problem as long as you keep moving.  Dash to the far end to give yourself some room.  Then for the next two it's the exact same strategy, except you start at the right and make your way left. 

There are probably many ways you could do it, but this is my method and it's never failed me, so...

[nintendonut888]

How do I tell whether to stay or run in Jade of the Horrid River?

It alternates between them. It's been a while since I've done MoF extra though, so I don't remember which one's first. For the one where you stay though, you have to get as close to the collapsing bullet wall as possible and slowly move down.

[Generalguy]

Any tips for Idling Wave no-horizontal on Normal?

[Nuclear Fusion]

The attack comes in four waves; aimed bullet streams, aimed bullet streams with lasers, denser aimed bullet streams, and aimed bullet clusters with lasers.  First wave, start at the left and stream your way to the center.  Second, stream to the right.  The lasers won't be a problem as long as you keep moving.  Dash to the far end to give yourself some room.  Then for the next two it's the exact same strategy, except you start at the right and make your way left. 

Awesome, this works.

[Azinth]

Glad I could be of help.  ^^

As for me... I think I might've asked this before, but let me ask again just for my own sake.  How the hell do you dodge Eirin's midboss nonspell (IN stage 6 if it wasn't obvious) consistently?  That damn crisscross pattern always manages to get me, no matter how I try to approach it.

[Zengeku]

Is there anyone who knows how to handle Chen's Kimontonkou attack? No matter how well i'm doing i always end up getting hit by some fast arrowhead coming out of nowhere. Is there any trick to this? Any place of the screen you'd want to keep your focus or anything?

[Nuclear Fusion]

Is there anyone who knows how to handle Chen's Kimontonkou attack? No matter how well i'm doing i always end up getting hit by some fast arrowhead coming out of nowhere. Is there any trick to this? Any place of the screen you'd want to keep your focus or anything?

I hate this card so much.

Stay a little bit bellow mid screen. If you're getting into a claustrophobic section, move quickly to a more open space. There should always be at least some wriggle room somewhere, find it and get there. Do -not- dodge the fast arrows which go on a diagonal. Try and stick to the more vertical ones.

[Zengeku]

I have tried to approach the card in some new ways and i have almost captured it but i got hit on the last few momemts before her health bar drained. I'll delay it until i get back on a laptop though. I can't play for shit on a desktop.