東方百画志 ~ The Wish Under Celestial Star (Possibly dead?!)

[Kirin]

Eh, just my bone is all. When it gets into the game proper I don't notice it much but the opening conversation between Rinnosuke and Aya just doesn't feel right to me. Rinnosuke, being a merchant, probably shouldn't be so... rude, I guess, canon or fanon. I'd say a polite sort of sarcasm rather than outright impoliteness, more or less like a snarky assistant to an overly enthusiastic boss.

I think Momiji's spell does actually call attention to the fact that she drew aggro. I seem to remember the game throwing up a message saying that she's now being targeted more/drew attention. It comes after the damage notifications, if I remember correctly.

[Ghaleon]

That makes entirely too much sense (about not mentioning stats so early in development)
drawing fire was a derp on my part, for some reason I was thinking fire as in burning flames sorta fire. Event hough I knew it was wind damage. derp.

I just got Yamame, she almost pwnt me by spamming fast danmaku alot which can 2shot daiyousei and Kana. First battle after getting her is playing SA's Stage 3 track instead of stage 1 or stage 1 boss, is that intentional?

Also, the "bomb" defend option has not been useable for me after using it over 10 battles ago for Daiyousei, I also used it with everyone to beat Yamame, and it's not useable on the next battle. Is battle supposed to say floor?

edit: Just remembered to ask. But do you ever plan on having a map feature in-game? Maybe as an easy-mode feature, or a ng+ feature?
My brother is absolutely useless with finding his way out of any sort of maze/dungeon. I myself can navigate thru pretty well but sometimes I make an odd mistake and I feel like I'm over-leveling when I get lost looking for that last treasure or whatever.

[Axel Ryman]

Seemed to work after I found a bomb fragment, or a full bomb. I actually forgot all about that since I rarely defend.

[Ghaleon]

I found both, no dice. it's been many many battles later too. I suppose USING a bomb will recover it, but that seems kind of extreme given how rare they are and..well, how supposedly it's once per battle.

I just beat Tewi, granted I faced her 2-3 levels after I met Yamame (level 7ish, met Yamame at 4ish), she seemed much much easier. Even if it's due to my higher stats, she only pulled out one spellcard phase while Yamame used 3 IIRC. I'll attempt both at equal levels on my next playthru, but if Tewi is easier that's kinda goofy IMO since you run across Yamame's spawnpoint before you can find even the big scorpion mini-boss.

Seems that damage scaling in this game is quite large. That's actually something I rather like, it makes level ups more significant even late in the game. IIRC you mentioned that you intended to have some kind of customization between level ups, or the ability to control them though didn't you? I know it's a beta so that's probably not just implimented but I'm just wondering if I remember right..

More of a gameplay opinion, but I think the early forest could use a beefier trash enemy. scorpion,spider/wasp/bees get rather tiresome pretty fast given how long I spent in that forest.

Anyway I gotta log again for the day, was fun again! I didn't expect 1 floor to last this long so far either... It's certainly larger than your average Labyrinth of Touhou floor. I rekon a simple 5-10 of these suckers would be a de-facto complete game in its own right. So, feel  accomplished with it so far!

[Garlyle]

Spoiler:

Tewi and Yamame

are meant to be interchangable about when you fight them, since one is optional.  Having both of them when taking on the floor's boss is a great boon.  Also, as far as spellcard numbers go,

Spoiler:

Tewi only has one noncard and one spellcard; compared to Yamame's two nonspells and one/two spellcards (difficulty dependant); however, Tewi's spellcard last significantly longer, and she's lacking a huge weakness that Yamame's got)

.

As for the issue with bombs:  As a first note, Bombing as a defense option has no connection to the use of Bomb items (They are used for something not present in the currently version, similarly to Faith).  If it's being disabled over multiple battles, something is really wrong and I'm going to have to look into it.  My suggestion is just to avoid bombing except when you think you'll need it in boss fights.

I didn't want to put a beefier trash enemy into the first half of the forest because of the fact that anyone just arriving their on Hard/Lunatic is going to be a bloody mop at first, and having something harder just rubs it in.  ...But to make up for it the last chunk of it has the Wyrmflies *awesomeface*

For me, who knows precisely what I'm after, it took me about an hour and a half, including grind time et all, to complete the first floor with all of the items collected.  Well, a bit of grinding now will serve you well given the sort of things that are already making their way onto 2F.  And yes, I do plan for this game to come out lengthy in the end... specifically, I intend to have

Spoiler:

??

floors in total, each about as long as this floor (Maybe a couple shorter/longer), so 8D

[MysTeariousYukari]

Boss comment:

Spoiler:

Yamame and Tewi were cake for me with a Level 7 Momiji with her Wolf Claws. Rabies Bite was dealing 1600~ to both Tewi and Yamame. What was Yamame's weakpoint anyway, de-buffs?

:sadface: I made it to the end I like this a lot, so I'm sad that I'm done it.

Spoiler:

Now to find and fight the EX Boss.

Edit: Garlyle, I seem to have found a glitch. Now, whenever I try to pick continue from the start game screen, or to save, an error message pops up and the game closes.

[Garlyle]

Yukari: It sounds like you blew up a save file somehow, namely whichever you had in first slot.  Where were you saved?  The most likely answer to solve the problem is to get rid of the first save file in the save folder.
Also,

Spoiler:

Yamame has an actual weakness to the element that Rabies Bite uses - even if you're level four, using Rabies Bite on her on hard should still be doing 1000+ damage

Kinda surprised at how high of a level people are reaching the bosses at @_@

[Kingault]

I've been reading this thread for a while, and I'll probably play this later, whenever I'm not lazy.

[Jiju]

Garlyle: I reached

Spoiler:

Tewi

at level 4-5 and

Spoiler:

Yaname

at 6, and

Spoiler:

Wriggle

6 too, it doesn't suprise me that people grind a bit, since the amount of stats gained per level is huge, at level 4-5 the enemies were a pain while at level 6-7, they barely damaged me.

Spoiler:

I'm still trying to find the ex boss.. what make it more fustrating is the fact that you said you didn't had to explore to find it..i feel like an
idiot ;____;

[Kirin]

From what I've read in the thread, it's not so much that you DIDN'T have to find it as it is hidden in the place most people wouldn't think to look. I haven't been able to continue my copy of the beta due to schoolwork, but I think Ghaleon's the one who found it.


Edit: Apparently it's hidden in the one area most people WOULD look. And it was Axel who found it, not Ghaleon.

[Cookie]

This is how I found the Ex-Boss:

Spoiler:

In the Lost Woods, go down, right, up, right, down, down, left, down, left, up.  This might not be the easiest way, though.

[Pocchama01]

That's weird..... I have been in that area a lot of times and I haven't seen the EX boss yet 

[Garlyle]

oh yeah, for those searching for the EX Boss?

Spoiler:

You have to be on Hard or Lunatic

...I forgot to mention this the whole time 8D

[Ghaleon]

Yukari: It sounds like you blew up a save file somehow, namely whichever you had in first slot.  Where were you saved?  The most likely answer to solve the problem is to get rid of the first save file in the save folder.
Also,

Spoiler:

Yamame has an actual weakness to the element that Rabies Bite uses - even if you're level four, using Rabies Bite on her on hard should still be doing 1000+ damage

Kinda surprised at how high of a level people are reaching the bosses at @_@

Yeah, I realized that bite was the best form of damage to her when I did her at level 4... Which isn't high is it? I mean "fast danmaku", which she did like... 90% of the time when she wasn't ina  spellcard phase would nail my ENTIRE PARTY for 280ish. and well, daiyousei and Kana both had less than 550 hp. so it *HURT*. Rinnosuke himself wasn't as crippled but he too had less than 40 hp left after the 3rd hit, momiji could almost survive 5 but not quite. So yeah. *fight starts* *fast danmaku, fast danmaku* "omgwtf acccck should have healed then saved before this @%#@#%ing event, I knew I should have*. *melee's momiji for 100?* *gassssp* *fast danmaku, fast danmaku* "Kana!!! noooo" *enters first spellcard* (I didn't know bite was so op on the first turn you know) *hits Daiyousei with poison for 40...daiyousei dies...before the actual poison* "nooooo".

luckily it picked up after that, though I still had 2/4 people dead by the time I beat her, and Rinn was at 1sp. Regardless, you should probably tell us their ideal level ranges, on each/what difficulty.

Anyway, gonna start playing this again now.. yay. Any delays on TPW-EVO+'s translation beyond this point is solely your fault, previously it was my busy life/family's =).

BTW, any/all
edit: wtf.. I didn't post that.. oh well.

I admit I've only been playing normal, I intend to play normal-lunatic, MAYBE easy afterwards (and/or normal again). So I don't know where this ex-boss is. But uhh, based on the hints so far my best guess (and it's a guess so no need to spoiler I suppose) is the front door to the tower after it locks behind you?

[Garlyle]

Spoiler:

Tewi and Yamame

are expected to be fought around level 4-5 on Hard, maybe pushing 6 if you've gotten lost a lot.  You can take them on in any order.

Spoiler:

Wriggle

on Hard expects you to be level 6-7, possibly higher if you want to feel secure or are fighting her with a smaller party.

[Ghaleon]

just found Wriggle.

"I'm not going to watch by as the world I woked so hard for blah blah blah" >=).

I reached Tewi at 7 without really trying to grind. simply found her in the most inefficient manner possible (went right from the entrance last, went left and up first, including Yamame...so...yeah)....Not that it matters. But you should probably be aware people over-level for this stuff aren't neccesarily grinding. You are just underestimating how much extra leveling a newbie does while exploring >=)

Edit: Wriggle at 7 (with tewi) was snores-ville compared to Yamame at 4. Have you tried Yamame at 4 without Tewi in the party? I really think that comparing her at optionally 4 pre-tewi is compareable to Wriggle @ 7. But still it's not really a downer on the game *shrugs*.. Anwyay didn't have to heal once. Looking forward to trying again on hard without so much accidental-grinding due to forest over-exploration.

while playing with the shop afterwards, I wanted to reload after discovering it wasn't worth gambling my points away on items I already had too many from via the forest, then I realized there is no "load game" option in the converse menu. I had to quit to title/menu, then click continue, not sure if that's ok with you. I personally don't care but meh...

sorry if I seem like a super picky nitpicker. I've tested commercial stuff before and have met enough software designers to know that it's often preferable to err on the side of over-picky douche than easy going >=P.

[Axel Ryman]

Hmm I might be nitpicky as well but the Converse thing for Saving/Party changing is kinda annoying after a while. Could the party/save thing be placed on the menu instead of through Converse? Converse could be more of a Tutorial thing.

[Garlyle]

Yeah, I know that it's not deliberate overlevelling, and I don't think I ever stated it was.  I was just surprised.  I tried to give hints to help navigate things (Such as

Spoiler:

the yellow flowers in the forest lead in the general direction of Yamame

) but I wonder if anyone noticed them 8D

Even on Hard,

Spoiler:

Yamame

is really easy.  You just have to avoid the temptation to use Expellee's Canaan for once for reasons I won't say but should be moderately obvious to those who have fought her on Hard.  I'll have a look at her AI for Easy/Normal.

I'm not going to discuss reload-tricking the shop, except that I don't want people doing it, and not having the Load Game option so directly available tends to dissuade people from it (Among other things).  I can't think of any other reason someone would want a Load Game option as well.

The Converse menu is going to be used a lot more later on.  One of the reasons I put saving/party switching there is that a player will definitely be able to quickly notice when a new entry has appeared on the list while going to save or change his party, so they won't go unnoticed.  Either way, I'll consider moving it; it wouldn't be all that hard really.

[Just a GBZero]

A couple things I noticed with it.  First

Spoiler:

Wriggle's

Last attack, the familiars didn't disappear when I fought her, after she attacked with them and weren't targetable.  Also, is hide supposed to cause a single target move to miss, because when I used it against

Spoiler:

Yamame

she still targeted them during her first spellcard.  Also Daiyosei has bomb in her defense menu, but I haven't been able to select it, like it was already used.  Also a suggestion, could you allow for character switching in the equipment menu?  You can in all the other ones focused on characters, but not that one.  Also, isent the MP bar on bosses supposed to tell if they have another attack coming, because with

Spoiler:

Wriggle

it went down, to 0 after the first spellcard was initiated.  One last thing is that pressing cancel in the converse menu closes it instead of going back to previous, not sure if this is intentional.

Also thanks for setting it up for a controller, works perfectly with my PSX to USB adapter, with R1/L1switching between characters in the menu.  And whats wrong with using Expelleen Cannon on

Spoiler:

Yamame

, I did it, on Hard, without trouble.

Edit: Unrelated but looking at my posts and seeing Idiot Princess under my name allways makes me smile, sorry for this inconvenience.

[Ghaleon]

heh, I wasn't breaking the shop by reloading until I got what I wanted. I merely wanted to see what kind of stuff the shop gives in general, saw it, then reloaded. If I was going for an actual game, I wouldn't have spent any point as all anyway. Alas, I'm just seeing stuff for the first time.

I just hit the forest on my hard run, and so far it seems about the same difficulty as Normal. so I haven't been able to re-test Yamame at level 4 yet. As I said though I'll re-test her at the same level as Tewi, so I'll find all of Tewi's events first this time before I attempt Yamame, I'm not sure if I'll even reach her by level 4 if I try (might be 5, not sure). Last time I found her before I even found Tewi's 2nd event IIRC.

I never really thought you accused us of deliberate overleveling, I just though it should be stated that it wasn't deliberate in case you, well, thought the game was balanced in a way that (new)people would finish all of floor 1 by level 5 or 6 or something, because I honestly don't see it happening without maps or experience (real life player experience I mean) or something..

I played some mystic square for gags just now, and grinned after hearing Romantic children and Maple wise (still reminds me of the fortress of doom in Lufia lol), great songs. You have any plans on using either of those tracks in game? Also I mentioned it, but I'm not sure if it's overlooked or not. But was it intentional that Yamame is using Yuugi's stage-track? Everyone else in the party seems to have a song associated with their boss theme or stage (well honestly I'm not sure about kana, haven't really played PoDD at all), but I'm not sure if that's really a "rule" so much for your game or just a casual rule of thumb so to speak. Not that I dislike the song, Yamame's track herself is fairly weak IMO anyway. The stage track is quite good though, but maybe you have that reserved for Kisume.

[Garlyle]

GBZero:
About

Spoiler:

Wriggle's

last attack: That's accidental.  I need to fix that.
About Hide: It doesn't guarantee the attack won't hit, but I may have to do some testing.  It's possible that the way enemies decide on their attacks will prevent this from working and I'll have to swap it out.
About the Equipment Menu: It does work - but only when the Equip/Remove/Optimize is shown.  I can fix that easy though.
On the MP Bar: Duly noted, I'll check that out.
On the controller: Oh, it works with that?  Cool bea--*Cough* Uh, I mean, of course I'm responsible for that, you're welcome!  Eheheh...
About Expellee's Canaan:

Spoiler:

Momiji does horrifying things to Yamame due to her being weak to Rabies Bite.  If Expellee's Canaan is active, she has a higher chance to hit Momiji with Kendata's Rope, which will put a serious dent in your offensive speed

Ghaleon:
Musically, we'll see what happens.  The question is less "Do I want to use those specific tracks" as "Does a remix of those tracks exist which I can use?".
As for the music for characters: It's not accidental.  I'm really fond of that remix of Streets of a Former Hell.  Either way, having 90 tracks just for battle music so everyone has their own theme is impractically huge.  So you'll be seeing characters sharing tracks later on (For instance, Aya, Hatate, and possibly Nitori as well will be sharing "Fall of Falls" with Momiji); all the same, it should run down to a total of about 30 random battle tracks between the entirity of the cast, so it's not like every EoSD character will be sharing one song or anything.

[Just a GBZero]

GBZero:

...

About Expellee's Canaan:

Spoiler:

Momiji does horrifying things to Yamame due to her being weak to Rabies Bite.  If Expellee's Canaan is active, she has a higher chance to hit Momiji with Kendata's Rope, which will put a serious dent in your offensive speed

That is true, but I have an odd strategy of using Momiji to buff everyone for staying power, but I may just be odd in that respect.

[Ghaleon]

I would have tried that but I really had no clue what element "Fast danmaku" was and didn't really want to risk losing a precious turn to possibly do basically nothing, I needed it to KILL HER NAAAOOO. Speaking of which, analyze isn't as useful in the current build as one would think since it doesn't really say the enemy's attack elements/stats.

[Garlyle]

I would have tried that but I really had no clue what element "Fast danmaku" was and didn't really want to risk losing a precious turn to possibly do basically nothing, I needed it to KILL HER NAAAOOO. Speaking of which, analyze isn't as useful in the current build as one would think since it doesn't really say the enemy's attack elements/stats.

If I told you it was Danmaku-elemental and based entirely on Agility, would you facepalm?

[Ghaleon]

If I told you it was Danmaku-elemental and based entirely on Agility, would you facepalm?

Not really since I didn't know danmaku was it's own element. I figured it would be based on ago though but wasn't sure.

I don't think there ARE any buffs that boost danmaku resistance that early... But I didn't look too carefully.

[Axel Ryman]

If there is, it's probably in Defend. Which brings me to my next thing....

I like the Defend system. Difference Defense types with strengths and weaknesses to each. It's very interesting and unique. Then again of all the games I've played I've never really seen anything similar.

I only wonder who will be the big shield(Tenshi, that masochistic little....).

[Jiju]

thanks Cookie! I found the EX-Boss!
....
.....
.........
Fuck.
I survived the first three attacks thanks to the evasives defences.. but..
Warning! Several spoilers in the image:
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7751/fucku.png the stats of the EX-Boss on Lunatic.
Now, if you excuse me, i'll be grinding the whole day to have a chance at beating it.

[Garlyle]

You know, I wonder if anyone recognises the EX Boss?

[Pesco]

Probably a minor display or calculation bug

[attachimg=1]

[Garlyle]

ahahah... hahah... -what-.

what is that I don't even.