Touhou 11 Announced

[bluish_wolf]

Link (http://www.moetron.com/2008/04/30/touhou-11-%e6%9d%b1%e6%96%b9%e5%9c%b0%e9%9c%8a%e6%ae%bf-%ef%bd%9e-subterranean-animism/)

Hopefully Reimu won't look like an undead zombie in this one.


[Touhou Chireiten ~Subterranean Animism~]
As always, 300 yen.
Since it’s a demo, I didn’t want a huge fanfare, so I’m announcing it quietly.

As always, the demo will be three stages, with no Practice Mode and no Extra Stage.

Story:
“With the spouting of geysers, the spirits of the Earth emerge. Reimu and Marisa are fine with it, but the youkai can’t allow this. Sluggishly, they go underground, to the source of the disturbance. Sealed deep within the earth are youkai with a detestable ability… what will the pair do this time?”

…or something like that. Same as always.

This time around, you can chose youkai you like. I tried to create the feeling that Reimu and Marisa are borrowing power from the distant earth above. Up until now, there hasn’t been much difference in playing style between characters, but this time, chosen youkai have different abilities that seriously impact playing styles, so players should be able to see the pros and cons of using different characters clearly.

Since actively engaging and destroying enemies will make playing a lot easier, this might be the first time where playing at a higher difficulty might actually be more simple.

Depending on what youkai you choose, the dialogue might change into something like rapid-fire stand-up comedy.

On the technical side, I’ve added the option of changing window sizes. If your computer is good enough, your window can be about twice as large as normal. In addition, you can also adjust input sensitivity and a host of other options.

[Zakama]

There are 10 others and I have no idea what it is? Impressive.

[Drascin]

I do somerely know them, mainly from passing mentions in other webs, such as TVTropes or other forums. I do not, however, know how in the Hells to get them, as every link I've tried sends me to un-navegable pages in moonspeak :smalltongue:. 'Tis a pity, for I'd probably like them if I could get them - after all, I've always liked this kind of shooter, and if you put bits of storyline and cute characters on them, they can only get better :smallbiggrin:

[Tengu]

There are 10 others and I have no idea what it is? Impressive.

TV Tropes to the rescue! (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Touhou)

Also, check the links in bluish_wolf's sig.

[Artemician]

It has a strangely grammatical name, for once. Maybe ZUN was laying off the beer for once.

On second thoughts... nah...

Hmmm. I wonder what he means by "pick any youkai you like".

[bluish_wolf]

I do somerely know them, mainly from passing mentions in other webs, such as TVTropes or other forums. I do not, however, know how in the Hells to get them, as every link I've tried sends me to un-navegable pages in moonspeak :smalltongue:. 'Tis a pity, for I'd probably like them if I could get them - after all, I've always liked this kind of shooter, and if you put bits of storyline and cute characters on them, they can only get better :smallbiggrin:

http://www.pooshlmer.com/touhouwiki/index.php/Buying_Stuff

If the wiki's down, the short answer is try either Paletweb or Himeya.

[Drascin]

Well, yeah, it was down (and still is, apparently), but I managed to get ahold of one game of the series. Named Embodiment of a Scarlet Devil, supposedly number 6 in the saga. Got this one because I seemed to remember reading somehwere that games 1-5 had some problems running on modern machines or something... and besides, to try the gameplay, anything suffices, and it's not like I understand an inch of the dialogue or anything anyway, so who cares I'm starting in the middle of the story :smallsigh:. Which brings me to my question... are there any English patches for these games? I'd like to know what the little miko I'm controlling is telling all this people :smalltongue:

About the game itself... 'Tis nice. Much shooting and exploding, which is always good. I have also apparently lost a lot of ability at danmaki, as I already lost a life against the third boss (a girl in blue who spams energy balls). Maaan, I'm going to need a lot of getting up to speed, stat.

Anyway, nice games. Will probably get the rest when I beat this one. Now, to find some not-down wiki or something, to get the basic plot of this stuff, and why the characters are so damn popular... :smallbiggrin:

[bluish_wolf]

Well, Cirno's the strongest, so of course you would loose to her. Anyway-

Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil English Patch (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steven.mitchell83/th06_english_patch_0.8.exe)

You may need to patch the game first before installing it. Then again, if you have the latest printing of the game, it might already be up to date. Open up the readme, and it should say, at the top:

"-------------------------------------------------------------
　東方紅魔郷　～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
(c)opyright ZUN.

readme 私を読んで　　　　　　　上海アリス幻楽団長 ZUN
　　 ver 1.02h
-------------------------------------------------------------"

Or something to that affect. If it says ver 1.02h, then just install the patch. Otherwise, install one of these:

Version 1.00-> Version 1.02f (http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/soft/kouma_update102f.EXE)
Version 1.02f -> Version 1.02h (http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/soft/kouma_update102h.EXE)

Make sure you either have a Japanese environment running/using AppLocale.

[Drascin]

Alright, patched, and tried. Thanks!


Well, Cirno's the strongest, so of course you would loose to her. Anyway-

I am not really sure of that... that Patchouli girl in the library level also opens up with some heavy firepower - I lost three lives before I learned to stay the hell away from corners, and even then, I ended up being owned, even if she actually gets easier to dodge as she progresses through spells (but then, I had already lost quite a few lives between Cirno and Meiling *grumble grumble* stupid Flower Sign...)

BTW, three little questions, if you don't mind. First, the Controls menu assigns something about "Slow" to "Button 02". Which one is that supposed to be on the keyboard? The readme, being in Japanese, wasn't really that helpful :smalltongue:, and if there's a way to slow down to move more accurately it would be really nice - I die more of smashing myself into shots for moving too fast than anything else :smallsigh:.

Second, what's that "Graze" counter for? I mean, it seems to go up as you dodge shots too closely (namely, a lot), but is there any bad consequence for it going too up? And what's that counter under it for? You now, the one with the kanji.

And third... is it just me, or is Reimu a bit of... well, a nut? :smalleek:. I mean, people already rag on Nanoha for her method of "knock out first, befriend later (preferably when unable to counterattack)", but just in the part I have seen, this one basically tries to beamspam a girl and then ask her for directions! (of course, she did end up being dangerous anyway, and intended to attack, apparently - Reimu just took the initiative without knowing. Still, Smile and Shoot a Beam to the Face is not exactly standard greeting protocol for most people - or even threat-dealing protocol, for that matter)

[bluish_wolf]

Yeah, I was just joking. I can be Cirno on normal without getting hit or using any bombs.


BTW, three little questions, if you don't mind. First, the Controls menu assigns something about "Slow" to "Button 02". Which one is that supposed to be on the keyboard? The readme, being in Japanese, wasn't really that helpful , and if there's a way to slow down to move more accurately it would be really nice - I die more of smashing myself into shots for moving too fast than anything else.

Here are the default controls:

Shot: Z
Bomb: X
Slow: Shift



Second, what's that "Graze" counter for? I mean, it seems to go up as you dodge shots too closely (namely, a lot), but is there any bad consequence for it going too up? And what's that counter under it for? You now, the one with the kanji.

If a shot hits your character, but not your hit box, it's a "grazing blow." It's a good thing, actually. You get points immediately for grazing and a nice bonus to the level score if your graze counter is high. In the later games, your hit box is visible, but for not in the one that your playing.

The symbol is Japanese for "point" and, it keeps track of how many point items you got (the blue ones). Naturally, since they are also "power" items, they had to do something else for "points." Like grazing, you get points immediately when you pick up a point item, and an additional bonus is added to your score at the end of the level depending on how many you collected.

If your score is high enough, you get an extra life. Also, if you are in Full Power mode, you can collect all the items on the screen by moving your character to the top of the screen.


And third... is it just me, or is Reimu a bit of... well, a nut?
Well, her job is to exterminate monsters. I mean, they look like cute girls, but they do eat people.

[Drascin]

Thanks for all the info. It's got significantly easier knowing all that (got to almost the end of last level already, and didn't even lose a life before Meiling. Stupid Flower Signs... I need to learn to be less stingy with the bombs. She does get the best music though, both for her stage and her boss battle. I'll have to find the mp3 of the stage music)

Also, that Sakuya girl from the fifth level is a totally awesome boss fight. Holy swordspamming, Batman!


Well, her job is to exterminate monsters. I mean, they look like cute girls, but they do eat people.

Yeah, but I'm not sure who is more sociopathic, the hunter or the huntees :smalltongue:

Reimu: "Humans don't see very well in the dark"
Rumia: "Really? But there's people who only work at night..."
Reimu: *smiling* "Oh, you can have those for dinner if you want"
Drascin: ...Hey! Eating noctambules is bad! :smalleek:

I will have to try the other girl, Marisa I think it was, to see what her conversations are like.