Touhou Danmaku Hell - Success and Failure Stories

[Cup]

Finally!! Fairy Wars C1 beaten without bombs.

Oh my god this took so much time, patience and rage. My heart was beating super hard at the end, it's been a long time since I was so happy for beating something Touhou related. I even almost captured the final card!

Only C2 left now.

Will successes like this give us the next Kefit? The only logical progression from here is doing Touhou 6-12 lunatic, no bomb, no death, no focus, pacifist (after C2 of course, must have priorities and all that).

Go Go Go!

(C1 no bombs is amazing though, I have no intention of belittling that feat. GJ)

[RobinLSL]

Sadly, my no-bombs accomplishments will probably never get out of Fairy Wars and Extra stages. I am 99% sure I am no Kefit, and am completely unable to beat a regular Lunatic mode while making less that 10 mistakes. Not enough lives is not enough.

[gamercal]

At least you can clear Lunatic lol.

My problem as it stands is consistency. This is what frustrates me most - I KNOW I can do certain things, but I'm just not consistent enough to pull them off well. Even in the same run...

Example: I cleared UFO Extra (the stage) without dying or bombing, then got killed by Nue's first spell. The FIRST SPELL. How does that even happen :(

(I've been getting unlucky with that spell recently actually, with the way the "rain" falls just as the next wave of "thunder" appears... really hard to dodge it when it's in the only small gap between lasers...)

At least I've learned how to deal with the ying-yangs at the end ^_^. UFO summoning at the end is a waste of time it seems, although I guess if you got a green one it would be ok. Ironically the hardest part of the stage for me now is generally the big faeries before that because I focus too much on getting those last UFO's and such... even the fairy/yin-yang part before that isn't TOO bad anymore (although I do end up bombing it a lot 70-90% of the way through).

[RobinLSL]

And now C2 no bombs is done :) That was quite a bit easier than C1!

[Yonowaaru]

Oh Ran, HOW I DESPISE YOUR PRINCESS TENKO ATTACK

No seriously. I can get to that attack with 4+ lives and maybe a bomb or two, but it just is so annoying!
Also, I don't get the buddhist Svastica/ hitler cross (Not to be racist or anything, just to define it better) at all....

[RobinLSL]

Also, I don't get the buddhist Svastica/ hitler cross (Not to be racist or anything, just to define it better) at all....

When you hear the weird noise, get super close to Ran. Then start turning clockwise as soon as the cross gets bigger.

[Yonowaaru]

Ah, that works. I'm also getting Princess Tenko now, Buddhist still takes a surprise life and both Shikigami shots (Chen and the other one) take some, I got to the survival card on this run, which went pretty good until I forgot the cage was moving. Oh well!

[gamercal]

I need to go back and beat Ran at some point. I set out to beat the Extra stages in order, but then I saw Nue's fight... and it looked so fun :(. So much for order.

[cheez8]

So, for no apparent reason, I have suddenly been playing a lot of PoFV lately. For some reason, despite my constant defeat at the hands of the same group of characters (namely, Aya, Komachi, and sometimes Sakuya), it's somehow a lot more fun than I remember. Although, things can get a bit hectic when Komachi kills the me boss on her screen, then picks up the thing that produces several Ex attacks on my screen and simultaneously summons a level 13 boss on my screen just as Lily White drops in, all on my last life's last hit. On Lunatic. And I'm Aya.

That aside, people haven't mentioned PoFV very much in this thread, and it's the only Windows game in the series that Robin hasn't LP'ed yet... Since people don't tend to pay the game too much attention, I've sort of been wondering for a while, what exactly is the general consensus regarding the game?

[gamercal]

I actually like it, it's the first Touhou I ever played. My issue with it is the controls mostly - after playing and getting used to the normal way of firing it's just too awkward for me to not have continuous fire, and in PoFV the only continuous fire comes from auto-focus... which in turns brings up the activator scope thing that then royally screws with me. And I flat out cannot handle holding shift for focus and not holding a fire button, it just messes with my head <_<. I was learning to play Marisa much more aggressively by entirely focusing on the Illusion Laser to rack up points, but I generally lack the skill to maintain such an endeavour because of her INSANE speed.

I think it's mostly just because of how different it is that it doesn't get much attention. I know myself I haven't played it in a long time because of focusing on the other ones, but I will probably go back to it sometime just to see how I've improved as a whole. I know from doing UFO that my unfocused control has dramatically improved, so I might get further with it now than before.

[gamercal]

Double post because OH YEAH I WAS AWESOME FOR ONCE.

I finally have my good run of UFO Extra to upload. A total of 2 deaths and 3 bombs for the whole stage (two of which were deathbombs but w/e). Both deaths were pretty silly, but in general I'm amazed I pulled this off.

I died REALLY stupidly on Undefined Darkness. I had it all set up, lured her excellently and just about killed her... needed to get back up to the top cause of no space, and instead of moving to the right then up I moved diagonally up... and got caught in her cloud <_<. didn't see it coming unfortunately, so that was a bummer. I deathbombed Rainbow UFO because I slightly misjudged it 80% of the way through, but that went really awesomely this time. Aaaaand I died in a silly way on the second phase of Grudge Bow, but I can forgive myself for that because that card is FUCKING NUTS lol.

I really really love the stage and fight, so I've played this a LOT of times... ragequitted a lot because of not getting the run I want from bad luck (and plain stupidity at times lol), but now I can go back to it and relax somewhat. Or maybe try and 1cc Normal with Sanae A (I prefer A to be for some reason) so I can try it with her and see how different it is. Marisa A will always been my first choice though, I don't care how bad a rep she gets in this game <_<

EDIT: Here it is. There's tons of annotes cause it turns out I had a lot to say, but they can be turned off easily enough if need be.

[cheez8]

Whoa. Over four hundred tries... That's a lot of persistence. Considering the number of tries it took, that's pretty amazing.

And, on a somewhat related note, I finally 1cc'd the main game! I'm actually pretty surprised, since this was my first time seeing Byakuren's final two spells. I'm feeling pretty lucky about it too, to be honest, considering I finished with no lives or bombs left.

...But really, I don't want to steal your thunder, Extra mode is way harder than Normal (obviously.) Congratulations!

[gamercal]

Hey hey, beating the game itself is no small matter either. I actually find Byakuren more difficult than Nue overall, and that is only on Normal lol. Flying Fantastica... argh.

That clear is my... I think 9th overall (the game will say 8 but I restarted as I cleared Grudge Bow once cause of dying 3 times to it lol). But considering I died so often before even reaching Kogasa too, I've been at it for a while...

I was wondering if anyone was gonna catch that first spell card history actually, lol.

But yeah, thanks for that, and good luck when you start Extra yourself ^_^. Maybe some of what I noted in my run can help, who knows?

[joeyjoejoejrshabbadu]

Today I got to Kanako on Easy without using any continues. This has never happened before so I feel accomplished.

[cheez8]

I'm so happy right now. On Tuesday, I 1cc'd UFO Normal. Then yesterday, I finally 1cc'd Perfect Cherry Blossom on Normal as well. And now I just beat Mokou. (I may have come unreasonably close to failing near the end, but a win's a win, no matter how many times I have to deathbomb Hourai Doll.)

I...really don't know where this sudden burst of skill came from. My only guess is that playing PoFV on Lunatic for a while almost served as a sort of training, and if so, it really worked well. But I don't imagine I'll beat Ran for a while until I learn how some of her attacks work, and I'm definitely not clearing UFO Extra anytime soon... Still, I feel really great.

[Aposke]

Two things:

I finally managed to beat Fairy Wars (Path A) on Hard for the first time a few days ago, and I'm just about to 1cc it.

And, during a practise run (not a real one, sadly), I beat Hourai Elixir (IN) on Lunatic. Felt like beating a whole game, really. Those final seconds... counting down every one of those annoyingly loud beeps... Amazing.

Still trying to beat PCB's and IN's extra stages, I'm far more confident with Mokou, since I've already gotten to Hourai Doll twice, but I need to preserve more bombs, especially at her fast nonspells.

[cheez8]

Still trying to beat PCB's and IN's extra stages, I'm far more confident with Mokou, since I've already gotten to Hourai Doll twice, but I need to preserve more bombs, especially at her fast nonspells.

Yeah, I agree, Mokou's later nonspells are crazy. Where are you bombing, exactly? Even if I can't give you any advice, the rest of the forum is really helpful about these things.

As for PCB, yeah, that one is a good bit harder for me too. For some reason, there seems to be less time than usual to deathbomb, which has cost me quite a few lives. And then there are some of her attacks that I just don't understand. Especially "Charming Siege from All Sides." Is there a certain place I should be at the start of that one? Because sometimes it cooperates and I capture it easily, but other times it tries its hardest to kill me. In fact, there was one time where the section that I was in suddenly decided to stop existing, and the walls of blue bullets actually walled me.

[Aposke]

Yeah, I agree, Mokou's later nonspells are crazy. Where are you bombing, exactly? Even if I can't give you any advice, the rest of the forum is really helpful about these things.

I'm usually bombing at the last two of her "ring"-creating nonspells, the ones that go super-fast but only consist of very few card bullets.

As for PCB, yeah, that one is a good bit harder for me too. For some reason, there seems to be less time than usual to deathbomb, which has cost me quite a few lives. And then there are some of her attacks that I just don't understand. Especially "Charming Siege from All Sides." Is there a certain place I should be at the start of that one? Because sometimes it cooperates and I capture it easily, but other times it tries its hardest to kill me. In fact, there was one time where the section that I was in suddenly decided to stop existing, and the walls of blue bullets actually walled me.

The time for deathbombing is a little under one second for Reimu and even less for Marisa (Sakuya's somewhere inbetween I think).
IN is AFAIK the only Touhou game that gives you more than one second for deathbombing (On Rei/Yuk), so that one is the exception, rather than the norm.

About "Charming Siege"...
That card can actually wall you pretty easily.
When it starts, you should stay a little above the lower edge of the screen, and on the middle vertical line, that's usually the area where you have the most room to move. Also, this area never closes and kind of follows your movements, even.

[Yonowaaru]

As for PCB, yeah, that one is a good bit harder for me too. For some reason, there seems to be less time than usual to deathbomb, which has cost me quite a few lives. And then there are some of her attacks that I just don't understand. Especially "Charming Siege from All Sides." Is there a certain place I should be at the start of that one? Because sometimes it cooperates and I capture it easily, but other times it tries its hardest to kill me. In fact, there was one time where the section that I was in suddenly decided to stop existing, and the walls of blue bullets actually walled me.

It's not thát bad. You should mostly stay focused, and keep on moving. If the bullets seem to wall you but you're still some ways up the screen, wait a little while because they tend to unwall after a while.
Also, the big red circles have a weird hitbox, in as, they won't hit you if you hit the outer white bit.
That should help a lot.

[Cup]

I decree Kogasa the hardest mid-boss in all the land. Seriously, whats up with that? My capture rate for her last spell is 3 of 58. You know you're doing something wrong when you can barely even capture a spell 5% of the time.

3 times! Ever!

55 times a laser in the face.

[RobinLSL]

That's how it was for me at first too. Terrible, terrible records on the second spell (like 3/100). But since then, I've realised she's actually probably the easiest extra midboss, I hardly fail anything anymore.

But I'm not sure what advice to give for her third attack, that one was never the hard one for me... do you move in the same direction as the lasers or the opposite one? Both are interesting choices but I think you really need to choose one everytime you tackle the attack.

[gamercal]

Seconding the notion that the third attack is really not hard...

The main advice I can give really is to learn to anticipate where the laser is going to stop. Try not to move unless you see the laser is going to hit you when it's stopping, or Kogasa has moved massively out of range of your attacks. It isn't uncommon to be able to dodge over half the attack by just sitting still. But yeah, the only time you can find the card difficult (not paying attention aside) is when you only move after the lines stop, because the lasers appear too quickly. Move in anticipation and it's a trivial card.

As for the with/away strat, PERSONALLY I don't choose one direction to dodge in each time I play, but that is solely because I use Marisa A and I have to stay under Kogasa to damage her. If you're using someone else then you don't usually need to worry AS MUCH about that.

[Cup]

I tend to move with the lasers, but I seem to notice it pushing me very far to the side quite often. I'm using Reimu B most of the time, so it's not a huge deal but it is uncomfortable when Kogasa doesn't change the direction. Mostly it's just the end though. I seem to try to keep moving with the lasers in the same rhythm of the beginning and run head first into a laser that hasn't despawned yet.

It's funny that you say you had the most problem with her second spell. That's one part of the fight I'm not completely horrible at. Still not even close to the above 50% capture rate I'm looking for before I start allowing myself to death-bomb stuff, but 19 of 60 is a lot better than 3 of 58.

[gamercal]

Heh, if you look at my uploaded replay for the Extra stage, you'd see my overall record on the second spell is 56/256. Yeah... not good, lol. Although in terms of RECENT history it's probably about 40/100, so it's getting better. It's really tricky to do with how fast it goes though... but it's manageable.

It sounds like your problem is simply that you move too much. Especially near the end, you are probably moving when you really don't need to move. You only need to move when a laser set is slowing down - at all times I've found that doesn't overlap with previous laser spawns. Maybe Marisa's firepower is deluding me a bit here though, but yeah. You could always try restricting how far you allow yourself to move across the screen, but the dodging of the attack is pretty much the same wherever you are so I doubt that is really the problem here.

[yoshicookiezeus]

Hadn't played IN in I don't know how many months, but I still managed to do a Normal 1CC with Sakuya/Remilia on my first attempt, finishing with two lives left. The amount of resources that game gives you is almost kind of ridiculous.

Then I went on to give the Extra stage another try, which didn't exactly go very well at all. The stage went okay, but I didn't capture a single card apart from Honest Man's Death (yes, I somehow managed to mess up Xu Fu's Dimension and Flaw of Forgiving Shrine; don't ask how) and game overed on the nonspell before Woo. A run through spell practice seems to have made my memories of how the cards work return, though; but I still have absolutely no idea on how to not die to Fujiyama Volcano.

Also I captured Reimu's last spell (no, not Fantasy Heaven) on my second attempt ever in spell practice. The first attempt ended to the very first round bullet, so the 45 seconds beyond that was sightreading. :D And looking at the replay again, it seems like I did the entire capture without focusing for whatever reason.