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Do Touhou and gacha work together? (2022 - Touhou LostWord, Danmaku Kagura - closed/going to be revived, Arcadia Record)


CountVonNumenor

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Currently, the two big Touhou fan-games going with the gacha formula are Danmaku Kagura (a rhythm game with gacha elements) and Touhou Lost Word. Since I do not know very much about the former, I will focus on the latter. Feel free to add your opinions or whatever you want to share about DanKagu. This thread comes from the point of view of a person who never touched a gacha game before Lost Word, and so am not very used with many of the ethics of gacha games. So yeah, there is this one thing going. Due to not personally playing DanKagu, I will not be able to say much about it, so this will predominately focus on Lost Word.  Also, it will more than likely turn into a long rant about how the character system works, so there’s that too.

 

Since the last LW thread seems to be from June 2021, it might work well as an update too, now that we are in March 2022, and almost 1 year in since the Global version was released. I am nothing more than a casual player, who does not intend to spend any money in this and just wants to collect a few characters I am interested in (currently got 6 out of the 10 from my list of favorites).

 

Touhou as a series is known for having a large cast (over 140 characters). Until now, Lost Word has added a large part of them, the JP version lacking only the TH17.5 and 18 characters, as well 1-2 other characters here and there. In this situation, it seems like the creators have gone the following route(s) in order to not fully exhaust the cast:

 

- create alt versions that fit with the story told by the game - in a way, they make sense, I guess, since the game revolves around travelling in various alternate universes of Gensokyo (and the Moon, going the Hifuu story-line)

- create character alts in the form of chibi-fied characters - until now, we have chibi versions of Yuyuko, Yukari and soon Junko. Yuyuko has been fine, given the fact they gave an explanation on why that version of her ended up chibi-fied, but the other two apparently came to be only because Yuyuko had success in sales and tried to capitalize on that

- release of "classic" reskin version of the important characters - the name says it all. Normally, the versions of the "normal" characters you can get are design-wise a sort of a blend between all their iterations in official materials. However, these reskins come to cover a specific game version of the character (like MoF Kanako, PoFV Aya (with MoF spellcards), EoSD Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya, MoF Nitori, UFO Byakuren and so on). The biggest problem with this kind of alts is that many of them seem to be a lazy attempt at grabbing some more money, instead of buffing characters that actually need the buffs.

 

Developer A: "Kanako and Byakuren are very weak in their "vanilla/normal" form. Bottom tier even. Should we improve them like we did with Meiling?"

Developer B: "Nah, let them be. Better release some reskins of them that solve the problems, and totally not induce power-creep"

 

My problem is not that these "classic" characters exist. My biggest gripe is that they decided going for them as individual units instead of having them as skins. And skins in the game are already useless, nothing more than just for "waifu looks cute in new clothes". I think it would have made getting a new costume for your character more interesting.

 

It is also impressive how quick they managed to exhaust such a large cast. There is still at least 1 full game they need to add, then they are done (even if PC-98 is uncharted territory outside of of an alt version for Reimu and Marisa). In a bit over a year, it seems like the cast has been added. 150 unique characters (at least according to the character sorter) can be added into Lost Word. Out of these, 29 characters are missing (6 from TH18 and 23 from PC-98 - hope I counted right), so we have a total of 131 unique Touhou characters. It has been 662 days, or 94 weeks and 4 days since the original game release (April 20th, 2020- JP). This brings the average of releases at 5 days between each new character. With all the alts, this beings the average even lower. So I think they did rush a bit to release so much content through these almost two years, and now they ran out of what to release. And since Lost Word is a gacha game, you always need to provide fresh content, otherwise people get bored, no longer play and you lose money.

 

I am not a great expert in RPG games, but from what I know, the costume or armor your character is wearing determines some of the stats and abilities. It would have been interesting if this was implemented in Lost Word, skins offering some new attack or elemental abilities that could fit in one situation or another. Right now, they offer you nothing but a different look and, best case scenario, a 2-3% bonus for points collected during specific events.

 

Another problem with gacha games that makes me ask is the genre works with Touhou is the gameplay itself. Danmaku Kagura is the kind of rhythm game in which you have to hit the correct notes at the speed of the game. Perfectly fine, even if it makes the game look just like a rhythm game with Touhou skin. On the other hand, Lost Word plays like any other gacha RPG - you go through a long cut-scene explaining the story, then touch 1-2 buttons to order attacks, win battle, watch another cutscene then repeat. After a while, it just turns into a farming simulator with Touhou characters, made even more so by recently added auto-farm feature. Just leave your phone in a corner while doing something else, and leave the game auto-play the same battle for a specific number of times. And with the recent additions in Lost Word, numerous ties it has been a long series of cutscenes with little battles (the kind of 6 stages chapter, out of which 4 are long cutscenes and 2 are actual battles). I did like the Hifuu story until now, I got so bored at all the cutscenes. Only the presence of Maribel and Renko (with some beautiful in-game portraits), two characters I really like, has helped me bear through all of them.

 

Last but not least, it would be the question of meta, power-creep and in-game purchases. In a way, I do not feel this is really in the spirit of Touhou games. Usually, the games require skill, patience, and sometimes just a bit of luck. However with gacha, you can just whale some money into it, get a meta character or card or whatever, and basically get yourself a "Press to win" button. I still keep playing Lost Word thanks to the large variety of characters you can get. I am not very interested in getting the alts, but I am looking forward to complete my list of top 10 characters:

- already have: Youmu, Akyuu, Yuuka, Iku, Junko, Hecatia

- still need to get: Eiki Shiki, Raiko, Mayumi, (it is quite unlikely Maribel and Renko will ever be added as more than just NPCs)

Only after getting all of these, I may think about getting anything more meta-related.

 

I think there might also be some good things though. Both games (DanKagu and Lost Word) have made it possible for music groups to get their music featured to a larger audience. Also, I find it cute the use of fan-art in order to illustrate things like "story-cards", and it is also good that in most cases they also give the names of the artists, which in turn creates some more exposure for the artists themselves. More than once I have tried looking for an artist or a specific music arrangement used in the game, and found out more stuff I ended up enjoying from those creators.

 

But what do you think? Do you consider there is room for gacha-style games in the world of Touhou fan-games? Why/why not? And how would you try create such a game to stay in the spirit of Touhou games?

 

For further reading, MegaPig9001 had done an overview over the topic of combining Touhou and gacha games. His video is from November last year and might need some updates here and there to better reflect the current situation, but still brings an interesting view in the whole problem:  

https://youtu.be/4yxsoiOIItE

Edited by CountVonNumenor
Updated the title for being more relevant to ongoing events
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  • 2 weeks later...

A bit of an update, 2 weeks later. Probably a few things I have not added, and perhaps should have, at the time I wrote the original post. It is still focused on Lost Word, and might still be more about the characters system than anything else.

 

1) I have gained quite a bit of frustration from some of the game mechanics, namely the gacha aspect. It just feels like crap to hoard a lot of resources, then try your luck and get nothing useful out of your totally-not-gambling activity. I was told that is just how things work, which normally I would not find normal. I would stop playing the game, but I do not have yet another Touhou fan-game to play and fill the gap. Lost Word fills most of the requirements for a game, and I do not know what else to play and have a bit of fun with. 

2) Character alts. I have already talked about these, but there is more. It seems like alts and re-skins are the new fashion as the JP game version almost ran out of characters to add. Again, gacha players this is normal, and that it is much better to have 100 versions of the character but with different stats and abilities, than have skins for an already existent character that give you new abilities. They also said the latter would make the game even more p2w than it already is.

Up to this point, this would be an (in)complete collection of all the alts available on both JP and Global server:

- Reimu Hakurei -> EoSD Reimu, Reimu: Shaman, PC-98 Reimu, “Blue Reimu”
- Marisa Kirisame -> EoSD Marisa, Marisa: Enchanter, Witch of Scarlet Dreams, PC-98 Marisa
- Youmu Konpaku -> Youmu (S. Saint), Youmu: Gardener, PCB Youmu
- Sakuya Izayoi -> EoSD Sakuya, Sakuya: Servant
- Sanae Kochiya -> MoF Sanae, Sanae: Enchanter
- Aya Shameimaru -> PoFV Aya (ironically, with MoF attacks and abilities)
- Cirno -> EoSD Cirno
- Reisen Udongein Inaba -> Reisen: Soldier, IN Reisen
- Yorihime -> Code: Kannagi
- Toyohime -> Code: Otohime
- Yukari Yakumo -> PCB Yukari, “loli Yukari”
- Yuyuko -> Yuyuko (L. Ghost)
- Junko -> “loli Junko” (update: apparently, she is called "Space Horror (Junko)")
- Remilia Scarlet -> Little Devil Miss
- Flandre Scarlet -> Hunter Vampire
- Rei'sen -> Hifuu EX story alt
- Sagume -> Hifuu EX Story alt
- Byakuren - UFO Biakuren
- Nitori -> MoF Nitori
- Kanako Yasaka - MoF Kanako
- Patchouli Knowledge -> EoSD Patchouli

As expected, all these alts and re-skins are much more powerful than their normal counterparts. Because there is nothing like power-creep, and if you don't add new characters that are stronger and stronger, for challenges that become higher and higher to justify the acquisition of these new units, nobody will play your game.

Example from another gacha (I have no idea what it is, I found it on Discord)

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This way, following the baseline idea of how gacha games work, beach outfits/swimwear 2hus when. Also, do we really need stuff like this, but 100 individual versions of the same Touhou character? Also explained in a funnier manner by our friend, Archibald 

 

Extra 4) These are literally games in which you barely have to do anything at all. You build a team, and can just put them auto-play the stages for you, without you having to do anything. It just turns into an auto-farm grind-fest, which after a while makes you feel it does not bring any achievement, and is just repetitive. But again, you somehow get back to it, no matter how much you may end up despising it.

 

Edited by CountVonNumenor
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Hey! Great to see you again! We last talked on an anniversary stream and I checked out the artwork you make on Pixiv. 

I totally agree with your points on LostWord. I love the game when I get to see more of the characters I like as well as the great music and artwork. However, I'm not a fan of the constant push towards buying seal crystals and farming with autoplay (I ended up buying to get future outfits). While I love the cute outfits and some of the alts, it does seem like we are going to be given more alts for the sake of money. I prefer characters to have balance changes and ways to achieve more outfits by actually playing the game. I'm still very interested in being with my favourites, especially Parsee ❤️ and seeing any event she is associated with.

I also want to try out Danmaku Kagura if it ever gets a global release, mainly for the awesome music and cute artwork. I'll be able to see more of Parsee too!

 

Edited by Isaac
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tbh Lost Word just an FGO for Touhou, but sightly worse, creating alternative character, make some "boring" gameplay, and somehow forced player to use real money for win the battle. But, there's a difference between Adaptacion franchise gacha game, and Normal gacha game:

 

Lost Word must keep their franchise known as Touhou, Nextninja cannot make an OC character because it would make Touhou lore break (Except ZUN decide to adding some Characters based on Lost Word on his manga/game). So they decide to make an alternative character, even they alternative story doesn't related to real Touhou game, they still need to keep touhou vibe alive. Imagine if all Touhou characters already relased in Lost Word, what should they do next? making more story event exiting? i doubt one exiting event story can bring players an hype

Or creating a new gacha system called Equipment to increase maks stats? just like other gacha game? (Guardian Tales) it only make the game looks more greedy. Gacha game like LW is not just an Fangame, they need to be more creative so the game will last longer, you dont want this game ended like Touhou Cannonball right? that had been shut down on Sep 2020

They need to still alive using Touhou Franchise, when you click gacha banner, you want all those roll currency that you been keep months worth to spend right? you expect an new or freshy character every 2 weeks right? imagine LW never relase alternative character, and their done relase every character on Touhou today, what if you already have all of them year later, you dont want to roll anymore right? you only roll and expect on Dupe, because it can increase stats sightly. then you get bored and decide to sell the account

 

an Normal gacha game (Arknights, Priconne, GBF (that's a name of the game that you just found on discord), kancolle, etc), they all freely to setup their franchise, lore, characters, new gacha mechanism as they want. They can create some new characters every 2 weeks, no matter it's Alternative version or not. They also can make an new lore for the new charaters freely, because it's their own franchise.

Even if you already collect all the characters on game, you still need push foward to collecting gacha currency for upcoming characters, because that's what Game Developers do, making their player still play the game by keeping them an new Update, such as new characters

Normal gacha game also advertise their game more efficieny, for example making an "name game" Cafe Theme in Akihabara, big banner on Videotorn. Lost Word probaly can't do that, even if they so, it ended up promoting Touhou, not Lost Word (said by the some touhou fans)

 

for conclusion, Lost Word can't be compared by an normal Gacha game since it's Adaptation game based on Touhou. They still need to keep the Touhou assest on their game, and have an Limit Choise to keep the touhou lore stable

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19 hours ago, Isaac said:

Hey! Great to see you again! We last talked on an anniversary stream and I checked out the artwork you make on Pixiv. 

I totally agree with your points on LostWord. I love the game when I get to see more of the characters I like as well as the great music and artwork. However, I'm not a fan of the constant push towards buying seal crystals and farming with autoplay (I ended up buying to get future outfits). While I love the cute outfits and some of the alts, it does seem like we are going to be given more alts for the sake of money. I prefer characters to have balance changes and ways to achieve more outfits by actually playing the game. I'm still very interested in being with my favourites, especially Parsee ❤️ and seeing any event she is associated with.

I also want to try out Danmaku Kagura if it ever gets a global release, mainly for the awesome music and cute artwork. I'll be able to see more of Parsee too!

 

 

Hello Isaac! Nice to see you in here, and thank you for all. I remember I started playing Lost Word on the global server since Day 1, and ever since I got to more or less the game daily. I think the new stories and hope some more characters will be added kept me playing (I am still looking for some of my favorites, including Eiki, Raiko, Mayumi, Tenkyuu and Okuu), and so I promised myself to spart only when characters from my list appear. However, I broke that rule quite badly at the new Toyohime banner, and still got nothing. It is what it is...

Danmaku Kagura seems like an interesting game. I never played rhythm games, nor am I sure how good I would be such a game. However, it might be nice to see a Global version even if just for all the music it has in it (including a decent amount from ym favorites like Akatsuki Records). Besides extra points and score, do that cards you get through gacha actually give you any other advantage, or they can be treated as purely an optional feature?

 

 

3 hours ago, Agus Mandala said:

tbh Lost Word just an FGO for Touhou, but sightly worse, creating alternative character, make some "boring" gameplay, and somehow forced player to use real money for win the battle. But, there's a difference between Adaptacion franchise gacha game, and Normal gacha game:

 

Lost Word must keep their franchise known as Touhou, Nextninja cannot make an OC character because it would make Touhou lore break (Except ZUN decide to adding some Characters based on Lost Word on his manga/game). So they decide to make an alternative character, even they alternative story doesn't related to real Touhou game, they still need to keep touhou vibe alive. Imagine if all Touhou characters already relased in Lost Word, what should they do next? making more story event exiting? i doubt one exiting event story can bring players an hype

Or creating a new gacha system called Equipment to increase maks stats? just like other gacha game? (Guardian Tales) it only make the game looks more greedy. Gacha game like LW is not just an Fangame, they need to be more creative so the game will last longer, you dont want this game ended like Touhou Cannonball right? that had been shut down on Sep 2020

They need to still alive using Touhou Franchise, when you click gacha banner, you want all those roll currency that you been keep months worth to spend right? you expect an new or freshy character every 2 weeks right? imagine LW never relase alternative character, and their done relase every character on Touhou today, what if you already have all of them year later, you dont want to roll anymore right? you only roll and expect on Dupe, because it can increase stats sightly. then you get bored and decide to sell the account

 

an Normal gacha game (Arknights, Priconne, GBF (that's a name of the game that you just found on discord), kancolle, etc), they all freely to setup their franchise, lore, characters, new gacha mechanism as they want. They can create some new characters every 2 weeks, no matter it's Alternative version or not. They also can make an new lore for the new charaters freely, because it's their own franchise.

Even if you already collect all the characters on game, you still need push foward to collecting gacha currency for upcoming characters, because that's what Game Developers do, making their player still play the game by keeping them an new Update, such as new characters

Normal gacha game also advertise their game more efficieny, for example making an "name game" Cafe Theme in Akihabara, big banner on Videotorn. Lost Word probaly can't do that, even if they so, it ended up promoting Touhou, not Lost Word (said by the some touhou fans)

 

for conclusion, Lost Word can't be compared by an normal Gacha game since it's Adaptation game based on Touhou. They still need to keep the Touhou assest on their game, and have an Limit Choise to keep the touhou lore stable

 

You have brought up some very good points. I am not one to be familiar with gacha games (Lost Word is the first one of its kind I am playing), and so still find a lot of its features weird. For someone who got used to single-player, already full on release games like the old Total War games (I really like both Rome 1 and Medieval 2) or even the official Touhou games (despite only dipping my toes into Touhou 7 until now), having a game that constantly updates with new content and "surprise mechanics" is quite a different story. As far as I knew, RPG games are also about the equipment you use on you character to determine certain stats, but like you said, that can very easily be exploited and turned into more obvious pay-to-win. 

It is indeed difficult to make such a game on an already established franchise like Touhou, therefore a lot of the problems and cannot be compared with other gacha games where the universe is specially created for that game. This is why I even started the thread with the following title: Do Touhou and gacha work together? I did not get to talk about Danmaku Kagura in the original due to my lack of knowledge regarding the way the gacha system works there, and so could not tell anything. I just find it strange to have multiple versions of the same character, and I guess the limited gameplay might come from both the style of game chosen, as well as LW being a mobile game. I just think characters came a little bit too quickly (an average of a new one every 5 days just for the lore/non-alt versions), 131 characters coming in a bit over a year out of a 150 characters pool.

And yes, I can understand the need to keep the game fresh with content, and I am just not used to the way these games operate. Which brings us back to the question I have started with. Again, MegaPig had an interesting answer to the "gacha paradox" back in October 2021, but ever since we really need an update on that video. But any point of view is absolutely welcome. After all, that is why I even opened this thread to begin with. Last discussion (and the only one) I saw about Lost Word in here was from June last year, and that was from when the game was still brand new in its Global version. 

No matter what happens, I will most likely keep playing this game for a while. At least until I managed to reach some of the objectives I am so looking for. 

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Touhou and Gacha Games can work together, but they need more content to keep LW active, by milking their assets, same with Danmaku Kagura. they dont want ended up like other Adaptacion gacha game from SAO series name SAO: Memory Defrag that only last 5 years

I believe Danmaku Kagura will make a same way as other Idol Music game named Bang Dream, they will make an alternative characters such as summer koshi, idol koishi, halowwen koishi, etc. But instead as character, they will make it as CG art

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  • 2 weeks later...

In full honestly, it seems like I have been rather negative with Lost Word. However, all so much as I hate gacha games and this one has created me some frustration, there are still a few thing I think are rather good:

  • game graphics are actually quite good, even if animations are rather limited and only rely on characters changing their face expressions
  • the character art is again, quite good, and rather consistent
  • compared to other gacha games, there is little fan service in terms of designs and (over)sexualisation - well, yeah... besides a few characters (looking at you, Patchouli and Yorihime butt, Yukari cleavage and Meiling and Kasen thighs), the game is much less horny in terms of designs and how much the characters are dressed

Note: well, the Easter even has happened. Yeah... we got bunny outfits, but at least they are not as exaggerated in terms of revealing. I have seen many other gacha games in discussions, and their characters are barely dressed at all. Basically, the "this is totally not NSFW, but somehow it is family-friendly" kind of situation. However, I have a question: knowing swimsuits are cannon according to Silent Sinner in Blue (at least for Reimu, Marisa and Remilia), is it possible that swimwear skins will be added in any potential summer event? Also, THAT very specific Murasa art from DanKagu. 

  • the music is good - even if like 95% of the battles have a Cool & Create version of Greenwich in the Sky as battle theme (which makes it a little repetitive), as well as, personal opinion, some of the songs chosen not fitting with the characters, I think that overall Lost Word has good music. Same goes with Danmaku Kagura, which I guess is a must since it is a rhythm game. Now I really wonder when will Akatsuki Records get added in Lost Word in any form - I feel like they are one of the few groups still missing from that game to make it more interesting
  • the variety of characters to choose from is quite satisfying - even without the alts and reskins, there are still a lot of the 2hus to pick from, and there are still, even if just a handful, to be added
  • the gameplay might be boring and repetitive (if you consider gacha games have gameplay at all), but at least it is rather easy to understand
  • the game is free to download, so that is a bit of a plus

 

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Alright, so right now we have multiple festivals ongoing:

- 300 Seal Crystal Ultra Festival
- Reisen & Sanae (Moon War alts)
- loli Junko Ultra Festival
- (EoSD alt reskin) Cirno Festival
- Byakuren (UFO reskin) Festival
- Moon EX Festival
- Miko & Yoshika Festival
- Event Festival (Yorihime, Yuyuko and Tenshi)

Most of these will end up in a couple days, but at least there's still a lot of variety going on right now. Maybe a little too much in one go...

Edited by CountVonNumenor
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Meanwhile, about the 300 SCs Ultra FES, I was reading this attempt at explaining whether the event is a scam or not: 
 

Quote

 

This banner is not as big as a "scam" compared to PCB Youmu banner, because they did give the big asterisk as well as mentioned about the drop rate on their media like discord and gamepress, although the later was misleading on its own term, but I will get back to it later. PCB Youmu was criticised for the vague wording on NN's media, as well as the fact that it was the first banner of its kind, so nobody had had any idea about how they would execute it. The result? Messy, but I won't dive into that.

Now, to the main star of the show, the 300SC. To start it off, the banner's cover itself was extremely misleading, with all units displayed are UFes. This eventually leads people to a false sense of security that they will get a guarantee UFes, which is a massive boost for those who own none considering that we are getting a divine doll each month. All players I have met all agreed that the cover was, to paraphase, not an ideal one. They could have done something like the Forever Prayer, showing partially which units the players could get from it instead of the cream of the crop only.

Then, it's the price. 300SC for a single 10 pull can be considered a big scam by some, especially if you are the unlucky one who gets Sunny Milk and 9 cards out of it. Don't worry, it happened, although in the case I have seen, it was Daiyousei or Star Shapphire. But on the other hand, I have seen one lucky enough to get 2 UFes, which, unfortunately, had been maxed out already. This is why opinion on this banner can be varied depending on how lucky you were at that moment, and this is why the banner is bad: You can get punished for spending your SC on it and get next to nothing in return. They could have limited that to just Festival and/or Ultra Festival so that the banner can become much more appealing.

Next is the 600GC you get. This is also opinion-based depending on you you value or how you spend those GC. 300SC to 600GC isn't a bad deal at all, because you can theoretically get SC for free pretty quickly while GC only trickles in. This will need some perspective:

1/ You spend 600GC to expand your dojo and school. This is by far the best thing you could have done with those cubes. Having an expanded school and dojo will help you getting your friends up and ready much quicker.

2/ You spend 600GC for 10 first steps of the ascending step-up. This basically means you trade 5 10-pulls in SC for 10 in GC, which are no doubt the better deal here as GC pulls will guarantee a unit, assuming that you can wait for 10 ascending step-up banners.

3/ You want to use those GC for UFes banners. This is the worst trade of the bunch because it means you trades 5 10-pulls for... one 10-pull as UFes banners have no step up. Considering how UFes banners are churned out repeatedly with a prediction that Scarlet Hifuu are up and ready for the first anniversary. Not to mention that at the time of making this post, NN has announced Sagume B3 as the next UFes, right after Junko B2. This will deal a hefty blow to your saving.

Alright, before I end this, I will return to the misleading parts Gamepress had made. To quote Gamepress:

"As it is certainly the strangest Prayer so far, here's a quick overview for the cost, reward total and possible Friends acquired for participating: You pay 300 Seal Crystals (no coins required) and receive a 10x Prayer which includes a guaranteed Friend. Then, after the Prayer is concluded, you gain 600 God Crystals as a bonus. Also, this Prayer can only be done once."

A 10x prayer was editted later as before the banner went online, it was "You pay 300 Seal Crystals (no coins required) and receive a single Prayer (not a 10 roll) which includes a guaranteed Friend. Then, after the Prayer is concluded, you gain 600 God Crystals as a bonus. Also, this Prayer can only be done once.". This leads to a misunderstanding that you would only get one unit for 300SC.

The second misleading aspect was the prayer conclusion part. When is it considered to be concluded? After you pull, or after the banner ends. The former happened, but at the time of reading it, it's hard to understand which would happen.

In conclusion, decent concept, terrible execution, as with some of LWEN's other event. To call it a scam might not be appropriate here unless you are unlucky to get Sunny and the fairy gang, but to say it wasn't misleading is not entirely correct. They could, in many ways, have done better.

Post scriptum: English is not my native tongue, so please bear with me the mistake I made.

 


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/touhou_lostword/comments/u1ewmw/comment/i4dh5so/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

At least 600 God Crystals seems to be an OK thing, especially if you are a f2p. With the 300 more players will get in a few days, it just gives you more.

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Now that I've watched this, and I have many things to talk about that I can't let pass (since Lost Word is literally the only game I play on my phone and I was so hyped for it when it came out). So I have some opinions and experiences on the game that I would like to share and that they agree with yours. I'm gonna go by points.

(geez this is gonna look more as a review...)

1) Story

>"you go through a long cut-scene explaining the story, then touch 1-2 buttons to order attacks, win battle, watch another cutscene then repeat."
>"long series of cutscenes with little battles"

You summarized very well what's the story for me now. The idea of the multiverse sounds cool and interesting, but it's very poor, annoying and boring in the gameplay. I know it's a free and a mobile game, so I get the animations and the cutscenes can't be the big deal; yet it's just the same artwork of the characters all the time (with their awkward postures...), a pair of bullet animations and long, long and long textboxs. The complexity of the story ends being pretty confusing (or I'm just stupid to understand it pretty well). The characters spits you a lot of information that, at the end, it's boring to read; so many people-including myself- only skip the custscenes. 

The other point is that the progress of the story is deficient. I don't know the context in JP version, but the Chapter of the tiny Yuyuko and the Black Youmu has been extended unnecessarily (waiting for the next chapter...), which adds more complexity to the story that no one asked for. If the story is already deep; not adding a proper continuity to it will make the player to feel indifferent about it as well as turning the plot into an inconsistent one.

2) Characters
>"the creators have gone the following route(s) in order to not fully exhaust the cast..."
>"My biggest gripe is that they decided going for them as individual units instead of having them as skins. And skins in the game are already useless."
>"It is also impressive how quick they managed to exhaust such a large cast. "

I completely agree with you. They rushed the characters very quickly and now they've gotten this problem: "What do we add now?" I always say a joke toward these alt versions: "When you ran out of ideas: [alt version]". They give us new characters that are basically the same character but with a recolouring, lolified or with a ""new/old"" design. That's it. The biggest issue is that these units shadow the actual characters.

As you've said, instead of buffing some lame characters like Kanako or Byakuren, they decide to buff them into top tier S+ or EX by giving us a new character based on them. These could have perfectly worked as items or outfits that change their appearances into those new designs, recolours, etc. but giving them more power.
The point of LW is playing with a variety of characters, not getting into your team all the S+/EX tiers whose members are practically composed of these new alt versions. (How many Marisas we've got... For god sake...)

3) The JP and Global versions

This is very related to the prior point. While JP version has got the problem of having rushed all the characters up to the point of covering the entire cast-that now they have to depend on these alt versions- the Global version has also done very wrong at rushing so quickly to match the JP features. Like, we get tons of new stuff in every update in short amounts of times; we've even got characters that were also realeased in JP version at the same time-- lol what???
Global version will end soon as JP version did; until a point where they will probably have to stop releasing content and wait first for what JP version does; since JP version will have run out of it by that moment.

4) The gameplay and RPG mechanics; difficulty
>"you can just whale some money into it, get a meta character or card or whatever, and basically get yourself a "Press to win" button. "
>"it just turns into a farming simulator with Touhou characters, made even more so by recently added auto-farm feature. Just leave your phone in a corner."
>"You build a team, and can just put them auto-play the stages for you, without you having to do anything. It just turns into an auto-farm grind-fest, which after a while makes you feel it does not bring any achievement, and is just repetitive."

I can't stop sharing your thoughts about the game. First of all, I remember how a friend that started playing LW, in a matter of a week or two; the guy had already reached level 100 (and I was like in level 75 by just playing f2p since the release date). What did my friend do? The Press to win technique you mentioned. He just put money into it, and BOOM; he was the Alpha among the server. I'm not really complaining, he can perfectly do that; it's okay; yet I just want to proove that your first statement is hella right xDD.

Well, the gameplay is as brief as you wrote: put your phone in the corner, and put the autofarm while you're doing other thing. The game is quite boring and repetitive, I literally play LW for just 5 or 10 minutes per day for the daily missions and gifts. The feeling of success really fades when you reach high level in some of your units.
Sure, I admit the game can have a strategy part, but most of the time it's just put your 3 girlies at level 100 to battle everything. The only challengues are things like Scarlet Tower or MOON EX. And that's where the difficulty part enters.

I feel the game is kinda unbalanced: some battles are quite easy and others are ridiculously hard. There's no middle point; and for the hard fights, you really have to grind and spend many time getting the good cards and characters; trying-trying again the battle. I don't also get why you're forced to do the events first in normal mode; that helps to force the player to skip the story as well as begin to put auto-play mode.

5) The Gacha set-up
>"if you don't add new characters that are stronger and stronger, for challenges that become higher and higher to justify the acquisition of these new units, nobody will play your game."
>"t just feels like crap to hoard a lot of resources, then try your luck and get nothing useful out of your totally-not-gambling activity."

I feel like you... The exaggerated ways of powering-up the characters makes the game to have TONS of confusing items over a simple RPG gameplay; which is linked to the previous gameplay part: grinding, grinding and a constant autofarm = boring gameplay.
But, overall, I don't complain too much about the gacha set-up, I think the game doesn't force you to be a Pay To Win; I'm free to play, and I can say that I can get by in the harder battles; although the challengues such as S.Tower, might pressure you to pay for some things. But the game really rewards you with many blue cubes and items; and the game is now doing the same but with the pink cubes (which were quite scarce to get).

The prayer rates and costs can be sensed as unfair, and sometimes I've been Sunny Milk'd (tricked) by them; still, you can get many powerful characters from banners, daily prayers or the 300 SC recent one. Even so, because of that rushing-attitude that the game has adopted, we get many many banners and accumulate so much; which pressure the player to play more hours or to pay for items, so they can collect all of the touhou girlies. 

6) The good stuff
This is simple, for being a free game, Touhou LW really offers a great quality in terms of artworks, effects, animations, music, etc. And, as I pointed in the point 5), the game awards you many times; all along with a Staff that keep in touch with the fans and hear their petitions and suggestions in the Discord Server; making some raffles. 
Basically, the game is useful for promoting artists and music groups, while it also acts pretty close to the players-I remember when we were awarded with 100 cubes just because an error with some facebook accounts-.

7) My evolution of the experience
>"But again, you somehow get back to it, no matter how much you may end up despising it."
>" I do not have yet another Touhou fan-game to play and fill the gap. Lost Word fills most of the requirements for a game, and I do not know what else to play and have a bit of fun with. "

I'm in the same situation. At the beginning, I was so hyped; I was looking forward to LW release. It was almost summer, so I spent my vacations playing LW and enjoying the story, the gameplay and such. But, then, things got repetitive and lesser fulfilling; reaching a line where I skipped events, dialogues, stories, battles, and so on; all because of the reasons you and me have exposed in our posts. The last achievement that I was really proud of was beating Red Marisa on Lunatic; that truly was an example of a good battle based on strategy. The rest of my gameplay? Doing daily tasks and rushing events; while I care less about the main and Hifuu stories.

Again, we can't ask too much for a mobile game that is free; I've been critic with LW but, at the end, it's the only thing that fills the gap of Touhou mobile game.
I stated something to a friend during the first months of release: "Give whatever thing that has Touhou on it to Touhou fans and they will put it as a relic; no matter what". The lack of good touhou content on the West makes us to enjoy and overestimate products that could have been done better; such as Lost Word.
Maybe, Lost Word could have bet for a simpler, solid and constant story, linked to better missions and keeping the same fight system but with wearable items that boosts stats rather than Story Cards, Limit Breaking, Upgrading, Enhancing, Awaking and Reborning; everything to max and you're done with your character.
The game could have been more similar to a Kirby one called Team Clash Deluxe, which was a free game for 3Ds (not RPG); featuring missions, boss battles, armours, weapons... It's just the only game that came up to my mind, hehe.

Anyways, thank you for writing this; it was useful for clearing myself regarding to Lost Word.

Edited by LordgyMer
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On 4/16/2022 at 5:40 PM, LorWkey said:

Now that I've watched this, and I have many things to talk about that I can't let pass (since Lost Word is literally the only game I play on my phone and I was so hyped for it when it came out). So I have some opinions and experiences on the game that I would like to share and that they agree with yours. I'm gonna go by points.

(geez this is gonna look more as a review...)

1) Story

>"you go through a long cut-scene explaining the story, then touch 1-2 buttons to order attacks, win battle, watch another cutscene then repeat."
>"long series of cutscenes with little battles"

You summarized very well what's the story for me now. The idea of the multiverse sounds cool and interesting, but it's very poor, annoying and boring in the gameplay. I know it's a free and a mobile game, so I get the animations and the cutscenes can't be the big deal; yet it's just the same artwork of the characters all the time (with their awkward postures...), a pair of bullet animations and long, long and long textboxs. The complexity of the story ends being pretty confusing (or I'm just stupid to understand it pretty well). The characters spits you a lot of information that, at the end, it's boring to read; so many people-including myself- only skip the custscenes. 

The other point is that the progress of the story is deficient. I don't know the context in JP version, but the Chapter of the tiny Yuyuko and the Black Youmu has been extended unnecessarily (waiting for the next chapter...), which adds more complexity to the story that no one asked for. If the story is already deep; not adding a proper continuity to it will make the player to feel indifferent about it as well as turning the plot into an inconsistent one.

2) Characters
>"the creators have gone the following route(s) in order to not fully exhaust the cast..."
>"My biggest gripe is that they decided going for them as individual units instead of having them as skins. And skins in the game are already useless."
>"It is also impressive how quick they managed to exhaust such a large cast. "

I completely agree with you. They rushed the characters very quickly and now they've gotten this problem: "What do we add now?" I always say a joke toward these alt versions: "When you ran out of ideas: [alt version]". They give us new characters that are basically the same character but with a recolouring, lolified or with a ""new/old"" design. That's it. The biggest issue is that these units shadow the actual characters.

As you've said, instead of buffing some lame characters like Kanako or Byakuren, they decide to buff them into top tier S+ or EX by giving us a new character based on them. These could have perfectly worked as items or outfits that change their appearances into those new designs, recolours, etc. but giving them more power.
The point of LW is playing with a variety of characters, not getting into your team all the S+/EX tiers whose members are practically composed of these new alt versions. (How many Marisas we've got... For god sake...)

3) The JP and Global versions

This is very related to the prior point. While JP version has got the problem of having rushed all the characters up to the point of covering the entire cast-that now they have to depend on these alt versions- the Global version has also done very wrong at rushing so quickly to match the JP features. Like, we get tons of new stuff in every update in short amounts of times; we've even got characters that were also realeased in JP version at the same time-- lol what???
Global version will end soon as JP version did; until a point where they will probably have to stop releasing content and wait first for what JP version does; since JP version will have run out of it by that moment.

4) The gameplay and RPG mechanics; difficulty
>"you can just whale some money into it, get a meta character or card or whatever, and basically get yourself a "Press to win" button. "
>"it just turns into a farming simulator with Touhou characters, made even more so by recently added auto-farm feature. Just leave your phone in a corner."
>"You build a team, and can just put them auto-play the stages for you, without you having to do anything. It just turns into an auto-farm grind-fest, which after a while makes you feel it does not bring any achievement, and is just repetitive."

I can't stop sharing your thoughts about the game. First of all, I remember how a friend that started playing LW, in a matter of a week or two; the guy had already reached level 100 (and I was like in level 75 by just playing f2p since the release date). What did my friend do? The Press to win technique you mentioned. He just put money into it, and BOOM; he was the Alpha among the server. I'm not really complaining, he can perfectly do that; it's okay; yet I just want to proove that your first statement is hella right xDD.

Well, the gameplay is as brief as you wrote: put your phone in the corner, and put the autofarm while you're doing other thing. The game is quite boring and repetitive, I literally play LW for just 5 or 10 minutes per day for the daily missions and gifts. The feeling of success really fades when you reach high level in some of your units.
Sure, I admit the game can have a strategy part, but most of the time it's just put your 3 girlies at level 100 to battle everything. The only challengues are things like Scarlet Tower or MOON EX. And that's where the difficulty part enters.

I feel the game is kinda unbalanced: some battles are quite easy and others are ridiculously hard. There's no middle point; and for the hard fights, you really have to grind and spend many time getting the good cards and characters; trying-trying again the battle. I don't also get why you're forced to do the events first in normal mode; that helps to force the player to skip the story as well as begin to put auto-play mode.

5) The Gacha set-up
>"if you don't add new characters that are stronger and stronger, for challenges that become higher and higher to justify the acquisition of these new units, nobody will play your game."
>"t just feels like crap to hoard a lot of resources, then try your luck and get nothing useful out of your totally-not-gambling activity."

I feel like you... The exaggerated ways of powering-up the characters makes the game to have TONS of confusing items over a simple RPG gameplay; which is linked to the previous gameplay part: grinding, grinding and a constant autofarm = boring gameplay.
But, overall, I don't complain too much about the gacha set-up, I think the game doesn't force you to be a Pay To Win; I'm free to play, and I can say that I can get by in the harder battles; although the challengues such as S.Tower, might pressure you to pay for some things. But the game really rewards you with many blue cubes and items; and the game is now doing the same but with the pink cubes (which were quite scarce to get).

The prayer rates and costs can be sensed as unfair, and sometimes I've been Sunny Milk'd (tricked) by them; still, you can get many powerful characters from banners, daily prayers or the 300 SC recent one. Even so, because of that rushing-attitude that the game has adopted, we get many many banners and accumulate so much; which pressure the player to play more hours or to pay for items, so they can collect all of the touhou girlies. 

6) The good stuff
This is simple, for being a free game, Touhou LW really offers a great quality in terms of artworks, effects, animations, music, etc. And, as I pointed in the point 5), the game awards you many times; all along with a Staff that keep in touch with the fans and hear their petitions and suggestions in the Discord Server; making some raffles. 
Basically, the game is useful for promoting artists and music groups, while it also acts pretty close to the players-I remember when we were awarded with 100 cubes just because an error with some facebook accounts-.

7) My evolution of the experience
>"But again, you somehow get back to it, no matter how much you may end up despising it."
>" I do not have yet another Touhou fan-game to play and fill the gap. Lost Word fills most of the requirements for a game, and I do not know what else to play and have a bit of fun with. "

I'm in the same situation. At the beginning, I was so hyped; I was looking forward to LW release. It was almost summer, so I spent my vacations playing LW and enjoying the story, the gameplay and such. But, then, things got repetitive and lesser fulfilling; reaching a line where I skipped events, dialogues, stories, battles, and so on; all because of the reasons you and me have exposed in our posts. The last achievement that I was really proud of was beating Red Marisa on Lunatic; that truly was an example of a good battle based on strategy. The rest of my gameplay? Doing daily tasks and rushing events; while I care less about the main and Hifuu stories.

Again, we can't ask too much for a mobile game that is free; I've been critic with LW but, at the end, it's the only thing that fills the gap of Touhou mobile game.
I stated something to a friend during the first months of release: "Give whatever thing that has Touhou on it to Touhou fans and they will put it as a relic; no matter what". The lack of good touhou content on the West makes us to enjoy and overestimate products that could have been done better; such as Lost Word.
Maybe, Lost Word could have bet for a simpler, solid and constant story, linked to better missions and keeping the same fight system but with wearable items that boosts stats rather than Story Cards, Limit Breaking, Upgrading, Enhancing, Awaking and Reborning; everything to max and you're done with your character.
The game could have been more similar to a Kirby one called Team Clash Deluxe, which was a free game for 3Ds (not RPG); featuring missions, boss battles, armours, weapons... It's just the only game that came up to my mind, hehe.

Anyways, thank you for writing this; it was useful for clearing myself regarding to Lost Word.


I was honestly thinking what else I could add to this thread, but I feel like you have brought a perfect continuation to many of the points I have started. And with nothing really significant going on in the game right now, perhaps new material to talk about will come with the 1 year anniversary of Global. However, feel free to address anything you wish related to the game in this thread, and I will come back with a reply. 

Until that, has anyone played Danmaku Kagura? The title of this thread also mentions DanKagu, but I accidentally ended up focusing it more on Lost Word than anything else.

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On 4/19/2022 at 9:53 PM, CountVonNumenor said:


I was honestly thinking what else I could add to this thread, but I feel like you have brought a perfect continuation to many of the points I have started. And with nothing really significant going on in the game right now, perhaps new material to talk about will come with the 1 year anniversary of Global. However, feel free to address anything you wish related to the game in this thread, and I will come back with a reply. 

Until that, has anyone played Danmaku Kagura? The title of this thread also mentions DanKagu, but I accidentally ended up focusing it more on Lost Word than anything else.

I was going to reply earlier too, but I'm waiting for the 1st anniversary to be over before I discuss more. 

I really want Danmaku Kagura to be translated and brought over to us before trying it. I'm still checking up on updates for that game and seeing what new characters or artwork have been announced.

Edited by Isaac
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Not so much left until the 1 year anniversary for the Global release. Besides the SFES Remi that will be introduced later this week, at least we will finally get to see Eiki (and Aunn). I have been waiting for the former for quite a long time, while the later should have appeared in a banner since very long ago. 

Until I come back. some food for though in regards to how people see this game:
 

 


If we are are to put it like this... has the recent high generosity on the side on NN with all the daily gift an actual thing, a PR stunt, or a way of compensation for possible issues with the game itself?
 

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3 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

Not so much left until the 1 year anniversary for the Global release. Besides the SFES Remi that will be introduced later this week, at least we will finally get to see Eiki (and Aunn). I have been waiting for the former for quite a long time, while the later should have appeared in a banner since very long ago. 

Until I come back. some food for though in regards to how people see this game:
 

 


If we are are to put it like this... has the recent high generosity on the side on NN with all the daily gift an actual thing, a PR stunt, or a way of compensation for possible issues with the game itself?
 

I forgot to mention one more bit of news. It has been leaked from the JP version that the Unconnected Marketeers cast is soon to make its debut, first one of the bunch being Misumaru (at least at story level or something). Besides, the Blue Reimu will also show up as a banner. Just in time for their second anniversary. Meanwhile, we are getting the "Right or Wrong or Doggo" (yes, that is the actual name) banner I have already mentioned ( Eiki & Aunn)
 

Spoiler

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Gonna waste a bit of crystals to bring the Yama home - she's one of the priority characters because of "collect favorites"

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Also yeah, this new totally not source of power-creep is coming too, I guess...




But by now, I think we are slowly deviating from the original topic, that being how well does Touhou fit with the concept of gacha games/lootboxes/"surprise mechanics" and however you want to call this kind of game. 

Edited by CountVonNumenor
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As someone who plays DanKagu casually, it's actually very fun. I may be biased, as I do enjoy mobile rhythm games, but DanKagu is definitely alot less p2w compared to Lost Word.

Compared to Bandori, DanKagu doesn't make you use your boosts. Meaning, you can play for an infinite amount of time. Of course, If you don't boost you'll get next to nothing, but if you only really care about full combos and stuff that's not a problem. Boosts also don't affect how many daily fragments you get, or the rewards you get from completing what I assume are "Goals" of sorts for songs (I don't know Japanese, but the stuff you get for full comboing a song or getting a certain rank). Meaning, even if you don't use any of your boosts you still get the full amount of items you would normally get from those.

 

The... Gacha rates aren't very good from my experience, But I don't usually have good luck with those things so I do have some sort of bias. You don't really NEED cards however, as they're really just there to boost your score or restore health. They are also alot less generous with rainbow crystals (or whatever they're called, the things you use to pull for cards). Then again, it would probably help to do the overworld stuff (i don't know what it's called but you just collect materials and build areas from Touhou like the Hakurei Shrine and stuff).

 

Still, DanKagu's great if you just want to play casually. Hopefully they do get a global release though.

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50 minutes ago, reallycoolname said:

As someone who plays DanKagu casually, it's actually very fun. I may be biased, as I do enjoy mobile rhythm games, but DanKagu is definitely alot less p2w compared to Lost Word.

Compared to Bandori, DanKagu doesn't make you use your boosts. Meaning, you can play for an infinite amount of time. Of course, If you don't boost you'll get next to nothing, but if you only really care about full combos and stuff that's not a problem. Boosts also don't affect how many daily fragments you get, or the rewards you get from completing what I assume are "Goals" of sorts for songs (I don't know Japanese, but the stuff you get for full comboing a song or getting a certain rank). Meaning, even if you don't use any of your boosts you still get the full amount of items you would normally get from those.

 

The... Gacha rates aren't very good from my experience, But I don't usually have good luck with those things so I do have some sort of bias. You don't really NEED cards however, as they're really just there to boost your score or restore health. They are also alot less generous with rainbow crystals (or whatever they're called, the things you use to pull for cards). Then again, it would probably help to do the overworld stuff (i don't know what it's called but you just collect materials and build areas from Touhou like the Hakurei Shrine and stuff).

 

Still, DanKagu's great if you just want to play casually. Hopefully they do get a global release though.

Nice to finally see a comment on DanKagu. It really seems like an interesting game, has a lot of songs that I like, yet I really do not know how it works. You say it is less of a gacha game, and more of a rhythm game with gacha elements? 

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Just now, CountVonNumenor said:

Nice to finally see a comment on DanKagu. It really seems like an interesting game, has a lot of songs that I like, yet I really do not know how it works. You say it is less of a gacha game, and more of a rhythm game with gacha elements? 

I suppose in a way, yes. The only gatcha you have is the one for cards, and that's about it. Those cards, besides allowing you to get better scores and songs and stuff, aren't really necessary. You also have heroines as well, which you get fragments to level up. These fragments are either created with some rainbow looking puzzle piece, or received through things like the daily fragments you get for songs and events. The gacha system is still prevalent, but not as much as Lost Word. There probably is a power creep with cards, but honestly it's not noticeable unless you're into like, getting top scores and leaderboards for events.

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So... we are two days before the 2nd anniversary of the JP server (30thApril 2020) and 2 weeks before the 1 year anniversary for Global (11th May 2021) for Lost Word. If we are to focus on the state of Global as of today, 28th April 2022 in terms of character diversity, the game has the following:

  • a total of 109 characters have been introduced, most recent being Eiki Shiki, Aunn and a new version of Remilia Scarlet (Tiny Devil Mistress)
  • out of these 109 characters, of which 87 are base (normal/vanilla) versions of the Touhou cast, and 22 are alternative versions (different universe to be met in the storyline or "Classic" versions)
  • out of the 31 official games, the ones not covered yet by Global are the PC-98 games (besides PC-98 Reimu and Marisa appearing in a cutscene) and, Touhou 17.5 and Touhou 18
  • as a whole, we have 87 out of the, let's round it at 150, characters ZUN has created (PC-98 included)
  • the game was released on the 11th of May 2021, so there are 352 days
  • as a whole, if calculating, the average for releases in terms of characters, we got a new one every 3 days as a whole, and a non-alt unit every 4 days


I am not very sure what was the thing I wanted to point out. I guess it was that units came out very quickly, and we already got half of the cast in this one year. People say there has been a rush in units released especially during and after the 0.5 years anniversary of Global, and there is criticism for the attempt of catching up with a game version that already had 1 year of advance. And from here, weird decisions like bringing units to Global mere days (at times) after their release on the JP server, events that came off as poorly planned (spring event at the beginning of winter, Halloween event getting a rerun now in late spring etc). Besides, I was trying to point out in a previous comment - was NN just extremely generous in the past month with rewards and all those "player appreciation" thing for the sake of being generous, as a way to compensate for their fuck-ups until that point and make players what happened, or because we should buckle up for something different?

Also just a thing I find weird/interesting. I guess this sort of mobile games need to gain a lot of money in order to be work upkeeping or something, especially since last year in October-November NN was complaining Lost Word was gaining just 2-300K dollars a month (I am not too used to how much gacha games gain, but apparently these are rookie numbers since other games in the genre gain dozens of millions of dollars monthly just from IAPs). How expensive is it to upkeep a mobile phone, single-player game? Besides having to make sure everything works well, pay license for all the fanworks used, and pay your team that makes the game. 

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I actually like that this thread has become more focused on updates for LostWord or Danmaku Kagura. 

I know that the events have been all over the place like having Halloween for spring, but I think the team is doing well for to trying to catch up to the jp version. I just wish they continue to implement more characters who haven't appeared yet than focus on alts. It does seem that the alts get more priority and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got blue reimu early.

I'm curious to know how much Danmaku Kagura gains every month too.

 

 

Edited by Isaac
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9 hours ago, Isaac said:

I actually like that this thread has become more focused on updates for LostWord or Danmaku Kagura. 

That is actually we can go with in this thread, especially since this might be the only thread covering the two games recently. 
 

9 hours ago, Isaac said:

I know that the events have been all over the place like having Halloween for spring, but I think the team is doing well for to trying to catch up to the jp version.

I mean yeah, I can see the whole effort of trying to catch up with JP, but it feels a little rushed, especially with the releases of units, just like I said in the previous comment. Right now, we have 10 ongoing things (step-ups included) in the Prayer category:

  • Remilia Ultra Festival
  • Eiki & Aunn Step-Up
  • Eiki & Aunn Festival
  • Festival Collection Step-Up
  • Festival Collection 
  • Yuyuko (Tiny Ghost) & Marisa (Witch of Scarlet Dreams) Ultra Festival
  • Sakuya (Classic) & Aya (Classic) Step-Up
  • Sakuya (Classic) & Aya (Classic) Festival
  • Water EX Step-Up
  • Water EX Festival


Next up, it is very much likely that we will get the Flandre Ultra Festival, as her sister from the Hifuu storyline is already here.
 

10 hours ago, Isaac said:

I just wish they continue to implement more characters who haven't appeared yet than focus on alts. It does seem that the alts get more priority and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got blue reimu early.

I think the alts getting priority part might have come from the very way the game is structured and its premise, of going in alternate worlds and  meeting different versions of the cast we are familiar with. This all started with the Witch of Scarlet Dreams, and will go for as long as the game is supported. But indeed, it would be nice if we got more of the "normal" characters (I really do not know how to call them anymore). Thing is now, in order to keep the game interesting, the game developers have started to add these characters you are looking for, just that they became insanely powerful (even more so than some of the Ultra FES ones), making some special units irrelevant. Like how Wriggle is still one of the strongest units on JP.

And speaking of JP, outside PC-98, TH17.5 and 18, they have almost everyone in by now. Which just connects again to my idea of how they added 130+ characters in almost 2 years, at a pace of 1 character every 5 days. I was laughing how simply changing the number from 5 to 7 days would have given you like an almost extra year of adding original 2hus from the series. 


Meanwhile, I will just wait for Raiko, Mayumi and whenever the UM cast is coming to Global too (really looking to get Tenkyuu, and perhaps Tsukasa too simply for the fact they are cool). 

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10 hours ago, Isaac said:

It does seem that the alts get more priority and I wouldn’t be surprised if we got blue reimu early.

Also, about that...

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Apparently, Blue Reimu will be her own tier of rarity, something above Ultra Festival. According to the people of the Lost Word subreddit, this new tier will be called "Epic Festival". Now I wonder what else will come in this, or if there will be even higher tiers than this eventually.



And for even more news from the JP server:

Spoiler

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New special unit - "Red Sanae" (finally, she can be Player 1 too)

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Ran gets Fantasy Rebirth

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And so does Chen

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Witch of Scarlet Dreams (and SFES units in general) are getting the Step-Up treatment for their banners

 

Edited by CountVonNumenor
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I'm not sure if all the new characters that are in the jp version remain strong. When Parsee and Yamame were introduced, they were some of the best in their class. Overtime, Parsee as an attacker was overshadowed by ultra festival characters like Flandre. Her stats and evaluation were lowered too compared to the festival attackers who were buffed more.

I can't wait to see the UM cast as well and I believe they will try to include some of the PC-98 characters at some point. I can see the old Reimu, Marisa, Alice amd Yuuka being made playable.

I can't believe there is a red Sanae! I also can't believe blue reimu is in higher rarity and is probably the highest ranked character now. The idea of Epic festivals seems too much for me. Are Marisa and Youmu going to get more alts or will some current ones shift in rarity I wonder?

The fantasy rebirth outfits for Ran and Chen look great! Same goes for the recent Flan and Remila ones we got too. No matter how many years it takes, I'll patiently wait for Parsee to receive her fantasy rebirth event.

Edited by Isaac
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4 hours ago, Isaac said:

I'm not sure if all the new characters that are in the jp version remain strong. When Parsee and Yamame were introduced, they were some of the best in their class. Overtime, Parsee as an attacker was overshadowed by ultra festival characters like Flandre. Her stats and evaluation were lowered too compared to the festival attackers who were buffed more.

Wait, did characters on JP other than Meiling actually get buffs? As for the units, this is what the (unofficial) JP tier list looks like:

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As you can se, some of these units are new ones. And to make it even more interesting, Eternity Larva, Mayumi, Wriggle and Eika are general pool units, and they still manage to score up to S+ tier. Afterwards, another interesting detail is how FES units can reach the second to be tier, like with PCB Alice, or SS with EoSD Reimu and PCB Yukari. The rest of the FES units, be them the reskins or normal 2hus, still score high. As of 29th of April, none of the reskins scores lower than A tier, while some of the regular FES units even reach C tier (Byakuren, Kanako - both of their "classic" versions are in S tier). 

 

4 hours ago, Isaac said:

I can't wait to see the UM cast as well and I believe they will try to include some of the PC-98 characters at some point. I can see the old Reimu, Marisa, Alice amd Yuuka being made playable.

Reimu and Marisa already have PC-98 sprites used in story cutscenes, and some of the promotional materials for the game in Japan feature the two. It might not take long until PC-98 characters might actually be a thing.

 

4 hours ago, Isaac said:

I can't believe there is a red Sanae!

Since we had a Blue Reimu, a Red Sanae would have been obvious. Now the two can complement each other and switch between Player 1 and Player 2 ;)
 

4 hours ago, Isaac said:

Are Marisa and Youmu going to get more alts or will some current ones shift in rarity I wonder?

Good question. Now I really wonder that too. But since Hifuu seems to be going towards the SDM now in creating them alts, I can imagine PCB might be next. And therefore a new Myon.  
 

4 hours ago, Isaac said:

The fantasy rebirth outfits for Ran and Chen look great! Same goes for the recent Flan and Remilia ones we got too. No matter how many years it takes, I'll patiently wait for Parsee to receive her fantasy rebirth event.

The one for Ran really looks nice. It gives me even more Tamamo no Mae vibe. As for waiting, hope it will be worth. Eventually, all the 2hus might get their own Fantasy Rebirth, and I personally like this thing for the new outfit. I have the one for Youmu, and it's really beautiful (even if it reminds me of her special outfit from Junjo Arumeria). Otherwise, I am quite curious what outfits Akyuu (already confirmed on the JP server) and Eiki will get eventually. 

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On 4/26/2022 at 10:25 PM, CountVonNumenor said:

I forgot to mention one more bit of news. It has been leaked from the JP version that the Unconnected Marketeers cast is soon to make its debut, first one of the bunch being Misumaru (at least at story level or something). Besides, the Blue Reimu will also show up as a banner. Just in time for their second anniversary. Meanwhile, we are getting the "Right or Wrong or Doggo" (yes, that is the actual name) banner I have already mentioned ( Eiki & Aunn)
 

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Spoiler

HOLY SHIT!!! MISUMARU MY BELOVED!!! She's my favorite in UM, I am SO glad to see her art!! SHE LOOKS ADORABLE AAAA

Also, about the Blue Reimu, I don't really like her, to be honest, especially because of the no pity thing that she's gonna have.

Also, I know that this is a bit off-topic, but I forgot how bad the drop rates are for units with seal crystals. I'm trying to get Yuuka with them (Since I spent like 300+ god crystals, and I got mostly dupes :c) and no luck.. Meanwhile I got Eiki with a standard 10 pull hehe

Another thing is, while I don't like the power creep, I honestly do like the retro units, and I hope to see PC98 charas too (A few days ago I dreamt that Konngara was in TLW and I tried pulling for her xd), I mostly get them because I want them, rather than meta power thing.

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Number 1 Alice, Meiling and Youmu fan! jaooooooooo

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Late to the party, and maybe not adding much to the topic... but daym, this Lost Word business weighs heavily on my gamer heart. I want to like this game, and I want to discover the story, but this game is just, like... poor. The fights are in greatest majority completely unengaging and playing them feels like a waste of time, aside from boss battles which SOMETIMES offer something more (the Yukari fight actually stopped me in my tracks for a while, forcing me to master the P management, tracking of buffs, and getting the feel of using Graze... only because my luck with gacha was so lousy that I barely got any Friends, so I did not have any attacks she would be weak against). It would be aggravating to have those completely inconsequential, often completely unexplained in story random fairy battles interrupting the story, if it wasn't so dull! Playing on Hard requires clearing the stages on Normal already, so that's not a fix.. and, anyway, the power curve in this game is pretty steep, so there's hardly any possibility of running into anything that wouldn't be cleared by having higher levels.  The story is kinda interesting, the fanservice for me, atm, mostly tasteful and sometimes funny/hilarious/amusing, without usually getting too offensive, and the artstyle is nice. The inclusion of the player-insert character isn't done too badly (even if characters are weirdly friendly, polite, and welcoming to her).

Yet, I wait for Danmaku Kagura to come out, even if its artstyle seems more dull, just for a chance for ANY real gameplay.

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  • CountVonNumenor changed the title to Do Touhou and gacha work together? (2022 - Touhou LostWord, Danmaku Kagura - closed/going to be revived, Arcadia Record)

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