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I came to the Shrine to quickly redownload Hisoutensoku and then I find this extremely long thread. Ah well, might as well share some thoughts (or a full on review) while I'm here. Main Story I've been playing TLW ever since the first little sister event (Which now makes a lot of sense for being an event when we learned that our MC is very very young) and I've got quite to say about the game. At first I've grabbed the game for the sake of it being a Touhou game, but while the story has been progressing it has captivated me and soon enough I become a regular player. The earlier bits were such a drag however, since there were a LOT of unnecessary battle stages against nobodies (which was made even more annoying when the earlier stages had the best Support Card WoSD so you had to clear a lot for lunatic). Thankfully they've significantly cut it down for the later chapters. At first the chapter 3 saga started out well enough, though I felt that the LostWord would have easily been Yukari or something... And then Act 3 & 4 came. Oh boy, I felt like I understood NOTHING. I came out confused when they said that the LostWord were Youmu's swords. The interlude chapter came, and then I felt a bit confused why everyone was treating Lossie as if as a child but it was nice to see them meet each other. Then the final part of the interlude came and my only thoughts were just: "W-why?" Act 4 arrives, and much to my joy/dismay it really feels like we're getting close to the end of the story with all characters from different universes gathering around and the inclusion of Hifuu Characters as well. (I thought it was hinted that Vampire Hunter Sakuya ultimately won her fight and killed the sisters but NOPE. She's become their maid now.) That and we're getting hints of Lossy's true identity. Sigh regardless, I'm sticking to finishing the story no matter what. Event Stories The earlier ones were lackluster/felt like there was no way they could happen in Gensokyo (except the Detective Marisa case). But soon, the writing and dialogue of the events started better, so even the events that feel like they shouldn't happen were really fun to read. I want to say that Masked Dancer's Rebellion is my favorite but I know that's just me being biased to Kokoro (and Satono). So I put Yakumo's Ambition on the top. I love the absurd things happening in the event and how meta it got. That event also taking place in the 1st universe we saved (the school universe) was a good excuse to go a bit ham on the concept of the event. It's sequel however, the Jo'on Phantom Thief confuses me as it acts like it all took place in the L1 Universe. But nevertheless, the writing of the event stories have really improved and I hope the skipped events are on par with the writing. Gacha System My experience with this has been... A mostly positive one? The one and only time where I've failed to grab a unit I want was F1 Reimu. I spent all my cubes for that. Most other times though has been a success. I've also been quite lucky when it came to rolling for Ultra Fes I wanted, with only needing to Spark once for Soldier Reisen. But ever since Chapter 4 dropped that Winged Marisa I've been saving. Now however with the 2Million Downloads banner came up, I've been rolling 10s everyday and either the rates are higher than usual, or I'm lucky (I've gotten Miko, Alice, and Patchouli so far). But talking about what they have been doing so far with Relic and Epic? God I wish Epic didn't exist. I'm fine with Relic the way it currently is, it's sparkable but the designs of the characters feel a bit lazy (ESPECIALLY the brand new Sakuya). But Epic? That can go. I was fine with Blue Reimu being Epic but now that a good amount of Chapter 4's main cast will be Epic? Nah, screw that. Blue Reimu had Important Story Reasons to be Epic, but I don't see why Hecatia needed to be Epic. The brand new Koishi being Epic I can barely forgive since she's apparently F1 just like Reimu. The power creeping is starting to show with the push of Epic units that I'm starting to miss the Super Fes spam. By the way, locking away the good Story Cards away in the gacha is stupid. Encourages hoarding 5 star cards in the event you get a character that needs it. Arenas, Rebirths, Tower, and EX Battles Arena's are for non-casual players who want their characters to deal a bit more damage. Weekly Arenas however provide casuals who has an abundant of MLBd characters to spam Last Words and gain easy access to the incense. Scarlet Devil Tower is a challenge designed for more advanced players, but starts of only a tad bit more difficult so that newer players can learn things such as barrier breaking and resource management. EX Battles are for the even MORE advanced players and rewards you with really good cards. Someone like me who doesn't really care about learning how to the combat system works and strategizing so man am I glad tutorials for characters and Story Cards I happen to have exist. Rebirths. First I found them neat with the costumes. Soon they started releasing them with plain old normal wedding dresses and flower/ring bearers. Now my interest is getting piqued with them releasing more unique costumes. That said it sucks that the stories are locked behind Ring of Fates because they rarely give them out for free. Anyways that's all I have to say. I have nothing to talk about Hifuu because at the moment, it seems to be quite dead. Even in JP.

These days the term "Christian" gets thrown around a lot, to the point that hardly anyone knows what it means anymore (Acts 11:26, literally translated as "disciples of Christ", or "dedicated followers of Christ"). I refer to myself as a believer of the Bible, because that establishes to others my understood standard for discerning truth. I hope I am and strive to be a Christian, but it remains for others to see Christ in my behavior and assertions. :) To be fair, I'm only reading two of those books on my own. The others are books I'm reading to other people, but I figure it still counts (technically the last two are being read to me).

I see, thats probably why i feel dumb all the time haha. I used to read a good amount, you may be convincing me to get back into it. Are you a christian as well? Most of the biblical ones I have read already too. also how are you reading like 7 books at once, jeez

big thank y'all. we thought about doing physical copies but papa ZUN doesn't allow it unless you're in the motherland (or I guess a small home office?)

A strange question, but a question I became suddenly curious about. A lot of times with other large fandoms I see large video essays dedicated to examining parts of their fandom consistently, yet in touhou fandom in the west, that area seems to be lacking. I don't believe I am entirely qualified to fill that role, and it could always be because we simply lack fans in the west, but as far as I know there are as many as around 100k-200k. I was reading a study on why people struggle to write essays in general, and it stated that one of the bigger reasons is that people read actual books less nowadays. We lack finding things to give us strong opinions, and have difficulty with sentence structure. This leads back to my question, as I'm curious to see if it holds any water. How many here read books? (not counting manga or comics)

I am an avid reader, and have been since my early teens! Books I am currently reading: Epistle to the Ephesians* by Paul the Apostle Mother Teresa: An Authorized Biography by Kathryn Spink Faith has its Reasons by Kenneth D. Boa & Robert M. Bowman, Jr. Ben Hur by Lew Wallace The Fellowship of the Ring* by J.R.R. Tolkien The Second Confession* by Rex Stout North, Or be Eaten! by Andrew Peterson Seven Arrows by Matt Rogers & Donny Mathis Gently and Lowly by Dane Ortlund Books I love and would recommend: How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas That Printer of Udel's by Harold Bell Wright Gods, Graves and Scholars by C.W. Ceram The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer The Gospel of John by John the Disciple The Acts of the Apostles by Luke the Physician The Epistle to the Romans by Paul the Apostle To the proposed theory, reading is one of the most effective ways of growing your vocabulary, which has been speculated to diversify cognitive processing. Additionally, fiction can help develop imagination, while non-fiction can help develop understanding, but both are somewhat dependent upon the level of engagement. Of the mediums of media, books (reading) are the most likely to be mentally engaged with, whereas with film and video games it tends to be less common (distinguished from emotional engagement). I speculate this to be a consequence of the cognitive demand placed upon the person; film does most of the work of comprehension for you (especially modern day film), while books leave much of the work of comprehension to the reader. Put another way, more effort is required of the reader than the viewer, and as with any skill, practice assists with development.