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It's about time. Since it is once more my turn to host, I am once again going against the tradition of naming the thread after a Star Wars reference, although this time you still get a Spielberg* reference, so I'm kind of following the tradition?... We're gonna run out of Star Wars references soon, anyway *Realising the things these films have in common is George Lucas, not the director... this is why you can't talk to me about film To anyone who has no clue what this is I'm going on about, the remix tournament is a recurring forum game we run on this here site. The idea is to share Touhou remixes and then rate and rank them in a very non-competitive nature. Each participant will PM me three Touhou remixes, and then when everyone's ready I will drip feed them 3 at a time into this thread, keeping each submission anonymous to the person who submitted it, and everyone will rate the songs in the post. Repeat until I've posted all songs, and then I average together all the scores and that's the remix tournament! If you want to participate, simply state your interest in this thread, and then PM me your three remixes of choice. Try to avoid something that has appeared in a past tournament. Sign-ups will be open for about a week, then we can get started. The objective of the remix tournament is to share cool music, so don't take it too seriously! However, do try to show up to each round to leave your ratings and opinions. I think that's summarised it neatly. Any questions, just ask here! Current entrants: @Tenkko @CountVonNumenor @Ken Hisuag @Shionne Imeris @Gou the frog @Drunken_Flower @sodaodaoda

Cirno, obviously!! such a funky fairy!! cirnocraft.mp4

I recreated Septette for the Dead Princess from all Minecraft sounds! Hope you enjoy :)

I am here. Forgive me for my late response. BTW, make sure to make an announcement on Discord for the regulars that aren't on the site proper too often. Also, announcing the tournament through the chatbox seemed to have quite the positive effect last time, so consider that as well.

Character showcase: Sae Nakata General information (curtesy to the Amagami wiki): Sae Nakata (中多 紗江, Nakata Sae) is the main female lead of the third Amagami SS arc. She is a student of class 1-B and a classmate of Miya Tachibana (who is also her close friend) and Ai Nanasaki who studied in an all-girls school when she was in middle school. Appearance: Sae has shoulder-length brown hair that is tied up by two black ribbons with bangs swept to the left side, brownish-green eyes and a distinct characteristic is that her breasts have grown to a large size (as commented by Jessica), which occasionally draws Junichi Tachibana's attention whenever he sees her and usually the jealousy of Miya Tachibana, despite being a first year. She wears their formal school uniform. Personality: Sae is a extremely shy girl because she has studied all her life in a all-girls school, but she got over her shyness when she meets Junichi Tachibana. She also blushes a lot when she talks or makes contact with the boys. After Junichi takes her to Kaoru Tanamachi workplace, she also wishes to become a waitress, something that Junichi helps her to do (with very hilarious results). Age: - 15 (Amagami SS) - 16 (End of Rihoko Sakurai Arc and Amagami SS+ Plus) - 25 (End of Sae Nakata Arc) Some other trivia from the same article: Sae has a low soft voice. Sae's arc is unique that it is the only arc to feature a narrator. There is also a running gag in her arc wherein characters (usually Junichi Tachibana) breaks the fourth wall by talking to the narrator. The narrator is even present in Amagami SS+ and her OVA episodes Sae is the only married heroine to be pregnant for the second time in the arc which end with marriage. She's fond of sewing as she sewn her clothes and Junichi's during the best couple contest and offered to sew costumes for the drama club during her arc in Amagami SS+. This may be linked to her name Sae which means "thread, silk" (紗) Sae is the most often to be close with Miya Tachibana. Fact can be shown in her arc, Miya isn't chat often with Ai Nanasaki. But when Ai's arc, Miya is still often to play with Sae, which is due the fact that Ai is always busy with her swimming club activity. Following her arc, she has the most personal character development out of all the leads Sae's favorite season is spring. And now for the art gallery: Illustration by takayama kisai (source: https://mimicle.com/lp/amagamiasmr) Illustration by mobu (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/99409296) Illustration by jishaku (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91181769) Illustration by serizawa (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/87796144) Illustration by ichikei (source: https://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7urd0NbnD1qao5jho1_1280.jpg) Illustration by megane chuu (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/21293105) Illustration by gouda hiroaki (source: image board) Illustration by takayama kisai (source: image board) Illustration by 3u (source: Pixiv - author limited access) Source: official material Illustration by kishida-shiki (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/22873785) Source: official material Source: official material Illustration by gofu (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/14157752) Illustration by oishikaru (source: Pixiv - author limited access) Illustration by sinzire (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/13492220) Illustration by akito (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/13424222) Illustration by sakura akami (source: Pixiv - author limited access) Illustration by star (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/13143836) Illustration by suzume inui (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/13072706) Illustration by ryunnu (source: http://www.sage-sage.sakura.ne.jp/sakuhin80.htm) Illustration by akito (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/13002719) Illustration by kishida-shiki (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/12862096) Illustration by yanagi shinsuke (source: https://yande.re/post/show/152234) Illustration by ishikura keiichi (source: image board) Illustration by shouji nigou (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/5445440) (author also draws Touhou, so bonus points for that; next to these chibi I found an awesome Akyuu illustration) Source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/5408793 (same artist as above) Illustration by takayama kisai (source: https://yande.re/post/show/169639) Illustration by takayama kisai (source: not sourced by Danbooru) End note: If I thought Rihoko was quite heavily sexualized by fanart, and that just because she has larger boobs than the rest of the case, then Sae really takes the cake (she is also one of the characters with larger boobs than the average of the show - interesting how it is always the girls with brown hair in Amagami who go through that...). At least if you are going through the more recent pages of fanart in her section from Danbooru. It becomes more even halfway through it. Lewds are still there all the way tot he first images, but there are only just 12 pages of illustrations (so even less than yesterday). Anyway, according to the Danbooru order, the following character I will cover is Nanasaki Ai. Oh boy, there will be quite a bit of work to do...

It’s okay you can add any of your favorite design or artworks as long as it was made by ZUN :3 She really is amazing here what I prefer the most is to see Marisa wearing a different color outfit and her dress it’s just so cute !! I really love how ZUN designed Marisa’s hat in every games. It’s really sad that during this period ZUN didn’t draw a lot like he did in that Seihou Yuuka artwork. But I don’t really like the fact that in his new artworks, the faces are all the same and the design aren’t so Touhou-like

Idk how applicable this is to ZUN's music, but I'm sure it must be relevant to many doujin circle songs. I dug this up recently to show it to a friend, and realised that I never posted it here.

Indeed, it does sound like Virus but I have my own guess that it's based on Sonata No. 8 Pathetique, the third movement. Timestamp being 15:11. It could be. There aren't many vampires in Gensokyo. Oh, and I tried thinking what would happen when they bit people but here: Perfect Memento in Strick Sense Page 75-76

Oh boy, I like this topic. Have I a tale to tell. For me, it started with Smash. Super Smash Bros. has always been my favorite game series (even over Touhou), and back in the Brawl days, I watched a lot of Home Run Contest videos. And I came across this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt77Y5saO2Y And later, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rCqeMQooc (Well, not those specific ones; those are reuploads of the originals that I had watched at the time.) Basically, HRC videos with Touhou music. When it comes to music, my tastes are based heavily on nostalgia; even if the music is really great, if I can't associate it with something (a character, a level, a video, etc.), I will forget it much more easily. So the remixes in those videos stuck, because I enjoyed the content, and they went well with the visuals. Not sure of the details, but I had at some point learned where the music came from, and I believe my search led me to this very site to download some of the games. I had started with EoSD, since that was the first of the Windows games and origin of the remixes in that first video (I also got SA, which was the most recent at the time, but that's another story, and I'm only mentioning it to give you guys a timeframe). Never made it to Flandre because it was too bloody hard, but I absolutely loved the dialog of the characters, the music, and the art made me feel better about my own art while still being above what I generally accomplish. So while I thought the gameplay was terribly difficult, I loved pretty much everything else about it. But probably the biggest pull was learning about ZUN. Being a lover of games and wanting to make my own, ZUN inspired me (and still does). Because I learned through Touhou that if you have the right skillset (and circumstances), it is possible to be a sole developer for a franchise, which is pretty much my dream. I enjoy Touhou not only for its content, but because of knowing that it was generally created by a single person, and that type of position is where I aim to be in life.

I have no idea what touhou was until i found the former admin on PSO. I click on his profile and he had the link to the shrine old site...And it just began there for me. I must say though...touhou is such an interesting and quite fun type of games. I can see how they can be addictive as fuck.

Mines a weird one, so probably around freshman year of high school i believe i was super obsessed with this mario game making engine called SMBX, some may have heard of it, some may not have but i'll get to the point, a lot of the "episodes" i played on that engine used music from the touhou games, though i didn't know it at the time. I also happened to be part of a fire emblem community known as serenes forest at the time and good friends with someone by the name of elfirelight who currently resides in our discord funfact. Anyways I basically asked him if he knew anything about these kickass themes and he said they were all touhou themes, at which point he reccomended me to give them a shot starting with imperishable night. I played that until i got an easy 1cc then decided to give touhou 6 EOSD a shot, at which point i got completely hooked on touhou. TLDR thank Mario and Elfirelight for my touhou obsession.

I will be honest right now. I am in an awful mood, but not without good reason. Actually, scratch the bad mood part, I am actually at low morale right now. Hi, my name is Andrei, but most of you may know me simply as CountVonNumenor. I have been around for 9 months at the Shrine, and just tried to have a nice time and forget about all of my problems. However, recently, there has been a series of events that seriously disappointed me in the relation between effort spent and result. 0) Until now, I was very excited to take a hobby into historical reenactment. However, now that I had the chance to get the taste of it, it left me a very sour taste. Instead of enjoying something I looked up to do for so long, I only ended up sacrificing a lot of my free time, ended up getting even more stressed than I was before, and risked my health (I have been living with a constant, unstoppable coughing for over a week, that absolutely no medicine coud help me get rid out of my system). I was really looking to do this as a hobby due to the fact I like history, but I did not want to turn into this, just not very long after I got into it. And now, I am sitting in the dilemma of whether should I retire from the activity (even though I have only been active for a month - a bit of a long story there too), or continue, even if I am risking and putting more effort than it would be worth into the thing. But there is yet worse to come... 1) As you may already know, I am a student in the field of Political Science, second year into the bachelor program. However, I have started to feel like my place may not be in there. "If you are still young and not feeling your place is there, why not just move to another college? Why did you even choose that college?". Let's tackle the second question first. Through high school, I was purely convinced I wanted to follow History. However, in a country like Romania, I had absolutely no idea what could I do with such a degree. Public research is extremely neglected and underfunded, teachers are not respected both in terms of social status and payment, and no other option is very realistic due to the society we live in, having little regard for history. Therefore, when I had the first talks with my parents about where I should go, my mother kept pushing the idea I should follow a career in the field of diplomacy/embassy, especially since it said that the History college also prepared for such fields. Therefore, I ended up with the (mostly induced/influenced) that I want to become a diplomat/ambassador. And when I discussed this further with friends and people who work in close fields of political study, they came up with the recommendation to follow Political Science. Jump to one week before the final exams in high school. After 2 years of being purely convinced to got to History, the idea of Political Science struck me. I was still with the idea that no matter where I go, I would go study International Relations. And in the end, I got to Political Science, even though I have questioned my choice ever since the day I confirmed my seat there (good thing tuition is paid by the state, so I can study for free). But now, almost half-way through second year, I am not really feeling any sense of achievement. I lack any drive to actually study the field, and only by pure chance have I ended up being at the top of my group just because I was the one who gave slightly one more shit compared to everyone else. 2) Now to answer: "If you are still young and not feeling your place is there, why not just move to another college?" Well, the answer is not a simple one. Or maybe it is. I don't know anymore... The problem is that once I started, I cannot just give up. My family is already looking poorly on me for having the feeling I did the wrong choice in choosing one college path over the other. I have already spent too much time, energy and resources of my family just to suddenly decide to give up. Besides, it is actually frowned upon whenever I bring up the idea, due to "why did you even go there to begin with"? And to make it worse, I have been told I have to get my shit together and do something with what I have available. That I cannot just be someone constantly switching between colleges, as I am still reliant on my family for almost everything. And I can't get into the field of work either, as I have no plan and would be a real waste to just end up working as a shop assistant or whatever low level job after getting academic study. With the harsh times we are currently living in Romania, one cannot be picky about their options, nor solely rely on their dreams. 3) I am the kind of who is completely lacking the sense of realism. I am daydreaming about doing the x or y thing, but said x or y things are unachievable, too expensive or simply unrealistic. I do not know what I want to do with my life once I finish this 3 years long cycle of studying. Especially after a lot of setbacks recently. Let's say that both the History and Political Science colleges are throwing jabs at each other. The ones from History say that those from Political Science will do nothing with their diploma because in the world of diplomacy, politics or just administration, everything is based on corruption, having connections and nepotism if you want to actually get into one of these positions, no matter how skilled you are (Romania is one of those countries where no matter how incompetent you are at your job, you will still be advanced into a high position just because you are some influential politician's pet). Meanwhile, those from Political Science are throwing jabs to wards those from History for a simple reason - those at History are strongly nationalist and purposefully misinterpret history in a desperate 19th century style attempt at justifying even the very existence of Romania as a state. And now for job opportunities. I was hoping that one my current route, I would be able to continue for a Master's Degree on the field of Military History and Politics, then perhaps work for the National Research Institute for Political Science and Political History. However, that dream sort of got shattered when I learnt that the Institute prefers hiring those from the military field, and while they do accept civilians, there is a strong hate for those civilians working at the Research Institute. If you want to get there as a civilian, good luck finding a connection from the military to get you in, no matter how skilled you actually are. Working at the National Military History Museum is not an option either, because again, for the actually decently/well paid jobs you have to be from the military. On the other side, diplomats and ambassadors are not in a better position either. I was told that if I do not have connections in the field of politics or be a member of whatever party is now in the ruling coalition, I have no choice for being picked into such a spot. As for other options, I really don't know. I love history and would love to wok into something to bring me joy, but I also need to make sure I am not going to starve. I don't know what else could I do, because one of my biggest flaws is that I am ludicrously lazy to actually look up for options. And now, I feel like it is getting too late for me, and that I have already done all the wrong steps. Many times I have a strong feeling I want to do something, yet when I actually get to do it, I end up disappointed because I hoped I would enjoy that thing more. "Oh, you made this path for yourself. Oh, you are the one who decided to pick that up, you can't just turn now". I can't stay hare and complain. I need to find a solution, but I am feeling more an more discouraged as time goes by. Maybe I will have to just accept a mediocre, soulless compromise of nothing actually works for me. But that would make me feel utter shame given all the effort until now, as I threw it all away. Talking to my parents about all these problems only ended up with me getting even more upset, as they made me feel sick of all the mistakes and fuck-ups I have done or am currently doing/am about to do with my life. I may have the excuse of being just 20 and still having an entire life ahead, but this does not work. I am way too ambitious for my own good, and I feel that will be my doom. I am lost, and really do not know how to deal with all my problems. I see no option for reaching a conclusion that would both bring me joy in doing it, and help me have a decent-to-rich life. I can't just be a guy who loves military history and Touhou, as I have nothing I can do with these things and be a practical solution to my problems. My life is clueless, I have no idea what I like and am best at, what could I make best use of to my advantage, and at least once I was even if slightly haunted by the perspective of ending it all. But I will not go that far. I need to fight. But I am afraid I will disappoint everyone who loves me and has put so much effort into me getting as far as I got until now...

Black Market of Bulletphilia ~ 100th Black Market is a game made by ZUN. It is a game I personally enjoyed extremely. It is not without its flaws, given the exploitable nature that comes with the ability card system, but nonetheless ability cards are still a fun mechanic and I like what this game in particular did with them. Some people were disappointed by this game due to expecting a greater emphasis on roguelike mechanics - I'm not one of those people, and as a matter of fact roguelikes are the game genre I dislike most, so I'm happy that 100th Black Market is the game that it is and isn't a roguelike. However, that's not what this topic is about. What this topic is about is how 100th Black Market, despite being a ZUN game, is the most un-ZUN like thing he has ever made. And that's something that brings me a lot of excitement. Game Structure Being a spinoff, this game is laid out in a much different way to the traditional Touhou experience, using what is essentially a level select instead of the usual linear path Touhou has. This is far from the first time ZUN has implemented this sort of thing in a spinoff game, but what sets Touhou 18.5 apart is the randomisation of patterns you encounter throughout a stage. This random attack waves are structured in a pretty simple manner - there is a pool of possible attacks you go up against, and then a difficulty modifier for all of them that increases towards the end of the level (not forgetting a random boss to cap off the level). Some levels also make "new" patterns out of facing you with two easier patterns, but stacked simultaneously. It's not the most sophisticated procedural generation you've ever seen, but it works for a Touhou game. And that variety in how a stage plays is important here, because the other thing this game is built on is repetition - repeating levels to collect as many cards as you can, earn cash to buy those cards, and defeat all the bosses to get each of their unique cards and to power up Marisa's starting equipment capabilities. This kind of macro progression system, alongside the random generation, are two things we don't normally get to see from ZUN... Screen Real Estate There's another way this game deviates from ZUN's usual design, too. In fact, it's something absolutely massive that jumped out at me right as I started playing, and that's the UI. The right-hand side of the screen that is usually reserved for a flashy life and bomb counter, alongside other information like your power, and of course very importantly a stylized logo, is instead completely barren in this game. Most of the things you'd usually expect to see on Touhou's UI simply aren't in this spinoff, but even lives, which are still present, have instead been moved to small icons occupying a corner of the play area. So, what gives? This area instead serves as a tab of all your character stats. As you collect cards that effect things such as power level, damage multiplier, cooldown reductions, and so forth, all of it gets tracked here, with actual numerical values to boot, so you know exactly how much a given effect is helping you. It's a UI that gives you a very tactical presentation of what you're doing. But that's not even the most unusual thing about this Touhou game's UI. There's something missing among this game's mechanics that is incredibly uncharacteristic of ZUN - and that's the score. This game has no scoring system. We know ZUN likes his old-school way of making games, and a good old fashioned high score mechanic is the one thing that has tied every one of ZUN's creations together up to this point (well, apart from the kickass music and oops, all bullets). The complete absence of a score is something so unexpected it that is took me a good moment to take it in once I realised it. It shows that ZUN knew this was a very different kind of game he was making, and that things ought to be done differently. Story? A problem I've stated in the past with Touhou games is how the context of the story's beginning is never well communicated to the player. You pretty much always have to look in the game's manual to find out what's going on, or figure it out along the way after a few dialogues. 100th Black Market seems to address this directly as if ZUN himself has read my comment. When you hit start game for the first time, before even being taken to a level select you are thrown straight into a tutorial level that introduces the spinoff mechanics to you, and right at the start of it is a prologue that explains what is currently happening and why Marisa is here. It's just a few boxes of text across the middle of the screen, certainly not the most elegant way of conveying this information, but the point is, it's there. And I appreciated it a lot. It's not what ZUN usually does, but now it is something I want him to do more. I think that Touhou 18.5 does a lot of other interesting things a spinoff, which I could certainly talk about. However, these are the things I want to bring attention to as particularly un-ZUN things to do. Now, I don't think this means ZUN is going to start drastically changing the way he makes his games. Future mainline Touhou games are sure to stay very traditional, just the way ZUN likes it. However, the changes demonstrated here do make me excited for how Touhou will evolve in the future. I'm sure he's not throwing away scores in mainline Touhou anytime soon, but that doesn't mean that Touhou doesn't have any space to grow - or that ZUN is completely unwilling to take a new direction. Now, I've got another thread I need make tomorrow. Something that's been a long time coming...