Eulogous

With all the L's Marisa took in Cheating/Foul Detective Satori, it's nice to see a W for once. Honestly, I really only care about how newer characters/works stack up and rank compared to existing characters/works. Everything else I tend to ignore (especially in the music category), because I find that most people have the same opinions/consensus on everything and it's boring. It's funny to me that 80% of voters combined never voted before or have done so at least 1-3 times before, yet EoSD is voted best Touhou work, even though it's a largely inaccessible experience (legally lol). That's also to say nothing of the large chunk of those voters who admit to not have played the game (or most of the games really). I'm fully aware of why it ranks 1st all the time (people are voting in terms of cast, not game quality), but it's why I don't put a ton of stock into the results.

Got my voting done a bit ago. 1.) Saki (TH19 did a lot to make me like her more. Her genuine concern and care for Enoko is endearing to me.) 2.) Mike (I like what she's based on, and I just like cats.) 3.) Kyouko (Her power is cool and her friendship/band partnership with Mystia is nice.) 4.) Seija (Probably my favorite antagonist. Also the player character in my favorite Touhou work.) 5.) Parsee (I have weird tastes. She has one of my favorite visual designs.) 6.) Raiko (Her whole plan of leaving Gensokyo, replacing her body with a new one to keep her freedom, and fighting back was cool.) 7.) Kana (This is my PC-98 character vote. Interesting backstory for a poltergeist.) Not entirely ordered.

Apparently Rika is the one who made the enemies on Touhou 2's Stage 1, which includes the Bakebake (the tongue ghosts you see everywhere in the PC-98 games). I doubt they are artificial, so I imagine she probably uses some sort of invocation/magic along with traditional engineering. A human mechanic is especially interesting to me for the opportunities it'd bring to a fan work, given that we also have the Kappa. I always like to imagine she'd do business with them, or share schematics or something. For a type of fan work, the first thing that came to my mind is a Tactics game like Advance Wars (it's the tank imagery). She doesn't seem to be affiliated with anyone but is also kind of eccentric, so you could go either the protagonist or antagonist route with her character. Sure, there's a ton of gaps to fill in regards to how you'd write for her, but writing (especially in the constraints of making it canon-friendly) is a rewarding experience for the creative types.

It ranges heavily. Unity used to have the majority of uses, but Godot has been slowly gaining more traction. There's no mandate for an engine, as I've worked with Unity and Godot programmers. Two of the projects I helped with were made in GameMaker. It comes down to what you're most familiar and speedy with during the typical 3-Day time period. Huh, interesting. Most of the programmers I've worked with are in that same boat. Ideally, many prefer to work in pairs (unless their work ethic is absolutely godly), because splitting the workload eases the process, especially when there's not a lot of time to work with. Setting up a GitHub repository during the planning phase is often needed with that. Designer is an important role that often gets absolutely shafted in my opinion, and even if you get to do Design, you are never credited for something so invisible to Players. But like, you aren't really allowed to be solely a Designer unless you have another craft from what I've experienced, same usually applies to the Writer role for some reason (the Artist usually takes the Writer's role, and results vary drastically). The Designer role is often forced onto the Programmer whether they want it or not, because many times the thought process from the rest of the team is typically: "Programmer = Designer". There are some things that carry over, but I've worked with Programmers that don't want to do game design (it's extra work with time they don't have), and those who add everything in their head before asking themselves if it's even a good idea or not. It's the latter that eventually made me fed up with constantly finding a team to join, and why I prefer to organize and plan out things myself nowadays. I'm mainly a Composer, but I have done Design for teams accepting of input, because I'm still attaching my name to something... and, you know, I want that something to be... good? Or, at the very least, be happy on how it turned out. Thanks, I'm usually not very comfortable sharing my experiences in Jams, but I can tend to get over it if I'm feeling passionate enough about the topic. I know I'm probably not allowed to speak my mind where discourse about them are held, because I'd be browbeaten into accepting the status quo. Being critical often burns bridges existing and upcoming, and makes you the local outcast everyone ignores when all you want are for things to get better. Honestly, I think it'd be neat to work with you someday. Also, the current ongoing Jam just ended, so I might end up seeing the rest of you someday for the next. Who knows?

Hello! I think I've seen you around on the Touhou Dev Discord server. I've participated in these since the Touhou Station Jam back in 2021 (first participated by doing the music for this: https://hakanaiblue.itch.io/exiled-infector). I still enter Jams, but I kinda wish I could be excited for them like I used to. You look at some of the coolest concepts and get wowed by games made during the Jam... then you realize what potential they had will be thrown away like garbage afterwards. Search up any of the regulars who attend, and you'll find an ever-expanding graveyard of potentially amazing fangames. I don't care if that's "Just how it is", it's depressing as hell. Even more so when you notice barely anyone creates fangame content outside of Jams, and the ones who do are already established teams or solo devs. I feel guilty when I sift through comments praising stuff I've helped on, knowing people want more, but the rest of the team already bailed. It's like I've committed some crime or betrayal onto fans, like myself, who just want good western-made content to play. Your Jam group chat goes silent, you find yourself alone... ...Anyways, sorry for the mini rant. Jams are a good way to practice your craft, but be wary because most people are really only looking to boost their own following, not form a circle to make anything afterwards. If your endgame is to make a Touhou Fangame of your own or to help out on one, use Jams for networking. Look for people that actually care about making games not ego monuments. I've been doing this for like 2 years now. I really only still keep going because you do eventually find a friend or two along the way, and that's invaluable even if the rest feels like a cyclical unending hell.

I'd want to make a vertical shmup, like mainline Touhou games, but instead of a traditional arcade experience, I'd want to make it a series of score attack challenges, time trials, mini stages, pattern trials, and boss scenes all broken up in a way the scene shooters break up content. I'd contextualize them as things happening around Gensokyo and its connected regions, and you're working towards solving an incident by having multiple smaller problems. There'd be multiple characters to select for the scenes, but Global progress is shared, so you can complete it all with your preferred character and not have to repeat content. With incidents happening all over, I'd make it fairly non-linear, but have character locked to a certain region (set of content) until you finish most of it. Example is have say, Sanae/Aya locked to Youkai Mountain's region completing content until she's done, and then you'd be able to use her in other regions because she's solved what was happening there. You'd be able to swap do different regions anytime to progress on them, so there'd be freedom in how you eventually complete the game. I'd want to make it fairly beginner-friendly (because think how many times you've seen "I like Touhou, but I'm just not good at shmups"). I wanna aim for something that teaches and eases people into the genre and rewards them for their time spent with things like achievements, or extras like characters, or dialogue scenes (Touhou is known mostly for its characters first and foremost, and it's important to keep that in mind when making something). Also, no micro-dodging projectiles with semi-random speeds and trajectories for hours on end. That should be a lesson, but not the only lesson for the entire game. The Story is that someone is working behind the scenes to wear out Reimu with multiple smaller incidents (idea is to reintroduce characters who'd have a grudge against her conspiring together), so other characters from all over can work together or solo to solve it. I wanna avoid the weird situation in mainline where every character seems to complete the incident, but it's obviously intended for Reimu to be the one who does it. Having tons of smaller incidents everywhere lets other characters have a chance at being playable without having to center an entire plot onto them, and can give them interactions too.

I absolutely recommend trying out fangame development, however there may be hurdles. My experience with the Touhou fangame dev community has been somewhat atrocious at times. Though, I guess it'd also depend on what field you'd be working in. I'm mainly a composer, though I can provide game design consultation, story scenarios, and help other people figure out how to make the "game" portion of a fangame. However, I have no permanent circle/team, so Touhou Fangame Jams become my main method of networking. Jams can be fun, but it can be extremely frustrating to be on a team that regularly ignores any concerns you have, and said concerns are dismissed because, if you're not a programmer, you just don't know what scope or game design is apparently. I still volunteer anyway, as it's experience all the same, and being discarded afterwards has its upsides too. Huge downside is that the work period is always only like 3-4 Days of game development time, and that Jams are the only time most people seem interested in actually making fangame content (I want to help with projects outside of Jams, but they like never happen). Speaking of Jams, there's an upcoming one starting around September 1st. It's a chance to test out some concepts I had for a shmup fangame if things go well, or at least gauge interest in said concepts. If not, I'll probably be some other team's composer.

Oh hey that was me lol The shop angle is pretty spot on with one of the concepts I had. Mike, being a merchant inherently suggests responsibilities and goals that aren't explicitly shown. Knowing how to take inventory, setting prices, having a personality to make a sale, etc. Her stock must have come from somewhere, so that opens doors. What she's based on is a symbol of fortune, so it's not really a stretch to assume humans wouldn't outright fear her. For some reason, the people I meet need like a huge dedicated chapter in a print work for a character, or be playable in a game to even be worth considering in anything. The main idea is to pioneer something with a character, to attempt to get others to understand what you see in them. It's a popularity feedback loop. Ex. Aya appears in something = more exposure = more chances to leave an impression = more people willing to use her in things, repeat. As someone who composes music and helps on fan projects, it feels really stagnant when I always get requested to make stuff for the same pool of characters over and over. It's absolutely character fatigue for me in that area. I often make suggestions to try something new, and I get lectured on why using any minor relatively unpopular character is not worth the effort... until another person/circle elsewhere does something with said character that becomes popular, and suddenly we loved them the entire time, and appreciate the effort and dedication to said character. Same, though I lean more towards Shinki. Makai is established in Windows and visited in UFO, and outside that the many games it appeared in suggests a huge magical dimension with scenery and locales with no equivalent in Gensokyo. Yumemi is a teacher from the outside world, so there could be interactions with Sumireko or Sanae. A random thought I had once was her being a substitute teacher in a village school. I'd really only like Mima to come back to see how her apprentice has come along in her absence. Marisa need something new besides jobbing for Reimu. I can't really say that Mima isn't important, since she appears in 4 of 5 PC-98 games, 2 of which are playable. Her fans can definitely be annoying, but the people who constantly dunk on her fans can be worse. It paints the picture that all PC-98 fans only want Mima and are insane.

Outside of maybe some minor glitches (apparently Yachie can despawn lasers with her charge), it's unlikely that any of the major complaints I've seen around will be addressed.

Recently played through Mystic Square and felt like doing a cover of one of my favorite tracks.

Suika's portrait art doesn't read as her, she's way too blonde. I avoided adding my art complaints onto the list, since I was afraid criticizing ZUN art might get me burned at the stake for how iconic it generally is (also the list started getting long-winded). Sanae looks off, Saki and Orin's posing both look awkward, and Tsukasa's art seems worse (it's the ears) and it hasn't even been that long since she was introduced. Man, the PC-98 ending CGs are leaps and bounds better than Window's CGs. I don't understand why the line art in Window's CGs is purposely made worse, and nowadays instead of color, it's just layered over some random wallpaper-looking background. The lack of Keiki really bothers me. She answered the call of the Human Spirits in the Animal Realm, gave them physical Haniwa bodies that prevented the Animal Spirits from harming them, and generally had those Human's interests in mind. So, if the Animal Spirits and their leaders are becoming a threat to Gensokyo, wouldn't it make sense for her to want to protect the Humans on the surface, from foes she's already fought? Heck, she could even send Mayumi on her behalf, since at least she'd be immune to any attacks by Spirits and can't be fatigued. I think a chunk of the character roster only exists as it does to shoehorn specific animal reps for an overarching theme. Though, why 2 foxes? I've asked myself the same question for a while. I feel like there are people nowadays that just accept mediocrity from series they are attached to, even if it's glory days have long since passed (I have a few friends who still buy Pokemon games on launch despite the quality dropping off a cliff and them knowing it). It doesn't help that I think the fandom over here can be toxically positive about anything Touhou-related, to the point where we just don't talk about quality... or they just politely shun you by ignoring your existence. My alternate take would be that they got a free game with their $15 CD. I'd say that's likely. I hate the "nothing" reviews on Steam, and it's the same for fangames too. I read negative reviews, because often times that person is passionate about the things they like, want it to improve, and can elaborate. Someone I know bought Genso Wanderer because of the wave of positive reviews, claiming it was like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It wasn't, they were turned off by the overbearing enemies resetting any progress by destroying their items, and felt that they were lied to. They hated the experience.

I like Lily White, she's cute and doesn't come off as a one-note prank monster like some of the other fairies do. I also like the headcanon of her not getting along with Letty, as Winter represents death, and Spring represents life. Her relation to spring might have her getting along with someone like Yuuka, too.

I'm very mixed on TH19, leaning more towards negative on it. I like some of the new ideas in the gameplay, but the game design is not that great. Some things I like: The extendable graze barrier mechanic from 18.5 is back. I like how it's used to slow down bullets and freeze spirits. The charge attack being mapped to a different key is an improvement, as now I don't have to mash to fire normally. A system like that worked better in PoDD, but was kind of ass to deal with in PoFV. It's probably just a "me" thing idk. There's a good selection of playable characters, and we have some interesting interactions. I personally like that there are no 1cc requirements to get a clear for a character to unlock the others. The new sprite art is very appealing to me (seriously, ZUN please bring that artist back for the next game). Minor nitpicks: We have a lot of new remixes of older songs, but most of them don't play for their respective characters in Story Mode. We just get generic filler tracks until near the end, with like the exception of Mamizou, who gets unique music during her early stages. Bombs are kind of lame looking. They're all standardized in the shape of the graze box thing. Bombs drain your meter, which I have never liked since PoFV. I prefer PoDD's approach in that Bombs were divorced from your meter entirely. There's like a "buffer" hit before actually losing a Heart. I don't have too much of an issue with this, but you can refresh it by using your own Boss Attack. I started to exploit it whenever I could in Story Mode lol. It's just too abusable with certain characters I guess. Enemy formations are the same from the first stage you play, to the last. Also it was neat in PoFV when the random Lily White mini-boss would appear, shook things up a little as well as giving a reward on defeat, and that game changed the aesthetics on some of the fairies for certain bosses. There doesn't seem to be any Extra mode content like in PoFV. I liked the "Sudden Death" challenge mode with Komachi, and it's sad there's no equivalent here. The difference in sprite quality can be weird. I'll be playing as Aunn or Ran, who have nice player sprites with good detail, fighting against Sanae who's using her player sprite from Touhou 12... It's just so bizarre seeing them next to each other. No Score or Replays. I don't care much for Score in this sub-genre, but no Replays is insane. I guess since the AI cheats, the Replay puppeteering would desync in a Story Mode run or something. I can only imagine trying to get a good Replay in an online match. The Ability Card system feels tacked on here. The customization options they bring are so negligible, they might as well not exist. No Dialogue Skipping. My bigger issues with the game: The CPU being immortal in Story Mode until a set amount of Boss Attacks are survived/cleared made fights boring as all hell. There's no point in it being a splitsceen vs. shmup when your attacks don't even function in the way they were meant to. That design approach being on every boss makes it all feel same-y. Having the large cast of characters is a detriment in its own way, especially on how unlocking characters is handled. In PoFV, you at least had a starting roster beyond just Reimu. I understand the design philosophy for it, as forcing someone to get to grips with one character and seeing how everyone else is different onwards is smart and provides a sense of contrast. However, it starts to compound with the last point, because you have to do the same song and dance with every character that becomes available to unlock every playable one after. The absolute imbalance with the character roster make certain routes even more tedious than others. A lot of characters just feel weak, and enemies take too long to kill. This leads to situations where actually killing the Boss Attack pattern becomes nearly impossible, as a character with no damage can't kill the endless wave of random fairies body-blocking the boss and you end up timing the pattern out. The state of Online is dire. $14.99 on Steam for this? If it were priced at $10.99 like Violet Detector or Impossible Spell Card, it'd be a better buy imo. I try to judge the Touhou games as games first, even if I like the characters, music, and what they bring to the lore. TH19 is not a very good game. Singleplayer content is too same-y and gets repetitive fast, while Multiplayer doesn't work that well and you need to have a friend who's into a niche sub-genre of STGs, who has a good connection or workaround for it. My guess is the absolute state of online play, and that all the imbalances from the demo weren't addressed at all. Agreed. Enoko is my second favorite design, only because the bear traps look too strange, especially them being red.