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Reitisen

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Everything posted by Reitisen

  1. Ah the joys of December, and a time for posting again. Alright! Hello! I'm interested in what you guys find interesting in certain Touhou Doujins! (Manga/VN types) This means fan work, not official work. You can list as many as you want, but I'm going to list one series to make this short and simple as the jumping point for others to add on and explain for themselves. I hope that the works you guys add here aren't just pure Yuri shipping and have actual lore and story, but that's for what you guys think is good in a Doujin manga. The series I list is one that is mostly looked over due to the nature of what Gensokyo's other side is, that being Zounose, which is a cup of tea for some and not for others given their works being more on the graphic and dark side. Though to begin, this kind of aspect of Gensokyo also has some deep meanings that I generally don't find in other Touhou manga's, given that most of them are lighthearted and/or don't really push for some story that gives weight to the characters involved or a bigger story that has lore implications. Zounose really likes to expand a lot of things that are found in games and sometimes make things more interesting to get into. https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/last_supper One work that I found especially impactful was "Last Supper," which, yes, is indeed the nitty-gritty of being a human in Gensokyo getting eaten, but it is slowly telling the story of a Youkai exterminator on his last vestiges of a new era in which he has forgotten the fear of Youkai as he slowly gets wounded and eventually reaches the end of his journey, eventually dawning as he is the last of his kind to go against Youkai in Gensokyo. It is very interesting to read as it practically involves a human trying to fight back against Youkais, eventually realizing that their old age and current balance in Gensokyo have left them outcast from both humans and Youkai alike, ending their lives with a journey to the end accepting the fate of the forgotten leading to the new era of Youkai dominance. (To which I'm not going to spoil how it ended) So? Got any to share that you guys think deserves more attention? Come to think of it, I've posted something like this before.
  2. Mmmm, so this topic comes from an old forum idea that is probably still present but buried underneath some topic that I'm too lazy to find. So as the topic states, I'm talking about how you guys would design a game based upon which games you found interesting and would like to incorporate within the dream game that you would like to make. I'm going to be basing it off of Touhou, as the forum discussion was based off of, I think, Touhou and gacha games in the first place with the general disdain for the gameplay (e.g., LW and the failure of Danmaku Kagura in the mobile space). Game Design Part What's the genre? As the previous one was about turn-based Touhou and dynamic gameplay, from what I remembered, I'm going to try and come up with something different. (TBH, it's like trying to turn "cog webs" into this.) Alright, out of the left corner, there is the Touhou civilization game. Yes, I know, this kind of sounds weird, and it indeed is, and I'm going to torture myself trying to fit pieces of Touhou stuff into something akin to a civ game. Gameplay Normal gameplay Hoho, you thought this was normal Civ? No, it's me, Danmaku. In this game, capturing things is based on Danmaku fights and gathering faith. Units and Leaders Your units will have a certain amount of danmaku power and will work off of first-strike advantages (if you know about advance wars); these will make up most of your forces against opponents. While regular units are your stock and will work out as their own attack and capture units, commander units and captain units are going to be your knives slicing through butter. They can smash most units, such as the various infantry fairies, fluffs, cats, Yukkuris, etc., and provide buffs depending on which CO/captain units you produce. As they are special, you must invest some faith in them to upgrade them into a bigger threat for the enemy, as a later mechanic will explain. You start with a choice of your CO from a faction that is very basic and can't do much except capture faith sites, pester enemy units from capturing your stuff, and build stuff that provides either vision or barriers. Maybe some traps, defenses, or special buildings specific to your faction or CO. Map layout Maps are randomly generated but are designated with special structures that you can capture for either natural faith gain or very special powers that can be used once (e.g., faction-based buffs such as the human village providing buffs to your unit movement, health, or Danmaku if placed on top that last for a couple of turns or used as a short but high faith gain that exhausts after a couple of turns). Each map for multiplayer is balanced, but has their own parts of Gensokyo that they must use to their advantage (e.g., Youkai mountains/mountains providing ranged units +2 or +1 range) only countered by barrier units who get less damaged by ranged danmaku or fast units that can evade shots but do little damage. Buildings Capitol/Faction HQ It's your main base of operations; your CO unit starts here. It can produce standard units and, most importantly, captain units. Also, the main upgrade point Shrines Your main source of faith, nuff said Altars Produces basic units Barrier Blocks vision and units from passing through (only affects enemies, but some COs can see through barriers) Tower shoots danmaku at enemies and provides vision; it has variations depending on how much faith you spend Special Buildings Something that is explained with the COs and factions Danmaku time What if you thought this was just civ but Touhou themed? NAH. We are going to have a bit of danmaku in our fighting between commanders and leaders. Like actual danmaku and not move onto a unit to kill them. When you are attacking a CO unit, both units go into Shmup mode and have to fend off, damage, or destroy each other. Danmaku is based on how many upgrades your CO/captain unit has and can provide advantages during danmaku mode, such as activating spell cards against the attacker or defender. Commanders or captains defeated must wait a certain period of time and must be revived using faith. Game-winning condition Enemy commanders or captains must move onto your headquarters and enter an actual bullet hell stage. From there, it doesn't matter where the enemies CO are; they are now acting as the end-stage boss once you get past the buildup of Danmaku forces. Attacking commanders and captains must overcome the boss through danmaku and their own upgrades and skills. Defending HQ COs must play spell cards and create dynamic bullet fields in order to whittle down the attacker's health pieces. This kind of condition can promote turtling, so as a preventative measure, each incursion and attack on the enemy HQ boss that fails but does damage does permanent damage to the boss and incurs a faith loss for the defending CO depending on how much health the boss has lost. (This health can be regained, but only through high faith, so this also doesn't promote a quick rush to HQs, though it would be a death march to fight an upgraded enemy faction.) Choosing Your Commanders and Faction Humans A faction that is very normal—well, maybe if you count the inhuman powers they have. (Starting Faction - very basic.) Reimu Hakurei Starting items: Gohei (Melee), Ofudas (Range) Passive: Natural power: She gains +1 danmaku, +1 speed, and +1 range for herself when on shrines. lasts for two turns in which you perform actions. (Has a three-turn cooldown.) Upgrades: Yin-Yang orb DMG+, Bigger rod DMG+ , exorcism needles Ranged DMG+, ETC.) Marisa Kirisame Starting items: Broom (Melee), Mini-Hakkero (Ranged) Passive: Magician's Might!: Gains +1 speed permanently; can use potions to buff speed even more; lasts one turn; stores 1 potion at start. restocked on altars, HQs, or a Apothecary. MAX storage of 3. Starting potions: 3x Speed (+1) Special building: Apothecary: Restocks potions +1/+2 each turn on it depending on upgrades. It also heals Marisa for 1 for each turn spent on it. Can only be built once per game. Upgrades: Strength potions: Unlocks Strength Potions that provide +1 to DMG to Melee/range and +1 to range, Ironwood broom DMG+, Hakkero furnace Ranged DMG+, Bounty of the forest (Apothecary restocks +1 potion and adds +2 storage to potions storage, ETC+. Humans are mostly the starting faction. Leaders for them are very few, as they promote more simple gameplay with commanders as the starting point. e.g. Aunn Scarlet Devils A faction based around building up your defenses and focusing on upgrading your CO and leaders The buildup of power is more focused on targeting HQs and focused pushes. Normal units are built less. HQ special: Scarlet protection: every allied unit within adjacent tiles of the HQ gain +1 DMG and +1 DEF Remilia Scarlet, Commander focused on wrecking havoc on weak normal units and blitzing defenses. Starting items: Vampire claws (Melee), Blood shot (ranged) Passive: Fate: Gains +1 luck on danmaku rolls against normal units; has a sort of perception of danmaku being played during fights between herself and enemy captains or COs. Upgrades: Gungnir Ranged DMG+, Scarlet Bats DMG+, Vampire's Kiss (Passive: life steals on kill), Red Moon (Super), which costs faith to play. For three turns, it makes the moon red, enhancing Remi's powers. +2 Ranged/Melee DMG, +2 Movement, +1 DEF). Fear the night and protect your squishy units when this happens. Flandre Scarlet, A very devastating commander that focuses on a murder bar Has a very high skill ceiling in order to perform high-power moves. Very aggressive gameplay. It's not advised to engage her when her rage meter is near max. (visible by darker auras and murder eyes). Starting items: Vampire Claws(melee), Lævateinn(ranged, rage item) Passive: Burning Rage: Has a 5-bar rage bar, which is used to perform certain powerful moves. Her rage charges by one when defeating enemies. Rage dissipates by one turn or is consumed by actions. every bar provides a 0.50 Ranged/Melee DMG+ buff Upgrades: Held Emotion (+3 bars to rage bar, making it 0/8), Starbow break (Adds active ability that uses 2 rage) Acts as a longer ranged artillery that does some damage with a little bit of splash, Rampage mode (Active that burns bar by two but provides a +2 to R/MDMG and +1 to movement), Forbidden Barrage: Annihilation (Burn 7 rage bars in order to deal massive amounts of damage in a 3-range space pretty much demolishes any unit unfortunate enough to not be in cover and survive to the point of "close to death") Flan is put into cooldown mode after these two turns. Captains Sakuya Izayoi Scouting captain, moves fast and can teleport. low damage at game start. Has unique trapping abilities Starting item: knives (M+R DMG) Passive: Time and space maid: Can teleport by three tiles without hinderance to movement spent on terrain. This effect can be recharged in two turns. Upgrades: Sharp knives M+R DMG, Knife trap (places a hidden trap at Izayoi's feet, when stepped on by an enemy unit, Damage them and stun them for one turn) Patchouli Knowledge Slow captain focused on protecting and shutting down offenses and ranged combat. Can produce unique elemental defenses when upgraded. needs to be protected if you don't want her to be mukyuued. Starting item: Knowledge book (M+R DMG) Passive: Unmoving knowledge: -1 speed, -1 Melee Damage, +1 range and range damage) Upgrades: Fitness (gain +1 to movement and 0.5+ to melee damage) Elemental Tower building (Fire, Water, Earth, Plant) Fire does +1.25 ranged DMG, Water has +1 range, Earth does 0.50 DMG but does some splash, Plant can slow enemies. PCB Hakugyokurou Crew A faction that is focused on very deadly strikes and logistical warfare with strong leaders. (Boss Faction) (Not Balanced) HQ Special: Dance of the Dead Butterflies: HQ has a zone of butterflies that deal one damage to every enemy unit (except COs and leaders) within its zone of influence every turn. Those with one life are consumed by the cherry tree, which gives allied units +1 health within the zone (stored if no units are present) (+2 range with +1 when upgraded). Yuyuko Saigyouji A commander that one should stay away from if you are the enemy can still attack with her ranged beams. Invites death to enemies. Kind of slow, but death is always looming Starting items: Parting Fan (DMG R + M) Passive: Welcoming Death: She has an adjacent range of death in which she drains life from enemies and heals herself. Enemies at a certain health point die and depart. This buffs Yuyu with a +1 DMG buff that can last for two turns and can be chained and reset until max that performs an AOE burst effect resetting (Stackable up to 3, 5 with upgrades) Upgrades: Death's Embrace (Yuyu gains a +1 to her passive range effect) Cherry Memory (Yuyu gains +2 storage to her spirit stack and can manually burst her AOE) Barrage Blossom (unfolds the cherry fan and turns into an artillery unit); passive is disabled, but she gains +2 to range and +1 to ranged damage. takes a turn to unfold and refold. Yukari Yakumo (Phantasm Boss) (Extreme amounts of bull) This commander doesn't dawdle around; she starts with Ran as her captain unit, which can also summon Chen as a scout captain. Can place gaps in places where she has been. Letting her plan go will be your downfall, yet attacking her early is unadvisable. Creates map effects. Somewhat slow, hence the way she uses shikigamis to do her bidding. Passive: Boundary Breaker: Can place gaps that stay until destroyed. These gaps provide vision and can attack while also providing a quick travel point for only Yukari and her captain units. (this ability recharges by two every turn.) Gaps have 3 base HP Upgrades: Shikigami program (Increases DMG for Ran and Chen while also increasing movement by one) Wandering Eyes (Gaps gain +1 vision and can be another unit (up to two)) Splitting borders (Can create boundary effects on the map that can prevent crossing by creating random effects, e.g. damage, slowness, stun) Gap enforcement (All units within a gap's vision gain +1 DMG and +1 DEF; Gaps gain +1 HP) Termination Boundary (When there are ten gaps on the field) Yukari chooses one gap to travel to and forces closure on all ten gaps to empower her final attack. "You better have your headquarters bundled up, as Yukari can AOE and act on two turns in one turn while doing massive damage. She gains +2 Movement, +2 DMG, +2 DEF, and when she reaches your HQ, you better hope to Youkai Jesus that your defenses are top quality as she starts effecting the Danmaku battles themselves to deal extra DMG to your HQ boss." (Lasts until she is MURDERED) Wrote this as funni brain decided to jolt my head back into writing long form content. Anyways, time to go back into hibernation.
  3. Having played through the game and the rest of the Touhou series, I completely agree with a lot of the stuff said here. It honestly feels like an imitation of POFV, but like a DLC with only added characters, minor mechanical additions, and some removals. There was nothing major in the SHMUP PVP from TH9. I honestly wished that TH19 added something new that TH9 didn't have, but the only things added were the things listed above by other users. Aside from net play mode being borked, I really wish that ZUN added something like actual spell cards that you initiate to attack opponents instead of using the boss system from TH9. Something like SWR/Hisouten in which you customize your decks and launch different attacks towards your opponent aside from relying on your attacker to flood the screen and hope your opponent gets cornered. Something more complex than onslaught mechanics. Single-player gameplay is not so fun after fighting the same drivel of bullets and getting the powerup cards, which don't really change anything aside from giving you minor boosts/changes and or damage. It feels like the bullet battles are more geared towards playing against a human opponent than an AI, as the bosses themselves don't play by the same rules as you do and punish you for launching attacks. I would rate TH19 to be the same, if not worse, than the fighting games. It relies on people to keep it going, as once you have beaten the AI, you really don't have anything else to beat aside from other humans who play on the same ruleset and can create dynamic fights. Without multiplayer, it's really just a one-off game that can't stand on its own legs, aside from the mainline SHMUP and some of the fighting games, which challenge you in actual difficulty/score rather than impossible fights that the AI can just zip through and crap on your screen.
  4. Time to get this off my chest. Alright, this thread has been spurred out of both seeing @CountVonNumenor's thread about burnout and also the general state of the Touhou fanbase on other sites, most notably Reddit (which has been going through a ditch), in which most Touhou fans/internet denizens seem to be downright oblivious/blind to changes or downright hostile to those who are protesting changes which keep the site aware of the users and keep it useful to everyone. To give a synopsis for clarity, I'm going to cover how Touhou fans existed throughout the years and how the internet changed the Fandom from a mostly creative fandom to a sanitized corporate outcome over the years, which inspires no creativity. Some of it will talk about Touhou, some will not, given that this sort of thing can apply to any fandom that exists on corporate-owned websites and not fandom owned. This kind of progression is why I'm giving the outlook a Terribad stamp due to the short attention spans of Touhou fans and the rabid tribalism of people justifying how Reddit is right in their horrible changes which will shoot them right back in the butt. This is sort of the expansion of the forum thread about attention spans here: This discussion is for people who have an attention span. (You know who you are ) Information will be kept into spoiler sections in order to save on scrolling. This is all based on my own opinions on what has occurred over the years. 1. The Start of the Internet (Touhou Fans Eating Good) This kind of discussion will talk about the early internet | around the <2000> s 2. The Rotting Starts (Sanitization and blandness starts) Hmmm, this probably started around the 2008-2020 this is when sites started to go corpo mode and start profiteering off the users. 3. What it is now◝(^⌣^)◜--> ^o^ --> n-n (People capitulate to Greed for instant satsifaction) The complete change of culture in Touhou | 2020-Present Time to act as a boomer, even though I was born at the time in which old forums were going out. 4. Burnout Zone (Opinion on why the fandom is at an all time low for creativity) So how is this going to end up? (Conclusion - Touhou fans and everyone hate everyone else) What are you looking at?
  5. Time for another plot exploration! Future Plot! What is being talked about Touhou's story being in a post-future state in which characters have changed (in appearance, thinking, maturity, or living status/ETC.) disregards ZUN's floating timeline, which ages characters according to when it is needed. How the setting could've changed: If you've been part of the fanbase for long enough, you've probably heard about spell card rules and other interesting tidbits that make up the plot for Touhou. All of that could change over time, as Gensokyo is currently seen as a safe place for both humans and youkai, though it might see bigger threats that could topple this law. Based on these I'm going to create an example of Gensokyo's future. Keep in mind that this is a theoretical piece based on current information with a tinge of dissolution of the actual ramifications of the plot. Basically trying to be loose on official information while trying to be something else for a bit of fun. Just think like Akyuu is writing this. Now time to introduce the changes! The Story We aren't going to take this too far into the future in which the MCs are long gone (that's for another time), but probably around an era in which the main characters have sort of already done most of the incident resolution enough to become somewhat pros in dealing with major threats (something around young to mid-adults 25–30). Incidents around this time are few, with much of the dispute being settled in Danmaku play, but violent youkai are one of the major reasons for some of these incidents occurring on a wide scale given the situation on the outside world being quite chaotic and influencing some of the denizens who are affected by these thoughts. Reimu Reimu, at this point in time, had to take up the full mantle of dealing with both youkai and humans who turned into youkai, along with being a dutiful shrine maiden. (If that really mattered in the first place.) Her demeanor is rather more mature given the responsibilities she was saddled with, though her attitude is still reminiscent of her teenage version. Her clothing would more closely represent traditional shrine maiden clothes, though more outfitted for movement, comfort, and the standard array of accessories she would usually have. Whacking the yin-yang orb and bashing her enemies with her gohei stick along with her ofudas (needles) are still her favorite modes of punishment and execution. That much aside, she still is friends with many Youkai who she deems are not harmful to disrupting the peace of Gensokyo; that much doesn't help her reputation with the humans in the village, who still think her shrine is a place filled with dangerous Youkai. Marisa Given how Marisa is constantly seeking to empower herself and is in constant contact with incidents, Marisa would've probably been on her way to becoming somewhat of a youkai magician given her obsession with mushrooms and magic, leading her to become something akin to Patchouli and Alice. Though her magic powers would probably be on par with Reimu's given the fact that both of them train with each other in both power and Danmaku, Her personality is rather reserved, but somewhat outgoing and upbeat to those who see it from a public perspective. Aside from her attitude, her clothes are still quite the same, but they have been adjusted to fit more items within various magic pouches and her size. Her usual routines are more refined than in her younger years, as she has focused her efforts on acquiring important magical items that she has deemed necessary for her potions and magic. She has often taken up the job of clearing out problematic and dangerous youkai within the forest and paths of Gensokyo. Her arsenal is still quite the same, but her spell cards are vast in terms of firepower, learned over many years of adapting other spell cards to her own. Her mini-Hakkero and broom stick are still her tools of the trade. Youkai Of Gensokyo As with all Youkai, most are rather the types that are good and the ones that are terrible for the balance of Gensokyo. Most youkai try to stay out of trouble given their reputation, which relies on both human fear and the avoidance of exterminators who drive them out of places where they lurk. The treaties of the land are still held as they were years ago, so not much has happened in the years as much of the underworld Youkai are respecting the rules made. That aside, some youkai do rise up and cause a fuss whenever they feel bored or have some type of plan in action, though it is usually the former rather than the latter. Otherwise, some youkai just outright cause panic and mayhem due to their personality being quite prude and hot to those that don't fit their personality. All of them are equalized with a good beatdown or extermination. Sages of Gensokyo Due to the unknown nature of the sages of Gensokyo, not many know of their operations or who their identities are within meetings. One thing is for certain, though: they are one of the most powerful in Gensokyo and keep the peace as they represent the many factions within the barrier. That aside, they mostly operate within their own areas and only convene whenever a credible threat needs their attention. They remain neutral for the time being. Yakumos One of the more prosperous yet mysterious clans is probably one of the most important to keeping Gensokyo thriving both outside and inside. The head of the clan is the well-known Yakumo Yukari, who seems to be in different places at different times. She still holds a close connection with the Hakurei shrine maiden and the magician, which has led both of them to become quite the exterminators. (quite ironic) Yukari's personality still remains the same as ever for a youkai, as she still makes others do stuff for her while she sleeps (most of it being her two Shikigami, Ran and Chen), though all of it seems to be keeping the peace of Gensokyo. She still wears her current attire for work and sleep but has been seen in other clothes aside from the usual. Right going to end that for the examples. All of this is an exploration of what a future Gensokyo would be like in a not-quite-so-distant future. I haven't gone quite into the drastic future in which everything is thrown at the wall yet, but that is for another time.
  6. Hmm IDK. Is this something like if EOSD releasing in 2022, or is it something like Touhou being modernized to it being the recent Touhou games? I'm assuming this is if EOSD and the later games gotten something like a modernized look and genre for the modern era and if ZUN was recently graduated from college and making the mainline games based around a somewhat modern/traditional look. Going into alternative routes. If we take in consideration of all the factors of today and how Touhou was originally based around B-hell gameplay. Touhou might be something different from Danmaku if it were created today. ZUN likes to base his games for arcade gameplay, so maybe something dealing with fighting games and or maybe the crazy rhythm games that you see people playing in the arcades for. If that is not the case and he sticks for B-Hell, the topic choices would be hella different from the EOSD, PCB, IN, POFV, MOF. Especially since that he seems to take a preference for some modernizing and or current issues for Touhou games. Who knows if it could've gone the Seihou route and or a mix of future and traditional given how he seems to partly partake in that during the PC-98 era. This is assuming that ZUN grew up and followed trends that would've interested him in around the 2000-20XX. Popularity is hard to assume based around the current generations trends. So who knows if Touhou would blow up in Japan and later become something that seeds later in the world, or just become a Japan only topic. That whole entirely depends on if Touhou can get a blast of popularity and sustain it, which... I'm feeling might not blow up today. This is entirely due to how much of a repertoire the fanbase has generated for the Touhou franchise which has helped spread popularity for the general Japanese population. A lot of franchises today rely on either quality with help from a company, Indie studios making unique experiences that somehow get boosted, and or easy to catch attention seekers, the later being more prevalent. One thing is certain though, modernizing the entire franchise would probably take on a whole different look and plot.
  7. Alright this is something you all probably have dealt with and talked about. Every Touhou fan has seen that person talk about the Western side being not that dedicated to making Touhou content and or is less dedicated to appreciating good content. I feel like this is part of a deeper problem, maybe something dealing with the way the internet has changed the way most people grew up with consuming content. Tons of content on the internet is mostly just brain food with bright colors and or provoking material (Some edgy crap, and or sex appeal bait) Now here is the point. I feel like Western content in general is burning me out. I've seen everything from the darkest pits of the internet to the general tip of it. Now I feel like I've wasted my time as all of it was designed to prevent people from actually having a conversation and act like mindless machines who are driven by instinct for high-quality short form content and or constantly trying to be a dipshit to others for a reaction and or generally stupid takes because their parents never loved them. ( °□°) ︵ ┻━┻ "Take It Easy!" I CAN'T, GODDAMN IT! Everywhere I go, I see some crappy meme with a Fumo getting more attention than doujins. You know about Rick Rolls? "NO, NOT THE JAPANESE GOBLIN! IM BEGGING YOU!" "We are Japanese Goblin!" "AUGGHHH!" "AMONGUS, AMONGUS WHERE? AMONGUS IN YOUR GODDAMN EYES" *Sound effect cues* "Hey Mister!" "Want a Sprite Cranberry?" STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH" Okay that's all.
  8. Alright going to go into conspiracy mode for this one. I mean it. REAL CRAZY. It is known through various literature and by that point, ZUN himself, that there are some connections between the Sealing Club and Gensokyo itself given how some of the characters are linked to the past and or have abilities of certain characters. So this brings up the theory of dream Gensokyo, timeline wackiness, possible 4th wall problem, and crazy ass stuff. I will break down some various points that are noted of each character for the explanation of the theory. 1. Sumireko Usami - She is known to have some powerful psychic powers and was the main antag of ULIL. Her occupation is the president of the assumed to be current present timeline Secret Sealing Club. The most important part for this theory was her seemingly able to dream into Gensokyo during ULIL. Her being able to somehow tap into Gensokyo through dreaming and the use of her doppelganger has interested me into making this theory. AOCF seems to give credence to the fact that these worlds can interact with each other. 2. Yukari Yakumo - Something that breaks apart the reason of reality. No introduction needed. Her abilities can affect seemingly all three worlds given how her powers can affect all boundaries, even ones that are thought of to be imaginary including the dream world. She is thought to be a dreamer for the outside world, but that wouldn't make sense as that means spirited away objects would be a product of the dream herself and all other people from the outside aren't real. This can be applied vice versa as Gensokyo can also be Yukari's dream that she lives in. So here is an somewhat outrageous idea for this statement. Gensokyo, the Dream world, and the real world, exist together. Yukari's barrier of common sense allows the more easier function of the Dream world and Gensokyo to exist easier. The real world is one more in tune to reality with only occasional hiccups as there are humans with powers. 3. Maribel Hearn/Renko Usami - These two are assumed to be from the future. Renko Usami is assumed to be descendent of Sumireko. Maribel though is not given much backstory, she is thought to be descendent of a family lineage that has the ability to sense something supernatural, but seemingly has no relatives within Japan. This is where the rails fly off the freaking track and into a black hole. Her powers seem to have a connection to Yukari, and shows major changes in terms of power which goes right into boundary manipulation. ZUN, being a massive troll only says this "How should I say this. In the past, there was this Lafcadio Hearn....Don't think too much about this (laugh)". Alright he wants us to speculate, so here we go! There can only be a couple of explanations. Maribel Hearn is the dream Yukari that exists without knowing that she is a fake within the real world. This means that Yukari is in a deep hibernation or some incident has forced her into dreaming. Yukari takes this chance to pull out her dream self into the real world outside of Gensokyo before fully dreaming of a dream self. These dream selves are somewhat true to the real self, but this is Yukari who we are talking about, who knows what her dreams are given her own powers. Anyways, these dream selves believe to be the real version of themselves. So who knows if Yukari has some type of double life and wants to be something else. Anyways, given the fact that Maribel slowly develops her power over the boundary to the point of being able to manipulate it. It gives me reason to put it up as Maribel being Dream Yukari. Alright for my second explanation. Real crazy one. Maribel Hearn is descendent of Yukari Yakumo. Now this explanation tries to tie together the history instead of supplementing the dreams and Yukari herself. Given how ZUN only mentioned somebody called Lafcadio Hearn, I looked up the origin of this person who was a writer that immigrated into Japan and had four children. Interestingly enough, this person who ZUN mentioned, written a lot about Japanese culture and the supernatural. He also interestingly changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo. Which was probably how ZUN got the idea of the names. This gives credence to the supernatural backstory that Maribel Hearn mentioned with her family being able to "sense the supernatural" though it isn't mentioned that if it is only her being able to see gaps for her supernatural sense. So in theory, Yukari could've brought the descent/alteration of a descendent of the Hearn bloodline. Either through some type of border trickery, regular means, genetic manipulation, and or memory fuckery. Maribel Hearn is born with the latent abilities of Yakumo Yukari and takes after her mother in terms of looks and gap manipulation. Alright time for the throw everything out the window explanation. All three of the worlds? ALL FAKE. It is all part of Yukari's dream. The real, Gensokyo, and the "Dream world". Everything part of a stage play. I mean think about it, Gensokyo, the real world, and the Dream world can be manipulated by Yukari herself. Her powers are on borderline impossible and she herself seems to enjoy playing danmaku even though she has the powers of changing everything. Everything is just a game to her, manipulating the border of life and death? Goes to sleep. Somebody screwing with night and day, and possibly ruining the balance of Youkai and humans? Play danmaku with her opponents. She never pinches the problem at the source, always seeing how the heroines would fare against others in some sort of game. This leads me to believe that she is a avid thinker/lucid dreamer somebody who has the ability to change anything to her whims, anything that they can will up, will appear to fit their minds. Imaginations unlimited according to the mind. All of it according to her own mind to entertain and or place herself within. Phew, alright that was some crazy ass stuff I wrote. So what do you think? One of these three explanations and or another you would like to give?
  9. Writing something warmly.

  10. Gotta agree with @SoundOfRayne on this one. There will be a lot of people who are going to try and gatekeep Touhou to the original Shmup theme. Which leads to the general sentiment of ambiguity for people who aren't into Shmups. in contrast though, Touhou in itself has made various official games such as the fighting games and or Goukyou Ibun. This makes me believe ZUN wanted this game to be rather more diverse in terms of genre rather than the Shmup stuff that is usually in arcades. (TBH, I think he is getting kind of burnt out doing the same Shmup every game. Which was probably the reason why he ventured into doing something with roguelike elements as a test.) Touhou today is what I think as a platform rather than a single genre. It doesn't matter if you play the official games or not. ZUN wants you to just enjoy the content rather than stick to the mindset of official things to prove your worth as a fan. ZUN himself even celebrates other fangames and his own fans! So it isn't weird to not be interested in Shmups. We all have our own tastes in Touhou. Just because it isn't official, doesn't mean it should be something weird for not playing.
  11. Hmm Touhou Lost Word eh? I've played many of gacha games, and LW definitely has some major shortcomings which will probably murder it in the future. So here are some problems which I think are one of the reasons why LW is failing in, and what they should've done in order to "fix it" or to develop a new game in Touhou. Long read ahead, especially the game making part. God I love making arduous and long stories. The Gameplay loop and difficulty scaling sucks - If you have played this game, you know how grating it is to grind for some rare event point or the hilariously difficult "Elemental Stages" which have the unfortunate grind loop that has the tendency to fail. I personally don't like these "Elemental Stages" as they impose some BS skill blocks, barrier blocks, and most shitty of all, MASSIVE HP TANK WITH MORE BARS. Honestly I think this is because the core concept of turn based combat wasn't balanced for this game. I mean look at other turn based games out there. They're always some type of skill/strategy involved with the gameplay, there are no BS "Oh you beat this phase of the boss? Well then you get PUNISHED! Hope you have this ONE unit that counters this one skill that affects ALL YOUR UNITS! Oh and also. THIS UNIT DOES JACK SHIT TO THE BOSS! GOOD LUCK 3-STAR-ing and grinding this stage!" You either Ruffle-stomp enemies, or get blasted by OP boss units. Dump this crappy trend of turn based games. Honestly if you seen other successful gacha games out there, they always had a special niche that they fulfilled. Arknights has TD which they explored and successfully developed to become various modes of gameplay. Genshin has filled the niche of open world gameplay and adventure. I don't see a reason why TLW can't grasp a niche and popularize it, though it might be in part due to the development being more on making money on a popular franchise instead of creating good gameplay mechanics that Touhou fans would enjoy. I mean they can do the same turn based stuff, but include better mechanics instead of spam attack button. About the Story - I know that a lot of Touhou fans do sort of enjoy the light-hearted stories instead of the more serious stories, but it gets grating when some random wacky BS is thrown in to advertise a costume. Otherwise though, the stories are either way too long without any development and or way too short, with little to no plot development. The side-events are also like this, random stuff that doesn't delve into Touhou content, but some kind of random event centered around a party, race, event, and or holiday. It always ends up with Danmaku battles, even if the situation doesn't call for it. TLW could've made it a mix of serious and light-hearted stories. I theorized this is due to the Moe-blob phenomena and the general interest on creating the most "marketable game" with little to no effort in creating something interesting in fear of offending people(money). The game literally has the ability to make these stories, yet they don't. Why don't we have sub-stories instead of "events" that are forgotten, rarely mentioned, or has no main story lore? You literally have a character that can explore this idea, so why not? Gacha and powercreep - Ah yes GACHA. Can't make the game without it. this thing just makes too much money, just like other games out there. Touhou just isn't a gacha game, there are limited characters that can be made and creating new characters would be useless as it would just destroy the reason why you would use the Touhou license in the first place. This has lead TLW having to create various alters and tiers of units with the broken ass characters being locked behind dupes and relics that takes ages to build. This has created a feedback loop and made it so the Devs had to create stages that would call for these units. "Don't have elemental breaks? Tough luck." TBH Gacha could've been made more fair, but their rates are horrendous and they sometimes prevent you from pity either from using coins or just removing it on certain banners. Recreating TLW would probably take a GOOD amount of money given how it seems like this game was made to cash in the Touhou fanbase. Though Touhou in general is an eastern franchise as it seems like it does better in Japan. Though I think that it's due to cultural difference compared to global numbers. (A lot of Japan and Asia in general plays Gacha) Making the game - If the pre-requisites for recreating TLW are for it to be a Gacha, turn-based and interesting gameplay without money restrictions for development nor time, and with full support of the company. I know that as you said, corporations in general don't want to keep a game alive if it doesn't make them money, so that must be explored. First of all re-do character models, 3D models are something that is generally explored within the gacha industry, but it isn't quite widespread within the community due to many of them being Chibis or being flat in design. So then, we are working on a project that is supposed to be interesting enough for people to play and continue playing. With the special niche of 3D models, it provides an opportunity to raise this game up from the flat plane to the 3D plane of existence. This means we can explore more about combat mechanics and other interesting stuff. Secondly, the battle system is replaced. In order to fulfill the niche of being a good game, one must have some meat to the bone. Gacha players in general want to be challenged when there is an interesting mechanic at play during stages. No hit stuff to win or some mechanic that is forced upon you. We can make this turn-based strategy with FMW(Fantasy Maiden Wars)/FEH(Fire Emblem Heroes) in mind. In this gameplay, there must be something that makes it unique. So in this, units are split up into ground/sky with the ability to shift between those two forms. Danmaku is a must as with all Touhou-games so each unit can target another with danmaku , though this can be conflicted with environmental design and unit mode. Air/ground movement is entirely dependent on strategy. In the air you are more vulnerable to danmaku attacks, but can move more freely and attack units that are hiding behind cover at certain distances. Ground movement gives cover, but is generally affected by environmental effects and limited mobility. Fog of war mechanics are in play as with all strategy games. Each stage has certain effects which affect units and has certain levels Y-levels to make combat deeper. Though now that part is done, we have to give a reason to bring characters into stages. So I'm going to introduce some classes to this game. This can be generally generalized into … Heavy hitters - Units that move slowly on both ground and air, but deals some good damage to enemies depending on targeting, and has good amounts of health. They are usually countered by long range units and or light units that can outmaneuver their range. They prioritize cover and general zone cover. They usually have some skill that is unique to them moving and or dealing damage (EX: Yukari, Yuuka, Okina, ETC) Normal Units - Your average rounder unit. mediocre health and movement. These units rely on both movement and skill usage, and the environment to counter enemies. Here, the skill usage is mostly based around defense and or attack. (EX: Reimu, Sanae, Sakuya, ETC) Light Strikers - Fast in movement in exchange for less health. These units are usually scout units, exists to provide vision and or charging of skills that are situational. They rely a lot on skills and generally not being seen for ambushes. (EX: Marisa, Rumia, Cirno) Snipers/Support - They rely on other units to provide vision to enemies when attacking. light in health and somewhat slow-normal movement, they are the main support of other units when dealing with enemies and or healing/buffing your allies. (Kasen, Kanako, Ran) Some character sheets that I might make for this would include the character portrait, 3D form, stats, skills, voice lines, I'll provide some skills that each type of unit might use within their type. along with their ultimate which is charged up by dealing damage to enemies. Yukari Yakumo - Heavy Unit - Skill - 1 - Gap Eye - Provides vision in a plus shape for two turns in a range of 0-3, if enemies are found crossing into or found by the eye, eye will lock onto this enemy and provide vision for two turns. Cooldown of 3 turns Skill - 2 - Hostile Displacement - Move to any seen tile from any ally unit or self 0-3 tiles from origin of selected unit, if there is an enemy unit within those tiles, Yukari attacks for 3 damage - Can only transport Yukari. Cooldown of 3 turns Skill - 3 - Particle Wave - Initiate a attack that takes two turns to charge in a cone shape attack from 0-6, The centermost attack deals 4 damage if at far range while it deals 1 at sides. Deals 5 damage and do one stun to enemies right in front of Yukari's attack. Cooldown of 5 turns Ultimate Skill - Boundary Destruction - opens a large gap in the sky and sends down attacks upon enemy units in or out of vision, those not in cover are dealt 4 damage while those in cover are revealed for two turns. Yukari can choose up to three tiles to place gaps that shoot one damage shots in a cardinal direction. Cooldown of 10 turns. Charged by attacking enemies. Reimu Hakurei - Normal Unit - Skill - 1 - Gohei Stick - Swing in front of 3 tiles to deal 2 damage and 75% stun if Reimu is swinging left to right or right to left and enemy unit is at end of tile. Cooldown of 2 turns Skill - 2 - Yin-Yang Orb - Reimu kicks her orb to any enemy unit visible to her - dealing 3 damage and chance stun. Cooldown of 3 turns. Skill - 3 - Barrier Creation - Reimu can select from three types of barriers - Stun, Damage, and Block. Stun provides two stun, damage provides 3 damage, block provides defense for two turns at select location. Cooldown of 4 turns. Ultimate Skill - Dichromatic Butterfly - This skill is charged for a turn. Reimu is buffed for three turns with attack and defense up. Skill also provides omni-vision for 4 tiles around Reimu. Skills are buffed Gohei Stick gains +1 to range for 2x6 area attack deals 4 damage one stun and knockback. Yin-Yang orb is launched dealing 3 damage and guaranteed stun with AOE. Barrier Creation is replaced for a skill that ends the Ultimate Skill, but sends out an AOE effect in five directions depending on the amount of time left of US, damage ranges from 3-5 with variable KB and stun. Cooldown of 10 turns. Charged from destroying seven enemies and waiting 5 turns. Marisa Kirisame - Light Unit - Skill - 1 - Mushroom Potion - Can provide a potion to allies or self in a range of 0-2 tiles - This potion gives +2 to health and movement speed +3 - Cooldown of 4 turns Skill - 2 - Deadly Concoction - Marisa throws a potion that explodes for one damage in a surrounding area at a range of 1-3 tiles - This potion stuns for one turn and poisons targets for 3 turns, dealing one damage each time. Cooldown of 4 turns Skill - 3 - Borrowed items - Marisa flaunts some stolen items to enemy unit that she stole from them and flings one item at them dealing one damage - Enrages enemies and forces them to move and attack. Cooldown of 3 turns. Ultimate Skill - Dragon Shout - Marisa jumps in the air and charges for a turn. During that time a wide range 5x5 circle is formed for the user to target in the visible range. once the target is selected, the enemy unit in the middle of attack gets hit for 8 damage while those around get hit for 5 and receive burning de-buff for two turns (Dmg every turn, can be mitigated and removed by water tiles) Kanako Yasaka - Sniper/Support - Skill - 1 - Rain maker - Creates weather tiles in a 3x3 area, provides buff to allies that are within weather tiles. That being health regeneration for two turns (Plus two per turn) and air cover. Cooldown of 5 turns. Skill - 2 - Onbashira Barrier - Provides a cover for a unit in their surrounding area, this cover provides about 50% protection and status immunity. lasts for two turns. Cooldown of 4 turns. Skill - 3 - Wind god's guidance - Blesses an ally with wind. Provides unit with +3 movement and 25% evasion that lasts two turns. Cooldown of 5 turns. Ultimate Skill - Onbashira Festival - Kanako drops three Onbashiras of select targets. These Onbashiras provide the Rain maker buff and will also act as a barrier in a 3x3 centered on the zone. The grinding loop is simple and light, no need to wait a couple of minutes for a stage you have already beaten, you can just choose and it will expend energy to give you your rewards. Unit level ups aren't locked behind dupes so players can choose which units to level up without worrying about doing meta-builds. Skills are leveled up through materials and provide certain extra effects and better visual effects. The story Now that this is out of the way for combat mechanics and gameplay. Though it is only a light frame-work, not fully flushed out. I will move on towards the Gacha part. To put it simply, Gacha is something that baits a lot of companies into developing these games. I mean look at Genshin, that shit smokin some stuff to get those gains that are super enviable to others. Yet you see a lot of attention towards making costumes paid by real money. Though we have ways of preventing gacha stuffing. Azur Lane for example, easily provides gacha units that are pretty easy to get, but prioritizes costumes for characters that aren't affecting gameplay. Arknights is also one as it provides good rates with easy to get skins with OP that is usually easy to get. (though recently they did a money only skin) I know that TLW has some crappy gacha rates, 100+ pulls with only a few characters and crappy cards with none of the banner units. So how about buffing the rates along with a better pity system? This way, gacha players are more inclined into spending in an already fun game as those rates will make people more comfortable for pulling units that they would like to get and continue playing the game if pulls are easy to get and farm. A lot of the best gacha games out there that are making a lot of money generally tends towards fan involvement and or conquering a niche so much that it embodies that genre. So in order to make the game not die out, Gacha rates would be generous so you can pull for your favorite units and then pull for others to complete your collection. Costumes will be easy to get if you dedicate yourself to getting one, but costumes will be generally paid for by premium currency that will be often be provided by clearing challenges or stages for the first time. Whales do exist in gacha games, and they generally want to collect everything including costumes. Events can be held to provide some extra currency and story elements that are light-hearted in design or heavy-handed in story. Main Story Honestly, I like the idea of having an female MC as it fits within the Touhou franchise. (though not the male MC stuff, there would be too much coomer brain from people who blatantly show their coomer side. Gotta be honest though, they are too coomer to even care and pretend they aren't coomer.) Touhou LW could be given a better story as the main point of this game was for the MC to find out about who they are and why they even exist within Gensokyo. This was obviously thrown out the window the moment when crazy ass stuff that doesn't make sense was shoved within the story in order to accommodate broken units that they later shoved down LW player's throats. Just give a mix of good main story-telling, some side-stories of the main story that might explore Gensokyo a bit, and events that are just light hearted in nature. Alright that's all.
  12. Alright for some context I've been thinking about trying to get into creating some doujin stuff for Touhou. College sort of has been an on and off thing and the image below was one of the projects that was unfortunately stopped due to massive workload Now that college has sort of stabilized, I feel like doing something creative for once. I'm planning on doing a sort of 4-Koma for a warm-up and as a mini-goal that forces me to do stuff until I get back to drawing. -w- If you have any ideas that are funny, post them.
  13. Hmm Valentines day... Honestly just feels like another day for me as all other days are. Don't really care about finding a partner nowadays as I'm happy with doing the stuff I'm doing now. Having fun and enjoying the moment! Though I've mostly spent my day doing college assignments and writing essays.
  14. Alright I wanted to start this as some sort of exercise and sharing for Touhou fans that love to do some world building and story telling! Mostly just post some ideas that you would think would be a great idea and try to explore how it would go down in Gensokyo. It doesn't have to be cannon as all things fanon are, but can be somewhat related as taking some inspiration and exploring it. Here are some examples of ideas that are interesting to me: 1. Exploring a Touhou character's past. This one is for the unexplored pasts of perhaps things that weren't explored and or things mentioned. - How would this character act according to their supposed past? - Where did they live and how did that affect their character and others? - Did they change in appearance over their time living? - What powers did they develop over time? 2. Daily life of a character. I guess you can call this SLICE OF LIFE. Something that explores an actual daily occurrence in Gensokyo. IDK how this one would go down as Gensokyo is a mix of old Japan and fantasy. Just an exploration of what their regular normal routine is. (if they are applicable for non-zany/zany adventures) - Do they have a job or responsibility? - Who would they regularly visit? - Do they celebrate special events? - What is their hobby? 3. Retelling of certain incidents. The alternative theory if the protagonists simply didn't exist or couldn't beat / didn't arrive in time to stop an incident from occurring and or other agents appeared to deal with it themselves. - How would the post-effects of the incident occur? - Would characters that wouldn't appear regularly, appear? (Deus ex Machina phenomena) - Would Gensokyo tilt in balance? Alright those are some example ideas. Now an example story board that lays out how a story would go out. I would be using the first prompt for this. For this one I will be using Yukari as she fits the criteria of being 1. Old 2. Powerful 3. Mysterious 4. Foreign 5. Knowledgeable The setting would take part in probably Europe, Some part of Asia (Probably ancient China), Japan, and then Gensokyo which can be somewhat pinpointed With lake Suwa as a Pin. Let's get started then. I shall be telling a pseudo-history as there is a history timeline, but all of that pertains to Gensokyo itself, not Yukari. Also by the way, did you know time travel exists? Yeah NOT GONNA TOUCH THAT. Writer's nightmare. It will be heavily canon related though. Expect a long read. At some time in a distant past where Fantasy and reality existed all around the world. A Youkai was realized/existed onto earth. Its form was non-existent, but was existing to cling onto some sort of myth or idea that humans thought up of, giving it power to materialize somewhere within Japan. This "Youkai" was somewhat different from other Youkai, it was more meek, more intelligent, and quite mysterious as it itself didn't think like the usual Youkai in myths & legend. This one didn't follow the rules of the natural law of the world. It liked to watch those that interested it and rarely meddled with affairs. It only took action to those that had unusual powers or had a unique nature to them. Eventually this Youkai wanted to see more of the world. So it started traveling to near by China where it studied the various types of knowledge and techniques which it adapted and used with its own mysterious abilities as some form of coverup. By now the Youkai has taken form as a Woman of various identities, not really taken a solid form to it's own liking. It wasn't long after adapting to the local culture and knowledge that it heard about foreign travelers coming from the talks about the west and so it went along with its whims of curiosity and arrived somewhere within Europe. During this time, the Youkai decided to call itself "Yukari Yakumo" given the amount of names, stories, and knowledge and has taken an appearance of a long haired blonde woman with an oddly colored dress colored purple though her outfit is not quite completed just yet. Now with her appearance, she travels back into Japan to establish herself within the Youkai hierarchy and settles around the middle part of Japan. her ears are everywhere, leading to her hearing about the myth of a eternally beautiful cherry blossom tree where people chose to die. Thus leading to the cherry blossom acquiring its Youkai nature and where Yukari sat, watching those old and sickly, die. Eventually, Yukari hears about the daughter of the father who started the cherry blossom legend. Her own curiosity peeked when she heard that the daughter held the powers over the dead, and how it affected those around her. This lead to her observing this person and eventually meeting her and introducing herself as Yukari Yakumo a Youkai. Expecting something of a scared reaction, Yukari didn't expect the girl to also introduce herself as Yuyuko Saigyouji in a somewhat elated manner. From there a conversation was started, and they both shared parts of their lives and their livelihood. Yuyuko shares about her family history and how most people feared her and avoided herself. Yukari shares her journey, knowledge and stories that she has encountered over her various adventures over the centuries. Both seem to enjoy each others company and eventually a relationship forms between a Youkai and human. Unfortunately tragedy strikes, Yuyuko Saigyouji, being alienated and hated by those who she has known by her own uncontrolled power. Decides to take her own life under the Youkai tree, laying to rest just as her father has done in order to end her out of control power and her own misery with it. Yukari, shocked, can only watch as the Youkai tree consumes her friend, eventually burying Yuyuko underneath its roots. To this Yukari can only do one thing possible. Seal the tree and let it slumber so it can never kill again. Perhaps as a sign and her own power, Yuyuko's ghost reformed into the mortal plane, but not without it's former memories and past life. Yukari can only do one thing, re-from the relationship and start talking to Yuyuko who is now a ghost of the Netherworld. Time changes (Probably some centuries) and Yuyuko now has a job from the Yama to manage the ghosts of the land. Yukari at this time regularly visits Yuyuko in the Netherworld, regularly chatting and enjoying the garden. As of now Yuyuko now in the domain of Hakugyokuro. Yukari at this time, is the top boss Youkai of Japan and her region that she and others now call "Gensokyo". During her reign she hears about some information about the forces on the moon and the Lunar inhabitants and starts drawing up plans to quell some of the rowdy Youkai who are willing to expand their reach beyond Japan. Eventually this begins the first Lunar war in which is entirely defeated as the Youkai are routed and repelled by the Lunarians as Yukari just simply retreats her forces, happy that her plan had worked. As a side effect, humans now know how much power she has. She begins to draw up another plan after seeing the Lunarians technology, knowing that the world is losing faith in myths & legends as technology begins to advance and humans in the region are starting to gain more power against the Youkai. This begins the "Youkai Expansion Project" one of Yukari's biggest projects that she and her other compatriots would create a world separate from the real and fantasy, allowing the belief of Youkai to be concentrated within the land of Gensokyo. This draws in many Youkai who hear of this and immigration starts drawing in various kinds of rowdy rousers and types of Youkai. It is assumed that Yukari travels around the world to gather more information and knowledge. This is where she gains her true appearance of a mob cap, gloves, and her signature custom made umbrella. Centuries more, the "Youkai Expansion Project" has achieved an approval from Yukari and so begins phase two. The creation of the "Great Hakurei Barrier" to which will seal off Gensokyo from the outside world from prying eyes. Much debate was had over such decision, but eventually it was built and established. It is also assumed that a generation of shrine maidens are established and picked among the human population. Choosing those that had the power and ability to become a shrine maiden and thus be the "Hakurei Shrine Maiden". This was something that Yukari and the other Youkais used in order to establish a balance between Humans & Youkai as a diplomat. Over the years it seems like an incident occurs within Gensokyo, the first that will happen within its borders. This is called the "Vampire Incident" This involved a very familiar vampire called "Remilia Scarlet" who went and probably mascaraed a lot of the residents before the Youkai had enough and Yukari along with others wrote up the "Vampire Pact" creating the spell card rules which spread amongst the residents. It should also be mentioned that the current generations Hakurei Shrine Maiden was now Reimu Hakurei. EOSD events follow after the enactment of the rules. This leads to Reimu defeating the EOSD crew and placating the troublesome vampire. Yukari seems to now adopt a more lazy approach to her duties now that her plans are complete. She employs some Shikigamis to perform some of her duties while she "sleeps" and or "hibernates" for some time. This is assumed to be her exploring the now modern world. This is where I will end it for now as the mainline games will explain everything else. So if you have any ideas or want to share your story. Fell free to post it!
  15. Just some Artwork done for some animation and pixel art I did for fun. -W-
  16. Alright this has probably been brought up by a lot of Touhou fans, but today I want to discuss who beats who. The characters included will be from the main era games since PC-98 games conflict with mainline games in terms of character conflicts and ZUN himself stating they wouldn't fit nowadays. SRC: Yuuka's Text from Who's Who A lot of information covered will be supplemented by sources from official sources. (Touhou Wiki is sort of semi-good for looking it up, but I will be using official sources from the manga and or official games as there might be some holes not covered) And yes, I will be using common sense if I can't find a source for information. Can't always get the specifics from vague translations. Now I won't be covering ALL Touhou characters that can beat whoever, that will take freaking eons to sort out the table. Just the ones that have a major presence in a sort of sense. Characters that are MCs are going to have wins practically cut in the official games. This means winning in the official games don't count towards the ruling as some of them might complicate rulings. This is mainly to deal with Reimu & Marisa being the top of the power and tactics scale as that isn't deterministic of their actual ranking. They still have a presence within the ranking though as they do hold powers themselves. I'll mainly be doing 4 as each one takes probably 20-40 minutes to writeup and research. HERE ARE THE RULES FOR RATING POWER & TACTICS We are rating both POWER & TACTICS to make this scale. (Flandre would probably wreck everybody if she decided not to play with them first, oh and her not being a shut in.) (This is proven by the fact that Okina used Flan in Ibun to deal with Toutetsu [Brains & Brawn]) How many situations can they deal with? (Basically how many conflicts can they solve. This will include situations they have been in) Tactical acumen and power - How do they fight? Can they use situations to create a favorable environment against others? Do they choose to use their power? Do they have a ally to help them? Weaknesses - From specific weaknesses to literal water Presence within Gensokyo - quite vague, but this is based upon their influence/presence within Gensokyo. Are they the ones that hold current soft power. (soft power being influence upon the residents) Sort of involving both 2/3 as some characters are semi-present within Gensokyo. These characters might have their own rating in their own space, E.G: The moon sisters, celestials Here are some Abbreviations for you all who don't know about the sources SCO (Strange Creators of Outer World) PMSS (Perfect Memento in Strict Sense) (BA) Bohemian Archive. Alright let's get into it shall we? 1. Yukari Yakumo (What you expected someone different?) Yukari Yakumo SRC SCO - Pretty much first hand source - written as a way of covering all the Touhou characters. This will be the most reliable as it is written without bias of Gensokyo's residents. BA SRC Aya - Interviews from Aya from the residents of Gensokyo. Take a whole lot of salt on this one as Aya is known to pick some particularly egregious things for her newspaper, though some information might be true in a sense of peering through the shroud. SRC PMSS though it is part of Akyuu's reasoning based upon Yukari - The Entire PMSS is written by Akyuu's perspective of everyone she has saw. So IDK take a grain of salt when reading PMSS articles as Akyuu records Youkai as actual threats. (Yes I'm getting that deep into Touhou lore for these sources) "Master manipulator, tactician, smarts, and whatever the hell she finds amusing to call herself." "She is the Youkai that has lived longer than many other Youkai around." assumed to be 1,200 yrs old by chroniclers of Hieda's bloodline, though this is when she is first recorded, so she is probably older than that. She is one of the most important people in Gensokyo given her status as a part of the council of sages which created the barrier. Yukari Yakumo has way more than you expect her to be. (I mean literally, what the hell is up with the hands she has in that gap?) Her powers of gap travel are only a fraction of what she can do. Her age and knowledge knows no limitations due to her various encounters with forces extraterrestrial from Gensokyo itself. She also holds the powerful abilities of barrier creation/border manipulation - the ability to bend reality between to set forms. This ability is practically cheating (Her manipulation of boundaries exist in both physical, metaphysical, theoretical and whatever forms she can feel to manipulate E.G Dreams, time, fucking danmaku battles?????, IDK, if she can think of it she can manipulate it), though even her herself seems to restrain herself to the spell card rules, as she seems to enjoy limiting herself in a fight. That is if she isn't cheated of something. (Impossible Spell Card) She herself primarily relies on her various connections and her shikigamis to do her "dirty work" as a way of spying and communications, but it's mostly her off-loading her duties and sleeping during the day. (Something she seems to enjoy doing, even if Gensokyo's residents aren't happy about her playing around.) Her status and history as a sage of Gensokyo is well known to the residents of Gensokyo. To humans, she is the first Youkai that comes to mind when describing Youkai. To Youkai, she is the top of the top and should be feared if you step out of line. She is sometimes seen around various locations, but never to fight unless provoked. Probably one of her main allies is the Hakurei family itself, even though she is a Youkai, she holds a lot of power and standing over Gensokyo through the use of Reimu acting as a human force rather than a Youkai force. Acting as a way of balancing both human and Youkais, her main beating stick as to say. (Manipulating sides seems to be her forte) It is assumed that Yukari has indeed worked with previous generations of Hakurei Maidens as she herself watches over the generations that come and go. I don't even think Yukari is a "Youkai" Youkai in the first place, her abilities are way too drastic and can change her image to anything else. She might be an interdimensional horror from the 4th dimension for all we know. she even backs it up with her quote in IMP stating that even killing her won't stop her from utterly demolishing you. This is way she is the first on the power scale. Her powers and tactics way exceed other gods, Youkai, human, and whatever else. She herself holds Gensokyo within her grasp of her own thoughts and powers. She uses her own allies and minions to exert more control for her own downfalls or simply laziness. She is simply the best in Gensokyo. 2. Okina Matara (Why is it always the blondes?) SCO Okina SCO Interview, not a lot of sources for this one, so it would be short. (for my sanity) "The god of your life." "The Backdoor god." "Gensokyo's hidden god." Her powers can create, manipulate or empower many of Gensokyo's residents. She is also one of Gensokyo's sages that have remained hidden for some time. She is also assumed to be older than the history of Gensokyo itself. Okina is what one can think of Yukari, but less mysterious and more prideful than most. She herself holds Gensokyo to a high degree and will do whatever to maintain the peace. (Events from Ibun, HSIFS) Her powers can create and empower Youkai. (Cirno being tanned and all powered up) Her ability to manipulate seasons/life energy is also something to note as she can freely manipulate it without help of others. With this, she claims that she herself is enough to make Gensokyo with her powers alone. She can also manipulate mental energy as the heroines couldn't beat her at first and can only face her in the extra stage with some amnesia during their fight with story Okina. Though this is not explored upon, it might be much more powerful depending on how much she exerts her power. She seems to have much more fighting prowess than most bosses in general, as she can manipulate the characters easily with the backdoors to her advantage. Not much about weaknesses are known. Her minions are Mai and Satono. These characters seem to only obey Okina's will and have no memory of what their former lives were, they hold some powers over life and mental energy from their master and perform her duty within Gensokyo. She is fairly new to Gensokyo, but has made a huge debut to the population as a way of announcing her own arrival to the scene. I'm also assuming Okina has a better IQ than most residents of Gensokyo given her backstory, her own prideful nature, and the events of Ibun. She herself also knows and talks with Yukari as some sort of equal standing. Though this is short (this isn't short at all LOL), Okina will remain second due to her power of manipulating life and mental energy. Though she isn't that big of a master planner. She holds specific aspects that remain powerful to her ability as a dutiful protector of Gensokyo. Her own IQ is probably at par with Yukari given the amount of time she has experienced, and her way of planning and dealing with incidents at hand. She is probably one of Gensokyo's true gods. 3. Reimu Hakurei (Main Character Moment) SCO Reimu BA Reimu PMS Reimu "The Shrine Maiden of Paradise" "Incident Resolver" "Hakurei Maiden" "She will beat you up before asking questions" Reimu Hakurei is depicted though a lot of media. Her age is assumed to be around 20 - 30, but time is all kinds of screwed up within Gensokyo and who knows if being the Hakurei Maiden comes with some beauty and youth benefits. (I mean even the Yin-Yang Orb provides some weird powers for Reimu to use) SRC Reimu Hakurei holds a lot of abilities as the "Hakurei Shrine Maiden" her abilities allow her to "fly" and her occupation/"bloodline" allowing her to manipulate the Hakurei orb and perform easy Youkai extermination. (not much is known about how the Hakurei Maiden is chosen, though Aya did mention in "Silent Sinner in Blue" that the Hakurei Shrine Maiden was mostly found. How they determine who's the maiden is not known.) She is also well versed in barrier techniques and plays around with a lot of her equipment, Ofuda, Yin-Yang Orbs, Gohei, or the purification needles. She mostly attacks with a combination of Ofuda attacks, Gohei swings, barrier manipulation and some good ole melee combat and a spell card to seal off opponents as a finisher. Her tactical acumen within fights is mostly supported by her allies. (Yukari, and or others) She herself is mostly a fight first, talk later fighter in which if she thinks you are an enemy, be prepared to fight. She is usually the glass cannon but without the glass and a giant gohei stick being bashed to your face. Though this is if she is in her "incident mode". Her regular mode is mostly her in the regular shrine maiden mode in which she exhibits human qualities and a easygoing nature. Speaking of allies, Reimu seems to have a wide array of powerful friends that visit or even accompany her during incidents. Be it Yukari, Suika, Sanae, Marisa, or whoever. She seems to grow quite a following due to her own nature and occupation. This also leads to her gathering a lot of information about various Youkai and allowing her to make some advantage depending on which Youkai. This leads to Reimu's own reputation within Gensokyo as she is pretty well known on both sides for being the tyrant or the inhabitant of the Youkai Shrine. In other words. She is feared and known by many who wouldn't want to deal with her on a regular day, especially if an incident is occurring. She remains the top of the human scale, but not top in the total scale. Her own inherent powers make up a large part of her ranking, but her own access to various types of information and her own prowess as a shrine maiden has allowed her to place 3rd in Gensokyo. 3-4(depends). Marisa Kirisame (Inherent Power) PMS Marisa SCO Marisa BA Marisa "Ordinary Magician" "Ms. Steal Everything" "Rainy Magician" "The adventurous troublemaker" Marisa Kirisame comes around as the most human of all humans compared to Reimu. Her age also seemingly around 20-30 depending on what you think. Marisa Kirisame is one of the most tactical/hardworking way in her way of life, she sees something that she likes, she steals it and improves upon it for her own use in her arsenal. This can range from spell cards to items she fancies to take and "borrow" for her own use. Her way of life has strengthened her in both body and soul. With the help of her gadgets and potions. She has exceeded in the usage of speed and magic use. (She lives in a forest of magic poisonous mushrooms) Her main weapons is the Mini-Hakkero, a magical furnace with the ability to output a giant beam attack with the incantation of a spell. Her other weapons that she regularly uses is her trusty broom and potions in which provide her power and speed against her opponents. She also can fly standalone through some means magic or some other, but she mostly uses her broom for such occasions. (GFW Fight scene) That aside, her own nature has lead her to fighting opponents to test out her spell cards and equipment. Reimu included. Sometimes she wins, sometimes not. Though this is how she improves upon her abilities and eventually wins over opponents that a regular exterminator could've thought of ever beating. Her weakness is her own way of improving her strength. She does have allies in some sort of way, though they are mostly just acquaintances (Alice, Patchy) that sometimes helps out during incidents. (She sometimes steals from them as both are magicians) Marisa mostly works alone during incidents or jobs as they are mostly her own adventures. Marisa's presence within Gensokyo is mostly that of a thief, (not helped due to the fact that she constantly steals from others) though she is also thought to be a sort of bounty/youkai hunter for various jobs and such through her shop. Though not a lot of requests are made due to the location and general hidden nature of her house within the Forest of Magic. Her personality is mostly one of condescending nature according to Akyuu, but her nature is one of inquisitiveness allowing her to research what most find boring. She remains at the 3/4th ranking as her own powers are determined based upon who she is fighting, and if she has the necessary firepower or equipment to deal with them. Her own personality allows her to learn from fights lost and allow her to perform upgrades or copying from others to add to her own arsenal. Although she is mostly a lone wolf, she remains as the only true human that is powerful enough to go against some of the powerful Youkai in Gensokyo. Concluding Alright this is my scale depending on the sources I've read. I spent too much time on this so it will remain at 4 because too lazyyyyyy. (and I got to sleep) Keep in mind this is just my opinions on who would be the most powerful in Gensokyo, there might be some information which might conflict, but that would take forever to cross check with recent information. See ya.
  17. Alright there are a lot of things I want to list, but that will probably take some more time, so I will list some later when I get the time to. A lot of these will probably relate to your takes. @CountVonNumenor History of Gensokyo not being explored as often - Oftentimes Gensokyo itself seems to just exist within the present without much thought to its history. I wished that ZUN gave more thought to this as it seems like he just erased the whole entire history without as much as a reference to the past events. I know that Akyuu seems to chronicle the past, but it seems like a lot of Gensokyo's residents seem to have no recollection of past events, and or never had it come to mind. I wish that he would do either a reboot or a remake given the fact that he seems to want to forget about the PC-98 games. People in General Not liking More Non-canon/Mature(Not Adult) Works - Gensokyo/Touhou is mostly regarded as a PG series aimed at people who enjoy funny comedy hahas and/or Yuri in general. People don't seem to pay attention to any Doujin-related works, such as Osana Reimu or Yakumi Sarai (Zounose), and or games because they only see cannibalism/not cannon material and move on. In general, it appears that there is little emphasis on works that explore Gensokyo in a way that most 18-25-year-olds would be interested in. I mean, literally, there are other works that focus on this age demographic that are extremely successful, and I can see something like this exploring Gensokyo in a more in-depth way. I'd like to see how Marisa goes about making her own stuff and/or exploring the world of Gensokyo in greater depth. Marisa has had a much harsher upbringing, especially given that she chose to live alone from her family due to unknown circumstances and practically made everything herself. Reimu doesn't even have parents for all we know! How did she even become a shrine maiden in the first place? What was her upbringing? How was Gensokyo since before the spell card implementation and how did the so called Vampire incident occur? All of this can be explored in non-canon works which surprisingly seem to not be as prominent. Actual Threats to Gensokyo, The case of OP MC because whole entire game would be NULL- You know how this works: Reimu, Marisa, and some other character(s) go and try to stop an incident, and it always ends up with the heroine(s) winning, even if the opponent is literally a god or somebody that can literally screw around with space and time and everything in between. This kind of winning makes me really doubt the power of these "Youkai," who can just be beaten by the shrine maiden, who can just whack them with a gohei stick that seems to have grown as big as a log since the olden days. "But what about the Hakurei Barrier?" "Wouldn't it break?" What? You think Reimu is the sole person holding it together? She maintains it; she isn't the one who put it there in the first place. Yukari and the other sages are the ones who built the barrier and know how to repair it in the first place. Heck, Yukari even messes around with the barrier when she is bored and knows how to manipulate it to her will to go in and out without trouble. I have no doubt that Yukari would be the one to teach the Hakurei's how to keep it in tip-top shape in the first place. The only logical reason she is thinking of maintaining the Hakureis is as a form of human power projection and the reduced work load she would have to do. She already has Ran and Chen to do most of her work around Gensokyo. So why not another one that deals with troublemakers and does another part of her work for her in maintaining the Hakurei Barrier? It would be stupid to create a barrier that only one person is able to maintain, fix, and uphold. So I don't see why there isn't an actual ending where an incident occurs and other forces within Gensokyo deal with it in their own way, or where the incident permanently changes something within Gensokyo.
  18. Today I will be talking about an artist and mangaka who often produces the more mature related works in the Touhou sphere. Yakumi Sarai or often called Zounose, makes a lot of works that are in general more grotesque/mature with a dash of comedy spiced in. I'll be generally moving from the more comedic works to the more heavy handed works as I explain each one's themes. Oh yeah, spoilers ahead Red for NSFW Grey for generally SFW, D for more explanation within Scarlet Devil Mansion and The Hakurei[y] Grail Frandog Before the Rainbow - D MasqueReimu - D Last Supper - D Goodbye Beast - D + Alright that is all I'm going to write today, there are many more, but that's for you all to explore and I already spent way too long on this.
  19. I would say Yuri would probably be the most used and appreciated considering the fact that Touhou is an mostly all female cast and that stuff can be seen floating around everywhere you see Touhou at. Just the other day I saw one floating around TWT with Meiling and Sakuya, an often common Yuri fetish pair. Though IDK if that is the most appreciated considering the fact that second most I've seen would be obese/feet fetish that rarely pops up into my TWT feed.
  20. Here are some I made for a project! This was made for a bigger screen Halloween Screenshot That's all I'm sharing!
  21. So today I want to discuss how much fan content from the written categories yawl have experienced and share them so others can look to perhaps reading them. I will be sharing some content that I have read myself from other series in the Touhou sphere, so maybe expect more posts like these in the future. I'll be mainly reviewing Osana Reimu for the main topic today as it seems to be somewhat forgotten by most of the western fanbase. So expect a looooooong post. Osana Reimu / Reireimu by @JoyfulDayo Cute little Reimu! This piece of fan content is often overshadowed by KKHTA which seems to garner more attention from the western side today, though some memes are seen from this work. I would say that the general themes are Slice of life, Tragedy, and psychological concepts. The plot and character of the story delves into the backstory of Reimu, Reimu's mom (RMO) , and Rumia through a non-canon perspective. So basically this series delves into the early life of Reimu [Little Reimu [LR] + RMO [Sendai by fans] and their encounter with a version of Rumia who I'm going to call Original Rumia. [OR] (based on the context) If you are going to read this series, prepare some tissues and a dose of insulin. Spoiler here if you want to read this series yourself (I highly recommend doing this instead of reading the plot as the whole) / There is also a YouTube video if you're too lazy to click on pages [Just search up the series name] (I'll be going through what happens throughout the Osana Reimu Plot (First part)) Reireimu is the second part which I might do later) Alright if you read the entire plot or watched/read the story, I thank you for taking part of the day for a piece of Touhou content that is very dear to me :) even if a lot of people don't talk about it as much today. I'll probably upload part two of the series some time later. If you have any other works that you would like to share feel free to do so.
  22. Okay, this question has been floating around in my mind ever since I saw something on Twitter that showed a thumbnail of Meiling sleeping and a hand reaching towards her chest. You know what people think when that happens. This clip garnered over 134k views (probably even more), whereas other Touhou clips get around 1–5k in general and sometimes get over 10k depending on the content. So the question I'm asking is if the Touhou fanbase is getting way too horny based on everything generated over the past few years. Some various examples of what I have seen over the years of "down syndrome" are: Mommy? : Memes depicting the [insert Touhou character here] as a baby seeking affection.These are done to death all the time, but due to their cookie cutter meme status, they still get a lot of views. Booba: Ah yes, everyone seems to just like the anatomically impossible and weirdly shaped mounds, which always seem to get more attention the more exposed they are. This needs no more explanation. Public Horny: Well, this relates to the proposal at the start. The general "outright bad" syndrome seems to have increased over the years with the growth of the fandom; this can be seen everywhere from Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, Discord, and wherever Touhou is widely discussed or made. These are only the tip of the iceberg; there are many more underneath, which are compiled into a possibly SFW or NSFW list depending on how you see them on the Horny rating scale. The Comprehensive List of Fetish Material/Horny stuff I've seen: Viewer beware the contents within might induce bouts of gagging, puking, low grade disgust [Guaranteed], sad :( , anger >:( , WTH syndrome, confusion, and bouts of other side effects depending on the individual. Contents don't include images for your sanity, but will list publicly or privately seen and shared content across a variety of sites. Contents are rated for teens and up, but generally not adults. So it's SFW Eirin can't save you from this point on. Have fun! Alright, if you see this section, I presume you either skipped or saw all the stuff listed. So what do you think? Are Touhou fans getting way too horny? Not horny? Always horny? Growing Horny? Less Horny? That is all. P.S. If you want to add to the list of what you've seen, feel free to list all the stuff in a spoiler comment.
  23. Ah rivalries, I always thought that rivalries were kind of dumb if they were started over which one was better than the other. Whelp guess I'll answer those two questions. 1. Touhou and Kantai Debate 2. The Clickbait wars
  24. Honestly I feel like this is something that is talked about a lot around the internet, especially with how generations are constantly critiquing on older or newer generations on how they act. Personally, I think the focus on Japanese culture is a good and bad thing, to which I'm going to break up for clarity. The Good The Bad Spread of Culture Conclusion
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