About My Experience With Touhou Gouyoku Ibun (Sunken Fossil World)...

[SateriCat17]

Gouyoku Ibun is a pretty interesting Touhou game to me.
The game's artstyle is among my absolute favorites out of nearly all the official Touhou works, it's story is interesting, I like the music, and the unique and unexpected playable character cast is very intriguing.
I'd even go so far as to call it my favorite Touhou fighting game (something both AoCF and SWR already take the top two spots for), if it weren't for this game's gameplay...
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good with the Touhou fighting games. In regards to the story mode of these games especially, I struggle at them possibly even more than I do with the mainline games.
But Gouyoku Ibun is on a whole other level...
I've had such a hard time playing this game just at the beginning with Reimu, that it almost literally pains me to play it. I've been stuck at Yuugi for who knows how long, because the damn barrier break doesn't last for long enough at all.
The characters also seem to wallop you faster than probably a fully trained marine would...
I'm not even sure this game is POSSIBLE for me to play as a result of it's outrageously hard gameplay.
I'd really want to play this game more, but it just seems impossible.
Does this game have a full unlock code or something, or at least could someone maybe give me some form of tips? (Probably wouldn't help at all though.)
And don't tell me to just "git good" either, as while with the other Touhou games (including the fighting games), I've made immense amounts of progress (and despite me still sucking at them), with this game, I always just get beaten down again and again by Yuugi.
This is all just with Reimu, and just on the third boss as well. From what I've looked into, this game seems to get ever harder as it goes on.
Should I consider this game as just not worth it to play and give up?

 

[Mi0ink]

You just gotta do the parry mechanic; panic spam z, x, and every arrow key, while holding down space for water; and then fill the water meter almost to the top and hope there's any water near you when you barrier break them to do lots of damage with the spell card. (Probably don't listen to any of this)

That's how I made it to Yuuma on easy with like 3-5 deaths on my first and only playthrough of this game (or that's how I remember it's been a month or two since I played)

If my 100% guarantee full proof strategy working 2026 doesn't work. Take a break and move on for a bit, since it seems like to me you are forcing yourself to play it. When the motivation comes back, you can come back to attempt to beat Yuugi's oni ass again.

 

[SateriCat17]

You just gotta do the parry mechanic; panic spam z, x, and every arrow key, while holding down space for water; and then fill the water meter almost to the top and hope there's any water near you when you barrier break them to do lots of damage with the spell card. (Probably don't listen to any of this)

That's how I made it to Yuuma on easy with like 3-5 deaths on my first and only playthrough of this game (or that's how I remember it's been a month or two since I played)

If my 100% guarantee full proof strategy working 2026 doesn't work. Take a break and move on for a bit, since it seems like to me you are forcing yourself to play it. When the motivation comes back, you can come back to attempt to beat Yuugi's oni ass again.

Haha. Wouldn't be able to do that parry mechanic.
I've always had trouble with trying complicated maneuvers like that.
The controls feeling so horrible to me is also one of the reasons I struggle with the Touhou fighting games.
Anyway, I'm not really "forcing" myself to play the game. I haven't even tried going back at it again in at least over a month.
I'm just wanting to get past Yuugi and the other bosses to experience some more of the story and to get to the other playable characters (especially with Kanako, Murasa, and Flandre).
Me having a "Flandre interest" currently (my interest in different Touhou characters changes pretty often) is what made me decide to think back on this game.

 

[SateriCat17]

Haha. Wouldn't be able to do that parry mechanic.
I've always had trouble with trying complicated maneuvers like that.
The controls feeling so horrible to me is also one of the reasons I struggle with the Touhou fighting games.
Anyway, I'm not really "forcing" myself to play the game. I haven't even tried going back at it again in at least over a month.
I'm just wanting to get past Yuugi and the other bosses to experience some more of the story and to get to the other playable characters (especially with Kanako, Murasa, and Flandre).
Me having a "Flandre interest" currently (my interest in different Touhou characters changes pretty often) is what made me decide to think back on this game.

I was going to try playing the game again earlier today, but I had decided against it.
My frustrations at not being able to find any mentions of the game's difficulty online is what ultimately made me decide to make this post about just that. But, as I didn't want it to be JUST about my difficulty with this game, I decided to mention the reasons for me liking this game despite my effective inability to play it.