Expected touhou to be hard but not this much T_T

[APPLE]

Im playing touhou for the first time starting with Eosd. Between many runs i think i had like a begginers luck and i was playing preety well like i was playing aggressively and was not getting pushed back by Cirno instead going forward taking extra risks. I finished 2nd stage without getting hit but after reaching Hong Meling I died tried many runs but i could not get past Hong Meiling and i can't even get past stage 2 without getting hit multiple times. I can't quite grasp the habit of bombing so i get hit often. Please give some tips.

 

[Idioms21]

bombs

 

[Akos]

Don't rush progress, try experimenting what tactic works and what doesn't. Use bombs if needed. You will fail many times but I'm sure you can do it.
What difficulty are you playing on btw?

 

[APPLE]

Don't rush progress, try experimenting what tactic works and what doesn't. Use bombs if needed. You will fail many times but I'm sure you can do it.
What difficulty are you playing on btw?

Im playing with normal but sometime with easy for practice. Dodging is not that hard but it is the sheer number of bullets is what distracts me.

 

[YuyuFumo]

1) Jump over to Perfect Cherry Blossom and start with that game first. The bullet patterns aren't as random, you can see your hitbox while focusing, and hitboxes are actually smaller on all character than in EoSD (Reimu has the smallest hitbox of the whole series in this game, along with extra time to death bomb). The game's gimmick is also a one-time shield that you get about 3-5 times per stage, which allows you to make more mistakes while learning. Imperishable Night is also a very good game to start with difficulty-wise, but all the different mechanics (Time orbs, yokai/human gauge, etc.) can be overwhelming for a newcomer.

2) Use your bombs any time you remotely think you're going to be hit. Bombs are use-or-lose in Touhou (i.e. they don't stack on death), so it's better to use a single bomb when you weren't going to get hit than actually getting hit and losing three bombs in return.

3) Playing Touhou is like driving a car, you need to anticipate what's coming instead of only looking at what's right in front of you. Start shifting your focus to halfway up the screen to see how where and in what directions bullets will be going. This usually gives you an extra second to two to think on what the best route to dodge bullets are, or if you'll need to use a bomb or not. The death bomb window is too small to do it on reactions alone (bar PCB/IN Reimu), so you need to anticipate not being able to dodge a wall of bullets to use it properly.

4) Download the Touhou Practice Application and use it to practice sections that are giving you a hard time. This tool instantly lets you jump to sections of stages and any part of a boss fight, which is leagues better than the in-game practice mode. You can open nearly all the games through the application itself, but EoSD requires that you place of a copy of the thprac.exe file in the game's folder and run it in Japanese (done through Locale Emulator).

5) Just play more. I thought I was going blind when I first started playing the Touhou games, but your brain slowly starts adjusting to the amount of clutter on screen the more you play it. It's hard for me to describe, but it's one of those things that just comes with time and practice.

 

[APPLE]

1) Jump over to Perfect Cherry Blossom and start with that game first. The bullet patterns aren't as random, you can see your hitbox while focusing, and hitboxes are actually smaller on all character than in EoSD (Reimu has the smallest hitbox of the whole series in this game, along with extra time to death bomb). The game's gimmick is also a one-time shield that you get about 3-5 times per stage, which allows you to make more mistakes while learning. Imperishable Night is also a very good game to start with difficulty-wise, but all the different mechanics (Time orbs, yokai/human gauge, etc.) can be overwhelming for a newcomer.

2) Use your bombs any time you remotely think you're going to be hit. Bombs are use-or-lose in Touhou (i.e. they don't stack on death), so it's better to use a single bomb when you weren't going to get hit than actually getting hit and losing three bombs in return.

3) Playing Touhou is like driving a car, you need to anticipate what's coming instead of only looking at what's right in front of you. Start shifting your focus to halfway up the screen to see how where and in what directions bullets will be going. This usually gives you an extra second to two to think on what the best route to dodge bullets are, or if you'll need to use a bomb or not. The death bomb window is too small to do it on reactions alone (bar PCB/IN Reimu), so you bullets to use it properly.

4) Download the Touhou Practice Application and use it to practice sections that are giving you a hard time. This tool instantly lets you jump to sections of stages and any part of a boss fight, which is leagues better than the in-game practice mode. You can open nearly all the games through the application itself, but EoSD requires that you place of a copy of the thprac.exe file in the game's folder and run it in Japanese (done through Locale Emulator).

5) Just play more. I thought I was going blind when I first started playing the Touhou games, but your brain slowly starts adjusting to the amount of clutter on screen the more you play it. It's hard for me to describe, but it's one of those things that just comes with time and practice.

Thanks for the tips! I know I need to use the bombs but I can't really tell if i am gonna get hit or not cause whaterver movement I do i just wait for the bullets to pass by and hope i don't get hit kinda like a deer looking at a car coming. Practice is definitely is helping me but Im gonna jump over to perfect cherry blossom according to your suggestion. I do look forward a halfway the screen but I can't gauge the distance of my charecter from the bullets really well. I can't anticipate well if i can dodge a wall of bullets or not.

 

[Akos]

Thanks for the tips! I know I need to use the bombs but I can't really tell if i am gonna get hit or not cause whaterver movement I do i just wait for the bullets to pass by and hope i don't get hit kinda like a deer looking at a car coming. Practice is definitely is helping me but Im gonna jump over to perfect cherry blossom according to your suggestion. I do look forward a halfway the screen but I can't gauge the distance of my charecter from the bullets really well. I can't anticipate well if i can dodge a wall of bullets or not.

You will learn to gauge distances. If you do decide to switch over to PCB, you can do practice mode. I'd suggest looking at the patterns only with continues or just look up the pattern on a video, know what to expect and try to form a strategy.

As for bombs, when in doubt, bomb it. If you're a beginner, completing a stage is more important, because you only unlock it in practice mode, once you beat it in a normal game.

 

[iemontine]

Are you using shift to focus?

 

[APPLE]

Are you using shift to focus?

Yes

 

[tori_birb]

There is a video going over how to get a normal 1cc in touhou 6. It's very helpful and gave me a headstart. Some concepts you have to learn like routing, streaming, cut backs, tunnel vision. dodging skills in general should come to you naturally. Whats important is to understand the system and mechanics of the game. An issue that so many players have and ends up in them blindlessly hating on some of the mainline games *cough cough* UFO.

 

[APPLE]

There is a video going over how to get a normal 1cc in touhou 6. It's very helpful and gave me a headstart. Some concepts you have to learn like routing, streaming, cut backs, tunnel vision. dodging skills in general should come to you naturally. Whats important is to understand the system and mechanics of the game. An issue that so many players have and ends up in them blindlessly hating on some of the mainline games *cough cough* UFO.

Yeah figured that most of the concepts of dodging I need to learn on my own but players start hating the mainline games cause they're hard to learn? Seems more like a skill issue than critsism.