#been making an attempt to play more touhou lately | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rabbiteclair · 3 years

Text

boop. new. fanfic.

The World, Upside Down

AO3 blurb:

This Gensokyo is not the original, but the result of somebody's failed attempt to rewrite existence.

This reality is broken, and soon it will fall apart.

In the weeks before that happens, shrine maiden Yukari Hakurei, ordinary magician Alice Kirisame, time-stopping maid Rin Izayoi, half-phantom swordswoman Komachi Konpaku, and living goddess Hatate Kochiya must either find a solution, or make their peace with whatever happens next.

I've already rambled a whole lot about my thought process behind the character picks over here. Beyond that, though: Remember when I posted Flatscreen, and I was like 'wow, the start of this thing was ancient, it's from 2015!'

My earliest crack at this story was last updated in 2014. Early 2014. It predates basically every fic of mine that people really remember except for possibly Dollmaker's Daughter. And, I got about 1/3 of a chapter in before I fumbled and realized that I liked the concept but had no idea what I was doing with it. Over the years, I've attempted to pick it back up, oh, probably half a dozen times? And always failed, because establishing an entire alternative Gensokyo thoroughly enough for people to care about the story was pretty daunting, and then making a plot on top of that to explain all of this was even harder.

My first solid outlines would have led to about a 100k-word story. But, that story also felt incomplete. It had a pretty abrupt ending, and the pacing felt off. So, after literal months of staring at notebooks every day and sketching out possible solutions, I did the only reasonable thing: I made it 50% longer to give stuff room to breathe. And that's why I've been writing it since fucking November 2019. Now you know why I barely published anything last year.

So, yeah. This thing is 150,000 words long. I'm posting ~12,500 words a week and it's still gonna be late March by the time it's finished. With all that length, it's a bit hard to succinctly describe what you can expect in here, but: if you generally liked The Death and Burial of Marisa Kirisame and Teeth and Claws, you'll probably like this too, because it hits a lot of the same emotions for me. If those were less upbeat than you normally like your Touhou, then you might be better off giving this one a pass.

On the other hand, I rewrote most of a chapter in here for a dumb joke about Komachi playing Uno with the goddesses of the Moriya shrine, so it isn't exactly all serious either.

file under:

Yukari being a vulnerable human, and one who actually cares, deep down. But also: you know how half of Yukari’s profiles are like ‘she is a crafty jerk who’s impossible to understand because she’s always up to something, and everybody groans when she shows up’? Yeah. I ended up so mad at her at one point that I had to stop writing for the night to calm down.

Alice being a socially inept nerd in new and exciting ways, despite being a lot more outgoing as a human incident resolver. Because what the kind of twenty-something who fights centuries-old monsters for a living really needs is an anxiety disorder.

Rin being the gothiest goth to ever goth, and simultaneously too wholesome for this corrupt planet when she isn't, like, collecting torture devices for the Aesthetic. And just having a whole lot of fun with this 'time-stopping, knife-throwing maid' thing.

Komachi being that friend who will help you move and then spend all weekend talking through your feelings after a breakup, but also just the worst fucking pick for a gardener imaginable. She slacked off on ferrying the souls of the dead, do you think she's gonna really commit herself to trimming hedges?

Hatate being a different kind of socially inept nerd from Alice. The kind of nerd who brought a years-long backlog of video games to a land of fantasy. The kind of nerd who still gets annoyed that nobody in Gensokyo understands her cool and good references to Groundhog Day (1993.)

in which Alice meets herself in a decaying timeline, Mamizou builds the worst ferris wheel, Yukari's history as an embarrassing teenager becomes public knowledge, everybody picks on human book nerd Rinnosuke, Komachi uses half of her soul as a pool toy, Rin makes crappy dirty jokes in French, Hatate discovers her terminal weakness to aloof redheaded swordswomen, and Akyuu gets to enjoy being a healthy adult for the first time in a millennium of existence.

#touhou #rabbit does fanfiction

72 notes · View notes

evilisk-played · 4 years

Text

LoT1 Final: Character Usage and Final Builds

tl;dr: I talk final impressions of the Post-Game, I talk about characters and builds, and I think of ideas for future runs

= = =

Final Thoughts on the Post-Game

The grind fest that is Labyrinth of Touhou’s Post-Game has finally come to an end. Final clear time was at least 141 hours (I don’t think the in-game timer tracks failed boss attempts). The main-game was completed at 64 hours. I reached 30F at 110 hours. Completed 30F at 141 hours (but as I said previously, 30 hours to be prepared for 30F is way too much).

My main impression of the Post-Game is that Floors 21 to 25 are really fun, bc of the constant rate of new content and because of the open-endedness with the bosses (you can choose to fight Utsuho, Yuuka and Eiki in any order you want). The floors after that aren’t as compelling. Floors 26 to 29 are a blur. And Floor 30 is just so grindy and not interesting. 30F really needed some new content besides the final final bosses (and no, the ‘randomly encountering’ V3 bosses doe not count as new content). I still enjoyed the Post-Game, especially since I got to see the full potential of some characters like Reimu, but I can’t say I enjoyed all of the extra content.

Anyway, it only took 6 years of on and off playing, but I’ve finally finished Labyrinth of Touhou! God, I can’t believe it’s been that long.

= = =

Character Usage

Here are the characters I did (and didn’t use) in Labyrinth of Touhou 1.

Reimu, Meiling and Marisa were my mainstays. Ran and Yukari also never really left that ‘core circle’ once I unlocked them too, though Ran and especially Yukari, come really late into the main game.

I actually think of myself as having two distinct parties: the main campaign / main-game party and the post-game party

The main-game party was Chen, Komachi, Yuugi, Suika, Nitori, Eirin and Tenshi. I relied a lot on Komachi / Yuugi for the main game (my strategy for them was debuffing / status inflicting tanks aka my “toxic tanks”).

The post-game party was Mystia, Eiki, Aya, Minoriko, Flandre and Sanae. Tenshi got dropped super hard (due to all the bosses with piercing attacks) and the toxic tanks (Komachi and Yuugi) got dropped due to all the bosses with immunity. The rest of the main-game party was replaced (Mystia > Chen, Eiki > Nitori, Sanae / Minoriko > Eirin etc.)

The characters I used the least overall were Sakuya, Cirno, Rumia, Wriggle, Iku, Alice, Reisen, Yuyuko, Rinnosuke, Utsuho, Maribel and Yuuka, with quick mention to my MND-build Patchouli (who had the Tenshi Problem x100), Suwako and Sakuya (who I forgot, remembered existed, used for five bosses during the endgame of the campaign / early parts of the post-game, and then forgot about again) and Youmu (who I used against WINNER for no particular reason)

I think I could probably run a NG+ part with that list of “least used characters”

= = =

Quick Thoughts on Newcomers:

Really Useful: Eiki, Mystia. Eiki ended up being “Flandre but slower but also 100 times safer”. Mystia basically ended up making a lot of other characters obsolete (like Chen and Cirno). Just focus on ATK for both.

Useful: Keine, Kanako. I discovered Keine’s tanking potential really, really late, but she’s great once you do notice it. Kanako was great, it’s a shame there’s not many bosses weak to CLD in the Post-Game. Focus on DEF for her.

Eh...: Utsuho. I thought she’d be great because Chen’s pretty great, but I forgot the part where “Chen is too fast for her self-inflicted debuff to be a problem” while Utsuho isn’t.

Did Not Use: I didn’t bother using Yuuka or Maribel. They had the problem of “I don’t really want to use them when X exists” (though in Yuuka’s case, it was entirely my own fault since I specifically went out of my way to make her a Marisa copy).

Honestly Kinda Gamebreaking: Renko. Seriously, her PAR ability is insane. I don’t see myself coming back to her for a NG+ run because she honestly feels like I’m cheating. I focused on SPD for her.

= = =

Final Stats

Before I forget forever, here’s how I built up most of the characters in terms of skill point bonuses. This is more for my own, future reference than anything.

Reimu: HP / SP / MAG / MND

Marisa: SP / MAG

Remilia: HP / DEF / MND

Sakuya: HP, SP, SPD, DEF, MND

Patchouli: MAG, MND

Meiling: HP, DEF, MND

Chen: ATK, SPD

Cirno: ATK, MAG for Main-Game, SPD then ATK for Post-Game

Minoriko: ??? then pure MND

Youmu: HP, DEF, MND and then ATK only

Rumia: MAG and MND, then SPD only, then MAG only

Alice: MAG and MND, then MAG and SPD

Wriggle: Balanced DEF / MND with leftovers put into HP

Aya: ATK, SPD

Iku: MAG, MND for Main-Game, pure MND for Post-Game

Yuugi: HP, DEF, MND

Komachi: HP and ATK

Suwako: ATK and MAG, then ATK only

Sanae: MAG and MND, then MND and SPD

Nitori: HP and DEF, then ATK only

Tenshi: Balanced DEF and MND, bonus to HP, then HP only

Eirin: Balanced DEF and MND, bonus to HP

Reisen: MAG and MND, then MAG only

Ran: HP / SP / DEF / MND

Orin: DEF and MND, then SPD, then ATK only

Mokou: DEF and MND, then MAG only

Flandre: ATK only

Suika: HP / ATK / DEF / MND, then MND only

Yuyuko: MAG and MND, then MND only

Kaguya: MAG and MND, with a slant towards MND

Rinnosuke: ATK, then balanced DEF / MND with bonus to HP

Yukari: HP / SP / DEF / MND

Maribel: MAG only

Renko: SPD only

Utsuho: MAG only

Kanako: Mixed ATK / HP build

Mystia: ATK only

Keine: DEF only

Yuuka: MAG only

Eiki: ATK only

The bolded bits are builds that I think, or have heard, work really well

My Advice (To Myself):

Commit to a defensive build for Eirin and Wriggle. Don’t bother with the mixed DEF / MND, leave that balanced defense stuff to Tenshi and Rinnosuke. Do like, pure MND Eirin or pure DEF Wriggle instead

SPD Build Cirno isn’t bad, though in the post-game they are obsolete by Mystia and her superior SPD, ATK and skills. I think SPD Build Cirno could be good for Main Game though...

Similar to above, I think pure MND build Patchy is good for the Main Game, though you’d need to switch stat build after hitting Post-Game

And again with Tenshi. Balanced DEF / MND is good in Main Game, but Tenshi probably needs to commit to DEF or MND (or maybe HP) once you hit the Post-Game.

Commit to balanced DEF / MND Rinnosuke earlier (I tried to make him an attacker early on, for some inexplicable reason).

Need to experiment with Suika, Yuyuko and Iku. I feel like my horribly inconsistent statting of them is what caused me not to use them. Also, don’t ever do pure MND Yuyuko again.

Apparently, pure ATK Sakuya is really solid

= = =

And uh yeah, that’s it. Done with Labyrinth of Touhou 1. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Labyrinth of Touhou 2 improves on things.

#labyrinth of touhou

2 notes · View notes

freshfreshsalad · 6 years

Text

I've been really into playing 100% Orange Juice lately, so out out of curiousity I decided to check out a few of the other games that the characters are featured in. And I want to talk a little bit about these two games that I played because I’ve heard no one else talk about them and I feel more people should be aware of them.

I started by checking out Acceleration of SUGURI 2, it's a 1 vs 1 bullet hell shooter where you pick a character with unique projectiles and patterns. It’s kinda like a mix of a fighting game and a bullet hell shooter but if you played as a boss instead. I thought it was fun and a great attempt at this gameplay concept, and I want to play more of it. I was a little worried I wouldn't like it at first because I tried Touhou Genso Rondo a while ago which does basically the same kind of gameplay and I did not like it at all, but I might have to give it a better chance by playing a bit more of it sometime. Either way Acceleration of SUGURI 2 is a fun game and I recommend checking it out if you’re interested in games like this. There’s a demo of it too.

I just hope I’ll have more luck finding people online the next time, because when I played I could only find two and they were playing against each other. Maybe it was a bad time of the day, but even if I can’t find anyone I still got the story mode to play.

After that I took a quick look at QP Shooting - Dangerous which was already in my Steam library and I can’t remember how it got there (I’m guessing a bundle). I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game but ended up being surprised over how fun and charming it is. This one plays more like a typical bullet hell shooter with some nice gameplay ideas. The projectiles from an enemy will disappear when you kill it, making it a bit easier to keep controll of your surroundings and makes things a bit less chaotic.

At the start of the game you get to choose 3 formations for how you shoot projectiles and you can switch between these 3 at any time with the press of a button. There are also 3 gameplay styles, focusing either on being balanced, offensive or defensive.

The way bosses works reminds me a bit of Touhou with how they have several phases with different patterns, and even the dialogue exchange before the fight. Though these things aren’t exclusive to Touhou of course.

I didn’t play as much of this one, only played 2 stages but I really enjoyed the little I played of it and I’m looking forward to seeing what more it has to offer.

17 notes · View notes

clockworksampi · 7 years

Text

‘Squeeze’ Commentary

Longer works always present a problem for me, which is why I so seldom write them. They exist in a separate formula entirely from the academic technicalities of one-shots, and it’s a formula I have zero insight on how to balance. Therefore, I took a lot of time and asked more people than usual to pre-read this to make sure I perform to the extent of my abilities. Theme and pacing are the two things I’m the worst at. The only thing I ever set out to do is write some gags and make some people laugh. Every time I consciously attempt to write something with a theme, it just looks preachy. Whenever I attempt pacing, it all seems slow and uninteresting. And I don’t know if the characters I write can sustain attention for longer than ten minutes. I still try, because the art of storytelling is one that is truly wonderful when done correctly. Even if I’m a long way off from doing that. I don’t want to be the pontifical asshat edifying the blithering masses because I’m so much worldlier than everyone else on this ball of mud floating in space (which is aggressively untrue), but theme and revelation are vital aspects of storytelling. Every story, even Touhou fan-fiction, needs emotional and intellectual engagement to be great. I tried to make the theme a pretty simple and transparent one. In the immortal words of the venerable Mitch Hedberg: “I’m not a fuckin’ genius for christsakes, y’know, fuckin’, just tryin’ to tell some jokes. Shit! Who the fuck are you!?” I try to live my life by that shining ethos.

The ending fight scene with Mokou and Flandre was originally very, very different, in the sense that it didn’t exist and involved pocket dimension snowmen. It was changed several times to arrive at what it currently is. Not even joking. You can figure out for yourselves how the narrative arrived at that. I’m not sure myself. A shame, considering the original draft was rather well-written; too bad it made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Fun Fact: Remilia calls Yorihime ‘Yo-yohime’ because I, me the writer, actually forgot what Yorihime’s name was.

This work marks the first thing I’ve done where characters are actually in a relationship. I usually don’t like shipping, for the sole reason that very little of ships across the Internet are predicated upon the canon of the primary source. Although I will admit I am not without my predilections, hence why Hecatia and Junko are implied to have crushes on each other in Judgement Call. As far as I’m concerned, the only pairing in the Touhou Project that could be construed as canon is Miko and Tojiko, as they are based on two real life people who were real life married. Mokou and Keine are a thing in this because Mokou having a strong relationship with a human (well, sorta human) is an important motivation point. I pray you can forgive me for shipping.

Of course, here am I acting all high and mighty about canon with all the liberties I took with the characters’ powers. If there’s one thing I learned from super hero comics, bending the rules and giving people power they should not have either goes over mediocre, or disastrous with little middle ground. Since progression and iteration, and the benefits and dangers that go along with them were some of the major themes of the story, I felt compelled to give the characters a little more. I did try to connect the more outlandish of things to official sources, or give them what I thought to be appropriate buildup. These things need to be sold, and I hope I sold them well enough. But maybe I’m wrong on that, and I will capitulate fully to anyone disagrees. I know Touhou canon is held extremely sacredly in fan works.

That was sarcasm, but this is one thing I do want feedback on. Let’s get into some of the more interesting choices I made for the characters.

Can Flandre destroy abstract concepts? Probably not, but I went with ‘she can, but hasn’t figured out how.’ And I’m pretty sure I misinterpreted how the whole ‘Eye’ thing works. I did make Eyes of abstract concepts fundamentally different than Eyes of physical things, because they are different, and they should be different to destroy.

I agonized over giving Remilia a resistance to rain, but I hope I sold it well enough. She has shown several times in canon that she has an aversion to it, as a vampire should, and is something cataclysmic to Flandre in the work. By all accounts, this resistance should not exist, and I will admit that. However, Remilia has also shown that she has been building up a tolerance to sunlight and claims that her body is not weak. I don’t think it’s so far-fetched to assume that she is not entirely powerless to water.

Remilia Scarlet is my favorite character, hands down, in all of Touhou. I therefore had to make doubly sure she was not given much in the way of favor. Which was a little difficult because in this work she played a puppet master, exposition style character who set up the plot of the story and, as a result, knew everything that was going to happen because of her broken-tier power. She seemed built for the role. I really don’t think I succeeded in pulling her out of the spotlight as much as I wished. Lessons for next time. I based her part largely on Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully and Lord Vetinari from the Discworld series, as the one who commands sensibility with an iron first, can be bullheaded at times and embodies the central theme of whatever story, with Sakuya being the Ponder. I’ll be honest, I don’t think I pulled the archetype off as well as the late Sir Pratchett. Here, I would probably make a joke about how his legacy living on in a fan-fiction of a bullet hell video game with an entire cast of little girls is exactly how Sir Pratchett would have wanted it, but I respect the man too much to sully his name like that.

I think Keine got the short end of the characterization stick. She really doesn’t feel like much of a character me, more than she is a vessel to push the plot forward and exist. She’s somewhat stiff. She has a few jokes, but they’re few and far between. I don’t think I did a good job with Keine.

I am likewise unsatisfied with how I portrayed Sakuya. She comes off as a little too serious, I think. But at the same time, she was understandably frustrated with serving Cirno.

Speaking of Sakuya, I’ve always been a fan of the theory that she started as a vampire hunter who Remilia defeated. It strikes me as a very Remilia thing to hire the people who tried to kill you because it makes your life interesting. Have you ever noticed how Remilia’s two greatest defenders command silver knives and the rain? Makes me wonder if Meiling didn’t try to take a crack at Remilia back in the day.

Also speaking of fan theories, I rather like the idea of Mokou smoking (don’t smoke, kids, it’ll kill you). But I even more like the idea of hand-rolled cigarette over ones from the pack; rolling your own just has a certain class to it I can’t help but admire.

Why can Meiling make rain? Isn’t her ability controlling qi? Yes, it is. However, she is also (according to the interpretation I chose for her) a rainbow dragon. Rainbow dragons can probably control the rain, right? Flandre has the ability to destroy anything, but she is still a vampire, with all the strengths and weaknesses that comes with. Besides, don’t Meiling’s danmaku patterns revolve around plants, rainbows or rain? It seemed like a logical thing.

I don’t know what Cirno’s accent is. This is why it changes every ten seconds.

There are five things I specifically want critiques on: Did I go too far with artistic liberties? How was the pacing? How was the theming? Were the characters interesting throughout? What was your favorite pun? My favorite pun? Definitely a toss-up between vampires not being predisposed to reflection and Mokou solving the Incident before it got into later stages. Equivoques galore! I especially like the second one because it’s very Touhou specific. Which one was your favorite?

Also my first time doing a multi-chaptered thing. Hopefully I got the formatting down on the first go.

#fan fiction #commentary #touhou

3 notes · View notes