Author Topic: Touhou 18: 東方虹龍洞 〜 Unconnected Marketeers (Full release!)  (Read 43937 times)

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Serela

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Apparently the full game just released on steam 19 minutes ago????

edit:OK

I'm not a fan of most of the character designs but the danmaku is GREAT (spoilers below)

Spoiler:
I'm pretty sure the stage 4 boss just cast fantasy seal on me
The stage 5 boss actually looks pretty ok and HELL YES GIVE ME THE LASER LIGHT SHOWS
Meanwhile capitalism jesus and the amazing technicolor patchdress shows the world that you don't need to know how to sew, you just need more fire trucking zippers

This is probably the most I've enjoyed a mainline touhou game since UFO.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2021, 04:42:57 PM by Serela »

Just finished 1ccing normal with all four shot types. I can't make a final verdict until I see how the game is on lunatic, but there's a lot to like. Some of the songs took a few listens to grow on me, but others like stage 5 and extra boss theme are instant winners in my opinion. The extra boss is also really fun in general, and I think her survival is one of the most creative survival cards in a long time. It makes me happy to know ZUN still has patterns and ideas in him after 25 years and 30 games.

EDIT:

Against all logic, I managed to 1cc my first try! Honestly, I'm quite happy with these patterns just on a cursory run, but boy are they hard. I can only owe this outcome to the very generous amount of lives you can get. Awesome game as always, and I'm looking forward to actually learning the patterns.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2021, 08:43:48 PM by nintendonut888 »

Suspicious person

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Had lots of fun with the game, got no real complaints, imo it's the most reasonable game in term of mechanics. I personally got my 1cc on my fourth try (kinda rusty, huh), and that was by switching from Sanae to Reimu (got it first try with Reimu), before getting another one with Sanae right after (got potion and Mokou feathers in the same run lmao). Reimu doesn't seem to be as garbo as she was from the demo, she is actuallly very strong now, to illustrate, she CAN kill the yin yangs mobs from the beginning of stage 1 easily now (pretty low bar, just to show how trash she was in the demo). The main appeal of the game being the use of more items in your subsequent playthrough, this game can be a bit of a noob killer, since dying takes away 1.00 power and a fair bit of gold (both stuff you use to buy cards), making it harder to get good stuff for newer runs. Luck regarding the items that pop in the shop is probably something that matters when it comes to casual runs, as you'll need luck in order to find that oh so precious Mokou feather (3 lives !) or any other good item : I only managed to find the much praised Okina door item after around 4 or 5 literal hours (at least) of proactively searching for it in shops, so yeah ...

Cards are not exactly "balanced", in the sense where a bunch of them have so much more utility compared to others, and the price of the cards in the item shop is definitely not representative of how usefull they may prove to be in reality : a good example will be the Okuu card vs fox girl's card: while Okuu's ability card allows you to casually invoke the power of the sun to absolutely delete everything, it drains your power and has an EXTREMELY long cooldown, so much so that you're probably not gonna get to use it twice in the same stage, for the price of 450 gold items, while fox girl's ability card cost a bit less than 200, have a very short cooldown, and virtually does the same thing as it allows you to use a bomb in exchange for a loss of power. There are, however, not a lot of questionable balance desicions like that one in the game.

As far as cards go, imo the best and strongest active card ought to be blue Aya's, since besides clearing and protecting you from bullets for a bit, you can casually receive a whole 1.00 power (or a bomb item if you're at full power), and it allows you to get FULL POWER BEFORE REACHING THE STAGE 1 BOSS, if used on cooldown, and finally allows you not to suffer from this game's massive power loss.

And speaking of power loss, honestly, it didn't seem to be much of an issue to me in the full game compared to the demo : some bosses give a whole bunch of ressources at some point in their fights, and there are a number of ability cards that have something to do with power (for example Mr Hat, the tanuki card, and the previous item I mentioned up top), not to mention the possibility to buff your damage with the more offensive equipment cards.

Some cards synchronise well with some others, and can make strong cards even more stronger, for example fox girl plus either the blue Aya or the Byakuren ability cards, or Eiki plus either Shinmyoumaru or Kicchou's ability cards, or multiple bullet erasing passives and equipments ... I like the kind of games where creativity is allowed.

All in all, the absence of "proper" gameplay mechanic for getting ressources means the game does not demand you play in a certain way lest you get destroyed : you pick whichever card you want to supplement your playstyle, and try to roll over or even cheese the game : for example the possibility to go for a number of actives to try erase dangerous patterns as they come, but the cooldown and the lack of invulnerability frames make it so that active cards are not so almighty



Also gotta also appreciate how absolutely bunk the economy surrounding the cards is :
- You can buy money for free
- Some kind of privilege pass that literally halves the price of everything is available on the market
- Life is objectively worth 200 gold items since the Yama's card say so
- You can buy life for 80 gold items
- Buying life in bulk takes 450 gold items
- For like 280 you get a pipe that can periodically give you 1/3 lives
- For like 140 you can get 1 life and can periodically give you 1/3 lives
- You can buy an artifact that convert bullets into gold items (why is something like that on the market)

Patterns are tough but fair : bullets come from ABSOLUTELY EVERY DIRECTION, but the large majority of this game's patterns do not require having especially good RNG in order to clear : it is a fairly learnable game. Gotta say I really like how the newer games seems to be distancing themselves from the over reliance on RNG to make a good challenge.

As far as character goes, I think the big winner this time's gotta be blue Aya (who, despite the jokey comparison, stand out as a character (she's got a never used color on her even !)), plus a honorable mention for fox girl, who honestly pull whatever look Sannyo was supposed to have much better imo. The rest of the cast's design seems overly loaded and noisy. Imo the safe way of going about designing characters is like having them have 1 or 2 main colors, a few supporting colors, and either hair, tool, or cloth that makes them distinctive, like recognizable-by-their-silhouette kind of distincitive. You look at Bad Apple, you instantly know who is who (provided you know Touhou girls). I'm kinda ok with stage 4 madam and Extra girl, particularly the stage 4 madam (c'mon, she looks old), but I'm not so sure about the Tenkyuu. Personally, I'm not so hot about how Okuu, Hecatia and Kurokoma looks like in ZUNart, but I've seen a LOT of cool fanarts of them that I've grown to appreciate their design (especialy Hecatia, she's got like the coolest and unironically stylish pics), so I'm really, REALLY, REALLY curious to see if fanarts are going to manage to make Tenkyuu look nice in that getup

I think fox girl is in a rather awkward position : she's got a lot of mid-boss battles, is involved a lot of conversation, and is relevant story wise, but not being a proper boss on her own means no character theme nor even spellcard background ... not exactly unusual for mid-bosses, but if you consider all that, but still ...

Regarding this game's music, I quite like em. Stage themes are pretty chill, relaxed and atmospheric (plus a fair dose of epicness for the extra stage theme), and boss themes can be quite intense. My favorite would be blue Aya and centipede girl (cuz apparently that's a centipede ?!), I like those catchy boss-like boss theme with a relaxed and chill part. I was expecting the average final boss-like grandiose theme for Tenkyuu, probably a bit cutsy and emotional considering how "nice" and round and colourful she looked to me, but then her theme plays and it's like ANXIETY : THE SONG so it completely took me off guard. Dunno what to think about the song, might take a while to grow on me.

But what will not take a while to grow, however, would be my appreciation for the absurd speed of the artists of this community. I mean, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtQS8fuOFks, there's already a vocal arrange of her theme

Nothing to say story wise until proper translations are out, but Tenkyuu's situation is pretty interesting considering how gods should work in Touhou : instead of getting powered by regular prayer or the like, doing business in a the marketplace under certain conditions is what count as an act of worship towards her ... like, even a non-believer unwittingly worship and therefore power her up just by getting involved in the market. The way her ability works is also kinda bizarre too : since her power is what, uh, powers the various ability cards, clearly her ability is not limited to the loss of ownership but probably also governs the conditions regarding the things that lose ownership and what happens to them. I think for this game, Tenkyuu and the cards are slightly similar to how Okina and the season doors were for HSiFS : she is powered by the act of worship that is the buying and selling of the cards, and she uses her power to empower the cards that are bought and sold under her rules. Kinda interesting. I have absolutely no idea however what all this money thingy have to do with her rainbowness
« Last Edit: May 04, 2021, 10:52:33 PM by Suspicious person »

Where can I download the game soundtrack?

raikaria

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Here I am just kinda stunned we've finally got to see
Spoiler:
The Chief of the Crow Tengu
. Although she is specifically the
Spoiler:
Crow Tengu chief; not overall leader; that still seems to be Tenma? So for example; Megumu is Aya and Hatate's boss but not Momiji's

Spoiler:
Also getting DDC vibes again; where the primary antagonist/mastermind is the Stage 5 boss, and the Stage 6 boss is more a support to them/being used. Like Seiga was the one behind the Mallet incident, and was using Sukuna who is enough of a moron to trust a species literally known for compulsive lying...


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Those two facts sum me up pretty well.

My understanding is that it's more like Chimata and Megumu were using each other for their own ends. Chimata figured she was going to be thrown under the bus sooner or later, which is why she prioritized restoring her godly power before then so she wouldn't need Megumu anyway, all while Tsukasa bided her time and played everyone against each other so she wouldn't have to do anything and still profit. So basically, a healthy capitalistic relationship.

2J

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I've cleared the game in hard mode with all the characters. Honnestly, I've enjoyed this one  a lot. It's hard, but not that lunatic-hard or normal-hard, it's hard like it should be, at least for me.

There's still a lot I have to learn about the paterns of the last stages and the bosses, but I'm doing fine until Misumaru, the 4th boss, I just have a problem with her second spell card but I'm doing the rest relatively fine. Some part of her stage are a little difficult for me right now and I still have to bomb.
Tsukasa (stage 5 midboss) can be a little tricky depending on the stage and oh boy how Megumu can be hard. That said, if you took Misumaru's card, some of her attacks are a little laughable since a lot of them come from the sides (except for LASERS).
And about Chimata....it's beautiful. It's probably because I've always loved rainbows since I was a kid, and I've always loved Meiling/Kogasa for that since they have some colorful attacks and I absolutely LOVE colorful attacks. I must say it was interesting that her fist spellcard was a semi-survival. Right now, I've captured all of her spellcards, but not in the same run. The one that I have a hard time with is "Rainbow Ring of People", I have managed to capture that one but only once.
I've only beaten the extra boss twice right now, so I can't say a lot, BUT can say that, again, I enjoy the fact that this extra stage doesn't feel too easy or too hard, I had no trouble at all clearing 17's extra while this one took me longer to beat it. So, again, difficulty wise, it's a win for me !

About the music...in the full version the ones that tend to cross my mind a lot are Misumaru'stheme and the extra stage theme right now.

As for the plot, I've read a lot, and I must say
Spoiler:
it's really nice to see a new wicked character, I mean really wicked. Seija is like that, but it's more because of her specie rather than her personality. Tsukasa makes makes me think of Mai a lot, the two of them are wicked and tend to sweettalk people and showing their true nature later. I also love the fact that her design feels the "simplest" of all the cast with her white dress and this stylish green motif. Also, I personally like her haircut.

As for Misumaru...I hope that Zun will dig the character more, because she can potentially furnish a lot of details. She was the one who crafted Reimu's yin yang orbs, so she probably knows some backstory about the Hakurei Shrine, we can understand in her dialogues that she's obviously "old", probably less than Yukari/Eirin/Yuuka.

The nice thing about the this game concerning the characters is that it introduced characters that can be somehow "useful" for backstories about some things, Megumu the crow chief tengu or Misumaru. I think Tsukasa will just stay a partner of Megumu, probably like Futo and Soga. Not the thing we had with Tewi for exemple when, she appears a lot in the lore of touhou.

Anyway, like 17, I've enjoyed this game a lot, I was fully surprised since the demo didn't really charmed me at the time, but the full game feels really great. I think I might like this one more than 17 on some aspects.(also the fact that it's not flashy because seriously, beasts coming from everywhere + flashy shoot is a pain for me in 17, at least we have a patch for that to  reduce the visuals...)
« Last Edit: May 09, 2021, 11:26:22 AM by Maron »

Regarding the comment about the stage 4 boss above, Misumaru is apparently based on Ame no Akarutama, a god from the Kojiki that participated in some of the legends surrounding Amaterasu. So it's safe to say despite being a stage 4 boss she is far older and presumably more powerful than she displayed in her boss fight (and she is already quite a challenging stage 4 boss). She's definitely the biggest question mark of this game, and I get the sense we have not seen the last of her.

Branneg Xy

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Here I am just kinda stunned we've finally got to see
Spoiler:
The Chief of the Crow Tengu
. Although she is specifically the
Spoiler:
Crow Tengu chief; not overall leader; that still seems to be Tenma? So for example; Megumu is Aya and Hatate's boss but not Momiji's

Spoiler:
Also getting DDC vibes again; where the primary antagonist/mastermind is the Stage 5 boss, and the Stage 6 boss is more a support to them/being used. Like Seiga was the one behind the Mallet incident, and was using Sukuna who is enough of a moron to trust a species literally known for compulsive lying...

Specifically, " Megumu Iizunnamaru " https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Megumu_Iizunamaru is not "Tenma Boss of the Tengu " https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Tengu#Tenma.2C_Boss_of_the_Tengu but rather a " Dai Tengu/Great Tengu Crow Boss "https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Tengu#Great_Tengu",even more specifically in her Unconnected Marketeers - omake.txt :

" ... One of the Great Tengu who live near the mountain's peak.
Tengu society is vertically-oriented, with Great Tengu corresponding to a mid-ranking boss.
As such, they can give orders to (ALL) regular tengu as well. The Great Tengu's orders are absolute.
They can give orders to other mountain-dwelling youkai as well... but in that case, some tend to disobey the orders"."
However there could also be disagreements between Great tengu and Regular Tengu such as Hatate's Suspicions and Complaining during Double Spoiler about their conduct about "eventual encounters with Oni and dealings with Kanako&Suwako(and viceversa)".

About Mastermind(s)
Spoiler:
It turns out that,story-dialogues explained and omake.text explained /,the " Original Mastermind-Culprit" is https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Megumu_Iizunamaru ,while the " Opposing Mastermind-Culprit" is https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Chimata_Tenkyuu is  , a case of "Both Support/Right-Hand Woman for Megumu but also an "Exacerbating Factor" is https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Tsukasa_Kudamaki  ",  the " Supportive & Used One ( mainly by Megumu but ,indirectly through her orders, also by Kudamaki and ,indirectly through their 'business plan',also by Tenkyuu) "   is https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Momoyo_Himemushi

About Tsukasa (Midboss of Stages 5-6-Extra)
Spoiler:
  Her"Wicked Side" seems to come from her "Youkai Nature as a Kuda-Gitsune" but passable enough to be kept as "Reliable Right Hand-Woman by a Great Tengu(Megumu" https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Tsukasa_Kudamaki


« Last Edit: May 19, 2021, 04:53:51 PM by Branneg Xy »
1.+This Real Photo "... and the WORD became Flesh", had been shoot by a Modern-Time Desert Father(Desertic Catholic Christian Community Monk+Ascetic) during THE HOLIEST CONSECRATION-MASS:The HOLIEST FAMILY of NAZARETH ALWAYS MYSTICALLY EVER-PRESENT and with ALSO THE CRISTCHILD BLESSING-https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm#section3 , in EVERY HOLIEST MASS-HOST CONSECRATION BY the Ordanied PRIEST(S).
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3.Youtube Channel/half-collections/half-references :
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Branneg Xy

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 " 東方虹龍洞 " Video-Tag Search about  " Touhou Unconnected Markeeters " on NicoNico douga  https://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/%E6%9D%B1%E6%96%B9%E8%99%B9%E9%BE%8D%E6%B4%9.
1.+This Real Photo "... and the WORD became Flesh", had been shoot by a Modern-Time Desert Father(Desertic Catholic Christian Community Monk+Ascetic) during THE HOLIEST CONSECRATION-MASS:The HOLIEST FAMILY of NAZARETH ALWAYS MYSTICALLY EVER-PRESENT and with ALSO THE CRISTCHILD BLESSING-https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm#section3 , in EVERY HOLIEST MASS-HOST CONSECRATION BY the Ordanied PRIEST(S).
2(++RECOMMENDED+++) https://adoration.tyburnconvent.org.uk -https://tyburnconvent.org.uk
3.Youtube Channel/half-collections/half-references :
" FRA ALU BI Darcanix "

Tengukami

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This game is dope.

And the translators have their work cut out for them, that's for sure.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."