If you could choose two characters to be playable in the next game, who would they be?

[Cosmic]

I say only two because obviously Reimu and Marisa are going to be in, and we haven't had a mainline game that exceeds four playable characters since PoFV, so it seems like a good number of slots. Personally, if we entirely ignore how likely they are to actually get in as a factor, I'd go with Sumireko and Megumu. I chose Sumireko just because if we exclude characters that were very specific to their game or setting like Komachi or Saki, and ignore Aya because she already showed up as recently as HSiFS, then she's my favorite, so there's not much reasoning there. Megumu I chose because I think it'd be cool to have a character from UM show up, and while Momoyo might be my favorite from that game, I feel pretty confident that she'll probably show up in the next fighting game (assuming there is a next fighting game), and if we exclude her, then most of the other characters from that game that I like (Sannyo, Tsukasa, Chimata) either probably don't have much you could do with them outside the context of UM's story, or in the case of Tsukasa, would likely have their own highly specific goals in mind to the point where it'd be difficult to write a story around them that would have them going through all of the same stages as the other playable characters. There's also Mike, who while she is one that I like who could work well enough as a playable character in a new game, isn't really as interesting as Megumu in my opinion, and while you could argue Sumireko's already gotten a decent amount of the spotlight recently, I didn't want both of these slots to go UM characters, so she isn't included.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, but I hope they find an excuse to do the SA thing where you pick a second character who isn't seen or playable but does influence your shot type and gets some little bits of extra dialogue, it was a great way of representing more characters without having to put in the extra time and resources into adding several new, fully playable ones into the game in my opinion. But the rest of this post assumes they're not doing that, so consider this edit largely unrelated.

[Darksymphony777]

Wasn't there something with a seaside temple if that's the case I predict it'll be aunn and komachi

 

Aunn could just want to go and do aunn things like be adorable and help reimu out

 

And komachi could join because of the temple messing with her job

[Cal-of-Gearva]

I think it would be hilarious if ZUN just decided to make all of the meme characters of Gensokyo playable, such as Okuu, Clownpiece, Cirno, etc. I feel that would totally be something that ZUN would do.

 

However, if I were to just choose 2, I would probably say Okuu and Clownpiece. Both of them could have hilarious story interactions, and I feel like their shot types could be really cool, too! For example, I've seen some Danmakufu scripts give Okuu a charge-up shot type, and Clowpiece could have a really absurd shot type that only covered oblique angles but did tons of damage, making her a literal meme to play 

Bombs for those characters would also be really easy to design, as both Okuu and Clownpiece could have bombs equivalent to their ability cards in Touhou 18.

[Queen Honeybumble]

My kneejerk, gunshot, absolute instinct is to reply a thousand times with Chimata, but for the reasons OP already said I agree that probably wouldn't work out too well...maybe. But since I'm not very big brained anyways, I'm not gonna think too hard about my answer after all. So in that case I'd wanna pick Okuu, not much to say but I really like her since I barely was into Touhou, and Yoshika because...I just like her. I have no other reasons for either of these characters other than that I like them, muahaha! Also I said I wasn't gonna think about it too hard but I spent half an hour thinking about this answer...

[Cosmic]

8 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

And komachi could join because of the temple messing with her job

Oh true, I chose Sumireko over Komachi because I saw her as being too tied to her job to be able to do the same things as the other characters, but if the incident was related to that somehow then she could absolutely show up.

 

4 hours ago, Cal-of-Gearva said:

I think it would be hilarious if ZUN just decided to make all of the meme characters of Gensokyo playable, such as Okuu, Clownpiece, Cirno, etc. I feel that would totally be something that ZUN would do.

 

However, if I were to just choose 2, I would probably say Okuu and Clownpeace. Both of them could have hilarious story interactions, and I feel like their shot types could be really cool, too! For example, I've seen some Danmakufu scripts give Okuu a charge-up shot type, and Clowpiece could have a really absurd shot type that only covered oblique angles but did tons of damage, making her a literal meme to play 

Bombs for those characters would also be really easy to design, as both Okuu and Clownpiece could have bombs equivalent to their ability cards in Touhou 18.

These are good suggestions too, not sure how well Okuu would fit in due to her needing to be in the Hell of Blazing Fires (although, this is Okuu we're talking about, you could always have her get distracted somehow), but Clownpiece could fit in decently easily. I really like the idea for Clownpiece having a shot type that's really awkward and difficult to aim with but deals absurd damage too, it's funny, in character, and also offers a unique gameplay challenge while it's at it, great idea. And I agree with picking those two over Cirno, too, I might like Cirno more than Clownpiece but she was playable in HSiFS and got a whole spinoff game where she's the main character, it'd probably be best to give that slot to someone else.

[Darksymphony777]

3 hours ago, Cosmic said:

Clownpiece could fit in decently easily. I really like the idea for Clownpiece having a shot type that's really awkward and difficult to aim with but deals absurd damage too, it's funny, in character, and also offers a unique gameplay challenge while it's at it, great idea.

Hell might as well make it a hakurei shrine vacation. Reimu with all her living buddies having to help with the incident.....and Marisa is there because she has to be there

[sodaodaoda]

Honestly, I want Alice to appear in any way, shape or form... Or maybe even Meiling... I love those 2 so much and I really want to see them playable in a game!

[Tayaya]

I'd wanna see Aya(ofc) and Okuu sounds fun to play. Birds are best Touhou characters 

[Cosmic]

2 hours ago, sodaodaoda said:

Honestly, I want Alice to appear in any way, shape or form... Or maybe even Meiling... I love those 2 so much and I really want to see them playable in a game!

Those could both work. Alice has already been playable in IN, but I imagine if she was in a new game she'd play closer to how she was in SA, with the player needing to manage the amount of dolls they have out. Meiling's never been playable before though, so she'd definitely be an interesting one. Maybe she'd be more focused around close-range attacks, kind of like how Youmu was in TD and WBaWC?

[SasaMisa]

You're not going to vote me down again if I make the obligatory "Mima saves the day" joke, are you, maybe with Shinki helping her out? (^w^;)

Fine, if I have to be serious then, keeping with sodaodaoda & Tayaya's approach, I'm picking my favourite: Suika. I mean, she's never been a playable character outside of the fighters and I'd no problem whatsoever with Aunn, 'good doggo', lending her a hand as Darksymphony777 suggested either, yeah. (#^_^#)

Of course, and I surely say this with Queen Honeybumble's approval, Yoshika riding on Okuu's back like a certain wind goddess does in Sanae Challenge! Fusion would be fun too; a sort of throwback to Reimu riding on Genji in the early days perhaps. (^_~)

[Cal-of-Gearva]

On 5/24/2022 at 5:48 AM, Tayaya said:

I'd wanna see Aya(ofc) and Okuu sounds fun to play. Birds are best Touhou characters 

Birb squad rise up! 

[Cosmic]

23 hours ago, SasaMisa said:

You're not going to vote me down again if I make the obligatory "Mima saves the day" joke, are you, maybe with Shinki helping her out? (^w^;)

I did say ignoring how likely they are to get in as a factor, so there's technically nothing wrong with this idea, even if it is a weird one.

23 hours ago, SasaMisa said:

Fine, if I have to be serious then, keeping with sodaodaoda & Tayaya's approach, I'm picking my favourite: Suika. I mean, she's never been a playable character outside of the fighters and I'd no problem whatsoever with Aunn, 'good doggo', lending her a hand as Darksymphony777 suggested either, yeah.

Playable Suika makes me think of her having an extremely busted shot type but having really strange controls with a lot of momentum behind all of her movement, since she's pretty much permanently drunk. Basically, 10/10 suggestion, I love it.

[Cal-of-Gearva]

8 hours ago, Cosmic said:

Playable Suika makes me think of her having an extremely busted shot type but having really strange controls with a lot of momentum behind all of her movement, since she's pretty much permanently drunk. Basically, 10/10 suggestion, I love it.

Yeah, ZUN would have no problem designing something like that. He has a lot of inspiration to draw from in that department