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That's a potentially confusing header, but I'm rather fond of the grammatically unique style of Touhou titles, and once this one emerged I decided to keep it. The recent popularity poll rekindled an idea I had about ranking within Touhou. Given the extensive nature of the series, some of the categories suffer from impossibly high quantity of options, specifically regarding characters (as has been discussed) and music. As my investment in the series is focused more on the music, my considerations on this matter were formulated in that direction, but I suspect the idea could be applied in other directions. To encourage the recognition of underappreciated tracks, I propose the challenge of an alternative ranking system: rather than a list of one's favorite pieces from across the whole series, a compilation of favorites from each individual entry. Instead of a top ten[ish], such a list would be comprised of at least one, at most three, tracks per game or disc release. I call this a "challenge," because the endeavor would require a near complete familiarity with all the music in the series, which most fans do not have. There might also be a question concerning smaller entries like Forbidden Scrollery or Bohemian Archive (a similar question might arise with character rankings), but I believe the exercise would be nonetheless interesting to attempt.

Honestly, I'd love for TLW to be on Steam, since I'm more on my laptop than on my phone. Chance? Didn't the JP branch announce once that we will be getting PC-98 Rei and Mari? I do agree with this, the main story, while interesting, is kinda hard for me to read. It's not like that I can't understand the words, it's just that I probably can't immediately piece it together in my head, and I need external sources to get it all right. Maybe it's because things happen too fast/too slow. Also, I kinda don't want a collab for TLW... I'd just like for things to stay fully Touhou, What's the point of the costumes then? Apart from making the drop rate bigger for point events. Most of the L1 friends are average, and not worth putting in a team, unless you're doing it for a challenge. To me, this AMA seemed like they want to improve on the game, but also it just seems a bit shady, if you get what I mean.

News roundup. A little less structured or cohesive than last time, but some things happened since the weekend. News and updates It looks like the LW team has pulled a PR stunt with some sort of Q&A thread on r/touhou_lostword. Due to being busy the entire first half of the day and overall unfortunate timing, I could not submit a question for this session. The idea was simple: people ask questions, the dev team answers them. Let's see what happened: Below, I have selected a number of questions that have been relevant in regards to the development of the game and what the crew has to say about it. A special section for unanswered questions will come at the end. Keep in mind, some of the answers might be rather vague, while for others they have completely avoided answering at all. Many of the answers have been given by Phantasma, while others went to different members of the team the questions were addressed to (Masayuki Yamagishi (Yama-P), Comp (Butaotome), Caroline, Phantasma, team members from the translation team). Q: Is Rinnosuke going to be playable? A: No plans at the moment regretfully! Q: Only one question: Will we get playable Pc-98 characters at some point in the future? A: If we have a chance this is something we would love to do! Q: Will the game stay on mobile or would you ever consider putting it on steam or on the switch? A: Would love to do Steam if there's an opportunity in the future! Q: Hello! Link from Argentina here! Is there any plans for a Spanish translation? A: This is something we honestly really wanted to do, but LostWord is a game with an abundance of text that makes this unrealistic regretfully, it's already a massive job for English [*guys can't even finish translation for English, let lone expand to other languages (Coming Soon...)] Q: When are we going to have the normal text of the Story Cards that only have the coming soon text? A: Caroline: Thank you for your patience. We're currently in the process of translating the Story Cards we didn't have time for previously. You'll be able to read them soon! Q: Is PVP/Coop PvE going to be implemented directly anytime? Like for example, 1v1 or raids. A: We're currently thinking about multiplayer type features, however, the development load for such systems is quite heavy and requires much more deliberation Q: Do you guys actively play the game as well? A: Yep all of us play the game, I believe the highest level out of all of us today is in the late 100s! Q: Will we get/be able to equip costumes to UFES and/or EFES units at some point? It seems we only have costumes for L1 units currently, and I was wondering if other universe types will get costumes/be able to use existing costumes for their other universe counterparts. A: At the moment we have no plans for costumes for the additional series Q: Will there be any future changes to the core fundamental gameplay? (ie. new mechanics in battle, enemy mechanics, player actions, etc.) A: We have a variety of battle system improvements and additions in the works as we get more into development we'll be announcing them via our new development manifestoes which will begin from Sept 28! Q: For Comp: 1) Are you in charge of choosing the BGM of the game? (Spellcard themes, etc). 2) What's the process behind the making of the MV project; how do you pick the singers, circles, and characters/themes? 3) Do you have any involvement in the creative process of the global-only collabs? A: 1) I choose the BGM in collaboration with the Game Director. 2) I think about which singers and circles would make for the most interesting and fun collabs with each character. Then I make them an offer. 3) Yes. Q: Is there a reason you guys don’t list the VAs for each character? I follow a lot of seiyuus and I’ve seen some names and heard some voices I’m familiar with be in the project, but I’d love official credits like that A: A big reason is that if we list voice actors people will end up choosing to use that character or voice due to who the voice actor is, but we would like everyone to choose voices based on what voice they feel fits the character best Q: Why was the development manifesto only announced recently? Wouldn't it have been more beneficial to have a line of communication between the developers and players since the launch of the game? A: Within the team we've always had one, but we we though saying too much early wouldn't be the best. But reading more and more comments from everyone we understood that it would be best to get the lines of communication open and be more transparent in the development process. Q: The Chinese version of Touhou LostWord currently features exclusive story cards only available in that version, as well as an exchange point spark for Epic Festival banners. Alongside the remaining gacha pool cards only available in the Japanese version, will the global version introduce a feature like that if it is met with popular demand? (There are two more questions, those going to the "Unanswered" section) A: Original Story Cards from the Chinese version, we currently have no plans to bring them to JP or global! Q: Do you have any comments on the translation process for LostWord? LW is interesting in that it's significantly more loaded with (what is to Westerners) more esoteric religious and spiritual concepts and Japanese traditional culture than many other titles. You can expect the Touhou audience to be much more receptive to this sort of thing, but it's still quite notable. Do you have guidelines internally for what you translate via expansion, calques, or leaving the original Japanese name for a concept in place? Any other issues or struggles you've had? A: Translation Team: I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the story. Yes, we try to leave the original Japanese names for most religious and mythological concepts and supplement them with an explanation where possible, like in the Story Cards, Spell Card, and Ability descriptions. However, it's difficult to fit all that information within the story, so we sometimes have to change a few things to make it understandable to a more general audience. Q: How is it like developing Touhou lost word and is it enjoyable? A: There are lots of enjoyable aspects and also some tough aspects! For tough aspects especially the translation is tough as a lot of the story and world is grounded in a variety of Japanese culture, but it's great to bring the game to everyone around the world! Q: Do you guys plan to have a Collaboration with other games? A: No plans at the moment regretfully on this one! Q: To Japanese dev team: Are there any plans for new game modes anytime soon? A: Look forward to the development manifestoes as we'll be releasing info about new content from time to time! As Phantasma now works on both teams the chance of version exclusive content is diminished as we would like to strengthen the game as a whole to provide a more fun experience to everyone! Arena update will be coming in soon for units as they still require some translation and data creation. Q: To Japanese dev team: Are epic fes friends here to stay? Will they replace super fes friends? A: (same as above) Q: To Japanese dev team: Will general units get reduced to 100 pity like in global? A: (same as above) Q: To Japanese dev team: How was JP player reception to stages like the L1 Reimu extra stage? (where it heavily punishes players who lack a certain unit like c3 Yukari). A: (same as above) Q: To global people: Are there any plans for global exclusive content like elemental extra stages? A: (same as above) Q: To global people: Now that we're mostly caught up with JP in terms of character releases and story, what plans does global have for future releases? Will we just get new banners the same time as JP does? A: (same as above) Q: To global people: When will arena get updated with modern units? I noticed that newer units like Megumu appear in JP arena. A: (same as above) Q: Are there any game aspects that the team is really proud of? Or in the opposite, wish to change? A: From Yamagishi-san but he feels the following. The 5 main points of a RPG he feels are done quite well - Characters, Story, World, Battle, Music. In terms of change, rather than change he and the rest of us would like to improve upon all of the aspects as we go forward! Q: What was the process for selecting the songs in the game so far? Are there plans to add songs from other circles? A: Comp: I choose songs to match the story. Yes, there are plans to add songs from other circles. Q: I only have a few for this AmA. How long will the story be as it seams its almost ending or just getting started at this point by this I mean how many chapters there are in total once the full main story is out? (There are three more questions, those going to the "Unanswered" section) A: We have no end in plan for Touhou LostWord's story and plan to continue to expand heavily on the world! Q: Are we going to see the return of Mochi pounding event? If so, are you guys cooking unique game modes for global? A: Hope to bring our friend Kagami-Mochi back some day but, we're also thinking about different fun forms we can implement events like this! Q: Will black Youmu Fumo be on sale again? A: Sorry this is something that our friends at Gift deal with! Q: Are there plans to add in-game players interaction? I'd love to show off my UFES to my friends A: We are discussing these types of features currently! However, the development cost is quite high so we have no solid details at the moment Q: Can we get a little behind the scenes of the gacha game industry with an explanation of why THLW, like so many other phone gacha games have different servers for different regions instead of one unified game that everyone plays together with a language toggle? I understand it would be a hassle to get them synced when they start at different times, but I feel like it would be worth it due to all the negativity that results from global having different pacing and out of order releases that makes a lot of players feel like global is just an afterthought. Thanks! A: The architecture we use requires no option for selection server and in terms of language we answered this in another question but LostWord has an abundance of text compared to many titles, resulting in us only being able to offer English globally. In terms of why JP and global aren't synced, there are an abundance of processes the title have to go through before release which make it difficult to have a synced release. It would require a much larger team than we have currently to have made a reality. Q: Is the translator team still at purple heart? A: Translation Team: I'd say the translation team is at orange heart at the moment. We will have an update on it soon, so please look forward to it! Q: What is the reason behind the decision of not adding the pity exchange shop for the JP story card farm stage? A: (unanswered) Q: I noticed that Phantasma is no longer doing the live stage, where the team can communicate with the players on the direction of the game and future plan (as well as answering some of the players' concern). Is that because you no longer have time to do so? A: Phantasma's responsibilities have expanded, so it's tough at the moment but look forward to a Q/A forum in discord that will be implemented soon. Q: Will you consider giving further rein1.5 buff that actually fit the unit core issue (like Sakuya bad slicing scale, Lily White bad healing utility/focus down that harm allies, Seiran lack of useful debuff utility, etc). A: (unanswered) Q: Will there be any other way for Epic Dolls to be obtained easier. A: As time progresses we would like to add more methods to get the Epic Paper Dolls & the others. Q: Thanks Touhou Lost Word Team, AMAs are very awesome. Here's a question for the translation team. When translating for characters from very niche Japanese folklore how do you go about getting the translation across to an audience that may not be familiar with the original source. An example being someone like Iku Nagae. A: Translation Team: Yeah, it's not easy. There isn't really much space to convey the folklore within the story unless it is also written in Japanese. However, in the Spell Card and ability descriptions, we try to add a few more explanations while leaving some of the Japanese terminologies so people can more easily research it for themselves if they are interested. Q: Looking at the ongoing success of this game and with seemingly no risk of EoS anything soon, is there the possibility of either a sequel, prequel, or spinoff game of LostWord? A: In terms of further direction of Touhou LostWord itself, we would like to continue strengthening the title as a whole which will open up more possibilities in the future for us to discuss Q: Do you plan on hosting any events in real life for global players? (ie. story card submission contest) A: In Japan things like Reitaisai we participate it from time to time, but for global we don't have any solid plans at the moment, though it is something we discuss frequently so we hope to get something going in the future! In terms of contests we may be able to get some going this fall or winter! Q: I asked this on this sub once before, but would like an answer directly from the team, but what's the best way to support LostWord other than in-app purchases? I know there was a dark Youmu Fumo at some point, but is there any other merch or other ways of supporting the game and the team? A: Besides in-app purchases, participation in Discord, Twitter, YouTube and other places are great ways to support! Questions here on Reddit are already a great way to support! Q: Not sure if you can answer this since it's not really game-related. Are there any plans to make more Lost Word action figures? I placed an order for mysterious swordsman Youmu Fumo months ago and I can't wait for it to come. A: Our publisher Good Smile Company has a line of LostWord figures they are working on! I believe some may be available for preorder currently Q: Did you ever consider leaving honorifics in? Its a breath of fresh air to have many of the native names of the mythological and historical concepts. A: Translation Team: It was considered, but we decided that it would be easier to read without honorifics for a wider audience. And they are generally just kind of clunky in English. Q: How did the idea for Lost Word originate? The callbacks and fanservice in the story, the involvement of dojin music circles, non-predatory pricing model shows this game was made with love. Do you consider Lost Word a "fan game"? A: Yama-P: We wanted to make an RPG based on Touhou Project. So we thought it over between Comp and the directors. We decided that it would be good to have lots of various artists create the art for the Story cards and music. The original games aren't voiced, so we decided to provide three options so the player could pick what they felt suited the character best. We wanted to create a game in collaboration with lots of other creators. Q: Will the 4-komas in JP be translated? A: Hopefully some day in the future we'll be able to get the manga in the game, but we still have quite a few event stories and others we need to get done, so once we're in a better place there we'll discuss the manga to see what can be done for global Q: Are we to get more vocal tracks on Lost Word i would love for more circles to participate on the game (Stack maybe pls)? [Count's comment: PLEASE] A: Comp: There will be more MV project songs. Please look forward to them. Q: Butaotome was the first circle that got me into Touhou doujin music 待チ人ハ来ズ。it's one of my all time favorites Thank you so much A: Thanks so much for listening to Butaotome. I'm really happy to hear you enjoy it. Thank you for the support. Q: If you could, would you want to collab with more Virtual YouTubers in the future? Additionally, when Pomu's Heat of My Fingertips came out, I expected for a Pomu Friend to get released. You're probably never going to have non-Touhou characters as Friends, right? A: We loved working with everyone at NIJISANJI & Pomu Rainpuff so we really hope to do more in the future! Q: Will there be a way to make the special cards made for the Epic characters more available? IE: Behind the Bullets: Reimu and The Heat of My Fingertips. Could it be done like the elemental EX stages. A: Look forward to an update on this as our first development manifesto that releases on the 28th will have a bit of info on this! Q: Are the story cards with "Coming Soon..." actually coming soon? A: Caroline: They will...! We're working on some right now! Q: Are there any chances that concepts like character fusions or duo characters be implemented into the game? Fusions, at least I feel, would do really well since it takes two good characters and makes an even better character and duo characters could be a nice homage to Touhou 8's main gimmick. A: At the moment no plans on this end! Q: I know translations for the main story/events and Tower are a priority, but do you believe the untranslated story cards will have a translation one day? A: We hope to get more of these in once we hit Floor 200 of the tower! Q: Which music group would you love to partner with the Music Videos, and are you willing to partner with any that not know for Touhou music? My dream is getting Jun Senoue (Crush 40) or Tomoya Ohtani from the Sonic Team to partner in a MV. A: We plan to collaborate with many different types of artists through the MV project. Please look forward to it. Q: How was the survey for the game, did you guys learn a lot from it and now taking considerations for the game because of it? A: We want to take the various answers on board to improve the characters, story, music, battles, and setting. Please look forward to the updates. Q: Considering how many songs are being added to the game, will there be a way to sort them? Are there plans for adding QOL features? (like better ways to manage spell cards and friends) A: This type of QOL is always in the works but as it requires quite a bit of UI work it takes time to get in! Q: Hi THLW dev team, do you guys plan on adding any of the .5 characters to the game? A: Similar to a previous answer but if we have a chance, we would love to do it! Q: Will the 30fps lock be fixed? A: No plans at the moment, but it is a topic that comes up from time to time so we may do something in regards to fps options some day Q: Will Ele EX get a drop rate up through the future? A: There will be a large update coming in on this eventually so look forward to more details soon! Unanswered questions: With governing bodies around the globe taking strides to regulate gambling mechanics in all video-games, how will Touhou Lostword Global evolve in order to remain legal in most countries? Would the gacha system be dropped in favor of something like a battle pass? Question for the Devs: You guys been giving us a lot of free stuff since day 1, compared to JP players, we're basically spoiled by you guys and we appreciate it, but I'm curious if there's any consequences to this, like does it affect the monetization? Are you guys still earning money? And who gets to decide on what Stuff to give out to us players? Is it only phantasma or something else? As an individual who cares deeply about this game, I'm somewhat curious in the financial status of it, we surely don't want a sudden EoS due to lack of money right? More of a Personal question: So phantasma, do you happen to have time to read The Scarlet talk series? It's something I've been doing every Dev letter here on reddit and any kind of input would be appreciated Your thoughts on my Spirit News Article no.1 on the discord server is the reason why scarlet talk exist, so i would like to hear any comments from you :) According to a friend of mine who was formerly a staff member working with the team, they told me one reason for their falling out was due to poor communication between higher ups and staff and supposed "drama." Will the current staff members look towards rectifying these wrongs by reaching out to former staff members with an olive branch, whether it be public or personal? One of your server staff members and GamePress writers was formerly involved with an infamous Touhou piracy website and distributed pirated Touhou content themselves. Since NextNinja is officially partnered with Team Shanghai Alice, doesn't this present a conflict of interest considering that LostWord is an officially licensed product? 2) What does the Mc we play as/control look like it most likely fan interpretation but if you have your own look for the Mc what is it? 3) Will there be some sort of trading of friends to exchange duplicate friends you have for another or any kind of coop that will be added in the future? 4) Will friend prayer rates be improve at some point since there so low and most of the time it's story cards when the banner does not increase the odds for a friend? What are your opinions on the other Touhou mobile games like Cannonball and Danmaku Kagura and do you think something could of been done better to increase the longevity of those games seeing how they only lasted around 1 year? How do you feel about LW bringing in a large number of new fans to the Touhou culture? One thing that i love is that you can make your favorite friend powerful with some time and dedication (me in particular Seiga and Momiji) apart of incenses and rebirth will there be more ways to improve a friends power in the future? While I love the story it's kinda hard to read all of it for me. Will there be a way to have like small story bits when skipping the story? Do you intend to make the Epic Paper Doll more accessible for all players? Since the "only" means to have it is in the Fortune Dust store and with Packs (which in some countries (such as Brazil) are extremely and ridiculously expensive.) Do you intend to make all units that are in the main story JUST Epic Festivals Friends and no longer Ultra Festival Friends? Well, if the answer is yes, that reinforces what I said in question number 2. Are there plans to take a second look at C3 Hecatia and debuffs in general? The sentiment among those invested in strategy is that C3 Hecatia does not compare favorably with her Epic peers due to the transient nature of debuffs being disadvantaged in multi-wave/gauge content and her extreme focus on it at the cost of an otherwise robust kit. This is to the point where she is compared directly to her gen/fes debuff peers (Recent Debuffer EoSD Sunny Milk being a very striking and assessed-as-superior example, especially once you include the fact she is exchangeable). As of now, there are many aspects in LostWord that can be improved so that players will have an incentive to actually try them out instead of outright skipping them. For example, the Arena revampt was mediocre at best, seeing how it only gives the players some stats to boost their friends and literally the increased in parametre does little to none to help them gain an upper edge, or how the so-called "end game content" EX stages are more or less geared toward a set of characters for an easy clear instead of being an actual challenge. To back my arguement, the Dev Letter of Global LostWord mentioned that around 15 to 20% of the playerbased cleared the Elemental EX out of around 2000-ish challengers, but considering the fact that at that moment, there were more than 1 million unique downloads, and let's assume 10% of the downloads continued continued on playing the game, it means that only ~2000 out of 100000 (or ~2%) actually want to try the new challenges. Will there be any plans to improve these factors or taking these into account when creating newer contents? As of now, many local players (I will not disclose the nation where we are from) are discontented with the release schedules and designs (both gameplay and visual), as well as the abysmal lack of communication between the playerbase and the developer. Are there any plans to improve the communication as well as the transparency of the game as most of the rifts between the two parties were majorly due to the lack of these factors? (For Global team) How do you choose which events and banners appear in Global (considering how different it is from JP’s schedule)? (For JP team) Similarly, how is music selected for the game? Would it be possible to add a feature that lets you select any part of a character them to play it during their spell card. Many people would like to change the part that they hear during Patchouli A6's spell cards so could it changed? Any plans on making alternate versions of characters from Touhou 16 or above? Any plans on being able to set the 3-star Story Cards (as they're mostly landscapes) as home screen backgrounds? Some of them would work really well as backgrounds. Any plans on making a 3x speed setting, or even a 4x speed setting for battles? The newer stages are taking increasingly long to finish due to modern units's longer Spell Card animations, plus the stages themselves requiring more turns than before. Why not put the new UFes Patchouli and Koakuma on the same prayer if you were going to release them at the same time anyways? It would have been a neat way to celebrate 2 mil downloads and makes sense for the two of them. The dev letter gave my friends and I the impression that you guys were going to do it that way. There was once a mention of Wood EX (Global Dev letter #13 iirc) so I'm wondering if there's any update about that or it's just completely forgotten? When it comes to adding characters to the game, what’s the general process for this, if possible to be answered? Are characters planned far in advance from when they release, when/how is their music decided on, VA recordings, that’s the gist of what I’m asking if it’s able to be answered Edit: a bit of an addendum but have you ever had to scrap characters, or heavily postpone them? How do you pick your ideas? Like, for example, thinking of a new alt character, the costume or colors that she'd have, names for the spellcards, animations, etc. Why haven't you released Kagerou (and other units) yet you're releasing newer units instead? Most of them epic and relic ones. Will all units get a rebirth or will this be exclusive to L1 units only? Why is a single character skin equivalent in cost to a $30 crystal pack. What was your inspiration for the Lost Word storylines? Can you make that you can date the girls pretty please. Like giving them presents spending time with them [Count's note: I guess this player would like the game to implement a dating simulator element, perhaps similar to other gacha games?] Community discussion and memes Even if going through the "become Fumo" process, Remi & Patchy are still up to presenting the news in their new plushy form. And of course, it cannot be a regular day if the AmA did not spart some memes out of the answers.

Time for the news roundup. News and updates On the Friday-to-Saturday night (at least according to my time zone), there has been a Dev Letter for LW Global. Quite a few things have been announced, given the game reached 2 million downloads. Looks like LW will not die out any time soon... Let's see what the game will put at our disposal. Keep in mind, the 2 million downloads celebration might be coming just in time with the 1.5 years game anniversary for Global. Last year, the 0.5 anniversary was celebrated by cutting some of the free features, so I wonder if we are gonna lose anything this time around. The main features that have been announced: guaranteed friend festival: from what I can understand, you are getting daily one Guaranteed friend ritual, which might also contain retro versions of the characters (compared to the classic ritual, which only contains general pool friends) special tasks: my guess is that through these tasks, the players will receive either increased resources or special, rare ones bonus for daily logins - music connected to the Hifuu universe versions of the SDM cast battles will cost half the Sprit Points - finally, I was really looking to this one, as I am running dry on resources with the current event; I have not seen my SP count go below 20K since last year at least - to be fair, I am also using expensive units for farming more x4 rewards for main story and Hifuu x3 School XP for a week Interesting they have decided to split the news into 2 parts this time: Hifuu Patchouli and Koakuma are coming; unfortunately, they are separate banners new 72H Newcomer banner current event is getting the Extra stages - get ready for more Morby the general friends pool is getting an update in regards to Guaranteed Prayers more floors opened in the Scarlet Devil Tower more characters are getting Fantasy Rebirth 2.0 Meanwhile, the colleagues from Scarlet Talk have decided to cover the news their own way. Get ready for more Remy & Patchy shenanigans: The artist for Remilia and Patchouli actually has a Pixiv page, and can be found here https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/4972747 . He's got a lot of cute stuff You can always find Remi & Patchy's news roundup here Community discussion and memes This time, an interesting video I would recommend. It is about the original game inspiration for Reimu's shot types and spellcards. Maybe the person has not used the best examples everywhere/could have used better images at times, but the effort is to be appreciated. Also know your enemy: