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Intimidating sword maid Day 37: Yumeko Yumeko is neat. I love her concept, as it really shows how touhou likes to have the servants be very strong too. Her swords motif is cool, and I find it neat to see done well. However, she hasn’t got much in fangames, which is a medium in which her master is pretty popular in. It’s pretty unfair, as she’s a cool concept in her own right, but doesn’t get to shine much. Also, if you couldn’t tell I find her to be intimidating as well, which most servant characters don’t do. Her theme absolutely slaps btw. Overall, a great concept with no huge representation yet.

The Original Blade Maid. This is going to be a weird take, but I really don't consider her to be "Proto Sakuya". Ruukoto and Mugetsu share the maid aesthetic, making Yumeko the 3rd maid by this point. I also know this will probably be glossed over because it's from Seihou, but ZUN had involvement in the game (Also the team was still a part of "Amusement Makers") and it came out before EoSD by around a year. I believe the real Proto Sakuya is... Muse from Kioh Gyoku: Her attacks include marking a spot and having a barrage of knives fall on it. The Master-Servant dynamic is a double-edged sword. The autonomy of the servant is always going to be hampered, especially if the master just handles pretty much everything themselves, and the fact they are always going to be beholden to them (Satano & Mai/Ran). Though, it can start to go the other way, where the servant ends up being the more interesting character and does a lot, but at the end of the day still isn't allowed to do much on their own without being ordered around (Sakuya). That said, I view Yumeko as to likely fulfill a similar role to Youmu functionality-wise, to be sent from their respective worlds to run errands. Makai is a reoccurring location with many ways it's been entered, so it's not a stretch (the whole premise of MS were the Makai Demons flooding into Gensokyo to tour it). It is? The circles I'm around seem to consider it the only PC-98 game worth playing and the best one overall. I prefer Lotus Land Story over MS as a shmup, but I do like the setting and environments of MS more. Rapier Swordbeams. A thrust could leave behind a trail and it could burst into small bullets (pretty much like Meira's dashing slashes in SoEW). You could take a page out of SoEW Mima's book and have her try to align with the player before committing to a fast drop-dash, colliding with the bottom of the screen could have a wave of bullets erupt from the spot to sell the impact of the thrust.

This is a good example of what I mean. She can stand out, even from under Sakuya's shadow, and her design could easily be updated and fit in the series again. Personally, I would trade out her broadsword for a rapier or epee. Those swords are distinctly Western, and would stand out more in a game or manga from a more generic arming sword or katanas. Dual-wielding could also help establish her more. The fighting style for these swords is different too, with a lot more focus on quick thrusts and parries. Which would make her moves more distinct from Sakuya or Youmu in a manga. I would also play in a little to her more arrogant demeanor. Confidence is attractive, but taken too far, its a good character trait for a villain to get her comeuppance. She might genuinely be a better swordswoman than Youmu for instance, but her overconfidence could be a severe handicap in a fight narratively. I might also make her prudish or easily flustered when it comes to anything vaguely sexual. Though that might be playing into the fandom meta and Sakuya's knife-garters too much. How she would play in game, I'm not entirely sure. Her old style is probably not an option, given its similarity to Sakuya's. My first thought is basing her Danmaku on epee and rapier techniques, combined with the aesthetics of Western flowers. But having no experience in bullethells outside of barely beating Cirno and wandering into generic fairy fire out of panic, I can't say that will work. Since she was a creation of Shinki, she would presumably have some powers, though what those would be I can't guess. I don't think she has any broader abilities laid out in the lore, and her sword summon power is just going to confuse people with Sakuya. My first thought would be opening portals to Makai through certain swordplay techniques, letting her fire at you from unusual angles. You dodge a thrust from her as her sprite clears the map, and a hole opens behind you shooting pellets. You could also make her name literal, and pull the player into hazardous dreamscapes you have to maneuver through. All in all, she's a good example of why Zun does not recycle old characters. She has some excellent bones, and would be easy to refit in the lore. Her character traits fit nicely, and could be interesting foils to some of the others. But so much of the series has changed since then, that its just easier to make a new character, rather than overhaul one only diehard fans and lore nerds are going to remember. Even if he did reinvent her, she is just going to invite comparisons to the other maid in the series.

I really enjoy Yumeko's character. She is so pissed at you for destroying Makai she almost disobeys Shinki in stage 5 (thankfully, Shinki was understanding in letting her get revenge). Compared to Sakuya, i like her color pallete more, it's more vibrant and her danmaku patters are really hard, and I am terrible at them. Her swords just annihilate my lives. Her theme "Doll of Misery" feels very tragic to me, it highlights the negatives of being a servant, maybe? Anyway, it's very goood, even more considering the technological limitations of FM Music. Just taking the original apparition into consideration (Yumeko in MS and Sakuya in EoSD), i prefer Yumeko. Sakuya in the long run is more memorable, but in EoSD she is pretty meh, just a maid pissed at you for interrupting her cleaning with a slight hint of worry about her master. The issue of Yumeko is being compared to Sakuya. She was the prototype.

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/110587256

I feel like part of the reason is Yumeko just got upstaged by a newer model. She is barely referenced in the fandom, but if you look at any Asian list of top maids in fiction, Sakuya is certain to be on it. She is one of the most recognizable characters from the series, beaten out only by Reimu and maybe Cirno. Mystic Square also seems to be the least popular of the 98 games. I don't have any statistics or sales to back this. But its the one I hear mentioned least by fans, even if it was Alice's introduction to the setting. Its a shame. A cool and arrogant Western swordswoman would make a nice contrast to Youmu. Especially since her Western style swords would help her stand out.

I feel like the comparison between her and sakuya is really unfair imo. Sakuya got so much more than being a maid, and really doesn’t feel like she fits in the category Yumeko does. I really wanna see Yumeko more because she isn’t sakuya and also makes another awesome character almost have to show up with her.

Oh, I definitely agree there, and I'm mostly speaking generally when it comes to minor characters. I even tried pitching a fangame about Mike, that got shot down because she isn't a character anyone I talked with was "attached to". I just feel like a lot of people get dismissive on anyone that isn't a main antagonist or driving force in their story, and I think PC-98 characters get it the absolute worst. I've pretty much given up on waiting for official content doing anything interesting with TH16-18's cast. The last interesting thing done was having Sannyo's gambling business shown, and having a branch of it set up in Geidontei to prevent humans from wandering around the mountain to her den and likely causing trouble in Lotus Eaters. I have to turn to fan content and hope they even know who any of the newer characters even are. I'll admit a lot of my grievances come from interacting with the fangame creation side of things.

I really like that kinda thing for these more forgotten characters, and I totally get the fact of they could have something no matter what they currently have. However, I can’t find every single character to have more potential than other characters who are at least established. Now, there are characters that I feel can do a similar thing to what you describe, but I feel like it’s hard to see that with every single character. Kurumi specifically has more potential in my opinion, but I’d rather go and care about the newer characters who haven’t had the chance to shine, like megumu, Chimata, Keiki, and other similar characters, due to the fact they have something to build off of. But yeah, I’d be lying if I didn’t agree but feel this way on different characters, which would be Yumemi and Gengetsu lol.

To me, Kurumi represents a character that has a lot going for them in terms of possible stories to tell with, over being some significant player in Gensokyo politics. She's one of two gatekeepers (a first in this series), in which her "gate" is the Lake of Blood that gets drained. Kurumi and Elly inherently have a connection to Yuuka, who escaped PC-98 hell to become a minor character in Windows. I'd also say having another vampire outside of the two everyone knows about is a bonus. I don't really care for the notion that a character needs to be intimately involved with the narrative of a Touhou game or print work to be interesting. This just leads to most fans making content centered around the same characters over and over, ignoring everything else on the table because any relatively unpopular minor character gets the reception of "Literally who?". It just takes some creativity and knowledge on what the character's traits are (you can get an idea on a PC-98 character's personality by reading how they talk and interact), and from there you start crafting a story. It doesn't have to be grand, it only has to matter to the character involved. You can have a story where Kurumi, Elly, and Yuuka catch up on each other's lives and hang out, maybe a story where she interacts with the other vampires. Heck, you could even think so far outside the box and pair Kurumi with Rumia. They are both Youkai associated with darkness, vampires don't like sunlight, Rumia can cast a darkness bubble, and they both seem to be mischievous. It can make for a unique plot, where they are covering for each other's weakness during the day and bonding over antics.

I randomly came across Cathedral's soundtrack before the game even released, and was impressed with it's simple but creative arrangements. The soundtrack just received an official release, which reminded me I hadn't posted it here yet.