Isaac

Kurumi is my favourite PC-98 character! I just think she's pretty cute and I like her vampire design a lot. Kurumi day on the touhou calendar is also on my birthday ; )

Welcome to Moriya Shrine Lavvie! Hope you'll enjoy talking around here and it's cool that you bought some of the offical games already!

Those are interesting scenarios that you came up with. I'll try to give my thoughts on a few of them now. If Touhou ended with Mystic Square, none of us here might've known about the series at all. Those games were still niche in Japan, so without any promotion like on social media or with public events like Reitaisai, the series would've been forgotten over time. The PC-98 era does have some memorable music and characters, but the amount of fanworks around then must've been tiny compared to after Eosd. I think touhou would've been somewhat popular today even if Eosd, PCB and IN were the only Windows games that released. These games have the most iconic themes in the series and UN Owen was her is probably how a lot of people discovered touhou music, including myself. The character designs are also iconic, so I think plenty of people still would've made artwork or other fan stuff related to them nowadays. Back in 2004 though, the touhou hype in Japan was exploding so much that when the first Reitaisai was held, there were over 100 groups participating! I love the way ZUN handles most of the offical touhou content on his own already. I wouldn't trust anyone else with the series other than him. If he decided to work with different companies though, they could help continue touhou for a long time and bring in more creative ideas. There is still the chance those companies could get greedy and ruin everything. We've seen this in gacha games like Lostword, where they're only focused on making as much money now, instead of respecting the fans and the series. This is usually how a lot of other indie franchises ended up being ruined too.

I first discovered touhou through Bad Apple and Marisa stole the precious thing! It wasn't until I finished Luna Nights years later, that I wanted to get involved with the community and try out the official games. Then I played SA for the first time and I fell in love with the characters and music even more. I haven't stopped enjoying the series since then!

Even if you believe that you're forgetting what a real person looks like, at least you're starting to prefer characters that appear more mature and close to your age. Anime features are exaggerated like you said with having large eyes and being well endowed, so it's understandable why someone would get confused when people don't actually look like that. It helps keeping in contact with more people to not lose your sense of reality though. I guess another way anime can change our perception of reality is how some people view Japan itself. In most animes, characters have exaggerated personalities and voices, which isn't how ordinary Japanese people behavior at all. Japan is often portrayed as a magical place as well, where everything seems perfect. While there's plenty of interesting stuff to do and beautiful places to visit over there, Japan has it's own set of issues just like every other country in the world. By the way, it's nice to see all the cute Azur Lane and Fire Emblem artwork you saved in your gallery : )

I've been taking a break from lostword since the start of this year. I was just disappointed in the direction the game was taking and I began to lose interest in the main story after Chapter 3. I can't blame you for not being motivated to update the other thread after all this either. It's a shame cause that was one of the first threads I talked in at Moriya Shrine and now it's associated with something that I dislike. I agree with everything that you mentioned here as well. The most insulting idea for me was to include different variations of characters with the Relic and Epics. A lot of them are just lazy designs, which could've been costumes instead. I don't mind seeing any of the classic variations though. That being said, there's no reason for 7 different Marisas to exist in the game. Japan thrives on gacha games unfortunately and they're a huge part of the gaming industry over there. Games like FGO continue to make ridiculous amounts, even though it's been years since it first released. There's always more gachas being made every year and some become very popular in a short amount of time. I'm just glad people like us are more aware of how terrible these games can really be. I think it's possible for lostword to generate a decent amount of revenue without being on mobile though. In an ideal world where I'm in charge of the development of lostword, these are the changes I would make immediately: Allow every character to be unlocked by completing challenges instead of only using crystals Allow every costume to be unlocked by completing challenges instead of only using god crystals Increase the drop rate of items by a large amount, so people don't have to rely on auto-play farming Occasionally make adjustments for every character, so there's no need to make different variations of them Take out items that are required to rank up higher such as paper dolls/disk and allow players to reach max level naturally Prioritise community feedback before deciding what content to include Provide better login and challenge bonuses

I completely understand. I was nearly addicted to this sort of stuff in the Genshin community a few years ago. It was hard to avoid when there's so much nsfw and suggestive content on pixiv and twitter. I felt like I was losing the reasons why I found the characters interesting to begin with. I'm sorry if you thought that I was saying something negative against you.

It doesn't sound like he actively searches for that content. Count was just sharing how desensitized he got after being exposed to it on certain sites. Sure he might have enjoyed some of the less sexual stuff, but I dont think it's enough to make him disappointing either. I also think talking about the experience was necessary to add to the point of whether he was a bad fan or not. Happy new year by the way!

It's nice to finally see a thread dedicate to Fantasy Kaleidoscope and I'm glad you've caught up with all the episodes now! I haven't seen the show in a while just like Buskerdog, so this recap helps me remember the cool moments and saves me time. Despite my feelings on the show, I'll admit it was really fun to see your live reaction to these episodes and then talking about them after! We should definitely plan more stuff like this in the future. Since Fantasy Kaleidoscope opened the gateway to anime sites for you, Maybe you'll decide to watch other anime shows that we like one day : ) I think now would also be a good time to mention that we created a discord group recently! It's mainly for the people we genuinely trust, but I'd love to see more people from MS to join there. Please feel free to message either one of us about it anytime! Episode 17 really felt like the end of the story they were trying to tell and I would've liked to see them wrap up everything here as well. Even with the Tenshi teaser at the end, I can't imagine them working on full arcs like IN and MoF anymore. A special episode for Scarlet Weather Rhapsody would be nice though. Manpukujinja have been producing this show for over 12 years now, so maybe it's the right time to take a break.

Danmaku Kagura's service has now officially ended. Despite being another touhou gacha, I love all the illustrations and songs they managed to include in the game! There was a surprise announcement at the end of the farewell livestream too! Phantasia Lost is a continuation of Danmaku Kagura and it's arriving on steam in 2023! I hope they'll be able to include most of the content from the main game to this new version. Lastly, it was really nice to see all of the players being credited at the very end : )

Here is the content announced from the 2.5th anniversary dev letter of jp lostword. Reimu and Marisa now have an Epic swimsuit variation. As much as I love both of them, it's just disappointing to see characters that should've been costumes instead. Tewi and Mokou also have Ultra festival variations on the way. I actually thought blue Mokou would be an Epic character and while she does look cool, I'm still not interested with any of the Ufes. They're probably just focusing on these characters now, since everyone from Touhou 6-18 has been implemented already. However, there's another Mokou arriving shortly after. Her MV variation doesn't have a introduction video yet, but I still believe the Relic characters didn't need to exist at all. Even ZUN seemed confused about them in the dev letter livestream. The Prismrivers finally have their fantasy rebirth outfits and they're all beautiful! Lyrica looks really cute while she's sitting on her piano! For the jp christmas event, costumes for Eiki, Narumi and Eika were revealed. I think all of them are adorable! Since the global version likes to include costumes with new characters, we might see Narumi and Eika arriving soon!

Tojiko!!! She's finally here and I'm glad to see PCB Yuyuko arrive earlier too! We'll probably see Satori and Koishi in the next dev letter!

As you both said, I think it's natural for anyone to move onto another series that they enjoy. It doesn't always lead them to forgetting about touhou and it's nice to see artwork of other stuff I might like too. Though, I'll admit it's kind of upsetting to see them move away or even take a break from drawing, especially if they've done a lot for the community. Some artists were one of the reasons why I love my favourite characters so much! However, I'm still going to support most of them regardless!

More UM characters are on the way to global! Really happy to have Chimata, Momoyo and Mike arrive now! I'd love to have all of them and hopefully we'll see Megumu very soon too!

A lot has been revealed for the September jp dev letter. Firstly, we have a new Epic and Ultra festival character on the way: Even though I'm not interested in any of the Epics, I'll admit that I love this piano arrangement of her theme! However, I'm not a fan of Koishi being depicted as psychotic, so I'm satisfied with her SA version. I also love this arrangement of 3rd eye, but there really isn't many reasons for me to have Ufes Satori either. I think the Komeji sisters were announced sooner to make as much profit as possible. Unfortunately, there was another MV character announced too: There isn't a video showcasing Sakuya at the moment, though I still don't think any of the Relic characters needed to exist at all. On a positive note, here are the new costumes and fantasy rebirth outfits! I think Sagume and Doremy look absolutely beautiful! Their outfits are much better designed compared to the regular dresses that other characters received! Miko and Saki look equally amazing as well!

It's a shame that people would only consider spending ridiculous amounts of money for these types of costumes, no matter how shallow the gameplay is. Even though swimsuit characters should've been costumes instead, I'm just glad that lostword isn't focusing on over-sexualising them. There's also a dev letter arriving sooner than expected. Wonder which characters are arriving next, apart from the ufes ones.

Oh, hopefully you'll still be able to vote in time Soda! As for my votes:

Sumireko appeared for me, so I'm glad to finally try her out in other modes! I was also thinking about using my exchange ema for Raiko or Wakasagihime whenever she arrives. I think Eosd Daiyousei and Koakuma look cute and since this is their classic versions, I don't seeing them at all. I wonder which game they will stop at for making these variations. Personally, I think the characters up to Ten Desires is enough, but they'll probably work on this for everyone. On a separate note, will you guys be voting in the annual popularity poll this time?

Finally, two characters we've been waiting for are arriving in global now! Really happy to see Raiko and Sumireko! They may have been way overdue, but it's satisfying and a relief to know that we can play as them now! We can have their cool costumes too!

On a more positive note, I'm really enjoying the current grand prix event. I love all the interactions between the characters, especially with Parsee and Yuugi! There's something I want to share too! The expressions Parsee has with her costume are so adorable! I can't get over how unbelievable cute she's been throughout this entire event! God I love her so much!

Good luck with the exam Count! Thanks for sharing that scarlet spirit talk as well, the style is really cute! I'll share some thoughts now. I'm very happy that Kisume is here and that the SA cast is finally completed, which is my favourite one! It's nice to see Kyouko too and Tojiko is the only character left now from the TD cast. I also like the fantasy rebirths for Yuyuko and Suwako. However, I agree that they could've done more with all of the characters. I still feel the same way on the state of lostword. Trying to catch up to jp has been a nightmare for character releases. It's obvious how much they want to focus on the Epic and Ufes, with all the reminders and promotions. It makes everything worse when there's also the balance issues, inconsistent event planning and the incentives to buy god crystals. Honestly, I'm not sure about continuing once the year is over. We'll probably have the missing characters by then, so there wouldn't be much to look forward to afterwards. I'll be happy enough with Tojiko, Raiko and Sumireko being included, then take a break. I'd still make sure to check the news and talk with you guys though.

Congrats on having Alice now Soda! Don't worry about rambling as well, I think all of us should start posting more moments like this. Anything to help brighten our mood on the game is nice, just like how Count shared that Raiko interaction from the events!

SA Satori!!! She looks amazing and I love her expressions a lot! I already have koishi, so I can't wait to have the rest of the classic SA cast too!

Hopefully you'll be able to have her eventually Soda! As for me, I'm really glad to be with Parsee now. I was lucky enough to have her adorable costume too!