CountVonNumenor

Also a bit of a fun fact" I am not 100% sure, but from the discussions I have seen around the new song this might be the first (or at most second) PV ever made about Sariel out of all music groups out there. Which is quite an achievement if it so.

I mean it is not the first time they made arrangements for PC-98 songs. Another obvious one that comes into my mind is KARMANATIONS, which is pretty much an adaptation of Mima's theme. Flying orb-shaped fate line～White Spirit, Ultra Red is also an interesting one. I though I was sure it was made after a PC-98 song for Reimu, but looking again it seems that the original is from Dolls in Pseudo Paradise. But I think besides KARMANATIONS and S.A.R.I.E.L. they might also have other arrangements based on retro era stuff.

Oh, just as a new video dropped hours ago. I have ot checked it yet, but here it is:

Oh, so you have everyone from UFO now? That is nice. For me, I got stuck for a week already with Sagume in Forever Prayer, and I might just take her to complete my LoLK cast collection. As for other things, Akyuu's Fantasy Rebirth is on the way. Already got the Mirrors, but trying to get her back to lvl 100 now is quite a bitch as I can hardly find a stage where to solo farm XP for her, while going up in levels is an absolute chore. It does not help that her Last Word is not very strong either, and unless I deploy her together with another unit, it will be hard to get anything out of it (though will also consume SP like crazy). Which Meiling was this one? From the Hifuu storyline? Anyway, nice that you got her. And an overall question: does anyone know if the new Ema thing has an expiration date, or we could use it any time we want? Ar we gonna receive another one in the future, or this is the only free one we got? Also it seems like this only works for getting a General Pool unit, which is a bit lackluster - maybe adding L1 Fes at least would have been good. Otheriwse, I am sorry I either already have most L1 general units or they are very weak as they are units from last year, i.e. a whole different era of game balance that completely lost its relevance nowadays.

It's been a while since I last contributed to this one, but now there is new stuff. I was quite curious to see what will Akatsuki Records come up with for Comiket 100, and it looks like a part of my question got answered today. And perhaps, given the recent pattern, we will get one more answer on Sunday or at most in a week from now. Anyway, time for the latest MV of the group, DESTRUDO -Self Destructive Generation -. Not a Touhou, but an original composition. Quite interesting to see wat they can do when their songs are not connected to the 2hus, and a bit of Stack is always welcome. Also one thing I forgot to add like a couple days ago, and might be older than that. I did not know AR did a music video for Arcadia Record. Well, for anyone just as amazed as I am, here it is: I mean, they have already been featured with songs in Touhou Cannonball, Touhou Spell Bubble, DanKagu and now in Arcadia Record. For the love of ZUN and God, why is not LostWord calling them for a song as well? That is pretty much the only place where thy still need to get in for making a presence in pretty much every Touhou mobile game.

Alright, just as I wanted to update the situation and HOLY SHIT DID THE SUBREDDIT GET A TORRENT OF BUG AND MISFUNCTION REPORTS. I was going to report on that one, but it seems like you guys got at it way before I even had the chance to get back to my PC. Anyway, the game worked well for me, as I have not encountered any bug...yet. There is this interesting bit which might be helpful to everyone: Also, to report on something different: ATTENTION EVERYONE! This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill! According to the guys playing on the JP server, she appears in the newest special story. In the way we got a story when MV Remilia was released, the release of MV Alive will also come with a story. Anyway, it may be more or less surprising to see someone from the old games, given that PC-98 Reimu and Marisa already showed up in the Hifuu story as part of a cutscene, and apparently PC-98 Yuuka will appear in Chapter 4. Could this finally mean Touhou LostWord has decided on finally adding PC-98 characters as playable in the future?

r/touhou_lostword has been surprisingly quiet today. I will probably have to wait until maintenance will take place today and see what will be happening next... Maybe this is jus the calm before the storm?

I see a similar in style thread to this one came to be on r/touhou just hours ago. However, it is still very blunt in nature of not outright spreading misinformation in the answers given by people: Just read this for example: I am not the biggest fan of the Scarlet sisters (though I personally don't hate any of the 2hus - only categorize them in "I like/are interesting" and "still need to find them interesting"), but this is not really a good explanation for them. Yes, Remilia might be childish, and that one specific animation her her from IaMP spawned the "charism break" meme. But no, I am more than sure Flandre is not a psychopath. Just because fans loved/love to depict her as such for 2 decades does not mean she is canonically that (especially given basically the lack of info we got until Cheating Detective Satori). I am not very sure what I could say about the Sakuya part though, if she is or is not a "Mary Sue". This new discussion (the one on Reddit), at least based on the current comments, seems to be turning into a spread of misconceptions from the fandom combined with tiny bits of close to correct lore info. But it remains to be seen how it will evolve in the following hours as more comments are being submitted.

Oh, do not worry. When I say like I wasted time, it was more about playing the game as a whole. The news roundup only became a thing in April-May this year, so almost 1 year after I started playing. Also about wasted time, my most recent visit to the Touhou Discord server ended up with the guys from #gacha trying to encourage me jump ship to Arcadia Record, be it to play the game ironically or saying that it is already better than LostWord (opinions were different, but this one seemed to be a common theme). Funny enough, I think (Coca) Cola has been mentioned in Touhou canon, or at least present as a random background object. Again, going through Forbidden Scrollery, there is at least one panel of Rinnosuke at Kourindou having some bottles of that soda juice. Or at least I was sure I saw on in the background, but I can no longer find it - is my mind playing tricks, or I got the Mandela Effect? I am not very sure yet, but from some discussions I have seen, it was looking like only general pool units were to be obtainable through Ema. However, I would be happy if it applied to all L1 characters.

Alright, the news are up. A more proper news roundup should be up on the 5th of August, as we are getting maintenance. Anyway, until that (curtesy to GamePress and r/touhou_lostword - the original can be read in here https://gamepress.gg/lostword/other/dev-letter-14-recap): News and updates The Dev Letter #14 gave us pretty much everything to be expected for August. First, some stats from recent EX stages: Of everyone that challenged Marisa (A6) EX, 33.19% of those cleared the stage. Congratulations! Reimu (A6) drops in as the most popular Friend used in the Marisa (A6) EX stage, with Reimu (F1) and Iku (L1) as second and third respectively. The Witch of Scarlet Dreams comes in as the most popular Spell Card in the Marisa (A6) EX stage, with Puppeteer and Necromancer and It’s Spring! as second and third respectively. Then, there is the announced Fantasy Rebirth characters Joining us on August 5th will be Star Sapphire and Luna Child with their Fantasy Rebirths and costumes. On August 26th, Toyohime and Yorihime will also be joining the Fantasy Rebirth gang with their very own Fantasy Rebirths and costumes. We are going to receive a new currency. Announced in the Dev Letter is a brand new item called the “Blank Mirror of Rebirth”! It can be used for both Fantasy Rebirths and Bullet Enhancements. The item will not drop from any stages yet, however, it will be available within the shop as a part of a pack for now. Also apparently a filter to make it easier navigate though the Fantasy Rebirth stages. On top of these updates, the game engine will be receiving an update on August 5th. This will include the game undergoing a large update of approximately 1GB, but should not add to the total app size as it should just be replacing old files. The Remilia (Relic) story will also be moving to the “Special” tab on August 5th. This means that players will be able to receive another copy of Remilia’s Story Card from the stage because of this change. Alright, now to the bigger stuff. We are going to receive a lot of story in a short amount of time - Second (and final) part of Interlude (Chapter 3.5) and then Chapter 4 Act 1, one week after the conclusion of Interlude. Release date: 12th August. Also new flashy story cards (apparently these ones will have its story translated). And then there is Chapter 4... From JP spoilers (is anyone catches up with those - but to be fair, it has merely been a week since Chapter 4 was announced there and half a week since most characters were revealed on r/touhou_lostword), we already know who the shadowy figure is. But let's say we saw nothing before the story comes out... Also more new flashy story cards Of course, in welcoming of this new chapter, we are going to get a banner of Summer Yukari. She is an Epic Fes unit, and, just like with Blue Reimu before, we are going to get 130 free prayers. I got 5 from today, and daily logins will provide 40 though the campaign, but where are we going to get the other 90? Also x35 Fortune Dust, so neat, I guess? Yukari Yakumo (C3) joins us as our second-ever Epic-tier Friend. With her arrival also comes some powerful abilities, such as being able to remove up to 2 Seals from her entire party! It may come in super handy when attempting some of those challenging stages. We are also getting a new EX stage, from which a story card useful to Summer Yukari can be farmed: Events and changes We are getting a rerun of the Easter event with Yuyuko and the sword bunny dancers. Yeah, that event. At least some new costumes are coming out with it, and some of them are looking rather neat. The Spring Festival of Swords event will be receiving a rerun from August 5th to August 19th! As an exciting bonus, an Epic Paper Doll will be available in the event shop for purchase once with 150 Rare Points! Along with the event comes new costumes for Satori, Flandre, Okina, and Ichirin! The outfit for Satori is actually looking very cute. And Okina's is... interesting to say the least. Strong Middle Eastern vibe going for it. As mentioned previously, Ichirin is coming into the game through her own banner starting with the 5th. If you are the kind of person looking for the company of our favorite big chad Unzan, this is the perfect moment to go for it. Also nice bunny outfit. Is it just me, or Ichirin does look better without her hoodie? I have noticed that ever since one of her victory animations from Touhou 15.5, where she takes it off. Another brand new item, My First Exchange Ema. You can use the Ema in the Prayer tab to summon your favourite Friend, as long as they’re from the L1 universe. In the future, the Ema will be able to be used from outside of the Prayer menu. The Ema will be available as a login bonus from August 5th. It will also be available in the shop as part of a pack. Looks like the Everybody Wins campaign will be back. Well, we are still waiting for the prizes from the previous one, but they are to be received following the update on the 5th of August. Kourindou Rolette is also back, and if it is to be believed from one of the later images, it might last for the entire month. Otherwise, just the regular 10 days. Just like the simulations. The Relic Paper Disk, used to upgrade the new MV Friends, will be added to new events starting from August 19th for 100 Rare Points! (skipping this part since it is just about packs and stuff to whale for in the store) Before going into the final roadmaps, there are a few limited banners that will be up in this period: Conclusions In order to wrap it up, GamePress also provided a few charts about the evolution of the game through August, putting together everything I have mentioned above. Basically you could take it as the tl;dr part of this long comment: At the time I am writing this, there are also two good threads on r/touhou_lostword which cover the topics I have gone through My colleagues from Scarlet Talk, Remi and Patchy, are going through the summary with their own takes on recent issues. Hilarity ensues. The latest update to come expressed in small bits. I wonder how did we not get yet a weekly banner of what maintenance is about to bring...

Thank you. Game Press already has a good article. Which I will use as a base. Combined with whatever info drops from r/touhou_lostword, we should have a bigger image of what is going on. I know about the anima. However, I do believe it is underwhelming and pretty much not worth investing in given how many resources you have to pour into it (and for some rewaosn, I am always running dry on golden Dragon and Tiger Scrolls - as if my characters are eating them for breakfast). The Anima looks like something that should have already been a feature a game in the game, not something you have to unlock. You have either static JPEGs or loop anination/pretty much a GIF

Just as I was watching a bit of a Danmaku Kagura livestream and wait, DanKagu also has Live2D animated characters just like Cannonball? That is so cool. Why did LostWord decided to be the one to go with the cheapest, laziest, most limited and PowerPoint slideshow type animation? For fuck sake... Ff you think MoF Suwako is bad, just wait for summer/beach episode Yukari and the whole bunch of 10 more alts coming in Chapter 4 and possibly Hifuu shortly. Even if Chapter 3.5 is not complete, Sumireko did not get a banner, we are lagging behind with the general pool units, and some story cards have been waiting for months to be translated. And yet Global decided to speedrun the announcement for Summer Yukari and Chapter 4 just 5 DAYS AFTER JP, given it took them a whole year to completely translate Chapter 3. Yet somehow, LW is pretty much the only Touhou mobile game that made it to the second anniversary if we count the original JP version. And the only game that was also translated to English for a Global version, while every other game ended up to the graveyard in just a year or less after release. Update must be coming in a few hours from now as Dev letter is bound to happen in one hour.

Hey, look at this. Apparently, the EpicFes on JP was supposed to also have the 130 free prayers. However, that feature was axed TWICE on JP, but somehow survived on Global. Just Take a look... I do not now for sure if JP has actually axed it with the Yukari banner, but apparently it was removed when Blue Reimu came. I am not very sure what this link says, but I have found it connected to the images https://touhoulostword.com/2022/07/27/210767/banner_spnorito_saffjhit/

Yes, it is said DanKagu will close down. I don't really care about Arcadia. LostWord is slowly starting to drain my soul especially with recent game evolution. We should not forget that CAVE is apparently coming with a Touhou gacha too (CAVE is known for bullet hell games, but everybody assumes their Touhou game will be gacha given the recent games coming from that group/company). Well, I do not really know what to expect anymore... I think I would only get more depressed. More info on LW likely to come tomorrow. Even if this thread would get a conclusion, I will still keep it alive with game updates as this is pretty much THE DISCUSSION THREAD for all the games of this kind and which have the Touhou name slapped on them.

Alright, there is some more info about Summer Yukari

Oh wow, it seems like I missed this one. Yeah, I wonder when she will come to Global, and if it will be like with EoSD Patchouli and put her in a bundle with the other PCB alts. People have been wondering where PCB Yuyuko is though, given that she apparently appeared somewhere.

PC-98 Reimu and Marisa appeared in a cutscene for the first Hifuu story. Although they were just...standing there and exchanging a bit of dialogue. The two also appeared on some promotional material for the game, but ever since there has been no sign they will be added as playable (like with any other PC-98 character). The devs don't really seem interested to add characters from the first 5 games even if complaining they ran out of original 2hus from the Windows canon. And at how characters are being released nowadays, I'm afraid the old era might come as something like UFes or maybe even Efes as those seem to be the norm nowadays. Ran (I guess retro PCB version) did appear in some cutscene on JP, but again, no actual banner as far as I remember. Or maybe did she get a banner there? I can't remember. Anyway, we can only wait for the Dev Letter in a couple days and see what's in the mind of those running the game.

Hello soda, I wish I could transfer units from one player to another, as I would have donated you my EoSD Patchouli. I played on that banner for a bit, looking to mostly get Reimu, but something like 1250 SCs and a bit of mental sanity gome, I got all of the EoSD retros. At least I made an irl friend happy by getting Cirno... I guess this is what has commonly been defined as FOMO ("fear of missing out"). Honestly, I am going through the same feeling, which his one of the main reasons I have not skipped a single day in this day since I got into it. Now though, I may start feeling sorry about it, as I have grown too invested into everything to drop it for good. No matter how much we are getting annoyed or mald and seethe about the game, we still com back to it. NO. MATTER. WHAT. And it is not like the two of us suddenly dropping it would have any result on the game itself. If both of use are 100% f2p players, we basically do not exist in the gacha chart. Oh boy. I do remember the days when the biggest controversy in the game was the fact the Alterisa and Suika had back-to-back banners. But ever since, it looks like this incident might be nothing compared to everything else that came afterwards. Even though some still put it as the episode when things started going wrong with Global (though I would rather put it either at the 0.5 Anniversary or somewhere at the time of Mysterious Sword Master). I really wished those were just cute summer outfits just like you. But even outfits are regularly a bit on the expensive side, at 480 GCs. I will bring again this mountain of text, just for the sake of explaining relevance of characters based on what it seems to be the future of the game: They really range from minimal to extreme huh. The previous chapters had a focus on using L1 characters in different situations while keeping the Alts limited to the "main characters/focal characters" of the arc, like Ultra Myon/Loliko and Altrisa. Now they're changing that to the Hifuu route of "Basically any character involved is getting an alt" which lets them put out these alternate designs as characters instead of costumes and sell a shit ton more Ufes/Efes banners. It's a tough question where you draw the line between what's suitable for a costume and what can be an alt, so LW basically drew the line using their universes. Iterations of characters who aren't L1 can be released as separate units, characters who are L1 can only get costumes, not alts. That would monetarily incentivise the devs to focus on spamming out these non L1 redesigns and keep the L1 costumes to events only, and since the precedent is that story related characters are Ufes or higher, that makes it a double win for NN when they choose to create a shit load of redesigns from different universes all at once. Gleam from that what you will. Ultimately all that I want though is just for Chapter 4 to be a well told story, no setting is inherently bad, it just requires the finesse of a good writer to make something interesting out of it. To expand on the middle point. What I mean to say is that, if I'm right, how NN has drawn the lines of their universes, we may never see an new summonable L1 Reimu, or Marisa or whatever, instead only getting "alts" from other universes. Since story based alts from other universes tend to be Ultra fes or higher units now, and with as many characters as we can see here, this could be the point in which fes units basically become what gen units used to be. Ufes units will become the new Fes units, in that they'll take the place that fes units used to represent. Fes units will become the new gen units, in that they'll take the place that gen units used to represent and Efes units will take the place of ultra fes units, in that they'll take the place of what Ultra fes units used to represent SPECIFICALLY back before the mechs, where ultra fes was given to the main characters of the respective universes, Myon/Loliko and Altrisa style. With this, they can effectively just raise the price of summoning across the board with A-series units representing the only point of new regular fes units once L1 is finally complete, and everything else being Ultra or higher while gen pool units effectively vanish all together, quite the scary possibility. Ultimately I'm just doom-speculating, so let's just hope it doesn't come to that. [And in reply to that] Thing is, Fes units are already becoming what general pool are, literally. Yukari and Kasen got moved to to the general pool (also maybe Byakuren but I can’t confirm it other than one person’s screenshot). Assuming every L1 Fes will share the same fate, from now on the Fes pool will just be Retros. The general pool will probably be very cluttered and stagnant while they keep pumping out Fes+ units. Sure, them pumping out alts was an inevitable outcome considering their refusal of making PC-98 units and their being only so many Windows units, but they shot themselves in the foot by pumping out units every week, the costume system blurring the lines between what should and shouldn’t be an alt, and the multitude of rarities So from what I understood: - current general pool category might become useless/irrelevant - FES as the new General - every rank moved one lower (say hello to UFES as the new FES and Epic FES as the new UFES) - basically UFES units will be the norm when it comes to new main story universes - it is very possible the general summoning prices to go high(er) - and my conclusion: "guys, we are out of the classic 2hus, we need something to shove to the people QUICK!"

Alright, so to develop a bit what I was talking about: - after more than a year of playing the game (Touhou LW), I feel like it has become stale. Everything is the same daily grind which does not really bring you any sense of fulfilment. You just grind for rare story cards with awful drop rate, grind points for events, grind characters to raise their level, grind items to use on upgrading said units etc. The new game mods have not felt very exciting at all, and were rather a frustration, even if they are supposed to be the more "strategic" modes (Conflux and whatever EX there is), the endgame. But it only feels cheap, with enemies that have multiple HP bars and whose gimmick is to lock your abilities while one-shotting your units. - the way in which they are giving priority to new content is weird to say the least. Chapter 3 (with its way too prolonged story in 4 acts) took over a year to be completed and translated on Global by what seems to be a 2 men team. However, it looks like it only took them 5 days to already translate the teaser for Chapter 4, and the Dev Letter on the 3rd of August might actually be what will announce that story's introduction on Global. Meanwhile, Chapter 3.5 is still ongoing, and was not solved yet. There is no sign we will get next part of Interlude, whose ending apparently ties into Chapter 4. And let's not talk about the story cards which for months have been waiting to receive a translation, still staying there with a "Coming soon...". - the characters - oh god, the characters. I am quite scared to say, but I am not feeling excited about anything coming at all. Let's take it chronologically with the story. Chapter 3.5/Interlude has already been out for half a month. However, as a surprise, Sumireko did not come yet as a banner despite her being the protagonist of that story (contrary to the seeming custom of LW to add a new character as banner soon after their story). Then, what seems to be the new set of units. First set of 5 units to be more precise, all on the same theme: BEACH EPISODE. Yes, it was inevitable as a gacha game to get such a phase eventually. It would have been fine if the characters (Yukari, Reimu, Marisa and Hecatia; Summer Rinnosuke will probably be NPC) were just summer costumes. But NOOO, it is already confirmed that at least "Summer Yukari" will be a separate unit, and an Epic Fes one above anything else. It remains to be seen what will be happening to the other ones. - one more chunk of characters - the ones announced in the past couple days. Is it just me, or many of them feel like either cheap recolored units or just do not fit aesthetically into Touhou? Like without the Touhou brand stamped all over them, I would not have been able to recognize them. Before, alts seemed to be only the exception, that character who used to be affected most by the Lost Word incident. Chapter 1 had no alt. Chapter 2 had Scarlet Marisa. Chapter 3 introduced Tiny Yuyuko, Mysterious Sword Master, Blue Reimu and "loli Yukari". Then Hifuu pretty much went full on alts only. Which in itself is interesting if well executed. But now, I feel like they are becoming slightly too many, with some hard to recognize who they originally were. Let's take this one for example: Initially, I though this was an alt version of Sanae. However, surprise, surprise, this is actually Yuuka. Had I not been told, I would have never realized it. The design itself is nice, I am not gonna lie. However, I am starting to feel like this game is starting to scream more and more OC galore, as they are running out of official 2hus to add. But this is more of a problem with gacha games in general. Always forced to add new content to stay relevant, they had to add everyone in as soon as possible. And now, after 2 years of JP, they are scraping the barrel. Once the whole UM cast is in, it is very much game over until ZUN comes up wit new characters - of course, if LW survives until then. And it is not necessarily about the fact they are adding alts. Again, it is fine, since we are talking about a premise revolving around going to alternate universes. The only problem is that these characters might take the spot of the official characters. When the game came out on Global, alts did not exist yet, the tier list being made out of the original 2hus. Now, if the OCs take the spot, what will happen to the game? Will this just be a game that has the word "Touhou" in its name, but will be more about alts? Will this become just "Touhou OCs - The Game"? Sometimes, it really feels like the real 2hus barely get any love anymore. If these new OCs will be mostly UFES and SFES, I am not very sure relevant that designation will be anymore. I do not really know how relevant the designations are anymore. It is already confusing that we have 4 different paper doll kinds, or that 2 new rarity levels were introduced in just a month. The normal Touhou characters, especially those from like last year, are no longer relevant, and will be replaced by reskins of them, I mean "retros" just because nobody really seems to be planning to update them. I wonder what will this game bring up next... tl;dr: Honestly, I feel very fatigued, and without high expectations or excitement for what is to come. I just want to finally finish the collection of personal Top 10 Touhou characters, and then to take a break. Maybe part ways with this game at last, or just take a long break until anything new and actually interesting will be introduced. I still have hopes for this game to bring in something good, even if my hope is low. As for you, @Isaac I think LW Global lost a good chance to add Parsee with the SA Koishi banner. In my case, I guess Wood EX will be the moment they will finally add Raiko into the game. As for Chimata, only god knows when she will come. I just hope it will not be too late for that, until I will finally break and lose all hope and interest in this game.

Yes, that is the image I was talking about

@Isaac please remind me to come back later with a reply. All I know is that Chapter 4 seems to have already been translated to English, or at least the original teaser. I think the following Dev Letter for Global will cover it, so it might come shortly. For the record, it's been... 5 days since that was teased on JP, and it's already being brought up by Global.

Don't forget about that famous photo of ZUN standing next to a woman (some say it's his real life wife, some say she isn't/wasn't) cosplaying as Aya as well. However, the title of "ZUN wife" also seems to have been shared through time by Sakuya and Sanae (funny Sumireko did not get the title, given how proéminent she was around the time of her debut - but talking about Sumireko is a whole different can of worms in itself, be it canon or fanon).

One more thing to add. Do you remember LW before the days UFES, palette swaps and alts were not yet a thing? Yeah, this is how the JP tier list used to look like on the 9th of June 2021. One other thing I was going to say about alts, and this comes full circle from the beginning of the thread, is that they do not really feel like the Touhou characters anymore. I get the premise we are going from an alternate universe to another, but I have the feeling a lot of these new characters would have fut in any other gacha. And without the Touhou tag on than, you would not have been aware they are supposed to be from a Touhou game. I'm starting more and more to confuse who is an alt of who, with just this new batch making me mistake their original character. And now, the game is more and more balanced around the new OCs or regular Touhou units the devs forgot to add, but are now making ridiculously powerful just for keeping the game relevant (remember when WRIGGLE NIGHTBUG of all 2hus was a top tier character in the game)

Alright, it looks like there is a bit of an update about the new content for LostWord JP. I was going to write something bigger in regards to me starting to get tired of the game, and questioning why I play it, but I will let that for another time. Seriously, it has already been a year of daily laying, but I am starting to feel like I need a break. But if I take a break, I am concerned I might be missing something. But at the same time, I am also getting tired of this, and it is becoming repetitive. I just want Raiko and Tenkyuu, then I could just gladly retired from this gacha hell (how in the world did I even end up playing a gacha game to begin with?). Anyway, on with the update: The new characters - they seem like they belong to two sections, more exactly Chapter 4 (which looks like a beach episode) and from Hifuu. Keep in mind, all these seem to be alts, with various degrees of rarity. I think there is a comment in that thread which made me think in regards to what is going on, and what might happen in the future: Yes, some of these new units do look quite nice, but now that I think of it, I wonder how much is it actually just bait. I just find it amazing, especially for someone who never touched a gacha before, how much the pack of abilities and passives a character comes with changed in just a year. If you compare a character that came out a year ago around the same time, and one released days ago, you will see that a lot of the characters from last year either have not so useful abilities anymore or they are outright useless/cannot be used in newer content without struggling a lot. But this is apparently a normal thing for gacha games, and people who play this genre are already desensitized by it. Anyway, I will just leave here the second thread ow that I think of it, I am actually a bit depressed, thinkin I may have wasted an entire year of my life with a game that did not bring me anything good in actuality. An entire year I could have perhaps use for getting into actual Touhou content, like, you know, the bullet hell games. Or anything more constructive overall. But man, do I really suck at any other Touhou games (especially the officia ones) or lack money to buy some of the ACTUALLY GOOD fangames out there...

Yeah, this took me much longer than I was supposed to, so here is the info put together: So, remember when KLab announced they were making a Touhou gacha game that turned out to be an asset flip of a bootleg game that stole assets and plagiarized from other games? Well, it's back and it's releasing today. On March 31st 2022, a new account for a Touhou Mobile game, Touhou Arcadia Record announced that they obtained a license to make a Touhou mobile game, and they were starting pre-registration. With the announcement came a website, and at the very bottom of the website, people found something that made this prospective mobile game less than appealing. Namely that it was being published by KLab, who just one year ago announced the bootleg game, Danmaku Gensou. Speaking of which, whatever happened to that game and the developer, Dobala games? No announcement of cancellation, no news of updates or anything, it's just gone, and one year later they now have this new game that's also far enough in development to release 4 months later. Whatever happened to that old one, due to that incident, this new game, Arcadia Record, was given a lot of scrutiny by fans. And they found some of its activities suspicious. First, they found that the website was engaging in meta tag abuse, adding tags like Danmaku Kagura, Lost Word, and even Dungeon Dive to the meta tags, presumably as an attempt to increase their search engine rankings. They updated this after being called out on it. They also used Unknown X's "What is Touhou" explanation, completely copy & pasting the description on Unknown X's for their own website. They updated this after being called out on it. And most famously, they gave themselves the abbreviation 東方アルレコ (Touhou AruReco), which just happens to be the abbreviation used for Alstroemeria Records (of Bad Apple fame). They also hired Alstroemeria Records to compose a song for their announcement PV. This, along with their meta tag abuse, and the fact that they were backed by KLabs, made people theorize that they were trying to use Alstroemeria Records' name and abbreviation to boost their own popularity, since their website and game to appear on searches for the circle. They updated this after they got called out on it. During Reitaisai , no less. Now they go by 東方アルカ (Touhou Aruka). Either way, this shady image stuck to them. It didn't help that when they showed some of their assets off, people noticed that they look pretty familiar. As if it was just the assets of Danmaku Gensou with a fresh coat of paint. (And Danmaku Gensou itself was also just a bootleg game renamed into a non-bootleg game). Sure enough, when the closed beta was released, it was pretty obviously, just the old bootleg game with a new coat of paint. On the left is a video of the old bootleg Touhou game, on the right is footage from the Touhou Arcadia beta. So what happened here? Honestly I can't really say 100% for certain. My theory is that KLab found themselves in hot water and saddled with a license that they can't use. So they just decided to take the game that Dobala Games already had and gave it to a company that was willing. They were a bit more careful this time around though. For one thing, KLab themselves made 0 announcement of this. No press release, no Gematsu or Famitsu article, nothing. The only thing that tells you that KLab is involved at all is the trademark at the bottom of the site. Pretty weird for a game that was supposed to be releasing soon. What's more, they also commissioned a bunch of circles to make tracks and PVs for them, to make themselves look better. They also didn't announce themselves to the world this time, keeping everything in Japan. Time will tell if their efforts were actually successful. The Youtube Videos on the games haven't exactly been positive. [Small update] More oddities about the game. The Google Appstore link mentions Dobala in it. This is despite the fact that Arcadia Records is by Damo Games, and Dobala games was the developer of the old one. Also, their Wonderful World PV has a peculiar lack of UM characters, despite UM having already been released for over a year by the time it was released. Even accounting for production time, surely they could've added 2 extra images showing the UM masterminds. It really makes me think that KLab did find themselves down a good chunk of their capital, having already commissioned several circles, with nothing to show for it, so they just decided to release Arcadia Records anyways, despite all the plagiarism behind it. I shoukd clarify that what Izm trying to say from this one is that it's just more signs that this was actually made for the Dobala Games one instead of for Arcadia Records. More signs that ArReco is just a reskin of that bootleg game. It's less a "they didn't feature UM thing, how dare they", and more "why didn't they?". It looks very much like this animation was completed a long time ago. Because it's very conspicuous to cut off at 17 when considering what the PV is about. Originally, the person made another thread about the game back in April, which further expands the discussion on the game I'm sure everyone has seen the recent news of KLab and a Dobala games making an "officially licensed" touhou game. I'd like to point out a few pieces of information regarding this company, as well as clarify what officially licensed means here. First, let's start with the company itself. Some of you may be excited of the prospect of playing a Touhou Side-scrolling shmup game on mobile. However, I'd advise getting excited about this one, as the developers behind this game have a checkered history of plagiarism. As seen in the tweet below, back in 2018, they already made a game that ripped off designs from Touhou, Azur Lane, and GBF. In some cases, straight up using the same asset. More details can seen in the following article https://bilibili.com/read/cv1649004/ You can also see an example of the gameplay in the following video, featuring Hakurei Maiden, Star Wizard, Big Fairy, Scarlet Overlord, Hong Meiling (spelled differently), and Frost Fairy. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Tp4y1s77D. And if you think that was egregious enough, if you look at that boss battle and compare it to the screenshot in the Gematsu article, you'll notice a few similarities. As seen in this tweet. https://twitter.com/Doki2_yumoti_ch/status/1386598456756629506 In other words, they've not only plagiarised Touhou in the past, they're currently taking that pirate game, flipping the assets, and selling it as a new officially sanctioned game. The game itself can still be found right here. https://appadvice.com/app/e9-a3-9e-e5-a4-a9-e5-b0-8f-e9-ad-94-e5-a5-b3-e5-85-a8-e6-b0-91-e5-8a-a8-e4-bd-9c-e5-8d-a1-e7-89-8c-e6-89-8b-e6-b8-b8/1492900654 So, you might be thinking, "how could ZUN officially sanction this"? Well, here's the thing. ZUN is very hands off when it comes to Touhou related stuff. A lot of the times, when companies want to make merchandise or products, they don't go to him, they go to his legal team. There have been a few "officially licensed" game here and there, such as Lost Word, and Dungeon Dive, these are all officially licensed in a sense that they've talked to ZUN's legal team, and gotten an okay from them. They have not gotten directly involved with ZUN in any way. When it comes to official games that are actually part of the series, for now, that's only the numbered games, the collaborations with Tasogare Frontier, and some parts of the Seihou series. anything else is just considered a derivative work, regardless if it's made by a company. Now, back to the new game. I hope anyone who was interested in it out give it a second thought and not give the game your attention. I believe what they're doing undermines the effort and love that every other Touhou creator pours into their works. As well as being insulting to fans who were expecting a quality game. I hope that this thread has enlightened you in regards to the situation. To close with, here are a few more threads showing the extent of Dobala Games' asset flipping and plagiarism. https://t.bilibili.com/h5/dynamic/detail/517856430361073125 Reading this, especially the last part, has raised me some questions. Particularly on the legal team part. Could this mean ZUN does not really have any actual power over what is going on, and the legal team is doing everything behind his back? It only remains to be seen what will happen next.