CountVonNumenor

I see there is quite a lot of diversified tastes in here. Glad to see that

We have seen them already in the main story so please, for the love of ZUN, someone add them in the game. At least Kogasa and Mayumi. Unless they tie the appearance of normal 2hus in the game with the event they are featured in, and the only characters coming together with the story as banner are the SFES ones. It really is a shame we longer get the free costumes. I think they stopped doing it after the half a year anniversary, and was just one of the many controversies sparked at the time. Until now, I really did not play too much of it. I need to beat Floor 15, and just cannot get to do it without wasting a lot of resources. Which is even more ironic, since I have two fully upgraded SFES units (Lunar War Toyohime and Reimu Shaman). I did not manage to beat any of the EX stages either yet, despite the very strong units owned, since most of the times I try playing turn into an unorganized mess of a combat.

I can see this being a problem with the sprites from 13.5. I wonder how it would work though with those from the early fighter gamer (IaMP, SWR and Hisoutensoku), since supposedly all the character sprites are on the same level. Even if those are still quite stylized, we can at least see how the artist for the (battle) sprites interpreted it. Yeah, I really like the style of Iganashi. The characters look cute drawn that way

Eiki has her banner right now, and that one will last for 9 more days until the 11th. As for Hina, I think she is a general pool unit, so you should be able to get her eventually. But I guess both of us are still waiting for Raiko. I do not think we should worry. At least in the case of Fantasy Rebirth, even weaker, less "meta" units got it until now like Alice, Patchouli, Seiran and Ringo, the fairies and so on. I guess everyone will get that new outfit eventually, at least among the "general" units. Never too late to the party. Anyone can join whenever they please. Also about Yuuma. She has. funnily enough, been mentioned by Saki in some of her lines. Her victory line refers to both Yachie and Toutetsu:

I honestly have not checked if this song has already been mentioned in here, but I discovered this recently thanks to one of Asprey's livestreams. I think I did listen to it for like a hour when he played Spell Bubble as the challenge level was hard to get over during that livestream, then I decided to search the song for myself. I was not disappointed. So anyway, ladies and gentlemen, here is Flame of Fate from THE OTHER FLOWER Also this cool metal cover from YaboiMatoi for Immemorial Marketeers (bonus Mike GyateGyate)

Just as I was writing a reply in the Shinra-Bansho thread, and was making a bit of research into Help me, ERINNNNNN!!, my little birdbrain remembered something from almost a year ago. There is a Stack cover of that song, and it sounds just as good as I thought. How could I forget about that song?! Here it is:

Another reason for which we cannot really rely on sprites, at least those from Hopeless Masquerade can be seen here I have put some of the sprites together, and oh dear how weird the proportions are. I guess this is really explained by the fact each of them are at different distances. As for inconsistencies in general with the official art, check this out: That moment when even official art messes up perspective and proportions (image from Silent Sinner in Blue, notes added by a Reddit user - I have lost trace of the thread in which this was discussed)

Damn it, you got the video posted quicker than I could. I saw the post about 10 minutes after you did added it, and was about to comment back then. At least I got my revenge by being the first to post it on the big Touhou discord community. As for the new album, I really wonder what will it contain. But I do not think we will wait to wait too long, since apparently the Reitasai will come soon, so I expect the release to be there (like they did with Venten last year). Quite a nice PV indeed. We need to thank Harano for yet another set of stunning and cute visuals. For me, Yuuma got my curiosity since I first listened to her music theme(s) (like really, she has two of them, and the Akatsuki Records song seems to be based on the first theme), and I would say the music and interesting design (hey, we got a goat 2hu) caught my attention quicker than the "comically oversized spoon" / "Spork" joke. For reference, the theme I was talking about It seems to be happening more and more recently, at least from as long as I am familiar with Akatsuki Records. First it happened in July, when we got two PVs in one week (HELLOHELL and Reverse Trigger), then again in December (Consultant! and DIG IT DIG OUT). In both instances, the PVs represented the first two songs of the releasing albums. The fact we got two PVs at a distance of a couple of days might change things a little. This time, it is interesting. Blood-Stained Dancing Party Night ~Kyuu and Boom!♥ was an already existent song song that came in a single album back in 2018, but was now revisited and given a PV (similar story as with Black Mirror on the Wall - the song that got a PV in October 2021 is a remastered version of another song that was released on the God’s Stories -INNOCENT- -to the beginning 06- album back in 2016, this time as a limited single). I do not know yet if the Flandre song will be part of a limited single or anything, or if the new big album actually starts with the Yuuma song (would be the second album in less than year focusing on songs from the most recent games if that is to be). But I think we will fin out more in the next few weeks at most. It would be funny if we got yet another PV in a week from new, because that will either confirm or completely bust my theory.

We did not get Raiko yet in Global, but I really wanna get her. She, Mayumi and Tenkyuu are the last 2hus I need for completing my top 10 list. Also, do you say she fell in rank? Like she was good, and then got a nerf? Or there was no modification, just that her, being a general pool unit, will be weak no matter what? I still cannot help but laugh how Eika, Mayumi, Wriggle and Eternity are General Pool units, and all of them are in the S and S+ tier, and share room with some of the FES and SFES units.

Welcome! Never too late to join the party. The Yukari fight in Chapter 1 really is a quite an awakening to reality if you haven't got used to the mechanics. When I first got into that battle, I was lucky to have Lily White part of my team, so I could make use of the Wood breaks our beloved Herald of Spring provides and Yukari's elemental weakness to Wood. However, it is indeed quite a good point where to start learning some of the mechanics and all you have mentioned. I've heard a lot of people saying that that difference from Normal to Hard and then Lunatic feels quite great. However, this is how I remember the things about each difficulty besides the increase in HP and barriers to break: Normal: enemies do not use any of their abilities Hard: enemies use their defensive abilities Lunatic: enemies use their defensive, offensive and debuff abilities Indeed, besides a relatively low number of character outfits, casual "oh, do you remember when...[insert reference to mainline game]" and the whole Fantasy Rebirth mechanic, there seems to be little fanservice in this game. At least for now... The art style is also quite nice, and I like how consistent it is for every character. The fact they also collaborated with other fan artists and introduced their art in the game through the story card is quite neat too. One thing that surprised me a little, knowing how fanon can be, is how they decided to depict Eiki Shiki. She has been recently added to Global, and since I like the character, I wanted to get her (which I got, luck enough, in my first x10 prayer). Even if her art makes Eiki look rather average in height, and her battle chibi seems to be a little smaller than that of other characters (LOL), her personality was a pleasant surprise. The game has gone quite a bit with the preachy personality, but, at least in my opinion, her lines also show care and wish for the character to be a good person. Which is quite refreshing from the casual "always angry small girl Eiki who will send you to hell for the pettiest of reasons" fanon got us so used to. The player-insert part has been done interestingly. I might say this due to not having any prior experience with games where you have self-inserts or isekai, but this one is a little different. First and mainly, there is the part your character is already established to be a girl. Usually, at least from what I know, such games usually let the player pick the gender of the protagonist or make them male, therefore all the jazz and stereotypical "harem" stuff when you have a cast filled with other girls/women/whatever. Then, there is the whole Fantasy Rebirth thing, where, if you go by how some call it - "marry the 2hus", you basically have girl-girl relations. It is funny though how the creators tried giving the protag a bit of personality in the fact that, according to the biggest part of the Lost Word community, she might have a crush on Sakuya based on some of the interactions until now. This comment I have once seen in regards to MC's interactions with the girls in the series always makes me laugh:

I will continue promoting Iganashi and his/her adult Eiki version, since I like it so much Source https://twitter.com/Iganashi1/status/1518954224712749057?s=20&t=pXESonJfWhez_LILD5KMGw Source https://twitter.com/Iganashi1/status/1520074903286054914?s=20&t=pXESonJfWhez_LILD5KMGw

Wait, did characters on JP other than Meiling actually get buffs? As for the units, this is what the (unofficial) JP tier list looks like: As you can se, some of these units are new ones. And to make it even more interesting, Eternity Larva, Mayumi, Wriggle and Eika are general pool units, and they still manage to score up to S+ tier. Afterwards, another interesting detail is how FES units can reach the second to be tier, like with PCB Alice, or SS with EoSD Reimu and PCB Yukari. The rest of the FES units, be them the reskins or normal 2hus, still score high. As of 29th of April, none of the reskins scores lower than A tier, while some of the regular FES units even reach C tier (Byakuren, Kanako - both of their "classic" versions are in S tier). Reimu and Marisa already have PC-98 sprites used in story cutscenes, and some of the promotional materials for the game in Japan feature the two. It might not take long until PC-98 characters might actually be a thing. Since we had a Blue Reimu, a Red Sanae would have been obvious. Now the two can complement each other and switch between Player 1 and Player 2 ;) Good question. Now I really wonder that too. But since Hifuu seems to be going towards the SDM now in creating them alts, I can imagine PCB might be next. And therefore a new Myon. The one for Ran really looks nice. It gives me even more Tamamo no Mae vibe. As for waiting, hope it will be worth. Eventually, all the 2hus might get their own Fantasy Rebirth, and I personally like this thing for the new outfit. I have the one for Youmu, and it's really beautiful (even if it reminds me of her special outfit from Junjo Arumeria). Otherwise, I am quite curious what outfits Akyuu (already confirmed on the JP server) and Eiki will get eventually.

You mean the PV version of Necromantic, or the Acoustic ver. that came out last winter? Both of them are very good, and sound rather differently. The Acoustic seems to be much more calm, and Stack is much calmer than usual in those, especially when compared with the PV version(s). A few examples: Necromantic - PV and Acoustic Azure Raindrops - Acoustic and PV KARMANATIONS - PV and Acoustic versions Eternal Summer - PV and Acoustic versions And probably one of my favorite, Gray Zone In my opinion, all of them are quite good, and I like them for what they are.

Also, about that... Apparently, Blue Reimu will be her own tier of rarity, something above Ultra Festival. According to the people of the Lost Word subreddit, this new tier will be called "Epic Festival". Now I wonder what else will come in this, or if there will be even higher tiers than this eventually. And for even more news from the JP server:

That is actually we can go with in this thread, especially since this might be the only thread covering the two games recently. I mean yeah, I can see the whole effort of trying to catch up with JP, but it feels a little rushed, especially with the releases of units, just like I said in the previous comment. Right now, we have 10 ongoing things (step-ups included) in the Prayer category: Remilia Ultra Festival Eiki & Aunn Step-Up Eiki & Aunn Festival Festival Collection Step-Up Festival Collection Yuyuko (Tiny Ghost) & Marisa (Witch of Scarlet Dreams) Ultra Festival Sakuya (Classic) & Aya (Classic) Step-Up Sakuya (Classic) & Aya (Classic) Festival Water EX Step-Up Water EX Festival Next up, it is very much likely that we will get the Flandre Ultra Festival, as her sister from the Hifuu storyline is already here. I think the alts getting priority part might have come from the very way the game is structured and its premise, of going in alternate worlds and meeting different versions of the cast we are familiar with. This all started with the Witch of Scarlet Dreams, and will go for as long as the game is supported. But indeed, it would be nice if we got more of the "normal" characters (I really do not know how to call them anymore). Thing is now, in order to keep the game interesting, the game developers have started to add these characters you are looking for, just that they became insanely powerful (even more so than some of the Ultra FES ones), making some special units irrelevant. Like how Wriggle is still one of the strongest units on JP. And speaking of JP, outside PC-98, TH17.5 and 18, they have almost everyone in by now. Which just connects again to my idea of how they added 130+ characters in almost 2 years, at a pace of 1 character every 5 days. I was laughing how simply changing the number from 5 to 7 days would have given you like an almost extra year of adding original 2hus from the series. Meanwhile, I will just wait for Raiko, Mayumi and whenever the UM cast is coming to Global too (really looking to get Tenkyuu, and perhaps Tsukasa too simply for the fact they are cool).

Update: I think we should prepare for a new album. This is usually what I say after the release of a new PV, just like the one that dropped a couple hours ago. Welcome to Blood-Stained Dancing Party Night ~Kyuu and Boom!♥ the PV for a song that appeared back in 2018. Visuals are quite interesting in this one. A lot more animation than usual, and with the level of darkness, would have made for an awesome Halloween release (ironic since right now I was talking about Lost Word having a rerun of their Halloween event).

Personally, I also do have a DeviantArt page besides that on Pixiv. However, the DA one is more oriented towards military stuff, with the every now and then Touhou material snuck in too. As for Twitter, I do have an account, yet do not post anything there. I only have an account there because otherwise I would not have been able to access some of the artists whose works I like checking. Another place where I post Touhou-related, even if just at the level of discussion, is on Discord. But that is a different story.

So... we are two days before the 2nd anniversary of the JP server (30thApril 2020) and 2 weeks before the 1 year anniversary for Global (11th May 2021) for Lost Word. If we are to focus on the state of Global as of today, 28th April 2022 in terms of character diversity, the game has the following: a total of 109 characters have been introduced, most recent being Eiki Shiki, Aunn and a new version of Remilia Scarlet (Tiny Devil Mistress) out of these 109 characters, of which 87 are base (normal/vanilla) versions of the Touhou cast, and 22 are alternative versions (different universe to be met in the storyline or "Classic" versions) out of the 31 official games, the ones not covered yet by Global are the PC-98 games (besides PC-98 Reimu and Marisa appearing in a cutscene) and, Touhou 17.5 and Touhou 18 as a whole, we have 87 out of the, let's round it at 150, characters ZUN has created (PC-98 included) the game was released on the 11th of May 2021, so there are 352 days as a whole, if calculating, the average for releases in terms of characters, we got a new one every 3 days as a whole, and a non-alt unit every 4 days I am not very sure what was the thing I wanted to point out. I guess it was that units came out very quickly, and we already got half of the cast in this one year. People say there has been a rush in units released especially during and after the 0.5 years anniversary of Global, and there is criticism for the attempt of catching up with a game version that already had 1 year of advance. And from here, weird decisions like bringing units to Global mere days (at times) after their release on the JP server, events that came off as poorly planned (spring event at the beginning of winter, Halloween event getting a rerun now in late spring etc). Besides, I was trying to point out in a previous comment - was NN just extremely generous in the past month with rewards and all those "player appreciation" thing for the sake of being generous, as a way to compensate for their fuck-ups until that point and make players what happened, or because we should buckle up for something different? Also just a thing I find weird/interesting. I guess this sort of mobile games need to gain a lot of money in order to be work upkeeping or something, especially since last year in October-November NN was complaining Lost Word was gaining just 2-300K dollars a month (I am not too used to how much gacha games gain, but apparently these are rookie numbers since other games in the genre gain dozens of millions of dollars monthly just from IAPs). How expensive is it to upkeep a mobile phone, single-player game? Besides having to make sure everything works well, pay license for all the fanworks used, and pay your team that makes the game.

Speaking of which. I personally found them the other way around, first the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman of Gensokyo, and only after that the white/grey/ bowl-cut short hair swordswoman from Nier. Therefore my initial (and still kept in some measure) reaction towards 2B. However, there are some cool/funny cross-overs done on that theme though. For Myon (source https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/86261515) Looks like Momiji did not escape either (source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89331233)

Nice to finally see a comment on DanKagu. It really seems like an interesting game, has a lot of songs that I like, yet I really do not know how it works. You say it is less of a gacha game, and more of a rhythm game with gacha elements?

I forgot to mention one more bit of news. It has been leaked from the JP version that the Unconnected Marketeers cast is soon to make its debut, first one of the bunch being Misumaru (at least at story level or something). Besides, the Blue Reimu will also show up as a banner. Just in time for their second anniversary. Meanwhile, we are getting the "Right or Wrong or Doggo" (yes, that is the actual name) banner I have already mentioned ( Eiki & Aunn) Gonna waste a bit of crystals to bring the Yama home - she's one of the priority characters because of "collect favorites" Also yeah, this new totally not source of power-creep is coming too, I guess... But by now, I think we are slowly deviating from the original topic, that being how well does Touhou fit with the concept of gacha games/lootboxes/"surprise mechanics" and however you want to call this kind of game.

Not so much left until the 1 year anniversary for the Global release. Besides the SFES Remi that will be introduced later this week, at least we will finally get to see Eiki (and Aunn). I have been waiting for the former for quite a long time, while the later should have appeared in a banner since very long ago. Until I come back. some food for though in regards to how people see this game: If we are are to put it like this... has the recent high generosity on the side on NN with all the daily gift an actual thing, a PR stunt, or a way of compensation for possible issues with the game itself?

Quite some interesting picks. I do have a bit of experience with most of them on some degree, or at least have a basic knowledge what they are about. Probably one of the favorite games of my best friend. He's been playing for years, and wanted to introduce me into the series as well. I have not personally played the game yet, but I am familiar with the SFM community on YouTube. Right now, as I am writing this, I was thinking about Ceno0 and the Pootis Engage (both part 1 and part 2) series, just for the sake of fun. As for mods, I did hear about the fan-made cross-over with Touhou. Besides, MTB also did a parody of "Meet the Team" videos, but in MMD and with 2hus. I accidentally got into this series on the 21st of August 2020, after watching Rhythm Heaven Reanimated. At the time, I loved this thing so much, and started looking up online for videos of the gameplay. After almost 2 months, I discovered Nico Nico Douga Ryuuseigun. Here, without expecting, I got my first taste of a little game series turned into memes by the fandom called Touhou Project. Yes, this is what triggered my path towards getting into Touhou, and it all came together just a few days later. That is when I tripped and fell down the hole. Another game series on the list of my best friend. Even if I never got to play them (still wanna play Half-Life 1&2), I got hooked by the lore, especially about the setting in which HL1 is placed. There's just something very fascinating about the road towards the Black Mesa incident, the fight for survival through the falling research facility (I've heard people saying Half-Life 1 is actually a better horror game then many titles released nowadays, even if the game itself looks dated - unless you play the Black Mesa fan remake), and then everything that lead to the Combine conquering Earth in the 7 Hours War. Again, another game series I never got to play, but about which I had some slight knowledge. I have seen on of the games live at Asprey (his first livestream I got to see), and I really liked what I saw. The series looks extremely fun, and the story is engaging too. In shot, there's quite a cool stuff.

"The Stack phase"? I think I might be in that since November 2020. Akatsuki Records is probably one of the first doujin music groups I have found once I started falling down the Touhou rabbit whole, just short after RichaadEB, IOSYS, Shibayan Records and Shinra-Bansho. Ever since, I don't think I got out of this phase, if it is indeed just that. She sure is. Nice collection. There's quite a lot to enjoy from the group, and even if they might not be everyone's cup of tea, I still think there's something anyone could enjoy. The history of the group is something interesting, even of I still need to understand it. All I know is that it can be split between "before 2017" and "after 2017", with how things moved from ACTRock to Akatsuki Records, the Stack Bros taking over and how we got to the current shape of the group. I am still quite a bit confused. Anyway, this entire talk started with a thread on r/touhou (like most of the initial threads I have started since moving to Moriya), which gained a bit of attention at the moment of posting