Eulogous

I want someone to write a scenario where she goes on a vacation to Gensokyo. The protagonists stopped her mid-travel in Mystic Square, but I think it'd be cool if she had some interactions during her stay or something. Maybe with Byakuren, since she was sealed there in the past? A bit random, but I also like her role in Puppet Dance Performance as the checkpoint station before that game's Victory Road parallel.

I recently decided on a redo of the Touhou sorter, so I've got mine: I think the sorter is just weird at determining rankings. The amount of ties was concerning, and I have no idea how Elis made it into the top 10 (I might have a PC-98 bias, but still).

Her boss theme, "Magic Formation", sounds similar to "Maiden's Capriccio" which is kind of lame since that song debuted literally the game before. I know that PC-98 songs have parts that get reused (Parts of "Magic Mirror" from TH1 became "Complete Darkness", "Plastic Mind", and "Maiden's Capriccio"), but Sara's theme didn't get enough unique additions and that sucks. It's neat that Sara's the Stage 1 Boss and fills the gatekeeper role at the same time. One of the few times I can think of where the Stage 1 Boss is part of the group responsible for an incident and not some rando or vaguely involved.

I personally think Urumi actually having an occupation puts her a fair bit above the characters that just feel like they'd be a random encounter in a JRPG. Said occupation adds a little to Gensokyo from a logistics angle, which I like. Canon offerings, especially from the games, are almost always barebones in terms of in-depth characterization. However, I believe what can be interpreted (either from a character conceptually or the details of their role) and examined from what's given is severely overlooked. Homing in on specific details, thinking on what they entail, and how that potentially interacts or functions in the setting is a fun thought exercise, and I believe can lead to stronger writing in things like fanworks. As someone who values writing in fanworks and helps from time to time on projects or fangame jams, I notice a lot of people I've worked with just think in terms of "What cool thing has this character done in an existing plot, and how can I do that, but again?" or "This character hasn't done anything cool (or is a PC-98 character), so there's no way they can work in anything, ever!". Also, I find that people think in terms of making a grand plot, when good character writing can make an otherwise mundane situation interesting. To use Urumi for an example of homing in on details, there are questions that can be asked. Why is she generally peaceful now? Does she sell what she fishes up to the village? If so, how is she viewed? What else besides prehistoric fish has she found in the Sanzu River? (Seafood from the outside world is mentioned in a recent chapter of Lotus Eaters, and since Gensokyo has no oceans, this has been bugging the heck out of me, and I need an explanation lol). I like her overall outfit design (the cow-pattern is way too on-the-nose though), but I really hate the Ketchup and Mustard coloring she has going on. Very saturated. I feel like having either a gold or a burgundy throughout her design and not both at once could help her outfit look easier on the eyes. Why is her tail red? Admittedly, I think her Strange Creators of Outer World is pretty okay:

I ask myself this question a lot about most PC-98 characters, and even extend it to a handful of Windows characters who feel wasted.

I like the idea of Tokiko, a Youkai interested in reading human books. That could be used in a neat way, like you could've had something done with her and Kosuzu at Suzunaan with the whole "Are Youkai that bad?" question Kosuzu poses to Akyuu in FS. Heck, you could even have her be interested in getting into the Great Library to do some reading, have some interactions there with Patchouli. Why does she read? Is it a hobby? The questions a character like this brings up is really cool, but... She exists to get beaten up and robbed by Reimu in canon. I dunno, when you introduce a character and have their sole existence being to get assaulted and robbed, have them rightfully get upset and demand their stuff back, only to get beaten up again by Marisa and it all being treated as a funi, you make me kinda despise the main characters and feel bad for Tokiko.

Satori? What did she do? Pretty sure Okuu would be considered the antagonist in that story, and even then, Kanako was effectively the reason why SA happened. That's the word, right there: "Befriended". There should've been more time to build up a friendship before you have a character refer to Reimu as "Reimers". Again, I don't have a problem with the end result, it just feels like we fast-forwarded ahead to the conclusion. The solid red looks way better on her sprite (rip dress pattern tho). My problem is mainly that you have an intricate pattern on her outfit, then and intricate pattern on the interior of her cape, and it you have both competing to draw the viewer's eye at once. I'll use Okuu as an example of why her cape works with her design: Her outfit is composed of flat colors, so her cape interior has a ton of contrast with it. Sumireko just sticking with the inverse of that visual design philosophy of plain cape and intricate outfit pattern would've worked pretty well. Utsuho Sprites for References:

This is pretty much the main issue I take issue with Sumireko. I don't really mind her personality, even if I find it annoying. I just don't like how fairly easy it was for her to befriend other characters. It's like some internal world logic got borked, and something that probably should've taken longer to happen got rushed to its conclusion. I'm not big on the cape runes. I feel like it makes her look over-designed, and just going with a solid red would've looked better. How she appears on one of the covers of WaHH makes me think she's better off without the cape. Cape-less Sumireko Reference:

Favorite OST: 10, with 11 being a very close 2nd place. The overall lineup of 10 and 11's tracks are strong. There's only like a song or two from both I'd consider forgettable. Least Favorite OST: 12 (Probably controversial, so I'll explain myself), with 2nd place being 16. The game might have my favorite Stage theme in the series ("Rural Makai City Esoteria") and Byakuren's theme is amazing, but I have to weigh them against the rest of the OST, which has a ton of "Meh" tracks like Stages 2 & 3. Stage 1 has a really good hook but I can't remember much after the first few bars, both Stage 4 and its Boss track are just okay for me, and I feel like Shou's theme takes a while to get to the good bits. The loud clanging metal in "Fires of Hokkai" is off-putting in an overall decent buildup song to the final boss, and "UFO Romance in the Night Sky" is my least favorite Extra Stage theme in the series (I hate the laugh sfx and the song kind of meanders in the beginning too much). I think "UFOwen Was Her?" is pretty good, I like the part about 1:20 in that's "Divine Bloodlines" from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

I've felt this way a few times before, and even a bit of it currently. The passion you have begins to evaporate and burnout sets in. Taking a break helps, but something feels like it's been lost along the way during it, and what should be a break to get some time to relax corrupts itself into a sort of FOMO. Though, like Space Banana says, don't overthink it. Trust me, you end up trapped in your own head spiraling downwards with worries. Same. TH19 doesn't really excite me, and CDS has been agony to both wait for and read (only really care about LE atm when it comes to official content coming out). Perfectly normal. There's nothing wrong about being a fan of other things and getting invested when stuff starts getting interesting with it. Azur Lane, huh? I started that way back when the Neptunia crossover event was going on. I had a cycle of putting it down for a while, picking it back up, and so on. Now there's a ton of new content that seems intimidating to start going through with my (probably) out-of-date ships. At least you gave the games a try, even if it ended up not being a thing you're into. I'm a casual fan when it comes to shmup games, so I never really go higher than Normal unless the game feels like it's too easy. I approach the mainline Touhou games with a mindset of "enjoyment-first", and "skill-and-challenging-myself" if it clears the first part. I honestly recommend 14.3, 18.5, or really any of the scene-shooter side shmups if you wanna give the mainline gameplay style another go at some point.

Is this it? https://www.dlsite.com/maniax/work/=/product_id/RJ132392.html

I use a pretty cheap Logitech F310 pad, but it feels "right" when playing Touhou. For some reason I had a lot of trouble doing diagonal movement before switching, now it's no problem at all. Also helps I can rebind a face button for the times the mainline games add an extra key input like in HSiFS.

No, and I actually like it over than either StB or DS. Having to take just one photo at minimum and defeating the boss is just something I prefer. I chalk it up to people just absorbing an opinion and regurgitating it until it becomes the common sentiment amongst the fanbase. There are reused patterns, but having new ways of navigating and clearing them is fine. The controls can be jank, especially the teleport because it feels awful to do, however.

You've just summed up almost exactly the same problems I have with the Phantasmagoria games as a whole. Of all of these type of games I've played, I will always lean towards 3 as the one I prefer over the others. Bombs being divorced from the meter is just better in my eyes, as I kinda hate having a Bomb remove my ability to do a basic Level 1 charge attack. 19 seems to have fixed it a bit, but not completely (it fixes not being able to use Lv.1 charge after Bombing). I like the idea of the systems, having different attacks based on the meter/character, having characters all have different charge rates, and shooting enemies charging said meter faster, but the vs. format is very messy. It's supposed to be a competitive side-by-side shooter, but what I'm doing to my opponent isn't clear with having to pay attention to all the nonsense on my screen, the AI isn't allowed to die until an arbitrary time limit is reached (which giving an AI advantage that isn't made clear to the player is what I'd categorize as "cheating"), and playing well to save up for a big attack that likely won't touch the AI undercuts the meter's purpose a bit outside of clearing nearby bullets. Wish the meter system got adapted into a mainline game, with like extra Power Tiles/Point Tiles/Gimmick Item charging it or something. Most of the time when I play this game I have no idea what's even going on in the fights. I'll attempt to try and focus on survival, but then seconds later my opponent just straight up dies and I win I guess, onto the next match. Komachi's unlockable route being a collection of sudden death fights is really cool, but we arrive back at the "AI only being allowed to get hit after a while" problem. This is really the only reason to play the Phantasmagoria games. The fairly large amount of characters, some who are returning minor bosses, being able to interact with each other and get development is a huge drive for me to put up with the gameplay. I enjoy pretty much every new song outside of Yuuka's new theme. It's lame in comparison to both her boss tracks from LLS, and even when I take it at face value, the song is extremely repetitive and boring. Overall, I think this a pretty "meh" game with some actually good ideas executed very poorly. Touhou has a huge emphasis on its characters and music over the gameplay, which are done well in this game, so I can see why it'd be appealing in that regard. Multiplayer looks like it could be fun with a friend, though.

Perfect Cherry Blossom is my favorite of the first three Windows games. It has solid gameplay, an easy to understand mechanic, and the overall most memorable ost. All Power Items being replaced by Cherry Items at max power is nice, since nowadays being at full power in more modern entries still have Power Item drops instead of being replaced by Point Items or something. The enemy indicator is a nice quality-of-life addition, though I don't know why the text of "Enemy" was dropped in later games leaving only the red smear I can barely notice half of the time. Yeah, I agree on this. I've never cared for Zunpets tbh, especially when they reach the super-high octaves of screechy noise.

Defeating the CPU in their boss attack ending the match is probably the single best thing added in for these types of games. It's a good way of circumventing the cheating AI opponents from phasing through literally everything. I really like a lot of the ideas going on. The graze points from 18.5 being used to charge your gauge is nice, as well as the inclusion of Cards from UM, and the various Animal Spirits from WBaWC. When it comes to the UI, I feel like placing your remaining hearts above the gauge instead of the top of the screen would've been better. My eyes are naturally drawn to the bottom half of the screen anyway. Never had any real issues with the control scheme, but I play these games with a controller. Might be a problem on keyboard, though. Overall, I'm largely indifferent to the Phantasmagoria-styled games, but I'll give credit to some of the new ideas for being pretty good. I'll probably buy it when it fully releases, but I'm not exactly hyped for it. Would've been a hard pass if not for auto-fire and the whole beating boss attacks winning the match system.

I'm curious what you'd think of ZUN's music from the first two Seihou games, since those were made during the in-between period of PC-98 and Windows Touhou. Also, I agree that a good chunk of the ost is forgettable. Some of the remixes I've heard are good, but I never listen the the originals in my downtime. I think the memes and sheer amount of fan content have kept them relevant more than anything. Sakuya's later appearances in PCB, IN, and PoFV cemented her pretty well as a mainstay, as well as having a power similar to another popular time-stopping character. I'm pretty sure the EoSD super hype has run its course by now. Not sure what the current fandom's pick for the best Touhou game we can't talk negatively about is. PoFV maybe? The more I think of it, EoSD feels like a bit of a retread of LLS' Stage progression of: Path to Lake -> Lake -> Gate of Mansion -> 3 Stages in Mansion that end with a battle against the owner. Not a bad thing per se, but something I noticed.

Same, and I also like how DDC handles Bomb/Life Pieces with the Point of Collection. That's fair. Of that group, Kyouko stands out to me more as something I wanna see more of, since her ability directly interacts with her own bullets. Heck, I kinda wish there was a pattern like some of her ISC ones in TD, creating a barrier on the player where they have to approach the bullets in a slightly different way. I enjoy the Windows games, though after a while of playing and replaying them I start to notice how same-y they can feel at times. I can appreciate the small changes and gimmicks between main numbered entries, but I need something more substantial every once in a while. Honestly I wish there'd be a new mainline game that goes full in on a unique mechanic like GFW or ISC.

I have a few examples of what I like, but I'll start with enemy variety and how they're integrated into the stages. The PC-98 games just have overall better varied enemy visual designs over the Fairy, Phantom, and weird Yin-Yang enemy that come standard in just about every Windows game. In LLS, you'd have enemies that only appear on their respective stage. Stage 2 has the enemies that rise from the lake, Stage 4 has both the doll-looking enemies that come out of the floor and the sawblade enemies that spawn behind the player offscreen with a telegraph and act as mini hazards. In SoEW's Stage 1, there are cannons that emerge from the water on the sides of the bridge, there are constant large projectiles coming from the top of the screen and it ends with a boss fight against Rika, showing that the projectiles were tank shells. Then you have stuff like Mystic Square's Stage 2 and the whole space theming it has going on, with chunks of debris to shoot and flaming comets to dodge. Stuff like that goes a long way into making a stage memorable outside the music, and it makes a stage feel like an actual location instead of just a surreal/pretty background disconnected from reality. Closest thing I can think of in Windows that did that was MoF's Stage 4, with enemy shadows being shown in the waterfall and jumping out to attack, which was cool. Next up are some bosses who have gimmicks outside of what flavor of bullet pattern they have. In SoEW, Mima has a lunging attack in the final fight where she tries to line up with the player and does a quick drop with her staff. LLS has Elly's survive phase pre-fight, which isn't amazing or hard but is something unique to her, as well as the boomerang scythe she throws periodically. Mystic Square has the Yuki and Mai fight you mentioned, which is the only fight in this series that has a definitive 2nd phase completely dependent on which of the two you beat first (closest thing in Windows are some of the duo fights later on in Violet Detector's scenes). Lastly, I prefer how Point Tiles are handled, as they give extends after enough are collected. I know that the first few Windows games carried it over to some extent, so I'll give those games that. I miss that system a lot, because it made collecting Point Tiles worth a damn besides just getting a higher score. To me, the PC-98 games feel different enough between entries and stick with me more after playing them.

I second TPDP even though I never finished it completely (played the Extended version and it kinda feels like there's too much content at times). Fantasy Maiden Wars is one of my favorites, though it's more of a Tactical RPG. I ended up liking Sengoku Gensokyo, but it's more of sim game with some RPG elements when it comes to battling over territory. Genso Wanderer is okay, but more of a mystery dungeon sort of game. Really wish there were more Touhou RPGs that did this (or at least ones I could find). Personally, I kinda need something more than a stat stick with a name and portrait attached to it.

Mystic Square is my favorite to play of the PC-98 games, though I slightly like the music more in LLS. Plastic Mind and Dream Express are the songs I like the most from the game, though. This. Also, I generally like a lot of things the PC-98 games tried compared to what's standard in Windows nowadays.

I used to go by Youmu Eulogy for a bit a very long time ago. Got into Touhou via Soku and played Youmu a ton. Added "Eulogy" to it because it sounded thematically fitting for a half-phantom, and was kind of a joke to myself that my youtube channel was dead or something. Current name is derived from that, but wanted to go more general-use than relating it to one character.

The abuse towards Shinmyoumaru. Why does this exist? Also, why do people seem to hype the hell out of it?