Touhou Blogging Thread

In all this, I don't know if I'm more of a Youmu fan and Yuyuko fan. I would say Youmu if my sorter from a while back is any indicator. Things like the Great Catfish get an unfair advantage for me.

Lets start on February of 2013 when I was still pretty new to the shmup genre of gaming. Managed to get my first 1cc in Castle Shikigami II using Sayo-1. At this point, I was looking to see if there were videos on how to trivialize stuff since the only pieces of information I was running were things I could find on gamefaqs as well as trial and error. I ended up walking into a black hole that led me to the Touhou side of the Internet. Before this point, I just came from watching Mirai Nikki and was finishing up a hard run in Persona 3 FES (bad combination. I have a head canon that Chihiro is yandere...). Was pretty much just playing games like Final Fantasy before this point. Was also playing Gradius V on the side, but I’m terrible at horizontal shmups.

It wasn't until a month or so later that I started trying out demos to see if this really was something I want to play. Was mostly busy with school happening and Monster Hunter 3U slowly nearing for me. I don't think I really started trying the demos until May because Monster Hunter is a huge time sync. However, I was watching runs just to see which gameplay mechanics I wouldn’t mind spending time with. I was also looking up how to run Japanese games on my computer since I haven’t done something like importing before.

June 2013 was when I tried my first Touhou, which was Perfect Cherry Blossom. Arguably, you can say I became a Touhou player on my birthday of that year. However, I started playing it around June 20-ish…somewhere around that time period. I considered it a birthday present for myself. Obviously the time I spent in Castle Shikigami II didn’t do me too much good since I was failing pretty badly at just clearing normal. I think that took a couple of days of dedicated learning to get the first clear. I didn’t do easy because I heard extra would be locked out...I think that was for EoSD, though.

After the first clear on normal, it was pretty much me trying to transition to extra/hard. The difficulty jump was kind of big. It probably took me about a week or 2 before I could successfully do extra runs, but the first hard clear didn’t happen until August that year. In the mean time, I was busying myself meeting the requirements to face Yukari. Luckily, spellcards captured in practice count towards the 60 spellcard requirements for Phantasm and the requirements to unlock the stages for practice in each difficulty isn’t too strict. Once I got Yukari unlocked, I pretty much started doing some runs on Phantasm. Once I got Phanasm cleared, I thought to myself that maybe I’m ready for hard and eventually lunatic. In hindsight, I was kind of wrong given how long it took to clear hard for me. I didn’t get lunatic cleared until November, but that was time well spent. Probably the major wall I had learning lunatic was Chen and Alice since their upgrades in lunatic are pretty big compared to hard while also learning how to deal with Cirno.

January of 2014 came by and that is when I got around to playing IN. I think my main reason for going to IN next is because of Youmu and Yuyuko...resistance was futile. I had to go through a similar learning process for IN as I did in PCB. I think even a lunatic clear took about the same amount of time for IN if not a little less. Was probably following a rather bumpy and slow road in learning Touhou, but this was way before I took notice of some the communities like MotK. I think about a month after that lunatic clear was when I managed my first successful time out of a spellcard…there were probably worse choices than Ex-Keine’s second spellcard. Was still playing IN for a bit to see if I can raise my lunatic score, but I took a Touhou break just to see what all the fuss was about in regards to the Crimzon Clover that was released during the summer. Probably during this time until I went back to PCB was when I joined the shmups forum community. I did get some good score improvements during the winter, but I don’t know how I got those aside from better routing.

At the end of summer, I decided to do some serious PCB runs again. Was kind of slow in getting improvements to my runs especially when I had to relearn things like Alice’s second midboss non-spell. However, three-four months of playing PCB lunatic I eventually did meet the billion score milestone I was shooting for. Probably would have helped if I looked at more runs since I wasn’t too sure what I can do to increase my score other than to get the score bonus from supernatural borders and trying to minimize deaths. Around this time I joined MotK. Lets just say there were things I didn’t want to see as soon as I signed up as well as the scoreboards there being rather quiet. Its probably thanks to these runs that I got significantly better than how I was before because I was spending so much time playing lunatic. These improvements also happened at monthly intervals so I wasn’t completely focusing on PCB that entire time, but it was something I stuck with for a while.

Other things I was doing during that time was exploring the PC98 games. I started off with LLS, but then I ended up playing PoDD a bunch. I think I got inspired from watching Zil’s runs in PoDD so that might have been what happened. At some point in time I was having fun with PoDD that I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go after a lunatic clear in the game even though I’ve only been focusing on normal. Some ways this was a good idea and others this was a bad one. Was pretty much struggling on how I should go about surviving until Zil just said to save the meter instead of using it (I was thinking I could risk throwing a level 2 and hope I can reflect stuff for a boss attack). I think that piece of advice saved me hours of frustration. Funny thing to note is that Zig pointed out that my third lunatic clear happened in the third touhou game.

Probably after the PoDD clear I decided to do some SakuyaB scoring in PCB. One accidental border grazing gave the idea of trying to actually follow some routes. For the most part, I had some success since I managed to score 1.16 billion in PCB following a stage 1 and 2 route. The other reason I played SakuyaB was for a change of pace because my main is ReimuB. It still took some time to get accustomed to SakuyaB’s angled shots and Merlin (cries inside). Still, it was pretty difficult following the border routes I learned since I’m too used to tackling sections like post-cirno with a border. However, the results were worth it. Probably the main thing I need to work on in PCB, is better border timings as well as work on my survival. Probably thanks to my SakuyaB run that I was able to boost my ReimuB lunatic score to 1.08 billion.

I think a bit after or during the SakuyaB runs I was also learning MS Lunatic. All I can say is that Mima’s shot was too good despite how narrow it is. Also had to relearn MS a bit because I thought Yuki was the easier boss between her and Mai. Yumeko was a bit of a nightmare to deal with due to her fast bullets. I’m surprised that I was able to quickly read her opener even if it wasn’t at max rank. Once I got Yumeko out of the way, it was a matter of dealing with Shinki without screwing up the run. I have to thank Chirpy and his cheesy way to deal with her lasers or the clear wouldn’t have happened.

Was also doing some side stuff during all this. Was sort of learning Flame Zapper Kotsujin on the side. It wasn’t until December I cleared Very Hard on it. Was an educational experience because suicide bullets are something I wasn’t too used to dealing with. Also played Stella Vanity, but I didn’t invest more time in that until earlier this year. That also gave me some experience with suicide bullets. Easy is also a nightmare once you start increasing rank. Also was messing around in some fangames like the Suwako game. Also, one particular fangame gets its own section.

Time for Fairies of Sorcery talk. I know around early November-ish or late October (one of those), I was pouring some time into FoS. I thought it was a pretty neat danmakufu game that didn’t lag at every opportunity, but I noticed a severe lack in videos that showcased the game’s double burst system on youtube. It was at that point I became intrigued with FoS enough to start playing it on lunatic and eventually do score runs on normal. The lunatic in this game provided me some trouble mostly because of how the last spellcard of the game is sort of bomb immune (but it still took shot damage). As for score running, I had to do some experiments on how to maximize point item value. What I determined is that the most ideal run for FoS has to be a limited/no bomb run since you lose out on some bonuses from boss drops if you bomb them (dying is okay). Still, you can’t die too much since you still get rewarded for stock bonus at the end of the game. The 2.9 billion run I have for normal on MarisaA happened when I got the bright idea to suicide for power just so I can use a double burst on the blue fairies at the start and the results were pretty immediate. There are still things I don’t have answers to. Is it a good idea to bomb Lily Black’s first spellcards to destroy the familiars? Is it better to prioritize the spellcard bonus with the no burst bonus rather than relying on bursts to help capture the spellcard? Are there any beneficial bomb spots? Stuff I don’t have the answers to. Also, I wished the download link for the game wasn’t broken (the one on the wiki worked until some point in time).

Okay. This was when I first found started playing Touhou. Granted, I wasn't that good at all. But I did play some easy mode and such. I'm not sure if I got an easy 1cc this year. I know I didn't actively play at all. (I was much more interested in the fandom/fanworks and such). Although, around November this year, I embarked on a quest to beat Ran.

I'm not sure when I got my first normal 1cc. But I know it was sometime this year. I just don't remember the exact date. I do know that on May 23, I got my first Extra clear. And two days later, I got my first Phantasm clear. My long journey of taming Ran and her master was finally over.

Fast foward through the summer, I had obtained all normal 1ccs and extra clears. In late 2011, I got my first Hard 1cc of EoSD. Oh boy, was that a joy. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that I cleared a Touhou on Hard mode. I thought Hard Mode and above was like super ultra crazy and that I would never reach it. But I managed it! And it was quite a feat! Soon, I decided to tackle all the Hard modes, and managed to finish before the years end!

The start of the Lunacy! On January, sometime, I got my first 1cc of PCB on Lunatic. Now, let me tell you something, that felt GREAT. I felt like a total badass. My mood skyrocketed the next few days and even at school I couldn't hold back my excitement. Shortly after, I cleared EoSD Lunatic. That was pretty fun. I think I recall almost breaking down from nervousness on Scarlet Gensokyo. March 2, 2012, I had achieved an IN Lunatic clear with the Ghost Team. That was my first replay I ever uploaded on the archive. I remember choosing them because of Youmu's awesome bomb, yuyuko's broken spread, and the fact that I got bombs after every stage.

Three days later, I got my first MoF Lunatic 1cc. Now, on VoWG, I had no spare lives, and 5 power. Which made it kinda epic. I was forced to get through the spell with only five mistakes. After using those five bombs, I managed to scrape through. I remember that my chest kinda hurt from the adrenaline rush I had. My heart was pumping so hard during that fight, and my fingers were shaking. It was crazy. I was so nervous, but it paid off. Kanako is FUCKING SCARY.

March 29, 2012. It was a late night of frustration from SA Lunatic attempts. I had just finished ranting to my friend Gamercal about a failed attempt. AFter he went to sleep, I put in another credit. And then I managed to die everywhere and make it to stage 6 with ONE LIFE. I managed to get to Utsuho. Last life. Full Power. I looked on the top right corner and saw the "Lunatic" tag on the screen. It was surreal. I was in stage 6, fighting the final boss, on Lunatic mode. All or nothing. I wasn't sure whether I could finish this journey. I was scared. Nervous. But I went for it. I bombed on the first spell to prevent death and managed to make up a spare life, which I later got hit on (I think Peta Flare). Then, I made it through the rest of the fight somehow. I barely scraped by with the small resources I was given. I was ecstatic. After that painful month of attempts, I did it. I screamed of joy. My dad came in the room all confused. I told him "It's alright. I just did something really awesome in a video game". I put "This is my proudest achievement yet in my Touhou career!" as my replay description. That's because back then, it was my proudest achievement. I cleared SA Lunatic. I was so happy, I was so proud, and to me all that hard work payed off. It's so nostalgic to look back at the old times.

UFO Lunatic. I hate it when people tell me I "don't understand" what they went through when they struggle with UFO. I may be experienced at the game now, but trust me, I went through that journey as well. I remember embarking on my UFO journey in the nice rainy month of April. I basically was under the impression that this was impossible, honestly. But it was the stuff of legends back then. At least, for me it was, because I was still not involved in the community. I was unaware of any "community standards", and merely played with a few friends I had in a skype group. (I did know Chumlum back then though! I've known him since early 2012. Though I'm not sure he remembers that far back. He did show up at my Vanilla Lunatic 1cc streams from time to time! The nostalgia!)

Anyway. I'm getting off topic. I spent about 2-3 weeks of nonstop playing to get this. I remember that there was this one failure, where I was at Byakuren with like 3 lives and 4 bombs or something. Video Here And I lost at LFS. It was a heartbreak. I figured that I should just give up, and stop trying. But alas... 6 days later. I got it. With SanaeB, of course, but I did get it. I was happy. I had cleared the hardest game on the hardest difficulty.

Oh yeah. TD. I should talk about that. I got that on March 23, 2013. So a little before the SA Lunatic Clear. I don't remember the journey, but my replay description said that "After so much work, I finally 1cc'd Ten Desires on Lunatic". So apparently it was a bit of a struggle. Strange I don't remember it well, though... God I'm getting memories of the days I used to stream Hard Mode on twitch. I'm about to cry. I wish I could go back to those times!

Late 2012! After a 3-4 month hiatus from Touhou. (I thought Touhou really wasn't cool anymore and figured I wouldn't play it anymore). I came back, better than ever! I embarked on a quest to Perfect every Extra stage. I had recently met "he who should not be named", and became best friends with him and was in this skype group called "Touhou Friend Corner". or /tfc/ for short. Anyway. I got a perfect Flan and Perfect Ran on December 23. And on Christmas Eve I lost a perfect Kioshi run to the LAST SPELL. AWERTAREGADFGADFG. I was SOOO MAD. But then I got a CHRISTMAS PRESENT and got a NMNB SA Extra as my Christmas present! And then, the day after, I got Perfect Phantasm at 7 AM because apparently playing early in the morning works well for me. I got UFO a few days after. MoF on that same day. And then I got TD Extra the next day. I got IN much later, but I'll talk about that in 2013's section!

"The Game Cheated" - Minogame 2013

2013, AKA, the start of even MORE Lunacy. This time, Ellen Bee style!

He who should not be named, and then Mikkey, were both doing LNB runs. Apparently that was the cool new thing. Lunatic No Bomb. So I was like "Sure, I'll try it". and I took EoSD. I always try to start things at the first game, so I wanted to No Bomb EoSD. (As that's what Mikkey was doing at that time). I spent a day raging at the game... But the next day I made it far in NB. I was in stage 6 with three lives. And I somehow beat Remilia. I did it. I got LNB. I was shaking. No really, I was fucking shaking. I got a Lunatic No Bomb. For me, that was quite something. No, it was crazy something. I had done something that was unthinkable for me at the time, and so fast. AFter that, I quickly got PCB (abusing borders along the way~). The PCB one was special because I got into stage 6 on my last life but still cleared through border breaks (and tankign a hit on Yuyuko from a live I got during her fight).

From then on. I would embark on a journey of Lunatic No Bombs. I would become a full-fledged survival player. Now. I have to preface by saying that at the time, I was pretty impatient. I didn't like grinding for my achievements. At least not too much. So I would overreact if I didn't get my achievements immidiately. I was greedy at this time.

Basically, my next goal was IN. And I was struggling..... for 3 days. Seriously, 3 days. I was bitching and moaning and ranting in that skype group about how bullshit the game was. Getting so pissed off when I didn't even put in the time to even warrant such a rant. It was a disgusting display from me. Unfortunately, this trend would continue across the year, causing my name to become tarnished in this community (and regrettably so...).

But I did manage it. Three days later. And I was quite happy. Though I died a bunch on Hourai Jewel, which was a bit sad. The next day, I went for MoF. Surprisingly, it didn't really take long at all.

Although, I should mention. On this run, I got to VoWG on my last life. Now I was fuckign nervous. I was FORCED TO CAPTURE VOWG. My heart was pounding, fingers shaking. And then she exploded. I beat Kanako. I was pretty joyful at that time! At this time, I became obsessed with LNB. I saw it as something special. No, I was addicted. I wanted to LNB every game with every shot type and all that. LNB was my life. It was an obsession. For the next few months, I would stream nothing but LNB runs and such. And you bet it was full of laughs, tears, rage, and even drama (!?).

SA, was it? Yes. We're at the SA mark. I got SA LNB I think in late February or so. I remember that I got to Utsuho (just like my first Hard and Lunatic clear) on my last life. But here's a catch. I can't bomb her first spell. No, I was faced with the dilemna of having to capture that first spell due to the LNB condition. I was scared, and unsure. (What is with my habit of doing Utsuho with my last life on everything I've ever gone for in that game???) But I did it. I was overwhelmed. SA, at the time, was the second hardest game for me. So to clear it NB especially with that good Utsuho fight, made me feel pretty accomplished.

We're at UFO now, aren't we? Damn. This is the start of the worst experience I've ever had with Touhou. And I did it mostly through stream. The suffering, the rage... it just didn't bode well. This is the embodiment of Mino 2013 right here. I'm sure those in the old days remember this time. The time I tried to LNB UFO. It took me a month of nonstop grinding to do.

Here's the deal. I was used to being able to abuse the fuck out of the UFO system and its resources. I could just bomb everything. literally, I could bomb everything and not have to capture most things from stage 2 onward. But in LNB, you can't do that. You get like 15-16 mistakes max with good resource collection. Basically, I had to go through this game capturing things. I had to LEARN this game. This accursed game.

I must have had so many gameovers. My memory is fuzzy, but I remember getting really fussy on my streams. I would say things like "the game cheated", and blame the game for every death. All the bosses were bullshit. Nothing was my fault. Basically, the people that watched my stream were either good friends of mine, loyal viewers, or were just there to laugh at my whining. At this time, I was a heavy target for shit talk at a local IRC channel (I won't name names. And no, I don't hold any grudges. Don't worry. It's a thing of the past )

I was unaware of this, at this time though. I'll get back to this later. Anyway. On March 15, that was the night of my biggest failure, and also my biggest success...

I had a very strange run. I very, very strange run. It felt like I was in a dream. I was playing ReimuB, and I perfected every boss before stage 6, and got into it with max lives. I don't know why I was playing so well. I felt like I wasn't in real life. It was like I was in a trance. But that shattered in stage 6. I basically gameovered somehow even though I had gotten into stage 6 with max lives. I was no happy camper.

The skype rant was quite something. I remember I went through about 300+ posts in the span of like 10 minutes. It was so early in the morning I doubt anyone was awake. And the Europeon guys got a nice morning surprise. It was crazy bitching and whining and shit. I was pissed off. Nindella tried to cheer me up, which was cute.

And then I tried it again. And won. I beat it. I cleared LNB. No, I cleared UFO LNB. I had finally gotten that goal I had been seriously working for for that dreaded month. I was happy. My replay description describes it accurately. "YESSSS! UFO LNB!!!!!!"

This was around the time I joined Lunatic Red and MoTK. I was finally starting to get accustomed to the community itself. Funnily enough, the rage post and the winning post were among my first MoTK posts. (Please let me go back in time1 This nostalgia is killing me!)

Oh yeah. TD. Forgot about that game again. Yeah, I got that a little bit before SA. It wasn't too hard for me to get. I was pretty happy about it. I finished with 3 spare lives, which was pretty enjoyable.

So now that I had all LNBs, I now wanted to do multiple shots. LNBs were a collection. I wanted to collect them all. I would get super pissed when I lost, and overreact when I won. I would scream and go crazy over clearing LNB runs. It was quite the sight. My highlights on my twitch channel pretty much express how crazy I was about LNB. You can't blame me! I really did love these things!

It was in May. I was in a skype call with he who should not be named. I was pretty bored, honestly. I had been doing LNB runs in UFO for about 3-4 months. I was just playing only that game. Doing multiple shots. I was well versed in it, so I decided to do random LNBNUFO credits. I chose ReimuB, and did a credit. Got NMNB stages 1-3, good stuff. Died to Sinkable Vortex. Meh. Stage 5? Well, let's see how fast I game over. Oh! I captured Greatest Treasure! WTF! That dodge, tho! Holy HELL, NMNB SHOU FIGHT? What's going on? I MIGHT WIN THIS! I got into Byakuren with only 1 miss so far. I had room for 4 mistakes. What was going on? This was surreal. No seriously, I'm still surprised TO THIS DAY, that I could actually perform that well back in mid 2013.

I died to DR, and LFS. And won. Byakuren exploded. I got the legendary LNBNUFO. I was so thrilled. No. I was unbelievably thrilled. What I experienced at that time was like no other I have felt in Touhou. I had done something truly beyond my skill level. (Or I guess it wasn't anymore).

But that victory was short lived. I stumbled upon the messages of those that were talking about me behind my back. I was so shocked to see those comments. I had a quick temper tantrum and deleted all my accounts and left. I figured "screw this community".

But I couldn't stay gone forever. No, I just couldn't. I came back. And when I did, I was introduced to the wonderful Japanese community. I saw Somen SOC get TD LNNN live with Youmu. And then I got inspired to play PCB. I put in a MarisaA credit and got 2MNB. I was inspired, and at that time, I had decided. I was gonna go for a Perfect Lunatic Clear. Of PCB, to be specific. This was on June 2013.

So I spent months grinding it on stream. I wanted this achievement so badly. It was gonna be my end goal. On September 2013, I got my first 1-miss. I broke a border on the spam, but perfected everything else. It was my first LNN run (with a border break, lol). I named it "Mino NN" with pride. I figured I'd get the LNNN within the next few months.

..Except I didn't. No, I didn't get it at all. I kept getting close runs, dying everywhere. Eventually I decided to give up on it. Fuck it. It wasn't worth it anymore. I was very sad. Everyone else started to get their perfect runs. Nindel, Cactu, Chum, Denpa.... and I was left behind.

DDC came out. It came out in August 2013. It feels like just yesterday that I was playing the full game for the first time. I got a first day extra clear. I got my first Lunatic clear a few days later (though I could have gotten it first day, I wanted to grind it first and take it slow). I got the first LNB in the west a few weeks after the game's release. That was with ReimuA.

As for LNNN, I didn't want to actively grind it anymore. I was discouraged. I played on and off through the duration of 2014. Speaking of which, 2014 won't get its own section. I really didn't accomplish anything major during that year.

Actually, I did. I got a DDC ReimuB LNB. I played DDC a bunch that year, actually. It was an obsession. I was so appalled by the patterns in that game. It was so strange. The patterns were so difficult. Even from stage 3, I couldn't get consistent. I was so intrigued by ZUN's design choice that I wanted to understand DDC's patterns. I wanted to get good at these seemingly impossible to get consistent at patterns. DDC became my favorite game for a while, before PCB dethroned it in 2015.

The present! And the year of victory! (And hopefully many more victories!)

I got my first Perfect Lunatic clear in late February. Everlasting convinced me to play PCB LNNN and inspired me to actively grind it.

I remember how I felt on Resurrection Butterfly. I was shaking so hard. I was so scared. And I made a YOLO dodge on the next to last wave. And Yuyuko exploded. I did it. I literally jumped out of my chair and started screaming like a maniac. Chum and Ever were in a skype call with me. They know the details~

I felt this positive surge overwhelm me. I finally got what I was aiming for. I got that LNNN clear. Shortly after, I got DDC within the next few days. I was streaming as well! My reaction was pretty crazy. Feel free to check it out. MV was in a skype call with me too!

"I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! YES! YES! I DID IT! YES! I GOT LNN! YESSS! I DID IT! I DIIDDD ITTTT!!!!"

And then I wanted to go for MoF LNN and TD LNNN.

Except I didn't. I spent about a month grinding those. And it was miserable. Restarting over stupid shit. I stopped having fun at that point. So I looked into something else. Scoring.

I gave PCB a go, and managed to hit 2billion on Lunatic. Since that moment, I decided I was gonna pursue scoring. I found it generally fun. I didn't get upset that much when grinding. I could grind for hours on end without getting bored or too frustrated.

At the moment, I'm aiming for 2.4bil - 2.5bil. Wish me luck! I hope to get 2.7bil-2.8bil by the end of the year! I also wanna get at least one or two more LNN runs of another game.