knew I was deep into touhou when the most hype moment of a game I played this year was seeing aya from shoot the bullet show up as the boss of stage 4

bomb mechanic is iffy (as it often is) and I miss grazing, but everything else here's lovely so it's hard to complain. there's a celebratory whimsy and playfulness that's above and beyond even perfect cherry blossom; the kind of joyful bombast that just feels cozy and makes it easy to sink into effortlessly

the bosses are as good as ever, the backgrounds and portraits are better than ever, and the soundtrack might be the best one yet, but what stands out most to me is how much zun's honed his talent for giving even the smallest, faintest moments their own charming flourishes. little swerves like hina's introduction or nitori fleeing from her own initial midboss encounter before it starts are delightful, and tracing the lines as the series gets more and more confident with conveying personality thru mechanical and structural means has been an absolute pleasure; nearly every frame of a character's presence — thru danmaku, dialogue, or lack thereof — being used to fullest effect by this point, leveraging elegant, iterative design perfectly

it's time to admit zun's the most accomplished auteur in the medium and it's not even close

eu ainda prefiro as vibes de Perfect Cherry Blossom e Imperishable Night mas não dá pra negar que esse é um dos pontos mais icônicos da série, quase ao nível de Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. eu conhecia uma boa parte das personagens e de suas músicas por pura osmose vinda do meus contatos com a fanbase. mas eu senti um pouco de falta da energia mais... rústica que os Touhous anteriores tinham, até mesmo em algo tão complexo como o 8º jogo da série. Esse é o primeiro Touhou que eu não senti completa vontade de chegar ao final antes de partir para o próximo (cheguei na chefe final pelo menos) o que tudo bem inclusive. (ATUALIZAÇÃO: usei o bug da Marisa Shot B e consegui derrotar a Kanako. mesmo com essa trapaça a Spell Card final dela é absurda de difícil!!!!!! eu meio que gosto dela mesmo exigindo um suco cerebral absurdo da minha parte)

Mountain of Faith ainda é um triunfo audiovisual interativo: a trilha sonora e os padrões de balas continuam espetaculares como sempre, as garotas novas que vão ser mais relevantes nos jogos futuros são ótimas adições ao elenco e a engine nova esbanja efeitos visuais muito bonitos durante as batalhas. mas eu realmente não gosto das mudanças do sistema de bombas e continues desse aqui. eu prefiro ser arremessada pro menu principal depois de morrer do que repetir a fase final só com duas miseráveis vidinhas, e fazer com que o uso de bombas diminua o poder do seu ataque normal é tryhard demais, até para os padrões dessa série. alias, antes você podia escolher a quantidade de vidas que você começa (com uma diminuição no seu score em números acima de 2) mas removeram isso também, talvez para não entrar em conflito com a nova maneira que os continues funcionam (para evitar por exemplo que você recomece a última fase com 6 vidas mesmo chegando nela com apenas 1).

mas a questão da energia presente nessa nova era da série ainda é a coisa que mais mexe comigo. eu fiquei matutando um pouco sobre isso e a minha namorada comparou esse sentimento meu como uma fã de punk ouvindo uma música pop punk, onde parte da estética mais bruta é substituída por algo mais sofisticado, mas que talvez tenha perdido parte da identidade presente no gênero. acho que faz sentido. apesar de que isso tecnicamente me torna uma Touhou boomer. tudo bem. eu também sou uma Morrowind boomer. eu ainda vou tentar os seguintes, tenho tempo para me acostumar

pra concluir esse jogo me fez perceber que eu não sou normal a respeito da Aya Shameimaru.

For some reason I just could not get a good handle of any of the spells and I felt uncomfortable with each one. I'm not sure if it's the new engine, or the fact that all bosses have some sort of laser attack or any other reason. I dabbled in the other games before fully committing to this one and I think it's cause of those reasons.

It's not as majestic as PCB or as impactful story-wise (at least emotionally, lore-wise, it's very important).

It's also infinitely harder and for me, more frustrating for some reason (I didn't get frustrated at all when I played PCB but Kanako was a little frustrating). Don't listen to anyone who says to start with this one, please start with PCB instead, it's much more managable.

Aya is a menace who claims she'd go easy on you and it's a complete lie. What other game has a stage 4 boss with a survival card? At least Sanae is easier than Youmu though she still trips me up sometimes (though compared to the rest of the cast, she's a bit of a pushover). Kanako is one of the hardest bosses in any game I've ever played in my entire life. Right out of the gate, she's hard and only gets harder. She has some bullshit cards (the jellybeans) but overall, she's decently fair but she demands skills and playstyles that are hard to execute properly (swapping between focus and unfocus on a dime).

But still a great game of course. Amazing soundtrack, great characters, unique artstyle different from the other games. It's nice and it serves its purpose as the start of the later windows games well. It has a good tone and setting and it introduces new characters that become a mainstay. It expands the lore and setting, setting the basis for the next 2 or 3 games. The backgrounds are so beautiful that they're honestly distracting but in a good way.

The new bomb mechanic is pretty fun too, makes bombs really strong which saved my ass so often.

Though, when I finished PCB, I wanted more, I played it again and beat it another time. When i finished MoF, I was relieved to be done. I'm not really sure what that means.

If I see Yuyuko in my dreams, I see Kanako in my nightmares.

Пока зачистил на изи на 1СС с первой попытки, лол.

Мне довольно трудно докапаться до игр в серии Тохоу. Почти каждая часть, в которую я играю, так или иначе, приносит тонну удовольствия. Будь то музыка или геймплей или даже корявый, но забавный арт-стайл спрайтов - радует всё.
Эта часть не стала исключением.
Управление теперь более гладкое, паттерны пуль всё такие же хаотичные, но менее рандомные (этот момент под вопросом, но по крайне мере я знал откуда меня атакуют и умирал в основном по своей вине, а не из-за того, что микро-пуля слилась со стальными и после прострелила мне коленную чашечку).
Я так понял, что это ребут серии, но за сюжетом я не слежу в этих играх, поэтому пофиг.
Думаю, что это хорошая часть, чтобы познакомиться с этой серией игр.

I have mixed feelings on this game, but overall it has grown on me over time. I see this one recommended at a starting point a lot, and while it wasn't mine, I've met people who did start with it who agree with the sentiment.

Overall, it's a good game. The bullet patterns are a bit more dense then they are in other games, but this is because you essentially have an unlimited amount of bombs as long as you use them smartly. As power is tied to bombs in this game, as opposed to being a separate resource.

Initially, I found myself hating this new bombing system, but as I got used to it [and stopped being extremely stingy with my bombs] I found myself enjoying it a lot more. I still do not prefer it to the traditional bomb/power split, but it's a perfectly acceptable alternative.

The final spellcard is also uncharacteristically sinister. So look forward to that.

i will preface this by saying this my favorite touhou game- and also the first i've ever played properly, so i may be biased. but no other touhou hits quite like this one for me.

i have a lot of thoughts about how this game broke from the mold the previous windows era titles set for themselves, and while i think most of the changes were positive, there are enough things to pick at that i feel deserve their own review.
the pros of this game are that it plays much more smoothly than the games that came before it, i find the movement more snappy and responsive than something like, say, perfect cherry blossom, and the addition of making the point-of-collection line available at all times is one of the better things ZUN has come up with, so much so that it's now the rule for all touhou games.

continues in this game are unlimited, but they make you start over at base health from the start of the stage you died on, while i think this is a great crutch for beginners, i feel like it could've been improved by making it so you can choose your starting health like in previous games, and this change doesn't beat the practice mode from previous games either.

now onto the elephant in the room: bombs and power are now tied together, you lose 1.0 power per bomb, and each bomb gets weaker/smaller, while in practice this allows for more bomb spamming, it gets tough when you're playing through a particularly hard and/or long spell card. the more you bomb, the weaker you get, the more time it takes you to actually beat the spell card. this is mostly a problem with the final and extra bosses of the game, and while the solution to this is just "git gud and bomb less", i can't help but miss the bombs in previous games, where you could count on always getting powerful resources back even if you lose a life. would be slightly less mad about this if the bombs didn't get weaker, bur oh well.

besides all the jank, this game is amazing- one of the best OSTs in the franchise, some of the best characters, the aesthetics are on point, ZUN started to care more for worldbuilding around this era of touhou, something i'm an absolute sucker for, and as it stands it's one of the best games for beginners in my opinion. the gimmick of this game only matters for scoring, which is not something a new player will particularly care for, making it a simpler experience. it is not the easiest game in the franchise but i feel it's just the right amount of challenging, and anyone dedicated enough will find great satisfaction in mastering the game.

kanako best girl

in terms of touhou games, this one is pretty simple. no UFOs, no crazy ass gimmicks, and nothing too horrendous difficulty-wise until kanako comes along and tells you to fucking die. out of all the 2hu ive played this one is probably the coziest and the easiest to do well in, imo. probably has my favorite boss cast too, even though that probably isn't saying much.

im probably not the best authority to listen to when it comes to this game (i cant do shit past easy mode. go ahead and point and laugh), but i enjoyed this one for what it was. i liked the atmosphere, i liked the boss themes, i liked the nitori, simple as.