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 what is a Touhou Touhou is a series of shmups created by one Ota 'ZUN' Jun'ya, in which cute girls shoot a lot of bullets at each other and then have tea parties. It has an incredibly large fanbase, possibly on account of that aforementioned 'cute girls' thing, and as a result an incredible amount of fan-created material - music, comics and games of all shapes and sizes. what is Labyrinth of Touhou Labyrinth of Touhou was a dungeon crawler loosely styled after games like Wizardry or Etrian Odyssey. It had a relatively loose plot and was mostly an excuse to run around in a dungeon with an ever-growing party comprised of the Touhou cast. The sequel, Labyrinth of Touhou 2 came out some time later, and was an improvement in almost every way. This thread will be covering the latter game. It's not a perfect game - the creators of the game weren't professional game makers, and it shows at times. Being a classic JRPG, it can get awfully grindy near the endgame as well. Nevertheless, I think it's fun enough that it's worth showing off. Some notes There's a general Touhou thread here. While a certain amount of digression is expected, please take discussions that stray too off-topic there. Have been informed screenshots in the first couple of updates are a little small. Later updates will be a little less of a strain on the eyes. Please spoiler-tag anything that hasn't been shown in the LP yet. There isn't much of a plot, but it's still there. Other than that, be polite and have fun discussing your fave 2hu waifus. Inadequately fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Oct 15, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 09:27
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Gensokyo, Human Village, Main Street It’s currently nine in the morning. It’s usually around this time that the people are the most busy, and the village gets more and more active, but…    Oh well, it’s fine, right? We can just eat dumplings while sitting on the storefront since there’s so few people. Yeah, since we’re a bit early for the meeting time, we can do that while waiting. The dumplings they make here are really delicious. I know right? So we should eat them quickly, before the others arrive.The meeting point was a dumpling shop facing the village’s main street. And so, the two girls ate without a care in the world, as they waited for the others. The rainy season was at its end, and the blistering heat was flickering as the early summer season began. Yet, the main street was bereft of residents and their liveliness. The whole village was wrapped in a chilling atmosphere unbefitting of the current season. That atmosphere’s fine with me. Better than the heat at least. Yep. This summer looks like it’s gonna be pretty cool this year. I won’t have to go cool myself at Kourin’s place. You treat your house like a storeroom, and barely give it any ventilation… That’s why it’s so hot in there, even though the forest it’s in helps block the sun’s rays. …Yeah, something like that could be bad. Ah, but it’s refreshing. It’s cool and peaceful. Peace is good. Everybody says so. Oh, hello Keine. There’s still some time before our appointment. Look at that! Nothing else could scream “incident” more than that. It’s frightening everyone. You need to do something about it quickly. An incident~? Whaddaya mean? I can’t see aaaaanything at all. Anyway, one more dumpling please. Of course you’re not going to see “it” while your eyes are glued to the food down there! Look up and tell me again you cannot see it. No thanks, I’m fine~. The dumpling I have in my mouth might get stuck in my throat. Just shut up and look. Guh.Keine grabbed Marisa’s dumpling-stuffed face and forced her to look up.  An outlandish towering tree was piercing through the clouds, its leaves and branches growing outward in order to create a maze of levels. The Great Tree’s size was so ridiculous that anyone who raised their head even slightly couldn’t help but see it. The tree had suddenly appeared in Gensokyo around three days ago. It appeared suddenly in the Forest of Magic, with no clues as to the cause. Even now, it continues to grow slowly but surely, obscuring the daylight to Gensokyo and creating an ever-growing curtain of darkness. Do you see it now? I got it already! Thank you very much. A big tree like that isn’t something to laugh at. But hey, when looking at something that big, you really can’t help thinking ‘bout human life, right?To be fair to Marisa, a really big tree ranks about 7/10 on the incident scale at most. You aren’t even bothered by it… It would be fine if it just disappeared in a day or two. But it is not likely something that massive will simply disappear if we leave it alone. The villagers are starting to get frightened by that tree. Furthermore, such a large obstacle to the light will eventually have a detrimental effect on the hearts of the youkai living in the village, don’t you agree? It’s also bad for the growth of the plants. In fact, a portion of the crops and flowers that were planted in the fields in the village’s outskirts have already begun to wither away. It is not difficult to imagine that if we leave the tree alone, things are only going to get worse. Ain’t it good though? We get a cool and sunlight-free summer in return. And you can take the opportunity to mass-produce bean sprouts. This girl….!The were-hakutaku who set up an elementary school in the human village took anything that would threaten its peace very seriously. And so, Keine raged on about how “we are going to find the cause of this Great Tree today!”, and Reimu and Marisa were forcefully dragged into it… …Well, I also was saying to myself that it’s about time to investigate that Great Tree. The timing is perfect, I would say. Is that so? Reimu, haven’t you been poking your nose into the thieving uproar that happened at Kourin’s place recently? Are you done with that already? Of course not. There’s no way we can leave something as ridiculous as the Ame-no-Murakumo being stolen alone, don’t you agree? But, no matter how I looked and searched for the criminal, they didn’t leave a single trace. ……Wait a minute, what are you talking about? Let me see… Kourindou, was it? A thief broke into that antiques store? What is that and the “Ame-no-Murakumo” about? This is all news to me… Rinnosuke Morichika, a half-human half-youkai hybrid who runs an antique shop located at the border of the Forest of Magic. He was the last of the four for this meeting. Oh my, Rinnosuke. You’re pretty late. The last to show up, in fact. No, I’m right on time. One should be neither too early nor too late for any appointment. Being late is obviously out of the question, while being early makes the other person worry too much about whether they should have come early too. Yes yes, your opinions reaaally matter to us. …So, what were you saying about a thief? It is as they say. A thief broke into my shop… As you may know, my shop sells items that came here from the Outside World. There are also some other small and rare articles that are not for sale and that I keep for my personal collection… The value of the “Ame-no-Murakumo” that was stolen around a week ago really stood out from the rest. The Great Tree grew out just a few days ago, and the theft happened a bit before that. Well, we didn’t know that Rinnosuke had such a thing in his possession. And if it is true, there’s no way we can leave such an artifact alone. “Ame-no-Murakumo”, huh…… Wait, THE “Ame-no-Murakumo”!? No, no, wai- Wait a minute, are you sure it’s the authentic one?! This isn’t the time to talk about it’s value! This is the most famous and powerful sword in Japanese lore! Most of all, how were you able to get an artifact like that?! It’s the first time I’ve heard about a relic like this being in Gensokyo! Wasn’t this heirloom enshrined and worshipped somewhere in the outside world?!A little history lesson for context. The Ame-no-Murakumo, also known as the Sword of Kusanagi, is the legendary sword with which the storm god Susano-o slew the eight-headed Yamato-no-Orochi. It’s considered one of the three sacred treasures of Japan, alongside the Eight Hand Mirror and the Yasakani Magatama. In Touhou canon, Marisa found it and tossed it into a pile of scrap metal, later trading the lot to Rinnosuke in exchange for repairing her trademark mini-Hakkero. Oh, Keine didn’t know about it after all? Me too, I’m really interested to hear about how you found that sort of thing, Kourin. …Trade secrets. (I can’t possibly say where I found it, especially not to Marisa, since I kind of tricked her into giving it to me… Well no, it’s not really tricking Marisa, since she didn’t know it was the “Ame-no-Murakumo”…) (In the first place, I’m the one who wants to know where she discovered that… Once in a while, her hobby of accumulating trash pulls up some unbelievable treasures...That’s how I was able to get it off her hands for dirt cheap…) Well, whether or not that sword is THE genuine Ame-no-Murakumo handed down from ancient times… It was definitely made of pure scarlet gold, and it was undoubtedly an extremely powerful sword. Of that, I am certain. After hearing that story, I started looking for the Ame-no-Murakumo and its thief… But up till now, the culprit remains at large. *sigh* I see… So while you were searching for your thief, that great tree sprouted forth and caused an even bigger uproar. That’s how it is. Incidentally, Reimu also mentioned that she had a feeling that the culprit was in that Great Tree. Really? Well, Reimu’s intuition is generally right in these times. Well, we can’t leave that tree alone anyway, right? So I figured since Keine was being annoying enough to call this meeting as well, that it was time to investigate that Great Tree and kill two birds with one stone. …And that’s how we decided to include Kourin in our exploration of that Great Tree. After all, it’s his fault for keeping quiet about the sword, and not securing it well enough. It’s clearly the thief who’s at fault. I am the victim here… And really, I’m not even suited for fighting…He’s not wrong. Right now his main purpose is ‘meatshield’, and soon he’ll be outclassed at even that task. Still, he’s not completely without use. I’m certainly expecting nothing from you in battle. But there’s strength in numbers when wandering in a big tree like that, don’t you think? So in short, he’s making up the numbers… You don’t have to declare that to everyone, you beasts… Ugh, I don’t want to go… And so, let’s all give this our best. Onwards and upwards! Ohhh~! Ooooh…… And now we’re dropped into the main menu. Before we head into the tree proper, let’s take a look around. We can visit the Hakurei Shrine, the Magic Library, Nitori’s Store, the Human Village, Keine’s School and Akyuu’s House. Hakurei Shrine  The donation box is empty as always too. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. …Well, when this kind of abnormal situation happens, donating to the shrine is hardly high on anyone’s list of immediate priorities. Reaaaally? Is that reaaaally the only reason? ……What are you trying to say. Nothing, really. Anyways, why are we here at the shrine? Do we have something to do here? No, there’s not really anything to do here at the moment. We should just come back after we exterminate monsters within that tree and accumulate experience. Then we can level up, and distribute bonus points obtained from levelling up towards any parameter we want here. Also, if we want to use any special items we find within the tree on a character, here is where we’d do it… But that’s for later. For now, just think of the shrine as the place for level ups and bonus point distributions. Why, thank you so much for the explanations. Well, I’m a main character. It’s expected for me to do this. So what. I’m a main character too.This game’s relationship with the fourth wall tends to be a little loose at times. ………… Ahem. Shall we stop this line of conversation…? Characters accumulate exp over the course of the game, but don’t level up automatically. The Hakurei Shrine is where we come to level them up and distribute level-up points. They can also be leveled down, for reasons explained later on. Magic Library   I figured you would be coming anytime now. Oh, that voice is…  Incidents don’t get much more obvious than that, so I figured it was about time the firefighters of Gensokyo started to act. If you know about it, then just help us somehow already. Like giving us some ancient spellbooks, or strong magic items. We’d welcome those with open arms. …You really don’t beat around the bush, do you. ……Oh really. Well, fine, let’s see… I’ll raise your stats for you. Oooh, that’s good! Alright, go ahead. Make it a big one, stat! Who said I’ll do it for free? …Honestly, I’m not taking your money for nothing either. This kind of thing requires a lot of items and medicines. I’m just charging you for the materials. So basically, we pay money here to get stronger? Yes indeed. So earn all you can, and keep the money coming, if you would. In the Magic Library, we can purchase upgrades to character stats. Costs are relatively cheap for now, but become prohibitively expensive the more upgrades you purchase. You can also reset skill points here for free, which is a service we’re going to make use of quite often later in the game. Nitori’s Store  … …… Weeeeelcooome! Marisa, you got a paper fan? I don’t have one, and there’s none for sale either. Guess this wrench will have to do. Are these threats normal for trying to greet my customers courteously? The Human Village sure is a scary place… These are the only humans who’d do something like that, so relax. But this is surprising. I’ve never heard of a Kappa workshop in the village before.It’s not really as surprising as Keine makes it out to be. In Touhou, kappa and humans are on fairly good terms (this may or may not have something to do with the fact that all kappa in Touhou look like cute girls), and Nitori in particular can often be found attempting to make a profit whenever the opportunity arises. But of course. I started this shop just now. With a fun-looking tree popping out of nowhere like that, there must be a lot of humans exploring it. For those of them who’re not used to fighting, they’ll flock to my workshop in search of all sorts of goods. How’s that? Perfect plan, right? Very perfect plan. Except that there aren’t a lot of humans exploring that tree. Ehh? You’re kidding, right? You’re obviously using Reimu and Marisa as your base for human behavior… Normal humans are too scared to get anywhere close to that thing. Eh… Ehhhh… Aah… now I don’t feel like doing anything. I’ll just close the shop and go back. Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re just the right customers for you. So make sure you prepare the best for us. Hah… a workshop whose only customers are the dirt-poor shrine maiden and her companions… My store is already looking bleak from the first day…Nitori’s store sells equipment and sub-equipment, and later on will forge items out of materials dropped by monsters. Her inventory increases later, but here’s what’s on sale for now. Every character can equip one main equip and three sub-equips.  Miko Board – When used, it increases a character’s equipment mass by 1. It takes 50 to get one character’s equipment mass to max. Don’t even try to imagine the time it’ll take to max it out for your entire party. Max TP +3. Manga Meat – It’s meat you often find in gag manga. No further explanation necessary. It’s not soft, but it stretches out a lot when you bite into it. HP Recovery Rate +3 Pure Sake – Wild Boar – Sake that’s made with only quality materials, and hand-crafted with much care and effort. Guaranteed to smell and taste good. Max MP +2, Max TP +2  Power Bracer – An item that doubles attack EV gain when equipped. Also, a parent holding it will pass its attack IV to the offspring. A very nice item that greatly reduces unproductive time spent cycling back and forth. Attack +12% Bulletproof Armor – Armor that protects an EDF soldier’s life. For some reason, in the original it increases HP instead of defense. About 2000 of these will make higher difficulties safer. Defense +12%. Cantrip Book – Book that records all sorts of troublesome things. It might allow you to use all sorts of status attacks, or it might not. Magic +12%. Book of Stamp Bingo – A notebook that keeps track of the Stamp Bingo Rally’s stamps. It’s quite fun looking for these throughout the entire game, but they can be really well hidden. Collecting these without a guide is extremely difficult. Mind +12%. Jagged Leaves – An item that increases agility by 1 when used. A valuable item in a game system where agility is the difference between life and death. They tend to be camouflaged by other green things like grass, and are easily missed. Speed +12%. Piece of Heart – The good ol’ thing which you collect four of to increase your number of hearts by 1. Make sure you collect lots of them to get a lot of hearts. HP +12%. Human Village  As I thought, the villagers here’re more restless than usual. Of course. You two are the only ones who can remain calm… or rather, be excited about this situation at all. Normal people aren’t that strong. And we’re the type of humans who solve these incidents. The ways of the world works well if ya think about it. Anyway… It’s been a long while since I was able to take a casual walk around the village. It sure has changed a lot everywhere. We’ve walked in the outskirts for quite a bit, but there are still lots of food and lodging facilities around here. A “long while” from you is probably from several decades ago… Really, you half-youkai and your lifespans… (Ugh, she realized it…) W-well, whatever you say. From the looks of the village, there really are lodging facilities popping up everywhere. Well yeah, with this kind of obvious incident going on, there wouldn’t be anyone who’d be taking a faraway trip or anything. What about it? From what I have heard, there are a lot of humans and youkai that have entered the tree. If we continue to explore the tree, perhaps we will find others who will help your exploration. As our party gets bigger, we’d need a place to gather everyone around. With the amount of lodging facilities in the village, we should be able to get a pretty good price on staying at one for a while. If we make use of that, we should be able to accommodate for quite a number of people. Eh, really?! I thought that Kourin out of his store would be like a Kappa out of water… That’s really well thought-out. I’m seeing you in a new light now! I can’t tell if you’re complimenting me or insulting me… I guess I’ll just treat it as a compliment this time. (Though honestly, I got all the gold from Marisa’s father and permission to use their good name to get a large discount… But Marisa probably wouldn’t stand for this kind of thing. I’ll just pretend that it’s all thanks to me…)Rinnosuke’s not just doing it to be polite – Marisa and her family are not on speaking terms and she does not care to discuss the subject.  We can have up to twelve active party members, with four on the front line and eight waiting in the wings. But soon we’ll have more members than that, and the Human Village is where they hang out. We’ll have to return here in between dungeon runs to switch characters. Keine’s School  There’s nothing to do here. I could ask what the heck you two are doing here too. Yeah, we’re here for some reason… There’s nothing interesting going on in a school for you… Or perhaps you want to study? No. No. I don’t want to teach you two either… What do you do here normally? Hmm? Well, it’s a school, so normally I teach here. Otherwise… I thought of compiling a summary on the monsters inside the Great Tree. It’ll be useful if they ever get out of the tree, though I doubt that’ll happen. So basically, if we want to look at the bestiary, we can come here? …Thank you for that frank summary of what I’ve just went through…Keine’s school is where we can check the bestiary and our achievement list. There are some events that can only be unlocked by having a certain number of achievements. Akyuu’s House  Heeey, Akyuu you there~? We’re thinking of exploring that tree a little from now on, so we were wondering if you had any information to share about it. Akyuu, do you know anything about that thing? I don’t know much. At the very least, it’s not something already well-known, like the cycle of ghosts increasing every 60 years. *sigh* I guess we’ll have to do some actual legwork to know more about that thing. By the way, I’d be happy if you can resolve this tree incident too. That thing is blocking the sun’s light, and I don’t want to catch a cold. So I’ll help in what little way I can. If that thing keeps growing, the village won’t be getting any sunlight at all soon. Please do something about it before that happens. We’ll take whatever help you can give. What can you do for us? Hmmm… At the very least, I’ll help with what I’m good at. I’ll make a record of your explanations. A record? …That’s it? My, exploration records are important. Especially in RPGs. What do you mean by that? ……Who knows? But if you’re not satisfied with just that… Well, fine. I’ll give you this too. What’s this? It’s a key to open locked treasure boxes in that tree. Since I can’t fight in there, I really have no use for this. So I’ll give it to you. Yay! There’s treasure chests, huh? Now that gets me excited! However, it seems this key disappears after you use it once. Since it’s not reusable, please consider your options carefully before using it. It disappears after using it once? …How does that even work? ……Who knows?Akyuu’s house is where we save and load the game. Pretty straightforward.  We have one last screen to check out before we head in, the main menu screen. Here we can rearrange our party members, change their equipment, level up their skills and check their stats. ‘Rest’ and ‘Leave Dungeon’ are options only available in the dungeon proper. Our starting formation. We can do better...  Better. Enemies tend to focus their attacks from left to right, so you want your tanks to be on the left and the weaker characters as far to the right as possible.  Reimu’s starting stats, for reference. HP and MP are obvious. TP represents mental stamina, and is consumed to restore HP and MP after battles. ATK and DEF represent her physical offensive and defensive capabilities, and MAG and MND her magical ones. SPD represents how fast her active time bar fills up in battle, and EVA her evasiveness. Her affinities and resistances are below that. An affinity under 100% represents a weakness to said element, an affinity above 100% her resistance to it. Next to that is her resistance against status effects - the higher the value the higher the chance to shrug off that effect, and the lower the duration of the effect when applied. Debuff resistance refers only to the chance to shrug off debuffs – debuff duration is not affected. Status effects have different effects when applied to allies and enemies, as shown here.   Next time: The Great Tree, 1F Inadequately fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Oct 15, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 09:28
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Oh hey, cool! I knew this was translated, but never found the time to get around to it. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask a couple of spoiler-y questions: When do you get Cirno, and how good is she?
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Sep 18, 2016 09:45
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 So this is the inside of the Great Tree… The greenery seems to stretch out forever. A forest within a tree… I suppose it wouldn’t be too odd to find a small forest growing inside such a huge tree, but… Actually seeing it with your own eyes… It feels like all I can do is shake my head and laugh. I bet I’ll have a stupid grin on my face for the next 3 days when I remember this before I go to bed. Really? For me, it’s all so normal that it’s kind of disappointing. Yep. Ya find one mysterious super huge plant, get all fired up and go inside… And all that’s waiting for ya is a forest with a lotta soil and grass. For something that makes no sense from the outside, what’s inside it makes way too much sense. It woulda been better if there it was a place with boiling magma, or some space-like atmosphere, or something else appropriately crazy. Spare me from that, please… Reimu and Marisa are, how do I put this… Extremely experienced with incidents… Their perspective is much different from ours… As the bastions of common sense, we’ll have to do our best to keep them in line… I don’t mind if you wanna be a bastion, but you better be as helpful as one in battle! Hmph, I was just temporarily overawed by the sight of this place. Of course I’d be helpful in battle, my skill is nothing to scoff at. My skill is plenty to scoff at, and I doubt I’ll be anything more than a liability. Can I go home now? No. Nah. You, a grown man, want to leave behind frail and defenseless young ladies and return by yourself? What a heartless person you are. …Who exactly qualifies as a ‘frail and defenseless young lady’ here? What are you trying to insinuate? Nothing. You’re reading too much into it. ……… C’mon, Keine. Stop glaring at him so that we can get started.Well, time to go. I’m sure Rinnosuke will surprise us with his battle prowess sooner or later.  Oh. This was our first battle, barely a few steps from the entrance. The Great Tree does not mess around – the squirrels wiped out Rinnosuke and the wasps severely injured Keine before we even got to make a move. Pressing on against this lot would be suicidal, so we make a quick exit.  It ain’t too bad if we’re careful.I don’t think Marisa was paying attention. It wasn’t too bad because of you all. I couldn’t do much at all… We managed one way or another, but it gets pretty rough when they start attacking. It’ll be best if we take the initiative and use spellcards to take out the enemies before they attack. Not like I can do that either… Well, even if we take damage in battle, we’ll recover after we’re done with it. It’s okay, don’t worry. Alrighty, let’s go. Let’s keep the beat goin’.All HP that was lost in battle will be recovered after it. If a character was downed in battle, he will come back to the party with their HP fully recovered. However, for characters that recovered HP after being defeated, a large amount of TP will be consumed to bring them back. Downed characters will lose 10 TP, and other characters will lose 1-5 TP depending on their remaining HP. TP acts as motivation for characters. If a character’s TP goes down to 0, they will be demoralized and return to Gensokyo by themselves. By reducing the amount of damage taken, you can reduce the amount of TP consumed. It’s one way to extend your exploration.  This battle is a little more manageable. Let’s take a look at our options.  Characters take turns whenever their active time bar hits 10000, and how fast it fills up is dependent on their speed. Attack is a weak attack that scales off the higher of their ATK or MAG. It requires no MP and reduces their ATB to 7000. Concentrate restores MP based on their MP recovery rate, and reduces their ATB to 5000. Form Change switches a character in the front row with another in the back row, and reduces the switcher’s ATB to 7500. If someone in the front row has fallen, the empty spot where they once stood can be targeted for a switch. Escape causes us to flee the battle, and will always succeed, but escaping causes everyone to lose a hefty chunk of TP. Finally there are spell cards, which all have different effects and lower the time bar by different amounts. Let’s take a look at what we have.  Ancient History ~Old History~ is a dark-element attack that hits all enemies on the field and is calculated against enemy DEF. New History –Next History- is similar, but spirit-element and targets their MND. Three Treasures – Sword raises the ATK and MAG of all allies in the front row, while Three Treasures – Mirror does the same for DEF and MND.  All of Reimu’s moves are spirit-element. Yin-Yang Orb is a weak but cheap single-target attack, while Fantasy Seal is a stronger attack that hits all enemies. Exorcising Barrier is a fairly expensive healing spell that heals all allies, and Great Hakurei Barrier buffs the DEF and MND of all allies even more than Keine’s move.  All of Marisa’s moves are mystic-element and scale off her MAG. Magic Missile is a single-target magical attack, and Asteroid Belt an all-target one. Master Spark is a tremendously powerful all-target attack, but it’s off limits for now – she doesn’t have enough MP to cast it even at max MP. Finally, Concentration is a low-delay self-buff to her MAG.  Rinnosuke has a somewhat limited skillset. First Aid restores a very small amount of health to one ally, and can cure some status ailments at higher levels. Battle Command buffs all the stats of one ally by a small amount.  Unlike most games, buffs and debuffs aren’t static for a few turns – instead, they degrade slowly over time. We’ll find ways to modify this decay rate later. Also, Rinnosuke was downed again. In the early game, even our tanks can’t take too many hits.  Dungeon navigation is done by moving the little Reimu avatar about. Whenever we step on a circle, all the other circles connected to it are revealed. We can see points of interest in the distance, but not the path to them – and often the path to them is anything but straightforward. With every step we take, the encounter rate rises slightly until we get into an encounter, at which point it resets. Heading down, we hit our first point of interest. A red point of interest usually indicates an event of some plot relevance, a green one indicates an item. Oh my. Hey Marisa, in front of us, isn’t that a tengu? Yeah, I think I saw that girl before. Hmmm, what was her name again… Eh, wha? Where did that tengu go? Uwahh! You startled me, how did you get so close? …Ah, I remember now. You’re Momiji, one of the Youkai Mountain’s guardians, aren’t you? Being called a guardian is a bit too much. I’m just part of the patrol. So, what would a patrol tengu be wandering around here for? The Great Tengu ordered us to investigate the Great Tree instead of patrolling the mountains. I wouldn’t have come to this place otherwise. …Aren’t the crow tengu already doing that? That is quite likely… But they are doing so in hopes of getting their hands on a scoop first. I am here because I happened to pull the short straw. Ah, I see. In any case, I will be going back shortly. Humans from the village won’t approach this tree, and strong humans and youkai are coming in for a bit of fun. It’s more or less as the Great Tengu predicted. Oh my, going home so soon? Since you’re already here, explore this place with us. You’ll probably get more direct information that way, ya know. I’m sorry, but my duty was only to patrol. Besides, the crow tengus will surely return with more information anyway. Though I don’t know how accurate that information would be…This is probably just me, but the fact that ‘tengu’ and ‘tengus’ are used interchangeably as plurals is slightly bugging me. Those crow tengus like gossip way too much, what proof does anyone have that their information will be correct? And besides, those crow tengu only care about getting news before the other crow tengu for their next edition… …… Right. Compared to these crows, the information coming from the very serious white wolf tengu will be so much more reliable, isn’t that right? And the Great Tengu told you that the Great Tree is a higher priority, right? I bet patrolling the mountain is a real bore, especially after getting involved with a major incident like this. …That’s true. And the crow tengus would probably prioritize making their newspaper over actually reporting any accurate information they get… *sigh*…You’re pretty good at winning people over. The Great Tengu didn’t say “make haste in your report”, I guess. Putting things that way does have a certain logic to it. I am willing to help you for a while then. Sweet. We’re in your hands then, Momiji.Momiji Inubashiri joins the party! Momiji is our first bulky physical attacker – high ATK and DEF, terrible MAG and MND. For the time being, I will stand by at the human village. Call for me there if you need my services.We continue onwards. Heading to the left, we see a cluster of green points.  All of these are treasure chests, but we can only unlock one with Akyuu’s key at the moment – we’ll have to come back later. For now, we choose the top one. Obtained Biggest Sword Ever, Purple Metallic Armor, Mana Flower and Symbol of Faith! Biggest Sword Ever – The strongest weapon that fires three huge waves of unlimited range. You may want to save your money for it at the last stage, but with just the last boss in mind, the Raging Wave Sword’s wave trails are more useful. Sub-equip, ATK +36% Purple Metallic Armor – From the looks of it, it’s an armor meant to protect the shoulders and chest, but when worn by a human, it’s big enough to cover more. It has a lot of Yellow Noisy Boys on it too. No idea what that’s supposed to mean. Sub-equip, DEF +36% Mana Flower – An accessory created by fusing a Nature’s Gift and a Mana Potion. Judging from its icon, it’s created by just plopping the green flower representing the Nature’s Gift in the mouth of the potion bottle. Sub-equip, MAG +36% Symbol of Faith – A statue placed within the Con Cave. Used to open the heart of Hoffman. Screw diplomacy, just force mysterious items on them. That’s how a true savior of the world acts. Reimu and Sanae could learn from him… maybe. Sub-equip, MND +36% This path is a dead end, so we head upwards. We pick up a Power Bracer and a Miko Board from the green points of interest (seen earlier in Nitori’s shop), then head back down and to the right.  Our third battle goes as well as our second one. For every battle we fight consecutively (without leaving the dungeon), we gain a bonus to exp and money earned, and to item drop rate, stacking up as we fight more and more.  Unfortunately, we can’t do that. Keine’s TP hits 0 after that battle, and there’s no reason to push on with a three-member party at the moment.   The enemies sure hit hard. In battles, we should aim to defeat them before they can hit us. However, if we go all out like that from the beginning, we’ll run out of gas quickly… Well, it can’t be helped for now. We’re not used to exploring after all. As we recruit new members, get stronger, become luckier and chip away at it, our exploration area will little by little become wider as well. Hmm. I guess all we can do is keep going at it. Ah, by the way. For some reason, it feels like the enemies ain’t targeting us equally when attacking. Am I just imagining things? You’re not. The enemies tend to attack characters that they have an easier time reaching. Characters in the front of the party will be targeted more often. Conversely, characters in the back will be targeted less. Amongst our current group, the shopkeeper and I are a little tougher than Reimu and Marisa. It might be best to put us at the front using the Formation option, to offer Reimu and Marisa a little more protection. Well, I’m also the worst at defeating the enemies. I’ll at least be a tank… If I’m just sitting there uselessly while you girls are shielding me, I’d have trouble sleeping at night. Oh, well said, Kourin. We’ll be relying on you.The target for an enemy’s attack during combat is largely influenced by the position of the group in the front line. In short, enemies are inclined to attack the leftmost character. Physical enemies especially show this tendency. Thus, characters with high HP and defenses should be put at the utmost left, with more fragile characters at the right. This reduces the chance of them being killed by normal enemies. Controlling who the enemy attacks is very important in battle. Make sure your front line is well-organized at all times. My party’s getting bigger! Way to go, Mari! …What did you just make me say? Nuh-uh, that was all you. Anyways, it’s good to have more allies, but only four people can be in battle at once, yeah? Is there any reason to get more allies than that? Of course there is. Only four people may participate in battle at a time, but you can still bring eight others with you. The more people you have, the more battles you can endure, and the wider you can explore for each run through the Great Tree. Furthermore, people resting in the back lines during battle will slowly recover HP and MP. If someone’s spent, you can shift that person to the back, where they’ll slowly heal back up until they’ve recovered enough to fight on the front lines again. …Though we don’t quite have enough party members to do that kind of rotation, so don’t worry about it yet. Just continue on as you are now, and give it more thought once we’re up to eight or so party members. Hmm. Sounds like it’ll be best if we make full use of the advantages of having many people to work with as we progress onwards. By the way, this might sound a little naggy, but do take note that you have to go to the Human Village and switch your party around to add new party members to the exploration team. Make sure to give the Human Village a visit later. And if you don’t equip those weapons and armor! Then they won’t have any effect! What did you just make me say? Nuh-uh, that was all you. …I give up, just do whatever you want… You have it tough. Good work. *sigh* Is this really going to be okay…?Nitori’s Store  What’s that? I’m asking you because we don’t know either. We went ahead and picked it up, but it doesn’t do anything special when we were carrying it. Does it have a use? Don’t you have someone in your party way more experienced at running an items store than me? So what’s it do, bro?There are in fact two members of our party who qualify for this statement. Marisa technically also runs an items store – though it’s less a store and more a large pile of whatever junk doesn’t fit into her house proper. Few people know this, largely because it’s in the middle of nowhere and she makes no effort to market it or sell items. Hmm? Well…Even though I have the ‘Ability of Knowing the Name and Utility of Tools’, when I see these kind of items, all it tells me is that there’s no specific use for them. Just like Reimu and Marisa said, it appears to carry some traces of spiritual and magical power. So we may be able to use them to make some useful gear. …And that’s where you come into play. When you talk about making things in Gensokyo, the kappa are the first thing to come to mind. Hmmm? So you want me to find a use for these things, huh… I can’t fault your taste in choosing an inventor for these things, though! Oh well, there’s no other customers other than you guys anyway, so I have some free time. I’ll think about a way to put them to good use, and I’ll let you know when that happens. Alright. Thanks in advance!We can’t craft items out of materials quite yet. For now, we save our money and equip our party with what we have. Keine gets the defense-boosting gear and takes Rinnosuke’s place, and Momiji gets the offense boosting gear, taking Keine’s place. Rinnosuke retreats to the back row.   Heading back into the dungeon, we head to the red point of interest down and to the right. Hmm? What’s that over there? Hey, we ain’t extras over here.[  What would you all be doing, entering this place as a group? I could ask the same thing. What are you doing here? As for us, we’re doing the usual, sticking our neck into trouble ‘cause it looks interesting.[ Ah…yes, that was entirely what I expected. Reimu and Marisa really do give off that impression to everyone else, huh… Anyway, enough of that. What about you? You don’t seem to be the sort to stick your neck into this mess.[ It’s not like I came to this place because I wanted to.[ Lady Yuyuko got really excited, since this gigantic tree appeared just when she was feeling bored… She was going on and on about how she wanted to give this place a visit…[ She kept telling me things like ‘The journey to becoming a worthy swordswoman begins with a search for an appropriate sword, which will also polish your skills. So Youmu, go look for a sword in that tree!’, and so on… Were you trying to imitate Yuyuko’s voice just now?[ Ah, did it sound like her? Ehh, not really.[ Ah… Anyways, you came here to do as you were told, then?[ Of course not. No one could cater to Lady Yuyuko’s every whim… And besides, I already have my Roukanken and Hakurouken. I just happened to come here to kill some time, enjoy the cooling atmosphere, and return to Hakugyokurou after. The garden still needs cleaning. Roukanken and Hakurouken… Those are the two swords you carry with you? The long and short one?[ Yes. They are both very good swords. If we aren’t seeing things… Your short sword, the wakizashi, is nowhere to be found…[ Hmm? No, I have left it around here……Huh?[ Wha-!? No, that’s impossible! Wait, really? My Hakurouken’s gone!? Eh, whaaat! No way!? Umm…… Ya know, for a sword master to not be able to keep an eye on her sword… You may still be a provisional sword master, but it’s still pretty embarrassing, don’t ya think?[ No, it’s different! It was really there just a moment ago! This can’t be happening! Where’s my Hakurouken!? …Well, good luck.[ W-w-wait! Please look for it with me! Sorry, can’t do. We got places to go.[ Uwaaaah!! Where is iiiiit!?Talking to her later brings up this dialogue: [ It’s not here, nor there… Waaaah, where is my Hakurouken!? Did you try retracing your steps?[ I remember performing maintenance on both of their hilts after I arrived, so there’s no doubt I had them since I came to this place… …Fine, if we happen to find it along the way, we’ll bring it back to you when we get the chance. There are two green points of interest to the right of Youmu. One is a Piece of Heart, the other is currently inaccessible. Nothing more of interest this way, so we head back to the entrance and to the left.  Momiji has two spellcards – Rabies Bite is a single-target physical spell and an Expellee’s Canaan is an all-target wind spell. Both scale off her attack and are the hardest hitting physical spells we currently have access to.  This point of interest is a tunnel – a shortcut between two dungeon areas. Once one end of the tunnel is found, the other can be accessed anytime to pop between the tunnels. To the left of the tunnel, there’s another event. Wait Reimu, look, look. On the other side of the grove. What? ...Oh, that... What's there? That's Rumia, a youkai that can manipulate darkness. She collects the darkness around and forms a bubble of darkness around her, but it seems to blind her as well. ...Quite the eccentric youkai. I wonder if she can hear me if I call her from here? Hey, Rumia~.  Waha? Someone called? Ooh~.I bumped my head. I can't see in front of me~. Awww~. Owww~. ...Looks like she went somewhere else. That was predictable... We head downwards, picking up another Cypress Stick and a Steadfast Ring. Cypress Stick – A cypress board that isn’t very thick. It’s not very reliable as a blunt weapon, but having a weapon at all gives people courage and a way to fight back against those trying to intimidate them. Main equip, MP +3. Steadfast Ring – A ring that decreases knockback from damage. The game has an excellent system that offers good customization and collecting fun, but it’s not present in other titles. Quite a shame. Sub-equip, SHK +50.  Circling back up, we find another tunnel next to the first one.  With Momiji around, our damage output is high enough that we can take out enemies in one turn with liberal use of all-target spellcards. There’s no reason to hold back – enemies hit us back just as hard, and we don’t have the TP for extended dungeon runs anyway. Heading up, we pick up a Great Tree’s Leaf, Bulletproof Armor and Lucky Horseshoe. Lucky Horseshoe – Accessory that negates damage of falling from high places. Falling from up to fifty feet will not do a single point of damage normally, yet 1 inch more results in grievous damage. Definitely equip this to prevent accidents. SHK +50.  These guys are new. Forest fairies are faster than our current party, and like to toss out all-target wind attacks. Running into a group like this is bad news.  Very bad news. Fortunately, getting a game over just boots us back to the village, our ego slightly bruised but none the worse for wear. A step up from the first Labyrinth of Touhou, where you had to continue from your last save. We earn an achievement for it, in fact. Let’s check out our achievements.  First Wipe Conditions: Get defeated for the first time Reward: Money +100 Even if everyone gets defeated, all that happens is a forced return to Gensokyo with no real penalties. Wipe as much as you want! Walking Conditions: Walk a total of 200 steps Reward: Energy Gem You may finally get to the next town.  While back at town, we take the opportunity to level up our party members. Leveling up increases all our stats and gives us bonus levelup points that can be invested in any stat. Every character has different growth rates for their stats, as well as different leveling rates. Leveling down reduces stats and skill points gained via levelup growth, but not via levelup points or the Magic Library. Heading back into the dungeon, we head down and right from the entrance, running into a new face. Hey, Reimu. Over there... What? ......Geh. If it isn't Parsee. Why did you leave the Underworld to come here? It's not like I like to go out. I was on the upper tier of the Underworld, when all of a sudden, massive roots sprouted forth and stretched down to the bottom of Hell, blocking the way back down. I had no choice but to go up instead. Really, how can people carry on their life up here, with such a bright light shining on them like this... Ahh, I'm so jealous. I see, that musta took a toll on you. Oh, I thought you came out here to attack humans. That's good, that's good, I was just about to exterminate you. Not as ominous as it sounds, ‘exterminating’ usually just means giving the offending party a solid thumping and telling them to cut it out. That said, Reimu totally does straight-up murder dudes when the situation calls for it. There's something I wanted to hear about : what is this Great Tree? Since when did something like this become enshrined on the surface? We don't know either. It grew like crazy here all of a sudden, just a little while ago. It was really surprising. (...That's it. I just thought of something good.) And that's how it is. So, it looks like every youkai have been coming to this tree. After all, it looks pretty interesting. Every youkai... How interesting that sounds. Ahh, I'm so jealous. I know, right? (Aaah, I see. That's how it is.) We're also planning to scale this tree to do something about it. Want to come along? With this tree and its roots going all the way into the depths of the Underworld, the monsters of the tree who waltz around like they own this place and yours, and all these youkai inside enjoying themselves... Don't you want to beat them all up? ......... ............. Just quit it. I've come here just a little while ago and I'm still being jealous of the light that shines so brightly up here on the surface. Tch…Talking to her again brings up this dialogue: What, you're still around? Well excuse me for being here. By the way Parsee, did you change your mind? Do you want to come with us now? We can kick the crap outta the monsters inside who strut around with a smug look on their faces, and ruin the mood of all the youkai in high spirits. Let's do it! Don't feel like it. Tch...Looks like Parsee isn’t quite jealous enough of us yet. We’ll have to come back later. Continuing to the right loops us back around, so we head downwards to the next red point of interest. Ayaya, you would be... Hm, that voice is... Well, if it isn't Aya. What are you doing here today? ...Nevermind, you crow tengu love these kind of scoops. You're always there when you can get a scandal-like article, and even more for this kind of news story...  The truth is, I wanted to come here even earlier. I was pre-occupied acquiring information on another bit of good news I had heard, which ended up delaying my investigation of this incident considerably... What's the big deal with being a bit behind schedule? That delay means the rest of the crow tengus reached here before I did, and they're probably at the floors above by now. This head-start they have will be hard to make up... Ah, that's right, there's a lot of you paparazzi... Guess you lot have your own pressures. So, do excuse me while I start my comeback rally now. I've got some catching up to do! She's all fired up... Far to the right of Aya is another red point of interest.  Waahh… What's that? That's a crying voice. I guessed as much. So, it's the cursed tool this time. ...The human part at least. Hey you, didn't you always have an umbrella with you?  *sniff sniff*... Let me explain, it's not with me cuz... Nah, let us guess. Since humans aren't surprised by you anymore at your usual place, you decided to try your luck in the Great Tree. You wanted to surprise someone here, but the monsters beat ya black and blue and your umbrella got stolen instead. Your bruises make it easy to guess. Ooh... Wahhhhh... Nailed it. I don't get it, she's an umbrella tsukumogami, no? How can she be here crying when they took her body away?A tsukumogami is the awakened spirit of an object that has existed for over 100 years. Rinnosuke raises a valid point – Kogasa’s true body is the umbrella, her humanoid form is merely an extension of it. This will not be addressed. Wahhh... C'mon, help me out... Get my umbrella back from those monsters... No way. Waaaaaaah! ...If your umbrella was stolen, do you know where it is now? I don't know. That's even more annoying. Uwaaaaaaaah! ......*sigh*......Talking to her again brings up this dialogue: Waaah... For now, we have to look for where that spiritual umbrella could be before we can bring it back. So annoying. Uwaaaaaah! ...... *sigh*......Hang in there, Kogasa. This area is a dead end, so we loop around and start exploring upwards. Along the way, we pick up a Cantrip Book, a Manga Meat and a Bludgeon. Bludgeon – A bludgeon created from the trunk of the Great Tree. Might have some mysterious power within. The girls thought it too heavy, so they scraped at it until it was thin enough to work as a staff. Poor bludgeon. ATK & DEF +12%, PHY and SHK +12  The fatigue of exploration is taking its toll: Keine runs out of TP on account of doing the bulk of the tanking work, and Reimu and Marisa follow shortly, on account of running out of MP and having to rest repeatedly. We head back to the village once more. We’ve earned some skill points due to leveling up, so it’s time to start investing in skills. Every character starts with three skill points at level 1, and earns one more every level.  Keine picks up a level in Firm Defense, which raises her DEF and MND whenever she’s hit.  Marisa picks up a level in Sudden Impulse, which increases the damage variance of her attacks and raises the damage cap slightly.  Reimu picks up a level in Hakurei’s Divine Protection, which gives her a 33% chance of restoring 1MP to all front-row party members at the end of every battle as long as she’s in the party.  Momiji saves her skill points for now. Her useful skills are out of our price range at the moment. This seems like a good stopping point. Let’s review our party members. Inadequately fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Oct 15, 2016 |
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 Reimu Hakurei Flying Mysterious Shrine Maiden Themes: Eastern Mystical Love Consultation, Maiden’s Capriccio, Witching Dream, Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly, Spring Lane ~ Colourful Path The main character of the Touhou series. First appearing in the PC-98 game Highly Responsive to Prayers, Reimu has been a playable character in every mainline Touhou game since then and a prominent character in many of the spin-off games and stories. Reimu Hakurei is the latest in the line of Hakurei shrine maidens, caretakers of the Hakurei Shrine. This makes her responsible for maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier, the dimensional barrier that separates the pocket dimension of Gensokyo from the outside world, and resolving incidents which threaten the overall stability of Gensokyo itself. While she’s fairly good at her job, being skilled with barriers and a prodigy at combat, she’s not so great at the whole ‘shrine maiden’ thing. Tends to treat everyone with the same attitude – usually vague annoyance – which for most youkai, is the closest thing to acceptance they can get from a human. As a result, her shrine is well-known for being a common youkai gathering point, a fact which annoys Reimu, as they keep scaring off humans who might actually bring donations to her shrine. In combat, she attacks with the Hakurei Yin-Yang orb and her sacred anti-youkai paper talismans. She is also skilled with magical barriers to a prodigious degree, able to assemble and dismantle even the most complex ones instinctively.  (all stats are shown at level 1, with no items equipped) Stat-wise and resistance-wise, Reimu is fairly all-rounded, neither excelling nor falling short in any category. Her affinities are good – her only weakness is to mystic-element attacks, and she has high spirit affinity. Skills HP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base HP. MP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base MP. Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Magic. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Reimu’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as Reimu is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Reimu’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)%, as long as Reimu is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Main Character: Reimu – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Whenever another party member is KO’d, Reimu gains a (6*S.Lvl)% buff to all stats. Grand Incantation – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Whenever Reimu uses Concentrate, the damage of the next attack is multiplied by (1.6 + (0.4*S.Lvl)). Hakurei’s Divine Protection – Max level 2, cost per level 5. At the end of every battle, there is a (33*S.Lvl)% chance that 1 MP is restored to all frontliners if Reimu is in the party. Final Prayer – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Reimu is KO’d, restores (50*S.Lvl)% health to all other frontliners. Armored Yin-Yang Orb – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Reduces all spirit-element damage taken by other frontliners when Reimu is in the frontline. Youkai Buster – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Youkai enemies is increased when Reimu is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Spellcards All spellcards have max level 5, cost 5 skill points to level, and increase in damage/healing/buffing capacity by 5% per level. Some have additional effects when leveled. Yin-Yang Orb – Spirit element, single-target, 2 MP, sets ATB to 6000. 123% (ATK+MAG) – 70% DEF. Gains a chance to Shock enemies above level 2. Fantasy Seal – Spirit element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5000. 180% (ATK + MAG) - 75% MND. Exorcising Border – Spirit element, all allies, 8 MP, sets ATB to 3200. 66% MAG, heals all allies. Great Hakurei Barrrier – Spirit element, all allies, 7 MP, sets ATB to 4800. Raises DEF and MND by (38 + (4*S.Lvl))%. Reimu is, as mentioned, an all-rounded character who can take on any role. Right now we’re using her for offense, but as we pick up more dedicated attackers, she’s probably going to be moved to supporting with Great Hakurei Barrier and Exorcising Barrier. Hakurei’s Divine Protection, Final Prayer and Armored Yin-Yang Orb helps to support the front line, while Grand Incantation and Youkai Buster improves her damage. Main Character: Reimu is a useful skill for any situation, and helps her turn the tide when things go badly for our party.  Marisa Kirisame Ordinary Black Magician Themes: Love Coloured Magic, Dimensional Dream, Vessel of Stars, Magus Night, Oriental Dark Flight, Love-Coloured Master Spark The second main character of the Touhou series. First appeared as the fourth boss in the second Touhou game, Story of Eastern Wonderland. Has been a playable character in all the mainline Touhou games ever since, and a major character in the spinoff games and stories. Reimu’s chief rival and best friend, Marisa is a human witch who lives in the Forest of Magic. Unlike Reimu, who often investigates incidents reluctantly and out of a sense of duty, Marisa charges full-throttle into them, looking for adventure and new stuff to loot. Very skilled with magic, but knows few utility spells, preferring to focus on combat magic. She’s actually a very hard worker, despite her carefree attitude, and on most days can be found searching for magical fuel to power her spells or experimenting with magic to increase her combat prowess. In combat, she uses light and heat magic with astronomy-themed spells, fueled by the magical herbs and fungi she gathers from the Forest of Magic. She prefers raw firepower and flashy displays over finesse, and often copies enemy spells she finds interesting. Her trademark move is the powerful Master Spark – a turbocharged laser of pure magical energy fired from her mini-Hakkero, a tiny magical furnace that fits in her hand.  Marisa’s stats are clearly focused on her magical prowess – high MP, magic, mind and speed, low everything else. She has subpar resistances to everything except Heavy and Silence. While her elemental affinities are low, the rest of her affinities are decent, and she has tremendous mystic affinity. Skills Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. MP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max MP. Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Magic. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Marisa’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as Marisa is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Marisa’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as Marisa is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Main Character: Marisa – Max level 2, cost per level 5. If five other party members are KO’d, Marisa recovers (S.Lvl)MP per turn and all her stats are boosted by (10*S.Lvl)%. Bugged, does not work. M(Alice) Cannon: Marisa – Max level 2, cost per level 5. If Alice Margatroid is in reserve, Marisa’s speed increases by (15*S.Lvl)%. Sheer Force – Max level 1, cost per level 15. Pierces enemy resistances and affinities when attacking. Sudden Impulse – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases damage variance and damage cap. Lively and Healthy – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases decay rate of debuffs and status effects. Magic Training – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases all Mystic damage done by frontliners by (20*S.Lvl)% when Marisa is on the frontline. Spellcards Magic Missile – Mystic element, single-target, 2 MP, sets ATB to 5800. 192% MAG – 60% MND. Asteroid Belt – Mystic element, all-target, 6 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 193% MAG – 87.5% MND. Concentration – Mystic element, self, 3 MP, sets ATB to 8800. Buffs MAG by (21 + (3*S.Lvl))%. Master Spark – Mystic element, all-target, 27 MP, sets ATB to 0. 480% MAG – 120% MND, reduces Marisa’s MP to 0. Her skills largely revolve around boosting her offensive capabilities. Sheer Force, Magic Training and Sudden Impulse all help to boost her damage, and the bonus speed from M(Alice) Cannon is nice if you can get it. Main Character: Marisa would be a potent skill – if it weren’t bugged. Asteroid Belt and Magic Missile are our main enemy-sweeping skills for now, and Master Spark will be an excellent boss-killer once we get the MP to use it.  Keine Kamishirasawa Half Beast of Knowledge and History Theme: Plain Asia First appeared as the third boss in the eighth Touhou game, Imperishable Night. Since then, she’s made occasional background cameos in spinoffs and side material, usually in her role as guardian of the human village. Keine is a were-hakutaku who runs a school in the Human Village, teaching history to the children there. She considers herself the guardian of the Human Village, and protects it against youkai threats. In human form, she has the ability to ‘eat’ history, concealing past events from the minds of the world at large. Fujiwara no Mokou is a close friend of hers, and she has known her ever since she was young. In combat, she uses spells themed around Japanese historical events and items, particularly the three sacred treasures. In were-hakutaku form, her physical strength and combat prowess increase sharply, but being a cursed lycanthrope and not a natural one, is forced to take on this form during the full moon and has no control over it otherwise.  Keine has above-average defense, HP and mind. Her offense isn’t stellar, but it’s workable, especially at this stage. She has decent status resistances and good affinities, weak only to dark-element attacks. Skills TP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max TP. MP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max MP. Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Magic. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Keine’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as Keine is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Keine’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as Keine is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. With Mokou – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Attack and Magic by (15*S.Lvl)% if both Keine and Mokou are on frontline. Organized Formation - Max level 1, cost per level 10. Whenever someone uses Form Change while Keine is on the front line, all characters involved (switcher and two switched characters) regain 1 MP. Firm Defense – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Gains a (5*S.Lvl)% boost to Defense and Mind when hit by an enemy attack. Teacher’s Command – Max level 2, cost per level 6. All frontliners gain a (6*S.Lvl)% Mind buff whenever Keine takes a turn. Historian’s School – Max level 1, cost per level 10. All party members gain 6% more XP while Keine is in party. Only applies if all 12 members are present. Spellcards Ancient History – Old History - – Dark element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5120. 164% MAG – 64% DEF. New History – Next History - – Spirit element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5120. 164% MAG – 64% MND. Three Treasures – Sword – Physical element, all allies, 5 MP, sets ATB to 6000. Buffs ATK and MAG by (21 + (3*S.Lvl))%. Three Treasures – Mirror – Physical element, all allies, 5 MP, sets ATB to 6000. Buffs DEF and MND by (21 + (3*S.Lvl))%. Keine’s skills mostly revolve around boosting her defenses. Firm Defense and Teacher’s Command make the party tougher as the battle drags on, Historian’s School is a useful skill for XP-farming later on, and Organized Formation can be useful for a slight amount of MP recovery. Spellcard-wise, she can target enemy Defense or Mind with her offensive spellcards, though once we pick up more dedicated attackers she’s usually better off casting her buffing spells.  Rinnosuke Morichika Unmoving Used Goods Seller Theme: Curious Old Shanghai Tile (Technically a theme from a fanmade game, but one which ZUN himself composed, making this the closest thing he has to an official theme) First appeared as the main character in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, a collection of side stories. Since then, has made several background cameos in various other side works. A half-human, half youkai salesman, Rinnosuke runs an item store between the Forest of Magic and the Human village, selling various trinkets to humans and youkai alike. Occasionally picks up items from the outside world, due to being fairly close to the border. Before setting up his own store, he used to be the apprentice of Marisa’s father, and has known her ever since she was young. He has genuinely no combat ability whatsoever. His youkai power allows him to intuitively grasp the name and utility of things: what they’re called and what they’re used for, but not how to use them. Has picked up some degree of mechanical aptitude over his long life, and is skilled with working with magical items. Gave Marisa her mini-Hakkero, and helped Reimu prepare her purification rod.  Lackluster in almost every respect, about the only thing notable is the incrementally ascending resistances, giving him above-average death, silence and debuff resistance. Skills High MP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 3. Greatly increases max MP. High TP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 6. Greatly increases max MP. High Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 6. Greatly increases base Attack. High Defense Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 6. Greatly increases base Defense. High Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 6. Greatly increases base Magic. High Mind Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 6. Greatly increases base Mind. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Rinnosuke’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as Reimu is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Rinnosuke’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)%, as long as Reimu is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Gensokyo’s Shopkeeper – Max level 10, cost per level 1. Increases item drop rate by (4*S.Lvl)%. Only works when Rinnosuke is in party. Effect reduced if Rinnosuke is in reserve. Keen-Eyed Shop Owner Saga – Max level 10, cost per level 1. Increases item drop rate by (2*S.Lvl)%. Only works when Rinnosuke is in party. Effect reduced if Rinnosuke is in reserve. Effective Formation Change – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Rinnosuke performs a Form Change, the character switching in will start with an ATB of 7500 + (800*S.Lvl). Weird Creatures Knowledge – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Other enemies is increased when Rinnosuke is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Attack Debuff Add-On – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Rinnosuke receives a turn, he attempts to inflict a (4*S.Lvl)% Attack debuff to all enemies. Magic Debuff Add-On – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Rinnosuke receives a turn, he attempts to inflict a (4*S.Lvl)% Magic debuff to all enemies. Spellcards First Aid – Physical element, one ally, 1 MP, sets ATB to 7000. 20% (ATK + MAG), heals ally. Cures Heavy at level 2 and Silence at level 3. Battle Command – Physical element, one ally, 2 MP, sets ATB to 6600. Buffs all of one ally’s stats by (8 + (2*S.Lvl). His skills go some way to making up for his unimpressive stats. High Defense/Mind/TP Boost can really increase his staying power, and the auto-debuff skills allow him to contribute simply by taking hits. Effective Form Change helps to speed up switchers, and the boosted item/money drop skills really help with farming later on, and he’s a good character to keep in reserve solely for those skills. However, he requires a lot of skill point investment to get up to even halfway decent. His spellcards are unremarkable, though Battle Command is the cheapest all-round buff spell we have at the moment.  Momiji Inubashiri Petty Patrol Tengu Theme: Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall (No theme of her own, this is the music for the stage in which she appears) First appeared as a nonspeaking midboss in the tenth Touhou game, Mountain of Faith. Later appeared as a boss in side games Double Spoiler and Impossible Spell Card, and appears in the occasional background cameo. Momiji is a white wolf tengu, a species of tengu most often found patrolling the Youkai Mountain. She is loyal to Tenma, lord of the tengu, and carries out his orders faithfully. She dislikes the crow tengu, particularly Aya, who she feels often looks down on her for being a lower-class tengu. In her spare time, she’s an avid shogi player. In combat, she attacks with her sword and shield, and like most other tengu, possesses some degree of wind magic.  Momiji is a bulky physical attacker, with high HP and Attack and stellar Defense. Her resistances are average and on the low side, but she has fairly good affinities, weak only to cold and mystic attacks. Skills HP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base TP. Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Attack. Defense Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Defense. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Momiji’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as Momiji is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Momiji’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as Momiji is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Ability to See Far Distances – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Momiji is on the front line, all active members receive a (25*S.Lvl)% Accuracy boost. Tengu’s Watchful Eye – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Flying enemies is increased when Momiji is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Accelerate – Max level 1, cost per level 10. Momiji gains a 10% speed buff whenever she takes a turn. Eyes that Perceive Reality – Max level 1, cost per level 7. When Momiji attacks or takes damage from an enemy with buffs, damage is calculated as if buffs were nonexistent. Instant Attack – Max level 1, cost per level 12. When Momiji switches into the front line, her ATB is set to 10000. Spellcards Rabies Bite – Physical element, single target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6000. 225% ATK – 75% DEF. Expellee’s Canaan – Wind element, all-target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 5000. 202% ATK – 90% DEF. Accelerate boosts Momiji’s speed if she stays in the front line, while Instant Attack helps with a hit-and-run playstyle. Ability to See Far Distances is one of our few accuracy modifying skills, and will come in very handy for more evasive enemies. Eyes that Perceive Reality is a powerful skill against enemies who like to buff themselves to the point of near-invulnerability. Her spellcards are straightforward but powerful – the strongest physical attack spells we have at the moment. Finally, let’s take a look at some of the enemies we’ve been fighting.   Kedamas are mysterious bodiless nature spirits. Your standard low-level disposable mook, they are to Touhou what the goomba is to Mario.  Nut Eaters are fairly weak but hit hard, and occasionally they fire off a strong attack which can Shock allies hit.  Enormous Wasps are relatively frail, but hit hard and can Poison allies hit.  Kuron Nuts are the tankiest enemy on the first floor, and if they get a defense/mind buff up, they become very tough nuts to crack indeed. They don’t hit as hard as the others, relatively speaking, but they’re still capable of putting quite a dent in our party, especially if they focus on the weaker members.  The enemy responsible for our first game over, Forest Fairies can unleash punishing all-target wind attacks. Fortunately, we’re fast enough to outspeed them now. Next time, finishing up F1 of the Great Tree. Inadequately fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Oct 15, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 09:56
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Inadequately posted:To the spoilered question above: fairly soon in a couple of updates, and 'pretty average, really' Good enough, especially for a fairy. I expect you to keep her in the party at all times  Inadequately posted:Hang in there, Kogasa. Oh you  Anyway, when it comes to Rinnosuke increasing drop rates, how good are the items we're talking about here? Are we talking your run of the mill restoration items (e.g. mana/healing potions etc.) or are there a bunch of super ultra-rare items in the later levels that you might need Rinnosuke to look for?
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Sep 18, 2016 10:03
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There are no consumables, actually - all HP/MP restoration is done via skills or spellcards, or sending them back to the reserve to rest. After every battle the entire party is fully healed, even characters that were knocked out, but healing costs TP and when they run out of TP they return to the village. Enemies drop materials and equipment (as you can see from the bestiary pics), and while Rinnosuke does help with farming, it's actually his money drop skill that gets more important as the game goes by - the Magic Library is expensive.
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Sep 18, 2016 10:13
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Oh my, I didn't expect to see someone LPing this. I guess those people that keep asking me when I'm going to LP LoT2 can finally be satiated Good luck, my good man, you will probably need it.
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Sep 18, 2016 10:14
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Ah, a Touhou LP! What a fun series this is. I've played a few of the games, but I have trouble because I am garbage at shmups. I'll be following this with interest.
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Sep 18, 2016 10:55
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The equipment descriptions threw me for a loop there. I thought those were their actual effects before I realized they were references. Were those Terraria references in the Japanese version? Heard about this game a few times, though I never checked it out myself.
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Sep 18, 2016 11:08
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I can't read Japanese, but looking at the data it seems the translators made a conscientious effort to translate everything else as accurately as possible, so I presume so. In case it wasn't clear, this is a pure fanwork through and through, fan created and fan translated.
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Sep 18, 2016 12:12
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Heading back into the dungeon, we run into a new type of event. Ah, that's a boss icon. Boss icon? Wuzzat? It marks any spot which hides something that holds enmity for us. Before we go near them, we should be well prepared for the worst. [ It also says Lv something on it... What's that? It says "Lv3". That's the "Challenge level". What's that? For example, if we defeat that boss with a party average level of 3 or lower, we'd get some reward out of it. The challenge level boss marks the recommended level for taking the battle on. Basically, if the boss is fought at the challenge level, it will present some challenge to us. Using that icon as an example, fighting the boss at level 3 may be a bit challenging. Fighting the boss at level 4 or 5 will make it quite easy. Basically, something like that. [ But if we fight the battle above level 3, then we don't get any "rewards", right? That is true, but the reward level is designed to prevent us from mixing up the means and the end, and do things like always grinding and never advancing. By the way, if we already levelled beyond the Challenge Level of the boss, we can always level down in the Hakurei Shrine. So we'd be able to meet the challenge even if we overshot the Challenge Level. Well, whatever is fine. Let's just go to where the icon is already. Every boss has a preset ‘challenge level’. If the party’s average level is equal or less than it, you can get a random item that boosts MP, TP, skill points or the like. Challenge level is a bit lower than the recommended level. If your party’s composition and status makes it hard to win the battle at the challenge level, it’s better to just give up, level up and move on. Challenge level refers to the party average, so it’s fulfillable with an overleveled front row and an underleveled bench. Fulfilling the challenge level isn’t especially game-making or breaking in any case. Anyway, let’s check out that boss. Hm? Wait Reimu, look over there.[ ...What's over there?  [ Youkai exist to be exterminated. I ain't too sure that it qualifies as a youkai. [ No point in arguing. Let's go! The Malignut Eater is faster than us and will spend its first move summoning a full party of Nut Eaters, then immediately boosting their ATBs to 10000. It will then focus single-target physical attacks on the leftmost character, and has a chance to summon squirrels again if the field is empty. Keine survives the initial squirrel barrage, and a few all-target attacks take out the Nut Eaters. The party proceeds to focus single-target spellcards on the Malignut Eater, who in turn decides to spend the next couple of turns attacking Keine instead of summoning more squirrels and promptly falls before his third one. It’s not a complicated strategy, but the Malignut Eater is not a complicated boss.  We pick up some nice spoils from the fight. The Scarlet Light, Tanned Hide and Evil Spirit’s Soul are Materials. The Life Gem and Energy Gem are our rewards for beating the fight at challenge level – they raise the maximum HP and TP of a character respectively when used at the Hakurei Shrine, and up to ten of each gem type can be used per character. The Super-Hard Rye Bread is a sub-equip. Super-hard Rye Bread – Leave a Rye Bread in your room for a long time, and you get this. For whatever reason, using the item deals skills-like damage to a large area. Thus, lots of bread tends to get left all over Nora’s house. What a witch. Sub-equip, ATK & MAG +16%, ACC +10, PSN +20. After the battle… Ah-ah, look what you did Reimu. If you weren't so rough in that battle... Whoops. RIP Kogasa.  [ Quit it, let's not play the blame game here. Whatever the case... what are we going to do with this umbrella now? That was a valuable item to that girl, if I'm right. Hmm, I dunno. If we wanna fix it up, couldn't we ask Nitori? It doesn't look like fixing this umbrella would need very powerful materials. It would be good if that was the case... For now, let's just take this broken umbrella with us. We can go back to Gensokyo to see that kappa later.We’ll do it on the next trip back to the village. For now, onwards to the next red point of interest.  Huh? Hm?  [ Is that the only way you can remember us? We saw you over that side just some time ago, and we followed you to this area... What are you doing here? Nothing? This amazing thick thing growing all of a sudden seemed kinda cool, so I came to take a look. Oh, oh, oh, but that doesn't matter! I wanna ask you something! Do you have any Manga Meat? What? Manga Meat! It's meat attached to a large bone. It's hard to chew on 'cause it stretches so much. I played too much and now I'm hungry. Do you have 3 Manga Meat with you? Ya got quite the cheeky attitude, asking us for something and being so rude about it. Hmph, if you don't wanna do it, then fine. I'll go to the Human Village to look for food. [ You've got some nerves to declare your human-eating ways in front of me. You know I'm really good at exterminating you youkai. I didn't say anything about eating humans, no? I just wanted to look for a meal in the village. You sure learned some really shady ways to deceive people. Now now, she should be satisfied if we bring her some Manga Meat. It should be fine to gather them in our free time. And to be honest, I want to prevent unpredictable youkai from going to the village and spreading seeds of discord at all costs too. [ You're way too nice for your own good, always paying full attention to whatever someone says. It's so easy to take advantage of that kindness. I'm hungryyy~.[ ...... *Sigh* Fine, fine. We'll look for it, so don't move from here. Yay! Thank you~We actually have three Manga Meat – one’s just equipped on Keine at the moment. We unequip it and talk to her again: I'm hungryyy~. There's no Manga Meat? [ Here, we gathered the 3 Manga Meat you wanted. Honestly, why did we even do this... Sorry for the trouble. Ya~y, my Manga Me~at! Time to dig i~n! That was really good. Ahhh, my belly is so full. Hey hey, can I ask something else? Geh, there's still more? Don't you have anything fun to do? It was boring waiting for the meat here. ...... In that case, how about you come with us as we explore the Great Tree and kick some monster butt? Ooh, that sounds like it'll be fun. Hey wait, you want her to go with us back to the village? Are you sure that's safe? If we leave her here, sooner or later, she'll get hungry again. And she might be craving human meat next time. So we gotta take her with us. Ah, I see now... I suppose it should work out if we feed her in the village and keep an eye on her... Hey hey, do I follow you now? [ Oh well... I suppose we don't have a whole lot of help right now, so anything we can get is a plus.[ Alright Rumia, let's go beat up some monsters here together. Ya~y! Count me i~n!Rumia joins the party! Rumia is the first of many glass cannon mages who will be joining us over the course of the game. Despite that, she’s more useful that she seems at first glance. We’ll be getting into that later. We continue on, picking up a special item along the way.  Items Discovery Weekly is a special item that stays in our inventory and increases item drop rate by 1.6%. We can find more of them later, and the item drop rate increase from them caps out at 40%. Soon after that, Keine runs out of TP again (the squirrel barrage took its toll) and we head back to the village. We earn another achievement from this run in the process.  Back at Nitori’s store…  Yeah, I’m right here. How may I help you? Sorry to say, but we’re not buying anything right now. About this umbrella… What’s with this broken umbrella?[ Can you fix it? Hmm, lessee… Hmm……? Yeah, I can probably fix it. But I’d need materials. What do you need? An Insect Exoskeleton and a Great Tree’s Leaf…And let’s see now… 120 money I guess? You’re charging us? You’re not going to ask me to do it for free just because I’m good at it, right? Right?[ Tch. But well, we don’t have all the stuff you need. I guess we’d have to go and collect them. Well, if you’d like that umbrella repaired, be sure to do so.We’re missing an Insect Exoskeleton. They drop from Great Tree Wasps, but none have dropped for us yet. We’ll have to keep an eye out for one. The top of the floor is the only area we haven’t fully explored yet. We run into a familiar face there while doing so.  [ Oh my? Is this who I think it is? Remilia herself. Whatcha doing here?  It's not just me.   ...Your gatekeeper ain't looking too chipper. She's only carrying our luggage and leading the way for us.  She can easily handle this. Isn't that right, Meiling? Yes, It's no problem at all...[ ... ...Poor thing...[ Anyway, you took the maid and gatekeeper with you, huh? What are you doing here with them? My, wouldn't our reason be the same as yours? What other business could we have in here? Whoa, really? You folks are here to solve the incident too? Hm? No, of course not. We're here for a picnic, obviously. By those words, that means you people are here to resolve this incident? Considering your group, I suppose it's not very surprising. This kind of fun-looking event doesn't happen very often, yet you're so quick to resolve it? How uncouth. We will have to enjoy our picnic quickly before you resolve this incident, then. Meiling, let's go. Ye-yes... Perfect then. My best regards to you if you meet again. In the eyes of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's vampire, all this uproar is only worthy of a picnic... Eh, if you start thinking of it as a picnic too, you might even start to enjoy our adventure. ...... I just want to go back home...In the first Labyrinth of Touhou, Remilia and co. started in our party, while Keine and Rinnosuke were only recruitable in the endgame. Things are quite different this time around. We continue on, looking for wasps. We don’t find any, although we do run into these guys.  Walking Unripe Fruits are a fairly rare enemy on the first floor. They have fairly high DEF and MND and can heal themselves, though our party is more than capable of handling them at this point.  While hunting for wasps, we run into another familiar face. Wahahahahahaha! ...Is it just me, or did that laugh we just heard seem like it came from someone really dumb? [ ...Was that you, Marisa? You're asking for a punch, aren't ya?  [ ......Yes, I'm asking for a punch. Over there. And clench that fist hard. Sure.  That hurts! What are you people doing!? You must be jealous of the strongest swordswoman's strength and beauty! Shut up or I'll hit you again.[ You've been making a racket for a while... A swordswoman really? You don't carry a sword normally, right? That wakizashi... Isn't that the sword that the half-human half-ghost girl lost? She was in such distress over it too. Hm, I believe its name was Hakurouken? It's not! Who cares about that! This is my sword, and it's the strongest! She appears to be denying it vigorously, but it's likely that she stole that sword.[ You have to wonder what kind of sword master allows her sword to get stolen... You're wrong! This is mine! ...So, where did you find it? Ummm, let's see... I was walking around here looking for something interesting and I came across this girl repairing her sword with a really serious face. I thought I'd bug her a bit, so I reached out for her wakizashi, but she was so focused on fixing her sword that she didn't notice me at all. So I went ahead and took it. So she treated that as permission to take it...? She's quite something. That girl's probably the only fairy who does that... And the fact that I can't assertively say so is what's real bad about fairies. Wide open. Ah! Wai...! My swooord!! You're trying to swing that sword without proper training. All you were doing was clumsily flailing the sword around. Since you're small, the weight of the sword was too much for you. Not to mention that you were trying to swing it while flying, which is when you can't exert the full strength of your arm. That's why it was so easy to take from you. Ooh, not bad, Keine. Grrrrr! Give it back! Give back my sword! No. I "took it" from some random nameless fairy. I have no obligation to return it. Stealing from others is not something you should do. Now, let's go apologize to her owner together. She is completely lost without her sword. Grrrrrrrrrrr...! Idiiiiiiiioooooot! Eat thiiiis!! Wah!? [ Uwah, cold! ...Looks like that fairy escaped. Indeed. She will need some punishment next time we meet. [ She's quite powerful for a fairy... But in the end, she's still a fairy. I doubt she can do any worse than that. She shouldn't be able to make any more of a fuss if we leave her to her devices. Yeah... Let's just leave her be. We've found Youmu's sword and all, might as well focus on getting it back to her first. A little while later, a Great Wasp finally drops the Insect’s Exoskeleton we need.  …well, it’s always nice to have a spare on hand. There’s a couple points of interest on the right, but let’s get that umbrella fixed up first.  So you have the necessary stuff, give them to me already. Come on, let me have them.[ Moneygrubber… Well, can’t be helped. Here, take them. Thank you very much! Then, I think it’ll take me about 30 minutes. Feel free to kill some time while I work.*hammering sounds* Thanks for waiting~ Done? Perfectly. Here.Obtained Special Item: ‘Kogasa’s Purple Umbrella (Fixed)’!  Hmph, this is nothing for a kappa! It’s child’s play for me. Well then, let’s take it to Kogasa.[ Yeah. *sigh*… we sure spent a lot of effort for her sake… She's still crying... [ She can't possibly have been crying all this time I hope... [ Kogasa, stop bawling already! Here. Ah, my umbrella! You were able to find it? We didn't just find it, we had to collect materials to repair it cuz it was broken. You better be really grateful. No no, I'm really, really, way too grateful! I'm so happy! Is there anything I can do to pay you back? Hummm... Well, you could help us search this place. We don't have enough people right now. And you won't be dragging us back like me. No problem! As a tsukumogami, we have to repay any debt we have whenever we can. That's a really serious matter for us. Eh, is that so? That's the first time I've heard of that. It's the first time I've heard of it too. O-ok... If that's how it is...[ Well, if you feel good about helping us, then the feeling's mutual. Let's work well together. Tatara Kogasa joins the party! I'll go back at the human village for now. If you want to take me along for the ride, just come to the human village. ...You're not planning on getting up to any mischief to the humans of the village, are you? ............ Are you? Oooh......We pick Kogasa up at the village, then head to the right of the Cirno encounter to investigate this iceberg and boss icon.  The narrow road shaped by the tree's roots that Reimu and her group took was now completely blocked by a thick block of ice. [ Bah, we can't progress any further. This could be a problem... This is probably Cirno's doing. [ ...Ah, might be. She just had to go and do that, stupid fairy.We can’t get past it, so we head to the boss icon.  [ ......? What's wrong? [ Just now, didn't you hear something? Hm...? No, I didn't hear a thi- Hyaaaa......! ...I heard that. Noooooooooooo...!  Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa! [ Umm...... Just now... Wasn't that Chen, the shikigami of Yukari's shikigami? That was her, right? What's that girl doing? Ah... What's wrong? That cat was probably running away from the enemies that are coming at us right now. Ehhhh!? ...That bleedin' ghost cat, making us clean up her mess. [ Can't be helped... Let's go, Marisa! This is just a group of regular enemies, similar to the kind that first wiped us out. We’ve gotten a good bit stronger since then, however, and wipe them out in a single turn.  After the battle, we get a Fighting Gem due to fighting them under challenge level. While our average party level is above 4, the challenge level is the party’s total level divided by twelve, the total number of member slots we have available. The Fighting Gem can be used to raise the attack of one character at the Hakurei Shrine. They weren't that much to us in the end.[ Chen would've had a lot of trouble with them, though. Then why she did come here in the first place...? And do we know where that cat went? I think she didn't run towards the exit, but went further in. *sigh*... There's no helping it, let's protect her if we meet again. Time to return Youmu’s sword to her. I’m so glad we managed to resolve that situation peacefully.  Not here, not here, not here... I can't find it! It's not around here... But if I really lost it, this is the only place I could have dropped it... What am I going to do if I can't find it... [ Oh, she's still searching for it. Heeey, Youmu! C'mere and look at this sword. Eh!? Why is my Hakurouken with... ......Oh, I see. So that's how things are...... Hey hey, we just found what you were so frantically looking for. Can't ya act a bit happier? It was you guys who had my Hakurouken all along! Did you enjoy watching me panic all this time!? [ Whaaaa... THAT'S how you take it...? That's what happens when your usual behavior is so awful. Especially yours, Marisa. Ehh no way, you know I only borrow stuff, right? And you know that everything I borrow is put to good use in my house. Mostly. Don't just look unconcerned about this, you need to give a good explanation to that gardener about the situation. She looks ready to kill us at any moment now! [ That's probably impossible. Youmu's the type of person who, how to say this... Once she has her mind set on something, she'll never budge. And I mean that in the worst way possible. [ Hey, Youmu? Can't we discuss this like reasonab- Your deceitful words mean nothing to me! I will deliver upon you the same painful experience I went through It’s time for a boss fight with Youmu. She’s a tough physical attacker who focuses single-target attacks on the leftmost character. Fairly resistant to Spirit, so Reimu won’t be of much offensive use this battle, but weak to Mystic and Dark.  For our opening salvo, Keine and Reimu focus on buffing the front line with Three Treasures –Mirror- and Great Hakurei Barrier. Marisa picks up a stack of Concentration, then hits Youmu with Magic Missile, while Momiji puts a dent in her with Rabies Bite. After a couple of turns, Youmu’s health hits 60%, and she brings out a new move. My sword is a tool of JUSTICE!She hits the entire party with Slash Clearing the Six Senses, an all-target Nature move. Keine and Momiji dodge somehow, Reimu and Marisa aren’t so lucky, but they survive. Bosses will often use new moves whenever they hit certain HP thresholds, and those moves will be added to their repertoire from then on. A good rule of thumb for bosses is to save your trump cards for burning down that last 30% of their health as fast as possible.  Marisa’s pretty damaged, so Momij swaps her out for Rumia, and Keine buffs her offense with Three Treasures –Sword-.  Dark Side of the Moon is Rumia’s all-target Dark attack. It completely ignores enemy Mind – a useful trait we’ll be getting a lot of use out of later. Unfortunately right now Rumia doesn’t have the Magic needed for it to make a significant dent in Youmu’s health. Reimu is low on health and MP, so Keine swaps her out with Kogasa.  Boo! A Rainy Night’s Ghost Story is a single-target dark-element attack with a high chance of inflicting Terror and a MND debuff.  A perfect setup for Rumia to finish her off with Moonlight Ray. Moonlight Ray is a single-target Mystic attack – higher magic scaling than Dark Side of the Moon, but doesn’t ignore enemy Mind. Youmu doesn’t even get to use her second frenzy move at 20% health – God’s Slash of Karma Wind, which would almost certainly have wiped out our entire frontline. Fortunately, she concentrates before she uses it, dropping her timebar to 0 in an obvious windup move. Later bosses won’t be quite as kind.  We’re rewarded with quite the haul. The Scarlet Light, Hemp Amulet, Evil Spirit’s Soul and Hard-to-Melt Ice are all Materials. The Uniform of Exorcism is a sub-equip, and the Affection and Magic gems are challenge level rewards that raise MND and MP respectively. Uniform of Exorcism – The winter uniform of the demon hunter. Due to magic inherited down from generations of exorcists, it has powerful defenses despite what its appearance may lead you to believe. Sub-equip, DEF & MND +20%, EVA +10, MYS & SPI & DRK +24 [ On your knees. Yes... You're right... The fairy who came by this way earlier was a lot more suspicious than you guys... When I think about it now, she was moving about in a really dodgy manner... I was too absorbed in tending to my Roukanken and just left my Hakurouken lying around after I was done tending to it... And if you were actually thinking earlier, you woulda suspected Cirno first and not us, since she came first. [ Maybe Yuyuko intended for you to experience more things to fix your stubborn-minded way of thinking, and hid her intentions behind the facade of a random whim? Ugh, this is getting more and more painful... Wouldn't it be good for you to take her up on her advice and join us? We can use all the help we can get exploring this Great Tree. You could take it as a chance to hone your skills and to broaden your horizons. But I, I have to tend to the garden...[ Well, how about I make it nice and simple and put it this way instead? As punishment for trying to kill those who helped you, you're coming with us whether you like it or not. Aaaargh! I got it, I got it! If it can help me train even more, I'll go with you, fine! [ Good. Looking forward to working with you from now on. Yes, same here... *sigh*... What am I doing... I still have preparations to make, so I'll be waiting for you back in Gensokyo. If you want me to join you, just call for me in the Human Village. I'll see you later. We pick Youmu up and head to the iceberg once more. The narrow road shaped by the tree's roots that Reimu and her group took was now completely blocked by a thick block of ice. [ Bah, we can't progress any further. This could be a problem... This is probably Cirno's doing. [ ...Ah, might be. She just had to go and do that, stupid fairy. What will we do now? We can't go on with this in the way. [ Youmu, think you could do something about it? Of course. It's thick, but it's only ice. My Hakuroken will cut through it like it was butter. Seriously? That's sword's pretty scary... Ok, everyone else, please move back. ...... ......Haaah! ...There. Done, just like that. That was a piece of cake. Ooh. As one would expect of the Hakugyokurou's sword master. drat, that was amazing. Not even a trace left of that huge piece of ice. [ Thanks! Let's keep going then. I still have to give that dumb fairy a piece of my mind.Past the iceberg, it’s a relatively straight line to the next floor.  Looks like those stairs led us upwards. The forest seems to be getting wider… It looks like we still have a long way to go. Given how stupidly large it looked from the outside, it wasn’t going to be something we could finish in a day. *sigh*… Come now, keep in your sighs. Let us hurry onwards so we can take it out on that ice fairy Rumia Youkai of the Dusk Theme: Apparitions Stalk the Night First appearing as the stage 1 boss in the seventh Touhou game (and first of the Windows-era games), Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Rumia attacked our hero in a fit of hunger and was promptly beaten down. Since then, she hasn’t made many other notable appearances, but has the occasional background cameo in spinoff games and stories. Has a slightly more prominent role in fanworks due to being a part of Team 9, a group of low-level bosses often drawn together. Rumia is a youkai who doesn’t appear to have a particular species. She can most often be found aimlessly drifting about the Forest of Magic in a bubble of darkness. She enjoys eating human meat and attacks people on occasion, although the average human from Gensokyo can usually fend her off or avoid her without much issue. In combat, she cloaks herself and her enemy in magical darkness, then while they’re blinded, rushes in to beat them down with raw physical strength and innate magical ability. She cannot see through her own magical darkness very well, and often ends up crashing into trees as a result.  Like Marisa, Rumia has fairly high MP, Magic and MND, but very low HP. Her resistances are low to average with the exception of her excellent debuff resistance, which renders her practically immune to them. She has high affinity to Dark and Mystic attacks, but is weak against Spirit attacks. That said, even resisted attacks pack quite a punch against a character as frail as Rumia. Skills Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. Affinity Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases elemental affinities. Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Magic. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Rumia’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Rumia’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Team 9 – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Rumia is in the frontline, all her stats are increased by (8*S.Lvl)% per member of Team 9 alongside her in the frontline, herself excluded. Realm of Eternal Darkness – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Reduces all dark-element damage taken by other frontliners when Rumia is in the frontline. Youkai’s Knowledge – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Humanoid enemies is increased when Rumia is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Piercing Attack – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All Rumia’s attacks gain some degree of Defense/Mind piercing against enemies with very high Defense/Mind. Darkness Manipulation – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Decreases the rate at which the encounter rate rises by (12*S.Lvl)%. Stacks with other encounter rate reduction skills, but maximum reduction is capped at 75%. Spellcards Moonlight Ray – Mystic element, single-target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6600. 324% MAG – 90% MND. Dark Side of the Moon – Dark element, all-target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6000. 100% MAG, ignores enemy MND. Demarcation – Dark element, all allies, 6 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 33% MAG, healing. Youkai’s Knowledge is a useful anti-boss skill, as we’ll be fighting quite a lot of Humanoid bosses. Darkness Manipulation helps us to conserve TP for longer dungeon explorations, and Team 9 provides a potent buff with other Team 9 members on the frontline. Spellcard-wise, Moonlight Ray is a surprisingly strong magic attack for such a cheap move, and Demarcation is a fairly cheap all-ally healing spell, although Rumia won’t have the MAG to provide any amount of decent healing until late-game. Dark Side of the Moon is notable for being one of the few skills we have that completely ignores enemy MND, and one of the most reliable ones we’ll have access to until much later in the game.  Tatara Kogasa Cheery Forgotten Umbrella Theme: Beware the Umbrella Left There Forever First appeared as the second stage boss in the twelfth Touhou game, Undefined Fantastic Object, and later as the third stage midboss in the next game, Ten Desires. Tatara Kogasa is a karakasa-obake – the (relatively) vengeful spirit of an abandoned umbrella incarnated into youkai form. Her true form is the purple umbrella – the humanoid part was grown in an unsuccessful attempt to be scarier. She roams Gensokyo attempting to scare people to gain sustenance and as vengeance for being abandoned. However, she is extremely bad at it – her strategy rarely extends beyond hiding herself badly and jumping out at people, then crying when she fails to surprise people. When not trying to scare people, she is generally happy, kind and friendly, and many of Gensokyo’s inhabitants play along because they feel bad for her. Has a surprising aptitude for blacksmithery and babysitting. In combat, she throws umbrellas at enemies, and possesses some degree of rain magic. Is not above attacking people in an attempt to surprise them, although even this rarely gets a rise out of people.  Her stats are the standard physical attacker spread, though a little on the low side. She has excellent resistance to Shock, but ironically no resistance to Terror whatsoever. Has excellent Cold and Dark affinity, but is weak to Spirit. Skills TP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max TP. Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Attack. Evasion Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Evasion. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Kogasa’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Kogasa’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Ability to Surprise Humans – Max level 1, cost per level 10. All Kogasa’s attacks inflict Terror, attacks that already inflict Terror have an even higher chance of succeeding. Easygoing – Max level 1, cost per level 5. Regenerates HP when using Concentrate and regenerates HP at double speed when in reserve. Sheer Force – Max level 1, cost per level 15. Pierces resistances and elemental affinities when attacking. Heart of Perseverance – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Gives Kogasa a chance to recover (1*S.Lvl) MP whenever she takes damage. Troubled Forgotten Item – Max level 2, cost per level 6. Restores (S.Lvl) MP and increases all her stats by (10*S.Lvl)% every time Kogasa attacks an enemy with Terror. Spellcards Karakasa Surprising Flash – Nature element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 4200. 154% ATK – 70% DEF, has 40% chance to inflict Terror and Shock. A Rainy Night’s Ghost Story – Dark element, single target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 5950. 256% ATK – 80% DEF, has a 55% chance to inflict Terror and a 100% chance of inflicting a (27 + (3*S.Lvl))% MND debuff. Drizzling Large Raindrops – Cold element, one enemy row, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6620. 188% ATK – 75% DEF. Kogasa’s effectiveness relies on being able to inflict Terror on opponents. Ability to Surprise Humans and Sheer Force makes this task easier, and Troubled Forgotten Umbrella allows her to buff up her unimpressive stats by attacking terrified enemies. Easygoing and Heart of Perseverance increases her staying power, allowing her to rack up more and more buffs the longer the battle goes. Her spellcards are average, and notable mostly for the Terror chance. Unfortunately Terror isn’t the most notable status effect, inflicting a fairly negligible all-stat reduction on enemies.  Youmu Konpaku Half-human Half-Phantom Gardener Theme: Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird ~ Till When?, Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple First appeared as the stage 5 boss in the seventh Touhou game, Perfect Cherry Blossom. Since then, has appeared as a playable character in several other games, though not to the extent of Reimu or Marisa. Youmu Konpaku is a member of a rare species, a half-human, half-phantom. The species name is quite literal - the white fluffy spirit floating around her is actually her phantom half. She is the personal gardener and bodyguard of the ghost Yuyuko Saigyouji, a position inherited from her grandfather, and she approaches the task with utmost dedication. She is constantly training to improve herself and her sword skills, and often challenges strong opponents to test herself. Ironically, she is somewhat scared of ghosts (Yuyuko excepted), but is fine around other undead – phantoms and zombies don’t faze her. In combat, she attacks with her two swords, Roukanken and Hakurouken. She is a skilled swordswoman and her slashing attacks are extremely strong and fast, but often lack the range and spread of her opponent’s spells.  Like Momiji, she has very high HP, Attack and Defense. Has high Death resistance and above-average Paralysis resistance, but almost no resistance to any other ailment. Youmu has massive Spirit and Dark affinity, but is slightly weak to Fire and Mystic attacks. Skills Mind Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Mind. Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Attack. Defese Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Defense. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Youmu’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Youmu’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Regeneration – Max level 1, cost per level 10. Every time Youmu takes a turn, she restores 10% of her max HP. Those who Live in the Underworld – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Ghost enemies is increased when Youmu is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Dexterity – Max level 1, cost per level 7. When Youmu receives an ATK/MAG debuff, her damage is calculated as if those skills were affected by a buff equal in magnitude. Mental Concentration – Max level 4, cost per level 4. Increases MP regained by Concentrate by (1*S.Lvl). Meikyo Shisui – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Whenever Youmu takes a turn, all her stats are increased by (6*S.Lvl)% if her MP is full at the start of the turn. Desperation – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Youmu’s HP is below (20 + (20*S.Lvl))%, all her stats are increased by 25%. Spellcards Present Life Slash – Physical element, single target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 5670. 196% ATK – 70% DEF. Slash of Eternity – Physical element, single target, 10 MP, sets ATB to 1800. 252% ATK – 70% DEF. God’s Slash of Karma Wind – Wind element, all-target, 11 MP, sets ATB to 5600. 234% ATK – 90% DEF. Slash Clearing the Six Senses – Nature element, all-target, 9 MP, 200% ATK – 100% DEF. Youmu’s skills are largely defensive, focused on increasing her staying power. Regeneration and Desperation makes for a very effective physical tank, and Dexterity comes in handy, especially with certain debuff-focused builds. Meikyo Shisui can auto-buff Youmu if you’re using her largely for tanking and focusing mostly on default attacks. Her MP pool is miniscule, and she requires quite a bit of Mental Concentration investment if you plan to use her for offense, though her natural tankiness allows her to stay in and Concentrate while shrugging off enemy attacks. Her spellcards allow her to choose from two single-target and all-target attacks of varying strength, though using the all-target ones will deplete almost her entire MP pool. Finally, let’s look at some of the enemies we’ve been fighting this run. Bestiary pics were taken from a later save, so the sharp-eyed might enjoy a preview of what we’ll be facing in the next update.  Walking Unripe Fruits are fairly rare enemies. Tanky, but not as tanky as the Kuron Nut. Occasionally heal themselves.  The Malignut Eater is not a terribly threatening first boss. Focuses Shock attacks and regular attacks on the leftmost party member, occasionally summons squirrels and fills up their ATBs.  Youmu attacks with powerful physical attacks, focusing on the leftmost character and working her way to the right. Has two frenzy moves at 60% and 20% health, though the latter has an obvious windup. Unlike her playable counterpart, Youmu as a boss is weak to Dark attacks.  The map of F1 of the Great Tree. Not particularly difficult to navigate at the moment, the only real barrier to navigation are the sprawling and twisty paths. Next time: The Green Hall that Knows Those Who Know Power, F2 Inadequately fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Oct 15, 2016 |
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Sep 19, 2016 08:40
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Are you not playing on hard mode? On hard mode, you're not even allowed to fight bosses if you're above the challenge level (this is what leveling down is for). I feel like this is the appropriate way to play this game anyway. Also of note is that this game doesn't use any Touhou music at all, since the entire OST comes from some sort of open license music library. Edit: Also, is it possible for you to record short gameplay videos? Just to give an idea of how the game looks in motion. Clarste fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Sep 19, 2016 |
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Sep 19, 2016 09:41
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Not on hard mode, no. LPing the game already takes up enough of my time without the additional challenge. I don't plan on grinding too much to fight bosses in any case - just whatever XP we get from regular dungeon exploration, plus the minimum amount of investment needed to actually beat them. I'll see if I can record gameplay videos of bosses, although it might be a couple more updates before they appear. Inadequately fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Sep 19, 2016 |
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Sep 19, 2016 09:58
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How the blazes did you get the overhead map to display? I'm having a devil of a time navigating my way, and that would have come in really handy last night 
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Sep 19, 2016 10:52
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You can also press M to fight a battle immediately. M is for monster!
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Sep 19, 2016 10:55
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Clarste posted:You can also press M to fight a battle immediately. M is for monster! As I found to my detriment. Several times. 
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Sep 19, 2016 11:33
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CommissarMega posted:How the blazes did you get the overhead map to display? I'm having a devil of a time navigating my way, and that would have come in really handy last night The 'A' key, I believe. Clarste posted:You can also press M to fight a battle immediately. M is for monster!  It's one update before that feature is officially introduced, but it's been secretly in use quite a bit in that last update, especially when wasp-hunting.
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Sep 19, 2016 12:40
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Inadequately posted:The 'A' key, I believe. Oh ye gods thank you. I don't have the best sense of direction, and this has saved me so, so much trouble!
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Sep 19, 2016 13:41
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Clarste posted:You can also press M to fight a battle immediately. M is for monster! That is just plain mean. Unless the default map button for Japanese gamers is somewhere else. CommissarMega posted:As I found to my detriment. Several times.  Speaking as someone that would totally do that too: inappropriate muscle knowledge is a bitch and an half, isn't it?
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Sep 19, 2016 14:22
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Omobono posted:That is just plain mean. Unless the default map button for Japanese gamers is somewhere else. It's a difference in standards. Japanese games tend to lump all the relevant keys on the left side of the keyboard (ZXASQW), so I'd imagine M was chosen because it'd be pretty much impossible to press by accident. I doubt they'd think in terms of a "map button" at all: they're probably meant to correspond to buttons on a gamepad. 'A' would be roughly equivalent to Square on a playstation controller.
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Sep 19, 2016 15:15
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Inadequately posted:
Looks like we got our R-with-m names mixed up. First one should be Rumia, second one is probably Remilia?
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Sep 19, 2016 19:11
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...... *Sigh* Fine, fine. We'll look for it, so don't move from here. 
...Your gatekeeper ain't looking too chipper.
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Whoops, fixed those. That's what I get for abbreviating everyone's names when drafting. 
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Sep 19, 2016 19:24
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I’m back, Gensokyo~. Ahh, I’m tired today; I wanna lie down already. Mm~ I’m tired too. I want to eat some sweet stuff. Ah, I want to eat too… By the way, you guys, how did you secure lodging inside the village for us? Fufufu, that would be my work, don’t you know? Now, be sure to shower me with your thanks. Ah, sure. (Eh, what, it’s colder than I thought…) Still, those enemies inside the tree…while we can’t avoid them even when we want to, when we actually want to fight them, they don’t seem to come out so easily. Ah~ yeah, that. Because of that we have to aimlessly walk a lot. I really don’t want to do that. Ah, I see. I don’t know anything about avoiding them, but it’s easy if you want to lure them out. They seem to react weirdly to the sound of swords. Sound of swords? You know, like when I sheathe my sword. Basically, they seem to react easily to the sound of metal. Also, things like slashing really hard things like the outer walls also lure them out. And then, if we try to make a lot of noises, would that draw them towards us as well? Probably, but… Basically, if we want to fight monsters, we just have to get Youmu to tell while making a ruckus with her sword, right? Then, we’ll be relying on you, Youmu. I’m definitely not going to do something like that. I’ll lend you these broken swords, so do it yourself. When you want to quickly encounter some monsters, the M key will cause the encounter rate to instantly rise to 200. In situations where you want to fight repeatedly, like when you’re leveling up, the M key will reduce the time spent walking around. We’ve actually had this feature since the start, but this is its official introduction. It’s useful for grinding XP and farming materials. Anyway, off we go to Floor 2. We’re introduced to a new type of icon right in front of the entrance.  ...Huh? Hmm. What's up, Marisa? Is your stomach not agreeing with a fruit you picked up off the ground? Who'd do something like that? Hmm... Would this do? Really now, what ARE you doing? ....Hmm. Nope, this one's better. ...I did say to finish any lavatorial matters before we started exploring. I told ya, that's not it! Geez, you all... Hmm...? Ahh, I see. I get it now, Marisa. You're using the masses of nutrients and bioenergies moving around the ducts of the Great Tree to set a Relay Point, right? Yep yep, ya got it! Figured you'd be the only one who truly understands me, Kourin. A Relay Point? What's that? It's a li'l device that links the village and this area. Imagine if we had'ta start from the beginning every time no matter how much progress we made. A real pain, right? Once we find points like these, when we enter the Great Tree again, we can restart our exploration from here. That'll make things a whole lot easier, all thanks to me. Go ahead and tell me how awesome I am! Ohh, that's pretty good. It'll be very convenient, for sure. Ain't it~? Well, Reimu~? Not hearin' any words of awe-struck appreciation comin' from you~. Don't be stupid, just hurry up and do it. ...Better hope I don't rig something to prevent ya from using it. A relay point has been activated! When returning to the dungeon from Gensokyo, this place can be used as a starting point! Stepping on a relay point activates it. From then on, we can choose to spawn in at that particular relay point when re-entering the Great Tree. There can be more than one relay point per floor and they do not always spawn around the entrance.  Past the relay point, there’s a red point of interest, and a fancy new icon. Hm? Whoa, hold up a sec. Look over there! ...That's Cirno on the ground... She looks like she's in quite the sorry state... Ooooh... Reimu did say that she can't be too far away, but to think that she was this close by... Why's she look all beat up though? She most likely tried to fight the FOE nearby. Eff-oh-ee? Yes, look to the north. Which direction is that? ...Look to the top-right of the screen. Wow, now that's meta. You were entirely inviting that. There does appear to be something red towards the north. The heck is that thing?  If we get close to that enemy symbol, it will sense our presence and start chasing us for a period of time. If it catches us, we will be forced into battle. FOEs are extremely strong, and once in battle with them, we will not be able to run away. It will be a trying endeavor to attempt to defeat FOEs as soon as we find them. That only makes me wanna fight it even more. Here we go again... You really need to learn to follow other people's advice. FOEs generally will not move if we do not approach them. If we don't provoke them, they're harmless. It would be safest to ignore them if we are not confident in our strength. Mm, I see. So once we are confident in our strength, we beat them up. FOEs are a feature borrowed from Etrian Odyssey, one of the more obvious inspirations for this game. They are boss monsters significantly stronger than anything else on their floor, and for the most part act as living obstacles to be navigated around or avoided until the party is strong enough to take them on. If defeated, they respawn after fourteen dungeon runs. Uh huh. Anyways, what do we do with this ice fairy here? Ooooh... Oh, right, she was here. I totally forgot about her... She's completely out of it. She has been a major nuisance to us. Shall we just drag her back to the village? We can attend to her injuries there as well... Though who knows if fairies actually need that. Alright, let's make her our next exploration team member. Spin her 'round and tie her up! Mmhmm. Our group's steadily getting bigger. Let's keep this rate up. Cirno joins the party. She’s a physical attacker who specializes in freezing opponents – all her attacks are cold-element, and most have a chance of slowing and paralyzing enemies.  That boss icon is actually unreachable at the moment – we’ll have to take a staircase down from 3F to access it.  The first encounter of this floor is no kinder to our party than its predecessor. Ferocious Ghosties are faster than any of our characters, and enjoy unleashing a powerful all-target spirit attack that has a high chance of inflicting Terror on anyone that survives. Marisa and Kogasa are KO’d before we even get a turn.  In an attempt to turn the battle around, Momiji switches Rumia in, and Keine boosts the party’s attack. Perhaps Dark Side of the Moon can turn this around?  Nope. Even with Dark Side of the Moon ignoring enemy MND, Ferocious Ghosties have high enough Dark affinity to laugh it off. Looking it up in the bestiary later, it turns out they have high affinity to all except Spirit – Reimu would have been the better choice here. It’s not a mistake we recover from – two more attacks eliminate our frontline and we’re unceremoniously booted back to the village.  This seems a little more up our caliber. Let’s see how these guys fare without their ghost buddies. Hey Marisa, I made those repairs you wanted. Ah, thanks! Hey, Reimu. Wh- Duck. …Congrats, you just wasted all your magic. Totally worth it. Master Spark did over a thousand damage to each of those tree stumps – more than enough to take them out. Marisa’s completely out of mana, though, so to the reserve she goes.  Slightly less threatening than their big brother, Ghosties generally stick to single-target attacks that have a chance to Paralyze if they hit.  In the middle of the floor, we find… Hm? Is something the matter, Marisa? I just picked this up. That's... A thin metal rod? It looks like scrap iron to me... What are you, a kid? Would you stop picking up everything you see on the floor already? This is why your house is always in such a mess. ...This one just kinda called out to me. That doesn't mean you had to answer. Put it back where you found it. Ehhh... ...Nah, keepin' it. No harm done either way. Gah, you really stuffed it in your pocket? You're dead-set on bringing it back with you, huh... I suppose that's typical for you though. C'mon, don't sweat the small stuff. Let's keep goin'.Obtained Special Item: ‘Mysterious Scrap of Iron – 1’ …well, at least we’re keeping the Great Tree litter-free. Moving on, we run into a new enemy.  Tree Beetles are tanky enemies that like to poison our party members. His Ferocious Ghostie friend cuts this fight a little close, but we pull through, though not without taking quite a beating. We’ll have to head back to the village in a bit.  These stairs lead down to a previously inaccessible corner of the first floor. We follow the distant smell of soy sauce downwards. ...Hm? What's that? It smells delicious. Smells like one of the food stands in town...  Hey hey, come here, folks! Men and women are all welcome!  ...What are you and your food stand doing in a place like this? With their vigor-enhancing powers, my eels are perfect for anyone battling the hordes in this place. And it's all super cheap! I don't think it's a great idea to set up a stall in here... Still, it smells pretty good and I'm starting to get quite hungry. Since we're already here, why not? How much for 4 of them? I don't have any eel yet. I've just set up the stall. ...... Then why were you going on about how cheap it is? Because I want you to sell me some, and to sell it for cheap. There's no way we're selling that for cheap... What about the smell? It smells so good even though there's no food. I'm making the sauce and letting its odor out, so I can start gathering people. ...... And you certainly have succeeded, good grief... Well then, if you find any eels along the way, please come sell them to me. Looking forward to doing business with you! We'll keep it in mind... Though honestly, I kinda doubt we'll find any eels in this place...We’ll keep an eye out for any tree-dwelling eels. Heading back to the village to rest, we pick up Cirno, then head back into the tree. Roaming about in the center, we find a mysterious hat.  ...Hm? What's this? Did you find something, Rinnosuke? Take a look at this. What could this plant be...?  . In fact, it looks like the plant's vines grew right through the hat. This wouldn't normally happen. This hat looks familiar... I think it's Minoriko's. Ah? ...Ahhhhh! Yeah, this is definitely her hat. Right. Which means Minoriko must have come here as well. ...This seems like it could be fun. Let's make this plant grow a bit more. Do we have anything that'll help plants grow? Your whims are always so sudden. Ah well, let's see... A Great Tree's Leaf should work best, given the size of this plant. Izzat so? If it's comin' from you, then it's probably spot on. How many do ya think we need? Hmm... 3 of them should be plenty. Though I still have no idea why you're now so interested in this plant... Anyway, we can come back once we've gathered 3 Great Tree's Leaves.We have four Great Tree’s Leaves, in fact, so let’s check on that hat again. This is the place with Minoriko's hat entangled in a mysterious plant, right? Errrm, what was it that we needed to make it grow more 3 Great Tree's Leaves, was it? Do we have 'em? Give me a second. 1, 2, 3... Yes, we have enough. Although it seems like a waste to me to use up these items to make a sprout that we have no clue about grow bigger... Nah, it's fine. Even if it does nothing, these kinda events are what makes adventures real exciting. Time to put 'em in... 1, 2, 3. ......  Wah, Reimu and Marisa? Oh, and a whole lot of people I don't know... Well, first things first, good morning! ...M-Mornin'... Ahh, were you the ones who woke me up? Thanks, you really helped me out! ...No problem, though it'll be nice to know what we did... We were just growin' some sprout that looked kinda weird, then it was all like "A wild Minoriko appears!" and such... Ehh? ...Ahh, I see now, ahahaha! This massive tree just came from nowhere, right? As a myriad god of abundant harvests, of course it struck a chord with me, and exploring it sounded fun as well. But once I actually went in, I found out that the monsters are unexpectedly tough! All by my lonesome, I ran out of strength and energy after a while, so I decided to rest by turning myself into a plant and absorbing the nutrients around here. ...You can do that? Since you all woke me up, I take it you'll be moving on upwards from here, right? Mm, yeah. We need to find out more about this tree. Then let me come with you, okay? I doubt I can go much further by myself now. You really gave me a shock when you transformed from a tree sprout to a person... But if you're offering, why not? We'll welcome any help we can get. (And the more people we have, the higher my chances of being able to relax back in the village...) Yay! That's decided then! Let's do our best together!Minoriko Aki joins the party! Minoriko is our first real cleric, equipped with a powerful healing move and defense buff. She also packs relatively damaging nature attacks, but we won’t get much use out of them at the moment – almost every enemy on these floors has high nature affinity. We head back to the village, and stop by Nitori’s store to chat.  …What kind of greeting is that? When she talks like that, she’s definitely hiding something. Watch out, or you might get burned. What? How rude. I was just thinking of how to fulfill YOUR request. Oh, is that so? Proceed. Remember when you asked me to find a way to use all those materials? That’s the request I’m talking about. The All-Purpose Construction Machines that the kappa at the Youkai Mountain use should be able to make lots of items from those materials. But convincing those kappa to let me bring one of those outside of the mountain is a pretty hard sell. After a whole lot of bargaining, I managed to bring an out-of-date and broken version to the human village. But it still needs to be repaired. …Ahh, I can see where this is going. What do you need us to get? You’re like a mind-reader, Reimu! Heard of a ‘Strong Rugged Horn’? I need one of those. With the proper processing, it should be able to replace the iron core transformer portion. I don’t think any of us got that last bit. So, where can we find one of these Strong Rugged Horns? I’ve already looked into that. It’s a common drop off the FOE on the second floor! That FOE, huh… That might be tough… No worries! With the party you have now, led by the famous incident resolution pair, it’ll be easy! I knew humans loved to talk big when they’re not the ones in danger, but I didn’t know youkai did the same too. …Nitori’s offer does sound pretty good, though. If we get that for her, we can make equipment from materials in return. That’s a huge plus for us. You’re like a mind-reader, Reimu! That’s the second time. Bah, enough out of you. You should learn how to catch on to things fast from Reimu! Anyway, we can get this Strong Rugged Horn from the FOE on the second floor, right? We’ll keep that in mind. I’ll be waiting for the good news~. Nitori’s store has a couple new items for sale. They are twice as effective as the first tier of items, and cost thrice as much, because Nitori is nothing if not a consummate capitalist. DX Mechamonkey – The item that stole the Golden Bear’s thunder, and hadn’t been seen much lately… until it appeared as part of Goron’s fleet in Daitenroku. Sub-equip, ATK +24%. Armored Parasite – Insect-like items that, when placed in body, improve toughness beyond cyborg levels. When equipped, one can become as strong as Ken or Kevin. The localization change was superfluous, no matter how you look at it. DEF +24%. Heading back into the dungeon, we roam about, hitting various green points of interest. In short order, we pick up Piche’s Bauble, Eyetrack Orbitars, Goriki’s Charm, Light Crystal, and Two-Face’s Coin. Piche’s Bauble – A key item that can be obtained from the very beginning of the game. An item that reminds you of a kind prince and a pitiable maiden. The first boss, Jamie the werewolf’s reaction to this is quite sad. Sub-equip, MAG & MND +8%, Nature +20, Terror +16 Eyetrack Orbitars – Slightly slow, but it has good homing and can charge up for a double shot. The bullets stay upon hit, hitting multiple times. Annoying when used with the power of Slip Shot. Lack of power and evasion skills are its weakness. Main equip, ACC +25 Goriki’s Charm – A spiritual art that negates some damage from enemies. This becomes very useful in the second half of the game, when your healing may not be enough to catch up with the damage. It really makes the game quite boring though. Sub-equip, Spirit +50 Light Crystal – Gems that Whirlo originally searched for to cure the plague, but as he entered the Tower of Illusions, he eventually will be turned evil. No matter what you do, there’s no escaping it. Poor Whirlo. Sub-equip, HP & MND +10%, Dark +25, Death +20 Two-Face’s Coin – A two-headed coin that allows one to dictate their own fortune. It is scarred on one side. Terror +50  Ferocious Ghosties can still easily devastate our party if they get a turn. To ensure that doesn’t happen, Reimu has been equipped with Speed and Mag-boosting items, firing off a Fantasy Seal whenever she catches even a hint of a ghost. Well, that’s enough faffing about, time to harvest a horn.  Someone has clearly been overfeeding their sheep. The Chrysomallos is a strong physical attacker who either attacks the leftmost character with heavy attacks, or tramples the entire party for (relatively) lower damage. At 75% and 30% health, it uses Great Roar, an all-target physical attack that targets Mind instead. It has low debuff resistance and low affinities to the ‘magic’ elements (Spirit/Dark/Mystic), so our mages are the key to victory here.  We begin the fight by using Perfect Freeze to lower its speed. Marisa uses Concentration, Keine tosses out attack buffs, and Rinnosuke uses Battle Command on Marisa. While Marisa recovers her MP, the Chrysomallos annihilates Keine and Rinnosuke in short order. Cirno brings out Youmu as a backup tank, but we can’t stall for Marisa much longer. Hey, Reimu- Already behind you. Aw.  Master Spark knocks off a third of its health, a respectable amount. But Marisa’s completely out of energy, and we send her to the reserve to recover.  While Marisa is recovering, we switch to more defensive tactics. Kogasa hits it with Rainy Night’s Ghost Story in an (unsuccessful) attempt to inflict Terror, and then we switch to a full-on tanking team.  Reimu and Minoriko toss around their respective defensive buffs. Youmu and Momiji gamely swipe at it, but with its massive physical affinity, they can barely scratch it. Marisa is recovering MP too slowly. In a risky move, we bring her back onto the frontline – a gamble, but she recovers faster by using Concentration than she does simply waiting in the back. Reimu’s MP is exhausted, and we swap her out for Rumia.  Moonlight Ray knocks a respectable chunk off his health, but it takes him beneath 30% health, and he returns the favour with Great Roar.  Demarcation doesn’t restore much health, but any amount helps at this point. Chrysomallos is using all-target attacks almost exclusively at this point. Rumia soon falls, but she’s done her job – Marisa is done charging up. Hey, Reimu- Just fire the drat thing already!  The Chrysomallos falls, and we collect our spoils.  The Chrysomallos was guarding these stairs down to a previously inaccessible portion of F1. We go down and pick up a Training Manual and some materials. Training Manual – A consumable item that increases a character’s skill points by 1 when used. You can use it at the Hakurei Shrine. Special item. Back at Nitori’s Store… Good mooorning! Heeeey, have you gotten a Strong Rugged Horn yet? Well, have you? Maybe you’re the mind-reading one… Yeah, we’ve got it. Here ya go.”Strong Rugged Horns” was given. Yaaaay! Now I can finally repair the construction machine! You’ll need to finish repairing it before we can start making equipment, right? How long will that take? It’ll be done in a flash. All the other repairs are already done, all that’s left to do is to turn this horn into a shape that can fit inside the machine. …And it’s done! Now THAT was fast. Now you can bring your materials here. I’ll have a look at them and tell you what you can make. Ahhh, this is so exciting! What are you gonna let me make? C’mon Reimu, let me see your materials already! Oh, fine. Item crafting is pretty straightforward – if you have the materials, you can craft the equipment at no cost. We can only craft sub-equips, not main equips. With the materials we have, there are exactly ten items we can make, and we want to make all of them. We’re a bit short though, so we crank up Rinnosuke’s item drop skill, giving us a 40% boost to item drop chance right off the bat. Even then, materials drop chance is still pretty low. Half an hour of offscreen farming later, we have all the materials we need. Most of the items we craft are ones we already have, but we also craft a Mad Milk, a Crepe Mariette, a Sirloin and a Purple Dragon’s Crystal. Mad Milk – Bottled white liquid. Damage done to enemies covered in this comes back as healing by 60% of the damage done. Just as unsettling as the Sniper’s Jarate. Dipping figurines in it may make things advance, in many ways. Sub-equip, HP +24% Crepe Mariette – A crepe with a caramel surface, after a flambe with Kirsch. With butter, vanilla, brandy and caramel, it’s truly a sophisticated and tasty crepe. Sub-equip, MND +24% Sirloin – A high-quality meat that, when tossed, can sometimes convince enemy monsters to join your side. Makes your own monsters more loyal to you too. Sub-equip, HP +24%, DEF & MND + 8%, Paralysis +20 Purple Dragon Crystal – A crystal that’s large enough to grip, and shines with rainbow colours when raised. Obtaining it allows one to transform into a purple dragon, but it’s worrisome whether that’s really alright with this world’s settings. Sub-equip, all stats +8%. After we craft the tenth item, we get this scene. Hello, Nitori? You there? Always! Here to create equipment? Eh? Er, no, we weren’t thinking of anything like that exactly. You found some new materials, then? Nah, same old same old. Same old, huh… …… What, you look like you wanna say somethin’. Heeeey, can I come along with you to the Great Tree? Oh? Why now? Well, messing around with all these materials has been way more fun than I thought. I’ve been getting really interested in the materials themselves too. A lot of these materials that you bring back can’t be found in Gensokyo. So instead of always waiting for what kind of new materials you’ll bring back, I want to see what the Great Tree’s hiding myself! And I figured the fastest way to do that would be to join you. I see. That’s a kappa for you. More members are always welcome. C’mon in! Awesome! Those unknown materials are waiting for me! I’ll have to get my gadgets out then. You’re only preparing now? Your machines don’t get dusty or anything? No worries there, I knew this would happen! I’ve been doing daily maintenance on my gadgets to keep them in top shape. Ahh… I finally got to say it! “I knew this would happen”, the 3rd or so most famous line that all inventors love to say! …How nice for you… …Dare I ask what the 2nd and 1st ones are…? It’ll be too tiring to respond to them, so don’t. Yes.Nitori Kawashiro joins the party! Nitori is a physical attacker with a couple of all-target attacks, a low-delay self buff and a massively powerful single-target attack. She joins the party after you craft ten items.  Let’s finish up the rest of F2. Roaming the bottom floor, we find another relay point in front of a boss icon, allowing us to rest up at the village before warping in to confront the boss directly. The game throws us a bone sometimes.  Oh?  My my, long time no see. I would ask what you are doing here... but it is obvious. Of course you would be at the forefront once any incident occurs. The opposite ain't true though. What are you doing here, Kaguya? My, you have not figured me out yet? How surprising. I would never let such an amusing occurrence pass me by, obviously. Although thanks to Eirin and the rest of Eientei's constant surveillance, I have not been able to frolic as much as I would like. Mokou was full of curiosity about this tree too. We thus took the opportunity to see whom amongst us can climb the tree faster. Ack, another name I didn't want to hear. My, do allow us our fun. You may find your everyday trifles fulfilling enough, but this kind of excitement is the only way for people like us to pass the time. As such, do test your strength against me. That would be another excellent way to pass the time. How the heck did it get to that... Reimu, let's just go. We shouldn't wasting any energy on her. Feel free to try to escape, but the moment your back is turned, I shall attack you from behind like Bokuohn. So we don't have a choice, basically. Now now, even if you did not find me here, I am sure you would encounter others of the same mindset sooner or later. Treat this as a valuable experience. So without further ado, fight me with all you have! I'd like to adieu you instead... Most of the bosses we’ve fought so far have been bulky physical attackers. Kaguya shakes up that formula – her attacks are all-target magical attacks that do either Fire, Cold, Wind or Nature damage. Every time she loses 20% of her health, she uses an Impossible Request on the next turn – punishing all-target spellcards that hit much harder than her regular attacks - and adds it to her repertoire.  Cirno and Kogasa open the battle with their respective debuffing moves, Keine tosses around her offense and defense buffs, and Momiji carves out massive chunks of Kaguya’s health with Rabies Bite – Kaguya is weak to physical attacks. On the other hand, Momiji does not have especially high Mind, and Kaguya’s attacks are wearing her down.  Cirno and Kogasa are low on health and MP, so we swap them out for Minoriko and Marisa. Minoriko heals Momiji with Sweet Potato Room, and Marisa charges up with Concentration.  Dontcha teeth hurt, Momiji? You do know the bite is a metaphor? I’m just stabbing her, you can literally see that.Rabies Bite is still doing respectable amounts of damage. But with Kaguya’s health below 60%, she counters with Buddha’s Stone Bowl – an Impossible Request that knocks Keine out, debuffs all our stats and raises all her stats.  I’m invincible! Ow! That’s it, everybody down! It’s not quite the game-ender it was on Chrysomallos – Kaguya has pretty high Mystic affinity and Mind. But it knocks a decent chunk of her health off nonetheless. Hmm, maybe it needs more charge? I’m pretty sure if you stuff any more magic into that thing, it will literally explode. Hey, that gives me an i- No. With Marisa exhausted, Rinnosuke swaps her out for Nitori. Kaguya is now on her last legs, and unleashes her final Impossible Request – Bullet Branch of Hourai, a massive Spirit attack that would almost certainly have wiped out the party if we were lower leveled. We barely pull through, Minoriko heals up Momiji, and one final Rabies Bite ends the battle.   Ahh, I surrender. That was such fun! How long has it been since I could let myself unwind like that? All of you are quite strong as well. Your sheer numbers have certainly overwhelmed me. *sigh* That was exhausting... Seriously. Are you satisfied now? We'll be heading off then. Indeed I am. Till we meet again~. Actually, aren't ya supposed to be competing with Mokou? Do ya really have the time and energy to waste here? Did I not mention before? This is how I make the fullest use of such an entertaining event. Knowing Mokou, I can spend some free time and still have plenty to spare for my victory. Uh huh, do your best then. We'll be going now. She's more competitive than I expected... Farewell! We head back to the village and heal up, then hop back in to explore the bottom of the map. To the right of the staircase down to Mystia, we find another boss icon.  Mm? What's the matter? I hear something. A voice... Hyaaaa......! ...It's Chen. She's running away again. Sombody save meeeeeeee! Heeeey, Chen! Over here, look over here! Gaaaaaaaaahhh! I'm gonna dieeeeeeeee! ... ... ...The enemy's coming straight for us. After the Chrysomallos and Kaguya, this boss fight is a bit of an anticlimax. Like the one on the last floor, this is just a group of enemies slightly stronger than a regular random encounter.  Marisa takes care of it. She didn't hear me callin' after her at all. I suppose she was too preoccupied with running for her life to notice you? Next time we see her, instead of calling out to her, we'll just stop her somehow. I'll stick a leg out and trip her next time. Enough of that already. With this area fully explored, we head to the bottom-right corner, running into another familiar face there. ...I'm sensing her around... Hm? Something eating you, Momiji?  So we meet once more. Hello again, everyone. ... My, if it isn't Aya. Is your information gathering for your newspaper going well? That would be a negative, I'm sad to say. I'm hurrying more than normal if I do say so myself, but that headstart is looking harder and harder to overcome... After all, I haven't seen any of the other tengus yet, and you folks have somehow caught up with me. ...What's that supposed to mean? Nothing, why? Urgh... In any case, I must press on! A journalist must always be looking to gather the freshest information as fast as possible! Farewell! ...How annoying. Don't worry about it. We'll keep going at our own pace. We find a couple more items as we explore the floor. Most of these are fairly inconsequential – we can already craft items of the same tier or better.  In the top-left corner of the map, we meet a new face. This event only shows up after we defeat Kaguya. Hm? There's someone over there. Ooh, a familiar face. Heeey there, heeeello!  My, you're here with quite the large entourage today. What would you be doing here? We're just surveying around, seeing what we can do about this tree. And some other stuff too. What about you? Can't imagine a pharmacy would do good business 'round here. I wouldn't think so either... I'm trying to find where the princess is. She was supposed to be at the mansion, so I figured she would be inside here instead. Udonge and I have split up in search of her. You have been exploring this area for awhile already, I take it? Have you seen the princess anywhere? Ya mean Kaguya? She was on this floor just a bit ago. She seems to be competing with Mokou on who can reach the top first. Ahh, this is a headache... Why didn't Udonge keep an eye on the princess like I told her to... Oh well, there's no use crying over spilt milk. Based on what you said, I assume the princess was planning on climbing further upwards. Sounded like it to me. Honestly... It seems I'll have to climb a little higher myself. Is that so? Since we're heading in the same direction, do you want to come with us? Hmm... thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass. I can still handle the enemies around here, and I need to find the princess as fast as possible. And thank you for the information, you've been a great help. See you again. Tch, too bad. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now. Let's keep going. Eirin won't join us quite yet, but maybe her medical expertise will come in handy later. With everything on F2 that we can reach investigated, we head up to the third floor.   We activate the relay point in front of the stairs, and head back to the village. As you can see, F3 starts throwing in new obstacles to navigation – but we’ll cover those next time. Inadequately fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 11:07
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 Let’s get to know our new party members.  Cirno Small Fairy of the Ice Theme: Beloved Tomboyish Girl First appeared as the second stage boss in the seventh Touhou game (and first of the Windows-era games), Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Since then, has made many more appearances in later games, usually as a low level boss or midboss, and was the main character of one of the spinoff games, Great Fairy Wars. A very popular character with fans, and a prominent character in fanworks. Cirno is an ice fairy who lives near Misty Lake and wanders around Gensokyo. Significantly more powerful than the average fairy, though given that the average fairy is barely a step above kedamas, that doesn’t count for much. Boastful and not especially bright, she claims to be ‘the strongest’ in Gensokyo, and often charges headlong into fights against opponents far stronger than her. Fortunately, fairies in Gensokyo will be resurrected by nature itself should they fall in battle – a fact that may account for Cirno’s continued survival. In combat, she uses her ice powers to freeze her opponents and their bullets in midair. Her trademark spell is Perfect Freeze - she sprays out bullets in all directions before freezing them in midair, the sudden temperature drop causing the bullets to shatter into a cascade of jagged ice shards flying about in random directions.  Cirno’s stats are average and on the low side, with her highest stats being her offensive ones. Her resistances are low, although she has above-average silence resistance. Being an ice fairy, she has exceptional Cold affinity, but is very weak to Fire. Skills Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. Affinity Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases elemental affinities. TP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max TP. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Cirno’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Cirno’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Team 9 – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Cirno is in the frontline, all her stats are increased by (8*S.Lvl)% per member of Team 9 alongside her in the frontline, herself excluded. Always Rising after Falling – Max level 3, cost per level 4. Reduces the amount of TP lost after combat, and reduces the amount of TP lost from dying by a large amount. Beloved Tomboyish Girl – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Cirno receives a turn, she inflicts a (4*S.Lvl) Speed debuff to all enemies. Lively and Healthy – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Speeds up recovery from debuffs and status effects. Ability to Manipulate Ice – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Reduces all cold damage taken by party if Cirno is on the frontline. Spellcards Icicle Fall – Cold element, single-target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 5300. 128% (ATK + MAG) – 80% DEF, has a (82 + (6*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict a 44% Speed debuff. Diamond Blizzard – Cold element, all-target, 6 MP, sets ATB to 3800. 224% ATK – 56% DEF, has a (80 + (5*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict Paralysis. Perfect Freeze – Cold element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 4600. 96% (ATK + MAG) – 60% DEF, has a (70 + (5*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict a 32% Speed debuff. White Album – Cold element, self, 5 MP, sets ATB to 7000. +50% buff to DEF and MND. Cirno’s skills are largely recovery-focused. Always Rising after Falling makes her a useful member for extended exploration, and Lively and Healthy somewhat mitigates her low resistances. Her skillset is almost entirely based around freezing opponents – in addition to Beloved Tomboyish Girl, all her spells are Cold-element that inflict either Speed debuffs or Paralysis. It’s one of the weaknesses of the Team 9 build – most of the Team 9 members are one-trick ponies and they do not form an especially balanced party, though there are ways to get around that later on. White Album can provide a much needed defensive boost, and it’s theoretically possible to build Cirno as a tank, though not recommended.  Minoriko Aki Symbol of Abundance and Harvest Theme: Because Princess Inada is Scolding Me First appeared as a stage 1 boss in the tenth Touhou game, Mountain of Faith. Since then, has made a couple of background cameos in other games and side works. Minoriko Aki is a minor god of autumn and one of the Aki sisters. She is a god of harvest and plenty, while her sister Shizuha Aki is the god of autumn leaves. While not considered an especially powerful or notable god, even amongst harvest deities, she has a close relationship with the humans of the Human Village in Gensokyo, appearing at their harvest festivals and blessing the harvest every year. In combat, she attacks with spells themed around autumn and the harvest, particularly her favourite crop, the sweet potato.  She has fairly high MP, MP regen and mind, along with respectable magic, but below average defense and HP. She has above average Poison and Paralysis resistance, but no resistance whatsoever to Terror, Silence or Death. Being a nature goddess, she has massive nature affinity, but is very weak to Fire and Cold. Skills Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. Resistance Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases all status resistances. Magic Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Magic. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Minoriko’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Minoriko’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Desire to Rest – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Whenever Minoriko is swapped from the frontline to the reserve, she regains (8*S.Lvl)% HP and MP. Regeneration – Max level 1, cost per level 10. Restores 10% of max HP every time Minoriko takes a turn. Symbol of Harvest – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Plant enemies is increased when Minoriko is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Ability to Control Harvests – Max level 2, cost per level 6. All frontliners receive a (4*S.Lvl)% buff to Magic whenever Minoriko takes a turn. Emergency Recovery – Max level 1, cost per level 10. If Minoriko uses Concentrate under 66% HP, she consumes 3 TP and regenerates 66% HP in addition to the usual effect. Does not work if she has less than 3 TP. Rapid Charge – Max level 1, cost per level 10. If Minoriko uses Concentrate under 33% MP, she consumes 5 TP and regenerates 50% HP in addition to the usual effect. Does not work if she has less than 5 TP. Spellcards Autumn Sky – Nature element, single-target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 7000. 168% MAG – 70% MND. Warm Colour Harvest – Nature element, all-target, 10 MP, sets ATB to 5500. 256% MAG – 80% MND. Sweet Potato Room – Nature element, one ally, 4 MP, sets ATB to 5400. 120% MAG, healing. Owotoshi Harvester – Nature element, one ally, 4 MP, sets ATB to 7000. 45% buff to DEF and MND. Minoriko’s skills are built around longevity, especially in boss battles. Regeneration and Desire to Rest provide her with passive healing, and the emergency charge skills can be useful for boss battles, but may cut into her exploration time on dungeon runs. Spellcard-wise, Minoriko is our first character with a decent healing move, and she’ll probably be the party cleric for a good long while. Owotoshi Harvester is as powerful as Great Hakurei Barrier, but can only buff one character at a time. Her Nature spells can do decent damage, but we probably won’t get much use out of them on these early floors – almost everything here resists Nature.  Nitori Kawashiro Aquatic Engineer Theme: Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Kappa ~ Candid Friend First appeared as a stage 3 boss in the tenth Touhou game, Mountain of Faith. Appeared as one of Marisa’s possible partners in the following game, and most recently was a playable character in the fighting games Hopeless Masquerade and Urban Legend in Limbo. Nitori Kawashiro is a kappa who lives on Youkai Mountain. Like other kappa, she is skilled in water magic and technology. While not especially friendly to humans, she is not hostile to them either, and can often be found hawking her wares in the Human Village at festivals and events. Is always looking for a way to turn a profit or improve her engineering skills. In combat, she uses her water magic and gadgets to take down her opponents, often blending the two to create water-powered magical weapons, such as her rocket launcher. Her most impressive creation to date is a gigantic mechanical Loch Ness monster with laser eyes, which sadly will not be making an appearance in this game.  Nitori’s stats are all average and on the low side, and her resistances are below average. She has high Cold affinity, but is weak to Fire, Spirit and Dark. However, her skills more than make up for this, and we’ll see why in a bit. Skills Defense Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Defense. Affinity Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases all elemental affinities. Mind Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Mind. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Nitori’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Nitori’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Ability to Manipulate Water – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases all Cold damage done by party when Nitori is on the frontline. Kappa’s Ecology Observation – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Aquatic enemies is increased when Nitori is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Overheating – Max level 1, cost per level 10. Whenever Nitori uses an offensive ability, their next spellcard costs 1 MP more, but does 15% more damage. This stacks indefinitely as long as Nitori is active, but wears off if she switches to the reserve. Cooling Down – Max level 2, cost per level 12. If Nitori concentrates with full HP, her MP recovered is multiplied by (1 + (S.Lvl)). Maintenance – Max level 1, cost per level 15. Doubles stat bonuses on wearer’s Main and Sub equipment. Spellcards Exteeeending Aaaaarm – Nature element, all-target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 196% ATK – 70% DEF. Kappa’s Illlusionary Waterfall – Cold element, all-target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 5000. 209% ATK – 95% DEF, has a (56 + (4*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict a 24% Defense debuff. Portable Versatile Machine – Physical element, self, 2 MP, sets ATB to 8320. (15 + S.Lvl)% buff to all stats. Super Scope 3D – Physical element, single target, 16 MP, sets ATB to 0. 625% ATK – 125% DEF. Nitori is a physical attacker who grows more powerful the longer she stays in. Portable Versatile Machine is a low-delay all-round self buff, and Overheating raises her damage output over time. Cooling Down is potentially useful, but Nitori needs a dedicated healer to benefit from its effect. Maintenance is potentially the most powerful skill in the game, and the main reason to use Nitori – the better the equipment we find, the more powerful Nitori becomes. Near the endgame, Nitori is a monster, capable of both tanking hits and hitting as hard as any of our other characters dedicated to those roles. Her spellcards give her cheap and powerful all-target attacks, and Super Scope 3D is the physical, single-target counterpart to Master Spark, a boss killing move pulled out for when we want something dead right now. And then there’s Kappa’s Ecology Observation. Well, more damage against the many fish that no doubt infest this gigantic tree can always come in handy. Let’s take a look at some of the enemies we’ve been seeing this run.  The Ferocious Stump is the weakest of the new enemies on this floor. Attacks are physical attacks, nothing special.  Ghosties are fast, agile annoyances that like to hit our party with attacks that inflict Poison.  Tree Beetles are similar to the Enormous Wasps we’ve been fighting, but tankier.  The most dangerous enemy on this floor, Ferocious Ghosties are fast and powerful enemies that like to toss around all-target magical attacks that inflict Terror.  The Chrysomallos is a powerful physical attacker that likes to trample our entire party, and to mix things up, occasionally uses a physical attack that targets MND instead.  Kaguya is a mage who tosses around all-target elemental attacks. For every 20% health knocked off her, she uses a powerful Impossible Request spellcard the next turn, then adds it to her arsenal.  The map of F2. Similar to F1, no real difficulty to navigation beyond paths being naturally sprawling and twisty. Conspicuously missing bit at center can only be accessed via staircase from F3 – we’ll be seeing it next update. Next time: The Emerald Forest that Swallowed Foolish Pilgrims, F3 Inadequately fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Sep 21, 2016 11:08
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Aw yeah, Cirno! The tree should just pack it up, now that the strongest character is with the party!  On a more serious note, it's cool (ahaha) to see that building Team ⑨ actually has some kind of mechanical purpose, and gimmicky though it may be, it's something I'd like to try out on a NG+ or something.
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Sep 21, 2016 11:38
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I must admit, I did not expect to see a Knights in the Nightmare reference anywhere ever so huh.
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Sep 21, 2016 12:59
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Ah yes, Team 9. How did it go again? A plan which has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped?
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Sep 22, 2016 01:26
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I had this game recommended to me by a native speaker who had played it in Japanese partly on the strength of its writing, so it was a bummer when the fan translation turned out to be the stiffest drat thing in the world.
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Sep 23, 2016 09:03
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It's not a great translation, but it's passably competent, at least with regards to communicating important information. Granted, my standards may have been lowered by the average 'barely above Google Translate' fan translation. Could probably have done with another editing pass, though - I've been correcting a couple of the more egregious spelling/grammar errors while transcribing.
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Sep 23, 2016 09:49
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Ot does seem a bit stiff, but at least it's understandable, and I admit I laughed at some bits. That being said, I think native English speakers would only get the mostest out of the game if they were familiar with Touhou.
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Sep 23, 2016 10:52
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Good morning. Where are Reimu and Marisa? Oh, they said they were busy today. Marisa’s out gathering mushrooms, Reimu is…performing shrine duties. Presumably. Whaaat? Well, we can handle the Tree without them, right? I suppose a day off wouldn’t hurt. I need to investigate some of these materials we’ve found. I shall sharpen my swords. They have been getting rather dull. I can’t believe this! Rumia, you’re on my side, right? Nah~ It’s no fun when there’s no one to play with. Even you? Bah, who needs you all anyway! The strongest fairy in Gensokyo can handle the Great Tree all by herself! Rrrgh! Yaaawn…Ahh, that was refreshing. Morning, everyone. What up…whoa, Cirno, are you okay? A…a… I…don’t think she can hear us. I’d better heal her up. ALRIGHT, THAT’S IT! GLOVES ARE OFF! Whoa, Cirno, wait up! After her, everyone! … Well well, I found you at last. Hm, that voice… Geh, it’s the annoying one… Really now, who are you calling ‘annoying one’? You guys, just what in the world have you been doing these days? I heard from an acquaintance. You’ve been neglecting the shrine to go to some random place, and you’ve been coming back all tattered and torn. You’re not up to no good again, are you? Saying ‘up to no good’ is rude. We’re helping people with this. Helping people? That’s what she said… Well, it will eventually be helpful to humans. Recently, we’ve been going through the Great Tree. We were asked to do something about that Great Tree. A thing like that is a real bother, wouldn’t you agree? I see, so it’s the reason you abandoned the shrine and are coming back all worn out. So what are things like inside that Great Tree? Is it that dangerous? Pretty much. We’re just about dealing with it, though. You guys have been the talk of the town. The villagers keep talking about how you’re coming back looking all worn-out every time. Based on those reports, you’ll need something a lot more convincing to prove to me that you’re doing fine… Hmm, can’t be helped. I will follow you as well from now on. …How did it get to that? Well, we should be happy to increase our battle potential…But are you really okay with it? At this point, can it really be helped? You keep coming back all battered and bruised. Once something more serious happens, it would already be too late to do anything. Well, we’re really happy to increase our party, but can you please keep your preaching to a minimum… That will depend on your behavior.Kasen Ibaraki joined the party!  Kasen is one of the strongest early-game characters we can recruit. All her stats are above average, and most of her attacks have a chance of landing one or two ailments/debuffs. Her only flaw is her relatively low MP recovery, given the cost of her spellcards. It was really just Cirno, anyway… Yes, I’ll have to have a talk with you about proper pet care.Kasen is theoretically the first recruitable character, even before Momiji – she joins you after twelve gameovers. Now that we’ve got a full party of twelve, there’s another person we need to talk to.  What, you're still around? Well excuse me for being here. By the way Parsee, did you change your mind? Do you want to come with us now? We can kick the crap outta the monsters inside who strut around with a smug look on their faces, and ruin the mood of all the youkai in high spirits. Let's do it! … …… That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Ahh, I'm jealous, so jealous... All you masses within this tree, I'm coming for you... ......Are you sure it's alright to invite her like this? It'll be alright. ......Probably.Parsee Mizuhashi joined the party! With Parsee joining, we now have thirteen members, one too many to fit in the party. From now on, if we want to fit any new recruits in, we’ll have to swap out one of our existing members for them. We swap Youmu out for Parsee – the bulky attacker slot is already covered by Momiji.  Parsee is an odd case – a physical attacker with the highest Mind in the game. Most of her attacks inflict Terror, and she is practically immune to debuffs thanks to her high resistance. Now, on to 3F of the Great Tree.  This orb is the floor’s navigational gimmick. Activating this orb toggles some green gates open and others closed. The gate to the right leads to a small section of the floor, while the gate at the bottom leads to the main portion. For now, we toggle the orb and head to the right.  Bomb Fruit are the first new enemy we see. No prizes for guessing what they do – once their health starts getting low, they use a move that drops them to 1 HP and does all their remaining HP as damage to a single character. Can be annoying, but they’re not very fast, and if you focus your opening salvo on them, their suicide move won’t do very much damage.  Shadow Cats are the second new enemy. Annoyingly fast and nimble, they have high evasion and a chance to inflict paralysis on our party. Not too dangerous on their own, but all the dodge-tanking really bogs down random battles. On the plus side, they have almost no defense, and any decent physical attack that hits will annihilate them. Momiji’s accuracy-raising skill really comes in handy here.  Kasen’s moveset. Higekiri’s Cursed Arm and Diving Waltz of the Raijuu are single-target attacks that have a chance to inflict status ailments and debuffs, Echo of the Nine Forest Gods is an all-target nature attack, and Breath of the Hermit is a low-delay all-round self-buff.  Roaming about the west section, we find a few materials lying around, and a couple of closed gates. Heading down, we hop down a one-way tunnel to the main section of the floor. The one-way tunnels are our method of bypassing the initial gate to that section, allowing us to access gates that would otherwise be closed should we enter from the entrance.  Forest Thieves are the third new enemy on this floor. No real tricks up their sleeve compared to their counterparts, but they have fairly high defense and speed comparable to the Shadow Cat.  Oh dear. Let’s hope we find a way around that.  In the bottom-left corner of the floor, we find a funny-looking insect. ...Hm? What's that? Reimu, there's someone who's collapsed over there. Uh? Ah, I've seen that face somewhere before.  Oh, it's been a while. You're that bug youkai from a while ago, right?  ... Why are ya lying on the ground with your eyes opened like that, and they're not even twitching a bit? Is that a new hygiene fad for youkai? Just what do you think youkai are? Judging from her appearance, hasn't she been paralyzed by some sort of neurotoxin? That would explain her complexion and her lack of movement. Huuuum. But she's a bug youkai, what could've poisoned her in a place like this? That thing must be somewhere nearby, right Wriggle? ... That's useless, that girl can't talk at all. She's been completely paralyzed by that poison, and it might be pretty serious. ... ......Hm? She's been twitching strangely, but constantly... These convulsions... No, vibrations, it can't be... Morse code!? Wh, what-! Is that true, Keine!? What's with that mood? ... Stop making fools out of yourselves, you two. We should be trying to figure out what Wriggle has to say as much as possible. I wasn't being an idiot, it was just Marisa. Shut it.… ...All right, I'll summarize what I understood. Keep your ears focused. Yes. Yes. This one here and a lot more bug youkai have come to this Great Tree to play. But on this floor, it seems they found two very strong insects... Mmhm. And so, she thought "If I can manipulate those insects with my power, it should make hanging around here easier", and this is what resulted when she touched them. Normally when your power's the ability to manipulate somethin', you can't be that far away from the target in terms of strength. I dunno if Wriggle's power works that way too though. Looks like her ability alone wasn't enough. That was a bad move from her. In other words, since those bugs were able to take Wriggle down, we can't be careless, since they will be powerful. Not counting the paralyzing effect Wriggle is affected by, there's also the poison we'll need to watch out for. Well, with the amount of people we have, we should be able to deal with it one way or another. Right. The next thing the bug youkai wanted to request was that after we've killed both poisonous insects, we extract their poison and use it to make an antidote. Ugh. That's so annoying. Yes, but this could be our chance to gather more people. We could get the medicine made and use that as "incentive" to get Wriggle to join. ... (That must be pitiful, hearing this kind of talk about your imminent enslavement when you can't even move nor talk, only look at what's in front of you...) (True, but it's also comforting to me that we'll get more members that will at least be useful. Forgive me, unfamiliar bug youkai...) By the way, it's easy to say "Let's make an antidote for the poison", but how are we going to do it really? I can't do that sort of stuff myself, but what about you, Keine? Or Rinnosuke? And why aren't you counting me in this? Can you do it, Marisa? Nope. Naturally... It's medicine, not a tool... It's a bit too much to ask of me. That said, maybe there's a shop in the village that can make medicine, or the kappa knows an outsider that can? Such an advanced thing would be impossible for me... Anyway, this is not the time to be focused on that, we should start by dealing with those two bugs first. Yea... We need to do that too. Well then, let's go search for these two insects! Wait here for a bit ok, Wriggle? ...Talking to Wriggle again brings up this dialogue. ...You know, seeing her like this is kinda funny. What are you saying? The faster we kill these insects and make the medicine, the better. We have to help her as quickly. ... (But even if I say that, it is certainly... interesting seeing her like this. She's so cute, she just makes you want to take her back home...) Keine, why are you making a weird face like that? Does your stomach hurt or something? N-n-noo!? That's not-nothing! Let, let's just hurry up making that antidote! ......? Most of the items lying around are materials, though a couple of them are sub-equips we already have. This one is a treasure chest, though – using a key we got as an achievement reward, we open it and help ourselves to three Magic Gems.  While wandering around, we find the stairs down to a previously inaccessible portion of 2F  It takes us down to a relatively straight path to the boss we weren’t able to reach before. Oh? That's...  It's not a human or a youkai. This is one of the dolls under Alice's control. Ahh, so this is a doll? It's masterfully crafted. Its’ movement is so natural as well, it's practically impossible to tell that it's man-made. if the doll's here, then where's Alice? She can't control her dolls from THAT far away. She's gotta be somewhere close by. ...Er, hold up. That doll's drawing its’ weapon. Wha? What are we going to do? If it's attacking us, we have no choice but to act in self-defense. Whoa, here it comes! Alice’s Doll is remarkably quick – her ATB fills up over twice as fast as any of our members. She doesn’t have any notable moves, however, preferring to hit the leftmost characters with strong physical attacks. The doll is not especially tough either – Kasen and Parsee have the situation well in hand offense-wise.   Grudge Returning and Midnight Anathema Ritual are two of Parsee’s attacks. Grudge Returning is a single target attack with a low chance of inflicting Terror and Silence for a long while, while Midnight Anathema Ritual is an all-target attack with a high chance of inflicting Terror for a short duration. After the battle… ...It wasn't particularly strong. Yep, just a speedbump. Alice's dolls aren't supposed to be able to move unless under she's controlling them, right? Which means Alice just used her dolls to attack us? Seems so. Can't see her anywhere 'round here though. I guess she may have skedaddled by now. If we find her again, we'll catch her and get a real good explanation outta her. You better be ready for us, Alice!A couple of our characters run out of TP, so we head back to the village, heal up and head back in.  Exploring the west section once more, we find a tiny drunk lying on the floor.  ... I want to drink sake. Reimu, there's someone lying down saying stuff to us. Don't be concerned with her... I want to drink sake. Just do like you always do. Your gourd can produce an endless amount of sake, can't it? Drinking the sake of this gourd is like breathing air to me. You can't live if you can't breathe air, and if oni don't drink other sake, they won't be able to move. And so, I need some really good sake to keep me going. Right now, I want some "Pure Sake - Wild Boar". Marisa, do you have any of that kind? Pure Sake eh... I think Nitori sells it in her shop, at a very high price... I need it~. ... ...We do in fact have the Pure Sake – Wild Boar, so we talk to her again. Uugh. Saaake. I want some really good saaake... Shut up already...Catch, Suika! That's the "Pure Sake - Wild Boar" you wanted. That was really expensive you know! Better be grate-... Oi, that girl's already chugging it down... Soooooo gooooooood!! Yea, that's the stuff! Well, that's good. Now, since you took that much from us... Phew, fuel replenishment complete! I can move again! Time to start back the adventure! ... Eat and run... No, drink and run? That's just like her. ......It was so expensive... This particular boss fight is in the west section behind a gate. It can only be accessed by hopping from the one-way tunnel from the main section. Hm. That voice is... Nooooooooooo...... Chen! Here she comes. No time to waste, we've gotta catch her! Heeeeeeeeeelp!! Now! Diiie!! Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Eh, wha! She got away!? Wow, so fast...What is she!? ...Marisa, you just screamed "Die" to her just now. She actually said "Diiie!!" to be exact. No no, that was to raise her fighting spirit. Don't question me. Well, that certainly raised her spirit, that's for sure. That ghost cat is now running for her life with all she has... It's a bit surprising though. The speed of that cat must be higher than any other youkai around here. She shouldn't need to be so panicky. You're pretty calm while commenting this, even though we've got these monsters coming right at us. ...You know it would end up like this by stepping on that event icon... As before, this is just a slightly tougher random encounter. It can be troublesome with a slow party, as the enemies are relatively quick and will spam crippling all-target attacks.  Marisa’s faster, though. Hmph! Come on, let's go! Still, that could be a problem. If the self-proclaimed "fastest in Gensokyo" Marisa couldn't catch her, I doubt anyone of us can. ...That was nothing, if it was a real competition, I would be much faster. This place is just way too narrow, and she was at top speed when she flew past already. It wasn't a fair fight at all. Yes yes, I'm sure that's the reason why. Anyway, catching that cat the moment she appears is going to be difficult. In the first place, if Chen is that quick, she should be able to fight the enemies around here reasonably easily. And that's our difference between experience, strength and courage. You guys are not even bothered by any of this... This event is also only accessible via hopping from the main section. Ah. What is this? ...I picked this up. What's that? Scrap metal...No, a metal rod? Hmm, sorry, I don't know about these sort of things, to me, this only look like a bent metal rod. It's nothing special, it's really just a bent metal stick. ......Eh? Marisa, is that it? It's not some sort of magical-like super item, or anything like this? ......What does it matter? It does matter... Reimu and I have been telling you for a long time now to put her house in order because of things like this. Now now, isn't it fine? We could recycle it into a strong material...I think? Maybe. You really don't need to try to defend her. Obtained Special Item “Mysterious Scrap of Iron – 2” (Well, Marisa's passion for collecting trash does occasionally turn out to be useful.) (Eeeevery now and then, she might pick up some terrifying item without even being aware of it... Just like when she found the Ame-no-Murakumo...) Hn? Now that I think about it, a while ago, Marisa also picked up another metal scrap like this... Could they be the same thing? What's wrong, Rinnosuke? ...No, it's nothing. It's nothing to be concerned with for now. ...You know, saying things like "It's nothing" is usually a death flag. What, no way, no way. Hum? Well, if it's nothing, then it should be fine. Above that event is a small room containing a Glow Crystal. We’re just about done with the west-section item and event-wise now.  This event is in the middle of the main section. Here's a flower. I wonder why such a gloomy flower would grow in this kind of place. Anyway, what of it? ...It's a flower... ...If it's nothing special, why are we even coming here for? That's... There's probably a reason... ......Sure. ......Yeah... Fairly pointless, but with 50 Battle Points on Minoriko, this happens: There's a flower. Hum? What's this, I never saw such a small and cute flower anywhere else. Wait...no, is this really a flower? I've never seen this kind before... ...Of all the eight hundred millions gods, the one who calls herself the "God of Harvest" is saying "What's that flower! I don't know! Teehee!". Really now... Uuuugh, just shut up... But this little one seems to be a bit weak. Eh, really? It doesn't give off that atmosphere at all. No, it's more like it's weakening, I would say. I don't know where its earth's blessing is going, with her vascular bundle being all blocked up, she doesn't look like she can keep sending energy. This flower seems like it should be absorbing the energy in the the trunk of the Great Tree, and distributing it around. I know most of the flowers in Gensokyo, but this one looks specific to the Great Tree. Eeeh, you made a fool out of yourself earlier, but it looks like you don't call yourself the "God of Harvest" for nothing. Ufufu, how did you like that now? Come on, don't hold back your praises. And while you were seeing me in a new light, I used my powers to restore the health of this flower. Oooh, you can even do something like that? So, now that you made it healthier, can you tell us what that will change? Hm, will there be any...? I'm not sure. In the end, it doesn't do us any good, even after restoring it... That's ok, no? We should have fun when we take a trip, even if there's some detour to take. Oh, you said something good there Marisa! *sigh*... Fine. Let's keep going ahead then.You earn five battle points every time you use a particular character in battle, and they’re mostly used for unlocking events like this. Minoriko has seen her fair share of battles by now, being the only healer of note in our party. We still don’t know what that event does, but who knows? Flowers are their own reward.  Moving along, we come across a very interesting intersection. Let’s check out that FOE first.  The Lesser Golem is a bulky physical attacker who focuses strong physical attacks on the two leftmost characters, slowly working his way to the right. He only has one single-target move, but hits like a truck – one hit will almost certainly wipe out any of our party members.  This is his main gimmick – colossal Defense and Mind. Unless our party is buffed to near maximum levels and the golem is crippled with debuffs, we won’t be able to even scratch it.  Rumia’s Dark Side of the Moon is the key to victory. It completely bypasses his Mind and takes off a decent chunk of his health. We’re not completely helpless without it, but the battle would certainly be a lot harder and longer without it. Keeping Rumia alive is our top priority – the rest of the party is there mostly to bog it down with debuffs and ailments, and tank hits as best as they can.   Rumia’s almost out of MP by now. We have her stay on the frontline to concentrate – risky, but she recovers MP faster than on the reserve. The golem is slowly taking out our tanks one by one, and we can’t afford to have the fight drag on too long.  We’re at the point where we can just about scratch it with all its accumulated debuffs. But there’s no need for that – a couple more Dark Side of the Moons finishes it off.   The FOE was guarding this event and two items. *sob sob* ? Who is it? Ah. …Hey, Chen. ……? Oh, it's the humans from before. We've caught up to you, at last...Why didn't you stop when we were calling you back then? You kept getting chased around by monsters and pushing them onto us. Ehh...You called me? When? Where? You have never heard us at all...? We called out to you lots of times, I remember... (No, you only hailed her "normally" once... the other time, you were screaming "Die!" at her...) (Let's keep that to ourselves, we don't want to make things worse...) I was just really desperate...*sob sob* It was so scary. You should've known this place was full of monsters you couldn't handle. What brought you to enter such a place to begin with? Oooohh... That's... Lady Yukari came here first, and she looked so excited while she was going. I wanted to see how fun it was, but Lady Ran said I couldn't go in here since it was too dangerous. I was really mad about it, so when Lady Ran was in dreamland sampling the tofu she was preparing for lunch, I slipped out and came here to play... So you came here with intention to play, but you found yourself in a do-or-die situation the moment you set foot in here. Ooooh... To go into dreamland while eating...How much can that fox like tofu... I hope you've learned from this, you should listen to your elders. We'll escort you back outside, so behave yourself and go back home like a good girl. No way, no way! If I go back home now, La-dy Ran is going to get angry at me! Say, Reimu, Marisa, you're exploring this place, right? Please take me with you! Eh, is that ok? It's fine. It's always a good thing to increase the number of people in our group. Yay! Woah woah woah. (You just saw that she's no match for the monsters around here, and it's already hard enough as it is by ourselves. There's no way we can keep going while babysitting her.) Don't just mumble over there, if you have something to say, say it clearly. You think she's going to be a burden, right? Ooh...Even I can do stuff, I'll do my best! However... It'll be alright, one way or another. Speedsters almost always have paper thin defenses anyway. If we give her the right orders, she should be able to do well for us. And so, you'll be in our care. If ya get used to this place, it's actually pretty fun. Yaay, thank you!! I'll do my best! I promise! *sigh*... Fine, do what you want, I don't care anymore. You were the one who told us to keep her from danger. ........*sigh*...Chen joins the party! Chen is a lightning-fast physical attacker who can boost her attack and speed to sky-high levels, at the cost of dropping her defenses to practically nil. We’ll be seeing this in action later. Behind Chen is a Swiftness Gem and a Tome of Reincarnation – a special item that when used on a character, resets all their levelup points and returns all the money we’ve spent on them at the Magic Library. Now let’s check out that plant. What's this, a bush? Hum, we seem to be unable to go through because of it... Heyah, yah! ...No good, my Roukanken can't destroy it. This is not a normal plant. Hah, you're all proud cuz you can swing a big sword, but you can't even cut down a tiny bush! ...It's impossible for you too, you know. Anyway, I won't allow you to take this sword from me again. And if you keep being noisy, I'll slice you into sashimi. We got it, we got it. Cirno, don't provoke her anymore. Hmp~h. It's going to be hard to break through this bush... Well, it can't be helped. Let's leave it for later, we might find something for it around here. We can’t break through the bush at the moment, so we return to exploring. This particular event can only be reached via the one-way tunnel from the west section. Ah! I? U. E. O. Hm. It's the pseudo-rabbit from Eientei. ...You know, you should really quit calling me an imitation... We passed by Eirin and Kaguya earlier, are you here on some kind of errand as well? Geh. So Master already found the princess. That was quick... Nah, we only told Eirin that "We saw Kaguya inside this Great Tree". Those two probably still haven't met with each other. Ah, I understand. So, where did you guys happen to see the princess? Also, did you happen to see the human that the princess is close with? What was her name again... Hum, you know, the immortal human that uses fire. Mokou? Yes yes, that's it. It looks like that human and the princess came here together... While Master is searching for the princess, I have to go look for Mokou. Are you sure you're gonna be ok if you can't even remember the name of your target? ...... So, Mokou came here? Eh, who are you? Um, it's nice to meet you? Ah, yes. Nice to meet you, I'm Keine, a were-hakutaku. So, is it really true that Mokou came to this place? Yes. Our rabbits saw her. Really... I told her to stay on alert in the village in case anything unexpected happened! What does that idiot think she's doing!? If ya think she's the type who'll just sit there and do what ya say, and not run off the moment ya turn your back, you've got some problems. ...True enough.... Ugh... Anyway, what did you mean by Kaguya and Mokou having a good relationship? They always seemed to be fighting each other... It's proof that you have a good relationship with someone if you can quarrel with them. They don't know what to do with their time, so they always go at each other's throats because they want to enjoy themselves. I think. Is that so. Still, that's too bad. We met with Kaguya, but we still haven't come across Mokou yet. Ah...Yes, that's too bad. The faster they are found, the faster I can go back home. Well, good luck with your search. Sorry for leaving, but we've got exploring to do. Ooh, you're so mean... This boss icon is to the left of Reisen. It only spawns after you’ve spoken to Wriggle. What's that guy? Doesn't look like your everyday insect. It looks like to be a fairly powerful monster. Indeed, it really does seem to hold a powerful poison. Marisa, there's no way we can get close to it, please deal with it from long range. Poison... Could this be the insect that stabbed Wriggle, by any chance? Ah. Well, I guess it could be. Is it? Ehh, I'm not sure myself. It just feels like it is. Hmm... In cases like these, it's best to rely on Reimu's intuition. Ugh...I don't want to get close to it... The Great Tree’s Poisonous Wasp is a souped-up version of the common Enormous Wasps we’ve been fighting. It has a strong single-target Nature attack with a high chance to poison, an all-target Nature attack with a slightly lower chance to poison, and an all-target Wind attack. It’s also fairly fast and evasive, and has relatively high defense, allowing it to tank and dodge-tank while your party slowly succumbs to poison  Kasen, Parsee and Kogasa open with their respective debuffing moves, while Keine boosts the front line’s offense. For its’ part, the Poisonous Wasp poisons Keine and Parsee, then proceeds to shred the party with all target attacks. Parsee and Kasen pull through, Keine and Kogasa aren’t as lucky.  Minoriko is brought out to tank for Keine – she’s nowhere near as bulky, but her high Nature affinity makes up for it. Cirno is swapped out for Kogasa, but while the speed debuff from Perfect Freeze is useful, it does miniscule damage, so she’s swapped out for Rumia next.  Minoriko heals up Parsee and Kasen, but takes a chunk of damage in the process. In a bit of a risky move, we swap her out for Chen – her high evasiveness potentially allows her to dodge a hit or two. It’s no big loss if we lose her – Kasen and Parsee are outputting steady damage and the wasp is on its last legs. With no frenzy moves, it’s exceedingly unlikely the wasp will turn things around.  Flight of Idaten is a low cost/power/delay single-target physical attack, while Phoenix Spread Wings is a fire attack that targets a row. Kimontonkou is Chen’s self-buff, and should always be Chen’s opening move when entering battle.  Surprisingly, even with her lowered defenses Chen manages to tank one direct hit. Another would definitely finish her, but the wasp isn’t going to get that chance – one more Cursed Arm finishes it off.  For killing the wasp, we’re rewarded with the appropriate items – Nature and Wind-affinity raising sub-equips, and a speed-boosting gem. Bleeeeh... no way, this is so disgusting......! I really don't like insects... Yes yes, I understand, now keep going. Kyaa. Rinnosuke. You. Are. So. Cool. You animal, that's the first time I hear you speaking in such a horrible monotone voice! Uuuuugh, it feels so sticky, it's disgusting... ...Done! I got the poison gland!! Ugh, I can still feel the warmth of its flesh all over my hand... Kourin, are you about to cry? Of course I'm about to cry! I was right on the brink of breaking down! Haaaaa, I want to go back quickly, I want to go back now...Obtained Special Item “Gland of Super Hemotoxin”! Inadequately fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 21:24
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 The only remaining notable event on this floor is the level 32 boss, only accessible via the one-way tunnel from the west section. Hm?......Hm hm? Hey Reimu, that person over there... Hm? ......Is that really...? Heh. Ya weren't seeing things. Oh, is that really you, Yukari?  What kind of response is that? I came here to play, and knowing you, I'm sure you would've foreseen that. Ahaha, sorta. I just got the impression that we'd be seeing you a lot later, that's all... By the way Yukari, are you alone here? You didn't bring your shikigami with you? Ah, Ran didn't have any interest in this place, so she stayed home, however...  Wha...La, Lady Yuyuko!? Why are you with Lady Yukari?  That's of no importance. Good grief, I told you to train yourself into becoming a better swordswoman, and keep searching for a more powerful sword. Instead I heard that you had your sword stolen by a fairy, and that you then attacked Reimu's group by mistake when they brought it back to you. Youmu, just who in the world do you take your idiocy from? Pretty sure that's you. Ho-how did you heard about this Lady Yuyuko!? Ugh... Now now, this isn't the time for scolding. Reimu, I would like you to lend us your strength for a bit. What's that about? Shouldn't it be the other way around? You guys are more than strong enough, no? Of course, we have reasonable confidence in our abilities. How should I put it, we want to raise the chances of us succeeding, and you know, dealing with these small problems is so bothersome... Lady Yuyuko, your real thoughts are leaking out. Figures... Well, it's as expected anyway, getting involved with you two always leads to things like that. Anyway, so can you tell us what you really want now? It's nothing too troublesome. Inside this place lies a monster. We want you to exterminate it with us. Monster...? Even if it's you who say that, aren't there many monsters everywhere? Why that one? Many monsters live in this tree, and they will slowly grow stronger the more you ascend, that's normally how it is, right? And so, for the humans and youkai who only entered to have fun, they'll be able to judge when they've reached their limit easily, and go back. So we wish to ensure that this place remains a safe playground as well... (Treating this Great Tree like a playground... Her power is certainly worthy of the name of Hakugyokurou's master, and in some ways, her personality as well...) But, the monster inside here is not matching the rest of this area, and we don't know why he's here. The power he wields took us a bit by surprise. Something like this must be too dangerous, wouldn't you agree? This is why Yuyuko and I have come here, to deal with dangerous enemies like these. Ah, I see... And since we just happened to be here, you decided we should help you out? Indeed. Don't worry, we'll be fighting as well. I wonder, this is not just "for fun" now is it? *sigh*... Isn't it fine? Don't you think it's necessary to remove such a dangerous monster? (I do want to see to what extent Youmu has improved her skills. Both ways, your reasons are probably similar, right Yukari?) (Ufufu, let's not mention it, shall we.) Whatever... Reimu, if Yukari and Yuyuko are saying they will help us, let's get it done quickly so we can go back to exploring. That would be the quickest way... Very well, tell us how to help quickly. That's my Reimu, I knew you'd understand. Well then, this way, this way. It's right ahead. Are we good now? Good, then let's go. This fight is more to show off the capabilities of late-game characters than anything else. Alaya-Vijnana’s first attack will almost certainly wipe out your party members, and even if they somehow manage to survive, they will contribute pretty much nothing of note during the battle.  Of course, with Yukari and Yuyuko, it’s a different matter entirely. A cast of IN Quadruple Barrier or two raises up our defenses to the point Alaya-Vijnana can’t scratch us, and from there we can shred him with impunity.   After the battle… *phew* That was a good sweat. Fufufu, Youmu. How did you find your experience towards adulthood? Don't you feel like you've grown a lot? Th, thank you very much... *pant pant*...... Thanks to your help, we were able to defeat such a dangerous monster easily. You have our gratitude. Well then, we will be going up further for a bit more. Please excuse us for our early leave. Youmu, make sure you don't neglect your training. Now then everyone, let us meet again later. ..."Thanks to your help, we were able to defeat such a dangerous monster easily". Really? As much as it annoys me to say so, we were no more than weights on their legs... *phew* Haa... Haa, my breath still hasn't calmed down... As one would have expected of the youkai sage and the Hakugyokurou's master... They're far more powerful than us. ...Indeed, right now, the difference between our strength and theirs is like night and day. It shows that those two haven't been alive for years for nothing, and it's not the first time they get involved in fights like these. As for us, we've gotten quite experienced in this compared to the first time we started climbing this tree. We are doing fairly well in battle, don't you agree? Well, that's for certainly true. Even if we are far right now, if we keep exterminating monsters and climbing up steadily like this, I think we'll be able to deal with any situation that comes our way, and Yukari's group won't have to take over for us. To put it simply, "Endurance is Strength". Hmm, I wonder... Yeah, I suppose that may be true. Moving on. So, should we do our best and climb to the top? If so, then no time to take a break. Let's hurry on ahead! Yeah, let's hurry. We'll meet those two again eventually. For sure.In New Game+, Yukari and Yuyuko just sit back and watch, but Alaya-Vijnana’s level is cranked down to a much more manageable level 14. It likes to attack with strong all-target attacks, but is fairly slow. It is extremely weak to Fire and Cold, and fairly susceptible to Terror. Now that it’s dead, the magically sustained bush withers, and we can get past it now. However, before we do that, we need to prepare ourselves – there’s no half-assing the boss at the end of this floor.   We head to the Hakurei Shrine to ensure all our levelup points are invested, and invest a little in our major players. There’s not much in the way of fancy builds there – our tanks get tankier, our attackers get attackier. We also ensure our entire party is at the very least fully equipped, and invest the skill points we’ve been saving up. Most of them probably won’t come up in the following battle, but these are the ones of note: Youmu picks up Regeneration and a level of Meikyo Shisui, which causes her to regenerate 10% of her health every turn and gain a slight all-round buff if her MP is full. Kasen picks up a level of Fighting Spirit, which gives a small all-round stacking buff every turn but wears off when she switches out, and learns Impact Attack, which gives all her attacks a chance to Shock. Rumia picks up 2 levels of Youkai’s Knowledge, which boosts damage of allies against Humanoid enemies. She won’t be making too much use of the skill herself – the boss resists all her moves.[/b] Chen picks up a level of Instant Attack, which immediately fills up her ATB when she’s brought from the reserve to the frontline. Minoriko picks up Regeneration and a level of Ability to Control Harvests, which gives the frontline a Magic buff whenever she takes a turn. Nitori picks up the powerful Maintenance skill, which doubles the effect of equipment she wears. Kogasa picks up Sheer Force, which allows her attacks to piece Terror Resistance sometimes. Parsee picks up Ability to Manipulate Jealousy, which powers her up based on how many allies/enemies have debuffs on them, and Final Blow, which increases her damage against targets affected by status ailments. And with all that preparation done, on with the show.  ...Hum? Ah, it's the lazy shinigami! No, wait, wait. I can't deny what you said, but that's not something you say when you greet someone... You're Komachi, right? What are you doing in this place? There's no reason for a shinigami like you to be interested in this incident, no? Even more for someone as lazy as you. Yea, I have no interest about this place, but Lady Eiki is very concerned by this Great Tree. So, since I'm her subordinate, she sent me to check up on the situation, but I chose to do like always and skip out on the job. It was Lady Eiki's mistake to choose someone like me in the first place. She said it, she really did. Also, Lady Eiki said "In the event that Reimu's group would make their way here, make sure to listen to what they have to say", or something like that. It seems like a lot of humans knew exactly what you were going to do. Please shut up. Now then, I'm listening, what's your story? Hey wait, why are you saying "I'm listening" while you're prepping your scythe? Nah look, I'll just beat each of you, then listen to what you have to say. That's the best way to get it out of you. I suppose if you were like "Tell me everything you know!", we wouldn't be too forthcomin' with the information. (In situations like these, we really should be...) See? Alright, then I'll beat you all into submission first, then I'll listen to what you have to say! Ahh, today is just filled with pointless conflicts once again... Komachi is where the bosses really start to get serious. Her opening arsenal contains a generic all-target physical attack, an all-target cold attack, and Short Life Expectancy, a strong physical attack on the leftmost character. At 75% HP she adds Ferriage in the Deep Fog, another all-target cold attack, and at 25% HP Scythe that Chooses the Dead, a stronger version of Short Life Expectancy. Her raw damage output isn’t the main threat – though she’s certainly no slouch in that area – it’s the fact that all her named attacks have a decent to high chance of proccing instadeath. The longer the fight drags on, the more likely it is that a string of unlucky rolls can quickly turn the tide in Komachi’s favour. Youmu is the key to victory here. She starts off with decent Death resistance, and once equipped with an item, becomes nearly immune to it. Her high Defense also allows her to absorb Komachi’s blows, and Regeneration keeps her healthy – though we still have to heal her every so often. None of our other tanks are as remotely Death-resistant as Youmu, and Komachi can slice through them like a hot knife through butter. In an inversion of the Lesser Golem, Komachi has massive amounts of HP, but her Defense and Mind are low – once debuffed, even resisted elements can do significant amounts of damage to her.  Kasen, Parsee and Kogasa open the battle with their respective debuffing moves, while Youmu uses her normal attacks. With her current defensively focused build, she won’t be doing much damage with her spellcards anyway, and she needs the defense boost that Meikyou Shisui provides.  Minoriko is brought in to heal Youmu, while Chen is swapped in for Kogasa. She uses her Instant Attack turn to cast Kimontonkou, and then hits Komachi for almost 3000 damage with Phoenix Wings – a respectable amount of her 22000 HP. She’s immediately sent back to the reserve – Chen can’t tank very many hits, and Instant Attack means there’s no need for her to sit around waiting for her ATB to fill.  Unfortunately, shortly after that, Minoriko gets hit with instadeath from Ferriage in the Deep Fog. We still have healing from Reimu and Rumia, but it’s nowhere as efficient as Minoriko.  The rightmost two slots of our party are a cycle of Reimu, Rumia and Chen. Reimu and Rumia are mostly playing support with their respective healing/buffing moves. Chen is our offense – Instant Attack means she never has to stay on the battlefield longer than it takes for someone to swap her out after she attacks. Kasen is now fully focused on tanking – she alternates between Breath of the Hermit and Concentrating.  At 40% health, Komachi uses her frenzy move – Narrow Confines of Avici, an all-target spirit element spell that inflicts Terror and Paralysis, has a chance to proc instadeath, and lowers the stats of all our party members by 50%. Chen falls and the rest of the party is severely debilitated. We switch out Reimu and Rumia for Momiji and Marisa, two characters who haven’t seen any action in this battle until now.  And Marisa immediately takes herself out of the battle once more with Master Spark, which isn’t quite the battle ender I was hoping it to be. In a testament to Chen’s offensive prowess, it does only slightly more damage than her Phoenix Spread Wings.  Meanwhile, Momiji hits with Rabies Bite for unspectacular but steady damage. Our party is almost on its last legs, but so is Komachi, and after a couple more rounds without Komachi managing to knock anyone else out, the battle ends.  Ow, ow, ow... Yea, as I thought, I'm no match against for all the people you gathered... Really... Why did you turn hostile on us so suddenly? Couldn't you have gone about this in some other way? Hahaha, no, no. To tell you the truth, Lady Eiki was saying that "If Reimu's group was to come this way, you should collaborate with them to resolve the situation". But, if all the members of your group happened to be weaklings, it would be really annoying for me to follow you, don't you think? So I thought to myself, "Why not be evil and have them do a test of strength"? So I wonder now, did we pass "Lady" Komachi's trial? Aww, that's so mean. Don't be so sarcastic, okay? The results are easy enough to see, I was completely defeated. I will just follow you obediently. Tell me, why is Eiki so interested in this Great Tree? Interested enough to be sending you here in fact. Ah, I think it had something to do with the tree drawing spirits to it, or something like that? It was one of the things she said, I didn't understand the rest. Well, anyway. It's good to have you with us, so let's go forward to the top together. Pleased to be working with you from now on. Please don't work me too hard, but I'll be in your care, I guess?Komachi Onozuka joins the party! Komachi is a high HP tank with low defense and mind, who absorbs damage and then heals it off. Her attacks are average to low in power, but have a decent chance of proccing instadeath. With Komachi defeated, the last obstacle to the staircase is clear, and we can head up to 4F. Hey Komachi, you seen Kaguya pass by just now? Or…hmm, some kind of giant bug? Mm…nope, can’t say I have. They could have passed by while I was napping. Bah, it figures. Was there anything else to look out for? We needed to find something for Mystia to grill. Are we really going to help that bird out? Sure, why not? And where exactly are we going to find an eel, here in this giant tree?  Let’s take a look at our newest party members.  Chen Youkai’s Shikigami Shikigami Theme: Diao Ye Zong ~ Withered Leaf First appeared as a stage 2 boss in the seventh Touhou game, Perfect Cherry Blossom, and later as the EX midboss. Since then, she has made occasional background cameos in other games and side works. Chen is a bakeneko, a cat that gained magical powers over the course of its long life and transformed into a youkai. She is the shikigami (a magical creature vaguely analogous to a familiar) of Ran Yakumo, herself the shikigami of Yukari Yakumo. She guards the hidden estate of Mayohiga, a hidden village and the dominion of the Yakumo family. She is a fairly strong and agile fighter, but is unable to accomplish more complex tasks due to her childish mindset. Has been attempting to tame a (regular) cat familiar of her own, but has not managed to accomplish this task as of yet. In combat, she uses her cat-like speed and agility to dash at her opponent and confuse them, and is capable of drawing on her master’s power to fuel more powerful magical spells.  Chen possesses blazing speed, high evasion and average attack, but almost no defenses. She has almost no resistances except to Heavy. Her affinities are average, and she is especially weak to Cold. She possesses fairly high TP and HP recovery. Skills Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Attack. Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. Evasion Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Evasion. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Chen’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Chen’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Yakumo Clan – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When on the frontline, Chen receives an (8*S.Lvl)% buff to all stats per member of the Yakumo Clan (Yukari or Ran) on the frontline alongside her. Instant Attack – Max level 1, cost per level 12. When Chen is brought to the front line from the reserve, her ATB is set to 10000. Beat Down – Max level 2, cost per level 6. Whenever Chen defeats an enemy, she regains (S.Lvl) MP and all her stats are increased by (8*S.Lvl)%. If she kills more than one enemy with an attack, she only gains one stack of the buff. Accelerate – Max level 1, cost per level 10 When Chen receives a turn, she receives a 10% speed buff. Idaten – Max level 2, cost per level 5. If Chen is on the front line, the probability of enemy attacks inflicting Heavy on any party member is reduced by (20*S.Lvl)%, and the duration of Heavy on allies is reduced by (20*S.Lvl). Screw this, I’m outta here – Max level 1, cost per level 7. When Chen is in the party, the TP cost of escaping is lowered. Spellcards Flight of Idaten – Physical element, single target, 2 MP, sets ATB to 8800. 156.25% ATK – 62.5% DEF. Phoenix Spread Wings – Fire element, one enemy row, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6600. 312.5% ATK – 125% DEF. Kimontonkou – Spirit element, self, 4 MP, sets ATB to 9500. ATK buff of (70 + (10*S.Lvl))%, unresistable DEF and MND debuff of (60 – (10*S.Lvl))%. Chen is a high-speed attacker who relies on not getting hit for prolonged survival. Kimontonkou is her centerpiece skill, turning her from an average attacker to a monstrously powerful one and dropping her defenses from meagre to practically nonexistent. Instant Attack gives her a speed boost for hit and run tactics, while Accelerate and Beat Down buff her the longer she stays in. Screw This, I’m Outta Here helps stretch our party’s limited TP, and coupled with her fairly high TP, she makes for a good explorer. Her spellcards are powerful with low delay, but her tiny MP pool makes spamming them difficult.  Parsee Mizuhashi Jealousy Beneath the Earth’s Crust Theme: Green-Eyed Jealousy First appeared as a stage 2 boss in the eleventh Touhou game, Subterranean Animism. Has made the occasional background cameo since them. Parsee Mizuhashi is a hashihime, a youkai created from a human who turned into a youkai out of sheer jealousy. She guards the bridge between the surface world and the Underworld, and attacks people attempting to enter the Underworld in a fit of jealous rage. It’s unclear whether she does this by choice, or if she is magically bound and genuinely unable to leave the bridge – presumably this game operates on the former premise. Being a youkai of jealousy, she can control jealousy in others, and is envious of just about everything and everyone. In combat, she attacks using spells inspired by Japanese folklore, and channels her envy and malice into her magic to boost the power of her attacks.  Parsee is an odd case, a physical attacker with average defense, but high mind – the highest Mind in the game, in fact. She has high Terror resistance and is practically debuff immune, though the rest of her resistances are average. She is slightly weak to Fire, Cold, Wind and Nature, and very weak to Spirit, but has high Mystic and colossal Dark affinity. Skills MP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max MP. Resistance Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases all resistances. Mind Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Mind. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Parsee’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Parsee’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Two-Way Curse – Max level 2, cost per level 5. If Parsee is affected by a status ailment, she gains a (12*S.Lvl)% boost to damage done and (12*S.Lvl)% reduction to damage taken. Final Blow – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Parsee affects an enemy afflicted with a status ailment, her damage is increased by (16*S.Lvl)%. Jealousy Manipulation – Max level 1, cost per level 10. For every unit (ally or enemy) affected by debuffs, Parsee’s stats and abilities increase. Flames of Jealousy – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases all Dark damage done by party when Parsee is on the frontline. Emergency Recovery – Max level 1, cost per level 10. If Parsee uses Concentrate while under 66% HP, she regenerates 66% HP at the cost of 3 TP in addition to the usual effect. Fails if Parsee has less than 3 TP. Spellcards Large Box and Small Box – Physical element, single target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5500. 196% ATK – 70% DEF. High damage variance, the higher the skill level the larger the damage variance. Midnight Anathema Ritual – Dark element, single target, 3 MP, sets ATB to 6500. 200% ATK – 100% DEF, with (63 + (3*S.Lvl))% chance of inflicting Silence and Terror. Grudge Returning – Dark element, all-target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 4800. 210% ATK – 82% DEF, has a (95 + (5*S.Lvl))% chance of inflicting Terror. Jealousy of the Kind and Lovely – Dark element, all-target, 6 MP, sets ATB to 3200. 625% ATK – 125% DEF, only damages enemies afflicted by Terror and removes Terror from enemies it hits. Parsee can be built either as a tank or an attacker, though either build requires some work. As a tank she requires some investment in defenses and affinities, while as an attacker she requires some attack investment, and works best when paired with another debuffer and Terror inflicter. Her gigantic debuff resistance allows her to meet debuff-happy foes head on, and Jealousy Manipulation allows her to draw strength from the party’s suffering, while Two-Way Curse and Emergency Charge power her up in bad situations. Her spellcards are focused on inflicting Terror, and Jealousy of the Kind and Lovely hits as hard as Super Scope 3D, though being only able to affect Terrified enemies (and stripping them of Terror afterwards) limits it.  Kasen Ibaraki One-armed, Horned Hermit Theme: Battlefield of Hanahazama First appeared as the main character in the side manga Wild and Horned Hermit. Has made occasional background cameos in other works since then, and most recently as a playable character in the fighting game Urban Legend in Limbo. Kasen Ibaraki claims to be a hermit, a human who transcended the aging process due to intense magical training. She is generally kind and helpful, though many consider her overly naggy. She is a mentor to Reimu, and often stops by the Hakurei Shrine to help her out in difficult situations. Her bandaged arm is actually a construct of pure magical energy that requires constant maintenance, and the search for her original arm is an ongoing project of hers. Is heavily implied to be an oni, though the reasons for hiding her identity are unclear. Many of the older youkai in Gensokyo are old friends of hers, including Suika, Yuugi and Yukari. Her hermit abilities allow her to communicate with animals, and she often summons her trained animals to battle for her. She is skilled in Taoist magic, and can stretch her artificial arm to launch long-distance magical attacks. Is implied to have even greater combat abilities that she keeps hidden in order to preserve her true identity.  Kasen has all-rounded and above average stats, with particularly high attack, defense and HP. She has above-average resistances, with high resistance to Terror and Death in particular. She has only slight weaknesses to Mystic, Spirit and Dark-element attacks. One of her only real drawbacks is her low MP recovery rate. Skills HP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max HP. TP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max TP. Speed Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Speed. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Kasen’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Kasen’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. Ability to Guide Animals – Max level 2, cost per level 5. All damage against Beast enemies is increased when Kasen is on the frontline. If another party member knows a similar skill, the damage increase does not stack. Guts – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Kasen takes a lethal blow, there is a (25*S.Lvl)% chance that she loses 10 TP and stays alive with 1 HP instead. Does not trigger if she has less than 10 TP. Fighting Spirit – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Whenever Kasen takes a turn, she gains a stack of Fighting Spirit, which increases damage dealt and reduces damage taken by 5% per stack. Fighting Spirit stacks up to a maximum of (3*S.Lvl) times, and wears off if she switches out. Adversity – Max level 2, cost per level 5. If Kasen is affected by a status ailment, all her stats increase by (10*S.Lvl)%. Thankful Preaching – Max level 1, cost per level 10. All attacks gain a chance to inflict Silence. Impact Attack – Max level 1, cost per level 10. All attacks gain a chance to inflict Shock. Spellcards Breath of the Hermit – Spirit element, self, 4 MP, sets ATB to 7600. (28 + (2*S.Lvl))% buff to all stats. Diving Waltz of the Raijuu – Wind element, single target, 4 MP, sets ATB to 6000. 220% ATK – 100% DEF, has a 100% chance of inflicting Paralysis and a 24% MND debuff. Higekiri’s Cursed Arm – Dark element, single target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5800. 272% ATK – 82.5% DEF, has a +40 accuracy bonus and a 100% chance of inflicting Terror and an attack and mind debuff of -18%. Echo of the Nine Forest Gods – Nature element, all-target, 5 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 197% ATK – 74.5% DEF, has a +24 accuracy bonus. Kasen is a powerful attacker with a focus on debuffs and status ailments. None of her stats are anything less than above average, and that’s before taking the low delay, high power self-buff into account. Her skills are well-rounded - Guts, Fighting Spirit and Adversity boost her longevity, while Thankful Preaching and Impact Attack help her rain status ailments onto enemies. Her spellcards are decently strong, and the additional status and debuff infliction is just icing on the cake. Overall Kasen is one of the strongest characters we can pick up in the early game, and even late-game remains a useful member of the team.  Komachi Onozuka Dropped and Low-Plateaued Shinigami Theme: Higan Retour~ Riverside View First appeared in the ninth Touhou game Phantasmagoria of Flower View as the penultimate boss in most character’s story modes, later appeared in the fighting games Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Hisoutensoku as a playable character. Occasionally shows up in side works as a minor character. Komachi Onozuka is a shinigami, a death god assigned to ferry the souls of the dead to their final judgement. In her case, the metaphor is rather literal – she ferries the souls of the departed across the Sanzu River. Although dedicated to her work, she is not especially quick and well-known for being a slacker, often earning her the ire of her boss. She is generally cheerful and protective of the souls she ferries, and will duly investigate any incident where the flow of souls into the afterlife is disrupted. In combat, she attacks with her scythe, and can command departed souls to attack for her. She is also capable of summoning the waters of the Sanzu River – mostly so that she can then ram opponents with her boat.  Komachi has the highest HP in the game, but her defenses are pathetic – she tanks by absorbing damage and then healing it off. Her resistances are low to average, but she has high Terror resistance and is practically immune to Death. Has high Dark affinity, and is weak to Fire, Wind and Nature. She has extremely high TP and decent HP/MP recovery, making her good for exploration. Skills HP Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases max HP. Attack Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Attack. Mind Boost – Max level 5, cost per level 2. Increases base Mind. Motivated Heart – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Komachi’s XP earned by (6*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the party. Does not stack with Hands-On Experience. Hands-On Experience – Max level 2, cost per level 5. Increases Komachi’s XP earned by (12*S.Lvl)% as long as she is in the frontline at the end of battle. Does not stack with Motivated Heart. The Shinigami’s Work – Max level 1, cost per level 10. All of Komachi’s attacks can inflict Death, attacks that already could inflict Death have a higher chance to do so. Ferry Wages of Sanzu River – Max level 10, cost per level 1. Increases the amount of money earned after a battle by (2*S.Lvl)%. Effect is reduced if Komachi is in reserve. Flexibility – Max level 1, cost per level 7. When Komachi receives a Defense/Mind debuff, damage taken is calculated as though she has a buff of equivalent magnitude instead. Regeneration – Max level 1, cost per level 10. Regenerates 10% of max HP every time Komachi takes a turn. Edokko God of Death – Max level 1, cost per level 5. When Komachi takes damage, she has a 25% chance to counterattack with a Spirit attack. The counterattack chance increases to 100% if the attack had a chance to inflict Death, and the counterattack damage is increased if the attack hits the entire frontline and kills an ally. An Eye for an Eye – Max level 2, cost per level 5. When Komachi takes damage from an enemy attack, her Attack increases by (5*S.Lvl). Spellcards Short Life Expectancy – Physical Element, single target, 2 MP, sets ATB to 5800. 195% ATK – 66% DEF, has (36 + (4*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict Death. Ferriage in the Deep Fog – Cold element, one enemy row, 5 MP, sets ATB to 5400. 180% ATK – 90% DEF, has a (33 + (3*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict Death. Narrow Confines of Avici – Spirit element, all-target, 6 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 400% MAG – 100% MND, has a (29 + (3*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict Death, a (36 + (4*S.Lvl))% chance to inflict Paralysis, a (56 + (4*S.Lvl)) chance to inflict Terror, and a 60% chance to inflict an all-stat debuff of 16%. Scythe that Chooses the Dead – Spirit element, single target, 6 MP, sets ATB to 4000. 300% ATK – 75% DEF. Komachi is a tank with colossal amounts of HP but low defenses, who absorbs damage and heals it off while fishing for instadeath procs with her attacks. Regeneration and Flexibility boost her tanking ability, while Edokko God of Death and An Eye for an Eye can do some decent damage should you choose to build her offensively. The Shinigami’s Work is her most useful skill, turning even the weakest of her attacks into a potential battle-ender with a lucky roll. Spellcard wise, she has three physical attacks more notable for their instadeath chance than their actual damage (indeed, the most powerful one is often the least-used one due to having the lowest instadeath chance), and the fantastic Narrow Confines of Avici, a monstrously powerful magic attack that leaves the entire opposing party crippled and slowed, with a decent chance of outright killing them. It also has fairly high magic scaling, but with Komachi’s miniscule Magic chances are you’re not going to be using it for pure damage. Her spellcards can be expensive, but with Komachi’s decent MP recovery and natural tankiness, she can just chill on the frontline Concentrating to recover. Finally, let’s take a look at some of the new enemies we’ve been facing.  When injured, Bomb Fruits will use a move that does all their remaining HP as damage to one party member and reduces their HP to 1.  Shadow Cats are fast, agile menaces that like to Paralyze our party.  Forest Thieves are fast and have relatively high defense, but have few resistances or affinities.  Alice’s Doll is a very fast enemy that hits with punishing physical strikes, but has no real tricks up its sleeve besides that.  The Great Tree’s Poisonous Wasp is a souped-up version of the Enormous Wasp. As name implies, is fond of poisoning our party.  A slow but powerful plant creature that attacks with all-target elemental attacks. Very weak to Fire and Cold.  A shinigami with a penchant for instadeath attacks and scythe murder. Next time, The Silent Coral Reefs that Shine Sapphire, 4F Inadequately fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Sep 23, 2016 21:27
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Kasen's an interesting inclusion in this game because she hadn't actually been in any actual Touhou games before this fangame was released, which means they completely made up her moves with no basis.
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Sep 23, 2016 21:33
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Clarste posted:Kasen's an interesting inclusion in this game because she hadn't actually been in any actual Touhou games before this fangame was released, which means they completely made up her moves with no basis. WaHH has been around for some time, right? They might have found inspiration in that. Also, Komachi's surprisingly durable once you have her regen up, but from what I've seen, she tends to run out of TP faster than you might think, thanks to being practically guaranteed to come out of every battle injured to some extent. Of course, you have twelve slots, but I'm currently hoping there aren't any event which require her to have high BP totals since I never really use her except against really tough enemies.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:40
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CommissarMega posted:WaHH has been around for some time, right? They might have found inspiration in that. There's really nothing in WaHH that would have led them to what they chose. Trust me, I'm an expert.
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Sep 23, 2016 23:45
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A backup tank or dedicated healer helps ease Komachi's TP burden, I find. I can't recall BP events that involve Komachi offhand, but it's not especially hard to farm it - you can just bugger around F1 or F2 sweeping enemies with ease. From my first playthrough, where Komachi starts faltering as a tank is near the late-game, when the damage reduction from high Def/Mind starts outpacing Komachi's HP reserve, though that only applies to extremely powerful attacks that would absolutely destroy any non-tanks. Interestingly enough, a couple of Kasen's moves are fairly similar to her moveset in the fighting game. Then again, when two of her notable traits are 'owns a thunder dragon' and 'has a magic arm', it's not much of a stretch for her moves to be 'summon thunder dragon' and 'punch with magic arm'.
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Sep 24, 2016 08:59
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Inadequately posted:A backup tank or dedicated healer helps ease Komachi's TP burden, I find. Yeah, part of my problem is that I favour the ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK school of tactics, so any healers I have are usually non-dedicated ones like Rumia  Thing is though, Komachi's DTH procs (I think even her default attack has a small DTH chance) are so damned useful I can't help but have her in my party, at least for the floors I am on at the moment.Clarste posted:There's really nothing in WaHH that would have led them to what they chose. Trust me, I'm an expert. Fair enough; I guess it's just like inadequately said.
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Sep 24, 2016 09:41
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