"Shoot and I'll Move!" - the Touhou Thread

[Shanghai Alice]

So, I know I'm not the only one here who likes Touhou. I _know_ it. Because it's physically impossible to have this many anime fans, and not one Touhou fan.

So... any fans?


For those who aren't, let me explain:

Touhou ("Eastern") is a series of 17 games (12 Danmaku shooters, 3 fighting games, and 2 "Photography" games) developed by Team Shanghai Alice (Which, as you probably noticed, is part of my namesake. When I was new, I thought "Shanghai Alice" was the name of a character who, ironically, never has anyone remember her name), for both the PC-98 (the first 5 games, good for nostalgia only) and Windows (the other 12).

The series wasn't the first danmaku ("Curtain Fire", a lotta bullets) game, and it wasn't the first "Cute 'em Up" (a mix of "Cute" and "Shoot 'em up." Games with cute, anime-esque characters) game, but it is definitely the most well known.

Love it or hate it, Touhou is a series everyone on the Internet should know about.

Additionally, it has a staggering amount of fan material. I'm talking two unofficial anime episodes (one actually very well done), a host of imageboards loaded with hundreds of thousands of images, gigabytes of music by circles like IOSYS and Silver Forest, a bunch of fangames (ranging from a Tower Defense game to a Civ4 mod to a parody of Dwarf Fortress), etc.

Touhou is the epitome of a fandom-controlled series.


And did I mention that Team Shanghai Alice is one drunk Japanese man?

 

[jigglyppuff8]

I actually have a lot that I want to say right now, being the huge cancerous fan that I am, but let's just for now say that "Yes, I am a fan of the Touhou Project!"

 

[Shanghai Alice]

Unleash your danmaku of comments, so I can dodge and counter!

 

[twocows]

Spoiler:

eye gief dis paig the strongest indoorsmnt!

 

[Shanghai Alice]

Shut up! Icicle Fall - Normal is the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.

 

[Legobricks]

And did I mention that Team Shanghai Alice is one drunk Japanese man?

One named Jun'ya Ota. Funny he's used the name ZUN all the time but it's pretty open to knowledge what his real name is from other games he's worked on.

I almost exclusively play the PC-9801 games like it's some sort of scorn against the Windows versions, though it's not really, more a scorn against why many people seem not to acknowledge their existence. This started as me wondering why nobody ever mentioned the fifth or earlier games, so I dug around and looked for their existence. After a shorter time than I expected to spend, I found an emulator with all the games, and ended up preferring the retro aesthetics... Also, Rengeteki is my better-than-Cirno.

I always held somewhat disdain for the mayhem wrought by the fandom... but it's easy to ignore, just play the games. Admittedly though, I do find any images where the characters are drawn extremely muscularly to be hilariously awesome.


There's actually a Toho social group on this board, here.

 

[jigglyppuff8]

From ZUN'S E-mails[jq]基本的には適当な奴らなんで、死んでないかもしれませんが。
旧作に関しては大体ノーコメントです。二次創作では出来るだけ無視しちゃってください
（笑）

Basically, they're whatever-works types, so they might not be dead. I generally have no comment regarding
older works. Please ignore it as much as you can in derivative works. :-)[/jq]

Also, nobody ever uses the social group ever. :<

 

[Shanghai Alice]

I thought that name was possible a pseudonym...?

Ahh, the PC-98 games. They're a lot of fun, but I can't find a good, solid translation, so while I know what the things I kill look like, I don't know their names, personalities, etc.

 

[jigglyppuff8]

Then you'd be interested in the Story of Eastern Wonderland's English Patch. Most of the scripts are also on the wiki anyway, so...

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Hah, Touhou is pretty awesome. I'm playing EoSD at the moment...and I suck. ;-;. I can't beat Cirno without dying at least a few times. D: Not to mention those things in stage three that shoot long blasts of shuriken at you. D:

I CAN'T TELL WHERE MY HITBOX IS GAH.

But other than that, it's a very awesome series of stuff. :D

 

[jigglyppuff8]

EoSD hibox? This should help out. Just copy the png and dll in the folder where your game's exe is.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

...didn't do jack. :|

Oh well, I'm still getting better... sort of.

Got up to Stage 4 this time! :D

 

[jigglyppuff8]

You are focusing (Shift key), aren't you?

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Yeah...

I'll try downloading it again.

EDIT: Works now. o.o

 

[Shanghai Alice]

Ah EoSD. The game doesn't start till Meiling.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Gah, stage 5 boss. I suck at this game. D:

 

[jigglyppuff8]

Stage 5 is utter hell. Just try to beat it at least once so you can practice it like crazy.

 

[Eucliffe]

I'm not a huge Touhou fanatic like some people, but I'm still a fan.

I personally love the BGM in practically all the games (and even have a collection of faves in my iTunes and on a YT playlist), and some of the remixes are pretty good too (EastNewSound, IOSYS, COOL&CREATE, and Silver Forest are my fave remixers). The doujin manga's pretty good too.

As for the games themselves, I kind of suck XD I mean, I can get to level 6 on Normal in EoSD, but then I end up using a continue against Remi. In PCB (my all-time fave) I only need to continue twice in Hard with SakuB, and once on Normal with the same setup. In MoF I beat Normal without continuing, but I was taking advantage of MariB's glitch.

And I have never, never, never beaten an Extra stage boss before. I've gotten to Alice in TH5 (sudden brainfreeze on the name X_X) with Mima, I've gotten to Ran and Yukari in PCB, I've gotten to Mokou in IN, and Suwako in MoF, but I've never been able to beat them. I got close when against Suwako and Alice, but I still lost in the end.

I've played SWR and UNL, but never IaMP, which I want to play the most. I haven't played StB or its sequel either. My Windows desktop is low on RAM, and thus it's hard to play some of these games in the first place.

I've also played Seihou as a result, and Touhoumon (pfffft, who on this forum who likes Touhou hasn't?), so yeah.

/no more contributing for me

Actually, one more thing to contribute:

The fanart. God some of the fanart is just so beautiful <3

/done now

 

[Shanghai Alice]

I love how all the BGM from the games fits that game's theme.

Like, how all the music in EoSD fits the "Danger" theme.
PCB fits the "Beautiful Nature" theme.
IN fits the "Mystical Night" theme.
MoF fits the "Native Faith" theme, etc.

Also, Roswell, you make me cry and shame.

EoSD Stage 5 is... challenging. Stage 4 is where I either continue, or start praying to Suwako. Oh. My. Native. Gods. Patchouli, I love you, but you are THE DEVIL HERSELF.

Also, I beat Remilia last Halloween. 3CC.

And for MoF, I could get to the LAST STAGE with the MarisaB glitch, and then I lost all my lives, and my computer froze. T_T

So, yes, Roswell, don't feel bad.

And Mystic Square is HAAAAAAAARD.


Also, my favorite game would be Imperishable Night. The nocturnal setting, the mythology it's based off of, Eientei... It all fits together perfectly.

 

[jigglyppuff8]

Perfect Cherry Blossom is my favorite by far. The soundtrack has some of the best songs ZUN's ever composed. The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky~♥

So many awesome characters too. Alice, Lily, the Prismrivers, YuyuYoumu. Oh man.

That's all I can say without writing a huge text wall. :x