#this also means if Reimu wants to kill you she can just not get attacked while still trying to kill you.

[beyondthebcundary]

"Once again "Manipulation of time" as an ability is vague enough to make me one of the strongest. Much like that small oni's ability manipulate the density of things. It's vague. You know what the densest thing in the universe is? A black hole, ergo her ability to manipulate density means she can just make one."

"Much like Miss Hakurei's ability to "Float away" meaning she can "float" out of reality and become immaterial while still being able to use her Shrine Maiden abilities. The vaguer a person's ability the stronger it is."

[sukimas]

The primary difference between gods and youkai in Touhou is of course that gods inspire awe rather than disgust. I've discussed this before.

Now, the differences between yuurei and youkai might be a little more difficult to pick up on, especially when a lot of them are spawned from similar circumstances (rejection, betrayal, othering.) Yuurei of course die from those circumstances while youkai don't really. But much more importantly, in terms of Touhou, yuurei were hurt, and remain hurt. Their existences are quintessentially defined by their suffering and regret; vengeful spirits are defined by unending anger, funayuurei by their own drowning, common yuurei are simply humans who weren't buried properly and thus cannot pass on. They both suffer and cause suffering.

Youkai, meanwhile, are beings that were initially defined by rejection. This may have caused them to hate and resent humanity at first, but they're not supposed to do that (see Eiki's lecture to Medicine); a youkai cannot survive off of that sort of notion. Youkai are nigh-universally (barring some very unwell- and I do mean physically unwell here- exceptions) happy with their current situations. They exist to cause others to feel fear, rather than feeling it themselves. They do not attack humans because of a desire for vengeance. They attack humans because they enjoy it; because they are defined as beings by enjoying the exercise of their own power, because they pass their curses onto others instead of being cursed themselves.

I think that this a key insight to understanding a fairly large number of youkai. In particular, some of the underground ones; Parsee enjoys being able to inflict jealousy even though she's often jealous herself, and Satori loves the ability to read minds even though she's hated for it. The reason that Koishi closed off her heart was because of rejection from other youkai, not from humans!

It's also key, though, to understanding the youkai that interface with the outside world. Mamizou has every right to look at humans with hatred and allow her life to be defined by it; they destroyed her home while she was there, they terrorized her into Gensoukyou. And yet she loves hanging around with them in Gensoukyou, even though she secretly dreams about how the humans of the outside world scare her. She loves exercising her superiority over them, too: "Ho ho ho!" and all that.

Yukari is similar; though she has plenty of reason to despise humanity, she... doesn't.

She resents their abandonment of things they don't need, certainly, and plots to take it all back. But she doesn't hate them. They're her funny, dear, pathetic creatures.

As with Mamizou, her relationship to humans is simply one of predation and exploitation. A youkai who misses the noise of the city. A youkai who adores violence, even when she has nothing to prove; there's little reason to talk how much she loves the scent of death in front of Okina (who can always tell if she's lying) and Sumireko (who would surely just think it was cool, rather than fearing her like she'd want) if she intends to play a role.

If anything, she hides that violent side around humans she needs to trust her. Compare her initial conversation with Reimu to those she has with Marisa and Sakuya; only when talking to the shrine maiden, who she needs to not see her as a threat, does she not bring up murder.

...Of course, I'm getting away from myself a bit. But Yukari ultimately sees humans as lesser than she is. They are not something to "take revenge on", because there's no reason to take revenge on something that gave you the greatest gift of your existence. (Other youkai we get the internality of seem to see them similarly) They are something to take advantage of to make her own life better. If it happens in a way that's ironic considering what happened to her, well, all the better; but that isn't what defines her. What defines all youkai is that they hunt humans. Nothing more, and nothing less. Without that, they would not be youkai.

Contrast Mima; though she's less developed than our dear current vengeful spirit, her raison d'etre is "to take revenge on the entire human race". Until she has accomplished that, she cannot rest; this is quite literally preventing her from dying, and once she achieves it, she will be at peace. She needs to do this; it is the very purpose for which she was reborn. What defines vengeful spirits is their desire for revenge. Nothing more, and nothing less. Without that, they would not be vengeful spirits.

So.

Youkai are differentiated from vengeful spirits in that they exist to prey on humans, rather than to take revenge on humans. They do this because they pass on curses to others rather than be cursed themselves. The method of choice for youkai barring those with more spiritual requirements for sustenance is to kill and eat humans; those with more spiritual requirements still often kill humans (and do eat some part of the human; whether it be magical power, fear, or jealousy.) They are defined by consumption and exploitation; they have become the powerful, rather than the powerless, and enjoy this ability to exploit. Youkai who do not enjoy this kill themselves.

Yukari is a youkai; one whose interface with the world is quite physical. Just look at her. She is made of eyes and hands. Therefore, the method she utilizes for exploitation and consumption must thematically be quite physical as well. She happily sees herself as a youkai of this nature, too.

For all of the above reasons, it's completely thematically incoherent for Yukari Yakumo to not kill and eat humans with enthusiasm.

[probskay]

Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle Tierlist based on Moveset Effectivness

been playing burst battle recently but apparently no one likes this game, so I made a tierlist of character effectiveness based on what i’ve played of the story/training modes so far

I’ll do a character by character analysis below the read more tag, but this is generally what I think of the effectiveness of each character. also this tierlist isn’t ordred because at that point I should just make an ordered list and not a general tierlist.

Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle is only $5 on switch right now, so check it out! Hit me up if you want to play a couple of rounds, or want me to give you the lowdown on how the game functions

S characters generally have easy access to laser attacks, which are honestly just really strong. they would be easy to dodge if you were playing in such a way where you're moving a lot, but the moment you stand still they come at you really fast and take priority over most other bullets.

Marisa Kirisame has not only quick access to multiple laser attacks, but she also has decent defensive options for intercepting bullets, and her spell card is also just an extremely effective laser attack. 

Rumia: The game calls her “Lumia�� but that’s incorrect. Anyway, Rumia has access to a wide variety of laser attacks, some of them that target in a following fashion but fire at a delay. These are fantastic attack options, giving her great shakeup potential with such powerful attacks. As well, she has fantastic defensive options to just put up shields and stop bullets from penetrating them.

Youmu Konpaku doesn’t have a proper laser attack like everyone else here does, but she has a very fast and powerful ground based attack that is also quite wide, which makes it likely to catch a foe within it and deal heavy damage. Her other moves are also rather strong and fast, albeit they’re most effective while you’re on the ground.

A characters have access to at least one strong linear attack akin to a laser, and generally powerful defensive options

Reimu Hakurei has one laser move but it requires a button combo slightly harder to access than all of the S characters. However, she can potentially make up for this by having the most powerful defensive abilities of any character in the game. She can throw a bullet-absorbing bomb that lasts for a certain amount of time and cancels any bullets that enter it.

Hong Meiling's linear attack is really strong, but it's ground based and thus jumping makes it easier to avoid. Meiling excels at close range combat, however, as her linear ground attacks cancel most bullets and can even evade Reimu’s defensive bomb. She also has fast acting stun attacks that can leave an opponent open for a killing melee combo.

B characters are characters with movesets that require too specific a play style to be very effective.

Remilia Scarlet's most powerful attacks require very close range to be performed, which is a risky place to be. However, if you can keep the distance closed and the pressure on, Remilia’s many fire attacks serve as powerful, bullet cancelling shotgun blasts. Remilia also has a strong laser-esque attack that can aid in knocking an opponent over and giving you time to close that distance.

Sakuya Izayoi has basically no defense, forcing you to rely on extreme offense and mobility. On that front, however, she does excel. All of her attacks come out fast, and she has some particular moves that are excellent for shakeups, being very capable of catching a foe off guard. Her lack of defensive options does mean that she’ll rarely if ever get her spell card out, though.

Half of Flandre Scarlet's kit is very use case, and often also quite short ranged. Unlike Meiling and Remilia, she also doesn’t have the kind of defensive options needed to keep that distance closed. This doesn’t mean she can’t be used, though, as a variety of her kit consists of weird laser-type moves, which are great for clearing enemy bullets and getting her spell card out more often.

C characters is just Patchouli. 

Patchouli Knowledge has a lot of strong attacks, but they're mostly about arena control, meaning if your foe is decent at dash shots to continuously fire (especially if they’re playing Sakuya), they'll pretty easily avoid the arena traps you place. She has one really wide laser move that's great for defense, and one arena trap that does strongly limit opponent mobility, but her kit is lacking otherwise.

D characters have especially limited movesets based on particular gimmicks that swiftly put you at a disadvantage compared to other opponents

Many of Koishi Komeiji's bullets fire at a delay, and her spell card is generally not useful. The delay might confuse opponents for a little bit, but mostly it’s just going to make it hard for you to keep the pressure on. Her spell card is mostly just a defensive option, which allows you to perform other attacks after it’s activated, but it’s best use case is just tackling your opponent, which is not good for a spell card.

While Cirno has decent defensive ice walls, those make up a third of her kit. The ice walls are HP based instead of timer based, meaning you can’t rely on them to defend you for very long. The next third of her kit is limited ground moves that can be easily jumped, and the final third are normal bullets that make up basically everyone else's kit too. She's the only character with a built in taunt tho so i take it all back, Cirno SSS tier

[toho-literature]

Curiosities of Lotus Asia - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Gensokyo’s Shrine Maiden and the Fifteen Fascinating Books - Part 1

Gensokyo, blanketed in winter's silver snow.

Rinnosuke, the owner of an antique store by the name of Kourindou, receives a visit from a shrine maiden once again.

Rinnosuke takes up her request to mend her clothes.

However, he is deeply intrigued by the three books in her possession as well...

An original story based on the Touhou series has finally begun!

Gensokyo's Shrine Maiden and the Fifteen Fascinating Volumes (First Half)

Gensokyo shines with silver in the early afternoon.

Pristine snow gently falls, covering the earth and transforming Gensokyo into a magnificent spectacle. The only thing that could be heard were the cries of youkai far off in the distance.

The road was blanketed in fresh snow, without the imprint of a single footprint. Humans seldom travel through this path.

Beyond this pathless road, a mysterious building stands. While the owner absorbs heat from a nearby stove originating from the outside world, there is no doubt he is reading an incomprehensible book. It seems he has plenty of time on his hands, for this is a common occurrence.

There is an abundance of goods and items from the outside world in this shop. Gensokyo is in what the outside world would call the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but there are many items here that belong in subsequent times. The purposes of most of these items are unknown.

"Kourindou" is written on the shop's sign. This is where the antique store, Kourindou, stands.

"Mr. Rinnosuke?"

It appears that the store has a visitor for the first time in a while. I wanted to continue reading, but "customers are gods", so I couldn't just pretend to be out.

"You're in there, aren't you?"

The goddess dressed in red had no need to bother preventing my potential ruse as she was already behind me.

"Oh, it's just you, Reimu. Don't I always tell you not to just walk into my living room uninvited?"

"Forget that, just listen to me. I ran into a bit of trouble, so..."

This is her. The girl in red before my eyes who doesn't listen to a word anyone says. Her name is Reimu Hakurei. She's the only shrine maiden in Gensokyo, but from her actions one would doubt whether she's truly a shrine maiden or not. Pardon the late introduction, but I'm Rinnosuke Morichika. I run this antique store. As Reimu brushed the snow off her shoulders she started chattering away.

"I went out to the village to shop today. For what? I was running out of tea, so I figured I should buy some before the lack of tea gets bad enough to kill me. Well, I won't die, but-- Hey, are you listening to me?"

"You don't listen to me, so I'm not listening to you," is what I wanted to say but, "Yeah, I'm listening," is what came out.

"But, you know, there wasn't any good tea... oh, this doesn't have anything to do with it but the traveler's guardian deity in the village was completely covered in snow, I mean, who the heck was in charge of the umbrella? Wait, which god was it anyway?"

Well, it looks like if I don't give her a little push in the right direction, the conversation will diverge off into discussing the first emperor of Japan.

"The God of Harm, who prevents catastrophe from occurring in the village. You said you ran into trouble, so what happened?"

"Well, I finished shopping without anything really happening."

Without anything happening, huh?

"But then on the way back, a youkai was just sitting there minding its own business. And it was enjoying a book, too!"

I tried to say "Isn't that all right? It's not a big deal," but I was ignored.

"I tried to exterminate it with a surprise attack, but it retaliated! It was pretty cocky and kind of strong. I let my guard down, so I didn't expect shots to come from behind..."

One can only think that the youkai was the unfortunate one. But I wonder what happened, if she was the one who did the surprise attack yet let her guard down.

"Mr. Rinnosuke, are you listening?"

"Yeah, I'm not."

"...Well, anyway, I beat the stuffing out of it and then came here."

Seems that no matter how I replied, I'd get the same response. Reimu turned her back to me and said, "See!" and puffed her cheeks.

"And I just got this skirt, too..."

"That's quite a tear. I see very well why you want me to fix it."

"Right now."

Yes, ma'am. Reimu seemed cold, so I made space for one more beside the stove.

"I can't possibly mend it that fast. Just sit here for..."

*Footsteps*

"I'll just borrow these clothes and change, so hold on a bit."

Gone. She walked right into the back of the store again. She is truly an audacious one.

Sheesh. I headed back to my seat and decided to continue reading my book, but my stretched out hand grasped nothing but air. The book was floating above.

"What'cha readin', Kourin?"

A black shadow spoke. I've had a bad feeling about her showing up ever since my teacup went missing this morning.

"Hey, I always say this, but--"

"Don't just waltz in here. Right?"

Every single one of them... The girl in black before my eyes is Marisa Kirisame. A magician whose speech is a little unique. She gets along well with Reimu. She's a frequent visitor to the store, but I can never tell if she has any business or not.

"What're you here for today, Marisa?"

"I don't really get this book. Hup! Nothin' much, but I ain't goin' anywhere."

Nothin' much, huh? As she said that, she brushed off the dust on a pot for sale and sat down on it.

"...That's the 12th volume of a series, the continuation of the books piled up here. You wouldn't be able to understand that book without reading the ones before it."

"Oh, 'The Future of the Non-Neumann-Type Computer'? Man, I can't even figure out what it's about by the title."

"It's a spell book from the outside world. You probably wouldn't be interested at all but I am."

"Hmm, spells from the outside world... What kinda magic is that, Kourin?"

"I'm still in the middle of reading it, but... they use calculation familiars called "computers", and those do exactly as they're ordered. Of course, those are clearly shikigami, but I'm still not quite sure what kind of power they use."

"Shikigami, huh? ...Hey, isn't this Reimu's stuff? She here?"

Either Marisa wasn't interested in shikigami or just wanted to change the topic. I told her the details of Reimu's arrival. I said, "You're kind of like Reimu," or some other conversation filler while she dug around Reimu's belongings, and pulled out three books in them.

I felt a light jolt. Those books are part of the same series as these 12 volumes I have here. Why does Reimu have them...?

"Hm? Interested in these books? Knowin' Reimu, I bet she thought, 'They looked pretty important to the youkai so I'll take them,' or somethin'."

With the 12 volumes I have on hand and the three volumes there, that's a total of 15 volumes combined. I have no doubt that this is a set of 15 volumes. The shikigami of the outside world are the same as the ones in Gensokyo after all. With computers, F represents 15 and F represents a state of maximum capacity. It is written that when everything becomes F, the highest value is held.

I think that it's natural for 15 to have power. Even in ancient times, 15 meant perfection in this country. The same reason the full moon is also known as the fifteenth night. Computers must be familiars that have resulted from the ideas of the East and the beauty of the moon.

Marisa asked me what I was thinking about as she lined up the three books.

Through Marisa's nonchalant actions, I realized something else. When lined up, the numbers on the books, "13", "14", and "15", make 131415. If the 1 in front is removed... it then depicts the number that represents a perfect circle, 3.1415. This also means a full moon, and thus affirms my theory that the familiars of the outside world use its power.

I wanted to research more in regards to the shikigami of the outside world, but to do that I required these books.

"...Kourin. You plan on makin' a deal with Reimu? Forget it, her idea of value is completely different from everyone else."

Indeed, Reimu is too detached from this world. Normal exchange conditions wouldn't suffice. However, I can still make a deal with Reimu, for I have a general understanding of her values.

It was then that I heard the returning footsteps of the books' owner.

To be continued

[aardvark-123]

Gensokyo Festival day 23: Personal

~Author’s Note~

Here’s an essay about Reimu’s inconsistent portrayal and how the many facets of her being might still come together to form a healthy, well-adjusted woman. I disguised it as a crossover with the Mr Men series.

LITTLE MISS INDETERMINATE PERSONALITY

Not by Roger Hargreaves

I am sure you know what a personality is. Everybody seems to have one. Little Miss Sunshine is cheerful. Mr Tickle loves to tickle people. Mr Uppity is a snob. Little Miss Bossy is a natural leader. Sort of.

But what kind of person is Little Miss Indeterminate Personality? Nobody knows. Little Miss Indeterminate Personality lives and works at a Shinto shrine in a forest on a hill. She spends her days snoozing, sweeping the floor and fighting youkai. But why?

One day, Mr Happy decided he would find out. He packed himself some sandwiches and walked to the city hall. He waited in line for five hours, and had almost fallen asleep when the man at the desk called him. Mr Happy applied for a visa to visit Gensokyo. His application was accepted.

Two weeks later, Mr Happy took the train to Gensokyo. It trundled along for a few hours and pulled into the Human Village. Mr Happy disembarked, which means he got out of the train, and went to find Little Miss Indeterminate Personality.

Mr Happy was amazed by the people around him. All of them were dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Most of them were women. Incredibly, none of them were brightly-coloured shapes with faces and tiny little arms and legs. Mr Happy began to feel a little out of place.

In the Forest of Magic, Mr Happy came across Little Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker. He waved to her. "Hello, Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts-"

"Please," said Little Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker, "call me Marisa. It'll be much faster."

Mr Happy nodded. "I was wondering about Little Miss Indeterminate Personality," he said. "What's she like?"

Little Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker was good friends with Little Miss Indeterminate Personality, so she had nothing but compliments for her. "Miss Indeterminate Personality's lovely! She likes dancing and martial arts and spell-card duels and flower viewing, and she loves my cooking."

"Ah," said Mr Happy. "She's a playful woman, is she?"

"That's right. We have so much fun together!" said Little Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker. "Anyway, I need to go and water my mould collection."

"You grow mould?" said Mr Happy. He had never heard of a mould collection before.

"I didn't plan to," Little Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker admitted. "The mould just happened to me. Anyway, bye!"

Mr Happy was not sure how mould could "happen" to a person. He was not sure he wanted to know either. He pushed it to the back of his mind and carried on.

On the foothills of Youkai Mountain, Mr Happy came across Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni. She was taking her pet tiger for a walk. As you do.

"Hello," said Mr Happy.

"Oh, good morning!" said Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni. "I haven't seen you before. What kind of youkai are you?"

"I'm not," said Mr Happy. "Actually, I came here to find out about Little Miss Indeterminate Personality. Is she as playful as Little Miss Parti- as Marisa says?"

"Playful? I'll say!" Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni said angrily. "All she ever does is play! Little Miss Indeterminate Personality is lazy and money-grubbing and too fond of eating to care about her body."

"Oh," said Mr Happy. He did not mention Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni's round tummy. "Does she ever do any work?"

"Only when she thinks she can get rich," said Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni.

"So Miss Indeterminate Personality is lazy?" said Mr Happy worriedly.

Little Miss Strait-Laced Person Who Is Definitely Not An Oni nodded. "The laziest woman you'll ever meet. However, I am anything but, so I'll get going now. Have a lovely day."

A while later, Mr Happy came to Misty Lake. He found Little Miss Fairy and Little Miss Complete Idiot playing together on the shore.

"I say! Hello there!" called Mr Happy.

"Hello!" replied Little Miss Fairy.

"Hi, round person!" said Little Miss Complete Idiot.

"I wonder if you can help me," said Mr Happy. "Everybody seems confused about Little Miss Indeterminate Personality. Do you two have any idea what she's like?"

"What, her?" Little Miss Complete Idiot folded her arms. "She's no big deal. I could take her with one hand behind my back!"

"What are you talking about?!" gasped Little Miss Fairy. "Miss Indeterminate Personality is scary! She's always shouting at people and beating us up for no reason! She's angry all the time. I've never even seen her smile."

"I suppose she can be a bit scary," admitted Little Miss Complete Idiot, "but she's not that bad!"

"She's a monster!" Little Miss Fairy insisted. "She attacked me just for looking at her once! And it hurt!"

"Well, you're a wimp," Little Miss Complete Idiot pointed out.

Mr Happy was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. He had been hoping to meet Little Miss Indeterminate Personality for tea, but perhaps that would not be such a good idea. He thanked the fairies for their help and started back down the road to the Human Village.

Halfway through his trek, Mr Happy saw her. Walking towards him. With a red bow in her hair and white sleeves not attached to her blouse, Little Miss Indeterminate Personality was coming his way.

Feeling a little nervous, Mr Happy cleared his throat. "Um, good afternoon!" he said. "I saw your friend Miss Partially-Tomboyish Witch Who Acts Cool But Is Also A Hard Worker. She was going to water her mould."

"You mean she's still growing that stuff?! Yuck!" cried Little Miss Indeterminate Personality. "I can't believe her sometimes. Mushrooms, fine. Lichen, fine. But mould?! Why?!"

"I know what you mean," said Mr Happy. He remembered last month's disastrous picnic with Mr Messy and Little Miss Whoops. "There's something I wanted to ask you. I hope I'm not being rude, but what sort of person are you?" Little Miss Indeterminate Personality stared at him. "What...?"

"What I mean," explained Mr Happy, "is, well, are you playful or lazy or violent or what? None of your friends gave me a straight answer."

"I... I don't know! Why are you asking me?!" cried Little Miss Indeterminate Personality. "Who told you I was lazy, anyway? I'll kill them!" Little Miss Indeterminate Personality's shoulders slumped. "No, I can't be bothered... Look, whatever they've been telling you, I'm not it. All right?"

"But I don't understand!" protested Mr Happy. "You have to have a personality!" Little Miss Indeterminate Personality took a deep breath. "Look. Did it ever occur to you that I might act differently in different situations? Or that people might see me differently because I behave differently when I'm around them? Some people might even react differently to the exact same things I do. I'm not inconsistent, I'm just multi-bloody-faceted!"

And who wasn't? Even Mr Happy was multi-faceted. He could hardly be happy all the time, could he?

[evilisk-played]

Labyrinth of Touhou 30F Boss #2: Hibachi Twins V2

I think this is the longest I’ve spent on a single boss in Labyrinth of Touhou

Just spent my entire weekend trying to kick these stupid bosses’ butts. Finally managed it, but I think I spent a total of 4, 5 hours just doing attempts against this boss (note: most “good” attempts are almost half an hour at least).

= = =

The Boss(es):

This duo of bosses is basically a stronger version of the Hibachi 1 and 2 bosses from earlier in the post-game. Most of the same rules from that fight presumably apply to this one (I say presumably because I honestly don’t remember much about the V1 fight other than ‘one is weak to physical and the other is weak to magical attacks’). There’s just more health and better stats.

Looking up the fight, the main aspects of this duo seem to be:

Hibachi 1 uses and resists Physical Attacks (has high DEF)

Hibachi 2 uses and resists Magical Attacks (has high MND) Or, in other words:

Hibachi 1 relies on ATK, is weak to MAG

Hibachi 2 relies on MAG, is weak to ATK

Another gimmick is that once one Hibachi goes down, the other one goes Berserk and becomes much more dangerous to handle. 

Both bosses also use specific attacks after a set amount of turns (in this case, it’s Needle Parade when both are alive, and then another attack when one is down). And they’re also really fast, but also have staggered speeds (meaning that as the fight goes on, the two bosses become less coordinated. And when they’re less coordinated, they’ll use Needle Parade at different times)

Of the two, it’s widely accepted that Hibachi 1 is the more dangerous of the twins. While both Hibachi’s unlock the ability to use Funeral Washing Machine, Hibachi 1′s other, berserk mode attacks are much more devastating between the use of Rasetsu Fist, Thousand Handed Kannon and Demon Dance. Hibachi 1 also has the stronger version of Needle Parade (presumably because it has the higher ATK stat of the two Hibachi’s). Hibachi 2 is more manageable but is certainly no slouch. 

= = =

My Party:

Here’s the party. This party went through quite a bit of revisions. The members present in every revision were:

Keine (buffing / tanking)

Reimu (healing / support)

Meiling (tanking / healing)

Ran (back row buffing / switching)

Yukari (buffing / support)

Mystia (attacking / support)

Eiki (attacking)

Kaguya (attacking / support)

Keine ended up being an MVP in this fight tbh. Keine has the ability to hit at both Hibachi’s separately and her DEF buff can help protect against Needle Parade. Eiki and Kaguya are also rather important to have; Eiki can use Last Judgement against either Hibachi while Kaguya can strike at both Hibachis with Hourai Barrage.

Here are the other additions:

Tenshi was an early at first that I returned to. She could tank everything EXCEPT for Rasetsu Fist, which caused me to drop her, but I eventually went back to her when I realized Meiling could not tank in Slot 1 (Hibachi 2′s Non-Elemental Laser was shredding her to pieces). In my final party, I had her up in Slot 1 but with no PAR resistance (so I don’t have to worry about her running out of SP, I just need to have Reimu heal her)

Eirin and Aya were in the revolving party slots. A lot of characters went through these two slots including: Utsuho, Chen, Marisa, Minoriko, Rumia, Alice, Iku, Sanae, Flandre, Kanako and Rinnosuke. 

I went back and forth deciding whether I needed:

Another speedster (Flandre, Chen)

Another magic nuker (Kanako, Rumia, Alice, Marisa)

Another support (Rinnosuke, Minoriko, Rumia, Iku, Sanae)

Another Eiki / Kaguya style striker (Rumia, Utsuho and Alice are fully capable of striking both Hibachi’s; Rumia and Utsuho have piercing spells while Alice can selectively choose to target DEF or MND, a la Keine)

In my final fight, I ended up going with Aya (because I noticed I was not utilizing her speed buffs for other characters, and was focusing too much on playing her as an attacker) and Eirin. Eirin was a last minute addition. The idea was  “maybe I can have Remilia / Meiling / Tenshi tank Funeral Washing Machine by overhealing them”. I didn’t get a chance to do that (the bosses were too fast, also, Eirin’s overhealing gets nullified by Ran’s buffs...)

Equipment:

I can’t be bothered to type this all up. The screencaps are here.

= = =

The Strategy / The Run

This fight seems rough but it’s honestly just another damage race when all is said and done (it’s just one with more attacker types and micromanaging).

Here’s how the fight went for my run. I had the first three turns down to a science after all the runs I did.

Tenshi, Keine, Reimu and Yukari open the fight

The Hibachi’s get first blood 

Keine uses her MAG buff (for Reimu’s heal)

Reimu uses her DEF and MND buff

Yukari uses her Cheat Move (just as Tenshi is about to get her turn).

Tenshi uses her self buff. I try and have her self-paralyze (so I don’t have to worry about her SP)

Keine uses her MAG buff again

Reimu either heals or buffs (depending on how the bosses act)

Hibachi’s get their next turn

Swap Keine out for Meiling

Swap Yukari out for Mystia

Swap Reimu out for Ran

Mystia uses her PSN spell

Swap Mystia out for Keine

After that, it’s the same old, same old: Ran buffs the party while the rest keep the front row safe. Depending on how the Hibachi’s act, I swap her out for Reimu to do group healing. After everyone is sufficiently buffed, I usually have Eiki working on Hibachi 1, while everyone else is focused on Hibachi 2. 

For this successful run, I tried doing the Eirin Overhealing tactic but that didn’t work out. I ended up, instead, switching out Tenshi for Remilia. With the way I’ve built up Remilia, I can have her doing Tenshi’s role, except faster and with less SP management problems. This ended up being a good change, as I could have Remilia and Meiling slowly whittling at Hibachi 2 when they’re not doing anything important, while Eiki takes big chunks out of Hibachi 1. 

During this first phase, it’s very important to count damage (even rough estimates will do, so long as you round upwards). Even if you inflict poison, so long as you keep the two Hibachi’s similarly damaged, you can avoid accidentally activating phase 2 before you’re ready (just make sure Hibachi 1 is more damaged than Hibachi 2). 

You can safely do up to 20 million damage on each without worrying about accidentally killing one of the bosses. Trust me, I actually tried to do a super conservative and safe run (aka a super defensive run using poison and Kaguya’s Hourai Barrage to get balanced damage) and even in that 20 minute run, the bosses only lost about 4 million HP tops (with Mystia’s PSN).

Once you actually hit the 20 million HP mark, it’s important to start paying attention to Hibachi 2′s turns. You want to kill Hibachi 1 immediately after Hibachi 2 uses Needle Parade (so that Hibachi 2 will have to cycle through 7 turns before using Funeral Washing Machine). From there, it’s just one really, really painful damage race. Funeral Washing Machine is basically a death sentence (the only characters I could get to survive that move where Tenshi and Remilia... and only with full buffs and full health). This portion can actually be really, really random. I had one run where 90% of my survived... only for the boss to use Djinn Storm immediately. 

In my successful run, we got super duper lucky here; they didn’t use Mirror Illusion (which debuffs), they didn’t use Djinn Storm (which is the worst), they didn’t use Funeral Washing Machine (even though I totally lost count when I killed Hibachi 1). Instead we got a successful Paralysis which left us free to wail on the boss with everyone (Aya, Mystia, Kaguya and Eiki) almost right after the phase started. No joke, I was getting ready to unparalyze Tenshi with Meiling as Eiki landed the final blow, because I was sure we still had a long fight to go.

We ended up getting through with the entire party intact (the shot of all the member parties member is from directly after the fight). So yeah, I think this plan went perfectly. 

= = =

Final Thoughts:

My personal opinion on this fight is that... I hate it. In concept, I totally like the idea of the fight. The two Hibachi’s being immune to one form of damage or the other is cool because it forces you to really think about your party layout (e.g. if you’re planning on taking out Hibachi 1 and fighting Berserk Hibachi 2, Marisa is going to be a dead weight in phase 2). I also have been wanting more fights with one or more bosses in the post-game, so this fight should have been totally be up my alley

The manual turn and health counting is ultimately what made me loathe this boss. I eventually figured out that “yeah you can do about 20m damage safely” and that “if you have a super tanky party, you don’t need to turn count until you’re ready to move to phase 2″, but until I figured out these tricks, this boss was just exhausting to fight between the counting and the micromanaging. If the game had a health bar and a turn indicator, I would be happier to go through with this boss, but as it is? This boss was a stressful slog. I’m really hoping Labyrinth of Touhou 2 really adds these types of visual indicators.

= = =

As far as I can tell, I have one final boss fight left, though I’m not even touching that until I hit level 600+ (like the Touhou Wiki is recommending).

[evilisk-played]

Labyrinth of Touhou 30F Boss #1: Serpent of Chaos

Uh yeah, I don’t know how I beat this boss already either

= = =

So I just finished the first boss on Floor 30, the Serpent of Chaos.

Me beating this boss was a complete accident tbh. I had decided earlier this week that it was way too hard at my current level (note: I had the last LOT post queued up a week before it was actually posted). I was running a practice set up when I ended up killing this boss, which was weird.

Anyway...

= = =

The Boss: 

The Serpent of Chaos is one of the three, final bosses of Labyrinth of Touhou’s post-game. The SoC may be fought on Floor 30 after you have recruited all the characters. From what I can tell, it is considered the easiest boss of this trio though it’s hardly an *easy* boss. 

There are three aspects to this fight; the first aspect is that the boss has three phases and with each phase, the strength of the boss’ spells increases (in phase 1, it mostly relies on single target spells while in phase 2 and 3, it will start to use stronger stuff like Ether Flare). The second aspect to this fight is that the boss shifts elements every turn it gets and it cycles through all six elements (in the order of FIR, CLD, WND, NTR, MYS and SPI). The third aspect is that the boss always gets three turns in a row. It’s obviously not the only boss to do this, but it is unique when considering the boss’ shifting element gimmick. 

In theory, all elements are feasible with this fight, but in practice, due to the “three turns per turn” gimmick of this boss, the only practical weaknesses you can abuse are FIR and CLD or MYS and SPI. Non-elemental attacks are still feasible but if you plan on bringing someone like Marisa, you have to be counting turns so you don’t waste her nuke.

Despite how complicated I made the boss sound, this ended up basically being another damage race boss, albeit one that gets very messy depending on how mean or nice the boss wants to be at any moment.

= = =

My Party:

I didn’t go into the specifics last time, but I’ve basically leveled everyone by 100 levels. I haven’t changed the assortment of bonus points, though when it comes to skillpoint upgrades, I’ve basically bumped everyone’s skills to minimum 15k. Some characters are at the 20k mark, others like Marisa and Flandre have their offensive stats bumped to the 50k mark.

Here’s the actual setup:

Remilia is a backup tank, Sanae is backup healer and also a speed buffer and Flandre and Eiki are my dedicated, non-elemental nukes.  Iku and Orin were test characters for this run.

With Iku, I realized that Ran was not suitable as a buffer past Phase 1, so I was testing her Stickleback buff (the next character I would have gone with would have been Renko and her harming buff)

With Orin, I was testing out “characters with multiple elements”. I previously used Okuu (she seemed perfect with her FIR and MYS element attacks) but that didn’t work so well because I kept forgetting what element the boss was on. Orin seemed more useful because of her elements, her stats, and her SPD.

Orin can make use of a FIR nuke and also a non-elemental nuke. In situations where I’d forgetten the boss’ current element, it was totally possible to just go with her non-elemental nuke instead. Orin also makes use of ATK and I have better ATK boosting gear than MAG gear (I have like, 10+ Gurthangs from all the grinding I’ve been doing). And of course Orin is really fast, and speedsters are always welcome even if it’s just to switch characters.

The main plan was:

Phase 1: use my favourite formation (Meiling/Reimu/Eirin) and have Ran buff up the back row safely.

Phase 2: try and get through Phase 2 as painlessly as possible

Phase 3: try and rush the boss. I would probably have to use Yukari and Kaguya to get extra turns, I would also have Iku buffing everyone’s ATK (since no doubt, we would have lost all the buffs by that point)

Equipment was like:

Meiling (lvl 458) Ribbon, Gantz Suit, Heavenly Sake

Reimu (lvl 465): Ribbon, Life Support System x2

Eirin (lvl 405): Ribbon, Pailsen Files, Miogaruna's Scale

Ran (lvl 427): Shuttle Body, Life Support System x2

Orin (lvl 464): Gurthang x3

Yukari (lvl 415): Gold Cloth, Arturos Gem x2

Kaguya (lvl 446): Gold Cloth, Psycho Gun, Speed Ring

Flandre (lvl 433): Gurthang x3

Sanae (lvl 457): Portable Makoto Ito, Ultimate ZUN Hat

Iku (lvl 440): Rizna's Ahoge, Ethos of Bodybuilding

Eiki (lvl 410): Gurthang x3

Remilia (lvl 409): ...uh, after checking my save, she had nothing.

Some interesting stats were:

HP: 203k (Meiling), 149k (Remi), 131k (Reimu)

ATK: 341k (Flandre), 197k (Eiki), 170k (Orin)

DEF: 88k (Meiling), 75k (Remi), 65k (Eirin)

MAG: 133k (Kaguya), 94k (Sanae), 75k (Yukari)

MND: 112k (Iku), 104k (Kaguya), 92k (Yukari)

SPD: 2444 (Orin), 2427 (Flandre), 2066 (Remilia)

(Some of these were affected by equipment)

= = =

The Actual Result:

Phase 1: went exactly as planned, though unfortunately I believe Iku actually died here (she got unlucky and was hit by Slash, a physical attack she had no chance of actually tanking with her DEF). I mostly relied on Orin for attacking here.

Phase 2: this was a mess. On this run, I realized that along with stronger spells, the boss gets the chance to use Rasetsu Fist as a finisher in this phase. R.Fist ignores DEF and MND, causing a static 110k damage. This is an attack I *could* tank normally... but since it’s always used as a finisher (the boss uses it third in their volley), most characters have been softened up and can’t tank it. Unless you have Komachi (I didn’t), it’s basically a “lose one character” attack if the boss feels like using it. I ended up losing my best defensive supports here (Reimu, Eirin, Yukari). Had to start bringing out my nukers in retalation. 

Phase 3: at this point, I realized the fight was “kill the boss before he whittles your party one by one”, so I just went all out. This basically became “bring in my attackers with supports to keep up their strength, then switch them out when the boss gets a turn”. Lots of micromanaging situations with decisions “I have Meiling, Eiki, Kaguya and Sanae out on the field, and I can only get 1 character out. Who do I bring out?” (the answer ended up being “bye bye Sanae” and “holy crap, I can’t believe Eiki survived that turn!”). Meiling stays on the field (she’ll survive normal volleys and can self-heal to 100% by the time the boss gets a turn)

The final turn of the fight was me making a really bad mistake. I switched out the remaining characters left... but forgot that the boss has a certain chance of using something like Rasetsu Fist or Scourge that would just kill Meiling, even if she could tank the first two spells in a volley.

We ended up getting up stupidly lucky: the boss used Solar Light (which Meiling could tank), I was able to switch in Eiki with Meiling, Eiki uses Last Judgement, Meiling switches in Kaguya, Kaguya uses Stone Bowl on Eiki and then Eiki gets in another Last Judgement and...

Boom.

The survivors:

I think we got *really* lucky. If the boss had decided to use Scourge or Rasetsu Fist more, we would have lost Meiling. I think every character but Yukari and Iku ended up pulling their weight. Iku died too early. Yukari got too unlucky.

= = =

The Hibachi’s V2 fight is next. I have a bunch of strategies for that that I wasn’t able to make use of in this fight (e.g. Aya now having ABSOLUTELY ABSURD levels of speed when buffed) that I absolutely plan to make use of next.

[evilisk-played]

Labyrinthine December Part 21: The Yama Is Down

(I totally forgot to screencap my victory over Shiki, so here’s an unstatted Yama instead)

So I finally beat Shiki. I won’t call the fight easy, but it was less troublesome than the Yuuka fight to be sure. Yuuka’s fight is this weird Venus Flytrap of “hit her hard, but not too hard in case you’re not ready to nuke her final phase”. Shiki’s fight, by comparison, is a lot closer to the Agastobrauma fight from the previous floors, only instead of Strengthen Jutsu (and a crippling weakness to PAR), Shiki will use a slot 1 nuke every four turns that will kill all but the beefiest of girls. (Oh and she does have a Yuuka-style desperation move near the end).

The Wiki calls this fight simple and I think that’s honestly about right. On paper, it seems rough; you gotta contend with a boss with AOE’s that hit about as hard as Yuuka’s but with more affinities and status effects thrown in, that also has a slot 1 nuke that needs to be tanked every four turns. In practice though, Shiki is far, far more manageable than Yuuka.

First off: Shiki is super weak to MYS, which means she’s super weak to Master Spark. And if you’ve been Yuuka already, it means you’ve got a second Master Spark to play around with too! Seriously, if you’ve been relying on Master Spark to clutch out fights (like me) this is just business as usual. Secondly, while Shiki does have more AOE’s with more effects and affinities, she doesn’t have anything you can’t prep for; if you have resistances up and have party members with good affinities, she can’t surprise you in any way (not like Yuuka with her Magic Drains, her phsyical-based Arrow Rain and her self-heal).

Thirdly and finally (and here’s the dirty little secret of this fight) you don’t need to worry about having Slot 1 filled by Komachi or an Overhealed Tank all the time. You just need them there on turn four. Shiki has no Row Attacks, she only has those magical AOE’s we mentioned and her second phase desperation move. Any character capable of surviving in Slot 4 is just as easily capable of surviving Slot 1 in any other turn but the fourth. Figuring this out made the fight so much smoother for me. Another freebie is that on the fourth turn, you can basically shove your attackers in Slots 2, 3 and 4 when Divine Judgment is incoming for a free barrage of attacks.

To add insult to injury, the Yama is also slower than Yuuka (with considerably worse delays on her attacks, compared to Yuuka and her annoying Magic Drain / Flower Shot Volleys). In all, she ended being a far more manageable fight and it took me minimal grinding and only a bit of practice to get her fight down. 

If I made any mistake in this fight, it was probably playing my party too safe. The party was:

I do think I might have played the fight too safe. My party setup was as follows:

Sanae, Chen, Ran, Marisa, Rumia, Nitori, Komachi, Meiling, Yukari, Eirin, Reimu, Kaguya

-Reimu is main healer

-Chen is main attacker (no seriously. Once you get used to the Shiki’s delays, she’s can get off easy, easy damage. You can get like 3 buffed Row attacks on Shiki after she uses Divine Judgment (depending on your SPD of course).

-Sanae is support / alternate attacker. I’d have her buff Ran so she could get her buffing duties over and done with faster, then I’d have Sanae buff herself and start attacking Shiki (with her Row attack)

-Kaguya is support / alternate attacker. I’d have her give other characters an extra turn if necessary, her main function was to make sure Nitori or Rumia could get one more shot off in the second phase. Like with Sanae, I’d have Kaguya buff herself and then start attacking Shiki (with her NTR attack). I also kept her for last phase

-Komachi and Meiling w/ Eirin are there to tank Divine Judgment. Komachi’s also there to lay down PSN at the start of the fight, while Meiling’s there to cure any unfortunate status effects.

-Yukari also had the same role as Kaguya (but able to give three characters extra turns instead of just 1 character), while laying down support buffs. Ironically, Yukari actually died on our successful run *just* as we hit Shiki’s desperation move, but Kaguya helped us clutch victory.

-Marisa, Rumia and Nitori are my MYS nukes there to close off the fight. Rumia ended up clutching out the fight, though Camouflage + ATK buffed Nitori helped tremendously as well.

The fight ended up going way longer than it probably needed to (because I wanted to save my nukes for the very end of the fight), but considering Yukari died to a stray DTH effect, and Rumia barely was able to finish off the boss, this was probably the right call. 

...Anyway, now I have all but one of the Postgame characters. And let me just say: from what little I’ve managed to see of her fight, I am so not looking forward to fighting Okuu (I am also not looking forward to what comes after that...)