#this feels like another hint he wont be playable

[dinomitegirl]

GENSHIN WHY ARE YOU TEASING US WITH CAPITANO’S FACE LIKE THAT THIS IS SO UNFAIR. SOMEBODY GO OUT OF BOUNDS AND TELL US WHATS IN THERE PLEASSEEEE

[megumu-iizunamaru]

TH18 Demo Thoughts, Opinions and Speculation.

Gonna talk Touhou under the cut, this is gonna be longish.

Gameplay & Concept:

I'm not a bullet hell person, but the card system is fun and it's very different from the usual touhou mechanics, so I think I'm gonna play this one a bit more than I usually would. The cards have a lot of potential and imo they are nice little cameos for existing characters.

I love the rainbow theme of the game, it's very bright and lovely compared to WBaWC's darker themes. Zun could have easily overdone it and have flashy colors everywhere, but he kept it nice and subtle. This sounds silly but main menu has this feeling of being on your porch after a rainy summer day.

Characters:

Sanae's route seems the most interesting so far. She apparently has no knowledge of the Rainbow Dragon's Cave which is surprising. Sannyo might have hinted that Kanako knows about it and hasn't told about it to Sanae.

Reimu's and Marisa's routes seem pretty ordinary, I was expecting Reimu to be more into the "business" aspect of the incident tbh. This incident feels like something straight from Marisa's alley and I'm looking forward to her interactions with the new characters bc they are almost always hilarious.

I don't know how I feel about Sakuya as a playable character in this game, having her collect cards for Patchouli seems kinda random and I would have preferred to have another character in her place, like Saki who recently came to Gensokyo and seems like a person who would be interested in the ability cards. But it's nice to see Sakuya bc she is a good character.

Michael "Bingus" Goutokuji: She is a perfectly nice character. Her design, backstory and theme are just nice. Her name gave me slight whiplash. Really enjoying the memes and fanart of her.

Takane "Green Nitori" Yamashiro: I like her design a lot, but compared to the other 2 newcomers she is a bit bland. Would love to see more of her in the future, especially her dynamic with Nitori. She defo has "manga appearance" material.

Music:

Sannyo "Meira's Incarnation" Komakusa: My favorite one from the bunch. Her concept is SO GOOD. She is the cool weed aunt I never had. She is a good addition to the series and I would love to see her in a fighting game and have her gambling den as her stage. That being said I think her color scheme could have been a little different so she wont get so easily mixed up with Meira and Yorihime.

Stage 1 themes took a while to get used to but after a few listens they are p fun, Mike's theme is super catchy, and like Zun said it's has this cat feel.

I had to warm up to the OST for a little while, but so far it's very decent. My expectations were a bit high after WBaWC but it's shoes are hard to fill.

The title screen theme is chill and refreshing after WBaWC and Gouyoku Ibun.

Stage 2 themes are the weakest of the bunch imo, the stage theme is atmospheric and neat. Takane's theme is very weird but in a good way.

Stage 3 themes are very good, the stage theme is my favorite song so far, I can see it used as the staff roll theme. Sannyo's theme is very serious yet carefree, very fitting song for an aunt.

Gonna guess the remaining bosses are going to keep the money and mountain dweller themes. I think the final boss will be another obscure deity like Okina and Keiki, or even a dragon like the game's title suggests. I don't think we will be getting another random yokai like in the early games. I would love to have the final boss be based off Iwanagahime but I think "her name is too big" for Touhou.

Story & Speculation:

Very excited to see what the story has in the store for us once the full game releases. The incident is very "Touhou" and a nice change of phase after WBaWC and assuming the intense story of Gouyoku Ibun. I can see the story taking a serious turn after stage 3 like in the previous game, expecting Zun to keep roasting capitalism even more. Sannyo called the cave dangerous, but I don't think she meant like "there are baddies who will beat you up" and more like "the cave has riches that will drive you insane", but knowing Touhou it's most likely the first one.

But overall a good demo and very excited for the full game!!

[notruvik]

finished kh3 a couple of days ago and i have some thots on it.. this took me a while to write, but seeing the general consensus right now im glad im not the only one whos got some Feelings about it. obvious spoiler talk underneath the cut!

before anything i wanna say i did enjoy the game. i had fun with it, it is polished to beyond and isnt per se a rushed product technical wise - which makes my grievances with it the more harrowing

first and foremost i dont have too much gripes with the story and its ending overall. sora ‘dying’ had been hinted at before and seeing how the disney worlds played out i had expected it to happen. the revival of aqua, ven and terra was sufficient and while the seasalt trio only had one scene to call their own, it’s fine, really. it brought the emotion across and worked as climax for their arc. im happy that theyre happy

however, its nothing more than that: it’s fine. the game itself didnt do anything to make all of these returns and happy endings meaningful. it simply presented you one longer-than-average cutscene and a boss fight for each respective trio and had you fill in the blanks. for 20 hours it feels like the game is at a standstill as you go from disney world to disney world, forcing you to do unrelated tasks and seemingly doing everything to prevent sora from going into the realm of darkness until the very last 7 hours of the game where everything happens at once

that feeling of ‘standstill’ is caused by nothing really happening in sora’s physical journey. yes, he does meet marluxia, y!xehanort and vanitas (arguably the best and most efficient encounter in the game), but youre no step closer to the goal youre trying to achieve nor is any other character making any visible progress. when its time to finally take the first step, youre soon thrown at the very end of the plight: you save aqua, you immediately save ven, youre at the keyblade graveyard, you reunite everyone in the span of 2 hours and then its end game already

theres not breather in-between. no moment to let your achievements sink in and let these lost wielders get acquainted with the main cast and have some form of reunion. to make it feel like they matter in the present time. after all is said and done you find the resurrection of the wayfinder and seasalt trio meaningful not because the game helped you connect but because youve spent the past 10 years thinking about them.

this overall covers my main complaint about the game. further on i tried to collect some other issues in smaller points which i think just added to the Experience

to address the elephant in the room, kairi has been such a waste once again. being advertised as keyblade wielder, finally playing a role in all of this, only for her to get kidnapped immediately and killed is an awful move. being the reason sora is ‘dead’ in the end leaves such a bad bad aftertaste on top of all that. since a bunch of other posts have already discussed the issues at hand, i wont go in on this too hard. i do wanna say tho that kairi here feels like the epitome of character mismanagement problems the game is having in general; you dont feel for her. she says a lot of things, but is not acting on it. you dont see her training, you barely see her fighting. shes not talking to sora up to moments before her death, its no wonder youll forget about her until sora brings her up again post-end boss

continuing, instead of introducing mysterious female character(s) which never serve any purpose, i wish they had used the time to develop the characters which actually were at stake here. same goes for the many more sub-plots that never lead anywhere. the time spent talking about The Box, The Girl, The KHuX Survivors could have been used to ease the fallen heroes into the story. DLC content would have been perfect to introduce all these other elements into the present for future installments, instead of leaving all of these mentioned new plot points entirely unresolved. as its stands kh3 is a playable sequel bait instead the end of the xehanort saga

no radiant garden hub world? a huge portion of plot relevant characters are gathered there, why wouldn’t you add this one to the selection? the relief you would feel seeing the outcome of the restoration committee, kairi finally getting back in touch with her homeworld, damn, even just being able to interact with your allies on an npc level would be enough to make this game feel alive. this emptiness spreads out to the other world as well: like many AAA games, kh3 suffers from beautiful but empty world syndrome. sure, the worlds are huge, but theres nothing to do but fight enemy hordes and run for hours. arendelle arguably being the worst offender where all safe point spawning places look the same

minor, but still gonna mention it: sora still hasnt thanked namine and it personally drives me nuts. it wouldnt be that much of a problem honestly if theyd stop bringing it up every other game, throwing out cutscenes solely dedicated to that.. like, come on.

im trying to be optimistic here, but kh3 was supposed to wrap all these ‘spin-off’ into the main story line, not hint at a dozen more games to come. the game overall feels like another side project, instead of a full blown main title which is a damn shame. i already wrote this on twitter, but to me kh3 feels like the point where the series loses all of its emotional value in favor of ‘unforeseen’ plot twists to create this historic epic that paints nomura as some kind of ingenious story teller. instead of providing a story that focuses on the fight between light and dark, the power of friendship, and of course finally giving us an ending to all these characters weve grown attached to over the years, its simply put sequel bait in order to promote a (pretty much) pay to play mobile game. and it left me disappointed