Did anyone else get this
vibe from the name of this subforum?
Cathy/Zarel recruited me to the dark side so they had another opponent to play in Soku. Well, that didn't last long but it did get me into the franchise after a long, long time of trying to avoid it. (Kinda like how it took me a couple years after he became big to actually
know Justin Bieber. Hey, I had my reasons.) I always had a cursory knowledge of Touhou, it's kinda hard not to being a gamer on the Internet, but a couple months ago was my first real taste of the games.
I was told to start with Imperishable Night because it's the easiest but some of the mechanics annoyed me (I didn't understand the Time Orb system until I came back to it post-EoSD/PCB) and my overly organized self demanded I play them in chronological order. I couldn't get myself into the PC-98 games (TH01-TH05), lets just say they didn't age particularly well (and the first isn't even a shooter), so I ended up starting with Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
And god damn these bitches are seriously
Nintendo Hard. EoSD especially because your hitbox isn't visible with focusing until the next game. I think part of the difficulty is that bosses are more an exercise in memorization of patterns than raw execution (though you still need to execute each pattern) and I just can't be assed to do it. That's not to say it's a bad thing, though, having to use a little brainpower to beat the bosses and for the less dextrous it often doesn't require fast twitch reactions to win. In that sense, despite being objectionally very difficult, Touhou is more accessible to less hardcore gamers. Insofar as casual gamers and moms/pops even come to find out about it, anyway.
I'm just a completionist, so the allure of hi-scoring doesn't offer me the same level of replay value as it does to those who cares, but I still love a good challenge and even Normal is quite difficult to clear unless you're super-experienced with these sort of games. I've chosen to consume more material in less time and plan to just one-credit-clear the mainline shooters in Normal to unlock Extra (which I have played some but not completed any; EoSD is my closest but Maze of Love always gets me...). Ever since I finally got a job again I haven't really played them, so I've only "beaten" TH06-08 (EoSD, PCB, IN). I can't really get into the split-screen VS nature of Phantasmagoria but I did start to play Shoot the Bullet despite it being a side game. I really like that since it's basically a Boss Rush game. Only completed about half the stages in that last I played, though.
I'm particularly looking forward to when I reach Subterranean Animism, since Patchouli as my favorite character and it's the only shooter where she's playable. :[ Long before I had any great knowledge of the franchise, I adopted her as my Touhou because I thought her name was cool and liked her intellectual look. Now that I actually know who she is, her introverted, bookish personality resonates with me and I love the mage archetype in games (especially all-powerful do-everythings like Patchy on a good day).
Shit's pretty cool, really. And the wiki is a great resource if anyone is reading this that hasn't really gotten into the franchise. I've used it most as a learn-as-I-go resource. Start up a game, look it up on the wiki to determine basic mechanics (each game has its own gimmicks), which characters and shot types are available and such so I have an easier time getting a grasp on how to play. Of course, you can look up whatever the hell you want too. There's a lot of character backstories and stuff to read up on if you want, where in-game all you get is some witty banter between playable characters and stage bosses. I mean, they're shooters. They aren't exactly story-centric, though some of the chatter is pretty amusing. As for where to get the games, well... Internet. Not hard to find.
Oh, and the music is pretty incredible. My favorites of what I've heard so far are The Young Descendant of Tepes (EoSD Stage 6), Border of Life (PCB Yuyuko's Theme), and Crystallized Silver (PCB Letty's Theme). Incidentally I feel PCB's composition was overall sub-par compared to EoSD and IN, despite having two of the tunes I like most.
