totally bro

Touhou will never die, as long as it stays in my heart.

I seriously still have not beat EOSD on Normal with all the continues, even after spending months playing it.

Good to know.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Touhou players always fall into the far end of either side of the skill bracket (and never inbetween)? Obviously discounting secondaries that never played/tried it once and never picked it up again/etc, I see a lot of players that can't 1CC Normal (or even Easy) after much practice, and then some on the other end of the spectrum that have cleared every extra stage and 1CC'd Lunatic on every game. Yet, I haven't seen anyone in the 1ccing Normal/Hard or "working on extra" phase. Am I just not noticing them?

>>1676
I'm not trying to be good at the games. I just wanna have fun.

>>1676
I think I'm in the lowish-middle end. I'm currently struggling to beat an Extra stage, and I routinely play on Hard, only dropping down to Normal when I want to make a run at a 1cc (I've never 1cc'd on Hard). If other players are in my situation, we simply don't talk about our skill level because there's nothing really to say. There's nothing impressive I could tell you about my scores, and I'm good enough to recognize why I have problems and what I need to do to improve.

>>1676
I think the biggest reason for the divide is because Touhou attracts many players who are not practiced or have any innate ability in shoot-em-ups, particularly those that require any forethought into maneuvering around obstacles.

For example, in order for me the get as far as I have in EoSD, I have to practice every stage until I have I complete knowledge of the series of spellcards before me, spending hours upon hours poring over the game with great attention to strategy and compensation for lag-time. This is because Touhou really makes you focus on two things, which for shoot-em-up players should be internalized into one: the pattern that you will soon combat, and the current debris which is around your immediate character.

For most people here, I imagine that you can seamlessly integrate these tasks by mentally noting the velocity and position of pieces, and returning your specific attention to them when they should be nearing your character. However, many people, such as myself original, cannot "see the trees for the forest" so to speak, and once the complexity of the patterns hits a certain limit, the danmaku seems to become almost an unpredictable noise, your perspective being tossed into the immediate past. Spellcards can temporary alleviate this, but especially in EoSD, the short duration between card activation and death will result in more lives lost than spellcards. I do believe I am getting the hang of integrating it all, but for someone who simply does not see it, this game is nothing but frustration even on easy mode, since the principles which are required do not change, only the application of their intensity does.

>>1677
Well, that is the purpose of video games after all. Keep at it.

>>1678
Makes sense. I actually had the most fun with the series when I was starting out and repeatedly trying to clear extra stages (in vain). The first one you clear gives you a real rush.

>>1679
I think you might be on to something there. Touhou more or less introduced me to shmups too, but it did take a while before I got used to keeping track of all of the danmaku on the screen. I never really found the games to be frustrating, though- it's very difficult, to be certain, but it's exactly because it has such a simple premise (don't get hit) and manages to be both challenging and entertaining that I find it appealing.

>>1680
That's what I fear, which I'd part of the train why I don't grind. I play until I get satisfied with my small progression, then call it quits on a positive note. I'm not a secondary fan, but I am a total casual. It's all about the music, and characters second.

I have a question to everyone: when playing in general, do you look most at your character's immediate surroundings, the while danmaku pattern, both equally or somehow both at the same time? Secondly, does it depend on situation, pattern, your comprehension of the current pattern, none of the former or something else entirely?

>>1680
>I never really found the games to be frustrating, though- it's very difficult, to be certain, but it's exactly because it has such a simple premise (don't get hit) and manages to be both challenging and entertaining that I find it appealing.

Same here. If I did not like it, I would not have practiced it so much. I just think that those who are only playing it for the fandom would find it irredeemably frustrating.

>>1681
I generally pay attention to the entire screen/pattern, unless it's one that requires extremely precise micrododging. I never actually set out to pay more attention to the rest of the screen, I just found that as I played more I got used to where my character was and was able to pay attention to the danmaku on the whole screen better (instead of the just the bullets immediately around my character). It does help greatly in not getting trapped, though.

>>1673
I'm surprised at how many people here are bad at the Touhou games. Every other touhou community I've gone on is filled with scary people who have 1CC'd every game on Lunatic. I just barely managed to 1CC EoSD on Normal, but I realized I had it set to 5 lives for some reason, so I'm going to eventually redo it with the default number of lives.

>>1813
We take it wasy