Periodic Touhou Tournament (Discussion Thread)!

[Naut]

Seriously though, why choose an inferior shottype?

Fun

[Zengar Zombolt]

Fun

Score

[Polttopallo]

Why do I think there will be a UFO Marisa B challenge looming over the horizon?

Scarlet team wasn't bad. Sakuya solo would have been much worse. I did like the slowing down of the falling items though.

UFO marisa b is actually fun. its better than both reimu shot types.

Sakuya solo? Have you ever tried Alice solo?

[Erppo]

Seriously though, why choose an inferior shottype?

Again, they have separate scoreboards.

Seriously, why choose the most commonly used shottype for a challenge like this?

[Heartbeam]

Scarlet Team was always a combination I wanted to try but never set aside any time for.  Burning though stuff remarkably fast, very little temptation prolong the fight and shoot at familiars during a spell because the rate sucks, a stage four boss I'd rather see because I'm tired of Marisa's antics.  Stage four mostly because of those fairies you need to take out and still hit the POC.  I may have wised up since then and the window of opportunity for the Border Team isn't so small after all, but I get to be extra lazy with the Scarlet Team.  And the graze milking advantage, but I don't practice that in this game.

I guess there's the lackluster bombs, but I'm in no position to give my opinion on that.

I'm just repeating words from somewhere, but I see the tournament as an opportunity to try your hand at a challenge you normally wouldn't attempt by yourself, not to drill the game again with a cookie-cutter shot type (and I probably used that the wrong way). 

[Zengeku]

Fun

Not fun enough for you to participate then? Enigma didn't even get any competition.

I'm just repeating words from somewhere, but I see the tournament as an opportunity to try your hand at a challenge you normally wouldn't attempt by yourself, not to drill the game again with a cookie-cutter shot type (and I probably used that the wrong way). 

I suppose that makes sense in a way. Playing the game with other shots does make it a little different and fresh.

[Naut]

Not fun enough for you to participate then? Enigma didn't even get any competition.

I don't like IN, not even the fun characters can get me to play it

[Dr.Strafe]

Sakuya solo? Have you ever tried Alice solo?

Yep. Every time I use Magic Team. :V  I spend a lot of time in focus mode. I very much prefer Marisa solo for IN. Perhaps because I have become spoiled with the full-time PoC from the later games. (yes I am aware of the focus PoC in IN)

I've noticed that most of the challenge weeks have some sort of theme to them:
1. MoF & PCB - try to clear the game without dying once
2. SA & IN - get through the game without focus
3. UFO & FW - Naut is an evil bastard.  :]
4. EoSD & PCB - Grazing to boost score as much as possible.
5. IN & EoSD - Tired of Remilia yet? Too bad.

Sure, the theme mainly hinges on the Special Challenge, but it's interesting to see how it coincides with (effectively playing) the Scoring Challenge.

[Zengeku]

I don't like IN, not even the fun characters can get me to play it

Then go score in MoF with MarisaC. Its almost the same thing as Scarlet Team. Except you don't get spread shots. But that shouldn't be a problem.

[The Greatest Dog]

Then go score in MoF with MarisaC. Its almost the same thing as Scarlet Team. Except you don't get spread shots. But that shouldn't be a problem.

It's not almost the same as Scarlet Team. Scarlet Team is just barely more powerful than Needles. MarisaC is kill-everything-before-things-get-hard more powerful than ReimuB could ever hope of reaching.

Just watch as the next contest is a no bomb run of MoF with as few deaths as possible.

[Zengeku]

Sure its capable of killing VoWG before it gets hard but what about the rest of the game, more specifically, the stages? I'm also a little nervous about hitbox sizes.

MoF Is certainly no SA in terms of bullet density so it shouldn't be that problematic but I would still prefer as small a hitbox as possible for dodging PWG.

[chirpy13]

She has the nice advantage of being able to deal with both sides of the screen on stages.  More fairies die faster, less bullets do dodge, and she has way more power than ReimuA.  Personally, I'm still with the homing type because it takes way less effort than setting up your ice for for everything, but you pay for that convenience with a big power drop.

[Zengeku]

Who plays Homing Reimu anyway? Needle Reimu is the way man! Covering both sides of the screen? That is helpful in MoF when again? Unless she can trivialize the Post-Momizi spam I can't recollect any other challenging stage part in MoF. Naturally speaking from the perspective that MoF is pretty much my favorite and therefore have played it a lot and gotten really familiar with everything.

[Erppo]

Covering both sides of the screen? That is helpful in MoF when again?

How about every single stage part where you want to hold the chain?

[Zengeku]

Fair point. 
But ReimuB would technically be able to hold the chain just as well if you know what you are doing. I'm not sure. Still, it wouldn't matter if MarisaC did have exclusive opportunities at maintaining the chain, ReimuB only have to compete with other ReimuB players.

[chirpy13]

Personally I only use ReimuB over the others because I suck too much to survive if I don't.  Speaking Lunatic of course, where I suck too much to survive even WITH ReimuB.  With weak shots the bosses will wreck me, MarisaB is cheating, and I can't get used to MarisaC.  But on lower difficulties I like to go with ReimuA/C just because they're weaker, and because ReimuC seems really underused.  Nevermind MarisaA, she's even more awkward than MarisaC.

But yeah, on my reasoning for stgaes, I've always been garbage at dodging the stage 4 post-Momiji wave (not that homing helps at all here <_<) and PoCing on the pre-Aya bats (helps here!!)...  I also bomb a lot on stage 5, which I find very irritating (even if do I get most of that power back from point items).  There seems to always be at least one stage of a game that likes to fuck with me, and homing/spread shots usually help me out with that a little.  They're also nice when a new game comes out to get a feel for it, but that's another thing altogether.

[ark]

ReimuB is perfectly fine at chaining, trust me.

It's when you kill too many things quickly like with ReimuA that it gets difficult. (I don't play ReimuA so I can't really say for sure)

[LHCling]

Not an issue; you can still stall the (few) key points by simply not shooting, and / or letting items (hint hint) drop a bit before collecting them.

[The Greatest Dog]

MarisaC makes Stage 5 easy at least.
It's capable of outdoing ReimuB in almost every situation. Almost, because there are a few cards where it's hard to lead a boss back onto the frost throwers.

Also, MarisaC has the lulziest Aya fight.

[ark]

but terrible score

[The Greatest Dog]

but terrible score

I'll get to scoring when I can no-miss MoF Lunatic.

Edit: And it still doesn't stop me from having the highest MarisaC score for Lunatic here.
[attach=1 width=75]

[Zengeku]

MarisaC makes Stage 5 easy at least.

Stage 5 is really easy with ReimuB too.

[Naut]

Week 6 better not be anything good I got exams 'n shit so if you pick UFO Sapz I swear

[Sapz]

Week 6 Score: UFO with MarisaA.
Week 6 Special: Get the highest amount of points in UFO with MarisaA.

:getdown:

But really, sorry for the delays dudes. I'll go do that (unless you guys want a break week or something).

[Sapz]

Week 6 is up. Go go go!

The special challenge this week is something of a trial run. Go give it a try, and see how it goes.

[Chaotic Phoenixma]

Oh, my 2 least favorite games in the series not counting HRtP, Phantasmagorias, Photography, and GFW(but GFW is definitely above UFO for me).

Guess, what I'm not doing this week.

[Zengeku]

PCB... that game with the slow bullets and lack of difficulty?
No thanks. The special challenge look somewhat interesting if there is enough people participating. I'm really bad at Shou lazors btw.

[Sapz]

Sure, it's not that difficult if you sit at the bottom of the screen and play everything as safe as possible. If it's boring like that, get up the screen, start taking risks and rack in some points. :V

[Zengeku]

I'm in for UFO Stage 5 if there are others too. It will certainly make the stage more thrilling if I'm competing with other people than myself.

[chirpy13]

Anyone got a score dat with stage 5 unlocked on all difficulties?  I only have Normal open =/.

EDIT:

Extra - Chirpy13 - 684,993,340
Extra - Heartbeam - 687,779,850
Hard - Chirpy13 - 666,962,560
Hard - Heartbeam - 676,928,320

You planned those scores didn't you? >_>