Touhou Project: The PC-98 Era

[@Dragonrealms245]

gotta love those early game's hitboxes

[@CreamPuffssz]

Lmao

[@danteshi]

Zun: "If you forgot something it's not important" Pc98: Mima: Rin satsuki:

[@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit]

Shinki: Sariel: (the list can continue deeper)

[@roslidarose9666]

Orange Elly Singyoku (M, F, B) Evil eye thing Meira

[@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit]

@@roslidarose9666 (Evil Eye Sigma) Mai: Sara: Rika: Kurumi:

[@sorayazamora6445]

Four magic stones:

[@television3272]

@@sorayazamora6445 hey wait what happened to the fifth magic stone

[@DrillimationSystems]

I have taken on a mission: to port all five PC-98 Touhou Project games to Windows. I'm doing them in the style of NES games. The first three games are done; the fourth one is halfway through development.

[@mr.cup6yearsago211]

Best of luck.

[@auralunaprettycure]

Do you have a link to the website to download your ports / where we can get them?

[@dragonusmolamola4140]

im posting a comment just in case you have an update some day

[@DrillimationSystems]

@@dragonusmolamola4140 All games are done. The project was finished in June 2022.

[@HoldmyApplejuice]

@@DrillimationSystems link???

[@AspreyFM]

So quick correction for Mystic Square. The Dream system is back, but not the items themselves. I didn't go over it very clearly since it's exclusively for scoring, the only effect it has on regular play is the screen clearing that happens when it maxes out. Sorry for the trouble! EDIT: Turns out they do exist but are rare drops that fill the bar instantly. My B once more

[@Xnoob545]

I only have the first five games I don't see how people start with windows games, I thought they were all paid and not abandonware

[@Spaztron64]

Nothing puts a smile to my face more than seeing PC-98 2hu get so much attention lately. Thanks for using my projects btw, I'm glad to see that the anti-epileptic HRtP mod wasn't a waste of time. It was initially meant for GDQ, until we got rejected in favor of an EoSD speedrun....no I am not kidding.

[@systemrestart120]

So there ARE speedruns of Touhou....... I do speedruns and love Touhou, so I wondered about that......... I actually thought about doing one for HRtP, since it seems to make more sense than speedrunning a schmup.........

[@auralunaprettycure]

Shooters on the Pc 98 are straight up amazing and they deserve more love, especially since a lot of these games were never ported to any other platform besides it

[@yeasstt]

How exactly does one speedrun EoSD?? It's basically an autoscroller... HRtP is way better as a speed game

[@alanguvi7148]

Can you give a link for the anti epileptic mod?

[@heiwuniao7550]

@@yeasstt speedkill and bomb the bosses, the stages don't matter

[@Thatmoosecaishen]

I love when the PC-98 era gets recognized more, especially when we can see Elly, the person who’s theme got remixed and overly popular, truly a bad apple

[@cashcloakburmy]

Fun fact about the cheeto bullets! The game forgets to clear their hitboxes from memory. So, if you beat Stage 4 while a cheeto bullet is on screen, then when Shinki does her cheeto bullet attack and your hitbox overlaps with the stage 4 bullet’s position, you’ll die from seemingly nothing!

[@oosha2000]

Happened to me once, how odd ! Best solution is to beat the duo during the normal bullets not the homing ones. Problem solved.

[@titouanrobin874]

(Some spoilers ahead) So, time to list the many (few) references to PC98 in Windows to prove you guys that this is definitely relevant: -Mima did an appearance on the cover of Akyu's Untouched Score vol.4. Ok, this doesn't amount to much... -In TH7, Alice remembers Reimu, althought Reimu doesn't remember her. But I mean, it's Reimu. Unclear whether or not it's really refering to PC98, but the odds are high. -Alice also carries a book she never opens, which is likely the book she gets in the Extra Stage of TH5, which contains the ultimate magic. -In TH9, Yuuka and Reimu already know each other, and I think Reimu even says she already solved an incident by beating Yuuka? Not sure about this, haven't played 9 in a long time. -Reimu mentions in Curiosities of Lotus Asia that her shrine was once trashed by an evil spirit, which Mima did. Although she is not named, so it might or might not be her. -Marisa's Magic comes from PC98, and canonically comes from Mima. The stars, orreries, all that. -In PC98, Marisa laughed in ufufu for her first apperances. It changed in TH4 to the daze tone she is known for, which might have been canonically influenced by Chiyuri in TH3, who used similar speech patterns. Was never brought up ingame, so it might or might not be character development from TH3 to TH4, or might just be a retcon from TH3 to TH4. Who knows? -In TH12, Byakuren uses patterns basically copy pasted from the final boss of TH5, Shinki, the goddess of Makai. Considering Byakuren was sealed in a part of Makai, it might imply they know each other. I think that's all? Feel free to add anything in comments if I missed it, and all hail Mima. Good day to you all.

[@juaneste4640]

Interesting stuff regarding PC-98's canon status, homewer, are there any kind of contradictions from any of the windows games to anything that was said or shown in any of the PC-98 games?

[@titouanrobin874]

@@juaneste4640 Well, I don't actually remember any *contradiction* between Windows and PC98, however inconsistenties? There's plenty of those, things that just need a little explanation or things that don't make sense within the context of newer games. -In PC98, Reimu cannot fly, instead she rests on the back of her flying turtle Genji. In windows she can fly, and Genji is nowhere to be found. You can simply think that she learnt how to fly, but that's weird considering she is often said to be a natural at this. As for Genji, ZUN said in an interview once that he's "probably sleeping in the pond behind the shrine". -In TH2 and TH3, we've had a total of 5 humans characters, not counting Reimu, Marisa, and the two coming from (probably) the outside world. Out of these 5, two have an interest in engineering and science, being Rika and Rikako. With the Windows era Human Village, it seems weird considering the lack of knowledge in these domains. -In TH4, Yuuka lives in a mansion called Mugenkan, and also has servants. Where did that go in Windows canon? Well, Yuuka is said to live in different places depending on the season, Mugenkan might just be one of them. -In TH4, Mugenkan is situated in what could be roughly translated as "Fantasy World". However, that's also what you could call Gensokyo. Gensokyo wasn't a thing in PC98, so it was no problem, but now that Gensokyo exists the distinction between Gensokyo and Mugenkan's Fantasy World is unclear. -No PC98 character has ever been seen in windows outside of Reimu, Marisa, Yuuka and Alice. Even games like hopeless masquerade, that features every* character in their battle backgrounds, do not include any more than those 4. Of course, just because we don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. They'll exist if you believe they do, that's literally the point of the series. So yeah, even though I can't remember any clear contradiction, there's many inconsistencies, and I probably even forgot some.

[@titouanrobin874]

@Charles Michiru Gallo Of course, but even though I am myself a devout PC98 fan, I can't deny there are some inconsistencies.

[@georgethompson1460]

I watched the marisa interactions with alice in Th7 which certainly suggests Alice has recently moved to gensokyo, referring to it as 'colonial life'. It also suggested Marisa and Alice where familiar, so reimu could've just been trolling.

[@Patrick11nf]

To add to possible pc98 references, there is a currently ongoing canon manga story, Cheating Detective Satori, which is increasing the Mima hype in the touhou fandom a bit. It isn't finished yet so Mima may not actually appear, but (spoilers?) some hints for the culprit of the story are "a vengeful spirit from hell", "the culprit has a grudge against the hakurei shrine" and the unknown culprit is apparently powerful enough to even take out Yukari.

[@christianzhouzheng]

I never realized how much of a "tradition" it is for Stage 4 bosses to change based on various things until now, so thanks for that! It's in around half of the games: 1. HRtP: I guess you select your route? 2. SoEW: Nope. 3. PoDD: Randomized, nope. 4. LLS: Based on your character: you fight the other. 5. MS: You fight the one you didn't shoot down. 6. EoSD: Patchy changes her spell cards based on your shot type. 7. PCB: The Prismriver Sister you fight is based on your character. (Side note: I'm annoyed that Reimu and Marisa fight the "wrong" one; if they swapped enemies, each character would fight the sister sharing their color palette.) 8. IN: Same thing as LLS. 9. PoFV: Same thing as PoDD. 10. MoF: Nope. 11. SA: Satori does exactly the same thing as Patchy, but her spell cards are based on your youkai partner's previously used spell cards (e.g. copies Yukari's Black Death Butterfly as Double Black Death Butterfly when playing as ReimuA). 12. UFO: Nope. 13. TD: Nope. 14. DDC: The Tsukumo Sister you fight is based on whether you selected an A- or B-type shot. 15. LoLK: Nope. 16. HSiFS: Nope. 17. WBaWC: Nope. 18. UM: Nope. So I guess the trend has sort of died off recently? I dunno, it's a cool gimmick and gives a reason to play as different characters/shot types. You might want to see different spell cards, or just do it for strategic reasons (Merlin Prismriver's annoying curvy lasers were the reason I didn't play as Sakuya in PCB, for example).

[@kenzicu5336]

Eh? I got Merlin and Lyrica in different runs of Reimu B tho. Isn't it because it is based on who you attack???

[@christianzhouzheng]

@@kenzicu5336 The first two nonspells are purely based on character choice, then the next nonspell and spell are based on who you deal the most damage to in the first spell card - Phantom Dining or Live Poltergeist, depending on difficulty.

[@kenzicu5336]

@@christianzhouzheng OHHHH I SEE NOW, yeah that makes sense, thanks!

[@lianaverwood9810]

@@christianzhouzheng There's also the Stage 4 Tradition of the Boss presenting a significant jump in difficulty, sometimes even arguably being harder than the Stage 5 and 6 Bosses! I believe this trend stems from the differences in your route in earlier games, and how the Windows games used to provide the first 3 Stages in their Demo Build - the bosses in the Demo were less difficult to entice more players, but once you have the Full Game, the Bullet Hell begins in Stage 4!

[@christianzhouzheng]

@@lianaverwood9810 Yep! Stage 4 is where the real game starts, as you said with the demo ending in Stage 3. Stage 4 usually is, or at least seems to be, the longest stage (discounting Extra), as well. There's plenty of cases of Stage 4 bosses being much closer to Stage 5 boss difficulty than Stage 3 (Satori as ReimuA, Patchy as MarisaA, Reimu in IN, etc) - it serves as a kind of "filter" for runs, where how you do in Stage 4 determines how well your run will go. Stage 4 is also where the plot starts to develop - Stage 1 and 2 bosses are usually disconnected from the plot, and occasionally Stage 3 bosses, but nearly every Stage 4 boss is directly related to the incident in some way.

[@Park-ll6mj]

One thing I wish had carried over was the enemy variety. I have no problems with faries and phantoms and strange spinning ying yang orbs, but it would be nice to have the same variety.

[@yurifairy2969]

i would at least appreciate more fairy types, there's only a few unique ones per game

[@zierin705]

I started my dive into the Touhou rabbit hole with the PC-98 games, and I'm planning on playing EoSD sometime soon. Wish me luck. Lord knows I'll need a lot of it…

[@parupuri4993]

Good luck! Actually it's the bit of the opposite for me... I played a lot of the Windows games, but never the PC-98 games as much... and with my new Macbook that can't run any PC-98 emulator for some reason, it's a bit messy for me :/ Though I'm sure it won't take you too long getting used to the Windows games, i'd say you already have a head start from playing the OGs haha, hope you have fun with EoSD!

[@Burn_Angel]

I guess by this point you may already have played some Windows games now. I'd tell you to start by Touhou 8, which is one of the easiest of the Classic Windows era, but you probably have played it already.

[@zierin705]

@@Burn_Angel Actually, my laptop broke, so I haven't been able to play it. :(

[@Burn_Angel]

@@zierin705 Oh... Well, if you're able to get it fixed, I'd recommend you to start with Touhou 8 for the Windows era then. It has a lot more bullets on screen than 6 and 7, yet it's fairly easier than those two. Touhou 9 is very similar to Touhou 3, but with prettier graphics and different characters. I personally prefer Touhou 3 though. Touhou 6 is very similar to Touhou 5, but, like Touhou 9, the main difference is graphics and characters. Touhou 7 starts the thing that shows you your hitbox, and has a couple of gimmicks that I personally don't like that much. Touhou 7.5 is the first fighting game in the series. Not gonna explain this one to you, experience it yourself as soon as you can.

[@poledra4153]

In touhou 1 there's a special action not mentionned If during a kick you release the direction and shoot, you stop the kick and shoot a barrage of shots Also, i'm pretty sure in touhou 2 you get shot more easily, but i don't know if it's the bullet hitboxes your hitbox or just the hitbox moving after dying. I'm happy to finally know how to do the big attack in PoDD. Saw someone do it, but i had no idea how LLS is my first game simply because my brother downloaded it and i did too. It has the easiest final boss ever since i beat it second try and it was my first final boss. The bomb in this game attract the items to you so it's best to go to the top to make them have max value. The extra stage has a lot of homing attacks if you don't know them the stage is really hard The cheetos are horrible espiecially against Alice extra. Also, i had a bug that softlocked MS at the extra credits but i haven't the patience to do it again yet Great vid, i love seeing pc98 stuff

[@systemrestart120]

A tip for Alice's cheeto attack: if you stay at the bottom of the screen while she's shooting them one by one, and wait for them to get right above you, then dodge to the side, they won't turn to follow you and simply leave the screen. So just wait as long as possible to dodge left or right, and then when she shoots out a ton at once, move up to be directly below her, and the cheetos won't follow you and you'll do massive damage, ending the phase very quickly.

[@PoisonedPocky]

The fact that Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream and Flower View are pretty much Twinkle Star Sprites with a Touhou skin is worth mentioning, especially if one wanted to play another game like them.

[@decalcomanie123]

I have always really, really loved the cover art of Mystic Square. It gives off a unique wholesome vibe fitting the whole series. Usually you'd only see something like this in the good ending of a Windows TH game. Oh also, amazing video just like the one you did for the windows games! It really shows how passionate you are towards this series.

[@xJuaneeet]

This video anímate me to finally look at the PC-98 series, it's really interesting and surprising for the time ZUN made them, because they look as good as the Windows series when you look at them closely. Also, good vid as always!

[@GENOSAD]

So, my first interaction with Touhou was actually Highly Responsive to Prayers. Yes, I had heard of the other games, yes, I was somewhat familiar with the characters, and yes, people told me not to start with it. I started with it anyway, and I honestly thought it was a lot of fun.

[@EbullientSMP]

Been waiting for something like this! It's PC98 Touhou has always been an interesting part of history that's nice to see get spotlight, especially with the mobage bringing the characters back into the "canon", this video definitely sheds a lot of light on that forgone era!

[@valivanvan]

Glad to hear some Vanishing Dream ~ Lost Dream during PoDD. What a banger, kinda like this video

[@microsoul669]

This game ost really slaps, it is my second favorite of the series.

[@mathewrogers5993]

The music in those old games! Every time I here the original "Strawberry Crisis!!", The last boss to Mystic Square, hell even the unused Dreamy Pilot. So many underheard bangers!

[@Joshinken]

I was not told anything about what game to start on, and “highly responsive to prayer” is still the only touhou game i have ever played. I might be more inclined to finish it and move on to the next entry if i ever figure out how to save on a pc98 emulator

[@DougsDiggers]

I like the comfy pic of pant Yuuka and skirt Yuuka drinking tea in the thumbnail.

[@adzi6164]

15:07 ah, yes, 90s Rance-style Marisa.

[@KorewaEden]

what game is at 1:00

[@MarisaGaming88]

Touhou puppet dance performance

[@MarisaGaming88]

He has playthroughs of it on his archive channel

[@leqzoz]

Happy to finally see some attention to the pc era in all honestly I loved MS and all of it’s characters

[@gooeyPhantasm]

Great video Asprey, I've been playing the PC-98 games for years but I still learned something new! Fingers crossed that Spaztron64 and REC-98 go well and we eventually get some super polished versions of these games :)

[@johnathansfacew8528]

Great video. Pc98 is great especially the music as usual with the series.

[@JosephHk743]

I’ve come to appreciate the PC-98 era more and more over the years. The story in this era is pretty deep for what it’s worth and the characters are interesting around some of the self-contained lore, especially the popular characters. The gameplay is certainly aged to a certain degree. Though, it’s certainly the foundation for the Touhou gameplay we know and love. 25:29 Shinki is certainly a popular character being the creator of Makai. 26:46 (As of 10/25/2023 posting) Even if it’s not official Touhou Windows material, Touhou Lost Word is actually bringing in the PC-98 cast as playable characters (technically many of the cast were in the game in cutscenes like Yumemi and Mima before, but weren’t playable in the game). Renko somehow allowed Shinki to exist within herself and Maribel has allowed Mima to exist within herself too. It’s awesome representation of these PC-98 characters and their Spells and Final Attacks are faithfully represented too!

[@chipsdonut1]

Really glad you covered this part of Touhou awesome work Dylan.

[@sunderark]

HARRY UP is still one of my favorite things to randomly say.

[@juliakhodko7967]

pc 98 touhou really gives off that 80's anime vibe, that's the main reason i like it more that (some) windows games

[@asherstats]

I once said that Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream was "That one time Touhou was Twinkle Star Sprites". Of course, it wasn't the only time, but i wasn't really thinking about what i was saying when i was typing that.

[@nawalathhariansyah3263]

Glad to see more coverage on the PC-98 era!

[@sBoris_]

I was just thinking about trying these games and then you drop this video lol thanks

[@KirbyComment]

HRtP may not seem simple on the surface, but when you realize you can bomb stages by kicking the ball up and bombing immediately after, you suddenly get tons of lives. Then just drain your lives on the bosses until you can bomb them on your last life and repeat the process. Doing that makes HRtP one of the easiest 1ccs across all difficulties. SoEW bombs can only appear if the enemy can drop either power or point items. In the Extra Stage these enemies are very scarce, thus bombs are even more rare. It's also worth mentioning that the tapping shot to do more damage is an intentional mechanic. I remember ZUN does mention this in the manual somewhere. The fireball colors in PoDD are not simply cosmetic. Sending back red fireballs by chaining them with the enemy explosions yield more Spell Points than blue ones, making bosses and boss reversals easier to trigger. The hypers (or by ZUN named as Charge Max Ability) can actually make your movement speed go down. It depends on the character. As you may've noticed, Marisa actually moves slower. Some characters also gain an autofire feature, like Marisa, Ellen and Mima. Also technically you initially need 51,200 Spell Points to trigger a boss, but I understand you may've said 50,000 for simplicity sake. Now this game may be nicer with a focus button, but keep in mind that this game wasn't designed with focus movement in mind. It hadn't even been introduced at all yet. I would say only having access to fast movement is more of a blessing than a curse, especially when playing on Lunatic. Lunatic is an entirely different beast compared to the other difficulties. I would argue this game is actually quite monsterous in terms of how many details there are to it. The Spell Point mechanic for instance is much deeper than what's explained here. If anyone is curious, I have a compilation of info that mainly me and Zil have figured out about this game. Even still, there are alot of things to still figure out about this game. en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/User:KirbyComment/Phantasmagoria_of_Dimensional_Dream_Info In LLS, Marisa is definitely the harder Stage 4 boss. Marisa's attacks can more easily trap you, as Marisa has more freedom to move around the screen, meaning that if she goes low, you can be in alot of trouble. Her attacks are also semi-randomly chosen, whereas Reimu's choice of attack patterns are predictable. There's also more of a learning curve with Marisa in that you have to know what attack comes out after destroying all of Marisa's orbs. Each orb-based pattern is tied to another non-orb pattern if you kill all orbs in the middle of a pattern she's firing. Also technically Marisa also has armor when her orbs are active. I would say she takes about 1/4 of the normal damage. This is also a common thing when using bombs. Whenever a bomb is used, bosses actually also gain resistance when bombing. The bomb itself does almost no damage and your shots during the bomb are greatly reduced in damage output. Also I don't know why nothing was said about the Extra Stage when it's quite famous for both bosses having truly impossible to dodge time-out patterns (though pretty much only if you let the patterns time out on purpose), or about the wide variety of unused songs. In my opinion, the unused Extra Stage theme is the best song in the entire series, next to Romantic Children in MS. In general nothing about the soundtrack was mentioned, while the soundtrack of these games are very good and definitely have a unique kind of style that I personally like alot. The Dream Items are in MS, but they only appear at scripted points, those being near the end of Stage 2, just before the Stage 3 midboss and the end of Stage 4. These instantly max out your Dream Gauge, or give 128,000 points if the gauge is already at max.

[@FanMSMK]

Great video! I really like these games and is great seeing some people talk about them and getting interested But one thing to mention about the canonicity of PC-98, it isn’t some kind of separate world or that the characters gotta be in windows games to be “canon”, ZUN himself has talked about it in some interviews that they are the same world, characters and history, he just doesn’t use any material shown in PC-98 nowadays (because he has done it in the past)

[@systemrestart120]

!!!!! So excited to see you talk about the PC-98 games!!! I think more people should play them and talk about them, I feel they all have their own merits and I would genuinely argue that LLS and MS are some of the very best in the series. Plus, the PC-98 games have incredible music (of course).

[@Experiment121Archive]

Honestly Yumemi in Touhou 3 would be my PTSD if not for strawberry crisis being such a goddamn fricking bop

[@autumnshinespark]

Thanks so much for explaining HOW Touhou 3 works! I tried it a few times but couldn't figure it out by feel. Been wanting to get through it for the final boss theme. 2 and 4 are two of my most-played in the series.

[@R8Spike]

me watching this video while only playing the PC-98 games and none of the windows era: INTRESTING

[@mudkiptg]

"If you clicked on this video, then odds are you're caught up on all the Windows-era stuff." Heh.... I played 7 and *immediately* went back and played 1 and 2

[@Oceano1203]

Dumbledore asked calmly: HARRY UP

[@RaKKiDei]

Regarding the people who likes PoDD more than PoFV... they're absolutely right. PoDD is soooo fun to clear. I never actually fully understood the mechanics (aside from the charged shot effects and chain reactions) and, even then, it's super fun to see everything on screen building up to ludicrous levels. 😂 On lesser notes, I'm one of those who want Shinki to come back and also I'm of those weirdos who started checking the Touhou series with HRtP as my first game. (?)

[@tchitchouan]

Awsome video essay

[@balada8785]

Amazing video as always. Glad to see content with such quality and information coming out nowadays in the western Touhou community, and... PLEASE BRING YUMEMI AND CHIYURI BACK I'VE NEVER ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT ZUN

[@BinglesP]

I love PC-98. I've never really made much Touhou fanwork since I tend to choose more sandbox-y franchises to play with like Mega Man or Problem Solverz(mainly because I get frustrated and anxious when someone yells at me for getting lore wrong), and Touhou Windows is pretty tight-knit in lore with an overwhelming number of characters and settings, so PC-98 gives me a whole new world to fill out myself. The art style is also really nice to me, I love the color scheme of black with dark reds, blues, and purples, as well as the 90's anime style the character portraits have.

[@jakjsjs]

I like the fact that shinki is considered the most powerful character of pc-98 and creator of several characters but in the end touhou 5 cries because her own people do not pay attention to her

[@12DAMDO]

"you may have noticed they have the same release date.. there is a very simple explanation for that.. they were released on the same day" yes i do appreciate how the floor is made of floor

[@Nier2J]

Very nice work on explaining that part of the franchise. I appreciate the 98 era for its uniqueness, there is something that you can't find on the windows era. Also, I'm always so impressed and immersed during the fight against Shinki. I must say that I rarely play EoSD and don't play PoDD anymore(which I used to play a lot !) but still, a nice era imo.

[@gagidoo4757]

how did you get PoDD? I wanna play it but don't know where to look for it

[@oosha2000]

​@@gagidoo4757PC-98 games can be downloaded via reddit with the emulator

[@ShinNessTen]

I really love LLS and MS. Definitely in my top 10 2hu games. The gameplay footage made me want to return to MS to try and finally beat Lunatic mode.

[@FoxMan_FF]

Wow, I had no idea you had a separate channel dedicated to the touhous! I feel a bit stupid for not having found this sooner.

[@Xanthopathy]

What??

[@Names_Trin]

Appreciate your work its always a treat

[@drpibisback7680]

It's funny to think that Lotus Land Story, one of the largely-forgotten PC-98 games, is also the source of probably the furthest-reaching Touhou meme in the form of Bad Apple.

[@eliteasriel4591]

When you did not mention those in your touhou intro video i was TRIGGERED Glad you mentioned it now

[@FreaaGlaceonJ8LCV0A3]

Having recently played the PC98 games. It's really interesting to see how things have evolved even within these 5 games. While I overall prefer the windows games these games are absolutely still worth a play. Touhou 1 is the only one I haven't tried yet but minus the seizures it looks interesting. Great video on these games, some of the things mentioned I'll have to try the next time I play these games.

[@SuperChrim]

About those final attacks that end before they get started in LLS and MS, I actually see that as a good thing rather than a bad thing. (More so in LLS) Let me explain. So you know how you get points from every bullet on screen when a boss is defeated? That is what those low health final attacks are for. It separates the players who are going for score from the ones who don't really know what they are doing as much. Killing bosses with lots of bullets on screen are where you get some of your BIGGEST score bonuses. And if you just continue to fire and clear the final attack before it got started, then you'll be losing out on so many points. I think this is a good design decision because it forces players to be more deliberate about what they want with their score. You have to make the conscious decision to stop shooting the boss and wait for the screen to get filled up with bullets, which of course means your are risking a lot for the reward of a bigger score bonus, and that's something I really love. You can't accidentally get the large score bonus, you have to work for it. That's why I think the final attacks with tiny health bars is actually good design. EDIT: Great video btw, lol. I forgot to say that at the beginning so I'm saying it now. I love your content.

[@AspreyFM]

That's not a bad point. I'm not familiar with PC-98 scoring but I can see what you mean from your explanation. The only thing I would still argue is that the finals should at least get a little farther than they do. They end pretty quickly in casual play for being a final attack, but I guess if you referred to them as a bonus attack instead, the short length fits better

[@dr_ubo]

Got tons of respect for the amount of dedication and time you put into these videos. It's the sort of content creation that the shmup genre needs. Great job!

[@doctorjcw5857]

This video is the first time I heard of any of this. I feel like over estimate the popularity of your favorite thing

[@doctorjcw5857]

That orb game looks cool, would love to see a modern versioj of that game

[@doctorjcw5857]

From hearing your breakdown of the gamel it would be super easy to put this on controller. Xbox. Right stick your movement, left stick can be your different kicks. A can be the bomb, and so on, all that shit can fit on controller

[@BigDBrian]

big surprise to see the first game covered isn't even a shmup at first glance I thought what is this, but after realising you're actually a character with a moveset, can attack, slide, etc it seems pretty cool. It's understandable it didn't return, but it has its charm.

[@Wobuffet3]

Very interesting video! I didn't know about the hidden replay in MS.

[@kiotoonyando3081]

This was a very great vid m8! I have a lot of love for the PC-98 games, there's a whole ton of charm with the early style and pretty challenging with its' jank (for better or for worse). I recommend also someday checking out and or covering the Seihou series. Even it's not entirely made by ZUN he still played a big part in it and is still an important part in Touhou's history ^^

[@Sounanoka_164]

PC-98s’ background are dark but you still can see it clearly. Which means, much more better than Ten Desires

[@raikaria3090]

"I wish you didn't have to wait for Elly to rip up the tiles before you fight her". But it's the first *Survival Phase* ever in Touhou! It's no different to Clownpiece's first spell being a survival. Also a little odd you didn't mention LLS as the origin of the Master Spark.

[@MochiRadioMusic]

Everything is normal until *Yuuka joined the room*

[@クリームソーダ1999]

You actually pronounced the "ou" as in "Touhou" or "Koumakyou" as "o" correctly, respect

[@Burn_Angel]

@uh "Too-hoo", "Koo-makyoo", etc. It's kind of a western joke to call Touhou "2hu" after all.

[@viexseven4136]

touhuu

[@lorenzorentniop717]

Keep the wonderful videos coming!

[@ssaamil]

Thanks so much for this video! I was really curious about it and you explained everything very nicely :D

[@NerdGlasses256]

11:23 Its because when you press the shoot button, it shoots immediately, so if you spam the button, it shoots at the speed you spam.

[@costelinha1867]

I can only imagine the insane fire rate that a TAS can produce then. Imagine being able to perfectly mash the shoot buttom every frame.

[@Set666Abominae]

All the scrubs want Mima back, but anyone with an iota of culture knows floating eyeballs is the only character worthy of a return.

[@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit]

you mean Evil Eye Sigma? That "floaty eye" is actually one of the machines made by Rika [a flying "tank"] If that one comes back, the Flower Tank and the Shrine Tank should come back as well, with, of course, their creator

[@graveyardsmash2711]

@@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit Pretty sure they were talking about Yuugen Magan.

[@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit]

@@graveyardsmash2711 could be both actually (the one I quoted is known to be a real pain to defeat)

[@graveyardsmash2711]

@@Mima_the_vengeful_spirit I would welcome either one of them back in all honesty. I like their designs. Actually, I like a lot of the PC98 characters designs. Especially Sariel and Konngara's.

[@KonngaraFan]

Konngara.

[@fennel1853]

Amazing video Asprey!

[@seireiart]

Fun Fact: If you use too much bombs in Touhou 5, and you get a Game Over, the game will make fun of you by calling you "Human Failure."

[@prayagsuthar9856]

Yeah, some of the text in the older games is...yeesh. In Lotus Land Story, if you get an extremely-low "skill score", you get told to...to _unalive_ 😨

[@seireiart]

@@prayagsuthar9856 no waaaaaay 😱😱😱

[@oosha2000]

11:25 Dude, your pro tip really helped me 1cc Touhou 2 normal mode. I was too desperate to try to beat it in one go. When I tried to press Z repeatedly as if I were playing Touhou 3, I was able to get a happy ending at normal mode. Thanks a lot, I 1 cc'd Reimu B and C, I need to 1 cc Reimu A to unlock extra stage which I might not beat it haha.

[@oosha2000]

Well, I managed to 1cc Reimu A normal mode but I can't beat extra stage. Now I need to 1cc Touhou 5 normal mode with Reimu, Mima and Yuuka, I have already done that with Marisa

[@mrskizzot]

The only thing I know about this game is what I read on early 2000s 4chan.. but I love PC98 games so this was interesting.

[@hydrocarbonartichoke]

that mima copium image is too good

[@daedelous7094]

Lately in the Touhou gacha game "Lost Word" Mima has been mentioned by name in one of the small stories by a PC98ish version of Marisa while Shinki and Yumemi have appeared in side stories for certain characters. They could finally be coming out of hibernation albeit in this form.

[@mitsuhaha5574]

Ugh, Lost Word...

[@KonngaraFan]

Mima actually appears in Lost Word, im not kidding by the way, she is actually in the game.

[@daedelous7094]

@@KonngaraFan I only count it when she has a unit

[@KonngaraFan]

@@daedelous7094 Ok? I was just saying.

[@Mylotusve]

Touhou PC 98 maybe old but its still a masterpiece and comparable to Windows version, it is so memorable and gives a good feeling of nostalgia, they also have a very good ending for each game despite low quality arts.

[@kevinhol2023]

Thanks I completed all pc-98 series!!👍

[@zeltech-alpha]

I started with th01... And never left

[@santiagosalas7088]

I actually began touhou with highly responsive to prayers and it was a very cool experience seeing these games improve

[@Gamefreak2205]

RIP the ingame OST for the HRtP section, forever forgotten & replaced by the MS music room / Akyuu covers.

[@KonngaraFan]

It was remade due to the fact that Touhou 1 used a different music driver, MDRV2. It was very different from the other PC-98 Touhou games. However, someone by the name of Blargarzo had remade the ORIGINAL soundtrack from Touhou 1 and ported it to the music driver that the other games used.

[@Minal_Aurapine]

I got introduced to touhou through lunar nights

[@rylack5608]

Thanks for the video, obviously i will try the old era touhou to beat Mima once for all >:

[@Sp0okeh]

PoDD and LLS are my 2 go to titles in this era; i even love their OST more than the others. i can also say PoDD > PoFV. 25:38 Shinki to LW when? also funni she is ranked *98th* in the 2021 rankings which is interesting.

[@PearFinch]

Yup, I love these games. I haven’t played any on Windows and I’ve always regarded Touhou as a PC-9801 series. Weird to think that it was one of those games with actual good framerates on the PC-98. Most PC-98 titles never attempted schmups - instead, it was the loving home of many visual novels. We love Touhou 1-5! Stand with me!!!

[@kasugaryuichi9767]

Hey, I didn't know you did Touhou too. Loved your pokemon content, now I must find you and give you a hug you can't graze.

[@Xylospring]

Purple Reimu flabbergaster at Windows Reimu holding the YinYang Orb. I will make a PC98 Scene of HRTP characters even if it kills me.

[@akiradkcn]

Zun is a Mima main Lets think about it...

[@ThePedroCrash]

i love your channel, please keep up

[@amiserablelittlepileofsecr856]

Funny how the only difference between both yuukas is hair length

[@amiserablelittlepileofsecr856]

Oh and the shirt bit it's really not that noticeable

[@HyperVanilo]

@@amiserablelittlepileofsecr856 PC98 Yuuka wore pants instead of skirt

[@amiserablelittlepileofsecr856]

@@HyperVanilo oh didn't saw that on the thumbnail.

[@Carpatouille]

Not gonna lie, when I want to come back to Touhou, I always end up replaying PC98 games. Not only are they the easiest to clear and 1CC once you understand them, but there's an odd charm to it that no windows era game has. I like TH4 for its stages and Yuuka who's one of the best Touhou chars with the best music for this era. I also love Mima, both for her themes (especially in TH2), and the fact that she's playable in TH5 and lying and evil, which makes TH5 even more appealing in terms of story. Not to mention Yuuka is playable in this game too. The only games that badly aged for PC98 are TH1 (because it's not a real Touhou game imo) and TH3 because TH9 is just vastly superior in almost every way but the music, otherwise the other games are still solid to this day. TH2 could use a focus button too, but it's workable since you can spam shot and end bosses early making the game the easiest in normal mode once you understand that. Cheeto missiles suck though. Overall, for how old these games are and how experimental things were, the games are actually incredibly good, and still nice to play to this very day if you can look past the old graphics and not having a visible hitbox. I still prefer TH4 and 5 to quite a few of windows games, I'd recommend at least trying TH4, if any, to try the old Touhou games of PC98.

[@ChirunoMarisad]

Purple Marisa

[@remke5137]

I think I may have finally made my dive into touhou

[@Absolbr]

welcome

[@remke5137]

@@Absolbr thank you comrade

[@marx4538]

25:11 wtf glitched hud what do you MEAN you can go invincible when you have no bombs but full gauge in podd there is no way what the HOW

[@hashihime1703]

Touhou 5: Shinki Commits A Warcrime

[@ssaamil]

21:27 holy heck that attack

[@oosha2000]

That's the spark master I guess.

[@satorikeyeto]

Now I know why I got hit a few times at the safespot (SoEW Extra). Now I'm wondering if this is the reason it feels like I get hit a little bit to early instead of the hitboxes of the bullets being bigger (if they are). Probably a combination of both. For the Extra Stage of LLS I have to say I really love the fight against Gengetsu but I hate the fight against Mugetsu. Mugetsu is the reason I play it less even though Gengetsus fight is great. Also be careful if you defeat one of the Stage 4 bosses in MS. If a cheeto laser is on screen at this time it gets saved by the game but stays inactive. At the start of the Stage 6 Boss however it gets activated again (still invisible). This destroyed one of my hard 1cc attempts.

[@KaosSakana]

I'm just here to say that Mima is definitely coming back.

[@KonngaraFan]

She came back in Lost Word

[@isaacroman958]

There's a special move that can be done by slide kicking and pressing the talisman button and it will let you 1 be invincible to bullets from all directions 2fire a bunch of talismans up . If the ball comes in contact with this move it will be sent around at high speed depending on what frame your attack is at i pulled it off with my controller also if you press the shoot and kick button in rapid succession the bomb will trigger

[@robotx5260]

Since Touhou 3 and 9 are the competitive shooters, I have concluded the next competitive Touhou will be Touhou 27.

[@oosha2000]

There's Touhou 19 that competes Touhou 3 and 9.

[@daicha1247]

mystic square reminds me of that one shinki death glitch caused by homing cheetos phase in stage 4

[@EnnuiGoldfeld]

18:10 REALLY FUN