Touhou 14 - Double Dealing Character ~ Normal Clear as Sakuya B

It's not really one of my favorite installments in the Touhou Project but it has eventually grown a bit on me, even if it's a bit aggressive compared to the older titles, even early on.
A big thanks to R543 for helping me upload this video!
The game starts out by showing you how unrelated youkai are revolting and being violent for no real reason. This is the biggest weakness of the game, where a bunch of random youkai are attacking you with no theme or rhyme to them. The game picks up however beginning with a classic (or a variation of a classic) Stage 4 encounter, an elaborate Stage 5 and a powerful Stage 6. I've also seen the other characters and how their B loadouts resemble their loadout in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom (and Reimu's in TD as well). I'm worried if this SakuyaB loadout is the default for her in the modern one-loadout Touhou games, or at least the upcoming ones. Especially not when Sakuya in the earlier games was a great character to play as with a great range and homing or controllable knives.
But that's not the part that deserves all the attention. Stage 5 of Double Dealing Character is something to talk about, thanks to the main idea of its resident boss. For Seija Kijin's first two reversing spellcards, the secret is not to move vertically, ever. While the screen is flipped, you must minimize your movement to minimize mistakes, and only horizontal movement is essential to dodge her bullets. She's also the reason why the video thumbnail is special (and I love it, no regrets, with the angry Sakuya even more fitting for it). Stage 6 on the other hand has Shinmyoumaru Sukuna who knows how to use knives far, far, far, FAR better than even Sakuya Izayoi herself. I simply believe she's up there as one of the most difficult Stage 6 bosses there is.
The game's main mechanic is a magnet to people like me who aggressively make use of the point of collection. Even using a spellcard activates the game's mechanic which makes obtaining life and bomb pieces a joy. If ZUN uses the piece system, very likely in TH16 - Hidden Star in Four Seasons, he should take inspiration from how this game did it.
Replay file:
db.tt/VMViMQ2TTD
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Double Dealing Character and the Touhou Project are copyright Team Shanghai Alice, 2013. All rights reserved.

[@pawble]

i thought wakasagihime said michael jackson for some reason

[@infernal-toad]

My least favorite Windows Touhou game is Ten Desires while this is a close second honestly.

[@thangnguyenduy2608]

Why though

[@infernal-toad]

@@thangnguyenduy2608 I partically changed my mind. And now know how awesome the stage music is.

[@r543Blitzsonic]

DDC isn't one of your favorites? I thought you found it ok at first(for me at first it seemed somewhat average, that's without playing it, the characters, well mostly those "modern colors" seem to not stick out too much, maybe it's simply the lack of saturation, no special gimmick, which is alright by me, sadly life pieces, as for bosses they looked alright, guess Seija can be a interesting boss but I think that either the spellcards are easy for one or hard due to how they work, not the most ideal thing?) As for now, I don't dislike it, but neither am I a fan of it's apparently harder difficulty. Wonder why you didn't upload the Sakuya A run first, or did I miss out on that? No problem with helping with the upload, even if it was a very large file, would prefer if it was kept smaller next time around. True, I guess some of the Youkai designs here are interesting, but if you're throwing in forgettable characters, and using memorable ones like Cirno as midboss, then you do have a flaw in the system, having Wakashagihime as midboss and Cirno as actual boss would've worked well, although later it would've been odd, related to the story and all. Having Seija as final boss also might have been more interesting. I guess this Sakuya was thrown together without putting too much detail into the modern concept, most likely Zun made the gimmick but wanted to keep the old playstyles, which are the B loadouts, as for Sakuya, "nothing" existed, maybe he simply wanted something new or didn't like her PCB one anymore. Might also have to do with a change of the orb system(the 4 orb ones which were carried over from MoF) Ah, so you minimized movement, I see, thought you had no trouble with the inverted controls. Wonder how aggressively the Point of Collection needs to be used, can really be deadly and personally it's not my favorite ways of obtaining 1ups, although it's a somewhat nice take on the classics(sadly forcing high PoC use)

[@PookaMustard]

DDC is a bit average, but if you let it grow on you, it can become better. Probably the color and tone of the game? But yeah, it's a bit tricky compared to your average Touhou, but not as tough as Subterranean Animism or as unfair as Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, or as tricky as Undefined Fantastic Object. I didn't upload the Sakuya A clear run because I didn't save a replay of it. When the replay screen opened, instead of hitting Z on a replay to save a file like normal people, I hit X. Poof went the replay to oblivion. However, know that this run has contributed to my progress by unlocking the Extra stage, so that is in its memory. Yeah, I'll try to keep huge uploads smaller or split the video files itself into parts. The youkai in the beginning are interesting but they somehow feel off compared to the previous ones. There is no clear reason for it, but yeah, they're best summarized in being more forgettable than the rest. Seija as a final boss would've been just as evil as well, thanks to her mechanic. I'm honestly not sure why Sakuya B is like this, and I sure don't want this kind of loadout to be the default for her. Kinda kills what made her feel great in PCB. At least he could have made her Sakuya B from DDC. Actually I do have trouble with the inverted controls as my head is pre-programmed to the directions. So when a dense barrage rains down on me and the game is directly messing with my brain, minimizing my involvement is the way to go. Well, at least the PoC mechanic is a lot more forgiving than Ten Desire's spirit mechanic which gave you few lives and bombs no matter what you did. Whether it's easier or harder than LoLK's graze to earn bomb/life pieces mechanic is up to you.

[@r543Blitzsonic]

Ah I see, I've seen how UFO can be and played through LoLK on Pointdevice, so I might be able to do it without it taking ages. Ah right, that happened, ouch. Always painful when such things happen(accidrently overwrote a ISC replay once, does the cursor always go to the first file or does it jump to the next free? it does the former for me) Would've been nice if Zun one day redid the games(while still keeping everything like it originally was, just cleaned up and done proper, so no stupid no aero available or lock screen crashes) and added some kind of confirm screen "do you really not want to save a replay?" that could be enabled in the options(3 settings, never ask, only on game/stage clear, always ask, as well as a setting if it should ask for practice) Upload was still nice through, quite nice to do that. Ah, maybe it is the color and all making them not stand out as much? Neither would I want that loadout, in fact, the modern system, or well, more like what was patched over after modern 1(MoF/SA) ended, as in, the stupid 1 power from blocks, 4.00 -0.5 on hit and 4 orbs. Sakuya B from DDC? you meant PCB? nah I think that would've still been a bit odd, but yeah. Think I'd have problems with the inverted directions as well. Ouch really, TD was that bad with it? hoped for the opposite. Never grazed too much in LoLK unless I had to, so don't know about that, should maybe do some stage practice.

[@PookaMustard]

Pretty much DDC's difficulty comes from the dense patterns Yatsuhashi and Benben employ, the reverse spellcards and non-spells that Seija uses, and the sheer difficulty of Shinmyoumaru. I could say that Raiko is a bit average for an Extra boss, although she has one of the evillest survival spellcards still is. Well yeah, that replay was gone into the oblivion. Wish I was able to recover it, but hey, at least I have a video up as the harder Sakuya B. The cursor always starts at the first replay slot. Yeah, would be nice if ZUN just fixed most of the issues in the games. They don't have to be fixes for obscure bugs, just common issues that were left for too long. Yeah, but still it's pretty difficult to focus all your effort on uploading one gigantic video when you could upload a couple smaller videos that could see pretty much more views since they're shorter. Such as the Raiko survival spellcard. Yeah, 0.01 power from each power block is way too low. 0.05 power per block felt great and didn't take ages to see a powerup. Recovery in stages was pretty fast as well, and the block count was reasonable unlike in the modern games where you see TONS raining and possibly covering your vision. The more, the merrier, but too merry is a mess. Yes, from PCB, sorry. That's why I don't move vertically unless I have to. Makes getting used to it a hecklot easier. Ten Desires is easy, but don't die too much because the game is very stingy on lives. In fact, getting lives in Subterranean Animism and even Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom is *EASIER* than in Ten Desires. LoLK has the chapter end bonus. If it exceeds 1 million points, you get a life piece in Legacy Mode or a spell piece in PointDevice Mode. LoLK rewards the most points per chapter end for grazing, but you need to also have enough fairies shot down (or a boss's non-spell/spellcard finished normally) to increase the enemies shot down rate to be as close to 100% to increase your bonus multiplier. By grazing AND shooting everything down, you can get those 1 million points for each chapter. To help you with this, you can graze a bullet multiple times in LoLK.

[@r543Blitzsonic]

I remember seeing a spellcard in ISC just to see it a few days later in DDC. So the first few are easy and it's stage 4-6 that picks it up? Yeah, her Survivial Spellcard... Yeah, I don't think there are any obscure bugs, even the stuff such as PoFV's saving might just need a comparison with the save code from the game before and after to find the error. true, although it wasn't as bad and I did focus on it, giving it a high priority. LoLK had a lot rain, I remember that. I wouldn't mind if they gave one if you wouldn't lose that much on hit and instantly power down, the classic's 1 power and max power of 128 was great as well, dunno if big power blocks existed in modern Touhou even, I do know that MoF and SA have them for the power bomb system, but dunno after that. YT doesn't destroy the comment if you click "show more" anymore, well now, it might do it again tomorrow, or the day after that, who knows... Hide and Show replies hides the comment box but it doesn't delete the content. Last Seija Spellcard does require diagonal movement through? Ouch, sounds like TD is really hell regarding that, even LoLK and SA make it easier... I do know about the LoLK system, just didn't use it much. So it's 1 million points? I remember it depending on graze and shot down rate, the latter needing to be high because 100%=1.00 multiplier. guess spellcards count as well, but only if captured? Yeah, bullets can be grazed up to 3 times(the special graze which creates those stars from what I remember, think ISC had them as well) does have some kind of timer from what I remember and you really need to be close to it, more than regular grazes I think, had it happen in LoLK.

[@PookaMustard]

First few easy, yes. Yes. Her survival spellcard. Despite its deadly first phase, you are better position to capture Flandre's instead. By obscure bugs I mean bugs that aren't noticeable this easily. Yeah, thank you for giving the video a high priority. Really appreciate it. There are full power blocks in the later games occasionally. Like the giant one in LoLK's extra. Yeah, KZbin comments are getting weirder. Seija's last spellcard needs you to go diagonally or cover the entire horizontal span of the screen. One of those spellcards where you better position yourself early. And yeah, Ten Desires is stingier than even these two in lives. As for LoLK's system, any spellcard successfully captured or clear counts as a 100% shot down rate. Failing a spellcard by timeout is 0%. You need to keep grazing the bullets to get that special system to work, and depending on the bullet's speed, you may have to move with it. And yes, it's 1,000,000 for a piece.

[@everthon2457]

12:14 ...... what?

[@Kraneberger]

I also thought its edited but apparently

[@okguy167]

I don't see anything weird here. If it was edited, it was probably just cutting out a pause.

[@everthon2457]

@@okguy167 "When the moon's full, me turns into a werewolf, raaaaaw"

[@okguy167]

@@everthon2457 Yes, that is the character. This is Gensokyo. Shit like that happens.

[@everthon2457]

@@okguy167 true that lmao