Touhou 15.5: Antinomy of Common Flowers - Miko/Byakuren Story

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘶𝘰
Miko's a speedy, but somewhat disjointed character. Her attacks hit hard and fast, but not all of them in exactly the place you'd expect making her a bit of a spacer both with her melee and ranged attacks. Similarly her occult attack is quite useful with her moveset. If you catch someone in her cape you can choose to power up your ranged attacks or melee attacks until you do it again.
Byakuren by comparison is a close range brawler through and through. She has a dash that moves instantly forward a bit but then she dashes quite slowly making her great at staying on and around enemies at close range, but really poor at closing the distance. She also has very powerful special abilities, however before using any you need to charge them by holding the special shot button.
Characters
Almighty and Humanitarian Taoist: Toyosatomimi no Miko
Superhuman and Enlightened Mahācārya: Byakuren Hijiri
Spell Cards
0:48 - "One with a Vacant Soul"
1:33 - Non-spell
1:58 - Love Fist Sign "Rose Capriccio's Strange Cloud Fist"
3:27 - "One with Empty Feelings"
4:30 - Non-spell
4:49 - Mask Wind Sign "Four Humors' Feng Shui Art"
7:20 - "An Irregular Visitor"
8:54 - Non-spell
9:07 - Rising Mallet Sign "Carry Our Dreams and Grow Bigger!"
10:54 - "Too Strong for an Opening Act"
12:38 - Non-spell
12:51 - "Spirit Medium's Melancholy"
15:36 - "A Cursed Flower Blooms in an Empty Heart"
18:36 - Non-spell
19:02 - Bad Luck "Welcome to the World of Destitution"
19:41 - Financial Ruin "Pluck Pigeon"
20:47 - Possession Exchange "Absolute Loser"
Translation's courtesy of the Touhou wiki

[@sanstheskeleton679]

13:34 Don't forget, even in PCB, she was pretty much half asleep It'd be a fun show to see what she can truly do when she is serious, especially because of how powerful she is.

[@dirtkiller23]

Touhou 17 Every boss is Yukari,also featuring the Phantasm+ difficulty with full Yukari's power.

[@Team_Orchid]

I love how mad these two are when they find out the motivations of the culprits here. Also just a fan of Byakuren not buying into the fortune goddess one bit.

[@forceedge2005]

Kokoro(after getting beat up by Miko and Byakuren): "Love you too, Dad -_-" I like how Yukari is just ignoring Miko and just saying what she wants: Miko: Why are you here? Surely not for the concert? Yukari: Oh you're looking into the incident? How nice of you! Miko: So your also investigating Perfect Possession? What do you know? Yukari: You even partnered up with your ex-wife, must be serious this time. Sorry though, it's not going to work out. You'll just end up getting filed for domestic abuse. Miko (getting irritated): Stop ignoring me! The next day: "This just in, Taoist saint arrested by Gensokyo police for child abuse, illegal experimentation and domestic abuse! Taoist saint's child reported to Gensokyo Child Protection service about being used by her parents for an experiment without her consent and when was beaten to cooperate! Later that night, witnesses saw saint beating her ex-wife and business rival, the head of the youkai temple above the Prismriver concert! More on this later!" - Aya Shameimaru

[@gabrielwright-dunn9355]

Seems about right. Poor Kokoro. But who would be Child Protection Services in this context?

[@yoggysothy2512]

@@gabrielwright-dunn9355 probably Okina because supposedly she is the god of everything

[@gabrielwright-dunn9355]

I love how nobody is having any of Tenshi's crap. No one really forgave her after the whole Scarlet Weather Incident, did they?

[@AmewTheFox]

man, I love Byakuren's shoulder-check it might just be the hitsounds, but it makes it sound like it *hurts*

[@DoubleRainbows667]

Just when I couldn't love her even more.

[@ricokurniawan5636]

Is no one going to comment how the player character icon got wrecked after the sisters switch slaves?

[@TurboGhast.]

Compulsory perfect possession only being dismissible by the slave explains why nobody just dismisses Shion to get out of the trap. They can't, because Possession Swap "Absolute Loser" is compulsory possession.

[@Hyperneosonic97]

That's because Shion IS the Slave.

[@theanti-person9113]

but why can't the other person escape Jo'on though that's a bigger question

[@TurboGhast.]

@@theanti-person9113 Because Jo'on chose to activate Possession Swap "Absolute Loser", the new link between her and her new slave is consensual. That means the new slave is locked in until Jo'on dismisses the possession. Overall, using PS "AL" appears to reset whether the new perfect possessions are consensual or compulsory, as the alternative - keeping the consentualness of the original possessions - would allow a team to break the duo's trap with by entering with compulsory perfect possession, then dismissing the possession to Jo'on. Since this doesn't happen, that implies that it can't happen.

[@lunatic0verlord10]

14:36 Just from Yukari's expression, I can tell that she didn't know about that.

[@korohacker]

This incident is really head-scratching storywise, because I still can't see how to defeat the end pair. I really do appreciate seeing how the leader characters are going their own way to investigate and experiment to see how to though, it brings out new kinds of interactions between them, that you rarely see otherwise. Also, Byakuren and Miko are downright harsh when it comes to speaking the truth huh? xD

[@minhkhangtran6948]

korohacker In story, Yukari dealt with that by flipping the border between Master and Slave, but in principle, it’s Shion , along with her ability that’s the backbone of the entire plan. As long as you somehow prevent her from compulsory possessed you, like said forcing Joon to do that instead like the case of Yukari, the pair will lose on their own. It’s because no one know how to deal with Shion in this point of the story that they’re unbeatable though.

[@minhkhangtran6948]

Lance Clemings oh yeah, sorry...spoiler I guess?

[@Redrover1760]

Alternately, as seen in 8:55, be a master with enough mental resistance to resist the swap.

[@WishMakers]

There's a couple things I'd like to comment on - for one thing, Byakuren is much more aggressive than usual here (but still warns Kokoro...sort of), so there's some immediate signs of out of character moments for several characters, including Mokou to an extent - what could it meeeeeean? (I already know.) My personal headcanon is to how these two teamed up is based on their interactions from the other fighters - they both try to think of ways to solve an incident, and Byakuren usually gets shut down entirely by Miko, while Byakuren is generally accepting of what Miko has to say, neither of them necessarily being right. So while Miko is an asshole to everyone including her, Byakuren sees that Miko has a lot of wisdom, and teams up with her - becoming more aggro thanks to the complications of Perfect Possession and doing these kind of tests that she wouldn't normally force on people. (I don't remember if there's a canon reason these two came together, so this is what I believe to be the case) On another note, the Human Village battle theme (as well as another battle theme later, you could probably guess where) are examples of why I love this soundtrack so much. It's essentially a "best of" soundtrack pertaining to the Touhou fighters, but revitalized - several SWR/Soku tracks make an appearance, IaMP is represented with Night Falls' outstanding remix in Versus mode for Yukari, HM and ULiL get story mode battle themes - and yet there's also original pieces that kick so much ass like the many other story mode battle themes as well as ZUN's contributions (Egoistic Flowers is one of my favorite Touhou pieces in general, and Necrofantasia's remix is also great). I listen to this game's soundtrack when doing other things or driving and I haven't gotten tired of any of it, even the carryover pieces from ULiL haven't gotten old yet.

[@neoticrin3836]

i just realised, that koishi fades in instead of folds(or whatever you guys do) in neat

[@MegamanOmega184]

I wondered how long it'd take for someone to notice~

[@Flygoniaks]

I think I picked up on it now and again but never really mentioned it. It was quite obvious on the Marisa/Koishi video.

[@ITAndroMedian]

By that point I started to outright HATE the Yorigamis for all of their "forced defeat" bullshit, and that went even more when I found out how cheap the trick actually was (coughDoremyhintscough). The satisfaction when I went Raymoo on them, though...

[@lunatic0verlord10]

10:02 I guess this takes place before Nitori's story since Tenshi was a lot more used to Perfect Possession when Nitori and Kokoro fought her as the Final Boss...

[@SeleniumGlow]

I thought Futo was the Editor's Boat Waifu? That said, this is building up to be an interesting story.

[@yoggysothy2512]

Miko and Byakuren teaming up is just weird

[@azureempyrean64]

Love those damn subtitle

[@DiceDsx]

1:22 Pink Floyd? More like Pink Freud. ...I'll.see myself out.

[@Flygoniaks]

Bee (editor) needs to step up his game.

[@SeleniumGlow]

I thought you were the Editor's second account.

[@gabrielwright-dunn9355]

Beat me to the punch on that one.

[@alphamoon8367]

Hooray, your playing bae today. (It's Byakuren, if you're asking)

[@WishMakers]

Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well.

[@alphamoon8367]

(I had to do it, okay. It rhymed.))

[@lunatic0verlord10]

22:34 Futo, Miko or Koishi? 22:51 Ah. It was the Editor's waifu.

[@R09128]

One administrator and one Dream bike god is a team Really?

[@andreychen6523]

Am I the only one that wishes that if you end the final spellcard the moment Joon is out, you just beat the game? It seems silly that she's vulnerable for a split second but nobody takes advantage of that.

[@TurboGhast.]

Eh, I think that split second vulnerability is just gameplay and story segregation. Upon breaking the shield, you still attack Jo'on in game despite the endings saying that all you managed to accomplish was beating up your partner.

[@andreychen6523]

Yeah, I imagine. It's probably a side effect of the code to swap bosses. But still, she's just there standing! After you play her spellcards a dozen times...

[@Auldwight]

@@andreychen6523 if you pay clear attention joon swaps out with the respective slave at the moment of the finishing blow so even if she would have been hit at that time she would just switch to the slave.

[@lielledemivamp3564]

Why didn't you use miko's Blue or red cape attack thing?

[@MegamanOmega184]

I kinda forgot about it completely. Really I thought of Miko less as an attacker and more of a means so I could get in quickly and start attacking as Byakuren.

[@lielledemivamp3564]

@@MegamanOmega184 Holy fucking cheeseballs you actually replied I literally don't know wat to say right now

[@elvincruz2520]

Awesome

[@inactivecringeaccountlol2637]

Guinea pig

[@Interesting_Failure]

Would I be able to ask you to help beta test a script I'm working on? I've noticed the commentary you tend to give after playing scripts is pretty solid, and honestly I don't know that many people who regularly play Danmakufu stuff.

[@MegamanOmega184]

Sure, I'll give it a shot and give you some pointers. If you have Discord that'd be the easiest way to chat if you want me to go into detail. My Discord tag is MegamanOmega#0415

[@Interesting_Failure]

Sounds good, have sent request

[@Flygoniaks]

[3:26] *Hey, Bee! Look! It's your favorite combination of arena and fighter!* At last, the _boring_ (ish) part of the game is done. Have fun with Futo while it lasts, Bee. Things will get rather hectic soon. Lastly, no use of Red/Blue? Miko's whole gimmick? I guess you used it enough in ULiL...

[@MegamanOmega184]

Honestly, I completely forgot about it until after I beat the game. Really I just use Miko to get in there quickly then swap to Byakuren cause I like playing as her better. Then I'm not even sure if the ability works on bosses when they use spell cards since they all have super armor.

[@Flygoniaks]

P.S.: No forgetti the new urban leggies.

[@Auldwight]

can confirm that it works while they are vulnerable, as in after the barrier is broken.

[@johanstenfelt1206]

...daughter?

[@MegamanOmega184]

Its a joke because Miko and Byakuren are working together and Miko "technically" would be considered Kokoro's parent. Kokoro's a tsukumogami, a youkai that gains sentience and human form if a tool of sorts is abandoned instead of being properly disposed of for over 100 years. Like Kogasa who's an umbrella or the Tsukumo sisters or Raiko who are various musical instruments. Kokoro is a tsukumogami of the 66 Noh masks that Miko herself created way back in the day. And now those masks have come to life in the form of Kokoro

[@johanstenfelt1206]

Wow, talk about lore boob there (Noh masks?), so was this explained in the game Kokoro debated in or...? where did this info come from exactly?

[@johanstenfelt1206]

Anyway that whole explain what you meant by “your daughter”, but who exactly were you referring to when you said “my daughter”?

[@MegamanOmega184]

@@johanstenfelt1206Mainly all explained in a previous fighter Touhou 13.5, considering she was the final boss of that game everyone had a conversation with her. This mainly came to light in Miko's scenario where it dawned on her what Kokoro was.

[@MegamanOmega184]

@@johanstenfelt1206 That bit would be my editor making a joke cause he really likes Futo

[@sleeplessnarcolept6541]

I Am sorry to ask, but how did you even get this game translated? As in is this the steam version you patched or a version downloaded somewhere you applied a patch to?

[@MegamanOmega184]

There's two different patches I'm running at the same time. First is the patch the game comes with (you just toggle it under the options menu) and that gives you the subtitles you see on the bottom. However it's quite outdated and inaccurate at times so I also run the modern thcrap patch which handles all the previous Touhou patches. That gives you word bubble translations, but they're not perfect and don't fit in the bubbles right. www.thpatch.net/wiki/Touhou_Patch_Center:Main_page

[@sleeplessnarcolept6541]

​@@MegamanOmega184 Thank you! It's nice to finally know what they are saying! Hopefully I don't keep losing to glitches though...

[@KonK4tsu]

How do i get this game? I really want to try it

[@MegamanOmega184]

You can actually get it on Steam. It's one of the first games ZUN's made available to buy overseas store.steampowered.com/app/716710/_Antinomy_of_Common_Flowers/