Touhou Project: The PC-98 Days

* Flashing lights warning for pretty much the whole video *
The Touhou Project has evolved a lot throughout the years, even branching into other types of media such as manga and music CDs. But even the games themselves are plentiful with over 18 entries released since 1997. In the first video of this new series we're gonna go back to its humble beginnings and take a look at the first 5 games on the PC-98.
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[@webigaza]

Great vid Tenkko, just a bit of criticism, but maybe include an epilepsy warning as those flashing lights when you bomb in HRtP seem kind of intense.

[@thtenco]

Was sure I added a warning at the start but I guess not. Goes in the description for now but I'll make sure it's in the vid next time it happens, thanks for pointing it out.

[@Romero_m8]

lol hrtp bombs are such a meme

[@webigaza]

@@Romero_m8 They're so needlessly extra, it reminds me of Battling Seizure Robots from The Simpsons lol

[@dastardlydingus]

​@@webigaza skill issue

[@marx4538]

I think there's actually a hack to decrease the visual side of things for HRTP

[@scyfie]

I love the music of the pc98 era, great video!

[@3RDplayer]

I started playing the games in order back then too and have not skipped ahead. So I'm constantly coming back to ThrtP every few weeks even. It's just such a fun game to play and 1cc once in a while. LLS is great but MS is where it's at for me. It's worldbuilding, the characters, mechanics, music and visuals are just phenomenally good IMO. It might have been the end of old era, but it at least went out with a bang.

[@Romero_m8]

Nice video, I love touhou 3, 4 and especially 5

[@KirbyComment]

With the third game (PoDD) using Level 2 and 3 spells does nothing to the opponent and only makes the game harder for you. The thing that determines whether they get hit is based on a timer. They have three pre-determined moments they get hit on purpose based on a timer. They can get hit unintentionally though, usually with swarms of fireballs and EX Attacks. Something that was also missed out on in this video is that this game has a hyper system. If you're out of bombs but have a full gauge, you can trigger a hyper which gives you a stronger shot and invincibility for 10 seconds. This is almost identical to how trances work in Ten Desires. There are many more subtle ways to make the game easier to clear; the game is incredibly deep for PC-98 Touhou standards.

[@lorenzorentniop717]

Great! I'm doing a 1cc guide of all the games i like the technical aspect of touhou gameplay I'm starting with touhou 6 tough

[@PsiNintenN64]

OWW MY EEYYEESSS!!!!! THE BOMB IN THE FIRST GAME ITS HURTING MY EEYEESS!!!!

[@AM22Salabok]

Nice video

[@spaghettiking7312]

4 and 5 are my favourite.

[@AltraHapi]

I should really play more pc-98 games. That no focus is really gonna hurt

[@katarinanokami2718]

Small correction: HRtP was finished in 95, but 96 was the first time it was shown (for the university festival) U said it correctly the first time

[@thtenco]

ZUN said "it was produced in 1995", but the in-game year is 1996 so I assumed he meant that he began development in '95 and finished it for the showing at the festival in '96.

[@katarinanokami2718]

@@thtenco that prob because it was the first showing of the game in public

[@mari35EE]

As a person who has lunatic 1cc'ed every PC-98 game except PoDD (the game is BS in lunatic) I can agree on the first 2 games.. they are hard.. but for HRtP's if you bomb on a stage with alot of hits before you clear, you can almost always give a free life.. it's really awesome SoEW is BS but not as BS as PoDD.. it's how you know this is ZUN's first proper top down bullet hell game... Lunatic mode is legit just an ultra patch for normal mode lol And the Extra stage......... so did you know if you spam the shot button you can shoot faster??? Yeah I had to abuse it... PoDD... pain LLS, Raymoo lunatic is the hardest boss change my mind.. Stage 1 sucks MS, I love MS.. except for the stupid Mai laser (it follows.. not talking about the cheeto) and Stage 1 sucks PC-98 is cool :)

[@clafoutis89]

Shrine maiden called "raymoo"😹

[@Dukstless]

The fact you can easily misbomb is one of the reasons why it took so long to get footage of LNN in HRP (the other one is the game isn't too popular, but still). The extra stage in SoEW is... special. Usually extra stage is a stepping stone between Normal and Hard, since it's just one extra spicy stage compared to a full game. But in SoEW it's more like a stepping stone between Hard and Lunatic. (Also I believe the lowest rank in SoEW translates to "seriously, kill yourself", but you have to seriously suck at the game as I've never seen it, even back when I would die on Stage 2 in Normal). The AI in PoDD is cheating (and in PoFV too). They have "planned" hits and otherwise play nearly perfectly (there are some things that fuck them up, like Reimu's EX shot or a certain type of enemy wave), so most of the time PoDD is just trying to survive until AI decides to commit suicide. The timer between hits gets larger as you progress up in levels and difficulty (with R1 Yumemi being nigh impossible to defeat without some luck or the cheese characters; the largest timer is on R1 Chiyuri which is like 6:30 on Lunatic). If the AI bombs, that means they were about to take an unplanned hit; if they don't have bombs but have full gauge, they will hyper instead. Sometimes this leads to hilarious scenarios where they cancel charging just to bomb and not get hit. LLS is probably the osmost forgiving game, given you get a total of EIGHT extra lives during the main game; with default settings it's like 11 lives and up to 31 bombs. Even the Extra stage is relatively simple (though not free, as Mugetsu and Gengetsu have at least one attack each that is surprisingly devious for how easy most of the game is). I haven't played Mystic Square as much so I don't have much to say there.

[@DrillimationSystems]

You should give the NES Demakes a try. The NES Demakes reimagine all five PC-98 games but NES style.

[@guysome7469]

Yumemi-Lunatic was deliberately programmed to not get hit until you do (or you die at least once).

[@KirbyComment]

Yumemi's first round is programmed to never get hit on purpose, regardless of difficulty. She can only get hit unintentionally. She will also only use her bombs to avoid an unintentional hit. In round 2 and onwards Yumemi gets hit based on a timer that depends on the difficulty and the round you're in, like every other opponent. Whether you get hit yourself has no impact on the opponent's behavior.

[@okuu5091]

LLS was my first lunatic 1CC, that game was great but I could never go back to it. The PC-98 backgrounds, enemy bullets, items, and Reimu's bullets are so confusing together. There's just way too much detail in everything, it blends together too much.