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Still don't post here often enough
May. 28th, 2013 02:17 pmI've found the more games I play the less introspective thoughts I have to share.
Nonetheless, Reitaisai recently happened and while I don't post on Tumblr more than a few times a week, mine exploded at the anticipation and the result of it.
HOPELESS MASQUERADE.
I'm not entirely sure when I started to like Miko actually. When TD first came out I recall being rather disappointed with the designs and the music, especially the final boss. I was like "OMG SO UNDERWHELMING YOU SUCK" plus they were all so obviously evil and pesky and junk, so I was all prepared to fight for the Buddhist side TO THE DEATH in the Great Holy Wars, and yet...
The likely reason is probably due to all my headcanons being shattered the more info came out about the UFO cast. Murasa having a skirt...still being murderous, not really improving in any aspect... Shou not actually a fighter, entire point is to mimic a statue and cannot even use her spear (it's for shou, geddit?) and she relies heavily on her pagoda...plus she's an alcoholic... Nue bringing in this ridiculously designed tanuki (who I grew used to finally, helps that her human disguise is like the opposite in the "style" levels, maybe youkai just don't give a shit about fashion) Nazrin not actually living with the rest of the crew and ultimately my image of Byakuren literally being Youkai Jesus (I really did want her to seem perfect and kind and nice because every other youkai in Touhou has jerkass tendencies, and turns out she has some crippling flaws which would really make her a better character actually but it kind of kerfuddled with my image of UFO's group dynamic) as not particularly true.
So then Miko comes in and is just honest all the way. She's like "yeah I did do some terrible shit back then" and her openness and casualness and all that just made her so amazing. If you're going to be the villain, actually embrace the role of a villain! I remember liking Futo the most when TD came out, but then more info was released due to SoPM and it turns out she's like the really annoying little kid who backstabs everything and burns everything down. She's still a pretty awesome character despite her numerous flaws because who doesn't love an arsonist? But yeah, her existence felt so pitiful and joke-character like so I didn't warm up to her. Futo and Seiga do a great job of deflecting actual malice from Miko's reputation, even if she did technically use Futo as a test subject with the whole shikaisen thing and even if she did orchestrate an entire war that destroyed whole clans back in the day... still, she's just so charismatic and hammy.
My writing looks so casual now. Argh.
But anyway, I was also pleasantly surprised when Koishi was announced as a playable character. As we all know I was hoping for Keine or Mokou to be playable (Human Village had a large part of the story from what we were told initially, and Mokou/Kaguya were planned for earlier fighting games but could not be balanced) but that obviously didn't happen. I expected Murasa or Shou or whoever to represent the Buddhists with Byakuren and then SUDDENLY ICHIRIN, my least favourite of them all, so that ended that. I was prepared to simply play as Miko and be fine with none of my other favourites appearing and then KOISHI out of nowhere. I didn't expect SA to actually get a representative really because they didn't really have much to do with religion. They're just the ghetto of Gensokyo after all, but turns out Koishi kind of makes sense to be in the game! She does wander around above-ground and she did become a Buddhist due to being mostly empty. I won't reveal the ending of the game for you but it actually makes Koishi grow as a character too, so her inclusion was very nice. PLAYING as her on the other hand feels like Suwako all over again, so strange and awkward...
After finishing the game I hunted down some translations and damn do I love the story. Basically the final boss is searching for her lost mask (she's a youkai that spawns when an item is neglected for a long time, sort of like Kogasa. Her item is the legendary 66 masks and Kokoro, the name of the boss, goes crazy because she lost her 66th mask, the Mask of Hope. So she's trying to figure out how to emotion or whatever and through numerous series of events (every single route is canon this time around, how nice!) Kokoro eventually learns emotions and realizes that religion suppresses emotions, so at the very final battle of the story where you control Kokoro and fight the religious leaders, you're trying to defeat them because of what they're doing. I love how the enemy of the game ends up as the heroine at the very end!
Usually the fighting games' stories are pretty silly... in IaMP Suika just wanted to party, so she gathered everyone for feasts with her ability and everyone was like "why the fuck do we keep partying". In SWR Tenshi is bored with celestial life so she destroys and ruins things in Gensokyo to get people to come up to confront her. In Hisoutensoku, a giant mecha catches people's attention so they go investigate, but it's really an extravagant air balloon. To go from that to basically a coming-of-age story for a confused youkai is quite a feat I must say. Plus, Miko is based on Prince Shoutoku who was the one that made the 66 masks and thus Miko is technically Kokoro's creator! It's so amazing! Besides the part where Miko is like "YOU ARE CAUSING TOO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG LADY. I'M GOING TO TURN YOU BACK INTO A BUNCH OF MASKS!" and I'll go on but again, no revealing endings. (How Miko tries to resolve Kokoro's conflict is highly amusing though!)
Also as I was fighting Reimu, Miko, and Byakuren (that's the final boss for Kokoro) when Reimu initiates her first (or second I forget) spellcard, Miko appears to shoot flimsy danmaku at you. Then the next spellcard Byakuren appears and tries to slam into you several times at mach speed. The difference of power between the two was highly amusing. It makes Miko attempting to look foreboding with a badass cape futile because Byakuren still seems waaaaay more influential.
I'm not sure where I'm going with that.
Well I guess I'll end this post with I HATE NIGHT PARADE. Making this next video very satisfying:
Oh yeah and the DDC demo came out. I beat it on first try and the story so far seems to be calm youkai going crazy while your weapons are going crazy. Gonna have to wait for the full release to see what's up! The designs remind me lot of the PC-98 days with the limited palette and overuse of red.
Nonetheless, Reitaisai recently happened and while I don't post on Tumblr more than a few times a week, mine exploded at the anticipation and the result of it.
HOPELESS MASQUERADE.
I'm not entirely sure when I started to like Miko actually. When TD first came out I recall being rather disappointed with the designs and the music, especially the final boss. I was like "OMG SO UNDERWHELMING YOU SUCK" plus they were all so obviously evil and pesky and junk, so I was all prepared to fight for the Buddhist side TO THE DEATH in the Great Holy Wars, and yet...
The likely reason is probably due to all my headcanons being shattered the more info came out about the UFO cast. Murasa having a skirt...still being murderous, not really improving in any aspect... Shou not actually a fighter, entire point is to mimic a statue and cannot even use her spear (it's for shou, geddit?) and she relies heavily on her pagoda...plus she's an alcoholic... Nue bringing in this ridiculously designed tanuki (who I grew used to finally, helps that her human disguise is like the opposite in the "style" levels, maybe youkai just don't give a shit about fashion) Nazrin not actually living with the rest of the crew and ultimately my image of Byakuren literally being Youkai Jesus (I really did want her to seem perfect and kind and nice because every other youkai in Touhou has jerkass tendencies, and turns out she has some crippling flaws which would really make her a better character actually but it kind of kerfuddled with my image of UFO's group dynamic) as not particularly true.
So then Miko comes in and is just honest all the way. She's like "yeah I did do some terrible shit back then" and her openness and casualness and all that just made her so amazing. If you're going to be the villain, actually embrace the role of a villain! I remember liking Futo the most when TD came out, but then more info was released due to SoPM and it turns out she's like the really annoying little kid who backstabs everything and burns everything down. She's still a pretty awesome character despite her numerous flaws because who doesn't love an arsonist? But yeah, her existence felt so pitiful and joke-character like so I didn't warm up to her. Futo and Seiga do a great job of deflecting actual malice from Miko's reputation, even if she did technically use Futo as a test subject with the whole shikaisen thing and even if she did orchestrate an entire war that destroyed whole clans back in the day... still, she's just so charismatic and hammy.
My writing looks so casual now. Argh.
But anyway, I was also pleasantly surprised when Koishi was announced as a playable character. As we all know I was hoping for Keine or Mokou to be playable (Human Village had a large part of the story from what we were told initially, and Mokou/Kaguya were planned for earlier fighting games but could not be balanced) but that obviously didn't happen. I expected Murasa or Shou or whoever to represent the Buddhists with Byakuren and then SUDDENLY ICHIRIN, my least favourite of them all, so that ended that. I was prepared to simply play as Miko and be fine with none of my other favourites appearing and then KOISHI out of nowhere. I didn't expect SA to actually get a representative really because they didn't really have much to do with religion. They're just the ghetto of Gensokyo after all, but turns out Koishi kind of makes sense to be in the game! She does wander around above-ground and she did become a Buddhist due to being mostly empty. I won't reveal the ending of the game for you but it actually makes Koishi grow as a character too, so her inclusion was very nice. PLAYING as her on the other hand feels like Suwako all over again, so strange and awkward...
After finishing the game I hunted down some translations and damn do I love the story. Basically the final boss is searching for her lost mask (she's a youkai that spawns when an item is neglected for a long time, sort of like Kogasa. Her item is the legendary 66 masks and Kokoro, the name of the boss, goes crazy because she lost her 66th mask, the Mask of Hope. So she's trying to figure out how to emotion or whatever and through numerous series of events (every single route is canon this time around, how nice!) Kokoro eventually learns emotions and realizes that religion suppresses emotions, so at the very final battle of the story where you control Kokoro and fight the religious leaders, you're trying to defeat them because of what they're doing. I love how the enemy of the game ends up as the heroine at the very end!
Usually the fighting games' stories are pretty silly... in IaMP Suika just wanted to party, so she gathered everyone for feasts with her ability and everyone was like "why the fuck do we keep partying". In SWR Tenshi is bored with celestial life so she destroys and ruins things in Gensokyo to get people to come up to confront her. In Hisoutensoku, a giant mecha catches people's attention so they go investigate, but it's really an extravagant air balloon. To go from that to basically a coming-of-age story for a confused youkai is quite a feat I must say. Plus, Miko is based on Prince Shoutoku who was the one that made the 66 masks and thus Miko is technically Kokoro's creator! It's so amazing! Besides the part where Miko is like "YOU ARE CAUSING TOO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG LADY. I'M GOING TO TURN YOU BACK INTO A BUNCH OF MASKS!" and I'll go on but again, no revealing endings. (How Miko tries to resolve Kokoro's conflict is highly amusing though!)
Also as I was fighting Reimu, Miko, and Byakuren (that's the final boss for Kokoro) when Reimu initiates her first (or second I forget) spellcard, Miko appears to shoot flimsy danmaku at you. Then the next spellcard Byakuren appears and tries to slam into you several times at mach speed. The difference of power between the two was highly amusing. It makes Miko attempting to look foreboding with a badass cape futile because Byakuren still seems waaaaay more influential.
I'm not sure where I'm going with that.
Well I guess I'll end this post with I HATE NIGHT PARADE. Making this next video very satisfying:
Oh yeah and the DDC demo came out. I beat it on first try and the story so far seems to be calm youkai going crazy while your weapons are going crazy. Gonna have to wait for the full release to see what's up! The designs remind me lot of the PC-98 days with the limited palette and overuse of red.
