History ThatOneBoss / Touhou

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards in the battle as well: The first one being their penultimate spellcard ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. It has the arrowhead rain and homing amulets from the bottom of the screen of the former attack, and the erratic falling stars of the latter all in one package. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, that's a life lost if you don't release or bomb. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in conjunction with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards on this mess: The first one being their penultimate spellcard ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. It has the arrowhead rain and homing amulets from the bottom of the screen of the former attack, and the erratic falling stars of the latter all in one package. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, that's a life lost if you don't release or bomb. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in conjunction with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards on this mess: The first one being their penultimate spellcard ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. It has the arrowhead rain and homing amulets from the bottom of the screen of the former attack, and the erratic falling stars of the latter all in one package. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, that's a life lost if you don't release or bomb. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards on this mess: The first one being their penultimate spellcard ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. It has the arrowhead rain and homing amulets from the bottom of the screen of the former attack, and the erratic falling stars of the latter all in one package. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards on this mess: The first one being their penultimate spellcard ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, Satono using curving trajectories, both at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only are the non-spells tricky, but there's two notable spellcards on this mess: The first one being ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their second and last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Satono using curving trajectories, while Mai using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only the non-spells are tricky, but there's two notable spells on this mess: The first one being ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their second and last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are their tricky non-spells, which uses ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only the non-spells are tricky, but there's two notable spells on this mess: The first one being ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their second and last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

[[AC:''Hidden Star in Four Season']]
* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only the non-spells are tricky, but there's two notable spells on this mess: The first one being ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of Satono's ''Behind You'' and Mai's ''Tanabata Star Festival'' spells. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their second and last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough if the RNG isn't on your side. Not only the non-spells are tricky, but there's two notable spells on this mess: The first one being ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival''. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their second and last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a [[DifficultySpike big step in difficulty]], which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like ''Behind You!'', which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like ''Tanabata Star Festival'', which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival''. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a big step in difficulty, which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like ''Behind You!'', which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like ''Tanabata Star Festival'', which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival''. If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the game, except the final boss, stage 5 is a big step in difficulty, which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like ''Behind You!'', which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like ''Tanabata Star Festival'', which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival'' If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the same, sans the final boss, stage 5 is a big step in difficulty, which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like ''Behind You!'', which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like ''Tanabata Star Festival'', which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival'' If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening'' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the same, sans the final boss, stage 5 is a big step in difficulty, which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like ''Behind You!'', which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like ''Tanabata Star Festival'', which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, ''Behind Festival'' which is a combination of ''Behind You'' and ''Tanabata Star Festival'' If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, ''Tengu-odoshi'' / ''Frenzied Tengu-Frightening' is also troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* In an otherwise easy game, we have Mai Tereida and Satono Nishida, the bosses from Stage 5. Unlike the rest of the same, sans the final boss, stage 5 is a big step in difficulty, which culminates with the appearance of the backup dancers for a [[DualBoss dual boss]] battle. One of the problems with this battle are the tricky non-spells, which uses the Ofudas. Mai using curving trajectories, while Satono using zig-zagging trajectories, at the same time, so managing a good route can be rough. If you beat Mai instead of Satono for the first two spells, you'll have to deal with spells like "Behind You!", which can be troublesome if the RNG with the arrowheads doesn't like you, by comparison, beating Satono means you have to deal with spells like "Tanabata Star Festival", which is also tricky but for different reasons, and that's not even the most tricky part. No, the worst part of this boss battle is their third spell, "Behind Festival" which is a combination of "Behind You" and "Tanabata Star Festival". If the RNG doesn't like you, tough luck, one less life to the account, maybe two. Their last combined spell isn't that much better, "Tengu-odoshi" / "Frenzied Tengu-Frightening" is troublesome due to the usage of curvy lasers in combination with their non-spell ofudas, which by itself can cause accidents, guaranteeing in most cases the need of doing extremely precise micrododging, an ability that most players don't have. Combine all the factors mentioned above and you have a recipe for disaster.

* Right BEFORE Patchouli, we also have Meiling, but her battle might be more of [[ThatOneAttack That One Spellcard]] than anything else, because of that accursed Rainbow Windchime spell.

* Parsee Mizuhashi, despite only being a stage 2 boss, has become rather infamous for surprising players with how difficult her spell cards are. "Green-Eyed Monster" is particularly brutal, as she uses it when she encounters the players as a ''midboss'', and it's ''homing'', a quality typically reserved for the bosses of stages 5 and 6 in a ''Touhou'' game. Another gimmick not normally seen until endbosses is the DoppelgangerAttack, which Parsee also uses her "[[FairyTale Tongue-Cut Sparrow]]" spell cards.
* Yuugi Hoshiguma in stage 3 usually trips up players due to the sheer brute force of her attacks. Her final spellcard, "Knockout In Three Steps", is particularly brutal, because it's ensured you will lose at least one life if you don't know exactly what you need to do to pass this spellcard, and if you messed up... *pichuun*. She's often cited as a reason to not assume a character's strength from their placement in the game. One such argument spawned the NOT EVEN DROP meme.
** The first spell card she uses, Oni Sign "Anomalies, Strength, Disorder, and Spirits" is rather hard even on Easy. Yuugi shoots out a spiral of danmaku that are facing ever which way, before they go out in haphazard paths. You can get in the way of the spiral to not make those shots appear, but it won't really help.

* With this many ThatOneBoss characters, some fans like to joke that ''Subterranean Animism'' is That One Game.

* Ringo, the boss of the second stage. The game isn't particularly brutal up to that point and we get a slight taste of her corridor danmaku during her brief midboss fight. In her [[DifficultySpike boss fight]], however, she opens up with long, curving corridors of bullets that require rather precise movements, followed by ''Strawberry Dango'' / ''Berry Berry Dango'' -- a brutal micrododging card with two overlapping layers of tiny bullets. After that, she also has a spell card that spreads bullets from multiple directions while restricting the player's movement by a ring of danmaku, and finally her ''September Full Moon'' / ''Lunatic September'' card, which is just pure micrododging of tiny bullets in density that is simply unheard of by stage 2 standards. And woe betide any seasoned Hard / Lunatic mode veteran who tackles the harder difficulties straight away, as her nonspells not only turn from straight bullet corridors into steep corridors that span most of the screen's ''horizontal'' length, but also get ''tighter and tighter'', finally transforming into ''plain, tight, and fast grid of bullets'' to weave through and forcing the player to switch from macrododging to extreme micrododging in a splitsecond (reminiscent of [[BonusBoss Yukari's]] infamous ''Boundary between Wave and Particle'' spell card). All in all, Ringo singlehandedly sets the tone for the brutality of the danmaku of the Lunarian invaders and shows just why ZUN programmed the [[CheckPoint Pointdevice Mode]] into the game.

* Sagume Kishin, the stage 4 boss, keeps up with Doremy's level of challenge by swamping you with hundreds of the yin-yang orb enemies you've been fighting throughout stage 4. Her spellcards throw so many of them at you that at times it's tough to even damage Sagume, let alone capture her spellcards. Even without them, she's still perfectly capable of overpowering you, as her final spellcard proves. One shudders at the thought of how ungodly hard Sagume would be if she went all-out.

** ''Chen'', of all people, can be absolutely devastating. Thanks to [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration the area you fight her in being full of powerful magic energy]], her speed is through the roof, allowing her to attack pretty much ''every second''. And her main attack is an incredibly powerful physical attacks, at a point where over half your party consists of {{Squishy Wizard}}s. Oh, and did I mention she's one of ''the first story boss of the game''?

* If you got past Patchouli, there is no chance to rest, as Sakuya comes very soon after. Her midboss pattern is specifically designed to box the player in. It does not help that she is the first user of [[ThatOneAttack that annoying dagger danmaku with a hitbox which seems larger than the actual sprite]]. Her stage 5 midboss spell card "Misdirection" can drop your lives quickly if you don't know exactly how to deal with it.
* Right BEFORE Patchouli, we also have Meiling, but her battle might be more of That One Spellcard than anything else, because of that accursed Rainbow Windchime spell.

* The Prismriver Sisters, come at the end of stage 4, which is already [[ThatOneLevel arguably the hardest non-extra level]] in ''Touhou''. Yet again, the cards they use on you depend on your character choice, as well as which one of them you focus your shots on. Their nameless non-spell patterns fill the screen with a truly ridiculous number of bullets on higher difficulties. These are the same every time, so it's possible to find a safe spot and/or memorize them, but if you get hit even once while dodging them, DynamicDifficulty kicks in and changes up the pattern, making memorization completely impractical.

* Once you get past the Prismriver Sisters, there is another difficulty spike awaiting you - Youmu Konpaku. She keeps you company all the way to the final boss as miniboss of stage 5 & 6, but it's her boss battle that's evil. Her favorite method of attack is to throw dense AND rather fast (or just extremely dense) [[strike:clusterfucks]] layers of bullets, while giving you about 3 seconds of [[IncrediblyLamePun bullet]] [[BulletTime time]] to position yourself out of harm's way. In theory. You need a lot of practice to get used to this to the point you won't be reaching for the bomb key during every slowdown. Youmu singlehandely proves that reading-based spells can be just as hard as reaction-based ones. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzQ6E6s_mKM Demonstration.]]

* Aya Shameimaru. She's fast as hell, and it doesn't help the AI makes her excessively cheap, dodging almost everything you'll throw to her. Usually you will lose one or two lives trying to defeat her, before the RNG goes easy on you and let you defeat her more easily, but even if you defeat her, you'll have yet to face Komachi / Yuka and [[FinalBoss Eiki Shiki]], which is [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard even worse than Aya in terms of AI cheapness]]. If the character you're using finds her as your 7th opponent, good luck in trying to clear the game in one credit with that character. You'll need it...

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiK9zkAnD2c "Seamless Ceiling of Kinkaku-ji".]] The nightmarish new impossible request of Kaguya Houraisan is impossible for many a player indeed. It starts as a seemingly doable pattern of falling almost half-screen bullet walls and a spinning layer of bullets thrown around the stage to make it harder to approach her. Said layer gets thicker after each successful photo and reaches a ridiculous level for the last one - it's one of the scenes many people simply don't have the patience to clear.

* Yuugi Hoshiguma in the stage 3 usually trips up players due to the sheer brute force of her attacks. Her final spellcard, "Knockout In Three Steps", is particularly brutal, because it's ensured you will lose at least one life if you don't know exactly what you need to do to pass this spellcard, and if you messed up... *pichuun*. She's often cited as a reason to not assume a character's strength from their placement in the game. One such argument spawned the NOT EVEN DROP meme.

* [[{{Telepath}} Satori Komeiji]] can be this, depending on who your [[MissionControl option]] is, as she uses that character's spell cards. Heaven help you if you're playing as [=ReimuC=] and aren't prepared for "Tengu Macro Burst" to come hurtling at you. If you are playing as [=ReimuA=], then have fun with Yukari's "Border of Wave and Particle", which was part of the extra stage of ''Shoot The Bullet''. And then there's [=MarisaB=] (Patchouli). Her torturous water cards are the ones that Satori chooses, even if one of them ("Princess Undine"), isn't one of the spellcards that Marisa remembers from her. Well, those and one of Patchouli's cards from the extra stage of ''[=EoSD=]'', the "Philosopher's Stone".
* Orin is almost universally declared the worst of them all. For beginners, there's the non-spellcards from the cat form in the stage 5 battle. Not so hard as it seems, but you can get clipped easily. Then there's the infamous "Cat's Walk" / "Vengeful Cat Spirit's Erratic Step". If you don't read the card's pattern correctly, well... And then, there's the actual boss battle. The zombie fairies are the least of your worries. Her third spell card, "Needle Mountain of a Former Hell" / "The Needles of Yore and the Vengeful Spirits in Pain", is really hard to read, due to the spinning ghost wheels, which are almost but not entirely unlike any other attack found in the series, and the bombs are useless against the wheels, so have fun.
** Her final encounter in Stage 6. For those that played ''VideoGame/BattleToads'', remember the final part of Stage 3? It's basically that, that is if you care about the spell card bonus.

* Iku Nagae, the stage 10 boss.[[note]]This game has 14 stages, being just a BossRush with no actual levels.[[/note]] Though she originated in the fighting game ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'', and was not even the final boss in it, practically all her spell cards are a nightmare. Just try and capturing [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYufA1YpzI "Pearl of the Five-Clawed Dragon" with Hatate,]] who makes ''every other'' card in the game easier. And then you get to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8n--aJ2688 "Dragon Palace Messenger's Swimming Shot",]] which feels downright broken. No strategy or trick works against its combination of completely random curvy lasers mixed with completely random large orbs with big hitboxes. This is the last scene most people clear, usually by pure luck, if at all.

* Kagerou Imaizumi can be a contender of the hardest stage 3 boss in the series. All of her attacks come out very fast, fill the screen extremely quickly and travel in random directions. “Triangle Fang/Star Fang” covers up 2/3 of the screens with random bullets, “Strange Roar/Full Moon Howling” can screw you up with a fast-moving wall of bullets if RNG decides against you. Finally, "Star Ring Pounce/High Speed Pounce" is a wide area attack that forces you to move around the screen and the boss can ram into you if you decide to stay only at the bottom or get in her way.
* Seija Kijin, the stage 5 boss. Do you remember Sakuya, Youmu and Reisen and how their gimmicks screwed many players? Well... she goes one step further, having the power of turning anything over, and she'll be glad of using this ability against you. She isn't as strong as other bosses in terms of bullet spam, but [[WeakButSkilled she doesn't need anything of that]] because of her ability. Her mid-boss spellcard fires bullets upwards that then WrapAround to the bottom of the screen, which screws a lot of players up simply because of how used they are to dodging bullets coming from the top. Then, in the stage boss fight, she screws you over by [[InterfaceScrew flipping the screen horizontally and your controls with it]] in the first spell card and then vertically in the next. The third spell card works a lot like the mid-boss one, with one difference: Bombs are useless against the bullets this time around. Then, for her final spellcard, she rotates the screen 180 degrees every few seconds. The patterns themselves aren't terribly difficult by Stage 5 standards; it's the screen flipping and rotating and breaks from the gameplay norms that makes her attacks brutal.

* Byakuren, Appearing only as Taoist faction FinalBoss. She can and will easily destroy those puny Taoists. The things that makes her hard are her Spell Cards. Almost all of them are ungrazeable, which in Danmaku fighting games means bad news. Her Occult Spell Card however takes the cake. It involves riding her motorcycle trying to ram your character, it is very damaging and ungrazeable. Don't even try to guard it as she will breaks it in a second. Worse, her occult orb is right AT the back of the motorcycle, meaning in order to stagger her, you have to be close enough to touch it AND far enough to avoid the motorcycle itself while she's zipping back and forth trying to ram you. Her second Occult Spell Card makes the first one looks like Rumia's Spell Card; she's now driving in the background and foreground while throwing projectiles at you before trying to ram you at an even higher speed. As such, she can't be damaged for large portions of the Spell, and can be very difficult to hit without forcing you to eat damage yourself for those few moments that she returns on-screen. Worse, her occult orb is right behind the motorcycle, you have to time your jump correctly in order to touch it. Too early and you miss it, too late and you get rammed for massive damage. All in all, you're almost guaranteed to spend all your lives trying to beat her (For added bonus, you will hate motorcycles after this) until you learn her patterns..

* Ringo, the boss of the second stage. The game isn't particularly brutal up to that point and we get a slight taste of her corridor danmaku during her brief midboss fight. In her [[DifficultySpike boss fight]], however, she opens up with long, curving corridors of bullets that require rather precise movements, followed by ''Strawberry Dango'' / ''Berry Berry Dango'' - a brutal micrododging card with two overlapping layers of tiny bullets. After that, she also has a spell card that spreads bullets from multiple directions while restricting the player's movement by a ring of danmaku and finally her ''September Full Moon'' / ''Lunatic September'' card, which is just pure micrododging of tiny bullets in density that is simply unheard of by stage 2 standards. And woe betide any seasoned Hard / Lunatic mode veteran who tackles the harder difficulties straight away, as her nonspells not only turn from straight bullet corridors into steep corridors that span most of the screen's ''horizontal'' length, but also get ''tighter and tighter'', finally transforming into ''plain, tight and fast grid of bullets'' to weave through and forcing the player to switch from macrododging to extreme micrododging in a splitsecond (reminiscent of [[BonusBoss Yukari's]] infamous ''Boundary between Wave and Particle'' spell card). All in all, Ringo singlehandedly sets the tone for the brutality of the danmaku of the Lunarian invaders and shows just why ZUN programmed the [[CheckPoint Pointdevice Mode]] into the game.
* Doremy Sweet, who is developing some notoriety in the fandom in the demo for having ''brutal'' non-spells. She has been compared to Stage 5 or Stage 6 bosses in difficulty, but she's only a Stage 3 boss! Her non-spells combine fast and slow bullets, she fires them in a swirl-like fashion, the bullets spin into themselves and you can easily get cornered. Her midboss card spawns bullets close to the player in all angles, her first boss card can wall the player with purple stars, her third boss card has lasers and bullets that bounce from walls, including the bottom one, might as well be an instakill if you are close to the bottom of the screen, her last card can spawn bullets close/on top of the player if it isn't careful. Her only easy attack is her second boss card, which uses fast swirls.

* Clownpiece, the stage 5 boss, gained early infamy in the fandom for the massive DifficultySpike. Her initial non-spell is very confusing and then ''immediately'' followed up by a survival card. Yes, a survival card. This early in the fight. It even incorporates a massive moon that blocks out some of the other danmaku and forces you to estimate where the stream is going to continue instead of grazing along. Most of her cards somehow incorporate both lasers, some of which are directed at you Byakuren-style, and star danmaku in dense, fast waves which are nigh impossible to navigate through. Some of her non-spells force you to micrododge to a hair-tearing extent and eats away your resources while you try memorize her patterns. It doesn't help that she uses a ''second'' survival-card at the end of her fight, utilizing her signature moons again. Granted, this might be her easiest spell, but like any respectable survival card, it can become tricky in the end. She is '''the''' One Boss in a game full of them, seen by many players as being harder than the FinalBoss and the BonusBoss and is undoubtedly one of the hardest bosses in the entire series. She shares with [[VideoGames/MegaMan2 Air Man]] the honor of having a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgISzVQVBvg fanmade song which is primarily about how difficult she is to beat]].

** The sequel has three [=TOB=]s. First of all Konpaku Youmu who attacks the player in an area where water reaches up to Sakuya's torso, severly crippling her mobility, and at higher difficulty settings her ghost-half also fires bullet barrages when hit, forcing the player to time his/her attacks to make sure the ghost-half is not accidentally caught in a stray slash. The second example is Marisa who has likely claimed more extra lives with her [[BeamSpam laser barrage]] than any other single attack in the game. The third one is Yuyuko who has two boss gimmicks: The first one is a red butterfly that slowly follows you throughout the fight and is a OneHitKill on touch. The second gimmick is that many of her bullets do not cause MercyInvincibility, or even make you flinch, so if she nails you with a line of butterflies, you're pretty much dead. In addition to this, she also throws a LOT MoreDakka than any boss fought up to this point.

* Alice in ''Paper Tenko''. You first face off a giant puppet with 60 HP that hits you for 4 to 5 damage per turn when at this point you'll have around 30 HP at best. ''Then'' you face a 50 HP Alice. When at this point your HP was reduced to single digits, Alice ''will'' summon mooks constantly so you can't damage her with any attacks except the Celestial Stone Drill, launch said mooks at you for an attack that deals 10 HP damage, 9 if you time your button presses correctly. If you didn't stock on healing items back at Nitori's shop this will be a ''very'' painful battle.
* Utsuho in her ''Phantasmagoria Trues'' incarnation. She's only faced in Unlimited difficulty, but in every other difficulty, you had two options for who you faced in stage 4; in Unlimited, you're forced to fight Utsuho. This is a problem, since despite being only the stage 4 boss, she's actually harder than she was in ''Subterranean Animism'' - where she was the final boss! Her danmaku is ridiculously fast, to the point where in some patterns you can get killed by a bullet that didn't exist half a second ago, while her smaller bullets move in very awkward ways and love to wall the player at any opportunity they can get. All of this isn't getting into ThatOneAttack, ''Suppression "Hell's Helix"'', consisting of constant shifting walls coming at the player relentlessly from the ''sides''. Or the fact that in this game, Utsuho's suns are entirely hitbox, while in ''Subterranean Animism'', they were ''almost'' entirely hitbox - this may look on paper like a distinction without a difference, but in practice, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory far from it]]. Next to Utsuho, even [[PhysicalGod Eiki Shiki]] in stage 5 feels like a BreatherBoss in comparison.
** And then there's Ran Yakumo. She isn't a BonusBoss in this game, but when you get to Stage 3 on Advanced difficulty, you will desperately wish she was. Her patterns feature enormous walls, so large they can potentially cover a third of the screen or even ''more'', as early as her first midboss nonspell, which is followed by a spell that features walls with tiny gaps coming at you from both sides at once. Then it's taken FromBadToWorse with her actual boss battle, where she greets you with a survival card that forces you to [[ViolationOfCommonSense get ridiculously close to the red targeting circles that signify imminent death]] or else you die instantly - but don't actually touch the circles, [[MortonsFork or you also die instantly]]. And it doesn't get any easier from there, culminating in her final spellcard which constantly throws glowing walls at you from multiple directions, followed by a stream of knives that you need to dodge at the very bottom of the screen - when the angle of the walls Ran had been throwing at you made being high on the screen seem like the right strategy.

* Kagerou Imaizumi can be a contender of the hardest stage 3 boss in the series when fighting her on Lunatic. All of her attacks come out very fast, fill the screen extremely quickly and travel in random directions. Transformation “Star Fang” covers up 2/3 of the screens with random bullets, “Full Moon Howling” can screw you up with a fast-moving wall of bullets if RNG decides against you. Finally, High Speed Pounce is a wide area attack that forces you to move around the screen and the boss can ram into you if you decide to stay only at the bottom.

** The Lamprey Serpent FOE appears on both floors 4 and 5, well before you're ready to actually kill it. This is because of its Bite attack, which does tremendous amounts of damage, has good delay, and hits weakness on one of your tanks. The fact that it can start causing instant death below half life tends to not be much of a factor because an unprepared party will likely be destroyed before it can bring the FOE that low, and a prepared party will likely bring the death-resistant Komachi in as the tank.

* Alice in ''Paper Tenko''. You first face off a giant puppet with 60 HP that hits you for 4 to 5 damage per turn when at this point you'll have around 30 hp at best. ''Then'' you face a 50 HP Alice. When at this point your HP was reduced to single digits, Alice ''will'' summon mooks constantly so you can't damage her with any attacks except the Celestial Stone Drill, launch said mooks at you for an attack that deals 10 HP damage, 9 if you time your button presses correctly. If you didn't stock on healing items back at Nitori's shop this will be a ''very'' painful battle.

*** The Great “C” summons four more clones of itself. You must kill them all before one of them gets a turn or they will respawn next turn with full HP. Oh, each one also has an access to Black Universe and mind-ignoring attack. Each one is also invincible until they takes an action on their first turn.

*** Guardian of the Crystals spawns 4 crystals to aid in battle. Each of the crystal is extremely powerful and can cripple your party in a different way. Fire crystal has insanely high attack, Water crystal dispels your buff, Wind crystal buffs all of its allies and Nature crystal can heal one of its allies. The guardian is also troublesome. It can heal per the number of crystal alive. It has a variety of powerful moves, including Dark Star which dispels buff or debuff once it reachs a certain point and deals a heavy damage to you so you cannot debuff the guardian too much. If you decide to kill all of the crystals, the guardian will also spam buffing its own stats and thus casting Dark Star.

* Alice in ''Paper Tenko''. You first face off a giant puppet with 60 HP that hits you for 4 to 5 damage per turn when at this point you'll have around 30 hp at best. ''Then'' you face a 50 HP Alice. When at this point your HP was reduced to single digits, Alice ''will'' summon mooks constantly so you can't damage her with any attacks except the Celestial Stone Drill, launch said mooks at you for an attack that deals 10 hp damage, 9 if you time your button presses correctly. If you didn't stock on healing items back at Nitori's shop this will be a ''very'' painful battle.

** Her second spell (in Hard/Lunatic)[[note]]''Leaf Veiling "Nindou is Known to be the Act of Vanishing"'' and ''Covert Activity "-NINJA- The Overlords of History's Darkness"''[[/note]] is arguably ThatOneAttack, with actually-impassable walls spawning over and over on the screen as she throws extremely dense kunai waves at you.

** Her second spell is arguably the worst, with actually-impassable walls spawning over and over on the screen as she throws extremely dense kunai waves at you.

* Mochizuki Ichiyou, the fourth boss of ''Book of Star Mythology'', has criminally speedy nonspells and difficult puzzle spells. Most players going in blind lose around three lives by the time her first two healthbars are down, due to the following:

* Clownpiece, the stage 5 boss, gained early infamy in the fandom for the massive DifficultySpike. Her initial non-spell is very confusing and then ''immediately'' followed up by a survival card. Yes, a survival card. This early in the fight. It even incorporates a massive moon that blocks out some of the other danmaku and forces you to estimate where the stream is going to continue instead of grazing along. Most of her cards somehow incorporate both lasers, some of which are directed at you Byakuren-style, and star danmaku in dense, fast waves which are nigh impossible to navigate through. Some of her non-spells force you to micrododge to a hair-tearing extent and eats away your resources while you try memorize her patterns. It doesn't help that she uses a ''second'' survival-card at the end of her fight, utilizing her signature moons again. Granted, this might be her easiest spell, but like any respectable survival card, it can become tricky in the end.