Because a touhou's stats can change so much from hack to hack, let's take a look at the individual wild touhous.
Route 1 Touhous: CMystia (Normal/Flying)
, CChen (Ground), CAya (Normal/Flying)
, CKanako (Grass/Electric)
, CSuwako (Water/Ground)
. Level range 2 - 5.
Mystia has good speed at base 115 and decent attack, special defense, and hp. Her ability is, sadly, kinda useless. Diva just raises the encounter rate. She does get B Nightbird as a signature technique, which does good damage and lowers the opponent's accuracy. It's kinda mean. I hate going up against Mystias who have that move.
Chen I showed before but didn't go into any detail. I think she has a bit more attack in this version but the same premise, a speedy ground-type physical attacker. Defenses actually aren't too shabby. They're not good, but she's not entirely made of glass. Possible abilities are Early Bird, which wakes her up faster, or Run Away which turns into Guts when she reaches her EX form. Guts raises attack 1.5x when inflicted with a status ailment. That's new.
Aya is... Aya. Very high speed and Speed Boost on top of that, decent physical stats, not-so-decent special stats. Being able to get her this early is fairly neat. And she's not the only bird you can get earlier than usual in this hack - sequence breaking notwithstanding.
Kanako I caught before, but didn't show. Kanako is slow but has good defenses and special attack. Her typing is pretty good and electric and grass gets pretty good coverage. The early game is a breeze if you grab a CKanako here. Has Pressure for an ability for some odd reason. Also, anyone else reminded of that fifth gen fighting-type pokemon line when they see CKanako's picture? The ones with the boards/bricks/concrete pillars?
Suwako is Water/Ground, which is a good start, and has decent defenses and special attack. Her ability is... Drizzle!? And she gets that ability with her first evolution!? That seems a bit nuts... but, then, I suppose in-game it's not THAT big a deal. Suwako's still pretty slow herself. At least she gets ice-type attacks in this one.
Move on to Route 22 now.
Route 22 Touhous: CChen, CMystia, CAya, CSanae (Water/Grass)
, CMedicine (Grass/Poison)
, CHatate (Psychic/Flying)
, CKanako. Level range is 2 - 5.
Sanae is pretty much equally good in defense, special defense, and special attack. She gets Serene Grace for an ability, which doubles the chance of an added effect activating when she attacks, and her typing can make her hard to deal with because Poison and Bug aren't exactly common.
I think Medicine is a bit faster/more offensive in this one, though not by much. Still has good defenses and hp. Ability really dissuades you from using physical attacks since she poisons on contact. AI couldn't care less, though. Still the same old Medicine, really.
Hatate shows up unusually early in this hack. Though, to be fair, most other hacks added her in as an update/patch and had to kinda just stick her somewhere. She usually only even has two forms, though in this hack she has the full Chibi, Normal, and EX forms. Hatate is basically a clone of Aya now, though with her physical and special stats swapped. She even has the same speed and ability as Aya in this version.
Viridian Forest is next, but first there's someone here that might be a good battle for some of my touhous. Gary.
Thanks to the name I gave my character, he sounds like even more of a jerk than usual. I decide to battle him with my lowest level touhous. Melon is still level 9 and Athena I grinded up to be equal level with Melon. These two will be taking on any trainers I face at least up until Brock.
Battle Gary and Athena beats his Aya fairly...
Ow.
Damn Sand Attack. That one win gets her to level 10, though.
Melon takes on his Reimu. I start the battle using Rock Throw,
then realize CReimu is only normal-type, not Normal/Flying. Switch to Karate Chop and 1HKO her.
Melon also instantly raises a level.
Gary takes off after we beat him. Time to head to Viridian Forest now. But first, Route 2.
Route 2 Touhous: CAya, CMystia, CRan (Ground)
, Rinnosuke (Normal)
. Level range 2 - 5.
I seem to keep missing screenshots today...
Ran has equal speed, special attack, and attack. In a way she's kinda the opposite of Medicine, having close to the same stats only offensively for Ran and defensively for Medicine. Ran becomes Ground/Psychic upon evolving, however. I have to wonder why Ran gets to be a special attacker but Chen doesn't. Chen's supposed to be a user of black magic too afterall.
Rinnosuke is pretty powerful for an early touhou with decent speed and defenses. If not for his normal typing he would be a valuable asset against Brock. He has a good level-up movepool, learns all TM's, and is in the Ditto egg group. This guy is kinda nuts. On top of that, what he evolves into depends on "personality", a hidden stat that is pretty much random. Depending on the personality he'll either become EX Rinnosuke or FRinnosuke. Don't confuse him with the "Final" touhous you might see in some hacks, though. For Rinnosuke, it stands for "Fudoshi". Yeah. FRinnosuke is "Mannosuke".
As EX Rinnosuke, he's a slightly slower Ran with normal typing. Abilities are Guts and Concentrate, both of which are pretty nice. As FRinnosuke, he's still normal-type but with Intimidate in place of Guts. FRinnosuke is actually less offensive than ERinnosuke but has a LOT more speed.
And now finally on to Viridian Forest. Lots of wild touhou analysis in this installment, though the early routes DO have a fairly large assortment of touhous and all are new pretty much. And a lot of these touhous have altered stats to make them more desirable in your party. Especially the upcoming touhous.
Viridian Forest Touhous: CStar S (Water)
, CLunachild (Electric)
, CSunnymilk (Fire)
, CWriggle (Bug)
, Star S (Water)
, CMarisa, Sunnymilk (Fire)
, Lunachild (Electric)
, CAlice (Psychic)
. Level range is 3 - 6.
Apparently you can actually even catch the evolved forms of the fairies here, even though they don't normally evolve until level 20...
Star Sapphire is looking like a much better defensive touhou in this hack, having better hp and even higher defenses. Basically she's your standard bulky water now. Now with actual bulk. In her EX form her ability is always Water Absorb. Even though she has nothing to do with water. In fact, I'm pretty sure she throws around fire danmaku in Fairy Wars...
Lunachild is fast. Faster than Marisa. Though, Marisa eventually gets Speed boost. Hits just as hard as Marisa, though, and isn't bad on the physical defense side either. Doesn't get much else to round out her movepool, sadly. Though if you can get a Sunny Day effect up she does learn Solarbeam. Ability is Volt Absorb.
Sunnymilk has decent defenses and speed, and strong special attack. She's no Utsuho, mind you, but she has a signature technique in the form of Sunnymilk. Yeah, that's the attack name. I don't know and I don't want to ask, but it sharply raises special attack. She's one of the few touhous to get such an ability in this hack, I believe. Unlike in Aqua+Yui, where Mana Charge was turned into a technique that sharply raises special attack for some reason. She gets Flash Fire, which absorbs fire attacks and gives a 1.5x boost to Sunnymilk's own fire attacks when activated.
Wriggle... actually looks kinda shabby in this hack. Decent attack, defense, speed, and hp, but nothing that truly stands out. To be fair, she's still fairly useful since there's only two... Oh, wait, there's Pyonta in this hack. Pyonta pretty much dwarfs Wriggle in its EX form, though Wriggle is faster at least and not weak to Psychic-types. She gets Swarm for an ability which isn't all that useful. "Pinch" abilities as they're called are kinda situational.
Finally, Alice. Alice's abilities aren't that great, though in this hack she's a more defensive touhou and thus can take better advantage of Doll Wall anyway. Not that 1/16th damage is going to help much. She also gains the ice type upon evolving. Special attack is decent but, again, main draw is her defenses in this hack. She can, however, potentially evolve into her PC-98 counterpart. Margatroid, as she's called, is a bit faster, VERY frail, Psychic/Dark, and has pretty good special attack. A glass cannon of sorts.
And now we arrive in Pewter for the first time. After battling the remaining trainers in Viridian Forest, my touhous range from level 11 to 14 and I don't think I have any huge advantage over Brock's touhous. Should prove to be an interesting fight.
Battle Camper Liam first, the sole trainer in the gym. He uses a CSuika that did nothing but Harden while Athena blasted it with Thundershock. Then a CChen which Melon took down in two hits with Karate Chop. Easy experience for my two lower-leveled touhous.
Finally, we have Brock himself. Since Brock actually has four touhous in this hack, I'll provide a video.
I probably had enough healing items available to just let Satoko solo Brock with Counter, but I wanted to spread the exp around and make this battle a bit more interesting. As you can no doubt tell, I'm much more laid back with my battle style when I'm not going up against unfair opponents.
Of course, against his Suika, I realized just how much of a fighting weakness my team has and will have until Reimu evolves. That's why I used Satoko against her. All in all, Brock was a bit of a wake-up call here. This is what my team looked like after the battle.
After beating Brock, we get the Rock Tomb TM, Boulder Badge, and a decent amount of cash to buy more toho orbs with. As you can probably tell, I've been spending a LOT on toho orbs.
Next we move on to Route 3. The trainers here were nothing special, and I'm not going to start grabbing a whole bunch of screenshots or detailing each and every trainer battle again. I did manage to get my team up to level 14 across the board from fighting all the trainers here, though. Pretty nice. I'm usually MUCH higher than this, but I'm trying to break my old habit of overleveling and just fighting the random encounters/trainers I encounter normally along the way.
Only two new touhous here. A pair of rabbits.
Route 3 Touhous: CChen, CMystia, CReisen (Psychic)
, CMomiji, CMedicine, CSanae, CTei (Normal)
, CSuwako. Level range is 4 - 9.
Reisen's stats are actually fairly balanced, with a bit more focus on special attack and a lack of physical attack. I would have figured her to mostly be a fast special attacker myself but whatever. Ability is Keen Eye, which prevents accuracy loss. Doesn't seem to get many attacking options outside of psychic-type attacks...
CTei can be found in the wild holding Lucky Eggs VERY frequently in this hack. It's like this hack is the anti-grind. Anyway, her stats aren't anything to write home about. Decent speed and hp but the rest are fairly mediocre. She still gets Serene Grace and access to all TM's, though. Speaking of Lucky Eggs.
Now that we're in the Mt. Moon pokecenter, we can heal up and check out this guy
. Has his usual deal, a fairy for 500. If you recall, last installment I was at the Safari Zone where you can catch all the fairies you want for the same price. I even have one sitting in my PC. So this time around, I think I'll pass and just head straight into Mt. Moon where we can find some actually interesting touhous.
Mt. Moon Floor 1 Touhous: CKoakuma (Psychic)
, CRumia (Dark)
, CSuika, CKisume (Water/Fire)
, CReisen. Level range is 8 - 11.
Mt. Moon Floor 2 Touhous: CKoakuma, CRumia, CIku (Electric)
, CSakuya, CKisume, CReisen. Level range is 6 - 11.
Mt. Moon Floor 3 Touhous: CKoakuma, CSuika, CKisume, CReisen, ????. Level range is 8 - 12.
I'll show you what that "????" on the third floor is in a bit.
Koakuma is fast and specially offensive and defensive, but not so great on the physical side. She gains the flying-type when she evolves. Ability is Synchronize, which causes the foe to suffer from any status ailment she receives as well. Not much of an attacking movepool outside the psychic-type, but gets some decent support moves like Lovely Kiss.
Rumia is... quite different in this hack. Special defense isn't that great but the rest of her stats are fairly balanced, with her attack being the highest. She can also potentially get Intimidate in her EX form. Not bad, really. Still fully dark-type and still gets Superpower.
Kisume is a strong physical wall as always, but in this hack she gets a nice high special defensive to compliment it. She also has Water Absorb as a potential ability, though I'd still prefer Battle Armor myself for my defensive touhous. For some reason, though, she's been barred from learning fire-type TM's like Flamethrower or Fire Blast. Weird. Best she gets from level-up is Fire Spin.
Iku has good special defense, decent defense, very good special attack, and poor speed. Electric/Dragon when she evolves, which is an interesting combination. Can also learn Surf. Just incase any ground-types thought they had an easy win. Has Volt Absorb and Static for potential abilities. Volt Absorb is where it's at.
Continuing through Mt. Moon, we meet our first Rocket
. All Rockets in this hack, like in some others, have "dark" touhous.
Dark versions exist of Rumia, Remilia, Wriggle, Momiji, Patchouli, Chen, and Suika. You can't get these touhous yourself, though. Usually.
Incidentally, these Rocket grunts are proving to be pretty tough. Their touhou levels are a fair bit higher than the surrounding trainers and one, dear god I wish I had a screenshot, has his Remilia use FLY on me. Their level ranges have been something like 16 - 18, whereas other trainers are using like... level 12's. I think I end up running to heal after each battle...
Anyway, reach the end of Mt. Moon, beat Miguel, and now we have a fossil choice to make. On this, we shall take a vote. Miko fossil
gets us Hakurei, Reimu's PC-98 counterpart, and the Witch fossil
gets us Kirisame, Marisa's PC-98 counterpart.
Before making either of those choices though... we encounter another touhou. Dark Chibi Rumia.
In this hack, you CAN obtain the dark touhous. I think this one is one of the few that you can find easily. She's just a really rare encounter in Mt. Moon's third floor, the floor you find the fossils on. After spending so long searching, at least you can't accidentally run from her. She has Shadow Tag I'm catching her of course.
Dark Rumia is more like your standard Rumia. She has more speed in this hack, but has the usual incredibly high physical attack at a base 150. Her defenses aren't too horrible but her actual STAB attacks are nearly useless due to a base 40 special attack. Though, with an ability like Shadow Tag, and that boosted speed, she's still better than your standard Touhoumon EX Rumia.
She has a kinda dark tohodex entry.
Makes it easy to imagine that Team Rocket's preferred method of disposing of people who cross their path is feeding them to a swarm of starved Chibi Rumias. Yeah, the tohodex entries for most of these dark touhous are pretty... well... dark.
The other dark touhous you can obtain in this game make up most of the secrets to be found, which I'll likely be starting to cover soon.
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