Touhou

Oh, huh, really? Well, that's just because I like to keep things unvague and detailed. I just do that with everything.

You could say ZUN is the same way: in a genre where patterns usually are unnamed and characters if they even exist have basically nothing outside of their profile, he goes to the length of naming every single spell card pattern uniquely (and in several games creating comments for all of them), creating literally over 100 unique themes (with comments as well) creating fanbooks like SoPM and PMiSS to detail characters even further, creating multiple manga...when you look at it, ZUN has written a TON of stuff for a Bullet Hell series. We don't need Aya's articles in BAiJR or Rinnosuke's lovably snarky self narrating his experiences at his shop in CoLA, but they are what make Touhou so much fun: the fact that ZUN clearly cares about his world and characters outside of his games, while still leaving things open enough for fans to give their own twist.

Obsession is good, man. We wouldn't be talking it if weren't for ZUN's obsession with doujin culture and music.

Speaking of the print works, what I would do for an officially-translated version of PMiSS, SoPM, and CoLA...I love me my hard-copy books and if I could get them in hardcover with high-quality print-on-demand paper, that would be amazing. A man can dream...

EDIT: Freakin' CamelCase 2hu titles making TV Tropes' system spit out red links...

edited 30th Jan '15 4:59:06 PM by Frostav

The hardcover SoPM is indeed pretty awesome. I like it. It's also way higher resolution.

Hahaha, no, ZUN's behavior pattern is different from an obsessive.

Rather, he's a guy who loves the joy of creation, but hates ALL the hardwork - training, practicing, debugging, proofreading, note-taking, maintaining a Touhou bible, actually fleshing out a plot summary into a full story, and so on. While I'll be the first to defend his aesthetics of having more negative space than positive space, leaving nearly everything to people's imagination, such aesthetics partially stem from his fundamental laziness.

edited 2nd Feb '15 9:04:38 PM by atrican

ZUN isn't lazy, just drunk.

If he hated all the hardwork, he wouldn't have created so much damn extra stuff for his Bullet Hell series. I dunno man, "lazy" doesn't describe a guy who makes games literally all by himself, creates a bunch of extra side material for those games, and also does this nearly every year like clockwork.

And ZUN actually doesn't leave as much negative space as people say he does: yeah, he's not excessively detailing everything but people act like Touhou is this gigantic void to be filled in. We have basically every important location named and described at least a little bit, nearly all the Windows characters have profiles and articles in the fanbooks, we have the manga for more stuff (and they're written by ZUN so each mangaka can't just make their own interpretation)...Touhou actually strikes a really good balance to me: there's enough canon meat to read up on and get yourself initiated and provide a framework for works to springboard off of, without being too constricting.

(Of course, people make works and ignore canon anyway, which is where we get insufferable canon-defiling memes and fan interpretations—"Sakuya wears pads hurr" stopped being funny after fucking IN came out goddammit—but there will always be stupid fans who think Touhou is their personal masturbatory playground...)

Honestly, I'd attest Touhou's doujin popularity to be from ZUN's lax guidelines and the fact that basically nothing in Touhou ever really changes. You don't have to awkwardly make sure your story doesn't violate canon because stuff from one game rarely affects the other games. The games happen in order, but they're pretty much standalone. And you have months in between in each game to set your story.

So...basically, Touhou is the closest thing we will ever get to a Slice of Life Bullet Hell: nothing truly threatening ever happens and every "episode" is near-standalone with only minor references to the previous ones.

To compare: if you want to make a Madoka fanfic, the point of the series you will set it in will dramatically affect the story itself. In addition, Madoka's canon is so packed—the whole series takes place in like, what, a month?—that finding a suitable place to put a story is hard: every single damn important moment has already been gone over in canon (and if you make one yourself, you have to justify why canon doesn't mention it). Touhou isn't like this. It's pretty much the exact opposite.

...Wow, that was a completely incoherent ramble.

Oh my sides!

edited 30th Jan '15 7:45:32 PM by MajorTom

Is it the Chief wearing a dress for some Kokoro cosplay, or is Kokoro wearing a helmet for some Chief cosplay? [/psyduck]

Re: obsession discussion - I think ya'll are mixing measurements, to some extent. Like I can put a lot of thought and detail into a doorstopper story, but I'm not necessarily "obsessed" with it unless I did nothing but do that. Total effort versus frequency, in other words.

edited 30th Jan '15 7:52:44 PM by Tacitus

Kasen is here to burgle your turts

That's the spirit. Surprisingly few Touhou fans like me, and this.

Also don't write for others. I've started a fan fic now and it's solely for personal satisfaction. Sadly that has rather run out at this point (blame school, other hobbies coming along) so it's on hold. For now.

Also I have not posted enough here and that is silly

edited 31st Jan '15 11:00:43 AM by EonLeader

Clearly you missed FDA and I geeking out over the fact that the Human Village is now confirmed to have a gate and a compost heap on the previous page.

ZUN is a drunkard who pretty much studies mythology, history and game design.

There is a certain sincerity to doing that. I wish I could write that well though....

It also turns out that there urban legends coming to life in Gensokyo.

edited 31st Jan '15 12:52:24 PM by GAP

edited 31st Jan '15 12:49:18 PM by GAP

Youmu expressing disdain for the formalized education structure.

A question: Is there any playthrough video that showcases the fan-made SA Phantasm stage with the 11th spellcard, Red Kappa "Prohibitory Signboard"? The official video only had the first 10 spellcards.

Speaking of Phantasm stages, Riverbed Soul Saver has one.

Another boss rush.

Well that's some interesting Spell Cards. I liked how Reimu's expresion would change when she got hit or used a bomb. Neat little touch that one.

edited 31st Jan '15 10:50:00 PM by MachThreeSlug

Genderbent lamia Seimei is a pretty decent boss. Still kind of running out of ideas towards the end, though

Boss rush has some interesting ideas, but the actual danmaku could use a bit more work

okay so

seija's last spellcard in that

what is happening exactly

The one where you control Seija?

yeah

but like

you're trying to fly into not-reimu's bullets while also trying to not hit her with your own bullets because shes still technically you

that spellcard is fucked up

i like it

Silverquest update: Layla is still dead.

Undeading Layla would admittedly be quite a drastic move in any AU.

...That really isn't a very common thing in Touhou stories, is it? Odd, you'd think there'd be potential there.

Prismrivers getting written about is rare in general. They're not popular characters.