I have to disagree about the music— It has a lot of tunes I really like. It does tend towards the strange, though, so I can see why someone wouldn't care for it
And the actual danmaku is fairly good, if difficult
But, yeah, the UFO system. I can see the value of a system that let's you choose whether to go for lives or bombs, but it was not implemented well. Hell, you even missed a few issues:
1.- It works against basic gameflow: The summonable UFOs are stage-only, but Touhou games have a lot of boss fights. Beyond the fact that they're in danger of being kicked out by bosses, it makes boss fights into pure drains on resources
2.- It demands stage memorization: Besides the fact that you have to time summoning so that it doesn't get interrupted by a boss, the UFOs come in different colours and different rates of cycling through those colours. But the drops will always be the same, so you need to know exactly which ones are where for the best results
3.- It is way too easy to screw up: You need three of a kind. They change colour with no warning. You can't get rid of one once you've collected it. Yeah
I have to disagree about the music— It has a lot of tunes I really like. It does tend towards the strange, though, so I can see why someone wouldn't care for it
And the actual danmaku is fairly good, if difficult
But, yeah, the UFO system. I can see the value of a system that let's you choose whether to go for lives or bombs, but it was not implemented well. Hell, you even missed a few issues:
1.- It works against basic gameflow: The summonable UFOs are stage-only, but Touhou games have a lot of boss fights. Beyond the fact that they're in danger of being kicked out by bosses, it makes boss fights into pure drains on resources
2.- It demands stage memorization: Besides the fact that you have to time summoning so that it doesn't get interrupted by a boss, the UFOs come in different colours and different rates of cycling through those colours. But the drops will always be the same, so you need to know exactly which ones are where for the best results
3.- It is way too easy to screw up: You need three of a kind. They change colour with no warning. You can't get rid of one once you've collected it. Yeah
Hm, I have to admit you're right. Maybe I was a bit too harsh on the OST, but maybe it was because I was so accustomed with other music in the series. For example, even though I consider Suwa Foughten Field to be the worst final boss song in the series (tried way too hard to be intimidating IMO), that doesn't mean the song is bad by ANY means, which really says something about the music in the games.
And... I really don't know what to say about the difficulty. Maybe UFO got that reputation because it's way more hellish than it should be in Lunatic (dunno, maybe in a Mo F fashion), but when I put aside all the annoying aspects about the UFO gimmick, I actually 1cc'd the game with Reimu A and B in Normal (on the same day, the day after getting the game). The game wasn't difficult when you looked past its flaws, so it is way harder than it should be. It wasn't difficult, it was frustrating. Which, to me, indicates a flaw in your design, especially if you just brought it up.
Yup, I know I missed a lot, but it was because I was restricted by the word count. BTW I'm trying to get through the Extra Stage and goddamn... now that I remember that getting extra lives is even MORE important in the EX-game, I hope the boss gives me some kind of freebie or something...
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I tried to like something about this... (UFO review)
Before we start, let me clarify something: I love Touhou.
With that being said, UFO is one of the worst shmups I've ever played.
The music is meh at best (for Touhou standards) and bland at worse (save for some, like Nazrin's theme). Overrall presentation looks fine, but it's nothing I've seen before (as in the modern Windows series). The characters are... strange, but I don't have any real complain about them. So far, the game sounds decent.
Then there's what absolutely kills it: The gameplay.
Almost every game in the series has its gimmick to move some things around. Mo F had the faith system, PCB had the cherry system, and UFO has the... UFO system. What's wrong about it?
Well, it goes like this: Many enemies appearing on-screen may have a different color scheme and a small UFO animation over its sprite. Once you kill the enemy (usually a fairy) a small UFO will start wandering aimlessly around the screen. If you pick three of the same color, a small miniboss will appear, which will suck up every single item until you kill it. Once killed, it will drop a special bonus, which may double if it was completely filled with items.
Let's start with the first trouble I have with this fun little gimmick:
1.- It's distracting as hell: Well, it's not called a bullet hell for nothing. You're supposed to be dodging all the bullets that come on-screen and collect as many items as you can in order to score (most players do it to earn extra lives, but I'll get to that later). These things just make your concentration go downhill. I swear most of the time I wasn't dying because the stage was hard, but because I was way too busy trying to catch a trivial item in order to get more points.
2.- It makes scoring a pain: To add insult to injury, these UFO minibosses have very limited time on-screen before they disappear, so you have to draw your attention on that one thing or else you'll lose all the items it sucked up and end up being distracted, leaving you open to enemy fire. Yay.
3.- It makes getting extra lives a pain: Along with defeating a boss/midboss and, these UFO s are your ONLY chance to get 1/5 of extra life. Not to mention these are very important if you want to get anywhere on this game.
I'm limited to the word count. Comment and I'll try to close my original idea. Thanks.