Let's talk about shoot-em-ups.

Yeah. I played Raptor. The beams were lovely, as was the laser turret .

Found a Raiden II cabinet!

...but it was on an unnecessarily hard difficulty setting. WAIIIIIIIIIIII >:

But I did get around to reluctantly trying Castle of Shikigami III. Not too bad I guess. Except for the fact that I'm playing a friggin' vertical shooter on a horizontal TV.

WARNING! HUGE BATTLESHIP CODE NAME "EIGHT-FEET UMBRELLA" IS APPROACHING FAST!

Yes, that is a real boss in G Darius. He's a pushover, too.

Playing Gradius Gaiden on a PSP-1000 is ass. Crappy D-pad, analog nub that I don't trust my life to, and no option to scale the screen to the top and bottom of the PSP's screen while retaining the 4:3 proportion? Gross.

I'm looking to get Embodiment of Scarlet Devil as my first Touhou game. I feel that getting the first game of most any series will help me appreciate the stuff in newer versions.

Kinda like how I started with early versions of Dance Dance Revolution, but that's a story for another thread.

My first Touhou was Perfect Cherry Blossom, and that one's my favorite. However, since Devil is your first that'll probably be your favorite. Let me say this, though- being able to see your hitbox helps a ton.

The first Touhou game was The Highly Responsive To Prayers and that was Arkanoid with bullets as opposed to a shooter. Mystic Square was the first shooter while Lotus Land Story was the first Bullet Hell game (I might have those last two the wrong way round, though). However, the Windows games are different enough that you won't miss anything by starting with them, and they're also the most commonly accepted starting point for whatever canon the later games can be said to have.

Tyrian>Raptor.

I "grew up" with Cave shmups, where you can't see your hitbox, so I'm sure I'll be fine in Embodiment.

Gawd almighty do I want to play Fraxy. Can't wait to get my computer working again.

I love all of the hideous things from beyond that seem to be a common theme amongst the Fraxy fans.

*perks up* User-edited shmup with Body Horror and Cosmic Horror? I like.

I love how Eboshidori's final boss for his Fragments of Men series is basically Giygas.

er whoa that's a lot of japanese, do I need a translation patch?

I don't know which file to get.

edited 25th Jun '09 7:42:02 PM by Tzetze

I think there's an English patch, yes.

Ah, yes. There's a prepackaged English version here.

edited 25th Jun '09 7:42:42 PM by Charlatan

I Wanna Be The Fraxy!

(To elaborate: A ridiculously difficult obstacle course/boss challenge series of Fraxy scenarios in the vein of I Wanna Be The Guy.)

Bonus points for making the player ship's graphic a Touhou sprite for extra absurdity.

Similar to Fraxy: ZetaFlow.

Which Touhou game(s) would you schmucks recommend for a neophyte?

My subpar Giga Wing skill.

@Charlatan Any of the earlier games. The later ones are not as "standard" as the earlier ones. if you want something a little more familiar, go with Embodiment of Scarlet Devil or Perfect Cherry Blossom.

Sounds good. One of my friends recommended me Phantasmagoria whateveritscalled (the 2P competitive Tetris Attack-styled one).

PHANTASMAGORIA!

Anyway, it's called Phantasmagoria of Flower View. I haven't played it myself, so could someone tell me if it's any good?

In other news, look up "Patriot Dark". It's pretty cool.

It's a versus shooter in the vein of Twinkle Star Sprites. The screen is split in two with each player shooting stuff on his own side to make stuff appear on the opposite side. Mucho fun in multiplayer but the Story Mode AI in Phantamagoria of Flower View doesn't like taking the first hit.

Zeta flow.

http://zetaflow.skylogic.ca/

edited 29th Jun '09 6:55:30 AM by NARFNra

Perfect Cherry Blossom's probably a better first than Scarlet Devil, because you can see how big each girl's hitbox is whenever you focus rather than having to puzzle it out (Hint: They aren't all the same).

I'm watching You Tube vids of the extra stage from Perfect Cherry Blossom. Holy Hell.

Also, as I now ask for the umpteenth time across this wiki, anyone know what website/source this R-Type image◊ hails from?

edited 29th Jun '09 5:00:46 PM by Charlatan