Touhou

To be fair, the protector god was also "dominating" them, whatever that means.

It’s fine as long as there was a safe word

For all the talk of 'don't trust them!', the animal spirits seem like pretty friendly people.

Like, I guess they're manipulating the protags, but they're actually quite polite about it.

The animal spirits are essentially full characters and it's a shame they don't get names or portraits. This is practically another team game like IN or SA.

I think Unlocated Hell is my favorite out of the WBaWC stage themes.

Man, having Otter Goast makes Keiki's last two spellcards so easy. Next to infinite bullet-cancel barrier ahoy.

Prince Shoutoku's Pegasus

Edited by asterism on Aug 15th 2019 at 10:23:36 AM

^^ So I take it Zombie Goast never came to be...

Sorry if it's been brought up before. Looks like Yachie's profile explains that the beast gangs are based on themes, which is why a pegasus can be a leader of the wolf gang (which is those with excellent leg strength, fangs, and/or strong bodies)

Edited by TiamatRoar on Aug 15th 2019 at 6:15:49 AM

Yeah, it's not really animal species, more like what you deemed the most important.

Keiga - brute force, Kiketsu - cunning and tactics, Gouyaku - pride

I think there's also a fourth, less important faction that uses poison and whatnot?

And the humans and idols, of course

Yeah, there's a mysterious 4th faction of ninjas. They're so good at hiding that no one's ever seen them.

They do get mentioned by Saki in one of the extra stages, at least.

Well, I did a run of WBAWC. It was a quarter-muncher run, just to see up to the final boss and prepare for later. Quite the fun ride; I like the boss fights a good deal this time around.

I was doing Eagle Youmu because Otter got nerfed pretty hard between the trial and the full game, but I may go back to Otter Reimu for another run. Otter may be nerfed, but boy howdy did I wish I had it for some of the fights. It's no longer effective invincibility, but it's pretty useful all the same. Youmu also has troubles consistently hitting some bosses, particularly the stage 4 one. But I knew what I was getting into, after how she played last time.

@True Shadow 1

The beast realm is one of the Buddhist realms in the cycle of rebirth, right?

*googles*

Yeah, apparently it's a place ruled by impulses and the rule of predators, which sounds like what we're dealing with here? Hell is one of the realms, so I suppose if we were traveling through the realms, we'd pass through Hell at one point. Of course, I'm not sure if that's meant to be seen as a physical or metaphyiscal place, or if it's a state of existence that our heroes shouldn't be able to travel to.

The six realms are those of Hell, of Preta (hungry ghosts), of Animals, of Asura, of Humans, and of Gods. Youmu's spell cards way back in Perfect Cherry Blossom referred to these concepts too (with some only mentioned on Hard), with her stage six spell being "Six realms sword", combining them all.

And yeah, I'm aware that Reimu has gone to several hells not quite in line with the Buddhist rendition, but dang near everything seems to be true in this setting, so I'm not surprised if that's the case.

Edited by Enlong on Aug 16th 2019 at 11:31:23 AM

Is the Hell that Shiki rules over and Kutaka guards meant to be Naraka, then?

Possibly?

I think Shiki oversees a number of different hells, though. We've thus far seen this game's location, the abandoned hell that Satori's living in, and the place Reimu potentially visited in the very first game. And possibly even another one, depending on where Hecatia's hell body is situated.

Having established that different worlds have their own hells, now we get to wonder whether they in turn have their own six realms, of which their hells are but a part.

Also, mefomefo's take on the four newest girls. And a bonus yeecaw.

There are different hells? My impression that Hell is just this one really big place, with each time we visit a different section of it.

Excepting Old Hell, which is explicitly abandoned.

There are multiple Hells/Narakas in Buddhism, and I imagine that similar concepts from other religions are out there in the Touhouverse, too.

Hang on to your nutbladders because Mamange is back! (At the moment, new stuff is untranslated.)

Edited by MajorTom on Aug 17th 2019 at 10:34:49 AM

do you think jo'on plays gacha games

...probably does. A whale, too.

All with “donated” money, of course.

——————

Speaking of underhanded tactics, I found it neat to learn on an Otter run (bad end still) that the Otter spirit is specifically one of Yachie’s kinsmen, and that their clan is known for their dirty tricks. “The back door is the quickest and best route” is a heck of a clan motto.

Yep. Also the Wolf Spirit is one of Saki's peons.

that was fast

Yeah, it's on the backstory. The wolf is Saki's (extra stage boss) underling, while the eagle's boss didn't appear.