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i'm glad you're enjoying it! i really wanted to avoid saying it's bad, because i also have a high regard for zun's work, especially in a holistic sense where even when there's something i don't exactly enjoy about it i generally feel like i understand it, and the experimental and thematic nature of his work is a big part of that appreciation, especially in the case of something like this that uses a kind of fanservice in such a novel and constructive way. in this case, i really do think it mostly is that the genre that's being connected to this time is one that i've never found easy to enjoy in the first place, not some kind of underlying fault in the gameI 1CC'd it a couple of times on Easy and am working on a Normal clear and think I just enjoy everything that puts you off about it. I like that there's a new system (like always) that's solidly themed around the narrative (like always) and which lends a light persistence to Touhou it's not really had before; that the abilities that govern your new toolset are derived from known characters in accordance with their natures is the best kind of flavour that I could ask for, I think. There's a lot about the balance that feels at odds with the neutral immediacy of the shoot 'em up baseline in fresh and aged files being essentially the same as far as the act of play goes, as the cards you purchase during runs and add to your deck grow into a huge difference-maker, but again this connects to one of my favourite aspects about the series in that it's never been afraid to deviate from the norms despite being carried on the developer and audience end by extreme niche enthusiasts with ostensibly very set in stone preferences and expectations. The game feels extraordinarily hard this time on default difficulty, and I think that's nice after a couple of relatively "gentler" games; in turn you now have the ability to precisely customize the manner in which you begin closing that gap; it feels mindful of its own nature in the same way Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom was, in providing the tools to overcome or emotionally "circumvent" the hardships. A number of the ability cards interact with the game in ways that make them feel like they're speaking another language altogether, more in common with the spinoff puzzlers, which is another new interesting variable next to the "get stronger and maybe bomb" paradigm that's still the core of play.
Just very into it and am looking forward to the translation as I really want to know what this new cast is all about beyond audiovisual presence, which remains great. As Antinomy of Common Flowers was about bubble economics, Unconnected Marketeers may end up being about cryptocurrency. A game for our times.
@Dracula: I got my Duo in late 2017. Funnily enough, I still don't have much in the way of legit stuff. Actually, that shouldn't be surprising - it's a very expensive system to collect for. Did make sure to get an EverDrive, though. My drive is finicky about CD-Rs, and if I had to do it over again, I'd get a Duo-R/RX or a base PC Engine with a SSDS3. But I'm livin' the dream, owning a system I'd always wanted! Now about getting a Neo Geo...
Hah, yeah. My PCE collection is the smallest of my retro game collection. I have an everdrive and maybe around a dozen games, and I only pick up new ones every now and then. And even though I have a refurbished CD drive, it's still finnicky.
The suddenly appeared (and out now!) Switch port of Mushihimesama doesn't seem a one-off: per GSK, ex-Cave folks at Live Wire are also gearing up to release DoDonPachi Resurrection and Espgaluda II. The former, like Mushi is already on Steam as part of the smattering of Cave releases that happened six-ish years ago, but Espgaluda II doesn't have any modern port to speak of. Excite!