Touhou, from easy to hard...

[Hydeux]

There's probably another topic about that but I don't know where, so I ask the question here : in the Touhou official shmups (those made by ZUN), what would be the ranking if I want to play them starting with the easiest ?
(and of course finishing with the hardest... in 10 years... )

Thanx for your answers !

[Udderdude]

I don't really understand your question, each game has 4 seperate difficulties for you to play through. Pick a game you like, start at easy and work your way up.

[Eno]

I don't really understand your question, each game has 4 seperate difficulties for you to play through. Pick a game you like, start at easy and work your way up.

I think he means how would people rank the main games from easiest to hardest.
Though I stand by what Udderdude said in that you should just pick whatever you like most. I'd say, from the ones I played, Imperishable Night is by far the most forgiving. People talk a lot about Mountain of Faith and Ten Desires being easy too, but I neither liked or played considerably them to agree or disagree.

[moozooh]

Are you playing for score or survival? For instance, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Subterranean Animism both aren't particularly hard to play for survival, but for score they're a nightmare.

Also, are you planning to play everything on Easy, or go straight to Lunatic, or do you want to work your way through Easy to Lunatic in every game?

[Nereid]

Generally, PCB and IN (and I guess TD now) are considered easier, while SA and UFO are harder. The order varies depending on the difficulty you are considerng; for instance, on Normal mode SA is considered to be the hardest, while on Lunatic mode UFO is the hardest (by a good margin).

[Illyrian]

You also have to consider that some games are pretty easy apart from individual attacks or bosses, for example PCB is pretty basic apart from the final deflowering pattern, and Mountain of Faith is easy except for the final pattern of the game, which is probably the hardest pattern in the whole series if you're playing on easy or normal.

[Zengeku3]

Getting into Touhou huh? Then I'd recommend at least starting out with Normal. Especially if you're already into shmups which I assume you are since you are posting on this forum. With regards to your question, have a fucking novel: (or just check the summary at the end)


From easiest to hardest:

TD and PCB: They both give you quite a lot of resources to work with and their overall patterns aren't too tough either compared to the rest of the series or just other shooters in general. If you aren't gonna be playing for score then you should probably start with these since they'll be hard to enjoy when you've become adept at the others. At least in my experiences. I went from really liking PCB to finding it seriously boring. So start off with these, PCB is a great one for beginners to the series.

IN and MoF: These games I still find myself coming back to. They are harder than TD and PCB but still fairly easy to get through due to the sheer amount of resources you get to play with. You get like 10 lives for IN and three bombs for each of those. However, the patterns gets harder in these two games and to make a cool run of MoF where you keep your chain gauge high is decently challenging with the focus on clearing attacks flawlessly but still never hesitating to bomb if you are about to get hit since dying really hurts your points. PS: Even if you aren't into score playing, I'd suggest giving MoF a try. Its really simple yet still rewarding.

SA: It gives you a lot of lives sure but there are plenty of really hard attacks. Try not to abuse the bombing system too much and you'll have a decently challenging shmup on your hands with some really good bosses. One of the harder games in the series.

EoSD and UFO: I'm actually fairly sure I'll tie these somewhat. UFO is by many considered the hardest in the series and with good reason. Its got hard bullet patterns as early as Stage 2 and it just keeps getting harder from there finishing off with a final boss who is capable of seriously kicking your ass unless you are really good + have good understanding of how her attacks work. The game is also hard because resource management is harder than in the earlier installments and the UFO system can be tough to learn how to properly utilize.

Then there is EoSD. I know that I'm probably alone in this but I'll say that this game is up there with UFO. It gives you less lives than the most games in the series, similar to MoF and has some really hard attacks near the end of the game. Especially Stage 5 and 6 have some truly hard attacks. One of which I haven't even been able to beat. There is also the thing about the hitboxes being weird. The big round bullets we like to call 'bubbles' have this square-sized hitbox that can kill you even if you just hit the corner of it. That means that its inconsistent how close you can get to the center of a bullet which is hard to take into account when you also have to dodge all the other stuff going around. Also, certain other bullets are pretty infamous for faking people out because the same bullet sprites have smaller hitboxes in the later games.

------------- Jesus christ that was a mouthful. Why did I even type all this? Mah well, no way I'm deleting it now!

tl;dr: PCB+TD easiest because many resources + easy patterns.
IN+MOF medium cause' harder patterns though still lenient resources.
SA: hard cause' even harder patterns
UFO: very hard cause' even harder patterns than SA
EoSD: very hard cause' ballsy hit detection and cripplingly bad balancing. (again, a lot of people will disagree)

[Chirpy13]

.

[cj iwakura]

IMO, the easiest(and most fun) is Mountain of Faith, though the final boss can be a nightmare.


The toughest I've played overall is probably UFO, since you have to restart stages, but overall(at least until you grasp it), probably Perfect Cherry Blossom or Imperishable Night(especially if you're playing as Marisa, cause damn Reimu is out to eff you up).

[Hydeux]

I think he means how would people rank the main games from easiest to hardest.

Indeed, that's what I meant (for survival, played on normal).

Thank you for all your answers !

[Illyrian]

Yeah you'll lose lives like a spacker in situations where you were completely 100% SURE that you had dodged the bullet.

Can be frustrating. After touhou, Cave hitboxes seem unbelievably easy to judge.

[Aliquantic]

What character do you use in Touhou Ilyrian? Reimu should be pretty close to most Cave games (it's possible to pretty much fly through bullets), but it's true that most Touhou bullets don't have that much leniency, especially with Marisa... and tight dodging is relatively frequent, especially on Hard and Lunatic (for fun, try playing unfocused/rapid fire only ).

[chum]

on normal mode, IN and MoF are probably the easiest, then PCB and TD. none of them are difficult anyhow.

[SuperSoaker360]

I'd say start off with TD and IN first. Unlike what most people here are saying, MoF seems to make all my shmup-beginner friends struggle. I do agree that the last boss for MoF can be quite a hassle if you aren't familiar with the patterns. With some practice, you should be able to learn MoF without too much trouble though.

[Illyrian]

What character do you use in Touhou Ilyrian? Reimu should be pretty close to most Cave games (it's possible to pretty much fly through bullets), but it's true that most Touhou bullets don't have that much leniency, especially with Marisa... and tight dodging is relatively frequent, especially on Hard and Lunatic (for fun, try playing unfocused/rapid fire only ).

I meant bullet hitboxes as opposed to character hitboxes.

Also I'm shit at shmups so the highest I'd play a touhou game on is normal, and even then only on a couple of them.

[nimitz]

I think he means how would people rank the main games from easiest to hardest.

Indeed, that's what I meant (for survival, played on normal).

Thank you for all your answers !

With or without bombs

without bombs, on normal, for survival, sight reading patterns (no pattern practice). I would say (easiest first):

th13
th6
th7
th10
th8
th12
th11

[moozooh]

It's debatable as to which games are the easiest, but TH11 and TH12 are undoubtedly the hardest and should be saved for later.

[Hydeux]

Thank you for your advice !

I've cleared 07 last week, I've just cleared (minutes ago) 08, I'm trying 13 ! (or 04, or 10 ? )

[ZenErik]

I'm terrible at shmups and decided to give Imperishable Night a go today. 1CC'd easy mode. Now time for normal. I'm not a big Touhou fan, but it's been fun. Very predictable enemy patterns in every level. Kinda dull level design. The bosses are a bit more fun.

After I can at least 1CC normal or hard I will try some of the others again.

[A_Civilian]

Mountain of Faith's a tough one to score in (except for the chain-liking folks), but otherwise fair patterns and stuff. A little higher than middle.
Imperishable Night's rather forgiving with everything, so I'd say below middle. I'd recommend it more than the other Windows ones.
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil's got those hitboxes (give 'em a break, one of the first Windows games of the series after all...), so somewhere above middle.
Perfect Cherry Blossom...eyeesh. Looks fair, feels fair, but I've had rotten luck with that (like managing a Double KO on Phantasm and Extra), so I'd put it above middle.
Lotus Land Story...my favorite. Reasonable hit collision and patterns. The base line for my comparisons. I'd recommend this one in general (And T98-Next with fullscreen makes the screen size issue moot).
Story of Eastern Wonderland...It seems pretty fair, actually. Course having a fixed speed and considerably larger hitboxes for everything may turn folks off from this one. Above middle.

No comment on Mystic Square and anything above Mountain of Faith though, haven't played enough for those. Though it seems other folks consider those harder than the rest......