Review: Imperishable Night

Post by **system11** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:27 pm

Destined for the shmups.com page when malc resurfaces for a bit, I've put up the initial version in some spare webspace. Factual corrections most welcome before I send him the final version, I think it's correct though

http://system11.org/temp/shmups/imperishable/_template/

To the people who gave me corrections for the Shienryu Explosion review, I have submitted them - they're pending.

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:27 pm

Nice review. The only mistake I saw was that the game is actually about the seventh in the series, although the games before EoSD were not released for the PC.

Edit: didn't even look at the links in the review.

Devilsheep · Post by **Devilsheep** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 11:46 pm

Nice review, I checked out the game and it's very cool.

Post by **system11** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:03 am

shiftace wrote:Nice review. The only mistake I saw was that the game is actually about the seventh in the series, although the games before EoSD were not released for the PC.

Edit: didn't even look at the links in the review.

Do you know anything about them? I knew they existed, but wasn't sure if they were shooting games or not - can't find screenshots!

druuna · Post by **druuna** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:35 am

wooow nice review, Is there any demo of this game?

Post by **system11** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 1:09 am

The main site and the shrinemaiden site has a 3 level demo of each one, much easier to find on the shrinemaiden one.

For the lazy:
http://mirror0.fuzzy2.com/zun/eiya_tr003.lzh

You'll need an external lharc program for winzip to undo this - no idea if rar/etc understand it, haven't tried. From memory, it lacks the music.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:24 am

bloodflowers wrote:You'll need an external lharc program for winzip to undo this - no idea if rar/etc understand it, haven't tried. From memory, it lacks the music.

I believe WinRAR will do the trick. IIRC the game won't lack music completely, but it will only have the MIDI option available, and not the WAV.

As for the review, it looked pretty good to me, though I believe there's at least one error in there:

You also pick an attack type here - the A or B for each pair have different characteristics, strong against bosses but weak against enemies for example.

I don't believe you can pick an "A" or "B" type in Imperishable Night: in the previous 2 Shanghai Alice games you could, but not here. You CAN eventually unlock the ability to play as "single" characters instead of teams of two, but that's a bit different.

Post by **system11** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:34 am

Oh bloody hell - thanks for pointing that one out BulletMagnet - I'd had four hours sleep in the past 30 or so when that section was written, and had been playing PCB and IM on/off all night. Fixed now.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:18 am

Wow, first time I've ever seen a review and screenshots of a SA shmup. Looks amazing (only one guy worked on this? Incredible), now I really want to try it out. Does it work on an American PC? I know jack about regions with PCs, I have a Windows XP modem.

Nice review, bf, incredibly detailed.

Devilsheep · Post by **Devilsheep** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:34 am

Yeah it'll work on an "American" PC, haha.

It's a good game too, I remember playing their earlier games last year.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:10 am

The games are described as 'Curtain Fire Shooting Games' - I don't know if this is a label picked by the author, or a common Japanese one I haven't seen before, but it certainly fits.

the jp. expression is "danmaku", which means bullet curtain. The term is used to describe what we call manic shmups, i.e. a shmup with so many bullets on the screen they can be seen as a curtain, "hanging" before the whole screen like a theater curtain does before a stage.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:20 am

Wow, these are some of the most artistic, not to mention hallucinagenic, bullet patterns I've ever seen. Thanks for bringing this game to my attention.

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:43 am

bloodflowers wrote:
shiftace wrote:Nice review. The only mistake I saw was that the game is actually about the seventh in the series, although the games before EoSD were not released for the PC.

Edit: didn't even look at the links in the review.
Do you know anything about them? I knew they existed, but wasn't sure if they were shooting games or not - can't find screenshots!

The PC-98 page on shrinemaiden has some information, although most of the links are placeholders. There are screenshots from Highly Responsive to Prayers, but that's it. They used to have ROMs up, on the assumption that the games were abandonware; it turned out that wasn't the case, and the server was getting hit hard by downloaders from Japan.

They have a fairly active forum at shrinemaiden, too, which would be your best bet for finding anything in English about Shanghai Alice/Tohou in general.

Knoskoloz · Post by **Knoskoloz** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 10:29 am

bloodflowers wrote:
shiftace wrote:Nice review. The only mistake I saw was that the game is actually about the seventh in the series, although the games before EoSD were not released for the PC.

Edit: didn't even look at the links in the review.
Do you know anything about them? I knew they existed, but wasn't sure if they were shooting games or not - can't find screenshots!

It exist 9 games total toho1-8 and Immaterial and Missing Power toho 7.5.
1-5 are the PC98 games.
Most of them are shmups expect number 1 is some kind of Arkanoid/Breakout game and 7.5(which is the newest one) is a beat' em up.
Oh and the review is nice.

zimeon · Post by **zimeon** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:12 pm

shiftace wrote:Nice review. The only mistake I saw was that the game is actually about the seventh in the series, although the games before EoSD were not released for the PC.

No, in fact, it's the 8th. The 7th is Perfect Cherry Blossom.

Blossflower wrote:Do you know anything about them? I knew they existed, but wasn't sure if they were shooting games or not - can't find screenshots!

The first is like Knoskoloz said a arkanoid-type game. The third is a versus-shooter (like Puyo Puyo but a shooting game). The rest (#2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) are pure shooters.

Game #7.5 is, like Knoskoloz said a fighting game, and it's not made by Zun, but by the makers of Eternal Fighter Zero. There are more "not-Zun" games based on the Shrine Maiden series, but only 7.5 seems to be "official" since it contains a story that actually was written by Zun and is referred to from his homepage. It's called 7.5 since the story takes place between Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:41 am

i've just read ur review, and i'd like to add somethin...

the boss attack patterns, changes in acordance to the char ur using... this have bein happenin in every Touhou game i played, but in this one its pronounced (even more noticeable when u play in level 4 and in level 6)...

and one more thing, i guess u should have commented there, that after finishing the game, theres an extra level available (if you did a 1CC in any difficulty level) which its eye candy, and more difficult (for me) than the regular levels in lunatic...

one more thing you should of add to the review is the fact that theres a practice mode available from the begginin of the game, and at the time u unlock a level with a char (or couple) that level will become available for practice WITH that char (couple).

one more (last ) thing... theres a section where u can practice and beat the Spell Cards unlocked by the player... this section is called Spell Practce and for me, its one of the better sections of the game, since it helps you to raise ur skill level... in this very section, u can find the famous Last Spells, which are the HARDEST spell card collection available in the game... since they are really, really challengin, even for xperienced users.... they are unlocked by doin certain things (Zimeon can xplain this better than me...) and you cant consider ur game fully finished until u've beaten those LAst Spells (since u cannot play those spells in ANY other section of the game).

with this said, i'd like to say its a good review... keep up the good work.

Kaspal

PS: are you gonna review Samidare and BanShiRyu too?...

shiftace · Post by **shiftace** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:13 am

Thanks, Knoskoloz and zimeon, for correcting me. I used to know that Imperishable Night was Tohou #8, but I managed to forget.

5parrowhawk · Post by **5parrowhawk** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:44 am

Just a quick correction, Kaspal... there's a difference between Last *Spells* and Last *Words*.

Last Spells are the bonus SCs which bosses use if you A Rank their stage.

Last Words are the super-difficult unlockable Spell Cards which can only be played in Spell Practice mode.

Oh, and (for those who don't know) there's a very cool unlockable if the player clears the game with all 4 teams on any difficulty. I won't spoil it here though...

zimeon · Post by **zimeon** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:08 am

Kaspal wrote:i've just read ur review, and i'd like to add somethin...

Personally, I think the review does well without specifying everything in the game. It's not supposed to be a very thourough description, but a review that might tickle yor interest. The Spell Practice part is a very interesting part, I agree. However I do not think it's that essential to mention in a review. It's a good bonus for people who already like the game, so to say. It's enough text just with the in-depth scoring system.

The attacks differ depending on the team you're using? What?

Yes, the 4th boss differs, but the other ones? That's got to be very slight differences then; I've cleared the game with all four teams and I noticed no difference at all for the other bosses (I admit I don't know boss 4A and boss 6B by heart, but still...) or stages.

The only attack/boss attacks I've noticed differs depending on character in the Shrine Maiden games are the fourth boss in Lotus Land Story and the first Prismriver attack in Perfect Cherry Blossom. Apart from that, I've noticed no difference at all, though I admit I might have missed some things since I mostly use Marisa. Still, I seriously doubt there is a larger difference...

Off topic, maybe but make no mistake: I'm by no means a skilled Shrine Maiden player. I just happen to know the rules.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:32 pm

zimeon wrote:
Kaspal wrote:i've just read ur review, and i'd like to add somethin...
Personally, I think the review does well without specifying everything in the game. It's not supposed to be a very thourough description, but a review that might tickle yor interest. The Spell Practice part is a very interesting part, I agree. However I do not think it's that essential to mention in a review. It's a good bonus for people who already like the game, so to say. It's enough text just with the in-depth scoring system.

The attacks differ depending on the team you're using? What?

Yes, the 4th boss differs, but the other ones? That's got to be very slight differences then; I've cleared the game with all four teams and I noticed no difference at all for the other bosses (I admit I don't know boss 4A and boss 6B by heart, but still...) or stages.

The only attack/boss attacks I've noticed differs depending on character in the Shrine Maiden games are the fourth boss in Lotus Land Story and the first Prismriver attack in Perfect Cherry Blossom. Apart from that, I've noticed no difference at all, though I admit I might have missed some things since I mostly use Marisa. Still, I seriously doubt there is a larger difference...

Off topic, maybe but make no mistake: I'm by no means a skilled Shrine Maiden player. I just happen to know the rules.

im just like you ... sometimes i have a HARD time tryin to beat the xtra stage.... hehehe.... but those games are fun as hell!!!

about the patterns... 2 teams get some attack patterns with certain bosses, and the other 2, get another certain patterns.... in that same bosses...................................... just give it a look.

im no xpert at touhou games either... but i like them way too much (since i "discvoered" them about 3 years ago)...

@5sparrow ... i was JUST about to spoil the thing u mentioned, but i had o bite my tongue to stop doin it!... hehehe.

zimeon · Post by **zimeon** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:09 pm

Kaspal wrote:about the patterns... 2 teams get some attack patterns with certain bosses, and the other 2, get another certain patterns.... in that same bosses...................................... just give it a look.

As always, I can't be 100% sure, but... I normally play with Marisa/Alice, and had a hard time beating the game with Youmu/Yuyuko, and as far as I remember I met exactly the same patterns for Wriggle, Mystia, Keine and Reisen. Even the Last Spells were the same. Some attacks had to be tackled differently since the teams had different strengths, but the patterns themselves were identical.

Then again, another guy told me when he saw Keines Last Spell with Marisa that Reimu got another Last Spell... but when I played with Reimu, I got exactly the same. What is this, is my game flawed or something?