Hi! This week's post, I'll be showing you another technique that can be used in Touhou danmaku games or... any other danmaku games to ensure your gameplay will be a lot smoother. Among the 3 methods that I shown (including this one soon) at
Part 1 and
Part 2, this one may be the most risky to be executed since it involves lots of moving and timing so, precision and also confidence is needed for this one.
Basically, it sounded literally like the title said. Repositioning the bullets so that it gets out of your way. There is more to that. You can reposition them so that the bullets went through the different direction, or let it spawns outside of the map or also let it spawns at different spots so that it provides clearer vision of the upcoming bullets (Yes. that happens too. Some bullets will act as a smokescreen so that the player couldn't see the next wave of bullets)
As you can see, most danmaku have their own phase of attacks and they will repeat the same steps. There are some exceptions where they will get harder and harder upon repetition of the phases and also there are ones that will only execute initial phase of attacks and spam the other phase until the timer runs out or it was defeated. The perfect example for danmaku game that emphasizes these "phases" kind of game is the Touhou 9.5 and 12.5. These 2 games have a "tick"sound, indicating that the spellcard will be repeated after series of bullets is fired. However, for the rest of the danmaku games, they don't have the ticking sound so this is where the player's observation skills is required. Every spellcard will have their won starting point and some steps in it before it ends and repeats back its starting point. Usually, this technique will be put to use at the initial phase of the spellcard.
Firstly, examine the pattern, which will allow the player to see which bullet will be hitting you, be a distraction or ensnares you in a very tiny spot to dodge. Then, the player will have to spot the time gap before the bullets starts to fire. This is where the precision comes in. That "time gap" doesn't have to mean that it was a calm phase where there are no bullets at all. It can also happen during streaming thousands of bullets. Next, during that time gap, relocate yourself so that the next bullet phase will spawn at your desired location and quickly return to your original spot or another safe spot to prepare for the next bullet phase. By doing that, the player can eliminate 1 out of 2 bullet phase to dodge. That is roughly doubles your survivability.
Below are the examples of the short clips or the stated technique
The circular explosions will tend to masks the fast bullets if it is right in front of the player, causing less vision. There is an obvious time gap for player to actually reposition the explosion out of the way.
This uses both reposition and streaming because the bullets form trails and move 1 direction. The player will have to let the bullets to not spawn right underneath the boss or else the player cannot end the spellcard. Streaming is important as well so that the player don't get trapped
A typical case of repositioning the bullets to move out of the screen. Notice that only the blue knives that aims the player. Green is random. By letting the bullet spawns at left or right of the screen eliminates the blue knives completely, makes the player only have to dodge the green knives. Better survivability chance.
There are lots and lots of other spellcards that demands this technique. Other perfect examples would be Touhou 8 Marisa's Final Spark and Touhou 11 Koishi's 5th spellcard.
By combining all 3 basic techniques, Touhou should be clear-able without any problems in normal mode. Sometimes even at hard mode and extra stages. Lunatic mode however requiers not only basic skills but also good memory of the stages playthrough and very good reflexes as well
That is it for this post. See ya again in the next post. See ya!
