Review for Everyone: Divided in three; experts, intermediate and beginners. *FOR EXPERTS (Lunatics): Extra and Phantasm are great! *FOR REGULAR PLAYERS: This is one of those games that stay with you long after you play. I knew about Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II because I played the demo for the third part that was available during a Next Fest. I was so mind blown that I jumped right away into the series (starting with the one on sale of course) and ... God, I am so glad I did. This fan game and it's cinematic flair is better than most mainline TouHou games and all the free ones to date despite being released in 2019. There are three similar games; Blue Devil in the Belvedere, Ultimate Vitality of Imagination and FDF. The are good but lack content and the awesome music. Part III is a dream come true and rocks hard but the gameplay kind of feels like Angel at Dusk after a while somehow. All in all, FDF II is a blast! Pros + Yes, the game is peak! + Amazing soundtrack that matches the energy of the game + 3 bucks when on sale, the most bang for your buck under the bullet hell sky !!! Cons -You cannot use the D-pad, only the left analog stick -No explanation on how anything works -Low res, use Lossless Scaling if you have a 4K monitor -Some trophies are explained wrong, you'll have to go to the TouHou Wiki for those Neutral -The game is really long -It delivers a different experience from ALL the other mainline and fan TouHou games which might set alien expectations for you if this is the first TouHou game you play (Like in my case) -The game can be challenging (this can go either way depending on what you want) *FOR BEGINNERS The game is about surviving a barrage of bullets that come in beautiful patterns and the goal is to clear the game without continuing. The game is a blast on any difficulty you can handle (including easy ) and it offers 4; Easy, Normal, Hard, Lunatic and two locked extra stages with their own (high) difficulty. I provide a short glossary with some of the terms used all over thousands of reviews for TouHou games so you have a better idea of what everybody is talking about. I recommend this game to those who have patience because that is one of the main things that is needed if you want to truly enjoy this kind of games. Every new gaming genre you get into requires practice and a learning curve but STG's are specially hard, yet tremendously rewarding. Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II took me (average player) 4 1/2 hours with 2 serious attempts to 1CC on Easy. Then, it took me 16 more hours and 5 attempts on Normal, I got some of the trophies and I am getting closer to the 1CC on hard. Naturally, you will start disliking easier difficulties as you level up but you can try specific runs like this NMNB replay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHoi4OQTCaI&t=14s on easy which spices things up. Also the game has a cheat code to unlock everything in case you are insterested! Now, your controller may potentially stop working out of the blue which is a real pain. In which case you will have to disable the steam controller support in the global or game specific settings. This game is the coolest fan game there is at the moment and it is one of the easiest out there too. If you are a tough guy/gal/kitten you can try one of the mainline TouHou games instead :) Some History: TouHou project is a fan project by ZUN and his company (per se) is Team Shangai Alice. TouHou Project is one of the pillars of the Danmaku games and It has 20 main entries and he keeps making them. Then we have the fan games, which are pretty much based on the likes of TouHou or actually include TouHou characters and mechanics. The fan games can either be released for free like Servants of Harvest Wish, be commissioned or have permission to be monetized like this one. What this game conveniently doesn't explain: Movement - You can move freely in any direction; fast by default or slowly in focus mode. While you are in focus mode, you can see a dot in the middle of your character which is your hit box. By reaching the item line (which is near to the top) you automatic pick up all the power ups on screen. You can check out "Barrage Musical ~ Basic Danmaku Tutorial" a cheap game ($1 on sale) that teaches you wall hugging, how the hit boxes of the bullets actually work and other basic techniques. Power ups - To blast your way through, you power up your shot until level 4 by picking up the small red squares floating downwards. If you pick up big squares (which drop if you are not fully powered yet) the bullets on screen will be cleared. Cherry frame mechanic (pink rectangle at the bottom left) - The frame fills up by grazing bullets and collecting pink squares. Upon filling the gauge, the frame drains over time and: -Displays a circle around you which delimits an additional grazing radius -Picks up items automatically -Can be popped by shielding you from a miss or by pressing bomb thus clearing all the bullets on screen -If depleted normally, the frame will give you bomb or life fragments depending of it's level (up to 3). Characters - Reimu: Auto guided shot, best for beginners Marisa: Too fast, Loved by experts Sanae: Widespread shot and low damage. Good start if you need more movement precision Yomu: Harder to use but best damage Advice - 0 -Start Low and Go Slow, ignore those toxic postings that try to shame beginners, the best players, the grand master-bullet-dodging-gods do Youtube videos instead of judging others. I am working to post a cool video showcasing how some strong players that work harder than they should because there are things in the basic levels of play that they miss. 1 - Clear the game on Easy with every resource you have first. There is a certain amount of continues, 5 or 6 I think. Beating the game once on easy unlocks the training for the stages and spells for that difficulty 2 - After training (specially stage 6) go for a 1CC on easy and while you are on it, you can check guides to get some trophies like "Quiet ghost" . After your first 1CC you'll unlock the replays, which are useful to analyze your own strengths and weaknesses 3 - Go for a clear on Normal with continues next and notice how much more fun the game is with proper patterns. Some, while meatier, are strangely easier to dodge. Maybe the STG developers have a hard time butchering a well thought pattern XD 4 - This is it, time to go for your first 1CC on Normal. This game is long and you may loose your concentration quite easily so use bombs often, specially during patterns that fill up the screen (nothing worse than loosing a stock of 5 bombs to a stray bullet). That way your concentration muscle will remain fresh as a lettuce. Level four is when the game starts being generous with extra lives so... Hang in there!!! 5- Congrats, you unlocked the Extra Stage and are officially an above average player. Slim Glossary: 1CC = Finishing the game without using continues Average player = Super beginner baby in Danmaku terms Danmaku = Bullet Hell game Fan game = Game made in the likes of grandma Touhou by fan groups as well as licensed like this one. FDF I & II were licensed for Arcadia EXA Phantasm = Stage beyond the Extra stage Hurt = It means getting hit, a collision whether you loose a life or not. Lunatic = This is what the highest difficulty for the regular stages is called. Miss = You loose a life Spell card = Specific boss stage (Lit up square at the top left corner) STG = Shooting game (Japanese abbreviation). A.K.A. difficult or bullet hell shump Cat Pitting Addictor = LOL! - According to AI, they might've meant to say "Cat petting adiction" Death bombing = advanced technique to trade a bomb for a life (NMNB) = No miss and No bombing Euro shmup = low quality Shoot Them Up Bullet Hell = Lots of slow bullets + tiny hit box 4 u + lots of dodging
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