天下制覇

An endless field of flowers reaches across the world.

Spring has come to Gensokyo, but this year, the flowers are blooming out of control. Flowers of every season and kind are blossoming out of control. Everybody heads out, some of curiosity, some of duty to investigate, some out of simple boredom, and some just got lost, but they’d encounter each other as they get to the center of the mysterious bloom. Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Youmu, Cirno, Mystia, Lyrica, Reisen, and Tewi all begin their search.

Like the earlier game in the series, Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream, Phantasmagoria of Flower View is a vs shooter. Another more famous version is the Neo Geo game Twinkle Star Sprites. Sprites fly out in patterns, and when shot, explode, damaging everything near them and potentially starting chains of explosions. As sprites die, bullets are sent over to the enemies side, however bullets caught in explosions are dispelled. Occasionally, butterflies are also sent over occasionally which take more shots to kill, but are instantly destroyed by a nearby explosion. These butterflies can be caught in a scope (uniquely shaped for each character) which greatly weakens them and freezes them in place. If the frozen butterflies aren’t destroyed within a few seconds, they disappear and shoot three indestructable bullets centered at the player’s location. In addition to the unique scopes, every character also has a unique Ex attack which is sent over every few butterflies destroyed. The rate at which the Ex attacks are generated varies by character.

All characters also have a magic gauge that fills as they chain attacks and dispel bullets. Charged to level 1, it can just shoot a stronger spell, but can be used indefinitely. Once any charged spell is used, for that matter, the meter is drained by the level of the attack minus one. Charged to 2, it dispels all bullets in a small area around the player and sends a unique bullet pattern to the enemy’s field. Charged to 3, it sends a similar version of the level 2 pattern, but with no dispellable bullets and usually much stronger. The area dispelled around the player is also increased. At level 4, a version of the player’s character is sent over as a boss to the enemy’s field and uses about 3 or 4 patterns to continuously attack until defeated, or until the enemy generates its own boss, which automatically dispels it. Bosses can also be generated by building a long enough chain. Boss health and the density of the charged spells also increases through a match as they’re used.

Unlike most of the other games, you have a life bar instead of instantly dying when you’re hit. Every time you’re hit, you also get a boost to your magic gauge, and when you’re one hit away from death, it instantly fills completely. There’s also an Extra Mode where the rules are changed. Both you and the enemy start with a full magic gauge, only one hit left, and at a very boosted spell power for the charged and boss attacks. The enemy AI is set pretty low, but it’s invincible for a certain amount of time, and if you don’t kill something, the countdown will stop after about six seconds. There are unlockable characters as well. All the newbies as of this game are unlockables, and Lyrica’s two sisters are also unlockable by beating Extra mode with every character.

Yuka Kazami’s been in the Touhou games before as Marisa’s master, teacher, or possibly just the person she looks up to. She’s the original user of Master and Dual Spark which Marisa copied. She’s also somewhat unhinged and a bit of a megalomaniac, but in PoFV, is just out to enjoy all the flowers blooming and not actually trying to figure out what’s going on at all.

Medicine Melancholy is a doll abandoned in a field of suzuran, a kind of poisonous flower. The poison eventually seeped into the doll enough to give it life, and she became animated and set out to liberate all dollkind. She’s great with poisons and can manipulate other living beings by skillfully using them, but doesn’t really understand why other dolls can’t move on their own. Obviously, the sudden bloom of flowers is important to her and she’s eager to figure out what’s going on.

Aya Shameimaru is a Tengu, making her master of the winds. She’s also Gensokyo’s top reporter, though her stories tend to be somewhat exaggerated and fanciful. She takes centerstage in Shoot the Bullet, taking photographs of the other characters’ patterns, but that’s about all the story that there is to be had there. Aya also tends to be pretty unpopular since she reports on all their doings in the newspaper and tends to be less than complimentary.

The death goddess Komachi is the one responsible for the massive bloom. A tremendous slacker, she’s let the dead souls of Gensokyo pile up and in their confusion, they began to possess the flowers and cause them to multiply at an alarming rate. This is a pretty common occurance for Komachi, as it happens about every 60 years due to her laziness and insistence to work at her own pace.

The final boss of PoFV is Komachi’s master, Sikieki Yamaxanadu. She is the final judge as to whether a dead soul goes to heaven, hell, or is reincarnated. Her sense of morals is very strong and she won’t hesitate to give anybody and everybody a lecture on how to mend their ways for the better. Sikieki noticed that Komachi wasn’t bringing souls to her, so went and investigated to find the uncontrollable bloom in Gensokyo. Realizing the problem, she chastised Komachi, but another person with their sin was here in front of them, and refusing to accept her advice to improve their ways. Well then. First day of Comiket is ending about now, so hopefully in not too long I’ll be able to write about Mountain of Faith. The first screenshots of the stage 3+ bosses are already making the rounds. We’ll see how long it takes me to 1CC it on Normal, but shouldn’t be an issue before the weekend’s up.