Lurker > ViewtifulJoe

Oh good timing.
I was just trying to gauge whether I wanted to post something about old vocal tracks with unintelligible lyrics, post about old ytpmvs or not post.

I've randomly found myself looking through old Touhou videos lately. It's weird recognising YT comments like you just saw them appear the other day, then seeing 11 years ago next to them.

GiftedACIII posted...

I'm glad you mentioned that. I was thinking about that a few days ago. Let's play pretty much just means any commentated video these days, and are actually usually blind playthroughs. The informative stuff are "100% walkthroughs" and they're more often than not without commentary and if they are, they're usually text.

Right? I blame the reaction cams personally.
I've seen blind playthroughs where the player bought a lore master along as a co-commentator to give them and the viewer context which is better but still not something I'd want if I was searching for LPs.

GiftedACIII posted...

I believe he did an LP of the visual novel Danganronpa

LP as in recorded himself playing through the game once or LP as in actually made a detailed playthrough, tried to be informative and all that?
I feel like LP means a few conflicting things nowadays.

Posted 2021, I wonder if Terry Crews knows what's being parodied at each point of that collab?
I remember hearing something a while ago about him referencing Mother 3 which was also in there. Maybe he's working through it section by section.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

What's up?
I don't really have much exciting to add right now.

GiftedACIII posted...

Yeah, no worries, I'm the exact same. Physical Touhou games are always funny because they actually get more mainstream attention than the official games which lead some people to think they are the official games when they're fan games. I've been seeing them since 2018 for the Switch.

I knew they were out there, some RPG stuff and a Mario Kart inspired racer, but it took until now to finally see one. Even weirder thought, someone nearby knows what Touhou is.

GiftedACIII posted...

Does he lose in the next game?

No I don't think so. I didn't play the 4th game that comes after that one because they changed it too much, but I think that's where they wrap it up.

GiftedACIII posted...

You can't find it anymore? Yeah, I always take a quick screenshot or jot down links of any interesting vid with low views I see these days since there's no guarantee I can ever find it again.
Anyway, logically it does make sense to go for skips but I have a drive inside me to try to make myself catch spell cards. I think it helps me improve and I believe it's what they "canonically" do in other media. I'll only go for skips if I really really have trouble with it (like Shou's dumb spinning spell card although I actually attempted to capture that in my final runs).

I used to be like that. Probably because a lot of the titles were in Japanese and I had no faith I'd be able to find them again.
On one hand, capturing the spellcards comes off like the canonical approach but after a while, don't gameplay oddities get pulled into fan interpretations and become just as good? Like without ZUN saying otherwise, you can focus on the timeline where Sagume trips over a bomb, botches her entrance and there is no fight.
It's kind of like Dark Souls 1. I used to do all the fights normally with different builds. Now that's gotten old and I get more of a kick out of using weird unsporting strategies like hitting Capra and Manus from outside their boss rooms, unplugging O&S' AI and the like.

GiftedACIII posted...

I honestly think Nazrin has a more energetic and hype inducing theme than Nue lol. Sure, that does make sense on its own but every other prior Extra boss was much more fast-paced and strong. Extra bosses were definitely not meant to be a breather lol. Now that you mention it though, I guess it does fit Nue a bit since she's the easiest Extra boss... well, there's also Mokou and Ran.

That makes sense though and I don't think it really condemns Nue's. The palanquin ship crew have a mission. They're more immediately hostile toward the player.
With Nue it's like "Haha okay you finally caught me, let's throw some lasers at each other."
There's no real stakes, so I don't mind the song being calmer. With stuff like 6 and 11, you've found and aggroed the local crazy person so it makes sense they'd have those songs. I do think Mokou's easier than Nue, but it's the same kind of deal. Mokou's not really trying to win because she knows you can only antagonise for a while her at most and her song's pretty relaxed. And I know Suwako's also a no stakes fight but with a livelier song. Difference there is she's a deity whose fellow deity and underling lost to you, so she has to try and win some of her shrine's dignity back.

GiftedACIII posted...

A Pristine Danmaku Hell is well known for being THE hardest spell card in the series. The best pro players spent months solely dedicated to capturing that one spell card.

Harder than the Shoot The Bullet/Double Spoiler ones? I know there's some brutal ones in those games.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. End of the year and some games I was really invested in.
I actually randomly caught a glance of a physical Touhou game at the game store the other day. It was surreal. It was a Touhou game on PS4 for 15 golden coins. What an unrepentantly strange future we live in.

GiftedACIII posted...

Does he lose?

Not really, Blazblue just gets more bent out of shape as it goes on. It's more like at the end the timeloop ends because the villain gets the outcome he wants and things proceed into the next game

GiftedACIII posted...

Do you have a link? There are different results at varying times. And yeah, there are ways to cheese it but the fact that people opt to cheese it instead of fighting it normally shows its difficulty.

That's my issue. It's hard to find a lot of things now. It's go no problem giving you musical arranges with no views that just went up earlier that day but the thing you're actually searching is a whole other matter.
Personally I think I'd go for the skip. It's only after becoming consistent at 1ccs I occasionally try to one-up my high score. Or if it's one of the games that gives lives in exchange for score, couldn't hurt.

GiftedACIII posted...

Fair enough. But that still means I don't like the actual melody and composition of the song. Sakuya's EoSD battle has similar circumstances and I still like it a lot for having a distinct Touhou motif especially its final measures.

Yep, you described UFO's extra theme perfectly to me, which is why I'm a bit let down by Nue's theme since it slows down incredibly and has a blandish melody more fitting of a stage 1 boss imo.

I can't agree with Nue's theme fitting for a stage 1 boss. It's not a high stakes fight or against someone particularly evil. It's an extra stage which means the fight taking a while is a given.
It's kind of like you came this far, might as well see the fight through. Song doesn't need to go fast because it's no longer a chase. It's just some random area in the sky and a fight against someone who's not really important but decided to show up anyway. I can enjoy that.

A stage one theme to me needs to sound like an adventure starting out small. This one sounds like an adventure winding down after the main threat's over and done with. It's less warming up for the real fights and more stretching and taking a breather.

GiftedACIII posted...

Honestly probably the hardest final card in the series besides 15's Junko.

(Looks Junko's up on Lunatic real quick) That's rough. Maybe without the purple bullets coming in from the side that'd be a lot more manageable but as is, it looks like it's all quick reflexes.

synth_real posted...

Load that bad boy up with JSP hand loads and one-shot Deathclaws with sneak attack headshots.

I haven't really messed around with hand loads or crafting bullets in general. Every time I craft I normally have loads of 3 ingredient then less than 10 of the 4th. Energy Weapons' ammo is such a better deal.
Normally if I'm doing some kind of sniper run, I go straight to Contreras at McCarran who sells crazy amounts of 308.
I'm down to try something else though.

DrizztLink posted...

If you have Explosives skill you can repeat a skill check in conversation, get a boost every time for free.

The same Decanus guy lets you show him how to disarm mines if you have 50 Explosives. Didn't know you could loop him though.

I got the Gobi Campaign Rifle too. It has the +crit chance +crit damage Paciencia has and it fires faster but it doesn't feel as satisfying to use.
Ratslayer has fallen off for the most part but stealth crits + fight the power + better criticals have to count for something. It's also nice taking shots from afar using 556 instead of eating into the 308 ammo. I think it's worth keeping.

Trying something different to keep things fresh.
People have been saying the Ratslayer's busted for years and I'd just never bothered to go into Broc Flower Cave. I finally got it and I'm using it with Paciencia. Ratslayer really makes it own ammo if you sneak crit the NCR guys at the outpost, each gives you 25 more. Also took Bloody Mess for the first time in who knows how long. Mainly looking for ways to turn the damage up even more.
I've been neglecting Repair in favor of Lockpick because I heard the rifle in the box at the Sniper's Nest is really strong a while ago.

Also read that if you trade 5 dog tags at a time to the Decanus guy for food, you get the best tag to Legion rep ratio because the scaling makes giving them all at once not worth it. I got the Lucky Shades really fast.

GiftedACIII posted...

Yeah, Gametal is more of a general coverer and he's only done a handful of 2hu songs. The ones he did do are great though. RichaadEB's covers actually variate quite a bit from the originals so you might want to check some of the newer ones out to see if your opinion on it might change. I'll have to check out the chaosangel guy. Is his channel still up?

It is still up. And if the newer covers sound different now I could give it a look some time.

GiftedACIII posted...

Do you have a link that I could see?

I think I just typed in Touhou 15 Normal 1cc.
I also saw video where someone skipped the fight entirely. Like he kind of timed a bomb before the boss spawned and skipped the whole fight.

GiftedACIII posted...

lol that sounds pretty funny. What happens to the final boss? Did the protagonists figure it out?

It's more like the villain finally gets things to go the way he wants and the story is allowed to continue into the third game. Then it gets really garbled.

GiftedACIII posted...

I just like Lunatic Eye's main riff a lot. I think it's very touhou-ey. She has a very good remix in ULIL too.
My problem with Shou is that her theme just sounds like a wild/generic trainer Pokemon battle. They're fine for Pokemon but I generally expect more elegant themes and catchier melodies from ZUN.
Lol UFO's stage 1 is one of the best stage 1 themes so that's to be expected. I could hear it in my head instantly despite having not heard it in years. I just went and checked Nazrin's theme but I don't think hers is that bad though. I think Shou and Nue's stages are much better than their boss themes. I really like Romance in the Sky while I've mentioned I'm not very fond of Nue's theme at all.

I don't think Shou's meant to be that graceful. She has a guy's name, has a tiger motif, instead of using her own abilities she uses one of the magic treasures' power and has her minion do the same thing. It all takes place in Makai while the opponent team is getting really close to succeeding in their mission too. I don't mind the song choice.
UFO's extra stage theme is good for being unique too. Feels faster paced than all the other extra themes and goes really well with the miniboss fight. With the others it's like you're at a temple or building and are just slowly moving to a certain room, with UFO it's the whole sky and you're going fast until you catch up with the blue light so that's cool.

GiftedACIII posted...

I think Nue's final card isn't as eye breaking as Byakuren's final card. My memories are coming back and I recall actually getting a bit woozy trying an entire hour with the spell practice patch to capture it while I caught Nue's final card in 10 or so minutes.

Oh yeah that's a bad one. Lots of health, bombs don't clear the screen. I used to wonder if there were strategies where you could delay your shots to mess with the way the new projectiles spawn in and make it easier.

I took everything to Dead Wind Cavern and tried it out there.
The Nuka Grenades were the the best one. One instantly took out one of the Legendary Deathclaw's legs.
Sneak attack crits with MFC Clusters are crazy. There were some parts where already aggroed Deathclaws ran through clusters like they were nothing though.
I set up some rows of Satchel Charges to see how effective they were and they were great. Time Bombs not so great but still kind of fun to just throw out there and see what happens.

What I've learned is that I should really be using that safe in the Novac room, hoarding every known crafting ingredient. Abraxo Cleaners are reasonable to come across, Turpentine's a pain to find. Nevada Agave Fruit lets you make Nuka Cola so I need to find a spot on the map where there's a lot of that respawning.

What you want with this kind of build is for the explosives to take out the legs or ragdoll the enemy. And you have places where the enemies attack from a range so you're stuck throwing grenades and hoping they don't fly off in the wrong direction. And then you have places like Quarry Junction where it just seems like a pain to set up a trap for every Deathclaw.
It almost makes you miss the Dart Gun.

Maybe having Red Glare on hand for ranged enemies was the answer all along.

Scrap electronics feel too scarce without DLC. I ran up and down Repconn HQ and only found scrap metal. I'm always hesitant to go to OWB because you're locked in there until you've finished it and because the cutscenes and the beginning and the end are seriously pushing it. Melee ended up being the primary option and it got really strong really fast meaning nothing really needed a high power explosive to deal with it.

Might go for a "pacifist" run since companion kills don't add to your own count. It might have to be a Mr House run since I don't think the companions would attack him unprovoked and the other factions want him gone.
I've been using the Four Eyes trait for the past couple of runs and I'm liking it. Could be handy for the skill checks. I could also push my luck and put points in charisma again

Okay this is real. New run.
Melee + Explosives. Emphasis on maintaining Blade of the Best/Superheated Saturnite Fist and hoarding tape for MFC Clusters. No allegiance, allowed to grab up armfuls of EXP wherever it's available though. OWB early-ish for crafting materials.

Something I keep wondering is is it actually optimal to have a companion with you? They can take out extra enemies and end some fights faster, but if I solo everything I'm making faster progress towards challenges and the exp boosts/perks.

"Hand it over. That thing. Your duct tape." - The Courier, ominously standing in the devastation left by the first MFC Cluster he'd thrown at an enemy in a long time.

synth_real posted...

Just wait until you've got a stash of Nuka Grenades and a target worth using them on

This's the plan. I just saw Fat Mine on the recipe list and I have to try that too.
Problem is Nuka Chemist is all the way down at lv22. My character's made of paper and I'm trying not to antagonise the NCR, Legion or House so it's a slow grind.

You can turn Gecko remains into leather belts. I thought it was going to be a unique clothing item, but it turns out all it does is fill your inventory with regular leather belts. Extra caps I guess.
Edit: Oh there is armor, it's on the Survival menu.

Actually this is kind of interesting.
There's areas where they take your weapons, but you can bring a bunch of innocuous ingredients and Veronica can assemble them.
I'm definitely gonna try and Barter up to 70 for Pack Rat, since most of the things you need weigh 1lb. I found out the other day that ED-E can make Satchel Charges if you have the perk from the Divide and enough points in Explosives. Kind of takes some of the novelty out of this, but the other weapons are still cool.

It's great.
I feel ridiculous hoarding every piece of metal and tape I see.
I made Boone wear something lamer, took his shades and beret. He just does this dejected "I'd really like my Beret back please." But no, he's been demoted from Dale to Bill.
I made two bullets out of a whole heap of tin cans.
I don't have any guns.

Idea.
-New character, extremely flimsy with high perception, intelligence and luck.
-Must dress like a stereotypical nerd, no armor. Small Frame and Four Eyes traits.
-No self-respecting companions allowed.
-Must use the crafting system and be overconfident about it.
-Benny is from the chess club, he wears that suit because he wants to look more like a chessboard. This guy is the leader of the after school homework club. Benny shot him because he is jealous of his coolness.
-Never allowed to level speech. Something to limit how fast Barter can level too. Must always choose a failed speech check if it's an option, otherwise pick the most standoffish or evil response. This most likely means siding with Mr House and constantly trying to one-up him in conversation.

Bat178 posted...

The 21 Courier Duster is the Yes Man one. You get it if Strip, NCR and Legion rep are all equal or negative.

I just looked it over.
It dropped my Legion rep to neutral at some point. I still have vilified on NCR and Strip.
I thought they only messed with your rep when Vulpes and Crocker summon you. What's caused that?

Ulysses lied and told me I didn't support the Legion even though I've got idolised status and the outfit.
And also he's immune to being obliterated with a chainsaw even after you've beaten him. And if you take the Duster from him, he's inexplicably still wearing it.

Oh and it gave me the 21 Courier Duster. That's weird. Thought being idolised was enough to pass as a faction member.

synth_real posted...

There's vendors who sell the parts, and also upgrades for The Sink in OWB that provide more. You can recycle clipboards into duct tape, and Muggy can be upgraded to provide 5 scrap electronics per day. I feel like the hoarding behaviour makes sense for a Mad Bomber kind of character, you spend the early game scavenging all the stuff you need as you craft your arsenal, you end up getting excited to find caches of stuff you used to see as junk. While easily ignorable, the crafting systems of NV are worth getting into, some of the chems you can craft are pretty powerful too.

The most I really went into it are the Vigilant Recycler recipes for Energy Weapons and some of the busted campfire recipes you get for Survival.
I always assumed the stuff like turning tin cans into bullets sounded better on paper and were impractical in game. Turning junk into OP weapons sounds like it's worth at least one try though.

The idea of chem crafting reminds me I always wanted to try that Turbo/Implant GRX + Chemist strat where you basically get Slow VFX too.

Legion run.
-I got the costume and put it on as soon as possible, there's an ash pile with a Legion recruit outfit by the caravan in Nipton.
-Early game's rougher than usual. NCR's in Primm, NCR's in Sloan, you can't go to the NCR outpost for easy quests and a free level, there's guys posted on the McCarran that take pot shots at you.
-Apart from the NCR and their main associates like the Crimson Caravan, nobody cares if you wear a Legion costume. I don't know if it's fear or apathy. Vulpes puts on a disguise, I thought the idea was that if you run around in a Legion outfit, everyone piles you.
-Manny Vargas and especially Boone not immediately turning hostile is a weird one. When I spoke to Boone I was vilified by NCR but I didn't have that much Legion rep yet.
-I've found a way to make the Legion run more fun. You make a robot master and pretend Caesar is Dr Wily. Since they're all wearing red and have chainsaws, I'm playing as Metal Man.
-When I left the Lucky 38 after Metal Blading Mr House, there was a fight outside and all the NPCs prioritised running away. I just rested in the desert in the south left of the map and Emily Ortal has tracked my guy all the way over here to ask if he was the guy who was in the Lucky 38. I've never seen this. I assumed the Followers would automatically be hostile. Maybe it's because the Legion outfit's been broken for a while now. Hard to get more when you're not allowed to take out Legionaries.
-They really should have let you fast travel to Caesar's tent. As is, the walk is still a big deterrent to picking that side. It's all hills too so even stop-hopping isn't that efficient.

synth_real posted...

MFC clusters are waayyy better and so much more fun. I take MFC clusters to the Deathclaw Promontory and they don't even stand a chance. If you're planning to take Mad Bomber in a run, hoard all the duct tape and scrap electronics.

I could give this a try but the bit about having to hoard random stuff you find in boxes and lockers sounds kinda rough.
Maybe it'd have to be a dedicated explosives run. The one I was doing was an anomaly because it had points in charisma. Idea was I'd stand in the back throwing MF Grenades while bulky companions take aggro.

I really thought running around as a Brotherhood of Steel member would result in mostly negative karma.
The game really pushes you toward positive karma with all the Feral Ghouls and Fiends.
I wonder if playthrough wearing a Great Khan/Legion outfit would end up the same way.

That being said, these are hardly playthroughs. I've played 5 characters so far and none of them have bothered to even meet Benny.

I don't really take pictures of games. I stopped a while ago.
People I know still take lots of screenshots and I wonder if they actually go back and look at them.

What is/was the point of Searchlight Airport?
A measure to prevent new players from running straight to Cottonwood Cove?
Could have been a bit more interesting. All this space and just a few Radscorpions. Meanwhile next door in Camp Searchlight, they've got the only Radscorpion Queen in the game that I can think of in a small room.

I like how overly early-game-NPC Sgt McGee feels compared to the rest of the NCR.
The others talk to you like you're just some guy, they have quests and opinions. Sgt McGee though, his whole personality is he announces who he is to you.
If he dies, the game gives you a message. It makes sense to highlight when some characters die, but he sticks out so much.

GiftedACIII posted...

Yep, although I heard even reupload channels were getting taken down at the start of this year.
Same, I generally covers that don't stray from the original too much. That's why I generally follow more amateur youtubers too, 3 ones I frequented are RichaadEB, falkkone, and Gametal. Demetori is another name I recall seeing a lot. Didn't they actually do a track in one of the fighting games? 14.5 and 15.5 were cool for how they utilized covers by different circles.

I can't remember who did the songs for those but it seems likely.
Gametal was okay even if covering songs from all sorts of games made Touhou uploads infrequent. I didn't go for the other two though. When they were new I liked RichaadEB's but the longer I listened, the more they all started to sound the same. Now I avoid them because I know what to expect.
There was this Chaosangel guy a while ago and he had a whole playlist of rock covers which was full of winners, it was a pretty good way of finding new circles.

GiftedACIII posted...

The one I know off the top of my head is one of Sagume's spell cards in 15 where she sends a bunch of destroyable yellow meteors at you. Reimu's is ridiculously hard due to how her homing amulets go wild everywhere and it's so hard it's sometimes just easier to time out the spell by dodging the meteors while every other character can just shotgun in front of Sagume and capture the card relatively easily. The funny thing is that Sanae's also home in that game but her bullets are just super strong and she has the best shot type if it wasn't for Reisen's bomb giving you 3 extra lives with each bomb.

Looked it up. 15's ReimuA has two shot types so they don't force you to use homing shots, the guy in the video went into slow mode and fired down the middle. Beat the spellcard pretty fast.

GiftedACIII posted...

All the routes in SWR are canon, it's just that hers happens last because she's the last unlockable character and her route references the other routes.

When it comes to the other games it's implied that all the routes are canon too due to how they reference all the characters having gone through them. Apparently some games do have a definitive "resolver" (usually Reimu) though and some characters apparently meet the other characters for the first time elsewhere.

Oh well that works too. All the characters meet, final boss gets to look good in the process. Kind of reminds me of how Blazblue CS had all the arcade routes being the final boss constantly rerolling the timeline and getting the wrong results.

GiftedACIII posted...

I actually like Luna Dial much more than Pocketwatch. Might be a hot take but I personally think Pocketwatch is one of the weakest stage 5 themes and weaker than even the stage 1 and 2 themes while I find Luna Dial very underrated and better than the famous Flowering Night.
Agreed with Youmu.
I can go either way since I really like Reisen's theme but Cinderella Cage is pretty good too.
I can go either way with MoF too.
Agree with SA.
UFO stage 5 >>>> boss for me. It's actually one of the perfect examples where I think the stage theme, Makai city is one of the best stage themes in the game while I find the boss theme very weak, I think Shou's theme is actually the weakest boss theme in UFO.

Same with TD. Not a fan of Omiwa Legend but Holy Mausoleum is one of the best tracks in TD.

DDC is another one where both stage and boss themes are great. Reverse Idealogy is a top tier Touhou theme but the Shining Needle Castle is also a top tier stage theme.

I like Pocket Watch a lot. It's a weird sounding song. And you're in a weird place when it's playing. Not crazy about Luna Dial, but I have heard some arranges that up the intensity. Flowering Night is just one of those songs we've all accepted our fate on. It's going to be in every other Touhou video, like it or not.
Reisen's theme always makes me think of the fight. It's just kind of tedious and all the while the song's taking its time getting to that one part. It's not like you can sleepwalk through the fight either.
I think Shou's boss theme works best when you're new or trying for your first 1cc. It's going for a threatening sound and that works when that the big green spinning bars come out and you don't really understand how they work yet. Personally, I think Nazrin is the worst case of stage theme > boss theme in UFO.
While I was watching the 15 video from earlier I watched that game's stage 5 too. LOLK stage 5 > boss 5.

GiftedACIII posted...

Anyway, I looked up one of my UFO extra runs and it turns I've actually captured her last card once. I've forgotten I've found her so easy I nearly NMNB'd her. Unidentified "Rainbow UFO Invasion of Terror" is the one spell card I really had trouble with her. She's a lot easier than Byakuren where even with 4 extra lives I struggled with her.

Yeah rainbow UFO invasion is messy, even with the OP exploding frogs. Props on getting the last one though, my eyes used to break after looking at it for too long.

Oh right. Now that I think about it, there's a pretty consistent fire weapon spawn in that big Primm building near where they have Beagle too.
Could run up the left side of the map and take Cook-Cook's weapon as well.

How does that run work?
You run straight to Black Mountain from Goodsprings and take out the first Super Mutant you see holding a Heavy Incinerator? Then build for crits?

I didn't know the BoS shop sold Thermic Lances. A rare chance of it happening? Felt weird being a level 5 with a Thermic Lance. Not complaining though.
This was meant to be an Energy Weapons run but this thing is so strong that it's now half laser weapons and half lance. Visually matches the armor too.

The armor they give you for joining doesn't actually mark you as a member of the BoS so aside from the +2 STR bonus there's not much point wearing it. Had to repair together a bunch of T51Bs.

I should align with a faction. All of these runs have just been playing around with weapons/builds/DLC.
Haven't played Dead Money yet though. And my favorite Energy Weapon in the game is in there to boot.
Sounds like a Brotherhood run waiting to happen.

MF Grenades are doing great.
Gotta say though, early in the run I got kind of attached to the image of my guy running around intently holding a stick of Dynamite. Made him look more like a crazy person.

Considering this run is just running around with two minions and grenade in hand at all times, I should really save up for Terrifying Presence.

Maybe Christmas?

Maybe I could tape it to an Explosives run.
45 repair/45 Explosives for Mad Bomber, start turning MF Cells into MF Grenades, give all the other guns and ammo to whichever companion. Sneak attack crit on a group + 2 bulky companions running in could be a lot of easy EXP.

This current run has low Barter and that's been pretty rough. There'd be more incentive to level it fast in an Explosives run because of Pack Rat though.
I was actually on the level up screen, skimming the perks while writing this and wow you get some good Explosives perks way earlier than I remember, I'm going for it.

Got one of the lv3 damage bonuses. It doesn't add a lot.
Barehanded is losing me. I was hoping the Super Slam + 4x damage VATS stomp would be a game changer. Piercing Strike is nice too but all together it's not doing much. It's probably fun on the lower difficulties at least.

Maybe I should go in the opposite direction, frail character with 10 CHR, well armed companions and companion perks.
Or get the Superheated Saturnite Power Fist and go full God Hand on the rest of the game.

Fists only run day 2
It's not going well but it's not a total disaster yet either, there's still a lot to try. My character has the word CRUSH in his name but the only thing being sufficiently ground into dust are the weakest bug enemies.

If I can find some Protectrons and weak Nightstalkers, I should be able to eventually earn damage bonuses against machines and abominations.

I think it's over.
I went round the stores and looked at the Black Friday deals.
They're not good. At all.

I wish you could play as the ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT CORPORATE ESPIONAGE guy.

Do game prices even go down nowadays?
From what I see there's always a re-release or a shortage or scalpers or "No our games never depreciate in value." or digital games just not budging in general keeping things difficult.

If these things came down, it'd be a lot easier to broaden my parameters.

All this time I thought the SPRTLWOOD9700 was an 8/9 STR weapon. It's only 6.
And they got these recipes. Conversion, MFC to ECP (3) and SEC to ECP (2)

So now I've got a big green laser death ray on a character with middling strength and over 9000 shots. Oh, and the Enclave armor. Did the Brotherhood quest to get the training.

I'm not even sure what all this is for. I haven't even met Benny yet. Both Deathclaw locations are cleared out. Honest Hearts can't fight back against this, Loansome Road wouldn't have much better luck. Dead Money would totally nullify it.
I think my Mechon is complete.

GiftedACIII posted...

dBu was the most consistent one for me back in the day. And yeah, there was a massive purge of Touhou cover channels due to a copyright abuser some time during 2019-2021 but I wasn't following it at the time.

Ah. I thought I was seeing an unusual amount of videos with reupload in the description.
dBu was pretty good. Consistent/reliable are about what I'd call them too, almost every song gets a cover, nothing about the arrangement gets too crazy.
I really liked Iron Attack/Crow's Claw. Demetori was heavier than both but the way they'd rearrange songs was kind of hit or miss for me.
There's some good Eurobeat too.

GiftedACIII posted...

Yeah, I think it started with PCB TH7 and lasted all the way to 15. Honestly, maybe it's because the first time I played TH (EoSD) I used Marisa, but I've always been partial to the straightforward shot types since the homing bullets are usually visibly weaker and can home into enemies/objects you don't want them to home into. Sakuya A in DDC is a noticeable exception.

That really didn't come up much, the only time I'd really want to target something very specific is in 12 where you're trying to destroy a UFO quickly while a bunch of other stuff's on screen because you're counting on the screen wipe when it explodes to buy you some space.
The Reimu-Suika shot in 11 kind of had this covered. They generally always go forward and the homing can only drive them partially to the left or right.
I'm still never gonna complain about the homing shots being able to go sideways or backwards when an extra stage is flooding the screen with weak enemies though.

GiftedACIII posted...

lol yeah she's cool but I just find her a little bratty. Apparently her route is the final canon route so she gets away with everything and beats everyone up.

I don't know what to think of Touhou games having canon routes. I'm a fan of the ZUN watching from a distance through a pair of binoculars going "I'm not entirely sure what's happening." approach.

GiftedACIII posted...

Now that you mention it, stage 5 themes in general seem to be like this barring a few exceptions. TH15, 16 and 17 all tend to have much better and received stage themes than their respective boss themes. You can tell that more effort is put into the stage 5 themes too due to how long they are compared to the other tracks.

Hmm, let's see.
EOSD Stage 5 > Boss 5
PCB Stage 5 > Boss 5
IN Stage 5 > Boss 5
MOF Stage 5 << Boss 5
SA Stage 5 > Boss 5
UFO could go either way.
TD can't remember either
DDC Stage 5 < Boss 5
Huh.

It's fuhnction baybee!!

Oh NVM I found out why it wasn't hitting that hard. I had the difficulty up this whole time. Set it to normal.

I have 100 energy weapons. Elijah's Advancer LAER still needs a few shots to take out a Deathclaw, even with a sneak attack crit.
I don't play energy weapons much and can't remember what I'm doing wrong.

I like that feeling of going into an Big MT building at night, doing all its quests and exiting to find it's now dawn. And then immediately going straight to the next quest.

I'm still trying to mechify my player character. Controversial pick possibly, but I've taken the Swift Learner perk 3 times. Because that's like how machines assimilate and optimise. I did the Skilled/Good Natured glitch. Predictably, I have the Protonic Inversal Axe and Elijah's LAER.
I wish the Holorifle was easier to get hold of. It's my favorite energy weapon by far.

Ran straight to the Divide. High luck, high energy weapons.
The Arc Wielder wasn't doing anything with 50-something energy weapons. Blade of the best still has no problem propkilling them with minimal melee weapons skill.
Hmm.

And I got some run ideas. All compatible with high luck.

1- I watched a playthrough of Life is Strange. Not my kind of gameplay at all but the weird characters and dialogue made it a fun time. Maybe there's a way to incorporate save scumming into a New Vegas character
2- OWB makes me think of Xenoblade. I should make a Mechon. Proton Axe has the blue Monado glow.
3- Keep accepting quests then failing them. Cannot kill quest giver.
4- Finally get round to trying the Bozar or the Brush Gun. These exist and I keep saying I'll test them some time.

I'd like to see Pete try and pretend like an ex Powder Ganger won't know how to use his dynamite.
Oliver Swanick solos Difficult Pete, Ultra V-Rated Pete, Dante Must Die Pete, you name it.