LogFAQs > #976741627

GiftedACIII posted...

Stage 1 is actually the only one I dislike lol. I liked both stage and boss theme for 2, 3, 4 (well the boss theme isn't as good imo), and 5 and 6 and Extra are especially great. I think Little Princess is one of the best final boss themes.

I don't know why 14's final boss theme didn't make much of an impression on me. Maybe because it was trying to be slower and more grandiose meanwhile the character you're fighting isn't even the real villain, Seija - who was already beaten - is. Maybe arranges have done it the justice the boss fight didn't.

GiftedACIII posted...

I think Imperishable Night was just very ambitious. iirc he was kind of figuring it'd be the last Touhou game or something. You can tell MoF was again kind of a reboot of sorts/the start of a new arc, going back to just Reimu and Marisa and focusing on an entirely new cast with no returning characters from past games.

No idea what he was thinking between games, but they do split it up into like windows era 1 and windows era 2 don't they? I still think it's weird he went the extra mile and replaced all the bombs with the big laser circle thing. It's a good move utility wise but it's not exciting.
If you think about it, it's bad for the MoF characters' image. Like Marisa saw them on top of the mountain, chuckled and didn't even bother bringing the Master Spark along.

GiftedACIII posted...

I think most final bosses even in the older games weren't very active either though? They mostly do one thing which causes a bad side effect that gets Reimu and co on their tails. Junko and Okina are even pretty active by intentionally sending their lackeys to "invade/collect" instead of the stage 5 bosses mainly just being bodyguards like Sakuya, Youmu, Reisen, Sanae etc.

I wasn't really getting at how active. I mean how they're presented overall.
Remilia lives in a castle, declares herself to be related to Dracula, curses the land to be covered in red mist. Has 3 minions for you to fight in a row of different temperaments that give you the idea Remilia really just does whatever she wants and the rest just go with it. Throw in a pretty good song and a challenging enough fight and you've got a winner.

And then. Kanako. It's a god on a mountain. Doesn't really do much until later games remedy this. The random denizens of the mountain all seem more interesting. There's nothing at the top of the mountain apart from enough room for a boss fight. Even Kanako's minion, Sanae, is more interesting by being an anti-Reimu.
It's kind of like what I said earlier about Touhou 14. Seija's the villain in that, the final boss is just the last thing to clear up afterward.

And I do think only showing up at the end can work. Byakuren's pretty good. 4 out of 5 bosses are her weird cultists, you have the whole stage 6 where it's a really quiet song and you feel like the game's just giving you a chance to refuel. Then she shows up at the end with the ominous sunset background and the two-color hair and the big laser scroll, that song and a pretty difficult (imo) final boss fight. It's great.

GiftedACIII posted...

Yeah, the novelty is definitely true. Some of the attacks are really cool especially from HM and up. Mamizou transforming characters is especially great.

This has just made me remember how inexplicable it was when Byakuren showed up on a bike in one of these games.