LogFAQs > #976794991

ViewtifulJoe posted...

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.

Most of the final boss themes are slower and more grandiose though, ie Septette, Border of Life, Lunatic Princess, Emotional Skyscraper. Utsuho's Nuclear Fusion, Miko's and Kanako's being the exception there. I like Sukuna's theme because it does sound like she's the underdog there and the section in the middle is very beautiful before getting to a strong climax. I also like that the stage theme builds up to it. I actually like the new trend of the stage 6 theme being a slower build up remix of the final boss theme. Most of the previous stage 6 themes are generally a bit middling with only PCB's stage 6 being one I really like.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

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.

Do they? Seems kind of weird to have 3 numbered games being 1 era and around 9 games being the 2nd lol. But yeah, the MoF and SA bombs were pretty lame. Glad UFO went back to the screen clearing bombs although I'm not really a fan of UFO and TD's 2 bomb per life system either. I like DDC bringing it back to the classic method.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

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.

I see, this is more about characters like Remilia, Kanako, Utsuho (although Satori is the leader of their group) and Byakuren having multiple stage bosses under their command whereas characters like Sukuna, Junko, and Okina only having a single stage boss associated with them. I can see how there's a difference there. Although tbf IN is also like that, with the first 4 bosses not related to Kaguya and the moon people at all.
ViewtifulJoe posted...

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

Bike Byakuren is great lol. The fighting games had some really innovative stuff in the later games, fleshed out some of the characters a bit more too like Nitori originally just being some shy kappa to being very tech savvy and Futo... kind of just being there to being a goofball and throwing plates. Or Doremy using dreams to turn into a sheep mech or something.