Touhou 14 - Double Dealing Character ~ Normal Clear as Sakuya B

It's not really one of my favorite installments in the Touhou Project but it has eventually grown a bit on me, even if it's a bit aggressive compared to the older titles, even early on.

A big thanks to R543 for helping me upload this video!

The game starts out by showing you how unrelated youkai are revolting and being violent for no real reason. This is the biggest weakness of the game, where a bunch of random youkai are attacking you with no theme or rhyme to them. The game picks up however beginning with a classic (or a variation of a classic) Stage 4 encounter, an elaborate Stage 5 and a powerful Stage 6. I've also seen the other characters and how their B loadouts resemble their loadout in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom (and Reimu's in TD as well). I'm worried if this SakuyaB loadout is the default for her in the modern one-loadout Touhou games, or at least the upcoming ones. Especially not when Sakuya in the earlier games was a great character to play as with a great range and homing or controllable knives.

But that's not the part that deserves all the attention. Stage 5 of Double Dealing Character is something to talk about, thanks to the main idea of its resident boss. For Seija Kijin's first two reversing spellcards, the secret is not to move vertically, ever. While the screen is flipped, you must minimize your movement to minimize mistakes, and only horizontal movement is essential to dodge her bullets. She's also the reason why the video thumbnail is special (and I love it, no regrets, with the angry Sakuya even more fitting for it). Stage 6 on the other hand has Shinmyoumaru Sukuna who knows how to use knives far, far, far, FAR better than even Sakuya Izayoi herself. I simply believe she's up there as one of the most difficult Stage 6 bosses there is.

The game's main mechanic is a magnet to people like me who aggressively make use of the point of collection. Even using a spellcard activates the game's mechanic which makes obtaining life and bomb pieces a joy. If ZUN uses the piece system, very likely in TH16 - Hidden Star in Four Seasons, he should take inspiration from how this game did it.

Replay file:
https://db.tt/VMViMQ2TTD

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Double Dealing Character and the Touhou Project are copyright Team Shanghai Alice, 2013. All rights reserved.