Touhou 12 - Undefined Fantastic Object ~ Normal Clear as Sanae A

Heartbeats. Heartbeats. Heartbeats.
Undefined Fantastic Object is one nice Touhou game if you're willing to overlook the fact that the UFO system is, by far, the gimmickiest system in all of the Touhou Project. It's not exactly nice to play with, even if I appear to be using it to the max in the video, save a hiccup here and there.
Sanae Kochiya is one heck of a protagonist too, just as she is one heck of a Stage 5 Boss herself. Along with colorful interactions with an interesting cast, she makes the dialogue even better. She's a joy to play as.
But alas, let's talk about the game now. I feel that when ZUN was making LoLK, this game was his primary inspiration it seems. Murasa's anchors became Hecatia's moons (down to the sound effect even!). Shou's (Syou's?) lasers became Junko's. One of Byakuren's non-spells was modified for Clownpiece later on...so the EX boss will be the primary inspiration for Sagume, as well?
While Subterranean Animism shows its almighty strength and challenges you with it, UFO wants you to exploit its mechanics if you want to go anywhere, and the bullets are just as dense as LoLK's if not less. At least Byakuren didn't ask for a no-miss-clear.
This is my return to Makai. Please enjoy the visit to Makai.
Heartbeats...nah, Makai. Watch and consider the power of a living god...the divine power to cause miracles!
Replay file:
db.tt/qoeXiwAwyv
Previous failed run:
db.tt/4fshSnKO4Y
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Undefined Fantastic Object and the Touhou Project are copyright Team Shanghai Alice 2009, all rights reserved.

[@everthon2457]

Sanae is actually the definition of "i woke up and choose violence" on this game

[@Art_Blue_Liberalism]

The scene 33:55 is the epic scene where Byakuren preaching Sanae before beating her up. I found both are charming ❤
The moment that a well-determined Bhikkhuni preaching a zealous Shinto shrine maiden blindly following her master (Kanako in her case). lol
さなぱいvsひじぱい: La bataile epique des seins epiques.

[@everthon2457]

Sanae did the rats dirty. She is about to fight Mickey.

[@r543Blitzsonic]

UFO, the game that already starts somewhat challenging(stage 1 isn't as easy as it could be, 2 already has some difficulties) has some of the most difficult stage 3 and 4's(which are also more memorable than stage 5 I guess, which is why they appear in fighters) 5 introducing? those annoying special lasers and 6 being one of the most epic final stages, starting off by giving you 3 UFOs of each and having a Space Invaders like section. Eversion 8 with 7's heartbeat only track and a Sunrise/set.
So I'm not the only one that found it the most gimmicky system? I didn't like it first at all, although I now got mostly used to it. Doesn't help that at least for us, Extra Lives are the only good option, Bombs second, but why would you get bombs when you can get lives(unless those would be permanent powerups), Score is out of question and the UFO that swaps stuff is only interesting for pro players or when you collected the wrong UFO.
You already mentioned it before, looks like LoLK took a lot of inspiration from this. Didn't find the bullets as dense(in my view IN gets denser but still isn't as close), then again it did have some dense sections, but it still felt like there's more breathing room between them than in IN.
Sanae is a interesting character, being another Shrine Maiden she was perfect for another playable character(although I wonder what happened to Zun's original plan with a reappearing cast, it's starting to be somewhat rare to see classic characters in modern games) she seems friendly and knows a lot about the outside world during her player appearance while as boss she's very serious.
Another difference in UFO is that continuing now puts you back at the beginning of the stage(think you still get the bad ending and all) making it harder to unlock stuff, although I wonder if there was a reason for that.

[@PookaMustard]

Yes, this Stage 1 isn't exactly as easy as the rest of them. The game gets even more difficult the deeper you go. Yeah, those pesky lasers are just the worst kind of danmaku you can meet. The way Stage 6's music starts compared to all those stages behind it gives off a LoLK feeling, where a really serious track that doesn't exactly follow the tone of every other track before it plays, instead of a track that climaxes the tracks before it. Heh, Eversion. That describes the stage's feeling pretty well.
I like the gimmick idea a bit better now, but like you said, it's a bit flawed. The very idea is flawed, but the execution is weird. For a player who wants to survive, score and spellcard UFOs are meaningless. A life UFO allows an extra miss and two bombs with each miss. For a score player, the blue UFOs are the only thing interesting them at this point. If anything, the system isn't all-that-balanced, hence why it's exploiting the system.
UFO feels a bit like LoLK all the way. You get transported into a different world, you start the first stage already flying into the skies. Except this time there's no man behind a man behind a man (get it?) and the issue is less serious knowing that Byakuren is a nice person and all. The difficulty is even LoLK-like, barring Eirin's medicine or Junko's purity demands.
Yes, Sanae is lovely as heck. A total joy. She wasn't that interesting in LoLK though, but then again, only Reisen was in that game. Maybe she's interesting in the Extra; she's the one who called Hecatia a 'freaky T-shirt weirdo' after all. I hope to see more of the classic cast in the next games though. Maybe more interactions between Sanae and Sakuya even!
Probably because UFO is a 'challenge' in its own way? I don't know. I doubt it was the case in Ten Desires though, the very next game.

[@r543Blitzsonic]

Heh true, although I remember you saying it's a bit like the usual later stage 1's.
While the lasers are bad, it's luckily only lasers, not lasers inside a bullet maze.
Ah, I didn't really think it would give a LoLK feeling, but it was nice that they made Makai like that, wonder if PC-98 players saw the place like that and saw it as something to fear from, quite interesting although the Dialogue could've had the player worry a bit more about it, really epic stage for a final boss through.
I see, think I'm ok with it now but it could be better. Bombs are a bit easier to get than lives, so there's still an advantage in that. I can somewhat see the idea behind it, getting the item you need, but it doesn't fully work out, would've been best to just have regular life drops and give the player 3 instead of just 2 bombs to start with.
Right, more similarities, although the other world was only in the last stage this time around it. And hmm, Junko, Hecatia, Eirin and all those links in LoLK? Like how you'd have possibly Doremy behind this which is in front of Junko who has Hecatia behind her, or alternatively how the player only gets the task from Eirin without really knowing that this is for the Lunar Capital and all the backstory about Junko and Chang'e.
Ah I see, think Sanae had her dialogue altered at least a bit more than Marisa and Reimu did, but yeah, Reisen just gets the best story while the others are ok.
Thought that it was a exclusive UFO feature, maybe simply something he wanted to try out.