天下制覇

In continued mystifying Type-Moon fashion, MBAACC is FINALLY getting a return to the PC this December packaged as a bonus item as part of Carnival Phantasm’s third episode Limited Edition Box (episode 1 of which is out now… like, literally probably went on sale within about an hour of this post). I… do not understand why it’s like that, but it’s one of my favorite fighters and that makes me happy. I barely remember back in this blog’s genesis when I counted down to MBAC PC’s release date. I think those were all purged from the archive in the great cleansing of 2010 though. Now I just need to reteach myself how to play the bloody game before I get to abuse all the fun changes to Len… like an overhead! And momentum preserving ice spikes!

Frontier Aja’s put up the supposedly final version of BBR’s trial, which unfortunately adds Ren instead of Kinako, as well as the full voicing, music, etc, although it’s weird to hear Erika voiced by someone other than Shizuka Itou. The main tweaks to note introduced at this stage is a semi-return of the enhance system doing double-duty with the super button. Rouga’s got limited recharging cancels, Kunagi can charge her super bar, and Senna can recover her life. Ren and Erika seem to have gotten the shaft here, although Erika does have the silliest infinite combo ever with her new command throw. Ren in general seems to have taken a huge nerf but I never really played him anyway. His old chained shoulder-charge into Super grab does pitiful damage and even completely whiffs against Erika. Also, I included trains because that game only gets more hilarious when its creators mistransliterate its title as "Barning Stage."

Honestly, I didn’t really have much luck finding almost anything that looked particularly interesting game-wise for this upcoming Comiket by browsing through the catalog. It didn’t help that everything Touhou related is off in its own area these days. I almost miss when every other game was based on Kanon instead. There are a lot of trials, as well as the occasional thing that makes zero sense whatsoever, but Ten Desires, Tasofro’s Grief Syndrome and Aja’s Big Bang Beat Revolve are really the only full games that’ve caught my eye so far. Even for Touhou Sky Arena, I’m more interested in the OST than the Panty Shot Tengu and Sanae expansion… and Aja’s Scarlet Symphony 2 artbook for that matter. Hopefully something will surprise me.

A little late on the uptake here, but Tasofro announced its new game for Comiket 80 (August 13th for games), a Madoka styled… beat ’em up? It’s a little hard to tell. I do find the MDK shothand amusing. Multiplayer’s always fun though and Tasofro’s always a good bet for at least great music. I really need to look at the Comiket catalog and/or trawl around the doujin news sites. I’ve been slacking lately. At least it’s something to do during the off-days. I’ll save that for tomorrow.

It looks like Frontier Aja’s devoting all their time and effort into Big Bang Beat 2 now, title changed to Revolve. They recently put out the voice actor list and the OP movie is also up now. It’s interesting to see Kojurou, Sanae, and Jeanne in there next to the other playables since they’re not announced as of yet. Hopefully at least Sanae will have a bigger role than just being the tutorial girl this time. In parallel news to pad this post out, Tenco added an entire extra circle of characters to Eiyuu Senki, which I’ve mentioned here before to much confusion. Now with Billy the Kid as a wardrobe-challenged gunslinging little girl. New characters will continue to be revealed presumably as before, every Wednesday or Thursday.

Not that I have any investment in the general Daibanchou scene or anything… but this latest trial adds Kunagi as well as some other slight tweaks like vocals for everybody but Erika, and character intros for Rouga and Senna. Well, and a host of other minor changes too, like Senna’s 214AA being basically the same as her throw now instead of a slide-cancel. At least it’s progressing a little faster lately. It was only a month ago that they released Senna. That’s a small blessing. Of course, Senna still has her corny 623 infinite, and Kunagi has an only slightly more complex one despite how different she plays now. Hopefully they’ll figure that stuff out once they actually get everybody ported into their new engine.

Oh yeah, the demo is out now. I figured some people would be interested or something. It’s a little disappointing to see recycled characters, but it’s honestly a lot of the side-features from IN that are making their return that interest me the most. Hopefully there’ll be a few new nice remixes of some of the old classic songs too… or at least fewer zombie shrine maidens.

One of my favorite doujin groups, Lion Heart (Mystical Chain and Sanae Challenge Fusion), somewhat quietly released a sequel to their older game, Endless Alice last week. Crysis doesn’t add a ton; bombs, a scroll-wrapping screen, a few new enemy types, and changing levels as you advance instead of set courses, but it still retains the level of hectic chaos that made the original so addictive. It’s certainly not revolutionary, but it’s still fun. Plus, they’ve put it up for free to download here. I’m still eagerly waiting for a Mystical Chain sequel though. The music and boss fights in that were bloody amazing. 

The BBB2 update is mainly notable for adding in Senna and the changes that were made to her. Frankly, I find the extremely pixellated blood hilarious. This update also includes AIs for Rouga and Erika, although it’s clear that they could use a little… work. It’s amusing to watch two Rouga’s get stuck in a loop of throwing each other on wakeup. Scarlet Symphony2’s patch includes a translation. Mostly. They could still use someone fluent helping them, but such is life. On an unrelated note, Touhou Sky Arena made it into stores despite Reitaisai being pushed back two months. I’ll get some thoughts up when I have a chance to play it. I have other things to deal with for the next week. You can pick up both updates on Frontier Aja’s site.

There’s still a relative dearth of information from Zun about it, but look at all those meters! What is it with this Reitaisai and Touhou games with buttloads of meters? I’ll admit that I was hoping for another Vs Shooter ala PoFV, but whatever. At least now I can make jokes about Touhou TD. Its demo will be out at Reitaisai on March 13thish.