Is anyone else totally psyched for the May 25 Touhou convention? I know I am.
Personally, I cannot wait for the full version of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. I played the demo that was released at Comiket, and from what I've played I actually like it a lot more than Immaterial and Missing Power. I'd say that the difference between SWR and IaMP is similar to that between SSBM and SSBB; the newer game is geared toward a less religious audience, and the mechanics have been significantly modified to the point where most old characters that were broken by virtue of physics will not continue to dominate the field. I'm really curious to find out what characters will be included in SWR. I wouldn't be too heartbroken to see the somewhat useless China and Remilia be elliminated since Aya retains both of their strengths without including too many of their weaknesses. (In Remilia's case this is mainly due to typing; sun and rain are half of the weather types in SWR.) However, I wouldn't mind seeing characters retooled; since the game is obvious engineered to appeal to the general Touhou crowd rather than hardcore IaMP fans, this isn't too unlikely either.
The other major attraction of this convention will be the release of the demo for Subterranean Animism, which is game 11 in the series. Unlike Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Touhou 11 will be a more traditional shmup. I'm mainly curious about what new characters will be introduced; my Touhou fandom isn't really based on the actual shmup games (which is probably why I'm more psyched about SWR than this).
Besides the canon stuff, there's already a bunch of doujinshi material that people are eagerly anticipating. There's a Touhou/300 crossover that we've already seen some frames from, which looks to be entertaining (although I'm not sure how quickly people will go about translating it). In music, probably the most famous Touhou song ever would be Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, and at Reitaisai 5, a new album will be released dedicated entirely to remixing this song. No joke, you can visit the official site if you don't believe me. I really don't know what to expect from this, but the demo clip on the site was enough to convince me that combining Touhou, IOSYS, and SSH can only result in pure unadulterated awesome. Also, the creator of the ever famous Touhou lossless collection promised an update shortly following the convention; I'm not sure what other music will be released, but I'll be sure to check out what does pop up.
I'm glad to see that the Touhou fanbase isn't really split on enthusiasm for this. I had expected to see a bit of resistance from some hardcore Immaterial and Missing Power players, but I've talked to several and from what I've seen, the IaMP community actually expects to gain inertia from the people who will likely try out IaMP after playing the new Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and becoming bored with it. No matter what angle you look at it from, there is no reason for any Touhou fan not to be excited about this event.
Personally, I cannot wait for the full version of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. I played the demo that was released at Comiket, and from what I've played I actually like it a lot more than Immaterial and Missing Power. I'd say that the difference between SWR and IaMP is similar to that between SSBM and SSBB; the newer game is geared toward a less religious audience, and the mechanics have been significantly modified to the point where most old characters that were broken by virtue of physics will not continue to dominate the field. I'm really curious to find out what characters will be included in SWR. I wouldn't be too heartbroken to see the somewhat useless China and Remilia be elliminated since Aya retains both of their strengths without including too many of their weaknesses. (In Remilia's case this is mainly due to typing; sun and rain are half of the weather types in SWR.) However, I wouldn't mind seeing characters retooled; since the game is obvious engineered to appeal to the general Touhou crowd rather than hardcore IaMP fans, this isn't too unlikely either.
The other major attraction of this convention will be the release of the demo for Subterranean Animism, which is game 11 in the series. Unlike Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Touhou 11 will be a more traditional shmup. I'm mainly curious about what new characters will be introduced; my Touhou fandom isn't really based on the actual shmup games (which is probably why I'm more psyched about SWR than this).
Besides the canon stuff, there's already a bunch of doujinshi material that people are eagerly anticipating. There's a Touhou/300 crossover that we've already seen some frames from, which looks to be entertaining (although I'm not sure how quickly people will go about translating it). In music, probably the most famous Touhou song ever would be Marisa Stole the Precious Thing, and at Reitaisai 5, a new album will be released dedicated entirely to remixing this song. No joke, you can visit the official site if you don't believe me. I really don't know what to expect from this, but the demo clip on the site was enough to convince me that combining Touhou, IOSYS, and SSH can only result in pure unadulterated awesome. Also, the creator of the ever famous Touhou lossless collection promised an update shortly following the convention; I'm not sure what other music will be released, but I'll be sure to check out what does pop up.
I'm glad to see that the Touhou fanbase isn't really split on enthusiasm for this. I had expected to see a bit of resistance from some hardcore Immaterial and Missing Power players, but I've talked to several and from what I've seen, the IaMP community actually expects to gain inertia from the people who will likely try out IaMP after playing the new Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and becoming bored with it. No matter what angle you look at it from, there is no reason for any Touhou fan not to be excited about this event.
