Tag Archives: Touhou

Gaming

On Comic Market

Blaugust Post #13

Starting today (August 14), the 88th semi-annual Comiket starts in Tokyo. This event, held twice a year in August and December, is one of the major times that Japanese indie games release, and this one looks to be no different. Edelweiss (The developers of Astebreed) put together a trailer of all of the games at this summer’s Comiket; it’s over an hour long. Astebreed itself came out at Comiket 83, about 3 years ago.

Japanese media has a bit of a different relationship with fan works than American media tends to, with games and other media based on preexisting characters existing in a sort of “official unofficial” state. I mention this because the start of that video is about 15 minutes of games using the characters from the Touhou series, itself an example of a Doujin title. The “team” behind the Touhou series, Team Shanghai Alice, is really just one person. The next main game in that series is also coming out at Comiket.

Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom
To go along with this, Steam is having a sale this week on a variety of games out of Comiket in years past. It’s also worth mentioning that Playism tends to pick these up earlier, and is even responsible for bringing some of them to Steam. It’s currently the only place you can pick up an actual Touhou game without importing (it’s still in Japanese). Prior to digital distribution, there was almost no way for most of the games shown to cross the Pacific, as actual physical CDs are sold at Comiket. Mostly this has meant piracy is the only way people get to play, but I’m hoping the modern internet can change that. After all, more people are lazy than cheap.

Gaming, Meta

On Difficulty

1 Comment

This is kind of related to what Liore and Belghast have posted recently, but as I just hit on it in two recent posts myself, I figure it’s worth expanding on my thoughts.

My first experience with “difficulty level mockery” was in the Touhou series. All of the games in the series (since the 6th one at least) have 4 difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. The first game in the series to release on Windows (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) locked you out of the final level (and thus, the good ending) if you played on Easy. All of them have some additional text in the difficulty screen, usually mocking you somewhat for picking Easy (although occasionally also mocking you for picking Hard or Lunatic). Ten Desires has the following to say about its difficulties:

Prayer for Health and Long Life Easy Mode Hard to die.
For those who want to live long as possible.
Prayer for Traffic Safety Normal Mode Find a safe way to go.
Have a nice trip.
Prayer for Business Prosperity Hard Mode If you’re confident in your abilities.
You should be able to make a profit.
Prayer for IT Data Security Lunatic Mode Asking gods for help is pointless.
Don’t play this.

Just for reference, This is Ten Desires on Easy mode:
http://youtu.be/wgtFpcnlrDk

This phenomenon isn’t unique to Japanese games. Syder Arcade’s default difficulty cuts your score in half because it’s for “those who grew up with modern consoles”. (This implication, that modern games are “easier” than those that came before is also common.)

So why do we do this? There are probably players better and worse than you at nearly any game I’d care to name, so why focus on the second? I don’t actually have answers to these questions, or at least not answers that don’t make me sound like a cynical old man.

I’m not sure every game needs selectable difficulty, but games without it should be somewhat carefully designed. Examples I can think of that teach you how to play them before asking impossible things of you include VVVVVV and Shovel Knight. The idea that it’s okay to have a difficulty curve that resembles a cliff is also part of this problem. Many roguelikes are guilty of this, and claim that if you can’t understand them, then it’s not “meant” for you. I’d really prefer if we could be more encouraging to people adjusting to things. Touhouwiki has a page geared toward beginners that helps a lot (although it still tries to discourage starting on easy at the bottom). More things like this, and less making fun of people playing on easy would be appreciated all around.

That got a bit rambly at the end. For more posts about… everything, check out the Blaugust initiative.