Touhoumon Blue

Well, I’m about 3 months behind the actual release and I didn’t even realise! Still, as you may guess, the !Strongest! Shut up Cirno newest, shiniest version of Touhoumon has been released in English.

You can get it HERE

Online Touhoudex wiki is HERE

Choose the link there for ‘Touhoumon Blue Version Final’. Its a pack that includes everything you need already; VBA, a Text Touhoudex, Locations Chart, and a Changed Strength/Weakness Diagram, so I don’t have to provide a starter pack myself this time.

This is a now fully complete hack of FireRed; so as usual, please don’t DL if you don’t own a copy yourself.

Can’t say I’ve got too far yet, as I’ve not had time, but here’s some initial shots:

First of all the proper Intro with a Chen attacking a Wriggle has been added:

And of course, all of the menus and speech are now fully ‘Touhou-ised’ by the looks of things, as in all the NPC dialogue has been changed so that it mentions Touhou instead of Pokemon. And the fact that only female avatars are now available (Renko and Maribel) has been noted and added during the initial speech from the Touhou Professor:

Another fabulous invention is immediately apparent upon starting the game: you can run immediately, and also run indoors, a feature still sorely missing for some reason from all Pokemon games (though I haven’t played Black/White yet).

Also, the forced linear nature of the game has been removed; and you’re only restricted by the HM skills you have now.

Personally, I’ve chosen to start my quest with a Marisa again:

I like her new sprites. Especially the new EX Form:

And maybe its because I love having an Electric/Fire type Sweeper as my starter, who knows? But then, I guess having an Ice/Steel Sakuya or a Flying/Normal Reimu is fine too.

Its a little odd to see that Gary is back, rather than the opposing trainer sprite; but then I guess thats sticking closer to the original.

Edit 1: Well… had less time than I thought I would for this; my team is only in the low/mid teens at the moment, but here they are:

Click to see the above full sized.

Finding Rinnosuke was quite a pleasant surprise; and helped by Karate Chopping Brock’s Tenchi down to size (Wriggle got eaten by Suika!) but I guess I’m fairly predictable with the remainder.

I did also have a Suwako, but I’ve just switched her out for Kisume, since I love the bucket girl (and moreover, I immediately found one with a +DEF/-ATK nature, which is absolutely perfect for her with her base 140 DEF she has later on her final evolution (which will buff to 154! And only making ATK go from 40 to 36 in the process). Talk about tanking!

Finding Alice early was also nice; I’m quite sure she only used to be available in the Safari Zone, but is now in Veridian.

Ah, and another thing thats good so far with this version; it seems like after reaching Pewter you do indeed gain a bit more freedom than before: You’re no longer forced to fight Brock before proceeding East; and you can immediately access Yamame Cave (old Diglett cave) and skip the usual order. Of course, Yamame Cave is still full of lvl 15- 25 wild Touhou’s which can seriously give you some smackdown (I found a level 35 Parsee in there that proceeded to OHKO my Marisa!) so you’ll have grind a bit if you do want to break the sequence. Nevertheless, having the choice is always nice.

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Dungeoncrawling Heaven

Just felt the need for a random post today. Of course, the Spring Anime Season 2010 is almost upon us, and as usual I’m glad to see everyone seems to appreciate the Early Thoughts I posted. It is also unfortunate to hear that Omni, blogger of the rather famous and useful Random Curiosity, is finally retiring. I wish him luck in his future endevours, as his site is what originally inspired me to create Detarame.

In any case, tis’ also the season for new games to appear. Much to my chagrim, I find myself poor and destitute without any means to acquire both the new Pokemon Soul Silver AND the new Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Since I had already ordered my Pokemon copy, I’m now going to have to wait for Strange Journey. Which is a little annoying, though I guess it will actually give me time to spend with both more easily, I suppose. There is also Infinite Space coming out, so its a great time for the DS.

As for Soul Silver, it’s nice to see Nintendo returning to the best game of the Pokemon franchise (well, at least in my opinion, Ruby/Sapphire was a serious turn for worse on the series). Diamond/Pearl had potential and started to repair the gaps, but somehow seemed incomplete or experimental, which I suppose is down to the move into 3d and of course, onto the DS hardware.

I’m pleased to see alot of niggling issues that have been made better here, such as:

• Toggleable Running Shoes, at last. My finger was hurting from pressing B too much.
• Two slots for quick items. Handy, since I can now easily access both the Bike and the Itemfinder at once.
• No silly gadget gimmicks. The Pokegear just being a phone/map/radio device is simple and effective.
• Much better PC storage box functionality, though it is hidden away, bizarrely. The upgraded ‘Move Pokemon’ option from the PC can now save some time due to being able to drag and drop between boxes and your party at whim. What I don’t understand is why the old ‘Deposit’ and ‘Withdraw’ options weren’t just merged into one, since ‘Move’ now obsoletes them all.
• The 1st Pokemon in the party following you around at first seemed like a gimmick. And it is, but its a nice one.
• The Pokeathelon is at least marginally more amusing than the Pokemon contest, though still obviously made for wasting time.

What still needs to be done, though:

• Give the A.I. some brains. It still obviously randomly selects moves from its team, rather than taking advantage of the game mechanics. Only very occassionally does an enemy trainer use items or strategic switches, allowing you to walk all over them. If you’re concerned about making it too hard for n00bs, then have an A.I. difficulty setting.
• More type combos! I always wondered why, for example, we have Dark pokemon, but no Light pokemon. In my imaginining, Light would be effective vs. Electric and Dark, be ineffective vs. Steel and Fighting, and nullified completely by Grass. Various moves that are Normal, like Hyper Beam and Flash, should be relocated to this.
• Fewer arbitrary HM moves. Flash and Defog are the worst culprits, but having THREE water based HM’s is also ridiculous, since your Water Pokemon has no room for customisation. I shouldn’t ~have to~ carry a HM slave with me. Alternatively, make it so that Pokemon have a 5th Move slot that is ONLY for the arbitrary HM moves so it doesn’t matter as much. Or, an even more crazy idea: make the trainer actually do some bloody work (be able to swim yourself, like you see lots of other people doing, or be able to equip your own Katana to Cut down trees). I mean, I’m aware that the main character is usually a 12/13 year old, but even so, they shouldn’t as useless, right?
• Similarly, make poor types like Ice and Bug actually more playable. They still have too many weaknesses at the moment, in my opinion. I mean, everyone wants a pokemon with an Ice Move for Dragonkilling, but no-one actually keeps an Ice type, at least in my experience. Bug is even worse off, since many of its final forms have low stats, and its main duty (Psychic killing) is hardly exclusive with Dark moves being prevalant.
• Make people more aware of the combat triangle and integrate more into the game. The main game basically encourages you to have a team of sweepers, but tanks and annoyers need a bigger place in the scheme of things, since they’re important in multiplayer strategies.
• Show IVs and EVs in the game. I think its ridiculous to keep these as hidden, since its impossible to recognise their effect on your team until you’ve wasted alot of training time. And one shouldn’t have to track EV’s on scrap paper! Similarily, there should be an Identify type move or device that allows you to tell what the Pokemons Nature and IVs are prior to you catching them. I mean, its fine if these things are represented using pictograms or something (like the Pokeathlon stars), but it really needs to be done.

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve had quite enough of me ranting about Pokemon. What would really be nice is seeing Touhoumon in the new DS system, but that’s probably a far off dream, eh?

Whilst I’m on the subject though, you can have a new 1440 x 900 wallpaper:

As always, click the image to see it full size.

Tenchi in a cavern, LOL. She gives the real title to this post, since it would be heavenly to dungeoncrawl with her (facepalm at my my own terrible pun). I’ve been out of the wallpaper crafting for a little while, so I thought I’d start up again slow. This one wasn’t much effort on my part, I’ll readily admit; its just throwing a stock render together with a fabulous vector and adding the effects. Ah well.

I believe that’s about all for now. Cya again soon.

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Touhoumon Part VI: Return of ZUN

Just a quick post today to point out my latest Touhoumon progress on the new Aquamentis patch.

Currently at about Lvl 28 and about to enter Rock Tunnel. Which is a little bit overlevelled, but oh well (Its not like I enjoy grinding. Quite the contrary, I despise more than neccessary. But the fact I can fast-forward on the emulator version compared to normal makes it far more tolerable!). I was laughing at seeing the nice little changes this patch has, like the fact that Pokemon centres are now Eirin Centres (staffed with actual Eirins, rather than Nurse Joy). All of the actual pokemon map sprites have also been made into touhous too. The stupid Cirno sitting by the cut tree also made me laugh.

Also surprisingly, the Rival has had some of his lines changed. He’s shockingly polite and lovely now. Which makes him so much more satisfying to crush, right? Although it won’t be easy, his levels are pretty intense, often higher than the local gym leaders (whom are already tougher than the original game).

Oh yeah, and Bill is now ZUN. The foremost touhoumaniac. Well, of course, he is their creator, after all. The fact that he turned himself into a Reisen was pretty disturbing though.

Anyway, here’s my lineup:

First up is Marisa, of course. She did indeed have a pretty tough time initially, and personally, I’m still overly impressed with her moveset at present. Spore is similar to Swagger. It vastly raises the foe’s attack and then confuses them. Which is too risky really for Marisa. Learning is novel but ultimately a gimmick, since there’s no way of knowing what move you’re going to steal. Basically, at the moment, she relies on Swift and Thundershock.

I was surprised to find Alice appears on Route 1 in this patch! This meant she almost immediately threw herself in as the psychic team member, whom, as a bonus, has all the good Ice moves on the side. Shes gone from strength to strength. And in any case, if you know your Touhou, you know that you REALLY can’t have Marisa without Alice, so its fitting!

Another surprise was finding that you can pick up the other starters pretty early now rather than after the Elite Four. I found this Sakuya in Mount Moon, and immediately put her to work. Ice/Steel type is fun, and much like my older game, having Double Kick on her really saves you when you’re in desperate need of a Fighting Move. (especially since I haven’t found a Wriggle this time to use Jump Kick) Perfect Square still has a crap animation, by the way, but oh well. For reference, yes, I have also caught a Chibi-Reimu, completing the ring of starters, but I decided not to add Reimu to my party for now. Maybe later.

Its nice to see Remillia is back and catchable again. Everyone loves ludicrously powerful loli-vampires (or is that just me!?). You can also get her sister Flandre much earlier if you decide on needing a sister team. She has a pretty ridiculous physical attack (though crap defence) making her an atypical Dark/Flying sweeper. Naturally, she’ll also be possessing the Fly HM when we get it later.

Considering I’m a bit of a Tenchi fanboy, its not really surprising to see her here, despite the fact that I rarely use Rock types in actual pokemon games. Nevertheless, Rock Tomb is always good, and Swagger in her hands is much more useful and less risky, though it’ll probably go in favour of Strength eventually. Tackle will become Earthquake, I guess. I’m actually a bit of a twit here, since I meant to delete Tackle for Swagger, but instead pressed wrong and lost Magnitude! I was unwilling to lose three levels of training for a reset, so she’s stuck without it for now. Darn.

And look, its Kisume again! She’s so Kawaii, hiding in that bucket! Of course, thanks to the bucket, she has that ludicrously balmy defence score (and a nature which boosts it too!) making her the ideal Staller. Whirlpool will probably go in favour of Surf for her heavy attack (since it seems that it cannot stack with Fire Spin, sadly), and then we’ll slap Toxic on her. She may not have an awesome attack, but a Toxic + Fire Spin + Barrier combo will be pretty silly against any physical sweeping pokemon.

Anyway, thats all for now.

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Touhoumon Part V: The Marisa Strikes Back (Wut?)

All fear the Lady of lasers!
She who Steals Borrows Hearts!
The Mistress of the Master Spark!

Or something like that…

Hehe, well, its been ages since I made a Touhoumon post, but that is mainly because there’s not really been any significant new developments on the scene. (well, that and the fact that my hard drive wipe also killed my old saves, but whatever)

Until just recently, that is. The previous de-facto translation patch was the Lobsterhime one, which was fairly complete but lacking some of the various modifications of the 1.53 japanese version. (mainly graphical)

However, theres a new patch in town, created by the duo team of Yui and Aquamentis:

Which, as far as I can tell, has re-translated a bunch of stuff, added in the missing graphics, changed around a chunk of Touhoumon locations (there’s more variety), seems to introduce the National Dex early, and actually allows one to use the previously locked away Last Word/Final Word forms of various Touhous.

So a bevy of general improvements, then.

And of course, to save everyone the usual hassles, I’ve decided to provide all my regular readers with an updated Starter Pack.

Sorry, but this has to done first as usual:

DISCLAIMER: By clicking the below link, you are declaring with certainty that you own a Gameboy Advance and an actual physical copy of Pokemon FireRed.  I am not responsible for your choices or activities. The reason I say this is simple. Using an emulator is perfectly legal, but only if you already possess the game and system that you are emulating, as it counts as use of a backup, and you can do whatever you like your own property.

And now, a short intermission with your News Crow Tengu correspondent, Aya:

Amazing Simosi artwork of Touhou girls aside, TH Aqua 1.53 Starter Pack is your desired object, yes?:

Unlike before, this also includes a latest version of VBA with the correct settings so even less effort is required on your part. As per the previous package, it includes Touhou locations, a FireRed FAQ, and the 1.53 Touhoudex in Microsoft Excel format. Basically, everything you need. Just UnRAR it and play.

The Touhoudex is now slightly out of date, but there is no newer version at the moment. Its only wrong considering the new evolutions, but you can find that information in the locations TXT file.

Alternatively, you can refer to the Online Touhoudex at Wikia

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As for myself, I decided I’d take the hard route this time, and start with a Marisa (rather than a Sakuya or Reimu):

Hard, because of course, she’ll be pretty useless against Brock and some of the stuff in Mount Moon. Though hopefully she’ll really begin to shine when we get to Misty. The fact that Marisa can learn both Electric and Fire moves and has a huge SATK makes her rather powerful once she evolves a bit. Dragon Meteor is an awesome attack, too. (its Flamethrower with 20% chance of Flinch!)

As usual, I cannot guarantee the patch is 100% new. If you want to keep up with the newest developments, the Poolshmer community is the place for that. If you want the older Lobsterhime patch starter kit, check out the Touhoumon tag to find Part IV of my Touhoumon posts.

Anyway, enjoy guys, and stay tuned. With luck, I may do a sixth part.

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Touhoumon…The fourth part of the trilogy (Lul Wut?)

Well, I see that the Touhoumon posts I made are still as popular as ever…

I’ve been distracted mainly by my DS homebrew recently, but I did get pretty far on training Touhou’s. I’ve since pretty much done the Sevii Islands and have a new revised team. They just need another 7 levels or so further training before doing the second run-through of the Elite Four. Perhaps, after that, I’ll download the fanhacked Johto upgrade and check that out as well.

My current team:

I caught myself a Chibi Marisa and Reimu to complete my starters set.

• I then decided to make Marisa into her ADVENT version for that ludicrious Speed Bonus. Marisa originally had Master Spark, but since it doesn’t have a cool animation like it should and only has 5 PP, I decided Thunderbolt was still better for general use.
• I also put Keine into her Hakutaku form for the awesome Steel/Fighting combo.
• There’s no real reason for me to have a Tenchi, besides being her fanboy, and seeing the awesome-cool animation for Hisou Sword.
• Hakurei is mainly there for Psychic Support since a STAB’ed Psycho Boost is disgustingly powerful. But its also always handy to have an additional Fighting Touhou, since Fighting hits alot of weaknesses in the revised type charts.
• Reimu’s Dream Heaven is LOL if the foe is paralysed, since it has like 270 power.
• Sakuya and Wriggle are still of an equivalently high level, but are kept in reserve.

It also seems like people are looking for ways to easily get hold of the required resources. So I guess I’ll provide some pointers for that regard. Read on…

But before that…an intermission:

Psycho-coupling go!

Ahem, bizarre Patchiouli/Wriggle pairings aside, do check out this compilation. Contains everything you need, pre-patched and ready to go, and also includes a FAQ, an MS Excel Touhoudex, and a text file listing all of the Touhou locations. You merely need to find yourself an emulator.

Disclaimer: By following that above link, you are declaring that you definately already own a Gameboy Advance and a copy of Pokemon FireRed. I am not responsible for your choices or activities. The reason I say this is simple. Using an emulator is perfectly legal, but only if you already possess the game and system that you are emulating, as it counts as use of a backup, and you can do whatever you like your own property.

I also cannot guarantee that the above is fully up to date. Your general best bet for obtaining fully up to date news on the english patch of Touhoumon is to hang around the pooshlmer community.

Anyway, hope that helps you all. Keep catching those girls!

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Touhoumon Part 3

Yegads, not another one, I bet you’re thinking. Well, don’t worry, this should be the last one, since I just took out the Elite Four and Rival, so I’m technically finished. (Yah, I know I gotta do the Sevii Islands quest and etc. but it is technically the end here). Anyways, my final team roster was:

Suika kinda replaced Patchie. Though I was loathed to see her go, Patchie’s defences were simply awful, and the fact that she was as slow as sin too meant she managed to die on the first round in several occassions before she could bring her ludcrious attack strength to bear. Suika, on the other hand, is an honest to goodness fighting tank with great attack, defence, and HP. The fact she could also use Thunderpunch, Brick Break and Rock Blast for a good majority of her career was also very helpful. There’s alot of Dark, Flying, Water and Normal class foes, and Suika beats the crap out of all of them. She’s also a hilarious drunken Oni girl (hence the horns) with an endless gourd of Sake in Touhou, so yay.

Mystia continued to be immensely useful with her high ATK and SPD, and ability to Sing foes to Sleep. Her later career gains of Hyper Voice and White Wings (a new attack that sprays angelic light and feathers around and has a 30% chance of increasing all stats 1 stage) also really helped.

Wriggle continued to impress me as well, especially after learning Signal Beam. Those poor Psychic foes get hideously crushed by it and its red-green coloured patterns of doom. Later on, she also gained Wriggle’s Kick! (which is basically a Bug version of High-Jump Kick), and I used the Thief TM on her to get that (and use her to steal mushrooms). Also, maybe I need to see someone about this, but I’m rather flattered by her caterpillery charms too. (oh dear…)

Komachi replaced Kisume. In a situation contrary to the one above with Patchie, Kisume had absurd defences but absolutely no significant attack power. I also screwed up her progression slightly, because for some absurd reason, I told her to forget Ember in place of Fire Spin; only to find she couldn’t learn Flamethrower later on and I’d be stuck with it (oops…). So this Ghostly guardian of Styx replaced her. She only learned Body Slam quite late; it was Slash (with the Scythe, no doubt) before that. That she has Slack Off also amuses me.

Sakuya continued to get better and better after her slow start. She’s apparently a master of time and knives in her final form. Sculpture is another new move replacing Killing Doll, where upon she goes all psycho with her knives, repeatedly hammering and drilling into the foe as if she were carving an ice sculpture in 10 seconds flat out of their face (lovely…eeesh)

Reisen really did get her eyes of death in the final form! Look at that scary picture! Invisible FM is an application of those eyes. The screen blackens, and all that can be seen is the flash of Reisen’s loony eyes, which creates a hideous illusion of a face which enlarges and slams into the foe. Scary! Jamming prevents the foe from retreating or switching, and Hypnosis of course sends foes to sleep.

And here’s the victory celebration, LOL:

So yay. Hopefully, my obsession with this shall die down a little now, ne?

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