Timing Every Stage in Touhou Games 

I didn't notice just how long are stages in LoLK in average. Point Device mode makes one to lose track of time with all of those retries one probably has to do

The weirdest realization I got from this is that stages actually advance with the background movement, I thought it was just coded to repeat until you hit certain enemy wave thresholds.

There's something really special about channels so dedicated to such a specific niche. I feel like this was what RU-vid was supposed to be like a long time ago. That said, as a programmer, watching someone comb through 20 years of a guy's code and catalogue every dumb little quirk like which midbosses have hitboxes during dialogue is sending shivers down my spine. Thank god I don't work for you.

There's actually a pretty interesting reason why Stage 6 is usually one of the shorter stages, despite being at the end of the game. I learned this by reading ZUN's comments in the games' Music Room menus. ZUN stated in several of them that he purposefully makes Stage 6 short not for difficulty balancing, but for the sake of the story pacing. He says, usually, that he(and I paraphrase) "Doesn't want the final boss to seem like she's slacking". In other words, by my interpretation, the final bosses of each game are supposed to get to the point of the fight itself, as usually by the time you've beat Stage 5, you're almost always in the territory of the final boss already; since Stage 5 bosses are almost always a subordinate of their respective game's Stage 6 and-sometimes-Extra-Stage bosses(i.e. Sakuya and Youmu being servants of the Scarlet Sisters and Yuyuko respectively), and are thus guarding them when you're almost there.

Feels like SA levels last for 5 minutes, not less than 2 minutes

It's a good thing this didn't go into PC-98 because hoo boy do I have gears to grind against Mystic Square's stage 1.

something about the dialogue: there actually is a skip button. On the keyboard you can hold crtl to advance the text as quickly as possible, and it does work if held before text starts. (at least in eosd where I tested to be sure)

Funny thing is that I actually did this myself. Take the times with a pinch of salt, they're kinda approximated. SoEW stage sections are roughly the same length (except ofc Stage 5, which is the final one). It takes from 2:30 to 2:40 these stage sections, give or take few seconds (it takes like half a minute to reach Mima in Stage 5). This is mega long for Stage 1 and 2, quite long for Stage 3... but short for Stage 4. LLS is the first game where stage sections vary in length. Stage is about 2 minutes, which is still quite long. Stage 2 roughly the same length. Stage 3 is about 2:20, which seems kinda in middle. Then Stage 4 is there with fucking 3:45, or 2nd longest stage section in the series, only behind PCB's own Stage 4. It's so long, the midboss appears TWICE. And then immediately you have Stage 5 that lasts only like 1:40; the shortest proper Stage 5 in the entire series (since SoEW's stage 5 is more like stage 6 in later games). Stage 6 in LLS is about 1:30, on longer side. It's also VERY generous (a bomb, a 1up, and a F power item just in case something went horribly wrong). Mystic Square has what I believe is the longest Stage 1 section in the series, where it takes just a little bit longer to reach Sara than Rika in SoEW. But this is Mystic Square, it plays more like a Touhou game with 6 stages, focus, deathbombs, health bars on bosses, all that good stuff. So SoEW notwithstanding, this Stage 1 is longer than anything else in the series, outdoing LoLK by like 20 seconds or so (or basically, something like 2:35 to reach Sara). It's so fucking long, that reaching Louise is way faster, at about two minutes. Then Stage 3 picks up the pace at being around as long LoLK stage 3. Followed by yet another really long Stage 4, which clocks at like 3:40! Then Stage is about 2:30... and Stage which lasts 42 seconds, or just a bit more than SoEW's stage 5. tl;dr = PC98 stage sections are at times surprisingly long. Even Mystic Square, which plays the most like Windows game, isn't safe from the weirdness. and no I didn't do EX stages.

This is some information I'd never thought I'd ever hear about, but it was entertaining to see just how long some of these stages can get.

This video has proven to be very useful when it comes to making music mods for the games. I am currently working on one and it's nice to have these times.

Something I noticed in UM stages but especially on stage 1 with Mike's non is that if you beat her "too quickly" or didn't time her out, the game loads a placeholder enemy in the form of yin-yang balls depending on how much time you have left before the game continues. The yin-yang ball amount varies too. It makes sure that there's something on your screen in case she goes down before the midboss segment of the music ends.

I'm surprised Ten Desires is that long.

Now that's a topic you wouldn't expect to see.

the line at 19:14 was raw

Thank you for putting in the work to do this! I was wondering about this, but I never bothered to time it for myself

Another high effort post from you. Great video!

Good video with epic dedication quality

"Incredibly unsurprising; which is right on brand for the poor girl" - Poor Kogasa... but she gets her revenge!

I like this video. Stuff like this is really cool to see.

Old fact:in SA,you can basically cancel sanae's attack by using Marisa/patchouli or reimu/Aya and bomb her when talking.that would save some time

Just wanted to say I added up the total times of all games included in this experiment and they come out to this: Standard: 151 Minutes: 56 Seconds Timeout: 176 Minutes: 2 Seconds

UFO Stage 5 is actually labeled incorrectly here (for subtle reasons), which I know from looking into the best approach for clearing on lunatic. The stage does not advance during Nazrin's dialogue, but does advance during the fight. Timing down the nonspell (or Greatest Treasure, if you're insane) can skip some of the fairies afterwards - my strategy used to involve trying to skip those fairies because they're quite hard to manage. I found that stalling the dialogue and bombing both attacks didn't skip any of them, while stalling the nonspell would: even when I stalled for less time on the non than on the dialogue! As shown, the stage picks up at the red fireball fairies which skips something like 6 waves of UFO dropping fairies that match the stage opener. On the same note, Stage 2 also has a skippable portion if Kogasa isn't shot down quickly, this time with lots of yinyangs that drop point items - unsure if there's a similar "latest pickup point" in that stage, but I definitely ran into issues filling my planned UFO summon before the next UFO fairies if Kogasa kept running away from me. In short: dialogue stalling doesn't matter there, while pattern stalling does: I wonder if there are other places like this? Yay for obscure trivia!

So...about timing them bosses? I kid, I kid.

This was something I was curious about and I considered timing PCB (the touhou game I’m most familiar with) in comparison to other bullet hells.

bruh, everytime i check for a new video i found something i didn't know i need but i watch anyways So, gotta say gud video

Touhou

I wonder why ZUN doesn't want midbosses affecting the stage anymore? Out of the past few games, only Nemuno's appears to be intentional. Interesting how Seiga won't let you breeze past her that easily like the other stage four bosses.

I needed that, because I am programming a touhoy like game

man, I wish Rakkidei posted the thumbnail art alongside their other art, some of these thumbnails are awesome

IN reimu fight is probably my favorite , i love how absurdly fast she is and shows after images, either that or its demonstrating her ability to float

That's some serious effort

The thumbnail is honestly incredible, the prismriver sisters are so cute.

31:19 I'm pretty sure that the midbosses only pause the stage up to a certain point, since nuking all 3 patterns with bombs lets you fight extended spawns of some filler enemies (which give multiple lives worth of PoC bonuses, so it's actually optimal to use bombs on them, at least with reimu A) Also I could've sword that EoSD stage 1 was like 2+ minutes but maybe that's just me dying of boredom lol

19:13 damn Jokes aside this is a really cool video

Kogasa's ability comes in clutch once again!!!

I think it's really interesting how the only thing really separating just shapes and beats from Touhou in terms of being a rhythm game, is just the level design. If Touhou just... had levels that were designed with music sync in mind, it would be every bit as much a rhythm game as JSAB is. Strange to think about

I like how PCB stage 4 is almost 1/3 and 1/4 of the length of all PCB stages. Despite it's time not increasing at all in timeout runs even! LoLK Extra really is longer than most extra stages by 2 entire minutes but has absolutely nothing of value in it and tons of reused stage sections, not to mention being significantly easier than the boss... I wonder if this Extra would feel significantly less awful if it was 2 minutes shorter. (IMO it's the worst extra and most people I know share that opinion)

Hey! Good video! Also talk about the Touhou official Mangas! Sorry if you already did one

I never knew that skipping a spellcard is a thing..

I can beat 17.5 very quickly.

LOLK and IN i think it's best because of they are both about lunarians, one is the second easiest, the other is second hardest

Timing out stage portion is one of the best strategy to beat the game without bombing. If you beat mid boss th10 between 10-5 sec, you will skip the near impossible section especially on Lunatic

Not all heroes wear capes

Now do it for the PC-98 era. Jokes aside, it’s interesting to look at game length of each Windows game.

you're 2hu's nomad colossus

I'm surprised touhou 6 stage 4 is only 3 minutes, it feels like ages

27:22 pretty sure it'll be a ~3 second difference going by the timers...

I haven't even noticed how long PCB stage 4 is until this video. I have over 180 hours of playtime in the game, btw...

I'm genuinely surprised, I thought PCB's stage 4 would be the longest overall of the non-extra stages (though I think it is on the standard runs). I guess the fact that it's a single loop through the stage track threw me off.

Is the art in the thumbnails done by you or someone else because I love the artwork (Edit read the description)

Aya moment

You are mad man? You are Hank J Wimbledon?

Are the times in IGT or RT tho? And what about the times in ALL difficulty-settings? AND what abou the PC-'98 games?

now i'm starting to wonder what decides the level pacing. Like why and when should levels be shorter

27:47 You just read my mind about noticing how much repetition this is.

You sometimes make it sound like we're not going to get long videos anymore but thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe you should put the results on the wiki or something.

time to ask an silly question how can one play the touhou games. are they on steam? or is there another way to download them?

What is the song playing in the background at 44:17? Thank you.

Idk why I thought after 8th there will be PoFV

Where do you get the images in the thumbnail from?

What’s that word you keep using? “Non”? “Nan”? “Nod”? The thing that some of the mid bosses have one of and some have 2, and which can sometimes be skipped

Are you gonna make a vid for 19

IMMM FIRSSTTTT