Touhou Project: The Photo Game Spin-offs 

A lotta people hate violet detector but the few original tracks zun made for the soundtrack are some of my favourites from the whole series... Great video asprey!

11:50 oh no that better not be something susp- NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOOO

11:54 either my mind is tainted, or your doing a little funni sussy

11:50 after that one meme I always go out of my way to draw among us with her trail.

11:54 Amogus

Love the among us at 11:55

11:54 I was thinking this was a great game, now you ruined it and I'll never play it.

11:53 Oh my god You brilliant scoundrel

Hey, I hate the teleport too, but I won't let you explain it poorly. Activation is actually different: simply double tap focus to activate. While holding the second tap, input a direction to perform the teleport. Not as bad, but it still sucks.

personally i’ve never been too much of a fan of these but it makes you play the game different even though you’re fighting familiar attacks so that’s cool

11:48 A M O N G U S ! ! !

11:49 AMOGUS

11:55 AM. I. GOING. INSANE?!

Out of those the only one I personally like is ISC, but funnily enough it is my favorite Touhou ever I love going through it trying to get itemless, despite the fact that I have lost my save like 5 times already Edit: I also despise Violet Detector's teleport, the worst idea ever to make it work like that

11:49 sus

Shoot the bullet was too hard for my skill level, but double spoiler's vertical camera is so useful I was able to finish the sequel and having fun with it, and impossible spell card is super fun Your rant on violet detector is great ahahah and I tried it a lil bit but I had to stop for other reasons, but I want to get a patch for it so I can use the teleport button on the c button to fix that setup urgh. Or I'll use the glitch

I've always had a soft spot for StB, and I'm not sure why. maybe it's the older-game aesthetic and soundfont but it hits just right. ISC is still my favorite though, c'mon - there's no competition!

11:55 amogus

Pros of playing violet detector: you get to hear some absolute banger music (nighmare diary is top tier). Cons of playing violet detector: playing violet detector.

SPINOFF LORE!! SPINOFF LORE!!

11:48 sus

I feel the need to mention one thing about Violet Detector. Throughout the adventure you play as Sumireko Usami. But (and this is where spoilers come into play so read at your own risk.), once you reach a specific point in the game Doremy Sweet shows up and after a few stages it's revealed that you were playing as the Sumireko Usami from the dream world the whole time while the real Sumireko was trying to stop her Dreamy counterpart and take her body back and eventually she does after Okina takes back the powers she gave to Dreamy Sumireko and the player takes control of the real Sumireko for the final stage, *without* the main abilities you had during the adventure like Bullet Cancel and Death Cancel. Just kinda feels weird knowing that first time players of Violet Detector are playing as the Dream World Sumireko Usami instead of the real deal.

I like how the number for impossible spell card is "14.3" finally a decimal that isn't ".5"

Honestly I wouldn't mind VD's teleport feature at all if it wasn't for how complex it is to use it. Nightmare week is a whole nother story though...

NGL I liked violet detector, the teleport was annoying at first but even forced teleport stages can be optimized to limit/remove the need for teleporting.

11:53 Sussy sign "I like among us"

The photo games are honestly a really interesting take on bullet hell. However, yeah, as ZUN's comment said, these are the kind of games you should play only when you've got a lot of experience under your belt. I didn't play StB and DS until 3 years after I started playing Touhou. (So like, end of 2020.) Shoot the Bullet is nice, although sometimes I hesitate to call it easier than Double Spoiler, and that's mainly because a lot of scenes late-game are just luck-based, with you just hoping the boss is nice to you on that attempt. Not just on stuff like Seamless Ceiling of Kinkaku-ji. Tongue of Wolf is also super nasty, for example. Although that's not to say DS doesn't have some of that BS either. (Intentional slight rhyme, yes) Also, Hatate's differences, aside from starting in portrait mode, are that her viewfinder can barely move at all, so she's basically exclusively close-range, and it's also a bit narrower, but it does _always_ focus on the boss. She charges faster in return, however, and can fill up more of her camera with bullet cancels. (Aya gets around 30-35% on a successful photo, whereas Hatate gets around 50%.) This positive usually outweighs the negatives, and makes many scenes much easier for her. Until you get to Orb of the Five-Clawed Dragon and question life... Also, am I the only one who's never had trouble with the viewfinder stuff? (With Aya, it only focuses on the boss when you press and/or hold Shift. Not focusing makes the viewfinder go in the direction that Aya is going in. It's simple, and yet people still struggle with it, which makes it really hard for me to help people having trouble when it's not even the spells they're not good at, but the basic mechanics...) Impossible Spell Card is a really neat game, and the wide array of options is cool. Personally, I've done 60 out of 75 scenes in the game item-less. I don't think I'll ever get all of them. Not without losing my sanity, anyway. Although I love the prospect of meeting ZUN and telling him that I've become the Ultimate Cheating Life Form. (I guess the irony makes sense, considering this IS Seija we're talking about... That or it's because you did so well your existence is cheating. lol) Also, you start with 3 items actually, it's just that you have the Nimble Fabric automatically when you first start the game and go into 1-1, and then you get the Gap-Folding Umbrella and the Tengu's Toy Camera after it's done. Violet Detector? More like Violent Disease. I 100%ed this game and never looked back. In terms of photo games, I also enjoy the fangame Tri Focuser ~ Outside the Traditional World. It's really fun (to me, at least), and I'd say easier than both StB and DS. MegamanOmega covered it on his channel, if you're interested. (I also covered it myself, but I won't explicitly tell you to go to my channel. I'm not that much of a sell-out. [Yes, I'm aware of reverse psychology... Not my fault...])

StB: Liked it. Really solid and cool experience. Sadly, too hard for my skill back when I played it. DS: I was able to clear everything and unlocking Hatate gave a nice excuse for replaying it. My fav among these four. ISC: Either extremely easy (with cheat items) or insanely difficult (itemless). Cleared everything and never played it again. VD: Only official game I haven't played and I intend to keep it that way, lmao

14:38 And I took that personally. Also Violet Detector BGM is my favorite.

ISC is one of my favourite touhou game I liked the cheat item system

11:55 I LAUGHED SO HARD I HAD TO REPLAY THAT (my humor is absolutely broken)

ISC was the first touhou game that released after i joined the fandom, so i have good memories of being part of those who discovered the suffering of No Items and Remilia. I love these spin-offs with the exception of VD, but i want to mention something that isn't touched in this video, which is the scoring. Not only are StB and DS filled with creative patterns that make use of its unique mechanics, but the scoring system is also really strict. I'm not going to go full detail, but the general idea is getting lots of bullets, the photo being centered, you appearing in the photo, taking nice shots (boss circle thing), risk shots (you being close to a bullet), and in DS the angle is also important, with horizontal shots having a higher multiplier. BTW, Hatate is the one who scores higher in DS, so i tend to see her more as the scoring character. :) There are a lot of little quirks on how to use and move the camera, like how focusing immediately makes you point towards the boss, even if the camera is in the opposite direction (so, for example, you can run towards the boss and, before shooting, you focus to not miss due to annoying angles); or how the camera is closer or further from you depending on if you're focusing, unfocusing, or holding shift+z (which is important for centering your camera). And just a little tip for those who want to play normally: when you're in shot mode (when time slows down) and the boss is in the shot area, the rectangle will change its color, and you'll hear a particular sound effect. This is extremely useful when you're taking shots from far away, since it helps you know when it will count as a valid photo and when it won't. :)

everyone hates violet detector but its my first photo game.. and the main reason i like sumireko.. the game is broken as hell but,, i love the story

11:50 GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD GET OUT OF MY HEAD

My main problem with this side-series is that there's no difficulty selection. It would really benefit from an easier one for accessibility(and a lot less frustration). It can still be harder than the main games' Easy/Normals, though, for the sake of the gameplay style.

Late, so I don't know if this'll get seen, but this video made me finally try out my first Touhou spin off, Impossible Spell Card. Before this video, I knew nothing about it, other than that it does in fact exist. The concept of using cheat items to survive against pretty much impossible spell cards sounded so cool so I went and bought it and I'm glad I did.

I speedran Violet Detector (old second, current third place time is on my channel xd). It is an abysmal game only barely salvaged when you put in way too much time for a niche category. The game also literally broke the Esc+R quick restart hotkey, and broke it so badly that it can be abused to literally respawn after dying. For those who are wanting a more difficult and more interesting version of VD, there's a new mod called VDR on thcrap by Some Guy in Paradise. Fair warning that it is quite difficult and patterns require understanding of the game's mechanics to solve, but it is infinitely superior to the recycled trash that the base game is.

In my top 3 favorite RU-vidrs. Keep up the good work. Just so good. I found your channel when I still didn't really know that much about touhou. And I wasn't sure if I should play touhou. But you convinced me to give it a trying. And we'll the was a great decision. So thank you very much.

shooting comments at the algorithm to graze

Surprisingly, the mechanic for VD's teleport is the same as the Dodge Roll in "Enter The Gungeon" point in one of 8 directions, hit a button (coincidentally, i always double tap), and jump. So it's weird it ends up being so frustrating in VD.. the mechanic feels downright fun in Gungeon so idk. It's just an incredibly weird realization I had while playing Enter The Gungeon with my sister a bit ago. (Though because of the way Gungeon plays you get the illusion you can control your dodge roll's direction more than you actually can. You also forget you only walk in one speed and get the illusion you can adjust distance by moving a different speed. But neither of those things is possible ) Maybe it's because Gungeon gives you an insane amount of crap to use it feels less frustrating? But VD instant retry, so it feels like that part can balance out their respective frustrations..? It could be the fact that focus in Touhou gives more speed options so when you feel like it's jumping blind. Wait that might actually be it. The reason might be focus speed. Because you can move at 2 different speeds it naturally feels like you should be able to jump at least 2 different distances..! But VD can't do that because you need to use the double tap focus button to do it.! So when you jump, without the reassurance of focus it naturally feels absolutely terrifying..! Because it's downright weird to not have the option to have more control in Touhou Maybe ZUN even noticed this and decided something along the lines of: " if they need to double tap focus, they'll only go into the jump at one speed, which would feel far more natural if the distance is fixed. which totally solves all the weirdness I'm feeling while testing this game." (Obviously forgetting that repeatedly exposing himself to this mechanic again and again would make it feel natural whether it was bad or not) [This reasoning can be extended to explain his turbulent history with creating and balancing shot types] Anyway Teleporting It doesn't work for possibly the simple reason of forcing someone to go fast into a jump tapping the thing that traditionally slows them down is terrifying. Omg , how am I thinking of this now from random typing.?!? It's a weird thing to compare it to but eh, it just popped into my head.

Watching Chen open her scene by flying at Aya at full speed for a cheap shot will never not be funny to me

glad to know i started with the "best" touhou game (violet detector)

WOOOOO was waiting for this

I pray for the people who started playing the Touhou series with Double Spoiler

Impossible Spell Card is probably my favourite bullet hell game, it's so fun and way less frustrating then having to bewt a whole game in one go

StB is my favorite of the bunch, the first i've played and the one with the best soundtrack DS was cool ig ISC was the easiest with the worst soundtrack VD was ok ig I don't really think a lot of any except StB but i love the photo games

These spin offs are fun, even violet detector for what it’s worth and numerous flaws. My favorite one is Impossible Spell Card for sure, but I do like Shoot the Bullet as a close second. On the topic of violet detector, I remember watching a spinoff mod stream vod by Asprey FM that actually did a remixed cast and varied boss patterns that actually made the game interesting. Even the difficulty at the end made it feel like the endgame the official Violet Detector was lacking. Though be warned that said endgame is absolutely brutal without tons of practice and gameplay mastery. For anyone wanting to try the mod, the game mod is called Violaceous Dream Retrogenesis.

lunatic dreamer fucking slaps, and is the only real justification for vd's existance

11:55 IS THAT AMONG US IN TOUHOU!?

I played Shoot the Bullet first, it was really difficult and I liked a lot. Then I saw your vods of Violet Detector and I tried to play it myself... Well, it was a nightmare xD The only thing I liked about Violet Detector is the soundtrack, Nightmare Diary is one of my favorites songs

I'm into touhou mostly for the music since I don't have a computer that is precisely suitable for gaming, and oh my god hearing that Violet Detector isn't that good is heartbreaking! The music for it is so good that I was expecting the gameplay to be just as stellar. What a shame. Great video though!!

VD was my 3rd touhou game that I got. I cleared all senes after I got all non-decimal touhou games and cleared all of the EX stages, except for TD and LoLK, which took me over 3 years to clear all senes. Over all, I love VD, I love the teleporting system. But I don’t prefer playing this game first, it’s a “nightmare”. By the way, VD’s music are fantastic.

First of all, I wouldn't call them "Photo Games". They're more of a "Scene Games" imo. Although ISC has a camera, it's more accurate to call them that way. Shoot the Bullet I never really tried this game until later on in my touhou career, along with Double Spoiler. What I do have to say is despite being a really challenging game, it's pretty fun. Trying to figure out the best way to clear while getting a decent score. Btw I haven't completed this game yet and I'm only halfway through it. I will get back to it if I feel like it. Double Spoiler I don't have much experience here since I mostly played StB more, it still feels like it would be as fun as the first one, and the twist in the mechanic is interesting. I will start playing this again once I beat StB. Impossible Spell Card Honestly my favorite game in the spin-off category (except GFW but we don't talk about it here). It is insanely fun to play and gives you different options to beat the scenes. In the case of no items, I recently did it last year, and it's absolutely satisfying. Despite spending almost 3k attempts in 5-2 and over 5k attempts in 10-4 (yes, because spent about 3k without knowing the actual strat), it's still fun in the end. I do recommend doing this in your free time but I advice you to not force yourself in doing everything if you lack the skill. I'd say go for the hardest ones only if you're on Lunatic/LNB+ level of skill. 11:55 And you really have to do it, did you? Violet Detector. Oh boy, the memes. Definitely considered to be one of, if not, the worst game in the series (it still has some competition with SoEW). Although i dont find most of the mechanics that bad, the teleport is honestly terrible. Like why not use C instead of double tapping shift? For the patterns, they're not that bad, just boring, and recycled. Speaking of recycled, the music are also recycled iirc. Although it is absolutely terrible to play, it's a good thing that it's easier than StB and DS. It doesn't take that much skill compared to those games but it's just really annoying to play no matter the skill. It's so bad that it got to a point where there's a full on remake of this game, which a lot of people seem to actually like. I haven't played it yet but I look forward to it.

My first game was DS, since that was the first game that released when I started the game. I loved it and played StB after beating it and was disappointed the rest of Touhou wasn't like that :(

thank you so much

One very noticable difference not mentioned about DS is that your photos can take on any angle (based on your positioning relative to the boss), whereas in StB it's always the same straight angle. This completely changes how you score this game. The gameplay differences with Hatate is that her photo frame got less height and more width but overall smaller photo dimensions, her camera charges much faster and also starts at a higher charge% after taking a photo of the boss or a defensive photo, her camera is alot less mobile when activating the photo frame but also shrinks much less, Hatate's camera always follows the boss regardless of whether you're moving in focused, unfocused or charge speed. I'd say the difficulty in DS goes down overall once you reach the Extra scenes and especially the SP scenes. The SP scenes overall feel rushed/unfinished. Hatate also does make most of the scenes easier, due to her very fast charge, despite some exceptions. The one I mostly remember being harder with her is 10-4. I also think this video would've been more appropiate to label these games as "scene games". ISC as you mentioned is not a photogame. The one camera weapon being just one of many items you can pick. Honestly surprised to see you roast on VD, but yes it's offensively bad. My one experience made me think it was a joke. Perhaps not even made by ZUN. I'm pretty concerned the new upcoming game will suffer the same fate, judging by early screenshots.

So, ISC is basically going for a No Item Run in a hard Dokkan Battle event

Oooh Yess

Aya is basically you trying to swat a fly that has the ability to take pictures.

11:55 you little -

bro really used a boss trail to draw amogus

In VD I definitely activated teleport more often on accident than on purpose. It's so bad.

It should be noted that for _Violet Detector,_ there is a mod that remaps the teleport ability to its own button. It's definitely more bearable that way. Though why it wasn't like that in the first place is honestly beyond me.

100th black market was everything u hated about violet detector cranked up to 11 lol

So when's Megumu getting her own Photo Game-

There's a mod for Violet Detector that puts the teleport on a separate button.

11:55 amogus? amogus.

Impossible Spellcard makes me think... Everyone really does fight fairly in the main games huh? Maybe except Junko or something, her spellcards just aims to kill you.

damn, I finished Violet Detector and really enjoyed it, didn't find it very hard, and thought it was a well-liked game

finally they get some love

10:55: *A M O G U S* (Seija Kijin is the impostor!)

double spoiler was almost my first touhou game

Aya was an epic photographer

I Don't Know I Never Played Touhou Photo Games!!

Maybe i love this spin off touhou series, especially like this one (beside touhou spin off fighting series) I mean like this I love hardcore mode or something more challenging like we don't see in any touhou game series (beside there lunatic or extra mode maybe for me is quite challenging but not like this one) & To be honest i play DS (double spoiler or whatever that name sorry i forgot 🙃😅) surprisingly is quite good challenging game for me especially i want to practice going to lunatic or extra mode, maybe there think i practice on game touhou series (like th 6,7,or 8 on practice) The answer is no i always practice on DS, yep literally when first time i play this game is so hard but then i now getting already used to it + maybe this is my favorite touhou spin off photo game series. Another touhou spin off photo game series like StB,ISC,and VD maybe i should try that game too. Anyway DS is my favorite awesome challenging touhou spin off photo game

touhou has infinite content XD thanks for covering it all!

Even if VD was not the best spin-off, it still is the only one I have finished. Others just did not resonate with me, and I played them before VD even came out

Can you talk about Cirnos game Fairy Wars? Nice video tho

Did ypu draw an among us with sekibankis neck?

Say what you want about Violet Detector, but Nightmare Diary is one of the best tracks ZUN's ever made

O_O VD is the only one I’ve played…

Ayayay

Hatate!!!

Aya and hante choking each other because of the new Pokémon snap

birb

Pokemon Snap: Touhou edition.

ඞ

Yeah, with 18.5 announced, probably should've waited a bit more before making this video :/

I personally found Impossible Spell Card's patterns extremely boring, especially compared to StB and DS's, which I have both 100% completed, so I stopped playing At least I got 5-2 without items tho

Man creates entire 20 minute video just to complain about character from Touhou Usami Sumireko

Your VD complaints are a skill issue

She's not taking pictures "for reasons". She has a newspaper and wants stories.

11:55 AMOGUS

11:51 amogus

11:54 AMOGUS