Cherry Playthrough: Youmu Konpaku (PCB Stage 5 Lunatic)

"The things my Roukanken cannot cut are next to none!"
-Youmu Konpaku

A video of me fighting for my honor against the gardener of Hakugyokurou, Youmu Konpaku

Youmu (her name is in the game's title!) is the stage 5 boss of the game Perfect Cherry Blossom, the 7th installment of the Touhou Project. The Touhou Project is a series of danmaku games where stage 5 bosses have a gameplay gimmick. Except Sanae. Poor girl. Anyways, this time around the ethereal being we know as ZUN decided to go with bullet time. Seems like a natural extension of a bullet hell to be honest.

Fun fact: Did you know that "The things my Roukanken cannot cut are next to none!" is a case of what we tropers call "Beam me up, Scotty". The actual phrase is "The things that cannot be cut by my Roukanken, forged by youkai, are close to none!"... maybe I'm the only one who says the quote at the beginning. I like it that way -.-

Anyways, Youmu is badass even if she doesn't really look the part. Fanon tends to be fair towards Youmu, giving her equal part badass and moe. She's constantly shown frustrated with the carefree demeanor of her mistress. She's constantly shown to be somewhat subtly distressed by her incomplete swordmanship. And she's shown to be completely disturbed by her status as one of the few sane women in Gensokyo.

I find Youmu a very likeable character. I imagine her normally calmed and controlled unless really provoked, even resulting somewhat cold and uncaring toward people outside her relationship circle. Being half ghost, I also attribute her a very otherworldly aura, mainly via an extremely pale almost glowing skin and her general presence. Of course, these are not really strictly canon, but nevertheless I'm positive her appearance result unnerving at best. A close enough doujin would be "Soul Blade" by Ice Rain( Warning: Gratuitous boob grabbing). Now that I think about it, Youmu is constantly shown flustered about anything remotely sexual. Alternatively there's also "Spring of the Residents of a Touhou Town" by FLIPFLOPs. By the way, Youmu holds the distinct recognition of being one of the few characters with a male character associated with her. In this case Youki Konpaku, her missing grandfather.

One of my favorite abilities of Youmu is her speed over power approach. According to her (fanon) self, her top speed is a considerable fraction of the speed of light (approx. 1/4 to be exact). I don't think it's sure who is the fastest in Gensokyo, Aya or Youmu. I do know Marisa has a sure third place, though...

Gameplay-wise, Youmu has some of the densest patterns in Touhou history. Apparently ZUN thought that having bullet time would make up for the night impenetrable curtain of bullet Youmu throws at you. Solid idea except for two things:
1) You also move as slow as the bullets
2) No much to do when the bullet make a truly impenetrable curtain.

This make Youmu one of the hardest battles pre-MoF era. Hell, I'm willing to say Lunatic Youmu is the most hard hitting boss in Perfect Cherry Blossom. I don't say hardest because at the end, the length of Ran and Yukari's fight give them more time to mess you up. When it comes to danmaku, having harder patterns not necessarily beat having more stamina.

Music-wise, I decided to go metal for the rest of the game. mainly because I had trouble with Yuyuko and I really, really wanted to use this arrange of Youmu's theme. Kokuyasou song is one of the few times where I was anxiously waiting for the chance to use the song. I know the song is a little off in some parts, but nevertheless I love it. And of course, SHO is SHO.

Image-wise, Youmu has a lot of great and awesome images. A hard choice indeed.

I would love to go into detail on Youmu's abilities and such, but I have limited space. Such is life.

Music:

Circle: Sonic Hispeed Omega
Album: THE BEST OF TOHO TEMPEST
Orignal: Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple

Circle: 黒夜葬
Album: Gothic
Original: Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird ~ Till When?

Artwork:
Title: Cloudy.R: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=800504
Ending: alcd: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=2334059

For more information on the Touhou Project, check the wiki:
http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Youmu Konpaku
• 魂魄 妖夢
• stage 5
• Lunatic
• Perfect Cherry Blossom
• PCB
• 東方妖々夢
• Touhou Project
• Youyoumu
• ZUN
• touhou
• 東方
• Team Shanghai Alice

[akototemp]

Did you stay a long period of time without playing or just wasn't playing seriously this time?

Because, for me, it's been one month since I beat Yukari with 3 lives, something you did two years ago, and now I just beat PCB on Lunatic, 4 lives left... And my life isn't only Touhou, I've got a job and social life as well.

[raak1010]

@akototemp

True enough, I don't play as frequently as before, but I also think my abilities reached my limit some time ago. I don't really consider myself an excellent player, just good enough to beat Lunatic (after a lot of tries)

[Coremann43]

Soul Blade? Where do you get your supply of Touhou Doujins?

[raak1010]

@Coremann43

The internet?

[Coremann43]

@raak1010 FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- I should have known!!

ANYWAYS, I meant what site do you use?

[raak1010]

@Coremann43

Two: The wiki has a comic section and gensokyo.org periodically publish a few recently translated doujin in the blog

[DudeDie222]

I beat EoSD with 2 continues today with Marisa B.

I got through the circle wave fairies without having to continue. Pretty good for a person still in training, even though I've been playing for more than a year.

[olAlolilo]

too good.

[Coremann43]

@raak1010 ah thanks.

[Socoolgirl94]

...YOUMU'S TRADEMARK NONSPELL FORMULA IS MISDIRECTABLE?!! *goes off to rage*

...Rant over. Good stuff, like always!