Part 51: Offering to the Falling Flowers

I hope you're ready for a wall of text.

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Music: Mystic Prelude



I guess someone must have messed up the math, because I was just 0.5 away from being able to use Dai. I put the Oshirasama on Reimu instead.



Lady Yukari, about the seal...

It looks like it won't be a problem. But thank you for letting me know.



That would be Yukari Yakumo, the great youkai they call a sage.

Oh, that's her? I've heard the rumors.

Took you long enough, Yukari. The party's over. What do you want?

Are you here to punish us for visiting the Underworld...?

I heard from Ran that you set foot in a forbidden land. But that's not why I'm here.

Then why?

First of all, let me give you my congratulations for your efforts to stop the Saigyo Ayakashi. Good work, Reimu. You managed to safely resolve this incident.

What's with this "good work" stuff? Gensokyo was in trouble, why didn't you lend a hand?

Because I knew this would happen even if I didn't. The Saigyo Ayakashi will scatter its petals, and return to sleep once more.

This accursed cherry tree will never reach full bloom.

...So what are you trying to say? I'd wish you'd just say what you mean.

In other words, you just stayed quiet and let us resolve the incident for you?

You can take it that way, if you like. Although I never imagined you'd gather such a crowd.

Now that you mention it, there are an awful lot of us.

Our former enemies, the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Moriya Shrine, are both lending us their strength.

Before all this, I never imagined we'd be helping out the humans.

My, how quickly times can change. In the old Gensokyo, I would never have thought humans and youkai could work hand in hand. And yet here we are, with all of you able to stand together against an incident.

Is that really what's going on? It doesn't feel that special to me.

...So are we done here? Will you let us go home?

That would have been fine, but I just changed my mind. Let's keeping talking, just a bit longer.

Huh?

Pour all of the time you've spent into a single moment's danmaku display. Show me what Gensokyo has become.



A ton of enemies spawn in.

Whoa, does this mean what I think it means?!

I see. You're proposing a danmaku battle.

That's a pretty crazy way to hold a conversation.

At this point the dialogue branches depending on the protagonist.

Then let's chat until the cherry blossoms stop falling. Let's commemorate the end of the season you've finally caught up to.


Music: The Ayakashi Sheds Spring

A bit of wordplay is lost in translation: the character for Ayakashi is the same "You" in the title. All of the game medleys have their game's kanji in the title, actually.



The final chapter of the game. In a direct contrast to chapter 15, which had a joke of a stage and a meatgrinder of a boss, 34's boss honestly isn't that bad.



She's not exactly a piece of cake, what with five spellcards and a host of annoying abilities. But she's just one boss, and that means I can Support Defend my way through her easily enough.



So the bigger issue is her backup. Yukari has brought an army of 34 units, including Ran, Chen, Goki, and Zenki.



And Ran still has her MAP!

Thankfully this is just Normal mode, so all this is going to boil down to is a particularly long stage section and then a relatively easy boss fight. On Lunatic, which I am unfortunately subjecting myself to, this chapter is hell incarnate.



The only thing I'll be worrying about here is FA Nitori's absurdly low level. She's been used all of once, and it really shows.



The spirits aren't particularly tough, though, so a few Gained kills should be all she needs to catch up. And Star has to spend her SP on something.



More worrisome is how spirit AI tends to prioritize attacking a single unit en masse. In this stage, that means one unit could be getting attacked no less than five times a turn.



Also Reimu defied all expectations and got hit by a 19% right away.



Though then Instinct Dodge kicked in and jacked her evade rates even higher. Always look on the bright side, I guess.

Oh yeah, on my second take of chapter 33 I took care to get as many Gained kills as possible on Yuyuko. Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Youmu and Sanae are all around level 30 now.



Yukari is a jerk and boosts the hit rates of her allies by a whopping 20%. Thankfully she won't be moving (yet) so that buff is restricted to enemies too far away to matter.

Oh, and on Normal the minibosses won't start heading down until turn 2. It's a convenient breather window.



I spent the first five or so turns steadily arranging a formation while weathering the spirit barrage.



I took down Ran as fast as possible to avoid her MAP.



If you saw my earlier formation and was wondering why I had Patchy in the front, incidentally, it's because her barrier is strong enough that if I have Patchy defend it'll zero out the damage from basically everyone but Ran.



Enemies suiciding themselves on Reimu never gets old.



Especially since it sky rockets her Power. As a reminder, Power plays a role in the damage formula. With Reimu at something like 145 and Ran only at ~112, Reimu is doing way more damage than normal.



It's probably worth noting that this version of Ran doesn't have Double Image. She's landed now, though, so she can actually use her S rank Ground rating.



Elly grabs the kill.

Lady Yukari, I will be heading back before you.



Chen goes down shortly afterwards to an onslaught of Support Attacks.

I'm sorry Miss Raaaaaan!



Sanae snags SP Regen, which isn't actually very useful for her compared to Living God.


I thought a 22% enemy hit rate was a safe bet. I was wrong.

Oh well, I didn't have anything concrete for a SRW joke video this chapter anyways.



Reimu could easily handle the entire right side of the map by herself, but I'm worried about Yukari. It's turn 5 and Ran's dead; I'm not sure which of those is the trigger to get her to start moving, but I'm pretty sure she will now. And she is the one enemy in the entire game who has good odds on Reimu because



she stole Reimu's equip!



Also this. Aaaah, another window breaking description.

And yes, the final boss is the only enemy in the game that can feasibly hit Reimu without spirits. Reimu is just that good.
_{Yukari didn't move on the next enemy phase, so I'm probably thinking of the triggers on harder difficulties.}



Sakuya finishes off Goki.



It was at this point I learned that the Three Fairies don't always spawn at Sunny's position. It's at whoever used Join.



Anyway Nitori finishes off Zenki.



Now all that's left is Yukari, which means she should probably start moving now.



Yup.

The stolen spring is returning to the land below, little by little...

And the incident ends along with the Saigyo Ayakashi. If you'd just wait patiently, you wouldn't have to fight too, you know.

I don't have the patience for that. I was always, always looking for spring. I'd dig through the snow every day...

That's why, right now, I'm so happy that I'm chomping at the bit.

Music: Lapsing into Sleep, the Boundary of Reminiscence



The choreography on most of Yukari's attacks is pretty involved. Once again, I recommend watching the attack video.



Oh and she has a Distortion Barrier (reduces all received damage by 700) because of course.



There's no point to beating Yukari now, since she'll warp back to her starting position to trigger her first spell. Better to just set up my boss formation.



Yukari warped over midway through and attacked Reimu. Aaaaagh I knew I should have cast Focus.

It's been a while, Reimu. Have you been well?

...

Oh my, isn't it cold of you to just ignore me?

Not really. I was just saving it for the danmaku battle. You want to talk, right? Then get started already.

My, my. I suppose if I want to know, then that will do nicely. Since it's you, I don't mind showing you what's beyond the multi-layered barrier, the abyss of truth and danmaku...



Well this is a first. Is my intuition getting dull?



One of these days I'd like it if a sub-50% hit rate actually missed.



Oh well, this just means Marisa's support squad will have more time to shine.

Allow me to thank you once again for resolving the incident, Miss Ordinary Magician. I'm glad it was a normal human like you who stood side by side with Reimu.

Stop calling me "ordinary" and "normal" over and over again! Are you making fun of me?

I'm assessing you. Danmaku reveals one's true self. You're the very embodiment of that.

So, can you only talk in riddles or something? For a youkai who's lived so long, you sure seem pretty human to me.

It's because I've accumulated so much. I'm bad at throwing things away.



Marisa + Nitori do about 7000.

You were Nitori Kawashiro, I believe. I know all about you.

Bwuh?! How do you know my name?

You come and go freely from that insular mountain society. That's more than enough to stand out. Even among the kappa, you're considered quite the eccentric.

I'm just your average kappa. I've always been interested in humans, but in the end I only had friends on the mountain.

Well, then why are you with the humans now?

It just turned out that way. Ever since I ran into Marisa, I've gotten closer to everyone.

But because it was a coincidence, I won't let you take them from me! These are my cherished bonds of friendship!



Nitori + Patchy do 4000.

So after being roped into resolving the incident, I have to deal with this strange old folk tale... I'm not too interested in oral tradition. Could you write it down in a book for me?

I prefer not to leave behind anything concrete. As long as it's in your mind, it should be sufficient.

If it's only in your mind, then that's not knowledge, that's just memories. The true nature of knowledge is to be reliably transmitted.



And Patchy + Alice finishes the job.



The Saigyo Ayakashi will be steadily losing its petals as I take out Yukari's health bars. The animation is just the opposite of the ones on 33, so I won't be showing them.

You're quite strong. I can see how you managed to resolve this incident.

What, so you're fighting us to gauge our strength?

I want you all to show me your current selves, the ones that managed to suppress this cherry tree.

In return, I'll tell you a story from long, long ago.

A... story?

A story about when the girl sleeping beneath the Saigyo Ayakashi was still alive.

A tale about a girl entranced by the butterfly of death, and a certain youkai who met her. An illusive story that no one has ever known. Until now.






Curse of Dreams and Reality has a very unique effect.

This is the first time we've talked like this, Miss Makai-born former human.

...! You know about me...?

I could hardly fail to notice a half-baked youkai like you. You've made your decision, yet you still carry all sort of things....

...And whatever could that mean?

Just as it sounds. Your heart is unable to discard Makai, and your body is unable to discard your humanity. If you're going to live as a youkai, then the only thing you've caught is risk.

...

Well, perhaps it's harsh of me to say all that to a novice youkai. But, for your own sake, remember these words.



Not that it matters since I'm taking it down in one turn!

Much like Flandre, how difficult this fight is directly corresponds to your preknowledge of the chapter. Yukari isn't hard, she's just very gimmicky. If you know the tricks, the fight is easy. If you don't it's a huge pain.

Incidentally I actually really love how completely different chapters 15 and 34 play; 15 has the player enduring Flandre's assault while saving up as much resources as possible for the final push, and 34 has them scratching their head figuring out how to handle Yukari's next trick.

...Once this cherry tree loses its petals, the stalled seasons will start to move again.

As a winter youkai, I'm sure this was an uncomfortable incident for you.

I've certainly been feeling under the weather, but resolving it was the natural thing to do. Defying the cycle of the four seasons was unforgiveable.

Indeed, I thought I understood that, but... Now that it's right in front of me, my feelings have gotten the better of me.



The biggest issue I'm going to run into this fight is MP. Nobody voted for Koa, so Sakuya and the single use Beer Lily is packing are my only sources of MP restoration.

Well, those and the Sunflower Marisa's been holding onto across the game.

I think I've seen you somewhere before... Oh, you're Yuuka Kazami's servant youkai.

...You know Yuuka?

She's been in Gensokyo since ancient times. I suppose you could call her an acquaintance. She's quite a youkai-like youkai, in the opposite sense from me.

You mean, like, strong and scary?

Simple and lonely through and through, with a purpose in life as pure as anything.

Lonely?! Yuuka's not alone!

Yeah, she's got us and everyone in the Mansion of Fantasy!



Elly is too underleveled to do anything but tank.

You're the newcomer from Youkai Mountain. This is the first I've laid eyes on you.

You know about us...?

Naturally. Just how big of a fuss do you think you caused?

So how are you finding life over here? In the paradise you were prepared to die to reach?

...To be honest, I've often thought it was tough living here. Even though I thought I'd hardened my resolve...

If you regret it that much, I don't mind sending you back.

No, the people of the mountain and Reimu and the others... they've all accepted us. I can state this clearly now:

I live here, in Gensokyo. As the wind priestess of the Moriya Shrine, and along with Lady Yasaka and Lady Moriya!



This is actually one of the few stages long enough that Sanae can feasibly reach 100% faith. I may have lost Mario, but at least I still have Luigi!

The great youkai, Yukari Yakumo. Can I fight her while covering Lady Kochiya..?

A mountain youkai, and a tengu at that, is worrying about a human? How unusual.

Lady Kochiya is a resident of the mountain, and we residents of the mountain help each other out.

So that's the answer the mountain youkai have come to, in response to the shrine. I can't imagine that relationship will last much longer though...

That's for the higher-ups to decide; I wouldn't know. As an underling... all I can do is protect what's right in front of me.



On to the second spell.

It was an entire millennium ago, when they met underneath the the Saigyo Ayakashi's blossoms.

The girl had the power to invite death in others. She had the faint smell of death about her.

At first, the youkai had no interest in this human she met by chance. Yet as she came to know the girl, the youkai's feelings changed. She decided to remain with this girl with the blackened form, until her dying moments.






Double Black Death Butterfly is pretty tame. It's only really threatening on solo runs, which believe me I know from experience.

It is a nice way to sort of reference Yuyuko's gimmick by forcing you to rack up damage though.

Sunny, we're up against that bigshot youkai they call a sage! We can't beat her! We need to run away...

Oh my, even if you weren't so frightened, I wouldn't have antagonized you. There's no need to. After all, you're weak. Extremely weak.

...

However, I am a bit interested in your mysteries. Perhaps you could show me, briefly.

What do we do, Sunny? She's saying that, but...

Hmph. If we kept quiet after all that, we'd be a disgrace to the name of the Three Fairies of Light.

Luna, Star, let's go! We'll show her our hidden potential!



I'm mostly going to be using the Three Fairies to trigger Support Attacks, so I have them close up. This neuters their damage output, unfortunately.



By the way, I put Breath of Life back on Lily. She's burning up too much MP with It's Spring! to effectively heal, but she can just steadily regenerate everyone's health instead.



Cue another rousing round of Marisa And Her Friends Beat Up Yukari.



Though this one cost them their last dregs of MP. Marisa and Alice can still keep on going with Proto Malice, and Nitori has her ammo based attacks, but Patchy is out of luck.

I'm glad we had the chance to talk. I've been interested in you, too.

Why?

Stranded in an unfamiliar land, and picked up by a devil of all things. What a pitiable human... What feelings motivate you to work? I've been wanting to ask you for a while now.

Meeting the mistress was my fate. I plan to continue on my path like this.

Even if it's a narrow, winding path?

Even if I must balance by a thread, I will not lose my way.



Sakuya nabs the kill and finally learns Strike.


The power to invite death in others... needless to say, it was quite dangerous.

The girl was feared by human and youkai alike, and naturally they avoided her. However, that certain youkai never minded being with her. And despite their different races, the two of them drew no line between them.






Boundary of Humans and Youkai is another "hit the entire screen" MAP. Just like with Flandre, the goal is to get into the safe spot. You might notice that danmaku effect though; it flips between debuffing humans and debuffing youkai every turn.

Not all of the tiles around the safe spot prevent movement, by the way.



Just like And Then Will There Be None?, this is a golden opportunity to land and regenerate MP.



Oh, and this time I can bomb the danmaku to make my own safe spot. Just because I can doesn't mean I should though.

This spell is kind of a dick move, because it encourages the player to blow through their stockpile of bombs. The next two spells have some pretty crazy effects, so that's a bad idea.




The safe spots appear to move in a counter clock-wise circle, but it'll actually zip back to the center for the final turn. I tried to prepare for this and ended up getting Patchy killed.



Though it works out better that way, since the final safe spot only seats 13. In yet another difference from Flandre, Yukari actually will use one final shot of Boundary of Humans and Youkai before moving on.

There's a long pause before Yukari reappears. I always freak out and worry the game might have frozen.


The girl's power grew stronger still, and she became unable to control her own deadly poison.

Afraid of taking the lives of those she loved, the girl made a wish under a cherry tree.

The youkai was powerless to stop it.

And so, the girl crossed over the boundary forevermore.

Music: The Final Banquet of Boundaries and Reminiscence

The game subtly changes tracks here. I didn't even notice on my first playthrough!





_{Aaaah the description.}

This god damn spell. I remember being so confused with what it was doing on my first playthrough.

Boundary of Life and Death makes it so that only units that are point blank to Yukari can damage her. You might think that means having to bum rush everyone forward. You'd be wrong.



The spell only affects people standing in the danmaku, so if you bomb it everyone can attack like normal. That's why the danmaku also lowers bomb range, and why I arranged the fairies so they can free as many people as possible.



The spell has a strange miss animation. If it hits, the barrage of lasers just smacks into the player unit, but if it misses they avoid it, move to safer ground... and then dodge one last sucker punch laser. For the longest time I thought it was like Mountain of Faith where the actual bit from the spellcard pattern always misses, but no Yukari just throws out a final laser for the hell of it I guess.



Yukari's ridiculous +50% hit rate buff makes her really annoying for most Reals. If I still had Reimu, this is about the phase of the battle where she starts running out of SP and is actually in trouble.



Thankfully getting hit isn't a death sentence in this fight.

Why are you here, Youmu?

Lady Yukari...!

If you think you're protecting the White Jade Belvedere, I'm afraid it extends much further than just the garden. And it seems you've raised your blade against Yuyuko, too.

...I had to. I thought that if I didn't stop the Saigyo Ayakashi, Lady Yuyuko would've been in danger. There weren't any other options at the time...

The excuses of a child. In the off-chance that you'd wounded her, what would you do then? As guardian of the White Jade Belvedere, surely you can't say that was the right thing to do.

I don't know if it was right or wrong...

I simply believed in myself and swung my sword. I cut through to the truth!



Youmu won't be getting the dynamic kill this time, so if you were curious this time she slashes "the eyes lurking in the abyss".

It looks like the Saigyo Ayakashi is shedding its petals. Perhaps it was like this in the tale?

Wait, you mean...?

I told you, didn't I? I just want to talk.

Once the last petal falls, everything will be back to normal. Like waking up from a dream. We're just killing time until then.

In other words, Arcanum: "Danmaku Barrier".






Man I really shouldn't have relied so much on the description windows expanding with the text. Anyway Danmaku Barrier lets Yukari attack a lot. The pattern of the field changes as the timer increments (I only got one on Normal, so the rest are from Lunatic), and the timer itself is linked to both Yukari's HP and the actual turn count. But I think you can't time the card out unless you have no units in the field? It's weird.



Yukari attacked Star, Youmu, Momiji, Sanae, Luna, Letty, Elly, Lily, Nitori, Alice, and Sunny.



Alice was the only casualty.

If I wanted to, I could have skipped that entire enemy phase by holding off on capturing Boundary of Life and Death until the next turn. But then you wouldn't get to read about Yukari attacking my entire army, and where would the fun be there?





Elly blows my last bomb. This is solely to get rid of evasion penalties so everyone has a slightly better chance of dodging.



Sanae is almost there!



And Sakuya finally triggered Private Square!

Cue more deaths.

Impossible, how could I have lost...

Even though spring is right in front of me...

I can get through regular runs of this chapter without any casualties, but with this voted in team there's really not much I can do but suicide some people. vv









I actually screwed up my positioning earlier and moved Marisa one tile too close to Master Spark. So I'll have to wait till next turn to finish things.



I was expecting Youmu to die here,



but she got ridiculously lucky and triggered Ghostly Wheel of Pain.



She didn't get lucky twice though.

I'm so useless...





Sakuya got off her finisher during the next wave of Yukari attacks.



The Three Fairies don't do much damage, but they have so much MP/SP leftover from doing nothing all battle that they can at least drop a finisher every turn. It adds up.



Though they too get suicided.

Everyone, please handle the rest!

I'll have to retreat. Please be careful.





This could have been a really cool finish if Private Square triggered.

...I'll leave the rest to you.

But of course it didn't.

Okay, let's look at my surviving party.



First up is Elly, who made a surprise reappearance after the voters seemingly dropped her for Letty. She's near death, out of MP/SP, and couldn't scratch Yukari if she wanted to. But at least she's alive.



Much like Full Armor Nitori, though she's only alive because she chugged a bottle of Junmai Sake earlier. I guess alcohol really is good for you.



Sanae is the strongest she's ever been. Too bad she doesn't have the MP to do anything. Seriously Sanae, why do you need 20 MP to go smack someone with your stick?



And last but not least Marisa, who has lost her best buddy Alice and is ready to take revenge. Literally, because this game actually has a revenge mechanic! If two units have a friendship and the other one dies, the survivor gets a very, very slight buff to their attack. Both Reimu and Alice have died, so Marisa's seeing something like +80 base weapon damage.

Music: The Moment Dreams Reach the Stars


Watch the video!







Yukari also explodes into petals.



Marisa jumps two levels and snags Magician 5.



She also gets some very nice drops. The Portable Gap gives anyone who holds it their own Distortion Barrier. It's actually really useful for the more fragile tanks like Nitori.

We beat her...

Look...





The last petals are...

Shizuha and Reimu have those lines instead on the other route.





Those two zeroes are Luna and Star.