Part 1: Revisit

Since I have FMW1 save data, the game gives me the option of continuing from it. The process isn't as cut and dry as you'd think, but that's a topic for a later day.



In the previous LP, the main save file was on Reimu's route, so I'm sure a lot of you are expecting me to continue her story.



The fact I brought that up means exactly what you think. This game is a lot more interesting on Marisa's path, so she's getting the spotlight this time. Sadly FMW2 does not let me change protagonists between games, so I had to beat FMW1 again to make a new save. For you previous LP veterans, yes, I got the Sunflower.

Music: Mystic Prelude

The song that actually plays here is a looped version of this track.



Opening crawls are a SRW tradition.


With that over with, the game starts the way all good RPGs do.



With some cryptic foreshadowing.

Music: Faintly Colored Whispering

In case you didn't read the OP, in order to prevent this LP from becoming too much of an image landslide, all pre/post chapter conversations will be on the Test Poster. I'll post a link, and provide a summary for anyone who just wants to get to the game.

Full Text


Smash cut to Reimu and co. Since the entire series is supposed to be a single game, FMW2 starts at Chapter 16.

Music: For the Gensokyo of Tomorrow



Y-yeah!

Sheesh, you guys never learn. I don't have the time for this right now.

Well Cirno is just a fairy. What the heck are you guys up to today?

It's a donating game. The maid at the red house taught it to me.

Sakuya: kind of a dick.

Donating? What, are you gonna ring the shrine's bell then ditch?

Normally you ring a shrine's bell before you put a donation in the offering box.

Don't be so sure. Perhaps she wants to steal it.

...So few people came already, and now this happens. Is your shrine always like this?

Pretty much. I'm practically buried in annoying fairies and youkai.

I suppose everyone's had more free time since last summer's incident.

I'm pretty sure the only one of you with a real job is Keine.

Okay everyone, go for the donation box. We don't need it, but Reimu will be really mad if she doesn't have it! It'll be hilarious!

Ooh, they're going for the donation box. We'd better stop 'em, even if there's nothing good inside.

Nuh-uh, I put some pretty rocks in there for her once!

That was you?!

*sigh* It's just like a playground here. Visitors to the shrine should worship once in a while.

That's what I tell them.

Well whatever, if you're all bored then bring it on!


All chapters start off with a information screen. Win/Loss conditions are self-explanatory, but the WP Bonus is new. To increase difficulty, SRW games often place special challenges on every map. Usually you get a prize for fulfilling as many as possible, but FMW2 changes things up a little.



So. The map. Since FMW1, Sanbondo's added in a ton of quality of life features like



being able to zoom in and out. Take a look at the enemy types; over on the left are fairies, and across from them are kedamas.


If you flip through the character menus for a bit, you'll notice Reimu has a skill that specifically increases damage to Youkai type enemies. Which kedamas fall under, but not fairies. _{For some reason.}

Meanwhile Marisa has the same hit/evade rates on both enemy types, but kedamas hit much harder so it'd be better for her to take on fairies.



So if I want to get through this chapter as smoothly as possible, I want Reimu, Keine, Marisa, and Alice swap positions. It's kind of odd chapter 16 does this when every other chapter doesn't, but I guess Sanbondo wanted to see if the player would pay attention.

What's Reimu doing all the way up there? You'll see.



Battles in SRW are simple affairs. Both sides have a hit rate, and when you start the battle the dice are rolled. If the enemy is initiating the attack like here I can choose to forgo countering to instead defend (halve damage received) or evade (halve enemy hit rate), but that's not needed yet.

Music: Be a Shooting Star



Marisa isn't as dodgy as Reimu, but she can handle herself.



Like most SRPGs, SRW subscribes to the "godly player units, mobs of trash enemies" design. Most enemies shouldn't take more than two or three hits to kill.



Characters are awarded experience, Pilot Points, and Points after battle. You'll see what the last two do later.


This fairy did something special: she put up a danmaku field. Represented visually as a bunch of yellowish tiles (you can barely see them over the shrine's lawn), these inhibit your character's movement, and lowers their defense and evasion. The bar at the bottom of the screen lists the exact penalty rates. Overlapping danmaku fields will stack their effects, so even the best of characters can't charge recklessly into the middle of the enemy.



44% isn't that great of a hit rate, but as you'll come to see it's more than enough to hit me. Luckily Marisa scored a critical (x1.25 damage) in response. When enemies die, their danmaku goes with them.

Welp, they've busted out danmaku. They're pretty pumped considering there isn't an incident goin' on.

The second turn starts with a brief primer on danmaku, one of FMW2's bigger gameplay changes. I'll explain it myself, so I'll just skip this.



My first action of the turn is to move Reimu here. Just like in FMW1, every stage set at the Hakurei Shrine has a bonus conversation that plays only if you move Reimu over her lake.

I figured he wouldn't be here.

Something up?

I haven't seen the turtle around recently. I wonder where he went off to?

A turtle? Are you talking about the one you used to ride?

Yeah, now that I think about it you've seen him before. And he's been so lively lately too.

He helped out with all sorts of crazy stuff, maybe he finally decided to retire. I bet he'll come back to lend you a hand again someday.

FMW2 has significantly less bonus conversations than its predecessor, and they aren't counted on your final results either. I'm still going to show them off.
_{Also I'm pretty sure I fucked up the translation of the last line.}

The next mechanic I want to cover is a broad one: hit/evade rate mods. Marisa's so far above this fairy she's always going to be seeing 100% hit rates, so let's just focus on her evasion.



At point blank, this fairy has a 38% chance of hitting Marisa. But if I moved her one panel to the right, that would drop to 30%. In order to prevent players from just sniping everything ever to death, accuracy (and damage!) drops the farther away you are. Trying to attack from more than 5 or so panels away in particular makes your damage plummet.



If this fairy had a brain, she'd be landed a tile to the left to take advantage of the terrain.



As a tangent, while flying characters will get a terrain's HP/MP regeneration, only landed characters can use the defense/evasion boosts. This can be a very important fact to keep in mind.



If Marisa stands here, three tiles away from the enemy (the game counts diagonal movement as two spaces), the fairy has a 27% chance to hit.



But if she stands next to Alice, the fairy's hit rate plummets to 17%. Certain pairs of characters have friendship bonuses that buff their hit/evade rates as long as they're standing right next to each other. Once again, note that diagonals are two spaces and thus don't count for friendships.

In FMW1's Marisa route, you could "optionally" (read: you were stupid as all get out if you didn't) establish a +10% friendship bonus between Marisa and Alice. If you carry that save over to FMW2 the bonus is maintained, otherwise it's just a 5%. 5% is basically useless while 10% is awesome so how useful Marisa can be in the first half of the game depends a lot on if you played FMW1.



Okay, let's skip to the boss.



Chapter 16 is a big warmup, so all that you missed was enemies attacking and me countering.



Since Reimu was too far away, Keine soloed the right half and got a level out of it; in SRW, characters gain levels every 500 XP. But the experience you get from battle scales to the level of your opponent, so no easy grinding.



Cirno takes the initiative and rushes the weakened Keine. I'm pretty sure Keine wouldn't die even if I didn't defend, but may as well be safe.

You're as lively as ever. I guess you don't think pranking humans is a bad thing, huh?

Don't worry. Lately I've only been messing with Reimu and Marisa.

Oh, that's alright then.

No it isn't.

Music: Flap & Frappe & Flapper



489 damage. Yeah, Keine would have been fine.



All bosses have gigantic danmaku fields that make getting to them annoying.



One way around them is to have my characters Focus; this drops their movement speed, but lets them ignore generic danmaku penalties and adds a flat 10% to their hit rate.



The other way is to use a Bomb. Dropped by specifically marked enemies (look for the green B), these things damage all enemies (and only enemies) and destroy all danmaku in their radius at the cost of 10 Power.



What's Power? To SRW fans, it's Will with a different name. To everyone else, it's a character-specific resource that steadily climbs from 100 to 150 as the chapter goes on. Various actions like hitting an enemy, dodging an attack, or letting an ally die can raise Power, and the exact numbers are determined by a character's personality. The higher Power is, the more/less damage the character will do/take. Stronger attacks and certain skills are also gated by specific Power thresholds.



Normally it'd be pretty hard for Marisa to hit Cirno, but between Proto Malice Cannon's +30% hit rate boost, Alice's friendship, and Focusing she can hit a perfect 100.

So did you come here just to kill time?

Hey, what about you? You're always playing here too.

What are you talking about, I'm hard at work. Crushing slackers is a really busy job.



Not that it means shit because Cirno triggered Random Dodge.

If the character with Random Dodge has lower Skill than her opponent, she has a chance of automatically dodging the attack. I've never seen it activate before now, so I guess this LP is off to a great start.



At least Marisa dodged. When you're Focused, it's impossible to fully dodge attacks. Instead you'll just take (Original Damage * Enemy Hit Rate) graze damage. This can be incredibly inconvenient, to the point that some characters are safer Unfocused.



Alice is too far away for a "guaranteed" hit like Marisa, so she casts Focus. All characters have a stock of Spirit Points and unique Spirits to spend them on. Each Spirit provides a different buff, with Focus here buffing Hit/Evade rates by a flat 30%.

Why yes, it is kind of confusing have both a Focus spirit and a Focus mechanic. If it helps, in japanese the words are totally different.

That reminds me, what are those three up to?

Alice is referring to the Three Fairies of Light, who Cirno teamed up with back in chapter 12.

Huh? What are you talking about all of a sudden?

Well they've raided my house before, so I might as well be a little careful.

Oh, well it's not like I'm always with them... but if you ask me, I think it's more fun to play pranks here.

I see. I suppose Reimu is easier to tease.



I didn't mention it last time, but Proto Malice Cannon is a combination attack. Both Marisa and Alice have to be in adjacent squares (diagonals count this time) and have sufficient Power to use it. Most combinations are usually super flashy finishing moves, but Proto Malice Cannon is just Marisa and Alice attacking at the same time. It's not as hilariously useful as it was in FMW1, but it's still really handy and the only way Marisa's going to hit dodgy bosses.



One hit and Cirno's almost dead. Alice has the highest Skill (the stat that governs criticals) in the game, so she's almost always getting crits.

I probably should show Cirno's stats, but eh. She's a wimp.



Keine could have finished off Cirno, but I decided to have her bomb a path for Reimu instead.



Reimu has two very handy spirits, Sense and Luck. Sense is both Strike (100% hit rate for a turn, bypasses all enemy skills) and Alert (100% evade rate for an attack, can override Strike) at once, and Luck doubles the amount of Points received from the next battle.

So today it's a donating game? What is Sakuya even teaching you?

She said it was a "primal, thrilling game for adults that can only be played at a shrine with a donation box."

What kind of nonsense is that? I've been getting nothing but trouble from the Scarlet Devil Mansion lately.


Reimu doesn't even need her finisher to wreck Cirno.

I was just going easy on you today!



As you'd expect, bosses drop quite the bounty. Being Focused cuts the amount of Points you get by the way, so you might want to stay Unfocused for deathblows.



Cirno also drops a Frozen Frog.





Uwah, I'm done for.

There's no way I'd lose to fairies. Now scram.

If there are any living enemies, they'll take Reimu's advice.

Well that wasn't much of a workout. Let's just start on those sweet potatoes Keine brought over.

Oh, are you baking them? Can I have some?

Didn't I tell you to scram? Besides, it's been chilly enough lately without you around.

Now, now, feeding one more person is nothing to be concerned about.

That's right, I brought a lot so it's fine if Cirno wants to eat.

Ugh, fine. But at least help make them.

Now that that's over with, let's light up a fire. Cirno, gather up some leaves an- wait, somebody's coming.



A familiar face enters the scene.

! Reimu, that's...

It's been a while, Reimu.

Sanae Kochiya?



Every chapter ends with a results screen. Just like last time I intend to beat this game without save scumming, so I'll post the screen each time for proof.

------
Good evening! It's Thrilling * Dream Mansion Night!

Today's hosts are me, Kurumi, and...

Me, Yuuka Kazami.

Okay, right in front of the usual "Yuukarin! Please step on me!" corner is today's special guest!

...What did you call that corner? What a tasteless hobby.

Oh my, Alice. Do you also want me to step on you?

Of course not, just give me the postcard. Now then, today's problem is from Youkai Mountain's "Miracle S".

"Good evening, Yuuka. Lately, I've been worried about how I should scold my superiors. What would be a good way to tell them I want them to better themselves?"

Pah, being worried about something like that is absurd. If that's how you feel, then it's best just to tell them. And if they're humans, it wouldn't hurt to do it over a drink.

Wait, you have to keep the other person's position in mind. Though I guess for you, it's good that you put even a little thought into it.

I see, well if that's my precious guest's opinion I'll have to restrain myself. Well I suppose your superiors will listen to you if you put your feelings into your words.

Oh, that's Yuukarin for you! So easy to understand!

Okay then, see you all next week~!

...Why did I do this?