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Let's Play Shoot the Bullet
LET'S PLAY SHOOT THE BULLET
Intro
Shoot the Bullet is Touhou game 9.5 - not a part of the main series, which generally means that it's free to mess around with the formula quite a bit. I'm choosing to LP it for the following reasons:
So, I begin!
We begin, with me having just reset all my save data for this purposes of this project. On the menu screen, we see our first character:
The Traditional Reporter of Fantasy
Aya Shameimaru
Species: Tengu
Origin: Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Playable character / opponent)
Aya is a freelance tengu journalist, ace photographer and sole editor of the Bunbunmaru News, the least-reputable newspaper in all of Gensokyo. She is our protagonist in this somewhat plotless game, going around and taking pictures of various ill-tempered people for article-writing purposes.
Fun Facts:
And let's begin!
Shoot the Bullet has quite a different format from the other Touhou games. Rather than being a series of consecutive stages with a bunch of enemies leading up to long boss fights, the game is split into dozens of individual Scenes. Each scene is one attack from one boss, and they don't need to be cleared in order.
There are about 6-9 scenes in each of the game's 11 levels, most of which are locked from the start. Right now, I can only access Level 1, but I'll open up Level 3 once I've cleared three scenes.
Let's see what a scene looks like!
Scene 1-1
Wriggle Nightbug
The center area is where gameplay takes place - very similar to traditional Touhou fare, with a few exceptions. First and foremost is that you have no ability to fire shots at the enemy.
So, instead of danmaku, you shoot them with...
...a camera!
Yes, the goal of Shoot the Bullet is to take pictures of bosses while they try to obliterate you. On the left, you may see three maple leaf icons - that's one for each picture you have to take - once they're all full, the scene is cleared.
As you can see above, the more pictures you take of a boss, the more powerful their attack gets! If you get hit once, you lose all your photos, and have to start the scene from scratch.
Anyway, who am I fighting here?
The Bug of Light Wriggling in the Dark
Wriggle Nightbug
Species: Youkai Insect
Debut: Imperishable Night (Stage 1 Boss)
Wriggle is a firefly who lived long enough to become a youkai. She doesn't have a great deal of significance to anything - in Imperishable Night, she decides to attack two easy-looking targets on the road, but it turns out they were the main characters, so she got blown up.
Fun Facts:
Anyway, let's get back to journalism.
As you can see from the big gap in the middle of the screen, Aya's camera has the special ability to absorb all danmaku inside its capture area. Very handy defensively!
As you can also see, on the last picture, it also destroys the boss.
Scene 1-1 cleared! Pictures are worth various amounts of points based on a wide variety of factors, but I'll get more into the scoring system in later posts. For now, suffice to say that more bullets in picture = more points.
Next time I'll do 1-2, introducing a new character and a few more mechanics!
Aya's Notes, Chapter 1-1:
I got a picture of a great swarm of bugs! What an unusual picture.
The bugs move like they're being strictly controlled;
that's because their brain structure is very simple.
Intro
Shoot the Bullet is Touhou game 9.5 - not a part of the main series, which generally means that it's free to mess around with the formula quite a bit. I'm choosing to LP it for the following reasons:
- I like Touhou games and felt like I should do an LP of one of them.
- StB has some of the most complex and interesting mechanics in the series, making it more interesting to write/read about.
- It also has one of the largest collections of characters from past games, making it a nice springboard for talking about various characters as sort of a Touhou Primer.
- Ayayayaya.
So, I begin!
We begin, with me having just reset all my save data for this purposes of this project. On the menu screen, we see our first character:
The Traditional Reporter of Fantasy
Aya Shameimaru
Species: Tengu
Origin: Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Playable character / opponent)
Aya is a freelance tengu journalist, ace photographer and sole editor of the Bunbunmaru News, the least-reputable newspaper in all of Gensokyo. She is our protagonist in this somewhat plotless game, going around and taking pictures of various ill-tempered people for article-writing purposes.
Fun Facts:
- The fastest in all of Gensokyo!
- The only character to have a solo leading role in a Touhou game other than Reimu!
- Feared for her rumor-spreading abilities. The pen is mightier than the sword!
And let's begin!
Shoot the Bullet has quite a different format from the other Touhou games. Rather than being a series of consecutive stages with a bunch of enemies leading up to long boss fights, the game is split into dozens of individual Scenes. Each scene is one attack from one boss, and they don't need to be cleared in order.
There are about 6-9 scenes in each of the game's 11 levels, most of which are locked from the start. Right now, I can only access Level 1, but I'll open up Level 3 once I've cleared three scenes.
Let's see what a scene looks like!
Scene 1-1
Wriggle Nightbug
The center area is where gameplay takes place - very similar to traditional Touhou fare, with a few exceptions. First and foremost is that you have no ability to fire shots at the enemy.
So, instead of danmaku, you shoot them with...
...a camera!
Yes, the goal of Shoot the Bullet is to take pictures of bosses while they try to obliterate you. On the left, you may see three maple leaf icons - that's one for each picture you have to take - once they're all full, the scene is cleared.
As you can see above, the more pictures you take of a boss, the more powerful their attack gets! If you get hit once, you lose all your photos, and have to start the scene from scratch.
Anyway, who am I fighting here?
The Bug of Light Wriggling in the Dark
Wriggle Nightbug
Species: Youkai Insect
Debut: Imperishable Night (Stage 1 Boss)
Wriggle is a firefly who lived long enough to become a youkai. She doesn't have a great deal of significance to anything - in Imperishable Night, she decides to attack two easy-looking targets on the road, but it turns out they were the main characters, so she got blown up.
Fun Facts:
- Has the ability to manipulate insects!
- Looks boyish but is actually a girl!
- Weak against insect repellent!
Anyway, let's get back to journalism.
As you can see from the big gap in the middle of the screen, Aya's camera has the special ability to absorb all danmaku inside its capture area. Very handy defensively!
As you can also see, on the last picture, it also destroys the boss.
Scene 1-1 cleared! Pictures are worth various amounts of points based on a wide variety of factors, but I'll get more into the scoring system in later posts. For now, suffice to say that more bullets in picture = more points.
Next time I'll do 1-2, introducing a new character and a few more mechanics!
Aya's Notes, Chapter 1-1:
I got a picture of a great swarm of bugs! What an unusual picture.
The bugs move like they're being strictly controlled;
that's because their brain structure is very simple.