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Gensokyo.

A distant eastern land that has existed since time imemorial. An isolated community where humans and youkai live together in an existence spun from an unbroken history.

There are two great borders within Gensokyo. One is the "Border between reality and fantasy" which calls youkai into Gensokyo. The other is the "Great Hakurei Border", which separates the sensible from the insensible, and thus separates Gensokyo from the world beyond.

By these two boders, Gensokyo cut off all roads to the outside world. By doing so, humans and youkai are able to live together in a unique culture.

In the summer of the 118th year of its existence, Gensokyo was consumed by a red mist.

The red mist spread over all of Gensokyo, sapping the life out of people everywhere. What would later be called the Scarlet Mist Incident was resolved by two humans.

The shrine maiden whose duty is to maintain the balance of Gensokyo, Reimu Hakurei.

The ordinary magician who aims to become a great magician, Marisa Kirisame.

Together with the humans and youkai with which they had formed close bonds, they defeated the perpetrator of the incident, Remilia Scarlet.

But around then, something was beginning to move on Youkai Mountain. Taking with it two gods from the outside world, the Moriya Shrine came to Gensokyo.

The gods of the Moriya Shrine invaded Youkai Mountain, then demanded that the Hakurei Shrine shut down to make way for them. However, Reimu protected her shrine by defeating Sanae Kochiya in battle. The Moriya Shrine withdrew to Youkai Mountain.

For a while, peace returned to Gensokyo. However, this peace between humans and youkai was to be short lived.

And so, autumn came to Gensokyo.

Let's Play Super Touhou Wars 2

Episodic content! Since the game picks up right where the last one left off, it lets me load my save data from the previous game. I will be doing so.

Things are going to go pretty similar to the previous game, but more fancy! Running both routes in parallel again. Summarizing cutscenes, but this time, all dialogue during missions will be translated. Only the pre- and post-battle talking heads parts will be cliff notes'd.

Our story begins somewhere far from the Hakurei Shrine...

Youmu Konpaku
Gardener of the Blue Sky
Species: Half-ghost
Rank: V
Loyalty: A
Earnestness: S
Dignity: D

Youmu is just bringing some snacks to her mistress...

Yuyuko Saigyouji
Ghost Girl in the Netherworld Tower
Species: Ghost
Rank: VI
Motivation: C
Patience: A
Dignity: S

Yuyuko is relaxing as usual, admiring the autumn scenery and getting philosophical about it.

But she isn't doing so alone!

Yukari Yakumo
Border of Phantasm
Species: Youkai
Rank: ??
Morality: ??
Power: ??
Scheming: ??

Yuyuko has a visitor! She wasn't able to come by during the summer, as she was very busy.

Yukari is, of course, well aware that Youmu was helping Reimu during the summer incident, and hopes she had fun. Youmu says she did, but regrets that she neglected the garden during it.

After some small talk, Yukari gets down to what she came here to talk about - the newcomers on Youkai Mountain. They still don't fully understand the ways of Gensokyo, so maybe it's about time that Reimu paid them a visit... after all, Reimu still has a lot of growing to do herself.

So for now, the two of them are free to relax and watch the upcoming events in Gensokyo unfold...

Chapter 16: Revisiting

Cirno
Ice Fairy of the Lake
Species: Fairy
Rank: II
Guts: A
Chill Factor: S
Intelligence: D

Get ready, guys! I won't forgive anyone who's late!

Y... Yeah!

Reimu Hakurei
Wonderful Shrine Maiden of Paradise
Species: Human
Rank: ??
Divinity: B
Tenacity: A
Motivation: D

Sheesh, will you guys ever learn? I don't have time for this right now.

Marisa Kirisame
Ordinary Magician
Species: Human
Rank: ??
Divinity: F
Tenacity: A
Motivation: S

Oh hey, it's Cirno and her fairies. What are you playing this time?

It's called Ding Dong Dash! The maid at the red house taught it to me.

Dong Dong Dash? So you hit the shrine's bell and run away?

Alice Margatroid
Seven-Colored Puppeteer
Species: Magician
Rank: III
Outgoingness: D
Dexterity: S
Knowledge: A

I wouldn't be so sure. She might want to steal it.

Keine Kamishirasawa
History Eater
Species: Half-beast
Rank: III
Knowledge: A
Responsibility: A
Werewolf: B

You finally get a visit and look what it is. Has your shrine always been like this?

Pretty much. No matter what I do, it's just fairies and youkai hanging around here.

There hasn't been an incident since the one you resolved last summer. None of them have anything better to do.

Okay, guys, our goal is the shrine's donation box.
We don't need it, but if it's gone, Reimu's sure to throw a fit! It'll be awesome!

Aiming for the donation box, are they? We'd better stop 'em.
There's nothing in there, so let's find something better for 'em to steal.

Who says it's empty? I put pretty rocks and stuff in it sometimes.

That was you?!

It's more like a park than a shrine. Shrine visitors should try worshipping occasionally.

Tell that to them. They won't listen to anything I say.
Oh, fine. If you're so bored, bring it on!

Victory Conditions:
All enemies defeated.

Defeat Conditions:
All allies defeated.

Bonus Condition:
Defeat Cirno last.

Time for a quick refresher course!

Each character can move, then attack. The red area is Reimu's movement range.

A couple new features already visible! The "A" on Keine indicates that she has the Offensive Support skill, which means that if I attack from adjacent to her, she can back it up with her own attack. The white square around her is her "Teacher" special ability, which gives EXP bonuses to anyone in that area.

After moving, it's time for battle! The box on the right shows Reimu's stats and hit chance (100%), and the box on the left shows the stats and hit chance (0%) of her hapless victim, an ordinary fairy. Whenever someone attacks, the defender will have a chance to counterattack if they survive, but Reimu is far too agile for a mere fairy to land a hit on her.

Reimu kicks the battle off with her bread-and-butter technique, Persuasion Needle! It's not the most powerful attack out there, but it has good range, lots of ammo, and can be used after moving.

The fairy counters with her own piddling danmaku, which obviously misses.

Let's start talking about my characters as I obliterate the ten mooks on this stage!

Reimu is my untouchable elite ace who hogs all the EXP; I'll be trying to keep her on injuring bosses to level the playing field. Marisa here isnt quite as untouchable as Reimu, but she can attack from further away, and generally does more damage.

But wait! Something happens during the enemy turn! What is this strange orange zone?

Oho, they're using danmaku. That's a lot of effort for a bunch of fairies with no incident backing them.

Heh heh heh. Tremble in fear before our danmaku!

That's a surprisingly decent danmaku field. It'd be best to use focused movement when passing through it.

We could use a bomb, too. It can eliminate danmaku and damage enemies at the same time.
The user's power drops by 10, though, and we have a limited supply.

Really, the easiest way is to just wipe out the enemies responsible for the danmaku.

What a Reimu-like response. You haven't changed a bit.

Danmaku fields! When standing in them, you suffer evasion, move speed, and armor penalties. Fortunately, as discussed, we have a lot of ways to deal with them!

This is the most direct way! Defeat the unit producing the field, and it drops.

Keine here is our big tank character for the moment. She can't dodge much, but she can take a lot of hits without going down, and has a number of powerful melee attacks plus a long-range attack that she can't use after moving.

Our other option is focused movement, indicated by the dot over Alice! When Focused, you have much slower move speed and take small amounts of damage even on a miss, but you ignore danmaku field penalties, and have 10% accuracy and defense.

Fighting with an army of dolls, Alice is our all-rounder! She dodges better than Keine, takes hits better than Reimu, and has a variety of attacks at a variety of ranges.

Anyway, a bit of gratuitous overkill later, we're down to one enemy left.

When fighting boss enemies, Spirit Commands are my friends! They're special boost abilities that cost SP but don't take your turn to use, and are indispensable to defeating powerful enemies. Reimu has, from left to right...

Sense: Automatically dodge next attack and automatically hit with all attacks for the rest of the turn.
Focus: +30% accuracy and evasion for the rest of the turn.
Luck: x2 points earned in the next battle.

[ BGM - Flap, Frappe & Flapper ~ Beloved Tomboyish Girl ]

So today it's Ding Dong Dash? Honestly, I don't know what that maid's thinking.

She said "It's a primal, thrilling game for grown ups that can only be played at a shrine with a bell".

Is that the kind of nonsense she's spouting now? I get nothing but trouble from the scarlet devil mansion these days.

FACE

Despite allegedly being a boss, Cirno only has 6300 HP. Reimu could take her down by herself in three hits.

Freeze Sign - Perfect Freeze!

Cirno's ultimate attack! Naturally, it misses completely.

This is the other way to deal with danmaku! Bombs are collected by defeating certain enemies, and allow you to blow a hole in danmaku fields, damaging all enemies in range.

It was totally unnecessary here, though.

Looks like you're at it, same as always. Nothing gets you down.
As long as you're playing pranks on humans, you're not getting into any real mischief, right?

Don't worry! All I've been doing is annoying Reimu and Marisa.

Hoho, that's fine.

It's not fine at all!

Thanks to her spirit command Strike, Keine can hit Cirno with no effort!

So where are your usual three underlings?

Huh? What's this all of a sudden?

It wouldn't be the first time they'd decided to stir up trouble at my house, so I thought I'd ask.

It's not like I'm with them all the time...
But it's more fun to do pranks here, I think.

I see. I suppose Reimu is easier to get a reaction out of.

Thusly does the strongest fairy fall to Alice's rain of kaimkaze dolls.

Wah, I was defeated...

There's no way I'd lose to a fairy. Go home already.

Okay, enough exercise. Let's eat! Keine brought those sweet potatoes earlier.

Ooh, are you baking them? Can I have some, too?

Didn't I tell you to go home already? My budget's tight enough these days.

Now, now, one more shouldn't bankrupt you.

That's right. I made plenty, so Cirno can have some, too.

Hmph, fine. But you'd better help prepare it.

If Cirno tries to cook, we might start a forest fire. Here, why don't you...
...hey, someone's coming.

!
Reimu, that's...

Sanae Kochiya
Newbie Goddess of the Mountain
Species: Human
Rank: V
Divinity: B
Experience: C
Enthusiasm: A

It's been a while, Reimu.

Sanae Kochiya?

Stage Clear

Turns taken: 4
Spirit Commands used: 3
Bombs used: 1
Battle Mastery achieved

Sanae introduces herself, but all five of these people have met her already! They fought briefly at the Misty Lake, then Reimu and Sanae had a rematch at the Hakurei Shrine.

Sanae is, sure enough, here to try and shut down the Hakurei Shrine again! She argues that since nobody but youkai ever come to visit, it's not like it's accumulating any faith anyway...

If she won't shut the shrine down, then Sanae wants her to at least consider converting it to a branch of the Moriya Shrine.

Cirno points out that Sanae lost last time she tried to take over the shrine, but Sanae maintains that the situation has changed since then. The Moriya Shrine has amassed a huge amount of faith.

As for Reimu, she'd rather settle this with another danmaku duel. Sanae also hopes for a rematch, but not today. She'd much rather resolve things without resorting to violence. Marisa thinks she's just afraid to fight Reimu again.

But isn't Reimu tossing this idea aside without giving it proper consideration? What if she were to come to Youkai Mountain to see the power of the Moriya Shrine for herself?

With that thought, Sanae leaves.

Admittedly, the Hakurei Shrine is more of a gathering place for youkai than a place of worship at this point. Keine suspects that Sanae can't forgive Reimu for corrupting the meaning of a shrine.

But Reimu's not going to let some lousy god make light of her shrine just because it's a little shady! She and Marisa are in agreement - it's time to take a look at this other shrine...

To be continued!

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