Touhou 8: Imperishable Night - Stage 4 (No Commentary)

The forest of bamboo under the moonlight was as eerie as a dream. Each bamboo tree looked as if it would start glowing at any moment. Let’s be honest here, this stage is completely unfair to Marisa and Marisa alone. If you’re playing as any character that has either a homing attack or a wide range attack (see not Marisa) this stage will be a cakewalk. The stage is filled mainly with small easy to kill enemies however the problem is they keep coming staggered in groups from the left and right sides of the screen and if you don’t kill them fast they will not hesitate to fill the screen with bullets. With that in mind you’re going to have to quickly zip back and forth between both sides of the screen while weaving through what bullets to get blasted about the screen. However your saving grace is that the stage itself is unusually short only lasting for about a minute but all in all formula wise this stage is a weird one. Interesting note the stage theme is a remix of the windows era title themes. Boss wise this is a big throwback to Touhou 4 in that the boss will be the playable character opposite who you’re playing as. If playing as Marisa (or Sakuya) you’ll fight Reimu and if you’re playing as Reimu (or Youmu) you’ll fight Marisa. Also to note technically you’ve seen their attacks before. You may recall in Touhou 7 there were two play styles for each character with two different bombs for each style making a total of 4 different bombs for each character. Well both Reimu and Marisa use 5 spell cards here and the first four are actually danmaku representations of those four bombs uses back in Touhou 7. Reimu fights exactly as she did in Touhou 4 with some of her cool down phases even being more modern versions of some of her key attacks back then. Her main strategy is to corner you in a mess of danmaku then quickly pick you off with some well placed shots when you will have the hardest time dodging them. Just keep a close eye on what bullets she aims at you while trying not to feel too claustrophobic when she boxes you in. To continue on the Touhou 4 references her theme as well “Maiden’s Capriccio ~ Dream Battle“ is also a remix of her theme in Touhou 4 “Maiden’s Capriccio“ Marisa acts similarly to how she did in her PC-98 era outings as well though this time borrowing attack styles from not only Touhou 4 but also Touhou 2 and a bit of Touhou 3 even. All in all though the theme is the same all around, organized chaos. She loves having things orbit around her and almost all of her attacks will do that in some way and just like all the way back when she was a red head those orbiting orbs can be destroyed to make the attack easier. Though with the inclusion of Yukari you also have the option of bypassing them entirely to attack Marisa, but you’d have to deal with a tougher attack for longer. A long attack gradually getting easier or a short but difficult attack you decide what fits you best. Also like Reimu’s music Marisa’s theme “Love-colored Master Spark“ is a remix of her theme on her very first outing in Touhou 2 “Love-coloured Magic“ Difficulty - Normal Team - Aria of Forbidden Magic Team Characters - Marisa Kirisame & Alice Margatroid Stage 4 - Legendary Paradise BGM - Retribution for the Eternal Night ~ Imperishable Night Boss - Wonderful Shrine Maiden of Paradise: Reimu Hakurei BGM - Maiden’s Capriccio ~ Dream Battle Spell Cards 5:14 - Dream Sign “Duplex Barrier“ 6:07 - Spirit Sign “Fantasy Seal -Spread-“ 8:04 - Dream Sign “Evil Sealing Circle“ 8:55 - Spirit Sign “Fantasy Seal -Concentrate-“ 9:38 - Boundary “Duplex Danmaku Barrier“ 10:02 - Divine Spirit “Fantasy Seal -Blink-“ Difficulty - Normal Team - Illusionary Border Team Characters - Reimu Hakurei & Yukari Yakumo Stage 4 - Underneath the Soil containing the Mana BGM - Retribution for the Eternal Night ~ Imperishable Night Boss - Ordinary Black Magician: Marisa Kirisame BGM - Love-colored Master Spark Spell Cards 15:34 - Magic Sign “Milky Way“ 16:17 - Magic Sign “Stardust Reverie“ 18:32 - Love Sign “Non-Directional Laser“ 19:27 - Love Sign “Master Spark“ 19:56 - Light Sign “Earthlight Ray“ 20:28 - Magicannon “Final Spark“ Translation’s courtesy of the Touhou wiki