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I'm very happy with the new changes and additions- the extra dialogue and interactivity was very welcome. Watering Merry's plants, talking to a few NPCs... the world feels more alive now, especially the human village.

Gameplay balancing feels much better now as well, the more powerful attacks felt like they did roughly the right amounts of damage. Mystia went down very quickly, but I think that's better than being too lengthy or difficult. Yoshika felt very well-balanced and was a fun fight. At first I thought Dream Boost was kind of underpowered considering its high cost and short duration... but then I used it in the final Nightmare fight, got a critical with Shattering Danmaku, and dealt over 1500 damage in one hit. 

The only real critique I have would be the same issue Adhdweirdo mentioned, the dialogue after the Mystia (and Yoshika) fights are bugged, characters repeat themselves numerous times. It's hilarious but clearly not how those scenes played out in the older versions. (I'm playing using the offline, downloaded version.)

I'm really excited about the updated demo. 

I tried downloading the zip version and playing it, but there's a pretty serious bug in battle- whenever a character tries to use Danmaku Shot, the game freezes up and gives a Loading Error: 'Failed To Load: img/animations/StateDown1.png'

This makes the first fight after Wriggle joins unbeatable, as far as I can tell. Even if you don't use Danmaku, the fairies will, and that causes the same error.

I'm definitely interested in seeing what comes next, yeah. 

I'm afraid that I might have been a bit harsh in my review, but the general feeling I got of the game really impressed me. 

To begin with, I have high praise to give to most of the artwork and music. The character portraits not only look adorable, they have a unique art style that stands out from a lot of other fanart. 

My main critiques involve certain characters lacking them, and a lack of variety in portraits (most notably with Merry, whose unchanging :< face doesn’t always fit the situation.) 

Some of the overworld tiles look much more detailed than others, but that’s an understandable result of time. (The Human Village objects stood out as noticeably jaggy.) The ending fight with the Nightmare seems to be lacking graphics altogether. (The opening fight would benefit from having a background, like a seemingly endless void of eyes.)

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The music and sound design is probably the best part of the demo build in my opinion, as there isn’t really any of it that isn’t very well done. 

The title screen music is wonderful, and I caught myself lingering there just to listen to all of it. I hope it returns later in the game instead of just being used there, because it’s just that good.

‘Mary the Magician’ serves as a perfect introduction to the darker side of the story, selling the hopeless fight against the nightmare. I also really like the transition to a more energetic and determined melody, but the song seems too long to fit in the scene unless the player lingers.

‘Let’s Live in a Lovely Cemetary!’ is super fun and energetic, very suitable for the introduction of Kogasa. The instruments sound reminiscent of classic horror, but it doesn’t overshadow the cheerful tone. 

‘Deaf to All but the Song’ is really grandiose and intense, which I think is somewhat fitting. To us, it’s not that big of a deal, but to Merry and Wriggle, they’re fighting for their lives. (It does loop awkwardly with several seconds of silence before restarting.)

‘Greenwich in the Sky’ is… I like the lively energy which fits the random battles, but I also like the stage themes a lot too and having them interrupted bothered me a bit. I do like that Hakugyoukurou has the BGM override during the battles, it fits with the tone of the area very well.

It’s a fairly minor touch, but I also like how the menu sound effects are almost melodic. It adds a nice touch of personality to basic things. The text scrolling sound effect is fine at a normal speed, but it sounds a bit off when the text speeds up. (A minor thing for my wish list is if different characters have different sound effects for their dialogue.)

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Moving on to discussing the plot… I’ll begin by saying I really enjoy the concepts here. I like how we can see Merry grow from uncertain to resolved, through both the story and gameplay, as she’s willing to tell enemies to bring it on and to defeat her nightmares using her new power. (Her telling Yoshika to get in line is really good) 

I like that Keine, Youmu and Yuyuko note Merry’s resemblance to… someone else. There’s a lot of potential plotlines that can be developed here.

I also like that Renko has secrets of her own (how she managed to get that doll into Merry’s room, what her ‘internship’ is really about, ect.) It wouldn’t surprise me if she ends up coming to Gensokyo and joining the party on her own. I like that the party seems to be composed of characters that are typically weak and overlooked in-universe, it feels like it sells their roles as the underdogs.

Several comments made throughout the story, most notably how Wriggle and Keine are surprised to learn Merry’s an outsider, make me wonder what other changes this Gensokyo has from canon. But I’m sure that’ll be a topic going forward.

Kogasa and Yoshika left great impressions on me despite not having much screentime, which is a great sign. I'm excited to see what happens with them next. I also like Renko's energy and cheerfulness expressed in a bunch of different ways. (hopping in excitement, spinning on her chair)

(I was a little shocked to see Renko saying ‘Maribel’ instead of ‘Merry’, but that’s just what I’ve been used to. I guess here she practiced more until she could say it correctly.)

The game’s amount of story isn’t an issue, but I think the fact that so much of it is in unbroken dialogue sequences is. The opening for example, not counting the hopeless Nightmare fight, is entirely dialogue interspersed with brief moments of walking from place to place until Merry makes it to Gensokyo. It does have a lot to accomplish, introducing the two primary characters and their relationship, but I think it’s a bit of a hard sell for someone who isn’t already familiar and invested with the club. (Also, speeding up dialogue seems to require mashing either Z or X repeatedly which gets quickly tiresome.)

The environments have very little that the player can interact with, be they objects or NPCs, which makes them feel empty. Using them to break up the amount of dialogue into more manageable chunks helps both issues and makes the pacing more controlled by the player.

There are several moments where something is explicitly explained when it can be more smoothly inferred by observing events- Merry thinking to herself early on about how Renko accepts her, when that can be made clear through their interactions.  ‘Show, don’t tell’ isn’t an absolute rule, but considering it is important when dialogue sequences are already fairly lengthy.

The scene where Merry gets harrassed at school was uncomfortable- intentionally, I'm sure. It serves its purpose of undermining her other connections to the outside beyond Renko, but the bluntness and physicality of it remind me more of high school bullying instead of a slow, constant sense of being unwelcome.

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Gameplay’s core is interesting, the concept of Power being easily gained and spent on special attacks is more engaging than simply mashing attack, and a variety of Danmaku with different uses fits the series’s style.

The main issue I have is that because of this system, the more expensive moves don’t seem to deal nearly enough damage to make up for their high costs. (and Danmaku Curtain’s text goes off the screen and isn’t readable) Double and Triple Shot are too consistently useful to bother using much else. Danmaku Barrier is potentially useful, but it’d be more so if you could taunt enemies to draw aggro to a specific character- or if bosses gave you advance warning of their spellcards. (which barriers don’t stop anyway)

Secondarily, using basic Danmaku Shot or items is the only way to refill Power. It seems like a secondary method of refilling it would help encourage players to keep up the offensive and reward specific battle strategies- granting Power for hitting an enemy’s weakness, or for breaking a barrier with a melee attack.

Either way, the fight with Mystia is a real slog. It comes early enough that the player might not have Triple Shot learned yet (and Keine hasn’t taught Merry Double Shot), and she’s got a load of health to burn through. 

She also likes to use Danmaku Barrier, which just means your attacks do nothing and the fight gets drawn out even more. You could hurt her with weak attacks, but you don’t know she’s using a barrier until after you’ve already input your commands to use Danmaku, so all it does is waste your time. 

Her breaking out her spellcard when she’s low on HP after such a long fight seems somewhat cruel, because she used it twice in a row, leaving me at critical health. Having to redo it would have been painful.

In comparison, Yoshika is much easier and less frustrating. (although her bad puns are KILLING me) You have three characters with better stats and attacks, and she doesn’t bother using barriers. She also doesn’t seem to use any spellcards, despite the dialogue pre-fight. 

The opening hopeless Nightmare fight is a great concept, and I love the music. But it opening on cryptic narration before the somewhat lengthy fight seems like it lets down some of the mood. If there was a bit of interactivity- say, walking down a corridor as the introductory narration plays, then the nightmare attacks at the end- it would have time to build up a mood. (and use the whole song in the scene) Again, with the fight against the Nightmare, streamlining it would show the story points better. Merry attacks to no effect twice, then it one-shots her, making it clear how hopeless it is without being too lengthy.

Hakugyoukurou has some really good atmosphere with the music and the difficult enemies fitting the current arc of the story. But the simplicity of the level kind of lets it down- climbing the stairs only to need to go all the way back down again. You don’t even get to see Yuyuko. But the player is likely low on healing items after Mystia, and if they didn’t buy more they might need to level grind by the rest point until they can make it up and down the stairs in one go. A resting point at the top of the stairs would help with that.