Now that I've made a somewhat playable translation for that Hengband Touhou mod, I decided to write down details of my playthrough here and hopefully get some attention.
I'm playing as Yuuka Kazami. She's one of easist characters to play as; she's a dual class that's good both at close combat and magic, her race is Great Youkai (good stats, gets a lot of innate resistances by leveling up, vulnerable to holy), and she starts out with Flower that Never Withers, which is reflavored Glaive of Pain.
One of this mod's features is how some classes/races are intentionally unbalanced; the more innately powerful your character is, the less your score will be. Yuuka has a fairly low modifier of 21%.
She can study either Elements, Nature or Chaos realms; Nature and Chaos are mostly the same as their Hengband variants, Elements is a new realm mainly focused on the base elements (though more advanced spells have more exotic elements).
I'm going with Nature; as a Great Youkai, my aptitude for this realm is worse than usual, making it more difficult to use. I'll still benefit from the utility spells here; Yuuka doesn't have many special abilities on her own.
With my starting weapon, early game enemies get defeated very quickly. Farmer Maggot goes down in two hits and drops a Small Metal Shield of White Wolf Tengu ([5, +10], resist cold/sound); I sell it since I'm getting more blows per round if I'm holding my weapon with both hands. I purchase some random assortment of armor from Armoury instead.
Time for Thieves Hideout. Unlike original Hengband, you don't immediately have access to your house in towns in this mod; upon clearing certain quests, you can change make building in town your 'Exploration Base' (reflavored 'Home'). Those quests are impossible to fail - if you leave them halfway through, the entrance still stays on the town map.
Thieves Hideout is one of those quests; I clear it without problems and make it my exploration base. No notable drops. I'm at level 3; Great Youkai take a lot of experience to level up.
Next up is 'Have You Seen Our Tupai?' quest, one of the new ones. You have to fight a Chupacabra one-on-one; it's +25 speed, 225 HP, 60 AC, 1d10/1d10/2d5 in melee, and can blink around. For most classes, it's unrealistic to clear it right after Thieves; with my weapon, I should be able to defeat it quickly enough.
I bought some Scrolls of Holy Chant for that temporary AC boost and a Scroll of Light, since I don't have access to Daylight spell yet. I go in, illuminate area, buff myself and start fighting. After a quick fight, I'm victorious and reach level 10; I allocate a stat point in Intelligence. (As a minor aside: Both INT and WIS are important for any spellcasters in this mod. INT affects amount of spells you learn and failure rate; WIS affects your MP and protection from magic). I learn Detect Traps/Doors, Produce Food, and Daylight; casting those spells gives me enough XP to go up one more level, letting me learn Resist Environment.
The reward for this quest is a ribbon ego-item (Ribbons are a new item slot in this mod, replacing shooting weapon; now you have to hold ranged weapons in hands to use them). ID'ing it reveals it's a Ribbon of Protection [1, +9] with some unknown resistances.
Next up, Angband. I purchase a Staff a Perception and set off. Another one of Great Youkai bonuses is having see invisible + free action at start, greatly reducing nasty surprises in early game. I defeat Smeagol on surface, but he drops nothing.
In Angband, I reach dungeon level 6; it's protected by Seiran (a Touhou character). +5 speed, 220 HP, 30 AC, 4d8 ranged attack, fires danmaku, blinks. While exploring the level, I run into Robin Hood and defeat him; he drops Kimono of Oni (rBase, +STR, other resist). Seiran goes down quickly as well; quest reward is Leather Scale Mail of Tengu (rBase, +stealth, other resist). I'll get innate rBase as I level up, but extra AC is still appreciated. She also drops a Lunatic Gun of Kappa, which is sale fodder.
I reach level 10 and defeat some minor early game uniques, but I'm getting low on Perception charges, so I recall out. One of items is Witch Cap of the Teacher (+int, free action); I don't have anything better at the moment, so I'm equipping it.
Then I visit Kourindou (location that is somewhat distant from Human Village); it offers *ID* service for $300. Ribbon of Protection and Kimono of Oni have chaos resistance, Tengu armor has shards resistance. I will get innate Chaos resistance at level 30, but it's pretty far away, and chaos resistance can be useful in early game. I also purchase 2nd volume of Nature realm and learn Stone to Mud. Lunatic Gun sells for $10000+.
Then I deal with Orc Camp quest. Unlike Hengband, it's available in the starting town. I have no trouble with the enemies here; one of them drops a Set of Dragon Gloves. I can't wear them without raising my spell failure rate, but I'm not a pure spellcaster anyway.
Reward is Cloak of Concealment (reflavored Elven Cloak) with +8 AC and +1 stealth. I visit Kourindou to *ID* dragon gloves; resistances are acid, water, chaos.
As a minor aside: In Hengband, you could teleport between towns in inns; here, you can do the same in a special building called Divine Spirit Mausoleum Branch Office, which also offers recharging services. It also can teleport you to some other locations like Kourindou; you can teleport somewhere you haven't been to yet, but that requires an extra fee.
I'm playing as Yuuka Kazami. She's one of easist characters to play as; she's a dual class that's good both at close combat and magic, her race is Great Youkai (good stats, gets a lot of innate resistances by leveling up, vulnerable to holy), and she starts out with Flower that Never Withers, which is reflavored Glaive of Pain.
One of this mod's features is how some classes/races are intentionally unbalanced; the more innately powerful your character is, the less your score will be. Yuuka has a fairly low modifier of 21%.
She can study either Elements, Nature or Chaos realms; Nature and Chaos are mostly the same as their Hengband variants, Elements is a new realm mainly focused on the base elements (though more advanced spells have more exotic elements).
I'm going with Nature; as a Great Youkai, my aptitude for this realm is worse than usual, making it more difficult to use. I'll still benefit from the utility spells here; Yuuka doesn't have many special abilities on her own.
With my starting weapon, early game enemies get defeated very quickly. Farmer Maggot goes down in two hits and drops a Small Metal Shield of White Wolf Tengu ([5, +10], resist cold/sound); I sell it since I'm getting more blows per round if I'm holding my weapon with both hands. I purchase some random assortment of armor from Armoury instead.
Time for Thieves Hideout. Unlike original Hengband, you don't immediately have access to your house in towns in this mod; upon clearing certain quests, you can change make building in town your 'Exploration Base' (reflavored 'Home'). Those quests are impossible to fail - if you leave them halfway through, the entrance still stays on the town map.
Thieves Hideout is one of those quests; I clear it without problems and make it my exploration base. No notable drops. I'm at level 3; Great Youkai take a lot of experience to level up.
Next up is 'Have You Seen Our Tupai?' quest, one of the new ones. You have to fight a Chupacabra one-on-one; it's +25 speed, 225 HP, 60 AC, 1d10/1d10/2d5 in melee, and can blink around. For most classes, it's unrealistic to clear it right after Thieves; with my weapon, I should be able to defeat it quickly enough.
I bought some Scrolls of Holy Chant for that temporary AC boost and a Scroll of Light, since I don't have access to Daylight spell yet. I go in, illuminate area, buff myself and start fighting. After a quick fight, I'm victorious and reach level 10; I allocate a stat point in Intelligence. (As a minor aside: Both INT and WIS are important for any spellcasters in this mod. INT affects amount of spells you learn and failure rate; WIS affects your MP and protection from magic). I learn Detect Traps/Doors, Produce Food, and Daylight; casting those spells gives me enough XP to go up one more level, letting me learn Resist Environment.
The reward for this quest is a ribbon ego-item (Ribbons are a new item slot in this mod, replacing shooting weapon; now you have to hold ranged weapons in hands to use them). ID'ing it reveals it's a Ribbon of Protection [1, +9] with some unknown resistances.
Next up, Angband. I purchase a Staff a Perception and set off. Another one of Great Youkai bonuses is having see invisible + free action at start, greatly reducing nasty surprises in early game. I defeat Smeagol on surface, but he drops nothing.
In Angband, I reach dungeon level 6; it's protected by Seiran (a Touhou character). +5 speed, 220 HP, 30 AC, 4d8 ranged attack, fires danmaku, blinks. While exploring the level, I run into Robin Hood and defeat him; he drops Kimono of Oni (rBase, +STR, other resist). Seiran goes down quickly as well; quest reward is Leather Scale Mail of Tengu (rBase, +stealth, other resist). I'll get innate rBase as I level up, but extra AC is still appreciated. She also drops a Lunatic Gun of Kappa, which is sale fodder.
I reach level 10 and defeat some minor early game uniques, but I'm getting low on Perception charges, so I recall out. One of items is Witch Cap of the Teacher (+int, free action); I don't have anything better at the moment, so I'm equipping it.
Then I visit Kourindou (location that is somewhat distant from Human Village); it offers *ID* service for $300. Ribbon of Protection and Kimono of Oni have chaos resistance, Tengu armor has shards resistance. I will get innate Chaos resistance at level 30, but it's pretty far away, and chaos resistance can be useful in early game. I also purchase 2nd volume of Nature realm and learn Stone to Mud. Lunatic Gun sells for $10000+.
Then I deal with Orc Camp quest. Unlike Hengband, it's available in the starting town. I have no trouble with the enemies here; one of them drops a Set of Dragon Gloves. I can't wear them without raising my spell failure rate, but I'm not a pure spellcaster anyway.
Reward is Cloak of Concealment (reflavored Elven Cloak) with +8 AC and +1 stealth. I visit Kourindou to *ID* dragon gloves; resistances are acid, water, chaos.
As a minor aside: In Hengband, you could teleport between towns in inns; here, you can do the same in a special building called Divine Spirit Mausoleum Branch Office, which also offers recharging services. It also can teleport you to some other locations like Kourindou; you can teleport somewhere you haven't been to yet, but that requires an extra fee.
Comment