Tuned in to Doujin Culture!

It is humbling to see how much the opinion on Touhou has changed in just a few weeks. No matter the longevity of the series, the consistent lenient behavior towards fanworks (provided they follow the few existing rules), or the public image ZUN tries to sell, a few fuck-ups can really make anyone fall from grace.
And NO, I am not an AI "shill". In fact, I believe nothing the AI creates will ever be art. I don't like how all of a sudden uploading music seems to be against the rules either, with no prior heads up, after so many fucking years where that was the norm and nobody bat an eye.
So I am not deflecting. And yes, right now I believe ZUN has fucked up. I want him to explain himself, and not act all lofty when his actions are causing such a shit show. Then whoever wanted could form an actual opinion with the actual reality of the situation. I just find it ridiculous how a few mistakes after, and a few posts into the thread, ZUN's entire existence seems to be called into question, with somebody saying he "may be friends with the guy from 2ch" without even knowing who that guy is (Hiroyuki, jfc), and that everyone who has known Touhou for more than 5 minutes and isn't a secondary (i.e., can speak Japanese) wouldn't even call into question that because it is braindead obvious they are in good terms. Or someone else saying now Touhou actually isn't a one-man game, when ZUN has actually put into the credits the few times he has used help from other people (e.g. th19), and doesn't make fucking sense because there's no way in hell anybody who had participated in such a phenomenon as Touhou wouldn't have done everything posible on this Earth to demand compensation.
Obviously, actual discussion is going to be poluted by people who will just shout their opinion without any knowledge on the matter, simply because they think their fringe, retarded opinion, has now an opportunity to foster.

>>1389
I think you're strongly underestimating the severity of AI incorporation. ZUN could have been convicted of sexual assault or child pornography and the backlash would not be as bad (knowing the average Touhou fan). It represents the cessation of human efforts to tyranny. The cessation of a medium to a handful of corporations that have been antagonistic to all demographics. The cessation of creatives having any ownership of their creations. The cessation of visibility and communication to a deluge of irrelevant drivel after years of already being punished by biased algorithms.

It very strongly affects many people and ZUN sold himself as a cottage little guy, so it represents this entire doujin scene being closed off into an AI only shithole like so many other mediums. What good could come from this? Will conventions have to let in AI spammers? Will Touhou forums have to let in AI spammers? Will contests have to let in AI spammers? Of course! It'd be hypocritical when the king is naked. You take one look at the turdstorm AI spammers have left the areas they're free to reign, and you basically see what ZUN has rewarded the creatives that supported him with.

Frankly there's very little that can invalidate 30 years of work, but destroying every Touhou outlet and a significant portion of the doujin scene for the people who supported you for years would do it.

>>1390
Anon, I dislike AI as strongly as you do, and my previous post accounts for it, but I do think you are overreacting in a climate ripe for overreaction.
I am glad I am not the only one who thinks AI is a disgrace for art. I have already argued in that other site why I believe that to be the case. But that left aside, I don't think you are actually evaluating the situation.
Touhou 20 is not the product of AI. It still is a creation of ZUN, at least until confirmed otherwise. He did not ask Adobe AI to "make th20 for me lol". He probably has used it in moderation, so maybe 5%, 10%, or 20% tops (I seriously hope not more than that) is the result of AI. ZUN most probably has thought out the story, designed the characters, composed the music and made most if not all of the programming himself, and then cut corners for some of the smaller parts he probably found tedious.
Not that I like it. But getting some help from an AI is not the same as AI generators (I refuse to ever call them artists)'s spawns of the devil that little by little plague the web. He is not welcoming purely AI generated fanart, at least not until he says so himself.
ZUN's opinion on this should also be taken in account. From what I know (and this one I haven't actually heard from him myself, but only read from other anons), ZUN seems to have a rather lenient stance on AI. His boomer glasses reflect to him a similar situation that what must have happened when he was experimenting with computers. Yet he was able to create his oeuvre with them, so for him creators should take advantage of that shiny, new tool to create something original and exciting, like he did in his time. It is clear he didn't choose the AI he used lightly either, since Adobe AI at least advertises itself as "respectful of artists" and only "enhancing their imagination" (you can look up their website).
Now, I think there are more abstract reasons why AI cannot make art, but ZUN probably isn't taking them into account. What I want to say, I guess, is that you can think ZUN has fucked up, but the Internet drama around this, as it tends to happen in imageboards, has sometimes been bombastic, painting ZUN in the bleakest of lights possible, instead of arguing about the reality of the "incident" (if I may say so).

>>1338
Is this really a big deal? I could see if this affected gameplay videos, but people don't use youtube as their primary way of listening to music, do they?

>>1338
Next time you make an outrage bait "touhou is over" thread for the sixth? seventh? time, please bother to spell check your subject…
Hard to not see this as anything more than concern trolling.

>>1403
I can see why it's so contentious. Youtube has been the primary gateway for westerners to get into Touhou for as long as it existed on the platform. How many times have you seen it said where one's first exposure was a video of Night of Nights, UN Owen Was Her, and Bad Apple? It's ingrained in fandom culture, such that Ruw doing his thing to make way for the official OST to be published to youtube music feels like a stab in the back to the fans who paved the way here.
The main issue comes from the complacency of both sides. The western fandom has been allowed to by and large do as it pleased for twenty years since the guidelines on fancontent have been left greatly unenforced. Touhou has always been this mystical thing in the west as ZUN never had any presence there to claim it, but at a glacial pace he's moving onto large platforms such as Steam and now Youtube. If I hazard a guess I'd say music rips will be taken down in waves as more and more of the music makes its way there officially.
>I could see if this affected gameplay videos
The danger to that is from Youtube's end with their hit and miss detection programs. Since the OST for 19-20 is on Youtube by the actual owners of the music, Youtube's system can trigger copyright automatically, such as the case with mtb's enoko video. We'll have to see how it all shakes out in the long run.
>but people don't use youtube as their primary way of listening to music, do they?
You'd be surprised at the amount of norms who do this. I used to do this before I realized I could just download ZUN's entire collection to my phone and let a local music player app handle it. Music discovery is another factor which Youtube is good for overall, which feeds back into the earlier point as a gateway into Touhou.

>>1271
You made the thread yet?

>>1325
Ggs, finally a character I have previous experience against. Sorry for short set, but it's danmaku o'clock.

>>1328
ggs
no worries, thanks for hosting
>spoiler
i thought that was already dead yet again
might drop by later

Here
>>1330

>>1331
Thank you

ZUN has gone full grifter-jew mode. Now copyright striking people posting the OST on youtube.

Context. Context. Context.
Instead of jumping on a retarded flamewar starting with a twatter screencap and buzzwords, I think I'll give this a month for actual information to come in. Fortunately, you have several threads on 4chan to choose from if you're looking for a shouting match based on speculation.

In case you didn't know, ZUN had to deal with a nasty copyright issue because the bank of stock images he bought actually contained copyrighted material. It's likely why just decided to say "fuck it, I'm not using stock images anymore, I'll just AI generate them"

>>1179
Pretty much done with Touhou, was basically crazy about it up until the news dropped last week. I don't see much of a point continuing to discuss it, the fanworks empower the games while the games fuel the fanwork, continuing to participate in this subculture will just fund and legitimize another AI dev. They never stop at backgrounds, there's no future for this series. I guess that goes for all "big" series, should they be given an out for being bigger than the average AI vagrant? I'd say no, because what's put on display here isn't what made the series good nor beloved, it's just something generated by a third party. Maybe many of you would forgive him if he backpedals, but for me I feel like even getting into these controversies is a failure of character, and it doesn't look like he's being remorseful sending his lawyer dog out to silence critics.

>>1229
>>1229
They should be called out, they should be forced into the mature realization that it's time to abandon Touhou, there's no use in continuing to waste your life on a person who hates you

Odenpa Studio as of today has new digital downloads of some of their older stuff available on BOOTH! Solid pieces of denpa history.

おでんぱ☆スタジオ - https://booth.pm/en/items/6870203
C77落選記念CD - https://booth.pm/en/items/6870136

めるてぃ〜♡ぱにっく is up for download on booth!

https://booth.pm/en/items/6872352

Choko and RISH have released the PPSG ep!

A lot of the western rating sites seem not to like it very much, which is a shame :(

You can download the ep on DoujinStyle here:
https://doujinstyle.com/?p=page&type=1&id=28091

Directly support the artists by buying the ep here:
https://linkco.re/yS28xGam?lang=en

I missed you denpanons.

new cloverkoma :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrN3bbwG2ko&feature=youtu.be

>>1238
It is ironic but also is a shame it is stained so much.

Can someone recommend me strategies for beating one of the clean ones like EoSD? I get to the Patchouli stage and I die immediately each time I get to the boss. On normal.
https://youtu.be/mBEc028gGpI?si=TjIN7ycVjUKFJQLv&t=917 this one kills me too much

>>1239
I consider it at around the same difficulty as EoSD which is the game most have played, just less RNG on boss spellcards but on wonder stones.

>>1241
I don't know if you've played IN yet but Mystia teaches you where to focus your gaze for dense patterns like this.
https://youtu.be/V747Azfw_pI?&t=87
Putting your face physically closer to the screen can also help.
Otherwise, there's no shame in bombing through it.

>>1241
Tip: Patchouli's lasers don't hit you if you stand perfectly in center, the laser hitbox vanishes before it visually does. The fire projectiles also have a smaller hitbox on the sides and the way patchy shoots them always leaves big gaps between them, pay more attention to the smaller yellow projectiles there. Lastly, as I always recommend for EoSD, don't be afraid of bombing. The spellcards are RNG when it comes to density and speed due to the leftover PC-98 hidden rank system and some projectiles (especially Sakuya's knives) have a wonky hitbox that can hit you from a longer distance than you think.

I watched the anime, Wandaba Style specifically due to this flash. The show is kinda stupid but the girls are cute

Daily Dose

Ecchi thoughs are 4bidden

Someone mentioned that the superwaha.swf was probably scaled to be played on an old cellphone, very retro. I could post more, but I think these are the best, if you can believe that

>>86
It's a little bit of everything. Aside from the gameplay, music, art (despite people poking fun at it), cute girls, and being in the right place at the right time on 2000s internet, I think it grew because the world is as open-ended as it is. There isn't a cool plot or any defining climax, and at the end of every incident everything goes back to the status quo, but that's why it's so appealing. Gensokyo is a world, not like those made by modern worldbuilders who over-detail everything from the start without any purpose and think they're going to be the next Tolkien, but like Wind in the Willows: a place you can daydream of, between old and new, between fantasy and reality, and as whimsical as can be. What you see in the games and writings is just a portrait, a brief snapshot of that world, but the rest is on the other side. Artists and writers and even completely unskilled fans latched onto that so they could explore it.
Seeing picrel this morning helped me put it into words. They're on some whimsical errand in their old-fashioned motor car, and you can imagine what happens before, during, and after. At the end, everything turns out fine. I daydream a lot, so this is all a personal view, but I think Touhou is something stronger than fantasy: it's a fairy tale. That's what makes it different and special.

If you want to see a small part of how it grew, here's an oekaki board that goes back to before PCB was released. It's fun seeing people make art for characters as they come out. https://coolier.net/oekaki/191.htm

To keep it on-topic after all that, I'm working on my first lunatic no-bomb run and Remilia is a big jerk.

>>85
your story is interesting to me
what did you think of Hotline Miami [2]?
>2 months later
lol if you actually read this

Hoo boy, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil… My first contact with the actual Touhou experience back in December of 2021, when I had finally to take the dive. The first 1CCs came on January of 2022, on Normal; between April and July, I achieved all Hard 1CCs and Extra clears in that game. EoSD was fun to play.

This is absolutely not a scoring-focused run, but it is still my highest-scoring regular run through the game. Have some Hard ReimuB.
…or you would, if my file could be accepted. 'Unknown file extension', wapchan reports. Am I missing something?

>>1119
Honestly just forgot to add the extensions when I moved to vichan a while back since this thread was kinda dead. Here's a test file from https://maribelhearn.com/gensokyo

>>1120
Much appreciated! Here's the replay file due for >>1119.

NEET NEET!

I said my rabbit rabbits today.

rabbit rabbit!

rabbit rabbit

bunny bunny

>>145
Check out vndb if you're really new to visual novels (set to rate by rating if it's not the default setting). It's an international visual novel database with all the info you might want.
https://vndb.org/v

>I decided to play through he Science Adventure series first
Aside from Steins;Gate and (questionably) Chaos;Head/Child), none of them are particularly good.
If you're looking for the crème de la crème, I'd recommend to follow a beginner's guide like picrel.
Essentials to read would be:
Clannad
Little Busters
Tsukihime
Fate/Stay Night
Steins;Gate
Higurashi
Umineko
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

>>141
I started chaos;child recently but tbh I've been thinking about focusing more of my attention on summer pockets reflection blue instead because chaos;child is kindaaaa boring so far. I just hope it's a case of a very slow start or something

>>151
Chaos;Head is indeed a slow start, wading through all the exposition pays off (:

Any of you read Muramasa

>>833
I'm on the last two routes.

I really enjoy the story, but there are a few things that make it hard to finish.

It's EXTREMELY exposition heavy. But the story, as depressing as it can be, is fantastic