What would it take to turn 2hu games into real shmups?

What would it take to turn 2hu games into real shmups?

They are

I don't know what you mean, but there're Ultra mode patches that make the games harder.
Saging because we all know where 2hu threads end up.

no bullet patterns
only spam

But what be a real shmup?

I'm not sure why, but they feel kind of hollow and soulless compared to a lot of other shmups, like Dragon Blaze, or even older ones like Soldier Blade. Sort of like what Mortal Kombat is fighting games.

Replace final stages with extra stages.
Add multiple loops.
Make them TATE by default.
Remove visible hitbox when focusing.
Make spellcards randomized instead of one after the other, every time.
Get rid of deathbombing and other casual gimmicks.
Hire actual composers to do the music so that it isn't shitty.
Add males and robots.
Give stages real level design so they aren't boring as fuck all.

Well the main appeal of actually playing the Touhou games are the soundtracks and bullet patterns.
Everything else is kind of meh to the point that Touhoufags don't like to talk about the actual plot. I like it, though.

I can see the wisdom in most of these suggestions but:


Fuck no. You want to leave ZUN as the composer but get somone else to arrange the tracks for him so we are spared from these hideous "ZUNpets"

Good question. After playing most CAVE shmups, Treasure's stuff, Touhou 6-15 and some more contemporary stuff (e.g. Jamestown), I've come to the conclusion that the genre is stale, self-referencing and stagnant.
Then again, it's hard to innovate a genre that can be described as "perfect" in a very literal sense, without violating the popular proverb.

I like ZUNpets though.

Fuck no.

So Seihou?

why
These have no purpose outside of an arcade machine
it already is, by how the main screen is "letterboxed"
That only makes the game more tedious
sure
specify
it already isnt
I was a little disappointed that the final boss of Kanjuden wasnt that life erasing spider rover from the prologue text.
I wouldnt mind more inhuman enemies (like traditional looking youkai)
you mean like environment obstacles like ikaruga and gemini wing?

Ikaruga was the first shmup I played after getting into Touhou, and I can't get over how boring stage design (not aesthetic, mind you) in the latter feels to me ever since.

Make all the Touhous get nude!

make more animus. the games are superfluous at this point.

Wow, you're only like a day late to the thread.

Since when did threads have an expiration period?

If you want to play a real shmup with cute girls, try the Cotton series. Cotton Boomerang is the best one, but the series itself has been very experimental and as some brilliant design.

I'll try that one. I've only played Panorama Cotton before.

panorama cotton is great, had a successor title with the dreamcast rainbow cotton. Cotton Boomerang is the game play successor to Cotton 2, which introduced the grab mechanic. Cotton Boomerang perfected it and has a brilliant punch/grab system that works in tandem with elemental bubbles and the various shot styles and attributes. I theorize a good Cotton Boomerang player can beat the entire game without firing a single shot barring some situations. It's a thrill having hundreds of danmaku fired at you and instead of dodging like a pussy you take it all head on with a flurry of punches. Cotton Boomerang may be the best game in the series, so you may want to play Cotton 2 before hand so that experience doesn't seem lesser.

Many bosses in both games, mini and otherwise also have frames of vulnerability, where you can initiate a grab on them and paralyze them or in some cases, instantly kill them. It's usually at the point where they are most vulnerable and you are about to be hit where you can pull these attacks off. There's an incredible sense of risk and reward at play, and I've never seen a shmup before or since compare to it. Touhou is novel but it's rather simple in comparison to its contemporaries.

Panorama Cotton is most fascinating for how the game was pulled off on the Genesis with no expansion hardware, it's a marvel of technical engineering, but it's also a great game.

I enjoyed this shump until I realized you could just spam this one move that negates any bullet in front of you.

You must not have gotten very far since it doesn't work on all projectile types and later stages test how well you can control throws or directional shots.

I see. Guess I'll pick it up again sometime.

Just kill yourself.

That fucking cover.