Th08/omake.txt/en

○東方永夜抄 (Touhou Eiyashou ~ Eastern Long Night Vignette) 　～ Imperishable Night

Afterword   Shanghai Alice Correspondence vol. 4

Team Shanghai Alice Leader ZUN 2004/08/15 ---

～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ There's lots of spoilers here, so if you haven't  finished the game, read it or don't. ～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～～ Also, the REAL spoilers are all collected in characters_setting.txt. So, the people who read that should either have cleared the game, given up on clearing, or don't really care about the story.

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======================================================= ■0．Special Afterword Table of Contents

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■1．Special Afterword ■2．Secret Music Comments ■3．Extra Stage Story

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======================================================= ■1．Special Afterword

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Hello, as a one-sided introduction, I'm ZUN.

Touhou has now reached its 8th edition. The contents of the series haven't really changed a lot despite lasting over such a long time. I'm not certain whether this is a good or bad thing, but regardless of the gameplay, I'm having fun.

In other words, it's as ever, a refreshingly incomprehensible game full of "what are they	saying" moments. *handshake* This game's danmaku are a story waiting to be told.

I've worried before whether Touhou is truly enjoyable. This game particularly, although the people within it may understand, uses danmaku in ways that I've never used before. The number of people who'll be able to fully understand this type of gameplay will be a big question. Danmaku is a means of communication by the story and characters, as wave after wave of dazzling attacks are dealt and returned, I want to give the player motivation to progress through the game by letting them "see what danmaku is up next". Because of 	that, the most important element for danmaku in Touhou will always be that of its "name" and its "meaning", with "a fitting appearance" following after.

Without much notice, games have started to be separated into "games" and "performances". Perhaps it has something to do with how the formerly despised and ostracized games, deemed as unhealthy influences, seem to have slowly worked their way into becoming a normal, everyday part of culture. Right from the time where the NES was called the enemy of mothers, to now when adults and children all play games, and the game machines' capabilities are vastly increased. Part of the allure of games back then was their association with antisociability and rebellion, thus they became interesting. (I wasn't the 	only one, right? *sweatdrop*) The reason why I'm not interested by games now can be	simply put as when games became a major force, and advertised on TV commercials regularly, the current swept away my original motives and my interest. However, at this era where lots of so-called "poor games" are mass-produced and sold, the mistaken concept that "games aren't demos, focusing too much on graphics and appearance is	the enemy of games" has been started, spread and repeated frequently.

This is an extremely regrettable and erroneous concept. With that line of thinking, games will rapidly degrade and lose their charm. In fact, that seems to be the direction games are heading in currently. Games should be made with more freedom, to keep their attractiveness.

The most work I spend is trying to remember and draw out the charm of the STGs, wherever they were. By remembering what attracted me to those STGs, I used those old methods to create Touhou. To make "danmaku" attractive, I "packaged" the danmaku as what is now called a spellcard, gave it a "name" and "appearance" that carried its meaning, eliminating things that did not fit with the game over preserving "characters and abilities", prioritizing the stories and sense of overbearing of the danmaku over the "portraits and conversations", matching the "music" with the characters and danmaku within the game, all of these were created to completely align with the original danmaku (spellcards). All for the charm of danmaku, that charm is the charm of games.

The aforementioned "games aren't demos, graphics and appearances are extras, the 	gameplay is what makes the game" erroneous concept, would see danmaku as nothing more than items to gain points, or otherwise as an exhilarating way to release stress, at most evolving to a puzzle but growing no further. If you speak about current STGs, the games that follow that concept are indeed multiplying, and while they may be made well, the people who evaluate these games have started to evaluate not just on things within the game but on things outside of it as well, that may be the kind of game it is. In fact, that may be how gamers in general see games nowadays.

Although the core of any game may be its gameplay, and the current methodology of	attracting people is by creating good graphics and production values, everything inside a game is what makes a game. The gameplay and graphics, the system, all created to	serve as "ingredients to attract people into wanting to see more", may just be more similar to the old methodology than one might think.

But, I think that having a small group of people who are still willing to receive and enjoy my old ways of thinking and methodologies means a lot.

Although it's a doujin game with the concept of a "20th century STG extending into the	21st century", so it's not likely to ever get commercialized.

――――		Changing the topic, this time around, the game became one that uses a lot of evil-looking bright colours...

To keep with the theme as it is, I wanted the entire game to display varied and dazzling colours. Since it takes place at night, I thought light would be the best way to show it.

Because of that, for the entire game except one part entirely (I won't specify which for 	those who haven't played the game yet) the specification was to make sure that the spellcards filled the screen with splendor. Of course, such brilliant colours may be hard to look at, which may be the enemy's strategy. *laugh*

Normally, a game which is painful to look at is a huge minus. The information that the player receives is what the creator wants to give, after all. However, the game has been mainly focused on expressing the contents in an agreeable fashion through the appearance.

Well, as a compromise, from the final stage onwards, the scenery was designed to make the area around the player's character easy to see.

――――		This time, a new Spellcard Practice mode was added. However, this is a very dangerous system indeed. This is so because there is a possibility that the status of the game may fall as a result.

At some point in time, the feeling that the principles that guided extras and rewards have gone beyond that of being just "extras" is undeniable. After clearing a STG once, why would one want to continue playing it? It isn't to unlock extras or to score more points (although 	they're available), but because the game itself simply feels good to play.

With Spellcard Practice available, there is a hidden possibility that the main game will be reduced to "The mode to unlock Spellcard Practice". This will undoubtedly lead to a game where the main constituent is the extras. Recently (and in some terms, extremely) those kind of games have been increasing. The minigames in RPGs are a good example of this. Although those kind of games with their short missions are interesting at first, they won't	be played repeatedly. I might be the only one who thinks that those games lack fulfillment, and give off the feeling of "Ahh, I've managed to waste some time".

This time, knowing the principles of extras, I still dared myself to add this mode. Well, my gut feeling is that it won't eat up the main story, though. Touhou itself has already become spellcards being eaten up by the game, although spellcards themselves are not extras. Instead, I imagine it as an aid to playing part of the main game. (Well, at first when EoSD was being made, Spellcards were meant to be the one and only	system, but somehow it ended up being swallowed up by the game.)

Thus, as Spellcard Practice is an extra, its design was redone to serve as a link to the main game. Firstly, Spellcard Practice aims to be as close to the main game as possible. As a cautionary attempt to prevent any special ways of playing just Spellcard Practice, it attempts to incorporate the flow of the main game. Spellcard Practice's goal is to serve as practice for the spellcards encountered in the main game, in order to progress through the main game itself, resulting in a complete link between the two modes. Although it seems simple at first glance, in this current world of consumption, such care and thought placed in each and every game and production goes unnoticed and gets dismissed as unimportant.

In any case, the status of the main game is the status of the overall game, and thus the status of the overall production. While trying to pursue that ephemeral element of "fun", it's	easy to accidentally hurt that status and damage the attractiveness of the production. Ever since EoSD's time, the reason I've repeatedly said that such a mode like this would only be added at the very end, is for that reason. Trying to pursue the fun in front of your eyes may make things not very fun at all.

But well, this mode. Continuously adding new things without valuing their worth, it has some ominous withering feeling (*laugh*). I wonder if that's fine? (This kind of meaninglessness is what a true "extra" is.	By the way, high difficulty spellcards have been added as a strange complement.)

――――		Next, the music. This time, there's a lot of high-speed tunes. Wanting to evoke a sense of urgency throughout the entire game resulted in this kind of impression. It gives a sense of fatigue after playing the game many times.

In some ways, it feels like a return of Touhou in PC-98, and gives off a huge sense of nostalgia (for me). Recent games' music have been dripping in coolness, so occasionally a game like this with very game-like songs is good, isn't it?

Within music emits a musical style. Naturally, the composer and the listeners both follow with the flow of the style. If they like the style or they don't, it's the same. Whichever it is, it is within that flow that music occurs.

Similarly, games emit a certain game-like style. But by nature, musical style is unrelated to the style of a game. The game music that I think of is in the end, a game, and not music. Game music must be thought out carefully to follow the style of the game, and not any particular musical style. Because of that, if you pull out the basic substances that make up game music, it will not be any style that can be easily picked up on, such is the norm.

Although saying that, maybe I'm behind the times? (*laugh*)

――――		Speaking of which, although I said ghosts are similar to corpses, they do still live.

――――　		What shall I do for next time, I wonder.

As my general plan of 3 works has been achieved, I'm thinking of undergoing some reconstruction for the time being. I have an outline for what the next work will be like, but not anything beyond that. I'll take a look at it shortly.

I will say this much, I think the next work will have a sudden drop in scale. Perhaps down to the level of EoSD. Characters may also be trimmed down to the bare essentials and will not inherit much from the previous games, and it'll be like visiting a new world. At least, that's what I'm thinking the flow will be like. (*laugh*)

The clean sweep transition from MS to EoSD was also for a similar reason. As the Touhou world tends to always gets bigger and more diverse (and since no one disappears), there has to be a point where you can't go back.

Well, the characters from EoSD onwards will still show up in IaMP, so please enjoy them there too. (*laugh*)

Otherwise, they might still be able to show up in supplementary material, and trolli^h^h^h^h^h^h other special STGs.

――――		Regarding Touhou's derivative works.

When PCB was released 1 year ago, derivative works started to be produced, and that revelation totally shocked me (even now I'm still surprised). Touhou itself up to IN has gone according to plan save a few minor details, but... the 3-year plan was hypothesized to attract a small cult-like following among part of the STG enthusiasts by the time IN was released. When EoSD neared its "peak", it was meant to be a work potraying a deep reflection of the bygone days, and to relive them... things have turned out brilliantly unlike what was expected. (During the time of EoSD, its concept from the start up to the very end, was that of a STG 	designed for the shooter fans (*laugh*))

Dear me, I never thought I'd taste having power in the doujin and shooter communities in such a scope. (especially since I'd only just gotten my feet wet in terms of doujin works ^^;) I'd	never imagined that it would be so widely accepted, and having derivative works produced off my work, but that's the status as it is now, so the feelings of shock have been replaced by bewilderment. To say it the opposite way, aiming to make games in a well-made fashion may not always be for the best. Part of the people would think of that seriously and receive and enjoy it, but people besides that part may also enjoy it too. Not because it's well-made, but simply because it's fun.

All the characters have their own useless stories and little details created for them, and not really being able to use them has been a regret. Especially since they're not talked about very much in the game itself (*laugh*). In general, danmaku is how the story and the characters are communicated, but there are characters who are special cases and it would be too much of a stretch to put them in an STG. That's why there's characters with personalities that wouldn't	appear in a game. (People like Rinnosuke would be hopeless in danmaku (*laugh*))

That's right, the establishment of the characters' potraits and conversations, all is for the purpose of putting on a danmaku show. If someone speaks about manipulating cold, you can be sure that they will use a cold-related spellcard after. That's why danmaku is enjoyable to look at. Without the conversations, half of the spellcard system would be dead and buried. If it was done that way, danmaku would be no more different than shots from a tank, curving and stopping without meaning. It would be a half-dead status worthy of Youmu. To say it in	reverse, the conversations were created for the purpose of danmaku, thus with such a poor story (*sweatdrop*) I wonder how people can make derivative works out of it? ^^;

Furthermore, those who play Touhou may feel some sort of unnaturalness? of sorts to it. Touhou doesn't have a very large-scale story. The endings as well having a seemingly meaningless flow to them, perhaps making one ask "what did you endings do with the main	story?". Could there be people who don't feel this "forced" feeling about it? (Those who played the PC-98 Touhou games are excepted (*laugh*))

In works in general exist a lack of common sense in an area full of it, and from that extraordinary presence of lack of common sense gives birth to its story. But Touhou is different, in that lack of common sense is the norm. The non-conversational parts can also lack common sense, but the whole work in general carries a single normal (although lacking 	in common sense) theme. That's why the story is nothing amazing, and when it ends, the usual lack of common sense will always await you.

I greatly enjoy these eternally tepid works. My life lacks in common sense after all.

But that's another case altogether, how this tepid series spawns derivative works is a far hotter topic (*laugh*). As was said before, the main feature of the games is the reciting of characters and stories through danmaku. Whether this meaning has been fully understood isn't clear, but I enjoyed the works and perfectly-tuned strong characters that I received. A character being strong is a synonym for their danmaku being fierce. (For every work I 	received, after I looked at it, I stored it away safely. That amounts to hundreds of works	already.) My impressions of each and every of these individual works from my standpoint isn't really fit for a formal correspondence like this, but perhaps for when we meet as individuals......

That's also the part that surprised me the most, on how the derivative works span several different genres, with much will, ambition and potential within them, and a surprisingly small amount of erotic works (*laugh*). Touhou is ultimately a series of danmaku STGs, but I feel that within the doujin community lies a strange and wonderful world as well. This border between strangeness and normalcy, common sense and lack of it is quite reminiscent of the Gensokyo boundary itself.

So from IN, IaMP, and all other future works, if you have interest, please feel free try it       out as you wish. Touhou will not reject anyone who wishes for entry, nor chase down anyone who leaves. As long as you have interest, only diving deep into Gensokyo when it's fun is fine, or knocking at it carefully from the outside is also fine. Please be sure to treat newcomers well, and let those who walk away, leave peacefully.

――――

Regarding IaMP.

IaMP is a collaborative work with Twilight Frontier, creating a Touhou fighting game. This time, unfortunately (but luckily for me) a trial version means that there is no story involved. Because of that, my main job was to establish the characters, their abilities, and decide the names of their moves. My ideal method would be to prioritize and enjoy the appearance and meaning of the danmaku(?) over the so-called balance and combos. As long as the characters move energetically, it's fun for me. (Saying such things may turn	off fighting game enthusiasts which Twilight Frontier wouldn't want though.) Well, my one true belief is that as long as the creators of the doujin games enjoy doing what they do, the game will surely turn out well. So perhaps I should make sure I enjoy what I do with IaMP as well...

The release date is set for winter Comiket, so thankfully I only need to work on it when I	have nothing else that's needed to do. I can't reveal which characters will appear, but the scenarios will have a suitably strange atmosphere to them.

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======================================================= ■2．Secret Music Comments

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Song names are given through the border of noise and music, and the creator of the songs has the power to manipulate this border. Here's some suitable comments created using this power.

♪1．Imperishable Night　～ Eastern Night. The eastern night. In general, the title song is based on the game title. Each time the song plays when the title logo appears, after all. The song title usually holds the game title as well.

♪2．Illusionary Night　～ Ghostly Eyes Eyes of a ghost. Eyes able to capture the faintest things. These eyes can perceive the true appearance of the night. This is how such things as illusions began. Thus was the nature of the night.

♪3．Stirring an Autumn Moon　～ Mooned Insect A crescent-shaped insect. Just to make a simple rhyme, I used the characters for Spring and Autumn in the title to create a mysterious seasonal feeling. As for why the firefly is crescent-shaped...

♪4．Song of the Night Sparrow　～ Night Bird Night sparrows are a youkai with a voice, yet an invisible apperance. It became known as a bird's singing voice.

♪5．Deaf to all but the Song Of course, a name that fits Mystia's danmaku well. Being deaf to all but the song is not due to the attractiveness of the song, but partly forced.

♪6．Nostalgic Blood of the East　～ Old World Ancient world. Although world and blood are specified, the meaning is the same. The world part is written by the user, and the blood part is of course written by me.

♪7．Plain Asia The east as you like it. The song title itself is plain too.

♪8．Retribution for the Eternal Night　～ Imperishable Night. A neverending night. The night that the player has tampered with starts to show its influence on the varied surroundings. The time for repentance has come.

♪9．Maiden's Capriccio　～ Dream Battle Dream battle. The dream is Reimu's dream. Definitely not the player's dream.

♪10．Love-coloured Master Spark Already, a story-unrelated song title. A black-clad girl is travelling along my path.

♪11．Cinderella Cage　～ Kagome-Kagome The Japanese Cinderella's hidden cage is such that no matter how hard you try, you cannot force the princess out. That's the fault of the Kagome. However, one word from a celestial opens all the doorways.

♪12．Lunatic Eyes　～ Invisible Full Moon The invisible full moon. If all the beings on the moon were to go insane, the different wavelengths that they would emit would be seen as strange only by the normal. Redder than red, those are infra-red rays. They're invisible to humans.

♪13．Voyage 1969 Travelers. Reimu and co. suddenly realizing that they're outside the atmosphere, doesn't mean they wanted to travel there.

♪14．Gensokyo Millennium　～ History of the Moon The history of the moon capital. The capital on the reverse side of the moon. A long history rivaling that of Gensokyo's in proportion. And that capital is slowly but surely......

♪15．Flight of the Bamboo Cutter　～ Lunatic Princess The princess of the moon. But this princess sure has done some bad things. And a lifestyle of hiding herself at the surface. By the way, this doesn't mean an old man flying through the sky. Just making sure.

♪16．Voyage 1970 Travelers. But the humans continue to travel. Youkai are always left as caretakers, the souvenirs of the humans' trips.

♪17．Extend Ash　～ Hourai Victim The Hourai Elixir. The real reason why Mt. Fuji wasn't chosen as a world heritage site. It's because it's so sacred that even the world could not choose it. Speaking of which, stop littering on it.

♪18. Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke Mt. Fuji erupting would be scary. The smoke from Fuji would have many different implications. The current Fuji is rife with impurities within now... If this smoke reaches the moon, the moon would become unclean as well.

♪19．Evening Primrose It isn't just humans who watch the moon. The youkai watch it as well.

♪20．Eternal Dream　～ Mystic Maple Of course, maples are always there to take in the light of the red moon. They're red when you cut them too.

♪21．Eastern Youkai Village Although humans are there too. Well, to go all the way there, you'd have to be pretty youkai yourself.

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======================================================= ■３．Extra Story

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======================================================= With the real moon's light shining on Gensokyo in the night, the angle of the sun in the afternoon became lower. This led to what humans called the perfect temperature.

Gensokyo was as peaceful as ever.

Reimu "Ahh, geez. It's so boring."

Hakurei Shrine, the shrine lying on the border of Gensokyo. The shrine maiden there was as bored as ever.

Marisa "Yeah~. Isn't there anything happening? Usually after a large-scale incident, there'd be aftershock-type events going on." Reimu "It'd be better if it wasn't an incident."

Marisa seemed pretty restless as well.

Sakuya "That's why this kind of setup is strange. Nothing seems to be happening." Marisa "Maybe it's scared cuz we're all ready for it to happen?"

The combination of a maid in a shrine was unexpectedly fitting.

Youmu "No, something will happen. Yuyuko said so." Reimu	"......"

Not a very credible claim.


 * ka-thonk*

It wasn't the sound of a bamboo tube, but still a sound reverberating through their heads. That was how bored they were.

――――

Kaguya "If you're that bored, since tonight's a full moon, go undertake a trial of guts." Reimu "Hey! When did you come into my shrine?"

The person that emerged from within the shrine was Kaguya. An alien. An ordinary person could not fathom the actions and thoughts of an alien.

Marisa	"A trial of guts? There aren't many scary things." Kaguya "Don't worry, when the real full moon is shining brightly tonight, come to the bamboo forest in the dead of night and see for yourself. You'll taste the true meaning of terror. It's wonderful."

Sakuya "Hmm, you wouldn't happen to be planning anything, would you?" Kaguya "It's not a trick or anything, but... it's scary, really. Far more than your honourable mistress."

Youmu "A trial of guts... that's a bit..." Reimu "How can a half-ghost be the one that's most scared about it?"

――――

Since everyone was bored, their appearance changed into one of interest. And Kaguya's actions clearly showed them that something strange was afoot.

Reimu "What'll happen if something occurs while we're undergoing this trial of guts." Marisa "If she came to instigate us to this trial of guts, that means it's already the incident's entrance." Sakuya "Whatever happens, as long as we take turns and the rest remain at the shrine, it'll be fine." Youmu "Ehhh~, you're all really doing it~, it's a trial of guts~"

Everyone was motivated.

Kaguya "Oh yes, that's right. Make sure you go on this trial of guts as a 2-person team like you did when you came to me. That way if anything happens to one of you, we'll find out quickly." Reimu "This is definitely suspicious." Marisa "Is this your revenge for that?"

Kaguya "What are you talking about? It's just to ensure the safety of you all." Sakuya "That isn't something the instigator of the trial of guts should say." Youmu "I definitely won't go alone."

――――

In the end, being bored and spurred on by Kaguya, they decided to set out in the dead of night that night to undertake the trial of guts. For the time being, the 4 of them went to call on their partners.

In the first place, Gensokyo is filled with such things like youkai and phantoms. What could this extremely scary thing be?

Kaguya "If they carry out the extermination, it'll be a real help for me."

As the true full moon shined brightly onto the bamboo forest, fairies and youkai beyond the imagination of Reimu and co. ran rampant. This noisiness however wasn't the trial of guts, but was instead youkai extermination.

Kaguya "Now, the trial of guts. Let your guts shine through."

It was said that eating a mermaid's guts would make you immortal...