So I returned to Perfect Cherry Blossom after some training in Mountain of Faith. I passed the first three stages without a death, then got promptly killed by the Prismrivers, obliterated Youmu, and managed to survive until Yuyuko's second-to-last Spell Card without using a Continue. I had to burn off two Continues in the end, and I had to sacrifice all twelve of my bombs that the Continue gave me (I was using Sakuya) just to survive to the end. And then I got hit by the absolutely last bullet that was sent out. Still, if I can just get past the Prismrivers without losing a life, I
might be able to 1cc PCB.
A bit earlier this week, I also retried Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, because it's the only game so far I haven't cleared at all yet (again, damn you Sakuya and your knives!). I got hit... by Icicle Fall...
After forty-five tries, I finally,
finally, cleared a Last Word (Lunatic Red Eyes). Twenty of the attempts were me running into the exact same blue bullet. Ten were me being unable to reach the edge of the bullets before they returned. The other fourteen were stupid as hell mistakes, such as me actually backing into a suppository, smashing against the walls of red balls, etc.
Cleared the second one after just six tries (Blind Nightbird); of course, only counting the ones I did this session (if you add them all, it comes out to about twenty-something, so eh). Youmu focused pwns bosses in the blink of an eye.
Unseasonable Butterfly Storm is hard. Remind me next time to not use Alice, Marisa, or Youmu. Maybe Reimu or Yukari.
SA could also be good training... I've heard it's pretty much the hardest of the Windows games so far.
Aya's speed, and Suika's auto-collect anywhere will be very useful to me (assuming, that is, I actually
want to stop firing for a few seconds in that maelstrom). Patchouli's formation change should also work nicely.