>>21
The fundamental problem with Touhou and its ilk is that it relies purely on artificial difficulty for its gameplay. Players can only move in four directions (eight if you're lucky), across a 2D plane. You can only see a limited area directly around or in front of you. Enemies come screaming off the side of the playing field, smashing into you if you haven't memorized the exact timing and sequence of the whole endeavour. This isn't gameplay, it's tunnel vision.
Do you know why the U.S. Air Force did away with fixed-sights of the kind used by WWI fighters and the Japanese? That's right, they were too obsessed with what was directy in front of them and ignored all else, to their peril. Modern fighter craft are equipped with radar (active or passive), and at the very least a heads-up display displaying relevant information and targeting data. They don't hold out on key instrumentation for the sake of being more "hard-core".
There is NO excuse, in modern Danmaku Wars, for the complete lack of vectoring and trajectory data as displayed in the Touhou series. This shit might have flown in the '80s but we're more than a decade into the 21st century and there has been almost thirty years to perfect this. Especially in fire-heavy environments, shooting the bullet can be more a liability than an asset, especially if the players mixes up his bullets with the enemy's and runs straight into them as a result (or worse, mistakes a piece of ground for background scenery). This lack of depth perception and clear delianation between borders is another symptom of the utter contempt STGs hold for the player.
Touhou should, at the very least, provide clear vectoring data in the form of a visual heads-up display for all prospective Gensokyoian pilots.
Bullet trajectories and paths would be marked as lines on the overhead display. Some would dispute my proposal, claiming it is a road to ruin. Poppycock, I say. The definition of fire trajectory - especially along such PREDICTABLE and WELL-PLOTTED paths as are encountered in Gensokyoian airspace - is nothing more than a tool to pilot survibability. It does nothing for the skill of the pilot or her opponent. These are *elementary* tools and maxims, observed and implemented by all major militaries IN THE REST OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD. Would you deny a blind man a walking stick in a swordfight to the death?
Bottom line- Gensokyo needs to get its head out of its ass and start providing its pilots with interfaces that work with it, not actively against it. The sky is dangerous enough without some lazy sliderule type conspiring to fuck it all up.