Two years.
For two years, I didn’t think of playing Touhou Kaeidzuka (東方花映塚, though most of you know it as Phantasmagoria of Flower View, or simply PoFV ). All those short sessions back then were something out of boredom. Now that I’ve picked up the pace, I played it again, and here’s what I got:
Pure, unadulterated… VICTOLY!
Sorry guys, no Reimu this time around. My actual first choice for Kaeidzuka was Medicine Melancholy, and I stuck onto her all throughout. And so, after playing Kaeidzuka in Lunatic after two long years, she helped me net these personal achievements:
- One Credit Clear / 1CC
- Lunatic Level Clear
- Medicine Melancholy Ending
- Unfocused Gameplay Clear
In the history of gaming, only a handful of gamers think of playing in a whole new, hardcore level. They have this creative drive and determination to play the game in a whole new way, and they’re not stopping. For fighter gamers, it’s about how you create deadly, destructive and unstoppable combos to crush your opponents. For danmaku and Touhou gamers, it’s how you play the game without focus (using the Shift key to slow your movements so you can effectively dodge bullets), without using bombs (to clear a wave of unavoidable bullets), without using continues (I think this one’s obvious even without the danmaku lingo), or without even moving or shooting. For RPG players, it’s about playing the game without using skills, without going over a certain level cap, or even without the use of other characters aside from the game protagonist. For eroge people, it’s about aiming for the harem route, if not the secret loli imouto route. The more the ways to play the game, the more the valuable experience for the gamer, the more the bragging rights.
For the hardcore gamer, there’s no such thing a game being shelved. There’s always that little pinch of curiosity that thinks: “How about if I play the game like this?” “Without bombing? Without focus? Yeah, let’s try that.” So off the gamer goes, picks up that game again, and plays it, over and over, trying and using unorthodox methods you can’t possibly think of. That’s why even after two years, Kaeidzuka is still a beloved game for me, alongside the rest of the Touhou games.
So yeah, you can throw your generic game console “achievements” out of the window, and try something harder.
Related Media
The replay for the gameplay:
Touhou Kaeidzuka: Medicine Melancholy Unfocused Gameplay on Lunatic – Mediafire
So how much of that is a gamer thing, and how much is the replay value of the game itself?
Gaming is mostly about finishing the game, “tinkering” and “dissecting” the game, and of course, the obligatory bragging rights that come out of the latter two. You’re not a gamer if you don’t consider or enjoy these factors. The replay value depends on how “deep” you tinker with the game, and how much enjoyment you get after achieving something from it.
Take Super Mario on Famicom as an example. Normally, you’ll play the game with shortcuts, power-ups, and such. Hardcore people play the game without any or one of those, and then say something to their friends about it like they’re on a whole new level compared to other people who play the very same game.
It’s kind of stupid for logic, but it works for me.
Oh my. That means I ain’t much of a gamer if I’m just going solely for storyline. Games usually lose their appeal to me once I’ve completed the game once, regardless if I’ve explored everything in the game or not…
Then again… maybe I’m more suited playing multiplayer games instead of single players…
I don’t really criticize such gamers. That’s the basic objective of the game anyway. Hardcore people just take it to another level. We’re completists, adventurers and perfectionists to the core, and we just can’t scratch the itch if we don’t do something absurd about it.