Touhou Kouzougi　～ Flickerframe Shutter Festival

This is probably going to be a bit of a surprise, coming from me. For context: Double Spoiler is one of my favorite Touhou games, and Impossible Spellcard is my favorite. So why did a fangame photogame with the ability to take a helpful item into any scene leave me negative? It mostly comes down to this being a photogame that seemed afraid of being a photogame and wanted to be more of an ISC. A fundamental mechanic of the camera is that it deletes bullets in the frame, almost without exception. Flickerframe Shutter Festival has so many instances of bullets that don't that I lost count of how many times it happened, and lasers are never canceled. One particularly egregious scene is 10 photos on unique patterns, where the bullets are all uncancellable, and there's no spawn protection so the next wave can and will spawn directly on top of you if you're where it will spawn. There were a couple instances of what are effectively "survival cards" where you just need one photo, but need to survive a long time to get there. This is a fine idea in concept, but in practice these are memorize or die traps where you have to push a couple seconds later to see what happens next to be able to already be responding to it. Many scenes are very gimmicky, and at least for me most of these didn't land. I did like the one where your photos get deleted though! The one that stands out the most - in a bad way - I had to ask a friend how it actually worked, because it requires pressing X (to change orientation) to change the currently active laser to match the one that starts reversing, or else you can't take a picture of the boss. Every time you die, a partner character says one of a few canned lines, and some of these are hints (or directly telling you what to do) for the current scene. On this scene? All you get is "this will be a true test of concentration!" which isn't helpful! The worst of these to me was a lategame scene where the comment was "pay attention to the order and this will be easy" or something like that, but the actual dodging and moving from point to point was very difficult. Did I say very difficult? I meant that it was difficult, and sometimes you randomly just get walled or trapped. This happens quite frequently, including on the scene that took me the most attempts in the entire game: 13-10. The first phase is ridiculous unless you find a safespot that only sometimes works, the second phase will wall you frequently (and expects you to know exactly what to do the moment it starts), the third phase is unfair with the speed of some random bullets (and a tracking laser that will instantly reverse direction and aim at you if you get too far ahead), and the final phase is immune to photos for like 10 seconds and again, if you don't know what to do in advance you will die and it will take 30 minutes or more to get back there. Really unfair pattern with no redeeming qualities. It really seems like this is a game that wasn't made by or tested by players who were at the level of difficulty they were trying to make. Control-wise I kept not getting photos when trying to take them, in a way that doesn't happen in StB or DS, though I couldn't tell you why. Maybe it had to do with the constant framedrops I was getting, because on top of all of those other design issues, Flickerframe Shutter Festival is extremely badly optimized. That's not to say this is all bad, though. There are A LOT of characters here, a lot of novel ideas, the helpful item mechanic is a nice addition (though one is clearly best), and if you really really want another photogame, and have played the rest (including Tri-Focuser, another fangame), then you can't do better than Flickerframe Shutter Festival. An amazing concept, executed poorly.

非常に高品質な東方二次創作STGです。 ゲーム性、BGM、グラフィック、操作性、難易度、ほぼあらゆる面で違和感なく、本家東方STG作品と同じ楽しみ方ができますし、実際にとても楽しいです。ボリュームもたっぷりです。 原作『ダブルスポイラー』を題材としている作品なので、あちらが好きな方にはぜひ遊んでみて欲しい作品。 詳細な感想をこちらの記事で書かせて頂いております。参考になれば幸いです。 https://x.com/guiltyjake/status/1968285895314100611

Fun game. It doesn’t play exactly like StB and DS. It’s based on gimmicks rather than pure dodging. Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out the gimmick, though. However, there was nothing completely unfair, and you are given useful skills with no penalty for using them. Despite a few annoying scenes, it’s overall a pleasure to play.

[h1]創作料理のごった煮は驚くことに美味かった[/h1] 全スペルクリア済。 [b]世界各国[/b]の二次創作STGや二次創作BGMのキャラを集めた文◯帖系のお祭りゲー。 要は三次創作STGというあまりにもニッチ過ぎる存在だが、これが非常によく出来ていた。 参加した二次創作作品を知っている必要は特にない。 というかDEMO版のみの未完成作品ならまだ良い方で、そもそも製作発表段階のDEMOすらない作品もいるので参加は宣伝みたいなもんと思って良い（ギャラリーから元ネタのサイトに飛べる機能有り） [strike]それすらまだ良い方で創作イラストのみの存在とか知らんがな。[/strike] [h3]全体の印象[/h3] ガチ避けよりはギミックが多め。 ギミックと言っても弾の性質を把握して比較的避けやすい場所を模索する単純なもの、後半戦から誘導で最終的な安置を作っていくような手堅いものが基本。 当然、ステージ形式では出せないアイデアや演出全振りの弾幕も多くある。 何が起こったのかすら分からず殺されるものも少なくないが、敗北時にヒントを貰えるのでちょっとしたパズル的な要素に落ち着いている（多分） 性質さえ理解すれば避け自体はそこまで難しくないのが嬉しい（※個人の感想です） 基本的なシステムを使ったギミックの7-7、10-11は発想が良く気に入っている。 ちなみに敗北時のコメントはスペル毎に複数有り、ヒントではなく設定面に触れたコメントがあるのも良い。 [h3]アイテムの取扱[/h3] 某作のようにAct毎にアイテムが解禁される。 アイテムといっても多少チャージが早くなったりと避けの一助になるものがほとんどで、某作に匹敵するような破壊的アイテムはあまりない。 無敵付与が比較的強力だがステージ中の使用回数は一回のみなので、ラスト1枚や切り返しを使った戦略が楽な程度。 それでも適切な戦略を組んで使えば相応に強力。 個人的に好印象なのはアイテム使用の有無は「実績に関係ない」どころか[b]「ゲーム中、クリア時の結果にすら残らない」[/b]（Act2で解禁されるスコアが上昇するアイテムはハイスコアとして残るが） あらゆる角度から気兼ねなく使うことを推奨されているのは好感が持てる。 [h3]BGM[/h3] BGMも[strike]何度も挑戦する内に脳に焼きつけられるせいで記憶に残るのもあるが[/strike]非常に印象深い。 なんならトレーラーで流れるBGMが既に良い出来で、その期待を裏切らなかった。 Act11～12の曲はやっぱこういうBGMが聞きたいんだよなぁという懐かしい気持ちにさせてくれる。素晴らしい仕事。 [h3]いくつかのフィードバック[/h3] 終盤のギミックは強烈なものが多いのに、何故かヒントをくれない…というかコメントがないものがある。 具体的には12-3～5、Actの立会人がストーリーで一時離脱するからだろうがそれはそれとしてコメントは欲しかった。 エンディングを見るためにクリア必須の12-12が超絶ガチンコ気合避け。 これが非常に難しい…基本的には誘導の要素が強いのだが、いかんせん要素が多いことと弾が全て同色で見落としやすい相乗効果、更に要10枚の長期戦も相まって難易度は高い。 これ自体の難易度が高いのが問題、というよりは文◯帖スタイルとの食い合わせの悪さが問題だと感じる。 このスタイルのゲームはステージがスペル攻略のみという性質上、そもそも全体的に難易度が高くなる。 代わりに比較的楽なスペルを選べることでクリアまでのバランスを保っている（Act12も仮に半分クリアするだけなら難易度はそれなり） 最後の最後でこの難関スペルの攻略が”必須”というのが少々苦しい。 演出のハッタリは効いていて達成感はあるのだが… 完全にフィードバックだが、Act12を半分ほどクリアすると「最後のミッションの挑戦権が解放」のような表示が出た気がしたのだが、Act12解放時点で12-12が選択できたのは仕様なのかバグなのか。 一応、Act12はいくつか会話イベントがあるのでクリアできなくても良いのでシーン順にプレイした方が良い（ついすっ飛ばしちゃったので）

Flickerframe Shutter Festival is an absolutely phenomenal game. If you have any shmup experience, I would highly recommend getting it even if you don't know any fanon characters (I sure didn't!). The difficulty does ramp up and it becomes decently challenging even for veterans, but since it's a scene game, you can simply pick it up and make progress in it whenever you feel like it, at your pace and leisure. The game also provides an Assist Mode and equippable passive bonuses to help you out (they seem pretty helpful while not game-breaking, though I didn't experiment with them much). You'll also get hints alongside other flavor text that's unique to each scene whenever you die, which makes the game that much more welcoming than your usual scene game. This was my first time playing a fan-shmup (or fangame in general really) and I didn't expect to like it so much going into it. Seeing footage of other fangames has long painted for me a pretty negative picture of "fangame spell design", where hard patterns are made up of many disparate elements that don't make much thematic sense together. Obviously, since this is a photography game (where patterns are meant to unfold & develop as you take more pictures), this type of design is a lot more tolerable, but I honestly didn't feel like the game had this issue at all safe for a scene or two! Most scenes have a unique vision they're going for (with a special gimmick every once in a while, alongside more standard dodging moments), and the game does a commendable job pacing them in a way that keeps things fresh and fun. The game is also just so darn memorable. I only finished it yesterday, and yet I already feel really nostalgic thinking of how much fun I had playing it. The game's soundtrack (composed by Benji-sensei) really makes it pop and motivates you to keep playing the whole way through, and there's even a major leitmotif set up as early as Act 1 that made me want to scream when I noticed it later. The story moments are kinda inscrutable if you don't know the characters, except for the game's fully original final act, which is by far the most fun and memorable part of this incredibly fun and memorable game. Seriously, this final boss fight is a must-see, must-hear & must-play. Every scene was straight fire and the music was just... divine (the final spell was maybe a bit too easy, especially if the bullet count makes your PC lag, but it was memorable for another reason.. love all the tropes FSF makes homage to hehe). On the topic of lag, you'll want to go into settings and disable animated backgrounds if you experience any. I'm not 100% sure why they cause so much lag, especially during spells which should only be rendering the simple lagless 2D backgrounds (my theory is that unlike official Touhou, the backgrounds are pre-rendered and the video player doesn't play nice with some GPUs; may be totally wrong). You might also dip under 60fps when the bullet count gets really high on a few scenes, like on that one finely crafted kanji-writing spell with the small bullets, or the final boss' last couple scenes. I believe this sort of lag could be mitigated by using bullet bucketing, if the game doesn't already use it. Lag can sometimes make you not take a photo when you release the Z key or delay important audio cues, so it's pretty annoying. Other important issues to know about are that replays will not work on their first viewing (you'll need to restart them first for them to work), and the game allows mouse inputs on menus for some reason (despite not having gameplay mouse controls), so if you tab into the game by clicking on it, you might be locked out of using your keyboard for a bit. Also try to avoid pressing Z when you die at 100% charge to avoid making the game lag as the retry menu pops up. There's a bunch of smaller UI and gameplay issues (including a couple unfair RNG deaths), as well as typos, but I believe they'll all be fixed in due time. Even if they're not, this game already feels a lot more polished than some of my favorite official games :) One last thing I'd warn about is Act 8. I won't go into the details of it here, but that part of the game disappointed me a fair bit and made me worried I wouldn't like it in the end. Thankfully the game goes back to being peak afterwards, so if you also have issues with it, just power through it; it's well worth it. Note: If you're not a fan of gimmicks, I'd also give a similar warning for Act 6 and one particular boss in Act 7. A lot of the more objectionable scenes in this game were assigned to its own OC characters lol The only major improvement I'd say the game would benefit from aside from polish would be a bit more replayability via more in-depth scoring & score targets for each scene. It'd also be nice if the game kept track of what passives were used for each scene, with maybe a little gold star if you didn't use any (/ counting that as clearing it with every passive like in ISC) (would not want a steam achievement tied to either idea to not be evil, but they would get me coming back to play more if they're added!). The UI from StB/DS that says "2 more" "last shot" etc. in the middle of the screen after each shot would also be very good to have. I honestly can't wait to see more from the dev and the team behind it. I'll check out more fangames now when I have the time, but I fear this and Empyreal Garden of Amusements might've set my expectations for fan content unrealistically high ^^'. If the devs ever make another game in this style (which I would love), I'd hope more EGoA characters make the cut... Yes I'm ending this review with a shoutout for EGoA, go listen to it now it's also peak (Also if you haven't picked up on this yet, do also play this game. It's good. send review)

Completei o jogo tendo todas as cenas concluídas (menos algumas do Act 13, oque foi adicionado no update). O jogo em si é muito bom, principalmente a ideia de juntar varios personagens de fanworks de touhou (reconheci quase todos, menos os do Act 1, 2 (só a Feza) e 8) porém em geral eu acho que o jogo foca muito mais em visual ao invés de outros detalhes importantes para melhorar a experiência do jogador, não me leva a mal, o jogo é divertido, mantendo o estilo StB (th9.5) mas têm algumas coisas que me incomodaram durante a gameplay e algumas "imprecisões", então vou falar por categorias. (Falando sobre elas nos comentários porque a review é grande demais kkkkk)

I love dying over and over again!

If by some chance you're unfamiliar with Touhou and stumbling into here. Check out the titles "Shoot the Bullet", and "Double Spoiler" before checking this out! Their gameplay is what this title is based on, and how you'd feel about those would help you gauge if this is worth checking out. To preface where my thoughts come from. I'm someone that's grown jaded with some of the more recent official Touhou titles, and I mainly thrive in the Act/Scene spin-off titles. Impossible Spell Card and Double Spoiler are my favorites. I held off a couple days before making a review because I was still ingesting it bit by bit. That has helped me form more thoughts about this game. I'm still not quite done yet with it, but I'm very pleased. [h3] Presentation [/h3] Stellar. Clean. I love the design of the UI and backgrounds. There really isn't much to say about it. It really feels like a step up visually from current modern Touhou titles. The art is debatable, but that's me being too charmed by ZUN's older artstyle. It's definitely better, I just have trouble letting go. [h3] Difficulty [/h3] The spells for each scene vary from being quick to figure out, to making me have to drown out everything around me, especially later on. The difficulty curve really ramps up the further in you go (some spells to an uncomfortable degree), and I'm finding myself not just sticking to one skill for everything as some of them have me think differently. It's cool to see that there are balance patches being made for both some scenes and the skills. [b] Don't go over-tuning too much though, especially with the latter bit! If certain skills get made too strong, others would definitely become forgettable. [/b] [h3] Music [/h3] As someone that has grown rather tired of ZUN's direction of music (or at least how he uses instruments now) in his games these past few years, I'm glad to say the music here actually has me rather happy. Especially a particular track in the mid-section of the game. Disco in a Touhou track is not something I ever thought about until this game, and I need to look more into what else the composer has made on their own time. [h3] Story/Characters [/h3] ...I can't really talk much here. Since the primary focus of this is fan-made characters, I'm a bit overwhelmed at the thought of looking into them all. Shining a light on them all is a great idea with this product nonetheless, and it has me actually curious about some of the source materials. A few of the designs are definitely wackier than others, but the reveal of Clownpiece and Hecatia all those years ago with LoLK helped me learn that even the out there things kinda work. They just need time to set in. [h3] A technical nitpick. [/h3] The fullscreen setting is a bit wonky and places the game under my toolbar. I have to use an external borderless fullscreen program to fix it. [h1] TL;DR, I chose to get this game instead of Silksong. I feel content with my choice. [/h1]

Good game. This one actually has really *really* tight pattern design, they're unironically on the same level of quality as ZUN's photography games (not counting VD, of course). There's a nice balance of gimmicks and mechanical skill (even if the gimmicks are ???? sometimes), and there's some good features to make things easier such as with special abilities or assist mode -- despite this, the game seems pretty well-balanced for a "raw" playthrough and an unupgraded Aya. I'm finding it about as hard as DS/StB as of the time of this review (only Acts 12 and 13 left), which is pretty damn hard for newcomers to danmaku but just right for anyone more experienced with the genre. Music is great and characters are pretty cool too.

是海鲜堂，我哭了 难度相当高