♫ BGM: The Capital City of Flowers in the Sky ♫

H-hey! What's going on here?!

Before you get a formal introduction to the stage, you get attack by these spiky things. They'll zip on screen from the sides, and fire a load of ping pong bullets at you. Shoot them out of the sky to get them to stop, and do your best to avoid them, because they don't give up. They'll keep pouring on screen, eventually ditching the ping pong bullets for sphere bullets aimed at you- same principle applies, shoot them before they fill the screen! After a few moments of this, we finally get a breather, as well as the ever-amusing stage description.


Stage 4: To the Cherry Petal Source
Cherry petal has been coming down from over the cloud.
Does "Reisyouden"(Legendary place) exist really?

In most Touhou games, Stage 4 is the turning point- from here on, the game gets pretty brutal. Perfect Cherry Blossom isn't an exception, but seems to go above and beyond the call of duty to teach you new forms of pain, as Stage 4 is, by far, the longest in the entire game. As such, I've had to dedicate two pages to it- one for the pre-boss warm-up, and one for the boss fight (or bosses, rather...?) itself. Get ready for a long, harrowing journey into bullet chaos, because Stage 4 doesn't mess around- it's going to kick your ass if you're not ready for it.



See? Told you. Once that title card leaves the screen, the shit hits the fan.

You're given at least one break here, mind you. The spike enemies don't actually try to attack you, but the fairies will- similar to the lazy ones at the start of Stage 3, they'll potter on-screen and throw globs of bullets at you. The difference here is that they put a bit more effort into it, and they simply won't stop unless you take them down, so keep shooting. After a bit of this, some different fairies zip onto the scene and start aiming for you with a kind-of star-shaped pattern, with the top two columns eventually lurching down in your direction. If you've chosen a character with a homing shot, then just focus and let it work its magic- it usually takes the fairies out in a few seconds. Just make sure you move every now and then, 'cause otherwise a fairy's gonna lock on to you, and BAM, dead. If you've got no homing, then it's essential that you take out the fairies as quickly as possible, otherwise they'll gang up on you and give you no room to breathe. It doesn't help that the two front columns they fire come at you at funny angles... Just take 'em down, save the mercy for those who deserve it (and by that I mean 'no-one in this game').



The next section isn't as nice. The spiked things come back again, and this time, they fire one of three different bullet types at you when you gun 'em down- blue spheres aimed directly at you, red spheres aimed directly at you that move slightly slower, and gigantic clumps of diamond bullets, half of which move slowly towards you, and half of which scatter away from you. Can you guess how you're supposed to survive this segment? If you said, "By inching across the bottom of the screen in pixel increments, then dashing to the other side and repeating the process", then congratulations, you may give yourself a medal. That said, the diamond bullets are really easy to graze- if you can get a Supernatural Border here, you're set for the rest of the game.



Oh, and before you get any ideas, this is what happens if you leave the spiked things alone- these green bullets are fast.



Oh, and this is what happens when they get tired of firing only one set of bullets at you.

They combine all three bullet types, just to dick with you. If you want, you can try dealing with them in the same way as always- streaming across the bottom of the screen- but the blue sphere bullets are very likely to catch you out. It's a bit easier if you move from the bottom of the screen and remind yourself that yes, there are other parts of the screen you can move to. If you don't stop moving, there's plenty of space to fit through, so it's not really that hard, but it's vital you don't get stuck in a corner- if that happens here, you're going to die, and only divine intervention is going to get you out alive. I pulled it off once and nearly made it out alive until a stray red bullet drilled itself into my side. I wasn't happy.

Now we're half-way through the stage, though, it's mid-boss time!



This is the game's obligatory 'boss without a story' boss, Lily White. She's here to usher in Spring, apparently.

Since that isn't happening, she's just going to fill you with bullets instead.



Lily happens to be very useful in this stage, though- she's a bit of a breather from the literal bullet hell you've just been through. She's a total pushover when you know what you're doing. She'll start by launching out this wonderfully pretty circle pattern, which quickly changes- half the red bullets wander off, as do the diamond bullets, but the remaining reds home in on you, all scrunched together. Lily then teleports and repeats the process 4 times before she teleports back into the middle of the screen and launches a huge blitz of bigger red and blue bullets. Lather, rinse, repeat. I don't think I need to point it out now, but this encounter is a graze maniac's dream, so exploit it while you can- this is one of the last opportunities to really graze without too much risk.



The Lunatic version of Lily isn't much different- no new attacks, just the same. Times 10.

Whatever difficulty you're on, she'll drop a Bomb item if you beat her in time- the very first time you get to this stage, you might time-out on her.



And now things get... Awfully familiar. I'm sure you're noticing a pattern by now- generally, in-between mid-boss fights, the 'generic' sections are pretty much the same with minor differences. Here, you get the spiked things from the beginning of the stage again, with their tried-and-true blue bullet swarms, as well as some purple bullets thrown in- they're not aimed at you, they just fan out to annoy the hell out of you. The gaps are pretty big in this section, but do try and keep moving lest you want something unfortunate to happen to you. Shortly after we get to go toe-to-toe with the fairies with their silly star-shaped attack again. Yup, it's still the same thing- the top two columns arch down slowly in your direction- but this section is a lot easier than the first time- the fairies no longer aim for you. Instead, they're content to aim directly in front of them. This means you've got less aggro from the front two columns they fire, but when they finally stop, you'll have two sets of shots both coming from opposite directions- you'd better watch out for that.



Finally, the fairies stop mucking about and get out the big guns- two of them dash on screen and launch lightning-fast clumps of blue bullets in all directions, then two more dash in and repeat the process. All the while, spiky things flit from side to side, although fortunately they won't do anything this time. How are you supposed to survive such a brutal attack? It's actually really, really easy, and when you finally figure it out, you'll kick yourself- just stream the bullets. That's it. Just inch along the bottom of the screen, herd the bullets away from you, and keep firing. When four of the fairies have attacked, they'll give you a few seconds to catch your breath before repeating the pattern, so use that time to grab the items the spiky things leave behind. By the third wave, they'll swap their tactics and use the faster, more numerous red bullets, but the same rule applies- herd that shit like a ranch-hand from Texas!

Easy when you know how, eh?



And now, for something completely different.

The last thing standing between you and the boss is... A lone fairy?! Yes, it's just one fairy making a final stand, and it puts up one hell of a fight. I like to call this the Bullet Hell Fairy, because they throw everything they've got at you, and that takes a lot of moxie. It's a pretty short battle, but the red and blue bullets moving in from the side can catch you out while you're trying to avoid the smaller diamond bullets. Although it's difficult to see exactly where the Bullet Hell Fairy is, it never moves, so try to stay central, and you'll (eventually) kill it. It'll scuttle away by itself if you leave it be, but don't- it drops a Bomb upon defeat, and they're always in short supply...



Oh, and here's the Lunatic version. That lone fairy really wants you dead!



So, finally, we reach the end of the stage. After an awkward pause, the boss reveals herself- or, rather, themselves- to Marisa...

Once again, I've had to trim this down, but you can read the full thing here if you want.



If only there was a prize for 'Most Ridiculous-Looking Character'- give that girl on the right the gold medal!



Yeah, clichés apparently don't work in Gensokyo.



Wait, there's more of these nutcases in ridiculous costumes?



In truth, they're a travelling troupe of circus freaks the Prismriver Sisters, a phantom band.

We've got Lunasa (black costume) on violin, Lyrica (red costume) on keyboard, and Merlin (white costume) on trumpet. And Steve Harris on bass guitar.



They want to welcome Marisa, but to what? If you said, 'To her untimely death', then you are a winner sir/madam.



And by 'performance' they mean 'dance of death'.



If you managed to read all of that, then congratulations- the word 'friend' has completely lost meaning to you. Yay?

Next up, it's the Prismriver Sisters: Live in Concert!