I bet you're looking forward to the ending now, right?
Not a chance, pal.
As I have been very reliably informed, ZUN has kindly requested that people don't post the endings to his games on the internet. As well as honouring a simple request, putting the ending here would be a total cop-out, because unlike the other games I play for this website, I had to earn this ending. A lot of games these days hand the ending to you on a silver platter as a token gesture for sinking tens of hours of your life playing it, but Perfect Cherry Blossom demands that you respect it.
See, there's 9 different endings in Perfect Cherry Blossom- three of them are bad endings (one for each character) that you'll be given if you continue at any point in the game. That's right- to get one of the six good endings (one for each shot-type) you'll need to beat the game in just one credit. Now, for an arcade shoot-em-up like DoDonPachi or Rayforce, one-crediting the game is no mean feat, but even though PCB is pretty tough, it's a lot easier to one-credit it than other shooters. I know, total paradox, but trust me- it may seem completely tough, but it can be done.
Even though we don't get an ending this time...
That's not an excuse to leave out one of Gaming Hell's few traditions- HIGH SCORE TABLE TIME!!!
So, there we are, then. That's Perfect Cherry Blossom for you.
Now, in these 'after-game' segments, I'm usually highly critical of the games I play, even the ones I really like- I mean, come on, I whined about The Outfoxies being too hard in 1-player mode, and it's probably the game I've liked the most. This is not so with Perfect Cherry Blossom- I discovered this beauty in 2008, and it was, by far, one of the top three games I'd played that year (the other two were Global Defence Force and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with GrimGrimoire being a runner-up). It also very quickly earned a place among my favourite shoot-em-ups, possibly because it's very reminiscent of two classics of the genre; DoDonPachi (the laser mechanic and the bullet hell aspect) and Raiden (the risk vs. reward idea- in Raiden it's the medals, here it's the Point of Collection). Beyond the sublime game mechanics, the music is fantastic, the dialogue is pretty funny at times, and the only real complaint is that the art is a bit hit-and-miss, especially the backgrounds. Compared to the later games in the series, it's not nearly as vibrant or eye-catching, but it's got its charm.
It's also tied for first place as my favourite Touhou game (next to Imperishable Night) because of the Cherry system. No other game in the series (with the exception of Undefined Fantastic Object, which does things very differently) has a score mechanic designed not only with score in mind, but also with the player- unlike most of the others, where mastery of the score system only reaps you the benefit of a higher score, PCB gives the player a helping hand if they learn to reign in the Cherry points they collect, getting the Supernatural Border right where they need it. The game also has, arguably, some of the more interesting non-boss sections in the series.
Now, I'm not saying this game is for everyone. This is one tough cookie (although it's significantly easier than 'real' bullet hell games like DoDonPachi and Armed Police Batrider). The first two stages, once you've acclimated yourself to the controls, are pretty easy, I'll admit, and Stage 3 only ups the ante a little bit, but when you reach Stage 4, the gloves are off and holy balls is this game going to take you for a ride. Even if you want to continue, you only get a few of them, so it may not even enough! Even once you manage to beat Yuyuko into non-existence, there's still more challenges for you with the extra difficulties (good luck if you plan on playing this game on Lunatic!) and the extra levels I, er, haven't mentioned yet.
So, yeah, if you wanna get stuck into Touhou in the deep end, go with this one!
And now, it's that time, folks!
EXTENDED PLAY!
Just because you've completed the main game doesn't mean you're finished yet, oh no. There's two more stages hidden in the game. The first is unlocked 'simply' (ha ha ha!) by beating the game on any difficulty without continuing. When you do this, you can finally select Extra Start from the main menu. However, you unlock the Extra Stage on an individual character/shot basis- if you beat the game with Reimu B, you can only play the Extra Stage as Reimu B. Needless to say, unlocking the Extra Stage for every character is mighty tricky.
Extra Stage: The Forbidden Path
♫ BGM: Charming Domination ♫
Cherry tree was already in bloom fully.
However, Japanese heart is not satisfied yet.
The Extra Stage serves as an epilogue to the main game- Yuyuko asks a favour of our heroines, as the border between Gensokyo and the Netherworld is still weak. Yuyuko's accomplice was supposed to fix this, but they haven't gotten round to it just yet. You've got to find them and politely remind them to fix it... By knocking seven bells out of 'em. Standard practice for Reimu, of course.
Aaaaand this is where we stop. The Extra Stage is, to put it mildly, cruel. There's a good reason why it's locked away so well- if you can't beat the normal game without continuing, you won't even last 10 seconds in here. There are no continues, there are only 3 lives bestowed upon you, and there is only one difficulty available- you'd assume it's simply called Extra, but I like to call it Cruel Punishment from Above. Just look at those screenshots! If you've beaten the game on Easy to get here, you're in for a nasty shock. After a skirmish with the spiked things from Stage 4 (which also sees the return of the Ping Pong bullets), Chen comes back in this level for Round 2, and she's no longer messing around- she wants revenge, and by God, she's going to get it, and then some. Assuming, by some stroke of luck, you survive Chen's assault, you then get delivered another bullet beatdown courtesy of the fairies, and then Ran Yakumo, Chen's master, shows up- she's not happy you've beaten her subordinate up, and decides to make you pay. I have seen her first Spell Card, and to look at it, even for a second, is to go mad.
♫ BGM: A Maiden's Illusionary Funeral ♫
Well... The Extra Stage is very tough, but like most levels in the game, it's perfectly possible to complete with enough practice (well, probably) and I'm waiting with baited breath for the dozens of emails I'll get to the effect of "I can clear the Extra Stage with my hand tied behind my back, you suck at this game". Lookin' forward to it. Besides, I didn't want to show it to you so you've at least there's one more surprise in store when you play the game... I haven't beaten it myself yet, but I'm getting there. Get back to me in the next century, and I'll tell you how I'm getting along with that.
... It doesn't stop here, though! The final stage, Phantasm, is only available to those who have either sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for paranormal powers, or are hopelessly addicted to Touhou games. Serving as an epilogue to the epilogue (if that even makes sense) where you have another pop at Ran and her master, Yukari Yakumo (a Youkai who serves as a walking, talking 'a wizard did it' getout clause for weird shit in Gensokyo) you need to beat the Extra Stage, and have a total of 60 captured Spell Cards (all characters combined) to unlock it. Again, it's on an individual basis, so if you meet the requirements with any character/shot type, you'll unlock the Phantasm stage for that combination only. Although the music is remixed from the first Extra Stage it sounds different enough to get a few music links. However, I refuse to watch YouTube replays of this stage, because if I do, I fear it will make me cry.
Suddenly, shoddy wallpapers draw near!
So, I decided that there were a couple of backgrounds in the game that seemed pretty suitable for a computer's wallpaper. From left to right, we've got the title screen sans text, the results screen sans text, and the beginning of the credits roll. I nearly added a few shots from the ending, but then I remembered ZUN's request not to post the endings. Besides, you know what? Get them yourself. It took me 30 hours of not sucking at this game to get my first ending, so you can cowboy up and beat the game on your tod- use the Home button to take a shot in-game if you want to adorn your desktop with such things.
Err, anyway... Just like the Zombie Raid wallpapers, there's no effort here- as I'm incompetent with any/all image manipulation software out of sheer, unabashed laziness, I just ripped 'em straight from the game and plonked them here. If you're running Windows, shove 'em straight into the WINDOWS directory and you can select them straight from the Desktop Properties menu. Once again, I tested them on my laptop, which uses 1024 x 768, and they looked fine even when stretched, but your safety satisfaction with these wallpapers is not guaranteed, and may change depending on your resolution, so, uh, sorry.
Perfect Cherry Blossom - Trial Game
Now that I've talked about this game for long enough, why don't you try it for yourself?
Well, a demo, at least. It's surprisingly robust for a demo, as you get the first half of the game- it goes up to the end of Stage 3 before stopping. You'll find it past the patches section, you can't miss it. It's a very small download, so you might want to give it a spin if you're not sure about this bullet hell nonsense. If you've played the full game already, there's some interesting differences between the trial and the final game, so see if you can spot them...
Perfect Cherry Blossom - Reimu B Runthrough
Perfect Cherry Blossom - Sakuya A Runthrough
Perfect Cherry Blossom - Sakuya A Yuyuko Fight
To wrap things off on a laugh-worthy note... You wanna see how not to play Perfect Cherry Blossom?!
For your amusement, we have a few replays from my successful attempts at beating this game. Shove these into your Replay folder and they should come up in the Replay menu in-game- they're the ones with the player name 'Ant'. Because, y'know, that's me name. The first one is my first time at beating the game, and boy is it awful. Particularly amusing parts to watch out for are when I die on Stage 4 for absolutely no reason, when I totally choke while fighting Youmu, and most importantly, the part where, as the game is ending, I still manage to fluff it up and lose a life. I'm just glad it wasn't my last life, otherwise I fear that all the people who say that video games can't make people cry would've been proven so very wrong. This replay is terrible, I know this, but it's here for laughs.
The second is a much better try, where I actually beat the game with a few lives to spare as Sakuya. There's yet another unexplained death on Stage 4 (the main culprit is my own greed) and, naturally, I mess up a few times on the last boss- most painfully, I nearly got the Spell Card bonus for the final attack, but accidentally wandered into one of her lasers, negating my Border and snatching that bonus away from me forever...
... At least, until this totally ballsy run of the final stage with Sakuya, wherein I accidentally capture all of Yuyuko's Spell Cards... With the sole exception of one. I was only playing to grab some extra screenshots, but I was on fire. I'd say that you could watch this to learn how to deal with all the Spell Cards on the final level, but that would be a total lie- I was very, very lucky, and spent most of the stage wailing, "OH DEAR GOD I'M ON A ROLL TONIGHT FUCK YESSSSSSS DODGE DODGE DODGE I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING" so make of that what you will.
I'm not sure if you'll learn anything from these replays, but they're here, so, er, enjoy!
And so we draw a close to the first- and almost certainly last- Touhou article. If you managed to get through all that, award yourself a medal for bravery.
With that out of the way, let's go back to the index and read something less likely to induce epilepsy!
