Isn't it mad how Touhou's most iconic, universally-liked

I don't know. Is it really that more amazing than how /jp/'s most iconic, universally-liked and creatively productive period is that extremely short band between 2009 and 2012? That's not much when compared to the almost 10 years of the board's existence. And it was some 5 years ago.

>>16871364
What are you talking about ? From personal opinion, and from what I've heard from other fans, all 2hus from MoF to TD were pretty damn good, and we're talking about a time period that dates from 2007 to 2011 here, way past the 3 years you suggest.
That's not to say the classicals aren't good, but still.

>>16871416
>short band between 2009 and 2012?
You mean 2008 and 2010. Fuck the shitpost era.

The following peaked with UFO though.

Anyway, EoSD a shit, etc

>>16871416
/jp/'s peak of creativity was that stupid CYOA.

Remember TouhouVN? Me neither, not anymore.

From what I can see, Touhou has been more or less dead for the past (minimum) 5 years

>>16871535
You're probably blind or don't know what the word dead means.

>>16871535
dying is more like it

>>16871619
Declining

>>16871691
>>16871619
FYI touhou is becoming more popular again

>>16871535
Don't know about that, buddy. LoLK was so good it was like a fresh breath of life to the series.

>>16871364
Elaborate what exactly you're refering to.
I can't possibly see you postulating that most of the doujin material as of today is pre-2005, because that is flat-out wrong.

>>16871364
That's cause those are the games with the most effort put into them and everything since has been yearly garbage farted out from zun's failing liver

>>16871535
It's plateaued but it's not going anywhere.

Also, I tend to agree with >>16871886. Games only die when they stop being good and LoLK was a great one.

>>16872121
>It's plateaued but it's not going anywhere.
Agreed, it's not dying as much as "it has competitors" whom are dying faster then Touhou.
Reason touhou took a dip was due to Kantai (both in the west and japan), but it's not actively dying. The fact that it's an interesting setting compared to most waifushit franchises probably makes more people stick to it.

>>16872140
>Kantai Collection
You took the words right out of my mouth. I thought KC was going to take over with all the anime and merch barrage but it didn't.

People who didn't grow up in the 80s/90s playing curtain shooters know this is one of the best franchises in the genre and (interestingly) younger fans aren't put off by the retro game design. There have been a couple turds but LoLK proved that Shanghai Alice is still capable of making a solid entry, even this many years in.

>>16872166
>People who didn't grow up in the 80s/90s playing curtain shooters
Meant: People who DID GROW up in the...

>>16872166
>>16872173
Did these types of games commonly exist in the 80s/90s? I don't remember walls of bullets and meaningless stages. Although I was, and am, more a horizontal type STG fan over vertical, but I don't remember vertical ones being all about danmaku until hype over stuff like dodonpachi and ikaruga. That was like late 90s/early 2000s.

>>16871364
Seihou was the peak

>>16872204
>80s/90s
Welll, yes and no.

In the 80s you had your top-down shooters and shmups (Zaxxon, Contra, R-Type were the ones that got me invested), which were the precursors to the genre but by the mid-90s you had DonPachi and Giga Wing, Garegga, etc. and those were definitely part of the actual first wave of bullet hell shooters as we know them today.

As far as meaningless stages, I don't really follow. Plot takes a back seat to most of these games. The thing I like about Touhou is that you can get tons of canon lore outside the games that enrich the experience.

>>16872895
>As far as meaningless stages, I don't really follow.
Touhou, as a prime example, has some really boring and slow paced stages. In old games, even vertical, there would be stuff all around. Things on the ground you could shoot for items and points, stuff going on in the background, lots of visually interesting things. Even more so in horizontal games where you sometimes have to actively dodge parts of the stage more than bullets.

For Danmaku games, the boss fights are the main attraction instead of the ends of the stages, so from what I've seen, stages aren't really that interesting. Enemies come in, shoot shit, get blown up, and then you dodge pretty, or not so pretty, boss bullets.

Ethervapor is a example of interesting things happening in a stage vs being mostly bored and trying not to smack into a stray bullet due to some freak muscle twitch before I reach the boss.

>>16871886
But LoLK was the worst touhou game. Even the PC98 games were better than that pile of shit.

>>16873057
Yeah, I'd have to agree with your assessment.

Old school shmups had weapons, items, etc to pick up during stages to increase your power, gain lives, replenish health, etc. You could argue that Cave shooters and 2hu do as well, but these items are not thematically anchored the same way that, say, Contra's were. At least, not by the game itself. You learn about danmaku and the nature of magic in Gensokyo from the derivative material, which serves the same purpose but obviously not as efficiently.

>>16871535
While it's not as super popular as it was in the late 2000's, Touhou is still very alive to this day.

KanColle, which many people told me it was supposed to replace Touhou by now, has known a steadily decline since 2014. It is truly the shadow of it's former self.

>>16873707
The anime which should have launched it higher was utter shit that even the existing fanbase hated.

>>16873542
Shhhhh don't say that, the normalshitters will get very angry and start defending Junko