Touhou 18.5: 100th Black Market - 5th Market

Thank you Tsukasa for being the boss I rolled on my first run of this stage, giving me immediate victory.
it was a much needed easy win.

The doremy card was so good for trying to farm the stupid Junko card when I ran into a wall on the following stage.

... Just like in Impossible Spell Card, Tenshi has way too much health. The most of any of the four here, by a mile. All those equipment cards really do make a difference.

it's nice to see what kind of spell cards Tsukasa has. was curious of it after Unconnected Marketeers.

The biggest "you love it or you hate it" about 18.5 is that the stages are harder than the bosses and honestly I kinda like that change of pace. It's true in a lot of other shmups too and I think you'll probably need to adapt your commentary style for these changes if they ever get voted on fangame polls (isn't that right, ZeroRanger fans)
They do get a bit too long though and the "procedural" generation of stages via waves isn't something I'm a fan of without a pretty massive amount of variation. At least ZUN has the decency to make multiple groups of formations (I still haven't forgiven BPoHC but Golden Chapter may help...) but it's still not really enough to make it work

That last stage 3 phase man... those reactions were so fast I couldn't even fully register what happened sometimes.

"Phantom is going home", well I sure hope it has a safe travel.

Yeah, this market and the next one made me dislike the Junko card. Megumu and Tsukasa are kinda whatever honestly, but trying to beat Clownpiece and especially Tenshi with only 1-2 lives and little power drove me up a wall. I'd rather just go with the funny T-posing Aunns at that point. (Hell, it was on Clownpiece that I first tested this...)

Once again, I feel like reiterating that Doremy's card, while decent, isn't a "get out of jail free" card. There are some drawbacks it has, and that is that it can never roll a boss's special card, since it just gives you a random one, without any choice in the matter. And if you don't have a certain card from the endgame, you can roll duplicates. This card is why I said it's better to sometimes just take a boss's special card as soon as you see them, so you don't have to hunt her down again. That said, I'd still rather use this.

One notable card today, though it doesn't really suit Omega's playstyle, so it's here for others, I suppose.
Life-Burning Torch is good for those that like using Active Cards, as it reduces the cooldown period for those. Especially perfect if you're like me who never leaves the Miracle Mallet at home and loves having 3 Aunns T-posing on the opposition, therefore farming money slightly faster.

Balance in this market in particular feels kinda weird. There's the usual deals of some waves (esp Onibi Going Home) that is pretty much "dodging: optional" on earlier waves. But the bosses in particular felt really weird. Clownpiece and Megumu are decently challenging, Tenshi is actually hard, but then there's Tsukasa, who kinda felt out of place especially when the second spell feels like a massively toned down version of Cylinder Fox, a spell which probably would also feel underwhelming in this market.

The whimsical boss titles are truly comedy gold though, especially Clownpiece's "honestly just got lost"

Do you have plans to play tohou: artificial dream in Arcadia?

What the flipping duck happened to clownpiece in this game lmao. Even her spellcard bg is buggy af.

Hecatia come pick your lost child smh

I'm sorry, did you use the Frantically Forbidden Fruit portrait art for Tenshi?

TENSHIRT

I love the bosses titles. "Honestly just got lost" on Clownpiece sends me

Ah, yes, the famous TH15 character: Crown Peace.