I got my Riverbed Soul Saver Phantasm clear now! Starting like usual, I'll quote the Touhou wiki on what Riverbed Soul Saver is: "Touhou Tougenkyuu ~ Riverbed Soul Saver (東方桃源宮 ～ Riverbed Soul Saver, lit. "Eastern Shangri-La Palace") is a fan-made Touhou Project script for the Touhou Danmakufu ph3 shooting game engine, programmed by ido (known for previous fangames The Last Comer and Mystical Power Plant) and Len (known for the fangame Phantasmagoria Trues). The first demo version was released on March 24, 2014, and the second demo on April 25, 2014, adding Marisa as a playable character. The full version with 6 main stages was released on June 27, 2014 and next major update on September 15, 2014 added an extra stage and Futo as a playable character. The most recent version, with the Phantasm stage and Overdrive mode, was released on January 31, 2015."
As for the mechanics, the Touhouwiki currently doesn't hold a good amount of information about it. So I'll just try to do my best by explaining it myself. (if I make any mistakes, make sure to let me know!)
The controls are the same as in the official Touhou games, the arrow keys for movement. Z for shooting; X for bombing. Shift is focus, yet control is fast-forwarding (does work everywhere.) It gets interesting when you know that holding the X button with a full gauge to at the right side of the screen starts a Liberation Mode. This consumes 1 bomb in the process, once Liberation Mode is activated it starts of as a short bomb which in all cases (I think all.) do clear bullet-clear the screen. They also do hurt enemies, Liberation Mode gives your character a stronger shottype which tends to be wider (for most shottypes, not all.) while it's in effect; does make the amount of items that fall to the bottom of the screen when enemies are killed more. Also Liberation Mode does multiply the resource-crystals (pink is for lives and green is for bombs, they value as one piece if not collected with Liberation Mode; 2 when Liberation mode is in effect, Liberation Mode does not multiply full bombs and lives.) You can fill your gauge by collecting items or blue crystals thas midbosses and bosses do drop, after a Liberation Mode it takes a bit more items and crystals to get another Liberation Mode. After an extend or bomb is gotten it takes more crystals to get the next extend or bomb.
There's also a PoC for item-collection. (doesn't work for crystals.)
That was pretty much my explanation on the mechanics, I feel like I did pretty well with it but if I made mistakes then, please do let me know.
Anyways, about the clear. I feel like I had a pretty nice run, at first I thought the Phantasm boss is pretty hard but later on this opinion changed a bit. It took me a bit of a while due to using a shottype I can't really play well with at first. I do recommend using Reimu-A because her homing kills Kiyohime's familiars pretty fast; effectively. (you do probably have to survive some patterns for a little bit longer due to a homing shottype but it's easier to survive most with her.) It's also fun to see Ruri again, since Kiyohime swallowed Ruri's previous master Ruri got a lot stronger as she became Kiyohime's shikigami this way. Kiyohime does remind me of a certain pc-98 character most of us could probably name right away, even the theme does feel like something Mima could have..
Anyways, I did look up Kiyohime. Since Kiyohime is a reference in Abe no Kiyohime's name. (Abe no Kiyohime got another name actually, which is: Shizume Tsuchimikado. Also there's a reference to Abe no Seimei too with that name.) I want to look up the folklores about her for a bit more.
Apparently a lot of the patterns are pretty much exactly the same as in other fangames.. I think a few are from other non fangame shmup games too!
I really liked this Extra Stage, Wanwan overdid hisself with Kiyohime's theme; I really liked the Phantasm battle too!
Thanks for yet another fangame, ido; thanks for making this brilliant, Len.
Fun fact: I actually got interrupted at the last spellcard.. Otherwise I might've captured it, I did capture it right away in spellcard practice which I did earlier though. Also the capture rates aren't to be trusted for 100% since they aren't all correct.
I'm sorry to not have pictures and a little bit of lag sometimes, I had to use Bandicam to make sure it wouldn't lag a lot and I can't edit Bandicam files..
