Subterranean Animism, stage 1

Stage 1 of Subterranean Animism is well designed, more so in my opinion than most of ZUN's stage 1s. The music gets off to a fast start, keeping with Mountain of Faith's style, but for the first time in a touhou game the danmaku also gets off to a fast start. This is especially true if you're playing on lunatic, where you'll find yourself dodging walls of blue death just seconds after the music begins.



Next there's some rocks and some faeries to blow up, and then we get to the stage 1 midboss, Kisume. Besides having good character design and being well drawn, bucket loli also has a really fun spellcard if you're playing on hard or lunatic. Horror "Well-bucket-dropping Monster" is easiest to capture unfocused and makes you move around a lot. Also the style makes it seem like Kisume is spinning upside down and pouring danmaku at you, which is really neat.



The later half of the level was frustratingly difficult on hard mode in the Subterranean Animism demo. If I tried to avoid bombing I could sometimes die two times, the stage was actually easier in lunatic mode. Thankfully it seems ZUN fixed thing in the full version and stage 1 now seems more like a stage 1.



The stage 1 spider loli boss is pretty standard fare, about as exciting as Wriggle and less exciting than Cirno. There is one attack that is unexpectedly intense and difficult if you're playing on lunatic though.



So far things don't seem that unusual in terms of danmaku, but I assure you craziness will come later.