seki108

Well, let's get one of these last Puppet Dance Performance posts out of the way.  This one is both more organized yet not as organized.  While I will be trying headers to separate things, most of this update will be covering the many sidequests, rebattles, and such, which is partly an excuse to post a lot the screenshots I took for some reason.  I blame Commander's rejuv run that I occasionally catch up on.  Only the first two headers are the "required sidequests" which you need to complete to continue onto the post-game story and its conclusion.  Pretty much most spoilers are groups of screenshots this time around with occasional comments in the middle, so it isn't the usual 'one picture per spoiler'.

Mid-Production Edit:  More than an hour and a half in to putting this together I realized this was way too much work for something that isn't going to get looked at and doesn't matter for much, so most of the of the 'random sidequests' don't have screenshots past a certain point......you can probably tell I started at the bottom for the 'random' stuff.  I did post a link to the unfiltered Imgur galleries for those, and put one or two relevant screenshots in spoilers (mostly just Vs sprites).  There's a reason I put this off for more than a week.

I may do the post story stuff, but after this I don't know............at the very least, I definitely won't try to type/sort it out all at once again.

Intro- Waking Up

After falling asleep after beating the god of Makai (basically the E4 champion fight), we get an awakening from a tsundere Reimu and get another of round of being told "explore to find some interesting things".

Mandatory Sidequest 1- SDM's Secret Younger Mistress

Even without hints, the Scarlet Devil Mansion is usually a good place to start.  And as soon as you warp there, you are greeted with rain, instead of the usual fog.  Given canon, not a good sign.  Apparently in the base game, Flan only made the breif cameo she did back during your first trip to the SDM, where you didn't even interact.  Thank goodness for expansions.

Naturally, Flan has her own little gimmick, same as in canon though at least she isn't making us explode just because.  Each battle has there own theme, with Fire, Illusion, and Earth/Ground types being the type used in each.  I remember I had the most trouble with the first, since I didn't have something super effect to hit them with and two of my puppets were Steel type.  Also, everyone is at around my level now, in the mid 60's.

After the mini-gauntlet, Flandre decides to take us on herself, with a team consisting of all three variations of her puppet.  Unless I'm mistaken, they are all heavy hitters (though not necessarily wall breakers), with the main differences being typing and speed.

The next playdate with Flan will be further down the page, though technically I haven't finished it......eh. 

The main thing this little sidequest does is open up the game's version of Breeding, though it isn't quite the same.

Mandatory Sidequest 2- Netherworld Investigation, Another Cherry Blossom Incident?!

One of the new things unlocked is three new locations to warp to with the Gap Map, two of which were mentioned earlier.  Title should say where we are.....and you start at quite a cheery place.

A ways up the extra long staircase, one your rivals (Marisa) is already there and challenges you.  Outside of higher levels and finally having a Mima puppet (which is unfortunately the worst type in the game), she hasn't changed much........except for her Alice puppet going full stall with the team I had.  If I had a fire type that could out-damage it's healing or if my fighting type wasn't fragile and weak to Steel it would have been easier.  After getting off a Will-O-Wisp, Aya was able to sweep in and finish the job.  At least she's a good sport about it and decides to instead try beating me to solving this potential incident.

Further up the stairs is the gardner/gatekeeper/bodyguard/cook/ect who is obligated to try to stop us from entering.  As stated earlier, Nether (Ghost) is the worst type in the game so a team full of them won't be helpful.

The outside has this neat cherry blossom falling effect that constantly happens.  Marisa goes to raid investigate the mansion of the Netherworld administrator, but doesn't find anything worth stealing related to the incident.  There is a lot of dango items though (heals 50 HP).

The battle with the mistress of the Netherworld mansion isn't too hard either for the same reasons above.  She did have a bulkier Yukari puppet, but it was only slightly more of a speedbump.  Amusingly, they made the predictable 'Yuyuko eats too much' joke by giving her leftovers.  Well, she isn't the mastermind, so time to look elsewhere.

To the North of the place is the Cherry Blossom tree that caused the main conflict in Touhou 7, so that's the last place to go.  Cutely, upon reaching the place, you see a lot of Lilly White puppets just wandering around.  This is about the only time you see a puppet walking in the overworld on it's on.  Plus, they are of the cute fairy, who is also nearby lamenting that it's not Spring.

At the base of the tree is the only stationary puppet, so it's not exactly hard to deduce.  You get a surprise battle against a wild puppet that releases itself from the Pokeball equivalent............and is LEVEL 99.......and is not style changed (evolved).  Just image a level 99 Ratata.....it was about the same, even with the bad EXP.  Sadly, the cherry blossom effect ends in all the areas, but you get another incident case.......what it's doing here, who knows.  

Flandre's Playdate 2

WAY too many screenshots, but this is a series of tasks/games where you can either complete the task or face a fairy maid opponent.  Aside from being a very nice "And Then There Were None" reference with the bears and having some very cute unique sprites, it was mostly just fun................until the last one where you face Flan 1V1 with her team in the high 90's.......yeah.  At least they finally gave her a unique theme here.

https://imgur.com/a/HkHcP1Y

Here are some highlights as well as her theme

A Dream Trip to Hell

A cute inclusion of the Lunar Invader trio  

https://imgur.com/a/whxZEwz

Meeting the Yakumos: The Story of How I beat up a Cat, Fox, and Hag Maiden

After going back to beat up Chen, she gives a hint about the Gap Map having new places, just in case you didn't see it.  Beating Yukari unlocks online battles, which I would be tempted to check out if my team didn't suck from a competitive standpoint

https://imgur.com/a/h3v1wt5

Ice Cave Exploration

While the Ice cave is more about getting items related to breeding and a good TM, there are two battles here, with Cirno and Letty.  Cirno has three puppets of herself at level 99.  Almost THE STRONGEST.  Letty had all the representatives of the seasons as her puppets, which was a nice touch.

https://imgur.com/a/QKTndig

Small Encounters and Rematches

---I had about three to five more, but this is taking WAY too long

• A Romp Through Heaven

Meeting Iku and Tenshi, the latter of which claims to be behind the incident to get us to fight her......and then get mad we didn't tell her we already resolved it.

• A Retread Through Old Hell

Now you can re-do the mirror match against Satori as many times as you want.  Welcome to leveling up once you are done with rematches.  Also, we can fight Orin and her cats, while Okku forgets if we are allowed through or not

https://imgur.com/a/unyz2tL

• Curious Reporter

An Aya rematch.  Another user of Power Aya

• Makai Rumble 2

This would more belong at the end of next update, but there isn't anything plot relevant here.  Even if I had prepared a team to counter what I faced last time, it would have been pointless since so much was different.  Aside from Shinki, they all had fairly different teams and strategies, and thankfully no Salvo (Skill Link) this time around.  Shinki was quite hard, with all her puppets at 97 and above, with the only level 100 puppet.  For these battles, I didn't hesitate to heal, and Shinki finally had me use two Max Revives.