Earthen Miraculous Sword/Gameplay

This article describes the overall gameplay and background information for Earthen Miraculous Sword.

Gameplay

Earthen Miraculous Sword plays much like a typical Touhou Project game in that the player character always faces the top of the screen, shooting at stage enemies, dodging through intricate bullet patterns and confronting challenging bosses at the end of each stage.

Controls

The game can be played using a keyboard. Gamepad support was also added as of version 1.01a.

• The Arrow keys (↑+↓+←+→) moves your character around.
• Z shoots a short burst of bullets. It can be held down for rapid fire.
• X unleashes a bomb, assuming you have any left. If your flash bomb gauge is full and you are unfocused, it unleashes a flash bomb instead.
• ⇧ Shift slows down your character's movement speed and changes the nature of your shots, usually by reducing their range and directing them straight ahead.
• ⇧ Shift+X can still be used to unleash a bomb, assuming you have any left, if your flash bomb gauge is full
• Esc pauses the game and brings you to the in-game menu.

Difficulty

There are four levels of difficulty to choose from in the main game. Additionally, there are three levels of difficulty for the Extra Stage.

Easy	初心者向け、がんばって！	For beginners. Do your best!
Normal	さっくり楽しめる難易度かも	This might be an easy-to-enjoy difficulty level.
Hard	ちょっとした手ごたえを	Better have some pretty good reflexes.
Unreal	非現実へようこそ	Welcome to unreality.
Easy Extra	初心者向け、がんばって！	For beginners. Do your best!
Extra	そんなことはない	It's not what you think.
Absurdly Extra	次にお前は『馬鹿げてる』と言う	Next, you'll say: "This is ridiculous!"

Each difficulty level features differences in the rate of enemy fire, bullet pattern density, enemy health bars, and enemy spell cards used.

As of v1.20a, two modes were added to the game:

Basic Level	基本的なモード、弾幕ＳＴＧ経験者向け それなりな歯ごたえがほしいヒト向け！ とりあえずこれでやってみれば？	The standard mode, for people experienced with danmaku STGs. For people who want a little thrill in their playing! Why not give this mode a spin?
Light Level	簡単なモード、弾幕ＳＴＧ初心者向け 初期残機＆パワー増加！　被弾時リスク軽減！　アイテム数二倍！ ランクイン時スコア1/10＆リプレイが残せない以外デメリットなし	An easier mode, for people new to danmaku STGs. Increased lives and power, less power loss, and doubled items! But scores are multiplied by 1/10, and replays don't save.

More specifically, in Light Level:

• you have nine initial extra lives
• you have 2.50 initial powers instead of 0 in maingame (in Extra both levels have 2.00 initial powers)
• all items (power, point, extend, bomb and yin-yang) are doubled
• each miss decreases the power by 0.25 instead of 1.00

Shot

A character's "shot" is their primary means of attack. The shot's attack range, behavior and power depend on the chosen player character as well as the current power level and whether or not the player is currently focused.

Point of Collection

At the start of the game, a line labeled "Item Get Border Line!" appears on the screen for a few seconds. If you move your character above this line, all items currently on-screen are drawn towards them. The point of collection is always available.

Bomb

Bombs (more specifically: spell cards) are a limited-use method for getting out of sticky situations. A bomb's appearance, power, range and duration depend on the chosen character, but it typically deals large amounts of damage to every enemy it touches in addition to cancelling out every bullet currently on-screen or fired during the bomb's duration. Characters are also invincible for the duration of the bomb.

You start the game with either 4, 2, 3, or 5 bombs, depending on whether you pick Yabusame Houlen, Tsubakura Enraku, Kuroji Shitodo, or Suzumi Kuzu respectively. Extra bombs can be obtained by collecting green bomb items, which are dropped by certain enemies and midbosses. You can carry a maximum of 9 bombs. Dying will reset the amount of bombs to whatever you had when you started the game.

If you get hit by an enemy bullet or an enemy itself, you have a short window of opportunity to use a bomb in order to save yourself. This is called deathbombing. Doing so successfully will prevent you from losing a life.

If you lose all your lives and choose to continue, you will automatically use a bomb. This is not deducted from your bomb stack, though.

Lives

You start the game with 3 lives (2 extra lives). On Easy, Normal and Easy Extra after v1.10a, You start the game with 4 lives (3 extra lives). You lose a life either by getting hit by an enemy bullet or running into an enemy yourself.

Your hitbox is very small in comparison to your character, only about 6 pixels in diameter. Yabusame Houlen's hitbox is smaller than other characters. If you hold down Shift, a white dot with a red outline will appear, showing the position (not the actual size) of the hitbox precisely. If it comes into contact with a bullet or an enemy, you have been hit and will lose a life unless you can save yourself with a deathbomb.

In this game, lives are represented by red stars. Extra lives can be obtained by collecting purple 1-up items dropped from certain enemies and midbosses. They are also awarded at 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100 million points. You can have up to 10 lives.

When you lose a life, your power is reduced by 1.00 and 10 small power items are scattered for you to collect. A barrier around you shatters, destroying all bullets within its radius. You also become invulnerable for a short period of time.

If you lose all your lives, you are given the option to continue right where you left off. However, continuing will reset your score to 0, you can no longer save your replay, and you will obtain the bad ending if you finish the game. You may continue up to 3 times in the main game. You may not continue in the extra stage.

Flash Bomb

On the left side of the screen, a vertical bar fills up as you graze enemy bullets. Once it is full, it turns red and a flash bomb can be used by pressing X while unfocused.

Flash bombs are a lesser bomb with a duration of only about 1 second and an overall narrow range. Aside from that, flash bombs differ between characters in both range and behavior. They can also be used during a boss's spell card attack without forfeiting the bonus, making them situationally useful. You can only carry one flash bomb at a time.

Boss Battles

The main challenge of the game. A boss waits for you at the end of each stage. Each boss has multiple health bars, and whenever they use a spell card, a counter appears showing you how many spell cards you have to endure for the entirety of the stage. A boss's attack patterns usually alternate between a normal attack and a spell card, though bosses may use two or three spell cards in a row towards the end of the fight.

Normal attacks are typically incrementally stronger versions of a character's basic attack. Spell cards employ much more complex bullet patterns to both bedazzle and challenge the player. If the player manages to deplete a boss's health bar during a spell card attack without getting hit or using bombs, a bonus is awarded.

Each attack is accompanied by a timer. When it runs out, the boss proceeds to their next phase, regardless if their health bar had been depleted. Simply waiting out a boss's attacks may be enough to beat them, but it won't award the player any significant score bonuses. The exception to that are spell cards during which the boss is invulnerable. Surviving these without getting hit or bombing will award a bonus just the same.

When fighting a boss, a marker will appear below the playing field, showing the boss's position on a horizontal axis. Since the boss may be obscured by their own bullet patterns, this indicator can help the player locate their target.

Characters

Earthen Miraculous Sword has 3 characters to choose from: Yabusame Houlen, Tsubakura Enraku, Kuroji Shitodo, and, after being unlocked, Suzumi Kuzu. Each has their own shot type and bombs, as well as different movement speeds.

	Yabusame Houlen	Tsubakura Enraku	Kuroji Shitodo	Suzumi Kuzu
Shot Type	Widespread, weak. Gains a homing shot at 1.00 power.	Narrow, strong. Gains a penetrating laser at 3.00 power, but loses options and has to regain them.	Shoots in random directions when unfocused, shoots forward when focused. Weak at first, but becomes highly powerful at 5.00 power. Options shoot lasers instead of bullets from 3.00 power upwards.	When holding down the shot key, knives begin to gather in circular formations around Suzumi and burst either outward (unfocused) or straight forward (focused) for massive damage when the key is released. At 1.00 power and onwards, Suzumi gains familiars which shoot in a very wide range when unfocused, or home in on enemies when focused. Average/good damage.
Bomb	Dimensional Detachment: Long duration, harms everything on-screen, intermediately powerful.	Monochrome Ray: Short, only hits what's in front of you, massive power.	RNA "Retrovirus": Long duration, low range around the bomb's origin, brutalizes everything it touches.	(unnamed): Extremely short, powerful.
Flash Bomb	Maiden Pit: Small circle around Yabusame.	Vertex Emit: Cross-shape with Tsubakura in its center.	Negative and Positive: Rectangle in the middle of the screen that flips bullet trajectories.	(unnamed): Suzumi becomes completely invulnerable. Can be held down and be prematurely released before the gauge runs out, but the whole duration is rather short.

Screen Layout

Screen layout

1. Player character (this is Kuroji)
2. Score data:
   • HiScore: Shows your current best score with this character on this difficulty
   • Score: Shows your current score in this playthrough
3. 残機 (Lives): Remaining lives
4. ボム (Bombs): Remaining bombs
5. Point item data:
   • 総点 (Total points): Amount of point items collected over the course of this playthrough
   • 得点 (Points): Amount of point items collected in this stage
6. Thrill: Amount of times an enemy bullet has grazed your hitbox
7. Power: Your current shot power (maxes out at 5.00)
8. Cloud flower gauge
9. Flash bomb gauge
10. Boss character (this is Jun)
11. Boss data:
    • Health bar
    • Spell card progress
12. More boss data:
    • Timer
    • Spell card name
13. Difficulty level
14. Indicates the game mode
15. Umbrella

Scoring

Basics

• Hitting an enemy or a boss: 10 points per bullet
• Killing an enemy: 100 points
• Point item (any size): 500 points
• Small power items at max power: 100 points
• Large power items at max power: 500 points
• Full power item: 10,000 points
• Bomb item: 100,000 points
• Extra life: 1,000,000 points
• Spell Card Bonus / Bonus Failed: depending on the spellcard and for SCB also on time spent.

When bullets are destroyed, they generate grey yin-yang items. These have an initial value of 100 points, and each consecutive item collected within 50 frames will increase that value by 5 points, up to a maximum of 1,000 points.

Blue point items are dropped by enemies and bosses and come in two sizes. However, both have the same value which, unlike the point items in Touhou, is not affected by where on the screen they are collected. The only difference lies in the increase of the point item counter: Small items increase it by 1 while large items increase it by 5.

End-Of-Stage Bonuses

This bonus is calculated as follows:

((Stage number * 100,000) + (Shot power * 10,000) + (Thrill count * 100)) * floor(Points / 100) * (Difficulty multiplier)

(The stage number for the Extra stage is 7.)

The difficulty multiplier is as follows:

Easy	Normal	Hard	Unreal	Easy Extra	Extra	Absurdly Extra
0.8	1.0	1.2	1.4	0.8	1.0	1.2

Furthermore, at the end of the game, you get 10,000,000 points per life remaining, independent from the end-of-stage bonus.

Cloud Flower Gauge

The gauge has 5 petals. Each petal fills up gradually as you defeat enemies, collect items and generally play well. You lose an entire petal if you lose a life while bombing bears a less severe penalty. You are not penalized for flash bombing.

The amount of red petals is equal to the score multiplier, with each adding 0.1 to the multiplier, up to x1.5 for 5 red petals. If the gauge is filled to at least 3 petals upon defeating Adagumo no Yaorochi at the end of the game, you will face Tasouken. The amount of petals you have are equivalent to the amount of lives you get for its survival spell card.

A Single Glimmer

If you don't lose all your lives during this spell, you will get massive spellcard bonus:

Easy	Normal	Hard	Unreal
40,300,000	50,300,000	60,300,004	70,300,008

However if you miss when the boss explodes, the spell is failed, which means you can only get a bonus failed that provides 1/10 of spellcard bonus. After this spell, you get 10,000,000 points per life remaining, and there is another end-of-stage bonus which gives you no rewards. If you lose all lives during this spell, the game ends immediately.