Reactivate Majestical Imperial/Gameplay

This article describes the overall gameplay and background information for Reactivate Majestical Imperial.

Gameplay

Reactivate Majestical Imperial 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	Soon you'll be saying: "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
• both characters have 2.50 initial powers instead of 0 in maingame (in Extra both characters have 2.00 in both levels)
• all items (power, point, extend, bomb, full power 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 3, 4, 2, or 5 bombs, depending on whether you pick Yabusame/Tsubakura, Yaorochi/Sukune, Kuroji/Saragimaru, or Suzumi/Suzumi, 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 4 lives (3 extra lives) on Easy, Normal and Easy Extra, and 3 lives (2 extra lives) on Hard, Unreal, Extra and Absurdly Extra. 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, 50, and 100 million points. There is no limit on the amount of lives obtainable, but the game will show at most ten of them.

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.

Teams

Reactivate Majestical Imperial uses a team system. The active character is the one visible in the playing field and is controlled by the player. The passive character can be seen below the playing field as they follow you on a horizontal axis. The passive character can collect power and spirit items that fall off the screen, provided they can reach them (the reach is indicated by purple brackets flanking the character). Power items collected by the passive character are twice as valuable while spirit items can only be collected by them, although Yabusame can collect spirit items even as an active character.

Each passive character has a unique ability to distinguish themselves from each other:

• Yabusame Houlen does not follow you and instead goes for falling items independently.
• Tsubakura Enraku enables the active character (Yabusame) to pick up spirit items. Those items can't be drawn in by focusing, though.
• Adagumo no Yaorochi unleashes a brief screen-filling attack when the flash bomb gauge fills up.
• Sukune Katano draws all the falling items towards the active character.
• Kuroji Shitodo causes the flash bomb gauge to fill twice as fast.
• Adagumo no Saragimaru gradually fills up the flash bomb gauge.
• Suzumi Kuzu has no passive abilities.

Partners switch active and passive roles when a life is lost or a bomb or flash bomb is used. In the event of death, only the character who got hit loses power.

Team switching can be disabled by toggling the option labeled "自機交代の固定"; the active character will always be in front and controlled by the player, and the passive character will always be collecting power items and spirits. Bombs will come from the active character.

Spirit Jar

As spirit items are collected, the jar gradually fills up. At every multiple of 200, the team enters Jar Zenith Mode. The active character obtains a barrier that serves as an automatic deathbomb if you get hit and depending on the team, another perk is added for its duration:

• Yabusame Houlen/Tsubakura Enraku: All items are automatically drawn towards you.
• Adagumo no Yaorochi/Sukune Katano: The passive character provides support fire.
• Kuroji Shitodo/Adagumo no Saragimaru: The flash bomb gauge rapidly fills up.
• Suzumi Kuzu: If the player survives the duration of a Jar Zenith without being hit, they are rewarded with a bomb.

Each instance of jar zenith mode lasts longer than the previous one. In the Extra stage, collecting 1000 spirits allows you to access the Extra+α stage.

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.

Fighting Shion

The final boss of the game, Shion, introduces notably-different mechanics for their fight alone;

• The ability to lose lives upon dying is completely nullified at the start of the fight; This is visually referenced by your lives being covered up on the game HUD.
• Your Spirit Jar becomes a timer, with the spirit counter decreasing by 6 per second.
• Instead of losing lives when the player gets hit by any danmaku, you lose 300 spirit items from your total amount; you also lose 100 spirit items at the beginning of every one of Shion's spell cards, barring the four consecutive spell cards proceeding Mastication "Margaret Mahler".
• You only lose 0.50 Power items per death, as opposed to losing 1.00 power in every other situation.
• If the Spirit Jar counter reaches 0 at any point in the fight, Shion prematurely explodes as if they were defeated, causing the game to end and show you the final score tally, before giving you Good Ending A; if Shion is properly defeated before the Spirit Jar counter reaches 0, the player will receive Good Ending B instead. Either ending will count toward unlocking the Extra Stage and/or the Absurdly Extra difficulty setting, but the latter ending is considered more acceptable towards contributing to your final score.

Characters

As of v1.10a, Reactivate Majestical Imperial has had 4 teams with 2 characters each to choose from: Yabusame Houlen with Tsubakura Enraku, Adagumo no Yaorochi with Sukune Katano, Kuroji Shitodo with Adagumo no Saragimaru, and, after being unlocked, Suzumi Kuzu (Hamee) with Suzumi Kuzu (Arde). Each has their own shot type and bombs, as well as different movement speeds.

	Shrine Team		Bottle Opener Team		Slaver Team		Hidden Team
	Yabusame Houlen	Tsubakura Enraku	Adagumo no Yaorochi	Sukune Katano	Kuroji Shitodo	Adagumo no Saragimaru	Suzumi Kuzu
Shot Type	Widespread, weak. Gains a homing shot at 1.00 power. Has a shotgun.	Narrow, strong. Gains a penetrating laser at 3.00 power, but loses options and has to regain them.	Narrow and powerful.	Widespread with gaps in-between, weak. Has a shotgun.	Shoots in random directions when unfocused, shoots forward when focused. Weak at first, but becomes mildly powerful at 5.00 power. Options shoot lasers instead of bullets from 3.00 power upwards.	Meandering bullet streams. Greater range when focused. Gains options at 1.00 power that shoot straight on. Powerful with the right positioning. Has a shotgun.	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 the player, massive power.	Cloud-Mowing Sword: Short, screen-filling, powerful.	F.A.E.B. "Haniwa Bomb": Semi-long duration, range depends on how close to the center of the screen you are.	RNA "Retrovirus": Long duration, low range around the bomb's origin, brutalizes everything it touches.	Transmigration "Eye of Hihayahi": Very long, range gradually increases to the entire screen, weak.	(unnamed): Extremely short, powerful.
Flash Bomb	Maiden Pit: Small circle around Yabusame.	Vertex Emit: Cross-shape with Tsubakura in its center.	Black Rotted Ropes: X-shaped with Yaorochi below its center	Lost Torus: Big circle around Sukune, but it doesn't reach all the way from the outer rim to the center	Negative and Positive: Rectangle above Kuroji that flips bullet trajectories.	Ladder Built Between Clouds---[Fake]: A rainbow laser that cuts once across the screen a bit in front of Saragimaru. It also does damage.	(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 Sukune)
2. Support character (this is Yaorochi)
3. Score data:
   • HiScore: Shows your current best score with this character on this difficulty
   • Score: Shows your current score in this playthrough
4. 残機 (Lives): Remaining lives
5. ボム (Bombs): Remaining bombs
6. 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
7. Thrill: Amount of times an enemy bullet has grazed your hitbox
8. Power:
   • Top: Your current shot power (maxes out at 5.00)
   • Bottom: Your partner's current shot power
9. Spirit jar
10. Flash bomb gauge
11. Boss character (this is Sese)
12. Boss data:
    • Health bar
    • Spell card progress
13. More boss data:
    • Timer
    • Spell card name
14. Difficulty level
15. Indicates the game mode

Scoring

All bonuses except bullet cancellation are doubled compared with Evanescent Existence and Earthen Miraculous Sword, meaning Spell Card Bonuses and End-of-stage Bonuses are shown incorrectly in the game.

Basics

• Hitting an enemy or a boss: 20 points per bullet
• Killing an enemy: 200 points
• Point item (any size): 1,000 points
• Small power items at max power: 200 points
• Large power items at max power: 1,000 points
• Full power item: 20,000 points
• Bomb item: 200,000 points
• Extra life: 2,000,000 points
• Spell Card Bonus / Bonus Failed: depending on the spellcard and for SCB also on timer

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) + (Sum of shot power * 10,000) + (Thrill count * 100)) * floor(Points / 100) * (Difficulty multiplier) * 2

(The stage number for Extra stage is 7 and for Extra+α stage is 2.)

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	2.0 (Extra stage) / 1.2 (Extra+α stage)

Furthermore, at the end of the game, you get 20,000,000 points per life remaining, independent from the end-of-stage bonus. If you get a no miss run, this can easily give you up to 220,000,000 base points if you no-miss on easy or normal, or 200,000,000 on hard or unreal.

Jar Zenith

Each spirit add a 1/20,000 multiplier to all bonuses but bullet cancellation get in the future. This means if you have 2,000 spirits, they will have a x1.10 multiplier. This means that spirits are crucial to getting a high score. During Shion's fight, bonuses are still affected by the multiplier, but it will decrease along with the spirits. This also means that you should kill Shion as fast as possible, capture more attacks and miss less to get the highest multiplier for your 10-11 lives.