Preview: Double Heroine Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you all got a wonderful visit from Seiga Claus! Did you remember to leave out cookies?

Since you’ve all been good children, today’s update is the character cards for Danmaku!!’s heroines, Reimu and Marisa! As an extra special gift, in Big Box you will get two of each heroine! These are four completely separate playable characters, so you could have two different players each playing a different version of Reimu. I’ll present them to you today.

The first and top-facing character card in Danmaku!! Big Box is the Shrine Maiden of Paradise, Hakurei Reimu. After much feedback from new players, we wanted to have the very first character card a player reads to be both strong and straightforward, so we moved Reimu’s abilities around somewhat. This version of Reimu has the same homing shot Ability you’ve seen since Danmaku!! version 1.1, which we found to be fun and easy to understand. However, the original Reimu’s Spell Card was problematic, confusing players with all of the card types, turning off interaction that makes the game fun, and giving new players enough rope to hang themselves with by accidentally shutting off a type that they shouldn’t. In its place we wanted something that is strong, simple, and on theme, so we ended up giving Reimu “Fantasy Seal,” a Spell Card version of Sealing Shot, with a bonus card draw. 

The second character card in Danmaku!! Big Box is the Ordinary Magician, Kirisame Marisa. Once again, Marisa would likely show up in a player’s very first game, so we wanted her to be both powerful and more straightforward than the original, leading to a new flavor for Marisa unlike her original version. “Stardust Reverie” fills the sky with stars in a beautiful display. With her new Ability, Marisa can cause one attack to explode on the target, dealing extra damage. You activate it on hit, so you won’t ever waste it on an avoided attack!

As a nice bookend to tie everything together, we put the bonus, alternate versions of Reimu and Marisa at the end as character cards #99 and #100, bringing our total character card count to a satisfyingly round number.

The first of these is the Shrine Maiden of Eternity, Hakurei Reimu. Here, Reimu has a different Ability that plays on the theme of being difficult to avoid by having her simply shoot more shots. Meanwhile, “Evil-Sealing Circle” is a reinterpretation of Reimu’s original Spell Card, but instead of outright banning a card type, it punishes players for playing said cards. With this version, naming Dodge cards is no longer anti-synergistic with her Ability, and allows you play around its effect. 

The final character in Big Box is Oriental Occidental Magician, Kirisame Marisa. Marisa’s original character card is really great at showing off her personality, so we wanted to preserve the idea on her B side. However, Marisa’s Ability to replace draws with a “Borrow” effect offered exactly zero counterplay and led to Marisa turtling up behind a fortress of Items, so we moved it to a reward for hitting a player and progressing the game. Marisa wants to be given Powerups, so we had the new effect replace the destruction of a Powerup, similar to Flandre Scarlet’s Ability. “Master Spark” is the same as always. BWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!