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Re.Phantasmagoria of Imagine Breaker/Gameplay

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Gameplay

Controls

The game may be played using either a keyboard or a gamepad.

Keyboard controls are as follows:

  • The Arrow Keys move the character around
  • Z causes a short barrage of shots to be fired; it may be held down for rapidfire
  • X releases a bomb, also known as a Spell Card (presuming that any are left)
  • C activates a Supernatural Border (if the gauge is over 100%)
  • V switches character
  • Shift slows the character's movement, and changes the nature of the character's shot and bomb; it generally makes your attacks more focused
  • Esc pauses the game and brings you to the in-game menu
  • R resets to the Touhou Danmakufu title screen

Basic Gameplay

Re.Phantasmagoria of Imagine Breaker plays like a fairly typical vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting game, in which the player's character is always facing towards the top of the screen, shooting at anything that moves, avoiding and weaving between enemy bullets, and confronting difficult bosses at the end of a stage.

There are 4 levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. Each difficulty level features differences in the number of bullets fired by each enemy, rate of fire, variations in the bullets' pattern of movement, and the number and type of enemy Spell Cards used.

The player will traverse 3 increasingly harrowing stages through the course of a regular game.

Shot

A character's "shot" is the player's primary method of attacking enemies. The shot's attack area and behavior varies depending on the character and attack type the player has chosen, as well as the player's power level and whether the player is focused or unfocused.


Point of Collection

There is a line most of the way up the screen called the point of collection. If you move your character at or above this line, all point items on the screen will be drawn to your character. In Re.Phantasmagoria of Imagine Breaker, the POC is always available.

Bomb (Player Spell Card)

White Names Spoiled Past features bombs (actually spell cards) with distinctive visual styles that differ between characters. A character's "bomb" is the player's limited-use method of getting out of difficult situations. A bomb's attack area, duration, and power varies depending on the character type the player has chosen, but it typically deals heavy damage to every enemy it touches, in addition to canceling out any bullets in the bomb's way, as well as automatically collecting every item on screen. The player also becomes invincible during a bomb and for a short time after the bomb's effect wears off.

At the beginning of the game, you will start off with 3 bombs. Extra bombs are obtained by collecting bomb fragments, which appear on collecting item collection bonuses (see below), after defeating boss attacks without dying or bombing, or from the ability of SakuyaA's bomb; eight fragments are required per bomb.

You can carry up to a maximum of 8 bombs at a time. If you collect a bomb fragment when you already have 8 bombs, that bomb fragment will be lost. if the player loses a life the bomb counter only resets to default value of 2 if the player has less than 2 bombs — which means the player can always utilize all their accumulated bombs. In addition, accumulated bomb parts are preserved when the player loses a life, whether the player had less than 2 bombs or not.

Lives

In this game, the player's life stock is represented by a health bar with hearts. With default settings, you will start off with 3 lives (i.e. 2 lives in stock). You can lose a life by getting "hit" by an enemy attack.

The hit box for your character is quite small in comparison to your on-screen sprite. If you hold Shift, a dot will usually appear, showing the hitbox precisely. If the hit box of your character's sprite comes into contact with the hit box of an enemy bullet, laser, or the enemy itself, then you have been hit.

If you have bombs in stock and the Bomb key is pressed within a short time of the player's character being hit, then the hit can be negated and countered with a bomb. This counter-bomb time is only a fraction of a second, after which you will lose a life as normal.

Extra lives are obtained by collecting life fragments, which appear on filling the item meter (see below).

Upon losing all their lives, the player is given the choice to continue right where they left off. However, if you do continue, your current score will be reset back to 0 and you will not be able to save a replay of your game.

Boss Battles

The main challenge and the main attraction that appears at the end of each stage. Each boss has multiple lives, which are represented by stars shown at the upper left of the screen. Bosses usually alternate between attacking normally and attacking with spell cards, switching once with each health bar. Markers on the health bar indicate the start of a spell card attack when the boss' health is depleted that far.

Normal attacks are typically incrementally stronger versions of the boss character's basic attack. Spell card attacks bedazzle the player with combinations of complex patterns that often involve the use of projectiles and obstacles crafted especially for use with that spell card. If the player manages to defeat a spell card attack without getting hit or using any bombs, a substantial score bonus is rewarded for the feat.

Each attack is accompanied by a timer. When time runs out, the boss will switch to their next attack pattern even if their health bar isn't empty. Waiting for a boss's attack pattern to self-destruct may be enough to beat them, but mere survival won't earn the player any score bonuses. The exception however is when the boss is invulnerable for the duration of the spell card; in this case the player will receive the bonus on survival.

When a boss attack is defeated without getting hit or using any bombs, the boss will release a bomb or life fragment (as mentioned above, every fifth bomb fragment dropped will be replaced by a life fragment).

When fighting a boss, a position marker shows up on the bottom margin of the screen, indicating where the boss is on the horizontal axis. Since your target can be completely obscured by bullets or darkness at times, use this marker to help you aim your shots. The marker will dim when the boss is being hit, and will flash red when her health bar gets sufficiently depleted.

Character Statistics

There are three pairs of characters to choose from in the game. Each character has a different weapon for fast and slow movement, and each character has a special ability. The current character can be switched by pressing the V key.

Screen Layout

Bugs

Scoring

Listed below are the game systems in Re.Phantasmagoria of Imagine Breaker, including the details for how points are given.

Enemies

Any damage you deal to any enemy, whether it be caused by your shots or your bombs, will cause your score to increase. Actually destroying enemies will award you slightly more points. In addition, enemies shoot bullets for you to "graze" and release items for you to collect, and those are very important for scoring as covered below.

Grazing

"Grazing a bullet" means to have a bullet or laser come dangerously close to your hitbox. You can only graze a bullet once, so you won't gain any additional points or graze by following a bullet. Lasers can be continually grazed throughout their duration, but once again, moving around will not gain you any additional points or graze.

Every 10 graze points adds 10 points to the point item value.

Point Items

As its name implies, point items are the major source of points in the game. The higher up on the screen you collect them, the more points they're worth, up to a defined maximum. You can easily tell when you are collecting point items for their maximum value, since they'll show the value in yellow text. The auto-item-collect line is the same height as the height where point items reach their maximum value, so take advantage of this fact whenever you can for massive points. As in Undefined Fantastic Object onwards, auto-collected items are still worth their full value if you happen to leave the auto-collect area before items contact your hit box, or if they're auto-collected in another manner such as by bombing or dialogue.

Difficulty Start value
Easy 5,000
Normal 10,000
Hard 15,000
Lunatic 20,000
Extra

Item Collection Bonus

When auto-collecting a group of items, if there are 20 or more items collected, the player will receive a bonus to their score. The bonus is based on the value of items collected with a multiplier based on the number of items collected:

Items 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99 100+
Bonus multiplier 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 3.0 4.0
Fragments dropped 1 2 3 4

In addition to the bonus, a bomb fragment or life fragment will drop. A life fragment will drop if 70 or more items are collected (corresponding to the maximum possible multiplier); as mentioned above, every fifth bomb fragment dropped will also be replaced by a life fragment. Otherwise, a bomb fragment is dropped.

Spell Card Bonus

Occasionally, a boss will attack using a Spell Card. You will know this is happening when the background changes and the Spell Card's name appears in the upper right corner of the screen. If the boss's health bar is depleted within the time limit and without getting hit or using a bomb, the Spell Card bonus will be added to your score.

The bonus starts at out at a value equal to:

5000000 * ( 3 + stage + 2*difficulty )

with difficulty value being:

Easy 0
Normal 1
Hard 2
Lunatic 3
Extra 4

The bonus decreases over time, starting 5 seconds after the spell card starts. The bonus decreases at a constant rate of:

2 / 3 × (starting value / 10) / (time limit in seconds - 5) per second

Clear Bonus

At the end of each stage, the player is awarded a point bonus based on their performance throughout the stage. The total is then added on to your score.