Touhou 16 ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons - Stage 6 Lunatic Perfect (MarisaW)

This stage, man. I went through so much to get this. Extremely hard stage that does not believe in breaks. Everything in out to kill you, especially if you're like me and struggle with patterns that demand tight and consistent execution, nonstop. The hardest part of all of this though was clinging on to my love for the series, because this made me question it a bit.
It's pretty melodramatic but I'm really not used to these longer grinds and exerting myself for that long a period of time, so even though it's just a stage, I found it so much more taxing than any LNB so far except for UFO. It's one of the very few stages I didn't complete alongside the rest of the game the first time of covering it (shared only with EoSD s4 and IN 6A). Based on my experience here compared to that of the rest of HSiFS, I firmly believe this to be a large bulk of the game's difficulty.
All of the nons are dangerous at least in the way of catching you out if you're playing shaky. They're not hard in isolation but awful with nerves and don't offer you the usually expected breather between spells. The spells themselves are all able to kill. Nothing even close to free, anything can catch you out and at the least demands a lot of your attention and mental energy to get past reliably. It's similar to 6A in that way but so, so much worse. It forced me to confront playing under continuous and relentless stress if I wanted any sort of chance, which is why this one in particular was just so uniquely mentally taxing for me.
Scorched was arguably the key, because it felt for the longest time like a luckshit pattern that I was praying to get past, but I did a set yesterday capping it 28 times out of 50 and from it I learned to just aggressively get through gaps as soon as because it offers you more time for potential awful gaps later on. Obvious maybe but it was a gamechanger for me to just have the guts to go for it and not be afraid and hesitate.
Preta was pretty unsuspecting at first but it really capitalised on my desperation to get the run as the grind went on. It's like a premium anti-greed pattern that will punish you for going for unsure gaps in the name of extra damage too often. It was just another thing I have to learn to get better at because even towards the end this was killing me more than it should.
Snowman is Snowman. It didn't feel quite as discouraging losing runs to this because it's a monster of a pattern so losing runs is expected. I actually lost 4 to it today, one being the credit before this one. I... don't have anything to say about it really. I couldn't figure it out properly even after the 500+ attempts I had at it. Just gotta play good and not buckle under the might of its title of one of the hardest 2hu patterns.
Spring stuff is okay. My method for the awkward non waves isn't great but I really do feel pretty confident in how I read it. Reading it higher up seems to help me with positioning. If you aren't privy to how Okina nons work, there's two versions based on the direction she moves, also alternating based on if it's an odd or even wave. Not super noticeable on some like opener but for winter and spring, it's pretty key. Winter you either get easy gaps or she acts like a prick like in this run and gives you mini TSS twice in a row. Spring has two shapes, one I do by weaving through lanes on a beat and one I do narrow micro taps. Up to you but I think just knowing these things is huge for consistency on the spring non in particular.
Hidden Extreme Winter.... Look at my caprate. Is it obvious I didn't get much better after my time doing LNBNR those years ago? It's such a bogey pattern for me because it absolutely demands consistently strong play. Not necessarily anything that'll surprise you with something super hard usually but just a very high minimum baseline and lanes tight enough to make every movement just a few frames away from a crushing defeat. I had to stay calm on this. That was the key to me, I would die a lot because I'd get in my own head, but they key to me was just focusing on the way I do it. And I know bottomhugging isn't necessarily a recommended strat but I very much rely on it in the game in general so it was like it was forcing me away from a habit I'd had since I started the series. This was the only capture of it in this entire session today. I had my doubts going in usually but I knew what I needed to do. I could have made this exponentially worse on myself if I went with a worse shot, that thought frightens me. Some players are just a different breed...
In the meantime, WBaWC hasn't been too bad. I made it to stage 4 on LNNNN pace and lost a run to triggering a wolf hyper so that was fun. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to have more fun on that game but I know that my mental journey isn't done. But having this monster down is a big step in the right direction.
Anyway yeah free stage lol it was nothing pshhh