Currently the Arcade Mode is very hard. For the 8 floors (soon to be 12) currently in the game, I think the difficulty is only slightly absurd, but the final version of Arcade Mode is expected to be 24 floors long!
So, what I'm getting at is that when the Arcade Mode is finished (length wise at least), only the absolute elite will be able to see the upper floors, let alone beat it! Many players have invested dozens of hours into this mode without even seeing Flying Fortress, so yeah.
We think something has to change a bit for the Arcade Mode balance to be viable long term, but there are a few options available and we're not sure what changes are the best. There are probably other ways to tackle the issue that we haven't thought of, as well!
Note that we're not suggesting to implement all the things listed below, but rather pick and choose to create a good balance. We'd like to improve on the feasibility of succeeding in the mode, but without ruining the tension.
Less damage from monsters
At some points, you barely need to slip up at all to take huge amounts of damage. In Pumpkin Woods, getting whacked by a Halloweed a few times usually results in death even from nearly full HP!
Perhaps some enemies should have their attack values tuned down a bit to prevent this?
More healing
There are only two ways to heal in Arcade Mode currently, and that's from health orbs and the greedy nurse! Both of these could be tweaked:
* Orbs could give more % of MaxHP in Arcade Mode
* Lowering the healing fee at the nurse
Continues
Usually, high scores only become interesting after you've beaten the game in question. In Touhou games (those I've played at least), you start out with a few continues, but using one will reset your score! In other words, "beating the game" and "competing on the leaderboards" gets clearly separated as two different achievements.
Another good thing about continues is that they allow players to spend more time at the floors they have trouble with. If you're getting to the Temple of Seasons (floor 11-12) and keep getting stomped by the Season Hydras, having to play through 10 floors for every attempt at beating them is quite exhausting.
Off the top of my head, I can think of a few different ways of doing continues. The first is to simply give players a set number of continues right away, and let them use those during the run.
Another idea is that players start out with no continues, but earn one every X floors (say two). This way, the greater the effort of reaching a floor, the more practice attempts you'll get at beating it.
Lastly, you could use a system where you pay for continues using your score, the cost scaling up for each time you purchase one, having you decide between keeping your high score and keep on playing (until you run out of score).
More Options
This isn't a suggestion as such, as we'll do this regardless, but it's worth noting that we're going to add more 'features' to the mode which will give players more options during runs, especially when it comes to getting gear. The '?'-rooms will have a variety of events and NPCs in them, such as sprites trading an item you don't use for a random other, shrines granting temporary buffs, and so forth.
So, what I'm getting at is that when the Arcade Mode is finished (length wise at least), only the absolute elite will be able to see the upper floors, let alone beat it! Many players have invested dozens of hours into this mode without even seeing Flying Fortress, so yeah.
We think something has to change a bit for the Arcade Mode balance to be viable long term, but there are a few options available and we're not sure what changes are the best. There are probably other ways to tackle the issue that we haven't thought of, as well!
Note that we're not suggesting to implement all the things listed below, but rather pick and choose to create a good balance. We'd like to improve on the feasibility of succeeding in the mode, but without ruining the tension.
Less damage from monsters
At some points, you barely need to slip up at all to take huge amounts of damage. In Pumpkin Woods, getting whacked by a Halloweed a few times usually results in death even from nearly full HP!
Perhaps some enemies should have their attack values tuned down a bit to prevent this?
More healing
There are only two ways to heal in Arcade Mode currently, and that's from health orbs and the greedy nurse! Both of these could be tweaked:
* Orbs could give more % of MaxHP in Arcade Mode
* Lowering the healing fee at the nurse
Continues
Usually, high scores only become interesting after you've beaten the game in question. In Touhou games (those I've played at least), you start out with a few continues, but using one will reset your score! In other words, "beating the game" and "competing on the leaderboards" gets clearly separated as two different achievements.
Another good thing about continues is that they allow players to spend more time at the floors they have trouble with. If you're getting to the Temple of Seasons (floor 11-12) and keep getting stomped by the Season Hydras, having to play through 10 floors for every attempt at beating them is quite exhausting.
Off the top of my head, I can think of a few different ways of doing continues. The first is to simply give players a set number of continues right away, and let them use those during the run.
Another idea is that players start out with no continues, but earn one every X floors (say two). This way, the greater the effort of reaching a floor, the more practice attempts you'll get at beating it.
Lastly, you could use a system where you pay for continues using your score, the cost scaling up for each time you purchase one, having you decide between keeping your high score and keep on playing (until you run out of score).
More Options
This isn't a suggestion as such, as we'll do this regardless, but it's worth noting that we're going to add more 'features' to the mode which will give players more options during runs, especially when it comes to getting gear. The '?'-rooms will have a variety of events and NPCs in them, such as sprites trading an item you don't use for a random other, shrines granting temporary buffs, and so forth.