Sakuya Izayoi/RicePigeon's second version

Taking a page from both Hisoutensoku and Urban Legend in Limbo, RicePigeon's second take on Reimu still bears similarity with the first, still retaining her charge motion inputs, but now has additional tools to assist her in both zoning and rushdown, including a homing projectile and an effective space clearing tool that seems to have taken partial inspiration from Urien.

Gameplay


Reimu is a five-button character using the buttons for her attacks. is reserved for Diffusion Border. The function of differs depending on which "alignment" Reimu chooses at the beginning of the match; Type-A alignment allows  to act as a Guilty Gear-styled Burst, which deals no damage but allows Reimu to gain 1000 Power on hit; Type-B alignment turns  into either a launching Burst attack or an Alpha Counter if performed with, while the Type-C alignment turns  into a Roman Cancel, allowing Reimu to prematurely cancel the animation of most of her attacks.

Depending on the alignment that Reimu chooses at the beginning of the match, several alignment-specific mechanics become available to her that involve the use of her Spirit Meter; the method of filling up the Spirit Meter is dependent on which alignment Reimu chooses. When using Type-A, Reimu's Spirit Meter is filled slowly over time, as well as receiving damage. Reimu is able to perform a Bomb using, which consumes the entire Spirit Meter. Reimu can also access Spell Trance once she acquires 2000 Power, which allows her to use her Hypers for a fraction of their normal Power cost, but gradually drains her Power over time; if Reimu's Spirit Meter is full during this time, Reimu can also perform "Fantasy Nature", but will consume her entire Spirit Meter and ends Spell Trance. If Type-B is selected, Reimu can perform a Just Defend by blocking an attack at a very frame specific moment; this will fill her Spirit Gauge by a small amount. Selecting Type-B will also change Reimu's grounded forward run into a dash; while this only travels a limited distance and cannot be extended or jumped out of, it grants Reimu with projectile invincibility during the forward movement, and allows her to gain a small amount of Spirit for each projectile "grazed" in this manner. While blocking, a Guard Cancel Counter can be performed at the cost of 25% of her Spirit Gauge. Reimu can also perform a Bomb with, but now has different properties; Bombs in this alignment will only use 50% of the Spirit Meter and will launch an opponent on hit; unlike the Type-A alignment, Bombs in Type-B can be cancelled into from any Normal attack. In this alignment, "Fantasy Nature" can be performed with 1000 Power and at least 50% Spirit Meter, and will consume all available Spirit on use, but it's damage will be directly proportional to the amount consumed. Alternatively, Reimu can enter Spell Rage with at least 50% Spirit, which will increase all damage dealt by 15% for a limited time. If the Type-C alignment is chosen, the Spirit Meter increased whenever Reimu performs any type of forward movement or deals damage to the opponent, and can also perform up to two air dashes per jump instead of one. Reimu can prematurely cancel the animation of any non-throw attack and immediately return to an idle state at the cost of 50% of her Spirit Meter, allowing her to either extend combos or make normally unsafe moves unpunishable. With 1000 Power, Reimu can also activate Spell Overdrive, which grants her a time-limited buff that not only allows her to jump cancel many of her ground Normals, but also allows her to cancel her Normals into her  Normals, at the expense of some damage. Reimu can also perform any of her Hypers besides "Fantasy Nature" free of Power cost, but immediately causes the mode to end on use.

Reimu utilizes charge motion inputs for most of her attacks. Both Hakurei Amulet and Diffusion Border are projectile attacks that can be utilized for zoning, with the latter being stationary and serving as an okizeme tool. In addition to this, if Diffusion Border is already placed on-screen, the Hakurei Amulet projectile will be able to interact with it, gaining homing properties as a result. Diffusion Border, despite its size, can also double as an effective zoning tool as by interacting with Reimu's melee attacks, the barrier will move across the stage as varying speeds depending on which melee attack is used. Reimu also possesses two melee Specials in Ascension Kick and Floating Wall Jump, the former being a reversal and the latter possessing projectile invincibility that allows Reimu to close distance to an opponent and acting as a second dash. Dimensional Rift is a teleporting move that has a different hit property and placement depending on which button is pressed, with the version firing projectiles. Fantasy Nature changes its properties depending on which alignment is selected; Fantasy Nature becomes a melee attack in the Type-A alignment, while the Type-B alignment turns it into a full-body Counter attack.

While Reimu does appear to have A.I.-related coding in the character's files, it is not used and instead uses M.U.G.E.N's default A.I., indicating that this may be subject to change in the future.

General
"Once I collect all these fragments, then I'll be able to beat whoever's responsible for this incident!"

"In the meantime, I wonder if I can use the fragment's power to increase the size of the donations I get?"

Character Specific
"The doppelganger just vanished suddenly. Is this a side effect of using the fragments?"

- vs. herself

"Your Mini-Hakkero is acting up again? I wonder if these fragments have a similar power to the Miracle Mallet then?"

- vs. Marisa Kirisame

"Just surrender that fragment over to me so I can solve this incident already!"

- vs. Sakuya Izayoi

"I've never seen you get cold feet before... These fragments must be some pretty serious stuff if they're able to terrify you, out of all people."

- vs. Yukari Yakumo

"I better take that fragment off your hands before you start causing trouble in heaven again."

- vs. Tenshi Hinanawi

Trivia

 * The majority of system mechanics available in the Type-A, Type-B, and Type-C alignments are borrowed from various other fighting games;
 * Type-A's Bomb mechanic and Spirit gauge heavily resemble the Gold Burst from the Guilty Gear series, while Spell Trance heavily resembles Shadow Frenzy from Persona 4: Arena.
 * Type-B's Spirit gauge and Last Word mechanics are heavily inspired by Street Fighter 4 's Revenge Gauge. The ability to Just Defend and Guard Cancel are both taken from Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Street Fighter Alpha, respectively. Type-B's Bomb mechanic behaves similar to One More! Burst from Persona 4: Arena, while Spell Rage resembles a similar powerup found in the N-Groove of Capcom Vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001. The behavior of Type-B's grounded forward dash is inspired by the Graze mechanic found in the Touhou Project fighting game spinoffs, starting with Immaterial and Missing Power.
 * Type-C's Spirit Gauge and Dash Cancel both behave very similar to Guilty Gear ' s Tension Gauge and Roman Cancel mechanics, respectively, with the latter also taking inspiration from Street Fighter 4 ' s Focus Attack Dash Cancel mechanic. Spell Overdrive borrows aspects from both Street Fighter Alpha 2 ' s Custom Combo system and The King of Fighters 2002 Ultimate Match ' s MAX Mode mechanic.
 * The three alignments were originally going to be called "Shinto", "Buddhist", and "Taoist" to keep with the Touhou Project ' s theme of eastern religions, but were later named Type-A, Type-B, and Type-C, respectively, due to a lack of a proper Taoist representative.