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Gameplay

Controls

The game is played using the keyboard or gamepad.

Default keyboard controls are as follows:

  • Arrow keys: Movement and aiming
  • Z: Attack
  • X: Jump
  • A: Spellcard
  • C: Switch master and slave

Basic Gameplay

Mystical_Chain is a fighter game set in Gensokyo. Every stage has five levels. The first four levels of any stage feature a growing number of small opponents that need to be defeated for the level to clear. The final level is a boss fight, featuring two characters with many spellcards that need to be defeated before moving on.

There are three main characters: Marisa Kirisame, Patchouli Knowledge, and Alice Margatroid. You may choose any two of them. The two characters have to work together to defeat enemies that could be difficult to defeat alone. Ways of using the two characters effectively will be discussed in the strategy section below.

There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard and Lunatic. The harder difficulties' opponents do more damage, and their attacks feature more danmaku. Additionally, the harder difficulties have fewer magic charges, which are used to activate special attacks. On Hard and Lunatic, enemies that are knocked down have increasingly long invincible frames as they get up, and bosses recover much quicker from being knocked out of spellcards. On Lunatic, even common enemies have the chance to attack you twice before their invincibility wears off.

As you advance through the stages, you are awarded additional magic charges. Otherwise there is no difference between your characters in the advanced levels.

Characters share magic charges as well as a single spellcard gauge. When one character uses a strong attack, or when switching between characters, the other character has one less magic charge to work with. However, they regenerate when not in use rather quickly.

Spell cards use a spellcard gauge to fire. Under the player's health bar is his spellcard gauge. It is divided into three sections. When casting a spell card, one section (one third of the total bar) is consumed. The spellcard gauge regenerates over time, and is recovered more quickly as the player dishes out damage.

Screen layout

Mysticalchain-notes

  • A Master character's health bar. The slave character's health bar is behind it.
  • B Boss health bar.
  • C Spellcard auge.
  • D Chaining indicator (appears when landing hits)
  • E Boss spellcard remaining indicator.
  • F Master character. Note the orange spell circle.
  • G Slave character in ambush mode. Note the blue spell circle.
  • H Gems, which are released after the completion of a spellcard, kills, or certain attacks.
  • I Magic charges.
  • J An understandably happy phoenix.
  • K NEET.

Scoring

Scoring is based on four factors:

  • The time it takes to beat the level/spellcard
  • Health when the level is completed
  • The number of gems collected in this level
  • The maximum chain achieved this level

There is also a "coupling points" level which isn't entirely understood yet. If and how it relates to scoring is unknown.

Strategy

Ambushing

Pressing down and swap at the same time will cause the slave character to stay where she is. The master character can move about freely. Pressing down and swap together again makes the slave character return to following mode.

While in ambush mode, the slave character will slowly regenerate health. This is terribly useful in situations where the characters take a lot of damage.

Ambushing is mostly useful in dealing with opponents who block. Using the master character to distract an opponent who blocks frontal attacks, you can quickly switch to the slave character and attack from behind. A very useful strategy.

It's also useful in dodging spellcards, since the slave character is invincible.

Interference

While an opponent is the target of one character, if the other character strikes it, the game calls it "interference". Doing many of this type of paired attack seems to increase the coupling point level faster, but it's just a speculation at this point.

Spellcard use

Spellcards can be used against bosses even when they are not vulnerable (i.e. when their spell circles turn red). They can be used to easily bring boss health down to the point where one normal attack can finish them off when vulnerable.

Mana Burst

Using a mana burst can be used to cancel an attack against a character. If your current character is attacked, pressing the spellcard button quickly results in the other character saving her life. This can repel nearby enemies but won't damage them.

Specific strategies

Remilia + Flandre's last spellcard

This spellcard is very difficult to deal with, since the characters can't be struck while attacking, the window of vulnerability is short and the characters are hard to approach.

If you have Patchouli as one of your characters, it's a good idea to leave her in ambush mode in the very center of the screen where Remilia and Flandre strike and become vulnerable. The other character has to dodge the normal attacks. As soon as Flandre and Remilia strike the center, switch to Pathouli and activate her spell card. It will deal enough damage to them to bring them below half health. Alternately, Alice's spellcard, if timed correctly, can grab both Remi and Flandre at the same time, dealing 2x the normal damage. While unconfirmed, it is believed that this would be enough damage to instantly end the spellcard. Unfortunately, Marisa's spellcard is not nearly as effective at such a range.

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