Touhou Youyoumu: Perfect Cherry Blossom

This page details one or more prototype versions of Touhou Youyoumu: Perfect Cherry Blossom.

CharactersEarly designs of characters. Music DifferencesZUN's music changes between the v0.01 and 1.00a. Stage DifferencesAll three kinds of versions, different spellcard designs.

Version Differences#

There are various versions of Perfect Cherry Blossom demo, starting from the initial v0.01 (aka trial version Plus) that was sold in Comiket 63 on December 30, 2002, and the last trial at v0.11, uploaded on July 12, 2003 at Team Shanghai Alice's website.

Because the former was published in a very early development stage for the game, the overall initial style of Perfect Cherry Blossom follows the previous game closer. Subsequently the graphics, scoring mechanics, and other various things were changed significantly in v0.08 onwards, with later versions closer to the final version of the retail game.

Internally, the files are also organized similarly to the previous game in the series.

Early Demo will refer to the demo versions starting up from v0.01 to v0.07a, while late demos refers to v0.08a until the final demo iteration.

Gameplay Differences#

• Early demos reuse EoSD's extend system (i.e. at 10, 20, 40, and 60 million score); it is not until late demos that the game starts using its item-based extends.
• The Cherry Point system works completely different in the early demos. Upon reaching 50,000 Cherry Points (which are earned by shooting at enemies and collecting the pink cherry blossom blocks) all enemy bullets on-screen will be turned into star blocks and automatically collected. In the late demos, getting to 50,000 Cherry Points activates Supernatural Border, an item auto-collection state for roughly 10 seconds, which also dims the screen. If the player is hit during this duration, the Border will terminate and turn into cherry blossom petals which are auto-collected as well.
• When bosses or mid-bosses appear, enemy bullets will continue to drift away, but in the late demos and final version, the bullets will turn into automatically-collected star blocks.

Character Names#

Stage 6#

Yuyuko Saigyouji originally had two different names during development, visible since ZUN accidentally left Perfect Cherry Blossom's full version E-Name in the files.

• In 0.09, her first name was Ayaka Saigyouji.
• In 0.09a, her name was changed to Yuyuka Saigyouji.
• In 1.00a, her name was changed to Yuyuko Saigyouji.

• It's notable that the character name Saigyou Ayakashi seems to be a reference to Yuyuko's early name. it is unknown if this was intentionally an easter egg or just an odd leftover reference to her original name.
• It's unknown if her name was different in any earlier Trials, as the full name was not included there.

Extra and Phantasm#

Yukari Yakumo and Ran Yakumo originally had different last names.

• In 0.09a, their first names were Yukari Suzukaze and Ran Suzukaze.
• In 0.10, their names were changed to Yukari Yakumo and Ran Yakumo.

This is particularly noteworthy, as Yukari's final last name is a reference to the real-life author Koizumi Yakumo, suggesting that she was conceived as a character before the historical reference was added.

Character Graphics#

In Trial Plus version, most character portraits are radically different. The portraits also stop at the waist, whereas the final version they are redrawn with full proportions, which can be seen fully during character spellcard activation. Oddly enough, the character select screen portraits resemble their late trial overhauls more than their early trial dialogue portraits.

Reimu#

Reimu's portraits are completely overhauled in the later demos. She appears to be wearing gloves on Trial Plus, which is the only time she does so in the games. The gloves remain on her character select screen portrait, however.

On v0.08e, her portraits are looking closer to the final ones, but it's still in a sketch phase, missing a couple details on her clothing, lack of shading, and overall small changes. Her "confused spiral" expression was once colored black and located in a different place. Her angry portrait originally did not had a puff of smoke to represent anger, and the angry icon was much smaller.

Marisa#

Marisa's portraits were completely changed by the time the late demo rolled in as well.

On v0.08e, once again, Marisa's portraits are looking closer to the final ones, but it's still in a rough phase, just like Reimu; she is missing a couple clothing details, shading, and overall small changes. Her angry expression originally had her eyes shut (alongside having less blush on her face), and her portrait with the sweat drop originally had her mouth included. Her two portraits with the head tilt received noticeable changes on her face, with the fourth one using a new pose instead of re-using the same as the second one. Finally, her neck was made smaller, which was most noticeable on the third portrait.

Sakuya#

Sakuya's portrait differs from the other characters due to a mix of different art styles.

Her first, fourth, and fifth portraits are more on par with the other characters, her second and third portraits have black outlines in several areas and look less "smudged" than the usual portraits from other characters, especially comparing her scarf.

The last portrait is the most different for both Sakuya and the entirety of Trial Plus, due to being way more polished, as it includes a completely different pose, different shadow details (which makes her outfit look like it's slightly pink) and the large sweat drop on her head having no blue shading; it ultimately has a distinctive art style compared to any other portrait from any Touhou games from the Classic era (other than her head shape still looking relatively the same).

Her angry and normal portraits were slightly touched up with slightly more visible outlines in v0.06, with a slightly bigger eye shine on both normal portraits.

Lastly, her v0.08e portraits were also missing shading, lack of certain clothing details, and other small details. Her sixth portrait originally used the same pose as her third portrait, this was later changed to the same pose as the second and fourth portraits. Like Marisa, Sakuya also received some touch-ups on her face, changing the rotation of her head on the second and fourth portrait, and overall making her neck smaller.

Letty & Cirno#

Cirno's early trial portrait is slightly edited from her portrait from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. It would be replaced with a new crop from the full art in later demos leading to the final version, possibly due to how awkwardly the hand was edited in, though her wings also lost their transparency. She also notably had her sketch layer removed from her portrait. This can be seen by some few missing lines in her hair that did appear in EoSD.

Additionally, Cirno appears to have a white sash bow (due to her arm no longer blocking it). Notably, this is the only time Cirno has ever been shown wearing this bow; no other games after Perfect Cherry Blossom has ever added this accessory back (neither in any other type of Touhou media, such as the print works) (though, it did appear in her concept art).

Letty, on the other hand, had her eyes redone with the final's colors and shading. The cross-eyed Letty portrait from Trial Plus is also fixed.

Trial Plus	Final

Chen#

Chen gets an extra unused portrait in later prototypes, which has her missing her long red nails.

Trial Plus	Final

Alice#

There's not much changes done to the puppeteer's portrait, aside from her late demo frustrated portrait slightly altered to add more neck length to her, and slight eye gradient alterations.

Alice's loss portrait, however, was changed due to how off it was in the early trials.

Trial Plus	Final

Player Differences#

• ReimuB's unfocused shot has 8 needles (4 side by side) in the early demo, which was reduced to 6 needles in late demos and the final release, thereby reducing her range. Furthermore, her early demo shots fire at a slow rate, which increases tremendously as Power is raised.
• SakuyaB's unfocused shot doesn't have extra diagonal knives, which were added in later demos. This makes her shots less similar to Reimu B.

Text Differences#

Crystallized Silver music comments#

To do: Check if the punctuation was added back in the small patches released for the game after v1.00.

On the Music Room, Crystallized Silver's comments had extra punctuation that was removed on the final release.

（この曲に限らず）私の曲は露骨でない和洋折衷を目指しています。
１面ボスなのですんごく短い曲ですが、この世界観の入り口として
思うがままに表現してみました。
ストレートな曲なのに、どのジャンルにも当てはならない不思議な
曲です

（この曲に限らず）私の曲は露骨でない和洋折衷を目指しています
１面ボスなのですんごく短い曲ですが、この世界観の入り口として
思うがままに表現してみました。
ストレートな曲なのに、どのジャンルにも当てはならない不思議な
曲です

Unused Stage 1 Dialogue#

In 0.07a of Perfect Cherry Blossom, an unused dialogue line was added at the end of Stage 1, but is not displayed in-game.

    はて

    こんなといろに家があったわ

    Hmm

    I had a house in a place like this.

Others#

• Boss life bars are a simple colored bar, which gained some gradient colors in later versions.

Trial Plus	Final

• Boss marker does not dim when the boss is shot; it stays static in earlier demos.
• Unlike late demos, neither the player nor the bosses have the "Power of Spiritual Border" cut-ins when their spellcard is activated in early demos. Their portrait cut-in differs when they appear as well - in early demos they appear from the left of the screen and fade out as it enlarges, similar to Embodiment of Scarlet Devil's cut-in. Late demos have them fading in from the bottom and panning upwards before fading out.

Trial Plus	Final

• Pause screen does not display the chosen difficulty level at the bottom-right corner of the play screen. In addition to that, Trial Plus demo does not play the pause jingle and the music will continue playing.

Trial Plus	Final

• Graphics that appear with the stage's introduction are absent in the early demos.

Trial Plus	Final

• Like most Touhou demos until Phantasmagoria of Flower View, all music in the game is played only in MIDI synth. The final release has the option for both MIDI and WAV synth. This is, however, not the case with the Trial Plus demo, as it allows the use of both WAV and MIDI synth.
• Replaying demos in Trial Plus lacks the three playing speed options offered in the final, which allows playing the replay normally, slow mode (simulates in-game slowdown) and boss mode (speeds up stages and plays boss fights at normal speed).

EOSD	Trial Plus	Final

• The HUD for the Cherry Bonus behaves differently when the player character flies close between the earliest demo, v0.05, and the late trials. When there is a player character at the left corner of the screen in v0.01, the Cherry Bonus bit will slide to the left and appear to the right side of the playing screen and vice versa. Starting from v0.05, the Cherry Bonus display will dim when the player character is on top of it. The whole Cherry Bonus display is overhauled by the late demos.
• In the score tally screen, the Player Penalty text for the Trial Plus version bleeds to the edge of the playing screen, and this is fixed by v.0.05.