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Controls[]

Immaterial and Missing Power may be played using either a keyboard or a gamepad.

The default keyboard controls for Player 1 are as follows:

  • The Arrow Keys move the character.
  • The Z key corresponds to the A button.
  • The X key corresponds to the B button.
  • The C key corresponds to the C button.
  • The V key corresponds to the D button.

Character movement will be represented using the button placement found on the numpad of a typical PC keyboard.

7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3

The number 6 will denote the forward button, and the number 4 the backwards button. Note that this means that 6 means moving right for the character on the left, but moving left for the character on the right of the screen. To avoid confusion, we'll always assume that your character is on the left side of the screen. The number 2 is the down button, and the number 8 is the up button.

The numbers 7, 9, 1, and 3 indicate the diagonal directions, which can be simulated on a keyboard by pressing the two appropriate direction keys. For example, pressing 8 and 6 simultaneously would be the same as pressing the number 9.

Fighting games today usually require you to quickly press a bunch of buttons in sequential order to make your character perform a unique action, and Immaterial and Missing Power is no different. For example, 66 would indicate pressing the forward button twice, sending the character into a forward dash. 236B would indicate pressing down, down-forward, forward, and then B (by default the X key for player 1).

Note that the number 5 in this system is not necessary, but is sometimes used to specifically indicate that no direction is pressed at all.

(Confirmation needed)

For keyboards without the traditional number pad, the Direction Key Pad are used. As there are no keys for diagonal directions, players can only press two keys to produce a diagonal movement. Pressing Up and Right will give the same movement of 9 on a number keypad, and Down and Left, 1 etc.

In most of the game documentation, the A, B, C, D notation is used for button presses. However, confusingly, in readme.txt, P, K, and S are sometimes used instead, with presumably P meaning A and K meaning B. Even more confusing, S is used to denote both C and D.

Basic Gameplay[]

Immaterial and Missing Power plays like a fighting game in most respects. Two characters fight each other on screen with a variety of moves until one player runs out of health.

Besides a health bar, each player has a spirit bar, a spellcard counter, and a bomb counter. Each player also has a score.

Movement[]

Moving around is generally similar for all characters, though each character may have some differences in movement and speed.

  • 6 and 4 move the character forwards and backwards respectively.
  • 2 causes a character to crouch.
  • 7, 8, and 9 cause a character to jump, either backwards, straight up, or forwards, respectively.
  • 66 causes the player to dash forward and to graze (explained later). If the player holds 6 down, some characters will dash farther.
  • 44 causes the player to dash backward and to graze (explained later). If the player holds 4 down, some characters will dash farther.
  • 27, 28, and 29 will cause a character to perform a super jump. This jump will cause a character to jump higher and farther than usual, and grazes as well.

Note that the details of dashing vary from character to character. In addition, all characters may perform airdashes by pressing 66 or 44 while in the air. Characters can only perform a limited number of airdashes before landing; most characters can only perform 2, though Remilia can perform 3.

Also, note that dashing and super jumping can be performed with an alternate method.

  • D + 6 is effectively the same as 66.
  • D + 4 is effectively the same as 44.
  • D + 7, D + 8, and D + 9 are effectively the same as 27, 28, and 29 respectively.

Standard Moves[]

All characters have a set of standard moves. Note that A and B both have two different effects, depending on the distance to the opponent; that is, pressing A while close to the opponent will produce one move, but pressing A while farther away (the exact distance depends on the selected character) will produce another. The first move will simply be referred to as A, the second will be referred to as sA; similarly for B and sB.

  • A and B are generally fast melee attacks.
  • 2A and 2B are generally low, fast melee attacks.
  • 6A and 6B are generally slow, powerful melee attacks.
  • sA and sB are generally projectiles.
  • 2sA and 2sB are generally projectiles usually hitting lower than usual.
  • 6sA and 6sB are generally the same as sA and sB, or a version that is aimed higher.
  • C is generally a projectile.
  • 2C is generally a projectile usually hitting lower than usual.
  • 6C is generally the same as C, or a version of C aimed higher.

All these moves have a different version while in the air as well.

  • 66+A and 66+B, or A and B while dashing forward, are generally melee attacks that move the character forward more than usual. These moves sometimes graze as well, depending on the character.
  • 66+2A and 66+2B, or 2A and 2B while dashing forward, are generally low melee attacks that move the character forward more than usual. These moves sometimes graze as well, depending on the character.

Note that sA and sB act as normal while dashing.

Also note that these attacks vary greatly from character to character, and there is an exception to nearly every general description here.

  • 22A and 22B are Guard Crush attacks (explained later)
  • 22C uses a bomb.
  • 22D declares the character's spellcard (explained later). While declaring, the character is temporarily invincible.

Using a bomb performs a quick attack that knocks back the opponent if she is nearby. A character can only have 2 bombs at once, and one is consumed each use. Bombs are regained by collecting them, explained later.

Special Moves[]

In addition to the standard moves, characters have a set of special moves unique to them. The details of these moves are highly dependant on the character. A list of attack names followed by their corresponding key sequential order can be viewed in the character profiles screen in Story Mode and Arcade and when the player pauses in Practice Mode.

(Confirmation Needed) For players playing with the Direction Key Pad, the diagonal movements are not used in making a move. Below shows some common (Named) move sequences for DKP users respective to the sequences for Number pad users.

Touhou Suimusou – Immaterial and Missing Power – Named Moves

Again, assuming the player character is on the left, Front = 6 Back = 4 Down = 2 D. Lower Front = 3 D. Lower Back = 1

There are other unnamed moves.

Item Collection[]

When a character is hit, if she has any projectiles on screen, they are turned into items and automatically collected by the opponent. There are two types of items:

  • Spirit items, small blue squares marked with "霊" (Spirit), add to a player's spirit gauge. Most common item obtained.
  • Bomb items, large green squares marked with a B, add a bomb to a player's stock, though a player cannot have more than two bombs at once.

In addition, when a player is knocked down, the opponent is awarded several spirit items. Every third knockdown or so, the opponent is awarded a bomb item as well.

Health[]

Normally, a character has two bars of health. (Story Mode computer characters operate differently, explained later). The first health bar is white. As it decreases, it leaves a dark red section. If a player declares a spellcard, the health bar will be healed up to the end of the dark red section. The second health bar operates in a similar fashion, though it is bright red instead of white.

When a character loses a health bar, it ends the round. If the character lost her first health bar, she switches to the second; if she lost her second, she loses a life. If there is a next round, both characters have their health bars refilled to full and their spellcard counters reset to zero. Bombs are not affected by new rounds.

Blocking[]

When hit, a character can block if the player is holding a back direction (1, 4, or 7). If a character blocks an attack, the character takes far less damage, often none, but may suffer a penalty.

Melee attacks, when blocked "correctly" will incur no penalty. Some melee attacks can only be blocked correctly in some positions, however: either while standing, crouching, or in the air. For example, an attack that can only be blocked correctly standing, if blocked while crouching, will incur a penalty. The block effect will be red instead of blue, to signify that the attack was blocked wrong, and the blocking character will take a health and/or spirit penalty.

Guard crush attacks (22A and 22B) are special cases. If unblocked, they behave like powerful melee attacks. When blocking, though, 22A can only be blocked correctly standing, and 22B crouching. If blocked incorrectly, a character will lose all of her spirit instantly.

All grazable projectiles cannot be blocked correctly; if blocked, the player will suffer a small amount of health loss, sometimes only from the red section of health. The character will also take a spirit penalty.

Spirit[]

Spirit is needed to fire projectiles and perform some special moves. Normally, the spirit bar is blue. Firing projectiles and performing certain special moves will cost the player some spirit, depending on the move. If the player does not use any spirit for a second or two, the bar will start refilling by itself. Collecting spirit items will refill the bar quicker.

If a player runs out of spirit, then the bar will turn red, and the the player will not be able to use any projectiles or special moves at all until the bar refills and turns back to normal. In addition, if the player runs out of spirit due to blocking incorrectly, the character will be stunned for a few seconds as well. While spirit drained, sA and sB will behave simply like A and B. The bar will refill as normal, and spirit items will still increase the bar as usual.

Also, while spirit drained, blocking is different too. Melee attacks can only be blocked correctly. If blocked correctly, a different animation is used, and the character suffers a health penalty. If blocked incorrectly, the move simply hits as if it were not blocked at all. Projectiles can only be blocked on the ground; in the air, they will hit a spirit drained character regardless of blocking.

Grazing[]

While dashing or super jumping, or performing certain other moves, a character is grazing. While grazing, projectiles will pass through that character without causing any damage. Grazing a projectile will also destroy that projectile in some cases.

Spellcards[]

As a character fights, she will accumulate spellcards, to a maximum of 9. When a character declares(by hitting 22D), in addition to healing health to the red section, she will also be able to use these spellcards. Which spellcard the character uses is selected before the fight; each character chooses 2 of 6 spellcards, one to use while on the first, white health bar, and one to use while on the second, red health bar.

When a character declares a spellcard, the background darkens, a seal appears under the character, and a spellcard timer appears on screen. The length of this timer depends on how many spellcards the player has accumulated. If the timer reaches zero, the declaration ends, and the background and character return to normal. Note that as a character cannot declare more than once per round, at this point, the character will cease to accumulate spellcards and will no longer have a red section of health.

While a spellcard is declared, the character can use that spellcard, typically with 236D, though 214D works for some characters as well. A spellcard attack is a very powerful attack typically accompanied by great graphical extravagances. Each spellcard attack costs one spellcard, though if a player runs out of spellcards, the declaration still continues until the timer runs out.

Arcade Mode[]

In arcade mode, the player selects a character and accompaniment spellcards and fights members of the cast in semi-random order. The last four opponents are always Remilia, Yuyuko, Yukari, and Suika, in that order. Both the player and the opponent will have one life each. No continues are given, and no scores are recorded. The difficulty setting will affect the difficulty of the AI here.

Duel Human[]

Duel Human simply allows two human players to fight each other in a single battle with one life each.

There are additional options available by pressing the Pause button. The first row, with the checkbox is the option to turn autoblocking on or off. The second row is to change the character's attacking damage. (One star means the weakest, and five means the strongest)

You may also select the character's "Player 2" recolor by pressing D to select the character instead of A.

Pressing Pause when the choice of spellcards appear shows the power of the spellcard attack and the recovery time needed after performing the attack.

Duel CPU[]

Duel CPU is the same as Duel Human, except the player fights a computer. Again, the difficulty setting is taken into account.

Story Mode[]

Story Mode is the main mode for single player in Immaterial and Missing Power. In this mode, the player starts with three lives and fights 7 opponents. The opponents fought depend on the selected character, and there is a fair bit of dialogue between the fights.

The computer character follows quite different rules while in Story Mode. In particular, the computer's health bar is different. There are two different health bars the computer may have: a health bar that is mostly white with a bit of red at the end, and a completely red health bar. The computer will not have a dark red section of health. In general, while in a white portion of health, a computer player uses normal attacks, while red sections correspond to a spellcard.

For the red/white health bar, while in the white section, the computer will fight using all of the character's moves except declaration and, consequently, spellcards. While in the white section, the difficulty setting will affect the AI of the computer. Once the computer reaches the red section of health, the computer will declare a spellcard (it is impossible to interrupt this declaration). The actions of the computer will depend on the particular spellcard declared. Note that even though this section of health is very short onscreen, it actually takes quite a bit of damage to go through the red section of health.

For the completely red bar, the computer will simply declare a spellcard right away. It is basically the same as the red section of the red/white bar, though this time the red bar simply fills the whole gauge, though the amount of damage taken is probably about the same.

While declared in Story Mode, the computer can, and will, use spellcard attacks without regard to the spellcard counter; in fact, in story mode, the computer doesn't even have a spellcard counter. It also seems that many story mode spellcards can be used regardless of spirit, even if the computer is spirit drained.

Separate versions of the story mode spellcards exist for each difficulty level as well, with the more difficult spellcards typically involving more bullets and more damage.

A story mode spellcard does not have a timer. Instead, when the computer declares, a bonus timer will appear and begin counting down. If the player finishes the spellcard before the bonus timer runs out, the player is awarded a spellcard bonus of the amount left on the timer. In addition, if the player finishes the spellcard without using her own spellcards and without losing a health bar, a star is awarded next to the spellcard in the Result screen. Note that even if the bonus timer runs out, the spellcard will not end; the spellcard will continue to run until the computer is out of health.

The number and type of health bars the computer has depends on the stage. They are, in the order that the player faces them:

  • Stage 1 and Stage 2
    • Red/white
    • Red
  • Stage 3 and Stage 4
    • Red/white
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Note that after finishing stage 3, the player is awarded an extra life automatically.
  • Stage 5
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Red/white
    • Red
  • Stage 6
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Red
  • Stage 7
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Red/white
    • Red
    • Red
    • Red

The rules for player declaration in story mode are slightly different. Instead of rounds, fights in story mode are simply separated by the health bars of the computer, with each color in the red/white bar counting as a separate section. A player can only declare once per section. A player can carry spellcards from one section to the next if the player did not declare; however, if the player declares, any unused spellcards are discarded when the player moves to the next section. Spellcards are also carried if the player loses a section. Declaring restores life as normal for the player.

Practice Mode[]

In Practice Mode, you may try out the various cards and strategies in the game. In addition to auto healing the health bar, there are various commands in the ESC menu during battle.

Commands are as follows:

Spellcard [F1] Top, Middle, Bottom, 2nd Top, 2nd Middle, 2nd Bottom. This refers to the cards usually chosen at the start of a battle; the last three set you to have "died" once (have a red health bar) so you can use the second form of the spell.

Spellcard Level [F2/F3] 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

CPU Auto-Guard [F4] None, High, Low, Auto (she blocks where you attack)

Spirit Bar Recharge Speed [F5] 2x as fast, Normal

AI Mode [F6] Null, Walk towards, Jump, Normal AI. This changes what the Comp does during the practice Session.

CPU Movement [F7] Stationary, Move towards middle

Turn Off Spellcard [F8] Essentially sets the Spellcard's timer to 1 so it will run out.

Resume

Exit

Scoring[]

To be honest, I know very little about the scoring mechanism.



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