Touhou

[Agent of Dread]

I watched a 'perfect' clear of UFO Stage 6 on Lunatic, and you're right about that slowdown being ridiculous. Her nonspells are even crazier, though.

@Wizard Fox Thoughts: Just how small are you tapping? If you give it a tiny nudge, you should move over enough to be out of the trajectory of the bottom point of the pattern, and if you sit tight right beside it nothing should hit you. If that really doesn't work, then I'm not sure what will save you.

[Agent of Dread]

Make it happen, Ubisoft.

[Agent of Dread]

Hey, Shade. I just managed to catch Royal Flare as Reimu B (significantly more difficult than Marisa A in my experience; you can usually get away with just the first two rings with her I think), so I snagged the replay if you want to study it or something.

http://www.mediafire.com/?w8najztg3cai8an

Don't mind three of the stupidest deaths you will ever see either.

[Shade]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it when I next attempt EoSD's Extra Stage.
(...which may be a while, haha.)

[octagon]

I didn't know Hisoutensoku is this awesome.

[Agent of Dread]

The visual effects are very nice. I really need to hurry up and 1cc MoF so I can play Suwako, since she seems like the most quirky moveset of the lot.
Komachi, Youmu and Marisa are all very good too.

[Agent of Dread]

Spoiler: Friggin' amazing.

Oh god, why is this not higher res. WHY. ;~;

[octagon]

Quirky doesn't begin to describe it. For most of her moves, there's little to no connection between the pressed direction keys and executed actions, so you have to memorize her moveset to accomplish anything, though many people fare well with only a handful of moves.

I'm pretty horrible with Komachi, since she's pretty much entirely based on zoning, which is something I'm definitely not good at, and punishing, which I can do better with Alice.
My favourite characters to play as are Patchouli (at newbie levels, you can play her in a hilariously spammy style, even though I've heard she's actually more of a defensive character), Sanae (her summons and wind gimmicks are very fun to use!), Yukari (her moveset is very easy to memorize and gives you a lot of control, and her nonchalant, mischievous "I'm just toying with you" sprites are just awesome), Tenshi (I can't really make use of her ridiculous combo potential, but her special moves, good melee attacks and mobility make her a fun offensive character) and Marisa (and she has some of the funnest spellcards and alternative specials in the game).
Technically, Reimu is probably the character I probably won the most matches with, but only because I love trolling with her carpet, headfirst gohei spin and teleport (especially the carpet).

[Agent of Dread]

Marisa is great because her entire game consists of play keep away > punish with crazy rainbow lazahs. And also the bloomers.

Patchy is too slow for my tastes. Unless your judgement is really good you rarely have time to pass the startup on most of her moves.

Sakuya seemed pretty cool, but I should play her and the other characters some more and learn them better.

[Agent of Dread]

Well, I 1cc'd MoF. Kanako isn't really all that hard, and I'm seeing a lot of parallels with Remilia in her battle.
Suwako's pretty WAT. though. Her first spellcard I... I just... okay. .-.

[Agent of Dread]

Octy and I just confirmed that Hisoutensoku from Germany to Australia should never happen ever.

[octagon]

And that Yukari's fast bullet moves are pretty overpowered in high-latency games.

[Agent of Dread]

Man, Koishi looks fun, and the stage component looks relatively tame; lot slower than the other ones. Shame I won't beat Utsuho any time soon. x(

[Shade]

and the stage component looks relatively tame

It is. It's the only EX Stage so far that I can beat without bombs. (Up to the boss, that is.)
The drawback is that this same EX Stage doesn't give you any extra lives until you're well into the boss fight with Koishi (and even then only if you're doing well to begin with). Have fun surviving that whole thing with just two extra lives.

Shame I won't beat Utsuho any time soon. x(

Have you "beaten" her at all yet, even with continues? Or better yet, are you playing on the pre-shipped savefile that comes with most English versions? If so, you could just keep practicing Stage 6 until you get a feel for her. You need to understand how her spellcards work; beyond that, it's just a matter of staying focused (mentally, not in-game) in order to avoid messing up. Her non-spells are really simple, too.
Also, while this applies to any boss in the game, try really hard to have at least 3 power (7 for Marisa A) when facing her. When you need to bomb, bomb, obviously, but you'd be surprised how much easier bosses become when you need to endure their spellcards ~8 seconds less than if you faced them with 1 power less. You really, really don't want to fight Utsuho with 0 power if you can help it.

Utsuho's only really unreasonable spell is "Hell and Heaven Meltdown", to the point where it doesn't actually get any harder on Hard or Lunatic (lol). Not getting hit is fairly doable if you stay near the edges, but you most likely won't be able to damage Utsuho very often there; as a result, I usually end up accidently timing out the spellcard when I don't bomb. Timing out also means that you'll miss out on some extra power (and the final life piece) for her final spell, though, so you may want to simply bomb it.

[Agent of Dread]

I haven't managed it with continues either, even when I have a perfect run on the stage. :I
Fixed Star brutally mangles me right now, but I'm getting better at Nuclear Fusion and Mega Flare isn't really that bad to begin with; I'm pretty good with patience cards (and those odd doom fairies in stages 4 and 6 of UFO lol) where the solution appears in the last few moments or so.

Also, Koishi's Embers of Love spellcard looks like an easier version of Catadiotrophic, which is a true bastard of a spellcard.

On a completely unrelated note, Sakuya B in PCB is made of almost as much win as Marisa A. Her unfocus is amazing during the stages. Merlin is no fun though. x(