Game:

Labyrinth of Touhou 2 (2013)

Duration: 7:34

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Shadow Reimu and Marisa are one of the last doppelgangers unlocked on B10F and they're very much like their playable incarnations: Reimu has support skills and specializes in SPI while Marisa is more about offense while specializing in MYS). Because these two rely on just these two elements, items like Dhylec and Bikkebakke's/Younger Brother's Mushrooms are very good for this fight. Here are these item's effects:

Dhylec: +172 to MYS and SPI Resistance, +100% MND
Mushrooms: +128 to MYS, SPI, DRK and PHYS Resistance, +144% MND

Dhylecs can be grinded from Red Rum enemies on B8F and B9F or crafted. The Mushrooms can also be grinded but you also have the option of buying them from Akyuu's Infinity Gem store.

Anyway, back to the doppelgangers; both heroines seem to have higher MND than DEF and both share "weaknesses" in PHYS (which they are only neutral to) and PSN (which is a real weakness but isn't as helpful as you'd expect: mainly because Reimu is likely to heal away the damage, but also because of quickly the ATB moves in this fight).

Marisa is the weak link in this duo. Unlike her partner, all of her stats can be debuffed consistently. She's vulnerable to TRR and SIL, and more vulnerable to SHK than you'd expect. And she's weak to the four natural affinities (FIR, CLD, WND and NTR). Even her arsenal is a bit underwhelming; while she can still score kills thanks to Reimu, she lacks anything as threatening as Shadow Yuuka''s Master Spark or her Abyssal counterpart's mana drain. Marisa has two patterns she sticks to, depending on whether Reimu is dead or not. Neither are that dangerous on their own. You can read about them on the Touhou Wiki.

Reimu is the main threat. Stat wise, she is neutral to everything but SPI (which she strongly resists), DRK (which she mostly resists) and MYS. Her weakness to MYS is actually a little deceptive; while Reimu IS weak to MYS, all MYS attacks will have to contend with Reimu's MND stat (which is impressive, even before factoring potential buffs). Basically, some MYS attackers may not perform as well as you'd hope. In terms of ailments, Reimu is weak to HVY (and PSN, as previously mentioned) and... that's it. You can occasionally land TRR and SIL, and SPD debuffs will actually work, but she's not weak to much else.

When it comes to offense, Reimu has a few tricks up her sleeve. First off: yes, she can heal and buff just like she can as a playable character. Unlike Marisa, who follows a specific pattern, Reimu can choose to heal or buff multiple times in a row if she really wants to (the fact that Reimu stops using either move once Marisa is dead is why she's probably intended to be killed second). The simplest attacks you'll be dealing with are Light Arrow (single target SPI) and Fantasy Seal (AOE SPI). Reimu also has the generic Paralyzing Fog attack, which can catch you off-guard if you're not expecting it.

Reimu's most troublesome moves are her Yin Yang Orb and Half-Moon Slash. The orb deceptively targets DEF instead of MND. It's not bad in a vaccum, but because your equips are probably dedicated to HP, MND and affinity already there's not going to be much room for DEF resistance too. Half-Moon Slash, isn't anything new but if Reimu uses it just as Marisa is about to use Asteroid Belt, your front row is going to be in pretty bad shape. The only real "defense" for this is to keep your front row healthy as possible. Doing this, while also debuffing the duo and sneaking in attackers, is this fight in a nutshell.

...Though I didn't do the "sneak in attackers" part. I just had Ran in Slot 4 safely buffing the rest of the party. With my three tanky supports in Slot 1, 2 and 3, and Ran (and then Kanako) in Slot 4, it was pretty easy to prepare my party for an all-out attack. The formation is pretty obvious, all that needs mentioning is that I specifically micromanaged the front row with the goal of keeping the first three slot characters above 130K HP. 130K HP was more than enough to tank whatever Reimu and Marisa could throw at them in back-to-back turns.

Once you kill one of the Shadows, the remaining Shadow's behavior changes too. Though IMO If you can survive the duo's combined onslaught, you really shouldn't have much trouble with the solo heroines. Not that you can tell, as I killed both at the same time here :P

Actually, I did redo this fight, twice, just to see how both versions were like. Both versions (Reimu last and then Marisa last) will be going up tomorrow. I'd recommend watching them if you want a more detailed explanation of my strategy here (can't get into it here, beause I'm close to hitting YouTube's word limit for descriptions...)

Music is "Rebel of the War God's Five Weapons ~ REBELLION God Force" from Infinite Blade Pavilion

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