Mind you, the Extra stage still isn't unlocked. I'm guessing I need to beat the game again with a team that goes up against Reimu instead of Marisa.
It's a bit simpler than that. To avoid spoilers, you need to beat the game twice without continues.
Oh, OK. I'll still probably TRY winning with Team Scarlet, but its nice to know I have alternatives. Or I could go with the team I haven't tried, Marisa/Alice. Decisions, decisions.
A MUCH more satisfying own:
I.
Beat.
Ran.
Don't actually know how many tries it took. Chen's first spell sign's counter stopped incrementing at 99, but I often restart if Chen takes more then one life. Ran's first spell sign's counter was around ~80ish, so that's probably a more realistic number. Still, I finally prevailed. Fluffiness and dakka are no match for DETERMINATION and caffeine.
Not sure how, honestly. Got to her survival sign quite well off, only losing lives to her laser swastika and black hole. I honestly just bombed my way through her Fluffytail Cage, knowing full well her ultimate spell sign would wreck me while I was defenseless.
Her final sign isn't actually THAT bad. I was able to dodge most of it quite easily, my heart in my mouth because I had no lives left. Her dakka intensified until I couldn't find a path through and I lost. ...Or so I thought. I honestly don't know where my extra life came from, I'll have to go over the replay to see if I just got distracted and miscounted or if I got another one somewhere. In any case, my new life endowed me with four bombs[Sakuya FTW] and allowed me to cheese the rest of her spell sign.
EDIT:
OK, apparently I got over the 500 point threshold for the second extra life after Kokkuri-San's Contract and just didn't notice.
now i just have to deal with yukari, flandre and whoever the IN extra boss is
oughta be easy
Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom