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Also the orbs are 5 like the one's in Sariel's 4th background.
The images in the orbs are also interesting, I think they are:
-A title screen for the game, that got scrapped for whatever reason
-A torii with fire or mountains, not sure if it's the same as the one in the first stages in the shadows of fire or if it's meant to be a different one, maybe one connecting the normal world to Hell/Makai.
-Another Sariel background
-The shrine before being destroyed
-A crater? As if there was an explosion destroying the shrine or something.

There's also that odd blue line that feels like it's a texture of some 3D models, like if there where some stairs or walls that are fully black except for that single blue line in the background.
But it doesn't seem to match the shrine background or any other background.

>>50674280
It's interesting how people derive so much meaning from things. I'm not saying that it's meaningless, just that I'm not that sure that ZUN put that much thought into it.

I think it’s more about the imagery.

The gateway and stairs(?) leading through them are obvious for that. The spirals are like (You) are walking through a tunnel or going through a portal. Reimu is part of that because she, too, is your gateway into the world of the game.

And maybe the balls are there to look cool idk.

Couldn't those balls be a representation of the Hakurei Barrier, with the grey point marking the Hakurei Shrine?

>>50674280
my theory is zun slammed way to much sake and just pasted shit together in an image editor. hrtp has zero depth and is no where close to canon, even more so than the other pc98 titles.

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>>50677109
>hrtp has zero depth and is no where close to canon
HRtP is the only canon Touhou game, all the others are alternate universe spinoffs and are semi-canon at best

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>>50674303
>Also the orbs are 5
Whops, there are 6 in the shrine BG. I was thinking it was odd for me to just have noticed this just as I was writing that post.

>>50676480
I'm not sure if there are any stairs at the Hakurei Shrine shown at any of the PC98 games, SoEW stage 1 also seemingly has no stairs.
Latter games and mangas seem to show stairs very close to the gateway though.
But the dithered lines in the background look kind of stair-like.

>>50675313
Fair, it feels like some things he does things quite subconsciously. Or maybe things just feel like they have more depth due to his inspirations having more depth.
Other times there seems to be a conscious process like on the spheres of Sariel.

>>50676485
I mean, the gray point is at the East, but I thought they where representing Sariel's magic messing the shrine.
The tiny ball on top of the torii also seems to have something purple inside, maybe the remains of the shrine's building. Or just ZUN messing up the colors.

>>50677877
Blessed artist. Maybe the idea of the shrine stage having a water comes from picrel now that I think of it.
But I also thought that maybe ZUN wanted to add rain and ripples like he did in SoEW but didn't figure out how to make those effects until then.

>>50677109
>muh canon
Look at this retard.

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>>50674280
The Hakurei Shrine specifically is barely seen in any game, except for endings and fighting games.
Still the thing that seems to have stayed the same is the river at SoEW that could be the same one as the one appearing in LLS as well as the EoSD one.

>>50676485
Going by HRtP and PC98 the barrier should rather be between the real world and where youkai, magic/demons and such reside.
I guess that it feels like it gets weaker as time passes, especially the Makai barrier considering MS.

>>50674303
I assume the textures used by the balls are not anywhere in the game files? Because it would be interesting to see them without the fisheye effect, especually the Reimu pic.

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>>50674280
>Mirage System (CG Tsukuru 3D2)
Awesome, I always wanted to recreate these images. Some are successful than the other.
Annnd can't find the exe in question. Not sure I can even emulate it.

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>>50674280
>>50688755
>3D2
WTF man
Like the first 2hu game had 3d? Is that like the model used in the first stages, but rotated?
I mean I heard the pc98 had some limited 3d games like a shitty DOOM port but I did not expect 3d models to be in any game before EoSD.

>>50692093
>Like the first 2hu game had 3d?
Nope anon, these are prerendered backgrounds. They're just images.

Yep, prerendered backgrounds like many games did. The file names of the game backgrounds end in .GRP.png because GRP is a file extension for pictures used in the PC98
No clue how they would run if they actually 3D. future games only kind of imitate 3D here and there but no there's real 3D until EoSD.
>>50674280
>>50688755
If you compare both torii they look different the one in game seems to have sharp edges with yellow pixels and the other one has some yellow strings or edges where the logs join. So it's a different 3D model.

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>>50688755
On public sites I can only find the pdf for the manual with a picture of the floppy (so close yet so far)
There was a post some time ago talking about development for the PC98 >>50574864
Your best bet might be to try some contact at:
https://pc98.ne.jp/contact.htm
Since it's the most likely place to find anything besides maybe some Japanese site or users. But the Japanese aren't big on conserving old stuff usually.

>>50714728
Dam, I must have deleted accidentally the first part of my post...

Anyways:
The stage is called Hokora which are mini shrines dedicated to minor deities not enshrined in the main shrine. Makes me wonder if the first Hell stages are actually still in the proximity of the Shrine and not in Hell itself. But who knows what ZUN was thinking.

The Hokora, look like simple houses and have an infinity symbol for some reason as well as some glowing orbs (spirits?) emanating from one or maybe traveling between the mini shrines... the ground looks a bit like a Zen garden too

The blueish background with very calm looking houses kinda feel like Former Hell.
Funny that like in SA you have first more relaxed scenery and then more hellish in the later stages.