Should You Pull? Festival: Immortal Sun & Zombie?!

Pretty easy No. The new featured Friend, Yoshika Miyako, is unfortunately an underwhelming defensive General unit that has heavy Yin DEF buffs, but has just as much Focus UP that endangers her well-being. Toyosatomimi no Miko is definitely the better of the two and a very functional Festival Friend, serving more as a Solo-target nuke that can set up quickly and provide easy Sun and Metal breaks. Yoshika isn’t downright unusable, but definitely pales in comparison to the majority of the cast. There is a new featured 5* Story Card as well, Dancer In The Puddle, which is a rather impressive 1.75 Spirit Power UP with some rather hefty Yang ATK and DEF stat sticks. It might not beat Witch of Scarlet Dream’s Spirit P restoration, but it is still a great option, especially for Yang-centered Friends.

What seals this prayer’s fate as a lower pick is its co-runners. B2 Junko’s Ultra Festival is the definitive “meta” Friend to go for at the moment, being insanely strong. Additionally, while some of the Friends present might not be incredible for modern standards, Spring Festival of Sword’s Yuyuko Saigyouji, Watatsuki no Yorihime, and Tenshi Hinanawi will likely have more use over Miko and definitely hold more value than Yoshika. 

One of the better parts of this prayer is its Ascending God Crystal Step-UP, meaning you can perform 10-pulls starting at 60 God Crystals and increasing the cost by 100 for 4 more steps (60-160-260-360-460). This is a rather low-cost way to try for the featured content while producing an easy 10 Fortune Dust, but praying beyond that is questionable.

While Yoshika might not be added to the General Pool immediately, she comes at a discounted 100 Exchange Points to exchange for compared to Miko’s 150 required Exchange Points. This means it is slightly cheaper to guarantee adding Yoshika to your team, if you truly desire her. Additionally, Dancer In The Puddle costs 50 Exchange Points to exchange for, which might be a good deal for some Spirit P restoration cards.

+ Good amount of self-Yin DEF buffs
+ Able to heal off some damage, helpful for a Defense unit
+ Average Water breaker, with 3 breaks per spell and 4 on LW
- Heavy Focus UP can heavily screw over Yoshika’s defenses
- Greedy buffer; little team utility
- Unimpressive damage on LW

+ Great burst damage to singular targets
+ P0 All-targeting Sun on a Basic Shot
+ Self Charge makes her easy to support
+ Decent amount of teamwide Accuracy and Yin ATK support
- Can't hit as hard as the highest tier of attackers, and her support doesn't make up for that
- Yin ATK support isn't particularly helpful with top-tier attackers and Miko doesn't benefit from it herself

[Numbers in brackets are buffs at Max Limit Break and Max Enhance]

• Spirit Power 1.25 [1.75] UP.

• Liquid DMG from enemy 15% [20%] DOWN (2T)

• Yang ATK +20 [+80] and Yang DEF +40 [+100]

Not much of Yoshika Miyako’s life from back when she was alive is known, as now she merely serves as Seiga Kaku’s bodyguard and puppet. As a jiang shi, she still takes good care of her skin so that she doesn’t decompose. Thanks to her undead status, she does not feel pain and can even reincarnate minutes after losing bullet battles! (Not in LostWord though, that would be too overpowered.) It can be assumed that she is still defensive about her past life, often seen wandering and guarding gravestones. When Seiga is not around, it is almost as if she reverts to her previous personality, as she can be seen reading poetry and is even unaware of who is controlling her. Of course, this is immediately taken away once the puppetmaster returns.

In LostWord, Yoshika retains her role as a puppet guard by being a Defense-oriented Friend. This comes both in defensive buffs, but she can also put herself back together (or…just heal her HP) through skills as well as her Draining ability from her spread shot, Soul Drain. Otherwise, Yoshika uses her second spell, Desire Sign: Profit Desire Spirit Invintation, increases the Focus on herself by 2 levels with a 20% chance for another level (2T) to decrease the damage the rest of her team takes. She also increases her Accuracy with the same numbers, actually giving her some self-Accuracy support. Finally, Wind Between the New Willows Like a Comb Through Hair is her Last Word attack that gives a strong 3 levels of Yin DEF UP (3T) alongside 4 more levels of Focus UP (3T). This is an All-target attack that is unfortunately rather weak, with mediocre Hard scaling and overall underwhelming damage. At the very least it can have a decent 4 Water breaks, paired with the 3 Water breaks on each of her spells to make her serve as a fine Water element breaker.

As for her skills, it’s basically more of the same. Her third skill, Eater of Spirits, provides 2 levels of Yin DEF UP…as well as even more Focus UP (2T). She gives herself 0.5 Spirit Power as well as an unimpressive but fine enough Spirit P increase. Her second skill, Grave Guard, holds her only team-wide buff, increasing everyone’s Yin DEF by 2 levels with a 50% chance for an extra level (2T). Finally, her first skill, Respawn, holds a 25% HP restoration to help Yoshika survive longer. And she really needs it, as this skill also increases her Focus once again by 3 levels (3T).

Here is the problem with these huge Focus UP buffs, which is well over 10 levels even if you are unlucky with Desire Sign: Profit Desire Spirit Invintation. While Focus takes the function of “aggro” in other RPGs, where the unit with higher Focus is more likely to be targeted, a rework of Focus makes it so an All-target attack has Friends with higher Focus absorb a higher percentage of damage compared to the other Friends. This skews the value of defensive tanks toward those with Barrier Restoration, as not blocking these ridiculously high damaging All-attacks that, in a way, counteract the built-up defense buffs, will kill the tank too early. As you can see, Yoshika has none of this, making her destroy herself just as quickly as she builds up her defenses. 

It’s a very in-character move for the jiang shi, as her only purpose as a mind-controlled puppet is to protect her master from oncoming offenses. Sadly, as interesting as it is, it doesn’t give her any extra value as a playable Friend. Still, if you play carefully around her Focus buffs and make sure she doesn’t kill herself, Yoshika can be a handy Water breaker who might get in some decent hits every now and then.

Toyosatomimi no Miko was, in years past, the legendary figure known as Prince Shotoku. In real life, he was an individual who was more notable in death, due to a cult which rose with him at the helm. In Touhou Project, they weren’t much different - just like the real life Shotoku, the Crown Prince spread Buddhism far and wide. However, unlike the real life Shotoku, this was for a different reason.

Shotoku was born as a genius, who could listen to ten people talk at the same time. A genius whom all looked up to from a young age, due to their ability to provide saintly wisdom. A genius who was dissatisfied with life, with mortality, with being merely human. From their desire to defy death, Shotoku was approached by a hermit known as Seiga Kaku, who taught them the ways of Taoism - to become truly immortal, and rule forever. Whilst a useful religion to gain power from, which would eventually result in tales of their heroic feats passing into legend, it was less than useful for calming the soul of a violent nation - enter Buddhism which forbad killing, a most useful religion for a turbleunt, murderous land. Shotoku spread it simply to make the country stable, whilst behind the scenes following Taoism in the pursuit of immortality. Unfortunately said pursuit resulted in their body being ruined by cinnabar, and as such, they opted to pursue a different form - becoming a Shikaisen.

By making it seem like to the world itself they had died, they would be resurrected - and in an ideal form for them no less. However, this was a fearsome process, and so she had her vassal Mononobe no Futo and consort Soga no Tojiko test it first. Satisfied as they slept without decaying, Miko performed the ritual as well and slumbered within their mausoleum, planning to wake up to lead the people of Japan as their true administrator, in her perfected body, as a perfect saint.

Then the faction of Buddhism wisened up to her bullshit and promptly sealed Miko’s grave. 

Over time, the people of Japan began to believe youkai and the supernatural to be merely myths and legend - and as such, shouldn't the tales of Prince Shotoku, he who accomplished unbelievable feats, be considered fiction? As a result, Miko’s mausoleum wound up being transported to Gensokyo, fading into the land of myth and legend. Unfortunately at the exact same time, a faction of Buddhists led by Byakuren Hijiri wound up in Gensokyo, and promptly built their temple atop the mausoleum to prevent Miko’s resurrection. Eventually though, the seal simply broke, and Miko was at last resurrected during the events of Ten Desires - looking much different with her resurrected body than she did in life, as showcased by an amusing ending to Ten Desires in which Sanae Kochiya is utterly baffled by how Miko looks nothing like the Prince Shotoku on a ten thousand Yen bill. Now, she seeks to build power once more, within this new land - and sure, she'll lend you her considerable power. Those tales of her heroic feats were based on something after-all!

The majority of Miko’s power is in her Solo targeting Last Word - Heed the Commands with Absolute Care. With a 1-1-3 layout, and 50%/0%/0%/0%/70%/70% Slicing and 0%/0%/0%/0%/0%/80% Hard (complimented by a pre-attack effect of 2 levels of Agility UP (3T)) you’d think it was suited for longer fights - however, her second skill, Tatsuta Protection, provides the Crown Prince with 2 Spirit Power UP to abuse this and instantly deal high damage as well as 2 levels of Yang DEF UP. However, the Yang DEF UP is simply icing, due to the scaling on her Last Word being somewhat lackluster. Her first skill, Shoutoku’s Swords compliments this further with 2 levels of Accuracy (3T) and Yang ATK (2T) UP. For more evasive foes, her Character Ability grants her 1 level of Accuracy UP (1T) for each Boost - in other words, 5 levels of Accuracy UP between the two. Finally, her third skill, Tsunashiki Shaku, gives her Charge to make her easier to support - and somewhat oddly, 2 levels of Yin ATK UP (3T). 

Whilst not strictly detrimental, Miko’s kit does have some of this oddness elsewhere as well. Her Last Word, on top of the Agility UP, also has 2.5 levels of CRIT ATK UP (2T), which is rather out of place given her lack of CRIT focus. Additionally her first Spell Card, Discernment: Laser of Seventeen Articles, grants her whole team 2 levels of Yin ATK UP (2T) - a somewhat odd choice for a Yang attaker, and decent support for less powerful Friends - unfortunately, more meta units will already have a ton of Yin ATK UP to begin with, though even they will benefit from it in multi-wave situations like Arena. It also packs 2 Sun and Metal All targeting Breaks for 3 Spirit Power total. 

Her other notable attacks are rather better off: Influence of the East, her Spread Shot, has an impressive 1 All targeting Sun Break for 0 Spirit Power, making it highly spammable. Additionally her second Spell Card, Light Sign: Halo of the Guze Kannon, has an average 1/2/2/3 All targeting Sun Breaks for 0/1/2/3 Spirit Power, as well a 2 levels of Accuracy UP (2T) with a 50% chance for 1 more level for her entire party. 

Overall, Miko’s a solid nuker, with a smidge of Accuracy and Yin ATK support. She’s certainly great, but not truly top tier. Just make sure to heed the commands with absolute care, lest she begin to lecture you about properly following her orders and why she’s the only one fit to lead you and Gensokyo.