Game Review: Koumajou Densetsu II: Stranger's Requiem

A sequel to Koumajou Densetsu Scarlet Symphony which came out in 2009. A doujin game created by Frontier Aja. It is a combination of Touhou and Castlevania.

The game plays like a Castlevania game where you move through maps and fight monsters along the way and at the end of the stage there is a boss. However unlike Castlevania there are Touhou elements like bosses using danmaku (curtain fire) attacks in addition to melee attacks. You play as Sakuya Izayoi and she plays like Alucard from Castlevania. There are four difficulty options in the game, easy, normal, hard and phantasm. Easy can be completed without retries but to completed hard and phantasm mode, alot of time is needed to memorize the stages layout and boss patterns.

After playing through a stage you may get a partner as an assist sub weapon.Sub weapons consume a resource called souls which can be obtained by killing monsters or destructible items in the stage.  Three sub weapons can be selected before the start o the next stage. There is also a magic bar system like in Castlevania Symphony of the Night. The magic bar is used to fly for a while and while flying you can use and aerial attack which uses up the magic bar. Flying is necessary to avoid certain obstacles or bosses danmaku patterns.

The games music features well remixed music of the Castlevania series with some elements of Touhou music mixed into them. There are also vocal songs featured.

The best part of the game is that it features voice acting by professional Seiyuu some with notable voice actors such as Miyuki Sawashiro(Canaan, Saeko Busujima), Aya Endo (Sheryl Nome, Miyuki Takara, Eclair), Satomi Sato (Ritsu Tainaka, Manami Tamura), Haruka Tomatsu (Lala Satalin Deviluke, Asuna Yuuki).

This game is a great game to play even if you have never played Touhou or Castlevania before. It is very challenging and fun to play.



Score: 7.5