Game review: Touhou Project Series

Hello everyone I am Brandon. I will also be doing reviews on games

Today I am do doing a review on Touhou Project

Touhou Project is a Japanese doujin game series which is mainly a danmaku game. Danmaku games are a sub category of Shoot ‘em up games is similar to regular shooting games similar to Raiden and Ikaruga but requires players to react faster to avoid patterns of bullets of various shapes, sizes and patterns.

The Touhou project series is created by Team Shanghai Alice which has only one member, ZUN who does all the graphics, story, music and programming. The first Touhou game came out in 1996 and was a “Brick-Breaker” game for the PC-98 series of computers, the later games then became danmaku games with the exception of the spin-off fighting games.

The events of the game occurs in the fictional land of Gensokyo. Gensokyo is a plot of land in japan that is separated from the outside world. In Gensokyo exist various types of yōkai like kappas, spirits, and tengu. Once in while an event called an “incident” occurs. This is where the main characters Reimu Hakurei the shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine or some other characters go and resolve these incidents.

The gameplay revolves around defeating enemies while avoiding bullets. There are six stages in total for each game with each stage having a mid-boss and a boss. By beating the game in any mode other than easy mode the player will unlock the extra stage which is usually the most difficult stage in the game. Unlike Shoot ‘em up games Touhou features two new systems. The character and the bullets have a smaller hit box than what appears in the screen so it is possible to avoid barrages that look unavoidable. Another feature is the focus button. The focus button makes the character move slower, makes the shot more concentrated into one area, and allows the player to see the actual hit box of the character.

The game’s main feature would be its bullet patterns. The patterns aren’t just hard to avoid but also look very beautiful. The patterns also have different types such as movement restriction patterns and patterns that require you to move around alot. This also means that most of the bullets are not aimed at the player which makes the look game harder than it actually is. The backgrounds are not very detailed but fits the theme of the stage.

Touhou’s strongest area would be its music. The music is very nice to listen to while playing and it matches each stage’s theme and each game has a different theme of music. Also during game play the music is made so that enemy’s appearance on the screen and attacks match the music’s timing. The music of Touhou Project is so popular that there are many doujin circles making remixes. I found a 1.2 TB music collection torrent!

Overall I would say that it is a very enjoyable game. I would recommend it to those who are looking for a challenge or to those who like Shoot ‘em up games. Though it would seem difficult it is actually not very hard one you have played it for a while.

Score :8.5/10