Welcome! This thread is here to talk about anything Touhou, whether it’s your experience with the main games, news, fan content, hamburgers, and MIDI trumpets.
But I know Touhou is about creepy porn/waifus and impossibly hard bullet curtains for masochists. That’s not for me!
Well, wait a second. When you hear “Touhou” on the internet, it's probably about the fanbase or fan content, and the characters are sometimes naked… and after that there are the ridiculous bullet-filled screenshots/videos that try their hardest to intimidate outsiders, but that's only the end if you want it to be! The image of Touhou in the eyes of passing observers is not even half of it. The games are really good, even if you aren’t very good at danmaku bullet hells, on Easy and Normal - those crazy Lunatic-difficulty videos are intimidating, but if you ever played games like Gradius III, Touhou isn’t in an entirely different universe. The art and story are PG-rated innocence, charm and fun, the music is great, and the gameplay is tight and arcadey and refined to the maximum degree year by year since 1995.
Beyond any fan material or ridiculous Lunatic 1cc runs, I think the games can stand on their own as a great franchise. It's a bit of a shame that on GAF and most places, Touhou is only associated with porn and moe - the main series goes a long way back and it’s super fun and is worth the attention! This OP is here to hopefully present this subtler side of Touhou for the people who don’t know about it, or just satisfy the curiosity of whoever cares. Give it a try!
But I don’t know what Touhou is!
It’s a series of 2D Shooters (abbreviated STGs), all made by 1 person commonly called ZUN, from art, to music, to coding. Originally, the games were made with inspiration from DoDonPachi and Darius Gaiden, designing shooters around a greater number of bullets in beautiful patterns. All games have difficulty levels, the easier ones being more like old school shooters if you’d add some more bullets and make them slower, and the harder ones completely filling the screen with fireworks.
ZUN makes repeated comments that the Touhou games attempt to fight the persisting trend of STGs overly complicating themselves with options and features, opting to let players simply have fun dodging bullets. And true enough, the series remains fairly simple and consistent throughout.
The charming art, setting and dialogue, and captivating bullet patterns and music, caught on with the Japanese doujin scene and Touhou became the subject of trillions of fan works, including music, manga, games, videos, cosplays, conventions, tropes, graffiti on abandoned walls in Mexico, and every other man-created division of entertainment. Some of them retain the original innocence and charm of the original series and some of them don’t. It’s safe to say that there are as many types of Touhou fan entertainment as there are types of entertainment in general.
Click here for the Touhou Beginners' Guide by Scher - for a simple and clear explanation of gameplay features to know if you’re new to the main Touhou games!
MAIN GAMES
The games are generally divided into the Retro Era (1-5), Classic Era (6-9), and Modern Era (10-current). Modern Era is split in 2 for reasons.
The series follows Reimu, a shrine maiden in Gensokyo, as she cruelly beats youkai into submission for messing with her. Sometimes she just beats people for no reason, too, but the important part is that they always deserve it. Each game follows a different incident.. but that’s the gist of it. The stories are always fun and the dialogue is hilariously silly and charming. Whether you read up on it or get it through playing the game, it’s enjoyable.
And you can buy them! Classic Era and up, there are plenty of places selling them here (+ on Amazon). They’re not too expensive, but obviously more expensive than they are in Japan. Almost all of the games have english patches.
And in a timely manner, one month ago at BitSummit 2014, ZUN announced his intentions to publish Touhou games digitally in the west. There’s no specific details yet, but it’s something to look forward to!
Retro Era
The Retro Era games were all made for a computer called NEC PC-9800/01 (or short PC-98), which means it's nigh impossible to find them, much less run them authentically. There are emulators to emulate the computer, provided the games (if you go that route, please use the emulator T98-NEXT, because it's the only one that can do the audio properly).
- Touhou 1: Highly Responsive to Prayers (1996) Wiki / Video
Technically finished in 1995 and released in 1996, it was only really made available alongside SoEW in Comiket 52 (1997). Combined with the fact it’s a completely different game from the rest of the series, this game is easily forgotten or just never discussed with the others to begin with.
The story follows Reimu as she looks for the culprit who wrecked her shrine, and the game plays a bit like Arkanoid. Notably it has the surprisingly good pixel art for the bosses, it’s hard as hell, the music is catchy, and.. it’s the start of everything. It’s a neat little game. And even though it’s really hard, the very very useful bombs lighten the pain significantly.
- Touhou 2: The Story of Eastern Wonderland (1997) Wiki / Video
It's generally regarded as the weakest "proper" (excluding HRtP) Touhou game, but it’s not bad overall. It introduces most of the ground the entire series stands on. Like with HRtP, you probably won’t see it mentioned anywhere ever again.
In the game Reimu investigates the sudden increase of monsters in her shrine, fights Marisa (who then stays next to Reimu as pretty much the second main character), and re-fights Mima who appeared as a small boss in HRtP. And it introduces these lovable ghosts:
- Touhou 3: The Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream (1997) Wiki / Video
Once again a completely different game from the previous two! Multiplayer, lots of characters and endings, and.. insane difficulty. The computer is a notorious cheater, the gameplay is unnecessarily complicated to an apathetic level, and the RNG decides who wins and dies. But even so, it’s a really fun shooter, especially in multiplayer.
For the premise, many different ladies in Gensokyo independently discover a cave, and decide to fight among themselves for the right to investigate. The game is second only to HRtP in how the plot and characters are ignored by the fandom, so anything you see there will stay there.
- Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story (1998) Wiki / Video
Either this or Mystic Square are regarded by most people as the best Retro Era Touhous, and more often than not, this one edges the other out. It has really good music, almost as many gameplay foundations as SoEW (such as focus and grazing), it made score more competitive/relevant, and is pretty replayable. All in all, as dated as it is, it’s a good game. Also, this is the game with the original Bad Apple that was famously remixed here!
As the story goes, youkai swarm the shrine area, and both Reimu and Marisa go off separately to give the culprit a lesson. Yuuka is introduced here and she appears later on too.
- Touhou 5: Mystic Square (1998) Wiki / Video
The final Touhou for the PC-98, and it's a pretty big send off. The gameplay is smoothed out, the stages and bosses are unique and fun, there’s a bunch of playable characters, and all-in-all it's the shiniest and sleekest Touhou for the PC-98, although it’s somewhat limited by the hardware. Like mentioned above, for most people it’s a close choice between this and LLS for the best PC-98 Touhou game, just for perspective.
Once again, demons and monsters flood out of a cave, prompting Reimu, Marisa, Mima and Yuuka to confront the one behind it all. Alice appears here first, too.
Classic Era
One innocent day in 2001, Touhou 6 - EoSD got released on Windows (finally!), and shortly after, all previous games stopped being sold. It was a serious reboot, with only 4 PC-98 characters appearing ever again, no more cheeky ghosts, an entirely separate canon, and much higher quality art, music and gameplay. This is where Touhou started growing to what it is today. As far as the grand majority of fans are concerned, Touhou started here and the previous games don’t exist. From here on, every game has tons and tons of characters that are everywhere in the fan content. You’ll recognize them all instantly if you look anywhere else Touhou-related.
Most people will tell you that games 6-7-8 are the "golden trilogy" of Touhou, introducing most of the popular characters, being everyone's favorite games in the series, with really good music and gameplay. You could say the combo of those 3 games one after another (and yearly, at that) is what made Touhou explode so big. These are the games to check out if you want to see a snapshot of what Touhou is, although for the most part, the whole series is consistent.
- Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (2002) Wiki / Video
Even among the Windows games, it's a lot of people's favorite Touhou game. The extra stage boss music, U.N. Owen was Her, is one of the most popular Touhou tracks (on the western side, at least), with crazy remixes left and right. The patterns, music, dialogue, are all amazing, and it’s a really fun game. In terms of features, it introduces auto-collect and counter-bombing (bombing on death to avoid it), both really important features. It’s a great complete package all around, and there’s even a patch to make it slightly more up to date with the latter games.
Reimu and Marisa set off to find the source of an annoying scarlet mist blocking the sun, and they arrive at a mansion where the mist comes from. Every single character is hugely popular, but Sakuya and Remilia are the MVPs here. The setting, Scarlet Devil Mansion, is everywhere in the fandom too.
- Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom (2003) Wiki / Video
It's somewhere around being the most referenced Touhou game in general. The most gameplay videos, the most fan content, the most everything. It’s safe to say that it slightly edges out EoSD and IN in being everyone’s favorite, too. If you can only check out one Touhou game, make it this one. Score is really competitive, music is great with one of the largest OSTs in the series, the story and characters are iconic, the player choices are diverse, two extra stages, and the first instance of a Touhou game having a game-unique feature.. it’s all here! Also notably, the first Reitaisai (Touhou convention) happened in 2004 after the game’s release, with a score attack competition of the game’s extra stage, and things snowballed from here.
Once again someone is causing trouble, this time stealing Spring from everywhere, so Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya set off with the intention of beating that someone’s butt. The cast is huge, with the center characters being Youmu and Yuyuko, and Ran and Yukari. Alice finally makes the jump from PC-98, after Marisa and Reimu, here.
Touhou 8: Imperishable Night (2004) Wiki / Video
It might have a tiny tiny bit less of a following than EoSD and PCB, but it's still the most refined of the 3 of them, with the biggest and most diverse/unique player selection in the series, and is generally regarded as having the best gameplay in terms of stages and bosses. Plenty of people confidently swear by it as being the best Touhou game, bar none. There are two stages which have 2 versions, depending on how you play, so it’s really fun. Also introduced here is the Last Spell system which, in boss battles, is a no-risk, hard pattern for points and bonuses if you clear it, and for the player, it’s just a more powerful counter-bomb that uses two bombs instead of one.
During the eve of the Harvest Moon Festival, someone replaced the moon with a fake moon! The youkai who noticed it team up with humans, stop time, and head to fix it before the festival is over. Mokou appears here, and somehow or another, Reisen is popular. Moon rabbits.
- Touhou 9: Phantasmagoria of Flower View (2005) Wiki / Video
More multiplayer! In structure it's really similar to PoDD (the only other game in this style) , except.. even harder. You will live and die by the AI's whims. With all the enhancements of the Classic Era, and with tons of characters (a whopping 16, almost double of PoDD), it’s a fun game. Just like PoDD, the gameplay system is completely over the top complicated, but it’s a good game nonetheless. There’s also a patch to play this over LAN or over the internet.
In what is the complete opposite of PCB, this time, there’s suddenly too much spring. Flowers bloom everywhere, and that’s really annoying, so everyone set off to see what’s going on. Yuuka makes the jump from PC-98 in this game, being the 4th and currently last character to do so. Shiki and Komachi appear here, in fact, they’re two of only three new characters in the game.(Yumemi got robbed)
It's nothing like the reboot Classic was, but there are some changes. Starting here, bombs get critically changed, 1cc becomes doable to more people, and the game-specific features start to get a more involved. Some of the games are liked more than others, some more than the Classic Era games, and others less so. Nevertheless, it’s the same old Touhou, so no worries.
- Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith (2007) Wiki / Video
By consensus it as the easiest of the Windows games, and it’s a good entry game into the series. Bombs are completely spammable (as you can see in the video), and 1cc isn't really any harder than beating it with continues. It has some really cool spell cards and stages, so it's a fun game. If you’re not very good and are looking for a Touhou game you can 1cc, this would be your best bet.
In the game Reimu’s shrine declines in faith, and someone tells her she should close it down. She gets angry and flies off to a new shrine she believes is causing the trouble. Sanae and Aya both appear here, as is Suwako, who has a confusingly loyal fanbase.
- Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism (2008) Wiki / Video
As far as consensus goes, this one is considered on par with 6-7-8. Great music and bosses (insane final boss), interesting player diversity, et cetera. One nice thing about it is that you can play through all stages and endings by playing on Easy, so it’s very accommodating. Also noteworthy, is that this game has a really important graze system for score - score is all about grazing. Grazing is this game’s soul. It makes for some very funny and intense 1cc runs on the internet.
A suspicious geyser pops up, and with the help of Yukari, Reimu and Marisa go underground while communicating with their partner youkai. The setting/story is somewhat popular in the fandom, and for a good reason, it’s really neat. Satori and Okuu show up here. Also, nuclear danmaku.
- Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object (2009) Wiki / Video
As Touhou gets older, modern games get more and more involved game-specific mechanics, and UFO has a pretty noticeable one. You collect combinations (in 3s) of UFO things to get various rewards for it, either letting the UFO absorb power or just shooting it down. It’s a fun mechanic, and the music and stages are not bad, but it’s mostly regarded as a weaker Touhou. Important to say, the old bombs come back for this game, which is a nice change. Also, bombs and lives are collected in pieces, and this trend is here to stay.
A strange flying thing appears in the sky and either out of curiosity, to plunder it, or to beat the one responsible (who knows which, really!), Reimu and Marisa launch at it. Byakuren and Nue appear here.
Bosses now have circular life bars, and dialogue looks neater. That’s about it. This era is still going on, you know.
- Touhou 13: Ten Desires (2011) Wiki / Video
With lots of new characters and very diverse player choices, it’s more Touhou, and they say it’s a good one. The mechanic involves collecting Divine Spirits from fallen enemies, which grant points and the Trance Gauge, which is like a temporary boost.
Lots of spirits show up, but something seems a bit off about them, so the heroines, confused, go looking for answers. Yuyuko and Nue show up again in this game.
- Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character (2014) Wiki / Video
The unique mechanic of DDC has to do with how many points you can collect with auto-collect, but for the most part, the game was purposefully kept simple in the face of danmaku games getting more and more complicated.
Youkai start rebelling, things get crazy in chaos, and Reimu, Marisa or Sakuya take their weapons and march ahead to settle whatever’s happening. Seija appears here and subsequently gets an absurd amount of Kill la Kill crossover fan art.
SIDE GAMES
Alongside the main games, side games are also released from time to time, and they’re either danmakus or fighters. If you’re interested, they’re definitely not bad games.
- Touhou 7.5: Immaterial and Missing Power (2004) - Fighting
- Touhou 9.5: Shoot the Bullet (2005) - Shooting (a game starring Aya where you take pictures of spell cards)
- Touhou 10.5: Scarlet Weather Rhapsody (2008) - Fighting
- Touhou 12.3: Hisoutensoku (2009) - Fighting
- Touhou 12.5: Double Spoiler (2010) - Shooting (similar to StB, starring Aya and Hatate)
- Touhou 12.8: Great Fairy Wars (2010) - Shooting (a game starring Cirno where you freeze bullets and enemies)
- Touhou 13.5: Hopeless Masquerade (2013) - Fighting
- Touhou 14.3: Impossible Spell Card (2014) - Shooting (a game starring Seija, using broken powers like teleporting to go through waves of technically impossible bullet patterns)
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