Info about Touhou Blooming Chaos:

Official game description:
SoundTrack
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About the Game
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What is Touhou Blooming Chaos？
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It is a game belong to Touhou game series.  
Funny and explorable ACT game ——Touhou Blooming Chaos sale in Steam at 1st October.  
In is game, very character just like change to other people. What is happening here?  
Not like traditional Danmaku game, in this game you can operating your characters move and attack to all directions. Find the secret of maps and face to powerful enemies.  
As a pixel game, we prepared very interesting dialogs for you. We believe you can have a lot of fun in this game.
1\. Pixel lovely game！
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Blooming Chaos is a very lovely and classical game. You can move your characters in all directions in your screen, attack and use skill smoothly.  
Blooming Chaos is a very lovely and classical game. You can move your characters in all directions in your screen, attack and use skill smoothly.  
Beautiful pixel scenes and character.
2\. Exciting explorable ACT+STG game.
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Not like verticalSTG game, in Touhou Blooming Chaos you can enjoy not only Boss fight, but also you can explore all the maps and find out the secrets of it. If you want fight some boss or find key items, you must try to find out the hidden.  
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Player walk in map, and try to find more hidden contents.
3\. Intense Danmaku fight.
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We prepared many enemies and bosses for you. All the enemies number are more than 30, and our boss will show you 2 random skills in different steps.  
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Exciting Danmaku game experiments.
4\. Many of spellcards！
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We designed many difference spellcards in this game, for Touhou Doujin game is all about how to show the better spellcards skill to players. Intense and fascinating spellcardsfight is that most attractive sprite of Touhou game.  
Spellcards announcement (warning of skills ) big scenes.  
Spellcard01  
Spellcard02 famous time stop skill - The World  
Spellcard03 be loved little sister Frandle
5\. Something interesting
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**5.1 Items**  
When you break the Saizenbako in the game, you may have chance to gain some items, they can help you win in boss fight. Use they with same number key.  
Item system help you win.  
**5.2 Many endings**  
Our game got totally 6 ending, each and every of they are really funny.  
Depend on your choice, the ending of story is different too, let’s try they all.  
**5.3 19 awesome music**  
A talent musician made 19 great song for this game, please enjoy it.  
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What ever you are or not Touhou game fan, you will find a lot fun in this game.

Release date: Sep 30, 2019

Categories: Bullet-hell, Top-Down Perspective, Exploration, Action-adventure, Multiple Endings, Character Progression, Single-player Story, Boss Fights


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Excellent Art & Music (weight 0.97): The game receives high praise for its pixel art style, character designs, and overall visual aesthetics. The soundtrack is also consistently highlighted as solid, pleasant, and contributing significantly to the game's atmosphere.
- Accessible Bullet Hell Difficulty (weight 0.95): The game strikes a good balance in difficulty, being accessible for beginners and those new to bullet hell games, while still offering challenges for experienced players. The difficulty curve is reasonable, and various options make it approachable.
- Engaging Boss Battles (weight 0.89): Boss fights are well-designed, challenging, and feature innovative and beautiful bullet patterns. They are considered a highlight, offering a good test of skill and contributing to the game's overall appeal.
- Enjoyable Gameplay & Value (weight 0.85): Players find the game highly enjoyable, addictive, and a great value for its price. It offers a good amount of content, a pleasant experience, and is considered a worthwhile purchase, especially after significant improvements and updates.
- Good Story & Replayability (weight 0.8): The game features an interesting and decent story, which is enhanced by multiple endings. These endings provide strong motivation for replayability, encouraging players to explore different paths.
- Dynamic Combat & Grazing (weight 0.76): The combat is described as explosive and exhilarating, with strong player firepower. The bullet hitbox is forgiving, allowing for strategic grazing, which becomes a crucial skill in harder modes.
- Improved Controls & Features (weight 0.76): Players appreciate the smooth controls, especially with options like keyboard and mouse or gamepad. Recent updates, including the addition of a mini-map and save function, have significantly improved the overall player experience.
- Strong Touhou Fan Game (weight 0.37): The game is highly regarded as an excellent Touhou fan game, successfully incorporating classic elements, themes, and characters. It's appreciated by both Touhou fans and newcomers for its unique take on the genre.
- Marisa Character Strength (weight 0.08): Marisa is highlighted as a particularly strong character, noted for her speed and concentrated firepower. Players find her effective in significantly reducing boss difficulty and melting health bars.
- RPG Elements & Hidden Content (weight 0.06): The game incorporates RPG elements and features many hidden secrets and content, adding depth and discovery to the gameplay experience.

Common complaints:
- Awkward Controls & Aiming (weight 0.42): The eight-directional shooting and movement controls were widely criticized for being stiff, uncomfortable, and making aiming difficult, especially with a controller or keyboard and mouse. The lack of auto-aim and inability to lock shooting direction while moving significantly hampered gameplay.
- Unfair Bullet Patterns & Difficulty (weight 0.41): Many bullet patterns are too fast, dense, and appear without warning, leaving insufficient reaction time and often forcing players to take damage or use skills. Some patterns are described as impossible to dodge, leading to frustration and a feeling of unfairness.
- Poor Technical & UI Design (weight 0.32): The game suffers from poor UI design, awkward controls, and a generally unpolished feel. It also lacks support for standard modern resolutions (1080P, 2K) and controller support, leading to an uncomfortable visual and gameplay experience.
- Unclear Hit Feedback & Hitboxes (weight 0.3): Players reported a lack of clear hit feedback for both player and enemy actions, making it difficult to discern successful dodges or attacks. Bullet and character hitboxes were perceived as problematic, often larger than their visual representation, leading to frustrating and seemingly unfair hits.
- Flawed Bomb & Skill System (weight 0.26): The bomb system is poorly designed, reducing firepower and consuming P points, making it often more detrimental than beneficial. Similarly, using skills reduces shooting power, which is difficult to recover, especially during boss battles, making these mechanics feel unrewarding.
- Poor Map Guidance & Exploration (weight 0.25): The game suffers from a severe lack of map guidance, mini-map, and hints, causing players to frequently get lost and engage in tedious backtracking. This significantly detracts from the exploration experience and makes the game unfriendly to new players.
- Lack of Touhou Series Understanding (weight 0.15): Players familiar with the Touhou series felt the game lacked the aesthetic beauty and thematic relevance of original bullet designs. Mechanics like forcing bomb usage and providing excessive continues were seen as a departure from traditional Touhou gameplay, making it less appealing to fans.
- Ineffective Slow Mode (weight 0.11): The slow-down (Shift key) function is largely considered useless due to the high bullet speeds and its impact on movement. It's seen as a gimmick that doesn't effectively aid in dodging or aiming, and its necessity for locking attack direction is user-unfriendly.
- Limited & Repetitive Content (weight 0.11): The game features a limited number of enemies and playable characters, leading to repetitive encounters. The method of enemy spawning is confusing, and mid-stage enemies often have high HP and dense bullet patterns, reducing satisfaction.
- Awkward Item Usage & Level Design (weight 0.11): Food items are difficult to use during combat due to cumbersome key assignments. Some level designs are obscure, making navigation challenging, and the strategy of luring enemies one by one is tedious. Item functions are also unclear.

Gameplay feedback:
- Multiple Game Modes & Difficulty (weight 0.56): The game features both a story mode and an arcade/score attack mode with various difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard, Lunatic). Story mode is shorter (1-1.5 hours) and more forgiving, serving as an introduction to boss patterns and unlocking higher difficulties.
- Core Gameplay Loop (weight 0.47): The game is primarily a top-down, free-scrolling bullet hell shooter with exploration and maze-like levels. It blends elements of Touhou-style bullet dodging with a structure similar to roguelikes, though it lacks deep roguelike progression.
- Character & Life System (weight 0.39): Players can choose from multiple characters (Reimu, Marisa, Rin), each with distinct playstyles and stats. The game offers a generous life and continue system, especially in story mode, allowing players many attempts to clear stages.
- Boss Mechanics & Strategy (weight 0.33): Boss battles feature intricate bullet patterns and spell cards, often requiring specific strategies like tanking damage with healing items or using bombs. Some bosses can be brute-forced with high firepower, and familiarizing oneself with patterns is key.
- Bullet Patterns & Enemy Design (weight 0.28): The game features dense, high-speed bullet patterns, often without warning, from both bosses and mid-stage enemies. Some patterns are described as confusing or difficult to dodge, with new waves arriving before previous ones are cleared.
- Grazing & Progression (weight 0.24): The game includes a grazing system where close-range bullet dodging grants health and experience points. Experience contributes to a level-up system, primarily increasing maximum HP, with a cap at level 500.
- Marisa's Effectiveness (weight 0.22): Marisa is highlighted as a very strong character due to her high speed, concentrated firepower, and ability to recover health by grazing bullets. She is often recommended for quickly defeating bosses and can be found as an optional character in the first stage.
- Control Scheme & Movement (weight 0.21): The game uses a keyboard-centric control scheme with eight-directional movement and shooting. A slow-down function (Shift key) is crucial for precise dodging and locking attack direction, as high-speed movement ties shooting direction to movement.
- Hidden Content & Endings (weight 0.15): The game features multiple endings, including a hidden one unlocked by collecting three keys and performing a specific action during the final boss fight in the EX stage. Hidden areas are also present on maps.
- Power-Up System (weight 0.1): Collecting P points from defeated enemies and chests increases character power, which enhances output damage, bullet range, and bomb effectiveness. Maximizing power is a viable strategy for clearing stages.

Performance notes:
- Good performance on older hardware (weight 0.08): The game generally runs well on older systems, with one player noting smooth performance on a computer with an NVIDIA 9500 GT. This suggests the base game is not overly demanding.
- Performance issues with many bullets (weight 0.07): Players report significant lag, especially during boss fights like Sakuya's, and when numerous bullets fill the screen. This occurs even on dedicated graphics cards like the 1050ti, indicating potential optimization problems.

Recommendations:
- Generally Recommended Game (weight 0.26): Many players recommend the game, especially for fans of roguelikes and bullet hell genres. Some suggest the second part offers a better experience and hope for continued improvements.
- Feature and QoL Additions (weight 0.21): Players frequently request new features such as save points, a mini-map, achievements, multiple difficulties, and interactive mechanisms. These additions would significantly enhance the gameplay experience.
- Target Audience: Touhou Fans (weight 0.2): The game is highly recommended for Touhou completionists and fans of Touhou-themed bullet hell games. Non-Touhou fans are advised to approach with caution or wait for a sale, as the game's appeal is strongly tied to the Touhou universe.
- Improve Control Schemes (weight 0.17): There are strong suggestions to change and optimize control settings, with specific recommendations for keyboard and mouse, dual-stick, and auto-aim options to improve playability and accessibility.
- Purchase During Sales (weight 0.13): Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game during a sale, indicating that while it's worth buying, its full price might be a deterrent for some. However, some recommend buying it now due to its value.
- Prefer the Sequel (weight 0.13): Several players recommend playing the sequel directly, suggesting it offers a superior experience or is a better entry point into the series.
- Bomb Mechanic Feedback (weight 0.08): Suggestions include changing bomb effects to be more visually impactful and character-specific, as well as strategic advice on when to use bombs despite P point loss.
- Not for STG Players/Budget (weight 0.08): Some players do not recommend the game for traditional STG (Shmup) players or those on a tight budget, suggesting its value might not align with their expectations or financial constraints.
- Ongoing Development & Localization (weight 0.07): Players hope for continued updates, bug fixes, and the addition of an English translation. They express willingness to wait for these improvements, showing faith in the developers.
- Performance Optimization Needed (weight 0.05): Players request game optimization, particularly for bullet patterns that cause lag, to ensure a smoother gameplay experience.
- Difficulty Adjustments (weight 0.05): Feedback suggests adjusting difficulty settings, such as making simple difficulty time limits longer and harder difficulties shorter, and a general request for difficulty reduction.
- Boss Design Improvements (weight 0.05): Suggestions for boss encounters include designing boss circles to allow entry from outside and increasing the health or invincibility of stationary boss spell cards.

Other player notes:
- Limited English Language Support (weight 0.16): While basic menus, controls, and UI are available in English, the story and dialogue are primarily in Chinese/Japanese. This allows for playable gameplay but hinders full comprehension of the humorous plot for non-Chinese speakers.
- Short Gameplay Duration (weight 0.13): Many players found the game to be quite short, with completion times ranging from 1.5 to a few hours. This suggests that while it's suitable for short play sessions, the overall content might feel lacking for some.
- Positive Overall Impression (weight 0.08): Despite some limitations, the game generally leaves a positive impression, with players describing it as 'pretty good' and showing dedication in its production. It's seen as having an excellent foundation.
- Game Engine and Style Details (weight 0.06): The game was developed using either Unity or the RM engine and features a 2D retro pixel art style. This technical detail provides context for its visual presentation.
- Day-Night Progression Visuals (weight 0.06): The game incorporates a day-night progression system, visually represented through different color tones. This adds an atmospheric element to the game's levels.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.31): Players are satisfied with the overall game experience, including engaging gameplay, appealing art style, and well-designed boss fights. The game's accessibility, moderate difficulty, and continuous improvements through updates also contribute to a positive reception, making it enjoyable for both newcomers and experienced players.
- Frustration (weight 0.26): Frustration stems from poor game design choices such as unbalanced combat, unclear hitboxes, and awkward controls that hinder simultaneous dodging and attacking. Players also experience frustration due to maze-like maps, lack of guidance, and unfair bullet patterns, compounded by technical issues like lag and resolution problems.
- Disappointment (weight 0.15): Disappointment arises from the game not meeting expectations, often due to a perceived lack of content, unfulfilled potential, and design flaws that make the experience less enjoyable than anticipated. Issues like limited language options, technical bugs, and a short story mode further contribute to this feeling.
- Excitement (weight 0.07): Excitement is generated by the game's challenging yet addictive gameplay, engaging boss battles, and the anticipation of future updates and sequels. Players also appreciate the multiple endings and humorous dialogue, which add to the replayability and overall enjoyment.
- Confusion (weight 0.03): Confusion primarily results from an unclear or inaccessible story, often due to language barriers or unintuitive story mode mechanics. Players also express confusion regarding specific game conditions, such as character recruitment or map navigation.
- Amusement (weight 0.02): Amusement is derived from specific in-jokes, memes, and unique game features like character damage leading to clothing damage. Some players also find humor in initial misunderstandings of game modes or the game's premise.
- Annoyance (weight 0.02): Annoyance is caused by elements such as countdown timers, slow character movement, repetitive achievements, and loud sound effects. The presence of small, bothersome enemies also contributes to player irritation.
- Joy (weight 0.01): Joy is experienced through general enjoyment of the game and the satisfaction of finding a suitable and fun gaming experience.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is expressed for future game improvements, bug fixes, and the development of new works. Players are willing to wait for updates to enhance their gaming experience.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Players feel challenged by the game's difficulty, especially when aiming for no-continue runs or mastering complex mechanics. The game offers a demanding experience that can be managed with practice and adjustments.
- Curiosity (weight 0.01): Curiosity is sparked by features like the CG replay function and speculation about character swaps, encouraging players to explore different aspects of the game.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Appreciation is shown for the game's quality as a Touhou fan game and for the creator's efforts, particularly noting its playability for non-Chinese speakers despite language limitations.
- Determination (weight 0): Determination is felt when players are motivated to achieve difficult in-game tasks and overcome challenges.
- Helpfulness (weight 0): Helpfulness is demonstrated by players who provide detailed tips and guidance to assist others in their gameplay.
- Self-doubt (weight 0): Self-doubt arises from players questioning their own skill level when facing difficult game challenges.
- Boredom (weight 0): Boredom is experienced due to repetitive levels and mob fights that lack variety or engagement.
- Discomfort (weight 0): Discomfort is caused by an unsatisfactory visual experience within the game.
- Concern (weight 0): Concern is expressed regarding the presence of bugs that negatively impact gameplay.
- Anger (weight 0): Anger is directed towards specific game design choices that players find frustrating or unfair.
- Love (weight 0): Love is expressed for the game as a whole, indicating a strong positive overall sentiment.}