Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend Review Summary

A polished, gorgeous Slay the Spire-like with fun combat and unique characters, but it feels too derivative and runs poorly on low-end laptops.

Polished Slay the Spire-like: The game closely follows Slay the Spire's structure but is widely praised as more polished, with better presentation and music. It is considered a highly replayable and top-tier alternative in the genre.

Gorgeous card art: Card illustrations are consistently described as gorgeous, cute, and full of world-building details. The art brings life to the game and is a major highlight for players.

Fun and engaging gameplay: Feedback frequently highlights the game as fun, interesting, and exhilarating. Even the most enjoyable parts are genuinely fun and the overall experience is highly recommended.

Unique characters and mechanics: Each character has unique cards, playstyles, and two forms with distinct spell cards and relics. Characters can access other colors via exhibits, unlocking powerful multicolor cards.

Standout roguelike deckbuilder: The game is praised as one of the best roguelike deckbuilders, scratching the itch for fans of the genre. It is considered a masterpiece in deckbuilding with a lot of fun cards.

Too similar to Slay the Spire: Many reviewers note that cards, relics, enemies, and bosses are directly copied or heavily inspired by Slay the Spire, making the game feel like a mod or reskin. This lack of originality is a frequent complaint across multiple clusters.

Price is too high: Players frequently mention that the price is high, especially compared to other deck-building games and even Slay the Spire 2. The cost is considered unreasonable given the current state and content of the game.

Still in Early Access: The game remains in Early Access with an unfinished story mode and missing features, leading to complaints about a lack of polish and completeness. Many feel it has been in this state for too long.

Balance issues: Reviewers report poor balance, including character and card imbalance, arbitrary number balancing, and severe issues at higher difficulties. This reduces viable choices and enjoyment.

Insufficient content variety: Enemy and level variety are considered too low, and the card pool is large but unrefined. This leads to repetitive gameplay and difficulty in creating perfect builds.

Roguelike Deckbuilder Genre: The game is widely recognized as a roguelike deckbuilder, with many comparisons to Slay the Spire. It involves building a deck of cards and progressing through runs with roguelike elements.

Colored Mana System: The game features a colored mana system similar to Magic: The Gathering, where cards require specific colors of mana to play. This adds a layer of deckbuilding strategy distinct from Slay the Spire's generic energy system.

Touhou Theme Integration: The game is a Touhou fan game featuring Touhou characters, music, and story elements. It combines the Touhou universe with the deckbuilding roguelike genre.

Similar to Slay the Spire: Many reviewers note that the gameplay is heavily inspired by Slay the Spire, with similar card battle mechanics, roguelike structure, and overall flow. Some even call it a reskin with Touhou characters.

Multiple Difficulty Levels: The game offers various difficulty settings, including Normal, Hard, Lunatic, and additional challenge toggles like L7 or requests. This provides scalable challenges for different skill levels.

Poor performance on low-end laptops: The game is poorly optimized, especially on low-end laptops, leading to lag and low FPS even for a card game. Performance is particularly bad on non-gaming PCs.

Memory leak causes lag: A memory leak causes significant stutter and lag after repeated loading screens. Closing and relaunching the game temporarily resets the issue.

Dynamic background causes severe lag: The dynamic background reduces performance to a PowerPoint-like level. Stuttering occurs even when the dynamic background is turned off.

Game crashes after extended play: Stability issues cause the game to crash after playing for a while. This affects the overall reliability.

High PC requirements: The PC requirements are absurdly high for this type of game. This makes it inaccessible to many players.

Ideal for Touhou and Slay the Spire fans: The game is most often recommended to players who enjoy both Touhou and Slay the Spire or roguelike card games. Many reviews explicitly state that fans of these two games will find a lot to like here.

Compared favorably to Slay the Spire: Many reviewers compare it to Slay the Spire, with some preferring it over Slay the Spire 2 and others suggesting it as an alternative. It is often recommended to those who have already played a lot of Slay the Spire.

Strong appeal for Touhou fans: Numerous reviews say that Touhou fans will love this game and that it is a must-play for them, even if they are not typically into card games. Some mention that prior Touhou knowledge is not required to enjoy it.

Great introduction for deckbuilding newcomers: Several reviewers recommend the game to players who are new to deckbuilding roguelikes or who have never played Slay the Spire. It is described as a good entry point for the genre.

Enjoyable for deckbuilder fans: The game is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys deckbuilding games in general, with some calling it the best deckbuilder available. It appeals to fans of the genre regardless of Touhou affinity.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 2.0h.

Session length: 2.0h.

Endgame: 400.0h.

Lost Branch of Legend presents an early deck-building and mana-management learning curve, while many players describe it as addictive and highly replayable. No provided review specifies a precise time-to-fun.

Friction: Relatively high learning curve for first roguelike deck-builder; Deck-building learning curve; Mana color decisions can punish card order and reduce consistency; Lunatic difficulty modifiers can feel daunting and unfair; Card draw is disliked by some players; Events and character buffs can feel boring or inconsequential.

Unlock drivers: Learning the mana trade-off: fewer colors for consistency, more colors for useful additions; Balancing short-term enemy needs against long-term deck strength; Mod support opens up much more playability and makes the game more inviting; A broad set of cards, characters, build options, and modifiers makes runs addicting; A progression system gives players a rewarding loop to follow.

Slay the Spire Veteran Optimizer: Dives straight into hard/Lunatic difficulties, scrutinizes card values, mana colors and meta decks, and grinds toward optimal synergy builds. Motivation: Mastering deep, punishing card-battler systems and finding the most optimized builds, with novelty layered on top of familiar Spire-like mechanics. Stance: buy.

Touhou Franchise Devotee: Plays somewhat casually, savoring character appearances, dialogue, spell card flavor and soundtrack, often on normal difficulty. Motivation: Experiencing the Touhou world, its characters, music and art, with the deckbuilding gameplay acting mainly as the delivery vehicle for the IP. Stance: buy.

Genre Newcomer Drawn by Touhou: Learns the systems gradually on easy/normal difficulty, values accessible balance and quick onboarding over deep mastery. Motivation: Exploring a deckbuilder or roguelike for the first time, pulled in by Touhou or by roguelike curiosity and reassured by beginner-friendly design. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The game is generally playable on Steam Deck and benefits from recent controller support, with users reporting continued play and achievement farming. However, feedback includes small card text that causes readability friction and a mixed view of overall polish, including one claim that the game is broken and unsupported. No evidence of Proton Experimental requirements, external launchers, crashes, anti-cheat errors, or launch failures. The experience falls into the tinkering-required range due to small text and minor controller polish issues.

Compared to Slay the Spire: Many reviewers compare this game to Slay the Spire, often noting similarities in deck-building, card mechanics, and overall structure. Some also compare it to Magic: The Gathering and Touhou.

Early Access Status: The game is in Early Access, with ongoing development, but some content like story mode is incomplete. Frequent updates are being released.

Better than Slay the Spire: Several reviewers consider this game better than Slay the Spire, praising its replayability, art, and unique systems, though some note it has less content.

High Price Concerns: Reviewers frequently mention that the game's price is high, especially compared to similar titles like Slay the Spire.

Touhou Theme: The game features a Touhou aesthetic and is based on the Touhou Project, appealing to fans of the series.