- Outstanding Touhou fan game, highly enjoyable
- Exceptional quality for a free game
- Excellent art, characters, design, and soundtrack
- Accessible yet challenging bullet hell gameplay
- Performance and resolution issues reported
- Inconsistent difficulty spikes and poor bullet visibility
Emotions
Players are highly satisfied with the game's overall quality, especially considering it's a free title. Key factors include well-designed gameplay mechanics, balanced difficulty, beautiful art, stunning music, and effective accessibility features. The game's high replay value and faithful adherence to the Touhou style also contribute significantly to player contentment.
Excitement stems from the game's engaging content, high quality, and specific thrilling moments like Stage 6 and the Extra Stage. Players express strong recommendations, finding the game addicting, fun, and challenging. The exceptional quality for a free game further amplifies this excitement.
Enjoyment is primarily driven by the core gameplay experience, including fun character experimentation, engaging bullet patterns (danmaku), and appealing visuals. The overall game experience, coupled with good music and character designs, makes playing the game a pleasurable activity for users.
Frustration arises from technical issues such as game crashes and performance problems, as well as significant difficulty spikes, particularly with Overdrive Spell Cards and mid-stage challenges. Visual clutter, bullets blending with backgrounds, and issues with hitboxes or the bomb system also contribute to player annoyance. Some players also feel frustrated by the game's perceived failure to deliver a unique Touhou experience.
Players appreciate the game's thoughtful design, accessibility features, and the developers' evident effort. The game is seen as a refreshing and well-made title that faithfully captures the Touhou style, making it accessible for newcomers while feeling like a new official entry in the series. Specific gameplay mechanics are also a source of appreciation.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 91% · Negative 9%. Score: 9 / 100
Positives:
- Many consider this one of the best Touhou fan games, even surpassing some official titles. It's praised for its solid original music, cool patterns, high-quality graphics, BGM, danmaku, characters, and story, feeling like a legitimate and lovingly crafted Touhou STG.
- Players consistently praise the game for being fun, addictive, and a joy to play. Many highlight its high replay value, impeccable music, and overall polished feel, noting it as a significant improvement over previous titles and a beautiful, awesome experience.
- Reviewers are amazed by the game's completeness and craftsmanship, especially considering it's a free title. Many feel it's too good to be free, comparing its quality to paid games and recommending it highly.
- The game receives high marks for its excellent character design, well-written original characters, and great visuals. Players appreciate the detailed aspects, wonderful stage/boss design, and appealing art style that feels natural and fresh.
- The music is consistently lauded as cool, exquisite, and high-quality, with many 'bangers.' Reviewers note its ZUN-like style, fitting atmosphere, and unforgettable tracks that enhance the gameplay experience.
Negatives:
- The character designs are frequently criticized as amateurish, awkward, or generic, lacking a distinct style. The background music is largely forgettable, with monotonous rhythms and a lack of memorable melodies.
- Many players experienced frequent crashes, significant frame drops, and stuttering, even with low graphics settings. The game also suffers from poor resolution scaling and limited options, making it look rough on modern displays.
- Player feedback on difficulty is mixed, with some finding the game too easy and others too hard, even on easy mode. There are notable difficulty spikes, particularly in Stage 5 and the final boss, which feel disproportionate to earlier stages.
- Several players reported difficulty distinguishing bullets from the background or other game elements, leading to unexpected hits. Some dark bullets are particularly hard to see without adjusting screen settings.
- Some level designs, particularly Stage 5's horizontal enemy lines, are criticized for limiting movement and forcing boring zigzag patterns. The overall gameplay is described as ordinary bullet hell.
Gameplay:
- Many players found the game to be less challenging than official Touhou titles, especially on Normal difficulty. This is attributed to generous systems, longer deathbomb windows, and abundant bullet resources, making it accessible for new players.
- While generally easier, the game's difficulty curve is noted as different from official Touhou games. Some early stages might feel harder, but the overall progression is balanced, with Stage 5 having overwhelming danmaku and Stage 6 feeling softer.
- The game emphasizes bullet avoidance over enemy elimination. Players collect petals from grazing or killing enemies to build a power meter, which then contributes to bomb fragments or a flash bomb when full.
- The game incorporates a blend of mechanics from various official Touhou games, such as the Cherry Point system from 'Perfect Cherry Blossom' and deathbombing similar to 'Imperishable Night'. This creates a recognizable yet distinct gameplay experience.
- Extra lives are primarily gained through score accumulation, with increasing costs, and occasionally from specific boss encounters. Bomb fragments are collected via season items, non-spell/spell cards, and a special mechanism, with 8 fragments yielding one bomb.
Performance:
- Players experienced significant frame rate drops, especially after stage 3 and during stage 6. Disabling VSync and backgrounds helped some users achieve better performance, indicating a need for broader optimization.
- The game initially had issues on Steam Deck, requiring specific Proton versions and workarounds like disabling boss auras to function correctly. Official support and optimization for this platform would enhance the player experience.
- Some players reported game crashes when attempting to take F12 screenshots. While this issue may have been resolved, it highlights a potential instability that should be monitored.
Recommendations:
- The game receives overwhelmingly positive recommendations from players, with many suggesting it's a must-try. Reviewers frequently assign high ratings (e.g., 9.5/10, 9/10, 8/10) and express willingness to pay for it, despite it being free.
- This game is highly recommended for fans of the Touhou series, especially those who enjoy official-style STGs. Many consider it a strong entry among Touhou fan games and a must-play for the community.
- A significant factor in its recommendation is that the game is completely free, making it an easy choice with no drawbacks. This also makes it a good option for players seeking challenging bullet hell games without a cost.
- For newcomers who have played a few other official or fan works, this game is recommended as a tool to refine dodging skills and correct bad habits, suggesting a learning curve that benefits experienced players.
- Some reviewers suggest alternative fan projects like Hollow Song of Birds or Book of Star Mythology for players just getting into fan-made games, implying these might offer a different or potentially better initial experience.
Miscellaneous:
- The game's graphics have a retro, NES-like feel that appeals to some players, offering a unique aesthetic within fan games. However, others find the visual style to be 'light pollution'-like or generally unappealing, suggesting it may not be universally accepted.
- The game is considered an average Touhou fan shmup, neither outstanding nor terrible. The dialogue and story are not highlighted as strong points, which aligns with some players' personal preferences for Touhou games.
- The game is a free, fan-made Touhou bullet hell game, which is noted as the first of its kind released on Steam. This context influences player expectations regarding quality and pricing.
- Players would appreciate the addition of achievements to the game. There's also a suggestion to add a Chinese language version, potentially through cooperation with THB.
- There's a suggestion for fan-made games to have rational pricing compared to other indie titles. Additionally, a player expressed a wish for a neutral rating option on Steam, indicating difficulty in categorizing their overall sentiment.
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