Info about Touhou Bunkachou ～ Shoot the Bullet.:

Official game description:
１．ゲーム概要
-------
・ゲームの目的  
　しがない天狗の新聞記者「射命丸文（しゃめいまるあや）」を操作し、  
　新聞の記事になりそうな妖怪、人間、その他の写真を撮影して  
　精神的ダメージを与えれば勝ちです。  
・ルール  
　敵弾に当たらないように文を操作し、被写体を撮影しましょう。  
　被写体が写っていない写真は没（ノーカウント）となります。  
　被写体を規定回数撮影すればステージクリアです。  
　なお、クリアできなかった場合はハイスコアには残りません。
２．基本技術　操作編
----------
・操作方法  
　撮影ボタン　　　　 写真を撮影（フィルム装填100%時）  
　　　　　　　　　　 押し続けると一定時間ファインダーモード。  
　　　　　　　　　　（キーボードはＺキー）  
　低速移動ボタン　　 押し続けると文の移動速度が遅くなります。  
　　　　　　　　　　（キーボードはShift、及びＸキー）  
　同時押し　　　　　 超精密移動、及び  
　　　　　　　　　　 高速フィルム巻き（フィルム装填100%以下時）  
　決定　　　　　　 　撮影ボタン  
　キャンセル　　　　 低速移動ボタン　or　ポーズボタン（キーボードはESC)
３．基本技術　撮影編
----------
・フィルム装填率  
　100%時のみ写真撮影が可能、撮影すると0%になります。  
・通常フィルム巻き  
　何もせずとも時間で徐々に回復し、100%になれば撮影可能です。  
・高速フィルム巻き  
　100%に満たない時、撮影ボタンと低速移動ボタンを同時押しすると、  
　通常より早くフィルムを巻きます。この時は超精密移動になります。  
　＊100%溜まっている状態では、超精密移動のみを行います。  
・ファインダーモード  
　撮影ボタンを押しっぱなしにすると一定時間ファインダーモードに  
　なります。この時は、文ではなくフォーカスフレームを操作し、  
　少し離れた場所を撮影することが可能です。  
　＊時間と共にフォーカスフレーム（撮影有効範囲）が小さくなり、  
　一定時間でフィルムが感光（無条件撮影失敗）してしまいます。
４．基本技術　写真編
----------
・有効写真と無効写真  
　ボスが写真に収まっていると撮影成功です。  
　この場合は撮影枚数とスコアには加算されません。  
・シュート・ザ・ブリット  
　被写体と共に弾幕を撮影すると、写した弾幕を消すことが出来ます。  
　この時、その美しさで写真の評価点が決まります。  
・決定的瞬間写真  
　各ミッション毎に、最も評価点が高かった写真は「決定的瞬間写真」  
　として文の手帖に残ります。  
・撮影時の注意  
　撮影するときは低速移動ボタンを離して撮影ボタンを押さないと  
　撮影できません。  
　しっかりと撮影ポイントに移動してから撮影しましょう。
５．基本技術　評価点編
-----------
・写真の評価点  
　敵弾を多く撮影するとその写真の評価点が高くなります。  
　ボスを写真の中央に収めるほど点数が高くなります。  
　（また、様々な条件により点数が加算されます）  
・シーンスコア  
　シーンスコアは、１シーンの成功写真の合計評価点のみで決まります。  
　失敗写真、およびそれ以外の行動では一切点数は入りません。  
　＊成功写真の枚数は１シーン毎に決められていますので、  
　一枚一枚を大切に撮影しましょう。  
・総合撮影評価点  
　各シーンの最高評価点（最高シーンスコア）の合計が  
　「総合撮影評価点」です。  
　つまり、総合撮影評価点も成功写真以外の点数は含まれませんので、  
　一枚一枚を大切に。
６．基本技術　小ネタ編
-----------
・失敗写真のススメ  
　失敗写真でも敵弾は消せます。あえて被写体を狙わずに分厚い弾幕を  
　撮影することで、ピンチを切り抜ける事も可能です。  
　また、失敗写真は手帖には収めず捨ててしまうので、  
　次の撮影までのブランクが短くなります。その為、無理して被写体を  
　撮影しない方が有利になる場合もあります。  
・フォーカスフレームの色  
　ファインダーモード時のフォーカスフレームにボスが入ってる時は、  
　フレームが赤くなります。この時に撮影すれば撮影成功です。  
・フォーカスフレームの初期位置  
　フォーカスフレームの初期位置はファインダーカーソルの位置です。  
　ファインダーカーソルは、高速移動時は移動方向に振れ、低速中は  
　ボスの方向を向きます。
７．応用技術　撮影編
----------
・ボスの撮影不可能状態  
　ボスが消えていたり、画面外にいたり、半透明になっていたり、  
　別の物に変形している時は撮影しても必ず失敗します。  
　＊撮影不可能の時は青い魔法陣を背負っている場合が多い。  
・フィルムが感光するまでの時間の目安  
　フォーカスフレームの中心にある大きな円が完全に消えると  
　感光（失敗）します。  
・ファインダーカーソルの狙い  
　高速でボスに近づいたときは、ファインダーカーソルがボスを  
　向いていない事があります。  
　この時、低速移動ボタンを一瞬押すとボスに合わせることが出来ます。  
・画面端と写真  
　画面端で写真を撮影すると少し小さな写真が出来てしまいます。  
　少し損しますので中央寄りで撮影しましょう。
８．応用技術　ボーナス編
------------
・写真の評価点ボーナス  
　評価点には様々なボーナスがあります。  
　　Boss Shot　ボスが写っている（中央に近いほど高い）  
　　Nice Shot　シャッターチャンスを撮影  
　　Red Shot 　写真に赤が多い  
　　Risk Shot　文が敵弾すれすれの状態で撮影  
　など他にも様々なボーナスが存在します。  
　＊中には狙う必要のないボーナスもあります。  
・ナイスショット  
　ボスが赤い魔法陣を展開する瞬間が最大のシャッターチャンスです。  
　この時に撮影すれば少し多めにボーナスが入ります。  
　魔法陣は一瞬だけですので、タイミングを計って撮影しましょう。  
　＊シャッターチャンスが存在しないミッションも在ります。
９．小ネタ　決定的瞬間写真編
--------------
・決定的瞬間写真のロック  
　被写体選択で、キーボードのＬキーを押すと写真の上にLの字が表示され、  
　そのシーンの写真がロックされます。  
　以降、決定的瞬間写真より高い点数の写真が撮れても更新されません。  
・決定的瞬間写真の破棄  
　ゲーム本体が入っているフォルダの中の、BestShotフォルダに決定的瞬間  
　写真が入っています。破棄したいシーンに対応するファイルを破棄すると  
　決定的瞬間写真は初期化され、再び写真を撮ることが出来ます。  
　破棄したファイルは二度と元に戻りませんので注意。  
　＊破棄してもクリア済み情報、ハイスコア、及び総合評価点には影響しません。  
・決定的瞬間写真の手動更新  
　ステージクリア画面でベストショットが表示されているとき、左右で  
　有効写真を切り替えキーボードのＳキーを押すと保存することが出来ます。  
　＊ロックしていても強制的に更新します。  
・決定的瞬間写真の処理落ち率  
　被写体選択でキーボードのＳキーを押すと、決定的瞬間写真を撮影した  
　ときの処理落ち率が表示されます。

Release date: 18 Jun, 2021

Categories: Bullet-hell, Photography Gameplay, Boss Rush, High Score Chasing, Puzzle Solving, Strategic Combat, Single-player


- 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:
- Engaging and Addictive Gameplay (weight 0.86): Players find the core gameplay loop extremely fun, challenging, and addictive, especially after the initial learning curve. The game offers deep scoring mechanics and creative puzzle-like bullet patterns, making it enjoyable for both short sessions and extended play.
- Excellent Entry for Touhou Series (weight 0.4): This spin-off is considered a strong and unique entry in the Touhou series, offering a fresh approach to bullet-hell gameplay. It's praised as a good entry point for new players and helps existing Touhou players improve their dodging skills with some of the best patterns in the franchise.
- Beautiful Bullet and Boss Design (weight 0.16): The game features beautifully designed bullet patterns and bosses that communicate character spells effectively. This visual appeal enhances the overall dodging experience.
- Effective Practice Tool (weight 0.15): Certain stages and attacks are excellent for practicing various dodging techniques, such as unfocused dodging, bullet streaming, micro-dodging, and maintaining calm under pressure, while also encouraging players to move beyond the bottom of the screen.
- Aya as Playable Character (weight 0.14): Players enjoy playing as Aya and engaging with her photojournalism aspect. Her comments and the little story add extra charm to the game.
- Good Music and Reappearances (weight 0.12): The game's music is generally well-received, with specific tracks highlighted. It also features reappearances from many characters from earlier Touhou games, adding to fan enjoyment.
- Achievable 100% Completion (weight 0.05): The game is considered much more reasonable to achieve 100% completion compared to mainline Touhou titles, which is a positive for completionist players.
- Help Menu Available (weight 0.04): The game includes a 'Help' menu on the main menu, which can assist players in understanding game mechanics.

Common complaints:
- Excessive and Unbalanced Difficulty (weight 0.45): Players consistently report the game's difficulty as extremely high and unbalanced, with specific stages and spell cards being overly challenging or repetitive. This leads to frustration and a feeling of being stuck, especially for 100% completion.
- Lack of Content and Lore (weight 0.26): Players note a lack of substantial story, valuable lore, or character interactions, which detracts from the overall experience. The game also has a limited music selection.
- Disliked Photo Mechanic (weight 0.21): The core gameplay mechanic of using a camera to take photos is not enjoyed by some players. Issues include difficulty with vertical camera angles and the inability to take photos while moving slowly, impacting overall enjoyment.
- Poor Operability and Controls (weight 0.2): Players find the game's controls and operability to be poor, leading to accidental actions like swapping between photo shooting and charging. This makes adapting to character operations, such as Aya's, difficult.
- High RNG Reliance (weight 0.1): The game's reliance on Random Number Generation (RNG) can be a significant source of frustration, particularly for players focused on achieving high scores.
- Tedious Option Modification (weight 0.05): The process of modifying game options is described as tedious, impacting user experience.
- No English Localization (weight 0.04): The game is only available in Japanese, limiting accessibility for non-Japanese speaking players.
- Repetitive Early Stages (weight 0.04): Similar to traditional STGs, players are forced to replay easy early stages after a game over, leading to tedious repetition when trying to challenge later content.
- Overall Negative Impact (weight 0.03): One reviewer felt the game ultimately did more harm than good, indicating a very negative overall experience, though specific reasons are not detailed.

Gameplay feedback:
- Unique Photo-Based Gameplay (weight 0.99): The core mechanic involves taking photos of bosses to clear stages, which also clears bullets in the photo's area, serving as a defensive and offensive tool. Players must strategically time photos, dodge complex bullet patterns, and aim for high scores by capturing bosses and bullets effectively.
- High Difficulty & Replayability (weight 0.81): The game is a challenging boss-rush style Touhou title with no selectable difficulty, requiring many attempts to clear stages. Difficulty progresses incrementally, with later levels demanding precise dodging, strategic planning, and often hundreds of retries per scene. Players have unlimited attempts per scene, encouraging persistence.
- Strategic Puzzle-Like Design (weight 0.22): Many stages are gimmicky and require players to figure out specific strategies or 'solutions' to complex bullet patterns, akin to 'time spell' modes. Success often depends on observing patterns, precise movement, and mastering photo timing, rather than brute-force dodging.
- Focus on Gameplay over Story (weight 0.12): The game prioritizes its unique gameplay and challenging boss battles over a detailed narrative. It is an early work in the series, featuring Aya's comments on spell cards.
- Scoring System & Progression (weight 0.11): The game includes a scoring system, though only one good score is needed for progression. Game progress is saved after each boss is cleared, and there are 85 scenes in total.
- Simple Controls, Deep Mechanics (weight 0.1): Despite simple controls, the game offers deep mechanics like focus-aiming and strategic photo-clearing. The horizontal camera view also provides tactical positioning advantages.
- English Patch Availability (weight 0.05): An English patch is available and generally functions well with this version of the game, improving accessibility for non-Japanese speakers.

Performance notes:
- Gamepad detection problems (weight 0.05): Players reported issues with gamepad functionality, often resolving it by launching the game through Steam Big Picture or directly via the executable. This indicates a potential conflict or detection problem with standard Steam game launching.
- Key-stuck issues reported (weight 0.05): Some players experienced occasional key-stuck issues, specifically with directional keys on laptops. This suggests a potential input recognition problem that could affect gameplay.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended for experienced players (weight 0.37): The game is strongly recommended for players who are already familiar with bullet-hell (shmup) games, especially those with experience in the Touhou series. It offers a challenging yet fun experience for this demographic.
- Emphasizes perseverance and breaks (weight 0.23): Despite the high difficulty, players can clear all stages with perseverance. It's advised not to get stuck on one level; taking breaks or trying other levels can aid progress, especially on stages requiring many photos.
- Challenging for new players (weight 0.21): Newcomers to the genre or the Touhou series may find the game difficult. It's suggested that beginners complete a main series Touhou game, like Imperishable Night or Mountain of Faith, on normal difficulty before attempting this title.

Other player notes:
- Core Gameplay Loop (weight 0.1): The primary gameplay involves collecting 'scoops' and taking photos, such as those of sunsets. This mechanic is central to the player's progression.
- Misleading Game Icon (weight 0.05): The game's icon features Marisa from another Touhou title, which can be confusing as Marisa does not appear in this particular game.
- Character Appreciation (weight 0.05): Based on limited feedback, some players find the character Aya 'cute.' Another comment, likely a joke, praises the game for including Kaguya.
- Technical Launch Issues (weight 0.05): Some players encountered difficulties launching the game, with one user finding a workaround by plugging in an audio headset, suggesting potential audio driver conflicts.
- Desire for More Touhou on Steam (weight 0.05): Players express a strong desire for more Touhou games, especially older mainline and fighting titles, to be released on the Steam platform.
- Non-Mainline Title Status (weight 0.04): The game is recognized as a 'decimal game,' indicating its status as a smaller, non-mainline entry in the Touhou series.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.28): Players felt satisfied by achieving 100% completion, overcoming difficult challenges, and finding optimal strategies in the game. The unique boss-only gameplay, rewarding mechanics, and the game's ability to solve inconveniences of traditional STGs also contributed to a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.23): Enjoyment stemmed from the game's unique photojournalism aspect and its departure from typical Touhou titles. Players found the core gameplay loop, creative mechanics, challenging puzzle-patterns, and excellent controls to be very fun and addicting, especially after the initial learning curve.
- Challenge (weight 0.1): The game's high difficulty, particularly in clearing all stages and navigating complex bullet patterns, was a significant cause of challenge. Players found the increasing difficulty and specific stage requirements to be demanding.
- Excitement (weight 0.08): Excitement was generated by the game's ability to offer a new niche in gaming, providing intense engagement and stimulating gameplay moments. Players were enthusiastic about recommending the game due to its overall experience.
- Frustration (weight 0.07): Frustration arose from issues such as RNG reliance for scoring, difficulty adapting to Aya's operation switching, and poor operability. Specific difficult attacks, extreme difficulty, and a perceived lack of options also contributed to player annoyance.
- Disappointment (weight 0.06): Players expressed disappointment due to a perceived waste of design inspiration, uninteresting requirements for 100% completion, and a dislike of the core photo mechanic. Language barriers and unexpected gameplay also contributed to this feeling.
- Appreciation (weight 0.04): Appreciation was felt because the game's difficulty did not lead to frustration, and it served as an excellent tool for training and improving bullet-dodging skills. Players valued the direct access to challenging content and the game's utility for skill development.
- Interest (weight 0.03): Interest was sparked by the game's innovative and unique gameplay mechanics, particularly the distinct camera mechanic and its different approach to the genre.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players were surprised by the game's unique feel, which offered a fresh experience compared to other titles.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement was caused by Aya's interesting and often humorous comments on spell cards, adding a lighthearted element to the gameplay.
- Criticism (weight 0.01): Criticism was directed towards the game's overall design philosophy, indicating some players found fundamental aspects of its design problematic.
- Affection (weight 0.01): Affection was specifically tied to the presence of the character Aya, suggesting players had a strong positive emotional connection to her.
- Dislike (weight 0.01): Dislike was expressed towards the core gameplay mechanic, indicating some players fundamentally did not enjoy the central way the game was played.
- Convenience (weight 0.01): The game was appreciated for its suitability for quick sessions, making it a convenient option for players with limited time.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration was directed towards ZUN's thoughtful game design and his development history, highlighting respect for the creator's work.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia was experienced by players replaying the game after a significant period (17 years), evoking fond memories of past experiences.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope was expressed as a desire for more Touhou games to be released on Steam, indicating a wish for future content and accessibility.
- Encouragement (weight 0.01): Players felt encouragement, believing that others could also clear the game, fostering a supportive and positive community sentiment.}