Touhou Kouryudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers. Review Summary

Engaging Card System & Replayability: The new card system is a major highlight, offering strategic depth, diverse playstyles, and significant replay value. Players enjoy collecting, combining, and experimenting with cards, which also makes the game more accessible for beginners and provides fresh experiences for veterans.

Accessible & Balanced Difficulty: The game's difficulty is considered fair and user-friendly, with low difficulties being very beginner-friendly while still offering challenges for experienced players. The card system plays a role in balancing this, allowing players to adjust the difficulty to their preference.

High Quality Music & Art: Players consistently praise the game's music as amazing and high quality, often noting its distinctiveness and synergy with bullet patterns. The character art and overall visual design are also well-received, contributing to an immersive experience.

Well-Designed Bullet Patterns: The bullet patterns are described as solid, well-designed, distinctive, and visually appealing. They offer clear strategies and are often synchronized with the music, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.

ZUN's Creative Contributions: Players commend ZUN's design skills, particularly in creating unique bullet patterns, evolving art style, and high-quality music. His ability to creatively combine roguelike elements with bullet hell gameplay is also highlighted.

Unbalanced Cards & Characters: Many ability cards are considered useless or suboptimal, leading to a grindy unlocking system and frustrating gameplay. This imbalance extends to playable characters, with some being significantly weaker or less effective than others, particularly Marisa and Sakuya.

Subpar Stage & Bullet Design: Stages are often described as uninspired, difficult, and lacking in layout, particularly mid-stages. Bullet patterns are criticized for being crude, visually overwhelming, and sometimes having poor visibility, leading to a less enjoyable bullet-dodging experience.

High & Inconsistent Difficulty: Players report a generally high difficulty, with significant spikes, especially in later stages and between difficulty settings. The game's roguelike elements and reliance on card usage contribute to this challenge, making it less friendly for casual players or those relying on memorization.

Unmemorable Music & Character Art: The game's background music is generally considered less memorable and not as good as previous entries in the series. Additionally, some character designs are criticized for being 'weird,' 'creepy,' or 'underwhelming,' with ZUN's aesthetic choices being questioned.

Punishing Power & Fund Loss: Losing a life results in a heavy penalty, simultaneously reducing both Power and funds. This makes recovery difficult and significantly impacts the ability to purchase new abilities, creating a harsh feedback loop.

Core Card System & Roguelike Elements: The game's central feature is its ability card system, which introduces roguelike elements. Players acquire cards throughout a run, which significantly alter gameplay, difficulty, and strategic options, allowing for diverse playstyles and character builds.

Variable Difficulty & Card Impact: The game's difficulty is highly dynamic and heavily influenced by card choices. While early stages or card-less runs can be challenging, acquiring and strategically combining cards can significantly ease or increase difficulty, even allowing for Lunatic clears or hardcore challenge runs.

Multiple Endings & Unlocks: The game features multiple endings (Normal, Bad, Another) and unlocks. Clearing the game or specific criteria unlocks additional card slots, the Extra Stage, and makes purchased cards available for initial setup in future runs.

Diverse Playable Characters: There are four playable characters—Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, and Sakuya—each with unique abilities, shot types, and bombs. Some characters, like Sanae and Sakuya, are noted for their strength or technical playstyles, offering varied experiences.

Challenging Boss & Bullet Patterns: Bosses exhibit more random movement than in previous titles, and bullet patterns are generally difficult, requiring careful evasion. Specific stages, like Stage 4 and 6, are highlighted for their tricky attacks and demanding spell cards.

Technical issues present: Players reported encountering technical difficulties in the game, which were notably absent in prior Touhou installments. This suggests a regression in technical stability compared to previous titles.

Numpad movement not working: A specific usability issue was highlighted where the number pad could not be used for character movement. This impacts player control options and accessibility.

Win key functionality changed: The game's handling of the Windows key differs from previous Touhou games, where it was typically disabled even in windowed mode. This change might affect player experience, especially for those accustomed to the old behavior.

Highly Recommended Game: Players overwhelmingly recommend this game, citing high enjoyment and overall quality despite some minor flaws. Many consider it a worthwhile purchase and a great entry point for new players to the series.

Great for Touhou Fans & Newcomers: The game is highly recommended for both long-time Touhou fans and those new to the series or the STG genre. It's considered a strong entry in the Touhou series, offering a fresh experience with its card system.

Utilize Card Combinations: Players recommend experimenting with card combinations and earning money to acquire ability cards, suggesting this is a key gameplay element.

Support the Developer: Some players recommend purchasing the game to support the developer, ZUN, and encourage continued game releases on Steam.

Practice Boss Attacks: Players suggest repeatedly playing to get accustomed to boss normal attacks, indicating a learning curve for combat.

Long-standing Fanbase Engagement: The game appeals strongly to long-time Touhou fans, with many expressing their history with the series and anticipation for new titles. There's a clear desire for ZUN to continue developing Touhou STGs that surpass previous entries.

Story and Character Observations: Players commented on the game's story, interpreting it as city guards cracking down on illegal vendors or a fading god's struggle. There were also observations about character designs and humorous descriptions of new characters.

Personal Player Experiences: Several comments reflect individual player experiences, such as difficulty levels achieved, personal skill assessments, and general enjoyment or time commitment expectations. These are subjective and offer limited actionable insights.

Requires English Translation Patch: Many players noted that the game is in Japanese and requires a third-party patch (thcrap) for an English translation, especially to understand card abilities. This is a significant barrier for non-Japanese speaking players.

Replays Aid Skill Improvement: Watching replays, both one's own and those of skilled players, is highlighted as a crucial strategy for improving in bullet hell games. This method helps players learn and apply effective techniques.